Kickoff - Super Frugal April Starts!

My husband and I were very excited last night to start this new challenge!   I thought I would give you a glimpse into the first day and what is ahead.  I have not done my grocery shopping yet, that will be next week (maybe a short trip this week as well for milk and veggies).  Since milk has gotten so cheap lately, it is actually CHEAPER to buy milk rather then the powdered milk, so I have been doing that for the past few months.

I haven't completed my full month's meal list, but off the top of my head (and isn't my final list) here is what I will be making this month homemade:

• Bagels
• Bread 
• Pancakes
• Waffles
• Cookies (lots of oatmeal cookies!)
• Pies/cakes/coffee cakes
• Granola bars
• Jello
• Brownies
  
• Hummus (made today - we use it as dip for carrot and celery sticks and my daughter LOVES it!)
• Muffins
• Tortillas
• Dip for Tortilla chips (I will share the recipe in another post)
  

Today I made a huge pot of Bean Chili that lasts us normally 3 days!  We top it with shredded cheddar cheese and I also use FF sour cream in mine.  Then we have baked potatoes with the chili.  It is VERY filling and you can find the recipe we have used for a few years here.  I find that we don't miss the meat.  I also don't use the brand name Rotel in the recipe but rather the generic green chili's and tomatoes.

I buy whole carrots in the bag, which are very cheap, instead of buying baby carrots.  I then wash them, scrub them with my veggie brush and slice them and put them in a container in the fridge.  We use them as snacks, along with celery sticks, and dip them in hummus. 

I buy a lot of frozen produce and you can read how that it is actually healthier sometimes then fresh or canned produce here: http://frugaladdict.blogspot.com/2008/10/frozen-produce.html

Last night, I went ahead and made the dip for tortilla chips, which is one of our snacks.  I will be sharing the recipe for the dip in the next post.