Making a Dollar Stretch

Yesterday I was sitting on the porch with my 92 year old mother-in-law. She began telling me about her life and the challenges of feeding her large family. She had six children and of course her husband and herself to feed everyday. These were the days before take out and drive through happy meals.

She said that one of the things that saved them from hunger was that every year she bought a box of chicks. In the box were 100 baby chickens that she raised. The box cost her $25. From that $25. investment, she had eggs and nice chicken dinners for her family after they grew up. She also had some cows and sold cream each day. She said that she made $7 from the cream. It wasn't clear if that was per day or week, or what, but she did say that she was so very happy to have the money. "You know, Post Toasties only cost $.15 a box in those days!" She said.

I have had many conversations with my 70 something year old sister and she told me, "People just don't know how to get along if they are poor these days." She explained that when she was a child our mother cooked beans everyday and some of those days they had cornbread with those beans. They weren't hungry, but they didn't get all the kinds of things they actually wanted to eat. Our mother always put in a large garden and canned from it all summer.

What can we do today to save money when we don't have a place for a garden or a place for cows and chickens? Who has the time for those things? ...or the knowledge of how to butcher a chicken or use the canning equipment from yesteryear?

I have done some canning, but time is an issue for me...what does the person of today do to save money on food in lean times? Give me your ideas and I will post them here.

Some of my ideas:
shop sales
coupons
cook from scratch (If you don't know how to do that...in other words, use a cookbook with simple recipes)
chicken and noodles or dumplings is a very cheap meal.
beans, beans, beans,
rice
cook just enough for each meal so you don't throw out good food. (cook more if you don't mind leftovers.)

now tell me your stuff...