The Hearth Keeper's Pantry: Make It Do or Do Without

I was watching the news a few days ago when something really caught my attention. The teaser promised ideas to help save money on groceries. Since I'm always looking for ways to stretch a dollar, I set aside the computer and the labels I was working on and paid attention.

I hope you can imagine my disappointment when the suggestions were: buy store brands, shop sales, use coupons, and my personal favorite—never buy the cheese at the front of the store, buy the cheese at the back of the store because it's cheaper.

Um... what?

So naturally, I wandered over to ChatGPT and asked if people really don't know how to save money on groceries anymore. The answer surprised me. Apparently, a lot of people either never learned how to cook from scratch or feel like they simply don't have the time.

That conversation got me thinking. While those things can help, it made me realize that the greatest savings I've found over the years didn't come from clipping coupons, they came from learning how to cook, stock a pantry, and rely less on convenience foods.

I was raised by my Grandparents from the "make it do or do without" generation. If you didn't have an ingredient, you substituted. If you couldn't afford a convenience food, you learned to make it yourself. If dinner didn't go quite as planned, you improvised and fed your family anyway.

So that's exactly what this series is about.

Over the next several weeks, I'm going to show you how I stock my pantry, how I cook once and turn leftovers into entirely new meals, and how I make many convenience foods at home using simple pantry staples.

Now, a quick disclaimer: We buy many of our staples in bulk from local Mennonite stores and much of our meat comes from local farmers. My actual costs are often lower than what you'll find at a large grocery chain.

If you find a local farmer's market you may be surprised at what buying a quarter, half or whole cow or pig costs versus what you pay in the store. Don't be afraid to buy in bulk either, I am going to share how we turn that 50 pound bag into bread mixes, biscuit mixes, pancake and waffle mix, make your own gravy mixes, etc.

Today's experiment started with a batch of homemade all-purpose baking mix. Then I turned half of that mix into a shelf-stable version of our family's favorite 7Up biscuits because sometimes a girl needs a biscuit and doesn't happen to have sour cream in the refrigerator.

I hope you enjoy these recipes and if there is something you would like to learn to make from scratch, let me know, I probably have a recipe somewhere around here that will be perfect.

Sometimes saving money starts in the grocery store, but more often it starts in the kitchen.

From my hearth to yours,

~Granny B