Terrific Thursday

All that work, and it's all over.  I really enjoyed being with friends and family and getting to taste foods that I only get once a year.  Our family has great ethnic diversity and the cultural food differences  make for an amazing buffet spread!  

Back to reality.  It is possible to eat well on the USDA thrifty budget.  That is what snap, or food stamps are based on.  If you can learn to shop to make that happen, it is really easy to augment your budget to dot what you do have.  Adding a few luxury items when you have more money still affords you savings to use elsewhere in your budget to enrich your life .  

The basic mantra is never pay full price, my mother used to call it top dollar.  It is possible if you are not discriminating to pay more than retail for your food. You are better off paying less for consumables and more for appliances that make your life easier.  If it is easier to cook from scratch, you will be more likely to do it.  It's the snowball effect.  A good food processor is worth it's weight in gold-- well maybe not with the price of gold.  LOL.  A kitchen aid mixer pays for itself in savings. It's a once in a lifetime purchase.  Mine came with a grinding attachment.  Grinding your own hamburger can save a lot and afford you the luxury of knowing just what is on your burger.  A good crock pot is another appliance that is well worth the expense.  I keep hearing the term, unipurpose.  The crockpot is one appliance that  uni-purpose  or not, is well worth the expense to get a good one.  Ditto a coffee pot.  the alternative of lots a bucks coffee would pay for a pot on short order.  Pardon the pun!   Being able to take a few minutes in the morning and have dinner ready at the end of a hard day is well worth it.  If you don't resort to ordering in or going out for dinner, it pays for itself on one dinner!  
This week the stores are still in sock it to me it's holiday mode.  It is their attitude that everyone splurges during the holiday and bargains are few and far between.  Fortunately, I have enough food to refrain from going to the store and I have still maintained my average of twenty dollars a week per adult.  Buy when it is low priced, and eat when it is higher priced.  Buy perishable in season and at the lowest price you can find  for quality.  Buy the lowest price meat for the week, buy enough for a meal ( or two) per week for a month. batch cook it and freeze in portion controlled meal bags.
It's freezer cooking with a reality check.

Pork shoulder, pork loin, whole chickens, hamburger, sausage, beef roast are all good candidates for batch cooking.

Guess that is all for today.

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Jane