I just love the word FREE

There is something about the word FREE that excites me -- when it is for something I need.  
Most of the time,  if you watch and buy personal care products when you see them FREE  or near free, and not when you NEED them , you can luck out.

I want to get those things for free.   You can't be brand loyal.   You have to strike when the iron is hot, so to speak.  

I got my husbands deodorant on BOGO at QFC with coupons.   The net cost was .25 each.

This week, with coupons and rewards at Rite Aid, toothpaste and mouthwash are free.  

I with coupons have got enough oxy clean laundry soap to last us five months for 4.70.   That's less than a buck a month!    There are four of us and one of us is a toddler toilet  training!

I don't have enough coupons, but there is a coupon out there for 2.00 off of Starbucks k cups.   K cups are 7.00 at rite aid, buy fifteen dollars worth and get five back.

Buy 1 DiGiorno pizza for five bucks .
Buy two Starbucks k cups for 7.00 each.
Total 19.00, less two dollar coupon, is 17.00
Less five dollars reward is 12.00
12 / 3 is 4.00.

There are toothbrush coupons to make them free too.

Grocery outlet bargains

We went to the Grocery  Outlet And Dollar Tree in Kenmore.   Grated cheese is BOGO which makes it two dollars a pound.   Campbell's pasta sauce is two for a dollar.  It is a buck at the dollar tree.   August pull date.

They have a flyer at checkout.   Good until Sunday,   

Ore idea frozen potatoes 1.99

Cookie dough.  1.49

Kellogg's mini wheats 1.99

Wishbone salad dressing 2/1. I suspect that it has a very soon pull date.  

Foster Farms organic chicken 1.99 

They also have a really interesting handout...four dollars a day food.    Per person.   If you have more than two and a half.....LOL  people, that's more than your budget of you have a three hundred dollar allotment.  I do suspect that dinner menus would probably work.   Not all prices at grocery outlet are the best choices.   Some are good, some aren't.   I steer clear of any bagged produce after I got a bag of apples that were all rotten and couldn't speak to the manager for a refund.   This was at the aurora store.   Every store is owned by individuals.   

Recipe titles 

1. Egg muffins with spinach, sausage and cheese 
2. Avacado egg scramble 
3. Berry baked oatmeal

Lunches 

1. almond butter jelly sandwich 
2. Lentil tomato soup
3. Spinach and Gouda Mac and cheese 

Dinner 

• Blackened chicken pasta 
• Chicken fried rice 
• Turkey sliders 

That's about it.     

Dollar tree still has yummy chocolate cookies in tins-- retail cost 3.99.  

Part three: what to do with what you got!,

Note: this is a whole new way of grocery shopping for some people.   You are not buying a weeks worth of groceries.  To start off, you are only buying the specials that are truly on special and will have to fill in with what you need to make meal plans. After  six to twelve weeks, you will have your pantry built and just buy specials to rotate your stock.   The advantage of this is that you almost never run out of a staple, and you always have something in the house to eat-- all that you have purchased at 1/2 price or below.

Once you are set up, you will find that you spend less time shopping than before.   I spend more time shopping, and less time cooking.   Our family has commitments that make dinner fashionably late,   My body does not do fashionably late.  My dinners are somewhat pre-made  and I can put dinner on the table in twenty minutes or less, give or take.  If you are someone that hates to shop, ( yes, I hear there are some women that hate to shop!LOL) consider delegating it to someone else in the family, provided they will shop sensibly.

Now that  you have assessed your needs, and done your shopping, what do you do.   When you come home from the store, I first check the store and ibotta and see if I can get any rebates.  This is not necessary, but I have recently  found that we can gleam a few dollars for buying what I would normally buy anyway.    I add the perishables I bought  to my have list and put the groceries away.

Next finalize meal plans.That  doesn't mean Wednesday's meal has to be eaten on Wednesday, but it gives you a plan.   It staves off the I'm tired, it's been a long stressful day, let's drive through or order pizza syndrome. LOL I then post the receipts to a spread sheet so I can keep track how close to the USDA stats I am coming.   USDA cost of food at home.

That day or the next. , I cook the bulk item for the week if necessary.   This week it was .88 cent a
pound Washington grown chicken, whole and raw.    I then cut it up into the legs, thighs and wings
the soup bones, and the breasts and make four packages.  That's four meals from a close to sox pound chicken.   Five meals from a dove dollar chicken.

If you are on a snap budget, meals have to come to five dollars for dinner.  Based on three hundred dollars a month.   It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you spend ten dollars for dinner on a three hundred dollar  budget, you are either going to run out of money before you run out of month, or you are not going to eat breakfast and lunch.

I digress.   Meal plans

Meal plans done have to be detailed or take a lot of time.  Most of us have a really good idea of what sides we usually put with what main dish, so joting down the main dish does it.   I devised a work sheet with the boxes for the days of the week, a place for your matrix , and two columns for what I
need to use up, and have, and what might need to be purchased to fill in.   Being organized takes the stress out of the  whole process.  

To recap:

1. Identify and buy only what is in a true sale if it is in your staples list.    Be logical about your staples list.  Canned lobster should not be on it ! LOL   Buy as many as you need, as many as you can ( store limits ) or what your budget will afford whichever comes first    Buy six to twelve weeks worth,   Sales run in six to eight week cycles in the east, and twelve week cycles in the west.    If you use something once a week in the PNW, you need 12 units.   
2. Buy the so called loss leader of protein and buy enough to make your meals with it for a month.   If you eat hamburger twice a week, you will need enough to make 8 meals   Cook it and portion control it   Portion control is most important,   It cuts down on waste and makes for a well balanced meal. 
3. Buy fresh veggies when they are lowest prices in season.   Don't overbuy unless you get a really good buy and can freeze fruits for winter   
4. Buy dairy at the lowest price and buy enough to last you until the next sale.  If you watch, you will see a pattern.  I knew that Fred Meyer was due to have a sale on milk.   Otherwise, Costco is pretty cheap on sour cream, cottage cheese, and milk.   
5. Grated cheese is cheapest at Costco wholesale.  Watch for sales, and grate your own if you can get it cheaper that way.  My target price for cheese is two dollars a pound   I can still get it close to that if I watch.   Grocery outlet is good for variety of cheeses.   
6. Make meal plans with a work sheet and a matrix.  Like anything, it works better with a plan   
7. A little work can be rewarded with cutting your food bill in half and freeing up resources for something else, or taking the stress of not having enough money to make ends meet.   

Thanks for stopping by

Please share 

Jane 

Dinner

Day 7, main dish

I

Mac and cheese,homemade

frozen peas and carrots.

Next: planning your trip

In and around our town, there are several chain stores.   Two companies own the five chain stores.   We also have a grocery outlet.   Ten miles up the freeway, there is a Winco.  In addition , we have other stores that carry food.   Making sense of all, well, that could be confusing and time consuming without a plan.

Every week, four of the stores  send us ads in the mail.   Fred Meyers ad comes in Sunday's paper.
I go over the stores and circle or write  down the things that are on a stock list or perishables and protein that are a good buy.   I mark those that need an in ad coupon with a @ sign.  If I know there is a coupon for them, I add a $$ sign.

The next step is to decide  which TWO stores have the most things on your particular list of needs.
Pick two stores.   Check FAVADO for more specials and any coupon match ups.  ( more about coupons later.) check ibotta for rebates.  Don't get too excited about rebates, just note if a cucumber is the same price both stores, ibotta may give you another .20 if you purchase it at the right store.   Especially for produce, they may or may not give you the rebate.   Just take it as gravy!

When you are planning your trip, look at your worksheet to see what you,need to fill in a meal and what you need to use up.

Go, get in, and get out,   The more time you spend in a store, the mine money you are going to spend.
The more people you being with you, the  more you are going to spend.   If you pick up something, you are probably going to put it on your cart.  Don't touch anything you are not going to buy.   Unless, you are like me, and if it's something different, I want to know what the serving size is and how many carbs it has.

Bring your coupon binder, the ads, your list, a calculator.
If someone hasn't marked a price on the computer,not helps if you have the ad to show the correct price to the checker.  

Coupons
You can use manufacturers coupons and a store coupon and an ibotta on one item.  Unless you are at Winco.   We don't have double coupons ( at least that I have found) and rarely are you allowed to make money on a coupon.   Like a lot of TV programs, extreme coupons is not a reality.  The only way you may be able to make money is when you shop at a drug store that has bonus points that turn into cash on your next purchases.   Be careful, they Re no bargain if they raise the price to give you restricted dollars.

The most important technique for saving money at the grocery store is to KNOW YOUR PRICES.
MY MOTHER USED TO SAY THAT SOME PEOPLE WOULDNT KNOW A BARGAIN IF IT GOT UP AND BIT THEM IN THE Butt!  Don't be that person!   There can be as much as a 75 percent difference between the most expensive and cheapest price on the SAME item.   Put that 75 percent in YOUR pocket!

2nd rule.  Don't buy sundry items at the grocery store.  That's where they make their most profit margin.  You are much better off buying paper products and cleaners at the dollar store or an off price or big  box store.   Again, know your prices.   You can almost always get laundry soap and toothpaste, deodorant etc almost free with coupons.

3rd rule
Don't buy snack foods or copious amounts of sugar coated cereal.  Most kids will just eat cereal and there is,not enough food value in them.   If it isn't on the house, they won't eat it and your budget will be much better off.   We grew up with no pop, candy, cold cereal, except cornflakes and wheat puffs on a bag, or Popsicles or Kool aid in the house.   We didn't snack between meals.   We were not allowed to be picky, you ate what was on the table, or you didn't eat.  Nothing more till breakfast.
We all survived and we eat almost everything.  Ready made stuff for the most part is very expensive and some dinner kits are ridiculously expensive and you add the food value.  You might as well just make it more nutritious in the first place.   LOL. There are a few convenience foods that are cheaper than scratch and worth the price  when found on super sale.


That being said, I always had a few items that my teenage children knew they could eat all they wanted, whenever they wanted.  At the time beef and bean burritos were a quarter.  My daughters favorite was top ramen.  We always had peanut butter and jelly and bread and cut veggie sticks.
It satisfied to hollow leg syndrome.

Big lots has everything in the store twenty percent off

Big lots haul.  I spent 19.00 and saved 58 percent of retail.

Revlon fingernail polish
Rice
Tissue ( based in dollar store prices, not the full mark up of drug store prices.
Suddenly salad.
Mustard ( big)
Candy ( Werthers  original sugar free)

L

Sunday

   There has to be people that with the high cost of food and a limited discretionary budget, need to cut the costs of what they eat.   If for no other reason, to not throw their money away paying full price.   Sooner or later, most regular staple items will go on sale.  Some things like BBQ items only hit in May and July.   Some things like holiday baking items and turkey only hit on November time frame.   Most staple items hit every eight weeks in the south and east, and every 12 weeks  in the west.   The object of stocking is to pay the RBP on your food.   There will be things that are harder to find. I concentrate on protein, staples, and dairy.   Fresh produce I buy in season.   If something is too high I substitute something that isn't or use a frozen substitute,   Frozen veggies are fresher than what we get in  the stores.   They are picked and then packed almost immediately.

Everything starts at the beginning.   If you are  new to this you are probably overwhelmed and don't know where to start.  Start  with baby steps.   One thing at a time. Lay  your ground work. This takes some time, but once it's done, it's done; you only do it once.

1. Write down the sources of protein your family will eat.   With us that would be  chicken , Beef, pork, beans, cheese,and eggs.   
2. Now write down 7 to 14 meals you can make from these ingredients. Gather the recipes if you need to. Cuts of meat need to be inexpensive.  I try around  two dollars a pound.   
3. Write down a list of the ingredients you will need to make these recipes. Now make a list of the things that are most prevalent. In our house that would be diced tomatoes, beans, black olives, chicken noodle soup, re-fried  beans, instant mashed potato packets, chili, tuna, salmon, small cans of chilies.   
4. Start to look for best price you can find these items. This will be your rock bottom price.you only want to pay rock bottom price.  When something goes on a real sale, you buy, as many as the store will let you ( limit with in ad coupon) , as many as you can afford, or as many as you need to buy to replenish your stock.   If we use something twice a week, I keep 24, if I use it once a week, I keep at least 12 , things like catsup and mayo, I keep one ahead.   when we use the backup. I start looking for a sale . 
5. Just took an inventory. I can usually tell if we are short something by looking at the self  and seeing  the white  shelf bottom.   
6. Make meal plans when you come home from the store.   Make yourself a matrix based on what your family likes and will eat.   Our matrix is 2 beef, 2 pork or,chicken, 2 vegetarian, and one fish or shellfish,   It makes it easier to plan meals to have some perimeters.   I have made a meal planning work sheet so that  can list the things we  need to use up after assessing the fridge, and a list of things I need to pick up at the store.   I then pencil in a meal plan, and finalize it when I get home from shopping.  

Next: shopping.   The plan and the trip.  

Make it up!

Directions, not in order that my daughter did with a bag of fruit and veggies she got free to promote.

We needed to make up a recipe .  Since it was due last night.  (Can we spell procrastinate! LOL.   ), I did it on the fly.

Put  two cups product in a saucepan and cooked it with enough water to barely cover from frozen.   Drained fruit mixture into a bowl , reserving liquid.

Took 1/2 cup reserved liquid and made a slurry with a Tbls. Of cornstarch.   Returned liquid to saucepan and added slurry.   Cooked, stirring with whisk until thickened.  Added back fruit.
Served as a sauce over already cooked chicken legs.

Mixture included carrot, sweet potato, peaches.

The ads and more.

Fred Meyer ads

The paper tomorrow comes with a smart source.   You can use smart source coupons, in ad coupons or sales and ibotta on the same thing.  

Fred a eyes has yo plait yogurt for  10/4.  The smart source has a coupon for 50 off of five.   Now five yogurts cost .40 ea less .10 or .30 each.   Sometimes if you just pay  full price , they are .85 each,! There is no ibotta on them.

Cherries 1.77
Spareribs or pork chops 1.97
Milk ,99@@
Hebrew national 3.99
Corn 6/3
Blues, organic, 4.99
Broccoli .99
Cucumbers 3/2. .20 ibotta, but I'm not sure how you would redeem it.
Lettuce .99
Strawberries 2/4

Bar tells, tomorrow
Hormel  hash 1,99
Top ramen 6/99
Gummy candy .99

That's about all.

Meal day six

Day six.    Same theme ?....

The ads

The ads are always late on holiday weekends.   Also, there are no coupon inserts.   I think I have separation anxiety...just kidding!  

Albertsons
Strawberries 3/5
Salad kits 2/5
Chicken legs or thighs .98
Milk 1.99@@


Safeways

Blues 2/5
Strawberries 3/5
Salads 2/5
Chicken .88



Five dollar Friday
Ice cream 2/5
Yo plait 10/5
Broccoli .99
Lettuce .88


Hag gens
Berries 1/3 flat 8.00
Milk 2/5
Peanut butter 1.99
Hagen beans 2/1@@ limit 6
Yo plait 5/2@@

QFC
Berries  2/4
Milk 4/5

Digital coupons
Pasta sauce .99
Ice cream 2/5


I have seen  a drastic increase in prices since Haggen  has taken over Safeways and Albertsons.   I don't really know why the attorney general ok'd that merge, but it hasn't done the prices of groceries any good.   I will really be glad when Winco gives them some competition.   Kroger has digital coupons, but I have lost my card, so I can't take advantage of them.   Prices are still high.  

I have used alternative stores to fill in with some good buys and we can still brave the ten mile trip to Winco and The five mile trip to Fred Meyers.  

Thanks for stopping by

Please share

Jane

Meals, day five

continuing with the hot weather theme......

Fruit salad, potato salad, cucumber salad, BBQ  beef sandwiches.

Dollar store and grocery outlet haul

Dollar tree and grocery outlet haul.  

Dollar tree
Chex granola , gluten free
Jello , sugar free
Cookie tins
Salt and pepper grinders full of coarse sea salt and pepper
Individual pizza crusts 2/1.00


Grocery outlet
Small pasta sauce in jars .50
Cheese sticks , 1.00
Alaska smoked salmon 5.00


17.00

This weeks menus , day four.

It's still not here.   Back to my normal go to.   We detoured with a date night to ourselves and a pot luck night.


Day four

Corn on cob, fruit salad , potato,salad, leftover shrimp, ribs, cherries for desert.


Day five coming soon!  

how to plan.

My food averages  1/2 price.   Our USDA stats for thrifty meals comes to 146.00 a week.  I spend 75.00.  That's almost half of the total figure and that includes keeping a stock.   Actual cost of eaten food is probably a little less.  

Eating on the cheap does not have to consume a lot of time.   I have more time now that I'm not working at a job, but still have plenty to keep me busy.  

• I  write once a week I write  this blog.   
• Once a week, usually Tuesday, I analyze the ads ( here) and figure out which two chains have the best buys on what we need.   
• Once a week , about Wednesday, we clean  the fridge and take note of things that need to be used up soon.   
• After deciding which stores we need to go to, I plan my trip.   Check FAVADO for prices on  things that aren't in the ad and coupons that might me stacked.  
• Then, I check Ibotta for any rebates at that store that I might take advantage of.   
• I take a cooler, my coupon  binder, the ads, and a calculator with me. All this is probably an hour expended.   
• When I get home, I post the receipts to a spread sheet.   
• Once a month , I download coupons,  file the new coupons, and throw away the expired ones.    
• Once a week, I make out meal plans. The same day I clean out the fridge and list what we need to use and what we need.   

Not including shopping time or cleaning the fridge, this  is about six hours a month planning time.  

At a savings of three hundred dollars a month, that's about fifty dollars an hour.   

Thanks for stopping by 

Please share and follow

Jane 

Example of why you plan

Yo plait yogurt .85.  On sale for .50.  Coupon .50 off five.   Now it's .40 ( half price ) in comes Ibotta .20.   Now it's .20.   That's roughly 25 percent of retail.

Snowball effect.....take the .20 yogurt, add a glass of fruit juice, freeze in a mold ( at the dollar store or better ones at Fred Meyers) and you have icy treats for .30 instead  of four dollars.

Cheaper,---scratch or ready made!

Ok, it's three in the am and someone woke me up.   LOL

Five...or more things that are cheaper scratch or ready made .....

1. Bread crumbs.    The last I checked , bread crumbs were 2.40 a pound!   Why throw your crusts away and pay for someone else's dry bread?   
2. Chicken breasts.   Boneless and skinless chicken breasts are expensive.  Grill packs are a buck a pound.  You can divide a grill pack up into meals and debone the breasts and freeze them.  As an added bonus, you know where the chicken came from.   Not all chicken has a state of origin.  
3. Lemon juice on a bottle is far cheaper than fresh squeezed.    ( not always the best on fish , but works for many things,   
4. Seafood cocktail sauce is easy and tastes better than in a jar and lots cheaper.  No waste.   
5. Ditto tarter sauce,   
6. Salad dressing from scratch do not last as long as bottled.   With coupons you can get bottled dressing for free or close to free.  Sticking to a few favors assures you can use them up quickly.   
7. Tomato soup is far cheaper from a box or can than it is from fresh tomatoes unless you grow a bumper crop.   It takes lots of tomatoes at a dollar or more a pound to make a pot of tomato soup.    
8. Chicken soup is cheaper made from scratch!    As is chicken stock.   
9. French bread is far cheaper from scratch than it is store bought.   
10. Hunts pasta sauce on sale is cheaper than buying the tomato sauce to make it.   

Thanks for stopping by

Please follow or join.   

Jane 

1024.70 a month

The amount the average family spends on food.  Hard to believe, since for a lot of people, that would be a good portion of their income.   I am maybe guessing that figure includes some serious eating out.
None the less, we are a family of four adults and a child, and we spend less than a third of that.   I am not going to pretend that we spend a hundred dollars a month on food because I did that in 1970, but we do spend around 300.00 a month on food.    I have noticed that we are spending about ten percent more this last quarter than the quarter before.

In our area, one grocery chain bought two others.   Now basically, we have Kroger and Haggens.  We do have Costco and grocery outlet and are getting a Winco soon.   I'm hoping that gives us more competition. I'm wondering if prices have gone up that much, or if I have a lot larger stock built.  Or, if there is some other reason.   I'm still at an average of 75.00 a week.

I'm dong this by using a variety of tools.   It's constantly changing, I am still learning and trying new ways to stretch the proverbial grocery dollar.

1. Ibotta gets you cash back for buying foods that almost never have coupons. 
2. Fav ado  tells you sale prices even when the store doesn't have ads like Costco and Winco so you can compare and it tells you of there is a  coupon and where to find it. 
3. Coupons can be downloaded monthly on coupons.com.   Only download what you think you might use.   Match coupons with sales for the best buys.
4. The Sunday paper has coupons, along with the flyer that comes in the mail with the rite aid ad. I only clip what I know I will I use.  Date  the insert and file it so that you can use it later if you find a match up.   
5. Use the store ads to compare prices and find the RBP on the staples you need and the protein of the week and your perishables.   
6. Pick two stores and plan your trip.   Buy only what is on your list and get on and get out. The longer you spend in a store, the more money you will spend.  Don't pickup anything unless You are going to buy it.   
7.  Buy only amounts of perishables that you will up before they go bad.  
8. Take a day mid week and assess what's on the fridge and use up anything that is in the edge.  Think fried rice or soup.    
9. Compile recipes for the entrees your family likes to eat.  Make a matrix to helping meal planning.  Plan your meals on a worksheet that has a use up and a buy column before you go to the store.  Be flexible and take advantage of unadvertised sales of you see them.   I once got a whole bag of peppers for a buck, and whole chickens for .50.   Find recipes that your family will eat that are quick and easy. 
10. Spend more time planning and shopping, and less time in the kitchen.   You get paid for shopping, not for cooking.    
11. Once you have your basic planning done, ( that's another blog! ) it doesn't take much time to plan a trip and shop.   I don't take hours to plan a trip and I don't take twenty hours a week to coupon.   The time I do spend is well worth the effort.  It affords us a better quality of life.   It means  we can have more than just food and meds.   

Thanks for stopping by 

Please share and follow 

Jane 

This weeks menus, a work in the making , day 2

Sunday :  it's still hot here like the hottest it's been in years.    My take is to make salads early in the day, add to them all week, and cook a main entree to go with.   Tonight  my husband is cooking tuna melts.

1. Mixed fruit salad (strawberries, blues, cantaloupe ) 
2. Pasta salad with peas and peppers 
3. Cucumber salad 
4. Potato salad 

Costs : salads eaten all week. Some  are replenished.   

Strawberries are a  dollar at Fred Meyers.    Cantaloupe was 1.50 (1/2)  Blues 5.00 2 lbs.   

Pasta Salad was .75 .   

English cucumbers were on sale at Costco - multiples for 2.49. 

Potato salad was 3.99 at Grocery outlet.    

About 12.00 divided by four is three dollars a meal.   

Tuna melts were made from English muffins (.50) and .50 albacore tuna from wilco with a coupon.    

Cheese was on sale at Winco.    Total to serve four, two dollars.    

Monday Dinner 

Shrimp and salad 

Notes : shrimp was five dollars at Safeway's.   Bacon  Cesear salad. 

Tuesday dinner 

Part of a pot luck ( what's left) 

Suddenly salad classic , added tomatoes, black olives, peppers, parsley, 

re writing the book!

You can take almost  any recipe and remake it to suit your needs.  I have noticed with my daughter that she thinks she needs  exactly what a recipe calls for.   Not so.   You can adjust a recipe and sometimes make it better than the original.   There is a recipe circulating on social media for meat lovers Mac  and cheese.   It's got a bit too much meat to suit me and therefore , not a good on the cheap recipe.  

Use either /or a combination of leftover meat to total about 1/3 a pound for four servings

• Cooked hamburger 
• Pepperoni
• Bacon 

Cook 1/2 a pound of shell macaroni until done, drain.
Meanwhile, make 1 cup of white sauce.   ( 1 T fat, 1T flour, and 1 cup milk.   Or use my white sauce mix.  
Add six  ounces of grated cheese of your choice ( 1/2 cup or so) or a combination of cheeses enough to make sauce cheesy.

Pour sauce over drained pasta in a baking dish. Stir in cooked meat.   Top with a couple of chopped green onions.  

Bake at 375 until bubbly.

Serves 4 .

I would add some frozen mixed vegetables to round out the meal.  


Notes :

• I never lay full price for pasta .  I have paid as little as .38 a pound with a coupon for the blue box, double fiber    
• Mixed veggies are .99 at Fred Meyers and there is a .2o Ibotta on them.  
• My white sauce mix recipe is on a older post.   Less fat, less salt.   
• Grated cheese is as low as 2.00 a pound at grocery outlet or 2.30 or so at business Costco.   If I can't find it cheap, I use blocks of cheese I find on sale.   Great it and sprinkle with about a tablespoon of cornstarch per 2 pound Brick   A mixture of cheeses is best.   
• Save hamburger from your portion controlled bulk meat purchases. 
• Turkey bacon is at the dollar store and there is an Ibotta on it if I'm remembering right   
• There are coupons for a dollar off two normal pepperoni and you can get them at the dollar store   

Pasta.   .19

Cheese .50 

White sauce mix takes water 

1/2 pkg pepperoni .25 

Green onion @.59 bunch .10

Total cost 1.05.   

Knowing your prices and getting things at the RBP is worth the effort of you are trying to stretch a budget.