A wall of cabinets came down in my kitchen today, as we finally got our kitchen renovation started. We’re keeping this project affordable by doing all the heavy lifting ourselves. But by doing it ourselves, it also means that our kitchen is going to be out of commission for a bit longer than if we’d brought in a contractor.

I know that this decision will pay off (quite literally) in the long run. That’s because when we ordered our kitchen cabinets, the store automatically included the cost for installation–even though we were opting out of it. Let me tell you that installation number was a scary number. Though our cabinets cost $5,000, we would have paid an additional $20,000 to have them installed. Um, no thanks, I’ll save that money by doing the work myself, thank you, even if it means being inconvenienced at meal time.

So here’s where I’m concerned: how can I stay on track with our frugal living when my kitchen isn’t up and running? I don’t want to fall back on our spendthrift ways of ordering in food, but at the same time I need to accept that without a working stove, I will be limited in what I can cook for dinner. Thankfully, my husband has set up a working mini-kitchen in another part of the house, where we have a sink, dishwasher, cabinets and mini fridge, plus the microwave.

Here’s how I’m hoping we can succeed on the meal-planning front while we’re under construction:

• Make more meals in the slow cooker. The great thing about a Crock-Pot is you can set it up on a countertop, tabletop or on the floor, and let it simmer all day so dinner’s ready when you need it. I have only a handful of slow cooker recipes I’m comfortable with and know that my kids will like, so I’m thinking that I’ll treat myself to Stephanie O’Dea’s new book Make It Fast, Cook It Slow to help me get over the kitchen renovation-cooking hump. Her book is all about using your slow cooker to make all kinds of meals–I blogged about my attempt at making her slow cooker French Toast recipe awhile back. It was quite yummy. (I got an Amazon.con gift certificate for Christmas so at least the book will be free for me to buy.)
• Use our grill, even if it’s freezing outside. Since my pans are going into storage when the stove/oven goes offline, we’re going to have to cook all of our meats outside on the grill. Not a great option when it’s single-digit weather like it is today, but it is for sure less expensive than ordering in Chinese. I also plan on using my countertop George Forman grill whenever necessary.
• Accept that we’ll have more cold meals for dinner. I’m thinking sandwiches, cereal and things like cheese and crackers. Who says dinner has to be hot every night anyway?

If you have additional suggestions on how to stay on budget with meals when you kitchen isn’t usable, post a comment to share your ideas. I’m gonna need all the help I can get.