I’ve mentioned how much I love Family Feasts for $75 a Week, right? (How about here, here and here for starters?) It’s definitely my favorite cookbook. (After buying my copy, Betty Crocker was excommunicated from my kitchen!) :)

Mary Ostyn‘s writing is less like a cooking manual and more like a casual conversation with a good friend — a very experienced and smart friend! The first four chapters offer a detailed (but easily understandable) plan to take charge of your food budget: shopping tactics, efficient cooking, and best practices for food preparation and storage. By incorporating these methods in your meal planning, you can save money at every turn!

Following those chapters are 200 recipes — and the learning doesn’t stop there. Many recipes include brief cooking “lessons”, explaining the benefits of creating meals from scratch and how to save even more buy substituting lower-cost ingredients in your favorite dishes.

Take a peek at some of the most well-worn well-loved pages in my copy:

We make pancakes or waffles from this recipe every weekend!

This pie crust is so easy (no rolling!) and gets rave reviews at my house.

This Ranch Dressing is amazing! I have to make large batches to keep up with the demand.

Cover-to-cover, this cookbook is packed with delicious recipes and great information.

Want to get hold of a copy for yourself? Amazon has them for less than $12. If you ask my family, it’s worth every penny I paid for it!