1.Mulled Wine – I love strolling through the Christmas markets in Europe and drinking this stuff. It smells oh so fabulous and tastes yummy. Since it’s mixed with so many other items, it’s kind of expected that you won’t use an expensive wine anyway. Either whites or reds can be used. Here’s a link with a few recipes.

2.Fruit Salad Glaze – I got this one from a friend years ago. It’s dirt cheap and very simple. Instead of using whipped topping or mixing up gelatin, you just whisk up honey with either white or red wine until it makes a bit of a glaze and add ground cinnamon to taste. You toss fresh chopped fruit like apples, grapes or peaches with perhaps a few chopped walnuts (really you can use any fruit combination that suits you) and then coat with the glaze. I’ve also used drained canned peaches with walnut bits when trying to cut costs. This is a nice light after meal treat with a fair amount of punch.

3.Sangria – As with mulled wine, using the cheap stuff is expected. You can make sangria with either red or white wine. Here’s a link to a tight budget recipe for a white sangria that you can use for an impromptu party.

4.Marinades – I’m sure there are a ton of recipes out there for this, but a simple cheap one that I’ve gotten lots of compliments on uses just plain boxed white wine, honey and rosemary. You can whisk this up to your own desired consistency. It’s really great with chicken breasts.

5.Salad Dressings – Cheap wine can make a very elegant salad dressing. Here’s a link for a white one and a red. The red recipe calls for a specific type that I don’t believe you can get in a box, but I really don’t see any reason why you couldn’t substitute your favorite cheap dry boxed red.

6.Spritzers – If you find some of the white, red or blush varieties of boxed wine a bit syrupy for your tastes, consider turning a glass of the stuff into a type of low calorie spritzer by thinning it out with a plain or flavored seltzer water. This stuff is great because it has no calories, no sodium and no aspartame. It’s one of my new favorite products.

7.Gourmet Cooking on the Cheap – Beef bourguignon, coq au vin, champagne and wine jellies, pot roast jazzer-upper . . . it’s really up to you. Have a favorite recipe that uses wine? I’d love to know about it.

So there you have it. Seven simple ways to get major bang for your boxed wine buck. If you know of an idea I left out, by all means, fill us in.