Buy Prices

Groceries on the cheap takes a different approach to buying your groceries.  The end result is that you always have food in the house and you are buying it most of the time at wholesale prices.   This allows us to eat well on less than four dollars a day.  We spend four dollars a day but built and maintain a stock of groceries.

Instead of going to the store and buying just what you need, and maybe forgetting to buy something, or having 50 things to oit away when you get home, you simplify things by purchasing 1) a rotation protein, 2) dairy and produce, and 3) enough of something on your stock list that is at a RBP to last you 4-6 weeks.  Example:  if you eat green beans twice a week and use 1can , you want to buy 8-12 cans.  Now, when I got green beans for .39, I bought 2 twelve can cases.   It’s nit like they aren’t going to get eaten.   Lol

Our stock  items and the RBP. Your list may very well be different, but this gives you an idea.

Rice,25 lbs , Costco 8.49
Flour , 20 lbs Costco 7.00
Oatmeal , 10 lbs , Costco 8.29
Tea bags
Corn starch
Baking powder
Powdered sugar
Dry milk
Dry buttermilk -amazon
Bisquick
Brown sugar
Cane sugar
Cake mix  1.00 as low as .88
Lemon juice
Vanilla
Mayo
Pumpkin



Salt
Vegetable stock boullion
Chicken stock boullion
Tomato stock boullion
Beef better than boullion
Soy sauce
Bbq sauce 1.00
Black olives, sliced Winco .72
Maple syrup
Instant mashed potatoes - Winco .86
Baking soda
Craisens
Chocolate chips - bulk Winco
Cocoa -baking
Milk green chillies -.winco .69
Ketchup
Mustard


Tortillas - 1.00 RBP -.50
Suddenly salad 1.00 as low as .75 w coupons
Salsa in a jar

Albacore Tuna - Costco
Canned salmon- Costco
Canned chicken -1.00 emergencies
Kidney beans
Black beans
Pinto beans - DT 1.00/1.5 lbs
Popcorn - Costco about 12.00
Pepperoni DT

Green beans - .50 as low as .39
Corn .50 as low as .39

Pasta - 1.00 or less
Noodles
Pasta sauce - 1.00 glass 1.50
Pizza sauce -DT
Taco shells -1.00
Taco kits when they are a dollar at GO
Canned diced tomatoes .50 or less


Some of these things are bought once probably a year.
Some are bought best during specific months when they go on mega sales.
Picnic supplies are best near the summer  holidays .
Baking supplies are best during the Christmas holidays - closer to thanksgiving .
Buy sugar and salt and soda in bulk when they are at a RBP.  They are versatile and never spoil.
Soda and vinegar are cheap at Costco and can be used for cleaning as well as eating,
If you are a coffee drinker, I would keep a jar of instant in the emergency space.

Friday Recipe

Beef Tortilla Taco Casserole 

Pillsbury recipe
on Pillsbury.com


We made this last night. Since the recipe serves 8 and makes an 9 X 13 pan, I cut the recipe down to work with our 6X10 pan to serve 4 instead.

Basically:

• spray your baking pan with a cooking spray 
• line the bottom of the pan with flour tortillas , cut to fit. 
• In a skillet, I placed my already cooked and de fatted ground beef, salsa, corn, taco seasoning part of a bell pepper and a little water.   
• simmer the skillet a little while to combine the flavors. 
• layer meat mixture on top of the tortillas , 
• then a layer of Mexican blend cheese ( they used Monterrey Jack blend, shredded) 
• repeat a layer of tortillas, meat mixture and cheese. 
• bake in a 350 degree oven 35 to 40 minutes or until it is bubbly around the edges and the cheese is melted.   

You can also make this a freezer meal. 

My take on freezer meals is that I have precious little freezer space and I don't want to take up space with ingredients that don't need to be frozen.   I can, however, see where if the culinary expert of the family is going to be away at dinner time, and the culinary challenged are left to dinner, it can be an asset to have a few freezer meals.  

thanks for stopping by...

Next:  Saturday Concepts:  Saving Time and Money tips 

Hauls to 9/14/18

QFC dollar sale

Kroger cinnamon rolls -2
Kroger crescent rolls -2
Smart ones dinners -4
Pumpkin pie 3.19
Donut holes -1
Cream cheese -2

Total 14.19

Dollar Tree
3 Barilla spaghetti
1 pizza sauce
1 basil pesto

5.00

Safeways
Frozen veggies 4.00
Pie crust 2.00
RIbs free

Grapes 6.43

Total 15.93

Total 31.62

Dollar Store Dinners

I have been watching a lot of videos lately on Dollar Store dinners.  The foods at the dollar store are in smaller quantities many times.  After all. How much does a dollar buy these days!   There are bargains at the dollar tree, but some are made in China, and some are more expensive than buying the product at the regular grocery store.

Now, I get it that there are some communities that only have a dollar store.  One community in Seattle , If rumors are correct will be on that position.   There are decent grocery retailers nearby, but the people without transportation will suffer.

The problem with a lot of dollar store dinners is that they are full of a lot of starch and are more expensove than if  you had made a good dinner from a grocery store,     There are some that came up with a good recipe, but many are not.  Don’t kill the messenger, they tried hard to make dinner from limited resources,

Canned vegetables are .79.   They are always .58 at winco and I have purchased them for as low as .39.  BTW, Winco canned foods have no BPA.   Many frozen foods come from China,  that being said , I have got Ore-Ida from the DT.

I found basil pesto yesterday as well as a name brand pizza sauce.   They always have the ingredients for pizza— thin and thicker individual crusts, and pepperoni.  Watch the cheese, some of it is fake.   They do have feta that is good.  They have eggs, but they are a dollar for half a dozen.

They do have :

• Pizza sauce that is a name brand cheaper than the other stores 
• Tortillas, several kinds and some without all bad fats, 
• Betty Crocker items 
• Hunts  pasta sauce , although it is cheaper at Winco . 
• Barilla spaghetti
• Sometimes  Orowheat/ Sara Lee  bread.  That is a real bargain if you can find bagels and English muffins. 
• Name brand turkey bacon, 
• Pepperoni that is s name brand , the coupons don’t  work anymore, but it is still a good bargain,. 
• Yellow rice 
• Pinto beans are the cheapest besides a 25 pound bag from Costco .   They are non gmo, and grown in the USA.   
• Taco shells 
• Betty Crocker and Other name brand cookit, brownie, and muffin mixes.    

Basically, you could make all of which are about three dollars. It’s,nitmambargsin if you are laying seven dollars for dinner at the dollar store.

1. gnocchi with pesto sauce, parmesean cheese, and chicken.  Using your chicken and parmesean. 
2. Spaghetti with pasta sauce 
3. Spaghetti with pesto and chicken and parm, 
4. Tuna casserole.
5. Pizza
6. Chilli and taco chips 
7. Beans and cornbread 
8. Spanish rice and beans 
9. Pizza dip with crust 
10. Artichoke spinach pasta. 

 Not. Eeuthing at the dollar tree is the best quality. Not all of it is made in China.   But, if you pick your foods carefully. You can stretch your food dollar.   

Chain store ads start wednesday

QFC (Kroger)

80/20 hamburger 3.49
Kroger smoked sausage 2/5
Eggs .96
Barilla pasta 1.00

Alberways

Fab 4 ( buy 4)

Lean cuisine entrieu”s 1.88
Progresso soup .99
Prego 1.99
Signature jam 1.99
Campbell’s chunky soup 1.49

Cucumbers, green peppers .79
80/20 hamburger 3.49
Refried beans 1.00
Pears, oranges, apples .99


Fred Meyers

All below .96
Eggs
Peppers
Grapes
Cream cheese
Sour cream
Cottage cheese
Crescent rolls
Hawaiian rolls
Brown and serve sausage
Barilla pasta

*********

Cheese 2 lbs 4.99
Butter 2/5
Strawberries 3.96
Pork loin whole or half BOGO .  Caveat we don’t know what the retail price is.
My buy price is between a dollar and 1.69.

Special
6 quart insta pot is 79.99 and there is a 10 dollar gift card with an in store coupon.
Making it 69.99.

How did she do that -:scratch cooking

When we were growing up, my mother cooked braised beef on mashed potatoes or noodles.   It was years later that I connected the dots and realized that braised beef  meant that the beef was braised!!  The term braised means that a tougher cut if meat is cooked slowly until it is fork tender.

This is for things like a stew meat or pot roast.   The technology would be the same for a pork cut or game.

The technique :

Brown your meat in a little oil in a Heavy pan with sides.   When the meat is brown, add stock  and stir the brown bits from the bottom of the pan and make sure you have enough liquid to cover the meat and a couple of inches.  Turn the pot down to a slow simmer and let cook until meat is tender,   The time will depend in the size of your meat,   Cubes will take a shorter time than a pot roast.

Another way to cook a pot roast is to put it in a roasting pan after browning, pour a beer over the top of it . Put the kid on the pan and bake the roast for 4-6 hours on 250 or closer to 4 hours on 325.

These days, I cook stew type meat in the insta pot.  Turn the pot on sauté, add oil and brown the meat,
Turn off the pot, add stock, potatoes that have been washed, peeled and cut in medium chunks, and peeled carrots.  You can also add mushrooms that have been washed and or celery.

Cover the pot and process for 35 minutes.   When it is done, turn the insta pot off, remove the stew with a slotted spoon leaving the stock.   Mix a slurry  of flour or cornstarch  and water , turn the sauté function on and stir the slurry into the stock until you have gravy.

Remember you must always have liquid in the insta pot .  At least a cup.   I do see some recipes  that call for less, but I wouldn’t try less without a specific  recipe,  it is usually because what you are cooking will  quickly release liquid of it’s own.  Never cook in the insta pot with flour when you are using a pressure setting.   Also, it’s not a good idea to make split pea soup on the pressure cooker setting.  You can use the slow cooker setting.  Ask me how I know......my husband and I were cleaning the pot for an hour,  lol

When we were children, my mother used to dredge the stew meat in flour, brown it in oil im a heavy sauce pan  over a medium heat.  Then she would add water enough to cover the meat, turn it down to low and let it simmer for a couple of hours.  she checked it a few times to be sure it didn’t need more water. This technique makes it’s own  gravy.  Meanwhile you can make rice, mashed potatoes, or noodles for a base.

We use cubes if pork from the end of a pork loin when I cut up a pork loin.   Buying a pork loin on sale and cutting roasts, chops and stew meat or stir fry meat is the most economical way to have pork.  Sometimes it is a  dollar a pound.  The buy price is less than two, preferable less than 1.69. Business Costco is a good source for that.

Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen management is a tool to save time and money in the kitchen.   Spending an hour or so up front saves a lot of time in the hectic dinner hour.   It also saves time because you are making things in batches and your clean up is once instead of four or five times during the week.  

Reminder if meals :
We strive for these meals, but if we have leftovers, it is prudent to repurpose them for another meal.   Waste not, want not.

• Homemade chicken nuggets and oven fries , veggie platter 
• Pizza
• Pork chops with apple, peas, rolls 
• Pork stew with carrots, potatoes 
• Tuna melts, salad 
• Tacos, Spanish rice 
• Breakfast for dinner 

1. Wash kitchen floor.
2. Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. Note what needs to be used up. 
3. Thaw the chicken breast for chicken nuggets.   
4. Cut the fries.  
5. Wash potatoes and carrots for the stew, and veggie tray . 
6. Clean and disinfect the countertops and sinks and drains,  
7. Clean the drip pans, 

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Meal Plans

Meal Plans are a tool to keep you on track and avoid the take out demons that can sabotage a budget. They save time and money . Bad your meal plans on what’s on sale that week and what’s on season on the stores.  If a produce item is in season it’s going to be at its highest peak of flavor and at its lowest price.  It’s a win  -win.  

I base our meals on a protein based matrix.  

• Homemade chicken  nuggets, oven fries, veggie platter 
• Pizza 
• Pork chops with apple, peas, rolls 
• Pork stew with potatoes, carrots 
• Tacos, Spanish rice 
• Tuna melts, salad 
• Breakfast for dinner 

Notes :

1. Homemade chicken nuggets are made with a breading of homemade bread  crumbs, chopped nuts, and parm cheese. Oven fries are homemade with garlic pepper and olive oil.  Raw veggies  top it off. 
2. Pizza is a family favorite and is homemade,   A homemade cheese pizza with ingredients purchased on the cheap os a dollar. 
3. Apple pork chops are browned on a pan on the stove and apples with a bit of brown sugar on top of the chops and then  finished off in the oven.  Taste of home . 
4. Pork stew in the insta pot or slow cooker.  
5. Tacos and Spanish rice.   Tacos from frozen, cooked, hamburger.  Add water and taco seasoning to a skillet. Add meat and simmer while you prep the condiments . Spanish rice in the insta pot or microwave rice cooker. 
6. Tuna melts on English muffins. Green salad 
7. Breakfast for dinner.  We have a homemade mix for buttermilk pancakes.   Add bacon or sausage and fruit. 

tips and tricks

For some background...my daughter taught students from low income homes for years.   She was hearing from mother’s that they were having a hard time making their grocery budget stretch.  The cost of food has gone up dramatically, and it is the third most expensive item in most people’s budget.

We have economized  on the food  budget for years.  It started when I was a starving college student and never stopped.   It got to be a habit.   But, when I was trying to help the people that my daughter so eloquently said, oh my mom knows how to do that.   I began to try more ways to stretch the food dollar.   We have found some really good recipes and have learned how to  cook from scratch more than we ever thought possible.   The upshot of that is that we are eating less processed foods and better meals.   In addition, we have learned to do it more efficiently.   Par of that is having proper tools in the kitchen.   A few well worth their weight tools save time and money.  

My husband would tell you that the toaster and the coffee pot were the most important tools.  My opinion would be the insta pot, (a rice cooker, slow cooker and pressure cooker all in one and some have a yogurt cycle as well ), the food processor , and a blender.

Which brings  me to little ways that save tons.

1. Breading.  The cost of bread crumbs are upwards of 2.00 a pound,  If I buy something for two dollars a pound, it had better be protein.   Why pay two dollars or more a pound for someone else’s dry bread and throw your dry bread away.   The heels or dry bread can become croutons, breadcrumbs, or bread stuffing. 
2. We throw away about 40 percent of the food  we buy America according to statistics. That is a good reason to find ways to use up all of what we have.  Google something that  needs to be used up for ideas.   Use the Betty Crocker cookbook on line that is free.   They have a lot of ready made things that they are selling,  it it’s not a hard stretch to make those things yourself.   If something is on a recipe that your family won’t eat substitute something that takes the same bulk as the deleted item.  My husband does not like onions.  We substitute celery and add onion powder or I put the onions through the food processer until you can’t know what they are.
3. Buy shelf stable products when they are at a RBP and stock up to a 4-6 week supply. More stock of you can.  Be mindful of pull dates and how much of an item you use per month.   simplifying the amount of items you keep a stock of is a good thing.  It saves time and money.
4. Buying anything that doesn’t spoil in bulk simplifies your shopping because you buy it once and it never hits your cart again.  Salt, soda, honey, sugar are all things that don’t go bad.  We buy oatmeal, rice, and flour at Costco.  If we had a larger family, we would buy pinto beans too.   They are cheaper and we use those quantities in about three months.   This way, they are a lot cheaper.  A bag of salt cost me 5.00.  We have enough salt to last us our lifetime, my daughters lifetime and prolly into my granddaughters lifetime. Lol I don’t have to worry about buying that for a long time.  Ditto the cost of soda.  You can bake with it and clean with it,  it to mention use it as a whitener for your clothes.  It just pays  to buy a sack from Costco .    
5. 
   
6. Buying in bulk anything that can be used up before it passes a true pull date, simplifies your shopping. Once you are up and running, you can just shop the perimeter of the store and get in and out in minutes.   Buy a rotation meat, the produce that is in season that will top off your meals, the dairy you need including eggs, and watch for the staple items that are at the RBP.  
7. Certain times  of the year are the best time for a good price on things.  Sweet baby rays bbq sauce is best during picnic times, the summer holidays,  use coupons if you can find them.  Ditto ketchup and mustard.  Baking supplies and cream soups are best at thanksgiving and Christmas.  Again, watch for coupons.    Peanut butter and jelly are best at school time. 
8. Making your own mixes for things that you buy on a regular basis saves time and there are no ingredients that you cannot pronounce.  There are things like tsp (a string detergent) and wood pulp in some of our food.  While it is supposed to be on amounts that won’t hurt you, I still don’t want to feed it to my family.  There are things that we can logically control with the funds we have to spend, and ones we can’t.   I am choosing to reduce what I can control .  Cream soup base is fractions of what a can of soup costs, taco seasoning can be as hit or not as you please for fractions of an envelope, baking mix is not  only cheaper , but too can make it without hydrogenated oil.  Seasoned rice is an rice a roni alternative.   Muffin and pancake mix has no preservatives and makes best use of a 7.00 bag of flour from Costco.  If you use a bag of flour efficiently, you can save more than ten times the cost of the flour.  Muffins can be five dollars,  sour dough bread can be upwards of 2.50.  Frozen pancakes are a rip off.   Ditto waffles.  My sister bought our grandchild a baby waffle iron when she was 5.  She learned to use it with supervision.  French bread  takes ten hands on minutes and costs 30 cents.  
9. Buy perishables in season in moderation so they get used up.  Buy shelf stable  products on sale and buy a specified amount to cover yourself until you find them on sale again.  Storage experts tell me that pasta has an eight year shelf life.  I buy it when I can find it for a dollar or less a pound.  I can still get Barilla for a dollar  at the DT in limited supply .  Buy it when you can.  It is 33 percent higher even at Winco and more at other stores.  
10. Find the RBP on the protein sources you eat on a regular basis.  For us, that would be boneless, skinless chicken breast, pork loin, and hamburger, as well as beans, rice, eggs and cheese. When an article is in a good sale, buy as much as you will use in 4-6 weeks, the next week, look for a different item.  Rotating protein purchases on a good sale basis saves time and money.  Simplify.  You can cut up a pork loin and make a variety of meals.  We all know the numerous ideas for meals all over the Internet and in cookbooks for chicken and hamburger.

Simplify the number of items you buy, buy at the cheapest price for good quality you can find, and cook from scratch efficiently.  Know the tricks retailers us to get to separate you from your money.   That’s their job, but you don’t have to buy into it.  Buy wisely, watching expiration dates and paying attention to how much of the item you are likely to eat.  Stay on top of it and freeze or incorporate anything that is nearing its useful life into your meals.   

With careful planning and some effort, you can feed your family good food on a limited budget,   

Friday recipe - 2.00 dinner....for 4.

This should feed 2 adults and 2 school aged children.  Ok, I fudged a bit. It  costs out at 2.01
Note :  all the prices are current prices.  This costs oit at 2.01 and does not imckude condiments.  It does, however have an added bonus of a quart of chicken stock.

Burrito Bowls

4 chicken thighs ( 2 # @ .68. ) 1.36
3 cups pinto beans ( 1# dry at 1.00/1.5 lbs ) .22
3 cups rice ( 1 cup raw @ .34 #) .18
4 ounces frozen corn ( @ 1.00 a Lb) .25

• Cook the chicken thighs in a cup of water in the insta pot for 15 minutes.   Natural release . Or poach the chicken breasts until done.

• Shred the chicken after it cools a bit.  Save the stick and chill on a freezer safe container. 

•  Cook rice in  the insta pot or in a rice cooker.( It helps to cook a two or three cup batch of rice to use later in the week,   Any leftover chicken can become chicken fried rice or .... 

•  Cook beans in the insta pot.  , drain  

•  When ready for dinner, heat the ingredients in a small amount of water in a large fry pan or in the microwave.   

• Serve layered on bowls or self serve.

Condiments can include:

•  Sour cream ( 1.00 @ Fred Meyers) , salsa , ranch dressing, diced tomatoes, lettuce, chopped  onions...

Condiments were not cost out because  they are a variable.   Sour cream is a dollar at Fred Meyers, we got salsa for free and tomatoes are in abundance in gardens these days.  Still, all on all, two dollars plus staple condiments is a really inexpensive filling meal.  

Hauls to 9/7

Winco

Chicken thighs .68 lb -3.45
Green chillis .69
Sugar free jam 2.78
Corn on cob 3/1
2 lb cheese 4.88
Winco Beans 3.07
Blues 2.98
Strawberries 1.78
Fries 3.39


Total 24.70


Costco
Most of the costco  run was soap.  We needed laundry soap, dishwasher tabs and regular soft soap that was on sale.

Flour 25 lbs 6.99
3 pack honey ham lunch meat 6.59
Bananas 1.39

Total 14.97

Grocery Outlet
Sliced cheese 2.00
Well seasoned grated cheese 2.00
Coffee 5.99
Chick peas .69
Tomato sauce 3/1
Tomato paste .39

10 lbs potatoes 1.99

Total 21.04

Safeways,

2 best foods mayo @3.99
1 best  foods ketchup @ 3.29
Total 11.29
Less BOGO and coupon and Ibotta netted a cash outlay of

1.99

The ads from the internet

Thee mail is was empty, guess the mailman is still on holiday mode.   Lol.  We got the ads from the internet.

Safeways is nit big on sakes this week,   

Cabbage is .49 a lb 

Gala apples are .99

Bread is 1.49@@

Milk is 1.99@@

Both Fred Meyers and QFC (Kroger) have 10/10 sales.  You don’t have to buy 10 

I am assuming both stores have the same merchandise, I see a lot of duplicates.   

Fred Meyers 

2 lbs strawberries 2.99

*******

Free milk with purchase of Natire Valley  bars or Cheerios at 4/8

Take two dollars for the milk off of the 8.00 and you have six dollars or 1.50 each,  

There are coupons out there for Cheerios and probably the bars.  

Coupons.com has .50 on one Cheerios in 2 flavors and you can print 2 of each.  Also. 1.00 on two Bog G cereals ( print 2) and ,50 on 2 Natire Valley.   The upshot of that is you should be able to get 50 cents netting 1.00 a box on the cereal.  Or 1.25 on the Nature Valley.  I can usually get bars for close to a dollar at GO. 

******

Ten for 10.  Or a buck each 

Kind bars

Cream cheese 

Smart ones dinners 

Lumchabkes 

Taco shells 

Colgate toothpaste -4 ounces (check coupons) 

Cottage cheese/sour cream 

Marie calendars dinners 5/10

Heritage Farms chicken breast 1.99 

Note that Heritage Farms is Tyson.   Southern grown chicken,   Just saying 

Ice cream 2/5

Breakfast sausage 2/5

QFC

Draper valley chicken breast BOGO 

Draper valley gave me 10.00 to replace the chicken breast I bought from them because they were so nasty.    Buyer beware

Buy 4 progresso soups are .99 each when you buy 4 

Melons 2/5

Buy 10/10 you don’t have to buy 10

Kind bars 

Bbq sauce 

Tortillas 

Smart ones dinners 

Donuts holes 

lunchables 

Kings Hawaiian rolls 4 count 

Kroger crescent rolls or cinnamon rolls 

Cream cheese 

Sour cream
Cottage cheese

Just why would you have food storage?

Old  story....it was Christmas of 1972. I was suddenly a single mother with a pay check of 202.00 twice a month and 185.00 in daycare to pay that month (half  from the first paycheck and 1/2 from the second) and 145 dollars in rent.   Not to mention a car payment (28.00) a car insurance payment for myself and my not so soon to be ex, and a utility bill.   It was Christmas, and saying  we had no money would have been an understatement.  I had 5.12 in the savings.

My soon to be ex had been out of work with no unemployment for over a year.   I had bought a case of tuna some time back when it was .28 a can at safeways.  I still had a bit of food.   I called welfare to see if I could get help and was told that what I had to pay for daycare didn’t matter, I earned too much.   It was put your big girl pants on and punt time.

No one can predict the future.  People have had times when the federal government was on hold, you still had to work, but got no pay.  People can get laid off and have no unemployment.  Yes, in this state if you are a non profit, you can opt out of paying  unemployment insurance.  You can work for minimum wage and have no fall back if the business closes or downsizes.   One Christmas, I -5 was under water and the food trucks couldn’t get to Seattle.   Grocery stores were running out of food.

In other words, bleep happens and having a small food storage is your best insurance policy against being hung out to dry.  Especially. If you have purchased it for 50 cents on the dollar.   Nowhere these days can you get a better return on your money and not take a big risk.  It wasn’t long ago that we were getting 3/10 of a percent on our certificate of deposit at the bank.

Getting a small 4-6 week supply of food can be done one can or box at a time.  Homemade mixes keep you from the preservatives, but cans and boxes of some things can be pretty tasty if you can’t get to a grocery store or you have t seen a paycheck for a few weeks.

The other asset to having a four to six week supply is that you can take advantage of sales and pay half price for your food.   It makes it a whole lot easier to eat good for for a price of four  dollars a day or less.

Remember four dollars a day is the amount you totally spend on food.  It is, it buying a lot of food for a lot of money and only putting four dollars worth per person on the table.   Buying your food at RBP is the key, otherwise feeding a teen aged child could be more than difficult.

How did she do that? - red peppers

Last week there were coloured peppers on sale for a dollar.    The theme of a lot of ‘new’ dishes are vegetable and herb combinations.   You can make economical recipes and not miss the new flavor combinations.

Chicken with roasted red pepper sauce.

1/2 lb penne pasta , cooked
1 red pepper, roasted with garlic and olive oil in a 400 degree oven.   Peel peppers and put through. The food processer or blender.

Make ‘white’ sauce with 1 T olive oil, 1T flour,  add 1 1/4 cup milk stir with whisk.   Add processed red peppers and heat through.

Cook chicken ( 1 pound) in insta pot.

Pour sauce over pasta and chicken.

Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen management is a tool to save time and money in the kitchen,   It also deep cleans on a rotation basis so your kitchen is always in a stage of clean.  

Reminder if meals :

The last blast of summer 

1. Brats, oven roasted peppers, potatoes, and carrots.   
2. Ham and cheese subs, baked,  corn on cob , salad 
3. Hot dogs, corn on the cob. Salad 
4. Tacos, homemade refried beans (insta pot) 
5. Vegetable enchiladas with lettuce and tomato (BC) 
6. Salmon patties. Seasoned rice, green beans 
7. Breakfast for dinner 

• Wash kitchen floor 
• Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead.  
• Make a,note of things that need to be used up. 
• We got plums gifted to us . So, we will be making jam and dehydrating some. 
• Making pancakes from homemade mix for school breakfasts. 
• Wash potatoes and carrots with vinegar water.   Dry. 
• Wash salad greens 
• Wash kitchen cabinets 
• 
  

12 things not to buy .....

Never say never, but...

• Bread crumbs.  Why pay upwards of 2.00 a pound for someone else’s dry bread and throw your heels away. Anytime you have bread heels or rolls that are gong stale, process them in the food processor and put them on a pan with sides in the oven that you have just used.    Or put them in the oven to dry and then grate them if you don’t have a food processor.   I used to grate them on the deck with a sheet pan under the box grater.   
• Breading ( shake n bake ).  Mix in equal parts dry breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, and chopped nuts.   A low carb version of breading that tastes delightful. 
• Chicken stock in boxes or cans .The  cost is prohibitive.  At three dollars, that’s most of the budget for a five dollar dinner.   In order to maintain a four dollar a day budget for a family of four, you need five dollar dinners,    Use chicken bouillon, or make it from scratch. The same holds true for veggie stock or beef.   
• I used to say pizza sauce, but I discovered pizza sauce at the DT.   Freeze it in ice cube tray,  and pull out 2cubes per pizza.   
• Meals in bags in the freezer case especially those that   you add the meat to.   It is basically sauce, starch, and veggies.   Do it yourself, find the recipes for the sauces your family likes.   Most of them take a few staple ingredients.   
• Hamburger/tuna meal boxes.  Even at a dollar, it’s a huge waste.  The one my daughter and I dissected, had 4.2 ounces of pasta and 1.57 ounces of a cheese sauce that had no cheese in it.  You added milk to make it cheese.  Much better off buying a box of pasta and using real cheese without the preservatives.   You can still get Barilla pasta at the DT. 
• Frozen pancakes or waffles.   Flour is really cheap in large bags at Costco.   I suspect Sams club would be the same.  Even buying a ten pound bag from the regular store is much cheaper than buying ready made.  You can use bisquick or a recipe for a mix and do it ahead of you are in a hurry,   You can freeze your own and use cereal box liners between pancakes. Or make french toast and freeze.   
• You will find some cream soups in my pantry on a limited basis.   Cream soup mix takes just a few minutes and saves a lot of money.   Even with coupons, the cost is becoming prohibitive on a five dollar dinner budget.  If an ingredient costs more than the protein, there is a problem.   
• Shortening, lard and some other oils.   The information that I found says that hydrogenated oils thicken your blood.   Canola oil and some vegetable oils along with olive oil are better alternatives.  Butter in moderation is better than some of those fake butters. Palm  oil is bad for you.  If it is bad in Nutella, it is equally bad in your fake butter.   Some fake butters may be better than others. Read the ingredients and look them up.   You can usually find the ingredients in line before you go to the store.   
• Parmesan cheese in the green cans.  It’s old.  It has wood pulp in it.   Look closely at the ingredients, they try to hide it on heir description, but it’s there.   
• Look closely at the boxed Mac and cheese ( homemade is better) .  Some have TSP in them. You can also find tsp in some kids cereals.  TSP is a detergent that we used to sell at the paint store where I worked. It was used to degrease and clean walls before painting.  You needed to use rubber gloves to protect your hands.   Enough said. 
• Fake maple syrup.  Real maple syrup is worth the cost,  it knowing children they don’t know the word moderation.  I’d
• If you  can, making a fruit syrup and controlling  the sugar  would be a good alternative.   At least they would be getting the benefit of the fruit.  

Meal plans for week of 9/2/18

Meal Plans are a tool used to make life easier and less hectic during the dinner hour,   Along  with Kitchen Management it just makes dinners easier and more predictable,

1.  Brats, roasted carrots, potatoes, peppers , rolls 
2. Ham and cheese heros , salad 
3. Hot dogs, corn on the cob, salad 
4. Tacos, refried beans 
5. Vegetable enchiladas 
6. Salmon patties, corn , salad 
7.  Breakfast for dinner 

Notes 

1. Brats were free from QFC,  peppers were a dollar each at Winco, 
2. Uncurled ham was on sale at Costco,   Rolls are from the Franz Outlet 
3. Hot dogs. Corn on cob , salad—Labor Day 
4. Tacos are from beef purchased at Zaycon, a taco kit from GO and homemade refried beans 
5. Vegetable enchiladas  are from a recipe on Betty Crocker on line cookbook,   Use homemade enchilada sauce.
6. Salmon is from a can from Costco.  
7. Breakfast for dinner is a family favorite,   Everyone cooks. 

It’s not necessarily what you buy, but more when and where you buy it. 

No food is going to do your family any good of you are feeding it to the garbage disposal. 

Rule of thumb: Four plus one is five.   Four. People, one meal, five bucks.  *

* dinner is discussed here,  less for breakfast and lunch.  At four dollars a day, you can’t figure on using all four  dollars for actual food eaten, because there is still basics that have to be purchased,   Like olive oil, spices , etc. 

Split chicken breast.- dollars and sense.

Yes, Virginia, I know how to spell.   It’s a pun LOL

I just ran on to a advertisement from Safeways. A quart of chicken stock was 3.00.    I thought that was quite high. I then looked at an ad from  Walmart. It was 2.79.

Let’s do some math.  Boneless, skinless chicken breast are anywhere from 1.79 to 8.00 a pound.

Split chicken breast were .88 a pound for Washington grown a few weeks back at Fred Meyers,

This does take an hour or so.   Hands on time,   I have a theory called virtual paycheck.   It basically figures how much time you spend in a scratch vs store bought item and Comoros it to the amount of money saved.   Or gives you a virtual hourly wage.   It’s a benchmark as to whether it would be worth your efforts to rmake the scratch food.

The difference between making the big bucks coffee shops lemon pound cake vs buying it by the slice is about 212.00 an hour.

Split Chicken  breast.

Take precautions for food handling,   We use a glass cutting board that can be disinfected.   It helps if you have someone to help ( chicken hands and non chicken hands.  The non chicken hands can be done by a school aged child,   It’s things like putting quart bags in a bowl and zipping the bags when full.


Cut the rib portion off of the breast. Dump the ribs in a gallon bag or bowl that can be covered as you go.  Place the breasts in quart bags and place the quart bags in a gallon bag that has been labeled and dated.  How long this takes depends on how many packages you are processing,

Before you go to bed , place the rib portions in the slow cooker.  Add some vegetable scraps and herbs.  Fill the slow cooker to within an inch from the top.  Cook on low all night.

I’m the morning, pour the contents of the slow cooker  through a colander into a pot.   Ladle the stock into freezer containers and  leave a few minutes on the counter to cool.  Then, place them in the fridge.   After they have chilled , skim the fat off the top and freeze.

Meanwhile, pick the bones for meat.  I am not the most proficient butcher, so I got a cup and a half of meat from the bones.   This is good for chicken pot pie, chicken soup, tacos, enchiladas to name a few ideas.

To recap : you have netted boneless , skinless chicken breast.  Probably about 4 to a package.  Or eight for two packages.

Also.a cup and a half of chicken pieces that should make at least one more meal.

And, at least 4 quarts of chicken stock.

At .88 a pound, you usually get about 4 large breasts for about 5.00 give or take a few cents,  for practical purposes, we will, say ten dollars.


4 quarts of chicken stock at 3.00 is 12.00.
8 chicken breast at a pound each at 2.00 a pound is 16.00
We will throw in the 1.5 cups of pieces.
Total is 28.00 worth of product.


You paid 10.00
Savings 18.00

That’s about 18.00 an hour or you would have to make 22.50 to spend that 18.00.

Friday recipe : hummus

One of the ways to save a lot of money is to make your own things that are more expensive in the store ready made. One of hose things is hummus,  it’s jea,thy and most of the time here is around three dollars

1 can -15.5 Oz garbanzo Beans
2 tsp garlic, chopped
Dash salt and pepper
1 slice cooked red pepper , chopped
Red pepper flakes to taste.
2 T lemon juice
1 T olive oil.


 Mix all ingredients in food processer or blender.
Store in air tight container in refrigerator.

Notes : garbanzo beans can be inexoemsove when  you find a bean sale. Lemon juice is cheapest on bottles.   The rest of the ingredients are pretty much staples.  


On another note, I have been watching a lot of dollar store dinners on the Internet.   While I realize there are towns where the dollR store amd maybe one other store is all the stores that are available and it might be a necessity for some people until they can get to a bigger town, dollar store dinners are best for emergency meals.   You can do better by stocking a little at a time.  When something is super cheap. Spend the same amount you would spend if you had to pay full price.   The next time, you won’t have to buy that item, so you work on so,etching else that is a stock item.   You will eT better and spend less.  

Tomorrow is concept day,    Just a teaser.....a weeks worth of chicken dinners for FREE!   Like any statement like that, there is a twist....stay tuned.

Hauls 8/31

Safeway Haul.

8/24

Grapes 4.14
Frozen veggies 3.00  for three

Total 7.14


Winco Haul

18 eggs 1.89
Chocolate chips minis , bulk 3.56
Romaine 1.48
Bananas .36
Nathan’s hot dogs 2.98
3 asstd peppers @.98
Strawberries 1.78
Farmland bacon 3.98

Total 18.97





Bread store
Flax and wheat bread
Hamburger buns
Hot dog buns
Sandwich buns
Hard rolls
Bagels
English muffins
Bread sticks ,bake

10.00
Average 1.25 each


Total 36.11

Sour cream 2.00

Total. 38.11notes: that is a months worth of bread.   And, the chocolate chips are pantry items as well.
The rest is perishables and a few meTs that I don’t stock.  

Chain store ads

QFC

Pie 3.99
BBQ sauce 1.00
Sour cream/cottage cheese 1.00
Pork back ribs 2.99 lb prev frozen
Buy 5, save 5sale

Kind Bars 2.49
Dreyers 2.49
Dave’s killer 3.49
Outshine BAR-S 2.49
Nature valley or  fiber one bars 1.99
Tillamook ice cream 3.49
Goldfish .99
Ritz 1.79
Farmland bacon 3.99


Alberways
Berries BOGO
Ritz crackers 1.69@@
Corn 4/1@@

Hillshire farm sausage 2/6
Bbq sauce .99@@


A asstd condiments and snack foods BOGO
Note : best foods squeeze bottle is BOGO.   There is a Ibotta on as many as two.  Makes the, net .99 for two.

Note @@ means you need an in ad coupon.

Fred Meyers

B5s5
Coffee 5.99
Outshine BARS 2.49
Dreyers 2.49
Crunch BARS 2.49
Nature valley  Bars. 1.99
Goldfish .99
Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs .99
Farmland bacon 3.99

———-
Sour cream 1.00
Bbq sauce 1.00
Pie 4.00

What we ate on no spend

What we ate in no spend month.  The first week was not part of no spend.  All of it was 4.00 a day.

1. French Toast from bread store Texas toast, bacon, cantaloupe 
2. Hamburgers , pasta salad , fruit 
3. Oven roasted sausage, potatoes and carrots 
4. Bbq beef sandwiches, corn on the cob 
5. Insta pot spaghetti, salad 
6. Salmon, twice baked Potatoes, salad 
7. Out potluck, pasta salad , fruit 
8. BBQ beef sandwiches, oven french fries, salad 
9. Out potluck- veggie platter 
10. Nachos, fruit 
11. Chicken patties, corn in the cob, salad 
12. Egg Mc muffins, bacon, fruit tray 
13. Sloppy joes, corn on the cob, fruit 
14. Fish and chips salad, soup
15. Clam chowder, leftovers 
16. Pork fried rice, chicken dumplings, 
17. Taco soup, tortilla chips, cheese 
18. Antipasto platter 
19. French Toast , ( frozen leftover) bacon cantaloupe 
20. Taco salad 
21. Pizza, salad 
22. Leftover pizza, salad 
23. Vegetable bean soup, bacon cheese bread 
24. Sausage with sauerkraut and peppers , bread 
25. Meatballs, gravy, mashed potatoes, mixed veggies 
26. Meatball subs, oven baked fries, strawberries, 
27. Chicken enchaladas, salad 
28. Pizza 
29.  
30. 
    
31. 
    

Scratch cooking.......how did she do that...

One of the concepts that saves a lot of money is scratch cooking,   Scratch— the mere sound of the word insights dread in many a person.   In some cases, this was my last hold out.  Especially when it came to bread.   There are a lot of set it and forget it or easy scratch cooking recipes.   Keeping life simple helps.

Combining prep work and quick and easy recipes makes for good meals——cheap.   Many mean that you need to be home, but you don’t have to watch pots.   You can be watching tv instead, or doing  other things.   Multi tasking is the key to keeping it up.

Let’s start with one basic thing a week,   Learn that and piggy back it with the next thing and before you know it, it will take you less time than making things from a box or bag and it will be better without all the preservatives.   Did you know that there is detergent and wood pulp on some of our food.   Yes, it is in safe doses, but, I for one, don’t want to feed my family soap or wood pulp.    YUK.


White sauce.  Plain and simple.  The french have a fancy word for it, but it’s basic white sauce.  The basis for Mac and cheese , or many a casserole.

Scratch sauce :

1 Tbls fat (vegetable oil, melted  butter
1  Tbls flour
1) melt butter or place oil in saucepan.
2) pour in flour
On medium heat, whisk flour into fat and cook just slightly to cook away the raw flour taste.
3) begin whisking in onc cup of milk, a little at a time until sauce has thickened.

Makes one cup.


White Sauce Mix
2 cups dry milk
1 cup flour
2 tsp salt
1 cup butter

Mix dry ingredients.
Add butter and cut in (using a fork and a knife or. Pastry blender, or the food processer, mix until butter is incorporated into mix.

Store 2-3 months n airtight container in refrigerator.

To make:

Use 1/2 cup mix with 1 cup water.
Add to saucepan and whisk over medium heat until a medium thick sauce.

Alternate without fat
Sauce mix

2 cups dry milk
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup low sodium chicken granules

Mix together .  Store on cool, dry place

Use 1/3 cup mix to 1-1/4 cup water.
Place ingredients in saucepan and cook over medium heat, storing with whisk until sauce has thickened .


White sauce is also the basis for enchalada sauce.  Enchalada sauce is really expensive considering  the few  ingredients it takes,

Enchalada sauce,

Over low heat on a 1 quart saucepan,
Make a roux with 1/4 cup canola oil and 2T flour
Cook slighky to take the flour taste away,

Add slowly , 1 cup chicken broth and 1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce,
Add in 2 T taco seasoning
Cook, stirring  constantly until sauce thickens slightly.

Homemade taco seasoning saves a lot of money.

Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen  management is a tool that saves time and stress at meal time,   Basics you spend a little to,e prepping the meals based on a meal plan.   Having food prepped somthat it takes ten to twenty minutes to cook dinner makes life a whole lot easier and tends to keep you from being tempted to order in or go out.  

Reminder  of meals

• Chicken enchiladas, lettuce and tomatoes 
• Pizza
• Chili,  tortilla chips,sour cream, cheese 
•  Spaghetti , salad, bread sticks 
• Chicken pot pie , fruit 
• Chili dogs , vegetable plate 
• Breakfast for dinner 

1. Wash kitchen floor.
2. Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead. 
3. Make note of things that need  to be used up , incorporate them into meal plan 
4. Clean and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains. 
5. Cook chicken for the enchiladas in the insta pot. 
6. Make enchilada sauce. 
7. Was salad greens, carrots. 
8. Make a batch of muffins - new bread book. 
9. Inventory if not already taken. My inventory is on my meal plan form.   

 I will share my meal plan form with anyone that wants it.  If it has to be sent as a file. It will have to wait until my IT person can help me.  Hey, I’m old.   Lol 😂 

Book Review

Betty Crocker big book of bread .. all kinds of bread from scones to french bread and everything on between.   Some quick, so,e not so quick.   All look delicious,  

Artisan semolina and rosemary bread

Mini cheese and chive popovers
Mini sweet potato cinnamon rolls
Maple glazed bacon drop doughnuts
Sour cream coffee cake
Zesty cheddar bread
Ginger carrot nut bread

Gluten free cheese garlic biscuits

Pear nut scones

Chocolate scones
Beer and Chile cornbread muffins

Raspberry white chocolate muffins

Cinnamon bubble loaf

Double quick dinner rolls

Haul 8/24

Fred Meyers

Grapes 1.94
Goldfish .99
Goldfish .99
Goldfish .99
Nectarines 2.69
Ice cream 3.49
Ice cream 3.49
Sour cream 1.25
Milk .99

Total 16.82

Pretty much produce and dairy. The goldfish were basically free except for one at .99. B5; S5



Note : the process inquited last week for safeways were from the Internet.  I don’t know what happened.  But the ad in the store does not reflect those prices .  No cantaloupe or soup, green peppers are a dollar.

Meal plans

Meal plans are a tool to make life easier and save time and money,

1. Chicken enchaladas , lettuce, tomatoes 
2. Pizza
3. Chilli , topped with choice of cheese, sour cream and/or tortilla chips. 
4. Spaghetti, salad , bread sticks 
5. Chicken pot pie, fruit 
6. Chilli dogs, veggie platter 
7. Quiche, fruit 

Notes 

1. Chicken enchaladas are from frozen .99 a lb chicken , to,atoes from the plant on the deck 
2. Pizza is a cheap dinner at a dollar a pizza.  Obviously, scratch 
3. Chilli does double duty with chilli dogs another day,   
4. Spaghetti I’m the insta pot.  Eight minutes  bread sticks are from a batch a month ago at the surplus bread store,  I froze them.  
5. Chicken pot pie from frozen chicken . 
6. Quiche is easy and quick as well as inexpensive. 

Concept Saturday / Dollar Tree food,

Yes, you can get good food at the DT.   You can also get nasty food at the DT....just saying...

There are a few things, mostly name brand things .

Some of the things, namely garlic and some frozen foods come from China.   Buy at your own comfort level.

The best things are taco shells, tortillas. Pizza sauce, suddenly salad, Betty Crocker products, ;we have got hunts tomatoes, organic, named brand enchilada sauce for a dime.  Hunts pasta sauce, Barilla pasta.  Named brand frozen potatoes.

Sometimes they get overstocks or things that were in a test market and didn’t fly,

Buyer beware, but anything that is not going to be a long term item in your house, is probably a good buy.  Napkins, kids work books, balloons, party decorations and present bags.

A great tip, if you are a Costco toilet paper  shopper, buy one pack of dollar store toilet paper.  Put it in the very back of the closet.   You will never be stuck if someone  forgets to tell that you are running low. Don’t  need to say more.

You still have to know your prices . Some things are cheaper at other stores.   Sometimes the  quality isn't up to high standards.

Pounder glasses are good as well as some glass wine glasses.

They do take coupons,  no more than four in a day per household and some managers don’t have a sense of humor,   Like Edmonds for instance.  Kenmore, on the other hand.....

Please feel free to comment on what you do like to buy at the DT.

Friday recipe

Years ago, my youngest son’s kindergarten teacher lived across the street.   She was a kind soul.  She always had took in children that needed a home even long past the time when her birth children were adults.   Her son had a job that managed sports  stars.  A very large African-American man was visiting for a few days,   He was a basket ball star named Kenny.   Kenny was shooting hoops using the community street basket ball hoop.  My son was two and a half, Now,  he was the direct opposite of Kenny in stature and colour.   He was as white as he could be with stark blond hair.   He came out with a basketball that was bigger than him yelling “ baketball, baketball”.  Kenny picked him up and let him slam dunk the ball.   The grin on both their faces was priceless.   I wish I would have had a cell phone with a camera.   Lol 😂

I digress. This same neighbor had an expression. She made Guesseroles.   That was when she cooked pasta and added anything she had in the fridge or cupboard to make a meal.  

So, Mrs Boot, this one is for you,  

Mexican Casserole

4 ounces macaroni
1/2 pound of cooked ground meat
1 -15.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes, not drained
1 tsp of tomato boullion, or 2 ounces of tomato paste.  
2 cups cooked  kidney beans -or  1 can , rinsed and drained.
1/2 can diced green chillies , drained
2 tsp  taco seasoning
4 ounces (1cup) Mexican blend cheese

• Cook macaroni and drain. 
• Combine all the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the cheese in a saucepan.  Cook for about ten minutes on low while the pasta cooks. 
• Combine  the drained pasta and the “sauce”.
• Place in a baking dish , top with cheese 
• Bake at 375 for 30 minutes 

Total cost when buying your ingredients at  RBP is 3.09.

These are all staple ingredients in a well stocked basic kitchen.  The prices are my rock bottom prices in Seattle.   Seattle is among  the top 7 cost of food cities in the USA. 

FM haul 8/17

Haul for week of 8/17

Raspberries 3.99
Strawberries 3.99
2 lbs bacon 5.29
Brats 2.50

Kroger yogurt, markdown .19

Peanut butter 1.39

English muffins 1.67

Total 19.21

Safeways

Cantaloupe 2.00
2 doz eggs .99 ea

3.99 total

23.20 total


Bonus Grocery Outlet

Ripe olives .69
Tomatoes .99
Bacon 1.99
Biscuits .50
Salame 2.79
Total 12.13
Total 35.33

How did she do that? Really fast taco soup

It is always a good thing to have a recipe or two that you can make in minutes and tastes good.   We have all had days when time gets away from you.

It starts with the prep idea of frying bulk ground meat when you bring it home from the store or shortly after.   Fry the meat, de fat it of you need to and place it on quart bags portion controlled for you family.  We bag the amount we need for tacos.  You can always pull multiple bags from the gallon bag you freeze them on . Label the gallon bag,  this double bags your meat and you only have to label one bag. 

Taco soup - it really takes five non passive minutes.   

• Take a half a pound of cooked ground beef out of the freezer and defrost it in the microwave about 1.5 minutes or just bat it on the counter until it’s broken up. Place it on the slow cooker.  I use the insta pot, 
• Add the following :
• 1 -  can of diced tomatoes , not drained 
• 1 can of beans of choice -black, P.I. to, or kidney , drained and rinsed, 
• 1 can or equivalent frozen of corn 
• 4 cups of beef or vegetable stock.  I just make the stock in the cans, it rinses the cans and makes less dishes, 
• 1T taco seasoning (homemade)

Turn the slow cooker or Insta pot on lsowmcooker mode and let it cook until you are ready to eat.   

Technically everything you put in the pot is abkento be eaten straight from the can.  You just want the flavors to combine and it to get hot.   

Chain store ads

note:  these were gleamed from the internet.  Despite there not being a holiday, the main man did not bring the ads.   The Safeway ad was also not  on the Internet.  Note:  today I have also posted some WNTB and why.   WNTB is what not to buy,   A description of what to watch for and buy instead to save lots on your bottom line,


Fred Meyers

WNTB —FF chicken breast 1.99.    Last week FF split chicken breast was .88.  A little time saves you more than 1/2amd you get the added bonus of chicken stock thatmcost upwards of two dollars a quart.  

The following are all .99
Grapes 
Peaches 
Milk
Pears

Sour cream  16 ounces 1.25

Kroger breakfast sausage 2/5
2 lbs strawberries 3.99
Ground Turkey 2.99

WNTB - Binkess Pork Loin chops 3.99–it wasn’t that long ago that we got pork loin for .99.  You can almost always get them for up to 1.69.  Again, buying them for even the 1.69 is half the price and it takes minutes to slice a pork chop off of a loin. 

QFC

Milk .99


Buy5: save 5

Goldfish .99
Tillamook ice cream2.99

WNTB - 4 blueberry muffins 3.49–it cost about a buck to make a dozen muffins,   Make a muffin mix up and it takes a matter of a few minutes to whip up a dozen muffins,   The savings are remarkable amdyou know what is in  them. 

Alberways 

Cantaloupe.99
Friday only -cream soups 1.00
Peppers 1.00
Corn 3/1
Hebrew national franks 2/7

WNTB-milk is 1.00 at both Kroger stores. 
Garlic bread is 3.49/ it cost .30. See the “big family homestead  “on u tube 

How did she do that?

Chocolate zucchini muffins.   Yum.   An easy way to get a green vegetable into husbands,. I’m not saying children, because granddaughter loves vegetables.   Lol

A friend gave me zucchini last night,   Our zucchini plant gave up one zucchini.  We probably,should have put some slug bait out.  I didn’t think that it would be a problem where we planted it.   I really appreciate her sharing.

Most “quick breads” are best made with the least amount of mixing .  Over  mixing  causes the bread to be tough.  Measure and stir the dry ingredients together in one bowl,  measure and stir the wet ingredients in a separate bowl.  Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients,  don't  over mix,—  just mix until all the dry ingredients are no longer visible.   Put your mixture into a prepared  pan and bake according to the recipe.

On another note.  Life is not perfect and you are always going to have some fails.   The buttermilk pancake mix I made the other day was one of those fails.  It turned out to be so thin, it just didn’t work.  Thankfully I had made french toast to use up the bread that was hanging around too long,  I froze it in four slice lots in quart bags.  A little time in the toaster and it saves the day.  It is a good way to use up Texas toast bread that is not being used up fast enough.  It makes for a quick easy breakfast that a older child could make themselves.

I did try another recipe for buttermilk pancake mix.   Thankfully I had only made a half batch. In retrospect, I probably could have used the mix for breading.   I try to limit carbs, however , so I use a combination of nuts, breadcrumbs, and parmesean cheese to bread things like chicken nuggets.  Its really good and it cuts carbs and adds protein.  

Looking for ways to keep costs down while providing good nutrition is a way to eat well on four dollars a day.  Keeping a stock of basic food that is efficiently versatile is a good way to cut food costs.  This is a good time when less is more.  If you have less variety you can buy more of it in bulk and save a lot of money,   Packaging is expensive.  I keep a small amount of dry buttermilk.  Real buttermilk is a good ingredient in baked items, but buying liquid buttermilk is just nit practical.  Amazon had dry buttermilk, local. In a plastic bag for far less than the box in the grocery store.  That’s when saving the wide mouth jars you have instead of putting them in the recycle.  We also got a big canister of chicken bouillon.  The cost was drastically lower than buying the little jars at Winco.  It is good anytime you need chicken stock.  That happens a lot when you are scratch cooking.  We try to make stock, but that doesn’t always happen.

If you buy something that doesn’t spoil in bulk once, you can mark that off your list.  It simplifies your grocery shopping,   Bit by bit you find yourself buying dairy, perishables, and a rotation meat.  You are scratch cooking efficiently and cutting your time and money a lot.  And you are not eating out of a box or bag and are controlling salt, sugar, trans fats, hydrogenated oils, HFCS, and gmo s .and the food dyes.

Monday Kitchen Management aka food prep

Kitchen   management is a tool that saves time and money in the long run.  It makes life less stressful during the hectic dinner hour.

Reminder if menu

• Tacos, refried beans 
• Pizza
• Meatballs, with mashed potatoes, veggie 
• Pork roast, baked potato. Salad, vegetable 
• Vegetable bean soup. Bread sticks 
• Beer cheese soup, brats 
• Breakfast for dinner / french toast, bacon, cantaloupe 

1. Wash kitchen floor 
2. Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead. 
3. Clean and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains. 
4. Wash and dry carrots and potatoes. 
5. If having refried beans today, make them. Insta pot is a good resource,  
6. Clean the drip pans on the stove, 

Meal plans

Meal plans are a tool that saves time and money.
The first week and a half was regular spending, the next three weeks will/ have been no spend,  no spend just means that we will only buy perishables and things that we are completely out of.

• Meatballs with mashed potatoes and a veggie 
• Tacos, re fried beans (scratch) 
• Pizza
• Breakfast for dinner 
• Pork Roast , baked potatoes, salad 
• Vegetable bean soup , biscuits 
• Beer cheese soup, brats 

Notes 

1. Meatballs are cheaper to buy than make at Winco. Make gravy with beef stock. 
2. Tacos are made from already cooked hamburger,   Re fried beans are in the insta pot, no fat 
3. Pizza is homemade. Pizza costs a dollar, the crust is .19 of it. 
4. Breakfast for dinner is a mainstay.  Everyone cooks.   We have fruit, french toast already made from the last of the Texas toast from the  Read store. 
5. Pork Roast is from a ,99 a pound pork loin, 
6. Vegetable bean soup is a personal recipe, made from scratch, beans and all. 
7. Beer cheese soup is a new recipe and we already have break sticks in the freezer.   

What we ate for dinner so far...

For August 1-17 , 2018.   Part of this was no soens. The first week was not.

1.  Texas French Toast, bacon, cantaloupe 
2. Hamburgers, pasta salad, fruit 
3. Sausage, potatoes, carrots , roasted 
4. Bbq beef sandwiches, corn on the cob 
5. Insta pot spaghetti, salad 
6. Salmon, twice baked potatoes. Green salad 
7. Potluck, veggie tray 
8. Bbq beef sandwiches, oven fries, salad 
9. Potluck dinner- pasta salad 
10. Nachos 
11. Chicken patties , oven fries. Fruit 
12. English muffins, scrambled eggs, fruit tray , bacon 
13. Sloppy joes. Corn on cob, fruit 
14. Fish n chips , coleslaw 
15. Clam chowder. Fruit 
16. Pork fried rice, chicken dumplings 
17. Taco soup , tortilla soup 
18. Antipasta plate 
19. 
    
20. 
    
21. 
    

Concept: how to shop at Grocery Outlet

Grocery Outlet is a discount overstock grocery store.  It is a chain and is franchised like the Dollar Tree.  There are other stores in other states that are similar.

Shopping at the Grocery Outlet is a treasure hunt,   Like any other store,  not all things are a bargain.   You still have to know your prices.

I, personally don’t buy the produce.  I’ve only done it a couple of times at two different stores, and both times had a bad experience.

We have two places on our area that the grocery outlet and dollar tree are side by side.   It makes things more efficient.

I can usually find good sliced cheese, and a variety of cheeses for a reasonable amount.  The exception being grated cheese,  you are better off buying grated cheese at Costco or on sale at Alberways or one of the Kroger  stores.

I can most of the time find a name brand taco kit for a buck.  That’s the price if he taco shells and you get the seasoning and sauce with it.  Otherwise, I get the shells for a buck, my buy price.

Nuts are another thing that we watch out for.   If I don’t find them there, we get bulk at the Winco or bags at Costco.

I was getting coffee, but now I find a lot of the expensive bagged kind, but not the normal Foldgers or   Maxwell House,

Some of the larger frozen food bags are a bargain.

You just never know what you are going to find.   Del Monte green green beans were .33 .  They were close to the pull date.  In those cases, I buy just what I might use before the pull date and put the front of the stack.   I have also got organic diced tomatoes for .50.   You never know what you are going to find.   We got bacon yesterday for 2.00 a pound.   And, tube biscuits , Pillsbury, for .50.  They have to be used  this month.   That’s not a problem for us.   I didn’t buy he stack.  LOL

The basics of this  is :

• Buyer beware: know your prices and check the pull dates .  
• Don’t buy anything in quantity if you can’t use it before the pull dates.  Often something like a cake type mix will be very cheap and you can expect some time after the pull date on those things.  Anything dry is probably better longer than the pull date.  
• I would , personally, avoid fresh foods. 
• They have a large inventory of organic foods
• They often have seasonal things that are perfectly good.  Who cares if you eat pumpkin in the summer? 
• If you find something with shelf life that you really like, don’t hesitate to buy as much as you are comfortable with. It is You snooze. You loose time. 

Miscellaneous carp

Short notes from my reader.....

Someone  said the best gift is a gift of your time.   Consider this blog  a gift.  I am sharing 50 years  of learning how to cut your grocery bill.  We all need to eat, but a lot of us need to have a well rounded life and be able to have a roof over our head, utility bills paid , health care paid for and a few cents  to rattle around  in their pockets.

Yesterday, we went to Fred Meyer,   My husband doesn’t think life is great without bacon? Lol.  I found pieces - 2 pounds for a little more than it would cost for 1 pound of bacon.   If you put them in a low heat while you are cooking other things, they will render down and you can use the bacon for flavoring in any number of dishes.

QFC sends us free food periodically.  Free is a good word.   This time we get free sausage and salsa.   Both are good additions to a food pantry/freezer.

Today I cleaned out the upstairs side by side freezer and cleaned out the bins so that they were better organized.   I found pork cubes I will use for the fried rice in the insta pot recipe iIam going to try.  The insta pot version was a bust; the rice comes out too watery.  It was tender, but I didn’t like the texture.  We had Chinese dumplings with it.  Total cost of the fried rice is about 1.00 including some pork.

My husband went and got 2dozen eggs for a buck a dozen and a two dollar cantaloupe.

No spend means you only buy perishables and fill ins,   It drastically reduces you cash expenditures ,
and pares down the pantry.  That’s a good thing.


There are a lot of good mix recipes on the internet or u tube.   Mixes give you the convenience of a ready made mix without the extra cost.   You can purchase a lot of raw ingredients at the bulk section of Winco or your basic grocery store that has a bulk section.  I’m making buttermilk pancakes and cream soup mix.  Cream of .....soup used to be like .35.  Now it’s well over 1.50 unless you find sakes and coupons.  That is best found around thanksgiving time.

Shopping to stock your freezer/pantry actually takes less time than regular shopping and the reward is that you always have food in the house.   Instead of a large basket of groceries piecemeal, you have less variety of items.  Once you are set up, you go to the store to buy a rotation protein, replenish dairy and produce, and replenish the basics that you have already found advertised that you need.
If you keep your food pantry/cupboard organized, you can tell at a glance what you might be approaching stock up time. Many times you can just shop the perimeter of the store and get on and get out of the store.   Its a good rule of thumb to shop two stores a week.

Spending an hour a week prepping for the upcoming week, saves a lot of time and money during meal time.  It just makes life easier and it enables you to cook scratch food in the same time you might have spent using mixes and ready maxes that might have things from the science department in them,   There are things at the grocery store that we feed our children that have detergent type additives and wood pulp in them.   All I’m an say is yuk!

Groceries on the cheap doesn’t mean you have to buy cheap food.   It means you buy good food cheap.

It’s  not what you buy as much as it is when and where you buy it.

My mother used to say that some people could have a bargain get up and bite them in the butt, and they wouldn’t see it.  Don’t be that person,  know the rock bottom prices  RBP, of the things you use on a regular basis.  Most families have a list of 10-15 items,   Buy in quantity when the Leicester are low.  Its not a new concept.  Stockbrokers have been using it for years,  they buy a stock when it’s cheap and sell it when it goes up.   The difference is there is less speculation with food.

The other example would be on r great grandmothers on the farm.  They would “put up food for the winter”.  Back then they had to make best use of the growing season and they didn’t have the technology we have today,

I hope I gave you some ideas. Please let me know of this type of blog is helpful.

Thanks for stopping by

Jane

Hauls 8/10

Winco

Buns .85

QFC
4 lb cheese 10.00
1 double cream cheese 1.99

Total 14.85.   8/15


Winco
Corn .66
Apples 2.66
Dumplings 1.98
Olives .78
To,actors 1.48
Lettuce .98
Granny smith apples 1.95
Strwberries 1.78
Total 13.05

Total.  27.90

List of basics for emergency storage

Pinto beans
Brown or white rice
Black beans
Flour
Salt
Rolled oats
Sugar
Honey
Nuts
Cornstarch
Baking powder
Peanut butter
Olive oil
Canola oil
Pasta
Pasta sauce
Canned diced tomatoes
Yeast
Dry milk

Chain store ads

QFC was a two week ad last week.
To recap
                       
Peaches
QFC 1.28
Alberways .99

Apples
Safeways .99-gala
Winco .99    Gala and green

Cantaloupe
Alberways 2/4
QFC 2/5

Mandarins
FM -3.99 -3# bag
Strawberries
Fm 2 lbs 3.99

DiGiorno pizza
FM 4.88

English muffins
Alberways .99@@

Eggs
Alberways .99@@limit 2

Cheese -8 ounces
Alberways 2.49
QFC 2.49 part of buy 5
Fred Meyers /F ,SAT only / digital up to 5 @ .99

Tortillas
QFC 1.00

Nathan’s
Alberways 3.99 digital coupon

Hebrew national
Fred Meyers 3.99

Facts of life on a four dollar a day budget.

Reality strikes....

There are pipe dreams and then there is reality,

You can hope for food from the whole paycheck  food stores and perfect meals with no child spilling their milk, or whining that they don’t like peas touching their chicken, or you can embrace reality.

A four dollar a day budget does not include steak and lobster or 5 bags of chips..  You need to figure on buying four dollars a day worth of versatile basic food and   you would be surprised what you can buy on four dollars a day if you shop wisely,

You can buy :

1. We purchase Real Parmesan cheese . It doesn’t come out of a green box,   The green box has wood pulp in it.   You would be surprised what is 8n all the boxes you buy.  They have sneaky ways of labeling ingredients so you aren’t aware of what is in those brightly colored  boxes,  
2. Real honey, 
3. Real maple syrup
4. The best quality tuna we can find at Costco.   Ditto salmon, 
5. Boneless, skinless chicken breast,   It is the lowest in fat.  
6. Good, low fat hamburger, or we make it low fat, 
7. Pork loin,   Center cut pork chops can be 3.50 a pound,   Pork Loin can be 1.00-1.69.
8. Eggs, cheese, and dry beans,  cooking scratch beans doesn’t add salt.  
9. Fresh fruit and vegetables in season    A dollar is my buy price.   Strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, cantaloupe whit  each, apples at a dollar, grapes at less than two dollars, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots in 5 lb bulk at 2.28 and celery.

Baby carrots are regular carrots that have gone through a machine    It all started with a farmer that was having a really hard time selling his misshapen carrots. He solved his problem by putting the ugly carrots through a machine and making baby carrots.  Que the media blitz.  He had to convince people that his reject carrots worth twice the price of regular carrots.  There are many other new 'inventions that are toted as being healthier for you, that just reduce one bad thing and increase another.  Diet butter substitute and salad dressing come to mind.  

 Virtual paycheck.  Its a concept not everyone can grasp.   But, it is now I decide if scratch cooking something is worth my time and effort.  Face it, kids don’t care if it takes you three hours to make a tortilla .  They are going to make that tortilla disappear in three minutes  or less.   If you calculate how much you are going to save making scratch or a mix and you divide it by how many hours it takes to make it, you get a savings per hour. Now times that figure by 1.25 and it will tell you how much you are making per hour,   I think I figured that making tortillas netted my a dime an hour.   Lemon pound cake from the big bucks coffee shop,  however,  made us 212.00 an hour.  Note you don’t count passive time.

Collecting efficient scratch recipes your family will eat is a secret ingredient in eating on four dollars a day -per person. It also helps to: 

Buying  a rotation meat for a RBP and rotating a four to six week supply affords you, the cheapest and best quality meat and allows you to have a stock of food on hand,   No more scrimping and waiting with baited breath for the paycheck so you can run to the store. Instead you go to the store and buy from your basic list what is on sale for a buy price.  This simplifies your cart and affords you much more food for your dollar.   

A pantry is not built on a day, but you can build it a week at a time if you buy double whenever anything that is on your basic list that is 1/2 price.  Why pay 1.59 for a can of green beans this week and pay .50 for the same can the next week.  You are better off buying three cans the week they are on sale.  

I just watched a grocery haul u tubed by a lady with a large family.  She made a very good point:  anything that you  know if you buy 5, the family will eat five immediately, you just don't buy.    If you are buying  cans of green beans or spaghetti sauce, you buy as many as you can afford if they are at a RBP.   Set yourself a desired limit.  Four to six weeks worth is a good benchmark .

 I am anticipating a time in the fall when we  will have unusually high bills so I will set a larger limit on things that make meals.  If we had a seasonal job, this would be another reason for a larger limit.  I buy our food at about fifty percent off the regular prices.  I cant get that much of a return on my money from a bank.  I was getting fractions of a percent at the bank on my CD.  

 If I find a staple item and it is more than a RBP. I will buy a case.  Like when I  got enchilada sauce for a dime.  I watched for the pull dates and took what I had left to the food bank before it passed the date.  I paid  two dollars for the sauce,  I more than made my profit and can share with someone else. 

Random act of kindness.  There are a lot of things you can do to make someone else’s day better that don’t cost you a cent.  Take your good clean  paper bags to the food bank.  Call first, but our food bank is glad to get them.  We live in a city that has banned plastic bags, straws and utensils.  One day  I was shopping at Winco.  I saw a young man that you could tell was counting  his cart for the total.   He was buying  chunky soups.   I asked him how many he was buying.  He said two,   I had a capon that would make him be able to get three for the price he was paying for two,  I gave it to him.  He was so delighted he thanked me when I gave it to him and saw me later on the store and thanked me again,  I got the feeling that my random act that cost me nothing fed him for another night.  Some lady did that for me years ago.  It was at Albertsons,  she had a coupon that was for free gallon of milk if you spent fifty dollars.  I had three kids at home and fifty dollars was not a problem.   Free milk was a very  welcome surprise. 

You can eat very well on four dollars a day per person by incorporating a few age old basic principles that our great grandmothers used ,  updated. 

• Buy good  food when it is at a rock bottom price (RBP) and buy enough to cover your family for four to six weeks. This is done piecemeal, not all at once.   One can, or jar or package at a time.   
• Avoid  buying empty calories, junk food.--that stuff that is void of good food value. 
• Efficiently scratch cook. If something takes you three hours to make, you are not likely to do it on a regular basis.  We are all busy.  The internet and cookbooks are full of fast and easy cheap meals.  If something calls for a can of …..there are recipes that are easy to replicate that can .
• Rotate buying your protein sources (meat) by buying at a RBP and buying in bulk.  Break down your packages into meal sized portions and freeze.  Do your own butchering.   Its simple and doesn't take much time.  It saves a lot of money. Cook ground meat, de fat it if needed and freeze in meal sized portions.  This saves a lot of time and energy at meal time. 
• Simplify your purchases.   Avoid all the boxes of food.  They are usually full of stuff you don't need to feed your family like preservatives and anti caking agents.  Some have detergent and wood pulp.   Yes, its true.  
• Buy things in bulk when it makes sense.  A bag of flour, rice and a box of oatmeal from Costco in bulk can save hundreds of dollars in a year. Muffins cost a dollar to make.  Making your own mix means it takes a matter of a few minutes  to make--the cost ready made is as much as five dollars .  Peasant Bread costs .25 and takes ten minutes hands on time and that is spread between two days.   The cost: upwards of 2.50. Rice costs .02 a serving.   Oatmeal .085.  Beans .04 cents.

These are all random ideas that all contribute to making a four dollar a day budget happen.  

How did she do that ! 15 minute tacos.

Prep work in the kitchen is a good start.   When you make a bulk purchase of ground meat, it saves time and money if you cook the whole batch until it is no longer pink and then drain it and de-fat it.

Put the slightly cool downed meat in portion controlled quart bags.  Then out the quart bags into a gallon bag,   De-fatting hamburger is pouring hit water over drained meat in a colander .  This can reduce the fat up to 17 percent.


Taco seasoning.   Taco seasoning ing packets can cost as much as a dollar.   A few minutes can save lots and you control the heat.

1. 1/2 cup chili powder 
2. 2 tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder, oregano.
3. 1T plus 1 tsp paprika 
4. 4  T cumin
5. 4 tsp salt 
6. Pinch of red pepper flakes optional 

Store in airtight container on cool place.   

On to tacos.   When you want a meal in a hurry, tacos can be made in 15 minutes.  

• Open a can of refried beans and place in small baking dish.   Smoosh it down level and top with shredded cheese. 
• Place beans in the microwave and heat on medium for 5 minutes . 
• Meantime, get the hamburger out of the freezer and slap it on the counter a few times to break it up.  ( about 1/2 a pound for 4 people.  
• Place a small skillet on the stove .  Add a quarter cup of water and add 1T of taco seasoning,   And the meat.  Cook on low.   
• While the beans are heating, cut lettuce, tomatoes, and take shredded cheese out of the refrigerator.  
• Check the beans,   Return in high if they aren’t hot yet.   Place Taco shells on a plate  acordimg to package directions and microwave.  
• Dinner is done.   

On another note, enchalada sauce is really expensive in cans,   The exception was when o got it for ten cents a can at the DT.   I used 2.00 worth until it was close to the pull date and donat d the rest to the food bank along with a recipe of how to make sloppy joes with it,  

It is just back to the basics of white sauce recipe to make enchalada sauce.  There are a few cooking techniques that are the basic necessities of cooking scratch,   Once you master them, cooking from scratch is a breeze and you save money and avoid ingredients that aren’t good for you that you can’t pronounce,  

Enchalada sauce is a roux of flour and oil.   Add tomato sauce and chicken or vegetable stock.  Now add chilli powder and other Southwest seasonings,   Done,  it’s basically white sauce with tomato sauce   And chicken stock instead of the milk.  Add southwest seasonings. Its a lot less thick 5an a white sauce would be.  I would delete tomato paste of I didn’t have tomato sauce.   I always have chicken boullion granules or better than boullion.   Its much cheaper and doesn’t take the space of boxes or cans of chicken stock,  that is, unless I have homemade in the freezer.  

Monday Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen management is a tool that takes an hour or so out of a day, but saves a lot of tome during the sometimes hectic dinner hour. Coupled with meal plans, they save both time and money,   Both of which is in short supply in many a home.

Reminder of our meal plan:

• Chicken parm was switched, so we are having sloppy joes and corn on the cob 
• Pizza
• Taco soup
• Fried rice, dumplings 
• Pork chops. Seasoned rice, vegetable 
• Salmon patties, oven fried potatoes, vegetable 
• Breakfast for dinner

1. Wash kitchen floor, wax after finishing the prep
2. Clean the countertops  and sinks and drains, disinfect  
3. Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead. 
4. Make a note of what needs to be eaten soon  
5. Clean the dishwasher  
6. Clean the corn, 
7. Check the rice mix and replentish of necessary 
8. Scarves the potatoes with vinegar water and dry well.  Store in vented dish, 
9. Wash and prep fruit, 
10. Check budget.  Buying perishables and I my things that we need to replentish ( black olives ) 

Notes 

Corn on the cob was .33 .  It has been as much as a dollar an ear.  We have hamburger buns that need to be used up.  

No spend month : meal plans

It’s time to eat down the pantry and rotate stock.  The new crop will be coming in and the last years crop will hit the case lot sales soon.

• Chicken parm :  spaghetti, sauce, breaded chicken, parmesan cheese, green beans 
• Pizza 
• Taco soup, tortilla chips 
• Fried rice, egg rolls 
• Pork chops, seasoned rice, peas and carrots 
• Salmon patties, oven fried potatoes, peas 
• Breakfast for dinner :  egg muffins, fruit parfaits, ( blueberries, yogurt, granola layered .   

Notes : 

1. We use 1/2 a box of spaghetti and my big pricej for spaghetti is less than a dollar.  omemcan  still get Barilla for a dollar at the DT.  Use real parm, not the stuff on the green box.  You can eat on the cheap without eating cheap food.   Its good food cheap, not cheap food.   We use Foster Farms breaded chicken .   Its always good to eat local chicken .
2. Pizza is a good thing for a cheap meal,   Scratch dough is fast and cost .19.  The cost if dough in the grocery store is 1.50 to 2.00.   You still have to roll it out and fill it.   Pizza sauce is cheapest at the DT and it is a name brand.  One jar will make 5 pizzas,   Freeze it in an ice cube tray and pop the cubes out into a zip lock.   You can take a couple of cubes out while you roll the dough and they will be ready.  Or zap them  in the microwave for about 10 seconds,   Pepperoni is a dollar at the DT for 2 packages of 14.  Pat it with  a paper towel.   This isn’t 
3. rocket science, my granddaughter has been assembling pizza since she was 4 yo.   From dough to ready for the oven.   
4. Taco soup is easy in the slow cooker or insta pot.   Precooking ground meat and portion controlling it in quart freezer bags is a real time saver.   You are more likely to de fat a whole batch than you are to do it on the Herod the dinner hour,   
5. Fried rice is a good use of the chicken pieces you have in the freezer.   Again, the insta pot is a good resource, bit s frying lean works well with leftover rice. 
6. Pork chops are from the middle of a pork loin,   That makes them as low as a dollar a pound instead of 3.50.  Seasoned rice is a homemade mix with chicken granules and herbs,   
7. Salmon patties use a can of salon from Costco.   Oven fried potatoes are easy and veggies se less fat.   Anytime you can use a little olive oil instead  a lot of a hydroginated  oils is good, 
8. Breakfast for dinner is a family affair here.  Everyone participates. Sometimes it’s waffles, pancakes, occasionally  bacon, a quiche, fruit , yogurt parfaits.  We make our own granola.  That way we can control the ingredients .  Real honey, nuts, and  oatmeal that we purchase  in bulk.  

Anything that you can efficiently scratch  cook is always better than things out of  a box with few  exceptions,    There are a few things that take too much time, or cost.  It is cheaper to buy pasta sauce on sale with coupons than to make scratch.   I recently got Classico pasta sauce in a wide mouth jar I can reuse for dried herbs for .50.   That is cheaper than it cost for the jar.   

Investing in good tools if yo7 have the money and space is a good things no,  you are much more likely to scratch cook if you can efficiently scratch cook.  The insta pot is a good start,  it is a slow cooker, a rice cooker, and a pressure cooker,   The larger one makes yogurt.  I, personally am afraid of anything that I can mess up and potentially sicken my family with, so I will pass on the yogurt!. LOL  that being said, the insta pot uses  a smaller footprint than the three appliances it replaces.   And, it does the three things well.   The savings on rice and beans scratch cooked instead of ready cooked pays for the machine in no time.   I never cooked scratch beans because beans and rice have a very short refrigerator life.  They spoil quickly.  It is too much bother to cook 2 cups of beans the old fashioned way,: wash, soak, cook until done.  In the insta pot, you wash and check for any foreign things, ( like stones) , place on pot.  Add water to cover up to your second knuckle, close the lid , lush a lever to seal position, and push the bean button,  done.   Rice is just as simple.   

Simplify your ingredients , buy at RBP, always keep a 4-6 week stock.   

Four plus  one is five :  Four people, one meal, five bucks.

,