If you haven’t guessed, I have a “thing” about saving money on food. I started this blog because my daughter has been teaching children from low income homes for years. She was hearing from mothers that they were having a hard time making their snap money last the month. My daughter piped up and said, my mother knows how to do that. I racked my brain to think of how I could help and my children encouraged me to write a blog. Not being tech savvy , it was a learning experience. That was over 5 years ago.
There is nothing more stressful for a mother than to not have food for your children to eat. Fortunately, I learned a lot from my mother, and when I found myself a single mother with double digit inflation, rarely child support, and a stagnate paycheck , I set out to learn everything I could to stretch a buck. Those days were before computer 💻 and there wasn’t much on the television when we had one. Nevertheless, I prevailed. I had a lot of misses.....soybeans that cooked for hours an were rocks....but there were hits too.
Fast forward 50 years, and I think I got it down. Now its just a habit. Even with a limited budget, you can still help those that don't have food. I’m not sure that I am reaching the audience I set out to reach, but I hope I am helping. Something as small as a can of pasta sauce ( less than a dollar at winco ) and a package of pasta ( often on sale with coupons) can cost less than that cup of coffe at a coffee shop or drive through. It can make a meal for a family.
I am always learning.....yesterday I learned that the way to get good ground chicken is to partially freeze chicken thighs (boneless and skinless) and chop them in the food processor. I have never liked ground chicken because of the fine mushy texture. I did find that a few pulses in the food processor chopped beef to make ground beef from a sirloin roast cheaper than buying the ground beef. I only want extra lean ground beef.
You can have it all.....good quality, low prices, and scratch cooking without a extraordinary amount of time and energy. It just takes a little learning curve.
We eat a variety of good food and keep a small stock for emergencies by:
- Listing the foods that we need to cook healthy meals. Avoid excess salt, sugar, trans fats, hydrogenated oils, HFCS , and limit processed meats.
- Finding the lowest prices and buying quantity of anything that is shelf or freezer stable.
- Buying a limited variety of meats and buying them in bulk when they are at a RBP.
- Finding scratch recipes that are 5 ingredients or less and making time to make your own mixes.
- Using every available means to cut your costs: ibotta, coupons, digital signups for coupons. Freebies. We pass up unhealthy freebies, but if there is one that we don't eat and is shelf stable, its a good thing to put it in the food bank barrel.
- Portion control. Its good for your waistline and good for your budget. If you have children with hollow legs, buy certain foods that they know they are allowed to eat as much as they want for snacks. Providing they don't have a weight issue. When our children were teens, that was peanut butter sandwiches, beef an bean burritos, top ramen (no one knew it was bad then.) veggie sticks, and popcorn (air popped)
Hope I helped somebody somewhere.
