Frugal Meal Tip: SOUP!

I'm sure most of you wise women know this already, but soup is such a great meal to make.  It is cheap, filling, versatile, and a great way to use up leftovers so nothing is wasted.  I make some kind of soup at least once a week, and I'm constantly creating new ones.

Today is yet another soup experiment and exercise in pinching food pennies as much as possible!  Here is what I did:  I purchased a 25 lb. bag of kidney beans (among others) at our local restaurant supply store.  I cooked one pound of the beans in the crockpot a couple of days ago,for most of the day, along with several seasonings.  Today, I put half of them in the freezer for another meal, and the other half went into the crockpot.  Then I browned a pound of ground beef, drained it, and added it to the crockpot.  Yesterday I had bought a 3 lb. pack of ground beef that had been reduced for quick sale.  The sell by date was today!  The other two lbs. were sealed separately and frozen for use another day.  Next, I added (sorry I don't really have measurements for everything, but this is how I cook!): 7 or so cups of water, a few teaspoons of beef boullion, about a tablespoon of dry minced onion, a few cloves of minced garlic, 1/2 cup of rice, a can of tomato sauce, a can of corn, some pepper, and italian seasonings.  I'm sure this probably needs more bouillion and some salt, but my husband is on a low salt diet, so I start like this and then the rest of us add salt to ours.  Hopefully, this will be good--I haven't tried it yet!  But it is a very cheap meal and that is a good thing!

God bless you, my sisters!

UPDATE:  This was delicious!  Yay!  My daughter said, "this tastes like it's from a recipe"--lol.  Also, I forgot to mention--I had gotten both the canned corn and the tomato sauce on sale for super cheap.  I scan all the ads every week, and then store hop and stock up on sale items.

ALSO, this made enough for dinner for one night, and then lunch the next day!