162 real recipes for the weeks a kitchen actually has, from a Tuesday at seven to Thanksgiving for eight. Every ingredient is priced, and next to each dish is what the store charges for its version.
Emailed the minute you buy · PDF and EPUB · works on Kindle · 7-day refund
162recipesevery one priced✦40chaptersthe weeks a kitchen has✦“When the store wins, the page says so.”✦Yours to keepPDF · EPUB · Kindle✦7-day refundguarantee✦1sheeteach recipe prints on one✦162recipesevery one priced✦40chaptersthe weeks a kitchen has✦“When the store wins, the page says so.”✦Yours to keepPDF · EPUB · Kindle✦7-day refundguarantee✦1sheeteach recipe prints on one✦
Open it to any page.
This one is from the chapter on feeding a family for under two dollars a day. Every recipe in the book is laid out like this, and each prints on one sheet for the counter.
Pantry noodles, out of the can and the box.
Under two dollars a day
Pantry noodles: spaghetti in garlic and canned tomatoes
serves 5 · about 35 minutes · $0.80 a plate
1 lb spaghetti$1.19
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes$1.89
4 cloves garlic, sliced thin$0.66
1/4 cup vegetable oil$0.17
1/2 tsp sugarunder a cent
salt for the sauce and the water$0.07
the pot$3.99
Oil and sliced garlic in a wide pan over medium low. Two minutes, until it sizzles and goes blond. Browned garlic makes the sauce bitter, so pull it before that.
Tomatoes in with the sugar, salt and some pepper. Up to a boil, then a bare bubble for 20 minutes, until the oil pools on top.
Cook the spaghetti in well-salted water just short of soft. Keep a cup of the water.
Lift it into the sauce with tongs and toss over low heat with a splash of the water until every strand is coated.
The store brand jar is a fair price, ten cents over the can; it's the name brand jar that costs twice what this sauce is worth.
Every line is priced. Costed at real stores this September, to the cent.
The store's version, like for like. Here the jar of sauce, with the same spaghetti bought either way.
No flattery for homemade. When the store is the better buy, Brenda says so on the page.
Where the money actually goes.
Six meals from the book, made from its pages, next to the same food bought the way the store sells it.
Thanksgiving for eight
against the same table from the store, $54.08
$36.38
Sunday dinner for six
against the pizza box, delivered, $31.92
$13.86
Lunches for the family, all week
against the same lunches, bought, $111.77
$25.59
Five pounds of beef and the rice, twenty plates
against one-pound trays and ready rice, $68.07
$27.53
An afternoon in the freezer, 110 plates
against the store-brand frozen kind, $309.24
$144.19
The funeral lunch for fifty
against catered, $675.00
$88.56
Forty weeks a kitchen has.
The book is sorted by the week you're having, not by ingredient. Click on a part to see its chapters and the recipes in each one.
From the same kitchen table
Supper is half of it. The house is the other half.
✦
The Home Savings Manual
Brenda’s first book does for the rest of the house what this one does for supper: cheap, honest ways to run a home for far less than they tell you it costs.
I've kept a kitchen in small-town Ohio for twenty-odd years and fed a family out of it on a lot less than the store thinks it takes.
I'm not a chef and this isn't a diet. It's what I cook and what it costs, written down once, so the next time the month runs short or eight people are coming Thursday, you already know what to make.
Cook from it for a week.
If it doesn't earn its place in your kitchen, write to me within seven days and I'll refund every cent. Pay once and it's yours on your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle. No subscription.
The whole cookbook, 162 recipes in 40 chapters, sent to your email the moment you buy as a PDF and an EPUB. Read it on a phone, tablet or computer, or print any recipe on one sheet.
How do I get it onto my Kindle?
Use the EPUB file. Open Amazon's Send to Kindle on your phone or computer, choose the EPUB, and it arrives on your Kindle within a few minutes.
Can I get it on paper?
It's digital, so it arrives right away. Print the recipes you cook most; each fits on a single sheet.
Is it only for tight budgets?
No. A few chapters are for the hard weeks, and most are for any kitchen: weeknights, the crockpot, Sunday dinner, the holidays, bread, desserts, the garden.
Is it the same as The Home Savings Manual?
No. The manual covers the whole house and what to stop buying. This is a cookbook: what to cook, how, and what it costs. They don't repeat each other.
Are the prices still right?
They were checked at mainstream American stores in September 2026. Your store will differ, and the comparisons hold because both sides move together.
