How I passed Home Ec in middle school is a mystery to me. I wonder about this between Google searches on uses for stale bread and other things I would’ve simply tossed in the trash in my pre-care-about-the-Earth/need-to-save-money days. My mom has lost more than a little sleep wondering how I was going to make it as an adult in this world, what with my willful ignorance regarding all things domestic. I heard her mutter, more than once, “necessity will teach you!”

Oh, has it ever. Let’s just say school’s been in session in a big way since I became a mom and had to stop calling a can of Red Bull breakfast. Since my son was born and saving money became my way of earning it, I’ve come up with a few Home Ec hacks of my own. A while ago it dawned on me that ultimately everything we do has an environmental impact. Everything. Including, of course, the way we go about the care and feeding of our families.

Here are a few things I’ve learned to help save dough while putting bread on the table:

• Learn the art of cupboard cooking. Essentially, this means learning to use what you have on hand, thus avoiding extra trips to the grocery store. Eventually you’ll get to where you score sweet deals on sale items because you’ll know what you use, what you have, and what you need. For fun: Work with your partner and/or children to see who can come up with the tastiest cupboard concoctions.
• Create a consistent theme night schedule to simplify meal planning and preparation. For example: Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesdays, etc.
• Instead of trying to do an actual menu, try having key ingredients on hand to build any number of quick meals. Try breakfast for dinner, soup & salad nights, and stir fries.
• Plan for leftovers and be creative with them. One mid-week night we plan on leftovers, but we use the Hungarian word “Maradeky” which makes it sound fancier than just “random contents found while cleaning out the fridge.”
• Do yourself a favor and prep cook early in the week by chopping up a few onions, peeling carrots, shredding cheese, etc. For fun: Invite a friend over to share the chores and split the rewards.
• Make your own convenience foods. Look at the ingredients on the packaged/convenience foods you buy at the store and see what it would take to recreate them at home.
• Meet your new food storage system: masking tape, a Sharpie and recycled food containers. Better labeling leads to less waste. Less hunting around the fridge means the doors aren’t open as long, which saves energy, too, right?

Search our directory for ideas--use the popular tag Recipes--featuring seasonal food to save and shop local. If you own a book, the farmers markets are listed at the front--check em' out!