5 life change to cut your grocery bill in half

Its January.   Our yearly goals this year is to de clutter the house and pay off debt.   If your year goals is to cut your grocery spending and eat more healthy, this blog is for you.


5 things to change in your life to cut your grocery bill in half.

Whenever I find myself stuck in bed for a while, I tend to watch others peoples grocery hauls.   Its an eye opener . While, I never comment on their mistakes, I certainly note them to myself.

I digress....5 things

1. If you go to one grocery store, buy just what you need for a week or a day, you are setting yourself up to fail.  The odds are against you, the same as if you go to the casino.   The HOUSE is going to win.   No one store has the cheapest price on everything.   Pick the two cheapest stores and buy what’s on sale that you need.   If there is a good sale at a particular store, plan your trip.
2. 50 percent of the average grocery cart is drinks and salty snacks.   Stick to coffee and tea and skip the rest.   NO-ONE NEEDS POP.  And NO-ONE NEEDS POTATO CHIPS.  Your diet will love you.   Fruit juice is not good for you or your teeth.   You are better off eating the fruit.  
3. Pick a few basic cuts of meat that are versatile—like pork loin, chicken breast, and hamburger. Rotate buying them in bulk— enough for the number of meals you will be eating that particular cut in a month to six weeks.  This will depend on the size of your family.   There is less waste and you are buying the meat at its lowest possible price. 
4. Learn to cook scratch food when it makes sense.  Not all premade items in the grocery store are more expensive than homemade.   Pasta sauce and tortillas come to mind.   But, there are a lot of things that you can efficiently make homemade that take little more time than opening that box or bag.   You can make bread for as little as a quarter.   The same bread is three dollars.   
5. Don’t overlook non traditional stores for food.   Sometimes there are good buys.   They don't have a wide variety of foods but what they do have can be a good price.   Know what the RBP is on the things you buy on a regular basis. My mother used to say ‘some people could have a bargain get up and bite them in the butt, and they wouldn't see it.”  Don't be that person.  
6. A bonus:    No food will do your family good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.   

Kitchen Management Monday

Kitchen management is a tool that maintains the deep cleaning of the kitchen and provides a head start for dinners during the week.   This helps make the hectic dinner hour a bit easier.

Refresh dinner meals

• Vegetable beef soup, bread 
• Pizza
• Meatballs and spaghetti 
• Pasta with sausage and spinach 
• Chix nuggets and oven fries, veggie tray 
• Baked potato bar 
• Breakfast for dinner 

1. Wash kitchen floor 
2. Wash and disinfect counters and clean sinks and drains 
3. Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead.  Wash inside the refrigerator.
4. Wash carrots and potatoes ( soup, oven fries, baked potatoes ) we have parts of 3 bags of potatoes. My regular and red potatoes and a bag my daughter brought me. 
5. Mark meal plan to thaw chicken the day before chicken nuggets. 
6. Empty toaster crumb tray

Week 4 FM haul

Week 4 FM Haul

Total 15.72

The Nalleys chili was substituted with Hormel.   I had .55 on two coupons.  

4 hormel chili
1 strawberry
Kraft mayo
1 ice cream
1 split peas
1 blue cheese

Tips and tricks

These are tips and tricks that save time and/or money anyone can use.

1. If you are using blueberries for cooking, check the price of frozen vs fresh.   When blueberries arent. Season, froze can work as well as fresh.   If making muffins , try dusting the berries with some of the dry batter first.   
2. Making your own bread crumbs is a lot cheaper than buying them and throwing away your crusts.  
3. Breadcrumbs , chopped nuts, and parmesan makes a good breading for chicken cubes / chicken nuggets.   Air frying or baking in a convection oven is more healthy.   
4. When using nuts for baking, try buying broken nuts in the bulk isle (winco) saves time and money.  
5. Buying small amounts of spices that you don't use on a regular basis are best purchased in the bulk isle.   The cost difference between that 1 inch square ‘jar’ and the bulk price is remarkable.  When I bought enough dill to fill the once inch bottle it was .17.   The bottle cost over six dollars.  
6. If you are new to bread baking and don’t want the investment of a three plus package of yeast at cosco, you can buy small amounts of yeast in the bulk isle. 
7. Anything you eat on a regular basis that doesn’t spoil quickly is a good candidate for bulk.   We buy flour, rice and real oatmeal at Costco in bulk.   The beans are not a good choice for us.   We don’t use enough.  Sometimes it makes sense if you have a group of people that would split a bag of something.   
8. Prepping for dinners in a marathon hour session can make dinner time a lot less hectic.  Those of us that wake up early can be wasted by dinner.   LOL
9. Scratch cooking most things is a great budget stretcher.   Tortillas, pasta sauce, and mayonnaise is not a good candidate for scratch.   Either they are too labor intensive or expensive.   
10. You can preserve lemons with kosher salt (not course ) and lemons in a jar with a tight fitting lid.   You can also dehydrate eggs when they are cheap and plentiful.  It beats paying over two dollars a dozen.  Drying the plentiful zucchini  is also a great money saver.  Most of us can get it free from friends and neighbours.   Dried parsley is sooo much fresher than what you buy in a jar.   Save jars.   

Week 4 meal plans : Jan 22.

Meal Plans are a neesssary tool to cut food costs and be organized.   We use a matrix (outline) to do meal plans . It saves time and money.   This week I am concentrating on using up hanging around food and food we have an excess of. 

• Monday Soup:   A good meal when people are eating on different schedules.   Hamburger vegetable soup. - 3.00, bread .30 equals 3.30 with bread leftover. 
• Pizza - 1.05 ea 
• Meatballs and spaghetti.  : Pasta sauce 1.00; pasta .75; meatballs 1.50#.   3.25 plus .39 green beans equals 3,64 
• Breakfast 4 dinner:  eggs .80, English muffins .64 , fried potatoes .40, fruit 1.00.  2.84 
• Pasta with sausage and spinach .  Spinach is on sale and i can make sausage from the groundpork I made last week.   Sausage 1.69, 1/2 pkg pasta .50; spinach 1/2 .50, leftover cream  cheese.   2.69 plus carrots .50 equals 3.19
• Homemade chicken nuggets, 1.77. Oven fries .50, veggie sticks .50.   3.77 
• Baked potato bar. : Potatoes 1.00. Chili .69, sour cream .35, broccolli .50, cheese.50.  3.04

Total 21.88 or .78 a plate 

This does not include things that are part of a basic kitchen like olive oil, spices, boullion etc.   

Fred Meyer for tomorrow, and a 3 day at Alberways

Fred Meyers

FF Chicken, whole .97
California mandarins 2.99 - 3 lbs
Milk .99

Ground beef 7 percent 3.49 ****

Berries 2/4

Sour cream/ cottage cheese 1.25

Spinach .99

Cabbage .49

Oranges .88


Buy 6, save 3 —not the best mega event -net prices

Dreyers ice cream 2.99

Campbells chunky soup .99

Dave killer  3.49

Nalleys chili .89 - there is a .40/2 coupon out there makin g it .69



ALBERWAYS

GARDEN SALADS .79

Lean ground beef 2.77 =20 percent fat *****

Tortillas, 30 count .99

Signature select ice cream 1.99@@@

Remember case lot sale

****

Comparing hamburgers

Fred meyers hamburger is 7 percent for 3.49 or translates to 3.49 X 1.07 equals 3.73 a lb

Alberways is 2.77 a b and 20 percent fat.  Or translates to 3.22

I prefer the less fat, but at 3.22 you can defat the hamburger.   Defeating hamburgerlooses u to 17 percent of the fat.  

You can also watch for a sirloin sale and grind yours ow.   The last time I did that it was a net of 2.40 a lb and it was almost no fat visible.  

11 things NEVER to buy at the grocery store.

There are just some things that are not a friend of your budget and /or your heath

• Snack salty foods:  its no accident that the first thing that you see when you walk into some stores is the chips, and other salty snacks.   There are whole isles dedicated to them.   They are also some of the most expensive things per pound in the store.  If you want a ‘salty snack” you are much better off having a homemade air popped real popcorn.   A huge canister is a good price at Costco and it lasts forever.   I use the container for storage of dry goods.  
• Baked goods.   We all buy a loaf of bread.   The cheapest price these days is at Dollar Tree (orowheat) and there are coupons in inserts that net it out at .45 a loaf.  This includes double fiber and whole wheat, and some rolls.   It is extremely cheaper to make your bread and it can take a matter of minutes and about a quarter or so to make a rustic loaf of bread or french bread.   For a bit of a 6.00 bag of flour and a 3.oo plus change bag of yeast, you can have many many loaves of bread.   Artisan bread can cost 3.00 a loaf.   Muffins can have healthy additive and can cost as little as 50 cents a dozen.   A few minutes of your time can make a .50 investment make as much as what cost 6.00
• Rotisserie chicken .   Another case where a ten minute investment of time can save a lot of money. 
• Fruit juices.   Yippee cups of fruit juice are not good for children’s teeth.   A nutritionist told me that my children were much better off eating the apple instead of a cup of juice. 
• Bread crumbs.  Why pay upwards of 2.40 cents a pound for someone elses dry bread and tosss yours out.?   
• Pizza sauce.   Pizza sauce is very expensive at the regular grocery stores.   The dollar tree has name brand sauce for a dollar.   Use what you need and put the rest in an ice cube tray and freeze it.   When it is frozen, dump the cubes into a zip lock.   Or, use part of a jar of pasta sauce you are using for another meal or a part of a 8 ounce can of tomato sauce you have purchased for less than .33.   Freeze any leftovers.
• Cans or jars of broth.   Again you are paying for someone elses garbage.   A lot for someone else’s garbage.   Debone chicken breasts and put the bones in your slow cooker with some water and vegetable scraps (celery and carrot, onion) before you go to bed.   When you get up, you will have chicken broth.   Ditto vegetable broth, or buy reduced sodium boullion.   
• Croutons.   I usually just skip them.  But, they, too, can be made from your dry bread.   
• Pizza crust costs less than 20 cents and takes about five mnutes to make if you are slow.  Pizza purchased even at the grocery store is at least 3.00 .   The cost of a cheese pizza is 1.05.  You can do wonders with a little pepperoni purchased at the dollar store or leftover meat and veggies.    Save a few pieces of cooked meat or fresh veggies every time you chop something that you could put on a pizza.  Keep a few bags in the freezer door.   
• Hamburger Meal Boxes.   Very little product for a lot of money....even at a dollar at the DT.  The one my daughter and I dissected had a little more than 4 ounces of pasta and an envelope of sauce mix full of things I couldn’t pronounce.                          

Pesto Pasta

Pesto

1 bunch basil
1/4 cups walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup parm
4 cloves garlic

Mix together in food processer or blender.


Pesto Pizza Dish

8 ounces bow tie pasta , cooked
2 cups broccolli or cauliflower or combo of both , blanched
2 cups leftover chicken or turkey, cubed
1 can diced tomatoes wtth italian seasonings , not drained
1/4 cup pesto

Toss all ingredients.   Top with parm or Romano cheese.
Bake at 350 deg for 30 minutes or until heated through

Thursday Bullets: Morphing meals

There is just something about the word leftover that sends some husband’s screaming from the building.   It is still a good idea to be able to cook once and eat twice.   Its more efficient .  So, instead of reheating the same dinner, you can reinvent the ingredients and morph the meal.   It helps to space the leftover (morphed) meal in between another meal.  

• Pork roast can become pork sliders with bbq sauce. 
• Meatballs and speghetti can become meatball subs. 
• Cooked chicken breast can become chicken broccoli salad , or chicken pot pie , Thai noodles 
• Leftover cooked chicken or pork can become stuffing for a calzone
• Shredded chicken can become tortilla soup 
• Leftover beef can become beef and blue cheese pizza
• Leftover beef can become sliders
• Leftover beef can become bbq beef pizza 
• Leftover just about any meat can become a coconut  curry noodle bowl
• Shredded meat can be a meat for tacos. 
• Leftover cooked meat can go into a Denver  potato casserole 
• Ham can morph into seasoning for split pea soup 
• Leftover chicken can become a chicken Alfredo pizza or 
• A buffalo chicken pizza
• Meatloaf one day can become meatballs on noodles another.   (Just cube the meatloaf) 

Chili or a vegetable soup can be served over rice another day.

• Leftover taco meat can become a burrito bowl another day 
• The black beans you cooked for a Mexican dish can become black bean cakes . 
• Meatball stew  

• 
  

Chain stores ads

Ok. QFC had a two week ad last week and there was not a lot in it.  

Alberways

Signature Farms chicken breast or thighs.....1.67
Note:   We dont now where these come from and thighs are .99 for FF at FM.

Grapes 1.97

My or match Kellogg’s cereal 3/5....thats 1.67 each and FM is a better buy even without coupons, but way better with.   Coupons.com

Progresso 2/3....FM is .99 when you buy 8; use 1.00 off four coupons


3 days only FSS.

Butter 1.97
Avacados 77

*****
FRIDAY only -5 dollar Friday

18 ounces raspberries or blueberries
40 ounces skippy peanut butter
******

Sour cream/ cottage cheese 4/5

STOCK UP SALE -THE BEST PART OF THE AD
THERE IS A 5 DOLLARS OFF OF 50 COUPON FSS ONLY
THESE ARE ALL STORE BRANDS AND USUALLY CASE LOTS. (12)

CREAM SOUPS .49 NET WITH COUPON .44
PASTA SAUCE .99 NET .90
PASTA .59 NET .53
REFRIED BEANS .59 NET .53
BEANS .49 NET .45
CANNED VEGGIES .59 NET .53
TOMATOES .49 NET .44

No money: dollar tree purchases

Its hard to believe that you could actually find a meal at the DT.   But, it is possible and it can be food made in the USA.

Not all food at DT is a good price canned veggies are more money than ou can get at other stores and , frankly, some of it is nasty.   There is some cheese there, but you need to read the labels carefully some of it is cheese product.   They have chicken , but you dont know where it came from.  I just got chicken thighs from Washington for .99 a lb.  

1. Orowheat bread is 1.00 and there are coupons out there (inserts) for .55 off. 
2. Tortillas are a dollar . 
3. Pizza sauce is a dollar and a good brand.  A lot cheaper than regular grocer stores. 
4. The pizza crust is really really thin and you can make it a lot cheaper (.19) .
5. Chili is a dollar.   Don’t know about the brand, have been  seeing it a lot on u tube blogs.  
6. Pepperoni is a dollar for a good brand.  You can’t use coupons anymore because they have a minimum of size of box.   
7. Feta cheese is a bargain. 
8. Barilla pasta can be found and you can use the coupons if you find them. 
9. The spices are all a dollar. 
10. Marie Callender’s biscuit type mixes are a reasonable price.   
11. Rice and beans are reasonable.   The beans (pinto) are .67 a lb-the cheapest price I have found.  
12. Tea is a reasonable price.   

1. 
   

Fred Meyers: week 3

Week three total spent 50.72.  4.98 under budget



FF Thighs. .99 lb 4.62
Progresso soup 8@.99 less .50 coupon

Kellogg’s fruit loops (2)
Kelloggs Frosted Flakes (2)
1 gallon milk 2.60 (FREE)
Less coupons 2.00 - MAKES THE CEREAL .85 EACH


SARGENTO CHEESE BOGO.   2.00 EACH

TOTAL SPENT 22.03

10 basic meals.......up a notch

There is a concept out there that the average family has about 10 got meals that they eat on a regular basis.   I got to thinking and came up with more.  A brainstorm happened and i thought a list of meals that used a particular protein would create variety and make meal planning easier.   Purchasing bulk meat and limiting the cut to something that is very versatile saves money....a lot of money if you look for RBP and think out of the box.   

Ground Beef 

• Hamburgers :   Not done often on a strict budget, it takes too much meat.   
• Sloppy Joes 
• Meat pasta sauce with pasta. 
• Meat loaf -another high maintenance 
• Burritos 
• Burrito bowl 
• Tacos 
• Enchiladas
• Chilli 
• Cheeseburger macaroni

 Chicken breast : boneless, skinless

• Roasted chicken with roasted root veggies 
• Chicken pot pie 
• Chicken soup 
• Chicken enchaadas
• Chicken parm
• Homemade chicken nuggets 
• Chicken mac n cheese 
• Parmesean chicken with broccolli
• White chicken chilli 
• Buffalo chicken pizza 

Pork loin:  can be cut into stew, stir fry,center cut pork chops and roast 

• Pork roast w roasted veggies 
• Pork chops with cranberry relish 
• Pork chops with bread dressing : and apple and craisens 
• Pork stew with rolls 
• Pulled pork sandwiches 
• Pork slicers 
• Pork stir fry 
• Skillet pork chops 
• Pork tacos 
• Braised pork on rice or noodles 
• 
  
• 
  

Meatless

• Mac and cheese 
• Bean burritos 
• Tuna cassarole 
• Cheese pizza 
• Salmon patties 
• Split pea soup 
• Pesto pasta toss 
• Fried rice 
• French toast 
• Egg omlettes 
• Waffles 
• Peanut butter pancakes
• Huevos Rancheros casserole 
• Cheesy egg sandwiches  / egg mc muffins 
• Vegetable bean soup
• 
  

Meatballs : 

• Meat ball subs 
• Meatballs and spaghetti 
• BBQ meatball pizza 
• Meatballs with cream gravy over noodles 
• Meatball soup 

There are al lot more, these are all one that average five dollar meals when the protein is purchased at a RBP>.  

 

Meal plans 1/15/18

Meal plans are necessary to keep things on track.

• Vegetable bean soup , rolls 
• Pizza
• Pork stew 
• Burrito bowls 
• Roast chicken with root veggies 
• Pork chops bread stuffing with apple and cranberries , broccolli 
• Breakfast 4 dinner : cinnamon bread french toast, eggs, fruit 

Notes 

• Soup is a good meal if you’re cooking dinner and then you eat dinner at different times.   
• Pizza is a well lived staple .
• Pork stew is from the sirloin bought fir 1.69 a pound 
• Burrito bowls are easy and flexible 
• Oven roasted veggies are a good recipe to use inexpensive ingredients 
• Pork chops are made with stove type stuffing,  the store brand was cheaper.   
• Cinnamon bread was a dollar at the DT.  There are also coupons for 55cents off orowheat bread that is at the dollar store.  

Winco haul - week 3

This does not include non food items

Total 28.69

Winco stuffing -2—.88. **
Bc cake mix .88
Coffee - 5.48
5 lbs fries 3.39
Cucumber .48
Grapes 5.33
Ice cream 2.67
Grape tomatoes 1,98
Pork sirloin 6.52. I think it was 1.69 a lb

** note. - turkey flavor was .88 chicken was more.the chicken was more than the double stovetop brand when you factored-the price of  ea.

Smart source insert coupons

1.00 on ten yoplait.  

.40 on two cans of Nalley chili

1.00 on 1 pkg dream fields pasta

.55 on any orowheat bread
Note that orowheat bread is a dollar at DT, makes that .45 for bread including whole wheat and double fiber

Fred Meyers fir Sunday

The ad points for Fred Meyers

• Strawberries , 2 lbs 3.99
• Apples 1.49
• Progresso soup .99 when u buy 8. Find coupons 
• Pork shoulder 1.69
• Bacon 3.99 some are a pound 
• Sargenro chese BOGO
• FF split chicken breast 1,49

• What’s not a bargain.      Rotisserie chicken at 9.99 each.  They try to hide the fact that it is three pounds with using an ounce measurement instead of pounds.   Chicken has a break even point,   That is the point where there is the same amount if bone as there is meat,   At three pound chicken has 1-1/2 pounds of meat.  At 10.00 a chicken. You are paying 6.66 a pound for chicken.  In the same ad, split chicken breast is 1.49 a pound and kegs and thighs are .99.  You can put a whole chicken , often less than a dollar for locally grown in a slow cooker in less than 10 minutes including cleaning up the counter.   You are paying a lot for 10 minutes worth of work.  Boneless, skinless chicken breast are lower fat than dark meat, and even at two dollars a lb, you are saving money.   If you are using a chicken breast for a cassarole or tacos etc, you can cook a chicken breast from frozen in the insta pot in 8 minutes—probably less time than driving to costco and standing in line.   Anyway you look at it, you are paying three times the price for someone else to cook something that takes 10 minutes if your time to cook.   That means you are making 70 dollars an hour for your time.   In my book, that’s a chunk of change.   

Saturday Notes

Unfortunately, my keyboard has decided to go on strike.   I am back to typing with two fingers.  Ugh, lol .

The figures for  the two weeks of January are posted and I am a whole .50 a week UNDER.   I have not had to buy meat yet.   55.00 a week is my budget because I did it in that all last year.   That is  considerably less than the 120.00 that is the USDA figures fir cost if food at home for thrifty shoppers.   Unlike some people that write mineynsacing, there is no ciw in the backyard, and we didn’t can veggies and fruit all summer.  We don’t  have our food brought in from Walmart, nor do we feed seven people veggies that fill a soup bowl .  This is real food in real time .  We just got the stats from our checkups at the doctor and we all are under the maximum BMI for normal levels.  Just an added advantage of portion control . LOL

In case you are new, we use a multi disapline approach to groceries on the cheap.

• Never pay full price for your food. 
• Shop multiple stores.   No one store has all the best prices.   
• Shop your pantry, and replenish the pantry with sale priced staples. 
• Use coupons when it makes sense for real food. 
• Use a rebate program like ibotta to save even more.   I don’t count ibotta in my price calculations.   
• Portion control.  If you put a whole roast on the table, some people will eat a whole roast on the table. 
• Learn to cook from scratch.   Boxed dinner meals are expensive and not full of nutrition.   Easy scratch recipes are all over the internet. 
• The average family has 10 entree’s they eat on a regular basis.  Perfect those entrees.   That means you are only eTing that dinner three times during the month 
• Plan your meals.  An organized kitchen is less stressful at supper time.   
• Stock up when things that you use on a regular basis are at a RBP.   It makes no sense to have 10 bottles  if mustard , but 10 cans of green beans is another story.   Cans are the only storage solution other than dehydrating that will hold up in a disaster.  We have storms here that take out the power grid.   You still have to eat , even if the power is out,   
• 
  

Recipe Friday

Roasted vegetables

2 medium potatoes. Scrubbed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 carrots, cut into thick slices
1 large zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch slices
1 red pepper, cut into chunks

Olive oil
1 Tbls Italian seasoning
1 tsp minced garlic

Spread vegetables on baking sheet with sides. Toss with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic and  bake at
375 degrees for 30 to35 minutes or until veggies are tender.

Grocery Outlet Haul

Grocery Outlet and dollar tree are side by side.

White bread .99
Whole wheat bread 1.00
Slider buns 1.00
Cinnamon bread 1.00

Italian salami 3.99
Smoked Gouda 2.39

10.37 or .37 over .