Terrific Tuesday/ wase not, want not.

One of the biggest wYs to save money on groceries os to be able to predict how much perishables you will eat.  It's not momey saved if you throw it away!   I try to take time mod week to survey what we have and incorporate what we have into the meal.   Often it is a day when we can oven roast vegetables and add chicken sausage at the end of cooking time.   I get good chicken sausage sometimes at grocery outlet.  It is three dollars usually when I find it.  It's hard to quote prices these days because of the rising cost of some food.

I was surprised to see cheese for four dollars.  That means the same cheese had a price spread between four and eight dollars.  Same brand. Same poundage.  Same medium cheddar.   That's half price.  That's why finding the lowest price os paramount in saving money and stretching your food dollars.  I wouldn't drive all over town for ten cents.  But, picking your grocery store, not by the friendliest checker, but by the one that has the lowest prices  on the food I need that week, or on the staple items I need to stock is a better criteria.  

The snowball effect is where you take the four dollars you saved on cheese and turn it into something you can save more money on.   Then, that momey you save can be turned into more money.  Take the money you save and add to the mortgage payment or pay more in your credit cards to reduce your interest payments.  Or, ?   Whatever you can think of to save more money.   Buy a crockpot and save yourself from going through the drive through or ordering pizza when you know you are going to have a tough day.   Ditto a food processer,   I use my food processor all the time.   It is especially good for making pizza dough, making bread crumbs, or whipping up a cake mix.  

Breadcrumbs are a real money saver.  Next time you are at the grocery store, price them by the pound.  Why would you throw your stale bread away and buy someone else's stale bread!  

I put the bread on the oven with no heat and let it dry.  Then I put ot through the food processor.  Before I had  a food processor, I took it out on the deck and grated it on a sheet pan woth a box grater.
Time well spent money wise.

If I want to know if making from scratch is better than premade anything, I do the math.  This is a concept some people can't grasp.  I call it  virtual paycheck.   If you figure the difference in cost between buying vs making and divide it by the EXTRA time taken to make the item, you will find your salary per hour.   If that is a buck, I will buy the product, providing it is somewhat healthy.   You might be really surprised.   Roasted vs deli chicken , hamburger helper, and lemon pound cake vs that coffee shop pound cake are the most labor saving we have found.   Puddong on a box is not far behind, as well as oatmeal.  

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Jane