Jane's Groceries on the Cheap

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Sunday August 21.2016

How many people can say that their food budget is right on track and they have a house full of food on a food stamp fidget. No, we are not on food stamps. We just act like we have that budget so Can teach people how to eat the very best you can eat on a low, limited budget. It doesn't have to be beans and rice every night or hamburger helper, but it's not organic vegan either. It's just good nutritious food keeping in mind the fat, salt, and sugar content.

Basically, it boils down to portion control and good shopping skills. My granddaughter came in from school the other day and informed me she had made good decisions that day. I think she had decided to behave herself, but making good decisions is always a good thing,

I have about forty two dollars left in the budget and nine days, Out fridge and freezer, amd pantry are almost full. The pantry is beyond full. Fred Meyers has a good oriceprice on fruits and be veggies. We are shirt in that department. I have an apple, blueberries and 2 under ripe pears. I do have cucumbers from the neighbor, celery, carrots, baby romaine, cantaloupe, some cauliflower.

My intention is to get two .77 whole chickens and cook one on the pressure cooker and one in a slow cooker to compare. .77 is about the best price I've seen on chickens in a long time. I will pick up some of the 160 count tissue for a dollar ( not in the food budget) and a corn , peaches, radishes, zucchini, and a few oranges if they look good, Have a plan, get in, and get out, My usual grocery slip is about twenty dollars and about 46-54 percent savings, so the store calculates. Percentages are deceiving because the regular price at one store can be a lot different than the regular price at another.
My goal is to spend close to twenty dollars.

I have target ( nothing to do with the red ball store) prices for things. Unless it's something like eggs that I am pretty much stuck with paying the price, I just don't buy something if it's too high. Of its a lot lower, I buy multiples. Even if there isn't a limit on something, I onky buy six or so usually. Unless, it's something I'm buying for charity, I still don't clear the shelves. That's just plain rude. Leave something fir the next guy, they may need it worse than you do.

I got blue box pasta for .55 this week. I got extra fiber and pronto for that price. I have lots. It has a very l o n g shelf life. It's a good staple to have in a pantry. That price was 67 roughly percent off. That's the kind of shopping that nets you a low food bill. It's also the kind if shopping that allows you to go to the pantry at the end of the month and still have something you can make a meal of and not just a jar of mustard.

BGroceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently.

Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Hands down, fastest way to cook a whole chicken

never buy costly roasted chicken again...

Put down a barrier between the countertop and the chicken. I save the insides of cereal boxes etc or you could use a plastic grocery bag or even a paper one, This saves some disinfecting clean up.
Cut an onion and peel it: all you need is to half or quarter it. This is for the "rack" . Don't skip it, it's really important, The onion is discarded and no one sees it. Place it on the bottom of the slow cooker. Leave the lid off.
So far you have no chicken cootie hands. Place the chicken on the barrier, amd clean out the insides if needed. Place dry rub in a coffee filter or on a paper towel. This keeps the bottle clean.
Dry the chicken with paper towel. Sprinkle the skin with a dry rub. There are many recipes for dry rub and you can make them ahead when u r making spice mixes or probably use seasoned salt from the dollar tree.
Place chicken over the onion. Discard the barrier. Wash your hands . Cover the slow cooker and set it for an hour a pound on high. Disinfect anything that has touched raw meat or your chicken cootie hands have touched.

Chicken should be a temp of 179 and the lefts should remove easily.

Done in five minutes .

Deli chicken : three pounds : useable meat 1.5 pounds : purchase price 5.00. Net cost of useable meat 3.34 lb.

Cooked chicken : five pounds : usable meat 3.5 lbs:purchase price 3.85 : net cost of useable meat 1.10 lb

Difference 2.24. Or, in other words, savings 67 percent roughly.

You spend the most percentage of your discressionary income on food. Of that, the most costly part is protein. Saving 67 percent on protein goes a long ways to feed your family well on four dollars a day.

Freddies ad for tomorrow

Freddies ad for tomorrow.

.88 cent sale

Peaches
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Corn 3/.88

***** rotation alert ****
Foster farms whole chicken .77 limit 2

Milk .99@@. Includes chocolate, oj

.99 veggies
Zucchini .
Oranges
Green peppers (2)
Tomatoes
Cucumbers , radishes

Ten for 10. You don't have to buy 10
Frozen treats 10/10
Suddenly salad $$
Crescent rolls , Bisquits
160 count tissue

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

Suddenly Saturday.

ok, hubby went to get the Sunday paper somfreddies ad will be posted later. I hate to repeat myself, anyone that has an idea for a blog post so welcome to comment . New ideas would be nice. TIA.

Following the five series.. Or a little tto more....

Five ways to maximize a basket coupon. We have been seeing a lot of basket coupons lately. QFC had ten dollars off of forty. That's twenty five percent. Safeways had five off of twenty five - or twenty percent. There are ways to get th most bang for your buck. QFC always has one of the best coupon policies of all the stores. They let you post the basket coupon first, amd the. The other coupons. Safeway will not.

Ok. Five ways to maximize your coupon.

Look through the ad and circle things you buy that are a good price.
Check your coupons for a matchup or two. Look on line for electronic coupons also. The more coupon stacking you can find the better. Electronic coupons can't be stacked, but you can still use a basket coupon.
Keep your eyes peeled for discount merchandise and unadvertised specials. I found shrimp and stir fry veggies.
Bring a calculater and keep a running total. Husbands and kids are a good resource for this. The closer to the dollar amount you can get, the more you save. You want the whole percentage off. Buying more lowers your percentage.
Watch for freebies. Don't bother with something you are not going to eat.....let's not waste, but if you can use it or know someone that can, go for it. I get cat treats because I have a grandcat. I took advantage of twenty five percent off for basically a food bank purchase.

It takes a little planning, but the reward is good , nutritious food for little money. That's how you can put a meal on the table for less than four dollars-- you just buy your food for 1/3 to a 1/2 of what other people pay for it. You are not eating cheap; you are eating smart!

Example : Alfredo sauce on a jar 1.00, pasta .55, frozen peas (1/2bag) .33, chicken pieces .50. ( part of the rib portions of de-boning chicken breast. Total. 2.35. I bought extra fiber pasta.

Pasta sauce 2.00

Pasta 1.59

Peas (1/2) .78

Chicken 3.00

Total. 7.37

Difference 5.02

68 percent off. Think of it as getting two more meals for free.

Trust me, if you are on a limited budget, that is HUGE and well worth some time and effort.

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

Friday, August 19, 2016

QFC haul.

Let's do the math
Safeways And Costco 53.95

QFC 30.27 less husbands jerky meat is 9.22 totals 21.05

Total weekly spent on budget food 75.00 less 6.90 for backpack tuna is 68.10

QFC haul.

ACTUAL COSTS
Ore ida potatoes 32 oz 1.12
Tomatoes 1.00 lb 1.03
Stir fry veggies .88 or .66
Stir fry veggies .88 or ..66
Barilla pasta (5) 4.00 - actual price 2.75 or .55
blue bunny cones (2) 2.99 or retail 4.00- 1.50 ea
Shrimp 3.91 or 2.95
Hillshire farm sausage free retail sale 2.99
String cheese 1.00 - fill in .75
Pie 3.99 - 2.99
Cookies 2.49 187
Tuna .69 .52
Milk .99 was .74

All of this was also 25 percent off. Net prices are in bold

Store calculated savings 55 percent

Freaky Friday : five series : proteins

I got up early and hit the bricks so to speak. I watch Jimmy from "she's in her apron" o. U tibe. She is really a motivated. Sometimes it's all I need to get my sore butt out of bed and move. I cleaned the bedroom. Hubby shampooed the carpet in spots., cleaned the kitchen and started dinner. Cleaned the dining room and the deck.

I still have some more of dinner and clothes to fold and need to finish eight cards I started last night.

On to food related. We are having shrimp salad tonight and rolls, It so very hot here and will be for he next few days- a salad on the deck sounds good to me about now,

Shrimp is me of the most expensive proteins we buy, but because I shop thrifty and we can average, we can still afford it.

here we go ...move cheap proteins

Eggs: Lately they have been under a dollar a dozen. Even in the dead of winter at two dollars a dozen, they are a bargain in nutrition. Scrambled eggs, omlettes. Quiche breakfast burritos.
Sausage. I have got bulk sausage for as little as two dollars a pound. It's always inexpensive at Costco in a three pound chub. You can add crumbles to a soup, make depression stew, make a quiche, pit it in red sauce for pasta....
Cheese. Grated cheese is the least exoemsove these days. I just paid 1.58 a pound for Mexican blend, Mexican blend goes good with a lot of things Cheese added to beans and rice makes burritos. Grated cheese makes the best toasted cheese sandwiches. The possibilities are endless my target price is 2 .00
Pork loin : can be sliced for pork chops, roasted, or cubed from the end pieces. Cubes can be a meat pie or stew or braised on rice or mashed potatoes. My target price is 1.69
Chicken : whole, thighs, or split chicken breasts. Whole chicken can be made into four meals : 1/2 breasts, dark meat, amd the bones for chicken soup Thighs can be used as BBQ thighs, or the meat for tacos. Or pulled chicken sandwiches . You can de-bone chicken breast for boneless, skinless chicken breast and use the rib portions for soup stock and pull the chicken pieces. It makes boneless, skinless, chicken breast a dollar instead of six dollars a pound. Quite a savings for a few minutes work. I only buy PNW grown chicken- Foster farms is best. The Internet and cookbooks are full of chicken recipes.
Beans and rice. Just beans and rice. Again, the possibilities are endless. The thing that stopped me before was cooking them. I invested in a 14.00 baby rice cooker and a pressure cooker.

And one not so cheap:

Hamburger is not so cheap these days. In actuality, ground turkey is about the same price and doesn't have the same nutritional properties. Turkey has a few grams less fat. Beef has some amino acids not found in any other meat. I buy 7 percent fat usually and de-fat it. De-fating is supposed to take up to 17 percent of the fat away. I don't know how that translates to 7 percent hamburger. LOL . It can be crumbles for red sauce, taco meat, hambirger pie, sloppy joes, cheeseburger macaroni. A meatloaf so a treat. I have been buying meatballs because they come almost a pound in a package and with coupons they are as low as .98 . I can't make them for that. You can make a host of recipes from meatballs. Speghetti, over rice with sauce, over mashed potatoes with gravy, meat ball subs. Another versatile protein.

My life is all about set it and forget it. I love passive cooking. When I was young it was because I was working two jobs and had three kids at home and a house to keep. Now, I have a granddaughter, a house and I'm old and feeling older everyday. Physical therapy is helping greatly, but with one plastic hip and one screaming one, standing for long periods of time is not an option.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Hauls -

file under don't do as map, do as say....lol. I did break some of my rules. Having a few things that are for emergencies are good amd I'm not cranking up the oven on a ninty degree day here. Safewaysmhas good desert for five dollars. I got dove dollars off of twenty five basket coupon, I spent 20.61.

Danish - 4.00
Uncle Bens Spanish rice 1.33
40 tortillas for 4.00
2 lbs grass fed beef patties at 2. 99 a Nets 2.39 lb
2 pounds Mexican blend cheese at 1.98 a pound nets 1.58 lb

All of which was twenty percent off.

No pics , the only way I can put pics up now so from my phone and it's dead.

Costco

Celery

Small romaine

Blueberries

Bacon

Garlic

Total 33.34

Total 53.95

Terrific Thursday : easy Peasy

Good morning.....

Part of the mantra of groceries on the cheap assumes we are all busy and have a limited amount of time to spend on kitchen management and providing meals for the family. Is one of the most important part of keeping a noise besides paying the bills. Everything else can wait-- a little while anyway. LOL.

With a limited amount of time, making planning a shopping trip and purchasing groceries a priority and cooking efficiently to make up the difference in time consumed by cooking efficiently pays in the long run. The basic need is to feed your family good nutrition that they will eat. Doing it on the cheap means you can have more food for less money. It's even more important ofmyoumhave limited resources.

That's a long winded way of saying this is an article about efficient cooking. It took me a long time to figure out that cooking the thing that takes the longest time to cook first is more efficient. It took even longer for me to figure out that if I cooked met in batches and portion controlled it, dinner time would be less hectic.

You can scratch cook fast. It takes prepping when the house is more quiet and planning, You can plan almost anywhere , all it takes is a piece of paper and a pen -- waiting for the kind do to get out of school......waiting in the doctors office..waiting for anything-- soccer practice!

Bullet time: things you can do quickly to make meals more efficient. Many can be done while you do the dishes.

Bake eggs. Just place eggs in a muffin tin and bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for 30 minutes. Dump in an ice bath and dry off and put in refrigerator.
Wash veggies in vinegar water. Doing all of them at the same time makes one mess to clean up and preps you for the entire week.
Frying hamburger or ground sausage or both when you get home from the store or shortly thereafter , means the meat can't get away from you and be stuck on the back of the fridge, and it's cooked and ready for any number of meals. It also means you can take the time to de-fat it and make it healthier. The meat is usually the part of dinner that takes the longest to cook. It makes the busy meal hour less hectic.
Cooking a whole chicken or chickens when they are less than a dollar a pound can be super easy, take almost no time and save a lot of money. Cut up the cooked,chicken into the dark meat, the breasts, and bag the vines for soup stock. To cook a whole chicken fast: place a quartered, peeled onion in the bottom of a slow cooker. Rinse the chicken and clean out the insides. Rub the outside with a slice rub that you have pre made, and put the chicken in the pot over the onion, Cover, amd cook for 1 hour a pound on high heat. Non- passive time. About five minutes. Clean and disinfect everything that raw meat has touched including everything you touch with chicken hands. Prepping your work station helps. Place slow cooker insert on the counter beside the sink, place the slice rub in a disposable coffee filter. You can place the onion on the slow cooker. Wash the chicken, place ot on the slow cooker insert, and dry rib it. Wash your hands and disinfect the sink and counter., place the insert in the slow cooker and cover and program the slow cooker. Five minutes tops!
Make your own mixes when you have free time. Children can help , it can be a good lesson in counting or fractions. Smaller children just like to stir or push the food processor or blender buttons. It's good for them to see what things have in them. Food doesn't have to come out of a box or bag.
Non fried re-fried beans are a fraction of the cost of refried beans in a can and have no fat! They can be made in a slow cooker with a potato masher or with a pressure cooker and a food processor.
Save bread heels and either grate them on the largest side of a box grater or in a food processor. Why pay someone upwards of 2.00 a pound for their dry bread and throw yours away!
Minutes to make a cream soup base mix. Many dollars and less preservatives ahead.
It takes minutes to make oatmeal in the microwave and it's a lot less expensive and more nutritious than the packaged mixes. Leaving a measuring cup in some things saves a lot of time. Measuring cups are at the dollar store. A 1/2 cup measure is always in my oatmeal canister. I buy oatmeal by the ten pound box at Costco. It's also a dollar a lime at the dollar tree. Good source of fiber and protein.
I cook pasta in the microwave. Anything that has little non- passive cooking helps. A watched pot never boils? Set it and forget it means you can make the rest of the dinner while the noodles cook. Sauce in a jar or can (cheaper than scratch on sale ) and pre made by you meatballs or crumbles and a salad or green beans makes dinner.
Or cook elbows in the microwave while you make cream soup mix on the stove and add grated cheese. Homemade Mac and cheese not from a box. More nutrition and better taste. Remember cheese whey is what my grandmother used to sell to the farmers to slop the hogs. You add the milk to make it back to cheese-- just eat the cheese! FYI. Annie's box of Mac and cheese has exactly the same nutrition as the Kraft box. But, Annie's has more fat! Because pasta comes in a pound box doesn't mean you have to cook the pound box.
Which brings me to......hambirger helper I tested had just over four ounces of pasta in it. I never pay more than a dollar a pound for pasta and frequently pay .75 or less. I have paid .38 before. You can also get pasta with a serving of veggies in it and double Dover for discounted prices too. Pasta is a buck for 1.5 pounds at the tree. It's not necessarily the best quality. I prefer the blue box or rotini.
By the way, the "cheese sauce that had no cholesterol in it was 1.57 ounces. It calculated out to 13.00 a pound. I never met a cheese I didn't like, and I never met a cheese that didn't have cholesterol. LOL. You can buy mighty good cheese for 13.00 a pound.
Put your macaroni in the microwave to cook. Put already fried hamburger in a pan. Add some frozen mixed veggies or peas and carrots, and a can of drained chopped tomatoes, reserving the juice. Drain the cooked macaroni, add to the pan and stir add in enough reserved tomato juice to make the right consistency heat to warm it up and add grated cheese. Turn off the heat and cover to let the cheese melt. Stir. More food, better taste, less money.

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently.

Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Alberways - the ads

QFC must be a two week ad because I didn't get an ad in the mail. All wemgotmt not the mail this week is Alberways.

Cantaloupe .99 each

Eggs .99@@
8 ounces cheese .99@@ limit 4 total between eggs and cheese

Five dollar Friday
Foster farms breaded chicken
Berries 2/5

Buy 5 save 5

Coffee 6.99
Tabasco .79

About it. I don't know about you, but we don't need five bottles of Tabasco.
Not much there.

food date labels don’t mean what you think — NOVA Next | PBS

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

Pizza pizza,pizza

My daughter looked at the ingredients for pizza crust that I had sitting on the counter. Is that all my t takes, she said. She had just bought a vegan pizza at one of those 42 percent profit stores for ten dollars. It never ceases to amaze me how they can omit the most expensive ingredients in a pizza ( the meat and the cheese) and still price a pizza at ten bucks.

The cost of a large pepperoni pizza at home is about 1.50. The flour for a pizza crust is .30. Add water, 2t olive oil. Salt, amd yeast. I buy yeast at Costco on

in a bulk bag. You can buy it at Winco by the scoop if you don't want to make the investment. I don't price anything under 2T that is kitchen staples. It's too much like hard work. I have pieced and broken down basic things like beans and flour.

It takes about five minutes to make the dough and another rest time of ten minutes. You can. E chopping and gathering the ingredients for the topping during the rest time.

The pizza sauce is a dollar at the dollar tree. The same brand as you will find in other grocery stores for 1.50. I open the jar and pour it into my ice cube trays and freeze it in the ice maker. Cover it with something first . It takes three ice cubes to make a pizza. There are 16 cubes in a tray. So, for about .18 you can spread sauce on a pizza with a pastry brush. Pepperoni is .50 with a coupon at the dollar tree. Coupons are almost every month at coupons.com

In the time it takes you to wait for the pizza guy or go pick up a pizza from the store, you can have a pizza ready for the oven.

Flour for crust .30

Sauce .18

Cheese 1/2 cup .25, full cup .50

Pepperoni .50

Total 1.48 of you use a whole cup of cheese.

That is 15 percent of the cost, and you are getting cheese and pepperoni.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Terrific Tuesday.

The ads are not here yet. I did check Winco, but don't see any major bargains. I did see that there are no blueberries. I used the last of the coupons that were die to expire on anything that we would use and was a good buy,

I did pick up a recipe book for cheap. It helps to spice up things every now and then. I have been reading Pinterest and u tube for inspiration, So,emthingsmworked be good ideas of they pertains to our family unit. Some mixes we don't use a lot of, but homemade mixes are a good way to avoid the Preservatives in ready made. You can sometimes avoid the hydrogenated oils too. I have heard all the hype about cocoa it oil. So, I read the nutrition on organic cocoanut oil at 7.00 a pint or so. It had a but,old of saturated fat. .....so, don't eat meat because of the saurated fat, eat cocoanut oil at over thirty dollars a gallon. Doesn't make much sense to me,

On to taste of home summer slow cooker recipes. Been eyeing it for weeks now. Since it is discounted at Winco, I decided I finally would get it.

Recipes

Chicken chop salad
Pizza pancakes
Sausage with jalapeño potatoes
Orientation sausage skillet
Parmesan chicken bites
Chicken ranch flatbreads - sounds like it could be pizza too
Spinach gets chicken penne
White beans and bow ties

Many more. A good resource,

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

Monday, August 15, 2016

Food prep day

Today took three hours. I had to wash dishes in between and the counters were full, I had to juggle appliances.

I :
Took inventory of fresh produce

Cleaned vegetables with vinegar water.

Peeled and sliced cucumbers and put them in a green container.

Washed radishes for oven roasted veggies

Cut up cantaloupe and put in a green container

Made watermelon juice from the last of the watermelon

Washed,peeled and sliced zucchini and put inthe dehydrater

Made sausage patties and froze them

Made a apple dump cake

Made non-fried refried beans

Made cinnamon sugar

Made pizza dough

Made seasoned bread crumbs.

Listed prep work for the weeks meals.

Washed and cut romaine for salads and tacos

Washed romaine

made prep list for the meals

wash veggies and prep for storage and inventoried

Apple dump cake

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.

Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.

Everyday

Everyday I do a blog. I have been following a lady that is very inspirational and helpful on getting your butt up and doing what needs to be done. Lots of good ideas. Today she talked a little setting up areas of your home and deep cleaning that area for an hour a week. Pick a day. It keeps you focused. I usually see so,ethnic no that is bugging me and hit it for a couple of hours when I feel up to it. But, those areas that I don't see everyday , just don't get done. The reality is I'm not the only person that lives here, And everyone needs to do their fair share. LOL. Like that's going to happen.

Today is the day I clean the fridge and prep meals for the week. I'll probably run the damp mop over the floor and clean off the counters.

I cleaned the pantry the other night at two in the morning when I couldn't sleep. It gave me a good overview of what we had and what may need to be supplemented soon. I'm looking for a diced tomato canned good sale, It was .60 a can at Freddies last week, I want fifty cents. They are .58 all the time at Winco. I was over stocked and didn't buy any for a long time. Now we are lower than my comfort level. I plan to eat down canned beans and transition to some canned and some dry. I still want canned in case I'm in a pinch or we need them in a emergency situation. Our power goes out , sometimes for days in the winter. We are a small pocket on the electric grid and they fix the larger grids first in order to cover as many people as possible. We have a BBQ and a fireplace, but dry beans would take a l o n g time!

That was a long explanation to say I will replace some of the bean shelf with tomatoes. I filled some of the tomato shelf with my own mixes and canisters of dried beans, I also took a small crate from the dollar tree and pit all those little jars etc of baking things in it. It makes it a lot easier to find what you need and I don't have to take every little bottle of flavored vanilla , baking powder etc out to find why I need. It's contained. Life's easier and less cluttered of what you need is contained.

OK. Pizza dough. Non- Fried refried beans, rice, clean veggies and put them in green containers, make green salad. Clean off the fridge door.

Type a master list of cleaning chores.

Sunday, August 14, 2016

5 meals under five dollars - some Way under

Four people, one meal, five bucks. Better, cheaper, faster.

Notes : this is assuming you have two adults and two school aged children. It also is predicated on efficient cooking and batch freezing,

If you out a entire batch of chocolate chip cookies in front of a child, they will eat an entire batch of chocolate chip cookies. Portion control a reasonable amount,

1) chicken enchiladas. I made them the specified way . Next time I will make them on the shape of a pie and cut wedges. They will taste the same. But they will take a lot shorter time to make. An entire 9x13 pan cost 2.66. The filling made enough for two meals. I will need to make another white sauce.

2) speghetti with meatballs, French bread : tip: speghetti is often less than a dollar with coupons, sauce is on sale with coupons frequently and meatballs have coupons and is cheaper than making scratch. A good case in point, The meatballs at Freddies were 3.69. The same amount and brand was 1.98 at Winco. Speghetti .50, sauce .88, meatballs 1.23. 2.61 , homemade bread or biscuits .30. Cheese .25. Green beans .50. Total 3.66. Enough for lunch the next day. Leaves 3.00

3) veggie bean soup. Cheezy biscuits. Biscuits .60, veggie,bean soup.
Beans .32, tomatoes 1.00, stock, .50 carrots and celery. 1.82. 2.42

4) tacos, refried beans, rice : rice costs .12, refried.beans ('can ) .88. Taco shells 99, meat 1.00. Tomato, lettuce,cheese. 100. Total. 4.00

5) pizza, green salad
Green salad 1.00. Pizza : sauce .20, pepperoni .50, cheese .25, crust .45. 1.40: total 2.40

Average for five meals 3.10 each.

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.

Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.

5 things to avoid buying

seems list articles are a popular read .....

5 things to avoid buying

1) rotisserie chicken : Most rotisserie chicken are three pounds or under. Three pounds is the break even point on the bone to meat ratio. Even at five dollars, the chicken will cost you 1.67 a pound. When you think about that, you are paying 3.33 cents a pound for your meat. Washington grown chicken is a dollar or less a pound often, You,can cook a chicken in 5 minutes or less non- passive time and a five pound chicken is a lot more bang for your buck.

2) soda pop. "They" have come out with the fact that the fox in pop strips your bones of calcium. Besides the fact that it's empty calories . If you are in a four dollar a day budget, pop is not a good investment,

3) potato chips and the like. Again, they are not good nutrition and you want the most nutrition for your buck. Better snacks are peanut butter and celery or wheat bread , a piece of fruit, popcorn that is air popped.

4) fruit juices-- especially for children, The nutritionist told me when the children were small that it is better to give the children the apple instead. It's got fiber and is better for their teeth.

5) ready made anything just about, Almost always scratch is better. Less preservatives and tastes better, follow me along on my quest to find easy ways to scratch cook instead of buying ready made.
I have tackled

Cream soup base
Beans
Rice
Pizza crust
Bread
Rice mix
Refried beans - not Fried
Croutons
Bread stuffing
Bread crumbs , seasoned

Next: tortillas,

I still hold on to some instant mashed potatoes and French fries. It's a convenience, fast meal thing. Cheaper than going out for dinner is my excuse ! And, I can get them cheaper than homemade. LOL. And pasta is just too much bother for the cost. I can get pasta formats cheap as a quarter a box. Some things are cheaper to buy ready made - either for the time they take or for the cost and some things can be just avoided. I made pita bread--once. I made bagels - once. Never again. They aren't on my diet because they are too car loaded and they are a pain in the touché
to make,

I got a Betty Crocker cake mix with frosting for .50. We don't eat cake often. But at fifty cents, I don't want to make it from scratch. The savings would be negligible,

Pick your battles. Some things are easy to make from scratch and take little time. So,e things can just be avoided. And some are just a splurge. With careful planning, you can still have a splurge . Save on the things you eat often and the things you can make easily from scratch,

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.

Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Meal plans

The age old adage......make a plan or plan to fail. Not having a plan invites the take out demons in LOL.

Make a plan, adapt the plan if you need to, but make a plan.

In case someone is new, I thought I would walk you through the process.

We have a stock of food. I have purchased a months worth of protein to include various types of protein to use on a rotation basis. I stocked when prices were low. The object is kinda like a stockbroker would buy stock for speculation, but with food theirs not much of a gamble. LOL. You buy when the comidity is priced low and eat when it's high.

We have a lot of pepperoni because I get a three dollar package for .50 at the tree with coupons. We, also have a lot of eggs because we are getting them for .79 a dozen. It only, makes sense to have pizza one night and breakfast 4 dinner another night . The rest of the week is wide open, I usually work on a matrix of proteins that outline the plans and make otmamquick and easy task,

2 vegetarian ( for variety and cost averaging )
1 fish
3 pork or chicken
1 beef ( for variety and certain amino acids and irony )

Equals 7 meals

Pizza - pepperoni I make scratch crust. Granddaughter is getting good at spreading pizza sauce, cheese, and pepperoni Pepperoni and sauce come from the dollar store. I freeze the sauce in ice cube trays and ,when frozen, transfer to a freezer bag.
Breakfast 4 dinner. Use eggs, fruit of some kink, and a starch : pancakes, English muffins ( 167 a dozen from Freddies) or hash browns. Sometimes in Leiu of fruit, we have yogurt parfaits.
Fish packets - a family favorite : mom likes the ease of prep, the kids think it's playing camp out, and somebody ( that illusive person that is never there) likes that there is almost no dishes. Place on parchment paper, stack the following : a piece of romaine or spinach, a scoop of cooked rice, a piece of fish, and a fresh green veggie like green beans, Seal in a packet and bake in an oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Or wrap in parchment, then foil, and grill.
Chicken enchilada casserole I made chicken enchiladas last week and have more filling left we put in the freezer. Then enchiladas were a pain in the totusche to roll, so this time I'll layer in a round casserole and cut like a pie.
Sausage with roasted root veggies. Salad
Chicken pot pie - chicken breasts I de-boned and froze . Mixed veggies I got on sale for .85.
Meatballs and speghetti . Sauce we got for .50 a liter and spaghetti I got for .25 with a coupon and Meatballs were a.98 with a coupon.

4+1 = 5......four people. One meal, five bucks. So,e of these meals are less than a buck. Some are slightly more. In order to stay on a four dollar a day meal plan, you have to stick to less than five dollars in order to eat the other two meals and have some stock on hand,

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.

Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.

Dollar tree and grocery outlet hauls

wemwent to dollar tree and grocery outlet. I was looking for a electronic light for the broom closet. They didn't have one.

I did get a hundred percent cotton t shirt. A hair barrette for granddaughter, a refrigerator bottle, French rolls, amd a canvas storage box.

At grocery outlet, I got bake Bisquits for .50 ( too hot to bake in the kitchen very long. )

Tomato paste for .39, 2 Betty Crocker cake and frosting mixes for .50 each, dated 2017. And my husband picked mixed nuts and I bought my daughter some spices so mine stay in my kitchen!

Total spent 18.00

2 cake and frosting mixes
1 package brown and serve rolls
2 packages Bisquits in a can
4 jars of spices
2 cans tomato paste
1 cotton t shirt
1 plaid hair barrette
1 canvas storage crate
1 refrigerator bottle

Fred Meyers TOMORROW - vegetable alert!

this is tomorrow's ad

Vine tomatoes .88
Gala apples - new crop .88
Peppers .88
Greek yogurts .69
English cucumbers .88
Peaches .99
Broccoli .99
Zucchini .99
Pears .99

La croix water , 8 count 199

Kroger ice cream 1.88@@
Frozen veggies 12 oz .77. That a little over a buck a pound

Barilla pasta 1.00

Heritage farm chicken is southern grown chicken

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.

Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.

Suddenly Saturday : baked eggs recipe

I am drinking my third cup of coffee...got up early. Watching a video of a couple and four kids that bought a real fixer upper for 24 thousand dollars and are gutting it. Brought back memories. We added another house on to our existing house about thirty years ago, Took up 3.5 years while we lived on the basement and I cooked on a one burner hotplate and a microwave. We did the work pretty much ourselves, only hiring the sheik and basic plumbing and the electrical box. We still maintained a frugal grocery bill. We didn't cook much real scratch food, obviously without an oven some of that wasn't possible. Just maintaining some degree of normal while we spent every bit of extra time we had putting in sinks, dry walling, stringing electrical wire Etc. now , we are due for some remodeling. Not up to it. We doc replace the floor in the bathroom a week or two ago.

I digress.

I am baking eggs this morning, We are still working on the .79 eggs I got a few weeks ago, Last night we had eggs and sausage patties that were two dollars a pound with sale and coupon.

Baking eggs. By far , the easiest way to make a hard cooked egg. I love recipes that take very little non passive cooking. It goes me more productivity and less work. Spend more time planning and shopping, amd less time cooking and you will save more money . With efficient cooking, you can still eat scratch and healthy.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place eggs , one each in muffin pan cups.
Place pan in preheated oven and bake 30 minutes
Immediately place eggs in a ice bath. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Refrigerate . Eggs peel really easy.

I tried to do a quick haul at Safeways to use the five dollars off of twenty five coupon. I calculated 25.05 and added zip lock bags and a coupon. It didn't come to 25.00. They didn't post the correct sale amount on the meat and I didn't carch it.

I don't know if I'll try again or not. I've already spent forty dollars this week. Probably not. We don't need a lot and the pantry and freezers are full.

Back later with the Fred Meyer ad for tomorrow.

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.

Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Friday Post

Safeways has a big sale on, they also have a five dollar off of twenty five on just 4 you basket coupon.

That's twenty percent of you keep your bill down to twenty five dollars. I went today, but had to split my order to get 12 tuna cans for the backpack project. I still have the coupon and usually don't find it hard to spend twenty five dollars in a grocery store.

With that sneered, let's get the most bang for our buck.

First B5 S5

Mostly junk foods, but there are some sleepers.

Herez salsa. , 16 ounces 1.99. Less,.55 coupon nets 1.44 -- buy 2
Ortega taco shells .99
Sargento sliced cheese 1.99 less .55 coupon nets 1.44
Coffee 6.99 - retail 10.99
7 percent ground beef 3.99 - three pounds.

That should do it. Use a calculater and fill in with something small. Check the oricemofm8 ounce cans of tomato,sauce.

Just an example. , but it,shows,how,it,can be done.

10 things that will lower your food bill

Ten things you can do to lower your cost of food at home.

Know the RBP of things you buy on a regular basis. Set dollar limited on things. Unless you really have to have something that is a higher price. don't buy it at the high price.
Check the ads when they come on the mail . Check all the stores for bargains, Decide which two chain stores have the best buys. Some stores here have no ads, but prices can be found for some stores at favado. ( am ap for your electronic devices)
Avoid junk food and ready mades like the plague. Empty calories can jack your food budget up fast and not give your family good nutrition. Learn to cook scrarch, one thing at a time. Find the easiest recipes as possible.
Buy fresh produce in season and look for the best quality for your money.
Don't experiment. Buy things most of your family will eat. Remember; no food will do you any good if you feed it to the garbage disposal. That isn't to say you need to eat pizza and chicken nuggets everyday! LOL.
Take advantage of every coupon you find that is for things you buy on a regular basis. Store basket coupons are best used when you stick to the limit. In other words, if ts five dollars off of twenty five, you spend twenty five. That way, you are getting 20 percent off everything you buy. Add that to regular manufacturers coupons, and you can extreme coupon. Extreme couponing is not about buying 60 bottles of,hot sauce you'll never use on your lifetime.
When you find something at a RBP that you use a lot of on a regular basis, buy as many as you can (store limits ), as many as you can afford, or as many as you will use before it goes on sale again or you need to fill in your self imposed limit of stock - whichever comes first. His isn't about filling a pantry as much as it is having enough product that you can make a meal out of in an emergency for the least possible cost. The operative word is a manageable amount so it gets used up before epiration dates.
Some things are best bought in bulk. We eat a lot of rice. Rice doesn't go bad. I can safely buy a 25 pound bag of rice and put it on glass jars. Now, beans in bulk won't work for us. I stock to five pounds at a time.
Meal plan. Just meal plan.....it saves a ton of money amd stress.
Buy your protein on a rotation basis. Buy enough to feed your family for a months worth of those meals. In other words, if you eat ground beef once a week, you will buy four meals worth of ground beef. When you get it home or shortly afterwards, cook it if appropriate and portion control it for meals. I usually either make meatballs or defat crumbles. Ot makes cooking a snap and takes up less room in the freezer. If it's pork roast, I cut cubes from the end that isn't flat, cut a roast, and cut some pork chops and freeze. Chicken is either bought as breast with ribs and I de-bone it and make stock from the bones. Then I bag the breast on quart bags, amd the quart bags in a gallon bag, or I cook a whole chicken and separate it onto the breast, dark meat and bones for soup.

Hope this helps.

Chicken enchiladas, take along

I made chicken enchiladas this morning for tonight's dinner. I used a Betty Crocker recipe that was on line. I make dinner early on the day, or at least prep so,e of it. The last thing my old body wants to do at six o'clock at night is to prep a scratch dinner for an hour. LOL.

Cost of recipe: note small amounts of staples like flour and slices are not cost out. If its one noes worth, it's not worth my time. Chicken broth is low sodium chicken granules. ( Winco) . I used two tsp.

1) cook chicken broth and flour , and spices on the stove on med heat until slightly thickened. Add Greek yogurt ( I added sour cream) . ( .33)

2) Filling

Can of corn .50
Can of black beans .50
3/4 cup cheddar cheese .47
Green chillies .58
Chicken breast, cooked and shredded 1.00
Total 3.05 - made a double batch - recipe total 1.53 Q

3) assemble filling corn tortillas ( 1/3 package .33) and place on 9X13 greased pan
4) top with sauce and cheese ( .47)

Total 2.66😊
I can't download pics because Google changed the format and I will need to learn a new trick, I guess!

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Things to buy when you see broke

my version of things to buy when you are broke. Imagine having twenty dollars and need to feed your family, .....

Oatmeal
Eggs
Rice
Beans
Milk
Bananas
Top ramen
Diced tomatoes
bulk pasta
Parmesean cheese
Flour, yeast in bulk isle
Pepperoni at the dollar store

When is it a bargain? The ads

we got the ads today. I a, not going to tell you that you need to rush down someplace here and find the bargains. Winco and Fred Meyers have the best.

Eggs at Winco are .98
Frozen vegetables are .88 a pounds. I found mixed, broccoli and green beans

I didn't 't do a full shopping experience, I was there to pick up a few things,

QFC

Top sirloin 5.77

Chicken breast BOGO. Nets 4.00 a pound. Note: split breasts are often around a dollar at Fred Fred Meyers. It takes almost no time to De-bone them and the difference in cost is about three dollars a pound vs the sale price.

Grapes 1.28

Milk .99
Oranges .99
Roma's .99

Electronic coupons,

Hefty bags .99
Kraft singles 1.99

Alberways
Buy 5, save 5

Jiffy peanut butter 1.99
Herdez salsa 1.99$$
Ortega taco shells .99
Red Barron 2.99

1/2 pork loin 1.79
Grapes 1.28
Bumble bee tuna .59 ***backpack alert ! Limit 6

Friday only N
Freschetta pizza 5.00

7 percent hamburger 3.99
Ragu 2/3$$

Nalleys chilli .99@@
Greek yogurt @@

About it,

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.

Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.

Surprise! Not all advertised bargains are bargains!

Surprise. My granddaughter and I were enjoying a blue bunny ice cream cone. It's a great treat and they are lift ion controlled so we so to have too much. Granddaughters was full sized , mine was a mini -- like 1/2 the size. Calling customer service today. Usually of you call, they learn ot Halle Ed and can make adjustments to the manufacturing line to correct the problem, amd you usually get coupons for free product, It pays to complain. But, complain nicely.

I got my just 4 you feed today from Safeways. Besides the five dollar off of twentyfold coupon that may or may may not be a bargain, the rest of it was ornery much a joke,

You can't believe everything that you see as being a bargain,

Sour cream 24 ounces 1.99. I got sour cream for .88 at Fred Meyers this week. Granted, it is or a key 16 ounces, but still, that's. It a bargain at 1.99

The inferior brand of brownie mix is 1.61. I almost never pay more than a dollar and sometimes .88 for Betty Crocker or Pillsbury. I did pay 1.60 for Giravaldi chocolate at Costco. Yum!

BBQ sauce, Rays, I paid .55 or .58 for with sake and coupon is on sale for 2.88

The kicker,,.,,,,refried beans, They were on sale for 80 at Safeways a few weeks back. I can buy one variety for .78 at Costco, and .88 all the time at Winco. They are on sale coupon for .....wait for. It...1.13.

It goes back to a main principle.......

My mother used to say that some people would t know a bargain of it got up and bit them in the butt.
Don't be that person. KNOW YOUR PRICES. .......

You don't have to know every price in the store, just the things you buy on a regular basis. That usually is 15-20 things, Some things I just know I don't buy unless they are under a dollar. I have target prices ....nothing to do with the red ball store. ......

It's a good rule of thumb . My vegetable target used to be .39. Then .69. Now it's a buck. But, of course, the COL hasn't risen according to the government, LOL on that one.

I digress. I want fruits and veggies for a buck, Green chillies , canned fruit, cake mix, pasta -- all under a dollar.

Meat's target price is two dollars. Granted, ground beef is more like almost four, but I can average and ise chicken, eggs, beans and pork for one and two dollars to average.

Target prices mean you don't have to remember so many numbers.

Knowing your prices saves a lot of money. By saving money on the staple items, you can buy a variety of things so children get the benefit of tasting new things and you aren't eating rice and beans every night.

The last calculations I did, we were eating for three dollars a day. That is is less than a lot of people spend on their morning coffee at the big bucks store. I have spent a lot more this quarter because we replenish the freezer after the big thaw. But, we don't need any protein for quite some time so it will
Average out.

We eat well. We eat balanced and we eat the best quality I can find for the money. We just don't ever , pretty much, pay full price for our food. We find the best price available. It takes some time, I make the time up by cooking efficiently. Time is money, make your money count.

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.

Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Terrific Tuesday

Yesterday. We took a tip to Costco wholesale and stopped at dollar tree along the way. I needed a basket for the wash rags. We don't have a linen closet in our bathroom and wash rags on a shelf can get out of hand. I also picked up two pint jars for dried fruit, and some beans. I am trying to stock some canned beans for emergencies and when I can't cook scratch, and some dry beans. I also got some fly paper strips - fruit fly season is upon us, and a brush and dustpan. Soap so cheaper at the dollar store - major brands.

At Costco, we needed baguettes , soap, toilet paper and I got new steak knives because, ours were shot. One snapped when my husband was cutting his meat.

I read an article about why you should never shop at the dollar store or Walmart. Most of it was pure propaganda. -- but here is my answer to that !

I don't shop at Walmart.
1) they pay their people the least they can get away with no benefits to most of them.
2) they are anti Union, but, they have higher prices and pay their people less wages and benefits than Costco that isn't anti - Union. That tells me that someone is making a lot of money on the backs of their workers and the taxpayers. It has been estimated that for every worker at Walmart, it costs the taxpayer six thousand dollars a year for welfare that the workers need to supplement their income to exist.

3) Their prices aren't the lowest. They expect you to do their homework and argue to price match things to get a lower price. That slows down the checkout lines and is a bunch of bother.

4) Their merchandise is as much from China as any other store.

5) I ordered a present one Christmas on line to be picked up at the store. They e mailed me that the product was back ordered and I could cancel the order by replying to the email. I cancelled the order, not knowing if I could get the merchandise before Christmas. They sent it anyway. But, the kicker was that when I returned the merchandise to the store, they charged me 8.00 shipping, and refused to refund the shipping charges. I bought it elsewhere, paid nothing for shipping and got a cheaper
price.

Now, the dollar store

1) the stores are independently owned , so you are buying from local people.

2) there is no more Chinese merchandise than any other store.

3) think if it as the modern dime store. A lot of things are as good a quality as anywhere else, they are just cheaper. It is true that they have a lot of party supplies and seasonal decor. No one is twisting your arm to buy them.

4) they have a whole isle of junk food, no one is twisting your arm to buy that either, Ditto the children's cheap plastic toys. They also have very good children's work books. And six pair of sox for a buck. If you have a child that looses their sox, six pair of the same color is a good thing.

5) some food is cheaper than any other place. You pick and choose and read labels , but good and
bad buys can be found. There are overstocks and some major American brands that are cheaper.

Beans are cheaper in some instances. 1.5 pounds of pinto beans are a buck. They are .69 in bulk at Winco, Pizza sauce is cheaper. Name brand mandarin oranges - del monte, Betty Crocker food and kitchen implements. A baby spatula that gets the bits of a narrow jar.

Like anyplace, let the buyer beware, their linens are crap. I did get plastic trays from them that have been more than worth their weight. I have carried things down to the freezer and to the deck, used
Zthem to serve our food on the deck -- putting each persons place etc on a tray. I have placed ingredients on one, and then took them off as I used them. It's a good way not to forget what you have used if you are interrupted. I use them constantly.

The organizational tools are marvelous as well as paper products. Tablets, etc.

They accept coupons that make some things even cheaper. Wet and wild makeup, Hormel pepperoni, puffs and bounty paper products. Uncle beans rice.

A lot of products are not cheaper because the quanity is low. I can see where hat might be useful of you are stocking a new apartment, or a travel trailer or boat and don't have room. When you are living in 200 square feet, you can't have 25 pounds of rice! LOL.

If you haven't gathered, I love the dollar store for certain things. I keep a package of toilet paper on the very back of the toilet paper shelf. That way, of we hit the back up tissue, we know we haven't estimated right, and we need a Costco haul. You never want to run out of toilet paper! LOL.
Ours is stored on a bottom shelf in the main bathroom linen closet. It's my granddaughters job to restock the shelf . She loves it, and I don't have to bend down.

I don't like walmarts business practices. There are some people that would cheat you out of a dime, and have no conscious. Kinda like a candidate we are aware of. That behavior is despicable in my opinion. -- just my opinion!

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.

Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.

Monday, August 8, 2016

Monday madness

Spot clean the house after the weekend and butcher the pork roasts that I got for 1.48 a pound at Winco. Pork chops were on the menu plan and 1.48 more than fits the two dollar a pound target amount for meat. I did more than my one rotation protein lately, so I'm free for a few weeks. I bought hamburger and sausage last week and white fish, shrimp and pork yesterday. Winco has good prices on frozen fish.

Yesterday we went to Fred Meyers and Winco with my daughter. I replenished our sour cream and cottage cheese at .88 and added a few veggies. The radishes were remarkable! I might have to redirect the food plan to incorporate some roasts root veggies and the green beans my neighbour gave us. Plan, but be flexible.

The last time I roasted vegetables, we had radishes, cauliflower, potatoes and carrots. My hubby turned his nose up at everything but the potatoes and carrots,....all the more good stuff for the rest of us! LOL.

QFC has free downloads every Friday. Sometimes I don't bother because times something I'll never use. I try to avoid anything that is empty calories. In other words, if it has no food value, I don't usually buy it. Groceries on the cheap is all about getting the most bang for your buck.
When you have a limited amount of money for food, you can't afford to waste it on frills. Not to mention that junk food is not good for us. My mothers answer to not having kool-aid, and pop and potato chips was that dad thought it was bad for you, He said, if cola can take the rust off a screw, what is it doing to your insides. Stick to the basics. Don't over eat . Drink water. You will find that you could even loose weight.

You eat first with your eyes. Make things look tasty. We use a lot of parm and parsley. My granddaughter has become an expert at making French bread, We butter it, sprinkle oars key and a hard cheese ( usually parm, but sometimes any hard cheese that is the cheapest. ) Costco has one that I don't know the name of that is 12.oo for huge wedge. I usually just pre grate some of it on the micro plane. Sometimes a tool is a good investment because the return on your money is remarkable. A micro plane grates cheese so fine that it's a good cheese stretcher.

The second real money stretcher is to not waste food. Keeping on top of what's in the fridge and adapting meals to use it up is one way, Revamping your recipes to make less quantity is another. My daughter has decided to be vegan. She used to eat a lot of anything vegetarian that used cheese. I have taken to weighing my pasta to use smaller portions and making an 8 inch square pan of pasta dishes instead of a 9X13 pan. There is enough after three of us eat for a lunch.

Groceries on the cheap has nothing to do with poor quality food; it's more about getting the most bang for your buck. Buy the best quality for the least amount of money. I just picked up a black long skirt marked thirty dollars, for ten dollars. A black skirt can be a good investment because it will take you anywhere. Dress it up or dress it down. Buying basic food is the same.

When something is a really good price. Buy as much as you can use before it goes bad. Incorporate it into your food plan. Eggs were .79 a dozen, So much better than the two dollars we were paying in the winter. I bought the limit. We will have breakfast for dinner every week. I have been eating a hard boiled egg for breakfast. It has no carbs and makes my blood sugar hit slower. It fills you up and sustains you until lunch.

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.

Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Pizza

I have been watching some big families blogs lately. They are real eye openers. It's not hard to understand that with six children, one mother can't earn all or part ofmamliving and still cook, clean, and keep a yard up. Everyone needs to pitch in. The thing that surprised me was that children as small as two years old could do their part. Storing, peeling carrots . Safety first, etc.

I started letting our granddaughter help with cooking. She loves it and takes great pride on everything she does. Now, I'm not condoning children working with hot stoves etc, but some things they can wash their hands thorally and help. Tonight, we are having pizza. I made crust from scratch amd rolled it out. I defrosted the pizza sauce and granddaughter spread it with a pastry brush. Then she sori joes the cheese and arranged the pepperoni. Gramps took over from there.

I knew just where she was while I cooked dinner and she got much pleasure from a job well done.

She stirs, helps count cups and pours cups into bowls. She's figuring out that food doesn't come from a box or the take out!

I am trying pizza dough recipes until one works well for me. Imhadmcoupoms thick crust recipe years ago. We want thin crust now,so we are trying new recipes.

After I tackle pizza dough, I will start on baguettes without using the bread machine or cold rise method, Then, tortillas. I don't have the right kind of a pan for those. It'll be down the road a while. I just bought a pressure cooker. I can get tortillas for as cheap as a quarter with coupons,

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.

Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.