The ads

These are taken from the internet, I still don't have my ads.  

QFC is same as last week,

Safeways ad is sparse.   The main thing is Foster Farms whole chicken is .78 a pound.    It would be our rotation pick of we needed one,   There are recipes for fast, easy whole chicken cooking on previous blogs.  

Bumble bee tuna .69
20 percent ground beef 199@@
Danton yogurt .48
Oranges .99
Milk 199 gallon @@

Note also QFC has a rewards program.    A pound of sausage is free as well as a box of Cheerios.  

Winco haul -  Winco does not have an ad .  Some things are always a better buy there.  

Two pounds of potatoes are often close to a dollar.   Not perfect, but good tasting,  
Mission tortillas 40 count 6.15
Red bell peppers .68
Bag of fresh broccoli heads 3.98
Roma tomatoes 78 a pound
Note my daughter bought organic on Sunday, Wednesday they were on the edge of too ripe .  I



dehydrated them tomsace them.   More money, less quality
Diced ham 238 ( several meals.)
Grace romatoes 128
Green chillis .72 - up from .58, but still cheaper than name brand
 Graoes 1.25 lbs
Progresso soup 98 , I had a fifty cent coupon for two.   Get beef , it gives you more bang for your buck .  Another case where eco o you is a state of mind.    Beef costs a lot more than chicken.  

Other things that are cheapest at Winco are

• Frozen veggies 
• Bread and buns 
• Great bulk food section 
• Ice cream 
• Some meats .  Often I can get 7 percent hamburger for 3.28 
• Cake mixes 
• Soeghetti sauce / hunts 
• Beans, canned unless FM has a sale 
• Beans, some dry.   DT has the cheaoest pimto  beans not on bulk at Costco.   
• Eggs - check the price between 18 and a dozen.   It varies which is cheaper. 
• Flavored mashed potato pouches 
• Chicken granules 
• Sliced black olives 

Five cheap meals - kid friendly

kid friendly cheap dinners

• Pizza -   Last nights pizza had pizza sauce , cheese, red peppers, and pepperoni.    Total cost 1.09.   I ised a scratch crust.  Garbage red peppers. 1/2 of a pepperoni package that I got with a coupon,and 1/6 of a dollar jar of sauce from the DT and 1/4 pound of cheese at two dollars a pound.   
• Breakfast for dinner. : orange french toast. Berry cup.  Use stale scratch  bread 🍞.25 , four eggs .26. Berries 3/4 of a box - 2.01 
• Chicken soup and bread.    Scratch bread .25, chicken stock FREE, veggies 1.00. Chicken breast (1/2) 1.00.  2.25 
• Speghetti and meatballs - 1/2 lb .38, sauce .78, meatballs 1.50,  green beans .33 total 2.66
•  Chicken chicken enchiladas- 4 tortillas ( .33) chicken parts from bones free or 1 chicken breast 2.00.   Cheese .50,  2.88. Plus sauce : flour, butter(.17)  , chicken stock (free) and sour cream.  100. Total  3.95 

 Total 11.96 divided by 5 equals 2/40 a meal.   Divided by three is .80 a plate 

Like dropping pennies in a jar

Today is supposed to be ad day.   Because of the holiday, our mail is always behind .    Instead I'm switching Tuesday's theme for Wednesday's.   It's errand day at our house and it's going to be ideas day on the blog.

Groceries on the cheap is a mind set.  Often it's the little things that are almost invisible that can make a difference.  Like pennies in a jar, they all add up.

My mother had a friend that used her finger to get all the whites out of an egg shell.  I don't usually go that far...but, there are a lot of little things that can add up.

We touched a little on that subject yesterday.

• Two pounds of French fries are about a dollar at Winco.   They are not perfect fries.   They taste the same as perfect fries, but they are not all the same size.   They aren't huge.   Same nutrition, half the price or more.   
• Apples at Fred Meyer in Sunday were .88 a pound,   They did not look beautiful.   They appeared to be without bruises, so I bought four.   I cut one when o got home for us to have a snack.    They were fine and tasted good.    Same nutrition, after you peel them, no one would know the difference.  
• There are some food items at the dollar tree are the same brands and the same size as the grocery store, but a lot cheaper.   Hormel pepperoni is 1.69 even at Winco.   They are a dollar at DT and you can use a dollar off of two coupon and get them for .50.  Half a package is all you need if you pit enough other things on a pizza. Tortillas are 12 for a dollar.    Pizza sauce is a dollar .  A name brand and cheaper than any sauce I have found.   You can make sauce from a bit of tomato sauce and some Italian seasoning.  Pretzels are cheapest there.   It's hard to mess up with the simplicity of a pretzel.   Some dollar trees have a brand of bread that is upwards  of three dollars a pound elsewhere.    Read the labels.   Know your prices.   Some things are cheaper, some not.   I have found ore ida potatoes there. You never know.   Be a quality snow, not a dollar tree snob.   
•  Pick two stores with the best prices that week using the ads as a benchmark.  Plan your trip to maximize the shopping experience while minimizing the gas and time consumption.    You get the best prices on two stores.   Go with an idea of the category of foods you need and with an open mind.    If you insist in a particular thing, you are shooting yourself in the foot.   Being flexible can save a lot of money.  Hamburger was 5.00 a pound and ground pork was two dollars a pound.   By the time I got it into the slow cooker with enchilada sauce I got for a dime at the DT.  ( usually upwards.  of a dollar )  no one knew the difference.   
• Last night, I cut the red peppers I got at Winco for .68.  I also got a quarter off one on Ibotta.  I cut the top off of them, and sliced the rest of it into strips for the freezer.    The end caps I diced up for color on pizza or in a casserole.  I threw very little away.   
• Ibotta takes a few minutes.   It's just a way to make a few extra bucks on your food bill.    I look at the website after I shop for what I want where I want.  Ibotta does not influence where or what I buy.   But it does lower my food bill.   Those twenty bucks can snowball if you use the money to buy something, perhaps  in bulk.
• Buying things that are a staple you will use on a regular basis in bulk can save a lot of money.   Flour at the cheapest price on ten pound sacks ( two five pound sacks were cheaper ) was almost ten cents a cup.    Flour at Costco in twenty five pound sack was just under .07 a cup.   The attitude of "oh, wow, two cents. What are you going to do with two cents " will shoot you on the foot.    Two cents for a cup of flour compounded over a years worth of baking can amount to a lot.   It all adds up like the pennies in a jar.   

• Another blog ( "Living  on a dime ") is a good resource. They had a vlog yesterday on what you can give up and how much it saves in a year.   The totals were remarkable.   While it is Not practice to give up everything because sooner or later you will feel deprived and binge making all your sacrifice for not , some things can be eliminated and some scaled down to make a big difference.    A three dollar bag of chips a week will cost you 156.00 a year.  And, they aren't good for you.     
• Having a vegetarian meal once or twice a week can save a lot.   Breakfast for dinner can save a lot.    Last Sunday. We had French toast with the homemade bread that was going stale without any preservatives.  ( a good thing )  eggs were .79 a dozen and the bread cost .22.   I added berries that were two dollars a box.   Total cost .36 for the French toast and two dollars for the fruit.    2.36 cents.   Plus syrup pantry item.   
• Last one. Making meals that include pieces of meat instead of a whole piece of meat as an entree cuts your meal cost drastically . Children like it more and you are money ahead.   It's no secret why our grandmothers had speghetti with red sauce, green salad and French bread for family dinners.  It was and still is a way to feed masses for little money.   

Grocery hauls

Fred Meyers

 Not food, but tops were 70 percent off the last marked price at Fm.   I got tops for 6.00

Total 17.13

• Milk .99
• Parsley 2/.99
• Lard 1.27 
• Strawberries 2.
• Blueberries 3.99
• Apples .88 lb. 
• ground Pork 2 00 lb
• Cinnamon rolls .99
• Sour  cream .99

Winco.  10.60

• Barilla pasta 1.08 less .55 coupon 
• Split peas .71
• Red peppers .68 - less .25 Ibotta 
• Jumbo shells to stuff 1.28
• Polish sausage 2.98
• Strawberries 1.98

If I didn't have a stock, this would not be a balanced grocery haul.    Basically we needed dairy, fresh fruits and veggies. And I filled n meat that was a good price and some staples that I could get on my target prices.    

Kitchen management day,

Monday at our house is kitchen management day,   The sales ad for Fred Meyers comes out on Sunday And the fridge is loaded.    Time to clean out the vegetable bin and prep the veggies for the week ahead.    Mea plans are done and it's easy to Prep what,need to be prepped  to make for a more efficient meal time.  

• Mondays meat ball subs are becoming sloppy joes because I have a package ofmhamvirger bins sitting on the bread box tombe send up.   Prep sloppy joes for the slow cooker.   
• Make a salad or prep  veggie sticks.   
• Save some sloppy joe filling for the baked potato bar. 
• Make refrigerater bread dough 
• Make bread crumbs.    
• Slice red peppers bought for .68 cents less a .25  Ibotta nets .43
• Wash fruit with vinegar water.   
• Wash kitchen floor.   

Two things I was reminded of while watching a u tube.   I can watch u tubes while I work on other things woth the reader.    

One of the best ways to s t r e t c h a dollar is, it to waste,   Why throw out stale bread and buy so,done else's for upwards  of two dollars a pound ?   Throw away your chicken bones and buy chicken stock loaded with salt for four dollars a quart!    Save your bones.  Of you don't have enough or anrent ready to make stock, freeze them.    All chicken stock is water, the ends of onion , carrots, celery, and the chicken bones.  If you aren't going to be home, pit ot on the slow cooker and let  it rip.  I refrigerate it for a few hours so I can skim the flat off the top. You have virtually free chicken stock.  

Strain it and put in containers , portion controlled . To freeze.   You can freeze on mason jars, just leave some head room and cool before you freeze.    When you are ready for chicken soup. Just thaw and add vegetables and bits of chicken,   

Bread crumbs are essentially saving the crusts and any bread that hasn't been eaten .  I pit the, on the food processor and process to make crumbs and put them in a cold oven until they dry out.  Laying them on a sided cookie sheet makes them dry on one layer.    No preservatives.   You can also cut bread into cubes and make 🍞 bread  pudding,   Or last night we had orange french toast for dinner.    

Neither of these things takes more than a few minutes.   My granddaughter loves to. Ate bread crumbs,  I put the plastic blade on the food processor and I supervise somshe doesn't tough the blade. She can do the rest.    As for the chicken 🍗  stock, I don't allow her to touch raw meat, but she can dump the vegetables in the pot.   She's getting the idea of how cooking works.    

Besides the toaster, the food processor and the insta pot are my work horses on the kitchen.    They are two appliances that pay for themselves.    

Broke? Not payday yet? No food?

this is for those that haven't bought into my method of grocery shopping,   No stock?  Almost no money?  Not payday yet?    Most of this stuff can be purchased at the dollar store.   Not necessarily the best nutrition, but it will make your tummy happy intil payday.

Buy :

1. Rice 
2. Beans
3. Top ramen 
4. Eggs 
5. Real , oatmeal
6. Chicken quarters ( usually you can find them for well under a dollar a pound. ) 

Sound be able to buy two cartons of eggs and a ten pound bag of chicken quarters.   All under twenty dollars.   Always keep flour and yeast on hand.    

Basics that will stretch your food dollar.   

Meal plans and the easiest bread. EVER

Meal plans for week of feb 20

1. meat ball subs , salad 
2. Pizza
3. Baked potato bar 
4. Tuna cassarole 
5. Speghetti w red sauce , salad , bread 
6. Chicken soup . Bread 
7. Breakfast for dinner.    

I found a easy bread recipe.    Really, it can't  get much easier or much cheaper.    .44 for TWO loaves .i did not price salt or water.    

In large bowl measure 

6 cups flour 

4 teaspoons salt 

1 teaspoon yeast

Stir with whisk.   

Add 3 cups lukewarm water ( 105 degrees) 

This will be shaggy and wet.    

Cover and sit on counter 8-24 hours.   Loose cover 

Preheat oven with Dutch oven and lid inside.   450 degrees for thirty minutes.   

Cut a piece of parchment ( DT) to fit bottom of the Dutch oven.  

CAREFULLY remove Dutch oven from the oven and drop the parchment and  1/2 of the dough into the Dutch oven,   

Return Dutch oven to  the oven and bake 30 minutes.   After 30 minutes, CAREFULLY remove lid and place where someone won't pick it up. HOT 

Bake another ten minutes or until top is browned to your liking,    

Cost .22 a loaf.   Actual working time . Maybe ten minutes.    

I would make the dough the night before kitchen prep day.   

The kitchen prep day, I would start the oven and continue to wash veggies, etc.    

The ads

bartells

Barilla pasta .99 $&
Clams 1.00
BB albacore tuna 1.00


Fred Meyers

4 day .99 sale SMTW

Country bread
Progresso soup
Sour cream. Cottage cheese
Green giant veggies, frozen 16 oz



Regular sale
Berries 2/4
Milk .99
Gala apples, oranges .99
Mayo 3.99@99
Lettuce .99
Raghu 1.50

Friday recipe

Trying  to get on a schedule.  


Friday is supposed to be recipe day,  

White chicken enchiladas
Serves 4

1 cup diced or shredded cooked chicken
1 cup grated cheese, ( I used pizza  cheese  )
8 med sized flour tortillas

Sauce :
4 T butter
4 T  flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup sour cream
Diced green chilies

1. Fill the tortillas with equal amounts of chicken and 1/2 of the cheese.  Roll up and place in greased baking  pan.
2. 
   
3. Make sauce .  In saucepan on stovetop, melt butter and make a roux .  Cook a few minutes.  Add chicken stock a little at a time to make a thickened sauce. Remove from heat and add sour cream and chilies.    
4. Pour over prepared enchiladas
5. Top with remaining cheese.    
6. Baka at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until hot and cheese is melted .   

Notes:
This could be a really inexpensive meal
Chicken and chicken stock  is from the rib bones I cooked from de-boning the split breasts.  
Cheese is purchased  at two dollars a pound .   .50 (Costco)
I don't cost flour .  It is a basic pantry item.
Butter - .25 ( FM or QFC)
Sour cream - 1.00 ( FM)
Green chilies .58 (Winco)
Tortillas .75 ( dollar store)

3.08.    If you add 1/2 pound of chicken assuming you don't have "found" chicken and chicken stock made from granules.   1.00 and essentially another pantry item that is too inexpensive to count,  

Well under five dollars and you can add a side of lettuce and tomato.  

Making dinner

Stove top stuffing..97.   Apple 🍎 1.00 a pound. Pork chops 1.50 a pound, craisens ?
Stir fry last weeks veggies that are already cut up.

Brown pork chops.  Make dressing according to directions. Add choooed apple and craisens. Place stuffing in baking dish and place pork chips on top.  Cover dish and bake in 375 degree oven until the pork chops test done.   

Thursday, February 16. Bullets

1. Groceries on the cheap operates on the premise that if you spend more time planning your shopping trip and meals, and less time cooking from scratch, your budget will be better off.   Once you get ised toc it, you will find you can shop faster and sound less money and still have a stock of food and cook balanced meals quickly.    
2. Identify the foods you use to cook your meals on a regular basis,    Sort them by perishable: dairy and  produce and stroke items that have a freezer and shelf life.   
3. Set target prices for those foods that will help you maintain a budget for five dollar meals. Target has no reference to the store with the red balls.   LOL 😂 I use a dollar for produce and a average of two dollars for protein a pound.  
4. Set a limit of how much of any one stock item you will keep.   A short list will make it easy to out an emergency meal together,   
5. Find the  lowest  price you can pay for those particular items that you will stock.   In our house that would be diced tomatoes. Pasta sauce, pasta, canned green beans, some corn, chilli, A back up of condiments, some tomato lasted and small cans of sauce, some soup , rice, beans. Some top ramen, canned tuna and canned salmon. 
6. Set a matrix for your meal plans.   We use 1 beef, 1 fish or seafood, 3 Pork or chicken, and two vegetarian.   This makes meal planning a snap.   Be sure to shake things up every now and then and try a new recipe.   
7. Pick a loss leader protein each week if possible.   Buy enough of that protein to cover as many meals of that item you will use for the month.  In other words, if you eat beef once a week, I might buy enough for four meals.   When you get it home portion control it for the freezer of appropriate.  Rotate the meats,   I usually rotate ground beef, Pork loin or sausage, chicken, and use a week for  beans, cheese, or fish,    
8. Buy non perishables on your stock list when they are at a rock bottom price.    It enough to last you until the next sale or enough to keep a self imposed limit of that item.  I shoot for a larger stock when I know that our expenses are going to be high in a particular month,   I pay fifty percent of retail on most things.   Nowhere else can I make fifty percent t on my money,   We can eat from the pantry and free up extra cash.  
9. Learn to cook from scratch.   Look for recipes your family will eat and ones that are made quickly or can be made in a slow cooker or pressure cooker.   The insta pot can be used as a rice cooker, slow cooker, or pressure cooker.    It is a work horse in the kitchen.  
10. Use up bits and pieces of leftovers in your meals or for lunches.   Remember : no food is going to do you family any good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.   

This week is upside down,

My schedule this week is upside down.  Things happen.   Errand day was postponed to today because the tires we needed for the car weren't  in stock  yet.   Monday I had orijects that needed to be done, so a lot of kitchen management didn't happen.   I started a schedule for thenvkig,  it its messed up... best layed plans,,    Today is supposed to be an editorial. But we already talked about waste not, want not.

Monday I made hi I packets with hamburger patties, blanched veggies, steak fries .  It's an easyndinner and there is almost no clean up. Yesterday we went to a valentine party.    Today, I'll make the chicken enchaladas and rice,   I make a mix that has chicken stick and herbs in it.    I will use the chicken pieces  from the rib bones I cut from the chicken breast.   I made refrigerator bread dough yesterday.  It can wait to be cooked, it lasts up to two weeks, it just gets more like sourdough.  I also tried a new recipe for applesauce oatmeal muffins,   It was a little intricate, but manageable,  they have a crumb topping and a lot of ingredients-- all basic.    They would taste good with some craisens or raises  too.  You could cook an apple 🍎 and  smoosh it with the potato masher.   It would leave some texture,  

I'll pull pork chops to  defrost in the refrigerator.    The Pork chops are what I cut from a pork loin I got at Costco for 1.50 a pound.    I will make stove top stuffing and add cranberries and apples 🍎 and brown pork chops and finish them off in the oven.    A green veggie will finish the dinner.   Basically I try for a protein , a starch, and a vegetable-- balanced dinner.  

Trying new recipes keeps thing fresh, and eleviates boredom.   Cooking homemade food and shoooing wisely effectively makes it possible to eat healthy on a meager budget.    Looking at our meals, no one would suspect we are eating in three dollars a day.  The only thing that is remarkably different is that we don't usually eat big whole pieces of meat.   The RDA for protein is six ounces, part of which should be an egg.   We don't need to eat an eight ounce steak.   LOL.

The ads

QFC - two week ad

Avocados, peppers .99 each
Pie, ice cream 2.99 each
Eggs 18 count 2/3

Milk 4/5
Cottagemcheese 2/4



Buy 6.
Save 3
Net costs
Hillshire farms rope sausage 1.99
Hormel chilli .99

10/10 mix or match
Bread
Hot dog buns
Colgate toothpaste $$
2 dial soap


Alberways

Dollar days
Romas
Apples
Carrots
Cucumbers

Eggs .78@@

About it.  

Bread

Scratch bread is one way to cut costs and give your family better, cheaper bread.  I won't say faster, but I have found recipes that do make it efficient. Most of the time, it takes ten minutes actual hands on time and the cost is close to .25 a loaf of you buy bulk flour and yeast.

1. I found a thin crust pizza recipe that takes a matter of ten minutes or less.    Total cost if you buy yeast (3.44) at Winco in bulk, and flour ( 6.00 for 25 pounds ) at Costco is .17.   
2. Refrigerator dough takes a matter of ten minutes non passive time also.   It's a matter of mixing the ingredients and putting  them in a large receptacle with a loose fitting lid.   Walk away and come back two hours or so later.   Put in fridge.   It is good for two weeks,  the longer it sits in the fridge, the more sour dough tasting it is.    When you are ready to bake bread,  cut off a hunk, shape it and let rise for 30 minutes and bake.    Artisan bread 
3. No knead bread in a loaf pan is what I made yesterday for the first time.  It takes more passive time.   You mix the dough, let stand in your oven with the light on until doubled in size,   Place the dough , deflated in  a greased loaf pan and place back in the oven for 30 minutes until it rises to the top of the pan.   Bake. Again, about eight to ten minutes work g time. 
4. Rolls are done in the kitchen aid.   They take the longest time hands on , but it's a matter of loading the ingredients in the bowl and letting the mixer do the work.  It's best done when you are doing kitchen management because you need to not leave the mixer unattended.   Shape, rise , bake.   
5. Peasant bread,   Basic ingredients .  Make dough.  Set on the counter for 12-24 hours.   Shape. Bake in Dutch  oven .  Make sure your Dutch oven is oven safe on high heat,   Check the knob of the lid. 

With the exception of the rolls, all of these recipes take only flour, salt, water , yeast , and sometimes a small amount of oil.   I use olive oil.    

2 cups of flour costs .14.  That makes most bread about a quarter a loaf.   I am not costing salt and water.   A sour dough loaf of bread cost upwards of three dollars.    Even a loaf of cheap bread is a dollar or  more.. (1.39 at Kroger) 

It's taking economy  cooking to the next level.   My goal is to get us good, mostly healthy food for under three dollars a day per person.  Not that we necessarily need to now,  it with the climate in the other Washington and talk of cutting ssa and food stamps, some people might need to make do on that.   I want to just cook and eat. Better, cheaper, faster.    It's not all beans.  LOL


Costs.  Note I did not cost teaspoons of oil or salt.   I bought a bag of salt five years ago for five dollars.   We will have enough salt to last my lifetime and probably my granddaughters too.
Oil is variable depending on what kind you use, and 2 tsp are incidental.
Pizza crust.   .17
Loaf bread .28
refrigerater dough depending on size two or three loaves - total cost .59
Peasant bread. .22

I sometimes add parm, peppercorns, garlic pepper. Rosemary. Parsley, Italian seasoning in the artisan bread.  

Vegan pizza scratch

Garlic, onion, diced tomato, black olive .
Sent pic to g plus

Kitchen management day

It is supposed to be kitchen management day.which will happen, but I found a recipe tucked into a folder I had long forgotten,    It seems good enough to share,    One for times when time is short.  The best thing about foil packets is that there is no clean up, No pans,   And the kids think it's camping,  

1 lb extra lean ground beef.
1 T w sauce
Garlic pepper
Onion powder
Salt
Frozen veggies : peas, carrots, onions, mushrooms, or fresh mixture to your liking,
Frozen steak fries.


Note : if you don't want to cook in aluminum foil, you can wrap food in parchment first, and then in foil.  

1. Cut 4 pieces of foil about 18 inches by 12 inches 
2. Mix beef with w sauce, garlic pepper, salt, and onion powder to taste.   Form 4 patties, about 1/4 inch thick 
3. Place party on foil sheet. 
4. Top each with veggies and steak fries. 
5. Season veggies with garlic pepper
6. Seal packets. 
7. Bake at 450 degrees fir 35-40 minutes or until beef reads 160 degrees 

Cut x in the top of the lackey and peel back.   Be careful, it will be hot.   

Fred Meyers haul

Total 18.57

Diced tomatoes (8)
Tomato sauce (6)
3 lean cuisine lunches 3/5
Pepperoni (6 ounces)
Oranges
Sugar
Spaghetti -2 lbs
English cucumber

Waste not, want not.

Quote of the day :  NO food can do your family good if you feed it to the garbage disposal.    

Cutting waste is a good way to stretch your food dollar.    This blog will explore ways to cut waste on the kitchen,  

• Buy fresh foods in moderation.   We all need fresh veggies and fruit, but not over buying will mean you are going to eat all that you buy.
• If you have a lot of something left and it has been on the fridge too long, make an effort to use it up on a recipe,    Several cookbooks on line will let you plug in an ingredient and find recipes.    
• It used to be that our grannies saved the keels and made stick.   Now, we are hearing that the peels are where the pesticides  are. I do wash just about all the fresh I get with vinegar water.
• Leftover veggies can become soup ingredients.   
• Leftover rice can be rice pudding or filling for stuffed peppers.   
• Dry bread : bread crumbs or bread pudding,   Why pay someone two dollars a pound for their dry bread?
• Smoothies anyone ? 
• You can dehydrate apples and just about any other fruit. There is a way to do it in the oven on a low heat. 

• Leftovers make good lunches.   
• Portion controlling your meat when you get it home from the store helps.   Buy bulk, rotate your protein based on a good sale price and portion control it.   Cook it if it makes sense,   I cook ground meat, I don't cook chicken breast or pork loin.   Keeping to a select few cuts of meat can make things simpler.    I cook whole chickens  and separate it into half breasts, legs and thighs and wings, and soup bones.   Lately , I have been buying split chicken breast and de boning them and cooking the bones for loose meat and stock.    The loose meat can make a whole other meal.    You don't cook too much, but not enough for another meal .    
• Buy in bulk when the cost is really cheaper and the item won't spoil.   Salt and soda come to mind,.  Big bags can be found at the warehouse stores and one bag can last a long time,   Soda is a good cleaner.    Salt never goes bad.   
• You can hard boil eggs in the oven .  Good snacks and lunch ideas.   You can also dehydrate eggs or make custard.   Breakfast for dinner is a good cheap dinner to stretch a buck.   
• Freezing bananas or berries for smoothies is good.   Otherwise, just buying fruit for smoothies can get really expensive.   You are better off eating the fruit.   A nutritionist told me when the children were little that an apple was a lot better to give them than apple juice.   Apple juice has too much sugar and especially in tippy cups can ruin their teeth,   
• Broccoli stems can become cream of broccoli soup or can be choooed in little pieces in a cream based chicken casserole  or chicken noodles.    
• Grated cheese can be frozen.   You can grate block cheese and freeze with a little cornstarch .  Shake the bag.   
• Grapes can be frozen for a treat. 
• You can freeze milk 
• I use sour cream in place of yogurt in some recipes.    
• Spaghetti can be used in a stir fry,   Stir fry is a good way to use up bits of vegetables and meat.   
• Top ramen lasts forever and can be used in soups and Stir fry sand lasts forever.    Ditch the seasoning packet.   If you must use it, use one in a very large soup pot.   
• Chicken bones make stock.  Chicken stock can be as much as two dollars a box.   Why throw out your bones and skin and buy someone else's,   Throw the bones in a lot of water or a slow cooker and add some herbs.  Simmer until the meat can fall off the bone. Strain and hold in the fridge for a few hours,   The fat will come to the top and it will be easy to spoon off.   Freeze if you aren't going to use soon.   Pick the chicken off the bones.    
• Leftover  cooked chicken can be sandwich filling or you can stuff a tomato or pepper peels a  with it.   
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Meal plans for week of February 13

Note : we use a matrix for meal planning based on protein.  1 fish or seafood, 1 beef, 3 chicken  or Pork and 2 vegetarian .  

1. Chicken enchaladas , rice, broccoli 
2. Pizza 
3. Cottage pie, fruit cup 
4. Pork chops over dressing with apples and cranberries. 
5. Chicken noodle cassarole , mixed veggies 
6. Salmon patties , honey fingered carrots, salad 
7. Breakfast 4 Dinner.

Notes 

1. Chicken from the rib bones , tortillas 12/1 at DT. Sour cream white sauce. 
2. Pizza - homemade crust 
3. Cottage pie -pre cooked hamburger, 🥕 carrot, peas, gravy, mashed potatoes 
4. Fry pork chops( brown)  makemdressing, add chopped carrots and cranberries.
5. Chicken noodle cassarole, ( cooked chicken breast ) mixed veggies frozen, noodles, white sauce mix 
6. Salmon patties, carrot rounds with honey,butter, and  ginger.   Salad 
7. Eggs.   Waffles - eggs were .56 a dozen and waffle mix was a dollar at GO.   

Ground beef and salmon are more expensive; eggs and chicken, pork chops are all 1.50 a pound or less. Averaging keeps the total within budget.    Scratch cooking and finding the cheapest possible price (RBP) keeps the total spent down,   

Fred Meyers ad for tomorrow

Blueberries, raspberries 3.49
Heritage farm chicken breast are Tyson,   1.69 --draper valley is 1.49 at QFC . You do have to de-bone them.  Easy and not to time consuming,  

Kroger tomatoes and veggies 2/1 @@ limit 8 - good stock up price


Oranges .99
Cilantro, parsley 2/.99

About it.