Thursday, September 15

We made chicken salad BLT sandwiches and had vegetable sticks that I made in Monday's prep day.  
They were really good.  

Yesterday I shopped at QFC, no coupons.    I still saved almost 50 percent in spite of the fact that it was late and I bought a TV dinner for lunch.    I spent 10.00 and  saved 9.48.  

I used  the B4S4 sale.    I got blue  Bunny  ice cream, a very large jar of salsa, and two pound packages of frozen veggies for a dollar.  

Frugal is in the eyes of the beholder.   A frugal person on Pinterest thought a 12 ounce package of frozen, organic broccoli for three dollars was frugal.    Hello, fresh, regular , broccoli is .88 a pound at Fred Meyers.   Organic, frozen is a little more than a dollar at Costco.    When you can get the same thing for 67 percent less, it's not being frugal.    Maybe she was comparing it to food  from Mars?    LOL.  

I found it interesting that an article came  across my computer about a university stidy that had been skewed because the researchers had been paid to skew the numbers.    Just another reason why you have to look at the whole picture  to see if you really want to change your diet because of a "study" .  And, give it the logic test.   I worked as an accountant for many years.   After you finished a p and l, you stood back and gave it the logic test.    I honestly don't think that sugar causes heart disease.   I think that  being obese causes heart disease and sugar causes obesity.    It's like they are saying that you don't need to count cholesterol; you need to count your saturated fat .   The fat causes the heart disease, the colesterol  doesn't.   Saturated fat is easier to control.  

I'm still going with Moderation.    There have been too many studies  lately that have backtracked the older studies.    Something  is good for you in 1990 and bad for you in 2000.   My mantra is still eat balanced.   Eat in moderation,   Eat a variety of foods.    Avoid too much sugar, salt, saturated fat and hydrogenated oils.    More than one study, basically the entire medical community has to say it is bad.  
Natural has to be better than fake.    Moderation is the key.  Now, if your doc says different, by all means you have to go with the doctors recommendations.  

On another note, I cut the ends off the baby romaine that is made our salad from on Oreo day and put the stub in water.    It's growing already.   I put  it in the edge of the sink and change the water when I do dishes.   A neat experiment for the children if nothing else.    You are supposed to be  able to grow another head of lettuce.    

I have got our food down to three dollars a day.   We eat well.   I have added some scratch cooking and I'm trying to regrow vegetables to see if I can get the numbers down, or at least maintain the status quo with rising prices.    We don't need to do that, it's a game.   The more things I can wrote about and see if they are workable, the more I can help someone that really needs to cut costs.  

I also have a full pantry and freezer about now,   I know that we are going to experience high utility bills and high medical bills going into fall.   I am postured to rode the storm and have a no sound month or two if we need to.    There is a certain satisfaction in knowing your bases are covered.    Just saving money isn't as good, because I get fifty to seventh eight percent on the dollar couponing and planning our food budget.    No bank is gong to give me fifty percent on my money.  



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

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. 

The reason you coupon.

A prime example of why it pays to coupon.  
Oir granddaughter  loves chicken noodle soup.    When we are having something she doesn't like, that's what she wants to eat.  

Chicken noodle soup is 1.59 at QFC this week.   It is .75 at Winco,    I have 1.20 off of four cans.  
That makes the soup. 3.00 less 1.20 or 1.80 for 4 cans .   That's instead of basically 1.60 for one can.  
Or, another way t look at it,  .45 instead of 1.59 or more than a four dollar savings.  

That, in my book is a chunk of change.  

I saved 50 percent on buy four save four at QFC.     That was almost ten bucks.   I bought broccoli, green beans, bliembinny and salsa!  

5 things not to buy

ala Pinterest.      5 things not to buy - based on quality , OMG it has what in it.. or just no bang for your buck.   Just my educated opinion.  

1. Bread crumbs.   Way too much money for dry bread that you can make from bread that you are throwing away.   
2. Southern grown chicken.    If they aren't toting where it comes  from, don't buy it.   I like grown in the PNW.   
3. Parmesean cheese in a carton.    Read the ingredients.   Some have wood pulp in them.   Cellulose is just a nasty word.   
4. Hambirger meal box. Pound for pound , it's very expensive.     At the cost of the one I bought, the sauce mix was 13.00 a pound,   Subtracting the 4 plus ounces of pasta in it.    
5. Dry soup mixes.   This is for the "and it's got what in it? Factor.    

The ads

Alberways

Apples .79



I can honestly say...that's about all. Folks.  

QFC
Pork shoulder 1.79
Grapes 1.48



Buy 4, save 4

Blue bunny 2.99
Freschetta 3.99
Salsa 1.49



Sour cream 3/5
Berries 2/5
Radishes 2/1


That's about it.  

I can't cook that recipe I don't have xxxxx.

There are zillions, no exaggeration, of recipes out there.    Everywhere you look. Facebook, web sites, even grocery ads.    A lot of them call for a box of this , or a specialty food that you don't have or that is expensive.   Don't overlook a recipe because it has an ingredient that you don't have.   That being said, it's not easy to substitute a main ingredient.    Or not, last night we had Mexican lasagna Stack.   It called for beef .  I used chicken.

I precook meat all the time to save time.   I just skip that part of a recipe.  
Some recipes call for a list of spices that are clearly Mexican or Italian.   I have already made taco seasoning and Italian seasoning and often times I substitute a long list of spices for my already made blends.    It just saves time.  

On the cheap spends more time shopping and planning than cooking.   It pays to shop wisely.    You can cook good and tasty food efficiently,

Many recipes are starting from a box or bag of something,   Usually something  that costs a lot and is full of preservatives.    If it is shelf stable, it's either canned, or has preservatives to prolong its shelf life.   Many times you can make your own mix or figure out an alternative.  

Case in point ( example).
Betty Crocker  has a recipe on lime for a new version of tuna noodle casserole.    It's probably more nutritious and  less fat laden than our old cream of mushroom soup version.   But,not calls for leek soup mix and a brand of bread crumbs.


I am going to :
1) make my own bread crumbs.   Bread crumbs can cost upwards of 2.00 a pound for someone's dry bread.   If I top a casserole., I usually add breadcrumbs with dried parsley and some parmesean cheese.    I use parmesean cheese from the deli department that I have grated or a blend of hard cheeses.    Costco has a wedge of a hard cheese for 12.00 .  Its huge. lasts forever and you can grate it with  a micro plane.    Good taste, less fat.   Don't buy that stuff in a green box.  It has wood pulp in it.  You want real cheese.



It calls for you to cook linguine and add frozen broccoli two minutes before cooking time is to end,

You cook linguine  and add broccoli during the cooking time,    I would add the broccoli and red peppers a few minutes before the cooking time was to end.   Wash the broccoli and Lenore's on vinegar water first.    I usually do that on kitchen management day,

It calls for an envelope of leek soup mix.    I will google leek soup mix and find the ingredients.  From the recipe om assuming it with milk makes a cream soup rule of "gravy" .


Leek soup mix :

Ingredients: 

Ingredients: Wheat Flour, Maltodextrin, Onion Powder (Contains Sulfites), Modified Potato Starch, Potatoes*, Salt, Hydrolyzed Corn Protein, Monosodium Glutamate, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Leek*, Whey (Milk) Guar Gum, Yeast Extract, Spices, Natural Flavors (Wheat), Turmeric, Disodium Guanylate, Disodium Inosinate. *Dehydrated. Made In A Facility That Processes Milk, Egg, Soy, Wheat, Sesame, And Sulfites.

Let's Analyze this.

Flour, onion powder. Potatoes, salt. Oil, leeks. Spices, including tumerick.
That reads-- white sauce with onion powder and salt.
My white sauce mix has cornstarch , low sodium chicken granules, and non fat dry milk.   Add onion and salt.

Or second alternative, is canola oil, flour ( roux - equal parts) and liquid of choice. Milk , non fat milk, or low sodium homemade chicken stock.  

In either case, skip the milk.

To recap :
Cook linguine in salted water adding broccoli and red pepper chopped the last few minutes of cooking time.    Drain .   Put in greased casserole dish.    Make white sauce recipe and add a can of well drained tuna .   Stir  to combine with noodles.    Add a topping of breadcrumbs and parsley and parmesean  cheese. Bake about 20 minutes  until everything is heated through.  About 350 degrees.

Five things to cook on the fly.

Ever have one of those days when everything you touch seems to disintegrate in your hands...and the last thing you want to do is to cook dinner!

Five things to get  dinner on the table  fast:

1. Baked potato bar.    Basically, potatoes bake in minutes in the microwave.   Clean out the fridge  and set out anything you can stuff a potato with-- chilli, sour cream, grated cheese, broccoli, bacon bits, ham cubes, salsa......let your imagination run wild!    I'd prolly stop at chocolate!     
2. Quesedeas, and  tomato soup.   
3. Impossible pie.   Your prep time is minutes and you can use just about anything you have in the fridge to fill it.    
4. Breakfast 4'dinner,m  eggs, toast or biscuits or English muffins and fruit.   
5. Pizza!   Frozen pizza or pizza from scratch,moralizations from a crust at the grocery store.   

Having a stock and having ore cooked meat in the freezer always helps in this situation.    

Monday meal prep day

Last night we had rice and leftover vegetable bean soup.   So, tonight we are having pork chops and
Acorn squash.

Going  over the meal plans is the first step.   It makes. I sense to me to clean the kitchen before I mess it up.

• Make a green salad.  Put a paper towel on the bottom of the container. 
•  Clean and cut veggie sticks. Having the same sides more than one day saves prep time.
• Cook from frozen the chicken breast for Mexican lasagna and BLT chicken salad sandwiches.  They will need to be eaten close to the same day.
• Cook black beans 

The rest of the work this week has to be done the day of.   We can eat chicken BLT and Mexican lasagna skipping a day for variety.    

I got veggies and fruit at Costco this weekend, so I will clean them .  

Easy day today!    

We are trying two new recipes this week.    I usually only try one every now and then.  

New recipes spice things up and help when you are cooking on the che

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a diferent 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 of snap.  My premise is that f you can do it for four dollars a day, spending more is no difficult.  

 

Meals for week of September 12

Note : We shop first, and  meal plan afterwords.   I ised to meal plan and wrote a list.   After a few oops where I went for the meat that was on sale and either there was none, or ot looked nasty, I started shopping first,   We usually have a stock of meat that I have purchased on a rotation basis.   I keep a stock of things in hand that we use on a regular basis so after meal plans, I isualky only have to pick up a few things.  

Meals

1. Vegetable bean soup , cheezy biscuits.    
2. Pizza , green salad 
3. Hot dogs. Pasta salad, celery and carrot sticks 
4. Nachos , beef. Cheese. Tomatoes. Peppers 
5. Fish packets :  lettuce, rice. Fish, green beans 
6. BLT chicken salad Sandwiches. ( for two cookbook) 
7. Mexican lasagna ( for two cookbook) 

Notes : 

1) vegetable bean soup is leftover from Saturday.    Cheezy biscuits are baking powder biscuits.   Roll into rectangle, sprinkle with cheese and herbs, and roll up jelly roll fashion,   Cut into 1 inch slices and bake as directed for biscuits.    

2) pizza crust scratch (.40) green salad.   Cut the ends off the romaine and put in water and let grow.    

     Cheese has been two dollars a pound, and less of you can stack it with a basket coupon.   Stick and freeze.   

3) Hot dogs. Pasta salad. And veggie sticks.   Suddenly salad was .85 with a coupon.   You can control the fat.    Hot dogs were 2.00 for Nathan's last week.   Bins are cheapest at Winco or you can make them yourself.   

4) nachos.  Tortilla chips are cheap at Costco.    Add salsa ( in a 1/2 gallon bottle) , cheese. Tomato and peppers.   Peppers. Docked milk are cheapest at Winco.    (.58) 

5) fish packet : layered on parchment and baked on the oven. NO dishes Yah!   

6) BLT chicken salad Sandwiches.   Recipe has roll recipe included.   Uses,chicken. Cream cheese (1.25 last week) chives and basil , lettuce, tomato amd bacon!  

7) Mexican lasagna : corn tortillas. Chicken w tomatoes, taco type seasonings, corn, black beans and,cheese.  Top with sour cream, peppers etc.    

We love Tex-mex.    I try for a matrix of protein so that we get a variety of foods.    As in anything, moderation of the key.    

I get chicken breast, bone in for a dollar a pound, Washington grown.   I de-bone them myself-- only a few minute chore and the bin is is that I get meat and stock from the leftover bones.   

Scratch cooking plain  and simple.  Not time consuming.   I don't  have the time or stamina to cook for hours.    I want  cheap, quick, scratch, and tasty....I want it all!   LOL ..and I figured out how to get it!   And, I'm sharing!     LOL.  

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a diferent 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 more is not hard!   

the jury is still out. ....

A woman on a u tube ( Living on a dime ) interviewed a medical doctor that had worked for the EPA and was very knowledgable about nutrition,

Some high points that I found more than interesting,  

1. There is absolutely no nutritional difference between organic and regular grown food. 
2. Organic food is grown in POOP. 
3. There is a 7 times more chance that your food is contaminated if it is organic with anything like listeria or ecoli.   
4. Non-pasteurized milk  is not healthy 
5. There is no scientific proof that GMO is bad.   That being said, he said that he would avoid it until more evidence is in .   
6. NO ONE  SHOULD  EVER BE ON A VEGAN DIET.    BUT, IF YOU CHOOSE  TO BE VEGAN , BE SURE TO TAKE SUPPLEMENTS TO REPLENTISH  THE VITAMINS YOU ARE NOT GETTING  IN YOUR DIET.  
7. IF  YOU ARE OVERWEIGHT OR DIABETIC, SKIP THE CRAZY DIETS.   JUST LOWER YOUR CONSUMPTION AND CUT OUT THE SUGAR.   AND, HONEY IS THE SAME TO YOUR BODY  AS SUGAR.   
8. There has been a increase of cancer in doctors and nurses.    They figure it is from  the nasty chemicals that they have to use to kill the antibiotic resistant germs in the hospitals.   
9. Buy your produce from local farmers.    Grow it yourself if possible.    
10. Organic growers can not produce enough food to sustain all of us.    Pests can wipe out  an entire crop.   
11. Organic foods do have pesticides sprayed on them.  they are safer and weaker, amd so the farmers have to spray seven times.   The regular farmers spray two times, but with stronger   pesticides.    

Do your own research.    Believe accredited people that have studied what they are talking about,   

The bottom line for me is I grew up with regular food, and canned food.   My parents died from things other than getting cancer from what they ate.  We never were allowed to eat the house , so to speak,   None of us was obese.  

I, personally, do not think that organic at four times the price of regular food is warranted.  The nutrition  is the same and the cleanliness vs pesticides is a crapshoot.    

Tomorrows Freddies ad

Fred Meyers 94 year sale

Fuji or gala apples .88

Tillamook cheese 4.99

Peppers .88

Tillamook yogurt 3/1.00

10 percent ground beef 3.99

Berries 2/4

Broccoli or cauli.  .88

Heritage farm chicken breast 1.69
HERITAGE FARM IS TYSON

Cantaloupe 2/4

That's about it.  

What qualifies you to write this penny pinching blog?

When I was 19  and very naive, I moved out from my parents home,    I took very few pieces of furniture and rented a second floor walk up studio apartment.  It had a living/ bedroom and a kitchen with a small table and chairs and a small bathroom.   A very small bathroom.    If you wanted to close the door, you had to stand in the shower.   The toilet was across from the wash basin.    You could actually save time and wash your hands while using the toilet.    LOL.   Remarkably, the toilet didn't flush . But, that was alright, because the kitchen sink leaked and I could rush home from work every night and use the bucket under the sink to flush the toilet.    The only window that wasn't nailed shut was the kitchen window.    Unfortunately, the garbage Shute  was just outside the window, so if you opened the window, the kitchen was swarming  with flies.

You got your workout coming home from work. Knocking your elbow on the wall with the light switch to turn the light  on and rushing  to put your purse  down to get the bucket from under the sink before you got to wash the kitchen floor too.    I swear, I had the cleanest  the kitchen floor in the city.

I got up every Saturday morning to take my clothes to the laundromat.    I was woke up from the printing company downstairs that would turn the presses on and besides the noise, the sofa bed would rock!  

The stove had one knob on a burner that was the "fast" burner- it only  cooked in high heat.    The oven didn't work either.  

I had rented the apartment  on the first of the month,    I went and bought a cake mix on sale  and a couple of other things, naturally, on sale too that left me broke.    I had not calculated that payday wasn't going to happen  until Monday,    I had no money left.   I tried to cook a cake mix with water on the stove.   How many ways can I spell  DISASTER.   I ate  crackers the rest of the weekend.

My visiting aunt tried to offer me a loan.  My mother told her,not to give me any money.   If I was SMART enough to move out, I could be SMART enough to solve my own problems. I did.   I started saving money every month and stocking food.   I was never going to be that destitute again.

Now, the apartment was cheap!   Like 40.00 a month.  It had a wonderful sound view. There were two really cute boys living next door.   The lack of some  utilities after a few months got to me.  And, numerous  calls to the landlord went unanswered.   I moved out.

 I found a nice 1 bedroom apartment closer to work that had been built as a motel for the 1964 Workd's Fair. It  was about three years old.   The window worked.  The neighbors were wonderful.  I'm spite of the fact that I had  no phone, no tv amd no pillow,  I was comfortable.   There was a community vacuume cleaner and the free washers and dryers were across the courtyard and down the stairs.  

In spite of the fact that money was tight, I ate well and stocked food.    Rent took one paycheck and a car payment and utilities took part of the other.   I still managed to save enough for college tuition.    Eventually, I even got a pillow .  

Life's lessons.    Sometimes hard, shape the person we develop into.

I stock.  I stocked long before the hoarder show.   Stocking is just smart.  I still love the quote from the Today show.   If you don't understand , you ain't ever been broke enough.

  I, personally, don't understand the attitude that if you have two tubes of toothpaste in your cupboard, you are a hoarder.

I'm not going to buy 1 tube of toothpaste when I can get two tubes of toothpaste for the same price.  
When we lived eight miles from the nearest grocery store, it didn't  make sense to have to run to the
store for a tube of toothpaste because you were out.  

Our experiences shape our personality and our attitudes.   We can embrace our experiences and learn from them, or we can feel sorry for ourselves.    I choose to embrace what I learned, and try to help others that are in the same position that I was once in.    That's making a positive out of a negative. There were several times in my life where it was sink or swim.   I chose to swim even if it was upstream.   LOL.

5 things to DIY in the kitchen

five things that will save you tons to DIY and not take a lot of time either.  

1. Bread crumbs.   By far the cheapest thing to make.     Bread crumbs are upwards of 2.40 a pound some places.    It's no more than dry bread.   The heels of your bread loaf, or that leftover bread that has gone stale,   Just dry and grate with a box grater or put  through the food processor.    
2. On the same note, croutons.   A small bag is at least a dollar  and sometomes more.    Just cut bread into cubes, toss in so,emolovemoil and herbs and bake in a slow oven until crisp.    
3. Pizza dough.    It's 1.50 for a raw dough in the deli.    More for a simple take  n bake.   The cost of a pizza dough is a about .40.    Just minutes to mix and let stand 10 minutes.   
4. Cream sauce mix.   Less sodium and fat than a can of cream of xx soup and a lot cheaper than the 1.59 it cost.    
5. Hambirger meal box,    Basically it is a small amount of pasta and a dry sauce mix,   You add most of the nutrition,   It's just as fast and more nutritious to make it from scratch.   Pronto pasta is .75 a box-- and has at least three times more pasta as the box of hambirger meal box I looked at.   

Frugal or cheap.

Groceries on the cheap has nothing to do with poor quality food.    Cheap has to do with buying your food at less than what my mother always called top dollar.   

I thing it interesting that there is a lot of people that call themselves frugal, because it sounds better and their frugal is in the eyes of the beholder.    Three dollars for 12 ounces of broccoli is not frugal.    That's four dollars a pound!    Broccoli is a dollar a pound all the time.   Just how much are you spending because you can't cut up a broccoli into heads.    It can't take ten minutes to wash and chop a head of broccoli.    The stems can be cooked into cream of broccoli soup.   

Shop with dollar figures in your head.   Stick as close to the dollar figures as possible .  In the 80s my figure for fresh produce was .39.    The. It went to .69.   Now it's a dollar,   Find the lowest price for veggies and fruit that look decent,   If it doesn't look decent, I don't buy it.    If it's too expensive, I skip it and we eat something else.  

Having a breaking off point, keeps you from over spending your budget.    Yes, it limits your foods, especially on the winter where we are more likely to buy frizen or canned. Bit we still have a good variety of foods on the spring  and summer: berries, blueberries, apples, peaches, grapes, cantaloupe. Oranges, carrots, celery, potatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes. Lettuce, radishes.  

Our go to cost for protein  is two dollars.   Here is where averaging comes into the mix.   Beans and rice and eggs are really cheap.   I get Washington grown chicken and pork loins for under a dollar and two dollars all the time.   Eating beef once a week can be afforded at four dollars a pound for good hamburger when you average.   So far, I have been able to keep shredded cheese at about two dollars a pound .  

Buying rice and beans in bulk amounts helps.    Buying quanity he,so soften the blow when prices go up.    Seems like prices always go up, amd seldom go down.   When they go up, just buy less or try to go without that particular product and substitute something else,    That's almost impossible with the main core if your diet, but you can cut back on your consumption  and pick other things that are less expensive.   In the 70's when coffee too a huge hike because of a shortage, we drunk tea and bought coffee with hickory added.    What's the line from the movie something like, tastes like ;););) , but you can eat it!    Or something like that!  

We are a nation of mothers that have always been able to roll with the punches,    Our grandmothers or great grandmothers did it during the Great Depression, the Great Recession and the World War II.    We all survived.   We have a lot more access to information and ideas than they had.   We have the www. That is full of recipes, ideas and goggle that can answer any question we may have.  On a few key strokes we know what the substitution for something we don't have or the carb count in a particular item.   Our grandmothers and great grandmothers would have never dreamed of the technology we have today.    I can remember when the idea of a automatic dishwasher was the brunt of a joke on a sitcom.    Like that was ever going to happen!  

Good food cheap, not cheap food.  
Four  plus one is five.    Four people, one meal. Five bucks
Better, cheaper faster.  
More time shopping and planning and less time cooking.


Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a diferent 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 More is not difficult.   

Alberways, finally

Finally got tuesdays ads  on Thursday.    And the rest of our mail is somewhere!     Not here!  
At Safeways,
My just 4 you does have a five off of thirty dollar basket coupon.   But, the rest is history as they say,

Gala apples .99
Lettuce .99
Pork loin, sliced 1.79.
Milk 1.99@@
Extra lean ground beef 3.99@@



B5S5

Kellogg's cereals 1.99 $$
Kens salad dressing 1.49$$
Maxwell house coffee 6.99$$


$$ denotes that there are coupons out there.  Conceptually, you could make five save five , coupons and a basket coupon work for you,  
 A lot of what is on the  B5S5 sale is junk and specialty things.   Safeways takes coupons off first,
then the basket coupon.  

There are dollar off coupons for the coffee.    Making two coffee 11.98 leaving 18.02 to spend.

3 Kellogg's cereals are 1.99 each or 6.97. Less a dollar coupon is 5.97.   Leaving  12.05

2 kens salad dressings @ 149 or 2.98 less 1.00 coupon is 1.98 leaving 10.07

3 Classico pasta sauce at 179. Is 5.37. Leaving 4.37

1 milk 199@@ leaves 2.38.

Fill in  with three pounds of apples.    297

COP.  25.59

Savings close to a twenty dollar bill.


Just a senecio. For an example.



Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a diferent 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

Bread

Bread, they say, is the staff if life,    It is also, expensive  compared to the actual cost of making it. 

Flour when bought in bulk is .15 a cup.    Yeast is inexpensive in bulk at Costco, or you can get it for pennies in the bulk isle at Winco or a store that carries bulk.  Most bread is flour, salt, water, yeast and sometimes olive oil.  Pretty cheap.   Pizza crust is about .40.   ( when I price things, I don't include staples that are less than  two tablespoons.   It's too much work for what it is worth.  )

With the invent of machines and techniques, it doesn't have to be time consuming.    You do have to be home.  But, you can start bread, and go about laundry and house or yard work and come back to another step.  

I used to make a pizza dough in the food processor years ago.    It made a thick crust.   We cooked it partially and then filled it.  The Internet is full of recipes.   We picked one that is super easy and uses the food processor.   You can a,so make bread sticks from the same dough.

Making bread is pretty easy,   I used to be intimidated by anything with yeast.    New easy recipes make it easy.   Bread machines are really cheap at thrift stores these days. The good news is that it tastes sooo yummy right out of the baker or oven.  The bad news is it has no preservatives and goes stale fast.  In our house or doesn't last that long and we can make bread crumbs.  

Bakery items are pricey and you cannot control the ingredients.  They can be time consuming.   I think that's why my mother taught us at an early age, ( 9 yo) to bake.   We had a small list of recipes from the old Betty Crocker cookbook that we used to make on a regular basis.  They called for basic ingredients that mom always had on hand.    Now I would have to find substitutes for the shortening or margarine.   I tend to make apple crisp or brownies.  

A cup of flour has 96 grams of carbs.


Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a diferent 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

Thursday, still no ads

Thursday, still no ads.    You gotta love holiday weekends.    We changed up the meal plan yesterday because I found ground chicken on sale for a dollar.    I was always afraid  of cooking ground chicken because what I had purchased  before was really fine grained and hard to cook without it looking mushy.  This looked more like ground beef, so I,thought I did t have a lot to loose, of try it.    I fried it and used a lot of my homemade taco seasoning,    I saw no fat  being rendered.  I had come across a cowboy spaghetti pie recipe when I was filing recipes, so I opted to,change from shepherds pie to spaghetti pie.    It was alright, I would add a little more liquid if I were to do it again.   I used a can of diced tomatoes with jalapeños instead of adding jalapeños.   Buying tomatoes  with seasoning added is a good way to save money too.  Not much, but it keeps you in the thought process.  

Saving money is a thought process.  Watching forming that you can make dinner with that are on sale is just a habit.   Once you have the habit, it's just second nature-   Like brushing your teeth every morning.    It's a mindset.    It's easier to save money than it is to make it.   Consider it a challenge-- a game.    How cheap can I find good food and make a dinner out of it.    

Cheap food doesn't mean you have to settle for HFCS or saturated fat, or hydrogenated oils-- you can avoid those things and still get good food cheap.    I don't think itmosmoossiblemon a budget to eliminate all the things people have decided  are bad for you, but you can eliminate or drasticlh reduce your consumption of those things.   

We ate regular food for years.   I never heard of anyone growing up being lactose intolerant, or gluten intolerant; so, what happened?    We never heard the words vegan or vegetarian.   We Jane state and considered ourselves lucky we had food on the table.   My mother cooked clean and simple.    My dad wouldn't allow is to have junk food.   No kool aid, pop, sugary cold cereal, Popsicles, marshmallows were a rare treat.    We got them in our sweet potatoes in thanksgiving.   We could have cornflakes or wheat puffs from a bag in the summer sometimes.     She didn't believe in taking meds, so we just suffered through.  Even my asthma wasn't treated until I got to a life threatening episode.  ots hard for me to understand people going on special diets without their doctors telling them it is necessary for their health.    I get the low salt, sugar and saturated fat and hydrogenated oils.   I'm a diabetic from meds I took for asthma.   I eat a special diet. I just don't scream it.  I don't expect anyone to cook special for me.   I just eat what I can eat.  Just old  fashioned   I guess.   Fad diets are like fad clothes. Only fad diets can kill.    There is some theories out there that when we went to not feeding children anything but milk for the first year of their life , that the children developed an intolerance for some foods.    I didn't do that for the kids growing up.  They got cereal and fruits one week at a time so I knew if they had a reaction, what was the cause of the reaction. Neither of the children have a adverse reaction to food.    Eat balanced. Eat in moderation.  Eat a variety of foods.   

Off the soap box.    

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a diferent perspective.

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 more is not hard.   

   

Dinners

Cowboy spaghetti - ground chicken  total cost - 4 servings 2.00

Stir fry chicken 1.83

Hot dogs, French fries, fruit salad hot dogs 2.00 for Nathan's,    Used 1/2 .   3.00 for 3 of is.   

White fish, mixed vegetables, Spanish rice 240 for two of us. 

The left overs from sausage and roasted root veggies 

Sausage was a dollar and we used 1/2 .   Add potatoes, cauliflower, amd radishes.   I forgot to take a pic, so what's there was the leftovers the next day.   The pic doesn't do it justice.   

Dinners

Cowboy spaghetti

Stir fry chicken 

Hot dogs, French fries, fruit salad 

White fish, mixed vegetables, Spanish rice 

The left overs from sausage and roasted root veggies 

5 ways to help the less fortunate without spending a dime.

Even if you don't have a lot of money to gove, there are ways to help others on slim budgets without spending money,

1. A random act of kindness.- handing someone a coupon for something in their cart. 
2. Sharing coupon inserts you arcan not going to use 
3. Getting free deodorant and toothpaste with coupons and taking it to the food bank or a women's shelter.  
4. Our Kroger stores are giving meals to the needy with every flu shot.   Many of is don't have g pay for our flu shots making it a no brainer to help a hungry person.   
5. Pass in this blog address : know,edge is power.    

QFC haul - 54 %

QFC haul - it's always good if you save more than you spend.   The goal is 1/2 price.  That means that you need some bigger savings to even out for the things there isn't a good sale on often.  

QFC - .99 sale in lots of three.

2 raspberries at 2.00

2 cream cheese at 1.25

6 grated cheese, asst, at .99

3 - 4 pound sugars at .99

1 bag lemons 4.99

1 acorn  and 1 butternut squash at .99 a pound

2 packages of ground chicken on managers soecial for .99.

I would have bought eggs and milk, but they were the same price at Freddies and I bought them Sunday.

Our rotation protein this week was eggs and cheese.  Last week it was beans.
The chicken bin  is depleating , I'll look for a good sale soon.  

We have been fortunate .  But, I have heard stories recently of people that , like many, love from paycheck to paycheck.   One disastrous event can set you back and  leave you with little to spend on food.   Maintaining a stock of food can bridge the gap until budgets even out.   Spending 1/2 on your food, give you the luxury of having a stockpile and knowing you, when everything else can fall apart, will always have food.  You are getting 50-75 percent on your money,    No bank will ever give you that percentage .

No ads yet

I haven't seen the ads yet.   I did glance at QFC s ads and found good prices for eggs, sugar, and some other dairy.  .    Back when I get the ads.    Safeways just 4 you ( at least mine) has 5 dollars off thirty.   Not a huge percentage off.   I haven't seen the ad, so I don't know what the prices are - the ones on just 4 you are quite comical.   Like I am supposed to believe that twice the RBP is a good deal they are giving me.  Maybe the prices are based in the total money spent there.    That would explain it, because I haven't seen many good prices since Haggen took over and it was sold back to Albertsons.

Fred Meyers and Winco seem to be the best prices lately.   My rotation last week was cheese.  

QFC

Dollar sale

Cheese
Sugar
Cheese
Milk
Eggs - 18.  
MUST BUY 3 - well duh!    


Squash
Barilla -$$

Yoplait 10/5 - $$
Berries 2/4
Cream cheese 2/5

That's the gist of the special prices.  

I'm  going from the ad on line.  It's hard to read in a reader.    I,mstockimg cheese when it's cheap.   I suspect it won't be because if the buyout.    The way it is in sake, I'm suspecting the bags will get you smaller and the price will get larger.    Just a guess, time will tell.   Stocking will soften the blow.  Grated cheese freezes well.  

I got sausage for a dollar last week, it is three dollars this week.   That's what sticking a little will do for  you.  On a tight budget, two dollars is a lot and  they all add up.    I won't drove across town for 8 cents.... But picking the best store to shop at based on prices that week is a key factor in eating well
for less.  

Last night we had pizza.   I made the crust early in the day and put  it in the refrigerator.    It's about five minutes non-passive time and another ten in a oiled, covered bowl on the counter.   Then put it in a zip lock and refrigerate.    Take it out an hour or so before dinner and roll and fill.   A vegan pizza costs ten dollars and u bake.    A pizza crust costs about .40.  Flour, salt, yeast, water and oil.   You can buy yeast in the bulk section at Winco.  I buy it at at Costco and store in an airtight container.  

My daughter added onions, fire roasted tomatoes ( .50). and  black olives (.25) and sauce (.10) total 1.25.   She has tomato sauce, onions, and black olives left for a pasta dish tonight.   A 8.75 savings.  
I can make four dinners or more with ten dollars - not one pizza with no cheese and no meat.  

One way to do it.

Lost, overwhelmed..  You have a hundred dollars a month for food and incidentals.    How do you start.  

Buy basics you can do a lot with.  Buy bulk of those things.  Ifmyoumdimt have enough money for everything bulk in one month, buy one thing bulk, fill  in with a smaller amount of the rest.

• Rice at Costco - 25 pounds is about 8.00
• Beans - they are a dollar for 1.5 pounds at the dollar tree.   
• Cheese.  As expensive as you can find,  buy a Mexican blend to go with everything.    
• Eggs, a whole , Cheap protein that is recommended for your RDA of protein.   
• 2 nice fat chickens.    
• Oatmeal.   It's 7.99 at Costco for ten pounds.       It's a dollar a pound at the dollar tree for a finer grained oatmeal.  Another healthy cheap source of good nutrition.  
• Flour and bulk yeast.    Our Winco has a bulk isle and you can buy it by the ounce if you,need to.    

You can make a multitude of things from these basics.    Take fifty dollars and do your best to get as much of these in bulk.   Take the rest and buy dairy, produce, and canned tomatoes to fill in,  meal plan,   Stair step .   Make small batches of beans and rice so they don't go bad before you eat them up.    

One cup of beans makes three cups.    In bulk, a serving of rice is three cents a serving of beans is four cents.  (1/2 cup at this time) prices fluctuate.   

Scratch cook.    There are recipes in the Internet and on Pinterest for almost everything,   Take easy ones.    

One fat chicken can make 8 meals for two people.    The RDA for protein is 6 ounces a day and that should include eggs.    

• Breakfast : eggs, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, breakfast burrito. 
• Lunch - leftovers or homemade soup.  Bread 
• Dinner : bean and cheese burritos, chicken soup, chicken casserole with rice or homemade noodles., impossible pie, stirfry, chilli, pizza, sliced chicken breast with rice and veggies. to name  a few . 

By purchasing bulk , even if you have to rotate the bulk per month, you,can stretch your dollars and maybe fill in other meats other months.   Chicken, sausage,  pasta ( I pay less than a dollar - use coupons ) get pasta with extra fiber or veggies of possible .   

Buy fruit and veggies in season.   Don't hesitate to return that bag of potatoes that goes bad in two days.    

• .    

My budget fell apart.- now what do I do ?

Answer to my budget fell apart, now what do I do!

• Don't be afraid to ask for help.   Some cities have a number where you can call for referrals.   
• Coupons are free and you can get them, from friends or neighbors or the recycle bin.   Some come in the mail. With  coupons, you can  get personal  products for free or nearly free.   You do have to pay the applicable sales tax .  
• Food can be greatly reduced with coupons too.   Look for sales. Go  to more than one grocery store.    Look in the bins where they keep managers specials..   Don't overbuy and eat it immediately-- like that day or cook it and freeze it,   
• Rice and beans are a good and can be bought in bulk cheap.   Rice is .03 a serving: beans are four.   
• Soups  are a good way to stretch and feed you for many meals.   
• Overstock grocery stores sometimes are resources for inexpensive  food.   Some is near pull date, but still good.  Use it soon.   
• Scratch cook.   Don't be afraid to De-bone  chicken, or chop meat, or make bread.   There are recipes for ez breads out there.    
• Pinterest is full of recipes and ideas for cheap meals.  
• Know your prices and only buy things that are the cheapest price they can be.   
• Eat foods high in protein and high in fiber for breakfast,  you will stay fuller, longer- like an egg and a bowl of oatmeal.   
• Sign  up for all the grocery stores rewards cards.  Sometimes  they offer free food or basket 
• coupons. 
• Buy the basics first--things  you can make a multitude of meals from -- flour, beans, rice, eggs, cheese. Oatmeal, a couple of chickens on sale.    Add diced  tomatoes and dairy and vegetables as you go.      
• Use Ibotta to get rebates from things you buy.   There are several companies that will give you rebates and you can use more than one.   That would pay for things like socks , personal products , etc.  
• get down to no frills basics.   

Hope this helps !    

• 
  

Dinner , yes chicken dinner.

We had stir fry chicken dinner.   I cooked a pound if chicken breast that Had de-boned  and purchased for a less than a dollar a pound,    I added frozen stir fry veggies that were .66 at QFC and a package of top ramen that I got for .17,   Two of us ate and there is still, enough for two more meals.    1.84 .  

Lunch was a California flat bread pizza that we got for free from QFC.

Chicken stir fry - 1.83 for the pam

Free lunch!   

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.   

Next weeks meal plans,

Meal  plans are done.    The RDA for protein is 6 ounces, part if which should be eggs.   Meal plans are listed ,but not always eaten in the order listed.    Most generally I use a protein based matrix so that we  eat a varied diet.

1. Breakfast 4 dinner 
2. Pizza    - homemade crust. 
3. Mac and cheese ( homemade) peas and carrots - Barilla pasta is .75with coupons 
4. Stir fry chicken with noodles 
5. Shepard's pie.    
6. Tuna casserole, peas -
7. Sausage and sauerkraut.   Rolls 

Notes 

1) eggs continue to be inexpensive so far.   Keeping a small amount ahead will at least soften the blow when the effects of the buyout may hit.   I found a waffle recipe that uses a cake mix.   We have cake mixes I got on sale.    Orange juice is a dollar at Freddies this week.    

2) Homemade pizza crust is .30 and really easy.   My recipe calls for loading flour, yeast and salt into the food processor, blending for a few seconds, pouring warm water and olive oil into the flour mixture while the processor is working until the mixture forms a ball.  That's it,   Take it out and knead it a couple of times in a floured board or counter, and place in a oiled bowl for ten minutes.    You're ready to roll.    Motts is two dollars a pound at Costco.  Pepperoni is .50 (instead of 3.00) for the same brand at the tree with coupons.   

  It is a misconception that it saves money to grate your own cheese.  Check the prices.    The bigger the sack the lower the price not necessarily true either,   Cheese is .99 for 8 ounces this week at Freddies.   Some packages are six ounces, watch the packages.  Base your purchases on price per pound.   A pound of cheese is a pound of cheese, whatever shape it's in.   We toured the Tillamook factory.   They make big blocks of cheese.   Then they put it in a machine and use what looks like a giant cheese slicer- with metal strings and cut it into the two pound bricks.   Whatever is left over they put into a big bus- boy tray and send to be grated.    

3) Mac and cheese is homemade.  Cheese is another thing to stock while the prices are low.    Grated cheese freezes well and I'm doing a WAG that the buyout will result in higher prices.   I got Barilla pasta for .75 each at the tree with a coupon.    I make a white sauce myself from a homemade mix that has low sodium chicken stock and non fat dry milk.    You can also make it scratch with a mixture of butter and olive oil, flour, and chicken stock and milk to make it more healthy.    Pasta is 1.59 at QFC. Seventy-five cents is less than 1/2 price.    

4) chicken stir fry.   I de-boned my chicken breasts and freeze them individually pin quart bags and then multiples in a gallon bag. a chicken breast cooked in a pressure cooker in 8 minutes.    Stir fry veggies were 66 at QFC a few weeks ago.    Ramen noodles are cheapest at Winco - (.17)  I don't use the flavor packet that is full of salt.    

5) Shepherds Pie - I've never made it, but I see a recipe and I have already cooked hamburger and instant mashed potatoes.    Flavored instant mashed potatoes are a good go to and are cheapest at

Winco.   

6) Tuna  casserole.   I always buy my tuna at Costco.   It's not cheap, but well worth the splurge.    Again homemade white sauce and I add some kind of a green vegetable.   I was in the hospital one time when the children were young,  my husband called me to ask how to make tuna casserole.   I told him to boil the noodles, use cream of mushroom soup, and add drained tuna and something green ( like peas or peas  and carrots ).  Hating green veggies, he took green to be chopped pickles! Lol 

7) Sausage  and sauerkraut.  Sauerkraut in glass jars are cheap at Winco.   I drain and rinse and add apple to cut the acidity.    The sausage was a dollar at QFC with a coupon and the buy 5, save 5.   Not everything in the ad was a good buy, a lot of it was junk food.    But, I used coupons and bought cereal    For a charity .    You could stock cereal of your family ate cold cereal.   We tend to eat oatmeal-- even grandchild.    

Knowing your prices and buying accordingly is the best way to cut your food bill.  You can eat well on four dollars or less.   This week, I must have been in a comfort food mood.    Looking at the plan in retrospect.    I tend to use the tried and true and make it with less fat, sugar, and salt and avoid hydrogenated oils.   

Anything you want  to eat, someone will tell you it's bad for you.  Of you eat too much kale , you can get lead poisoning.

No food will do your family good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.

You eat first with your eyes.  Some of the "healthy " foods honestly, look like someone has already eaten them or like dog poop.    My take is to eat the tried and true.   Just eat moderation and make it as healthy as possible , reducing fat, salt, sugar and hydrogenated oils. It he,so to make as much as possible from scratch.   Grandmas cooking with bacon drippings. Shortening and mass sugar was not healthy.   You can still find that cooking in u tube.   It is possible to cook tasty regular food more healthy and not spend the entire day in the kitchen.   Our grandmothers didn't have a lot of outside activities. They had small houses so there wasn't a lot to clean.  They didn't work outside the home.   They cooked.  all day.  Our lifestyle is not conducive of that.  We do have tools these days to make the job of scratch cooking easier.    And, we can rethink retro recipes to make them tasty and more healthy.    



Better, cheaper, faster 
Four plus one is five : Four people. One meal, Five  bucks.    

Dinner

White fish , mixed veggies and Spanish rice.    

Freddies tomorrow ad

Unlike last week, this Sunday ad is good.

Sunday and Monday only 

Nathan's hot dogs ( note both Nathan's and nneed national have less garbage in them.  Hebrew national has soy based product and Nathan's has corn.   Nathan's is the best of the two evils.    
2/4
Another nite, they  get you with the buns.   Winco is the cheapest on buns, or you can make them pigs in blankets.   

Corn on cob 3/1 

Watermelon 3.99

Some will say all of this isn't good for you.   Perhaps only for picnic holiday and then back to a better diet.   

Regular ad.   

18  eggs .99
Kroger shredded cheese .99 - watch and get the 8 ounce bags!
Milk .99
Yoplait yogurt 10/5 - note there are coupons for another .20 off each
Vegetables, tomatoes,means 2/1 limit 6@@
Sour cream/'cottage cheese .99@@
La croix  water 2/5@@
Foster farms chicken, while or parts .87

My rotation protein would be eggs and beans.   Pinto beans are .75 lb in a four pound bag at grocery outlet.    They are .67 a pound in a 1.5 pound bag at the dollar tree.   Seems Kroger has all but quit carrying them, amd they are a much higher price at Winco, I'm seeing what seems to be a trend and I would be stocking some.

Eggs are one of the USDA bailouts.   18 count per dollar at Fred Meyer is probably the lowest you are going  to see .   Breakfast for dinner is a good alternative.  

Ditto cheese at .99 a half pound,    Cheese freezes.   That is less than two dollars a pound.    I would buy the six limit and freeze.

Dinner - well kinda

What's left of dinner.    I forgot to take the picture before we ate.   LOL.  

We had potatoes,radishes, and cauliflower roasted with sausage.   

2.25 fed four of us,    

Book and sea salt

Testing new pic program.   

Book with many ide as at the dollar tree.   

Also Himalayan sea salt  in a bigger grinder than Costco's at dollar tree.   

Reading the book, I am seeing many recipes that, indeed can be made for five dollars or less.   There seem however, some that cannot.  I think some can be adapted to make them a five dollar or less dinner.   Phyllo dough is too expensive to make a dinner with it and still keep the cost down,   A pie crust recipe should, however, do the trick.    

Rice, brown rice,beans, cheese, hamburger occasionally, chicken, pork, ham cubes, eggs, all sources of protein and  are inexpensive at this point in time.  

Fill in with vegetables in season amd dairy.   

Cooking vegetarian a couple times a week will reduce your average meal cost.   

Book and sea salt

Testing new pic program.   

Book with many ide as at the dollar tree.   

Also Himalayan sea salt  in a bigger grinder than Costco's at dollar tree.   

Hauls......groceries for the week are done.

We had to go to town on another errand or two.  Grandpas flip phone needed a decent funeral.    It just died.   Anyway, we went to dollar tree and grocery outlet.  

At dollar tree I got

•  15 pounds of pinto beans 
• Brown n serve bread.   
• 4 Barilla pasta : paid for three using a dollar off coupon.    (.75) 
• Delicious five dollar dinners book.   

 Total on food 5.00

At grocery outlet I got 

• 4 pounds of pinto beans 2.99
• 2 sugar free cake mixes.    

Total spend 5.00

Total for the week 31.69

Winco haul

Since Winco has no ads, you just have to go and know your prices.  

Eggs, 18 count 1.44.      18 eggs were less than 1.5 times the cost of a dozen.    Since I suspect the cost of eggs to go up, at least maybe I can suspend the sticker shock a little of o keep a supply.  

Green grapes,.99.   They looked really bog and fresh,  

Gala apples.  .99.  Some of,the, had pimctire spots . You have to pick  through.

Whole wheat bread 1.60

Winco green chilies - mild.   .58 - far cheaper than any other store.  - like about a dollar .

Diced tomatoes - .58.   I'd rather lay fifty cents, but far cheaper than 1.59.  After cleaning the pantry, I discovered we were running short.    I rearranged the pantry and made room for more on the shelf and purged some of the beans.

Bottle of lemon juice - 2.14. - by far the cheapest way to get lemon juice.   Lemons are expensive and don't look that great.  

Winco coffee - 5.48 - cheapest price around.   We are not coffee snobs, as you can tell.  

Chicken noodle soup. .75.  Less coupons for .40 off three.  

Credit for bags .18.  

Total 21.6

Cantaloupe continues to be cheap by the pound.
Steak was also very reasonable.  
Sour cream and cottage cheese were pennies different than Fred Meyer sale price .
Canned veggies were 58

On another note. I took some inventory and cleaned the pantry.  Thing were just put in there and I like things in  the pantry and fridge grouped together.    It keeps you from thinking you are out of something and then finding another one in the back corner.    

It told me we have plenty of whole black olives, and not enough of tomatoes.     I reduced the amount of canned beans. I am going to using dry beans since I discovered I can cook them without soaking in
the pressure cooker for as little as a cup that makes three cups.    By rearranging and organizing I got almost everything off the floor and room for canisters of dried beans.    I still want cans for emergencies and times when I don't have an hour to cook beans.    It only takes 28 minutes, but it has to have time to come to pressure, and time to release pressure.  Beans need to release on their own and not be nudged into it!  

Before the pressure cooker. I would have not cooked beans,  it is to time consuming to cook a cup of beans from scratch and we can't use a whole stock lot of beans before they go bad.    Beans and rice
have a very short fridge life.    I'm not going to compromise my family's health to save ten cents and I don't want to waste and throw out.  

A serving of rice costs .03 and a serving of beans cost .04.    I get beans at grocery outlet.    The price seems to be going up and Kroger barely carries them.    They are close to .90 at Wimco a pound and I can still get beans for 1.00 for a pound and a half.    That's down from two pounds earlier im the year.
They are cheaper at Costco in bulk but we can't use a enormous bag of beans.    I do get bulk rice at Costco. We use a lot of rice and it doesn't go bad.  

I spend average of seventy five dollars a week.    Basically for three of us,    The USDA stats for my husband and I is closer to a hundred.    That is for food eaten at home,    I spend seventy five and stock.    I do that by never paying full price for food.   In fact, I usually pay 50 percent less or more.  

We aren't on snap, but we eat for less than snap.    I, not going to tell you that I snap my fingers and food appears in the pantry, catalogued and ready to eat.    I spent  an hour yesterday printing 2 sets of coupons.  That would have been a lot less time , but my computer wouldn't cooperate, it kept hanging and Internet explorer kept quitting .    That will be about it for couponing.    I will glance at the inserts and file them.   Favado at a quick glance before shopping will tell me if there  is a coupon on something on my list.     Ibotta will tell me of something I bought has a rebate.  

I balance my time by spending  more time planning and shopping, and less time cooking,  there are many ways you can cook scratch, without standing in your feet for hours.  

If you have something you want addressed on the blog, please feel free to comment.


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 a month or 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 hard.