Make it Yourself- May's frugal challenge and a new meme

I've been reading many people's posts around the blogosphere about their budget busters and grocery spending habits. It seems that fast food habits and the rising cost of groceries is hurting most of us right now. My usual $40-$50 grocery trips have recently become $60-$70 grocery trips. I've read that with every 1 cent that diesel fuel increases, 10,000 self-employed truckers come off the road. The bottom line is that we all are feeling the pinch in the pocket when it comes to food. How can we combat this? Make more stuff ourselves and skip the fast food and higher-priced convenience foods.

My suggestion is to start slowly. Think of 1 or 2 items that you find yourself buying either in a fast food drive-thru or from a box in your own kitchen. Then find a way to make it yourself or find a cheaper alternative.

If you are addicted to fast food fries or take-out pizza, then buy those things in the frozen food section of the grocery store. Buy store brand if the name-brand isn't on sale. It is much better to buy a huge bag of frozen french fries to cook yourself than a few high-priced trips thru McDonald's drive-thru.

Don't feel guilty for having frozen chicken nuggets or corn dogs in your freezer. We all need those quick, easy meals for hectic days or days when we just don't feel like we can prepare an entire meal for our family. If you are like me, in the past, I would totally avoid buying those items thinking they weren't frugal and not healthy enough for my family. Then I would find myself eating Burger King Whoppers and KFC chicken. Those items are worse health wise and hard on the wallet. I learned that a few easy items in the freezer are much better than the guilt I felt after eating fast food.

If you already have kicked the fast food habit (I'm bowing to you now) then move to making more items from scratch instead of buying pre-packaged food. Not too long ago, I made an afternoon of peeling, slicing, and freezing potatoes to make my own pre-packaged french fries. My family loves homemade fries but I don't always have time on weekdays to make them after a long day at school. With these packages, I just toss them in either the frying pan with oil or the oven and we have fries for dinner. Throw some hamburger patties in a pan that you patted out and froze in individual pieces of plastic wrap and you have quick hamburger and fries for supper without having spent money on fast food. You also know all of the ingredients in this meal- potatoes, beef, and seasonings. Nothing artificial and no preservatives. Now doesn't that feel good!

You can do the same thing for nicer style restaurant meals. I love the "smashed" potatoes from our local steakhouse but I can easily recreate them in my own home for a fraction of the price. Same thing for "Alice Springs Chicken" from Outback. Search for "copycat" recipes and you will probably find versions of your favorite restaurant foods that you can well, copy.

I'm going to make a list of the fast food items I eat the most and the pre-packaged foods that I rely on from week to week. Then I will search the Internet for homemade versions that I can try. This will be my new challenge for May. Won't you join me?

Each Monday I will host "Make it Yourself Monday" with a Mr. Linky. (My first Mr. Linky project! Yeah!) You can post either a specific food you make yourself instead of buying prepared or a recipe for making something from scratch that some people might buy prepackaged. Maybe you have a great copycat recipe that you can share. Together we can stare down the higher food prices and win the war on rising food costs!

Check back Monday for our first "Make it Yourself Monday". I'm looking forward to the great links.