Back on the idea of reusing what you make here are some more reusable menu items.

• One Dinner: Beans and Rice for vegetarian tacos. (Going vegetarian ONE night a week can save you a ton. But if you refuse you can use ground beef in your tacos and reuse it the next night below)
• Another Dinner that week: Add a pound of ground beef and use leftover beans to make chili.
• Another Dinner: Add a lb of macaroni noodles to leftover chili to make “chili mac.”

Always check the price per ounce. This is especially true with cereal. Did you know it is usually more cost effective to buy two small boxes of cereal instead of one jumbo box, unless there is a sale. Last week I went to buy cereal. One small box 21 oz cost me $2.34 at the most. One large box 24 oz is about $3.50. If I buy two small boxes at $4.68 I end up with at least 10 oz more cereal, and I can get two kinds.

Breakfast:
Did you know you can make plain ole oatmeal from the red and blue box just as fast as you can make those fancy prepacked oatmeals? IT IS TRUE. I keep a box of regular old oats and when I’m in a hurry I add some water, and microwave for about 1 minute 30 seconds. Then I top with whatever I’ve got. Brown sugar and cinnamon, honey, jelly or whatever. One giant box of oatmeal still cost less then a box of premade oatmeal and has triple if not more the amount of breakfasts in it.