Alberways ad

I didn't get a QFC ad, perhaps it was a two week ad?  

Alberways

Oranges .58
Lucerne yogurt .38
Eggs .78@@

Five  dollar Friday
Shrimp

Digital only coupon - cheese .99-8 ounces

BOGO sale
Progresso soup
Tortillas
BBQ sauce condiments asstd.
Note: this can or cannot be a good buy, know your prices.  

Quality first .

You can shop wisely and eat good nutritious food on a limited budget.   It takes diligence.   You can't run to the corner grocery store and buy one day's worth of food at a time.   Anything good takes effort. But, it can be done.  

With talk of cutting food stamps and cutting ssa and privatizing Medicare, a lot of people are feeling the pinch or will be if the government as we know it gets their way.   Starting to adjust spending habits now will stave off the shock if it happens.   If you are on snap. Start being diligent about where  you buy your food and what you pay for it.   If you pay half price for food and store one away you will have a stockpile and bide yourself time.   It just makes sense not to waste.    There is a certain sense of security knowing you have a pantry and you know where the next meal is coming from.  

The last month I have spent thirty dollars a week and replentised stock.   It is doable.    It takes some effort. My mantra is that I can spend more time planning and shopping and less time cooking and make good meals happen for a limited amount of money,

My average for  three of us last year was 72.00 a week.   That is 1/2 the usda statistics for low income for our family.   So far since Christmas it has been less than thirty dollars a week.

1. Shop sales.   Only buy things if they are in a real sale -- know your prices and only buy at the lowest price. Know the prices of the things you buy on a regular basis that are shelf or freezer stable.   Buy low, eat high.  The same mantra as a stockbroker.    If you can get two for the price of one, you can use that one and set aside the other.   That builds a reserve.   In other words, if a ,!,! Storm happens , you've  got your back.    
2. Plan meals and plan for any leftovers or bits left on a can.  Waste not, want not.    Planning meals saves time and money.   Kitchen management makes best use of your time and resources.   If you notice you aren't eating some thing, incorporate it into a recipe. Make something and freeze it if necessary,   Mymfamily has,nit eaten the eight pounds of oranges I bought for five dollars.   I will grate the rind and freeze or dry it and make orange juice.    Having dinner half done just means that when dinner time is hectic, you can simplify the process.   
3. Establishing a stockpile now can mean that if you loose your job or funding, you can cut back and survive on less money.   I decided to experiment and find out just how much we could eat well and reduce using a stockpile and adding to it.   Tough times will require tough measures,   Portion control is important.  We don't want to starve ourselves, but we don't need to gorge ourselves either.    There is no reason why anyone needs to eat an entire regular sized pizza or eat the majority of a two pound roast.   
4. Re work leftovers.   Last nights chilli can be put over rice or used on nachos.    Incorporate leftovers in another meal, freeze, or use for lunch the next day.   If a family member doesn't like leftovers. Be creative and incorporate them into something else, or freeze and introduce them the next week.   
5. Buy meat in bulk.  Set a dollar limit on what you buy.  Orotein has to cost less than two dollars a pound to make it on a snap budget.    It is not hard to see that if you have three hundred dollars a month to eat on, you can't spend ten dollars for dinner a day.   Either you are going to run out of money before you run out of month, or you aren't going to eat lunch or dinner.  Fortunately that can be a average.  The PNW has so,e of the highest prices on the nation.   I watch  a lot of grocery hauls from all over the United States.   I can find: 1) 7 percent fat hamburger for close to 3.28 a pound.   Eggs are a dollar. Whole or half a  Pork loin is anywhere from 1.49-1.69.   Chicken breast can be 8.00 a pound, but Foster farms split chicken breast is 2.28 and it is easy to de-bone it and cook the bones  for chicken meat and stock.   I can get whole chickens s for a dollar , or sometimes less.   Pinto beans are .67 a pound at the dollar tree and they are no gmo and grown on USA.   Pepperoni is to be used on moderation, but with coupons it is .50 at dollar store instead ofm1.69 elsewhere.   Jimmy Dean sausage is 8.00 for three pounds at Costco, or sometimes less with coupons at a regular store.   
6. Buy meat or protein in bulk at the lowest price .   Rotate the so called loss leader by week, buy enough to feed the family as many times as you will eat that meat.   If you eat beef once a week, you want four portion controlled meals.    Cook or butcher it if appropriate and oration control.   Freeze.   You can get a months worth of food on a regular refrigerator freezer.   Save time and money.  
7. Find quick and easy scratch recipes.   Make your own mixes and slice blends.   Make a real  effort to buy any appliances you can that will make your time on the kitchen more efficient,   Mixers, food processors, and electric pressure cookers ( new ones) can save a lot of time and energy.   You can sometimes find them at estate sales or save up.   Beans can be made in a slow cooker.   A insta pot is about 80.00 and so a rice cooker, a slow cooker. And a pressure cooker.   If you only have a limited time to spend on feeding the family, spend more time planning a shopping trip and meals and less time cooking,   You can shop and plan with bits of time- when you are on hold making a phone call. Waiting for th school bus or the carpool, at two on the morning when you can't sleep!    Engage children early,   My sisters and I were baking at nine yo.   My granddaughter was helping at three.  Now, she is able with supervision. To butter and make"garlic" bread, roll pizza dough and fill it. Count as we put ingredients on a bowl.   Anything that isn't sharp or hot.   I don't let her deal with raw meat.    It's a good way to teach kitchen heigene and counting, and kitchen  skills.   By the time she's 10, she should be able to put a simple meal together.    

It's doable, it just takes some effort,   The rewards are remarkable,    

Master dinners lists

Having a master list of meals that you can go to when meal planning makes meal planning easy,   It's nice to try new things every now and then, but children especially like routine and the same things.

Beef
Speghetti and meatballs.
Sloppy joes
Tacos
Meatloaf
Beef enchaladas


Chicken

Roasted chicken kegs
Chicken noodle soup or casserole
 Chicken pot pie
Chicken stir fry **
Chicken enchiladas
 Roasted chicken with oven roasted root veggies
Buffalo chicken pizza


Pork
Pork chops on apple, craisens, bread stuffing
Pork roast
Pork,chops with sauerkraut
Hunters pork
Pork pot pot
Split pea soup with ham
Ham and eggs
Sausage and peppers
Green chillis


Misc
Pizza : ham and pineapple. Pepperoni. Sausage and pepperoni, buffalo chicken
Mac and cheese
Rice and beans
Chilli
Stuffed green peppers
Braised beef on rice
Stuffed zucchini


Meal plans are a must if you are dining in the cheap.    Make a plan, or plan to fail -so the  quote  stares goes.   It doesn't have to be ridged, but you have to have one.  It enables you to save some ingredients for another meal , or stair step.   It allows you to set aside a small snippet of time to do some kitchen management and make your meal times a lot less hectic.  Kitchen management is nails cleaning the fridge, making note of what needs to be used up, and prepped   anything you can make ahead.

**  If you know two days on a row you are going to have rice, make a pot of rice.    It's done   and when you add precooked chicken to a frozen bag of stir fry veggies that you have purchased with a coupon, you have a very fast ,  easy , ame cheap dinner  that has stand off the fast food gremilins,  

Feed four people for a buck.

Ok, it is possible.    I have been watching a lot of grocery hauls lately to get a feel of what grocery prices are in other parts of the country,    When I started this blog, I really thought that my readership would be the PNW.  It was at first intended to be to help people with limited resources feed their families better for less.   I'm finding that that isn't necessarily what is happening, I have readers all over the world and many of them just want to save money,  

Four people, one breakfast, one dollar.  

Real oatmeal ( not instant that is processed into oblivion ) is 8.00 for ten pounds at Costco.   Good old  Quaker Oats.   You have to eat three bags of the instant stuff to equal the nutrition of one half cup of the real thing,    It takes almost no time to make microwave oatmeal from scratch: once cup of water, one half cup of Oats. One and a half minutes.   Put the ingredients in a larger bowl than you need to make sure it doesn't boil over.  

Add one small or half a larger banana and some cinnamon sugar and a splash of milk.

Four people. One breakfast, one dollar.  


Senecio 2

English muffins are 12 for 1.66 at Fred Meyers.   Add an egg for eight cents and your total is .08.  
Total for an egg muffin is .24


senerio  3

Breakfast burrito .   Tortillas are a dime, add an egg for .08 and you still have room for some peppers and leftover potato.  


Three ideas for .25 per person breakfast dishes.  

With a four dollar a day budget, soending .25 on breakfast means you have plenty for 1.25 ( five dollar dinner for four people) and a lunch salad or planned overs.  

Remember, you need to save part of the four dollars a day for staples like flour, sugar, oil, butter, spices etc.  

Meal plans , January 23, 2017

Sometimes, meal plans need to be adjusted to compensate for specials.    I recently got enchalada sauce ten - ten ounce cans for a dollar --total.  They had a far enough pull out date to make it worth my while.    Enchalada sauce is well over a dollar a can, and I cant  make sauce as  low as a dime a can.

Last week, we had  chicken enchiladas for dinner one night,   Themleftovers for  the next day's lunch.   I made a huge batch of (three pounds of 7 percent fat groumd beef )  Mexican sloppy joes.   I froze what we didn't eat in portion controlled freezer bags for an easy dinner another time.  

1. Chicken pot pie , fruit cup 
2. Mexican sloppy joes, tater tots. Salad 
3. Chicken chimichangas , rice and beans 
4. Tuna cassarole, peas and carrots 
5. Chilli, cheese, taco chips. Sour cream 
6. Leftover chilli on rice 
7. Breakfast for dinner 

Notes 

1. Chicken breast cooked  com frozen in the insta pot - 8 minutes, homemade white sauce mix, mixed veggies purchased with a .35 off coupon,   
2. Mexican sloppy joes - freezer meal , buns purchased to round out a basket coupon for .57 ( 2-3 meals) tater tots were a dollar and change for two pounds at Winco,   Add a salad 
3. Chicken chimichangas.   Chicken breast, tortillas that were 12 for  dollar. Homemade white sauce with cheese. 
4. Chilli - made in the slow cooker.   Beans from dried.   Canned diced tomatoes with chillis bought for .58.   Buying diced tomatoes that already have seasoning is a way to cut a little off your food cost and save time in the kitchen,   Like finding sales , every little bit helps.   Small steps.   
5. Leftover chili on rice 
6. Tuna  casserole, peas and carrots.   Just to break up the Mexican kick,   We do like Mexican food as well as Italian a lot.   
7. Old main stay, everybody cooks together, breakfast for dinner.    Eggs were 1.44 for 18.   At Winco.  They wanted more for a dozen at Fred Meyers.   One of the reasons why it lays to go to more than one store.    I got good berries for two dollars at Fred Meyers, the English muffins are  always cheaper. 

Last half of the weeks meals

potato soup and homemade artisan bread happened sooo good that I didn't get a picture.

I'm still learning the bread bit, doesn't look pretty, but it tasted great.    

Salmon cakes, fresh green beans, strawberries and blueberries, and artisan bread.   

Freddies ad for tomorrow

Not much, but what there is is good


blueberries 18 ounces 3.49
Mixed Pork chops 1.29 a pound
Milk .99


Best foods mayo 2/5@@

Ore ida potatoes 2.79 --note Winco has two pounds of potato rounds for a dollar and like 18'cents or so.   

Oranges .89 lb 

Heritage farm chicken breast - note heritage farm is Tyson.    

Romas .99

5 more kitchen hacks

five more kitchen hacks.  

1. Wash vegetables with vinegar water.   Cleaning vegetables in bulk and chopping thisemthat need chopping saves time and moneymbecaisemyounaremusing one bucket or sink of vinegar water and things are ready when you need them 
2. Deli containers are about.50 on Amazon and are a real boon for storing things in the fridge,   Theynstack and have universal lids so they take a lot less room on your container cupboard and  are easily stored in the fridge.   
3. Make a salad of tomatoes and cucumbers and a vinegrette.   Add any leftover blanched veggies to it as the week progresses.   Cucumbers, tomatoes, fresh blanched green beans, brocolli, blanched carrots.    
4. Don't store potatoes and onions on the same place.    Omemgovesmoff a gas that makes the other spoil faster.    
5.  vegetable  soup can be made in five minutes in the pressure cooker.   

Last night we had potato soup.   

Chop celery and carrots (onion) saute in the pressure cooker  after you add a bacon slice or some butter/olive oil.    When softened, add diced potatoes and enough chicken or vegetable stock to cover.   

Process in manual for five minutes.    When ready to serve, set pressure cooker  on sauté mode again and make a slurry of flour and milk.   Add slurry  and milk to the soup and let simmer until  the broth is a little thick.     Salt and pepper.    Done in minutes.   

Serve with a little grated cheese and some chopped green onion stems or parsley on top.   

Safeway haul - 60 percent savings

Safeways haul.  Using. Basket coupon for 5 dollars off of 25.00.

Coffee 4.95- nets 3.95
Salsa reg 2.99. - .99 ea - limit 4 net cost is .81
12 hunts pasta sauce - .79 net  63 each
2 pounds butter at 1.99 nets 1.68
Hamburger bins .69- .55

Total 22.10.  My goal was to spend 25 total to make my bill 20.00.  That's how you get the most bang for your buck.  I , however went over two dollars because 67 percent on salsa with a far out pull date
Is too good to pass up.   That nets .81 instead of three dollars on two of them.

10.92 food
11.18 stock
22.10 total

Winco fill in
Mustard .89
18 eggs 1.44
2 pkg celery 1.96
10 lbs potatoes 198
Total food 6.27

Total food this week 17.19

Winco 18 eggs were cheaper at Winco than 12 were at Safeways 

Safeways 

New ads

We just got ads

Alberways

Berries 2/4
Bitter 199@@
Bread .99@@

Top ramen .15 buy 24
Nalleys chilli .88$$ when you buy 24
Vegetables .59 when u buy 12


Salsa 1.99
Hunts pasta sauce .79 buy 12
Frozen veggies .69 buy 12

QFC

Avocado .88
Pork loin 1.69 *****



Pork loin would be a good rotation protein.   Please look at older blogs to find directions for cutting.  

Freaky Friday.

Three more days of this week, and I think we will go for another month.  Anything that rotates inventory and saves money can't be a bad thing.   I managed to reolentish what we were out of and provide good meals.  

I replenished

1. Four pounds of bacon 
2. Ten pounds of boneless , skinless chicken   breast 
3. four pounds  of cheese
4. 18 cans of diced tomatoes 
5. 6 cans of green beans 
6. Thirty pounds of flour 

Total per week is under thirty dollars., or ten dollar each.   

This is doable.    It takes a little work, but I am in a mission to figure it out.    I have the feeling with the political climate beingmwhat it is many people will need to cut their grocery bill.   I am on a mission to be able to teach people how to eat  better for less.  If you know someone that needs this, please feel free to share this.   I don't get money for this, I'm not in it for the money,   I'm in it because I know how to stretch a food budget and there are people that run kit of money before they run out of month,   The end result is a child that doesn't know where the next meal is coming from and often it causes a child to over eat-- a phycological impulse to correct the situation,   Nomchild should have to suffer the insecurity of an empty pantry,    

I am making potato soup with ham for dinner,    I will also put my last bit of refrigerator bread dough in the oven,    I am having a hard time getting the bottom of the bread to cook adequately.    I have tried both the oven without the bottom element and the one with an element,  I have used thenpizza stone.   Anyone with any imcut  about what's wrong would be great appreciated.    

That leaves us salmon patties, and breakfast 4 dinner.   I haven't done week six shopping, but I will soon.    

No spend January meals this week

Our no spend January was supposed to be 25.00 a week.   We actually

started right after Christmas and spent 148.86 for five weeks.    Part of that was a 40.23 budget for staples.   Actual spent  on perishables was 21.73 a week .

Chicken enchaladas , also we had beans and rice .

Handmade pizza 

Hunters pork, homemade artisan bread, salad, fresh green beans 

Forgot to take a pic, what was left......

Mexican sloppy joes, vegetable salad. French fries.   

12 things to keep in your pantry

this is a stretch, because there are more than ten things in a well stocked pantry, but these are ten that are essentials,

1. Pasta sauce -   A good versatile start for many dinners.    
2. Pasta - elbows. Speghetti. Bow ties.   - getting pasta that is double  fiber or that has servings of vegetables in them is even better.   Pasta has a very very long shelf life.   
3. Beans.    Dry and canned.    Canned beans are for emergency 🚨 storage.   Of you don't have power, cooking dry beans may be difficult, but you can eat cold beans and they are a source of protein.   
4. Rice - rice and beans make a complete protein and are a good staple.   Again, very versatile.   
5. Flour, yeast, salt.    Basically another basic that is very versatile   and affords everything from pasta to pizza to noodles, to copious  kinds of breads.    I bought a five dollar bag of salt  years ago.   We will have salt my,entire lifetime and probably still have salt my granddaughters lifetime too.   Lol 
6. Diced tomatoes.   Diced tomatoes are universal for tomatoes, you can make a salad, top a pizza, make salsa, or isle them in chilli etc.   a quick whirl with a blender can make tomato sauce.  It simplifies the amount of things in the pantry,   
7. A few cans of chilli and / or soup for emergency rations,   Again, you can eat it cold if necessary on a pinch,   I have been known to light a fire in the fireplace and heat soup on a covered cast iron pot.   
8. Dry milk powder.    Dry milk is more expensive than buying regular milk.   But, I keep some in case of emergency,  it's another thing that lasts a long time and I do use it for some mixes,   Buying mixes can get really costly, and any mix you typically buy you can find a recipe for on the internet,    I have several on my blog.   
9. Cans of green beans.  
10. Back ups of mayo, mustard, catsup , salsa.  Basically condiments that you use in a regular basis.   No one wants to run out in the middle of a recipe-  it's just plain inconvenient,   Watch for sales, especially around picnic times for good prices.   
11. Cans of tuna, salmon, or other fish/meat.   Another good thing you can eat cold and sustain yourself in an emergency,   Tuna melts, tuna  cassarole , or tuna cakes can be a dinner,   If you don't like tuna, substitute canned chicken,   Basically, protein in a can,   
12. Peanut butter.    

Three meals so far this week.

Chicken enchilada, we had rice and beans also.  

Homemade pizza.    

No rise crust, pizza sauce. The rest of the sausage crumbs, pepperoni (1/2 pig.) red peppers.   

Hunters pork over rice. Cucumber and tomato salad, fresh green beans saluted with olive oil and salt and pepper.    Homemade artisan bread .   

5 things to save on groceries

Quick take......

Five little little things you can do  to save on groceries.  

1. Make pizza dough.   It's super easy, fast . Like 10 minutes and is appreciable cheaper than buying dough or buying a ready  made pizza.  Pizza crust costs.25 even of you don't use bulk flour.   It's .17 if you buy your floor in bulk.   Virtually faster than going to the store and buying the dough.   Less than five minutes to mix the dough,   A ten minute rest, and you are rolling in the dough!   LOL   😂 bad pun!   I mix the dough, granddaughter loves to roll it.   
2. Pizza sauce can be part of an 8 ounce tomato paste. ( use the rest on another dish or freeze itand Italian seasoning.  Or, buy pizza sauce at the tree and freeze it on ice cube trays and use a couple of cubes on a pizza.   Pit the cubes, once frozen into a freezer bag.   You can get up to four pizzas from one jar.   
3. Roma tomatoes are usually cheaper. ( a dollar or under a  pound) and have more pulp and less seeds.   De-seeding a tomato makes salads drier .   More bang for your buck.   Wash tomatoes on vinegar water before you cut them and use a serrated knife.   Cutting from the inside is easier than trying to cut the skin, once you have cut them in half.   The same goes for peppers.   
4. If you are cooking dinner that has some of the same ingredients as another dinner in the week, chop multiple amounts of the ingredients.  Ditto opening a can of something  like black olives or diced peppers.    Saving a little back saves opening another can and saves money,   I.e.- diced mild peppers can go in refried beans and can be put on a pizza.    Black olives can go in a salad, or the can go on a pizza 🍕 or in a casserole. 
5. Shredded cheese is usually cheaper than brick cheese.   A pound of cheese is a pound of cheese, no matter what shape it is in,   Grated cheese can be frozen.   Chefs will tell you that grated cheese is better on toasted cheese sandwiches.   Always do the math.   Sliced cheese is almost always more expensive.   Small packages can be higher , but not always.   The price of cheese can be as low as two dollars. And as high as six dollars.  Wait until it's close to two dollars and stock and freeze.   You can even put it in a pizza frozen.  It thaws quickly.  pizza cheese is two dollars most of the time at Costco.   Watch the per pound prices, sizes of the  packages are changing.    Mac and cheese can be a good way to use up bits of cheese.   

Taco Tuesday is our pizza Tuesday

Tuesday is pizza day here.   Our catch up day to make appointments and clear up loose ends.    Paper bags are piling up because we use grab bags , but our daughter doesn't use  when she has them.   The food bank loves to get clean usable paper grocery bags.   They might as well be used twice before they meet the recycle bin.  

Yesterday, I went to Winco to get a food safe bucket for the 25 pounds of flour that I got at Costco.   That makes flour just under seven cents a cup.    We tried to get a bucket at the bakery first, but they were out.    I also got two bags of frozen veggies because I had a coupon that was going to expire.   I got a small bag because the coupon  did not have a size restriction, and the smaller bag gives you the most bang for your buck in that semerio.    I also bought a bag of stir fry veggies.   They were cheap with the coupon and I can add the chicken pieces from the ribs I cut off of chicken breast and make a meal - a quick fix when life delivers a :);(; storm.    LOL fresh hot salsa was 138.
Not a lot, and I am still less than half our already low average.    I do believe I can go another month, We are under 21.00 plus a 40.00 budget for replenishing things  we are almost out of.    I am far from  needing to replentish protein.

It's a game and I'm having fun and the savings account is staying intact.

I found a bulk pizza recipe that can be frozen.   I'm toying with the idea, but there isn't any room in the freezers yet.   The other drawback I see is that you have to pull the dough out 12 hours ahead, and then wait 30 minutes with it in the counter.    Our thin crust pizza recipe only takes ten minutes to make.   I'm not sure make ahead is worth it.

I did do the soft rolls recipe for meatball subs or a jus sandwiches, it's really easy with the kitchen aid- a lot of passive time when you can be doing other things,  

Peasant bread is really good and another hard crusty bread that takes minutes to make, not counting passive time.   And, it's cheap and doesn't call for anything not generally on the pantry besides the yeast.   Total cost less than a quarter.  

I made the sandwich bread, it worked out fine, I haven't used the pull,am pans yet.  Because I had already made bread that day. I made the recipe on the bread machine.

That leaves refrigerator bread.   It's a King Arthur flour  recipe.   The first two small loaves didn't rose enough to suit me,   I made a larger loaf the last time and it was better.  I am using the small oven that doesn't have an element on the bottom.   Having trouble with the bottom of the bread getting done even on the pizza stone.    I'll try the regular oven next time that has a bottom element. I don't use it often because it's big and most of the time, the small oven is more efficient.  

All of these bread are efficient.   They take little non-passive time.    They take time, and you have to be near the kitchen for some of them, but you can be cooking other things or folding laundry etc while they are doing their thing.  

They all save a lot of money.  The sandwich bread and the soft rolls take additional ingredients that bring the cost beyond a quarter.   Dry milk powder cost more than liquid milk.    I keep it for emergencies and use it for cream soup mix-- another real money saver.  

A lot of little things grouped together can save a lot of money and not alter your quality of life.   Scratch is always better  than a box or bag.    The trick is to learn ways to cook scratch without soending your whole day on the kitchen.  Most of us don't have that luxury and spending less time on the kitchen and more time planning and shopping wisely ismthe key to cutting your food bill
drastically.

Happy 😊 shopping and eating,.   Please share.

Monday madness

it's kitchen management day.  This week, almost all of the meals are hands on the day of dinner.  I did cook themchocken for chicken enchaladas and I made a new recipe in the insta pot that my daughter gave me,  I adjusted  it for the ingredients I had .  Many times it is easier to use taco seasoning when the spices that a recipe calls for are the same as taco seasoning,    I usedmwhite rice so I cooked it a little shorter time.  I can always cook it a little more.  

Yesterday , we had Belgian waffles, strawberries, and bacon for dinner.    Breakfast for dinner.    I cooked the rest of the batter so we can have waffles for breakfast a few mornings.  

Homemade spice  mixes take just a few minutes and don't have to be made often,  they save a lot of money over buying them on a packet.   Even if you find them at a discount store, they are pricy.  
We eat a lot of Americanized Mexican food and Italian food.   Other than that, comfort food of the 50s  and 60s that has been revamped to be a bit healthier is a hit.  

I am trying to make bread with several recipes in order to find the most efficient and best tasting bread,   When you buy flour in bulk, the cost of a pizza crust or a loaf of crusty bread becomes a fraction of what it costs to buy in the store,    If you are home already, themactuak time soent making bread is not much.    Most of the time involved is passive time.  

The other thing I am working in is to develop new recipes .   More scratch, less premade.   Again, I want fast and easy,    The object is to try new things ( it's good for your brain function ) and avoid premade that is more expensive most of the time and has more preservatives.    A few things are just not cheaper  or not convenient to make scratch; but, most things are  better, cheaper, faster.   

Assuming that most of us have a limited time to soending in the getting the food in the table train, choosing to spend more time planning meals and planning your shopping trip and less time cooking will benefit the family with better, cheaper, faster meals.   

No spend January

My budget  for no spend January was 25.00.  I actually soent 20.00 and some change plus 40.00 for bulk purchases that we needed to reoplentish,   Certain things don't go on sale frequently and you have to ride the wave.     I would have waited if I could have lasted until the next sale cycle.  

I see food hauls where there is nothing in the house to eat, they are out of everything and they make a mad dash to the store as soon as they get funding again.  Of you only buy what's on sale  half price  and only buy things you can afford, you in time will build a stock and have the luxury of not having to go to the store for necessities every week.  

Groceries in the cheap is a different way of shopping,    You buy a so called loss  leader rotation protein, the dairy and produce perishables you need ( in season and at the RBP) , and anymstock items that you need to stock that are at their RBP.  So,emweeks, you will not need to buy any stock.   Stock items are the shelf and freezer stable items that  you use on a regular basis to cook your meals.  

This keeps the pantry and freezers with food in them, and keeps your food budget low.    It also means that if you find yourself in a pinch--the baby is sick, the snows too deep, thenroad is flooded.......you still can make a meal.  

The old Boy Scout motto.   Be prepared!  

Freddies haul

We did go to Fred Meyers because we were in the area.   ( no extra gas) .

I got berries for two dollars a box.  Three small boxes were the same quanity as 1large one, but a dollar cheaper.  

English muffins were the same 1.67 as usual- the cheapest price I can find.   It's a very large bag.

Tomatoes were .59.  I'd prefer to get them for .50, but I'm not seeing that lately and we were almost out.   I use diced tomatoes for everything.  I keep a few tomato paste (.39) and a few tomato sauce in 8 ounce cans (.28) .  

That s it.   16.75.  

Meal plans

I have succeeded on four weeks, ( started right after Christmas for a trial run ) no spend januarynat 25.00 a week,   In fact, I am a dollar or so under.   Now, I did set aside a few dollars for stick items that were too kiwma oricemnit to restock because we were almost out and some food that we bought for charity,    Also, I am on a mission to learn recioesnfor bread that are easy and cheap.  

On to meal plans.

1. Chicken enchiladas, rice, beans
2. Pizza 
3. Potato soup, cheezy buns 
4. Meatball subs , veggie sticks 
5. Creamy pork hunters sauce over noodles , fresh green beans 
6. Salmon patties, fries, salad 
7.  Breakfast 4 dinner 

Proteins : 

Chicken breast - 1.79 

Pepperoni (1/2 package .25) some cooked sausage , cheese total 1.25 

Cheese ( .25) 

Meatballs in freezer ( 2.00) 

Cubes Pork from pork loin ( 1.20) 

Salmon canned ( 2.50) 

Eggs, .20, bacon 1.50

Total 10.49

To contrast, a steak in the mark down section  of Fred Meyers is 9.90 .   

This is  eating processed  meat twice in the same week, not something we do on a regular basis.  There are weeks where I don't schedule any at all.   

Protein is the largest food budget.    Finding protein less than two dollars a pound is the key.  It's doable, it just takes bulk, rotation buying.    A month to six week rotation coincides with sale prices and gives you the luxury of eating well for less.   It's cheaper, it's more efficient, and it keeps some protein in  the house at all times.    

Our list of meats are : 

1. 7 percent fat hamburger , usually 3.00 a pound,  if I find a steak irmother mean beef for less, we grind our own,   Make meatballs, hamburger crumbles, taco meat, maybe a meat loaf.  De- fat after you have cooked crumbles or taco meat. Portion control packages for the freezer.   Grouping small packages in a gallon bag makes storage more  efficient.  
2. Sausage.   Cheapest most of the time at around 8.00 for three pounds  at Costco.   Lately there have been coupons and sales on Jimmy Dean.   Fry and de-fat and portion control.   
3. Boneless , skinkess, chicken breast.   Our prices are about 1.79 for chicken from Idaho that has been frozen , or fresh from Washington is 2.28 a pound fir split breast,   Cut off and cook the rib sections for stock  and gleam the chicken pieces, and bag the breast individually , then in a gallon  bag.   
4. Pork loin .  The last I got was 1.49 at  Costco wholesale.  My target price is 1.69.   Cut the irregular ends off and make Pork cubes.   But some of the middle section into pork chops, and leave yourself 2 Pork roasts with the remaining meat.   Bag and freeze.   Pork roastmcan b e several meals.   
5. Dry beans.   Buy the largest quanity you can use before they go bad.   As of this posting, Winco had a bulk bag for the cheapest for pinto beans.   1.5 pounds are a dollar at the tree.   Refried beans in the pressure cooker are no fat and cheap.    
6. Cheese.   My target price is two dollars a pound.   You can come close to that at Costco.  I got two dollars a pound at Safeways,   Watch small packages.   Cheese can be as much as six dollars  a pound. Buying a block of cheese to be cheaper is not true.  A pound is 16 ounces, no matter what shape it's in.   We went to the factory.   They make cheese on large blocks. It is cut with wires a lot of 2 pound bricks at a time.   What is left is put in what looks like a bus boy tray and sent to be grated.   Many times, grated cheese is cheaper than solid.  We use more grated,cheese than we do block cheese.   Some people say grated cheese makes a better toasts cheese sandwich.   
7. Rice.   Bulk rice at sams club or Costco.   I store it on glass jars I saved from pickles years ago. You can still find them at garage sales and antique malls.  Winco has large buckets with lids.   You can also find them at small town bakeries sometimes.   

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