3 Ways to S-T-R-E-T-C-H Groceries

I am new at this frugal stuff and this is my first Frugal Friday post. So please bear with me.

I work full-time so I'm trying to ease into being more frugal. The price of gas, groceries, and a baby on the way don't leave much choice.

These are three simple ideas that work really well for me.

1) Using half the amount of meat. We don't spend a lot money on meat because we're able to buy farm fresh from my parents. However, for health reasons I am trying to use less meat. In many recipes I can use half the amount of meat and there is not much of a difference; except fewer calories. This week I did this with Italian Sausage Rigatoni and Steak Fajitas.

2) Diluting cleaning products. I am a big fan of Windex Multisurface spray. I use it in the kitchen and bathroom. It often goes on sale and I often have a coupon so it is pretty inexpensive already. But, I found that you can dilute with water and it works just as well. I just save an empty bottle, fill it halfway with the cleaner, fill the remaining amount with water, shake, and I've doubled the amount. I do the same thing with soap that I put in soap dispensers. An added bonus: dish soap pours better out of an olive oil dispenser when you dilute it.

3) Half Size Dryer Sheets. I started this as an experiment. I wanted to see if I could notice any difference between a full size dryer sheet and a half size. No detectable difference. Pleased with these results I then tried to re-use the half size dryer sheet. The clothes turned out just as fluffy and fragrant as those dried with the original full-sized sheet.