Stretching Your Stray Feeding Dollar!

Times are hard,money is tight,we all know that. The poor hungry stray cats know that better than we do. But in my experience,there are ways that you can make your cat food dollar go farther. For example....

1.  The Cheap Stuff: Store brands are OK. The strays don't care about brands or marketing. Just make sure you're getting a decent quality food. You can find information about judging pet foods here.   
2. The Dollar Store is your friend: You can probably find the cat food itself cheaper elsewhere,but I got my cat bowls,trays,& toys for them there. If your Dollar Store carries it,you can also get cans of mackeral,which we will discuss further....
3. Stray Stew! Dry food is,generally speaking,less expensive than canned food. You can take advantage of this & make your canned food go further by making Stray Stew! About an hour before feeding time,take 1-2 cups of dry food per cat,depending on their appetite,& put it in a covered bowl. Add to the dry food some of the liquid from the afore-mentioned can of Dollar Store mackeral,plus a piece of mackeral. Break up the mackeral with a spoon & distribute evenly. Add enough hot water to cover the dry food. Cover bowl & let soak. Just before serving,mix in 1-2 cans (5.5 oz cans) of cat food. I have seen other recipes calling for rice,but when I tried it,I just got dirty looks. This is the recipe that my strays seem to like,of course all cats have different tastes,so your mileage may vary. And it's not strictly speaking a "stew",the consistency,depending on how much water you added, is what we lovingly call "slop"....but the strays like it.
4. Those are some of our ways of saving....How about sharing yours?