Let me be honest, I’m feeling the pain of ever rising prices, but I’m a frugal guy who, at the moment, can get by. I believe that my cost-saving habits are the exception rather than the rule, as there is a generation that has been raised on impulse buying, easy credit, and instant gratification. I don’t blame them, they have been trained to spend by advertisers and others. I lack the ability to correct our current economic problems, but I can encourage people to leave their comfort zone as behaviors, like cooking at home, can stretch a dollar.

Inflation, a needless war, every changing tariffs; all are pushing some to their breaking point, do our leaders even care? This week was especially disturbing to me. I just filled my tank with regular gas, and the lowest price I could find (Costco) was $4.40/gallon, with regular gas stations in my area selling gas at around $4.50/gallon. My friend, Tom, drives a diesel powered truck for his business. He takes his truck everywhere, and diesel is now priced at $6.50/gallon in our area. I’m retired and can limit my driving, my friend can not. What about over-the-road truckers? Someone has to pay for these insane fuel prices, and that will be the end user (you). Expect anything that is shipped by truck, which is everything, to go up in price. You may be told in double speak that gas prices are up due to the Russian/Ukraine war. The main reason is the needles Iranian war, and that conflict is only getting worse. Expect gas prices to rise further. Editor’s Note: I just checked our local Costco and 1 gallon of gas is now $4.69, up 19 cents in two days!

Then I saw this!

And later in the day, I saw this!

I just heard the federal government is going to stop the help it was giving to Part D of regular Medicare. This means this supplement will go up in price for those retired folks who can least afford it. Dr. Oz (head of Medicare/Medicaid) says this is to make those services more streamlined, which, in my opinion, is BS. Project 2025 clearly stated that there is a plan to eliminate regular Medicare and switch everyone over to a Medicare Advantage plan. Medicare Advantage is private insurance, a HMO. It is proven that Medicare is more efficient than Advantage plans, and there is evidence that Advantage plans can be unnecessarily restrictive in what treatments they will permit. Did you know that the CEO’s of major health insurance companies make between $12,000,000.00 and $60,000,000.00 per year in total compensation? That money has to come from somewhere.

A very close loved one had a serious condition diagnosed a few years back. Our medical group has over 900 MDs in it. None, could handle her case, and we were referred to another massive group where she saw their chairman of the department of Neurosurgery. Neither he nor any doctor in his group could handle her problem, and he sent her to a university hospital where she saw a Neurosurgeon who had special fellowship training in her issue. He could not handle her problem, and referred her to the chairman of the university’s Neurosurgery department. Because of her regular health insurance she was able to get top level care, and because of that care she can walk today. Would that have been possible if she had an HMO?? I can’t say, but I know that it would have been incredibly difficult for us to jump through HMO hoops during an unbelievably stressful time in our lives. Remember, Medicare Advantage is private HMO insurance, it is NOT Medicare. Private insurance makes its money by collecting premiums and paying out less than it takes in. Its motivation is profit; regular Medicare’s motivation is care.

I do the majority of my grocery shopping at the least expensive store in my area, Aldi. Last Monday, I went there to do buy my weekly groceries. What I saw at checkout shocked me. No one had a full cart, in fact most carts were not even a quarter full. I saw very few carts with snack food, like potato chips. The cheapest ground beef that I could find was the frozen stuff in tubes, which is a pretty low grade product. A one pound tube at Aldi was an astonishing $6.50! Who would think that tube ground beef would become a luxury purchase? Today’s recipe will use some ground beef, but I’m maximizing every once of it.

Folks, let’s put politics aside and face reality. Anytime you give a single person absolute control of an organization as complex as the USA, it will go badly. Remember, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

With that said, everyone still needs to eat and this soup is filling, nutritious, flexible, and inexpensive. You can modify today’s soup in many ways, depending on what you have. You can use less meat, add more vegetables, or omit or substitute items like starches, beans, and tomato products.

I’ll be using dehydrated onions and garlic, as these are cheap items that don’t go bad, and are easy to have on hand. I’ll also use some basic dried herbs. You can buy spices inexpensively if you go with the house brand at places like Aldi, Walmart, and Dollar Tree. Herbs add a lot of interest to a food, but if you don’t have the cash, salt and pepper alone will do. You can alter your spices to change things up. I’m using traditional herbs to make a soup that has an Italian flavor, but you could turn this dish into a Mexican style soup, or one with an Indian or Asian flair by changing the spices that you use.

Lastly, I’m using frozen vegetables instead of fresh ones. Frozen vegetables have no waste, and they don’t spoil like fresh ones, so they are value leaders. Need to stretch things further? Thicken the concoction with some flour or corn starch and turn it into a stew to serve over rice.

I’m not providing a specific recipe, but you can find a variety of similar dishes from other online creators. There is no real recipe, just guidelines, as this soup is so flexible. When times are tough, this soup can feed a lot of people cheaply, or feed one or two individuals for days.

Lastly, I’m using an electric pressure cooker (AKA an Instant Pot). You can buy new off-brand electric pressure cookers inexpensively (see my post from 9/15/26) , and I have picked up used units while thrifting for as little as $4.99. You can also make this recipe using a pot on the stove (increase cooking time accordingly). However, an Instant Pot type appliance is useful for so many things beyond this soup that I highly recommend purchasing one. Let’s get into the recipe!

Spices can add a lot of interest, and they are fairly inexpensive if you go with the house brand. I had the lovage leaf left over from some “recovery” soup I made for my friend Tom, who had surgery. He is originally from Poland, and they use lovage in their soup. It is a celery substitute.

I’m adding three bags of frozen vegetables to the electric pressure cooker. I’m adding what I had on hand, which included a bag of frozen green beans, a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, and a bag of stir-fried vegetables. You can add whatever you wish, but I would avoid bags of predominantly strong vegetables like broccoli, unless you are going for a cabbage like soup. Each bag was between 10-12 ounces.

I’m now adding (roughly) one tablespoon of the lovage leaf. You could also use dehydrated celery, regular celery, or no celery, depending on what you have.

This photo represents the spices that I added. I added roughly 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning and 1/2 teaspoon each of basil, rosemary, and thyme. Don’t have all of these? Add what you have. Oregano is a good general seasoning too. What to make it more south of the border? try chili powder, cumin and the like. Want more of an Indian flair, go with some curry powder. Or just use salt and pepper.

I also added a couple of bay leaves. This is optional, but bay leaves add a little something.

I added around 1T of onion powder. That’s about the equivalent of a medium onion. You could also use dehydrated onion or real onion. Try to not use onion or garlic salt, since they are mostly salt.

I roughly added about 1/2T of garlic powder. You can use any type of garlic: powdered, jarred, or fresh. I like garlic, but if you hate it, you can leave it out of the recipe.

Now I’m adding one can of Rotel-type tomatoes. Why? Because this is what I could find in my cupboard. You can use any type of tomato product from diced to a couple of tablespoons of paste. Heck, you could even add a can of condensed tomato soup and that would be fine. Don’t have any tomatoes? Then skip this step and move on.

Now a can of beans. I drained mine, but you don’t have to. I’m using Pinto beans, but any canned bean will work. I think the beans are important, as they add more protein to the soup, and canned beans are pretty cheap.

Now, the starch. I’m using three washed and cut-up potatoes. If you use thin-skinned potatoes, you don’t even have to peel them. You could also use pasta or noodles. If you use pasta/noodles, you may need to adjust the cook time slightly. If you decide to use rice, I would make it separately and add it to your bowl of soup. Over time rice breaks down in soup and can become mushy if you eat your soup for a couple of days in a row.

Now I’m adding the salt, only about 1/2 teaspoon, as I’ll adjust the salt at the end. I also added a scant 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper.

In goes 4 cups of beef broth. I’m using Better Than Bouillon, which is a good product. You can use cubes, boxed broth, or your own. Many of these have a lot of salt, which is why I used so little salt in the previous photo. Need to stretch the soup further? Increase the broth to 5 cups.

I’m using one pound of hamburger, but I could have easily used 1/2 pound. I buy hamburger in bulk and on sale. I then divide it into 1-pound bags and vacuum-seal it. This hamburger was $3 off per pound, a good deal. I flatten the package out before freezing, which allows rapid defrosting when I use it.

I simply broke off chunks and added them to the pot. You can mix them in if you wish.

Close your electric pressure cooker and place the pressure release valve on seal. Set your timer for 5 minutes. It will take time to reach pressure, since many of the ingredients are frozen. I thrifted this pressure cooker for $9.99. It needed a little cleanup, but it works perfectly. I have been picking up thrifted pressure cookers for as little as $4.99, because… of course I am!

Sometimes these used units need a little TLC. Fortunately, I find them to be simple devices that follow similar design patterns and share similar weaknesses. I like giving them new life.

After the pressure cooker finishes its cycle wait around 10 minutes before releasing the pressure. This reduces the possibility of the cooker spraying soup instead of steam. Never try to force a pressure cooker open. If you can’t open it unplug it and leave it alone for 90 minutes before attempting to open it again. Pressure cookers contain many safety features, but you can override them with brute force; don’t do that!

Here is the soup. I didn’t add any thickener, as it was robust on its own. I did have to adjust the salt. I added a dash more garlic powder and a couple of squirts of hot sauce for a mild kick.

Here it is, served with some oyster crackers and my homemade flaxseed bread. It tasted very homemade and even a bit luxurious.

It was just my wife and me, so there is a bunch left over. I’ll have some for lunch and possibly dinner tonight, but I will likely have to freeze the rest.

There you have it, a very inexpensive, yet highly nutritious soup that can be made in an infinite number of ways to stretch your budget.

Peace

Mike