Freaky Friday, the basics.

It's finally Friday.  Last night I oven roasted potatoes, carrots and radishes and cooked sausage.  We had cheese pizza the night before.  We eat more simple on work days.

Its  that time of the month when I go over the basics of groceries on the cheap.

I started this blog when it came to my attention that some people were running out of money before they ran out of month on SNAP( food stamps). It wasn't hard to tell why when I heard what what they were eating for dinner.  The sad truth is that if you spend ten dollars for dinner and there are 30 days in the month, your three hundred dollar food allowance is spent and you don't have breakfast or lunch.  Aw, the ugliness of reality. LOL

I learned groceries of the cheap over the past 47 years. In the early 70s I found myself a single mother.  It was a time of double-digit inflation and wage and price freezes. The wage freezes held steady , but the price freezing didn't.  The reality was half of my income went for rent the other half went for daycare .  There  was very little left over. I started reading everything I could find how to eat on the cheap. I wasn't alone most of the middle class was in the same boat.  What all that was over, it became a habit to eat on the cheap. Over the years I found the new ways and new tricks. I took the best of what I found and tailored them to fit our needs.  The result is groceries on the cheap.  I feed us on less than the USDA stats for thrifty cooking.  That is the basis for snap.  They add COL adjustments.  That's why you get more in NYC than you do in some other places.

Groceries on the cheap takes a three disciplined approach to feeding the family.

• Planning and organizing 
• Strategic shopping 
• Cooking from scratch 

I'm going to try something different.  Over the next month, I will break this down and deal with one concept a day.  Every basic blog I write comes off the top of my head, please feel free to read past blogs to get different ideas, or the same ones written in a different way.  

Let's start with planning and organizing.  This is not rocket science, it's  actually pretty simple. If your not an organizational person. It is not as hard as you think. Some of it you are probably doing.  

• First, list the sources of inexpensive  protein your family will eat.  
• Now, list 7-14 meals that you can make from these sources.  Remember, this is scratch cooking.  
• Make a list of the things that you use to make these meals.  We are talking basic shelf and freezer ready items that you use on a regular basis. There is probably a list of ten or so things. In our house that would be diced tomatoes, beans, refried beans, black olives, pasta sauce, pasta, instant mashed potatoes, tuna, and some green beans and corn.  
• Start a spread sheet or small notebook and list these items, the size of the package on the top of the page.  Then create a line that has the date, store, price paid, coupon? And net price. Ie: pasta sauce, Hunts .  First  line: 1/3/14. Bartells. .79. No coupon .   The object is to find the cheapest price available for this product and how often it goes on sale.  

The main mantra here is NEVER PAY FULL PRICE FOR ANYTHING.  we are buying quantity of our staple items so that they will last until they go on sale again.  This is not hoarding. You want a three to six  months supply, depending on your situation.     If I use the item once a week, I keep 24.  If I use it once a month, I keep six.  Watch your pull dates.  Canned goods , I have been hearing
are good for some time after their pull date, pasta has an eight year shelf life.  I don't  expect the cans to last that long.  Rotate stock.  If your children are old enough, that's a good job for them.  Don't buy anything that has a pull date close to the real date unless you are going  to eat it that day.  

You are looking for half price or more.  If you can add a coupon with it, all the more sweet the deal.  

That's enough to digest for one day.  

Tomorrow: how to read a grocery ad!  

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Jane 

Aw... SNAP

I read an article on Facebook written by an nutritionist from a college.  She was clearly uninformed without logic.  She stated that the average person on SNAP had 4.50 a day to eat.  The next statement was that most of the supermarket coupons were for junk food and that was making the poor people eat unhealthy food.  Any time I read anything I ask myself, does it pass the BLT-- Basic Logic Test.

Let's get this logic.  Last I looked, a bag of potato chips was at least two dollars.  If one ate a bag of potato chips and a soda for a buck. That would leave a 1.50 for food for the day.  It is nearly impossible to buy junk food and still feed a family on three hundred dollars a month.  It is true that you can't pay the prices for designer coffee and organic everything.  The figures just don't add up.

Coupons come in all shapes and sizes.  Because they are out there, doesn't mean people have to use them.  If you can't find coupons for real food, you aren't looking in the right place.  The smart source that came with the ads has a coupon for MJB coffee and one for spaghetti.  There are coupons for basic food, you just have to look past the garbage.

Last months spread sheet showed me spending an average of fifty dollars a week for three adults.  That does not cover the food my daughter buys, but we supplement the grandbaby too.  Regardless, the figure for just my husband and myself is about 85.00 a week for the USDA thrifty plan.
We eat some processed food, I try to limit it to one day a week.  We don't eat organic,gluten free, salt free, or fat free; I do cook low fat meats, defat hamburger and sausage, and watch the sugar content of foods.

SNAP can happen.  It does take a realistic approach to food prep and purchasing.  It takes some knowledge of how to do it.  I have read everything I could find since I was in the position of having to get by on next to nothing in the sixties and seventies.  I took the BLT test on everything I read and tried things that didn't work,but in the end I have come up with a system that works.  I just wish I could reach the right people.  I cringe when I hear someone running out of money before they run out of month because they have fed their family a hamburger meal box and sugar laden fruit cups and drinks.  Reasonable nutrition can happen.  You just have to know how.

I feed us well.  I don feed us what an extreme foodie would, but I don't feed us what an extreme couponer would either. ( based on what goes on the cart on one reality show) .  I try to hit a moderate happy medium.

I use coupons for real food.  I usually save about six dollars  a week.  Six times 52 is 312 dollars a year.
That's 312 dollars that I am not wasting.  Because, when I don't take advantage of a coupon on something that I would buy anyway,I  am wasting money.  That savings does not include the coupons in the store ads.  The store ads, I feel have coupons to limit the amount that can be purchased by one individual. Otherwise,when something is a really good price,  some people would clear the shelves. Clearing the shelves is just plain rude. Even when you're stocking you should take a reasonable amount and leave the bargain for someone  else too.

It is true, you can get a real sense of accomplishment when that register receipt has a 67 percent savings at the bottom, but it is only real if you have bought real food your family will eat.

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Jane

Wicked Wednesday--the ads

I would expect that the ads will be full of game hype and expensive booze and snacks.  Probably not a day for stocking.  Let's see.... LOL

SAFEWAYS

Chicken thighs, drums, leg quarters.  .99
Nabisco snack crackers 1.50
Blue or blackberries 2/5
Dreyers 2.88
Digiorno pizza 3.99$$
Hebrew national hot dogs 2.99
Oranges .99

Salsa 3.49@@
BC cake or brownie mix .99@@

FIVE DOLLAR FRIDAYS
CHEESE PIZZA ,MTAKE N BAKE
SUBS
Green mountain k cups
C and h sugar, 10 lbs


QFC
Broccoli .99
Tillamook cheese 4.99 *****
Freshetta pizza 3.99
Cucumber .68

Top

20 beef, or turkey 2.99
Brandon cheese 4.99
Roma's .79
Dreyers ice cream 2.99
Dole salads .79@
Red Baron and Freshetta pizza 3.99

ALBERTSONS

Broccoli , cauliflower .99
Dryers 3.00

Buy 10, save 5
Yu ban coffee 6.49
Taco shells .99
Salsa 1.49
Oscar Mayer lunch meat 2.99
There is. Not enough there to stock on.  Taco shells would go stale before they would be eaten.

@@ means there is an in ad coupon.
$$ means there is a manufacturers coupon out there

I would be sure to take advantage of the Tillamook cheese for five bucks.

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Jane

Terrific Tuesday, recipe edition

OK, I've got writers block.  I have been working on St. Patricks D ay to get the product out on a reasonable time.  There's not much paper to work with, so I'm having to be very creative.

One of the ways to stretch your food dollar is to take advantage of what produce os plentiful in season.  It's usually better quality and better prices--a real win-win.
Carrots, potatoes, kale, cabbage, apples, oranges, squash.


Carrot - potato casserole

 2T butter
1T EVOO

1 T flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 t pepper
1-1/2 cups milk
Pinch of nutmeg

4 ounces grated cheese ( 1 cup)
3 cups grated potatoes- raw
1 cup grated carrots

Make a roux with the flour and butter.  Add milk in stages until you have a white sauce .  Gradually add in 1/2 cup cheese .

Combine with grated vegetables.
Place on well greased 8X8 baking pan.
Bake at 350 for an hour
Top with remaining cheese

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Jane

Monday madness

I want to talk about yesterday's shopping trip.  It takes some tenacity to make deals work.  Often the karma is not working like clockwork.  Yesterday was the ultimate work with it day.

Bartells has almonds, 6 ounce cans for 1.79.  There is a dollar coupon on the flyer on Sundays paper when you buy 2 . It is misprinted to be for 16 ounce containers.  There are no 16 ounce containers.  The coupon inserts has a coupon for .75 off of two cans of 6 ounce containers.  That makes just about a BOGO.  After some discussion, we got the almost BOGO.  Roast beef hash was on sale for 1.99, it rang 2.99.  Another discussion.

At Rite Aid, HORMEL,chili is a buck.m buy 15 of anything on the section of the ad, and get a 5 dollar up reward.  There os not much on that ad that I would buy except the chili that I had .55/2 coupons for.  I had four coupons.  they did not have 15 cans of chili.  I bought 8.  And used my coupons.  Effectively getting 8 cans , but paying for 6.  I went to another rite aid to buy the remaining 7.  Turns out, the two I got for free didn't count, so I bought 9.  I wound up paying 9.89 for 17 cans of chili.  Some of them are no beans.  I'm thinking they might be good on tacos or on baked potatoes for a loaded baked potato.  Either way, I saved about a buck a can.  More than a half price trip.
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Jane

Chicken, glorious chicken .

One of the ways you can stretch your dollar and clean the refrigerator at the same time is to make soup. My husband cooked two chickens I got for $.49 a pound at QFC yesterday. I've broke them apart into bags.  . I put one chicken breast in each of two bags. I put the dark meat in one bag and what was left in the other for soup.  This will provide many meals for five dollars worth of chicken.

Buying  in bulk and portioning you're meat in meal sized bags saves a lot of time and money.  Food is wasted because it is not all eaten and finds it's way to the back of the fridge and is forgotten.  You are not spending a lot of money on a box of something to go with your meat.  Chicken is a staple that has a stable price in the meat department. Pork and beef have both Rosen on oroce,meet with the largest percentage.  

I purchased " frugal moms guide to Once a month cooking" by Candace Anderson. While I am not in a position to cook a months worth of foods in a day, the recipes are good and jump start a menu plan. My spin on once a month cooking, is to batch cook a meat a week.  It is less taxing both on your energy and your time and gives you the benefit of scratch cooking lower cost meats , portion controlling, and speeding up dinner time.  In most homes, dinner time is the most hectic  time of the day.  Streamlining dinner can go a long way to reduce that stress.  

Ways to use chicken

Sweet and sour chicken 

Chicken pot pie

Roast chicken dinner

Chicken nuggets

Chicken quesadillas

Chicken nachos

Chicken tacos

BBQ drumsticks 

Chicken Tetrazzini

Chicken parm 

Chicken broc casserole 

Chicken Noodle soup

Chicken rice  soup

Chicken vegetable soup

Buffalo chicken  pizza

Buffalo chicken pie

Chicken pizza

The list could go on......and on..... LOL

That's all for now .  

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Jane 

Pizza pig heaven

I found an even better deal on digiorno pizza. Target has 2/9 with free 2 liter soda, and there is a coupon  in the 1/26/14. RP insert for BOGO.   I think that means that you are getting 2 pizzas, normally at least five  bucks and a bottle of soda for 4.50.

Rite aid and Fred Meyers ...early.

My husband got the paper for me--tomorrow's paper.  It has P&G  COUPONS as well as smart source.

Fred Meyers

Fryers .97 ( QFC has them for .50)
Roma's .78
Milk 4/5@
Snack crackersv3/5@
Blues 2/5
Cauliflower .99
Duel monte veggies 3/2
Kraft Mac and cheese 1.00--it's .50 at QFC
Kraft BBQ sauce 100-.79'at QFC
Fm sour cream or cream cheese .99@@
Nalley chili .89@


Rite Aid

Scope 2.99 w 1.00 up reward nets 1.99
Ragu 4/5.  Less coupon in the paper .50 nets 4/4.50 or 1.12 each.

That's about it.  Please be sure to check couponconnections.com  for any more that my appeal to you.

HORMEL chili at  Rite A id is a buck.  Coupons for .55/2

The Red plum for 1/26 has a BOGO coupon for digiorno pizza.  It's 4.49 at QFC this week when you buy six of assorted buys.  These also include Mac and cheese and water.  BBQ sauce for .79  and snack crackers.

Bartells has red vines for 5.99.  Also 1.00 off coupon for 2 blue diamond almonds.  Add to that a .75 off coupon for two in tomorrow's smart saver.










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Jane

Freakin Friday

I am late .  Had a early appointment with the physical therapist.  Went shopping afterwards.  I usually go to Big Lots for pads and Kleenex.  I got 600 sheets for 4.00.   Mandarin oranges in cups are 4/1.00.  No sugar added,  pizza crust wad 2/2.50.

Next QFC

Draper valley chicken is .50 a pound.  Kraft Mac and cheese is .50.  Not quite a comparison, but I don't choose what my grandbaby gets for lunch! LOL

I took advantage of the fresh fruit buys and pepperoni at .50 a package.  Red Baron rising crust pizza netted 2.29.  A cheap lunch!

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Jane

SNAP !

I just read an interesting Article on one persons experience trying to voluntarily live on food stamps in NYC.  I was surprised at how much she got for a week, until she listed her grocery purchases.  The prices were our full prices and some were twice what I pay.  I realize that what you get is based on what the COL is in your part of the country.

  I didn't expect to have an audience in other countries or in different parts of the USA when I started this blog. Obviously, prices at our grocery stores are different than that stores in other parts of the country.
 Clearly,access to chain grocery stores has a lot to do with the prices you pay for food and storage on NYC is probably,not an big option.  But, the majority of us do not live on NYC.  One point she made that I thought was interesting was the realization that you can't live on SNAP and afford gluten free, organic, and specialty anything.  I can eat better than she did because of stocking and having access to four chain stores, 2 warehouse stores, and some alternative stores.  The gist is, you get less money on metropolitan areas, but you have more access to cheap food if you  look for it.


I also thought it was interesting that 80 percent of Walmart employees are on SNAP.  Walmart prides  themselves on contributing to the food banks.  H E L L O!  If Walmart paid their employees a decent wage, they wouldn't need SNAP!   And,  QFC is union, does pay a decent wage in comparison, and gives  to the food bank generously.  They just don't toot their own horn!   LOL

My principles of groceries on the cheap will work, no matter where you live.  The  prices will be different. The snap allotments are different.  The principles are the same.

I have read everything I could get my hands ( or eyes) on about thrifty cooking for some 45 years.  I have analyzed the ideas, added what I learned from my mother, and took the best of what I learned and put it together using my BLT approach.  Balance and logic test.  I don't want to spend my entire waking moments on groceries and cooking.  I want a reasonably healthy diet and a balanced diet.
Don't want  to stock until I look like a hoarder.  I want a reasonable amount of food to tide us over a disaster, and enough to last us until our staple items go on sale again. The only thing I stockpile as much as possible with no limits is toothpaste.  That is because I only buy it when it is free or almost free and I save it until I get a basketful to take to the women's shelter.

The secret to saving money is not to go buy just what you need at inflated prices.  It doesn't make sense to me to pay 1.59 for something you can get for .60.  My mother would have said, better the dollar in our pockets than someone else's.

That's not to say that she was not charitable.  I remember one time I went into Rite Aid and children's underwear was on a clearance table for next to nothing.  Knowing that a grade school in the area had children coming to school with no underwear, I bought all that I could afford.  I called my mom, she bought the rest!

I am a firm believer that no child should  wake up to no food in the pantry and the basics of a normal life.  I can't save the world, but I can do all I can to help.  Knowing how to stretch a buck and feed a family good, nutritious food can go a long way to help those on SNAP make it through the month and have food in the pantry at the end of the month.  It's not hoarding to have a reasonable stockpile of staple items that you use on a regular basis that you can make a meal from .


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Jane

Terrific Thursday

The ads finally came .

QFC

oranges .68
Berries 2/5

Buy 6, save 3
Kraft ez Mac .49 net
Kleenex .99
Smoked sausage 2.49
Kraft BBQ sauce .79
Red Barron pizza 2.79

SAFEWAYS
Strawberries 2/5
Oranges .99
Brownie mix .99
Skippy peanut butter 1.99@

Five dollar Fridays
Blues - 18 oz
Flan, fruit
Salmon
Wings


ALBERTSOMS

Save 3, buy 5
Fresh express salads 2/5$$
Berries 2/5


Eggs 4/5@

Quarters buys
Yoplait .60$
Bumble bee tuna 1.00
Tomato paste .50
Tomato sauce .25

TOP
Potatoes BOGO 2.79


That's about it.  I'm not seeing much.
Sometimes,  it might be better to choose an alternative store.  We might try Winco

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Jane

Wicked Wednesday

Another week.  We didn't get the ads yesterday. Probably because of the holiday.  My mantra is never to pay full price for anything. More the most part, I try to get the best quality I can for my buck.  There are a few things that I doesn't pay to buy quality.  Disposables come to mind,then I try to buy the least amount as possible.

My daughter has decided that she will eat chicken now.  Before she was a vegetarian.  We eat a lot of Mexican recipes because we like them and it is easy to accommodate diet restrictions.  It uses beans and cheese for protein.  Tacos can be chicken or pork as well as hamburger

.  When we went for lettuce tacos for happy hour I had chicken nachos.  It had some taco chips, a lot of shredded chicken, beans and some cheese.  Cheese is full of protein and calcium.  A lot more food value than the lettuce tacos that is mostly water.  Iceberg lettuce is mostly water, very  little food value.  The darker the green, the more food value it has.  Those tacos have one tablespoon of meat, doodles of lettuce with no food value, and a very little sprinkling of a tomato and cheese.  Look hard, you might miss it.  You are getting ten carbs of taco shell, very little protein and a lot of water.  Knowing how to analyze your food and balance protein and carbs along with analyzing the fat content is a good start in providing good food on a budget.  

Ortega put out a recipe booklet a few years ago.  It had more dollar value coupons than the book cost.
I don't think I can duplicate the recipes, some of the, are really fat loaded, some are somewhat healthy.  Some are expensive, some can be adjusted to accommodate the fat content and the cost.

Bacon shrimp quesadillas.
Mexican egg rolls ( turkey, peppers, black beans, cheese )
Chicken nachos
Corn chowder
Pasta and grilled vegetable salad
Chocolate chili
Taco salad
Taco soup
Chicken  enchiladas
Shrimp tacos
Oven roasted veggie tacos
Taco rice and beans

Many good recipes.  You might find it at a garage sale or the goodwill.  I get magazines at the goodwill for fifty cents.
Any recipe you can partially cook when time is more relaxed, or comes together quick is a good recipe. Add inexpensive sources of protein and it's a great recipe.

That's all for now.

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Jane

Extreme couponing---NOT

There is always some discussion when the subject of extreme couponers comes up. The show is planned to show someone getting a zillion bucks worth of stuff for next to nothing, a zillion bucks worth of stuff is only good if you are going to use a zillion bucks worth of stuff in an appropriate period of time as to eat things before the expiration date. No one needs 93 bottles of hot sauce. LOL

When I first started writing this blog, I was of the opinion that coupons were a waste of time. I only used coupons from the store ads. I saw a few down to earth extrememcouponers videos, and went to a free extrememcouponers class with my daughter at a local church. No one is twisting your arm, you can pick and choose what you cut coupons for.
( good thing , since mine is broken at the moment. LOL)

There are two sites I go to. Coupons.com is the main site for printable coupons. A lot of others just revert you to the site anyway and some of that ask for your life's history to use them. Not my cup of tea. Each month at the first of the month, the site is loaded with new coupons. The manufacturers specify how many coupons can be printed. The high figure ones go first. I down load the ones I think I will use because they are things that I use on a regular basis. Things like yogurt, ice cream, eggs, coffee, cheese, butter, toothpaste and soap and deodorant. I can parlay the coupons for personal hoe gene products into free things for the women's shelter.

My friend saves me her coupons from the Sunday paper. I usually buy one Sunday paper at the dollar store. I place them in a binder clip for each month. Our coupon match up site on Seattle is couponconnections.com. If you google coupon matchups, ( your nearest big city) you can find the one near you, these sights are free and post the ads and the coupons, where they are, and your net out of pocket cost. After I choose my best prices from the ads, I visit th site and look up the store and see
of what's on my list is matched with a manufacturers coupon to be a really low price. Then, I go to the binder clip for that month and pull the coupon. I don't spend 40 hours a week couponing, maybe twenty minutes, but I save an average of six dollars a trip.

The bottom line, between finding the best prices., Stocking the things we use on a regular basis, (enough to last us until they go on sale again) , and scratch cooking and, not buying junk food, I feed three adults on less than the USDA stats for thrifty meals at home. Actually, almost half.

We eat well. We don't eat like we would if we were foodies or puritianists. We just eat good basic food.


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Jane

It's all in the receipt.

The matter how you look at it, your receipt is your bottom line. Whether or not you can make it on the cheap, depends on what you buy. . It's the plain and simple truth.

I am in possession of two grocery receipts. My weekly trip and someone else's. To be fair, I don't know the situation of the person buying from the specialty store. This is just all about choices.


My trip to QFC

I am dictating this because I still have a broken arm. QFC was my store of choice this week. He could have just as well have been any of the other three chain stores I frequently at times.

3 lbs cheese 10.00
1 toothpaste
2 drinks @.88
4 blueberries 5.00
2 Tillamook ice cream @3/10
1fresh strawberries 2.50
1sour cream 1.00
1 -4.5 lb chicken
10 Yoplait yogurt

Less coupons on 1.00 each for ice cream netted 2.33 ea, .50 on toothpaste netted .50 ( women's shelter )
.40 on Yoplait netted 3.60 for 10. ( .36 each)

Total 33.66 less .26 tax and .50 toothpaste is 32.90.

Receipt from the specialty store

Yogurt 2.99
Cinnamon apple sticks 2.49
Peanut butter crackers 2.69
Lentils 2@1.99
Apple sauce 2@2.99
Cooked brown rice 5.07
Guacamole 3.99
Apple juice .44
Chocolate 4.58

Total. 32.21


Almost the same in bottom line.

Rite aid and Fred Meyers ads

Here are the ads.
Rite Aid.
I am not finding any bargains at writing. There are a few exceptions. Shredded wheat , Honey bunches of O 's,  and Great Grains no Topleaf are cheaper six with a two dollar after the board. There is probably coupons out there check your coupon matching site.

Colgate our toothbrushes. Retail 6.99, three dollars in ad coupon , two dollars coupon in the paper NetPrice  is 1.99

Fred Meyers

Apple $.88
Tillamook cheese 4.99 limit two,  coupon in ad
Dryers ice cream 2/5 , coupon in ad
Di Giorno Pizza $3.99 coupon in ad
Raspberries or BlackBerries 2/5
That's about all.

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I don't know how this popped up in my blog.  We had this at Christmas.  Yum.  I'm sharing my e mail.

A Taste of Home Cooking

---

Yorkshire Pudding Posted: 17 Jan 2014 04:00 AM PST Another staple on our Christmas table is Yorkshire Pudding. I'd never heard of it before my stepdad joined our family more than 25 years ago, but it's similar to popovers - crusty on the outside and custardy on the inside. In the years when my stepgrandmother made Christmas dinner I always assumed the Yorkshire pudding was a difficult thing to make. The year I took over making dinner I was worried about getting it right. It turns out Yorkshire Pudding is very easy to make. I've never had enough beef drippings to make it with those so I just use melted butter. This year's version was especially beautiful. Yorkshire Pudding The Joy of Cooking 1 cup minus 1 tablespoon flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 eggs 1 cup milk 1/4 cup beef drippings or 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Whisk together the flour and salt in a small bowl. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and milk. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and beat until well blended. Heat a 9 x 13-inch glass baking dish in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven and add the drippings/butter, then add the batter all at once. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 15-20 minutes, until puffy and golden brown. Don't open the oven while the pudding is baking. Remove from the oven and cut into squares. Serve immediately - this is best eaten piping hot.

Today

Today  is a prime example of why I stock food. And, why I keep a certain amount of easy to cook meals already prepped. There's no way with a broken arm and a sprained foot on the opposite sides of my anatomy I could cook a scratch meal and go to the grocery store.  It really helps to be prepared.

Oops, went to the mailbox.

Oops, I went to the mailbox and twisted my ankle and fell on my arm.  Broke my elbow, they think.  Guess that's what I get for having the oddisity to go to the mailbox?,LOL

I did go to the QFC yesterday.  Lucky for me, today it would be a hardship.  I saved 51 percent between ads and coupons.  Tillamook ice cream was 3.33 and I had a dollar coupon, making it 2.33.  I did not buy the oranges because they didn't look good, and they substituted the blueberries because their shipment had a problem.  That's why I like to make meal plans after the store. I could not get more than a 4.50 pound chicken.

Yogurt for Yoplait was 10 for four dollars. In  addition I had a $.40 coupon which made it $3.60 or, basically , getting one free.  Free  is a very good word when you're trying to operate on a thrifty budget.

I didn't buy everything on the list that I posted yesterday because a lot of it we already had. I was trying to show someone  how you could start to stockup and still spend  an allotment of $75 a week or $300 a month . This senecio would leave the dark meat of the chicken and 14 cans of vegetables and beans.  After a while if you continue to stock up on the lowest priced items, your meal plans will be more varied and you will develop a stronger stockpile.  . Finding  your stock items at the lowest price affords you the opportunity to have a variety of foods and more of them.

You can start out by allocating yourself a certain amount for stocking , a certain amount for meat rotation and a certain amount for perishables. But soon you will find that you going to buy your perishables and the meat and sometimes you will buy stock  items and sometimes you won't depending on what the sales are for the week.  I keep track of how much I am spending on a spread sheet so I don't go over budget.

Yes that's all for today. Thanks for stopping by. We share. Jane

Thursday : virtual shopping trip

I'm going to do something different today. I'm going on virtual shopping trip.  Let's get started. I am also dictating this .we will  see what the reader does with auto spellcheck.  LOL.

Will start with QFC. I'll buy a

5 pound chicken at $.99 a pound.
2 lbs strawberries at 2/5
2 pkg Flour tortillas 2.00
Sour cream 1.00
Pasta, spaghetti , and elbow Mac 2.00
Frozen French fries , 4 pounds 2.00
Cheese 3/10. Three pounds, grated or solid
Pan bread 2/4, 2 loaves
Blueberries 2/5
Hillshire farm smoked sausage 2.50
Ice  cream  2.33 ( 3.33 w dollar coupon )
Yogurt 10/4 w .40 coupon is 3.60

Total 43.40 approximately, I did it in my head.

Top foods
20 cans of stock up items , 12.00
4 kidney beans
4 black beans
4 refried beans
4 cans green beans
4 cans diced tomatoes

2 lbs carrots .89
Butter 1.99

Total 14.88

Ok that's the trip.   58.00 and change.


Part of this would stock.  Assuming you haven't stocked before but have a few staples on hand, you could eat and still have food left.

I see

Bean and rice burritos.
Chicken soup and quesadas.
Chicken Alfredo with spaghetti noodles
Chicken dinner.
Sausage and bean soup
Sausage and peppers stirfry with rice.
Mac and cheese
Blueberry  waffles, yogurt parfaits,

7 dinners, Sunday breakfast and  Oatmeal. Fruit, yogurt for the rest of the week.  Leftovers for lunch.

 Assuming a 75.00 budget, you have 17.00 left to fill in the meals.

Eggs , milk ( 6.00)

Peas, rice, mixed veggies , peppers! Cookies From the dollar store ( 5.00)
Canister of oatmeal 3.00
Potatoes 3.00

Total 75.00

That's assuming you have limited things on hand and have not stocked.  By stocking, you can have a more varied meal plan, and take advantage of other things when they are on sale. The canned items are not on sale every week.
You are  going to use six of the 20 cans, leaving a stock of 14 cans.  If I didn't already have a stock, I would buy at least ten more cans.  I could do that because I already have rice, oatmeal, and pasta that I have got on sale cheaper than these prices.

This post sounds disjointed, bit it would be the way I would plan my shopping trip if I had not already stocked our shelves.

Thanks for stopping by

Please share.  You never know who you might be helping.

Jane

Elizabet rose and the simpler days.

Many years ago I designed a simple girl figure with a upbeat personality.  She's a young girl with wisdom beyond her years.  Part funky fashion designer, part smart mouthed teenager. "Life" ,she says, " was much simpler when boys had cooties and your clothes didn't have to match.  "

Her name was Elizabeth. She just came back  into my life.  I think her name,appropriately,should be Elizabeth D Rose.  

This has nothing at all to do with  groceries on the cheap, other than to say that creativity in life whether  it is on the kitchen or the studio, can enrich your live and the live of others.  That extra spice to a dish can make a big difference in cooking on the cheap.  That cinnamon on the apple pancakes , or the cumin in the taco mix can make a real difference.  

I Digress, the ads because it is Wednesday 

SAFEWAYS 

Roast 2.99

Chicken .99

Blues 2.99

Friday five dollar specials

Strawberries 2 lbs

Black Forest cake

TOP

CHUCK ROAST 2.99

Refried beans, beans,corn, green beans, diced tomatoes 10/6 note you must buy six,mix or match . 

Haggen  pasta 1.00

Pears .89

Butter 1.99@@

Carrots 2 lbs .89@@

ALBERTSONS

This was a test.  I wanted to see if it was possible  to use your carry-over coupons to make best use of the money you would save if you took advantage of their specials last week.  

Bone in pork chops 1.48

Apples .98

Snack pack .88

Hunts pasta sauce .88

Kens salad dressing 1.58$$$

QFC

Chicken 1.00

strawberries 2/5

Tillamook ice  cream 3/10$$

Mandarins 3.99

Nalleys chili 1.00

Barilla pasta 1.00

Thursday-Sunday

Yoplait 10/4$$

Blues 2/5

Colgate 1.00$$

Please note differences in prices.  $ means there's a manufactures coupon out there in cyberspace. 

@Means there's in ad  coupon.

  My picks this week would be QFC and TOP food. Top foods because of the chuck roast and the  can goods that have a good stock up price . Butter is also a good price.  

QFC is good on fresh chicken .   ice cream is a good buy with a coupon. The fries are the same good price as Freddie's had last week.  barilla  pasta is a dollar also is  Nalleys chili. Thursday to Sunday 

Yoplait yogurt is 10 for four with a  manufactures coupon out their to make it even a sweeter deal.  franz  bread is two dollars.  Along with toothpaste and there are coupons too.  

Terrific Tuesday! January 14

My daughter tagged me an article on Facebook.  Ot was titled " feed a family on 50.00 a week.,   It Basicly was the same tried and true principles that I write about all the time, Sans the stockpiling part.  .  I don't know when this  piece was written, but 1.50 a pound meat is not really realistic now.
My plan is a bit more, Basicly we eat about sixty dollars a week and I spend a little more than that, 75  on a good price week, but less other weeks. Their meal plans were not as hearty either.

Recipes are all over, everyplace you look, you can find new recipes.  Some call for ready made ingredients that can be a bit pricy , but substitutions are a good fox.  Women's magazines, the Internet, my e mail box has weekly recipes from Betty Crocker, backs of packages, even a candle I was given as a gift had a recipe on it.  Trying new recipes keeps meal times interesting.

We had taco rice skillet last night for dinner.  It was on Betty Crocker website,  Basicly taco meat, corn ( my corn had peppers and beans in it) salsa, and rice.  Top with cheese.  We added sour cream and some tortilla chips.  No box here.  No more time than using the box either.  I make my taco meat ahead and batch cook.  Ot makes dinner time less hectic.  Microwaves defrost things in a snap.  Taco meat can be banged on the counter to break up and cooked I'm the microwave for a couple of minutes for tacos, or just added to th skillet for taco rice skillet.

So far this week , we have had

• Pizza ( pepperoni was .50 at the dollar store with a coupon.  
• Blue cheese hamburgers.  
• Salmon 
• Taco rice skillet

We go out with friends in Tuesdays to a happy hour someplace.  Last week we went to the claim jumper and I had a Caesars salad and a six  inch pizza for 6.00.  Tonight we are going for all you can eat lettuce tacos for five dollars.  Personally, or would rather have three tacos with more meat on them.  I can only have three or four tacos to maintain my carb limit, and I'm not getting much cheese and meat for my five dollars.  That works for the guys that can eat 12 tacos.  LOL.  

That's 1 pork, 2 beef, 1 fish.  To complete my matrix we will need a pork or chicken and a vegetarian.  I'll count the tacos with a tablespoon of meat and a butt load of lettuce with a garnish of cheese and tomato as vegetarian ! lol.  

I'm only telling you what we eat so that you can see my thought process.  Your menus will reflect your family's taste.  Basicly, we can eat plenty of good food on our budget.  If you stock and have more momey on snap, you can add a better cut of meat every now and  then.   It's easy to spend more, having food left over at the end of the month and eating well on a more than thrifty budget is a bit harder, doable, but harder.  

I try for close to two dollars a pound ( or meal) for meat.  That's an average.  I can get sausage , ham and pork loin for that.  Chicken I can get for a buck or less.  That can offset the three dollars I have to pay for beef.  These days I pretty much am left with good hamburger and a pot roast sometimes.  As the USDA predicted, I can find ready made beef tips and BBQ pork or beef for around three dollars a pound with coupons and a sale.  I also augment the protein with cheese , rice and beans, and eggs.  

Being flexible and taking advantage of the meat you can find on sale is a way to eat well and lower you food bill.  Protein is traditionally the most expensive food group on your plate.  

Thanks for stopping by

Please share 

Jane