I thought today I would talk about strategies. You can take groceries on the cheap as a game. The USDA has dollar figures of what it should cost you for food at home for three different budget situations. This gives you bench mark. It does not include junk food, just the regular food groups. The other bench mark, a bit less scientific, is to look at the savings at the bottom of your receipt.
I usually see about 46 percent at the bottom of the receipt. I have seen as much as 69 percent. Not quite the stats of an extreme couponer, but I only had things on our cart that we actually would use up and eat. The only time anyone has paid me to bring stuff from the store is at rite aid. That is because you can matchup sales with coupons AND get rite aid up rewards ( rite aid cash) the next day and the net of that is a negative amount. I can usually roll over my rite aid dollars for quite some time. I don't buy a lot of meds and makeup, so sometimes it is difficult, but I can usually spend the rite aid dollars on something else that is a bargain. One time it was sox for a quarter a pair. One time I netted four pairs of underwear and 4- two liter bottles of soda for 4.00 and change. The pop wound up being a dime a bottle. I have some for the holidays, but most generally don't buy pop. It's one of the things that there is little room for on a tight budget or snap.
Going to two stores and just buying the good priced items is a way to get the best of two stores and allow you the luxury of buying the best looking produce. This is most beneficial during the summer. When fresh produce gets too high in price and the quality goes down, we switch to canned and frozen a lot augmented with the fruits that are in season and cheap. Apples and oranges come to mind this time of year. I try for a buck a pound as a benchmark now, in the seventies it was .39. The eighties brought us .69. And now it is a buck. How times change.
My benchmark for meat is two bucks. I have had to amend that for beef when the effects of the
drought sent the price of beef soaring out of control. We cut the number of times we ate beef a week, and the roast that we had frequently has become less frequent. If I can get a roast cheaper than good hamburger, I grind my own. Actually, my husband grinds it.
I have a matrix for meal plans so that we eat a variety of foods. Your matrix is probably not the same. Have a plan. You don't have to always follow the plan, but have a plan. Without a plan, it is too easy to fall into the take out or order pizza trap. Make meal plans when you get home from the store using your outline. Making meal plans before is harder because the meat you were going to buy may look bas, be gone, or be on too large a package. I once was going to buy a pork loin. When I got to the store, it had previously been frozen and was huge. For top much meat for us to use up effectively. Only two of us eat pork. Be flexible. One time I walked onto ALBERTSONS and they announced that Dover sole was two bucks a pound because they overbought and needed to move it. Get you can't guess what we had for dinner that night. I always keep a couple of really easy, quick
meals on hand. You never know when the situation arises when you need to make dinner fast. That's when a ready made that you have found cheaper than scratch comes on, or a cheap pizza, or breakfast for dinner, soup and sandwiches. I buy boxed tomato soup at Costco when I find it. It is two bucks or so a box. I add basil ( fresh if I have it in the garden) and blue cheese and a little milk. The soup is upwards of three dollars, closer to four on the store. I refuse to buy anything that is overpriced unless I don't have an alternative and it is something we just have to have, like milk for instance. Dry milk is more expensive than regular milk. I only buy what I need for some mixes.
Making your own mixes can be a real momey saver. Taco seasoning is really expensive. I see it on sale for a buck. There is an older post with the recipe. Spices are a buck at the dollar store and sometimes I see them cheaper at some of the alternative stores. If I can't get them there, I get them at Costco. If Costco regular doesn't have them, I go to business Costco. If all the spices are too much, consider getting together with some friends and making a batch and splitting it. That also works for large sacks of beans or rice. I have purchased my spices a little at a time and so it wasn't a burdon on
the budget.
Bread crumbs are another thing that is stupid to buy. You are paying big money for someone else's dry bread . When we have crumbs, or leftover heels of a baguette, I put them on the oven to dry. ( cold oven) when they are dry, I whirl them in the food processor. Before I had a food processor, I grated them on a sheet pan with my box grater outside on the deck. Do the math. I saw a 10 ounce box of breadcrumbs for 2.40. That's .24 an ounce or 3.84 a pound. More than the meat on your table.
I do buy bisquick now, the cost of the dry milk to make it is cost prohibitive, and My recipe calls for shortening that I don't want to ingest. I only use olive oil if I can. There are a few things in baking that I use vegetable oil for.
I try to walk a fine line between economy and reducing our exposure to unhealthy foods. We all need to reduce our salt and sugar consumption. Fat has always been a problem. By using portion control with our meats, and avoiding the purchase of snack foods like potato chips, we can eat more healthy. We eat lean pork and chicken , and I defat our hamburger and sausage. Defatting hamburger can render it with less fat than a boneless, skinless chicken breast.
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Jane
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