Background -what is this blog anyway ?

Welcome.   I started this blog six years ago because I was having requests from some single moms that needed to feed their families and were ‘running out of money before they ran out of month.    

I was a single mother for seven years.  It was during a time in America when we had double digit inflation and I had no raises for three years.   It was sink or swim and I had to swim.   I read everything I could find about economizing .   Food included.   Food is the biggest part of our discretionary spending.   Fifty years later.....I am sharing what I learned with anyone I can help;.   

I am still learning.....

This is about well balanced meals.  Its about watching the amount of salt, sugar, saturated fat, hydrogenated oil, HFCS, and GMO’s.   Its about efficient scratch cooking. (  It’s not as scary as it seems.). It’s  about not paying full price for anything.  It’s about using every bit of what you buy if possible. It is about always having food in the house.   It is about basis.   

On Sunday’s, I publish a meal plan.   It’s ideas. It is more about the thought process than telling someone what to eat.  Meal plans keep us organized.   

Monday is Kitchen Management Day.   Again, kitchen management can happen any day it is convenient for you.   Its is a tool to make the sometimes hectic dinner hour less hectic and make it easier to stay on track.   

Tuesday is new here.   It is “ How did she do that?”   .   It takes a very basic inexpensive dish and maps out what it cost and how it is made.   Tips and tricks.   We live in the  7th highest COL in the United States for prospective.    Not everyone will get the same ‘bargains”. I study other parts of the county’s prices.   A lot of them are cheaper.   My guess is that some are more expensive too.   Its all relative.   

Wednesday is for Chain Store ADS.   I post the best of the buys.   DT means Dollar Tree.   @@ means there is an in ad coupon for a product.   $$ means there are coupons out there for the product to lower the price.   Good coupons are harder to find these days.   Main sources are Coupons.com and inserts in the newspaper.   Digital coupons are coming into their own.....   Kroger stores have Saturday specials that are sometimes fruitful.   Not everything in a grocery ad is a SALE.   By essence of the word, SALE just means that you can BUY the item.    RBP is the lowest price you might ever see for that item.   It is what you strive for.   You should have a BUY price in your head or in a small notebook.for the things you buy on a regular basis.  Unless  something is a real necessity and there are no substitutions, don’t cross over that price.   

Thursday is Haul Day.   Sometimes with pics, sometimes not.   

Friday is Recipe Day. 

Saturday is concept day.   It is a rant, or a comparison, or an idea of how to cut costs on food.   

This is all written to help you s t t e t c h your food dollar.    Studies show that people that have to wonder where the next meal is coming from have a lower life expectancy.   It isn’t being a hoarder to have a month to six weeks supply of food basics in the house.   It is smart planning.    Bleep happens. Being prepared is a good thing.    It isn’t had to do when you buy your food at a RBP.   

We have stuck to a four dollar a day budget and have a stock with that amount of money.   It can be done and it doesn’t take a lot of time and not that much effort after you get organized.   

Grocery Outlet Haul ; THURSDAY

Had to go....we were out of nuts ...LOL

Total food  15.49

Total slip 41.4
Savings 46.05

This is unusual for us to buy this much extra stuff.  Nuts were on a big sale and we stocked because they are a special buy with a holiday theme.   Buying holiday or seasonal things past their season that far still in pull date is a good way to get good food cheap.   Fractions of what they cost if they are a flavor that is the current season.

Coffee. 5.99
Tomato sauce .50 can
Nuts 2.99

Fruit snacks .50

Pumpkin bar mix .50

Tri colour tortellini 1.50

2 lbs strawberries 3.99



Bacon 1.48 12 ounces.   This is dated like now.   We took it home and I cut it with a pizza cutter and rendered it down while I put the food away.   I intend to freeze it and use it for flarvoring in dishes.

White chocolate yogurt:  Yoplait . 3/1.00

Safeways Haul 

I bought a bunch.   Next week I am going to be recovering from surgery, so no haul is planned. 

Total before discounts was 80.00 , then the discounts started posting.  I’d remarked to the clerk that 

this was like extreme couponing without the coupons.   LOL. End result minus charity jpurchases and drinks was 33.73 

Organic maple syrup 3.99

Kraft sliced cheese (4) 7.96 

Sour cream .99

Frozen veggies (3) 3.00

Yoplait yogurt (10) 3.80

Bread .98

Turkey Breast Lunch meat 2.99

Grapes 4.22

Raspberries and blueberries 5.00

Chain store ads

Fred Meyers has to be on line.   I haven’t figured out how to get paper unless I go to the store.   Its five miles, thats not happening.  LOL

QFC has gone to a one sheet of paper ad.   Its 4 pages of mostly organic and booze.   I don’t buy booze.

Strawberries 2 lb 2.99
7 percent hamburger 3.99
Organic grapes 1.99
Milk .99
Lean cuisine entree 1.88
Multi colored peppers....88
Cucumbers .88


Buy 5, save 5
Goldfish .99
Cheese 32 ounces 4.99
Tide or. Paper towels. 4.99

Alberways

Signature farms chicken breast 1.77
Lean 7 percent beef 3.77

🥑  or tomatoes .77
Berries 2/5
Grapes 1.99

Bread .98@@
Yoplait .38@@
Pasta .69

NOTE NOT A BARGAIN
Cheese is a 7 ounce package and it is on sale for 1.99 on fab 4.  That means you are paying over four dollars a pound for cheese.   My RBP is 2.00 and 2.50 a lb is the top of my buy price.


FRED MEYERS

Tri tip roast 3.88
Foster Farms chicken breast 1.99
Peaches .99
2 bs berries 3.99

Buy 5, save 5

Dryers 2.49
GM cereal 1.49$$
Classico 1.99
Goldfish .99
Hebrew national 2.99
Cheese 4.99

SATURDAY DIGITAL COUPON CAN HAVE 5
BACON 2.99

Really....

Fact:  we eat on less than four dollars a day.   Four dollars a day is some  magic number for the lowest price you are supposed to get buy with.  We didn’t start out with that number in mind.   I have always been economical, but I set out to teach people without a lot of money how to stretch what they have.   I kept adding ideas and trying new things until IT happened.   I was writing a class on cutting  your grocery bill in half and did some math.   I surprised  myself.

We eat on less than four dollars a day.   Our BMI is within healthy perimeters.   We have food in the house before payday.   We don’t eat tahini topped broiled eggplant for dinner.   We have eaten on four dollars a day budget for almost a year and a half.   We have grown a stock on that, so actually we eat on less.  Now, caviat time, we do not include any drinks beyond coffee and tea and snacks in our food budget.   Extra drinks and snacks can be eliminated in hard times and they aren't a necessary part of a good balanced diet.   If you have a separate budget, you are well aware of the cost of your garbage eating.   LOL  We don’t feed a 17 yo linebacker.

I am thirty or so dollars over for the year.  But, I bought bulk meat.   I suspect that by the end of the month, we will be back on track and have meat in the freezer.  

The key concepts are :

• Simplify your grocery list.   Identify the foods you use on a regular basis to cook your meals.  We all have  a list of ten or so meals we prep on a regular basis.   List seven to  ten that use inexpensive sources of protein.  Inexpensive sources here are average two dollars a pound.,   Yes, there is good food for two dollars a pound average.    Find the lowest possible price for those foods.   The average family has 10-15 foods they buy on a regular basis.   NEVER pay full price.   Buy enough bulk - usually 4-6 weeks worth of that food— and wait for another sale.   
• Meal plan .   The old adage : make  a plan, or plan to fail works here.   Doesn’t have to be fancy, just jot down a list of main dishes.   
• Buy fruits and veggies that are a dollar or less in season.    Buy dairy on sale.  Most dairy has a two week to four week life.   Buy a months worth of eggs and other dairy when its on sale with a coupon if possible.   
• Efficient scratch cook. Avoid most ‘boxes’ .  
• Buy things in bulk when they make sense.   When you buy something that has a enormous shelf life and you buy it in bulk, you don't have to buy it again.  You’re done.   Soda, salt come to mind.   I bought a five pound bag of salt.   I’m done.   I have enough for the rest of my life, my daughters life and probably well into my granddaughters life......LOL.  Flour, rice and oatmeal are our go to’s.   They are cheap and they save a lot of money. 
• Try new things.   It helps to mix things up.   
• The key is to know how much of something you use on a regular basis and do not over buy.  No food is going to do your family any good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.  

 Simplify, never pay full price, always have food in the house.

How did she do that? TUESDAY

Vegetable Bean Soup ...another miracle worker.....six quarts of soup feeds a family well.   Its low in carbs and with a loaf of bread serves six.

Peasant Bread takes then minutes total hands on time and that is split between two days.   In the time it takes you to pick up the mail and hang up your coat, you can have a batch of bread dough waiting on the counter developing .

The soup:

Sauté 2 celery ribs and 2 large carrots, cut in small slices.   Add olive oil and some. Italian herbs.
Add to the slow cooker or the insta pot that you program on slow cook.   We use the leaves as well as the ends of the celery.   I save the ends for vegetable stock.   You can grow more celery from the stub end of the celery bunch.   It’s a good lesson for children.   They have fun watching it get bigger every day and changing the water.

Add 2 cans of diced tomatoes .   A full quart of any stock you choose.   I keep chicken, tomato, vegetable and beef boullion on hand for those days when I dont have scratch.   In bulk, the cost of he teaspoon you put in a cup of water is minimal.   Beef is the exception, Better than boullion is m9or expensive but we don't use it often.

2 cans of beans....not necessarily the same.   Beans are .50 at Winco lately.   IF you make beans in the insta pot, they cost less than 02 a 1/2 cup serving.   The four cups you use for this recipe cost .16.   Beans would be cheaper if you bought bags in bulk, but unless you have a dry large family, they would not be used up fast enough.

Cost:
Celery and carrots :  .45
Beans .16
Tomatoes @ .39 can equals .78
Stock.
Total 1.39

You can add pasta or orzo to the pot if you want to stretch it.   I have been getting Barilla pasta for a dollar....either at the regular stores or at the DT.

Kitchen Managment 6/4/18

Kitchen Management is a tool that saves time and money.   By grouping tasks together, you spend less time in the kitchen and meal time is a lot less hectic.    Dinner is prepped and cooking dinner is a snap.  It’s taking a page out of the professional cooks book.   Having the ingredients repped, cuts your time in the kitchen dramatically.   Efficient scratch cooking is a key component to four dollar a day eating .

Reminder of Meals : 

• Sloppy joes
• Pizza 
• Chix Pot Pie 
• Pork stew, bread 
• Soup bread 
• Dad cooks 
• Breakfast for Dinner. 

Kitchen Management

1.  Wash kitchen floor 
2. Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead.
3. Wash and disinfect counters and sinks and drains 
4. Wash carrots, potatoes with vinegar, strawberries 
5. Make veggie tray. 
6. Straighten pantry 
7. Make bread dough 

Meal Plans for week of June 4, 2018

Meal plans are a tool to keep you organized and saves time and money.   It doesn’t have to be time consuming, just a quick jot down of main dishes is all you really need.  Most of us have a good idea of what we serve with what.  The basics of protein,starch, and vegetable/fruit is time tested.   Our grandparents have lived to be 98 years old, why mess with tried and true.   The basic difference in my opinion, was that they ate basics and there wasn't all the garbage snack food, pop, and easily purchased sugar based treats.  We all love them, but they are not good for us.

Simplify, use a RBP for food, always have food in the house.
Your attitude on shopping changes greatly when you are not destitute for food.  When you don't have that fight or flight reaction because it’s finally ‘payday” and the cupboards are bare.

Take a quick look at the fresh foods you have and note what you need to use up.   Incorporate them into your meals.  Look at your schedule and adjust for any busy days.   Soup is a good go to when the family is going to be coming home at different times.   The slow cooker is a good tool.

• Sloppy Joes, Oven fries, veggie platter 
• Pizza
• Chicken Pot Pie; yogurt parfaits 
• Pork stew, bread 
• Vegetable bean soup, bread 
• Dad cooks: Mom in for surgery 
• Breakfast for Dinner. 

Notes: 

Sloppy joes use the buns we got for .88. Hamburger is already cooked and de-fatted in the freezer.  Dinner in less than fifteen minutes.   Cut and soak the fries in the morning.   Wash in vinegar water, place in deli container with paper towel.  Homemade sloppy joe sauce .  Heat with hamburger.   

Veggie platter is done at kitchen. Management time and replentished all week.  Good for snacks and I picked up hummus on sale.  

Pizza is at a cost of less than a dollar for a cheese pizza.   Scratch dough cost .19 even with the raise of the cost of flour.   Add toppings.   It is easy to pull out toppings as you are cooking other things and freeze.   When its time for pizza, everything is chopped, cooked, and ready to roll. 

Chicken pot pie is a Betty Crocker recipe and uses frozen mixed veggies.   Easy with a bisquit crust.  Less carbs, no bottom crust.. 

Parfaits are yogurt, granola (homemade) and berries 

Pork stew is from the 1.29 a pound pork loin.   Cooked in insta pot with carrots and potatoes.   

Vegetable bean soup recipe is on a blogpost.   I now make beans from scratch that cuts the cost down considerably more.   Peasant bread cost .25 a loaf.   Easy, peasy and good. 

Breakfast for dinner isn’t necessarily the cheapest dinner of the five dollar dinners.   Eggs are still realatively cheap.   Its any bacon etc that you add that bumps up the cost.  We recently got bacon for three dollars a POUND at the GO.  It is Oscar Mayer.   Still, a quiche is a good thing for dinner.  It is easy and saves a lot of money.  None of these meals are over the five dollar mark, it just takes buying and efficiently scratch cooking.   

Opinion :Zaycon chicken

Zaycon is a company that literally brings you chicken breast straight from the farm.    We tried it when it was on a one time only price of .99 a pound.   You have to order 40 pounds and it is not individually packed.   It is packed in bags of about ten pounds.

You order and prepay for your chicken about 60 to 90 days before you get it.   There are specified pick up spots at a town near you and a window of time to pick up your product.   We picked the next town over and traveled about 5 miles.   I can see where this wouldn't work for a working family unless you have a neighbors or family member that was free that day.   We knew they were coming and could make a concentrated effort to eat down the freezer.

The breasts were huge, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I had to cut them in half and they were still 1.25 pounds.  For a moral family where 4 people ate chicken, this would not be a problem.   There are two of us and a small child so I cut the tenderloin off and bagged the rest of the breast.   The tenderloin, I cut into cubes for chicken dishes or chicken nuggets (homemade) .  This took about an hour and a half.

This all worked out well, but, because the price is normally a lot more money. we would probably not do it again.  They came out recently with a price of 1.29 if you bought 80 pounds.   Maybe if we needed them, and I could share with another family.   Not happening any time soon .  LOL.   We eat chicken or pork three times a week.   This will last us a long time.

Chicken breast cooks in the insta pot in 8-15 minutes depending on the thickness of the breast.
This does not give you a crispy crust or great appearance, but if you are using it for a recipe like chicken pot pie , it leaves you with about the same appearance as if you poached the chicken.

Boneless, skinless chicken breast here run about 1.99 a pound lately.   Sometimes split chicken breast with ribs are 1.50.   You can cut the ribs off fairly easy and cook the ribs in a slow cooker .   April Holly Smith gave me the great idea of putting chicken bone to cook over night in a slow cooker and putting them through a sieve in the morning and saving the stock-(freezer or can) and picking the bones.   You can get at least another dinner out of the bones.    Add vegetable scraps and some herbs.

Friday Recipe day

Sometimes it is a pleasant surprise when you have an abundance of a particular item and find it necessary to google the ingredient for new ideas.  Chocolate zucchini muffins comes to mind.  The Facebook pages these days are full of ideas.  Unfortunately, most of them look really really good, but probably not what your doctor wants you to eat.   Anything with  bacon and cheese in it can’t be all bad....can it? LOL

Today I saw french toast bites.  Looks like a little work but I can see where a child especially would think it was great.   They just cut the crusts off of bread and cut the bread in cubes.   They made an egg mixture with egg, milk and vanilla.   Dipped the bread and fried it off the same as you would if you were making regular french toast.   They sprinkled it with sugar and cinnamon .  Kids would like it and it would be less messy and more portable if need be.   Take breakfast to the beach?  

Another one I saw lately was one I had forgot about.  Sometimes , my mother would make Bisquits with cheese.  Roll your dough like you would for a cinnamon roll, fill it with grated cheese and herbs and cut it in slices.   Bake off according to regular baking powder bisquit directions.   This is a good alternative to ‘bread’ if you are having a main dish that hasn’t a lot of protein.  

Pudding is another good desert to serve if your meal is lacking enough protein.  Add bananas and you have a fruit serving too.   Even trying to eat on four dollars a day, you can still keep fresh fruit in the house.  

Potatoes have gotten a bad wrap lately, potatoes are full of protein and good vitamins.   Depression era recipe books are full of potato recipes.   It’s not hard to adapt them to more healthy, modern versions.   Potato soup is good and one of the recipes that I usually serve with cheezy bisquits.   Together its carbs, but also protein and calcium.   Active children need the carbs and protein.   Moderation is the key.  

One way to keep costs down and your waistline too, is to avoid having desert every meal.   Having cakes and pies on a special occasion, or just on Sunday Dinner is probably a good option.   Most doctors will probably tell you that the ingredients in all of those cakes and cookies are not the best option for your health.   Again, moderation is the key.  I think that you can reduce the sugar in many recipes, use recipes that incorporate other good ingredients (zucchini comes  to mind.  There is also carrot cake and muffins, you can replace some of the flour in some recipes with whole wheat flour. Chocolate is supposed to be good for you.

Chocolate Waffles.   They are the same as regular waffles, but have some cocoa powder in them.   We don’t make them often, but they are a favorite.   I also make a parfait with plain yogurt, fruit, and homemade granola.   Its good and full of a balance of grains, protein.

Cassarole are a good and easy dinner.   There are some people that got burned out as children on cassaroles—-ahh.   The intent of the sheet pan dinner.   They are coming into vogue but have been around for years.   Oven roasted veggies are a good alternative to boiling them.   The roasting seems to concentrate flavors and not boil away the nutrition.   Oven roast potatoes, carrots, onion , radishes, and parsnips and turnips if your family will eat them and you can find them inexpensive enough.   The radishes are a pleasant surprise.   They take on a sweet, rather than  sharp taste.  Just line a aluminum sheet pan with parchment, toss veggies with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Bake at 350-400 degrees until vegetables are tender.   I bake them at whatever temperature that I need for the meat in the oven.   Usually 400.  

My daughter did new potatoes with garlic last week.   They were really good.  

Looking for new recipes, and thinking out of the box, can mix things up and make dinner more interesting.  









.  

Hauls

Dollar Tree and Winco fill in haul


Dollar Tree:
Ancient Grains salad
Barilla pasta
Pepperoni

5.00

Winco
I checked the Fresh Food Market , the prices were higher.

Tomatoes - grape
Tomatoes - Romas
Bananas at .42 lb
Strawberries 1.78

Total 8.52

13.52


Safeways

Hunts ketchup.88
Blue bunny ice cream 2.50
Grapes 1.48

Total 7.46

Chain Store Ads

In spite of the fact that it is graduation , there seems to be a preponderance of good buys and some not so good.

Alberways

Fab 4 Sale:  buy at least 4 I am assuming mix or match

manwich .88
cheese slices 1.99
mayo 2.49
Classico Pasta sauce 1.88
16 ounces peanut butter  1.79
Blue Bunny Ice Cream 2.49
Hunts catsup .88
cascade dishwasher tabs 5.49

Note:  coupons work with these kinds of sales.

grapes 1.48
salad kits 3/10
Petite sirloin steaks or 80/20 hamburger BOGO -buy at your own risk. no way of telling if it is a bargain.   my buy price for 80/20 would be less than 2.99 a pound.  I paid 2.44.

Tillamook yogurt  10/5
grands biscuits 1.00-usually coupons
suddenly salad 1.00


bread .79@@
milk 1.79 gal @@
bacon - 12 ounces 2.99

NOT A BARGAIN: Jimmy Dean Sausage 2/7; nathans 3.99; BSChicken Breast 2.99lb

QFC

grapes 1.99
tomatoes on the vine .88
brats 2.99

BUY 5: SAVE 5
nature valley bars 1.79
dryers 2.49
Kleenex .99
Hebrew national 2.99
Kroger cheese 2 lbs 4.99(top of the buy list )
Classico pasta sauce 1.99

FRED MEYERS

Strawberries 2/5
milk .99

BUY5; SAVE 5
cheese 4.99
goldfish .99
Classico pasta sauce 1.99
Hebrew national 2.99
nature valley 1.79
dryers 2.49
orowheat bread 2.49

NOT:  ground beef 93/7 4.99lb

NOTE:  Fred Meyers on Saturday 6/2 has a digital , Saturday Only on Large sour cream .99
NOTE:  Fred Meyers senior day is Tues 6/5-- 10 percent on Private Selection foods.  

Betty Crocker Ancient Grains Salad

We are making Betty Crocker Ancient Grains Salad for dinner.  It was a dollar at the Dollar Tree.  I am sure it was one of those items that never made it through the trials.   It is hard to cook and takes a long time. ( the actual 18 minutes didnt work) .  It might serve 3 as a side.   I like the fact that it is quino and wild and brown rice, and it has dried cranberries and almonds in it.   If I were to do it again, I would add a 1/2 cup of cooked rice to the salad to stretch the quanity and I would cook the rice as I would pasta with a lot of water.  The water they called for was used up and the grains were not tender yet.   It tastes good , it just needs some tweaking to work better.  

Along with the ancient Grains salad, we had a tomato salad with olive oil and basil. And a hamburger. .

For four people :
1/2 pkg. Hamburger  buns   .88
Ancient grains salad 1.05
Tomato salad 1.04
Hamburger 2.44

Total.  5.41

How did she do that?

I can’t tell you how many times someone says “ya, sure”.

Last night we had  chilli .  I cooked the beans in the insta pot and rinsed and drained them.   (2 cups beans to enough. Water to cover your second knuckle - or at least an inch above the beans.  Never fill the insta pot more than 1/2 full if you are cooking something that will expand.   )
Added them back to the pot and added: Beans 1.5 pounds at DT for a dollar or .67 a lb.

1/2 lb cooked hamburger that had been de-fatted. ( 2.44 a pound at Zaycon
2 Tablespoons of tomato paste ( GO for 6/1.00)
1-1/2 cups of stock made from vegetable boullion ( fractions of cents -Costco Business )
2 cans stewed tomatoes ( GO for 3/1 Organic Hunts -pull date June)
1 T homemade taco seasoning
1 tsp each of garlic powder and onion powder.

I put the instapot back on the slow cooker mode and let it simmer all afternoon.

we served it with choice of sour cream, tortilla chips, and .or cheese.

Total cost of chilli for a 6 quart pot.

Beans:  Pinto cost for 6 cups cooked is .15
Hamburger :  2.44 lb is 1.22
Vegetable boullion. :  too small to calculate
Stewed tomatoes:  .33 a can for a total of .67
Taco seasoning:  : too small to calculate
Tomato paste 6/1 is .16

Total for 6 quarts is 2.20 or .366 a quart or .19 a bowl

Its not necessarily what you buy but when and where you buy it.
Watch for name brands, watch for pull dates.   Some things can go beyond pull dates, but do not trust canned goods that have acidic content.   Dry things like powdered milk etc last pretty much forever.
The pinto beans are grown in USA. Non GMO.   Alternative stores are limited to the variety of product, but a careful eye can find good bargains .

Pizza sauce is half the price of any other store at the Dollar Tree and it is a name brand.   They also carry some Betty Crocker, and Campbells.  Some items at the dollar tree are more expensive than the regular grocery store.  You do have to know your prices.

Grocery Outlet is an overstock store.  A few things are regular items.  There are also great buys on here today, gone tomorrow.   Many have reasonable pull dates.   I got Pillsbury Whole wheat flour for. .25 for 2pounds.   It was gone when I went to the seattle store.  He who tarries is lost.   Check your pull dates, stick to a good brand, and buy accordingly.   I bought six cans of Hunts, Organic stewed tomatoes at 3/1.00.  The pull date was June.   I left the ones in the box that were March.
I just bought what I knew we would eat in the six weeks that were pre pull date.   You can put stewed  or diced tomatoes in the food processer or Leander and make them more like sauce.   Its not a bargain if you cant use them up before the pull date or you dont like the flavor.  If you aren’t picky about only eating seasonal flavors during that “season” you can clean up.   We got “Oreo” type cookies that were pumpkin flavor for .50 a box.   They are perfectly good food with a reasonable pull date, it just isn’t fall.   Honestly, I cant taste the pumpkin.

  A lot of times the merchandise is something that was put out on a test market and didnt fly.   We were getting cassarole starters for free a few years ago just because they put them out for more money than the meat that went in them.   People, surprisingly, didn’t  buy them.  Someone else’s trash is someone’s treasure.   You need to be careful not to overbuy unless you intend to share it with the food bank.

We scratch cook unless the store bought alternative is either cheaper or it is too complicated to make. It doesn’t pay me to make something that takes hours of time.  I figure the money savings.  If im going to make ten cents an hour to make it from scratch, you can forget it.

The chilli cost us a little over two dollars for 12 servings.   12 servings would cost at least 6.00.   It took me maybe 15 minutes  hands on time.

Kitchen Management

Monday is Kitchen Management day here.   You pick you day to fit into your schedule.   Kitchen Management is a tool that saves a lot of time and money.   Time because you set up to do kitchen chores and get more done setting up once instead of several times during the week.   Base your list on things to be cleaned and the recipes you will cook for the week.   Just as with a meal plan, grouping ingredients , especially ones that need to be used up, saves money because you are not wasting and saves time because you set up once. Dinner time is a snap with dinner prep done.  It cuts dinner prep down considerably during that busy, hectic dinner hour.

Reminder of Meal Plans :

• Hamburgers, ancient grain salad, tomatoes w basil and olive oil 
• Pizza 
• Baked potato bar 
• Pork Roast/sliders; baked potatoes , glazed carrots 
• Salmon, sweet potatoes,  green beans
• Salad 
• Breakfast for dinner. 

Prep: 

1. Wash kitchen floor 
2. Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead and clean the ice maker drip pan. 
3. Put the stove vent filter through the dishwasher. 
4. Wash and disinfect counters  and sinks and drains.
5. Wash potatoes and carrots with vinegar water:  designated brush.  
6. Wash tomatoes 
7. Straighten pantry. 

On another note, because of the change in the scheduling of ads for Fred Meyer, Saturday blog time is free.   I am trying to fill take three days that aren’t scheduled.  

• Sunday: meal plans 
• Monday : Kitchen Management 
• Tuesday:  How did she do that? 
• Wednesday:  Chain store ads 
• Thursday: Grocery Hauls 
• Friday: recipe 
• Saturday:  Let’s Talk ???? Hacks, Ingredients in dep

Meal Plans for week of 5/ 28/18

Meal Plans are a necessary part of groceries on the cheap.  They don't have to be fancy, but a rough draft of one helps keep us on track and organized.

Spring and summer is here and things are more laid back.   Still, staying organized and batch/ prepping (kitchen management) still helps keep things under control .

Incorporating  what you can find on a good sale helps keep costs down and meals interesting.

Taking an quick look at what may need to be eaten soon helps to keep waste down.   Check pull dates.

• Hamburgers, ancient grains salad, sliced tomatoes with olive oil and basil. 
• Pizza
• Baked Potato Bar 
• Pork Roast , baked potatoes, glazed carrots 
• Salmon, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans 
• BBQ Pork sandwiches, salad 
• Breakfast for Dinner:   Whole wheat pancakes, eggs, fruit 

Notes: 

1. Memorial Day.   Hamburgers use the buns we got for .88...   ancient Grains salad is from the DT and it is Betty Crocker.   It has quinoa , and other grains.   Tomatoes can be sliced anddressed witholive oil and fresh basil. 
2. Pizza :  scratch pizza 🍕 costs less than a dollar for a cheese pizza when ingredients are bought  on sale.   Add toppings that you can pull from ingredients used during the week.  
3. Baked Potato Bar is a good pull together meal when you know you have a hectic out of the house day. 
4. Pork Roast does double duty with a “sunday “ type meal and a pick up meal that uses the rest of the hamburger buns.   This roast was purchased for a dollar a pound and we played Butcher. 
5. Salmon was purchased from GO and is wild caught.  Sweet Potatoes are from Betty Crocker and were purchased for .33.  Green beans were .39. 
6. Breakfast for Dinner is trying whole wheat pancakes with pillsbury whole wheat flour purchase for  .25 in a 2 lb package. Eggs were 1.15 a dozen.  Cantaloupe is 2.00 at Alberways this week. 

Even if you dont have the buys we do, or live in a different part of the country,  or another country, the basics for the meal plan still work.   This isn’t to tell someone what to eatm but rather how to go about a thought process to reduce costs and make best use of resources.   Other parts of the country have lots cheaper prices than we do in the PNW.   We have the 7th largest COL in this area and it does not include housing.  I am seeing prices from the mid west and south that are half the price we are paying.   Potatoes are the exception .   Our close proximity to Idaho I suspect is a key factor in this.   However, they have had cheaper California grapes.  Go Figure.  

Finding basics for the cheapest price in your area is a basic concept to reducing your food costs.  You can have the same good nutrition and eat well too.  Buying your food and avoiding the “faddish” food helps a great deal.  Its like buying a fad piece of clothing vs buying a classic piece that will last for years.   Better to spend money on a applalnce that will save money for years, than buy a fad ingredient that will give you no more food value, but cost double because its a fad.   the difference between buying a can of beans at 1.58 for two cups of beans (scant) and buying dry beans and cooking for three minutes (hands on time) in an insta pot is 1.50.  It doesn’t take long before an insta pot bought on sale is paid for .  Ditto hands on time for rice inthe insta pot vs redi rice or the instant type that doesn’t have the food value.   The cost of a reasonable food processer is also made up in a small amount of time.   

Hope this has helped someone.   I blog everyday and have been for six years.   Please share so I can help more people.   

Grocery Outlet Haul

Gorcery Outlet Haul from seattle.

Pickles 1.49
Taco dinner:  .99
Pacific Organic Tomato Soup 1.99
Salmon fillets , 2 lb 8.99

Oscar Mayer Bacon 2.47 a full pound

Hummus -medium olive .97

Muenster slice 1.99

X sharp white cheddar slices 1.99

Total 29.54

Savings 61.96

Trim the Sugar

This is a Taste Of Home Book.....One of this that are soft cover and limited access.   It was a splurge at ten dollars.   We are all trying to limit our sugar and carbs mostly because of health reasons.   We all have to have some, but white refined sugar is not supposed to be good for us.   No, I’m not going to turn this into a health nut blog.  That is not what the theme of this blog is about.   We do need to eat in moderation for our health first, and it doesn’t hurt our pocketbook either.

it starts off with a good breakdown of the kinds of sugars -real and fake and hidden sugar in condiments.  

There are a lot of good recipes in the book.   A lot are far above the budget of four dollars a day, but some are believable for a stretch.

Whole wheat pancakes are the first thing  I’m going to try.  I got wheat bread for a quarter at GO.

Least amount of sugar in condiments is mayo and soy sauce, hot sauce and mustard. .   Minimum is ranch dressing, followed by light ranch dressing ( yes, that isn’t a typo.) followed by tartar sauce a d honey mustard.  Organic bbq sauce is the highest along with ketchup and honey bbq sauce.

That’s  a real eye opener. I did now that a lot of things that say LIGHT are light on fat,not sugar.  
Both are important for a diabetic, I guess for all of us.   That’s why we eat beef once a week and try for a 4 ounce portion.   The rest of the week it is pork loin that I cut the fat cover off before I cut roasts ad cops, and boneless, skinless chicken breast.   We supplement eggs, and beans.

The book also has recipes for low sugar and more healthy options , many of which are still economical.   Some seem less than desirable  to me...but you be the judge.

Peanut butter banana oatmeal

Frittata

Whole wheat pancakes

Mexican omelet

Rustic vegetable frittatas
Sausage tortilla breakfast bake

Grilled jerk shrimp orzo salad
Tuscan turkey soup
Veggies nicoise  sale
Classic Cobb salad
Orzo salad w tomatoes
Grilled veggie sandwiches with cilantro pesto (might try this with reg pesto)
Feta chicken salad
Pesto corn salad with shrimp
Salmon feta wilted shrimp salad
White bean soup with escarole
Grilled salmon wraps
Mexican cabbage roll soup
Salmon dill soup
Pan roasted chicken and vegetables
Stuffed zucchini
Pork Roast
Grilled PorkTelnderloin
Skillet pork chops with apples and onions
Shrimp and corn stir fry
Skillet chicken with. Olives
Juicy and delicious mixed spice burgers
Italian turkey meatloaf
Zucchini crust meatloaf
Mediterranean pot roast dinner
Lemon garlic pork chops
Parmesean jpotato wedges
Vinaigrettes

Grilled Brussels sprouts
Vegetable and barley pilaf
Garlic ssesame green beans
Apricot ginger acorn squash
Garden cucumber salad
Plum crisp with crunchy oat topping

Ginger plum tart
Flourless dark chocolate cake
Berry white ice pops
Chocolate swirled cheesecake
Vegetable and beef stuffed peppers

Layered hummus dip
Waffle sandich
Beef and blue cheese penne with pesto
Mediterranean ozo chicken salad
Honey orange broccoli slaw


Thats a lot of recipes.   Most can be found if you google them.  I dont have permission to republish.  

Friday

It’s Freakin Friday

Last night, the meal plan went out the window.   Some days are like that and this week has been full
 of one of those days.  

Because we got .88 buns and 6/100 corn , we had sloppy joes and corn on the cob last night.  
The inexpensive buns are good because we are all trying to limit carbs and the price is right too.
Being flexible is a good thing.  Total cost was .84 a plate.   Bigger , younger families i realize would eat more.   But, at this rate, more would still be cheap. Two sandwiches each plus a whole corn and another veggie would still be less than five dollars.

Its no secret, mothers have been doing it for years, buying things on sale and incorporating them into your meal plan works to cut your food bill.  And, fresh veggies are at their peak.   The corn was really good.

Anything we didn't eat , we will push ahead to the next week.   I haven’t had to cook a lot all week.  
Adjusting for life’s ups and downs still works if you have a stock of food.   If its a cold rainy day, that picnic food can be substituted for a nice hot pot of soup.  

I can’t say enough about bulk cooking hamburger.   It is more efficient. You are washing one pan.  You are de-fating once. And, cooking a dinner is a snap.  There are numerous recipes tried and true that call for hamburger.   Remember the days when you would take a frozen block of hamburger and fight in the pan to cook from frozen, or try to defrost it in the microwave and have hard spots around the edges.   A few minutes in the microwave defrosts cooked hamburger and you are making:

• Sloppy joes 
• Spaghetti sauce 
• Enchiladas 
• Stuffed peppers 
• Tacos 
• Burritos 
• Taco soup 
• Lasagna 
• What did I forget?   

Simplify,  cut costs, always have food in the house.  

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

Dinner: better, cheaper, faster.   

You are not doing your family any good if you are feeding the food to the garbage disposal.  

Thursday Notes

Good Morning.  

Keeping track of what you are spending on food is an important step in controlling your food budget.  A spread sheet is a good tool.  

column

Month              store  store  store  store  store  total average  
week 1
week 2
week 3
week 4
week 5

average is the total spent so far divided by the weeks recorded.   ie:  55+50 is 105/2.0  or 52.50 average.  (/ is the code for divide. ) ( * is the code for times )

or you can do it by hand making columns with a ruler.

We are sitting at .42 a week under budget for the year.   However, we still have a week to go.   I can justify that because I have purchased bulk hamburger, chicken and sausage.   Because we don't have to buy protein except for eggs, our remaining budget for a while should be a lot lower.   When you buy your groceries in bulk to replentish stock.  It all averages out and you will spend less in the long run.  

If you are going to only one store and buying just a weeks worth of groceries, you are not going to save as much as if you buy things at the lowest possible price at a variety of stores.   If you have a good idea of what is on sale that you need and what you need in the dairy and produce department, you can get in and out of two stores as fast as going to one and wandering around isles making decisions.  Decisions on the fly are almost always bad decisions.   Going to the store without a plan almost always results in buying a bunch of junk food.   Junk food is expensive and not the best nutrition usually.

We can get in and out of two stores with travel time in a little over an hour.   We usually hit the Dollar Tree and Grocery Outlet once a month or so.   The DT is a good resource for facial tissue ( 200 ct ) and other incidentals.  With few exceptions, you can find pocket tissues, stick pens, etc cheaper than anywhere else.   There doesn't make much sense to pay big money for something that you throw away.

We all want quality food.   On four dollars a day, we still eat low fat cuts of meat and real food.   Fake is never better.   Avoiding processed foods by efficiently cooking from scratch is a better alternative than fake food.   You control what goes in it.  

Avoid, too much salt, sugar, trans fats, HFCS, GMO, and hydrogenated oil.   Hydrogenated oil , so the experts say, thickens your blood.   That can't be a good thing.  


note: this was written on our big computer.  My tablet has a virus and we are still working on getting it back to normal.  All I can say is to watch carefully where the things on Facebook are coming from. I'm here to tell you this is a pain in the rear when I already have things to cope with.   LOL   I still say that I am going to write a book entitled:  COPE is a four letter word spelled H E L L.

Safeways Haul

We usually group two or more errands together when we go out.  

Safeways Haul

Sweet Baby Rays BBQQ sauce .99
Hamburger buns .79
Cantaloupe 2.00
Corn .34

Total 6.89
Savings 61 percent.