The basics

Groceries  on the cheap is a whole different way of grocery shopping than what a lot of people are used to.   The advantages are that you never have to pay full price for your core food and you always have something on the house to eat.    We eat well, and we eat on less than the four dollar a day figure that people have been throwing around.  

A few basic rules, and the. I will outline steps to get started.  

1. You want to pay the ( RBP) rock bottom price or what I call my target price, for the foods that you stock on a regular basis.   Often that is fractions of what they would cost if you went to the nearest store and bought your food as you use it.   
2. You want to avoid junk food.  It is better for your health, and better for your pocket book.   Those few bags of chips, even on sale, can jack your food bill up substantially.    
3.  You want to buy low and eat high, to take a premise from the stockbrokers.    Buy your food when it is the lowest price ( shelf stable), buy enough to last you until it is a low price again.   

Steps to get started.    This takes a little time. It will save  countless hours and money in the long run.   

• Identify seven to fourteen dinner entrees that your family will eat and that use inexpensive sources of protein,    In our family that would be beans and rice, cheese, hamburger, chicken, pork and or sausage, eggs, and ham.   
• List the ingredients that you use in a regular basis to make these meals.   We are talking scratch cooking made easy.    In our house that would be beans, rice, mashed potatoes, green beans, diced tomatoes, pasta sauce, tuna, pasta, corn, some canned soups.   
• Start a spreadsheet, or a notebook and track prices  for a while.   Soon you will have a good feel for the lowest price to be had.    If you are trying for four dollars a day or less, this is not a time  to be brand loyal on everything.   There are still a few things that I demand the best quality.   If we are going to eat inexpensive food, it's going to be good quality.  mixes usually don't give you the quality that scratch does, and often are no easier than making the product  from scratch.     
• Each week, go through the chain store ads for your area and identify what is on sale that is truly on sale.    You are looking for a) perishables that you are almost out of ...milk, sour cream, eggs, fresh fruits and veggies in season, b) stock items that are at a RBP, and a so called loss leader in the protein department.    
• Buy as many as you can of stock items to reach your self imposed limit.    ( as many as you will use before the next sale) ; buy what you,need and can I set up before it goes bad of perishables. ; and buy one loss leader protein in bulk that is enough for a months worth of that protein.   I get four meals out of a roasted chicken that I roast myself.   We eat 2 chicken or pork meals a week.   I need 1-2 chickens.   Batch cook, divide in meal sized portions, and freeze what you aren't going to use soon,   
• After you choose which 2 stores you are going to, plan your trip, get in and get out.  Preferably alone.   The longer you spend in a store, the more money you will spend.  The more people you bring with you, the more money you will spend. That's why going to the stories a daily or nearly daily is not a good idea.   

That's a lot to digest.    

Happy eating!    

Jane