The basics

It has been a long time since the subject if the basics has been brought up.

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the Put Dinner On The Table meal train from a different

 Perspective . The  emphasis is on purchasing good food( shelf- stabll/ freezer staples )at the lowest possible cost and purchasing enough to last you until it goes on sale again -- Keeping a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a regular basis. It means that when you shop, rather than purchasing just what you need for a day or a week, you  buy a loss leader protein, produce you will 

need on sale, a stock item if it's a RBP, and dairy instead.    This allows you to put well balanced meals 

on the table consistently  for a four dollar a day budget per person.   You spend more time on the 

planning and shopping end of the meal train and less on the cooking end by cooking efficiently.    

Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on four dollars a day, spending more isn't hard.   You still get more bang for your buck.    

Getting started 

1. List the low cost sources of protein your family will eat.   Nothing is a bargain of your family won't eat it.   In our family that is beans, rice, cheese, eggs, chicken, pork, amd beef.    
2. Now list main dishes that you cook with these ingredients. Seven is good, fourteen is better.   
3. Now list the shelf- ready or freezer  non- perishables that you will use to make these dishes.   These are our stock  items.   In our house that would be beans, rice, diced tomatoes, pasta sauce, canned tuna and salmon, black olives, mild green chillies.   
4. Now, start a price book or log on the computer ( excel spread  sheet ) to track the lowest price f these items.   IE     Diced tomatoes. 15.5 ounce can , Winco .58 5/10/16  add other sales as you find them.   
5. You are looking for the RBP.  ( rock bottom orice )  when you find it buy :  a) as many as you can afford to buy or b) as many as a limit allows, or c) as many as you need to complete your self-imposed stock limit.    Whichever comes first.    Decide how many items you use in a week and times by the amount of weeks inventory you want to carry,   At first it might just be two cans. Because you buy the item at 1/2 price or less, you can buy one and use one at first and eventually you build a stock. -- one can at a time.   Like running a business, you reinvest your profits at first to build the stock.  
6. Eventually, you will just be replenishing your stock.   The advantage is that you always have something to make a meal from if you need to.   

Example :   I make a lot of things from diced tomatoes.    

1. Salsa in a pinch 
2. Vegetable bean soup 
3. Cheeseburger macaroni 
4. Nachos f tomatoes are too expensive in the winter.   
5. ...and the list goes on,   

I  use about four cans a week.    Four cans times 12 weeks is 48 cans.   

Some people gauge how many weeks between sales.   Some pick a set amount of time- like how many I use in three months.  I build to the third quarter and try for six months by then.   I know I will have higher expenses the fourth quarter, and the stock will carry me through and we can eat down to three months again.   

Pasta has a very long shelf life.   According to a show that BYU adored a few years back, it's about 8 years.   I don't think that I would keep it that long, but I do keep it past its shelf date.    A lot of things last more than their shelf date.    The USDA has guidelines on them.    Things like dry milk last pretty much forever.    LOL.