Don’t know about you, but I’m not exactly rolling in money lately, and my cheaper standards, like bread, soup, and sundry boiled dried goods, tend to get a bit monotonous after a while. So when I was reviewing MoFo posts from the last few days, I was particularly keen to find decidedly less spendy food and recipes for inspiration. Kelly at EasyVegan was clearly on the same wavelength, with a Monday Mashup of sixteen inexpensive food ideas harvested from Flickr.

Soup’s always a nice option for the financially strapped (especially since you can get away with using leftover veg even if it’s at something less than the peak of freshness, make a big pot, and stretch it out over a few days), and there have been quite a few cheap and easy soup ideas lately. Deb at Invisible Voices writes about the harvest moon soup (pictured to the right) made from the first cookbook she purchased. Our own Mo shares a recipe for tofu fried rice noodle soup. Kat, on A Bear’s Fare, has been making borscht. Brittany’s Veg Kitchen has a recipe for one of my favorites, butternut squash soup. And Kip at The Messy Vegetarian Cook has been making chili, which I suppose is in the general soup family.

Making bread at home saves some serious cash once you get the hang of it. I get all twitchy these days whenever I have to buy a loaf at the store. Amy at tahinitoo has been baking up some rye. Bonnie at Eating with the Rabbits shares a couple ideas for variations on wholewheat loaves, pictured here. And, on a bread-related note, Megan at Down Home Vegan made a variation of what’s also one of my inexpensive staples, a simple pizza crust topped with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic.

And finally, if the economy is really getting you down, you can always spend your last few pennies to drown your sorrow with a good beer. And Melissa at Ok, All Together Now! reminds us how to keep those libations vegan…

– H-Dog