Thursday dinner

Tonight  I took the rice from last nights taco bowls and put a couple of teaspoons of water over it and steamed in on the microwave with a sikacone cover on it,    Then I took a .50 bag of tomato sauce and added meatballs, pineapple, and red peppers to it.    Sweet and sour meatballs over rice.  

Buying the things you know they are at a good price helps save you fro being stuck paying top dollar.
I got red and yellow peppers for 5/3.00 at grocery outlet a few weeks ago.   I cut me in chunks and froze them.   The meatballs were already frozen and I got a can of pineapple ( Libby) from the dollar store.  We used 1\2 a can.  The  sauce was fifty cents for a liter at grocery outlet.    I used 1/2 of the bag.  

Meatballs .87
Pineapple  .50
Peppers .60
Sauce .25
Leftover rice.  

Total 2.22

Dinners can be really inexpensive if you shop wisely.


You can easily eat in four dollars a day when you get eight dollars worth of food for four dollars.
Know your prices.    Keep a book if you need to.  Or a spread sheet.    If you spend more time planning and shopping, and less time cooking, you can save a lot.  

Once you get used to shopping that way, it takes very little time.    I didn't go to Fred Meyers last week.    All we needed was milk, amd QFC was only a quarter more than Fred Meyers.   It hardly made it worth the trip.  

I spent maybe an half hour clipping coupons and cleaning out the coupon binder.    When I was ready to go shopping, I checked favado to see what prices Winco had.   You have to remember that favado has net prices including rebates and coupons.   Not all the time are they accurate, and sometimes the coupons aren't available on your area.    It does give you a guideline.    I always bring the coupon binder because you never know when you will see a good bargain.  Coupons also work on clearance items.    I knew walking in that Ragu sauce was a dollar off and it was 1.48 is week at Winco.   The deal with me is of I can't make it easily cheaper, I will buy ready made.    I can't buy the cream and the parm for .48.   It pays to have a few really simple meals on the back burner so to speak so that you can stave off the pizza delivery demons when you are having a eventful day.  

I had a lot of dollar coupons.   They add up fast.   A lot of them  were for regular food, not junk food as many claim coupons are all about.    Coupons.com has oxy clean HD detergent coupons for 2.00 again and you can print two.

I used a dollar off

1. Blue Bunny ice cream ( low on carbs) 
2. Bounty paper towels - along with a dollar Ibotta 
3. Two Ragu alfredo sauces 
4. Maxwell house coffee 
5. And I had two .35 coupons for frozen veggies.   

By the way, coffee had taken a huge leap.    Even winco offer is nine dollars a can.  If you can find cheap coffee with a coupon, now would be the time to stock up.   I couldn't use the other coupon I 

had for coffee before it expired, so I left it for the next person.  - a little random act of kindness.   

I have a coupon for .75 off of two dole fruit products.  I'm checking the dollar tree for those along with a dollar off of pepperoni and uncle bens rice.  

Every little bit helps.   

Ragu Alfredo sauce .48. Pasta .25, peas 1/2 bag .30, cooked chicken breast deboned and cooked 1.09

Total dinner 2.12-----not a person, a four person family.   

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.