The basics

Haven”t written this for a while.

The basic concept of groceries in the cheap is never to pay full price for your food.   This is realized by taking some baby steps that take a little time, but only have to be done once.

• Make a list of dinners that your family likes that use inexpensive sources of protein. 
• Simplify the protein.  The less ingredients you use  , the less items you have to buy and the easier it is to organize and store your supplies.   We use boneless , skinless chicken breast, pork loin, and hamburger. Add cheese, beans, rice and eggs.   Picking versitle sources of protein is key. 
• Buy your protein in bulk at its lowest price.  This is more beneficial if you find a sale  and rotate your purchases buying a four  to six week supply at a time.  This means that if you use a pound of hamburger a week,you will buy four to six pounds of hamburger.   
• Use the store ads to fill in what you need.  Know your prices of  the things  you buy on a regular basis.  Write them down in  a small notebook for a few weeks and you will  see a pattern.  This will tell you when you are likely to find things the cheapest. 
• Use every available means at your disposal to lower costs.  Coupons, sales., apps  like Ibotta.  Every little thing is a help.  Don’t pay to much time to it, but a few minutes can reap great rewards.  Taking a couple of minutes while watching tv to load coupons on a store card with anything you regularly buy can save money.  We just paid .29 for a loaf of bread.  It cost me a quarter t make bread and I didn’t have the labor. 
• Portion control.  No teen needs to eat the better part of a two pound roast.   Fill the plates in the kitchen or put what you expect to eat on the table.  Fill little kids plates with a small portion, they can have seconds if they eat what  they have. Waste not, want not. 
• Use every bit.  Make soup, make stock instead of buying stock.  It takes almost no time and saves a lot of money.  Like five minutes saves several bucks.  Your ingredients are free.  Dumping a few things in  a slow cooker and going to bed is not really work. 
• Efficient scratch cook.   The internet and Pinterest are full of ideas for recipes that take less time to make.  Spend more time planning and shopping and less time cooking,  the money is to be made on the planning and buying of the food. Not the cooking.   
• Tools like insta pots. Slow cookers, and food processers help on saving time and money.
• Always shop in at least two stores a week.  Go with a plan and stay away from junk food and drinks.   If you must buy junk food and drinks, use a separate budget so that it is abundantly clear how much those items add to your budget.   Going to two stores gives you the best selection of produce and two sets of sale items. 
• Go with the plan of replenishing your stock.  You are not buying a weeks worth of food.  This affords you the luxury of never having to pay full price.  Dairy usually goes on sale at least once a month.  Much of it with the exception of milk, has a near month pull date.   
• Buy fresh vegetables and fruit in season at their lowest price.  Otherwise, buy frozen.  Frozen sometimes can actually be  fresher than fresh. 
• Keep a supply of eggs equivelentto three weeks supply.  If eggs aren’t at your buy price. You won’t get stuck.  
• Dry goods can be purchased when on sale, buy 4-6 weeks supply unless that goes on a mega sale at a particular time of year. Picnic condiments go on at summer holiday time.baking supplies go on at Christmas and thanksgiving time.  Less at Easter.  
• Meal prep time is a good tool to save time and  money.  Anything you can do once and use for a week is a time saver and you only cleanup once.   When the meal is half prepped. You are more likely to finish it when you are tired than you are to call for pizza.   Pizza costs 1.27 for a scratch pepperoni pizza when you buy your ingredients for a RBP. It can cost 20.00 for delivery when you add tax and tip.  There is, o tax here on ingredients,  it anything bought that requires a food handlers card is taxed. 
• One of biggest things you can do to save money is to go to Costco or Sams club and buy a bulk sack of flour, oatmeal, yeast, and rice. Saves hundreds.  Muffins can cost a dollar a piece.  A dozen smaller ones can cost .30. Better for your waistline and budget.   

Little things all add up.  One step at a time.