Saturday Notes

This would be the day when I posted Fred Meyer Ad.  But, they went to a regular Wednesday thru Tuesday ad and they arent in the Sunday Paper anymore.   We dont get their ad in the mail.  I have to get it on line.

Checking your stock frequently helps to keep yourself on track.   Putting like thugs together makes it easy to tell at a glance how much of any one thing you have left, or better, how much you need to fill in.  

5 Breakfasts that cost less than a dollar.

1. Scratch Oatmeal w topping and whole wheat toast. Oatmeal when purchasednin bulk from costco costs .085 a serving.   You can add brown sugar, apple, or a 1/2 a banana and still feed yourself for well under .50 .  If you use a half apple you can probably serve a family of 4 for a dollar. 
2. An egg, whole wheat toast, part of a piece of fruit. Eggs recently are seven cents a piece.  Add whole wheat toast from the dollar store (orowheat) and some applesauce or 1/2 an orange and you are well under fifty cents.   
3. Breakfast Muffin 
4. Breakfast burrito 
5. Pancakes, syrup, hot cocoa. Turkey bacon 
6. Yogurt parfait.  Yogurt,granola, fruit layereed in a glass. 

All these prices are based on seattle prices, purchased on sale with or without coupons. 

Friday

My outline says its recipe day.    Did that yesterday.   My husband did go to safeways and get 5 frozen veggies and he stopped by QFC today for free chips.   I’m over budget, but considering I bought a bulk beef purchase that obviously will last more than this month, its not bad.   I’m still well below the USDA stats for my husband and I, and we supplement our granddaughter.  

Groceries on the cheap takes a different manta on grocery shopping. Basicly , instead of shopping for a weeks groceries and rushing to the store on payday to buy another weeks groceries, you stock the basic necessities and shop sales when you are running low.   By keeping a four to six week supply of your basics, you always have food in the house and you are just replacing your perishables and looking for a rotation protein and sales to restock.   It simplifies things and you actually spend less time shopping .  A result of this is that my shopping hauls are not what anyone would consider well balanced.   Our meals are well balanced and I stress low fat, sugar, salt, HFCA and hydroginated oils.
The benefit of all this is that we eat on less than four dollars a day per person and we eat well.  

Simplify, lower your costs, always have food in the house.  
Its not a new concept.  Stock market traders want to buy low and sell high.   Same principal.   Buy when prices are low and eat when they are high.  Our great grandmothers gathered fruits and veggies in the summer when the gardens were producing, and canned the bounty to get through the winter months.    Nothing new, just modernized.

On another note, dollar tree now carries orowheat bread.   The selection of bread products varies .   Nonetheless, products that are upwards of two dollars are a dollar.    Anything goes.   Bagels, English muffins, wheat bread, rolls, hogie rolls, thick bread for french toast.    Obviously, the closer you go to delivery day, the best selection you have.

Oven French Toast is going to be my next Sunday night dinner.   I have never made it enforce.   This should be interesting.   Anyone ever made it?    Tips?  

Thanks for tuning in.....please share.  

So, what’s in a price.

Prices even in the same area can be drastically different.  There is a big push by food retailers to make things really convenient for people.   Having had two children under the age of 2 at one time, I can certainly understand why people would buy into pick up delivery.

My daughter had development problems due to a medical issue when she was a baby.   At three we had here tested.   She tests with a high IQ and a vocabulary several years past her chronological age.   The doctor asked her where milk came from.....her answer....my Dad.   LOL.  This was because I wasn’t about to drag two children under the age of 2 to the store for bread and milk.   I would call my husband and have him stop on his way home from work.   It was just a whole lot easier.

The fact, none the less, is that they add on a charge one way or another for the convenience of having someone else shop for you.

At Christmas time, I had no desire to battle the crowds to get a few things from Costco.  They offered free delivery, so I used it.  I noticed that the items I bought were more expensive than the same counterparts in the warehouse.  No joke, you are going to pay one way or another for the privilege.   Sometimes, its just worth it.

There is just no doubt, different stores can charge different prices for the exact same thing.   A lot has to do with the climate of the store.   Full service stores with deli’s and meat markets staffed with personnel are more expensive than the no frills store.   If you don’t need the services of a deli or manned meat market, don’t pay the price.   The fancier the store and the more items it has, the more you are going to pay.   Rightly so, if you have to pay the wages and benefits for personnel to provide
services amd stock and rotate stock for a zillion items, it is going to be reflected in the price of the things you buy.

If you are trying to feed your family on the lowest column of the USDA cost of food at home list, using the full service stores sparingly, is a good idea.   Winco and Aldi  save money because you bag your own food.   I prefer it because I know what items need to go to the downstairs freezer and I can pack the food accordingly.   That way, we are not bringing things upstairs , only to bring them down to flights of stairs.   I also have no one to blame but myself for putting the bread on the bottom.  LOL

That being said, I have found as much as a 1.50 swing between the most expensive store and the cheapest store.   That’s  a lot of money percentage wise.   The lesson here is to know your prices.

My mother used to say that 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.

To pay 1.50 for a can of veggies one week, .50 the next week, and 1.50 the third week is just plain Stupid unless you live in a fourth floor walk up in NYC.   You are much better off buying three when they are .50.   It’s just plain simple logic.   Moderation is the key.   If you buy a bunch of things that your family doesn’t eat a lot of and they go to waste, its not smart either.
I read a interesting article on facebook by Taste of Home, that identified things that we have been throwing away that are good a long time after their pull dates.   Eggs and yogurt come to mind.


Using as many bits of leftovers as you can can save a lot of money .  Its a mindset.   My Dad used to say the more you do, the more you want to do.   You just have to take that first step.   Motivation is a strong word.

We eat on less than four dollars a person per day.   It took a long arduous path to get to this point.   There were hits and misses...a lot of misses.   We struggled through cooking soy beans and them still being Little Rock’s.....my experience with  lentils weren’t much better.   I succeeded with bean sprouts only to be told they were dangerous.   But, we succeeded in the end.   We eat good hamburger, boneless skinless chicken breast, pork loin , and salmon.  No, Virginia, we don't eat beans every meal.   LOL.  ( a take from the Santa Claus letter ) .

Simplify, lower costs, and always have food in the house.  

Four plus one is five....four people, one meal, five bucks.

No food is going to do your family good if you feed it to the garbage disposal.

A stockbroker’s concept is to buy low and sell high.   Buying your groceries is no different.Buy when the price is low, and eat when the price is high.   Think of it as making a profit.

Thursday Notes: recipe

Last night we had oven chicken for dinner.   I added an on the spot pasta side dish to go with it.

Basically , I opened the fridge; and started throwing things into a sauté pan 

A recipe of pasta 

Leftover corn 

Leftover beans 

Some grape tomatoes , cut in half 

A small zucchini, sliced 

A handful of raw spinach.  

Olive oil 

Red pepper flakes 

Italian seasoning,   

Chain Store ads....

QFC is the same as last week.

Fred Meyers
Watermelon 1.77
Strawberries 4/5
Raspberries 4/5

Beef Roast 2.99
Bacon 3.49 ( watch sizes some are 12 oz.)

Milk .99
Sliced cheese 1.99
Butter 2/5

Buy 5, save 5
2 lb cheese 4.99 (top of the target price )
Dryers 1.99
Phil.cream cheese 2 pk. 2.99
Turkey bacon 1.49
Goldfish .99
Note: orowheat bread, pan bread is 2.49 (1.00 at the DT)

Alberways

Dollar days
Garden sala
Avacados
Peppers
Baby carrots
Lettuce

Coupons in ad
Milk 1.79@@
Bacon 2.99@@in three pound packages. This bacon is thick sliced.
Butter 2.99@@

Frozen veggies (some are 16 ounces) 1.00

Some meat is BOGO, no prices listed
Buy at your own risk.....LOL

Dollar Tree Haul

7.00

Sara Lee bagels are 1.00 w a .55 coupon attached
Thin sandwich rolls
Cranberry nut sandwich breads

Sun dried tomatoes
Fudge grahams
Mustard

Barrilla elbow pasta.     (2.00 next door at safeways. )

Tuesday Notes

I stayed up late last night reading Comey’s new book.  It is an interesting read.   I don’t agree with the people saying it’s just a way for him to make money.  There are a lot of life’s lessons in there.  I find it interesting that someone that came from a family that appears to be of modest means could rise from it to be where he is .  It seems more about his upbringing and attitude than money or status.   I would have to say from experience that instilling a good sense of values and a good sense of self worth in a child is more important than money.   It is amazing how suttle attitudes can be picked up by children .

This is about food.  I digress .....

Attitudes make a big difference in our lives.   Motivation is a good thing.   After hearing that the one thing I was good at could help people , especially children, I set out to write this blog to help people
S t r e t c h their food dollars.  I Learned a lot in the process.  I still want to reach more people, I know I can help people eat better and spend less.  Having food in the house goes a long ways to make people feel more secure in their lives.   Security is a step up from wanting to sit down and give up.
They say adversity builds character; personally, I don't think I want more character.   LOL

Trying something new for dinner is a good thing.   It breaks up monotony.   Even working with a small budget, you can make things fun.   How about a meal that all starts with the same letter.   Kids could have a fun time thinking of things to eat.

There’s inspiration. Everywhere.  We got a magazine fro QFC last week that is full of recipes...and coupons.  The internet and pinterest is full of them.   You can get magazines from the goodwill for .50.  Read them and return them .  Food has changed , but its still food.   I have recipe books from WWII.  They are real money savers because certain things were in short supply and the recipes compensated for that.

I got more ideas from the little 1/2 page books you can get at the supermarket.  They are usually full of ideas.

Overnight Maple French Toast.   A good recipe for Sunday morning.   It is made the night before and cooked in the morning.   Or, make it in the morning and have it for dinner .   We like breakfast for dinner.   Ditto a puffed pancake. Breakfast Burritos.

Buffalo chicken wraps

Pork chops with sour cream sauce.

Pork, onion and apple hoagies - rolls are often at the DT- orowheat

Chicken Primivera

Mediterranean Pasta with beans

Lemon basil vegetables and rice.

Strawberry Vinaigrette

Pillsbury mini  cookbook.

5 things that save pennies.

It is the mindset.   Save pennies, make dollars.   You would be surprised what can be made from those things that people normally would shove in the trash..

• Last week, we splurged and bought chicken wings for 1.00 a pound.   I say splurged because i had just paid the same amount for boneless, skinless chicken breast.   I cut the “drums” from the “thighs” and there was the wing left.   Not much meat there.   I threw them in a bag and put them in the “garbage “ door shelf of the freezer.   When I have enough chicken bones , I will make chicken stock overnight.   
• There are always scraps .   We wash the carrots and celery in vinegar water.   Vinegar is 4.26 a two gallon pack at costco.  The peelings and the tops and bottoms of the celery can be frozen and saved for stock.   Stock, when purchased can be 2.00 a quart.   Its a no brainier to dump saved chicken bones and veggie scraps into a slow cooker with water to within a inch of the top and let it go all night.   Pour it through a sieve or colander in the morning.  Let cool and freeze.  
• Freezing the pizza sauce in an ice cube tray and dumping the cubes into a quart bag is a good addition to the ‘garbage” door shelf.   That makes a pizza sauce (2 cubes ) for a medium sized pizza .20.   
• Anything that can go on a pizza that is left from another meal can be frozen for a pizza.   The smallest amount can be used .   A little sausage, peppers, ham cubes, mushrooms, chopped onion, anything you put on a pizza.   
• It goes without saying that you can use the heels of the bread or any extra hamburger or bot dog buns to make bread crumbs.   Put it through the food processer with a plastic blade and the children can make them.   Or, if you dont have a food processer, let the bread dry in the oven and grate it with a box grater.   I used to do that out on the deck with a sheet pan under the grater.   Again, bread crumbs are often 2.40 cents a pound.   There are better uses for your 2.40.
• The ‘juice’ that is left from draining the diced tomatoes can be used to flavor rice instead of the water.  Sometimes I also add some vegetable or chicken bouillon .   It s more flavor and maybe just a little nutrition .   
• Many cooks put a little pasta water in their sauces.   
• That little bit of peas and carrots in the frozen bag can be added to a cheeseburger macaroni cassarole....homemade.  
• I save the coarse salt that my daughter doesn’t use from their frozen pretzels. 
• Leftover cornbread can be the base for a chilli bowl. 
• Leftover black beans can make their way into a salad or hamburger used for enchaladas.  
• Leftovers dont have to be just the same thing heated up.  I cant tell you how many men are against eating leftovers.  I have heard it many times.   I suspect if they were the ones cooking and doing the cleanup, they might not be so opinionated .(hows that for being snarky LOL) but, reimagining a bit of leftover, can solve the problem.  
• Bits of cheese make their way into mac and cheese in our house. I stole that idea from a happy hour menu!LOL.  They are a rich source of ideas.  Flatbread comes to mind...and it doesn’t have to be burned and like a cracker.   
• We had two strawberries left from our fruit plate the other night.  I threw them in my oatmeal just before my husband go to them to throw in the garbage disposal.   “No food is going to do you any good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.  HHA  HA /!

Kitchen Management

Kitchen management is a concept that goes a long way towards being organized and saving valuable time during the hectic dinner hour.    I remember those days when I got home from work, and had hungry children and the mail, laundry, and dinner staring me in the face.   All I really wanted was to put my feet up and watch the news with a cup of nice tea.   LOL.   Reality.  

Prepping for the weeks meals and zone cleaning the kitchen makes life so much easier the rest of the week.

• Oven Roast Broccolli 
• Make pizza dough and freeze /refridgerate 
• Cook chicken breast in insta pot. 
• Wash salad greens, potatoes, carrots and celery 
• Mark meal plan calander to thaw chicken 
• straighten the pantry, fill canisters.   
• Wash kitchen floor 
• Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead.  
• Clean countertops and sinks and drains with disinfectant 
• Wax island cupboards.  
• Make breadcrumbs . 
• Post food purchases to spread sheet 

I started this blog almost six years ago because my children encouraged me to.  My daughter had taught children from low income families for a number of years and one of her students mothers had reached out to her because she was running out of money before she ran out of month.   My daughter told her that I knew how to s t r e t c h a buck.   It seemed like a good idea to write a blog so that I could help people.   I had been studying the subject for some fifty years.   

It wasnt until my daughter and I set out to give a class on cutting your food bill in half that I did the math and realized I had changed enough habits to feed us on less than four dollars a day and grew a stock and supplemented granddaughter.  After I started this blog I decided to work at every angle I could find to further the concept of cutting the food bill. 

Simplify, lower your costs, always have food in the house.   

Four plus one is five.   Four people, one meal, five bucks.  

No food is going to do your family good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal. 

Waste not, want not. 

My mother used to say, some people could have a bargain get up and bite them in the but and they wouldn’t see it.  Don’t be that person.  

Meal Plans for wk of 4/16/18

Eat well when you make a plan.   It takes away the answer to the question “ What’s for Dinner”

1. Potluck : broccolli 
2. Pizza 
3. Chicken Chimichangas 
4. Speghetti and Meatballs 
5. Sloppy joes 
6. Stuffed Chicken Breasts 
7. Breakfast for dinner 

Notes:   

Pizza is a easy way to make everyone happy.....cheap . Homemade pizza is about a dollar.  More to add toppings of meat.   

Chicken chimichangas are easy and quick.  They can have Spanish rice and beans for sides. 

No Brainer:   Spaghetti and Meatballs.  Easy, quick and a crowd pleaser.

Sloppy Joes use the buns we got from the DT.  Fresh potatoes.

Chicken breast stuffed with spinach and cheese and topped with a breadcrumb mixture that is homemade.   

Fred Meyer mini ad and beyond

There is a mini ad in tomorrow’s paper for FM.   There isn’t one for Alberways .

Cantaloupe is a dollar each.
Mandarins are 3.99 for 5 pounds.

TWO pounds of rotisserie chicken is 5.99 when you buy 5, save 5.   That means that you are paying six dollars a pound for chicken.   Not of my money. LOL.  

Buy 5, save 5, is only good if the prices are at RBP and especially if you can match with a coupon.   Seems like coupons are drying up.   I found a coupon for mandarin oranges in glass jars.  Period.  
There is one for toothpaste.  

Simplify, spend less, and always have food....the reason to grocery shop on the cheap.

By simplifying your grocery list and buying multiples , you save time and money.  buy versatile things that make good meals.   Last night we had salmon, smashed red potatoes, and honey ginger carrot coins.  

Spending time to teach your children 👶 how to cook and shop by observation is a good thing.  The gap between the poor and the rich is shrinking .  We never know what the future will bring.   If you know how to stretch a buck, you will always be able to cope.   It’s not hard to spend more.  It is not always the fact that you don’t have money.  Sometimes, people want to save for a particular project.  A special vacation , a rental unit to make money for the future or ?????.



Cooking is a good life skill.   My mother taught us how to bake ,  I think because she didn’t want to.
She was less generous with her teaching of dinner items, I think because she couldnt afford it if we messed up.   LOL.   Besides, I was so slow and deliberate, dinner would have been past our bedtimes! LOL.  I had to learn to cook what I didn’t learn in home ec.   I don’t remember learning anything about meat.   It was probably more than their budget.   I remember making a roux and potato soup and muffins.   I remember “planned overs” .  

I have always been busy.  We had three children and a house, boat, yard, and cars to keep up.   A lot of the time I held two jobs.  I learned to make efficient dishes.   You can scratch cook and spend less time in the kitchen.   With the inventions of good kitchen appliances, you can cook almost anything and not spend hours on your feet. Some  basic appliances can more than pay for themselves in a few months.   The difference between cooking beans in the insta pot and buying canned. Beans is remarkable. Even at my buy price of .50, scratch is saving 95 percent. The time involved is minimal.    Rice is more savings.   Pinto beans are cheapest at the DT and they are grown in USA and non GMO.   Rice is really cheap at Costco and its not a huge investment to buy a bulk sack.   If you don’t use a lot, consider splitting a bag with a neighbor or friend.

Rice and beans are a staple.   They are also a good go to if you are flat broke or there is nothing in the house and you cant get to a store or the stores have no food.    Not a pipe dream by the way.  One not so distant past christmas, the main road (I-5) was flooded and trucks couldnt bring the grocery stores food.   It’s  not a good idea to buy groceries one day at a time and not have a minimal at least stockpile even if you have tons of money.  

Look at the menus at the neighborhood’s   eateries.   When the cost of food jumped up, especially beef, the chefs used their creative assets to come up with meals or snacks that were delightful, but less expensive.   Flatbread, baby meatballs, tacos , sliders.....

Anyone but me wonder why the cost of beef went up drastically
because of a year of drought, and it never went down.   We just limited our beef consumption to one or two nights a week if we needed to use leftovers (Planned overs) . My husband had to learn to like chicken.   LOL.   His main objective to chicken was that it had no flavor.   I started to look for flavorful chicken recipes.  Fortunately, even the 6 yo likes spicey foods.

 Simplify, spend less, always have food.  

Friday Recipe

Baked Chicken Nuggets

Face it, chicken nuggets are just plain nasty.   Most of them are made from reconstituted chicken .
Kids love them, but I offer a adult version.   More heathy and tastes a lot better.  

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast , cut into 1 to 1/2 inch cubes .

Combine :
1/2 cup breadcrumbs , dried
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts ( walnut or pecan)

1 stick butter, melted split between two small bowl.   *

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Dip chicken pieces in the melted butter, then the crumb mixture.
Place on baking rack on a sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes in th preheatednoven or unti the chicken tests done.  180 degrees is my benchmark.

Hint:  the bulk food isle (Winco here ) has broken pieces of nuts.   You are going to chop them up anyway, so they save both money and time.  

* you might not use all of the butter, by splitting the butter between two bowls and adding to the first bowl as you need it, you are not contaminating all the butter.  Do not reuse the butter for another purpose.  

Thursday Notes

Another episode of This NOT That

Butter instead of Fake Butter.
The real thing is just better.  My nutritionalist said a skim of butter is better than the fake stuff.  Fake butter often is laced with hydroginated oil.   Almost all oils with the exception of canola (GMO) and olive oil are bad for you.   Hydroginated oil, so they say, thickens your blood.   You are better off, in my opinion with the real thing in moderation.  Moderation is key.  

Roma tomatoes are better than regular tomatoes.
This is just because they have more “meat” and less seeds.   Again, no food can do your family any good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.  

Real maple syrup, parmesean cheese, vanilla...is better than fake.
It just tastes better.   Moderation on the syrup is key.   Parmesean cheese in the green can is laced with wood pulp and it is old.   If parmesean is more expensive than Romano or other hard cheeses, use he other cheeses.   It works the same .  

Nut pieces , not whole pieces.
Winco (or Bulk Food isles ) has broken pieces in the bulk section.   If you are using it for breading or in a recipe, why pay for whole nuts when you are going to cut them up anyway.  Thisnisoe time wen something already done is cheaper.

Insta pot chicken or slow cooker chicken , not rotisserie chicken .
Rotisserie chicken is really , really expensive.   Cooking a whole chicken (.88 a lb ) is twice as expensive as one made in the slow cooker.   That crispy skin is not good for you anyway.  Why ay for it to be pulled off.  Both slow cooker and insta pot chicken take no longer than making the special trip to the store. Ten minutes tops and you are saving 1/2 or more if you buy a 5 pound chicken.   Three pound chickens are the most expensive chicken .   Hands down. And the chicken that is 2 lbs is just a joke.  

Homemade coating mix and bread crumbs , not boxed.  
Why pay 2.40 a pound for someone elses dry bread.   If our 6yo can make breadcrumbs in a snap,  you can too.   Another , it takes minutes and saves a bundle idea.   If I pay 2.44 a pound for hamburger, why would I pay 2.40 for someone elses garbage.   There is more food value in the hamburger.  

Coupons are a waste of time vs use coupons when they make sense.   Don’t take hours clipping every coupon in ten newspapers.  Do print coupons once a month and only print the ones for wha you are likely to use.   Save a batch of inserts from 1 newspaper you buy for a dollar at the DT and match it up with a sale.   Less than a half hour can save you up to 50.00 a month.   That’s 100.00 an hour virtual pay check.  

Homemade quick breads , not bakery breads.  
The operative word here is quick.   It takes a matter of minutes to throw a quick bread into the oven.   The savings are remarkable and you control the sugar.  

Frozen vs fresh blueberries.  
There are times in the year when frozen blueberries are a lot cheaper than fresh.  If you are makin blueberry bread or muffins or smoothies, frozen is better most of the time.   Winco has 2 lb bags for less than 2.00 a pound.   That’s almost the equivalent of three 6 ounce boxes.  

Fred Meyer Haul

Because we were just about out of fruit and Ihad money left in the budget, hubby went to Fred Meyers for fruit and veggies.   This should keep us Ok for a while .

Gala apples .99
Strawberries
Cantaloupe
Zucchini

Total 10.38

That still leaves us 10.00 under and in very good shape for next week.  

New Chain store ads.

Alberways 

2 lbs strawberries 2.99

Extra Lean Ground Beef 3.77

FSSun.  Only 

Turkey breast .99

Lucerne yogurt 4/1 

Chicken of sea tuna .59@@

Eggs 1.49 dozen @@????

QFC

Draper Valley BSCB : BOGO.....no prices here....

BUY 5, save 5 

Goldfish .99

Cheese 4.99 - top of buy price

Dreyers  2.99

Note: orowheat bread and Thomas English Muffins are at the DT.   So, 2.49 is not a bargain. Cheese is barely over 2.00 at costco business.   I paid 1.98 last week at QFC

Oranges .67

Tomatoes .88

Apples, pears .99

Not a lot there ....

FRED MEYER

5 bs mandarins 3.99

Cantaloupe .99

FM cheese2 lbs 4.99 **

JD Sausage 2/7**

Berries ( strawberry, blackberries ) 2/5 

Foster Farms 

Drums, thighs, whole, and split breast..99

Zucchini.99

**. Cheese is at the top of the buy price.   

** jimmy dean sausage is 2.48 at winco.   

Split breast is breast with the ribs attached.  Cut off the ribs, save for stock, and free in portion controlled bags.   I use dollar store quarts and put the quarts in a zip lock with dat and item on it.  Put your ribs in the slow cooker before you go to bed with water up to an inch from the top and add eggie scraps.   You have stock in the morning to put through a colander and you can pick he ones for another days meat.   

Tuesday Notes

Groceries on the Cheap is not about cheap, inferior food.   Its more like buying your food wholesale.   I discovered that food from a wholesale supplier is sometimes more expensive than getting your food from a big box store. (Costco) .  

It is not what you buy as much as when and where you buy it.  

A cake mix can be 2.38 , or it can be .88.  Same box, same brand, different store.

A almost pound bag of meatballs can be 2.00 or 3.50.   Same brand, different store

A pound of Jimmy Dean sausage can be 6.50 or it can be 2.47.  Same package, different store.

You get the picture.   Knowing where to buy certain things , makes a big step in lowering your food bill. You dont hae to go to ten stores every week.   Just know when you need a certain thing and go there and buy enough for four to six weeks.   Freeze what you can.  

I know that I am going to buy pizza sauce, taco shells, pinto beans parchment paper , and Orowheat bread products at the Dollar Tree.   I check stock before I go.   Our Dollar tree is either next to Safeways , or next to Grocery Outlet , depending on where we go.   I can make 1 trip do double duty. So, I will tend To base my trip on what else is on sale or things I need that are low prices at other stores.   Knowing your prices helps with this.   I can go through GO in a few minutes and find the bargains that we can use to make meals in a few minutes.  GO is a treasure hunt.   You know that there are some tried and true things.  I can almost always find sliced cheese, hard taco shells or a taco kit for a dollar.  After that, its a surprise.  I do know that I can always get pizza sauce, flour taco shells, and a selection of bread at the DT.  

Dollar Trees are rated by the franchise.  The better rating gets you a better selection of things.   I found that out by listening to a u tuber that worked for Dollar 💵 Stores.   I suspect it to be true, our towns DT is not as good as the one east of here.  

The trick is to buyin bulk and knowing how much your family will eat in a given month, provided that the item is non perishable.  Overbuying can be a problem.   In any case, finding your food at discount prices goes a long ways to eating well for little money.

Our grocery expense for the last 15 months has been around 55.05 a week.  That is or two of us and supplementing our granddaughter.   ( Her mother is on a restricted diet and we eat a complete diet.)
This also keeps an pantry so we always have food.  

Simplify, lower your food costs, always have food.  

Everyone has basic dinners their family likes.   I suspect most families with children eat Mexican and Italian a lot.   I try to avoid processed foods on a regular basis.   We sill eat them, we like them, but moderation. Is the name of the game.   We eat beef.   Again, I think we need a certain amount for good nutrition.   We dont need it 7 days a week.   That’s why we meal plan with a protein based matrix.  It gives sun variety.   We just buy versatile cuts of meat that can be found in bulk for a reasonable price.  

Shelf stable and freezer products are a regular part of cooking balanced meals.   We all have a list of 10-15 items we buy on a regular basis.   Finding the rock bottom price of these things is key to garoceries of the cheap.   IF you fin the price and buy enough to cover your family for 4-6 weeks, you usually can find a sale again sometime during that period of time.   Organize your pantry or cupboard so that you can see a a glance how much you have of your specified amount.   This isn’t about hoarding.   Its about buying your food basically wholesale.  

Not all things at any one store are ever at a RBP.   I is really necessary to know then prices of your key foods.   I have  a target price of those food in my mind.   If they aren't my price, I don’t buy
them.   Conversely, if they are below it, I am all over it , being mindful of how many we eat in a particular time period.  

I keep 2 boxes of ‘stove top stuffing “ in case I dont have enough dry bread for scratch.   When I found some at Winco for .75, I bought one because I knew I had one in the  pantry.   I didnt buy six.  

Now, I did pass o the .99 prego this weekend, because I have enough.    Its controlled bulk buying.  
I don't want too be caught having to pay full price for anything if I can help it.   If I can substitute something else , I will.  

I bought bulk ground ref from the farmer.   I wont do it agai.   80/20 hamburger was 2.44 a pound.   I frie 5 pounds and got 3.5 pounds of meat and 1 cup of fat.  I measured it and no doubt, missed some clinging to the drain dish.   I defatted it.   I am better off finding a 93/7 sale or grinding my own when I find  three dollar roasts with low fat.   I may change my mind if the next batch I cook is better.   Basically, we paid as much meat for meat as if I bought the good stuff.   I might try the better  quality next year if the price is right.  

I haven’t cooked the  chicken yet. I’m still using my upstairs stash.  

Dairy usually goes on sale once a month at Fred Meyers.   Fred Meyers is joining the Wednesday to Tuesday’s ad stores.  I am wondering if taheir food is going to match QFC is soon.   Time will tell.  

Kitchen Management take along

An 18 ounce package of sausage was 1.99 at qfc.   We ate three of them 

For dinner with oven roasted potatoes and peppers.   Peppers were .77.  And I saved the 

Tops and cut them small for Tuesdays pizza.   The sausage was poked and pre boiled to reduce fat. 

The rest of it is in a pan and is being cooked.   

Fill the olive oil range bottle. 

Cutting up the leftover sausage for Tuesday’s Pizza.

Now we have leftover red pepper from the sausage and peppers meal and 

Leftover sausage.   

Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe. 

Chicken cooked in the 

insta pot from frozen for 15 minutes.   Put in 

. Deli containers bought from amazon for 50 cents each.   

Cooking rice for 2 nights in the insta pot.   Equal parts rice and broth made from veggie stock.   Load the instapot and press the rice button.

.    

The food is cooked for the next three nights dinners.   Prepping saves time.   Sweet and sour chicken is almost done.   Pizza toppings are prepped . We will add black olives from a can already sliced.   We are ahead for the chicken chimichangas.    

A little prep work is a great help in cooking from scratch.   Cooking from scratch save a ton of money.

Monday Kitchen Management

Kitchen Management is a tool that frees up some time during that hectic dinner hour.   It not only preps some food for the week, but it also keeps the kitchen clean as you along.

Recap of meals :

• Sweet and sour chicken 
• Pizza 
• Lemon pepper chicken pasta 
• Chicken chimichangas  , salad (lettuce and tomato ) 
• Meatball subs , oven fries, peppers 
• Salmon,seasoned rice, broccolli 
• Breakfast for dinner. 

Kitchen tasks 

1. Saturday I already cooked and de-fatted hamburger.   Five pounds of 80/20 hamburger game us 3.6 pounds of meat and a full cup of fat rendered that I put in a used bag for the garbage.
2. I also cleaned and cut red and yellow pepper strips and chopped the tops and bottoms of th peppers for the pizza.  
3. Make a batch of rice for the salmon and sweet and sour chicken dinners. 
4. Cook chicken cubes for the three chicken recipes.   
5. Pull the lemon pepper chicken recipe off the printer. 
6. Wash lettuce, potatoes, broccolli, and tomatoes. 
7. Wash kitchen floor 
8. Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. (The iPad has this sentence memorized.   LOL)
9. Wash refrigerator and line drawers. 
10. Clean and disinfect the counters, sinks, and drains. 
11. Organize pantry. 

Notes:   

Precooking meat saves a lot of time.   When meal planning, if you have a standard list of menues or a template ( protein based) it only takes a few minutes.   Add a few more minutes to prewash veggies and cook rice 🍚 and you save a lot of time.   Cook once, eat twice or more.   With the salmon menu, all I have to do is put the salmon in the oven to cook, reheat the rice in the microwave, and toss the broccolli  with olive oil and salt and pepper and put in the oven with the salmon.   Very little hands on time.   

Washing all the veggies takes a lot less time than doing it piece meal.   

Start cooking the thing that takes the most time, so that you can work while it’s is cooking.   The object is to get in and out of the kitchen fast.   

Its a nice day here, I want to go walk the beach.   

Winco Haul

Spent 14.39

Large eggs .88

2 cream  cheese  2.38

Mandarin oranges .58

10 lbs potatoes 1.98

Lettuce .98

Jimmy Dean sausage 2.48.  Elsewhere 6.50

Spinach 1.78

Meal Plans for week of April 9th

Meal Plans are a way to keep organized and make best use of your time.   Add a quick hour of kitchen management and your kitchen is clean and you cut your time in the kitchen during the busy dinner hour.

• Sweet and Sour chicken , rice. 
• Pizza 
• Lemon pepper chicken pasta 
• Chicken chimichangas , lettuce and tomato 
• Meatballs subs 
• Salmon, seasoned rice, broccolli 
• Breakfast for Dinner 

Notes: 

• Sweet and sour chicken is from chicken tenders I cut from the breasts I bought in bulk. 
• Pizza is a good go to and everyone likes it.  Homemade Pizza cost about a dollar for cheese.  
• Lemon pepper chicken pasta is a Betty Crocker recipe.  
• Chicken chimichangas are easy and use bits of planned over chicken.  (Chicken from sweet and sour chicken ) 
• Meatball subs are meatballs purchased at Winco and rolls purchased at the DT. 
• Salmon is frozen, seasoned rice is a mix that I made, Broccolli is fresh. 
• Breakfast for Dinner is a family affair....everyone cooks.   

• Our average weekly grocery expense was 55.05 a week last year.   So far, we are at or below that including a bulk chicken purchase.   We are hoping the bulk hamburger purchase will be absorbed into april and may budgets.   That puts us on a less than 4 dollars a person budget and we supplement a granddaughter and build a small stock.   It is a good idea to work on a 4-6. week rotation so there is always food in the house.  
• We eat a balanced diet of good food.   We eat real food.  We try to avoid a lot of salt,sugar, saturated fat, hydroginated oils, and HFCS. (Sugar).  
• The trick is to avoid the impulse buys that the retailers bombard you with every time you walk into the stores, and buy good food cheap, not cheap food.  
• I set out to do that many years ago.   It took time to develop a plan that doesn’t take a lot of time, yet maximizes savings.    I’m sharing this because there are people that need to feed their families well and dont have a lot of money.   We haven’t seen a real raise in Social Security in years.  They give it to you and take it back.   Many are living in poverty because mnimum wage has not kept up with rising housing costs .  For whatever reason, I am hoping that my information can help.   I don’t advertise on this blog, my blog is solely to help people.    
• 
  
• Thank you for reading.