After calculating many food network recipes, it’s easy to see a common thread as to which ingredients most increase the price. The inclusion of one of these ingredients will many times decide whether or not a recipe will turn out to be expensive or reasonable. So what ingredients usually bring up the cost in recipes and what can you do to reduce that cost?

- Cured Meats - Prusciutto, pancetta etc…
Some Italian cured meats can be outrageously expensive in the U.S. For cheaper alternatives, try to substitute bacon or salami and change the cooking instructions accordingly.

- Fresh & Aged Cheeses - Parmesan, Pecorino, Buffalo Mozzarella etc…
Some recipes call for large amounts of fresh cheeses, such as goat cheese, mascarpone or buffalo mozzarella – or aged cheeses such as Parmesan and Pecorino. And while cheese is wonderfully flavorful and tasty, it can make a dish substantially more expensive. There is not too much one can do to reduce costs here, except to buy a cheaper cheese, or use less of a more expensive cheese.

- Fresh Herbs
Unless you have your own herb garden where you grow a lot of fresh basil, parsley, thyme and sage – fresh herbs can sometimes become the most expensive part in some recipes – especially if it calls for large amounts. Sure, fresh herbs provide a lot of flavor, but unless herbs are in season and you can get a nice deal at your local farmer’s market, try to use cheaper options such as fresh parsley or cilantro which are often more reasonable.

- Fresh Vegetables
It’s too bad that fresh vegetables cost as much as they do. If for example, you’re making an asparagus or artichoke dish when these vegetables are not in season – they can cost more than it’s worth. Solution: buy frozen vegetables when they’re not in season, they usually taste fine, and prices are often much cheaper.

- White Wine
Sometimes when a recipe calls for a small amount of white wine, it’s certainly unnecessary to open a completely new bottle. Instead, we like to use Dry Vermouth for splashes of flavor – it provides excellent taste for a much lower cost, plus it’s convenient.

- Red Wine
If a recipe calls for a whole bottle (or two) of red wine - don't use a $10 bottle. Yes, commonly you hear "Don't cook with a bottle you wouldn't drink", however we have found that if you use a cheaper blended wine such as Chianti, the flavors won't be as harshly prominent, and you can safely use a $5 - $6 bottle... the dish will still taste excellent.

- Vanilla Beans
Yes, yes vanilla beans provide so much sweet flavor. However, if you’re living on a budget, they are almost certainly out of the question. Instead, use a cheaper vanilla extract – or buy one vanilla bean and either place it in alcohol to make your own extract, or pulse it with sugar to make your own vanilla sugar. That way you can make a real vanilla bean go much further.

- Kalamata Olives
Kalamata Olives are so tasty and provide so much flavor, it’s a big shame they are so expensive. If you find these olives a little too pricey for your budget, then one option is to use regular black olives in a dish and add one or two minced sardines. The sardines will provide a similar salty flavor and add more complexity to the dish – without tasting overly “fishy.”

- Bread
Sometimes a recipe calls for a fancy crusty Italian or French bread, or perhaps a buttery Challah which is either outrageously expensive, or you can’t find a loaf at all, depending on where you live. Then, your best bet is to bake yourself. And yes, this does probably sound completely unreasonable to most people, however baking your own bread is not as difficult as it seems.  Once you try it out, you might just find it to be so much fun and so interesting, you’ll be wondering why you haven’t tried it out before.

- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
This is a dead-simple tip. Many Italian recipes call for large amounts of extra virgin olive oil. Unfortunately, good quality extra virgin olive oil is not cheap, and if a recipe calls for half a cup or a cup, then it adds up. Solution: simply use a cheaper oil than the recipe calls for, if a large amount is required.

- Frying Oil
If you are creating a recipe where frying is required, what type of oil you use will make a big difference in the final price of the dish. Many chefs recommend frying meats and vegetables in peanut oil due to its high smoke point. However, peanut oil can be quite expensive, and even though you can filter the oil after frying and use it a second time, it can still add up to quite a high cost. Instead, use regular vegetable oil or canola oil when frying. It won’t make much of a difference in the final product, and it’s considerably cheaper.

In these days of rising food prices it’s even more important than ever to cook at home. We have assembled a list of tips and strategies for the home chef to assemble low-cost, healthy meals for their families.

1. Buy Bulk - Beans, lentils, rice, grains, flour, sugar etc… It is surprising how many different dry goods can be found in the bins at a well-stocked grocery store. Often the food in bulk does actually get replaced faster than food on the shelf and you can buy exactly as much as you need. So make it a habit to buy food in bulk, it’s usually remarkably cheaper and you have more control over how much you buy.

2. Don’t buy pre-cut meat. If you are looking to make a stew or a even a roast, you can save significant amounts of money by buying a large cut of meat and then cutting and cleaning the piece yourself. By buying a larger piece, you can cut exactly the size piece you need and you can freeze the rest.

3. Buy frozen vegetables. Some fresh vegetables are always relatively low in cost such as carrots, potatoes, celery etc. But vegetables that are affected by the season tend to be very expensive during most of the year such as asparagus, broccoli and peas. Look for those items at the frozen isle instead, where they are usually considerably cheaper. Frozen foods are most of the time more nutritious anyway since they are frozen at the peak of their ripeness.

4. Individually freeze certain meats. Some kinds of meats such as bacon and sausage are terrific flavor agents and can lift a dish immensely, even in small amounts. However, you often don’t need to use a whole pack at once. Instead, buy a large pack, then individually freeze packs of 3-4 slices of bacon or sausage links in aluminum foil and then in plastic bags. That way, you always have some on hand, and a large pack goes a long way.

5. Don’t buy canned broth. Canned broth is a big money-grabbing ingredient that you often need quite a bit of if you are making soups or stews. Instead, look for bullion cubes which you dilute in water. These little cubes give you a lot more for your money, and you can always adjust the salt content of your dish if you are concerned about sodium.

6. Buy vegetables that are in season. Don’t be stubborn and buy ingredients for a summer salad in the winter. Embrace the reasonably priced vegetables that the season brings. For example, winter cabbage makes an excellent salad and green kale provide a hearty alternative in light soups.

7. Cook double batches of food occasionally so you can freeze portions to have on hand. Then when you come home and want food with no effort, it’s easy to heat up some lasagna from last week or butternut squash soup from the week before.

8. Label all your frozen foods with the content and the date. It’s too bad when you have a well-stocked freezer and end up throwing a lot away because you don’t know how long it’s been there. Make it a habit to always mark each meal or ingredient thats in your freezer.

9. Seek out oriental markets and stores for those hard-to-find ingredients. Often, exotic foods can be found for considerably lower prices in these specialty stores as opposed to your regular grocery store.

10. Eat a diet rich in legumes, whole grains and root fruits. The cheapest foods are often the best for us. By eating home cooked meals with lots of beans, peas and lentils as well as a variety of whole grains such as brown rice, pearl barley and wheat berries you ensure a nutritious balance and a budget-friendly price.

Fake Cinnamon

Real Cinnamon

In these times of dear money many people may be tempted to use discount stores, see Dollar Stores to purchase food ingredients. We were quite surprised when we opened a bottle of "Spice Pantry" ground cinnamon. As you can see from the photos above the first picture is the fake cinnamon and the photo below is cinnamon from a reputable grocery store.

The consistency was amazingly different. It seems that the top photo is not one thing. If you look closely it is mixed with many other ingredients.

We have guessed that it must be some part cinnamon because it smells a little like the spice but does not taste like it. It looks like it is mixed with various sorts of organic fillers, but you can easily see from the photo that is does not look like cinnamon.

We have heard before that people should be careful buying any food type products at discount dollar stores but this is the first time we have seen this type of bad product up close.

Unfortunately if you want good quality food products you probably need to spend a little more than $1. Lets hope people watch out for what they buy, especially when they are eating it.

The holidays are here, and Thanksgiving and Christmas are usually the biggest food events of the year. Millions of families are getting ready to fly here or there, or drive long distances to be together - and eat, usually too much. But this year the economy is foremost on peoples mind.

With record declines in the stock market, and the threat of job losses many people will likely be concerned with not over-spending on cakes and cookies, and turkey and ham.

So we thought that it would be a good idea to go over the costs of preparing an entire meal. Since most are looking to be economical we thought we should go over the many costs involved in hosting either Christmas or Thanksgiving meals.

We wanted to start by assuming eight adults, but you can easily modify the amounts if you have fewer, or greater numbers of guests.

A typical Thanksgiving dinner includes the turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs ...etc. Here are our estimates.

Total Estimate Holiday Meal Cost - $49.31 ($6.16 per person)

These prices are based on our food database, which are US averages, and may be different in your area. This is meant as a guide only.

The following meal item choices are just the basics as many families have many different pies, cakes and cookies, as well as many vegetable dishes. The menu we provide below is for cost analysis only.

Tips to save money on holiday meals

• Have guests bring something (wine, dessert etc). Often wine or drinks and dessert can really add up, so dividing this cost between your guests can really help out.
• To save even more money, make Thanksgiving or Christmas a potluck. Assign each guest a different dish to bring along (to make sure that you don't end up with four sides of cranberry sauce, but no mashed potatoes).
• If you are having a lot of guests over for Thanksgiving or Christmas, instead of purchasing two turkeys (which would be difficult to cook in a single oven anyway), purchase one large turkey and additional turkey legs. You can easily find reasonably priced turkey legs in the grocery stores right now which would be a great way to make your turkey go further.
• Make a menu plan, write a grocery list, and stick with it. The more times you have to run to the grocery store to pick up last minute items, the more money you will spend.
• Don't cook too much food unless you will eat it all or you're planning to send your guests home with leftovers.
• Make sure you actually eat your leftovers, otherwise freeze cooked turkey and other dishes. No food is more expensive than what you throw away.
• Make your leftovers last for several days by incorporating them into other meals (soup, sandwiches, fajitas).

Some of us are simply frugal and efficient by nature when it comes to food and cooking. We don’t like to be wasteful and can find uses for most things in our fridge and pantry – even when the vegetables are becoming mushy. We like to find many ways to use our leftovers and only as a very last resort does anything end up in the trash (no – ideally the compost).

So, how do you know if you’re one of these particular people? Here are a couple of behaviors that signals whether or not you're in the food efficiency category.

You know you’re a super efficient cook if you:

- Save your bacon fat when frying bacon

- Save vegetable cuts and scraps during the week to make your own vegetable stock.

- Save your chicken or turkey carcass after a meal to make your own stock.

- Save all your shrimp peel and fish skin and bones after a seafood meal to make your own fish stock.

- Make breadcrumbs, croutons or gazpacho soup with left-over stale bread

- Make wine sauces, or reductions with leftover red wine

- Save your parmesan rinds to add flavor to sauces and stews

- Freeze that tiny piece of left-over fresh ginger to use another time

- Freeze fresh herbs if you have too much and they're going bad

- Grate all your limes and lemons before pressing, in order to freeze small bags of citrus zest

- Make your own banana bread or muffins when your bananas are getting over-ripe, instead of throwing them out

- Make meringue with leftover egg whites – after all the yolks went to a delectable crème brule or chocolate cake…

- Use the same vanilla bean over and over again by soaking it in alcohol in order to make your own vanilla extract

- Make your own preserves and jams when fresh fruit is cheap and in season.

- Know how to make soup out of all your leftovers / going-bad-vegetables and food

- Never throw away any edible food but always succeed to utilize every single ingredient in your fridge by morphing one dish into another and freezing leftovers

The purpose of this menu

The goal of this menu is to prove that you can live very well and healthy on a $50 a week budget for two people. Sure, $25 per person (or $100 for 4 people), isn't as cheap as you could possibly go, many people survive on much less than that. But with this menu we are not trying to eat rice and beans every day (even if that is served a couple of times) - we are trying to enjoy a varied diet with legumes, vegetables as well as meat and fish. And yes, it can be done, the key here is planning your meals in advance and actually cooking/preparing all your meals in the kitchen, no take-out or restaurant visits.

Meals Breakdown

For breakfast in this menu we feature filling meals that keep you full for a long period of time. We alternate between oatmeal with milk, and eggs and toast for breakfast, with the Saturday pancake exception. If you don't like regular oatmeal, you could easily substitute old fashioned oats for steel cut oats. They take a little longer to cook, but if you have the time (most of us don't), then they provide an even tastier and healthier alternative.

For lunch, we try to prepare food that is easy to bring along whether to work or school. Sandwiches play an important part here, as do beans and rice. Another important aspect of lunch is ease of preparation. You don't really want to be cooking when lunch comes around, that's impractical for most of us.

For dinner, we try to provide a varied diet that includes budget alternatives such as lentils and polenta and garbanzo bean soup. But when you're eating on $50 a week, you can actually afford meats as well as the occasional fish. For meats, we use chicken thighs which provide excellent flavor for a good price, as well as sausage and bacon. On Friday, we feast on salmon.

We have not accounted for drinks in this menu, other than a glass of orange juice each morning for breakfast.

We have attempted to make a practical menu. For example, we allocate a pack of bacon over two days: pasta carbonara one day, and BLT sandwiches for lunch the next. We make a double batch of soup, so that the other half can be enjoyed for lunch the next day.

Cost Calculation

All of these meals are priced with the accrual method. That means, that we only calculate the cost of as much as you need. In other words, if a recipe calls for 1/2 pound of bacon - we only calculate the cost of 1/2 a pound, even though you might need to buy a one pound package. That means, that it might cost more than $50 to purchase the ingredients for these recipes, however if you already have staples, it might cost less. Overall, the difference in price averages out over time: the price calculated for these dishes is exact.

Many of the recipes listed, calls for making more than 2 servings. Either scale down the recipe to fit your needs, or make a larger batch and freeze for another day. If you have leftover sausage for example or if you need to buy a larger pack of salmon - then freeze the individual filets or sausage links and use at another time. Sure, the price will be slightly higher one week, but next week it might be lower.

The prices of these ingredients reflect an average across the country. Sure, some people in some areas of the United States will be able to make this food at a lower cost.

$50 Weekly Menue (2 people)

Each meal is priced for two servings (two bowls of oatmeal, two sandwiches, two servings of each dish...)

Total cost for the whole week: $50.02

In these difficult financial times the best way to beat the high prices and still enjoy a wide range of bar beverages is to properly stock your own home bar. Whether you plan to have a party or just want to have the option to make a great drink every once in a while it is nice to have a nice supply of liquor, garnishes and mixers around to create anything you might expect from a bar.

First you need a good supply of hard liquor.

This list provides the general cost of the basic bottles you need for a well-stocked bar. We list the generic versions of the most common liquor you might want to have around. These are not meant for sipping. These generic liquors are meant for cocktails where the taste of any specific liquor is very diluted with ice and a mixer.

Drink Recipes

This is a list of some basic Liqueurs. This is by no means a complete list as there are new flavors and brands being created all the time. These are generic for the most part but we have found that the cheaper versions are really just as good as the name brands.