Making a Master Cookbook

My frugal tips for making any type of organization binder:

• Buy the larger binders, try to find them at garage sales, thrift stores, schools sales, etc.  Chances are good that if you start off in a small binder, you’ll have to upgrade another time or two as it grows.  It’ll be cheaper to buy a bigger one from the start, than several smaller ones J  If you already have a binder that you aren’t using at home, by all means use it if it’s big enough to get you started so you don’t have to go out and buy one.
• Use scrap paper when possible.  I own a publishing business and admittedly have occasional “oops” prints where something doesn’t print up the way I need it to, leaving me with a stack of paper that has been printed on one side.  My kids can only color so much and I hate throwing scrap paper away… So I just print on the other side and it’s like brand new, nice quality paper (and I didn’t have to buy new paper).
• If you choose to use page protectors, chances are good you’ll be better off buying in bulk and don’t buy name brand.  Try shopping at a bulk store like Sam’s Club, or buy an off-brand box such as Staples.  Light or medium duty should work just fine!
• Avoid printing off tons of full-color, full-size images if you are trying to conserve printer ink.  It may be cheaper to take the file to a printing store and have them print it off for you.
• Making my personal organization stuff “pretty” wasn’t a high priority, so I didn’t go out and buy brand new and colorful index dividers.  I used what I had, and then made the rest!  I used plain file folders (not the hanging type).  For my master cookbook, I cut the side that had the actual tab and made the cut one fold-line towards the other side so the tabs stuck beyond the paper between them.  For the household notebook, I used the other side (now too narrow to be used full size) and cut it into thirds the long way, and then cut the long side down to cut in the binder with a little excess for a tab.  Then using scissors, I cut about ¼ in. and made actual tabs.  I used my hole puncher, punched holes and placed them in my binder.  Three tabs fit on the top two rings and then for the last 3 lower tabs (all cut out so you can see what each one says) fit on the middle and lower ring.  I had these on hand, was not using them, and they are sturdy enough to be used as index dividers.  You can also take regular plain paper, print out your divider theme (routines, for example) and use paper scraps and tape to make the actual tab. Label it first, then tape it to the edge of the paper where you want the tab.

I decided to make a 'master cookbook' when my cookbooks were filling my cabinets, but I only used a few recipes from each book and found myself spending more time looking for a recipe I wanted, than cooking some nights!

The master cookbook is a compilation of all of my families favorite meals and snacks taken from all of our cookbooks, and also includes recipes we'd like to try, and also has information and recipes on making ingredients for meals (because I enjoy making my meals from scratch, including all ingredients), has conversion/substitution/measuring charts, lists of what spices and herbs go good with which meats and vegetables, the cuts of beef, how to prepare wild game and waterfowl, cooking tips, a time sheet for my slow cooker (if I start dinner at such and such a time, and it needs to cook for this long, it'll be ready by dinner at 5pm, just a quick reference chart to know what my deadline is in the morning to get dinner ready on time, per whatever cooking time it requires).

My cookbook is divided into breakfasts, lunches/sandwiches, soups/stews, main courses, ingredients (making things like sour cream, cream cheese, yogurt, etc.), desserts, wild game/waterfowl recipes, crockpot recipes, bread, and misc.   I've freecycled a ton of cookbooks and have a continually growing master cookbook, with a few old favorite cookbooks hanging around!