How much is your grocery haul!

Our average grocery haul is thirty dollars or less.   That's partially because I just buy dire necessities or fruits, veggies and dairy and  what's on sale.   The exception is Costco.   Most of the time, Costco is for bananas, bacon, and maybe blue cheese.    We call or the blue run LOL.   Every few months, we do a mass haul of stocking items,   Oatmeal, beans, doctor ordered meds, any spices that need replacing and cheese.   Grated cheese can be frozen and is close to two dollars a pound at Costco.  Sometomes better at Costco business supply.    Mind you, this is for basically three adults.   I a, a,aged at grocery hauls from people that have for or more older children how much the hauls are.   Part of ot so they are going to one store.

No one store has the best prices on everything.   You are much better off going to two stores a week and buying the specials and whatever is RBP on your necessities.  I used to take a sheet of copy paper out of the recycle bin, quarter it ( when we had four ads ) and wrote down the best of each stores ad.   I could then decide which store had the best buys on the things I needed.    Now, so,e weeks, we only have basically one ad amd Fred Meyers ad from the Sunday  before.     You can check favado foreign is prices. But I have to caution you, favado isn't always spot on.    It does, however, March coupons for you.  Again, be cautious amd read the product description on the coupon.   They don't always match product sizes.  Coupons have to match product descriptions exactly.  

Larely, Fred Meyers and wonco are the cheapest prices.  Unfortunately, I can't do both stores on Friday anymore.   Going on Sunday to get Fred Meyers specials so best because things that are a good deal go fast.    This is especially true of split chicken breast.  I guess I'm not the only one that has figured out that 88 a pound for boneless chicken breast is better than six dollars a pound.   You have to do some work.  They say I look at it is to figure out how much time I am spending and how much I save.   How much am I making per hour.   This is virtual pay, so,e people can't wrap themselves around that.    If I spend ten minutes debonong  2 chicken breast amd chicken breasts cost 6.00 a pound amd I have spent .88 a pound.   The difference is 5.12.  Times that by six ( six ten minute segments in an hour ) and that's 30.72.  Consider that you would have to make 22  percent at least more to spend that money ( taxes) that's 37.47 an hour.   A lot of people don't make that much an hour.     Another way to look at it, is that you are getting more quality and quantity for your dollar.  

That's the whole basis of groceries on the cheap.   Getting the best quality food for the least amount of money.   This feeds us well for three dollars a day and leaves us more to stock.    Stocking is the key to always having food at a RBP. It is NOT HOARDING.

  A lot of young people are obsessed with not hoarding.   That works with not collecting worthless junk.  That doesn't work with stocking.   You aren't buying more than you can use before the pull dates.  Although, pull dates are deceiving.  

It's back to the things our great grandmothers did.   They put up food for the winter.   It basically is the same premise as stock brokers use.   Buy low and sell high.   That's their mantra for making money.   Stocking is the same thing.   Buy low and eat when the product is high prices.  Buy again to restock when the prices are low.    You are eating the same amount of food, you have just paid 1/2 price or less for it. Paying full price for something is just like throwing that money down the toilet.

A little disclaimer here, this is not going to come easy. It takes a little rethinking.    It's also not going to happen my snapping your fingers.    It takes some time.   I have it down. Y now, and can do it quickly.   I spend more time planning a trip and checking coupons and less time cooking by cooking efficiently.   Bottom line : we eat better for less.  


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 mend 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.