# I'm teaching a class on frugal eating!



## notyermomma (Feb 11, 2014)

It's for work ... we're starting a series of life-skills classes for our clients at the agency, many of whom have low levels of education. I'm way into frugality and home ec, so I offered to do this one.

Officially it's supposed to be three weeks, but I think it'll be expanded indefinitely if people show enough interest. There's certainly enough information to be able to do that. For now I'm having trouble winnowing it down to just three hours worth:

Couponing and shopping the sales
Nutrition basics and reading labels
Reducing waste
Gardening
Creating an emergency stash (of course!)
Meal planning

Any one of these could take up a whole hour at least. There's so many different angles to eating frugally and well that we could easily go on for months. Can anyone offer some other suggestions for topics here? I'm sure I'm missing a few. Thanks ...


----------



## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Not a topic but I found this blog post interesting.

http://frugalitygal.com/category/frugal-living/27-dollar-grocery-budget-challenge

The idea was to feed 2 adults on $27 for a week. She includes the three meals a day they ate and her week's grocery list. Be it not all her meals were healthy and organic but she used every last teaspoon of food for the 7 days.


----------



## phxrising (Jun 24, 2012)

You may want to scour the Complete Tightwad Gazette for the food sections. You can probably find one in your local library. She has master bases for casseroles and muffins. For the casseroles you choose a protein, a base, a starch and a topping from a whole variety of ingredients, all inexpensive. A lot of people will say they don't have time to cook from scratch, but there are also a lot of blogs and cooks out there that throw together meals in 30 mins or less (ie, Rachel Ray, Jamie Oliver, etc...).


----------



## BillS (May 30, 2011)

If you're really frugal the only fresh fruit you can eat are bananas. Everything else is too expensive.


----------



## nightwing (Jul 26, 2014)

I hear there is a opening for a frugal dietitian in Ethiopia :dunno:


----------



## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

If you're going to do justice to any of those topics an hour is a bare minimum. Pick three and do your presentations then hold the rest in reserve in case you continue the series. I expect this will pick up steam as the word gets around. As you pick up students you may want to revisit and expand or adjust some subjects. It sounds like fun.


----------



## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

*Frugality in the kitchen make for better meals*

Frugality in the kitchen is not at all complicated if you have the proper tools like knowledge, meal planning and portion control is primal, proper shopping skills, visiting the local farmers markets, canning your bulk purchases, buying in bulk, cooking and caning for later meals; you have to spend the time if you really want healthy meals at frugal prices you have to control waste learn to used left over's turn your old bread into pudding type of thing and since time is the biggest problem for a working family, get a Crockpot. My own experience have shown me that meal planning is the key, a weekly menu helps, baking our own breads or cookies or cakes makes the experience a more pleasant one for all in the family, getting the family involved helps and by changing the menu once a week or picking a new recipe it makes the frugal experience more enjoyable.


----------

