Freaky Friday--

My house is dirty.  My studio workbench is calling me because I have work to get out.  So, I'm going to go listen to menopause the musical and create.

It's Friday. I stock and I don't HAVE  to go to the grocery store.  It's a very free feeling.

This is going to be short and sweet .

Muffins are a great way to bake when you have the time and have something everyone can grab on their way out the door.   We would all like to have time on the morning to sit and leisurely eat a balanced, great breakfast, but reality says to me most of us grab something, or at best sit and eat a bowl of oatmeal.
Many recipe books have recipes for muffins that are full of good veggies and fruits . Make them low on sugar and with some whole wheat and you have a winning fast food.   Good food fast.  Better, cheaper, faster.

Thanks for stopping by

Please share.   There are people out there that are trying to live with what they have.  Not everyone earns a three  digit income.  I just don't seem to be finding them.   It's a novel idea these days to have food in the pantry and buy more than one thing at a time. How  many people buy packs of underwear!   Do you really buy one roll  of toilet paper at a time!  So,why is it so unusual to buy two things at .50 , rather than pay a buck for the same thing?   The show, hoarders has made people afraid to buy more than one thing so they don't get branded.   Trust me, that show is an  extreme.  Just like extreme couponing.  It makes buying more than one thing, or couponing have a bad taste in your mouth.  Ditto extreme cheapskates.  I have seen ridiculous true stories.

This is not extreme.  Moderation is the key.  I am not condoning hoarding.  I am condoning making both ends meet and not having to rely on others to get you through to the end of the month because you haven't spent wisely,  or bail you out because you only buy one day at a time and something happens that you can't get to the store or there is no store.  There are people that need to rely on the food bank and they need to.  We had people last year when our grocery store closed who had no car and no way to get to the store.   Fortunately, we do have some specialty stores on town that could pick up some of the slack--although they are more expensive.   I just didn't grow up that way, and I don't understand the new mindset.   It's not practical, it's not efficient, it's not being prepared for an emergency and it is wasteful.  Just my opinion.

Jane

Terrific Thursday

In the continuing saga of groceries on the cheap, we had breakfast for dinner last night.  It is a good way to get our vegetarian meals in the dinner matrix.   Eggs are a very cheap source of protein.   I bought cantelope n sale and added blueberries and strawberries to it.    Turkey. Acon and whole wheat toast rounds out the meal.   Turkey bacon in at the dollar store. It's a name brand.  

I precook meats, make meal plans and have a few meals in my reproire that can be made fast and easy.  It's my answer to a hectic stress free dinner time.   Slow cookers can be your best friend on a hectic night when everyone is coming in at a different time.   It is especially,nice of its a cold , rainy day and you have hot chili or soup in the pot.  

Another way is freezer meals.  There is a technique out there where you shop one day, and prep meals the next for the entire month.   It's an arduous task not for the faint at heart.   I don't have the stamina to do it.  Batch cooking os my limit.   But, I can see where some people may benefit from it.   I had a girlfriend whose husband went to national guard a weekend a month.   I can see with another person, it could be a good way to get your dinners out of the way for the month.  

There are several books out there to guide you.  I found that taste of home is the best.   I have written for that company and they are very good.  A lot of recipes that are from homemakers that are tried and true.


Turkey tetrazzini
Mexican chicken Alfredo
Chicken pot pies
Ground beef spiral bake
Southwestern casserole
Vegetable beef stew
Jalapeño chicken enchiladas
Mushroom quiche
Peanut butter and jelly waffles
Spaghetti sauce
Miniature  meat loaves.
Pizza rolls
Carnitas with orzo and peppers with red mole sauce
Ham and cheese Crepes.
Baja  pork tacos
Chicken noodle soup
Beef and vegetable soup
Hot taco pockets

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.  Of course,this can be adapted to cooking the protein ahead if time and making the rest at dinner time or prepping it on the morning or whenever your time allows.
Some of the recipes are cost prohibitive. But some can be adapted to fit a budget, or a splurge every once on a while for a special occasion can work once you are in step with groceries on the cheap.  Paying half for your staple tomes frees up some money for a few luxuries like asparagus or steak.  

We tend to get on a rut and there are so many recipes for different foods or different ways to cook the regulars that we can keep dinnerti,e fresh and not boring.   Just because you are on a limited budget, you don't have to have boring meals.   LOL

Thanks for stopping by

Please share

Jane

The ads

Here are the ads for this week.

ALBERTSONS

Grapes 1.99
Salad kits 2/5
Dreyers 2/6
Milk 2/5@@
Tillamook cheese 4.99@@***buy this

Free eggs with purchase of any special coupon item
frozen potatoes 2/5
Sour cream or cottage cheese 3/5
Most of these things are over priced on regards to the target prices.  There are a few where you can still gleam a little savings with the free eggs.  

Planters peanut butter 1.99
Just a note to explain all the peanut butter that is mentioned here.   A group I belong to collects peanut butter and a few other things for what I  affectionally call the backpack brigade.  It is a program that sends home breakfast and lunch food to children in need.  This the mention of peanut butter a lot.

SAFEWAYS

Chicken .88
BREYERS 2.99
Strawberries 2/5
Oscar Mayer lunch meat 2.99@@$$
Nalleys chili 10/10
Kens salad dressing BOGO

Five dollar Friday
Yuban
Jif  peanut butter -40 oz
Pudding cake 2/5
Cod  per pound

QFC

Ham .99
Strawberries 2/4
English muffins BOGO
Cottage cheese 1.99
Dole pineapple 1.00$$
Kleenex 1.00 each when u buy 3
Yoplait 10/5 $$


TOP
Avocados 1.00
Tillamook ice cream 2.99@@
Chicken of the sea .99@@
Brownie mix 3/5
Sugar 1.77  4 lbs@@

That's about it.  
Not much stocking items.  Chicken would be my rotating meat of choice. Fred Meyers has the best buys on produce.  They're prices are good until next Sunday when a new ad comes out.   There is a lot that is .88 to a dollar.  

Remember no one store has the best prices on everything.  You are better off going to two stores.  If the regular chains done seem to have what you need on sale, consider trekking    to Winco  or doing a Costco run.  

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


Thanks for stopping by

Please share

Jane

The ads, NOT

I have a class to give today.  I dreamed last night that I couldn't make the ink pad work!    This is my first class professionally!   LOl.

I started this blog to help people.  I'm not helping many people. I have never been a salesperson, and too many people are minimalists and can't see the forest for the trees.   There are some times when buying more than just what you need at the moment is a good thing,   Like, when you are trying to feed a family on three hundred dollars a month.   I have averaged less than three hundred dollars a month for a lot of years now.   We eat well.   I am just discusted with myself that I can't seem to make people see that I can show them how not to eat out of a box and still not spend your entire life in the grocery store or the kitchen.

If you see a recipe that says it's a ten dollar dinner, and you get your groceries for 1/2 price , you are spending five dollars for that ten dollar dinner.  That means you can eat TWICE instead of once. That, in my book, is worth a little effort.

The average family can save about four THOUSAND dollars a year.  If someone handed you a free ticket to go to Disneyland, you would probably jump at it.   Yet, saving four thousand dollars on your food bill is not enticing enough to make the effort.  

If you are one of the few people that get something out of this blog,  PLEASE share and ask others to share.   Eventually, it will hit that person that needs to stretch a buck.  With snap being cut, and food prices rising, droughts and the like. And the food bank full of people on Tuesday, I am sire there are people that need it, I just can't get to them.  

Thanks for stopping by

Please share

Jane

The basics- cooking

Yesterday we went to Fred Meyer and Walgreens.   I picked up veggies and fruit and some dairy.  Milk was in effect 2.50 per gallon.   I stopped by QFC and picked up toothpaste and pasta because I found the march 23 coypon inserts finally. I had misfiled them.   There is a .55 cent coupon for bke box barilla pasta, coupled woth the dollar price tag, that makes pasta ,725 a package and it included veggie pasta and wheat pasta.   Toothpaste was an extra large tube and it was .50.  I'm well on my way for another batch of toothpaste.   LOL.

Cooking.
Somehow, the term scratch cooking conjures up thoughts of slaving over a hot stove all day and having floor in your hair.   Maybe from the old I Love Lucy shows.  

It's really necessary NOT  to rely on ready made foods and boxes and kits.   They jack your food bill up considerably.  We discussed before that with a three hundred dollar a month budget, you need to have five dollar dinners.   The breakfast and lunch will take care of themselves.   Buying smart helps to make that happen, cooking from scratch closes the gap.  

Last night I made pasta primavera and cooked sausage on the side.   I added French bread that I put butter , parsley and parm on and toasted off under the broiler.   I usually pay anywhere from .50 to a dollar for pasta.  One time I got it for .38.   I prefer the .50 range and since pasta has a very long shelf life ( don't believe the package) it's so,etching you can stock and wait for coupons and sales.  

I do grass, dinner took less than ten minutes non passive time.  I cooked the pasta in the microwave and went about my business working in my studio.   Went back when it was done and cooked the veggies and the meat and bread.   I think what I am saying is that a good dinner does not have to take all day, or be really labor intensive.   If dinner takes all day it's because it is on the slow cooker. LOL.  

Using the slow cooker, prepping meat ahead of time, and finding recipes that are quick and easy that take raw ingredients is the key.  

If you use a matrix to plan your meals, you already know what you are going to eat six months  from now.

Grocers put meat on sale on a regular rotating basis.  Take advantage of their sales, and buy what you need to feed your family that particular meat for its designated days for a month.   In other words, of you have decided chicken is you go to for two nights a week, you need to buy enough chicken to feed your family eight times.  Bring whole chicken home. Cook it. Divide it into meal sized portions and freeze it.  Most regulR fridges have enough freeze space to hold 1 months worth of meat for a family of four.  I break down chicken into breast portions, dark meat, and bones for soup.   I get four meals out of a five  pound chicken.

Having your meat cooked makes dinner almost done.  The meat is the most time consuming part of the dinner.  Batch cooking takes less time and less clean up and you can do it when the kitchen is less hectic.

Frying meat for crumbles and taco meat at your leisure gives you the opportunity to defat the meat.  
Portion control is another advantage of the process.

Roasting off a chicken or pork loin is mostly passive cooking.  It takes a littl set up and the rest of the time you can be doing other household chores or helping kids with homework or just sot and watch the television.  

I can still find pork loin, chicken, ground beef (9 percent) sausage ( Costco).  We also have cheese and eggs that aren't  precooked and fish or tuna and clams.  All of these are an average of two dollars or so a meal.  

You can eat a variety of meals.  You can eat fresh and frozen fruits and veggies, and you can eat plenty of food on a thrifty budget.  It just takes some careful planning.  I'm not going to tell you that you can go mindlessly through the most expensive store in the city and out everything that looks good in your cart.   I, also not going to tell you that some little fairy is going to magically make food appear in your pantry and make it fly onto your dinner table every night.  You have to work at it.
After you get organized, you will find that ot takes you less time than it does now to buy and cook your food.  ( for most people) the up side is  you are never out of food and after you have been doing it for a while , you can just about skip shopping for a week altogether if you need to.  

Thanks for stopping by

Please share

Jane

This Sundays ads

Fred Meyers

Cantelope .39
Eggs 2/3@@
Milk 4/5@@
Country charm bread and buns 3/4@@
Frozen veggies .69@@
Smoked sausage @@

Tomatoes .88
Zucchini .98
Grapes 2.48
Oranges .88
Pears .88

Cream cheese .88@@
Un bleached flour 5 lbs 3/5@@
Mayo 1.99
Cottage cheese 1.99
Cr mushroom  soup 1.99$$


Walgreens

Blue diamond almonds BOGO
Sour parch 2/3
Kleenex BOGO ?
Maxwell house coffee 5.49 net with rr.  I don't know of there os a coupon or of you can use  one.
I would check with coupon matchup site.


QFC.  Ham .99

That's about all


Thanks for stopping by

Please  share


Jane

The basics.

We have talked about shopping.   Yesterday we went to QFC. And SAFEWAYS.   I bought the toilet paper for .50 at QFC.  It is really a joke, but I did pay fifty cents and it will do what I intend it to do.   The package says, 60 percent more.    I can't imagine what the rolls were like before!  These are about a third of the rolls from Costco.   My intention was to stash them just n case we run out,well have a back up until we can get to Costco.   I would be a terrible thing to runout.  LOL.  

I   also got frozen veggies, peas, corn, and stir fry veggies.   Stir fry veggies in a two pound bag in the produce department at SAFEWAYS were five dollars.   Frozen ones, 12 ounces, were a buck.   It's not exactly the same, but they both will provide a chicken stirfry meal, and both are nutritious,m frozen veggies are picked at their freshest and flash frozen.  Our fresh veggies unless you get them from the farm are several days old when you get them.  

I did pick up a cheese pizza for five bucks. Four adults ate pizza and I added a salad and some toppings for individual tastes.   Still, it was an economical meal.   I also bought sis sandwich loaves, fresh berries, sandwich meat, yogurt  to mention a few things.   I am still well under budget.   Last week I bought a batch of ground beef to cook for rotating stock.  

My husband will pick me up a Sunday paper.  I got a Rite aid ad in the coupon  section that came in the mail yesterday.   There is not much there.  I have five dollars, they have my sugar free candy on sale.  I am not finding anything to roll over my reward dollars this week.   Bumble bee tuna is 2/4 with a dollar up reward,but I did that last week, and I don't think I can do it again.  It was very good tuna. But, there is actual chunks of tuna in there. It was really good.   Again, two cans fed four adults , well within guidelines for two adults and two school aged children.   I could have used 1-1/2 cans in that case and made tuna salad sandwiches for someone's lunch.  

My goal is four plus one is five.  Four people, one meal, five bucks.  That's for dinner.  Most budgets on snap that I have found is ten dollars a day.m if you spend five on dinner, you have 2.50 for each of breakfast and lunch.  That works, but the person I talked to was spending ten dollars a day on dinner,that  unfortunately, does not work.  The way to stay on track and not run out of money is to budget individual meals, remembering that you can average costs and getting twice the amount of food by watching prices and paying half price for your staple items.   You need to average 2-3 dollars a meal for protein in order to hit the five dollar mark.   Breaking down costs helps stay on budget. Less math.  

What to do with what you got.   How do you out this stuff together.  
I'm going to think out loud , so you see the mindset.

I got stirfry veggies.  I'll add chicken cubes and rice to make stirfry.

I got peas and carrots, so I can make chicken pot pie.

There is my two chicken dishes for the week.

I bought three packages for pasta at a buck.  One of them was some that included veggies in them.  I did not have a coupon this time, but I like barilla.   White fiber is good and often the same price as regular.   Mac and cheese with tomato pasta.   I got a medley of cheeses at grocery outlet last week for a good price.  

I got eggs last week for 1.67 a dozen, I see a quiche on our future.

That's our two vegetarian.  

Tacos are from the taco meat that I put up when I batch cooked hamburger at 2.99 for nine percent hamburger, or burritos .  

There was a piece of steak on managers special for 4.00.  We can have steak broiled and sliced thin and baked potatoes.  

That's our two beef.  

Cod was on a five dollar special at SAFEWAYS.   We can have pesto encrusted cod and glazed carrots, and rice cooked with some chicken stock and some red peppers.  I got red peppers on a bag last week .  

That's a weeks worth of meals using a matrix.

2 beef
2 chicken or pork
2 vegetarian
1 fish

Make meal plans.  You don't have to stick to the plans religiously, but have a plan.  It is too easy to fall into the take out trap if your tired and don't have a plan.


Thanks for stopping by

Please share

Jane

Shopping day

Since is is shopping day for us, I thought I would expand on shopping.  Fortunately, I have a stock built,because there is it a lot of things on sale  this week.  If you have a stock built,then you have the luxury of picking and choosing the weeks you spend more money on food.   Spending the same amount buying the same things week after week, you can be caught with no money left when there IS a big sale.

Always try to match sales with coupons.  Cold cereal, pasta, toothpaste, deodorant, yogurt, are notorious for having a coupon out there. There are coupons you can print on the Internet, and no, I have never heard of anyone that got pop ups or other garbage from the download of drivers on coupons.com.  There are a lot of web sites out there, but they most generally still go back to coupons,com's  data base.

The dollar store  has Sundays papers on Sarurday and the rest of the week.   Make sure of you get it on Saturday  that you are getting the correct weeks paper.  The first week of the month there are p and g inserts and smart source, and red plum.  Also, there are red plums on the oater with the ads we get in the mail.  I file them by month in file folders.   When I find a matchup, I go to at month and pull the coupon.   I keep a binder with dividers for the basic food groups with photo sleeves in it.  The computer printable coupons go on there along with any regular coupons that I have pulled because I am going to use them.  I put them, in the front pouch if the binder.  I got the binder for a buck at a flea market.  The dividers at the dollar store.  Thos doesn't have to cost money , bit it saves at least sox dollars a week.  That's over three hundred dollars a year.  That is what a lot of people get for a months worth of groceries,   That's more than a months pension check for us.  In perspective, that's a lot of money for a lot of people.

Nothing is a bargain if you aren't going to use it.  I don't "buy" anything even of ot is free that I either am going to use, or is know specifically where I can take ot where it will be wanted.   I got baby food a couple of weeks ago for free.   I took it to the food bank.  I get toothpaste for free when it can.  It goes twice a year to the women's shelter.   I can think of at least half a dozen other places in the area where toothpaste would probably be welcome.  It is a necessity item, and you can't buy it with snap.

This  is  not extreme couponing.  This  blog isn't  extreme anything.  I tend to hit middle of the road in just about everything. It has served me well.

Shopping wisely and buying just what you will eat in perishables and stocking staple items can cut your food bill in half.  I know the mindset out there that if ot costs money, it doesn't save anything.  But, of you pay 1.50 for something that you need and it's .50 on sale, you have spent - dollar less than you would have if you paid full price.  That dollar is still in your bank account or on your EBT card.
If you never had that dollar on the forst place, it just means you eat well on what you do have and you don't have an empty cupboard at the end of the month.

No child should have to suffer the insecurity of having no food in the pantry.  And, no child should have top ramen and potato chips for dinner.  I can't feed the entire population.  But, I can inform people how to get more bang for their buck, and how to put nutritious meals on the table with what they have.  If I can feed us on less than the USDA statistics for thrifty food at home, others  can too.
It takes some effort.  I can only relate to the food prices in the Pacific Northwest.  I have heard we were more expensive, and I have heard that we are cheaper than other parts of the country.  The concepts don't change.  The methodology doesn't change.  The prices change, but then so does the snap allotment and the wages.   It's all realitive.

That's all I have time for.

Please share.  I'd like to reach as many people as I can.

Jane

Beer bread

Beer bread

3 cups bisquick
1/3 cup sugar
1 can beer

1/4 cup butter, melted.

Heat oven to 375 degrees
Grease bottom of loaf pan
Mix bisquick, sugar and beer.  Do not over mix
Pour onto prepared pan
Melt butter and pour over top of bread.
Bake 45-55 minutes

Thursday - revisit the basics

Groceries on the cheap takes a new, or not so new, approach to grocery shopping.   I say not so new because it is a variation of how my mother shopped many years ago.

First, some background.   I was a single parent on the early seventies when we had double digit inflation.  I rarely got child support and childcare took most of one bi weekly paycheck, and my rent took the other.   There was little left. I started reading everything I could find on economy groceries.  I augmented what I learned from my mother.   Through the years, I have continued to read everything I could and came up with a plan that works.  I spend 1/2 the national average for food.  I also spend about half the USDA stats for our family for thrifty cooking.    We still eat well.  We are not on SNAP, but of could feed us on the SNAP allotment.

I started this blog when it was brought to my attention that people were running out of money before they ran out of month on snap.  Now, with snap cuts and grocery prices rising, it is even more important to get a handle on grocery shopping.   I have found that I am not reaching a lot of people on snap, but, rather people that gleam what they want from the blog.


Groceries on the cheap takes a multi-disciplined   approach to grocery shopping.

• Planning and organizing 
• Smart shopping 
• Cooking from scratch

First, planning and organizing.  

1. Identify the inexpensive sources of protein your family will eat.  In our house it is eggs, cheese, beans, rice chicken, beef, and pork.  Our choices for beef and pork are limited, but I can still find cuts for around two dollars a pound, my target price.  
2. List 7-14 main dishes that use these proteins that your family will eat.   
3. Now, make a list of the  shelf ready or freezer ingredients that you will use to prepare your meals.  Remember, no boxed meals or ready mades here.  In our house that would be pasta, pasta sauce, green beans, beans, canned diced tomatoes, tuna, instant mashed potatoes, some canned chili.  
4. Now, set up a method to track the prices of these things.  Either use a spread sheet or a small notebook.  List the name of the product, size  of container as a header.  Then the date purchased, where purchased, and amount you paid,made a coupon of you used one.  

Stores run on a 8-12 week cycle for sales.  The object of this exercise is to never pay FULL price for anything.  You want to find the RBP ( rock bottom price) for your staples and only buy them when they are that price.  I keep a three to six month supply.  Now that I am established, I can glance at the shelf in the pantry and tell just how much we need of a particular food.   When the shelf is showing white, I start looking for a sale.  This is about thrift and being prepared.  This is NOT about hoarding.  

Its not unlike  our grandmothers that put food up for the winter on the farm.   

Another way to look at it, is that like people that play the stock market, you are buying low, and eating when food is high prices.   

Cooking or eating on a limited or thrifty budget doesn't have a lot of room for ready mades and box kits for meals.  You are paying greatly for someone else's labor.  My daughter tho rally investigated a hamburger meal box.  It was a real eye opener.  Since them, they have Re invented the box and I haven't ventured down that road yet.  Deli chicken is a big rip off.  It takes ten minutes to prep a chicken for the oven.  The rest of the cooking is passive cooking where you can do other things.  

You can scratch cook in an efficient manner and spend not much more time than you do using the expensive counterparts and eat a lot more healthy.   If you spend more time shopping, and less time cooking, your budget will be better off.  Now, that being said, if you enjoy spending all day in the kitchen and have the time, good.  I love a home cooked meal, cooked with love.  But, most of us are time crunched.  

Planning your grocery trip is vital.  You will save a lot of money.  When the grocery ads come out, take a piece of computer paper and divide it in quarters.   Head each quarter with the name of a grocery store you have an ad for.  Now, write down every meat on your target list that is a good price.  You are looking for an average of two dollars a pound.   Then wrote the best buys on oeroshables, produce and dairy.  Now staples, you are looking for RBP.   

Pick the best two stores.  Plan your trip. Check the coupon matching site in your area formcoupn match ups.  Take the ads, your coupon book, and your list.  Shopping two stores gloves you the best produce selection, and the best buys.  

Plan the car ride  to use the least gas, and or group your trip with other errands.  I bring a cooler.  With our stores charging for bags, I bring the soft sided cooler onto the store.  It's a lot more efficient,  

Not having to transfer the frozen or refrigerator items.  I also bring sacks in when I can remember.  

Get in a  store, and get out.  Try to shop at the same chain store you are familiar with.  It saves time.m the longer you spend in a store , the more money you will spend.  We tend to buy the same type of thing.  You're not going to change that, you are just going to buy more for the same amount of money.  

There is not much difference on your pocket book of you buy sox cans of green beans for three dollars, or if you buy two cans at 1.59 each for the same cans.  The difference is that you eat six  times, not two.  

 I shop two chain stores a week, usually.  I also shop the warehouse store about once every month to six weeks, and the overstock stores when we are in the area.  The bakery outlet and Winco are also on a eight week rotation.  Don't overlook the drug stores.  With rewards and careful planning, you can get necessities for really good prices.  Plan your trip and don't impulse buy. Impulse buys account for about 70 percent  of a stores sales.  They are also a way to jack up the amount you spend in a hurry.  If it's not a real necessity ,don't buy it.  Being cute is,not a necessity.  LOL.  Now, chocolate, maybe LOL.  I never pay for toothpaste or deodorant.  I hear that you don't have to pay for soap or toilet paper either, but I haven't mastered  that. 

Use coupons when they make sense.  Don't buy anything just because you have a coupon for it.  Even of it is free.  Of I can't use it, or know somebody that can, I don't buy it.  I got baby food for free a couple of weeks ago.  I took it to the food bank.  I am sure that there is a least one baby out there that needs it.  

I buy a Sunday paper from the dollar store.  My friend sometimes brings me her inserts.  I file them by month in a file.  I get the on line printable coupons from coupons.com.  Get them at the first of the month. Download  the ones that you think you will use.  There is a limit of two coupons per computer.  Be kind, and only download the ones you will use.  The manufacturers set limits on how many can be downloaded.  There are coupons for toothpaste, deodorant, toilet paper, yogurt, coffee, and other things that are not junk food or ready made high priced things.  I have been downloading HORMEL sirloin tips coupons.  With sales, I can get them for less than the cost of the meat at beef prices.   I have yet to find a piece of fat in them.  

I think what I am staying is to be diligent with your shopping.  Avoid ready mades unless they are cheaper than making the product yourself.  It is not time consuming to make sirloin tips.  But at three dollars a pound for the ready made and 3.50 or higher for the tips, it doesn't make much sense.  Especially,when there are times when having dinner ready on six minutes os a real asset and it keeps you away from ordering pizza or going for take out.   

That's about all I can do today. Tomorrow, we will get into depth on some area.  Please feel free to comment on what you would like more info on.  And please share, especially of you know someone that is having a rough  time with their budget.  

Thanks for stopping by

Jane 

Wicked Wednesday

It's time for the ads.  

TOP
Strawberries 3.98
Oranges 4 lb 3.49@@
Tuna 2/1@@
Nalley chili .99@@

QFC
Chuck roast. BOGO nets 3.50
Strawberries 2/4
Tomatoes .99
Ice cream 2/5

10/10 deal

Ben and Jerry's ice cream
Barilla pasta
Kroger vegetables
Canned chicken
Colgate toothpaste (check for coupons. )
Jello


SAFEWAYS

Milk 2.99
Green mountain coffee cups 5.99 ( ck coupons)
Ice cream 2.99
Yoplait 10/5$$

5 dollar Friday
Pizza
Angel soft / 12 dbl rolls
Granola bars 3/5 ( ck coupons )
Olive oil


Chicken legs, thighs .99
Pudding cups 1.00  ( backpack alert)


ALBERTSONS

GM BUYS
CEREAL 1.88 $$
Betty Crocker potatoes 1.00$$
BREYERS 2.99
Skippy 1.99

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Jane

$$ manufacturer coupons likely
@@ with a in ad coupon

Yesterday

Yesterday was my husband and My anniversary. I had a card party  with some friends in the morning, took some toothpaste to the women's shelter, and. We went out to the red lobster for dinner.  We had gift cards.   Dinner was 85.00 with a tip.   That's more than I spend for all of us for a week for food.  !  
What a treat and it tasted so oo  good.  

I found an All You magazine  at Fred Meyers.  It is supposed to have a lot of coupons in it.  It  did have a lot of recipes and ideas for picking the right clothes for your figure type.  Ways to save money period. A darling recipe for an Easter cake with peeps.     But, as far as coupons go, there was one where if you buy rolls and turkey bacon, you can have free eggs.  That's about it for anything I would buy.

My rotating meat of choice this week was 9 percent hamburger.  I still have taco meat, so I made meat loaf  and crumbles.

Today is the day to download coupons at coupons.com.  Some manufacturers limit the amount of high monetary value coupons, so it pays to get them early.  

Between ALBERTSONS and Fred Meyers, we got a lot of fruit and veggies.  There are storage solutions that stretch e life of your fruits and veggies.  Basically, they give off a gas while ripening.  If you can let that gas escape instead of sitting in it's container, you have less spoilage.  Tupperware has boxes and Debbie  Meyer has bags and boxes and there is a product that my daughter bought for me that sits in the veggie drawer.  

Dinner last night was a little steak and a lobster tail, green beans, mashed potatoes with roasted tomatoes on them, and cheese biscuits.  The best cheese biscuits I have ever eaten.   I skipped most of the mashed potatoes, they were really good, but they are  carbs and I try to stay within my limit.

I read an interesting article that said the gluten free is not the best for you because it adds sugar and other things to compensate for the lack of gluten.  I have heard the same thing about processed foods that are fat free or reduced fat.  There was also some concern that people that truly didn't need to be gluten free were just doing so to be in with the crowd.  ( especially young people) .  If you are truly in need of a gluten free diet, fine.  But if you just want to be, you are probably better off eating real food.  Unless something is naturally fat free, or lower in fat ( 9 percent hamburger comes to mind) , you are better off just eating it on moderation or not at all.
We pick low fat cuts of meat.   Sometimes, a little bit of something for flavor is better than eating it all.  Like a slice of bacon in potato salad instead of four slices with breakfast.   LOl

Last week I found chopped onion on a bag in the freezer section for a dollar.  At the price of onions I saw at the store this week. It is an cheaper alternative and saves time too.  Lemon juice in a bottle has always. Even cheaper than fresh squeezed.  I have not found bagged lemons ( my preference) for a while now, and single lemons are what my mother used to call " higher than the $&@$ on a giraffe.
LOL

I'm closing, remember another of my moms expressions.  Some people wouldn't know a bargain if it got up and bit them in the butt.  Don't be that person. The easiest and best thing you can do to lower your food bill is to KNOW YOUR PRICES.  You don't have to know all the prices in the store. But, know the prices of the items you buy on a regular basis.  Buy a reasonable quantity and stock a reasonable quantity when they are at their RBP.  Try to not buy them again until they are in sale for a good price again.  Most stores go on a 8-12 week cycle. I have a section of shelf for each thing and a section of the freezer for each type of thing.   I can know at a glance what we are short of and look for a sale.   It takes a while to build a stock. But little by little you can do it.

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Jane

Rite aid saga

Last week I bought baby food for five  bucks using a dollar reward and got six dollar reward back.
This week, I took the six dollar reward, bought four  cans of albacore tuna, a pair of jean leggings and spent 16.50 and got five dollars rewards.

6 dollars worth if baby food
8 dollars worth of tuna
16 dollars worth of leggings.
30.00 worth of product.

Spent 16.50 OOP.

45  percent savings.

Sunday ads

 Fred Meyers

Broccoli .78
Triscuits  3/5 @@
Coffee , FOLGERS 5.99@@
Ground turkey 2/7@@
Barilla 1.00 - look for coupon

Peanut butter 1.88

Veggies 2/1 limit 6@@

Sour cream or cream cheese 1.00


Rite aid has decoded not to put theor ads in the Sunday paper.  I went on line.   Electric toothbrush nets a buck with coupons.   Pantene shampoo nets 1.50 again with a coupon.  Bumble bee good tuna is 1.50 with up rewards.

Walgreens
Puffs tissue is a buck




Today's dinner made easy from Betty Crocker has strawberry cream cheese cupcakes.   Cream cheese os a buck at Fred Meyers and it uses preserves, so you could actually sub blueberry or raspberry too.  
Yum!  


That's about all.

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Jane.

Post freaky Friday

Ok, I did  shop yesterday.  All in  all, I got a lot of very good buys and used coupons for REAL food. I heat so much that coupons are just for junk food and you can do better using store brands.   I used to think that too.  But, I am finding coupons for lettuce, eggs, yogurt, whole wheat pasta, solid albacore tuna, and sirloin tips.   I stand corrected.   I saved sixty percent at ALBERTSONS. Many veggies and fruit were a buck.  Apples were a buck a pound and of you bought the sack, it was three more dollars off.   I passed on the dollar a carrot organic carrots. LOL.  Grocery outlet and SAFEWAYS I saved almost as much as I spent.

I will be batch cooking hamburger and I picked up a mix of cheeses at grocery outlet so we will have Mac and cheese this week.   I love being able to cook once and have everyone eat.

My basis for groceries on the cheap is three hundred dollars a month. That is the average I am finding for snap.   We have three adults and a baby on the family.  My daughter supplements for her and the baby, but we still provide the regular food.  I would equate that to three adults. My average for the last 12 months is 67.00 a week.    We stock.  We didn't eat 67.00 a week.   The USDA stats for my husband and I is 83.00 a week for a thrifty diet.

It's not hard to spend more money on food.  I feel that if I show how to do it at rock bottom, it will cover everyone's senecio and one can always add a more expensive cut of meat.   Bottom line, it is silly to spend twice the price for the same thing because you can't wait for a sale.

Planning your trip and shopping from the ads can save you time on the stores and a lot of money.  I had already planned my trip yesterday.m I knew that ALBERTSONS had blackberries for a buck and SAFEWAYS had strawberries for 1.50.  I try to keep a lot of fresh fruit around.  It is healthier than the cookies I picked up from grocery outlet.   A treat is always nice too.   Balance.....moderation.
Go over the ads, pick the best two stores, and shop.  Get in and get out.  The more time you spend on a store, the more money you will spend.   Don't go to the store hungry, your willpower wains.
There are some weeks lately that I can't see enough at any store to warrant the trip.   Then I wait and see of Fred Meyer has any better.   Even though Fred Meyers and QFC are both Kroger, prices are not the same.   I had forgot my coupon book when we went to Fred Meyers.  Good thing , because the same thing was at QFC for a do,lar cheaper.  Add my dollar coupon and I saved two dollars.   That made real beef ( not ground) 2.99 a pound.   I am to the point  this  week, that we shouldn't have to shop next week. I probably will only go for bread and milk and I do have yeast so I can make bread if I had time.

I am an antique dealer, work 2 days a week, teach card making, write this blog, belong to a women's group, and keep house and care for my granddaughter.  I don't spend my whole day shopping or planning my trips.  Once you get it under control, its actually faster and more efficient to plan your trip and shop two stores.  

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Jane

Freaky Friday

It's Friday. I'm over budget this month by two bucks.   I have been under budget the last sox months by about nine  bucks a week.   I think proces of produce has contributed to it.  I have been sticking pretty close to two dollars a pound for meat ( average) and have pretty much stayed to the target prices on staples.   That leaves the veggies.  

Staying in track with your budget is a matter of knowing what prices you are going to pay and staying on your range and portion controlling your protein.   I do that by rotating the meat purchases based on the sales.  One meat usually per week, buy as much as you are going to eat in a month, and cook and   portion control it in freezer bags.  

This week it's  ground beef because it is 2.99 for 9 percent hamburger.   Last week chicken was .80 a pound.  I cooked about ten pounds.   Whole chickens are cheaper than parts usually.   When I can find grill packs , I debone the breasts and cook the rest for shredded chicken.  Good on tacos or BBQ chicken sandwiches.

Paying 1/2 price for food means you can have more food and stocking assures that you never have an empty pantry.  

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Jane

Ps
Rite Aid has baby food for free until Next Sunday.  Even of you don't have a baby, it is a nice thing to buy it and take it to the food bank.   I can just about guess that there will be a mother with a baby that really needs the food.

Terrific Thursday- what to do with what you got

It's probably no secret that one of the stores of choice this week is ALBERTSONS.   I did go to QFC last night because I had to pick up meds for my husband.   

I bought a blueberry pie , cheaper than buying the blueberries  and two BBQ beef tubs because I had coupons and they were 2.99 a pound.   Beef is so expensive that 2.99 a pound is more than realistic price.   Normally, scratch cooking is cheaper and better for you.   Strawberries were good, and salad was on sale. 

Frozen Mac and cheese is .50 at ALBERTSONS. There  are coupons that net it .30.   That's about ot for ready mades.  We buy a few when they are cheaper than scratch. 

Now would be the time to stock tomato paste, frozen juice (1.00'and 100 percent juice ) tomato sauce. Taco seasoning is never a bargain at a dollar! There are lots of fruits and veggies for a buck at ALBERTSONS.  Skip the organic carrots at a buck a piece!    Wash and peel your carrots instead.   

Hamburger is 3.99 with a coupon,   CHEAPER at SAFEWAYS.  

We did chicken for a rotation meat  last week. I also picked up sausage cheap.  This week it should be hamburger.   I make meatballs, crumbles, meatloaf and taco meat.   Ot os the hardest of the a meat rotation, but of you are averaging the time, it's still really manageable.   

Beans and tomatoes are .80 at TOP.  That's higher than my target price.  I, however,haven't found them cheaper lately,except at Fred Meyers a couple of weeks ago and they were on a coupon with a limit. I did see them before and suspect that they will show up on a rotation like the milk does.  

My meat (protein) matrix is 

2 beef

2 pork or chicken 

2 vegetarian 

1 fish or shellfish 

I have BBQ beef and hamburger this week for the rotation ( 3.00 lb) 

Last week was chicken at .80 a pound.  

Pork loin was 1.79 a few weeks ago, and sausage was 3.33.  

Eggs were  1.67 last week, and cheese was 2.50 a pound last week at FM.   

Average less than 2.00 per meal for protein.   That makes for a very believable five dollar dinner.   ( that's five dollars for a proverbial family of two adults and 2 school aged children total, not PER plate.  

Now that vegetable are coming down on price at least for now, it is still very believable to put healthy dishes on the table.  The term healthy is realitive.  We are not eating ding dongs and .28 cent a pound mystery chicken; we are also not eating strawberries that were grown in water from Mars or five dollar a gallon milk.   We are eating low fat, sugar, and salt.   I defat anything I can defat and buy lean cuts of meat ( 9 percent hamburger) . 

 It's a realistic healthy on a low income budget.   I'm not convinced that all the hype about our food supply is worth the expense if I did have the money.  What was healthy eating back in the day, is considered terrible eating now.  I am convinced that eating a low fat, salt and sugar diet and eating a variety of foods in moderation is a good plan  on a limited budget.   Moderation  is the key.   

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Jane 

Wicked Wednesday

The ads are here.

Baby food is still free at rite aid until next Sunday, if you don't have a baby, please think about the recipients of the food bank.  I got applesauce.

Coupons for tuna and zap ems  and cereal are good nets. The tuna is for sold albacore, and the cereal can net  .99 when you buy milk.    Zap ems are a net of .30.  

ALBERTSONS

ALBERTSONS has theor quarters sale on again along woth a dollar sale.

Roma tomatoes  1.00
Blackberries 1.00
Carrots 1.00 EACH  ... NOT
Oranges 1.00 lb
Apples 1.00
Eng cukes 1.00
Bean sprouts 1.00
Salad 1.00

Small tomato sauce .25

QFC

Strawberries 2/4
Tillamook ice cream 3/10
Oranges .99
Pears .99
Pie 2.99

Buy 5, save 5
Freshetta net 3.99
Pasta sauce .99
K cups 4.99

Check for coypon matchups for the   B5 S 5

SAFEWAYS

Ground beef 2.99 for 10 percent fat
Strawberries 2/3

Five dollar Fridays
Blues 2/5
Salsa 3/5 - check for coupons

TOP

top round roast 3.49
Lettuce BOGO

Beans, tomatoes 10/8. Note this more than my target, but I'm not seeing less except for fm with a limit was .50 a couple of weeks ago.

Butter 2/5

That's about it.

There is no one store that gets out and grabs me as the best store.   Since we have found pork and chicken cheap lately, I am left with hamburger.  It is 2.99 at SAFEWAYS for ground beef ( 10 percent) or 3.49 for roast at top to grind your own,

If I was short on beans and tomatoes I would go for some of the .80 at top.   I was only short black beans and stocked at .50 at Freddie's.   Tomato sauce and oaste are really cheap at ALBERTSONS.  I used tomato paste for the pizzas and added herbs the other night when we had individual pizzas. It was cheaper than opening a large can of tomato or pasta sauce.


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Jane

Pesto,

Yesterday we went to ALBERTSONS. We needed a monthly egg run.  I found some stew beef that was reasonably priced for beef, that is these days.

We had make your own pizzas last night.  My daughter had purchSed a jar of pesto at Costco.  Really expensive.  I remember posting a chicken pesto penne recipe back a while.  I found another recipe for inexpensive pesto.   My husband is not too anamoired with pesto, but the rest of us are.


PESTO

2 cups fresh spinach leaves
1/2 cup basil leaves ( fresh)
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 t olive oil
Pinch of salt
2 tsp minced garlic

Process in food processor or blender.  


Use it on salmon or other fish, on pasta, in a chicken or turkey panini.   Or ??????

Sometimes a little splurge will wake up a tired  menu  even on a limited budget.  Pesto is easy to make from scratch.  You can use just about any green herb, olive oil, and nuts  to make pesto.  You can buy small packages of nuts at the dollar store.

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Jane

Monday Madness

We did go to Fred Meyers yesterday,  I loaded up on. Veggies and fruit.  Coffee and some sausage.  That gives me sausage, chicken, and cheese for a start on Aprils meat.   I already have hamburger in the freezer.   Eggs are on a cohpon for 3/5 at ALBERTSONS.  

We also went to Rite aid.  We had a dollar up reward loaded.   I purchased four baby foods for sox dollars and got a sox dollar up reward loaded to our card.  My husband bought beer.  I'll take the baby food to the food bank tomorrow.   

Even with a slow week sale wise, you can still eat well for less.  It helps that you have stocked when other things were on a good sale.  

What to do with what you got.   

I roasted two chickens yesterday. I used both ovens because I haven't had good luck with two chickens in the small oven.  They took forever to get done and I wound up finishing them off  in the Microwave.   I separate them into breast portions.mdark meat and soup bones. 

I got two individual packages of pizza crusts, like bomb oil and we can have make your own pizzas. We like buffalo chicken  pizza.  

Chicken pot pie continues to be a favorite here.  

Sausage is good with potatoes and peppers.  

Friday night  we had fish and chips and Saturday night we had Mac and cheese with mixed veggies.  

I will probably round thos out with tacos and spaghetti with meat balls.   

My usual matrix for meals is 

2 beef

2 pork or chicken 

2 vegetarian

1 fish

I digress.  Let's take this from the top.   By using stair step and precooking techniques, meals can be varied, inexpensive, and not a lot of work for the cook.  

• Friday/ we had fish and chips and coleslaw.  
• Saturday/ Mac and cheese with veggies / strawberries.  Shell macaroni ( .50) basil recipe starter ( free w coupon at dollar tree) pesto grated cheese ( grocery outlet) broccolli ( 1.00 a pound) melt the cheese in the recipe starter on top of the stove on medium heat in a saucepan.  Add to cooked and drained Mac and place on baking dish with par boiled broccoli.   Top with more cheese and bake until heated through.  
• Sunday/ roast chicken ( roast two and separate into breast portions for dinners, legs and thighs, and soup bones.  ) make three cups rice) strawberries  and mixed veggies.   ( chicken .79 lb, ) 
• Monday/ buffalo chicken pizzas.  Pizza crusts ( dollar store) ranch dressing, chicken pieces with Tabasco or heat to your choice ) blue cheese and motts, sliced olives ( .50 ALBERTSONS)  lettuce salad with tomato ( Fred Meyers ) 
• Tuesday/ bean and rice burritos.  Lettuce salad (last night.  ) rice from Sunday.  Beans .50 Fred Meyers) 
• Wednesday/ tacos , refried beans. Rice with salsa, lettuce and tomato.   
• Thursday/ meatballs and spaghetti.  Fruit cup with mixed berries and grapes.  

There is a week.  Most of it  was precooked, meatballs, taco meat, chicken, rice.  Cheese was 4.99 for two pounds at Fred Meyer.  Peppers were on sale as well.  Chop remaining peppers and freeze.  Peppers can be added to pizza.   Last week, Fred Meyers had tomatoes or beans for .50 on an ad coupon. Pasta  can almost always be had for less than a buck a pound with coupons.  Barilla is on coupon in Sundays paper.  Match it up with a sale.   I have found that you will eat less pasta and pizza dough of you fill the top of it  with a lot of meat and veggies.   I have a recipe for pizza dough on an earlier post.  It is made in the food processor and quick, but not as quick as premade.  Of course, if you have time, it tastes a whole lot better. 

Stair stepping and precooking meat makes meal time easier and takes no more time than eating out of a box.  I tend to cook things  that I can make that will satisfy our very diversified family of tastes.  I dont want to , nor will I cook three separate meals.   

My Fred Meyer trip is on Facebook under janes groceries on the cheap.  You will probably notice that  I bought a lot of fruits and veggies and things that are not on the meal plan for this week.  Buying what is on sale and rotating meats affords you a variety of food without laying top dollar for so,e things on your plate.   

The main object of groceries on the cheap is to NEVER PAY FULL PRICE for your food.  Sometimes that is impossible, but like the old saying save the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves, if you concentrate on the core items on your target list, you should be ok.  Don't forget you aren't going to buy ready mades and junk food and trying to buy from extreme grocery stores will he shooting yourself in the  foot.   

Divide your monthly budget by 4.2.  That is your weekly allotment.  If you spend more one week because there are good sales, then you have to spend less the following week or visa versa.   Have a good idea of how much you are spending on the food groups. Map it out on paper of you need to.   

That way, you won't spend too much at the beginning of the month, and run out before the month is up.   You want to wind up with five dollar dinners.  It is truly believable, but not of you buy ten dollar a pound ground  beef  that comes from mars.   Do the math   You don't have to do it all the time.  Just get a feel for what prices you are paying and how they relate to a five dollar  budget.  

I am operating on the lowest budget I can .  If you get more money, or your family os a different size, you will need to adjust accodingly.  I am working in the Pacific Northwest.  Prices vary from state to state, and so do the snap allotments and wages.  I suspect that some prices are lower, and some are higher.   The basics are the same.  The prices will be different.   

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Jane