Easy savings

There are quotes that emphasize principles of Groceries on the Cheap. One basic principle is that “It isn’t necessarily what you buy, but, rather, when and where you buy it.

By switching your mindset from I want xxx and I’m going to buy it , to I want to feed our family things they like that I can incorporate into good meals, you can save a bundle.

Yesterday we hit the dollar store.  There are things that the dollar store carries that make no sense to buy at any other store.  Cleaning supplies are one category.  A lot are name brands or just as good quality ingredients as anywhere else, just at a fraction of the cost.  

You don’t want to pay much for anything that goes away.  Things like paper products, foil, wrapping paper or gift  bags, are not cheap elsewhere and why pay more for something  that isn’t durable or long lasting.  The paper napkins are smaller and for the most part do an adequate job for those times when you are eating bbq ribs or other messy food.  You can use cloth napkins, but it is more practical to use paper when the food is messy and likely to stain the cloth.

I digress .

Yesterday we bought Thomas bagels for a dollar at the dollar store.   They were 3.99 elsewhere.   

Butter was 4.00 a pound, I paid 2.50 on a sale.   Cake mix can be upwards of 2.50, or .78.  

We paid .41 for cream soup.  It is 1.58 now.   It isn’t what you buy, but when and where you buy it.  

Barilla pasta is 1.00 at the dollar store. It was .98 at another store, and 2/3.00 at yet another.  Now, I’m not going to drive to a particular store for two cents.   If I’m already there and especially if I have a coupon, I’m going to use the coupon on the lowest price.  But, you have to consider that you can get 50 to 75 cents on your dollar just by knowing prices and taking advantage of the good ones.   If the banker was going to give you 50 percent interest instead of the fractions of a percentage they are paying you, you would be stupid not to jump at the chance.  You are getting that percentage on your money and you aren’t paying income tax on it.  

I was sick last week.  My husband went to the store and bought groceries with a list.  When he got home I noticed  that we were charged 5.68 for something we didn’t get.  He took the receipt and food back to the store,  they gave him credit, but not for the amount of the overcharge.   I politely wrote the management.  I felt it wasn’t prudent to have to go back to the store twice.  They gave me my money back and a gift card for twenty dollars.   We used part of the twenty dollars to buy a few things to fill in our groceries for the week.   I checked Ibotta and found a 15 cent rebate.  Ibotta takes a couple of clicks and a picture and it gives you basically free money.  The 15 cents put me over the top and I now have a 20.00 gift card for amazon. 40.00 free money.   Sweet. And, I sent a few minutes at a time over a period of time.   That three minutes that I might have been waiting for the water to boil on the stove, or for hubby to get ready to leave the house.   

A few cents here, a few cents there can make your money 💰 stretch and improve your quality of life.   

I , especially with recent goings on, can’t stress enough that everyone should have a four to six week supply of basic food on hand.  It can be done on a four dollar a day budget.  It just takes avoiding the f word....full price.   If you can get four packages of bagels for the same price as one, you have one for this week, and three in the freezer for the next 3 weeks. If you pay a dollar for Barilla pasta. Instead of 1.50, you can have three pastas for the price of two.   Two pastas for the next 2 weeks.  Double that and you have a five week supply.  You have spent the same amount, but you have hedged your bet covering yourself for an emergency situation and giving yourself peace of mind.  Studies
have shown that the person that has to worry about where the next meal is  coming from has a lower life expectancy.  Children should not have to live with that insecurity.

It just takes a concentrated effort.  After you have a small stock, you can go to the store and buy what you need to replenish with sale prices and fresh produce and dairy on sale. 

The basics

Haven”t written this for a while.

The basic concept of groceries in the cheap is never to pay full price for your food.   This is realized by taking some baby steps that take a little time, but only have to be done once.

• Make a list of dinners that your family likes that use inexpensive sources of protein. 
• Simplify the protein.  The less ingredients you use  , the less items you have to buy and the easier it is to organize and store your supplies.   We use boneless , skinless chicken breast, pork loin, and hamburger. Add cheese, beans, rice and eggs.   Picking versitle sources of protein is key. 
• Buy your protein in bulk at its lowest price.  This is more beneficial if you find a sale  and rotate your purchases buying a four  to six week supply at a time.  This means that if you use a pound of hamburger a week,you will buy four to six pounds of hamburger.   
• Use the store ads to fill in what you need.  Know your prices of  the things  you buy on a regular basis.  Write them down in  a small notebook for a few weeks and you will  see a pattern.  This will tell you when you are likely to find things the cheapest. 
• Use every available means at your disposal to lower costs.  Coupons, sales., apps  like Ibotta.  Every little thing is a help.  Don’t pay to much time to it, but a few minutes can reap great rewards.  Taking a couple of minutes while watching tv to load coupons on a store card with anything you regularly buy can save money.  We just paid .29 for a loaf of bread.  It cost me a quarter t make bread and I didn’t have the labor. 
• Portion control.  No teen needs to eat the better part of a two pound roast.   Fill the plates in the kitchen or put what you expect to eat on the table.  Fill little kids plates with a small portion, they can have seconds if they eat what  they have. Waste not, want not. 
• Use every bit.  Make soup, make stock instead of buying stock.  It takes almost no time and saves a lot of money.  Like five minutes saves several bucks.  Your ingredients are free.  Dumping a few things in  a slow cooker and going to bed is not really work. 
• Efficient scratch cook.   The internet and Pinterest are full of ideas for recipes that take less time to make.  Spend more time planning and shopping and less time cooking,  the money is to be made on the planning and buying of the food. Not the cooking.   
• Tools like insta pots. Slow cookers, and food processers help on saving time and money.
• Always shop in at least two stores a week.  Go with a plan and stay away from junk food and drinks.   If you must buy junk food and drinks, use a separate budget so that it is abundantly clear how much those items add to your budget.   Going to two stores gives you the best selection of produce and two sets of sale items. 
• Go with the plan of replenishing your stock.  You are not buying a weeks worth of food.  This affords you the luxury of never having to pay full price.  Dairy usually goes on sale at least once a month.  Much of it with the exception of milk, has a near month pull date.   
• Buy fresh vegetables and fruit in season at their lowest price.  Otherwise, buy frozen.  Frozen sometimes can actually be  fresher than fresh. 
• Keep a supply of eggs equivelentto three weeks supply.  If eggs aren’t at your buy price. You won’t get stuck.  
• Dry goods can be purchased when on sale, buy 4-6 weeks supply unless that goes on a mega sale at a particular time of year. Picnic condiments go on at summer holiday time.baking supplies go on at Christmas and thanksgiving time.  Less at Easter.  
• Meal prep time is a good tool to save time and  money.  Anything you can do once and use for a week is a time saver and you only cleanup once.   When the meal is half prepped. You are more likely to finish it when you are tired than you are to call for pizza.   Pizza costs 1.27 for a scratch pepperoni pizza when you buy your ingredients for a RBP. It can cost 20.00 for delivery when you add tax and tip.  There is, o tax here on ingredients,  it anything bought that requires a food handlers card is taxed. 
• One of biggest things you can do to save money is to go to Costco or Sams club and buy a bulk sack of flour, oatmeal, yeast, and rice. Saves hundreds.  Muffins can cost a dollar a piece.  A dozen smaller ones can cost .30. Better for your waistline and budget.   

Little things all add up.  One step at a time. 

The story behind groceries on the cheap

Long ago, in the 70s , I was a single parent.  We went through double digit inflation in the 70’s and I had a job that didn’t get a raise in three years. Our  rent went from 145.00 to 285.00. Child support was sparotic at best and we didn’t qualify for welfare, or so they said.  Needless to say, it was sink or swim.  I already learned a lot from my mother about stretching your food dollar, but I set out to learn more.  I watched everything I could find on our 10 inch black and white tv with rabbit ears, and  got every book I could find in the library.  Food was the  most expensive part of our descressionary income.  I cut the dry cycle on the dishwasher and turned off the heat on some of the rooms.  December of 1972 we ate on 25.00 for the month.

Fast forward to the 80’s and things were better .  It was a habit by then and we still economized on food.   I was published in the Woman’s Day and Taste of Home.

On to the 90’s and beyond and my daughter had graduated from college and had been teaching children from low income families for years.   She was getting feedback from mothers that were lamenting that they were running out of snap before they ran out of month.  She , trying to help, told them my mother knows how to stretch a food dollar.  My adult children convinced  their not so tech savvy mother to start a blog.

And the rest is history.

I have written a blog almost every day for almost six years.   It is my hope that I can reach people that need to stretch their food dollars.   No one should go without proper food.  I have heard horror stories of kids eating top ramen and potato chips for breakfast , lunch and dinner, and Sunday dinner being corn on the cob and watermelon.

A few changes a little at a time can change your habits to make it easy to feed your family on four dollars a day and keep a four to six week supply of basic food.  The recent government shutdown is a good example of why this is necessary.  Anything can happen from weather to shutdowns to other natural or unnatural disasters.  Having a small stock saves money and gives you piece of mind.

We were already pretty frugal, but I set out to lower our food costs as low  as I could without sacrificing good food.  It wasn’t until I set out to write a class that  it came to me that we were in fact eating on less than four dollars a day and grew a small stock.  In fact, last year our grocery expenses were almost 5.00 a week less than four dollars a day.  The usda has charts on line that tell you what your cost of food at home should be per your family ages and sizes.  This is not adjusted for your States COL index

It happened  one little step at a time.

What we ate : Jan 2019

What we ate:

1. Vegetable bean soup with oatmeal French bread 
2. Ham quiche , salsa 
3. Soup over rice 
4. BLT’s 
5. Ham and Alfredo sauce pasta 
6. Pork sausage quiche , pear, blue cheese and walnut salad 
7. Pizza
8. Pizza
9. Chicken pot pie 
10. Potato soup
11. Pizza
12. Spaghetti
13. Sausage, sauerkraut, apple 
14. Chicken noodle soup
15. Pizza
16. Quesadillas
17. Pork chops, apple bread dressing with Craisens , green beans. 
18. Pork chops, applesauce, baked potatoes 
19. Burrito bowls 
20. Nachos 
21. Chili
22. Orange chicken, fried rice 
23. Baked potato bar 
24. Chicken soup 
25. Ham and Swiss sliders , fries 
26. Tacos 
27. Hamburgers, French fries 
28. Ham and cheese quiche with red peppers and chives. 
29. Pizza
30. Brats, oven fries, sliced tomatoes dressed 
31. Tuna casserole 

Hauls to 1/30

Grocery outlet

Celestial seasoning tea 1.49
Elbow macaroni .33
Blue cheese 1.00
Pepper jack slices 2.00
Swiss slices 2.00
Total 8.15

Big lots
V 8 2.40
Marshmallows .76
Total 3.18

Winco
Ice cream 2.99
Potatoes 1.99

Total 16.31

QFC
3 pasta @.49
Milk .99
Brats 2.77
Diced ham 2.00
Butter 2.50
Pork shoulder 6.29
Total 18.02

Winco

Roma tomatoes 1.40
Bell peppers .98
Olives (2) 1.56
Green chili 1.38
Pepperoni 1.78
Low carb taco shells 3.48
Turkey 2.88
Celery 2.96
Total 17.28
Grand total 51.61

Dinners in Pictures

Ham and cheese quiche, pear and blue cheese salad 

Pizza  

Start or tuna casserole. I forgot to take a picture.  

Garlic fries, chicken wings , celery sticks 

Tomato salad, fries, sausage 

Baked potatoes, green beans with tomato and red pepper flakes 

The best of the ads 1/30

The best of the ads .  I still haven’t seen any case lot sales this year.

QFC

Draper valley  whole chicken  .99

Oranges 4# 2.99
Grapefruit 5# 2.99

Digital, can buy 5 * Thursday to Sunday
Sliced cheese 1.49
Chicken wings 4.99

Alberways
Country style ribs  1.99
Roma tomatoes .99
Grapes 1.99
Tillamook ice cream 2/6 must buy 2

Milk 1.99@@

NAGB
Barilla 1.49 - my buy price is a dollar and a lot of times, I can get cheaper with a coupon, sometimes at the DT.

Fab 4 Sale
Another case of it is NOT WHAT  you buy as much as it is where it when you buy it.
Best foods mayo.  2.99 - I have some in my pantry that I paid .67 for with coupons and sale.  It’s a good idea to keep one ahead,  running out in the middle of making a salad is not a good thing,

Sweet baby rays 1.39.   My best price  on that was .54.   The most I ever pay is a dollar.  Use coupons and  buy in the summer holiday picnic bbq time.

Salad dressing is almost always simeth My youmcan find sales and coupons for. Q.67 is my buy price and the closer to a dollar is better.

The one bargain here is the hamburger and hot dog buns at .89.

Fred Meyers

Foster Farms chicken - whole, thighs, legs, breast BOGO

3# clementines 2.99
Avacados  .88
DiGiorno 3.99
Grapes 1.99
Yoplait 10/5$$

Buy 6 save 3 net cost
Ritz 1.49
Goldfish .99
Chunky  soup .99
Chili, Nalleys .89
Sour cream .89
Mission tortilla chips 1.49
Kroger ice cream 2.29
Cheerios, Frosted Flakes 1.99$$
American beauty pasta .49

Digi , up to 5 third to Sunday 
Sausage ropes 1.88
80 percent ground beef 1.97
Red Baron pizza .99
Cheese slices 1.49 

Senior discount 10 percent off private selection and regular non food merchandise is with in ad coupon and Tuesday feb 4th . Some restrictions apply 

Insta pot 6 quart 79.99 with in store coupon and you get a ten dollar gift card.

Retailers Dirty Little Tricks

It should come to no surprise that retailers have studied our shopping habits in order to extract as much money from us as possible,   Knowing their tricks, you can make the best of their strategies .

• 70 percent of our purchases at the grocery store are impulse buys. Its 80 percent in England. 
• Impulse buys means that we are not being logical about our decisions,   This could speak trouble. 
• 50 percent of any given cart is usually liquids and snacks.  Cutting these off your grocery list can save a lot.   If you just have to have the pop and chips, set aside a different ‘entertainment’ budget so it’s really evident how much you are spending,   
• The verbiage  10 for 10 in an ad, is to entice you to buy 10.  Unless it specifically states buy 10, you don’t have to buy 10.   
• It is no accident that the snack attack and bakery items bombard you as you walk in the door.   Its a good idea to not go to the store hungry or uptight.   Your resistance is down and you will spend more.
• Stick  to your list. Make a list, or at least know what categories you are shopping for. If you shop to replentish stock, take a quick inventory so you have a good idea that you need dairy, and produce, and quite possibly a rotation protein.   Do keep a list of staples that you are noting are dwindling. Watch for a RBP on those things.   
• Don’t impulse buy, but do take advantage of an unadvertised special if the price is at your buy price or below if you can readily use it.   One time I walked onto QFC and Local chicken was .50 a pound because they needed to be cooked that day or the next.  I bought three and went home and cooked them.  It was then that I researched and found the easiest way to cook a chicken.   
• Offering basket coupons is another way to get you into a store. Pay attention to the minimum amount that you need to spend.  The closer to that minimum amount you come to, the more percent off you are saving,   Be sure to include the coupons you may have on items so you don’t come up short.   Only buy things that are at or close to your buy price.   It is  not a good deal if you buy things that they have already marked up the 20 percent they are giving you for instance.  
• Manufacturers pay slotting fees to get to display their merchandise in preferable places.  Notably the end caps and middle shelves.  Some chains get upwards of a million dollars for the privilege.  You have to know that the companies are going to still make a profit and that cost is going to be reflected in your purchase price.   Look up and down.   Consider the store brand. Those brands are mostly name brands that manufacture for the stores.   The cost is remarkably different.  Mild green chillies at Winco for Winco brand are .66.  The name brand is 1.28.  
• Knowing where things are on the store helps.   You can, for instance, pass a lot of hamburger buns at Winco until you get to the bread isle and find the cheapest Winco brand buns.   We are talking 1/2 price.   
• If a store is offering hot  dogs on sale cheap especially on a holiday weekend, you can bet the buns will be full or an inflated price.   This is why you shop at two stores.   
• Shopping  at two stores gives you the best selection of produce and with some ad watching, the  best prices on any particular item on your must have list.  That being said, being flexible can save a lot of money.   
•   Certain stores are have a reputation for the best price on certain things.  Fred Meyers has a huge bag of English muffins for 3/5 all the time.   It used to be by the eggs, but now that they remodeled, I will have to hunt it up again. 
• Going with a clear view in your mind of what you are specifically looking for is you best hedge against falling for the impulse buys.
• Winco has been having a freezer near the door, skip the  bakery and snacks, and The check the freezer.  It usually has bargain meats. Again, know your prices.  
• Some items will have instant coupons on them.  Be sure to read the fine print and remind the checker to use the coupon. 
• Winco will give you six cents per bag you use that you brought .  It he,os to remind them of that too.   
• 
  

Monday Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen management is a tool that Saves time and stress at dinner time.  By prepping  food for dinners and tackling a little deep cleaning , life is just a bit easier.

Reminder of meals

• Fajitas, rice 4.98
• Pizza  1.27
• Chicken adobo, rice 1.64
• Potato soup. .73
• Beef stew 2.68
• Tuna casserole 3.03
• Breakfast for dinner varies 

Total dinners for foir people less than 20.00.  

1. Wash kitchen floor
2. Clean and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains.
3. Clean refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀.
4. Note what needs to be used up. 
5. Wash potatoes and carrots with vinegar water and dry. Place on a bowl that wil allow air circulation, 
6. Mark on meal plan the day before having chicken to thaw chicken ,
7. Straighten the pantry, 
8. Spot clean cabinets 
9. Wash kitchen linens, 

Meal plans

The old adage of make a plan, or plan to fail is a good one.   Meal plans save time and money and answer the question, what’s for dinner,

Using some kind of a matrix helps keep planning down to a nano minute— or maybe five.
Prices are for four people

• Fajitas , rice  4.98
• Pizza  1.27 including pepperoni 
• Chicken adobo, rice 1.64
• Potato soup .73 not including toppings 
• Beef stew 2.68
• Tuna casserole 3.03 
• Breakfast for dinner varies 

Notes 

1. Using pulled pork and peppers bought for a dollar each, onions were 3 lbs for a dollar. 
2. Pizza is a mainstay.  With scratch crust, it costs 1.27 we got pepperoni for .02 a slice . 
3. Chicken adobo uses chicken thighs , purchased for .78 a pound, Idaho grown 
4. Potato soup is an insta pot recipe and takes three minutes plus cutting potatoes, carrots, and celery.  Top with bacon, cheese, sour cream or chives. 
5. Beef stew,  add rolls or biscuits 
6. Tuna casserole uses Costco solid albacore tuna,  noodles left from chicken soup. 
7. Breakfast for dinner is a family dinner where everyone cooks.

Bulk meat and four to six week rotation,

The government shutdown is a good reminder that bleep can happen when you least expect it.  Anything from an weather related snag to an earthquake or illness.  Having a four to six weeks supply of food is a good thing.   It can be done even on a low food budget, it just takes some planning and paying attention to prices on food.  

Buying things on sale to replenish your stock instead of going to the store and buying just what you need to get through the day or week is the key.  This drastically lowers your food bill.

Yesterday, we went to Winco and QFC.  That’s another key. If you go to two stores a week, you get the best of two worlds.

We had not purchased meat in a while,   We have chicken and hamburger in the freezer and a few pork roasts and chops, sausage.  I try to limit our processed meat.  .

QFC has pork shoulder for a dollar a pound .   The smallest we could find was six dollars. I plan to cook it in the insta pot in two batches.  6.29.  Savings 19.05.  Tacos,  , bbq sliders, enchaladas.

Brats were 2.77. That’s good for about three meals for the two of us,

Diced ham was 2.00.  It is good for omelettes, to add protein to soups and beans or to add to a quiche.

Winco has a large pepperoni oni bag for less than than the  dollar store price and it looked like it was less fat.   I still use a paper towel to absorb some of the fat and load pizzas with vegetables so less pepperoni is used. 1.78 for 70 slices.   DT is 1.00 for28.

We also bought turkey lunch meat for 2.88. Total savings on QFC was 40.74 and that was 68 percent
My goal is to have the savings be 1/2.  I want to save as much or more than I spend.

My goal is to spread the pork and turkey out over the next month to six weeks,   We already have boneless  chicken breast and some hamburger, cheese, eggs, and beans.  

We bought a six pack of French bread.  I see Dagwood sandwiches in our future.

Taking advantage of sales, rotating what you buy, knowing your prices and using coupons are all part of slashing your food bill.

Or average food bill for last year was about five dollars a week under the four dollar a day budget we set for ourselves,  (56.00) and we do share with granddaughter.   We still grew a stock.

Keeping a six  week supply of non perishable food hedges off disaster.   Most dairy can be bought on sale with a month pull date.  Basics can be bought in bulk,   That leaves you weekly fresh fruits and veggies.

Our outlay was 17.00 yesterday.  We got veggies, a lot of meat, pasta, olives and green chilies, butter, and low carb tortillas.  

• Peppers and shredded pork fajitas 
• Brats and sauerkraut 
• Brats and oven roasted vegetables 
• Tacos
• Enchaladas. 
• Ham and cheese pizza 
• Ham and vegetabke quiche 
• Ham and bean soup , or potato soup 
• Dagwood sandwiches 
• Pepperoni pizza
• At least five more pulled pork meals 
• At least six more pepperoni meals 
• One more sandwich meal 

Total of at least 22 meals for 15.61 or 1.04 a meal 

Ideas for meals - low cost

Something Different .  It’s been over a month now since the shutdown and things may be getting a bit more tight.  There are creative ways to make good meals.

• French Toast, fruit , sausage or bacon if you have it
• Loaded baked potato bar uses inexpensive potatoes and can use up bits of anything that sounds good. We often have them if we have leftover chili.  Taco meat, cheese, sour cream, chives, bacon, just about anyth8ng,   
• Impossible pie.  Uses a bit of meat and cheese or vegetable and eggs, milk, and bisquick,  you can make your own bisquick, 
• Depression stew.  Potatoes, carrots , and any meat you have.  I remember my. Other adding a little bacon and some meatballs, 
• Meatball subs.  “Noreen’s Kitchen” on u tube has a good recipe for rolls,   Add homemade French fries.  Meatballs are two dollars for almost a pound ( equivalent of a pound of raw meat) at Winco.  ARMOUR. Brand. I have found coupons for them 
• 1/2 lb of spaghetti, pasta sauce, and some parm.  Spaghetti can be found for as low as .59.  Pasta sauce has been a dollar lately.  Parmesan cheese - the real stiff is cheap at Winco and is a  treat that can upscale almost anything. Sometimes Barilla is at the dollar store, 
• Chili fries, 
• Nachos. Huge bags of tortilla chips are at Costco, but you can also get so,e at the dollar tree or make your own 
• Pizza is cheap and can have just about anything on it.  Buffalo chicken pizza takes a bit of cooked chicken, ranch or blue cheese dressing, cheese if you have it and we add chopped peppers. Dollar store pepperoni, any wetback. 
• Potato soup.  Add carrots and celery.  Uses only a cup of milk and some chicken broth.  Bouillon can be cheap.   
• Tomato soup.  Make baking powder biscuits with a little grated cheese on them.  Roll dough like you were making cinnamon rolls and sprinkle cheese on it,  roll it and cut into slices, bake off just like you were making the biscuits. Homemade is cheap if you have diced tomatoes, we get the organic pacific roasted red pepper. and tomato for two dollars when we can.  Add blue cheese and basil of you like those flavors  yum.  Blue cheese was a dollar at grocery outlet.   
• Vegetarian chili. 
• Rice and beans , add a red sauce and SASON
• Enchiladas,  use dollar store tortillas, beans. Cheese, shredded chicken or pork. Make sauce.  We isle red for meat and beans, or green for chicken. Pork shoulder is .99 specified days at qfc this week.  Shredded pork goes a long ways,   Tacos, pulled pork sandwiches, enchiladas.  
• Vegetable bean  soup comes in at a bit more than two dollars for a Six quart pot. You can do a lot of things with carrots and celery. Onions help too.   Onions were three pounds for a dollar at Winco,   Carrots are 2.28 for FIVE pounds.  Save the peels after you wash them with vinegar for stock. 
• Sausage (brown and serve in a pinch DT) eggs, pancakes. 
• Chicken noodle soup.  Add homemade noodles, noodles from the Dollar Tree, or dumplings.

Hauls to 1/23

bread store
Many things are 4/5.
Seniors and military on Wednesday and Sunday get 10 percent
And you get 1 free thing for 10.00 and another when you reach 15.00.
2 loaves regular bread
Bagels
English muffins
Hoagie rolls
2 pkgs  hambuger buns
6 French bread loaves
Chocolate donuts
Slider rolls

15.62

Note bagels alone were 2.50 at qfc.



Winco
12.69

Lettuce
Tomatoes
Apples
Milk
Hummus
Pears

Safeways
Butter 2.50
Crescent rolls 3-2.00
Ham 3.50

15.50

Total 43.81

The best? Of the chain store ads

QFC
Blues 3.88

Draper valley breast/thighs BOGO
Note:  this may or may,not be a bargain, the price is not listed.
I am not a fan of Draper valley, bad experience twice.  It is from Washington ,
In their favor, they did give me ten dollars so I could go buy Foster Farms.
I am sure the chicken  was good, it was just a nasty butcher job.

Buy 6, save 3
Milk .99
Goldfish .99
Dreyers 2.99
Dave’s killer bread 3.99
Ritz crackers 1.99
Cheerios 1.99 $$$
Clementines  3.99

Fred Meyers
Half pork loin BOGO as with others, the jury is still out on wether or not it is a bargain,  it should be between a dollar and 1,69 a pound.

Buy 6, save 5
Dave’s bread 3.99
Cheerios 1.79
Marie Callender’s  enteees 1.88

Not much there, I did find good buys  at grocery outlet in the  last week.

Note : artisan bread is 3.79 at Alberways,  it cost a quarter to make a round of bread and ,30 to make loaves of French type bread,   The time....about 10 minutes hands on time and that is spread between 2 days.  In the time it takes to take offd your coat, hang it up and sort the mail, you can have bread dough started.   Bake it off the next day.  It doesn’t even take up refrigerator space.  

The principals behind survival food shopping

I have done two blogs about survival shopping.  Some people are effected by the government shutdown because they are working without pay;  some aren’t working and not getting paid.  Some have had January and February snap money in January and don’t know where or when they will get any more .

The basic principal is to buy the basics that you don’t  already have first.  With a bulk rice, beans, and flour and a few things you need to add to make real food, you could go a long time.  Truly,  not very fantastic meals but survive.  Then, with what you have left, you can take a specified amount and fill in with specials and make decent meals. Maybe not what you are used to, but good meals none the less.

I remember a time when my dad was hurt at work and he wasn’t making any money.  We were supposed to get Labor and Industries, but it finally came well into his healing period.  My oarents used savings to pay for their mortgage  and utilities, and we stretched the pantry and freezer as far as we could.  We are liver, and depression stew, and a lot of bananas that were given to us.  My dad hated liver, but he ate it without complaining.   You just do what you have to do.

Taking the basic supplies, you can study the ads and add the ingredients you need to make meals.
First, check the meat ads if you eat meat.  Chicken is a good start.  You can make at least four meals for a proverbial family of four.  Adding meat to a casserole, pot pie, enchiladas or tacos stretches the meat.  Chicken noodle soup for four servings cost me 1.63 for the pot of soup.

Carrots and celery are generally inexpensive and are versatile.   That is a key issue. Apples 🍏  are under a dollar a pound in the fall and winter.  Anything close to a dollar is good. Frozen vegetables can be found for a dollar a pound.  If you don’t have a stock, you need to buy just what you need, so a meal plan based on REAL sales is necessary.  Try for a meat that is versatile and try to get enough to stretch into the next week.  After a few weeks of that you will start getting more variety.

Breakfast for dinner is a good option,   With your flour, you can make pancakes or waffles, and make applesauce and turkey bacon is a dollar at the dollar store.  Or, make eggs, English muffins and orange slices.   English muffins here are cheapest at Fred Meyers NOT in the regular  bread isle, but near the eggs, or cheap at the bread outlet.   French Toast is another option.

Bread is cheap to make.  Peasant bread costs a quarter to make.  Big Family Homestead is a I tube channel and she teaches how to make cheap  bread,   They also have a lot of really inexpensive recipes and ideas.

Bread and soup make an inexpensive  meal that is comforting and filling,   Potato soup with carrots and celery and potatoes uses some chicken stock and a cup of milk.   Chicken stock can be free.

Chili will use your beans and some diced tomatoes and stock.  Add meat if you have it.

Rice and beans uses tomatoes too.   Both potatoes and diced tomatoes are cheapest here at Winco.

Pizza is a mainstay around here.  Kids usually love it.   Pizza dough made from scratch costs .19. Add   Some red sauce.  You can buy it at the dollar store and freeze it in ice cube trays, it takes two cubes to make a pizza.  Or, buy an 8 ounce can of tomato sauce and freeze the rest.  Add some Italian seasoning.  An 8 ounce can should cost about a quarter,   Any more than that you are better off at the dollar store.  A months worth of pizza will cost you five bucks.  Find cheese for less than 2.50 a pound. The trick is to be frugal.   Add lettuce salad if you have enough.

There is always diced ham for around 2.25 on the deli section.   Add it to soup or eggs. Vegetable omelette's are good and eggs are still a dollar a dozen here.   Of you aren’t here, check Aldi.   I’m seeing them there too.   When they are a dollar , try buying more than a dozen, like four dozen.   They are a good staple and can fill up a family cheap,

Anything you can get for a dollar  and feed the family, is a good bet, generally.
Make biscuits and cream chicken and frozen peas.  Use up every bit of a chicken or anything else you make,  our chili from yesterday is becoming a topping on a baked potato bar.   Leftover  spaghetti
Can be reheated in a baking dish with some cheese on top.

A grocery list can start with whatever you need to fill in of the basics, like eggs,  then find a meat on a real sale. And add fruit , vegetables, dairy and any dry goods you need.  If you find pasta on sale for less than a dollar, buy a few weeks supply, like four weeks. Remember four servings is a HALF a box. I would try for a twenty to twenty five dollar a week budget.  That makes for a hundred dollars a month.  Don’t  forget the bulk foods isle and Grocery Outlet.   I got pasta for .33 for a almost half pound last week.

Good luck and we will hope all his gets rectified soon.  I a, positive of the legislature had to live in the same circumstances,  it would have already been a done deal .

Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen  management is a tool that saves time and money in the kitchen. It makes meal time a lot less hectic.  A few minutes when you have time without interruptions, can save a lot of time becaise you are cleaning up once and things are peeled for dinner cooking.

Reminder of meals

1. Chili 
2. Pizza
3. Baked potato bar 
4. Chicken pot pie 
5. Chicken parm 
6. Ham and Swiss sliders 
7. Breakfast for dinner 

Prep 

1. Wash kitchen floor.
2. Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. 
3. Clean the outside and top of the refrigerator. 
4. Clean and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains, 
5. Wash the potatoes and carrots with vinegar water, 
6. Make the chili in the insta pot on slow cook. 
7. Organize the pantry, 
8. Make pudding 
9. Make rice crispy treats, 

Notes : we got pumpkin flavored marshmallows a while back, so we are making rice crispy treats.   One way to save money is to buy seasonal flavors after the season,   I just purchased a Christmas blend of tea.   It is still good, and it still is enjoyable.   

Taking advantage of every kind of sale you can is a way to cut your budget for consumables. Big lots has a twenty percent sale a couple of times a year.   Buying things ahead that you know you are going to use is a way of saving money.  It all ads up.   We bought our name brand liquid soap for less than the knockoff at the dollar store.  It was two dollars a gallon.   We just fill pump bottles.   It saves the landfill and our budget.   

Every little bit helps and that is how we have been able to eat and grow a stock on a budget t of less than four dollars a day.   

• Never pay full price.  Prices on food can very as much as two dollars for the EXACT same thing and the exact same brand. 
• Know your prices on  the things  you buy on a regular basis.   Use a small notebook that you can carry in your purse if you need to or out it on your phone if you have a note app. 
• Buy in bulk when it makes sense,  you are saving the landfill and your budget.   
• Buy your meat on a rotation basis when it is at its lowest price.  Buy enough to eat that meal an allotted number of times in a four to six week period.   Ditto other protein sources,  
• Buy the things you use on a regular basis when they are at their lowest prices and keep a four to six week supply.  This hedges disaster when it might arise, anything from a government shutdown, or a snow storm, or sickness.  It’s just piece of  mind not having to get to the store 
• the minute payday happens. Studies have  shown that not having food in the house can lower you life expectancy,  
• Meal plan,  it just saves time and money.  Make a plan or plan to fail. 
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Meal pictures

Chicken soup in the insta pot. Cost 1.63

I

Chicken quesadillas, salad

Pizza

Pork chops. Bread dressing with apple and Craisens, mixed vegetables.

pork chop , apple compote, baked potatoes

Burrito Bowl

Nachos

Survival

It saddens me that people that haven’t had to seriously cut corners before have been thrust into the situation through no fault of their own.

On a frecious blog, we talked about getting basics .  Some people already may have some of this, but if they don’t there is a list.  Bulk foods can be purchased at Costco, but if you have a sams club of bjs I’m guessing they have them too.   We only  have Costco here,   

1. 20 # bag of flour 
2. 25# rice 
3. 10# oatmeal 
4. 25# pinto beans 
5. Jar of yeast 

Second 

1. Vegetable oil 
2. Butter 
3. Eggs
4. Salt, baking powder, baking soda 
5. Sugar 
6. Dry milk 

With the basics, a lot of things can happen.

Flour can make : 

Muffins, pancakes, pizza crust, bread, dumplings, biscuits, tortillas, pie crust, impossible pie , and much more . 

Beans and rice make a complete protein. 

Now, set aside a small amount of money per week to fill in and make meals,  work off of the sale ads in the paper.  You are looking for any meat your family will eat for two dollars a pound or less.   Chicken here is .88 for a whole chicken.  I would buy 2, one for this  week, one for next at that price.  Chicken hind quarters are often .59 a pound in ten pound bags.  Here, we find pork sirloin for 1.59 and sometimes pork loin for a dollar.   ( we live on the 7th highest COL in the lower 48) . 

After finding a meat, look for what you need to fill in to make meals.  

Potatoes, diced tomatoes, carrots, celery come to mind. 

The dollar tree has a lot of food, some from China .  They also have a few things that are made in USA and a good buy.   

• Name brand pizza sauce.  Freeze it in an ice cube tray and pop it out intoa zip lock bag for the freezer.  We use 2 cubes per pizza. 
• Tortillas are a dollar, or you can make them yourself. Quesedias take cheese.  Don’t buy it at the DT, though.  It is not real cheese. 
• Gnocchi 
• Pepperoni 
• Barilla pasta sometimes. Note four servings is a half a pound box. 

Ideas 

1. Pizza.  Easy crust in a food processor or by hand. Cost is a dollar a pizza if you use cheese purchased at 2.00 a pound.  2.50 a pound is my target price.  Of it isn’t that or lower, I don’t buy it. 
2. Chicken noodle soup.  I provided four servings at 1.63.  That was based on the Target Store price of .99 cents for noodles and chicken thighs we bought for .78 a pound.  You can make noodles from scratch. Carrots and celery.
3. From a chicken : avoid whole pieces of chicken. You should be able to get two meals from a whole breast, another from the dark meat and one or two from the bones and other meat.  Chicken pot pie, chicken soup, chicken enchiladas, chicken and stuffing, bbq chicken legs and thighs.  chicken pizza. Many more check out Betty Crocker on,one cookbook. It is free and full of ideas.  Remember, just because it calls for a name brand doesn’t mean you can’t substitute scratch.
4. From pork : pork loin can be a dollar a pound.  Cut it up yourself into  roasts and chops,  make stew meat or stir fry out of the tapered ends. 
5. Pork sirloin can be roasted or cut into stew meat or tips over rice.  
6. Cheese and eggs are a good base for many meals. Try for 2.00 a pound cheese, and eggs as close to a dollar as possible. Breakfast for dinner is a good way to cut costs.  Some French toast or pancakes and fruit is good.  Look for bacon ends cheap.  Fruit up and drain it well.  It’s good addition to soups and omelettes. Also vegetable omelettes are good and inexpensive. 
7. Add beans to some ground beef to stretch tacos or beef enchiladas.  Chili is a good stretcher.  Use leftovers to make a baked potato bar.  Kids love it. 
8. Make your own chicken broth from bones. Or use chicken bouillon. It is easy and takes a matter of minutes.  Use a slow cooker or insta pot. 
9. Potato soup is a good stretcher.  Add carrots and celery and use bacon crumbles for garnish or croutons made from dry bread or snipped chives from the garden. 
10. Add biscuits or bread to a soup meal.

Peasant bread takes ten minutes hands on time and costs a quarter.   And, the ten minutes are split nbetween 2 days.

Meal plans

The old adage make a plan, or plan to fail works here.  Having a meal plan saves time and money and a lot of stress at the dinner hour.

We ate a lot of pork last week, so this week we will concentrate on chicken.

• Chilli 

•  Pizza 

•  Baked potato bar 

•  Chicken pot pie ( crescent rolls) 

•  Chicken parm 

•  Ham and Swiss cheese sliders , oven fries, vegetabke platter 

•  Breakfast for dinner

Notes:

1. Chili is from beans already cooked.
2. Pizza is a mainstay. A cheese pizza costs a dollar if made from scratch and ingredient purchased on sale, 
3. Baked potato bar uses leftover chili and sour cream, cheese, and any refrigerator leftovers 
4. Chicken pot pie uses crescent rolls purchased for .67.  One crust cuts  the carbs.
5.  Chicken parm can be made in the insta pot without the chicken,  add salad 
6. Ham and Swiss cheese sliders are from rolls purchased at the bread outlet.  Oven fries use almost no oil.  Toss potatoes in a little olive oil. 
7. Breakfast for dinner is a family meal. Everyone cooks. 

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Coming- another installment of what to do when you have to stretch your money becaise of  the shutdown.   

Efficient Cooking from scratch

There are people that have cooking as a hobby and make gorgeous labor intensive meals.   And, then there are people that have busy lives, working and caring for children that just dint have the time  to spend all day over a hot stove cooking.  I’m guessing the majority of people are the latter.

You can still make good  food and not have  to spend all day in the kitchen and cook from scratch.  There are recipes all over the Internet, and appliances that save time and money. 

Whether you have been thrust into economy scratch cooking on purpose or by someone else’s bad decisions, it is reality and we can take positive things from the experience. Scratch cooking is more healthy than the alternative ready or half ready made meals.  You are eliminating  the preservatives and other chemicals manufacturers use to stabilize their products.  Most people don’t sit and read the ingredients of pre packaged food.  It’s a real education.  

Some Mac and cheese boxes have tsp in them.  Tsp is what we sold at the paint store to wash the grease off the walls to ready them for paint.  You were cautioned to wear rubber gloves 🧤 to protect your hands from its harsh properties.  Some things have wood pulp in them as an anti caking agent. Some cold  cereals have tsp in them as well. Fake butter can have palm oil in it .  So does Nutella.  Palm oil as well as a host of other oils are hydrogenated.  Hydrogenated oils can thicken your blood.  Not a good thing I’m guessing,   Vegetable oil is a necessary part of cooking,  we use as much olive oil as we can. But, some things require a lighter oil.  The least of the oils in my opinion is canola oil. 

The more bulk you buy, the less packaging you will buy.   Less garbage to lay to be removed and the less garbage to put in the landfill.   We do recycle a lot.  Our town has a plastic bag ban, the brown paper bags we get are recycled to the food bank to be reused.  We have bags that clip on the sides of the grocery cart.  This restricts the amount of things that can be loaded on the cart,  that’s a good thing.  The grocery carts are larger for a reason.   The grocers want you to fill them up.  But that’s another blog in itself I have already written.  The bags are also good because  studies have found feces on the bottom of carts —a lot.  Think of the contamination and how it can spread.   

If I do buy something in a box and with a bag inside like oatmeal, I recycle the box and cut the bag into a tube and save it for when I want to separate things to go on freezer bags, like hamburger patties or tuna cakes.  I get two uses out of them and I don’t add another piece of plastic to the landfill or spend more money. 

The box of regular Quaker Oats at Costco is about eight dollars .  It makes a serving .085 each.  One serving is equivalent of four of those instant packets,  even at a dime each, that’s 40 cents and over four times the price.  It takes four packets to get the same nutrition as one 1/2 cup serving,   The time is about the same.  Anything that we buy in bulk that takes the same measurement consistently, I leave a measuring cup on the canister.  You can get measuring cups at the dollar store or at the goodwill or other thrift store.  One cup of water, 1/2 cup of oatmeal and 1.5 minutes in the microwave.  Use a cup bigger than you need to reduce spill overs.   My husband usually makes it, I suspect he uses less water.   Experiment to get the consistency you like.   I recently found oatmeal sprinkles at Winco. They  had a dollar coupon on them so the end cost was a dollar.  They were 1 to 1.5 carbs and a slice sized bottle has lasted a long time,   We have also used a shaker of cinnamon sugar in the past. 

Dried beans can be purchased on the bulk department, or in bags at Costco .  Smaller quantities of pinto beans are cheapest  at the dollar tree, (DT) they are 1.5 pounds, grown in the USA and non GMO.

The cost of store bought bakery items can be up to 90 percent more than making the same thing at home.  Make your own muffin mix.  It takes very few minutes to whip up a muffin tin of muffins.  The cost is .30 plus the spices or fruit you put on them.  The cost of four muffins can be five dollars.  

The size is smaller when you make them at home, but that can be a good thing, the volume is the same.  You are making 12, not four.  Most of the things I have cost are 90 percent cheaper.  Artisan bread aka peasant bread is a quarter and ten minutes hands on time,  it cost upwards of 2.50.  

Homemade just tastes better.