Ultimate List For A Frugal Pantry

With the coronavirus these days, you may be out of work and/or maybe not have a whole lot of money for groceries. Is your pantry running on empty? There are a few ways to get around this predicament.

We all know to have milk, bread and eggs. However, there are a few other items that are inexpensive. With these ingredients, you cannot get bored with the same recipes every day.

Potatoes

Buy a bag of potatoes or two. Make baked potatoes, french fries, fried potato wedges, potato soup and potato salad.

Oatmeal

Get out some jars, place oatmeal in the jar with milk and cinnamon. Place in the fridge for the following morning.

Black beans

Make chili, quesadilla, burrito or use for a pasta salad.

Tortilla wraps

Make quesadilla, burrito, pizza or tacos.

Pasta

Buy a few pounds of pasta. You cannot go wrong!

Spaghetti sauce

Have for pasta or chili.

Water bottle

Instead of buying crates of bottled water, but a water bottle for each loved one. Simply refill.

Lemon juice

If you get bored of plain water, use a little lemon juice in it.

Tea bags

Make hot tea, chilled unsweetened tea with or without lemon, Southern sweet tea, etc.

Coffee

Drink hot or iced.

Canned chicken

Prepare chicken salad sandwiches.

Canned tuna

Create tuna salad sandwiches or wraps. Use in your pasta also.

Heads of lettuce

Use for your tacos, tortilla wraps or just a simple side salad.

Tortilla chips

Low calorie, cheap, tastes good and satisfies your craving for something salty.

Salsa

Use for your tortilla chips, tortilla wraps, quesadilla, burritos and tacos.

Macaroni and cheese

I never get tired of mac and cheese.

Popcorn

Healthy and good for when you have the munchies.

Sugar or Sugar substitute

Obviously needed to sweeten different recipes, either food or drink.

Flour

For all you chefs out there who know how to bake.

Canned vegetables/fruit

You are supposed to have 5 servings every day.

Hot chocolate

There is nothing like a cup of hot chocolate. You can also use hot chocolate in your coffee to make a mocha! Cheaper than spending $5.00 for a cup at Starbucks.

Kool-Aid packets

My favorite is unsweetened lemonade. I sometimes pour a packet of unsweetened lemonade into my iced tea pitcher. Doing this makes the drink tart and quenches your thirst.

Buckeyes

This is a delicious dessert. Simply spread a layer of peanut butter on the bottom of a pyrex. Then, spread a layer of chocolate icing on top of the peanut butter. Place in the freezer. Take out whenever you want a piece. Let it sit for 5 minutes out of the freezer first to soften. A little salty and a little sweet. You can buy peanut butter and chocolate icing for $1.00 each at Dollar Tree.

This is just a simple checklist of what I think. However, there are so many other recipes you can use to create even more dishes.

There is a website called:

www.supercook.com

Simply go to the website and log in the ingredients that you have to work with. Many recipes appear with recipes for those ingredients! You cannot go wrong!

Do not feel bad. There is no shame in being frugal. People tell me all of the time that “it’s only a dollar”. A dollar is a dollar. I always do a weekly budget of what I need as opposed to what I want. My roommates all of the time say that they are going to “throw that out”, meaning food. I always tell them that I am going to finish what they want to throw out. The food is still good!

I hope this article has inspired you.