Sunday, the ads

Fred Meyers

Strawberries. 1.88
Triskit crackers 3/5@@
Milk 4/5@@
"Bread 3/4@@
Pasta sauce .79@@
Smoked sausage 2.99@@
Jif 2/4
Yoplait 10/5
Frozenotatoes 3/5
Cherries 2,99
Peaches 1.99
Cucumbers, radishes 2/1
Green beans 1.49


Walgreens

Paper folders .10
Clams .89@@
Olives .89@@
Milk 2.49
Optic white toothpaste, with register rewards and coupon on Sundays paper is .50.


That's about it.

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Please share

Jane

Suddenly Saturday-- getting dinner in the table.

There are many ways to save time and energy getting food din the table.   The one basic concept that works the best for me is to batch cook whatever protein that is the best special of the week.  The meats vary , but usually bought in bulk saves a lot of time and money.

You are buying the "meat " at rock bottom prices, cooking it once, amd portion controlling it onto batches just big enou for a nights meal.   There is no waste and you have saved labor and energy cooking it.

Stair stepping ingredients for meals helps a lot too.   Making a double batch if rice so that you split it and have Spanish rice with tacos, and rice under a stirfry the next day.   Roce and beans have a short fridge life, so don't hold them too long.

The crockpot is your best friend,   The is something  very therapeutic about coming home to dinner cooked.  I imagine the smell is glorious.   Simplest pot roast ever. Put  pot roast in the crockpot.   Slice a peeled onion and out on top. Salt and pepper.  Pour a beer over top.  Add enough beef stock or water to almost cover.   Set on low for 8-10 hours.,  I. Microwave potatoes and carrots until tender and put in the pot with the cooking liquid the last 1/2 hour.  

There is a method out there called freezer cooking,  we used to call ot marathon cooking.   Basically you shop once a month and cook a months worth of meals in a day.   It's hard work.   It works for some people.   I can see it working for a mom with a weird shift at work.  Meals would be  ready for  another family member to heat up when dinner time came,

Personally, I  don't have the stamina to cook for eight to ten hours straight. I would prefer batch cooking.   You have to pick what works for you on a long term basis.  

I just Re read a cookbook called, " don't panic,dinner  is in the freezer.   " I got it as a e book from amazon I think.   Even of you dint want to marathon cook, it has some really good scratch recipes.  It's also breaks down a recipe for number of batches you wish to cook.   A good go to if you need to cook for a crowd.,

Whatever works for you.  

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Jane

Suddenly Saturday.

Had a fruit plate last night, thought it would be better than pizza.       Top high sugar this am.  Guess the cottage cheese wasn't enough protein.     Trying to something's around a hextic therapy schedule.  

I was reminded today about stuffed potatoes.    It's a good way to ise bits of things for dinner. Bake potatoes amd gather bits of things that go on them.   Everyone makes their own.   Chili. Taco meat, broccoli, cheese, bacon, whatever.  

Sometimes, I okay clean out the veggie bin and either make soup, or stir fry with chicken or shrimp over rice or noodles.

The ads

A real quick take on the ads
ALBERTSONS
Chicken drums  .88 not they dine tell u where they are from

Corn 3/1
Yoplait .38@@

SAFEWAYS
Blues 5.99
Cantelope 1.00
Chicken .88


five dollar Friday
Cookies
Pizza
Berries
Cheese

QFC

Berries 4.99
Milk 4/5
Pasta 1.00
corn 3/1


That's about all

Thanks

Jane

Wicked Wednesday-no ads

It's Wednesday.  I'm still in rehab with some good days and some not so good days.  

What to do with what you got.

Beef with roasted veggies and mustard cream sauce,  


Mustard sauce

1/2 cup sour cream
2 T Dijon mustard
1 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon juice

Sour cream is on sale at Fred Meyers
Dijon mustard os cheapest at grocery outlet or Costco
Lemon juice out of a bottle is supposed to be cheaper.  

ROASTED ROOT VEGETABLES

I use a combination if any root vegetables that are in my vegetable bin.  Often i do this in Wednesday to clean out the veggie bin,    Regular  or red potatoes, carrots, radishes, celery, turnips or rutabagas if I have them.   Cut them in pieces so that they will cook at the same time.   Toss them with olive oil.  Salt, pepper and sometimes a few red pepper flakes.  Roast at 375 to 400 until they are done.  Sometimes I add rosemary and skip the red pepper flakes.  The oven temp is flexible so they can be roasted with other foods.     Good with meatloaf, chicken, etc.  


White bean and pasta soup

Soup is not an exact science. If you don't have an ingredient , substitute or leave ot out.  The amount of veggies is up to you,   Play it be ear.   I always use less onions because my husband is. It particulary find if them.  He likes the taste, but doesn't like to bite into one. I either chop it fine, or use the micro plane to "grate" it.

Sauté vegetables in olive oil

Onion
Carrots.
Celery
Red peppers, chopped fine

Add 4 cups water and sautéed veggies to soup pot.  
Add 2 cups cooked white beans with 3/4 cup of the cooking liquid. ( or use a 15 ounce can of white beans , rinsed and 3/4 cup of chicken stock. Or water.  
Add a large tomato, chopped amd seeded.  
Cook until tomato is tender and soup is heated through.
Add 1 cup cooked small pasta.  ( maybe orzo or small shells.  )

Heat through.
Salt and pepper.  

I like to serve soup with grated hard cheese on top, maybe croutons made from stale bread.   Some sour cream and chives.   Anything that would taste good and make ot taste good.  A little extra touch sometimes makes things a little more gourmet instead of just a bowl of soup.  

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Jane

Sunday ads

Here are Sunday ads.  

Fred Meyers

Peaches or nectarines    1.28
Reg hamburger 2.48
Red cherries 1.99
Ice cream 2/4

French bread 1.00
Buns 1.00
Sour cream 1.00
Pumpkin pie 2.99
Hebrew national 3.49
Peanut butter 3/5
Blues 4.99
Zucchini .99

Walgreens
Milk 2.49
Coffee 6.99
Bumble bee Tina .99@@
dreyers 3.99***

Note the spread of prices on ice  cream.   Pumpkin pie is a bargain because pumpkin canned is not cheap.   Add evaporated milk and this os prolly cheaper.

Watch drug stores or other stores where food is not their main focus.   Sometimes they  are cheaper on what they do have.   Think outside the box.  

Hot dogs and buns are on sale at Fred Meyers.  Stir frying veggies with some olive oil and adding chicken or shrimp is good over rice or noodles.

Thanks

Jane

Please share

The ads and what to do with them

My husband brought me the ad s.

ALBERTSONS
Cherries 1.99
7 percent hamburger 3.99@@
Tillamook cheese 6.99


Quarters
Muffin mix .25
Pineapple slices .75
Tomato paste .25
Barilla pasta 1.00$


SAFEWAYS
Cherries2.99
Blues 2.99
Peaches 1.49
BREYERS 2.99
Grapes 299
Barilla .99$

5  dollar Friday
Blues
Chicken?  Depend another weight


QFC

Blues 4.99
Grapes 1.99
Cherries 2.99
Gree beans,  squash .99
Nectarines 1.99

Sirloin tip roast BOGO nets 3.25

Rite aid
BREYERS. BOGO
Pyrex buy one, get two

That's about all.  
Please check the matchup sites, I don't have my coupon book at the rehab! LOL

I would say that it is cheaper to get two sirloin roasts and roat one off and make hamburger out of the other one ,   Slice the roast thin and freeze for a jus sandwiches.   Chicken is a food buy if it is five pounds or more.  There are many fruits and veggies.   Stir fry with some chicken in rice!    Blueberry pancakes or waffles .   Muffins are a quarter.  Prolly cheaper than scratch.   With a salad for dinner, add chicken ,nuts, grapes and some apple to greens,   Soak the apple woth some lime or other acidic  juice. I save the juice from pineapple.  

Thanks

Jane

Terrific thursday

It's in the middle of the night. I just had a real bout with muscle spasms and a ice pack that leaked and got my bed and my pjs wet.    Trying to not wake my roommate with the commotion of changing clothes and sheets.   LOL

My husband is going to bring me the ads, so they will be late.  

We have talked about batch cooking and buying in bulk and at rock bottom prices.   Making sure that you only,buy foods that you will use on a regular basis assures that you will use things up before there is a stale date.  

Tonight we had a tater tot casserole, pickled beets, and  a bread stick.  Fresh pineapple for desert.    I hadn't had beets  for years and the pineapple was refreshing on a hot day.    Fresh pineapple is one thing I find not hard to buy on a budget.   We manage to get berries, bananas, and apples, sometimes oranges.  

Using up the bits of fresh foods helps keep costs down.   I haven't shopped for several weeks now, I don't know how the fresh foods have favored.  

About all.  

Thanks
Jane

Terrific Tuesday

It's Tuesday, the 15th.    It is a milestone for a family member and we are all jumping up and down to say "Hip Hip Hooray! " it's been a long time coming and we are all thrilled!    Well, my brain is jumping. My body. Not so much!  

Last night we had a vegetable bean soup. Cornbread, a  tomato and cucumber salad,and chocolate pudding for dinner.   It would be a very inexpensive dinner to serve.  You could put the soup in the slow cooker in the morning,  the cornbread is a quick fix as well as the salad. When you are having a soup that has a limited amount of protein in it, you need to add a side or desert that has protein in it.  
Pudding is one of those things that is easy to make without the box.  You are getting very little effort in the box for a lot of money.  

Averaging your meat costs is one way to afford a more expensive cut if meat every new and then.   I use a matrix when planning meals.  It makes it easier and affords a degree of balance.   By rotating your meats( proteins ) using the bulk system, your meal plans fall into place.

2 beef
2 chicken or pork
2 vegetarian
1 fish or shellfish

SAFEWAYS  has pork tenderloin and shrimp on five dollar Friday often.
I am finding a buck a pound chicken often.  There is an expose on deli chicken on an older blog. It's very enlightening.   I make our own ( actually I cut the meat up and my husband puts it through the grinder ) hamburger when it is cost effective.   Batch cooking hamburger is the most labor intensive of the batch meats.  I buy grated cheese when it is reasonable, otherwise I grate our own and add a little cornstarch to keep it from clumping. It freezes well.  

I can always get pasta for a buck a pound.  Often,  I can also get coupons or  coupons matching with a sale.   Pasta has a v e r y long shelf life.   Stock when you can.   I developed a pasta dish that is my answer to a  hamburger meal box.  Better, cheaper, faster.   My children call it no Brainer pasta.   There is a blog on hamburger meal boxes as well.    It's a real eye opener!  

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Jane

Sunday ads

I got the paper today.   Smart source has a few cereal type coupons, but not many,  

Walgreens has pink salmon for 1.99@@

ALBERTSONS

Chicken , whole .99
Blues 4.99
Tillamook yogurt 10/4
Milk 2/5@@
Bread 1.49@@
Ground beef 15% 2.99@@

Buy 5 save 5
Freshetta 4.49
Sour cream 1.49
Salsa 3.79

Fred Meyers

Sirloin steak 3.99
Cherries 1.88
Milk 4/5@@
Bread  1.33@@t
Tomatoes or veggies. 2/1@@ limit
Smoked sausage 2/5
Corn 4/2
Parsley..67
Cukes. .67
Green beans 1.48
Berries 2/5
Broccoli .99
Pizza 3.99
Ice cream 2/4@@
Peanut butter 2/3@@
that's about all

Please share

Jane

Suddenly Sunday- the basics continued.

We have talked about looking for the best buys and taking advantage of sales.   The old adage of my mothers is still true---never pay top dollar for anything.   Today it's random bits of information.   If I was my normal logical self, this would be a bit more cohesive, but given my drugged body, all bets are off! LOL ( I'm in rehab for a hip replacement! )

First, the USDA publishes stats for different income levels and for different sized families.   An older couple , thrifty , is about 82.00 a  week.   Mind you,there are 4.2 weeknight in a month.   If you are getting less, they are  figuring that some of your other income  is going to supplement.

It helps to divide your grocery money into the food groups, in proportion to the food pyramid.   We work on 5 dollar dinners for a typical family of four, based on 300. A month.   That would be probably  closer to two bucks for a couple.

Don't forget coupons.  Many times they are for expensive things you don't need, but you can still get good food cheap.  I like free.   It happens sometimes.   Coupons come out in the Sunday paper in the form of inserts.  I have a friend  that brings me hers,   And I get one from the dollar store weekly.
Coupons come out once a month on the computer.  You snooze you loose for the expensive ones.   You can pick and choose the ones you will print.  You can print  two per item.   Coupons.com.   There are a lot of web sites, but most take you back to coupons,com and they don't ask you for your first born sons name? LOL.

Don't overlook other stores.   Buy the best of two chain stores and keep your eye open at the other stores.  I use Costco for a few things.   We have over stocked stores . Sometimes they have really good food that is a bit out of the ordinary and never took off in the regular market.  We have Big  Lots  and Grocery Outlet. .  We are getting a Winco near us soon I hear.   Bakery outlet stores are good for bread products.   If I was really short on budget,  I would make my own,  there are recipes
that make it easy.
The dollar store is cheaper on some things, but it really pays to know your prices.   I can't emphasize that enough.  If you can't remember, use a spread sheet or a notebook to keep track.

Last night, in the rehab, we had a baby pizza and spinach for dinner.   Pepperoni is .50 a package with a coupon at the dollar store.   The crust looked suspiciously like bisquick.  I could have done without the spinach and had a little green salad.  There was bits of bacon, pepperoni and sausage on the pizza.
I have been getting cheese for as little as two bucks a pound.   A little more for a Mexican blend at business Costco.

Portion control is  a real key player when you have a less than USDA stat budget.    Identifying protein cheap and finding the cheapest cost is paramount.  We eat far more protein than we need to.
You can stretch a lot using portion control.  It's real easy, especially after being used to cooking for a large family, to overlook.  Remember, you can split recipes and use them for more than one meal.  Use up bits and pieces for soup, pizza, enchiladas etc.

Popcorn is a good snack.   Air popped is real healthy.   Something as simple as an enchilada sauce can jack up up your total meal cost.  Make your own sauces.  The sauce can cost more than the meat.
I was surprised how easy it is to make.  If a recipe sounds too complicated, keep looking, the Internet is full of information.   I have been getting recipe starter for .50 and less.   Recipe starter was introduced a year or so ago.  It didn't fly.  It is a good product, made by a good company, but the cost was more than the meat  you put in it.   It hit the secondary market.   The dollar store had it for 2/1.  I had fifty cent coupons.   The dollar store is out now, And so are the coupons.  But, Big Lots  has them for .50 and they have cheese.  Add real cheese and frozen veggies ( often cheaper at the dollar store( watch weights) to coupon purchased pasta and  you have a dinner for often times a buck.   Or use garlic or basil with tuna.

Your meals can be filling, good, tasty and inexpensive.   They don't have to shout economy.

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Jane

Step 2, suddenly saturday

Normally I would have grocery shopped yesterday.  This summer is a lesson in coping and rolling with the punches.LOL

Yesterday we talked,about identifying Our needs and meal planning the basics.  

Each week, when I get the newspaper ads, I analyze them.   Take a piece of scrap computer paper, divide it into quarters and head each with a grocery store.   Now go through the ads and write down any perishable or dairy ad price that is the cheapest.   Ditto the stock items on your list.  Now pick the one " loss leader protein that is on your list". By buying one meat a week and rotating it, you can save time and money.   You portion control the meals for no waste, and dinner is half started.  
I rotate hamburger, chicken, pork roast or sausage, and cheese.  Sausage last I looked was 8.49 for three pounds at Costco.   I watch for cheap 9 percent hamburger.  Sometimes a chuck roast will be on sale and grinding my own  is a better option.  My husband does it with the kitchen aid and controls the fat.   You can also use the old fashioned meat grinder.

Chicken continues to be inexpensive.   I usually buy a whole chicken and roast it.  Use dark meat for BBQ , breast for a chicken dinner or casseroles or other chicken dish and the bones for soup.  If I get grill packs. I debone the chicken breast and either cook the quarters for BBQd chicken or shred    it for tacos etc.

Hamburger becomes crumbles for pasta sauce, pizza, or sloppy joes. Also, taco meat and meat balls.  We usually get a meat loaf from it.  Meat balls are a meat group in itself.,,,meatball subs, on rice, potatoes, noodles, the possibilities are endless.  

Thanks,

Jane

Freaky Friday- the basics edition.

 I'm not on a position at this time to shop and cook and clean out the fridge.  Long story, bit the short of it, I landed in a rehab center and are taking a mini vacation.    LOL

So, it's time to get back to basics.

The reason why I started groceries on the cheap is because I was getting requests for people to teach them how to make it  on food stamps.  They were running out of momey before they ran out of month.   With the rising costs of food and the shrinking snap dollar, ot os getting harder to make the meals hit the table.   The good news is the Internet if full of information everywhere you look and you get to filter out what is usable to you.

The main objective in groceries on the cheap is to NEVER  PAY FULL PRICE FOR ANYTHING.  BUY LOW AND EAT HIGH.

A few exercises will set you up do eat well on less the rest of your lives.

• Identify the inexpensive sources of protein that your family will eat.   In our home that would be chicken, eggs, cheese, pork, beans and rice,beef, 
• Write down meals that incorporate these sources .  Do at least 7' preferably 14 to assure variety. 
• Identify the shelf ready staple items that you'd will use to cook these meals.  Also freezer.Start a price book and identify the lowest prices for these foods. Use the weekly ads and your shopping trips to post prices.    Name of product, size, date, store, price?   with coupon? 
• When you find the right price, buy a) as many as you can, b) as many as the store will let you ( limits) or c) as many as you need to reach your goal.  I keep a six to 12 week supply.   
• If you can match a store sale with a manufacturers coupon you.  really hit pay dirt!   

That's all for today.  More tomorrow.   

Thanks 

Jane 

Please share 

• 
  

Wicked wednesday

Our whole life has blown apart the last month.    I have come to the realization with pain and ice, that we have to take stock I'm what we do have left and  trudge on.   This old  Doe-Blood has  blood is pooped.  I've lost my fight.  

That being said, our family unit is  intact.  
I have no place to sell cards, I have no place to teach cards.   I have put put feelers. All I can do is keep trying,  
My husband is applying for a couple of jobs that would suit him well and only time will tell.  
Baby granddaughter still needs help understanding rules.  We can concentrate on that.
If I can emphasize  my budgeting skills to my family, we should survive a while anyway.   I have a lot of stock in the pantry.    That's what it is for.  And, I didn't pay more than 1/2 price for any of it.

I digress.

I am not buying food now, stuck in a rehab torture chamber , LOL.  Thankfully, I don't have to.  Hopefully, my daughter and husband are making dinners work.   The lack of grocery shopping should
Do a reasonable help in replacing our income for a while.  

I,will go,back to analyzing the ads as soon as I can get the ads.   Stick in a hospital bed is not very conducent  of that.  

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Jane

Suddenly Sumday

It os sindY.  I've been fighting the what day is ot demons all week.   LOL

The ads
Fred Meyers

Cherries 1.99
Blues 4.98
Chicken .99
Eggs 4/5@@
Butter 2/4@@
Bagels 1.99
Canned veggies 2/1@@
Radishes 2/.88
Dreyers 2/6$$


Walgreens
Tom sauce 2/1@@
Nuts 1.99

That's about ot.

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Jane

What a revolting development! This turned out to be!

Ok, as if my blogs haven't been sporadic lately with the mall closing , Tuesday I fell and broke my hop and wrist!   I'll be I'm rehab for three weeks, will coots when I can.  

Suddenly Sunday

Since I thought yesterday was Sunday, I'm really off.   My daughter is putting turkey chili in the slow cooker.  We are going to try new recipes and use up the freezer.  It's getting full along with the pantry.  Since the antique mall is closing, and it will be some time before it opens again, this is the time I was stockpiling for.  Stay tuned it should get interesting what we can  come up with to eat.  LOL

We are both trying to get new employment,m we don't need to work a lot, just enough to pad the budget a little.   I am hoping to find students to teach.  I would like two classes a month.  

I digress .

Ideas

If you are making something that is vegetarian or something that doesn't have a lot of protein in it., supplement the dish with another protein.  Last night we had corn chowder with a garnish of bacon.  I made cheese biscuits to go with.  I could have also made a pudding.   Cheese biscuits are simply a baking powder biscuit that is rolled instead of cut.  Sprinkle the top of the flattened dough with cheese and rolls cut into slices .  My recipe called for 9 biscuits  so I cut the roll into none slices.  Bake according to directions. I used the convection oven so it didn't take the entire time.  

Minced clams are on sale often.  I can get the, as cheap as .89.   Ditto tuna lately.    Eggs are a cheap source of protein and got a bad wrap a few years ago.  Further studies decided they weren't so bad after all.  Using them as a source of protein without the other traditional lumbermans breakfast is still a good meal.    

Drastic times call for drastic measures.  Think out of the box.  There is nothing wrong with breakfast for dinner.   My mother missed to make an omlette that she started on the stove and finished in the oven where it puffed up.  Of course, ot fell flatter than a pancake when she brought it out of the oven.
LOL

Soups are a food way to stretch a buck.  A whole chicken at a buck a pound can go a long ways.    There are recipes everywhere.  

We like impossible pie.  

Cheerios now come on a protein rich version.  There are good coupons for it.  

I guess that's all

Please share

Jane

It is Saturday.

We went to the next town today and I got some recipe starter at big lots and cheeses at grocery outlet. We went on to Fred Meyers.m I got the things in ad, couldn't find the chicken and was confused about the corn.  I used my coupons.   It just dawned in me that today is Saturday,not Sunday. Guess having a back ache and working in the heat with no breaks got to me,

Corn is 6/2
Black olives are a buck w a coupon in the paper.   Grill packs are a buck. Tillamook is 2/6 with a coupon.

Today, I put a corn chowder in the crock pot and it cooked all day.  I added the cream and bacon at the last.   I made cheese biscuits to supplement the garnish of bacon on the soup.  

Tomorrow. My daughter is going to try a new chili recipe for the crock pot.  We got a little recipe book at the antique mall and we decided to try some of the recipes.   Most of them are low cost and sound really good.  

We are working on securing new employment. But in the mean time. We are going to conch on the budget and make do.   I am working on a new place to sell product and trying to get students to teach.
Look for more penny pinching recipes.


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Jane

Terrific Thursday, the ads

It's more than crazy at work.  Nine hour days where you are lucky to get a bite to eat and a sip of water.  We did nine  times the volume of salsa as normal yesterday.   Just crazy.   A lot of people are sad we are being forced out.   We will probably come back at some point on time.  

I digress.  The ads

SAFEWAYS

Apples 1.99
Bread 1.00
2 lbs shredded cheese 6.99
Ice cream 2.99 dreyers
Corn 6/2
Grapes 2.99
Bumble bee tuna 1.00


5 dollar Friday

Sandwich
Berries 2/5
Strawberry custard pie
Coffee
2 lbs Tillamook cheese
Ice cream 2/5

QFC

Chereies 3.98, 2.99
Chicken 1.00
Berries 3.98
Hebrew national 3.49
Buns 1.00
Ice cream 2/5

ALBERTSONS
Buy 4
Dreyers 1.99

General Mills cereal 1.88$$, when you buy 5
Nathan's BOGO
Radishes .50
Grapes 2.99
Blues. 4.99
Cherries 3.99


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Jane

Wicked Wednesday.

No ads, no time. No blog.  See you this evening!