Best from scratch recipes

[Pogo0685]

We are going to have to make some serious budget cuts in my house, starting today. I have known this is coming for a while, my DH just did not want to admit that we were this bad off, so one of my thoughts to help save money is to make *EVERYTHING* I can myself. So I am looking for some recipes and ideas, even if you have a favorite blog that will help me that would be awesome! I am pretty good at cooking, but I am just lost on where to start. I want everything to be as healthy as I can, DH has a huge sweet tooth though so I am going to have to keep him happy with baked goodies, also need breakfast ideas (my DS wont eat eggs) and whatever else you have to offer! Thanks Mamas!!

[AdinaL]

Some of my favorite recipes are the ones that create leftovers. :)  

I make a chicken noodle soup that makes a ton, and is super tasty. (If I do say so myself. LOL)

Chicken Noodle Soup

You can make this with chicken stock for a heartier soup as well.  :) 

As for breakfast ideas - oatmeal, muffins, biscuits all relatively cheap and easy to make.  

[mumkimum]

Some of our cheaper meals and snacks:

Homemade oatmeal - oats are cheap, I'll add fresh or dried fruit to it and cinnamon or vanilla to make it fancy (you don't need a lot of fruit for this).  Everyone likes it.  In the event it doesn't all get eaten, I've sometimes turned leftover into muffins.  One dd here also loves grits.

Homemade hash browns, or baked potatoes, or oven fries.

Homemade chili (easy to freeze, easy to jazz up something like baked potatoes or plain hot dogs or grilled cheese with leftovers)

If you eat meat - finding some regular meatless meals everyone likes you can make more often might help save you a bit of money - there are versions of lentil sloppy joes you might like, rice and beans, veggie stir fry, veggie soups (veggie-cheese soups are well-liked here), pasta meals.

If you have a family that loves fruit - I often get some frozen fruit to keep around for when we're out of fresh fruit, plus just a few pieces of frozen fruit take a longer time to eat and can seem more filling.  I find we can save some money this way.

We've got one nearby grocery where they have a lot of reduced produce, that's in great shape too.  There's also a (slightly farther away) produce market that has even specialty stuff (like figs) really cheap (got them once for 99 cents a box!).  Finding your own local places like that can make a big difference in how much you're spending.  Yes, it takes time to shop around and figure it out - but it's a big difference in the budget for us.  I can hit one of these places spending less than $20 to top up whatever we currently have for the week when that's all I've really got to spend (other times when I don't need to be as restrictive, I make sure to get 2-3 cans of stuff we use up often or extra box of pasta or bag of lentils so that we have it around for later).