Thursday, February 16. Bullets

1. Groceries on the cheap operates on the premise that if you spend more time planning your shopping trip and meals, and less time cooking from scratch, your budget will be better off.   Once you get ised toc it, you will find you can shop faster and sound less money and still have a stock of food and cook balanced meals quickly.    
2. Identify the foods you use to cook your meals on a regular basis,    Sort them by perishable: dairy and  produce and stroke items that have a freezer and shelf life.   
3. Set target prices for those foods that will help you maintain a budget for five dollar meals. Target has no reference to the store with the red balls.   LOL 😂 I use a dollar for produce and a average of two dollars for protein a pound.  
4. Set a limit of how much of any one stock item you will keep.   A short list will make it easy to out an emergency meal together,   
5. Find the  lowest  price you can pay for those particular items that you will stock.   In our house that would be diced tomatoes. Pasta sauce, pasta, canned green beans, some corn, chilli, A back up of condiments, some tomato lasted and small cans of sauce, some soup , rice, beans. Some top ramen, canned tuna and canned salmon. 
6. Set a matrix for your meal plans.   We use 1 beef, 1 fish or seafood, 3 Pork or chicken, and two vegetarian.   This makes meal planning a snap.   Be sure to shake things up every now and then and try a new recipe.   
7. Pick a loss leader protein each week if possible.   Buy enough of that protein to cover as many meals of that item you will use for the month.  In other words, if you eat beef once a week, I might buy enough for four meals.   When you get it home portion control it for the freezer of appropriate.  Rotate the meats,   I usually rotate ground beef, Pork loin or sausage, chicken, and use a week for  beans, cheese, or fish,    
8. Buy non perishables on your stock list when they are at a rock bottom price.    It enough to last you until the next sale or enough to keep a self imposed limit of that item.  I shoot for a larger stock when I know that our expenses are going to be high in a particular month,   I pay fifty percent of retail on most things.   Nowhere else can I make fifty percent t on my money,   We can eat from the pantry and free up extra cash.  
9. Learn to cook from scratch.   Look for recipes your family will eat and ones that are made quickly or can be made in a slow cooker or pressure cooker.   The insta pot can be used as a rice cooker, slow cooker, or pressure cooker.    It is a work horse in the kitchen.  
10. Use up bits and pieces of leftovers in your meals or for lunches.   Remember : no food is going to do you family any good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.