Part 4: Meal Plans

We have covered the two little things that you can do to cut your food bill  and contribute to better health too.  We have found ways to get your protein at the RBP a start the journey to build a stock for emergencies. Emergencies can be as little as a snow storm, a sick child,  or the flooding of the main road so that the grocery stores can’t restock.   Yes, that happened and it was Christmas to boot.

Let’s  talk about meal plans.   Meal plans save you from the pizza delivery demons.   Being organized reduces stress.  If things are set up, almost anyone in the family can finish dinner if you are otherwise occcupied.

Have a plan or plan to fail.   There are no magic surprises if you have a basic stock of food on hand that you can make meals from.   Having a few aces in your hole doesn’t hurt either.   Always have a few easy, cheap meals in your pantry or freezer.   I buy Foster Farms chicken patties when I find them on sale .  If you have pasta and pasta sauce , you have chicken parm in a snap.

We always have ground beef , already cooked , in the freezer packed in meal sized portions.   It is a versitle base for any number of meals.

The basis for a lot of this organization is making a list of ten to fourteen meals your family will eat.
After your list is complete, and you have analyzed it for budget breakers, you can list the ingredients that you will need to stock.   This list should include economical sources of protein (2.00 a pound is my target price ) and the ingredients and side dishes as well.  Asparagus and water chestnuts are out of reach for most super economy meals.   Stick to basics.

Ideas:
Spaghetti and meatballs
Mac n cheese (real scratch)
Pork chops and dressing
Pork Roast
Pulled pork sandwiches
Nachos
Chilli
Vegetable bean soup
Chicken Roasted with garlic bread and oven roasted root veggies
Chicken soup
Chicken Pot Pie (one crust )
Chicken stir fry
Breakfast for dinner
Quiche (impossible pie )
Sloppy joes
Chicken chimichanga
Chicken and noodles
Pork stir fry
Shrimp stir fry
Baked lemon salmon
Tuna cassarole
Tuna patties
Salmon patties
Pork stew

Make a list of ingredients you will use to make your meals.  Note the things you can buy in bulk and
use for several dishes.

In our house that would be diced tomatoes, Other that tomato paste, I dot buy a lot of other tomato
products.   Simplifying your list by using versatile ingredients makes life and budgets a lot easier.

Pasta sauce and pasta are items you can find on sale often and thre are almost always coupons for them and that doubles your savings.

Buy 5 and save 5 sales can be a little time consuming to plan, but they can save a lot of money especially  if you can pair them with coupons.   I have saved as much as 91 percent with coupons.   So much for coupons are a waste of time.

Our groceries for the three of us has been less than 55.00 a week.   That is 45 percent of th USDA stats for poor people.   They call it thrifty.   We eat well and we dont eat rice and beans  as a steady
diet.   We dont have our food delivered, we dont eat junk food a lot, we cook scratch food efficiently. I rarely spend more than twenty minutes cooking dinners.   Bulk cooking and propeer  kitchen appliances help remarkably.

We have a matrix for meal planning to make the whole process fast and easy.

1 beef, 3 chicken or pork , 2 vegetarian, and 1 fish or shellfish.
This  affords us a variety of foods.

Others use a these based matrix.   Soup, Tex-mex, italian, etc.

On going basics is on Dinner: better, cheaper, faster.

Thanksgiving chain store ads

         Let’s talk turkey

Alberways:   Free with 100.00 purchase
OR .39 a lb with card and a 50.00 purchase
Hormel spiral ham 1.39
Pork Loin 1.69

QFC
Turkey .47 with card and 20.00 purchase
Turkey breast 2.69
Spiral ham 1.49

Fred Meyers
Turkey .47 with 50.00 purchase
Spiral ham 1.79

Nuts and bolts of it.....
Alberways is .39 with a 50.00 purchase
Or QFC is .47 with a 20.00 purchase

Usually holiday ads are not the cheapest prices on a lot of things.   Cream soup I got for .39 a week or so ago are 1.00 now.   If you are stuck, there is a .80 for four coupon at coupons.com .

The rest of the story:

Alberways :
Broccolli, yams, cauli, sweet potatoes, onions.  .88 lb
2 lb clementines 2.77 limit 2
Cream cheese .88@@
2lbs cheese 4.88@@

Digital coupons,  hard copy in ad - note you cannot use a coupon with a digital coupon at Safeways

Cream soup .69
Cranberry sauce 1.39


Baking mixes and condiments too numerous to log....BOGO.  Buy at your own risk...you need to know prices.

 Asparagus 2.49

Pumpkin 2/4 -this is Libby’s:   Off brand at the DT is a dollar.


QFC

ASPARAGUS 1.99
Butter 2/5
Ice cream 2/5
Fresh cranberries 2/5
Yams .99
Berries 2/5
Brussels sprouts  1.99

Fred Meyers

Broccolli .99\\
Butter 2/5
Pie 3.99

Basics....part 2

Little steps : a new concept 

Back to basics.  Groceries on the cheap takes a different  look at traditional grocery shopping.   Instead of going to a store and buying a weeks worth of groceries and coming home and planning meals, you go to two stores and buy :  a rotation protein, what's on  sale that you can make meals from, and replenish   dairy and fresh veggies hopefully on sale / and/or in season.

This takes a little time, but the rewards are amazing,   You eat better and have enough to take you through the month,   No one , especially children , should suffer the anxiety, stress, or insecurity of having no food in the house.   

The thought of doing this is a bit overwhelming to some people.    Basically, it is not hard nor impossible ,     You think you don't have enough money to do that,   But, in actuality you have more than you think.    If you buy 1 chicken a week for 1.68 a pound, you get 1 chicken,   If you don't buy one this week, and buy 2 chickens for .88 a pound next week, you have 2 chickens,    If you know how to stretch that chicken, you can have 8 dinners from those 2 chickens.   That's a quarter of the month  covered for dinners.  If you do that with all your food, and you have meals plus a stock built to cover you if you can't get to the store for some reason or another mishap happens. 

Monday Kitchen Management

Kitchen management is a tool that preps dinner ingredients, does the weekly baking.and tackles the deep cleaning of the kitchen on a rotation basis.   Its an efficient way to make your kitchen always clean and have dinner on the table with little effort during the hectic dinner hour.  

• Wash the kitchen floor. 
• Clean and sanitize the sinks, counters, and sink drains. 
• Wash the inside of the refrigerator and note thing that need to be used up soon and dump anything you missed that is a science experiment.   Hopefully that won’t be much. 
• Wash veggies with vinegar water.   
• Use your meal plan as a guide to chop anything you will need during the week. 
• Make breakfast muffins.  This week I am making cheerio cereal bars .  They are better than rice crispy treats. Instead of marashmellows, they have peanut butter and honey.    Added nuts. We got chocolate cheerios for free. 
• Scrub carrots 🥕 and potatoes 🥔.  Run some carrots through the food processor, cut some for lunches, and leave some for the stew.   
• Wash an cut celery sticks. 
• Make hard cooked eggs in the oven.   350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Put in a muffin pan.   When done, dump into ice water to stop the cooking.   
• Make pizza dough and put in fridge for tonight.  

The basics, one step at a time.....

In this series, we will take one step at a time. Baby steps. Habits.   For many people making a drastic change that takes a lot of time, doesn't work because it isn't sustainable.   We eat for a small amount of money and have asmall stock for emergencies.  It didn't happen in a day; rather, it's been an ongoing mantra for fifty years.  I just kept perfecting the concept  and adjusting to fluctuating  prices and new revelations of foods that can effect your health .   Baby steps.   They all save. One year and your savings will grow.

• Write down and gather recipes if you need to for 10-14 meals your family likes to eat.  These meals should be made from low cost sources of protein.  
• In our house that would be 1) pork loin that can become chops, roast, or stew cubes; home butchered boneless, skinless, chicken breast; 7 percent hamburger, or home ground  low fat hamburger; cheese, beans, and some tuna, shrimp, or salmon. 
• Now, find two stores in your area that consistently  have the lowest prices.
•  Research the prices in your area for those sources of protein.  You are looking for the RBP ( rock bottom price ) .  In the PNW, I can get split chicken breast , locally grown, for  1.50 a pound. This turns into boneless, skinless, chicken  breast and chicken stock and loose meat. Pork loin is 149-1.69 a pound,  this turns out to be roast, chops, and stew meat. Hamburger is 3.77 a pound for 7 percent fat,   If a roast or steak is cheaper and has little fat, we will grind our own. Cheese can be purchased for 2.35 a pound or less, and sausage with coupons or at Costco in a chub is around  3.50 dollars a  pound.  I just got rope sausage for two dollars a pound, fry it and de-fat it, and freeze it. 
• Protein is probably the most expensive group of foods you buy, starting with it gives you more return on your time,   
• Next : what to go with the protein  .   Remember, baby steps,    

Meal Plans - November 13

Meal Plans are a tool that saves time and frustration.  Our form was made in excell.   There are forms tto buy out there.   We have a matrix of 1 beef, 1 fish or shellfish 3 chicken or pork, an 2 vegetarian.   This is to be balanced and make everyone happy.   LOL.

• Pork chops , cranberry/apple stuffing, green beans 

•  Pizza 

•  Tacos, (tomato, lettuce, cheese) homemade refried beans  

•  Chicken Pot Pie  

•  Lemon glazed salmon, rice medley, broccoli  

•  Pork stew, bread  

•  Breakfast for dinner 

Notes:

1.  Pork chops are cut from a whole pork loin.   (Center cut)  .  The difference is between paying 1.50 an 3.50 a pound.  Brown pork chops.  Make bread stuffing with cranberries (dried) and apple.  Put browned pork chops on top of stuffing in a baking pan an bake off until the chops 
2. are done and the stuffing is warm.  
3. Pizza from scratch.   Ez pizza dough .   Cheese is low fat and the last we paid for it was 1.82 a pound.   On sale with a basket coupon.  The cost of a cheese pizza 🍕 with 2.39 a lb cheese is 1.04 . 
4. Taco shells we paid .66 for on  sale with coupons at safeways.   We buy 10 percent ground sirloin  when its on sale in bulk and precook it and freeze in portion  controlled packages.   Just take it out an add taco seasoning in a small skillet and warm through with a little water. 
5. Chicken pot pie uses cubed cooked chicken, mixed veggies or peas and whole carrots, sliced and a batch of cream soup base.  Either a pie crust top crust or biscuit crust.  Chicken is split chicken breast that is on sale for less than 1.50 a lb.   Cut off the ribs , cook for extra meat and chicken stock, and portion control breasts and freeze. 
6. Salmon is purchased from costco.   Rice medley is a homemade mix with herbs and chicken 
7. base.   Broccoli is frozen . 
8. Pork stew if from the ends of the pork loin.  A beer bread, or peasant bread is a good thing. 
9. Breakfast for dinner is a mainstay here .  The whole family cooks .   Granddaughter is in charge of setting the table or buttering English muffins or toast.   

On first glance, this sounds lik a lot of work.   Efficient scratch cooking is key.   Buying bulk meat on sale an buying enough to get you through a month to six weeks.  Rotate using the sales as guidelines. The price is lower. The food is portion controlled so there is little waste, By limiting the costs to a few versatile cuts of meat, you simplify and can make best use of your protein Dollars.   

FM haul - charity

12 spaghetti.49.    
Candy @1.50


Butter R 3.48.     Paid 2.50
Progresso soup R 1.68.  Paid .75 w coupon
Cr/mushroom soup. R 1.25 Paid .49
Ragu pasta sauce R 2.50 paid 1.29 less 1.25 coupon for one, 1.29 for the other.


 Savings 49 percent

Fred Meyer Sunday Ad

Food for thought: When one goes to the store ,one day at a time and buys something for three dollars that can be bought for a dollar, they are throwing 2.00 out the window.  That might be two dollars that  would feed someone that doesn’t have any food.   Waste not, want not.   Your waste might be someone elses need.   Just a thought.....

• Turkey .47 a lb:   With 50.00 purchase and one per customer/  
• Broccolli .99
• 5 lbs satsumas 4.99
• Butter 2/5 
• Ground sirloin , 10 percent 3.77
• Brats 2.99
• Sausag 3.00
• Sour cream 4/5  u dont have to buy 4
• Grapes 1.99
• Berries 2/5 
• Sweet potatoes .99
• Celery .99

Bullets: 5 go to dinners

Having a small stock and a plan is especially helpful when you have a bleep storm day and the question of what’s for dinner doesn’t rare its ugly head until 5 o’clock.   LOL.
Planning one or two pantry dinners can save you from the take out demons.  

• Spaghetti and meatballs. Buy pasta when you find it on sale and have coupons. I even found Ready pasta for .70 using a coupon .   You can make meatballs using a portion scoop and baking them o a baking rack over a sheet pan or you can buy them cheaper than the cost of the meat.   Either way, spaghetti and meatballs is a quick dinner.  I have found pasta sauce as low as .04 lately using a coupon.  
• Chicken parm.    The speedy chicken parm is spaghetti, Foster Farms breaded chicken patties , and pasta sauce.  Add parmesan to the top.   Another 15 minute meal . 
• Tacos:   By batch cooking your ground meat and freezing it, you have a head start on tacos.  Taco shells, bring out the frozen portion controlled meat, place it in a small skillet an add taco seasoning and a little water.   While its cooking, chop lettuce, tomato,and pull the grated cheese out of the fridge. 
• Toasted cheese, or cheese and ham, and tomato soup.   We buy roasted red pepper and tomato soup in a box from costco and add a little milk, blue cheese, and basil. 
• Meat ball subs.   Having brown and serve rolls on hand is the key here.   Add a salad.   Buy bbq sauce on sale with coupons during the summer holidays.   It will be its lowest price.  
• Impossible chicken pie.  Chicken can be cooked from frozen in the insta pot.  

Make it your own.

Tortilla soup

I found a tortilla soup recipe on facebook yesterday.    Having family members that are pricky eaters, I adapted it to satisfy all.  


1 T minced garlic
2 T olive oil
1 can corn, drained
1 can diced tomatoes, not drained.
3 cups cooked black beans
6 cups vegetable stock

1 large chicken breast, cooked and shredded.

Avacado , jack cheese, tortilla chips

• Cook the chicken in the insta pot.  ( 2 cups water, chicken on rack, 8-12 minutes depending o size from frozen.   Check for doneness. Shred chicken 
• Cook the beans in insta pot.   Wash and pick beans, place in pot, cover with water up to your second knuckle. Set the lid and gauge.  Push the bean button.   When de pressurized, dozen an drain beans. 
• In stock pot. Cook garlic in olive oil a few seconds.   Add corn,  tomatoes, beans and stock.   Bring to a boil and simmer for an hour on low heat.  

To eat: 

Place shredded chicken in bottom of bowl.  Add soup, top with with tortillas, cheese and avocado.  

Chain store ads

QFC is the same as last week.   Honestly, FM (also Kroger ) is better in some ways.   Also note that veterans get 10 percent off on friday at safeways.

Satsumas 5 lbs 4.99
Grapes 1.49

Buy 10, save 5
Milk .99
Water , sparkling. 1.99
Land of Lakes butter 2.49
Cake mix .79
Kleenex 160ct .99
Coffee 5.99
Diced tomatoes .49
Kroger cresent rolls .99
BBQ sauce .79

*****
Berries 2/5
Apples 1.99
Pineapple 2/5

Note over charged :
Ground turkey 4.49
Pork chops 3.99

Alberways 

Free turkey with purchase of 100 dollars

Milk 1.77
10 lbs potatoes .97
Ham 1.39
Apples .99
Cranberries 2/5

5 dollar Friday
Sausage links 2/5
Avacados 5/5
Strawberries 2/5
Cranberry sauce 4/5

NOTE overcharged
Dinner brea 2.99.   The cost of a large loaf of bread is .30

Waste not, want not.

I recently saw a u tube post where a mother of seven fed their family for a month with what they had in the house.  Now, its true that they had a very large productive garden and a 1/2 a cow in the freezer, but still, I think that was remarkable.  

Yesterday, I made blueberry muffins.   I used blueberries that needed to be used up and some sour cream that was about next to its pull date.   Having recipes that are economical and use the last of things in the fridge are a good way to  s-t-r-e-t-c-h your food budget.  

These recipes are from Taste of Home and probably can be googled.   I cant post them here legally.  There are cookbook programs that are free on the Internet that allow you to plug in an ingredient and will provide recipes that use a specific ingredient.   Betty Crocker is one.  

• Strawberry watermelon slush.
• Dandelion salad 
• Taco avocado wraps.( vegetarian ) 
• Creamy carrot and tomato soup 
• Apple chicken quesadilla 
• Fried rice 
• Apple slaw burgers 
• Creole corn bread ( uses leftover rice ) 
• Apple and banana bread -uses over ripe bananas and chopped apple 
• Lemon blueberry muffins.  (Uses lemon peel , not necessary for the muffins if you dont have any) 
• Smoothies 
• Vanilla french toast 
• 
  
•  

Kitchen Management

Kitchen management along with meal plans take little time and afford you the piece of mind that dinner is under control and your kitchen is being deep cleaned as you go.   A long time ago, I went to management school for work.   When it came to time management, one of the concepts for tackling a big project was called the Swiss cheese treatment.   Basically, write down the steps you need to accomplish the task, and proceed to poke holes in it until you have seen your project to finish.   Sometimes a task is hard to even start if it seems so overwhelming.  

• Wash kitchen floor 
• Clean refrigerator and dump anything with hair prettier than yours, and note things that need to be used up .
• Clean and disinfect the counters, sinks, and drains. 
• Wash the stove and clean any dirty drip trays.
• Make taco cassarole from rice and beans that need to be used up. 
• Make meal plan for the day chicken needs to be thawed. 
• Make muffins 

Coupons worth the time?

Dinner for Four.  .92 cents total.   

Sausage FREE

Green beans w coupon .39

Pasta .49

Pasta sauce 1.29 less 1.25 coupon nets .04 

Meal Plans

Meal plans take but a few minutes and make meals easier to happen during the hectic dinner hour.

I generally use a matrix of : 1 beef, 1 fish or seafood, 3 chicken or pork and 2 non meat.

• Potato and cheese soup, beer bread 
• Pizza 
• Curried squash and sausage (free sausage ) save some for pizza 
• Chicken nuggets (homemade) oven fries, veggie sticks 
• Salmon, rice, broccolli 
• Taco cassarole w lettuce, tomato, sour cream 
• Breakfast for dinner. 

By alternating some really inexpensive meals with some more expensive ones, you ave variety and dont feel deprived.   You can still maintain a five dollar dinner budget.    Pizza 🍕 with cheese cost 1.04 .  Ours is a little cheaper because we got cheese on sale with the added bonus of a basket coupon.   

The squash is still over a dollar, but our sausage was free. 

Homemade chicken nuggets from 1.49 a lb chicken breast.  Fries are cut from potatoes purchased at winco.   (The cheapest price ) . 

Salmon is a more expensive meal.   Balance with rice that is cheap and a frozen bag of broccolli. 

Taco cassarole is rice (cook once, eat twice ) , beans, taco meat from already cooked ground meat, cheese , and tomato.   

Breakfast for dinner is always a good choice.   Eggs were .79 a lb.  berries are 2/3 at FM.   Add hash browns, toast ( orowheat bread is .45 with a coupon at DT.) 

Fred Meyer buy 10, save 5

buy xx, save, xx 😘 sales can be a useful tool to get the RBP on things you will use.  This time it coincides with upcoming holidays.   Its time as well to look for baking items .  They will be the lowest prices of the year.  

2 - 5.5 ounce pepperoni @ 2.99 less 1.00 coupon nets.   4.98 or 2.49 

1 hillshire farms smoked sausage 2.49

4 cream of mushroom soups (reg 1.29). .49 less .40/4 coupon.   Nets .39 each or a ninety cent or can discount. 

2 ragu pasta sauce.  1.29 ea less 1.25 coupon makes one almost free.  Nets 1.33 for TWO....67         

1 spaghetti .49 

Del monte veggies 2/1 less .40 coupon on four makes them .40.   Just in time for green bean casserole. 

Fred Meyer ad for Sunday

Sunday’s ad

BlackBerry, blueberry , raspberries 2/3
Avacados .88
Del monte veggies. 2/1

Grapes 1.99


Buy 10, save 5
Mix and match

Milk .99

Land of lakes butter 2.49

Cream of mushroom soup ,49 ck for coupons stock for holidays

Smoked sausage 2.49

Pepperoni 2.99$$

Ragu 1.29

Chilli, progresso soup .99$$

Pasta .49

Best haul ever

qfc

Ready rice
1 lb Jimmy dean sausage
Chocolate cheerios
Loaf of white bread

Total cost 1.25

Total retail 11.93   About 90 percent off.  

Burrito bowls

Simple meal that is easy to prepare.  

Taco meat
Beans
Rice
Green chilies
Salsa
Sliced black olives

Gather ingredients and let everyone make their own.  

Notes :

• Taco meat is made from cooked ground meat or cooked chicken that has been warmed with taco seasoning.   We cook ground meat in bulk and de-fat it.   
• Beans can be precooked or use canned 
• Rice is cooked with tomato boullion.  
• Green chillis are cheapest at winco.   Salsa and black olives are purchased.  
• You can serve with chopped lettuce, tomato, sour cream, avacados, for garnish.   Your choice.