FRUGAL FRIDAY

I have been thinking about shopping in my own kitchen pantry and freezer lately. By that I mean that I need to use up what I have on my shelves and in my freezer before I run to the grocery store for ingredients to fix a meal.

We only live about 4 blocks from a grocery store, so it would have been mighty easy to run over there to get things for fixing breakfast for company this week. Instead of going to the store for breakfast tacos or ingredients for some fancy breakfast dish, I decided to use what I had. The night before I checked and saw that I had more than a dozen eggs, plenty of milk and some cheese for scrambled eggs. I rummaged in my freezer and found some turkey sausage links that I put out to thaw. I also had a can of biscuits that I needed to use before the expiration date ran out. I also had butter, two kinds of preserves, salsa and catsup for the eggs and orange juice, coffee or tea to drink. Voila! Breakfast without even leaving the house for a run to the grocery store--and it did not cost me anything except some pre-planning time.

Thinking ahead might be the key to using what I have rather than doing the last-minute run to the grocery store for whatever pops into my head to fix for a meal. This use of what I have also prevents having to throw things out because they have spoiled or gone past their expiration date. And, this evening I did find some spinach leaves in the bottom of my vegetable drawer that had seen better days. A little pre-planning would have allowed me to toss them in a salad a couple of days ago. What a shame!