Happy labor Day!

It's Monday,    Our week is unusual this week, hard to  keep the days straight,   We did go to Fred Meyers yesterday because they have a really really good dairy sale on.    With higher prices looming, I want to be prepared to soften the blow.    That doesn't mean I'm going to hoard dairy; but, rather, I'm going to keep our stock up to the self imposed limit.  

Yogurt is fifty cents and I had a coupon that made it .30.  I bought five.  
I bought the six 1/2 of cheeses that were the limit.    I kept enough to FIL, our cheese canister in the fridge and froze the rest.    I bought amvarietynofmthngsmthatyiumatia had white cheese for pizzas and yellow for casseroles.   1.98 a pound.  
Sour cream was a dollar.    
I bought milk, and  chocolate milk for the granddaughter.    That's 1.5 gallons.    Probably,enough to last us until it goes on sale again.   2.00 a gallon

I had 1-1/2 dozen eggs, and I got another 1-1/2 dozen for a dollar.   We will have breakfast for dinner and I have been keeping us in a desert on the counter.     It usually lasts us most of a week.  

Monday is kitchen management day.   Time to clean the refrigerator and Oreo anything that needs to be prepped.    It makes dinner time a whole lot more manageable.    It's hectic here around meal time like most households I imagine especially,when school starts and kids are anxious to tell all about their day.   I want it all:  good scratch meals and the time to spend with children before the get ready for bed time.   Kitchen prep makes the process smoother.    I'm not flying by the seat of my pants and throwing a dinner together at the last minute: that just spells S T R E S S to me.  

1. Clean the refrigerator door baskets.  I noticed that the condiment one is nasty.   The oven needs a good clean too.    
2. Go over the menu plan and list and prep anything that I can ahead.   
3. Number the things in the fridge.   I saw this on a u tube and it makes good sense.  This when implemented, makes sure you eat the oldest of anything first.    What we used to call grease pencils are cheap at the tree.    
4. Make a desert.   I'm going to make an apple bread and probably take granddaughter along for the ride.  I got apples for a dollar a pound at Winco.   
5. Wash the kitchen floor.    I got a " broom" at QFC for 1/2 price.   It made it about six dollars.    The head is fixed to take any kind of cloth you want to put on in it.  It co,ex with two micro fiber cloths, but I can see a dryer sheet when I need to kick up glitter.    My son and granddaughter glitter  fiends!   LOL.  I don't use dryer sheets, they are supposed to wreck your dryer.    But, I get them from the dollar tree just for when I need to pick up e,bossing powder or glitter.    The stuff is incideous amd multiplying like rabbits.!    LOL.  

Kitchen management is a tool to make your meal time more pleasant and less stressful and still cook from scratch.    Meal plans are a close second.    

Planning a shopping trip is a tool to lower your food bill .    

Four plus  one is five.    Four people, one meal, five bucks.   

Better, cheaper. Faster.    Better food, cheaper food, and get out of the kitchen so you can spend more time with family or doing what you want to do.