Grocery shopping hiatus.

I don't go grocery shopping this week except for to buy the things I needed for my procedure and some milk and a couple of pasta sauces and some cream cycles for the baby -- I guess she's a big girl now.  

My daughter has been cooking while I am on a restricted diet.   It's good for her to cook every  now  and then.    I try to cook what everyone will eat; she just cooks.     Fortunately, I eat almost everything, but her daughter and my husband are picky.

I manage to put  healthy - balanced, not clean and organic - food on the table with a diabetic, a daughter that is vegetarian, a husband that won't eat vegetables, and a picky four year old.   The baby is getting better and my husband has conceded to chicken and some veggies.    My daughter won't even use something of it has a drop of chicken fat in it or some chicken broth .  I can do this on less than four dollars a day, so can anyone.  

We still have a pantry and full freezer.    I'll be glad when things can get back to normal.
Tonight I am making tuna noodle casserole.   It has everything I can eat.   It will be the last meal  I get to eat until Wednesday afternoon.     The Rest of the family can have some peas and carrots with it.

I didn't find a lot that we needed at Fred Meyers.  It wasn't worth the trip for the .50 savings in milk.   It did mean that the baby didn't get her chocolate milk.   I think she'll live!   LOL.


Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a different perspective. 
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food  for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until ot goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you  use  on a weekly basis. 

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week. 
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level. 

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food.   This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget.   You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently. 

 Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.