Lunch was a California flat bread pizza that we got for free from QFC.
Chicken stir fry - 1.83 for the pam
Free lunch!
Monday, September 5, 2016
Dinner , yes chicken dinner.
We had stir fry chicken dinner. I cooked a pound if chicken breast that Had de-boned and purchased for a less than a dollar a pound, I added frozen stir fry veggies that were .66 at QFC and a package of top ramen that I got for .17, Two of us ate and there is still, enough for two more meals. 1.84 .
Lunch was a California flat bread pizza that we got for free from QFC.
Lunch was a California flat bread pizza that we got for free from QFC.
Happy labor Day!
It's Monday, Our week is unusual this week, hard to keep the days straight, We did go to Fred Meyers yesterday because they have a really really good dairy sale on. With higher prices looming, I want to be prepared to soften the blow. That doesn't mean I'm going to hoard dairy; but, rather, I'm going to keep our stock up to the self imposed limit.
Yogurt is fifty cents and I had a coupon that made it .30. I bought five.
I bought the six 1/2 of cheeses that were the limit. I kept enough to FIL, our cheese canister in the fridge and froze the rest. I bought amvarietynofmthngsmthatyiumatia had white cheese for pizzas and yellow for casseroles. 1.98 a pound.
Sour cream was a dollar.
I bought milk, and chocolate milk for the granddaughter. That's 1.5 gallons. Probably,enough to last us until it goes on sale again. 2.00 a gallon
I had 1-1/2 dozen eggs, and I got another 1-1/2 dozen for a dollar. We will have breakfast for dinner and I have been keeping us in a desert on the counter. It usually lasts us most of a week.
Monday is kitchen management day. Time to clean the refrigerator and Oreo anything that needs to be prepped. It makes dinner time a whole lot more manageable. It's hectic here around meal time like most households I imagine especially,when school starts and kids are anxious to tell all about their day. I want it all: good scratch meals and the time to spend with children before the get ready for bed time. Kitchen prep makes the process smoother. I'm not flying by the seat of my pants and throwing a dinner together at the last minute: that just spells S T R E S S to me.
Yogurt is fifty cents and I had a coupon that made it .30. I bought five.
I bought the six 1/2 of cheeses that were the limit. I kept enough to FIL, our cheese canister in the fridge and froze the rest. I bought amvarietynofmthngsmthatyiumatia had white cheese for pizzas and yellow for casseroles. 1.98 a pound.
Sour cream was a dollar.
I bought milk, and chocolate milk for the granddaughter. That's 1.5 gallons. Probably,enough to last us until it goes on sale again. 2.00 a gallon
I had 1-1/2 dozen eggs, and I got another 1-1/2 dozen for a dollar. We will have breakfast for dinner and I have been keeping us in a desert on the counter. It usually lasts us most of a week.
Monday is kitchen management day. Time to clean the refrigerator and Oreo anything that needs to be prepped. It makes dinner time a whole lot more manageable. It's hectic here around meal time like most households I imagine especially,when school starts and kids are anxious to tell all about their day. I want it all: good scratch meals and the time to spend with children before the get ready for bed time. Kitchen prep makes the process smoother. I'm not flying by the seat of my pants and throwing a dinner together at the last minute: that just spells S T R E S S to me.
- Clean the refrigerator door baskets. I noticed that the condiment one is nasty. The oven needs a good clean too.
- Go over the menu plan and list and prep anything that I can ahead.
- Number the things in the fridge. I saw this on a u tube and it makes good sense. This when implemented, makes sure you eat the oldest of anything first. What we used to call grease pencils are cheap at the tree.
- Make a desert. I'm going to make an apple bread and probably take granddaughter along for the ride. I got apples for a dollar a pound at Winco.
- Wash the kitchen floor. I got a " broom" at QFC for 1/2 price. It made it about six dollars. The head is fixed to take any kind of cloth you want to put on in it. It co,ex with two micro fiber cloths, but I can see a dryer sheet when I need to kick up glitter. My son and granddaughter glitter fiends! LOL. I don't use dryer sheets, they are supposed to wreck your dryer. But, I get them from the dollar tree just for when I need to pick up e,bossing powder or glitter. The stuff is incideous amd multiplying like rabbits.! LOL.
Kitchen management is a tool to make your meal time more pleasant and less stressful and still cook from scratch. Meal plans are a close second.
Planning a shopping trip is a tool to lower your food bill .
Four plus one is five. Four people, one meal, five bucks.
Better, cheaper. Faster. Better food, cheaper food, and get out of the kitchen so you can spend more time with family or doing what you want to do.
Sunday, September 4, 2016
Next weeks meal plans,
Meal plans are done. The RDA for protein is 6 ounces, part if which should be eggs. Meal plans are listed ,but not always eaten in the order listed. Most generally I use a protein based matrix so that we eat a varied diet.
- Breakfast 4 dinner
- Pizza - homemade crust.
- Mac and cheese ( homemade) peas and carrots - Barilla pasta is .75with coupons
- Stir fry chicken with noodles
- Shepard's pie.
- Tuna casserole, peas -
- Sausage and sauerkraut. Rolls
Notes
1) eggs continue to be inexpensive so far. Keeping a small amount ahead will at least soften the blow when the effects of the buyout may hit. I found a waffle recipe that uses a cake mix. We have cake mixes I got on sale. Orange juice is a dollar at Freddies this week.
2) Homemade pizza crust is .30 and really easy. My recipe calls for loading flour, yeast and salt into the food processor, blending for a few seconds, pouring warm water and olive oil into the flour mixture while the processor is working until the mixture forms a ball. That's it, Take it out and knead it a couple of times in a floured board or counter, and place in a oiled bowl for ten minutes. You're ready to roll. Motts is two dollars a pound at Costco. Pepperoni is .50 (instead of 3.00) for the same brand at the tree with coupons.
It is a misconception that it saves money to grate your own cheese. Check the prices. The bigger the sack the lower the price not necessarily true either, Cheese is .99 for 8 ounces this week at Freddies. Some packages are six ounces, watch the packages. Base your purchases on price per pound. A pound of cheese is a pound of cheese, whatever shape it's in. We toured the Tillamook factory. They make big blocks of cheese. Then they put it in a machine and use what looks like a giant cheese slicer- with metal strings and cut it into the two pound bricks. Whatever is left over they put into a big bus- boy tray and send to be grated.
3) Mac and cheese is homemade. Cheese is another thing to stock while the prices are low. Grated cheese freezes well and I'm doing a WAG that the buyout will result in higher prices. I got Barilla pasta for .75 each at the tree with a coupon. I make a white sauce myself from a homemade mix that has low sodium chicken stock and non fat dry milk. You can also make it scratch with a mixture of butter and olive oil, flour, and chicken stock and milk to make it more healthy. Pasta is 1.59 at QFC. Seventy-five cents is less than 1/2 price.
4) chicken stir fry. I de-boned my chicken breasts and freeze them individually pin quart bags and then multiples in a gallon bag. a chicken breast cooked in a pressure cooker in 8 minutes. Stir fry veggies were 66 at QFC a few weeks ago. Ramen noodles are cheapest at Winco - (.17) I don't use the flavor packet that is full of salt.
5) Shepherds Pie - I've never made it, but I see a recipe and I have already cooked hamburger and instant mashed potatoes. Flavored instant mashed potatoes are a good go to and are cheapest at
Winco.
6) Tuna casserole. I always buy my tuna at Costco. It's not cheap, but well worth the splurge. Again homemade white sauce and I add some kind of a green vegetable. I was in the hospital one time when the children were young, my husband called me to ask how to make tuna casserole. I told him to boil the noodles, use cream of mushroom soup, and add drained tuna and something green ( like peas or peas and carrots ). Hating green veggies, he took green to be chopped pickles! Lol
7) Sausage and sauerkraut. Sauerkraut in glass jars are cheap at Winco. I drain and rinse and add apple to cut the acidity. The sausage was a dollar at QFC with a coupon and the buy 5, save 5. Not everything in the ad was a good buy, a lot of it was junk food. But, I used coupons and bought cereal For a charity . You could stock cereal of your family ate cold cereal. We tend to eat oatmeal-- even grandchild.
Knowing your prices and buying accordingly is the best way to cut your food bill. You can eat well on four dollars or less. This week, I must have been in a comfort food mood. Looking at the plan in retrospect. I tend to use the tried and true and make it with less fat, sugar, and salt and avoid hydrogenated oils.
Anything you want to eat, someone will tell you it's bad for you. Of you eat too much kale , you can get lead poisoning.
No food will do your family good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.
You eat first with your eyes. Some of the "healthy " foods honestly, look like someone has already eaten them or like dog poop. My take is to eat the tried and true. Just eat moderation and make it as healthy as possible , reducing fat, salt, sugar and hydrogenated oils. It he,so to make as much as possible from scratch. Grandmas cooking with bacon drippings. Shortening and mass sugar was not healthy. You can still find that cooking in u tube. It is possible to cook tasty regular food more healthy and not spend the entire day in the kitchen. Our grandmothers didn't have a lot of outside activities. They had small houses so there wasn't a lot to clean. They didn't work outside the home. They cooked. all day. Our lifestyle is not conducive of that. We do have tools these days to make the job of scratch cooking easier. And, we can rethink retro recipes to make them tasty and more healthy.
Better, cheaper, faster
Four plus one is five : Four people. One meal, Five bucks.
No food will do your family good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.
You eat first with your eyes. Some of the "healthy " foods honestly, look like someone has already eaten them or like dog poop. My take is to eat the tried and true. Just eat moderation and make it as healthy as possible , reducing fat, salt, sugar and hydrogenated oils. It he,so to make as much as possible from scratch. Grandmas cooking with bacon drippings. Shortening and mass sugar was not healthy. You can still find that cooking in u tube. It is possible to cook tasty regular food more healthy and not spend the entire day in the kitchen. Our grandmothers didn't have a lot of outside activities. They had small houses so there wasn't a lot to clean. They didn't work outside the home. They cooked. all day. Our lifestyle is not conducive of that. We do have tools these days to make the job of scratch cooking easier. And, we can rethink retro recipes to make them tasty and more healthy.
Better, cheaper, faster
Four plus one is five : Four people. One meal, Five bucks.
Saturday, September 3, 2016
Freddies tomorrow ad
Unlike last week, this Sunday ad is good.
Sunday and Monday only
Nathan's hot dogs ( note both Nathan's and nneed national have less garbage in them. Hebrew national has soy based product and Nathan's has corn. Nathan's is the best of the two evils.
2/4
Another nite, they get you with the buns. Winco is the cheapest on buns, or you can make them pigs in blankets.
Corn on cob 3/1
Watermelon 3.99
Some will say all of this isn't good for you. Perhaps only for picnic holiday and then back to a better diet.
Regular ad.
18 eggs .99
Kroger shredded cheese .99 - watch and get the 8 ounce bags!
Milk .99
Yoplait yogurt 10/5 - note there are coupons for another .20 off each
Vegetables, tomatoes,means 2/1 limit 6@@
Sour cream/'cottage cheese .99@@
La croix water 2/5@@
Foster farms chicken, while or parts .87
My rotation protein would be eggs and beans. Pinto beans are .75 lb in a four pound bag at grocery outlet. They are .67 a pound in a 1.5 pound bag at the dollar tree. Seems Kroger has all but quit carrying them, amd they are a much higher price at Winco, I'm seeing what seems to be a trend and I would be stocking some.
Eggs are one of the USDA bailouts. 18 count per dollar at Fred Meyer is probably the lowest you are going to see . Breakfast for dinner is a good alternative.
Ditto cheese at .99 a half pound, Cheese freezes. That is less than two dollars a pound. I would buy the six limit and freeze.
Sunday and Monday only
Nathan's hot dogs ( note both Nathan's and nneed national have less garbage in them. Hebrew national has soy based product and Nathan's has corn. Nathan's is the best of the two evils.
2/4
Another nite, they get you with the buns. Winco is the cheapest on buns, or you can make them pigs in blankets.
Corn on cob 3/1
Watermelon 3.99
Some will say all of this isn't good for you. Perhaps only for picnic holiday and then back to a better diet.
Regular ad.
18 eggs .99
Kroger shredded cheese .99 - watch and get the 8 ounce bags!
Milk .99
Yoplait yogurt 10/5 - note there are coupons for another .20 off each
Vegetables, tomatoes,means 2/1 limit 6@@
Sour cream/'cottage cheese .99@@
La croix water 2/5@@
Foster farms chicken, while or parts .87
My rotation protein would be eggs and beans. Pinto beans are .75 lb in a four pound bag at grocery outlet. They are .67 a pound in a 1.5 pound bag at the dollar tree. Seems Kroger has all but quit carrying them, amd they are a much higher price at Winco, I'm seeing what seems to be a trend and I would be stocking some.
Eggs are one of the USDA bailouts. 18 count per dollar at Fred Meyer is probably the lowest you are going to see . Breakfast for dinner is a good alternative.
Ditto cheese at .99 a half pound, Cheese freezes. That is less than two dollars a pound. I would buy the six limit and freeze.
Dinner - well kinda
What's left of dinner. I forgot to take the picture before we ate. LOL.
We had potatoes,radishes, and cauliflower roasted with sausage.
2.25 fed four of us,
Friday, September 2, 2016
Book and sea salt
Testing new pic program.
Book with many ide as at the dollar tree.
Also Himalayan sea salt in a bigger grinder than Costco's at dollar tree.
Reading the book, I am seeing many recipes that, indeed can be made for five dollars or less. There seem however, some that cannot. I think some can be adapted to make them a five dollar or less dinner. Phyllo dough is too expensive to make a dinner with it and still keep the cost down, A pie crust recipe should, however, do the trick.
Rice, brown rice,beans, cheese, hamburger occasionally, chicken, pork, ham cubes, eggs, all sources of protein and are inexpensive at this point in time.
Fill in with vegetables in season amd dairy.
Cooking vegetarian a couple times a week will reduce your average meal cost.
Book and sea salt
Testing new pic program.
Book with many ide as at the dollar tree.
Also Himalayan sea salt in a bigger grinder than Costco's at dollar tree.
Hauls......groceries for the week are done.
We had to go to town on another errand or two. Grandpas flip phone needed a decent funeral. It just died. Anyway, we went to dollar tree and grocery outlet.
At dollar tree I got
At dollar tree I got
- 15 pounds of pinto beans
- Brown n serve bread.
- 4 Barilla pasta : paid for three using a dollar off coupon. (.75)
- Delicious five dollar dinners book.
Total on food 5.00
At grocery outlet I got
- 4 pounds of pinto beans 2.99
- 2 sugar free cake mixes.
Total spend 5.00
Total for the week 31.69
Winco haul
Since Winco has no ads, you just have to go and know your prices.
Eggs, 18 count 1.44. 18 eggs were less than 1.5 times the cost of a dozen. Since I suspect the cost of eggs to go up, at least maybe I can suspend the sticker shock a little of o keep a supply.
Green grapes,.99. They looked really bog and fresh,
Gala apples. .99. Some of,the, had pimctire spots . You have to pick through.
Whole wheat bread 1.60
Winco green chilies - mild. .58 - far cheaper than any other store. - like about a dollar .
Diced tomatoes - .58. I'd rather lay fifty cents, but far cheaper than 1.59. After cleaning the pantry, I discovered we were running short. I rearranged the pantry and made room for more on the shelf and purged some of the beans.
Bottle of lemon juice - 2.14. - by far the cheapest way to get lemon juice. Lemons are expensive and don't look that great.
Winco coffee - 5.48 - cheapest price around. We are not coffee snobs, as you can tell.
Chicken noodle soup. .75. Less coupons for .40 off three.
Credit for bags .18.
Total 21.6
Cantaloupe continues to be cheap by the pound.
Steak was also very reasonable.
Sour cream and cottage cheese were pennies different than Fred Meyer sale price .
Canned veggies were 58
On another note. I took some inventory and cleaned the pantry. Thing were just put in there and I like things in the pantry and fridge grouped together. It keeps you from thinking you are out of something and then finding another one in the back corner.
It told me we have plenty of whole black olives, and not enough of tomatoes. I reduced the amount of canned beans. I am going to using dry beans since I discovered I can cook them without soaking in
the pressure cooker for as little as a cup that makes three cups. By rearranging and organizing I got almost everything off the floor and room for canisters of dried beans. I still want cans for emergencies and times when I don't have an hour to cook beans. It only takes 28 minutes, but it has to have time to come to pressure, and time to release pressure. Beans need to release on their own and not be nudged into it!
Before the pressure cooker. I would have not cooked beans, it is to time consuming to cook a cup of beans from scratch and we can't use a whole stock lot of beans before they go bad. Beans and rice
have a very short fridge life. I'm not going to compromise my family's health to save ten cents and I don't want to waste and throw out.
A serving of rice costs .03 and a serving of beans cost .04. I get beans at grocery outlet. The price seems to be going up and Kroger barely carries them. They are close to .90 at Wimco a pound and I can still get beans for 1.00 for a pound and a half. That's down from two pounds earlier im the year.
They are cheaper at Costco in bulk but we can't use a enormous bag of beans. I do get bulk rice at Costco. We use a lot of rice and it doesn't go bad.
I spend average of seventy five dollars a week. Basically for three of us, The USDA stats for my husband and I is closer to a hundred. That is for food eaten at home, I spend seventy five and stock. I do that by never paying full price for food. In fact, I usually pay 50 percent less or more.
We aren't on snap, but we eat for less than snap. I, not going to tell you that I snap my fingers and food appears in the pantry, catalogued and ready to eat. I spent an hour yesterday printing 2 sets of coupons. That would have been a lot less time , but my computer wouldn't cooperate, it kept hanging and Internet explorer kept quitting . That will be about it for couponing. I will glance at the inserts and file them. Favado at a quick glance before shopping will tell me if there is a coupon on something on my list. Ibotta will tell me of something I bought has a rebate.
I balance my time by spending more time planning and shopping, and less time cooking, there are many ways you can cook scratch, without standing in your feet for hours.
If you have something you want addressed on the blog, please feel free to comment.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for a month or for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not hard.
Eggs, 18 count 1.44. 18 eggs were less than 1.5 times the cost of a dozen. Since I suspect the cost of eggs to go up, at least maybe I can suspend the sticker shock a little of o keep a supply.
Green grapes,.99. They looked really bog and fresh,
Gala apples. .99. Some of,the, had pimctire spots . You have to pick through.
Whole wheat bread 1.60
Winco green chilies - mild. .58 - far cheaper than any other store. - like about a dollar .
Diced tomatoes - .58. I'd rather lay fifty cents, but far cheaper than 1.59. After cleaning the pantry, I discovered we were running short. I rearranged the pantry and made room for more on the shelf and purged some of the beans.
Bottle of lemon juice - 2.14. - by far the cheapest way to get lemon juice. Lemons are expensive and don't look that great.
Winco coffee - 5.48 - cheapest price around. We are not coffee snobs, as you can tell.
Chicken noodle soup. .75. Less coupons for .40 off three.
Credit for bags .18.
Total 21.6
Cantaloupe continues to be cheap by the pound.
Steak was also very reasonable.
Sour cream and cottage cheese were pennies different than Fred Meyer sale price .
Canned veggies were 58
On another note. I took some inventory and cleaned the pantry. Thing were just put in there and I like things in the pantry and fridge grouped together. It keeps you from thinking you are out of something and then finding another one in the back corner.
It told me we have plenty of whole black olives, and not enough of tomatoes. I reduced the amount of canned beans. I am going to using dry beans since I discovered I can cook them without soaking in
the pressure cooker for as little as a cup that makes three cups. By rearranging and organizing I got almost everything off the floor and room for canisters of dried beans. I still want cans for emergencies and times when I don't have an hour to cook beans. It only takes 28 minutes, but it has to have time to come to pressure, and time to release pressure. Beans need to release on their own and not be nudged into it!
Before the pressure cooker. I would have not cooked beans, it is to time consuming to cook a cup of beans from scratch and we can't use a whole stock lot of beans before they go bad. Beans and rice
have a very short fridge life. I'm not going to compromise my family's health to save ten cents and I don't want to waste and throw out.
A serving of rice costs .03 and a serving of beans cost .04. I get beans at grocery outlet. The price seems to be going up and Kroger barely carries them. They are close to .90 at Wimco a pound and I can still get beans for 1.00 for a pound and a half. That's down from two pounds earlier im the year.
They are cheaper at Costco in bulk but we can't use a enormous bag of beans. I do get bulk rice at Costco. We use a lot of rice and it doesn't go bad.
I spend average of seventy five dollars a week. Basically for three of us, The USDA stats for my husband and I is closer to a hundred. That is for food eaten at home, I spend seventy five and stock. I do that by never paying full price for food. In fact, I usually pay 50 percent less or more.
We aren't on snap, but we eat for less than snap. I, not going to tell you that I snap my fingers and food appears in the pantry, catalogued and ready to eat. I spent an hour yesterday printing 2 sets of coupons. That would have been a lot less time , but my computer wouldn't cooperate, it kept hanging and Internet explorer kept quitting . That will be about it for couponing. I will glance at the inserts and file them. Favado at a quick glance before shopping will tell me if there is a coupon on something on my list. Ibotta will tell me of something I bought has a rebate.
I balance my time by spending more time planning and shopping, and less time cooking, there are many ways you can cook scratch, without standing in your feet for hours.
If you have something you want addressed on the blog, please feel free to comment.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for a month or for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not hard.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Alberways and QFC
the ads
QFC
Peaches 1.28
Peppers. English cucumbers .99
Watermelons 2/4
Tillamook cheese 5.99
Buy 5, save 5 - net prices
Ritz crackers 1.69
Birds eye veggies ,99
General Mills cereal 1.29
Foster farms crispy strips 5.99
Eckrich smokes sausage 1.99 - plus in the mail with the ads, coupon for BOGO. Nets 1.00 per package
Raspberries 2/5
Alberways
Grapes .99
Tillamook cheese -2ln 5.49@@
Five dollar Friday
Corn (10)
Hormel pork tenderloin
About it. Traditionally, holiday weekends are not the best "buy" weekends,
QFC
Peaches 1.28
Peppers. English cucumbers .99
Watermelons 2/4
Tillamook cheese 5.99
Buy 5, save 5 - net prices
Ritz crackers 1.69
Birds eye veggies ,99
General Mills cereal 1.29
Foster farms crispy strips 5.99
Eckrich smokes sausage 1.99 - plus in the mail with the ads, coupon for BOGO. Nets 1.00 per package
Raspberries 2/5
Alberways
Grapes .99
Tillamook cheese -2ln 5.49@@
Five dollar Friday
Corn (10)
Hormel pork tenderloin
About it. Traditionally, holiday weekends are not the best "buy" weekends,
Whats for dinner.?
Spicy chicken tomato soup . I added chopped tomatoes because it looked to pasty to me. Sori joked with parm cheese. Dinner rolls from the dollar store.
Winner, winner, not chicken dinner!
Last night we had a taco boat, not fried - refried beans, and rice. I saved some peppers and some of the rice for the spicy chicken soup for tonight. Waste not, want not.
I saw a lady on U-tube make bread sticks from pizza dough, ( living on a dime ) she added white to the tops. I think I'll add some melted butter and finely grated parm. It should be a good project for granddaughter and I . She will probably enjoy rolling them out. She also loves soup. The soup recipe is a Taste of Home. When I wrote for them, they posted the recipe on the Internet. This one could be there. http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/quick-and-spicy-chicken-rice-soup
I found room for the pinto beans in the cupboard rather than the pantry because I use them a lot. The price of beans has gone up. They are still cheapest at the dollar tree except maybe Costco in bulk. I haven't eaten down the canned supply yet, so that's not happening, I do intend to keep a few cans.for emergency and as my daughter put it, sometimes, you may not have an hour to cook beans,
Being in transition is hard for the pantry organization.
We are so lucky to have a closet full of food. I got two packages of pronto speghetti from the dollar tree yesterday. I did pay a dollar, because you can only use two printed coupons per day, and door coupons total per family per day. I used two coupons for puffs. They are a smaller box count, buy they are better quality and with a coupon, they are .75 . I have a coupon that is a dollar off of four. Thinking about this, a .75 box of speghetti, a .85 cent can of pasta sauce, and package of meatballs would put dinner on the table for 2.60 for a family of four. Add some green beans for .50 and some bread sticks for .15. Total 3.25. For the three of us, I can save so,e for lunch the next day. Or freeze some for a dinner. for granddaughter when we are going out or she doesn't like our dinner. And, it cooks in ten minutes flat.
On another note, we did go to the dollar tree. I wanted brown n serve rolls for meatball subs. There are six to a package, they usually come in on Mondays, they are no GMO, no artificial. Easy, Peasy. They also come in two thin baguettes. I haven't found a good baguette recipe yet.
They also have what looks like a light switch. It runs on batteries and I plan to out it on the utility closet so I can see on there. I keep the staging things for the dining table, vases, placemats, flower arranging supplies, and the mops and vacuume cleaner.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Clark Howard and Jesse jones
I love Jesse Jones . He helped my daughter with a sticky situation with a health club and we truly appreciate it.
The what looked like costco article about bulk foods was from Clark Howard. I can't agree with most of what was said. To be fair, this person may very well live in a different part of the country, I am , many of you know, a big fan of buying in bulk and stocking a pantry. My mantra is to pay the very least you can for a product. Buy quality, buy it on sale, preferably with some kind of a coupon. Most of what we buy is 50-68 or more percent off. We eat for less than what most people spend on their morning coffee at the big bucks store. Buying good food cheap is my thing: it's just what I do.
My take on her list of bulk foods to buy
1) cheese. I almost never pay 2.75 a pound for regular cheese. Costco has motts for 2.00: Mexican blend closer to 2.35 . Their blue cheese is a remarkable price. Today. All bets are off when the government buy out has happened and we see the consequences.
I paid 1.98 a pound last week at Safeways and got a twenty percent basket coupon on it as well.
2) spices. Some large bottle spices at Costco are a deal especially if it's a spice that you use a lot. I suspect Italian -and Mexican typical spices are popular as well as Asian in some families. Spices that you use less often and expensive spices, you are better off getting on the bulk isle at Winco. A one inch type "jar" of dill was over six dollars. Enough to fill the "jar" in the bulk isle was less than .20.
M.
3) dry pasta . Dry pasta, stored properly, according to a BYU class I listened to, has an eight year shelf life. I always stock pasta. The big, but here is that I usually pay between .38 and .75 a box ( some 12 oz, some 16) for the pasta in the blue box using sales and coupons.
4) canned goods are not necessarily a good buy at Costco. The green beans are comparable and have less sodium. Canned goods are good to stock, but in moderation especially the canned meat or fish that have a shorter shelf life. They do have a boxed tomato, roasted red pepper soup that is organic and sells for about 1/2 the price compared to a regular chain grocery store.
5) oats. Hands down the best buy of oats I have found at a dollar a pound. They are a dollar a pound at the store with that name, but the quality isn't as good . We get ten pounds at a time and use it every day.
6) meat: And, pray tell, when has anyone got ground beef of any quality for two dollars a pound? Maybe in 1980! Winco has had it for 3.18 a pound for 7 percent fat. I don't find Costco meat cheaper except for sausage in chubs and bacon. Costco wholesale was cheaper, but I didn't like the texture.
7) grouping together produce: onions and peppers, strawberries and apples. The strawberries I saw were past their prime and the apples I bought were in fact rotten. I should have taken them back. I have had strawberries that were good before, but the price of apples is prohibitive. I can't pay almost a buck an apple. Produce at other places and the fresh food market is cheaper and you can pick your item,so you don't pay for one bad piece, jacking up the price. Bananas are , hands down ( pardon the pun) the Best Buy around as well as the baby romaine. It's less expensive and lasts longer
Things to stock : Rice, beans, oatmeal, Popcorn. Frozen veggies in five pound bags.
Best buys at Costco on butter, cottage cheese and sour cream.
I shop at Costco. We love Costco.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending
The what looked like costco article about bulk foods was from Clark Howard. I can't agree with most of what was said. To be fair, this person may very well live in a different part of the country, I am , many of you know, a big fan of buying in bulk and stocking a pantry. My mantra is to pay the very least you can for a product. Buy quality, buy it on sale, preferably with some kind of a coupon. Most of what we buy is 50-68 or more percent off. We eat for less than what most people spend on their morning coffee at the big bucks store. Buying good food cheap is my thing: it's just what I do.
My take on her list of bulk foods to buy
1) cheese. I almost never pay 2.75 a pound for regular cheese. Costco has motts for 2.00: Mexican blend closer to 2.35 . Their blue cheese is a remarkable price. Today. All bets are off when the government buy out has happened and we see the consequences.
I paid 1.98 a pound last week at Safeways and got a twenty percent basket coupon on it as well.
2) spices. Some large bottle spices at Costco are a deal especially if it's a spice that you use a lot. I suspect Italian -and Mexican typical spices are popular as well as Asian in some families. Spices that you use less often and expensive spices, you are better off getting on the bulk isle at Winco. A one inch type "jar" of dill was over six dollars. Enough to fill the "jar" in the bulk isle was less than .20.
M.
3) dry pasta . Dry pasta, stored properly, according to a BYU class I listened to, has an eight year shelf life. I always stock pasta. The big, but here is that I usually pay between .38 and .75 a box ( some 12 oz, some 16) for the pasta in the blue box using sales and coupons.
4) canned goods are not necessarily a good buy at Costco. The green beans are comparable and have less sodium. Canned goods are good to stock, but in moderation especially the canned meat or fish that have a shorter shelf life. They do have a boxed tomato, roasted red pepper soup that is organic and sells for about 1/2 the price compared to a regular chain grocery store.
5) oats. Hands down the best buy of oats I have found at a dollar a pound. They are a dollar a pound at the store with that name, but the quality isn't as good . We get ten pounds at a time and use it every day.
6) meat: And, pray tell, when has anyone got ground beef of any quality for two dollars a pound? Maybe in 1980! Winco has had it for 3.18 a pound for 7 percent fat. I don't find Costco meat cheaper except for sausage in chubs and bacon. Costco wholesale was cheaper, but I didn't like the texture.
7) grouping together produce: onions and peppers, strawberries and apples. The strawberries I saw were past their prime and the apples I bought were in fact rotten. I should have taken them back. I have had strawberries that were good before, but the price of apples is prohibitive. I can't pay almost a buck an apple. Produce at other places and the fresh food market is cheaper and you can pick your item,so you don't pay for one bad piece, jacking up the price. Bananas are , hands down ( pardon the pun) the Best Buy around as well as the baby romaine. It's less expensive and lasts longer
Things to stock : Rice, beans, oatmeal, Popcorn. Frozen veggies in five pound bags.
Best buys at Costco on butter, cottage cheese and sour cream.
I shop at Costco. We love Costco.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending
Sugar. ....
we all know that sugar is not good for us, or rather, too much sugar is,not good for us. A conversation with a friend sparked my curiosity, I started researching. ......
Grams of sugar oj ready to eat cereals.
Corn flakes. 2.7
Honey nitmxheerios. 9
Cheerios 1.2
Cocoa oops 12
Cookie Crisp 9
Raisen bran. 18
Lucky charms 10
Trix 10
Cocoa Puffs 10
Raisen bran crunch 10.5
Rice crispies 3.3
Rice Chex 2.0
Now, the six million dollar question is how many teaspoons of sugar is a kid going to add to a cereal that has no Sugar? LOL.
Grams of sugar oj ready to eat cereals.
Corn flakes. 2.7
Honey nitmxheerios. 9
Cheerios 1.2
Cocoa oops 12
Cookie Crisp 9
Raisen bran. 18
Lucky charms 10
Trix 10
Cocoa Puffs 10
Raisen bran crunch 10.5
Rice crispies 3.3
Rice Chex 2.0
Now, the six million dollar question is how many teaspoons of sugar is a kid going to add to a cereal that has no Sugar? LOL.
Making the most of a coupon -- not extreme
Making the most of a coupon does not take extreme couponing, Couponing has gotten a bad wrap from the tv show. No one needs to have a whole room in their basement the or a closet full of pop; and no one needs to buy 70 bottles of red pepper sauce, more? than they would one on a lifetime.
Couponing responsibly can seriously lower your food bill. A lot of coupons are for high priced junk food and things you don't need. But, there are still high value coupons for things you do need. It doesn't have to take a lot of time. Spend 20 minutes or so downloading coupons from coupons,com at the beginning of the month. Coupons come out the first of the month. Their is a limit on what can print, The high value ones go first. You snooze, you loose.
I file mine in a binder. I got the binder from the goodwill and I bought baseball card sleeves and photo sleeves. If you are an occasional couponer, you can use a coupon wallet from the dollar tree.
Take it to the store with you. You never know when you find a match.
Grouping coupons is what saves you the most money, I usually don't plan a shopping trip. I look at the ads and make a mental note of which store has the most of what I need on sale for the lowest price. I'm looking for a rotation protein, anything I am running low on or perishables I need and any staple stock item that's a really good price.
I go, walk down the isles that are important to me, skip the baby and dog food isles because I don't have a baby or dog . That cuts time , The perimeter of the store has the most perishable items. The rest of the store usually has isles you don't need to go down unless you have a special need. Skipping those isles saves time. Be on the lookout for things you buy on a regular basis that may be at a lower price. When something you need is at a lower price, check your coupon book. If I need to look or cut a coupon, I tuck my cart into an isle that is less traveled and do it. The cosmetic or pet food isle usually works.
The most percentage off is when you can use a basket coupon, a true sale, and manufacturers coupons. The five for five type sales are the best. So,stores, I skip them because they are for expensive drinks and junk food. But , occasionally , the stars are in alignment and a basket coupon, five for five sake in real food, and manufacturers coupons all come at the same time. That's when it's important to plan and act. I have got as much as 78 percent off.
QFC is one of the best places for that kind of a sale. They let you use the basket coupon first, and then use your manufacturers coupons , and then the five for five rings up last. Cha Ching!
Example :
12 ounce boxes of Cheerios are 2.79. Sale price was 2.29, less the dollar for the "bulk" sale made them 1.29. Now, add a 1.00 off two coupon and I got them for .79.
I bought four. ( food bank) .
I added a bag of goldfish crackers for .99.
There is usually a few small items priced at a dollar or so to use for fill ins. I can use goldfish for a little snack for granddaughter, or to float in a bowl of soup to make it more appetizing.
There was no blanket coupon on this sake, but I have done blanket sales with bulk sales before. It maximizes your discounts.
Here's the best one I've ever seen. My sister did it.
6.99 detergent for HD washers. On sale , less coupon, less basket coupon, net 1.10. WOW
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending
Couponing responsibly can seriously lower your food bill. A lot of coupons are for high priced junk food and things you don't need. But, there are still high value coupons for things you do need. It doesn't have to take a lot of time. Spend 20 minutes or so downloading coupons from coupons,com at the beginning of the month. Coupons come out the first of the month. Their is a limit on what can print, The high value ones go first. You snooze, you loose.
I file mine in a binder. I got the binder from the goodwill and I bought baseball card sleeves and photo sleeves. If you are an occasional couponer, you can use a coupon wallet from the dollar tree.
Take it to the store with you. You never know when you find a match.
Grouping coupons is what saves you the most money, I usually don't plan a shopping trip. I look at the ads and make a mental note of which store has the most of what I need on sale for the lowest price. I'm looking for a rotation protein, anything I am running low on or perishables I need and any staple stock item that's a really good price.
I go, walk down the isles that are important to me, skip the baby and dog food isles because I don't have a baby or dog . That cuts time , The perimeter of the store has the most perishable items. The rest of the store usually has isles you don't need to go down unless you have a special need. Skipping those isles saves time. Be on the lookout for things you buy on a regular basis that may be at a lower price. When something you need is at a lower price, check your coupon book. If I need to look or cut a coupon, I tuck my cart into an isle that is less traveled and do it. The cosmetic or pet food isle usually works.
The most percentage off is when you can use a basket coupon, a true sale, and manufacturers coupons. The five for five type sales are the best. So,stores, I skip them because they are for expensive drinks and junk food. But , occasionally , the stars are in alignment and a basket coupon, five for five sake in real food, and manufacturers coupons all come at the same time. That's when it's important to plan and act. I have got as much as 78 percent off.
QFC is one of the best places for that kind of a sale. They let you use the basket coupon first, and then use your manufacturers coupons , and then the five for five rings up last. Cha Ching!
Example :
12 ounce boxes of Cheerios are 2.79. Sale price was 2.29, less the dollar for the "bulk" sale made them 1.29. Now, add a 1.00 off two coupon and I got them for .79.
I bought four. ( food bank) .
I added a bag of goldfish crackers for .99.
There is usually a few small items priced at a dollar or so to use for fill ins. I can use goldfish for a little snack for granddaughter, or to float in a bowl of soup to make it more appetizing.
There was no blanket coupon on this sake, but I have done blanket sales with bulk sales before. It maximizes your discounts.
Here's the best one I've ever seen. My sister did it.
6.99 detergent for HD washers. On sale , less coupon, less basket coupon, net 1.10. WOW
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending
Monday, August 29, 2016
Leaf frog or stair step.
One kitchen management or quick cooking tool is to leap frog or stair step your meals. It's an age old trick. This week, we are having tacos, rice and non-fried refried beans. We are also having sliced chicken and rice soup. I can save some of the rice and some ofmthemoeooers from the beans and use them in the soup. We are also having a rox medley or pilaf if you want to be fancy. Rice and beans have a three day fridge life. That might be pushing it. Rice in the rice cooker is a no brainer. Not fried - refried beans, not so much. Spicy chicken soup is from taste of home. Many times you can google it for the recipe.
Stair stepping or leap frogging is when you save something from one nights dinner and use it for th mn still nights dinner, it especially is good if you have a small family and need to use up a whole can of something. Or you can cook once and ise it twice , as in rice or beans.
It took me a long time to get the refried bean recipe down to 1 cup of beans, It's just the right amount for a quart deli tub of product. There are four of us for anything that is vegetable based.
Just another way to save time and money.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently. It also means when payday comes, you still have food in the pantry.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending
Stair stepping or leap frogging is when you save something from one nights dinner and use it for th mn still nights dinner, it especially is good if you have a small family and need to use up a whole can of something. Or you can cook once and ise it twice , as in rice or beans.
It took me a long time to get the refried bean recipe down to 1 cup of beans, It's just the right amount for a quart deli tub of product. There are four of us for anything that is vegetable based.
Just another way to save time and money.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently. It also means when payday comes, you still have food in the pantry.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending
Perfectionist or not so much
moone ever accused me of being s perfectionist. It's just not my personality, My Mac and cheese doesn't have to have just the right amount of dark spots on it to be good. Make look tasty, season it so it tastes good, bit go on to the next thing to do. I always have a to do list as long as your arm, so perfectionism just slows me down.
I use spell check. I am writing this in a reader that won't scroll and sometimes I am writing it blind. It outs words in my mouth. This thing must have a relationship with chocolate because it says Oreo all the time. LOL. I try my best, but I will never live up to the perfectionist. Ain't gonna happen.
Today on my list is to
- Clean myself up
- Write a blog
- Do the kitchen management which includes making bread from scratch , washing the f,Ior and fridge, regrouping things on the pantry. Posting the meals on the fridge. Posting the sakes slips for food and downloading coupons,
- Clean my studio and start another inventory section
- Call the pt and see when my a lot is so I haven't double booked appointments.
- Find a ride to a meeting
- Babysit my granddaughter
- Get the garden cut down and ready for fall.
- Figure out how a picture works on the blog now that Google changed the program.
- Figure out how to be able to have both the reader and the printer on wifi at the same time, Arh!
Just get it done. If I had to worry about perfection, I wouldn't get it all done. I admire perfectionists when it comes to woodworking, or a painting, and we can all strive for it. But getting things done around the house is not a time for perfection unless you are getting your house ready to sell.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Meal plans and notes
Walking you through the brains .... Behind meal plans. Not to brag or make this blog all about me,,, bit, rather to help people that may be struggling with the planning oset of meals on the table, It's a very important step in keeping your cost down. Of you aren't on the Seattle area, you can use the methodology to make it work for you, Watching food hauls from other parts of the country, food prices vary, some things are more expensive , some less.
My rotation.protein for this week would be a 1/2 pork loin from Fred Meyers or the hambirger at Fred Meyers.
Using the matrix
1 beef
1 fish
3 chicken or pork
2 vegetarian.
I have a work sheet I use, it tells me what we have in the fridge, because I have just cleaned it and made note of things near their pull dates. The form has two columns on the right side of the paper, perishables we have normally, and things we need to buy to complete meals. The left side has boxes for 7 meals and the matrix printed. It's a simple form made on excel.
Take a look at your daytimer and note any appointments that will make for a hectic day. You can plan meals to compensate. That may be the day you decide to put a chicken noodle soup on the slow cooker early on the morning, or stage ot in the fridge to place on the slow cooker before you leave in the morning. Find a few minutes on the weekend, if you work, so you can do some kitchen management and get organized. Wash veggies and prep anything you can ahead of time. Of you do that part while you are batch cooking your rotation meat, it doesn't take long. Enlist help if you can. You would be surprised what even a small child can do. I don't let granddaughter do anything that has sharp or hot connected to it, but she knows how to do a lot. She loves to cook. She can make breadcrumbs, roll and fill an pizza. Stir things, butter and top a French bread, hollow out bag gets for meat ball subs. Just teach them how to scrub their hands well. I don't let her touch raw meat either. She can also brush the veggies in vinegar water. It keeps her busy while o do other things.
Using the matrix ( makes it easy-- less reinventing the wheel ) write down seven meals that fill the matrix and use what you have to use up and the rotation protein you have in the freezer/pantry.
I have yogurt we need to use up, and sausage I got for a dollar a package. I try for onkyone or less processed meat a week,
- Pizza
- Taco salad, beans and rice
- Slow cooker chicken noodle soup and cheezy biscuits.
- Sausage and roasted root veggies , bread
- White fish, rice medley, mixed veggies
- Meat ball subs , salad
- Breakfast for dinner
Notes :
Daughter is making pizza from scratch for the first time. Granddaughter has done it.
Baby romaine at Costco lasts longer and tastes better amd is cheaper. Taco meat is ready made in the freezer from batch cooking. Rice in the rice cooker, non fried, refried beans from scratch.
Chicken noodle soup from stock in the freezer and fresh veggies and bulk noodles. To,e to portion control the noodles into bags. Cheezy biscuits are Bisquick ( or homemade baking mix) biscuits rolled out like a jelly roll. Spread with cheese and rolled up like a jelly roll, sliced and baked.
Oven roasted veggies : potato, carrots. Radishes sausage was a dollar at QFC. We will use. 1/2 of one. Make scratch bread
Rice medley is rice made from a home made mix ( herbs and chicken stock) frozen veggies ( .33)
Bake fish
Meat ball subs - meat balls from batch cooking or from the freezer case I got for .98 a short pound.
Hallow out brown and serve rolls ( dollar tree, no GMO, no artificial ingredients ) fill with meatballs that are dressed with BBQ sauce ( .55 beginning of season with coupons and sale) Fred Meyers .79 .
Breakfast 4 dinner. 79 eggs , .30 yogurt parfaits , and English muffins (1.67 a doz -Fred Meyers or home made muffins. Scratch muffin formula from Katie cooks and crafts u tube or mix from dollar tree with yogurt or substitute sour cream.
Variety, good food, easy to make. Cheap?
Better, cheaper, faster
4 plus 1 is five. Four people, ome meal, five bucks.
.
Saturday, August 27, 2016
The Freddies ad
Tomorrows ad
Ground beef - 10 percent fat. 3.90
Grapes .99
Goldfish .99
Pears .99
Corn 3/1
Coupons coupons coupons - in ad
Ritz crackers 3/5
Best foods 2.49
Sweet baby rays sauce .79
Sour cream/ cottage cheese 2/4
Yoban coffe 6.99
Pork loin 1.99 ( I'd rather pay 1.69, but that's not bad.
Ground beef - 10 percent fat. 3.90
Grapes .99
Goldfish .99
Pears .99
Corn 3/1
Coupons coupons coupons - in ad
Ritz crackers 3/5
Best foods 2.49
Sweet baby rays sauce .79
Sour cream/ cottage cheese 2/4
Yoban coffe 6.99
Pork loin 1.99 ( I'd rather pay 1.69, but that's not bad.
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