Monday, just Monday

It would be Monday, Kitchen Management day. But I need to know if people want that subject.  So, we’ll try something different.

Taking some time every now and then to take inventory and straighten an auxiliary freezer is a good thing.  We did that yesterday.   I use baskets from the dollar tree to organize my freezer.   It makes life simpler to know where things are.    And, you can tell at a glance what you may need to watch for a sale to replentish.

Dollar tree now has 200 count tissue and it’s not sandpaper.   Lol

Go tos at the DT are :

• Office supplies, notebooks 
• Tissue not toilet paper 
• That being said , I get one TP from the DT for emergency.  Putting it in the back of the cabinet tells us that we need to go to costco. But we are never in a pickle.   
• Pizza sauce.   Its a name brand, less than any other sauce. As cheap as homemade.   You can get 5 pizzas out of a jar and we freeze the rest of the jar after the first pizza in ice cube tray and put the cubes in a zip lock.  One jar fills an ice cube tray 
• Tortillas - they are cheaper and not made with lard. 
• Orowheat bread .  Sometimes they have buns and bagels.   There are coupons out there. 
•  Chocolate   striped shortbread.   - cheaper than the GO. 
• Suddenly salad with coupons. 
• Sugar free applesauce for school lunches 

Not to be a broken record, but the key is to know your prices.  The cost of food can be made cheaper just by knowing what is the RBP and where to get it.   No one store has the best price on everything,   Making a list of what you do use and finding where it is the cheapest goes a long way to cutting your food costs.   You don’t go to five stores a week, you buy enough to carry you through until you find it cheap again or you have run out.   There are a few things that you need on a regular basis.   So,e things can be skipped until you get a cheaper price..

In our area, Winco and Fred Meyers are the cheapest overall.   QFC is a Kroger store , but almost everything is about 10-20 percent more than other stores.   They work on mega sales and coupons,  

Grocery outlet and the dollar store are side by side at Kenmore and north Seattle.   Grocery Outlet (GO) is good for some things,  you do have to know your RBP.   I can almost always  get designer cheeses for reasonable.   Sometimes yogurt, condiments are usually a bargain.   It is a treasure hunt.  Some things are always there, some things are surprises.   

Safeway/Albertsons (Alberways ) is giid when they have a case lot sale But, when a cake mix is 1,79 and the same brand is .88 at Winco...well.....Barilla pasta was 2.00; it is a dollar when they have it at the DT and it’s little more than a dollar at Winco.    There haven’t been coupons lately.  

The specialty type whole paycheck stores are  pretty much off limits for those trying to feed their family for 1/2 the USDA stats for poor people.    The USDA stats are published by the USDA every few months,   Google “cost of food at home USDA” for current list.   Note there are adjustments for sizes of your family.  

Being open to all avenues of saving :maximizes your savings.  

• Know your prices of things you buy on a regular basis 
• Use coupons 
• Scratch cook
• Buy in bulk when it makes sense 
• Stock up when things are RBP- shelf stable foods that have decent pull dates.  Decide on a stock plan.   If you use something twice a wwe, and you want a six week supp,y, you need 12 cans or packages.   
• Cut waste, start step leftovers.  If you drain a can of diced tomatoes, save the juice for stock. Etc. 

The more you do, the more money you can save.  Learn tricks to maximize your time.