Mission Possible

So here is the situation: We have only $20 left in the food budget. We were invited to a pumpkin carving/hay ride party and needed to bring some food to share. All ingredients for this unknown food item had to already exist in our kitchen since going to the store was not allowed (see above about the $20 left in this month's food budget.)

What to make? That was the question. Thank goodness for Goggle, and all the many recipe sites out there. Below is the recipe we used, and the substitutions we made. Many thanks to to Esther who's cookbook has a section called "Substitutions for Ingredients" and was obviously written just for me.

The site I'm listing for the recipe we used, though it is not the same site we used Saturday (sometimes bookmarking a page is a little beyond my abilities.)

Pumpkin Pie Wontons
1 Cup Canned Pumpkin (Not sure how old this can was. Hoping that it didn't travel down with us from PA 4 years ago. Either way it is time to free up some cupboard space.)
2 tbl Maple Syrup (Needed to make our own since used all the store bought stuff that morning for pancakes.)
3 tbl Light Brown Sugar (Needed to make our own with sugar and molasses since the brown sugar we did have was used for the maple syrup.)
1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (Can't believe I have this in the house. If we didn't then would have used a mixture of nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice ????)
16 Wonton Wrappers (Had 6 very broken egg roll wrappers in the freezer, so that wouldn't do. Decided to make pie dough and create mini pumpkin pies instead. In the process was reminded why I don't like making my own pie dough.)
Granulated Sugar & Ground Cinnamon for dusting (Check)

For directions visit the site.

By nature I'm not a frugal person. I am very guilty of throwing away food gone bad or just because I didn't have any good ideas as to what to do with it.

However, I love it when I am on my frugal game and am able to create a delicious dish using ingredients in the kitchen cupboard and substitutions.

What tricks do you use in the kitchen to make your grocery budget go further? Seriously, I need some help (see above about not being frugal) so bring it on. I'm taking notes.