They Didn't Have 'Budgets' but My Grandmothers Taught Me How to Save While Shopping, Cooking, and Feeding a Family

My grandmothers and great-grandmothers measured everything against how much a bag of flour or a bag of potatoes weighed. It depended on from which country they arrived: Ireland or Sicily. Whatever way they looked at weight, there was a practicality and frugality imbued in their cooking that stemmed from those two humble ingredients. A bag of flour or potatoes in their capable hands was like magic: pasta, potato soup, bread, cinnamon rolls, rolls, pretzels. All filling and cheap for family meals.

I was fortunate enough to grow up with my great-grandmothers and grandmothers. Gathering with the extended family was a regular occurrence, too. The tables of food (including each child's favorite vegetable) were always full.

As a child, I had no idea how these strong-minded women created and served these meals, or how much everything cost. In retrospect, I know they stretched all of their resources. When my grandmother had us over for Easter dinner, she had saved for weeks to make the special meal. When my mother made homemade bread from a passed-down starter, it was more than a fun project — it was less expensive. For holidays, I didn't realize that raviolis filled with ricotta translated to an expense. I just ate and felt the comfort from the meal.

Today, when I open a bag of flour or make a circle for an egg or knead bread, it isn't because homemade pasta or bread is trendy. The cooking and baking traditions were passed down from my great-grandmother to my grandmother to my mother to me, and now to my children. When my children were born, I found myself comparing them to a 10-pound bag of potatoes, the bag of potatoes that would become our meal.

And, whether I realized it or not, I absorbed their frugal but meaningful mechanisms for serving food that filled bellies and satisfied souls but didn't stretch them beyond their means. I feel those lessons still today. It is the weight of my ancestors infused in ingredients, in meals, in budgets, in storing, in gatherings.

Frugal Ingredients, Practical Meals

My grandmothers were all great cooks. As first and second generation immigrants to the U.S., their food was practical, frugal, warm, filling, familiar. While their main staples were pasta, potatoes, and bread, starches weren't their only go-to options.

They had garden plots where vegetables and fruits emerged to complement the potatoes and pasta. My grandfather was an over-road trucker and brought home extra produce in and out of season.

My great-grandmother had a farm with chickens and eggs; she knew how to cut the head off a chicken and pluck its feathers, too. A lot of the food they put on the table was warm just hours before. Today's farm fresh, homemade trend was just the way of their daily cooking life.

As I approach my own meal preparation today, I don't have my grandmother's fresh chicken, eggs, and produce, but I do have access to local egg farmers and farmers' markets. There's a carton of fresh chicken eggs in my fridge from a kind friend. When I make a simple roast chicken with local vegetables, I am transported back to my grandmothers' warming meals.

Preserve All Year for Winter

My grandmothers were also experts in food preservation. They had to be to keep food on the table in harsh Kansas winters. Their freezers and cellars were full of canned and preserved ingredients. Sunday's leftover meatballs were frozen away to be added to a marinara months later. The fresh meatballs were always better, but the techniques kept food on the table.

I sat with my grandmothers, pulled silk from ears of corn, and prepared green beans for cooking. When we hid from tornadoes, we huddled next to canned green beans and jellies that would appear on holiday and everyday tables. Even when I didn't realize it, they were passing down ways of saving money and food to me.

Try These Recipes:

• Grandma's Pear Preserves
• Italian Meatball Recipes

Family Favorites Do Not Have to Be Costly

Homemade pasta was a staple in my Italian grandmothers' kitchens. From eggs, flour, salt, and water, she created wide and thin noodles and ravioli, all topped with long-simmering tomato sauce out of her garden, all made for pennies. When the family gathered, the inexpensiveness of homemade pasta made it possible for us to share meals.

Try These Recipes:

• Basic Pasta
• Grandma Maggio's Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

Every Ingredient Plays Multiple Parts

My grandmothers' frugality was in each menu item, and even in each ingredient. A can of refrigerated biscuits or a box of Bisquick had a wide range of menu and recipe options: casserole topper, dinner bread, homemade crust, and more.

But they also used every scrap of food. Ham bones flavored soup, and heels of homemade or day-old bread became French toast and croutons and a bulking agent for meatballs and meatloaves. Peas and beans were inexpensive, easy-to-prepare, and stretched into many portions.

Try These Recipes:

• Ham and Split Pea Soup
• 19 Ways to Use Bisquick for Easy Cooking

My Irish grandmothers turned inexpensive potatoes into sides and meals: potato pie, mashed potatoes, garlic potatoes or Shepherd's pie.

There was always something a little lumpy in my grandmothers' mashed potatoes and gravy; they said it was love. We all knew it was just lumpy potatoes but wouldn't have eaten them any other way. Now, I always leave a few lumps in my own potatoes (accidentally and on purpose).

Try These Recipes:

• Natalie's Amazon Irish Mashed Potatoes
• Irish Shepherd's Pie

Shop Mindfully, Not by Budget

Outside of their practical kitchens (and pre-warehouse stores), each grandmother shopped grocery stores with frugality in mind to fill the gaps that their gardens didn't cover: dented cans, clearance items, day-old bakery. It was all fair game as they planned family and holiday meals. None of my grandmothers set out with a specific budget or trendy storage containers or a plan, they just brought their favorite recipes to the family and worked within their dollar constraints.

The Best Sweets Aren't Always Homemade

While my grandmothers were all fantastic bakers, I also have memories of store-bought desserts from the discount and day-old bakery sections. Younger me didn't have an idea that the baked goods were any less special. I just enjoyed eating sweet treats with my grandmothers.

One of my favorite grandmother food memories is sitting down to eat a still-frozen and very smushed chocolate cream pie topped with tiny chocolate chips. I may have cost $.50. But look at the impression it made.

Try These Recipes:

• Chocolate Cream Pie II (Allrecipes contributor Cecil says, "This is an old family recipe my grandmother used to make when I was a little boy."
• Grandma's Lemon Meringue Pie
• Grandma's 10 Best Baking Recipes We Keep Going Back To