Thursday Bullets: Bleepn Happens....go to meals

Face it, we all have those days......those days when bleep happens.  All the meal plans in the world won’t  work when you day falls apart.   Having a PLAN for bleep days staves off the take out demons.

• Meatballs and spaghetti:  frozen meatballs are cheaper than homemade and a lot less work.  Pasta sauce is also cheaper in a jar on sale than scratch.   
• Breakfast for dinner.   Omlettes , toast and fruit works. 
• Chunky soup and rolls - the canned soup police won’t arrest you.  LOL
• Chicken Parmesean:  speghetti, sauce, chicken patties (Foster Farms) and Parm.- get chicken when its on sale.   Five dollars is my target price.   (Nothing to do with the store with the red balls.) 
• Tacos...they are a snap if you cook your ground beef when it walks in the door. Buying and cooking in bulk saves time and money.   
• Nachos 
• Tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches
• Dagwood sandwiches 
• Frozen pizza 
• Meat ball subs 

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Safeway Haul

Safeway Haul

Pillsbury Grands biscuits 1.00 less coupon equals .50 each

Foster Farms orange chicken and baked chicken nuggets 5.00 ea

2 pkg raspberaries 1.99 ea

Total 14.90

Chain store ads

QFC - not much there.  

Blueberries 18 ounces 3.99

Progresso soup, buy 8, price .99 -there are coupons for 1.00 off four at coupons.com
Even if you arent in the habit of eating canned soup, its a good thing to have in case of emergency in the PNW , we have wind storms that take out the power, sometimes for days.  

Sargento sliced cheese BOGO
Draper valley chicken is BOGO
Not knowing the regular price, I can’t  guarantee its a good price.  

Safeways

Raspberries, blueberries blackberries 1.97
Not a bargain for the blueberries , cheaper at qfc.

Cheese 3.98@@
Foster Farms chicken 4.98, frozen @@
Yoplait .50
Grands biscuits 1.00 $$$


Note : artisan dinner breads 3.49.....the cost of a dinner bread is about .30.

Tuesday: Notes

Part of making a low budget work and still eating well is making food from scratch.   Because you spend a title more time planning a shopping trip , finding ways to efficiently cook scratch is to your advantage. Spending time to plan a  shopping trip saves time and money and helps to avoid impulse purchases. Impulse purchases can take up as much as 70 percent of your shopping cart and jack up your bottom line.   The other way to save money is to scratch cook.   I’m on a mission to effect a handful of recipes that are real money savers.   We will take you along for the experience.

• Pizza dough.   Scratch pizza costs 1.00 a cheese pizza .  Pizza can cost as muc as twenty dollars.   Pizza dough is 1.50 on sale sometimes at safeways.   The crust is 2.00 at central market.   The cost is .17 cents.   That’s at least a 90 percent reduction  in cost.  It takes less than five minutes.   
• Rolls .  A trending meal these days is sliders.   They are made from a sweet dinner roll.  I’m on a mission to find the easiest recipe with the least amount of ingredients.   The simpler the recipe the more you are enthusiastic to make it.  I’m leaning towards the one in Betty Crocker that starts with a bread machine dough.   
• Peasant bread is a piece of cake and takes almost no effort .   It cost .25 cents.   Sourdough bread is 3.00 a loaf and up.   
• Soups are another good meal that can cost little.   Many soups are pushing the two dollar price tag these days.   Don’t get me wrong. A can of soup can be your best friend if you are sick and dont feel like cooking for for a emergency ration.   You can heat a can of soup in the fireplace or on a burner on your grill outside.   Its a bit harder to bake scratch soup without power.   
• Pick your battles.   Pasta sauce is cheaper to buy than it is to make unless your are getting your tomatoes for free.   Use coupons and sales to bring your cost down.   I have been buying sauce in a jar for as little as .59.   Canned sauce is alwasy a dollar or less.   There’s that BPA scare tactic some people buy into.   Tomatoes in cans were tested.  There was 6 parts of BPA in several BILLION.   Safeway also carries diced tomatoes in a bpa free can.  You can limit your exposure.   
•  Learning to make ‘white sauce’ is a real money saver.   A lot of cassarole type ‘meal boxes or bags basically use a roux to begin with.  Gravy that comes in packets, jars, or cans is expensive.   You are paying for some boullion, flour and water:  Sometimes ,  just the flour and boullion.  Gravy can also be made from the drippings after you roast a piece of meat.   Its not had to make aroux and flour cost .07 a CUP.   The cost of two tablespoons is not even worth pricing vs up to a dollar for a jar or packet of gravy.   This technique also makes the basis for cheese sauce or mac and cheese.   
• Boxed mac and cheese is up to a dollar.  Its a few ounces of pasta and a cheese sauce in a packet.   You are better off making the sauce from scratch.   Its a matter of taste.   Again, the cheese sauce has whey ( the part of the milk that is left over after you make cheese ) .  It has protein, but, it is the slop thats left over.   Farmers use it to feed the hogs.   It also has TSP.   TSP is a cleaner we sold at the paint store .  You were not supposed to EAT it.  Scratch has flour, vegetable oil or butter, milk and real cheese.    Annies is a bit better , but it still has sodium phosphates .   
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Kitchen Management -Monday

Kitchen management is a tool that can be used to get yourself organized and more efficient in the kitchen.   It helps to make the dinner hour less hectic while providing a balanced meal to your family.
It consists of prep work and rotation of deep clean chores.  

Basic Meal Plan for the week.

• Baked potato cheese soup 
• Pizza
• Pork roast 
• Spaghetti and meatballs
• Pork sliders 
• Chix nuggets 
• Breakfast for dinner 

Translates to: 

• Wash kitchen floor 
• Wash and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains. 
• Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead. 
• Put the stove filter through the dishwasher 
• Clean the drip pans 
• Wash potatoes for soup and oven fries 
• Wash and cut carrots for veggie trays.   Broccoli and cauliflower are already done. 
• Make a note to thaw the pork roast on Tuesday, the chicken on Friday.   
• Make bread for today 
• Find a roll recipe for sliders on friday. 

A little work today makes for a lot less work during the dinner hour.   

Finding recipes that are easy and efficient saves time and money.    

QFC (Kroger) haul

For the most part, qfc is one of the most expensive stores in our area.   Of the two Kroger stores, Fred Meyers is the least expensive.   It, however, has good deals on sales if you look for them.


Free Larabar
Bananas .50
Cheese (5) 4.95

Total 5.45

Savings is 9,99 or 64 percent
Total week : 56.97 or 1.97 over.  

Fred Meyers

Fred Meyer ad for tomorrow

10 percent fat ground beef 3.77
Milk .99
Cheerios 1.88 - coupons out there

Spiral sliced hams 1.27

Blues 4.99
Green peppers .69
Apples, pears, .99

Romaine .99 THERE IS A E COLI ALERT WITH A RECOMENATION NOT TO EAT ANY LEAFY SALAD GREEN

SOUR CREAM/LARGE 2/4

PROGRESSO SOUP .99 WHEN YOU BUY EIGHT/ PAIR THAT WITH COUPONS FOR 1.00 ON FOUR.   THAT MAKES TWO FREE.  

BRATS 2.99

Educate ......

While researching other peoples grocery hauls and their methodology, I came across a woman with a large family showing how she shopped and meal planned.   To each his own, we all have to do what works for us.   

Her concept was to make a meal plan for the entire month and make a master list of all the ingredients that you would need to make those meals, check off what you have and decide what store to buy the particular ingredients.   That’s a lot of work to do on a regular basis.   My human nature would not make that sustainable.   

My plan : 

• Identifies the meals we enjoy eating. 
• Identifies the ingredients we need to make those meals 
• Finds the RBP of the ingredients we use on a regular basis.  
• Stocks a reasonable amount of those shelf and freezer stable ingredients. 
• Purchases a rotation bulk protein (meat) and portion controls meal sized packets to freeze.   
• Shopping trips replenish dairy and produce in season, purchase rotation protein at RBP, and replenish any stock item that we are running low of when it is at a target price.   

This avoids the pitfall of forgetting an ingredient that is crucial for your recipes.   

What I can take from this lady’s plan is to save time by planning a months worth of meals in outline form without a lot of detail and make a master list.....once.     A master list could tell you what you keep in stock, where you got it , and how much your target price is.   A target price has nothing to do with the store with the red balls.   LOL.    

This does not have to include everything in your pantry.   But, rather , key ingredients that you use on a regular basis.  Finding recipes that take the same set of ingredients helps.  Ingredients that are versatile — like diced tomatoes, beans, pork loin, chicken breast, and hamburger.    

Spending a little time getting organized, can save a lot of time during the years.  

Pork chops

4 center cut pork chops

1 pkg stuffing mix ( like stove top)
1/2 cups dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped apple ( small)

Prepare stuffing according to directions.  Add chopped apple and cranberries .
Place in baking pan.  

Brown pork chop on both sides.   Place pork chops on top of stuffing.  

Baked in 350 degree oven until pork chops test done.  Cover with foil the first 15 minutes.

QFC Haul

QFC has a buy 5, save 5.  As far as I can tell, its also at Kroger stores nationwide.  

We spent a total of 17,40.   That ads to my 8,57 from another day this week.

Five save five

Pasta sauce
Goldfish
Peanut butter
2 pasta

Fresh vegetables buy 15, save 5.

Tri color peppers
Vegetable medley :  broccoli cauliflower, carrots
Red potatoes
Oranges
Head lettuce ( recall on lef lettuce)
Green beans

In addition , the Christmas candy is 70 percent off.

Week total 51.52 budget 55.00

And that box costs WHAAT?

Dinner kits can be a bargain....or not.......

Most of the time dinner kits are not a bargain.   Convenience costs money......sometimes more than other times.    I bought a enchaladas kit from Grocery Outlet.   I did it because the kit was a dollar and it cost more than that for the enchaladas sauce .  That’s an exception to the rule.   Most times you are paying dearly for some cornstarch and seasoning.   

Years ago, my daughter and I tore apart a box of hamburger meal box.   The upshot of it was that there was about 4 ounces of macaroni and a ‘cheese sauce’ envelope that was 1.57 ounces and did not have an ounce of cheese in it.   At that rate , we figured you were paying 13.00 a pound for cheese sauce that didnt have any cheese in it.   It contained dried cheese whey.  The cost of the meal was over two dollars.   Pasta is a dollar a pound or less if you can get it on sale with a coupon ...right now, it is 2.00 for a pound of Barilla at safeways.   The bottom line was that at the time, what you got was a .22 bag of pasta and a envelope of less than two ounces of a sauce mix that had a butload of things we couldn’t pronounce.  It was 2.40 for about .25 worth of merchandise.   You still added meat and I think milk.   You can have better nutrition for less money.   

Next time you are tempted to buy a meal kit. Take a look at the ingredients and the weight.   With the invent of counter top appliances, scratch cooking  just got a whole lot faster.   Pasta cooks i the insta pot , unwatched, in two minutes.   The big thing is that you set it up, and walk away to make your sauce and a side dish and go back and release the pot and drain your pasta.   No watching a pot and  stirring.  

A pizza crust cost 2.00 I am told at central market.   Pizza crust cost .17 and about 5 minutes work.   

Our 5 yo granddaughter can fill a pizza.   

There are a lot of recipes out there that take minutes to put together and the cooking pretty much takes care of itself.  We all know how helpful the slow cookers are.   The price of slow cookers have gone down and the goodwill is full of them.   Besides a coffee pot if you drink coffee and a toaster, I would invest in a slow cooker and a bread maker if I was just starting out.   It’s minutes in the machine, and the rewards are remarkable.   Both can be had at thrift stores and estate sales for little money.    Of course, I am a insta pot enthusiast because dollar for dollar, it is one of the most efficient countertop appliances in your kitchen.   The insta pot and a food processer pay for themselves in savings with very little physical work.   

The difference between being able to buy food and have enough for the week with food left over and just barely having enough food or running out of money can be as simple as learning to cook basics from scratch.   

Safeway haul

2 egg at .98.   1.96

8 yogurt at .25.  2.00

2 Blueberry pudding ring bogo 3.99

Roma tomatoes .62

8.57 total

Chain store ads -

Chain store ads : Alberways.    

First: hamburger lesson :I feel that part of a balanced diet should include at least one serving of beef a week.   A good trick is to be demonstrated in the Alberways ad. 

Extra Lean ground beef 6.99

Lean ground beef 20 percent fat. 3.49

Sirloin tip roast 2.87

All of this comes from sirloin.   Back in the day, we had ground chuck, ground beef, and ground round.  Ground round was the best quality.   Then we went to percentage of fat.   Obviously, the less fat the better your nutrition .   A certain amount of fat is necessary for your body to function.   Your brain is made up of cholesterol.   But, too much fat, we all know , is not good for you especially trans fats.   

Its not hard to see from the prices that the sirloin roast is less than half the price of the best hamburger—almost 60 percent .     Honestly, it takes less than ten minutes to “grind” a 2-3 lb roast in the food processor.   Like about 20 seconds a batch.   Cut the meat into cubes.   I usually save some for stew or soup.  The rest can be ‘chopped’ in batches really fast.   The difference is remarkable and you control the fat.   If I want more fat for a meatloaf , I add ground pork from the scraps gleamed when I cut the pork loin.   

Sometimes a little bit of work can save a ton of money.  

Center cut pork chops are 1.87 a lb. If you got the .99 a lb pork loin from Kroger, you just saved .87 a lb.   Pork Loin is 1.99 this week. 

Lucerne yogurt 4/1 limit 8 

Eggs .99 ( coupon ) in ad 

Buns .78 (coupon) in ad 

Mushrooms 2/4 

Sour cream 1.25

QFC: kroger 

Oranges .88

Draper valley chicken - whole .99

Apples 1.49

 Buy 5, save 5 -net costs 

Classico pasta sauce .99

16 ounces jiff .99

Goldfish .99

Breyers  ice cream. 3.49 

The best of this is the Classico pasta sauce.  Meatballs were 1.50 a lb at qfc on sunday only with a electronic coupon.  Add pasta on sale with coupons and you have a very inexpensive meal.   Pasta can now be purchased with veggies or  double fiber an be more healthy.   Its a good way to get veggies into a non vegetable eater.   Double fiber is good  if you are watching your weight or diabetic.   Even with our a discounted speghetti, that is 3.50 for fourndinners and that leaves you a 1.50 fr a veggie and maybe even a desert.   

Pasta sauce is one thing that is cheaper than scratch.   By the time you buy enough tomato product for a whole can of sauce, you might break even, but most of the time the ready made is a better buy.   

Time is something you can  never  get back.  Save your cooking time for cooking/ prepping  things  that make you  money and you will be better off in the long haul.   

Teaching children to cook .....

Theere is an old adage from the Native  Americans that basically says, if you give a guy a fish, he eats for a day.  If you teach a guy to fish, they eat for a lifetime.   Not the exact words, but the message is there.   

That’s the basis of this blog.   I want to teach people how to shop so they can eat well on little money.  We all give to the food bank, and there is a serious need for the food bank.  But there are still people that have some money that can benefit from knowing how to s t r e t c h their dollars.   

I digress.   My granddaughter has demonstrated a great 👍 interest in learning to cook.   She is five and has been helping in the kitchen for several years.   Her mother is not as culinary minded as her daughter.    I figure if they ever move further away than they are now, someone will have to cook.   LOL 

Granddaughter started with. Pizza.   She is really good at putting a pizza together.   I basicly , now have to make the dough and gather the ingredients.   I was shocked when she decided that the gluten in the pizza dough would behave better if she was using the ball pin rolling pin instead of the french one (smaller) that I gave her.   I didnt know she knew we had the larger rolling pin.   

Granddaughter got a baby waffle iron for Christmas. It came with its own cookbook.   We made waffle batter and she made her own waffles.   

We: 

• Retrieved the tray from the family room. 
• Put measuring cups on the tray. 
• Gathered the ingredients .  Talking about leveling off ingredients placed in the measuring cups and spoons.  Which spoons were Tablespoons and which were teaspoons.  The smallest is 1/4 of a teaspoon. 
• We talked about putting the dry ingredients in the bowl first.  And stirring it so the salt and baking powder is all mixed with the flour.  
• We talked about cracking eggs, making sure there were no egg shells in the cup.  Breaking the yolks and stirring them into the whites. 
• We talked about making a well and dumping the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and not over-beating so the batter wouldn’t be tough.  
• My rules for children is no sharp, no raw meat, and no hot.   
• So, we had a serious discussion about what part (the handle) to touch and what not to touch .  HOT was one of her first words.   She gets it.    LOL 😂 
• She used a silicone spatula to remove the waffles.   

I was surprised that she maticulously poured her 1/4 cup of batter over the entire surface of the waffle iron.   

Children can do little things in the kitchen at a young age.  There is a u tube family of 7 children that I follow.   All except the one year old, do things in the kitchen.   The oldest, about 14 now can make full meals and things I am just now learning to cook.   I dont expect granddaughter to remember everything we talked about, but repetition will take care of that.   

My mother hated to bake.  We learned to bake.   We didn't learn to make meals, I suspect because she didnt want to waste food if we messed up.    I was also slower than a ten year itch and we would have been eating dinner at midnight.   LOL.  

They dont have home ec in schools like they did when we were going to school.   Someone has to teach children how to cook.  Its a basic necessity of life.   I have the opinion that children need to learn that food doesn’t come out of a box.  Scratch is healthier and less money.   A win -win situation.   

New Years kitchen management

Scratch cooking is a good tool to reduce the cost of your food.   You will be more likely to b motivated to cook from scratch if it isn’t a pain in the neck to do it.   A kitchen that isn’t organized and that you a to unearth your appliances and hunt for ingredients is just calling the food kit and take out demons.   LOL.   

A few organizational hours can save many hours the rest of the year.  If necessary, take a section of the kitachen at a time.   Stand in the middle of the kitchen and picture yourself making the thing you make most.   Coffee?   Sometimes the first thing you make in the morning?   Where’s the coffee pot.   Near the sink?   The first thing you do to make coffee is to fill a receptacle with water.   Where’s the coffee?  The mugs?   A small coffee bar or section of the counter delighted to coffee and tea is a good start.   

Grouping your supplies into categories in the cupboards, is another good start: 

• Baking supplies with the baking implements:   Cupcake liners, measuring spoons and cups, piping bags, thermometers, cake testing wire......baking pans in a cupboard together.   
• Ah...the minimalist....its my opinion that if the appliances that you use on a regular basis are sitting out, you will probably use them more often.   The thought of carrying a kitchen aid mixer from a pantry to the countertop is enough for me to skip the project.   I think that is one reason why I like the insta pot.  It takes one footprint and does several jobs.   Right now, I have simplified to a coffee pot, hot water pot,   Single use coffee pot (daughter) , hot afar fryer, insta pot an kitchen aid mixer, food processer and blender.   All tools I use on a regular basis.   
• Utensils in a crock makes it easy to grab and use instead of hunting in a drawer.   Make things easy on yourself.   Have more than one pancake turner if you use more than one at a time.   Washing a inexpensve tool between uses in the same cooking time is countr productive.  You disrupt your flow.   
• Place things where you use them.   Unloading the dishwasher (or drai Er ) pick all of one thing and stack them.   Then you are putting everything away with one step, not six or seven.   You are opening the cupboard once. Dump the silverware basket on the counter.   Now, picking up all the knives are easy, and you are saving steps.   
• Zone the kitchen. Even a tiny kitchen can have zones.   If  like things are in the same place it saves a lot of steps.    Coffee, baking. Pots near the stove or sink.   Small kitchen, use every available space...walls can hold racks, ceilings can hold racks.   

Organizing your kitchen can save time and money.   

Fred Meyers Haul - qfc

Fred Meyer Haul and qfc special purchase

QFC:   2 pg meatballs at 1.50 a lb

Fred Meyers

Gala apples
2 Snap peas. Dry
Grape tomatoes
Turkey lunch meat 3.29. (1/2 price)
Cucumber
3 Classico pasta sauce
Hebrew national franks
2 lean cuisine

Total cost 25.55



                                                

Fred Meyer ad

Fred Meyers ad for today.  

SATURDAY ONLY, JAN 6TH
CHEESE .99 - 8 OUNCES

Use digital coupon, you can buy up to five.   You do not have to buy more food with this one.  

5 lb clementines 4.49
FF chicken breast 1.77
Lean cuisine entrees 2/3

Honeycrisp apples 1.47
Mission tortilla chips and tortillas 1.88
Oranges .99 lb
Pears .99
4 avocados 2.99
Grape tomatoes 1.99



Buy 5, save 5
Sometimes you can clean up using coupons in addition to the sale.   Its a good time to stock up if the prices are right.  

Kraft boxed mac and cheese .49 (not something I buy, but it is a good price.  The only inference in nutrition between Annies and Kraft is the fat content....annie’s Has more.  

Tide 4.99 :    Coupon at brandSAVER.com

Goldfish .99

Jiff Peanut butter or Smucker jelly 1.99

Classico pasta sauce .99 (1/2 Price ).

Kellogg’s cereal 1.49 - you can usually find coupons.  


Point of reference:  the reason why buying on rotation makes more sense than buying just what you you need any given week.   20 percent fat hamburger is 3.49 a lb.   by taking a few moments to process your own when really lean meat is on sale, I paid 2.40 a lb and got less fat....a lot less.

End of the year wrap up.

The USDA stats for ‘Thrifty” aka poor people for our family (November 2017) is 122.15.   Our actual expense this year was an average of 55.05 a month.   That included building a stock of emergency food :  the USDA stats are actual food eaten at home.  

That’s less than 1/2 price.   -about 45 percent of the USDA stats.  
Last years figures were 72 dollars a week.   The difference is that we started making some of our own bread and the insta pot and its efficent way of cooking rice and beans from scratch.   The difference between ready made rice or instant rice and canned beans is remarkable.   The savings are about 90 percent on bread, rice, and beans.   All basics staples.  

No, people, we do not eat a steady diet of rice and beans.   We do eat proper amounts of protein.  Beans are a good source of protein and can augment meat to boost nutrition,   Soup is another good, comforting meal that stretches the dollar and makes for a satisfying meal.   Add homemade bread and you can feed a family of four for well under five dollars.  

Pantry challenges are a fun way to use up something that is close to the pull date.   I have two cans of beans and a can of mandarin oranges to use up that have December 2017 pull dates.   This could be fun anyone have any ideas?  

I won’t say that getting your food 1/2 price is due to non existent effort.   It, like anything worthwhile, takes some planning and some education.   But, the rewards can be remarkable.   You are probably going to eat better (less presrataives, fat, sugar, salt, hydroginated oils, HFCS) , eat a more healthy amount of food, and enjoy a few extra dollars in the budget, or at least reduce the stress of not having enough for other necessities.  

We make up some of the time (probably an additional hour a week) by scratch cooking efficiently.  
Some things don’t take but a few minutes longer than opening that box of whatever.   Simplifying the sources (cuts of meat) you buy can simplify your life.   That’s a good thing.  

A new year, a new life, a new leaf.  

Book Review : How to Insta Pot

My christmas present was a “How to Insta Pot” cookbook by Daniel Shumski .
100 recipes and a lot of information on how to convert your own personal recipes to insta pot recipes.
The price was in the ten dollar range from Amazon.

Those people that think they would never use an insta pot have not tried an insta pot.   I have been on a mission to cut our food costs without sacrificing good basic nutrition .   That didnt mean eati g bans and rice as a steady diet.   It has been a learning experience of many years.  
I digress
My mother always said that everyone pays their dues.   Life is not all peaches and cream.   I planned for our retirement, but both sets of our parents had professions that had their medical pretty much taken care of in retirement.   Neither of us worked in union or government jobs.   That didnt happen.   Our medical takes my entire social security check.   I’m not complaining, I just dont want others to fall into the same trap.  I guess thats a heads up.

My children are the ones that encouraged me to write a blog on economy food.   My daughter has taught children from low income families for years.  She was hearing that some families were having a hard time making it through the month on their SNAP money.   My daughter told a mother that hr mom knew how.   I started this blog to help those people.   It has turned into more and reaches a variety of  people in a variety of circumstances.  

I digress:  the insta pot....it is a remarkable tool that can save its cost in less than a year.  The more foods that you can cook from scratch, the better your pocketbook and your health will be.   Cooking from scratch lets you control the amount of sodium and the kinds of fats you are using.  

I just couldn’t manage to get cooking rice down to a science.  Rice and beans do not have a long refrigerator life.  Freezing beans does not produce a great result.   There are four of us in the house tht at beans.   Small batches of scratch beans are a royal pain to cook—not efficient.   Beans in the instapot take less than five minutes hands on time and are a fraction of the cost of canned beans.  
Rice is another less than five minute hands on cooking.  How many times have you forgotten to take meat out of the freezer?  A boneless chicken breast cooks from frozen in 8 minutes if its not too thick.  A thicker one takes a few more minutes .

Recipes in the cookbook:

• Beef Barbacoa Tacos
• Beef stew
• Cumin spiced pork sirloin with avocado salsa 
• Pork shoulder 
• Pinto beans with chorizo,
• Polenta. No stir 
• Quick chili 
• Beyond black bean soup 
• Bacon, corn and potato chowder 
• Butternut squash
• Refried beans 
• Chocolate lava cakes 
• Korean style short ribs with garlic and ginger
• Meatloaf 
• Tomatillo pork stew 
• Shredded chicken tacos with tomato and lime
• Chicken soup 
• Barley mushroom soup
• White bean soup with panchetta
• Parmesan brad Pudding with bacon and  broccoli
• French toast cassarole w maple 
• Mashed cauliflower with garlic and cream cheese 
• 
  

Thursday Notes:

Every morning, I wake up before my hubby.   I spend that time looking at u tube and facebook , ‘READING” anything that doesn’t take sound to understand.   I see a lot of recipes and grocery hauls.

After I discovered that my readership is not just people from the PNW, I started watching grocery hauls from other parts of the country.    I have discovered that not including Alaska and Hawaii, the PNW has some of the highest prices, even on some things that come from the PNW.   Go figure.   I also see a lot of mistakes of people that are trying to cut their food bill.   I don’t comment because that would be rude and everyone has their own values and circumstances.              

I can, however learn from their choices , what can be done to cut a food bill that needs to wants to be cut.   Everyone has their own priorities.  Ours is to eat well, have fresh fruits and vegetables in the house and stock enough food so that if hard times hit, be it sickness, a government shut down, or snow Apocalypse, we at least can eat for a few days.

I have mastered that....now my goal is to pay off bills and purge 40 years of ‘stuff” accumulation in the storage room.   It would be a good room if granddaughter could play in the winter.

The basics of groceries on the cheap is to never pay full price for anything.   Some things, just never go on sale, some things basically only go on sale seasonally.   Some staples go on sale in cycles.   If you find that cycle, you can clean up.  Some things are almost. always cheaper at certain stores.   Learning what is cheapest where and how to maximize your shopping trips, is a key.
We have two places within reasonable distance from our home that have grocery outlets (discount grocery overstocks) and dollar trees side by side.    We try to hit those places about every month to six weeks.   Dollar Tree is usually pretty stable.  You can bet that they will have pinto beans, pizza sauce, tortillas, and orowheat bread.   The grocery outlet is a lot of here today, gone tomorrow.   You can most generally find sliced cheese for between two and two dollars and thirty nine cents.   Some other prices are more than the RBP I can get other places.   I most generally stick to name brands I can count on.   If there is a good price on something, I might buy one to see if it is a good quality.   I’m not gambling on a lot of money.   Always check pull dates.  Lately, I have found organic Hunts diced tomatoes for 50 cents at both Grocery Outlet and Dollar Tree.   I suspect they were an overstock .   The quality is fine.   Hunts peels their tomatoes with steam, not chemicals, and organic diced tomatoes were 2.29 at safeways and .70 at costco.   That is a prime example of why its not what you buy, or the quality you buy, its how much you pay for what you buy.   I did get tomatoes, not organic from safeways on a case lot sale for .39 net using a basket coupon.  

All of this is manageable because we have simplified our grocery carts.   By buying basics and efficiently scratch cooking, we have less prices to carry around in our heads.   Some people carry a small spiral notebook (3/1.00 at DT) to use instead.   Picking rotation meats that are versatile, and one type of canned tomato that can do double duty helps.

Years ago, we found ourselves, both out of work.   Scary time.   My husband started going with me
to get out of the house.   We we’re building the house and living in the basement.   He passed an end cap with 8  ounce cans of tomato sauce marked a quarter.   He said “ that’s no bargain , you paid a dime last week.”   I about fell over.   I wasn’t aware he was paying attention .

It doesn’t make sense to buy one of an item at FULL price one week, and one for a drastically lower price the next.   I’m not saying buy out the store and it is rude to clear the shelf at the store.   Don’t hog.   I usually stick to six of something unless the store is stipulating case lots.   This isn’t about hoarding.  Its about stocking enough to get you to the next sale so you don't have to pay full price—that nasty F word.   LOL.

Some people stock and then when they have an abundance , they go on a maintenance “no spend month” and creatively eat down the stock.   This is especially good if you know you have a high expense month coming.   You could save your money, buy buying food at half price is better return on your money than you can get at any bank.   We all have to eat.