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Cook at Home to Fatten the Wallet

Written by Jen Doyle

With the weather making us all feel like Eskimos these days it's not ideal to eat dinner on a restaurant patio but is great weather for making yummy dinners at home. You can make some wonderful hearty meals for the family and keep warm in your jammies at the same time. But the advantages of staying home will be lost if you have to run out to the grocery store to get ingredients that you need for recipes. You scan your French onion soup recipe, notice that you don't have any beef broth, and have to run out to get some. You bundle up, warm the car, chug your way to the store, pay full price for the broth, and then come home to find out that you had three jars of beef broth buried in the back of your pantry. By cleaning out your panty you can ensure that this scenario doesn't happen. Most of us have the habit of going to the grocery store at least once a week. But wouldn't it be nice to maybe skip a week? Stop in and get some milk, cream and eggs only. A few steps could make that easier:

Take stock of what is in your freezer. You don't need to defrost your freezer. Just take the items out, throw away the food that you won't eat, and then restock the shelves. Throw away the bag with one piece of bread in it that you might make croutons with someday. Chances are that you will never get around to it and its just taking up space. Or better yet feed it to the birds. How about that Easter candy from last year? Easter's coming again, toss the chocolate bunny with the ear bitten off. You'll have so much more room and when you see what you have in the freezer it will stop you from having to make a trip to the grocery store that week. Some people make a list on the freezer door so they know exactly what they have. This might be a bit daunting for some us. But a great way to keep track if you're up to the challenge.

Next step is to take a brave step towards your pantry. Throw away the bags of chips that have mostly crumbs in them. Chuck the stale crackers or better yet use them for a topping for a delicious macaroni and cheese dinner. When sorting through the pantry you will get a better idea of what kind of can goods you have on hand. The next time you go to the store you won't have to buy chicken noodle soup for the kids because you know that you have five cans on the shelves. This is also a great inspiration to do some cooking. When you find that long ago forgotten jar of sun-dried tomatoes it will make you want to try that meatloaf recipe you've been hanging on to. http://www.chefolder.com/messages/4837.html .

While the holiday bills are still coming in, these tips can shave some money off your grocery list and let you enjoy dinner at home this week.