A Frugal Fourth: Planning a Festive Holiday Menu Without the Stress

I flipped the calendar over to the next page this afternoon and about had puppies when I realized the Fourth of July is THIS SATURDAY! I've got to make my Fourth of July menu asap. In my defense, I've been distracted with other things.

As I am miles behind, it would be easy to just hit WinCo and buy a bunch of ready made sides, a pre-made dessert, and buy something to serve for a main dish. Yep, that would be festive, indeed. Honestly, though, food prices are still so high. I'm trying to do this holiday on a budget -- yet I want it to feel special. I think that 250 years is something to celebrate.

When I plan a big meal, I try to include something sweet, something tangy, something crunchy or fresh, something savory, and something creamy. Before I actually draft my menu, I shop my fridge, pantry, freezer, and garden first, making a mental note of what I have to work with. On hand right now, I have: fresh carrots, yellow onions, 1/3 of a red onion, garlic, herbs, apples, 1/3 of a head of cabbage, eggs, two kinds of cheese, assorted condiments, a fresh batch of homemade barbecue sauce, frozen chicken, beef, Lil Smokies sausages, an 8-pack of uncured beef hotdogs, butter, baking ingredients, frozen cherries, dried beans, rice, dried fruit, graham crackers, chocolate, root beer extract, sparkling water, garden kale, garden raspberries, garden Swiss chard, and garden rhubarb.

We had baked beans two nights this week already, so I'll skip baked beans. The cabbage isn't enough for much. I made rhubarb jello for Memorial Day. So . . . I'll use the uncured beef hotdogs, one package of Lil Smokies, the barbecue sauce, garden kale, garden raspberries, frozen cherries, fresh carrots, baking ingredients, graham crackers, chocolate, sparkling water, root beer extract, mayo, the red onion, and a couple of eggs.

Here's what I've come up with so far, using what I have on hand:

• beef hot dogs
• soft scratch hot dog buns (using a refrigerator roll dough)
• Lil Smokies in barbecue sauce to have as a little snack while we wait for dinner
• a kale and raspberry salad in a sweet and tangy vinaigrette
• a scratch cherry pie
• tangy mustard-glazed carrots
• a creamy potato salad, using the mayo, the red onion, and a couple of boiled eggs
• s'mores using graham crackers and chocolate
• homemade root beer, using the extract

What I'd like to have, but will need to buy:

• watermelon
• a second package of some sort of hot dogs or sausage
• baby potatoes for a smashed potato salad
• pepita seeds for kale-raspberry salad
• marshmallows for s'mores
• one more bottle of sparkling water for the root beer

I think I've hit all of the flavor and texture profiles. I'm keeping it simple. And my grocery list isn't too long or costly. Watermelon is a classic summer cook-out or picnic fruit, and it's so affordable. Baby potatoes are more expensive than regular mature potatoes, but they will make a super easy smashed potato salad. My daughter-in-law is allergic to tree nuts. When I make a salad for which I normally use nuts, I buy pepita seeds, as I know she can have them. However, I buy just what I need from the bulk bins. I'll buy store brand marshmallows and store brand sparkling water, saving a little off of the cost of name brand. Not too bad of a shopping list -- I'll be buying 6 items for the Fourth.

By shopping what I have on hand before I make my menu, I can come up with an interesting and tasty selection of foods while still protecting my budget. At the end of the day, our family won't remember how fancy or simple our Fourth of July feast was. What they'll remember is the laughter and conversation that we shared around the fire ring. They'll remember that we all gathered together to celebrate a milestone in our nation's history. They'll remember that mom asked for a fair amount of country music to be added to the playlist. They'll remember that dad is a fierce competitor in croquet. They'll remember that we licked our fingers after eating s'mores around 10 or so. And they'll remember that we're a family that loves each other and our country.

Do you have favorite Fourth of July or summer cook-out foods? Will you do anything special to celebrate the 250th? I'd love to hear about your plans for the holiday!

Creating Abundance From Nothing: The True Secret of a Frugal Life

image: Saymom Leao on Unsplash

Last Friday, we talked about a fun weekend challenge: building a "No-Store Snack Tray" entirely out of the random odds, ends, and near-empty jars rolling around in a refrigerator a week after grocery day. When I pulled those jars and containers out to the counter to assess, at first look it didn't seem like much. It would have been incredibly easy to slide on over to Walmart to pick up a few things. Instead, I decided to just work with what I had. My family loved what I created. And it gave me great satisfaction to turn those bits into a snack-able feast.

That little kitchen experiment reminded me of a deeper truth that sits at the very heart of a mindful, frugal lifestyle: true abundance isn’t about how much you accumulate; it’s about your ability to create something beautiful out of what looks like little or nothing at all.

Creating abundance out of little means different things to different people. In my case, it was putting together all of those tidbits in new ways to create a platter of goodies. But perhaps to you creating abundance looks more like refashioning a couple of tops that no longer suit your style into several lovely new pieces for your wardrobe. Or  perhaps it's the act of rearranging the furniture in your living room to create a fantastic Friday movie night venue right there in your very own home. Or perhaps it's scraping the peeling finish off of an abandoned desk found by the roadside and painting a pretty floral motif around the edges, so your daughter can have a piece of just-for-her furniture for her room. I know a woman who unravels hand-me-down sweaters and re-knits the yarn into colorful scarves and hats to put on a table at the downtown soup kitchen in late fall each year. She unravels and knits all spring, summer, and early fall. By the time she is done, she has filled several trash bags with a wealth of warm clothing pieces for folks who are going through a tough period. 

Creating abundance doesn't rely on purchasing more and more. It is simply saying, "what can I make from what I have right now, right here?" It's the now and the here that we have after all. And it's not just about that $20 savings on a Friday afternoon, although that is appreciated too. It is an act of creative stewardship -- we are no longer passive consumers, but active creators who know in their gut that there is potential in what seems like little. There's real power in that. 

My grandmother was the supreme magician at turning scraps into something beautiful. Story after story from my mother about her childhood revealed my grandmother's talent. One February 13 when my mother was in the third grade, as my grandmother was tucking my mother into bed, my mother blurted out that she needed 22 Valentine cards for the next morning. This was long before the advent of late-night or all night markets. My grandmother stayed up half the night cutting fanciful shapes out of the pages of a wallpaper sample book followed by signing my mother's name to all of them. In the morning, my mother took these beautiful Valentine cards to school and gave them to all of her classmates. Like many of our grandmothers, mine was a young bride when the Great Depression hit. My grandmother learned the art of looking at what she had and turning it into something special. Hard times created some very resourceful people. Easy times tend to dampens creativity.

I still haven't gone grocery shopping, and we're heading toward 2 weeks since my last shop. You know what? I think I'm having too much fun cooking with just what we have on hand. 

Your Turn: I would love to carry this philosophy into our holiday week conversation! Have you ever had a moment in your kitchen, your garden, or your home where you managed to create a feeling of total abundance out of absolutely 'nothing'? What did you make, and how did it feel to pull it off?