Saturday, December 1, 2018

No Spend December

We are going to do a no spend December.   It osma popular thing to do.  Time to deplete the pantry and freezers amd make room for new things.  It keeps your stock fresh,


First: take inventory .

Chicken breasts
Chicken thighs ( few)
Hamburger
Roast (1)
Rope  sausage ( 1.5)
Cooked bulk sausage
Chicken nuggets
Hamburger patties ( part box)
Pork chops
Pork roast

French fries and tater tots
Frozen veggies a few bags

Blueberries-1 bag

Pasta
Pasta sauce
Diced tomatoes (some)
Green beans canned
Corn canned
Dry beans
Dry rice
Bisquick
Cream soup
Tomato soup
Chicken noodle soup
Chili
Instant mashed potatoes
Instant sweet potatoes
Gnocchi-1
Tortillini -1
Bbq sauce,
Mayonnaise
Catsup
Dry milk

Eggs
Cheese

Now, make meals using what we have.   We want 28 dinners and know there will be fillips to buy and fresh dairy and vegetables.   Dinners can repeat up to four times.

  • Pizza - pepperoni and sausage, or chicken 
  • Spaghetti and meatballs and sauce or meat sauce. 
  • Tacos. Burritos. Or enchaladas , chicken or beef 
  • Breakfast for dinner : pancakes, breakfast burritos, waffles, French Toast, omlettes, quiche 
  • Soups, vegetabke bean, chicken noodle or potato 
  • Pork chops or roast 
  • Chicken nuggets (homemade), chicken pot pie, chicken roasted, chicken and noodles 
Come along with us to see what we can eat.   It’s a lesson in life and the way you can make it happen. 





Friday, November 30, 2018

Chicken pot pie

Chicken  pot pie is a favorite around here and it can be quick —or not

Frozen chicken breast can be cooked on the insta pot in 15 minutes.   Place frozen chicken in the pot on a rack. Do not overlap.    Place a cup of liquid of choice.  Water, or chicken stock,
Close the lid, set to seal, and cook 12 to 18 minutes depending on the thickness of the chicken breast, 15 is a good go to time,  check to see if it is cooked thoroughly  with a thermometer.

Make cream soup from a cream soup base or use a can of cream of ... soup.

Place cooked, cubed chicken, frozen mixed vegetables or peas and carrots , and creamed soup in a baking dish.

Now, this is where it gets to how much time do you have,

Your “crust” can be

Biscuits.
A ready made pie crust,
A scratch pie crust
Or home made biscuits.

Your preference.

Bake according to your crust directions.  The filling is already good to go. You are just heating it through,

I usually only do one crust becaise we don’t need more carbs.

Another option is to just heat the filling in the insta pot or on the stove or oven and make the biscuits and serve the chicken mixture over biscuits.

Whatever works with your family and time constraints.

Thursday, November 29, 2018

Haul to 11/30

Costco

6 lbs Jimmy Dean sausage. 12.78

Dollar tree

Bread
Cookies 2
Pickles

4.00

QFC
Blueberries 4.99
Less coupon
2.99

Pasta sauce .99
Celery 3.28
Green pepper .99
Blackberries .99
Milk .99
Total 15.18


Winco

V8 2.44
Meatballs 1.45 coupon
Beans, frozen .88
Mixed veggies .88
Stove top stuffing twin pack 1.98
Bacon 3.23 coupon
Acorn squash .50
Tomatoes 1.25
Yoplait 5 ea coupon .48 ea
Graoes 2.95
Granny Smith apples 2.81
Chicken thighs 1.00 a pound
Total 28.26

Grand total 60.22

Over 4.22



Bulk purchases of chicken, meatballs and sausage.




Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Chain store ads 11/28

Alberways

BOGO
Bargains?...
Chicken breast
80/20 ground beef
Pork chops
Petite sirloin steaks

Oranges .99 lb

Progresso soup,  is 2, get 3 free bargain ....??

Milk 1.99@@
Farmland bacon 3.49 $$$
English muffins 1.29

*******
5 dollar Friday
49 Oz jif peanut butter
Salsa
Bread 4/5
10 lbs  c and h sugar
Donuts
***********


QFC
12 Oz berries 2.99
Oranges 4 lbs 2.99
Many different varieties apples .99


Digital, buy up to five thurs to sat only 

2 lbs frozen potatoes .99
Brats 2.49

Buy 5, save 5
Lean cuisine 1.88
Farmland bacon 3.99$$


Fred Meyers 

Whole chicken .79 ( heritage farms is southern grown Tyson )
Grapes  .98
 Sirloin steak 2.99
Campbell’s soup, chunky .99 when u buy 8
Tube rolls 10/10
Cheese slices 2.49
Blueberries 2/4

B5, S5
Cheese 8 Oz 2.49
Cheese slices 1.99

Same digital 5, Thursday thru Saturday as QFC

Notes
@@ means you need an in ad coupon
$$ means there is a coupon out there. This time it was for .75 and it was in an insert, but I don’t know which one.  I used it at Winco and netted 3.25 .

Several things are cheaper at different stores.

0ranges  are cheaper at qfc as well as apples.  Apples at Winco are often a dollar a pound, select
varieties.  

English muffins are always 1.67 (3/5) at Fred Meyer for a very large bag.  They are in a metal basket usually near the eggs,

Cheese prices are confusing,   Buy price is 2.00 a pound with a cap of 2.50.  Slices are more, usually 2.00 a package.  You can usually find that price at grocery outlet.


Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Tuesday- how did she do that. .....

Let’s talk about easy hacks that save time and/or money.


  1. After making chicken breast or thighs on the insta pot, or on the stove, save th chicken stock for soup.  You can freeze it in ice cube trays or just keep it on a jar in the fridge if you are going to use it soon,   
  2. Save heels of your bread for bread crumbs.  Why pay two dollars or more a pound for someone  else’s dry bread. Just break it up and put it through the food processer and put on a sheet pan on an oven you have usd and turned off.   
  3. A small spatula gets all of the mayonnaise oit if the jar.   
  4. Pickle juice can be used again by adding jalapeños , or carrots and cauliflower, blanched green beans, etc. I would hear the pickle juice and blanch the veggies. 
  5. Leftover piece of chicken that’s too small for another meal.  Make chicken salad sandwich.  Just add mayo and pickles .  
  6. A u tube friend ( April Holly Smith) cooks a bunch of potatoes 🥔 ahead and keeps them in the refrigerator.  She calls them refrigerator potatoes. Then you can use them through the week. She has a lot of grocery Hauls and ideas in food, 
  7. Portion control, portion control, portion control.   If you don’t serve more than one mealsmworth of food, no one can eat more than one meals worth of food.   No one person needs to eat the most of a two pound roast.   If you are expecting to get another meal out of it, don’t put all of it on the table.   Teach children to look at who hasn’t eaten yet before they serve themselves .   
  8. Yogurt parfaits are a good addition to a breakfast for dinner meal that is shy on protein,   
  9. Milk that is near its pull date?  Make pudding.  Or bread pudding f you have bread going stale.   
  10. Leftover rice can become rice pudding, or added to a soup. 
  11. If you use half of something, make a concentrated effort to plan how you are going to use the other half. 
  12. Leftover chili. Have burrito bowls or rice and beans to stretch it and not have the same thing two days on a row.  It is especially hard to cook a smaller amount of somethings  or there are only two or three in the family, 
  13. Taco meat can be tacos, taco soup, or nachos,  
  14. Cooking a bulk hamburger meat and de fatting it then portion controlling it in quart bags saves a lot of to,e.  You are more likely to de fat a large batch, than you are if you are cooking a smaller amount at dinner time,   Out the quart bags in a gallon bag and label.  You have double bagged you meat and have better organization in the freezer. 
  15. Dollar store baskets in the freezer and refrigerator are an easy inexpensive way to organize . 
  16. Containing all of one item is a good way to avoid that mystery thing in the back of the freezer or fridge. 
  17. Meal plans are a great time and stress saver. Posting them tells other family members that you plan on using that leftover rice or whatever for another meal.   
  18. Having a certain amount of “free” foods tells older children that they can snack on all they want of those foods and you are,nit depending on the ingredients for a meal.  We had top ramen, PBand J. Beef and bean burritos, and air popped popcorn .   
  19. Keeping a small stock of food, preferably a four to six week supply, means you don’t have to go to the store of you are sick or have that dreaded s word.  (Snow and ice ) .
  20. Always keep a few easy easy meals in your freezer/pantry for times when the resident cook is sick, or not available.   That frozen pizza is nit so bad if you have the flu or are away.   It’s insurance against the take out demons, 

Monday, November 26, 2018

4 people, 5 days, 30.00 challenge

Breakfast
Eggs, toast
Oatmeal, milk

Lunch
Hard cooked eggs , carrots, fruit
Or
P b and j

Dinners
Spaghetti , meat sauce, salad. Dressing
French Toast, bacon, orange slices
Chilli, tortilla chips
Beans, rice
Vegetable bean soup


2 doz eggs 2.00
2bread
Oatmeal canister
1 gal milk
Peanut butter
Milk
Jelly
Spaghetti
Hamburger 1 lb
Pasta sauce
Salad
Dressing
Bag of oranges
Pinto beans 1.5 lbs
4 cans diced tomatoes
Tortilla chips
Rice
Carrots, 5 lbs 2.28
Mixed vegetables
Celery
Parm cheese
Apples

Total 29.77


Notes


  1. Most likely the children would get free breakfast and lunch on that budget. 
  2. There is enough milk and rice to make a rice pudding . 
  3. There will b e enough mixed vegetables and carrots to stir fry veggies to go with the other 1/2 of the spaghetti.
Re,e,ver Sox dollars a day means you can only spend thirty dollars. Not eat thirty dollars.   


Monday motivation : kitchen Management aka meal prep

kitchen management takes an hour or so our of you week and saves a lot of time and stress during the hectic dinner hour,

Reminder of meals :

  1. Potato kielbasa skillet 
  2. Pizza
  3. Ranch Mac and cheese 
  4. Chili cottage pie 
  5. Shrimp orzo with feta 
  6. Chicken with fore roasted tomatoes 
  7. Breakfast for dinner including blackberry muffins, 

  • Wash kitchen floor 
  • Clean and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains. 
  • Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. 
  • Wash potatoes and carrots with vinegar water. 
  • Make blackberry muffins and freeze, 
  • Make a batch if Liza dough 
  • Cook pork sausage and de fat and portion control bags. 
  • Portion control chicken thighs ( 1.00 a pound at Winco. ) 
  • Clean microwave 
  • Wash south side cabinets. 

Sunday, November 25, 2018

Meal plans for week of 11/26

Meal plans are a good way to save time and money and make dinner hour a lot less hectic.

This week we are working from the taste of home annual cookbook. Most Taste Of Home recipes can be found on the Internet by a search.  

It just makes sense to use what you have and what is on sale for a reasonable price that particular week.  Blackberries were a dollar a box and QFC has a 2.00 coupon on ten dollars worth of vegetables.   It was hard to find reasonable vegetables there, but there were a few. 


  • Potato Kielbasa skillet 
  • Pizza 
  •  Ranch Mac and cheese, mixed veggies 
  •  Chili cottage pie 
  •  Shrimp orzo with feta 
  •  Chicken with fire roasted tomatoes 
  •  Breakfast for dinner with blackberry muffins, 

Notes

  1. Kielbasa was free at QFC. 
  2. Pizza is a mainstay,  homemade pizzas  cost a dollar for a cheese pizza using on the cheap prices. 
  3. Ranch Mac and cheese can use homemade ranch seasoning,   
  4. Chili cottage pie uses beans to stretch the meat. 
  5. Shrimp orzo uses the rest of the package when we had gumbo.   
  6. Chicken with fire roasted tomatoes —thinking I can use the insta pot. 
  7. Breakfast for dinner is using blackberries from QFC that were .80 with a discount coupon for vegetables of you bought ten dollars worth.   We also got blueberries, green pepper, celery . 
Using every available option for free or reduced price ingredients makes for a inexpensive meal. 
Incorporating ingredient that need to be used and fresh produce makes for more economy without sacrificing taste or nutrition. 

Saturday, November 24, 2018

Minimum ads

I found ads, they are very short on scope and time constraints.   Most of the ads were non food items,

QFC
Insta pot for fifty dollars.   It is a Six quart, but don’t know which one.

Milk .99

Digital up to five Friday, Saturday
Butter 1.99
Classico pasta sauce .99

Fred Meyers
The same digital five limited sale

Grapes 98
Berries 2/3
Sour cream 2/3
Kroger sausage 2/4

Alberways

Salad .79
80/20 ground beef 1.99
Pork loin 1.99 - the top of my buy list, we would rather have .99 to 1.69

Costco has Jimmy Dean sausage in a three pound chub for 6.39.



Friday, November 23, 2018

Recipe for success

This  is about setting up a coupon book.  If you just sticking  a coupon in a envelope and shoving  it in your purse, you are not likely to use it.  If you clip every coupon you see in an insert and on coupons,com , you are likely to be overwhelmed and not use anything.

Only clip the coupons and print the coupons from coupons.com  that you are likely to use.

Coupons,com is a website that allows you to print up to two coupons per item per computer.  There are a limited number of coupons that can be printed and when they are gone they are gone.  It is a good idea to print your coupons the first of the month when they are first listed.   Please don’t print coupons that you are nit going to use, or you don’t know someone that is.  Leave the things you are not likely to buy to someone that is likely to buy the product.

The coupon inserts here come in the Sunday paper and some people get another in the mail.  The dollar tree has the Sunday paper for a dollar.  Not every paper has coupons,   The Seattle Times does not, the Everett herald does.  Again, just cut the ones you know you would likely use.

We find that one paper is enough.  I get another set of inserts from a friend that saves hers for me.

A three ring binder with dividers and photo pages is a good way to organize your coupons.  Photo sleeves are at the office supply stores.  They are a copy paper size and have clear pockets that easily hold a coupon.  The other option is baseball card sleeves.

I added a pencil pouch that has a small pair of scissors, a calculator and a red pen.

My categories  for dividers are :
Baking
Breakfast
Cleaners
Condiments
Dairy
Dental
Drinks
Dry goods
Frozen
Grains
Meat/ cheese
Paper
Sweet

Use the ones that you are likely to buy.

One final idea.   If I have a coupon, and I see someone in line ahead of me with items that I have a coupon for, I do a random act of kindness.  It has cost me nothing and you never know what can make someone’s day,

One day, I was in Winco.   I saw a young man that was buying progresso soup.  I could see that he was stopped adding the purchases  up in his head.  I asked him how many soups  he was buying.  He said two.  I had a coupon that would make another  soup free.   I passed him the coupon.  He thanked me,  he ran into me in another part of the store and thanked me again.  That never happened to me before.  I think that I just gave someone a meal he needed and it didn’t cost me a thing.  Random act of kindness.




Thursday, November 22, 2018

Hauls to 11/21/18

Dollar Tree

Sara Lee bread, whole wheat (2)
Enchilada sauce
Pinto beans (2)

Total 5.00

Safeways
Eggs free
Sour cream 2.50
Tillamook ice cream 3.00 (2)
Muffins (2);BOGO 3.99
Ground turkey 2.50
Fresh cranberries 2/5.00
Yams 1.36

Total
21.35

Total 26.35

Fred Meyers

Pork roast 3.97 -8 lbs

Ice cream FREE
Pie 4.99

Oranges 1.11

Hummus (2) 3.99

Total 14.06

40.41 grand total





Happy Thanksgiving

🍁🦃🍽

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone has a wonderful relaxing day.


I am thankful that the have the opportunity to teach people how to s t r e t c h their food dollars and have food in the pantry at the end of the month.


Wednesday, November 21, 2018

10 easy ways you can do to cut your food cost.

We didn’t get the ads yesterday, I am assuming they are coming Black Friday like some other parts of the country.

So, ten easy ways to cut your food costs.


  • Eat breakfast for dinner one night a week.  Eggs continue to be a cheap source of protein.  Add waffles or pancakes and some fruit. Or make a quiche and a field green salad . 
  • Eat vegetarian two meals a week. 
  • Portion control your meat to a four ounce portion.  
  • Shop two stores .  Plan meals around what’s on a real sale and produce  that is in season. Remember just because the ad says it is a good deal, doesn’t necessarily mean it is. 
  • When something is a rock bottom price, buy two instead of one.  This, of course is providing you can  freeze it or it is a shelf stable item. 
  • Cut your snack food consumption.   It’s good for your waistline, your pocketbook and your health.  The average grocery cart is 1/2 full of drinks and snacks.   
  • Soup is a good , easy meal.  It’s versatile and stretches protein. It is also flexible in a slow cooker for days whenever family is on different schedules.   
  • Buy mega packs of meat, portion control it for the freezer in quart bags and out the quart bags in a gallon bag and label.   Bulk meat on sale can work even for small families.   
  • Pork loin can be as cheap as a dollar a pound.   It is an easy butcher jobs and saves a lot of money and you control how thick you want your pork chops.
  • Split chicken breasts can be a lot cheaper than boneless skinkessmchicken breast.  Processing them is easymand nets you chicken stock and chicken pieces for soup or burrito filling, 
  • Stir fries, soups, fried rice, enchiladas or burrito bowls all can stretch meat quietly. 



Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Tuesday - how did she do that?

Tuesday is usually the quest for an efficient scratch cooking recipe.   There is a comment section on the bottom of the blog..  Please feel free to let me know what you would like to see.

Instead of taco Tuesday, we have pizza Tuesday.

I make a thin pizza crust, but I ran on to a recipe to make pizza crust in the kitchen aid and it makes 4 crusts.  That is enough for us to have one crust and freeze the other three for the rest of a months worth of pizzas.

I freeze the pizza sauce from the dollar tree in ice cube tray and then twist it out into a quart. Freezer bag,  two cubes cover a small pizza.  That makes the sauce twenty cents a pizza.   I keep the sauce and crusts in a door shelf in the freezer.  You can also save bits of any vegetable or meat that you can put in a pizza.   I would keep separate bags for the meat, but the veggies can be in the same bag.  Pepperoni has been on coupons lately, but you can also get it at the dollar store,   Both the pepperoni and the pizza sauce are name brands that sell for a lot more elsewhere.

I take advantage of anything that I can find that is a huge rice difference and is good quality name brand.  It’s a way to cut your food bill without cutting your quality of life.

Little steps placed on the freezer make for a good dinner without much work.  At 4, we let our granddaughter fill a pizza.   She announced to her mother when she came in the door from work that she was making a happy face.  I guess you know we had a pepperoni happy face pizza for dinner!   Lol 😂.   It wasn’t long until she was helping her mother roll out their dough.  Teaching a child to cook with you keeps them out of trouble and give them self confidence.   When they are a bit older, it can take a lot of pressure off of you.  I follow a large family in u tube,  their teen makes dinner some of the time and she makes recipes I have never tackled.

The kitchen aid pizza crust is from Noreen’s kitchen on u tube.

My thin crust in the food processor, can be made by hand too.   It takes less time to make the thin crust, roll out and fill it than it does to go for a pizza and get back from the take and bake,  the cost of a cheese pizza with grocery on the cheap ingredients is a dollar.  

Please look the recipe up on the internet.  you can print it from there. 

gather ingredients : oil, flour, water, salt yeast 
place dry ingredients in processor bowl.  add water and oil through the tube and 
process until dough forms a ball. 
place dough on a floured board and knead a few times for form a ball. 
let dough rest 10 minutes while you gather your toppings.  
or, dough can be stored in a zip lock until dinnertime and stored in the refrigerator. 

Roll dough thin, place sauce, cheese and toppings of choice and bake at 450 until dough is done and cheese is melted.   






Monday, November 19, 2018

Epic fail .......

how many hits can this bring!  Lol.

We cooked the pork shoulder in the insta pot slow cooker mode,   In ten hours it never came up to temp.   I’m afraid to eat it.  It isn’t worth four dollars to give us food poisoning.  If I were to do it again, I would cook it on the pressure cooker mode for an hour.  I am glad I only bought one.  It was the first time for cooking pork shoulder so I decided to error on the side of caution,  

Win some, loose some.

On to kitchen management .  Kitchen management is a tool to save time and money on the kitchen and make the dinner hour less hectic.  Normally , anyway.  This is thanksgiving week.  


  • Take the turkey out to thaw in the refrigerator.  Be sure to use a tray to keep any juices from contaminating other foods. 
  • Wash vegetables that you will  use in meals this week, 
  • Wash and disinfect the kitchen counters, sinks and drains. 
  • Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. 
  • Make taco soup and place on the slow cooker, 
  • Wash kitchen floor 
  • Clean oven 
  • Wash the microwave. 






Sunday, November 18, 2018

Meal plans

Meal plans are a way to save time, money and stress.   Knowing what you are going to eat and knowing you have all the ingredients isnanreal stress buster.  Most dinner hours are hectic, especially if you are dealing with coming home from work and children.   Prepping ahead of time and having a plan is a good start in making life easier.  Knowing scratch cooking recipes that are efficient that your family will eat is another good trick.  

This is Thanksgiving  week, like no one knew that.   Lol.  


  • Soup. Bread 
  • Pizza
  • Pork sliders 
  • Thanksgiving 
  • Leftovers 
  • Tacos, refried beans or Spanish rice 
  • Breakfast for dinner 


Notes :

Fred Meyers had pork shoulder roast for .49 a pound.   I have never cooked pork shoulder roast before.  I’ll take you along.  Otnwqs not on my plan, but adapting to someth8ng that is a remarkable buy isnanway to reduce your food bill more.  It has been a lot of little things that have added and snowballed onto the food for less that just happened.  Finding a very easy bread recipe , learning to cook efficiently from scratch, having an insta pot, rotation meats, all added to the journey,


  1. Soup in the slow cooker is a good meal when people are eating at different times.  It’s ready when they are and almost anyone can serve themselves.  
  2. Pizza is a mainstay,  the crust dough is in the frezer.  Making a monthly batch in the Kitchen Aid is a great time saver.  Just take it out to thaw in the refrigerator in the morning,  
  3. Pork sliders are happening because if the bargain roast. It is always good to check the large bins on the meat department as well as the markdown bin,   The markdown bin sizes too yield much here,  it it does on other parts of the country and I have sound a few bargains every now and then.  
  4. Thanksgiving , is well, thanksgiving.  Fred Meyers has a deal where if you bought a Marie C. Pie for five dollars, you got a ice cream for free,  I got peppermint ice cream and turtle pie.  Yum!   Please remember the CDC is warning of salmonella in turkey this year,  take extra s actually steps.  Wash your hands, use gloves, contain any raw juices on a sheet pan you can put in the dishwasher including on the refrigerator when you thaw it.  Cook it to well done and check more than one place on the bird.
  5.    Leftover thanksgiving is better than the day itself.  All the good taste, without the work.   
  6. Tacos mix things up after a couple of days of thanksgiving meal. 
  7. Breakfast for dinner is a family cooks dinner, 





Saturday, November 17, 2018

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving menu plan


  • Turkey breast - thaw Monday or Tuesday. 
  • Mashed potatoes, gravy 
  • Sweet potatoes, mashed with a strusel topping 
  • Green beans with mustard 
  • Stuffed celery, green and black olives and pickled veggies 
  • Cranberry sauce 
  • Pumpkin pie, apple pie. , whip cream
  • Sparkling cider

Notes 
  1. Cook turkey thoroughly.  Make gravy from drippings. 
  2. Boil potatoes and sweet potatoes , mash 
  3. Make topping from flour , brown sugar and butter , cinnamon 
  4. Stuff celery, arrange platter 
  5. Make pumpkin pie early .
  6. Chill cider
  7. Make cranberry sauce 
  8. Make mustard sauce 

Numbers 5-8 can be done ahead of time.   


Friday, November 16, 2018

Tuna cakes


Gather ingredients -  2eggs, 1 cup bread crumbs, 2 T milk, 1/2 tsp EACH of garlic and onion powder, 2 -7 pumice cans of albacore tuna, drained.


Beat eggs and milk.  Add to bowl with bread crumbs and seasonings.   


Drain tuna .  Drainer is from Betty Crocker at the dollar tree.  A good investment for a  dollar.   


Mix all ingredients together 


Firm patties 




Fry patties until cooked through .   Garnish with paprika and parsley 







It is not what you buy as much as.....

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

I was thinking about the 29.00 challenge and the fact that buying your groceries hand to mouth a week at a time doesn’t work to get the optimum prices on your food.  It is true that at least one week of the month—*the week retailers know that they have you .  You have nothing left in the pantry and you just got paid.   That is the week that real bargains are in very short supply. Kinda like the day before Christmas when the jewelers  mark everything up.  The trick is not to be in that position.  They take advantage of your fight or flight mode.   It’s also a time when one would be tempted to buy a whole lot of snack food.  You have already been eking out meals and feel deprived.  

Change your mindset, and  change your life.   A few lifestyle changes can reduce stress, and change your perspective on life.  It has been shown that living with no food in the house reduces your life expectancy.  

Que replentish grocery shopping.  

Once you have set yourself up to buy what’s on sale and replentish your food on a need to basis, you can just pretty much skip that week and buy bare necessities.   

Most dairy has a month out pull date.   Buy a stash of dry milk powder for a back up.   It lasts forever and is a good thing to have on case of an emergency.  Keep a two week supply of eggs on a rotation basis,  this heads off the two dollar a dozen price hike that is inevitable in the winter.  

Meat can be purchased on a good sale and rotated on a four to six week cycle.   Most regular refrigerator freezers can hold a normal family’s month worth of meat.  

Shelf stable items can be purchased at  rock bottom prices.   The difference between rock bottom prices and regular prices afford you to stock some ahead.   This is not HOARDING.  Buying a closet full of pop is hoarding.  Buying a four to six week supply of basic food is being prepared for an emergency and using your food budget wisely.

Now, what you have to buy is fresh fruits and veggies.  Buy what is a good processor.  I try for a dollar limit.  Some things are a bit more, but never more than two.  Three dollar cauliflower doesn’t cut the mustard.

This is all believable and it works.   You can eat well on less than four dollars a day.  I didn’t set out to do that.  I just started using every trick I could find to lower food costs.  It became a game,  when I started this blog, it was to help people. With that in mind, I branched out and kept trying new things.

Thank you for stopping  by.  Please share and follow.   I can’t help people, if people don’t know where I am.  LOL

If we can make it with some of the highest cost of groceries in the nation, others can too.  Seattle has double the cost of vegetables this week than the mid west states.  Ohio has sweet potatoes for .39, ours are .99.  And that was just the beginning of a mirage of prices many of which were half or less than our prices.   How about .27 a pound turkey.  Now, we know that Seattle has also got higher wages, but that doesn’t help the people on fixed incomes.
 









Thursday, November 15, 2018

What we ate...nov 1-15


What we ate on less than four dollars a day.

It’s not what you buy as much as it is when and where you buy it.  Theremcn be as much as a two dollar swing on a single one, depending on when and where you buy it.  

  1. Chicken pot pie 
  2. Garlic linguine, salad 
  3. Pork roast, potatoes, green beans 
  4. Mac and cheese 
  5. Sausage and root vegetables oven roasted 
  6. Pizza
  7. Chicken and fries 
  8. Spaghetti and salad 
  9. Chicken, sausage and shrimp gumbo, rice 
  10. Out - fondue party 
  11. Squash, acorn squash, carrot and raisin salad 
  12. Tacos, refried beans (scratch) 
  13. Chicken parm 
  14. Sloppy joes, tater tots. Veggies 
  15. Tuna melts, seasoned rice, carrots