Ashley Johnson

I’m a frugal woman, so I actually enjoy finding ways to make good meals on a tight budget. Some of my favorite dirt-cheap recipes cost less than $5 to make, yet they’re filling enough to feed the whole family. It proves you don’t need expensive ingredients to put a great dinner on the table. A lot of these recipes have been around for generations. Our grandparents didn’t call them “budget meals” or “frugal recipes.” They simply cooked with what they had and wasted as little as possible.

Have you ever looked at an old picture frame, mason jar, wooden crate, or tin can and thought, “I should probably throw this away”? I’m a frugal person, so I usually have the opposite thought: There has to be a way to use this for something. Over the years, I’ve realized that some of the best home decor isn’t bought from expensive stores. It’s made from things that would have otherwise ended up in the trash.

Every year, my mom spent days decorating our front door for Christmas. As a kid, I just thought it looked nice. Now that I have kids of my own, I finally understand why she put so much effort into it. The front door is the first thing everyone sees, and the moment it’s decorated, the whole house starts to feel like Christmas. My kids get just as excited helping hang wreaths, ribbons, lights, and greenery as they do decorating the tree.