Year anniversary and updated notes

It has  been over a year since I started this blog.  in some ways, it seems like yesterday, and sometimes it seems like a zillion years ago,  I have learned a lot, and have hoped that I could reach someone that wants help lowering their food bill.

I spent some time this afternoon, researching enchilada sauce and people's grocery "hauls" .  Enchilada sauce  is really simple, but costs a lot to buy in a can.  Basically, from what I can gather, it is a white sauce that is made with water instead of milk with chili powder added to it.  Certainly, not hard, and certainly not worth the dollar plus a can price tag.

Enchiladas took on a wide variety of recipes from cheese, bean, beef and chicken and everything in between.  Some looked better than others.  Some presented themselves as a do ahead inexpensive meal-- a good addition to a on the cheap menu plan.

The grocery hauls were a real eye opener.  I guess we have never been rich, so the thought of paying 80-150 dollars a week and not getting Any real meals out of it is just bazaar.

One. lady spent  80.00 and got organic vegetables, milk, and one pound package of sausage for the weeks meals.   The stats say that we to the grocery store on an average of 1.5 times a week and twenty percent of our grocery items are snack foods and a very large percentage of our purchases are impulse buys.  The second lady spent 150.00 , most of it was pop and snack foods.  She was 1/2 way into the video before I saw real food and I didn't ever see a real meal.  Ie, protein , vegetable, and starch.

The secret to shopping on the cheap is to buy real food, skip the snacks, and stick to your list avoiding impulse purchases.  the secret to an extremely low food bill is not to be extreme.  Extreme couponing and buying 93 bottles of hot pepper sauce doesn't work, but neither does buying every speciality food in the store.  It's buying real food as healthy as you can make it.

Yesterday we had BBQ beef sandwiches, potato salad, jello salad and cucumber salad.  The baby of the family loves cucumber salad.  tonight we will have pizza to use up our other crust.  We have been eating a lot of fruit this summer because the prices have been good and when summer  is over, we will revert back to winter vegetables.  Well enjoy the fresh fruits while we can.
 I was trying to take pictures of a weeks worth of food, but it doesn't always work.  maybe next week.  I am not a good photographer, and some of our meals taste food, but aren't exactly picture perfect!

My daughter went to Big Lots after work.  Shoreline store is going to be a goodwill so everything is 1/2 price.  She stocked up on presents she knows are coming up, and got a potty seat for the baby before she needed it.  Big lots was already cheaper, and then she got 50 percent too.  She got a Madam  Alexander doll for the baby that was marked down, and then 1/2 price.  The  food was almost gone.  The  Lynnwood store is still open.

There is an extreme couponing class NEXT Saturday.  My daughter and I are going to go.  I did not use any coupons this week.  I pretty much stuck to fruits and veggies and bread.  The great buys just weren't happening this week.

Thanks for stopping by

Please share

Jane