Monday Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen Management is a tool that can help you save your money and time in the kitchen .  The hardest part of prepping can be the clean up.  Doing the prep prep in batches instead of one meal at a time saves clean up time.  Prepped food makes meal time faster and easier.   Deep cleaning a little at a time saves the chore of deep cleaning the whole kitchen in one day.

• Wash kitchen floor 
• Clean and disinfect counter tops and sinks and drains. 
• Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. 
• Wash outside of refrigerator. 
• Wash carrots, celery, and fruit. 
• Make a green salad .  
• Clean toaster and microwave. 

• 
  

Meal plans

Last night we had baked potatoes, mixed vegetables and garlic, thyme butter pork chops.

Meal plans are a way to keep organized and avoid the panic or stress of answering the question, “What’s for dinner,

• Chicken stew 
• Pizza
• Chili, tortilla chips or bread 
• Hamburgers, oven fries, vegetabke platter
• Cream, chicken basil sausage, pasta , salad 
• Tuna casserole m peas and carrots 
• Breakfast for dinner. 

Notes:

• Chicken cubes from chicken breasts bought in bulk, new potatoes, carrots 
• Pizza is a mainstay and costs a dikkar a cheese pizza from scratch.  Bulk pizza dough is made in the kitchenaid and frozen,  makes a months worth of pizza dough, 
• Chili is made on the insta pot with already  cooked hamburger,   
• Hamburgers are from hamburger patties we got at Sprouts fir a dikkr a pound,  loss leader,   
• Cream, sausage, tomato pasta is a recipe is from the  Big Family Homestead on u tube, 
• Tuna casserole, peas and carrots, 
• Breakfast for dinner is a family dinner and everyone cooks.  

• 
  

Grocery lists

Meal plan, grocery list
Groceries on the cheap is based on a replenish shopping, as opposed to buying one day or one week at a time.  Once you are set up, it will actually take you less time to go to two stores than it does going to the store for one day or one week’s worth of food at a time.   Rarely will you need to run to the store for that thing you forgot.

• List ten to 14 dinners you cook that your family likes.  Pick things that take an inexpensive protein if you are on a low budget.   
• Now list the item you need to make those meals. 
• Add things you eat for breakfast and dinner if you eat those items at home. There are  children get breakfast and lunch at school. 
•  Now, estimate how many of those items you will need on a four  to six week period .
• Separate the items that are perishables that are freezer and shelf stable. 
• Now you have a basic list .

Once you have a supply of the shelf stable items, you just need to look for a sale on the things that are becoming  short in supply.  

Add to your list the basic dairy and pantry will give you the list.  A brief glance in the fridge and pantry will make your list.   

Our meal plan sheet has a list to check off.   This can be done on a matter of minutes.   

So, any grocery trip is prefaced by looking over the ads, picking a rotation meat or protein that is at your target price. Noting the things that you are showing short  and matching of any of those things are on sale .  Add your produce and dairy list and you are done.  

Shopping is quick because while you are going to two stores, you are buying less items.  Try to plan your trip to use less gas and try to go when it’s nit prime time  it just makes life easier.

Milk
Butter
Sour cream
Cottage cheese
Parmesan
Cheese , white. Yellow
Eggs
Carrots
Celery
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Lettuce
Potatoes
Onion

Bananas
Apples
Cantaloupe
Blueberries
Strawberries
Oranges
Grapes

Bread
Tortilla chips
Tortillas


******
Diced tomatoes
Pasta sauce
Pasta
Replentish backup catsup, mustard, salad dressing
Bbq sauce
Canned corn, green beans
Chili
Sliced black olives
Mild green chilies

Cream soup
Tomato soup

Friday Recipe

Yesterday, I spent some time looking through u tube for recipes for the bread baker and scratch bread.  I decided  to write them in a Spiral  notebook so I didn’t have bots of papers all over.   I usually try a recipe and then put the ones we like in a personal cookbook.

There are literally thousands of recipes out them. We have a basic list of groceries that I keep in stock. That diminishes the list accordingly.

Groceries on the cheap is based on a theory that includes replenishing a basic stock  of food  instead of going to the store and buying just what you need for a day or a week.  This theory cuts you food bill on half or more.   Our groceries cost less than four dollars over person per day last year, and four dollars per day the year before.   We eat well, we don’t eat fake food, and we eat basic food.
We eat a lot of comfort food that has been adapted to be low salt, sugar, hydrogenated oil, trans fats, HFCS, GMO, and preservatives.   Efficient scratch cooking is the key.  A lot of recipes, take no more time to make then their boxed or bagged counterparts and are free from the garbage.

Keeping a small stock of food and rotating the buying when the price is right saves money and assures you that when bleep happens, and bleep will happen— you will always have so,e food on the house.

I digress
Last night we had spaghetti and meatballs in the insta pot.  Total hands on time was three minutes.

• 1/2 package of spaghetti (1#) , broken in half and layer in the bottom of the pot like a bird nest, 
• 1 jar or can of pasta sauce , pour over pasta 
• Meatballs placed on top. ( ready made meatballs on sale are cheaper than scratch) 
• 2 cups of a stock poured along the sides of the pot. 
• Cover, seal, and process 8 minutes on manual.  
• Quick release. 
• Cost 2.38

Bread on the bread baker

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 beaten egg
• 2T butter
• 3 cups flour 
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese ( we used shaved real cheese) 
• 2 T sugar 
• 1-1/2 tsp garlic 
• 2-1/2 tsp yeast

Process 1.5 pound loaf with light crust

Hauls to 3/7 /19

We decided check out alternative shopping,

Trader Joe’s was a bust.  Everything was waay too expensive.

Pure maple syrup 4.99
Blue cheese 3.49

Total 8.48

Sprouts
Was a bit better because I suspect it’s their grand opening . Time will tell.   It isn’t on our way to much, so it will probably not be our first pick.

Blueberries 1.49
Radishes .69
Grapes .98 lb
Bluecheese 3.96
2 # beef patties 1.99 total
French bread 1.50
Total 12.66

Dollar tree
Thin sandwich bread 1.00

22.14 grand

QFC
Dinners 7.52

Winco

Potatoes 1.98
Meatballs 1.98
Roma’s 1.22
Grape tomatoes 1.96
Romaine 1.96
Bacon 2# 3.98
Cottage cheese 2.25
Parm 2.38
Total 17.61

Total 47.21

The best of the ads

Alberways
BOGO meat bargain?

80/20 ground beef
Boneless, skinless chicken breast
Top sirloin steak
Pork tenderloin


Tillamook ice cream 2.99

Cheese 2# 4.99@@
Bread .99@@

Yoplait 10/5

Naval oranges .69 lb

QFC 

Digital coupons

Hamburgers, frozen 6.99
Dryers 2/5 
Yoplait 10/5 
Red Barron 3/8
Cheese 2.49 #

Bulk buy 
Ragu 2/3 
Buy 3, get a gallon of milk. 
3 Ragu are 4.50 less 2.00 milk is 2.50/3 or .83 each 

Sprouts 
Peppers .98
Squash .98
Strawberries 1.98


Fred Meyers 
Strawberries 2/4
Apples .99
Roasts, pork and beef BOGO
Eggs .99
3# Kroger bacon 9.99

Grocery list for emergency rations

We have already purchased the magic 10.  10 things for a survival pantry.  Now the add on grocery list assuming that there is, o special meat on sale this week.   Special meat is anything under two dollars a pound.

10 #  package of leg quarters of chicken 5.90
Bag of cubed  ham 2.35 ( I have got it as cheap as 2.00)
4 dozen eggs  4.00
Meatballs 2.00



Potatoes 2.49 (2 weeks)
Carrots 2.28
Celery 1.00
Apples 3#
Oranges 3#

Cheese 4.99
Pizza sauce 1.00 (DT)
Tortillas 1.00. (DT)
Mild chilies.69
Lettuce 1.00
Tomato 1.00
Spaghetti 1.00
Noodles 1.00
Pasta sauce (2) 1.78


Budget  40.00

Add ons
Frozen mixed veg
Oranges
Apples


Dinners

• French Toast, orange slices (2)
• Ham and cheese quiche 
• Potato soup with ham 
• Chicken noodle soup 
• Bbq chicken sliders 
• Pizza (2) 
• Chicken enchaladas 
• Chicken tacos 
• Chicken rice soup 
• Spaghetti and meatballs 
• Rice and beans 
• Chicken pot pie 

Tuesday concepts.

How to read a grocery ad
Based on $4 a day per person
Analytical

Ground beef 3.99. 93/7  expensive and not as flavorful.
Mandarins, organic apples 2.48 - organic is expensive and anything over a dollar a pound is to be looked at twice.

Chuck roast or Draper Valley chicken breast or thighs , BOGO
Take into consideration.   On a four dollar a day budget, chuck roast is a treat, and Draper Valley  in my opinion isn’t the best chicken. The chicken itself is ok, my experience is that the butchers are a little to hasty in their work.

Organic asparagus or tomatoes 1.99. The target price for tomatoes is a dollar or less.

4 days only - Thurs - Sunday
Ground turkey 2/5 - ok price
Dreyers ice cream 2/4 - ok
Butter 2/5 note there is a coupon  for .55 off one
Cheezits 3/5 - snack, not on my grocery list
Remember just because it says a quantity, unless they say you must buy a particular quantity and  you don’t have to buy the quality. We always keep a quality of butter , I don’t  want to ever pay more than 2.50 a pound.  If your family  likes ground turkey, that would be a good thing to stock.  Cook, defat, and portion control it for the freezer.

Lean cuisine frozen dinners 1.88.  There is a coupon for 1.25 .
Always have your coupons in mind when looking at an ad. These days they are few and far between
on the paper coupon side.  Digital coupons at qfc, just open up the site. Perhaps while watching tv, and hit everything that you buy.

Buy 5 save 5.
Read the list, unless it is a good buy and you can justify buying a quantity or a variety of things, don’t bother,   Lately, a lot of junk food.  Remember you have to buy 5 items, not five of each thing.
8 ounces of cheese for 1.99 a pound is 4.00 a pound .  Our buy price is 2%2.50.  A bit more for sliced.   Sliced cheese is 2.29 at Grocery Outlet.   2 lbs of grated cheese is 4.99 . That I is at the target price. Juice is, it a good buy at any price.  Cream cheese at 2 pkg, 2.99 is not bad. A lot of junk and
non  food items.  Skip over the booze, junk, and non food items, rarely can you get a good buy on.
Non food items at the grocery store.
Organic bagels are 4.49 cents, opposed to a dollar for named brand at the DY or 1.25 at the bread store.

Sour cream and cottage cheese 1.25.  That is close enough.
Ignore the junk food.  Soup for 2/3 is too much.  A dollar is the target price for chunky soup

Slices are always higher at the grocery store with the exception of bulk.  You probably already have spice jars at home,  why buy another jar and add to the landfill.

Kroger 12-16 ounce frozen vegetables, Barilla pasta. 10/10. You don’t need to buy 10 necessarily.  The 16 ounce for dozen vegetables are a good stock buy, not the 12 ounce ones.  The target price for a pound of vegetables is a dollar.

English muffins and bagels are usually higher at the regular store.  Here are BOGO.  Make a, tie to check.  English muffins are 1.66 for a dozen at Fred Meyers all the time.  Look near the eggs, on a round basket.   Cheaper at the dollar store or bread store.

Barilla pasta is at its target price.

Kroger bacon is 9.99/3 # pkg.  not a bad price

Roast chicken is 6.99. Almost never a good price.  This is a two pound chicken.  The break even point for a chicken is three pounds,  that is the point where you are paying half for bone and half for meat.
At two pounds, you are getting more bone and less meat.   But, let’s consider it is half just for math purposes. That leaves you with 6.99 a pound for chicken.  It is a dollar or less a pound all the time for whole chicken.   Boneless  skinless chicken breast is often at 1.28 a pound at Winco.
You can cook a whole chicken on a matter of minutes hands on time,

Oranges 2.99/3#.
Lemons 1.99 lb
Oranges .99 #
Raspberries. Blueberries 2/5 - cheaper this week elsewhere.

Any vegetable or fruit is good at a dollar a pound.  (Target price)

Pork loin BOGO. Another check the price at the store.  You want one to two dollars a pound,  obviously , the lower the better.

On a four dollar a day budget,  Any meat over 2.00 a pound is a stretch.  You can average, and eggs, chicken, and pork loin can make it possible for a more expensive ground meat or roast.

Monday Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen management is a tool to reduce time and stress during the hectic dinner hour.  Prepping food ahead of time just makes things easier,   It is my goal to spend less than twenty minutes timcook dinner, sometimes it is less than that.  I especially  like soup meals that are dine in the morning and only need a bit of tweaking at dinner time.

• Spaghetti and meatballs 
• Pizza
• Sweet and sour chicken, rice 
• Enchaladas 
• Sausage and creamy tomato pasta 
• Potato soup , cheezy drop biscuits 
•  Breakfast for dinner 

• Wash kitchen floor 
• Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀.
• Make notes  of anyth8ng that needs to be used up soon, 
• Wash and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains. 
• Wash the veggies for potato soup with vinegar water and dry.  Place in colander, 
• Make enchalada sauce
• Deep clean stove. 

• 
  

Meal plans

Meal plans are necessary to save time and money.  They just make life organized and easier.   No magic surprises is a good thing .

• Spaghetti and meatballs , salad

• Pizza 

•  Sweet and sour chicken  

•  Enchiladas   

•  Sausage cream tomato pasta, salad   

•  Potato soup , cheezy biscuits 

•  Breakfast for dinner 

Notes

1.  8 minutes in the insta pot.   Use 1/2 a pound of spaghetti.  Meatballs are less xoemsive to buy ready made than theynare to make scratch.  Pasta sauce is cheaper too.   
2. Pizza cost a dollar a cheese pizza when made from scratch, 
3. Sweet and sour chicken with rice.   Use cubes from a chicken breast.  Can of pineapple chunks. 
4. Enchaladas.  Home made enchalada sauce.  Beef uses red sauce, chicken green sauce. 
5. Sausage and cream pasta is from Big Family Homestead on untube, 
6. Potato soup is inexpensive, and cheezy drop  biscuits are easy and quick.  Betty Crocker. 
7. Breakfast for dinner is a family meal.  Everyone cooks. 

Saturday concepts

One  of the basics of groceries on the cheap is to spend more time planning and shopping, and less time cooking.  You don’t get “paid” for cooking, but there is money in shopping 🛒 with a plan.
Most families don’t care how much time you spend cooking dinner, they just care if they like it.

It pays you to learn recipes that allow,you to efficiently cook food from scratch.  Anything premade or that comes out of a box is going to cost you more with few exceptions.   It is actually cheaper to buy pasta sauce on sale and there are meatballs that are actually cheaper than making scratch.

Identifying meals that have  inexpensive  ingredients and are easy to cook is easier than one might think.  Pinterest, Betty Crocker on line cookbook is free, and any cookbook that has the buzz words 5 ingredients or less is good,   The simpler the better.   Betty Crocker sometimes has brand specific ready made  ingredients, but most of the time an adequate substitution is workable.

Prepping meat and portion controlling meat is a good money and time saver.
Buying in bulk and cooking stair stepper is another,   Stair  stepping is when you make enough of something  to do double duty during the week.  That batch of rice can be Spanish rice with a taco dinner  and also be the base for stir fry.   A batch of chili can be chili one day and the basis for nachos, burrito bowls or a topping for a baked potato bar.

Kitchen Management aka meal prep is another way to save the dinner hour.   I remember the days when you hit the door, mail in hand after picking the children up from daycare.  They are hungry, wanting to tell you the happenings of the day, and dinner is waiting to be cooked and laundry is staring you in the face.   Having part of dinner ready to cook and having a plan saves a lot of stress.

We have a garbage can, and an in basket on the computer stand in the hall to the kitchen. Dealing with mail as soon as you get in the house saves time, handle it once.

Anything made in a slow cooker or insta pot is a good thing.

Engaging children to help get the table set etc encourages them to talk  about their day and  gets dinner on the table.  A win -win.

Remember

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

Some people could have a bargain get up and bite them in the butt and they wouldn’t see it.  Don’t be that person.

If you buy 10 sacks of potato chips. They will eat ten bags of potato chips.  And, not have good nutrition.  If it isn’t there, they will make wiser choices.  I grew up without junk food in the house.
My sisters and I survived.

Friday recipe

Last night, I made dinner in ten minutes flat.   It had been a busy day.

Taco casserole

• 1/2 # cooked ground beef, de fatted 
• 1/2 cup salsa, or enough to moisten your mixture, 
• 1/2 cup of frozen corn. 
• 1T taco seasoning 
• Water 

In skillet, place cooked meat , a little water, salsa and corn,  heat through umtil nmost of the liquid is absorbed. 

In a round baking dish layer 

• Flour tortilla 
• Meat mixture
• Grated cheese 
• Repeat 
• Top with a flour tortilla, a little meat mixture to moisten , and a layer of cheese, 

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until themcheese has melted and the food is hot. 

Serve with sour cream, lettuce, tomato.  

Hauls to 2/28

Fred Meyers

Barilla pasta 1.00
Baking chocolate .50
Avocado .99
English muffins 1.67

 Chicken sausage 3.29
Kielbasa 2.00
Diced tomatoes  .50
Beans .50
Total 23.41

QFC

Bread 1.00
Cottage cheese 1.25
Sour cream 1.25
Pear .64
Albacore tuna .99
Sharp cheese 4.99
Tater tots 1.19
Pie 3.19
Yougert 8 pack 1.99
Milk 1.99 overcharge
Cucumbers .99
Cream cheese (2) 2.99
Oranges 1.89
Peppers .99
Apples 5.34 (.89 #)

Total 38.64


Bacon 14.95

Total 77.00

The best of the ads

Sprouts Feb 27- March 6th
Blueberries .98
Tomatoes .98
Dried cranberries 1.99 lb
TomAtoes .98
Graoes 1.48
Green beans .98
Pears .98
Grapefruit .88

QFC 2/27-3/5

Ground beef 3.99

Thurs to sun only
Ground turkey 2/5
Butter 2/5
Barilla pasta 1.00


B5S5 
La Croix 1.99
Lean cuisine 1.88
Cheese 4.99

Safeways 

Milk 1.99@@
Digital only best foods 2.49

Kellogg’s cereals 3/5 -$$?
Jiff 2.50

Buy 4
BREYERS
Red Barron pizza
2.99 each

Fred Meyers 

B5S5
Frosted Flakes 1.99
Almond milk
Cheese 4.99
Cooked perfect 4.99

Foster farm chicken BOGO

5 # halos
Blackberries .99
Grapes 1.48
Kroger bacon 2.99 in 3 lb pkgs
Cantaloupe 2/5

Thursday thru Sunday
Butter 2/5
80/20 1.99

What we ate February

1. chicken noodle soup 
2. Brats, rice, peppers 
3. Chili 
4. Nachos 
5. Pizza
6. Burrito bowls 
7. Mac and cheese with ham 
8. Chicken noodles die soup, cheezy crescent rolls
9. Pizza
10. Toasted cheese, tomato soup (sick day) 
11. Tacos, home made refried beans, no fat. 
12. Homemade chicken noodle soup
13. Leftovers 
14. Pizza
15. Potato soup, cheezy drop biscuits 
16. Leftover pizza  and green salad 
17. Pancakes, orange slices, bacon 
18. Chicken soup
19. Quesadillas, apples ( emergency room) 
20. Crusty buns, homemade, tomato basil soup. 
21. Pork roast , mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, sliced tomatoes 
22. Fajitas 
23. Pork sliders . Salad 
24. Sheet pan : sausage, potatoes. Radishes, carrots. Bread 
25. Hamburgers, French fries , fruit 
26. Out
27. Birthday! 
28. 
    

Meals under 5 dollar inspiration

Seems like Monday Kitchen Management is the same thing over and over and over,,,,,,the blog literally writes itself.  Words appear across a bar to make up the sentence. Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀.  Lol

So, instead this is a list of menu ideas that are less than five dollar a meal for four people.  Some  are way lower.  You can eat well on four dollars a day,  Seattle is one of the seven most high COL areas in the nation.  One might think it is because of the housing market, but, I watch a lot of grocery hauls  across the nation, and the grocery prices  are a lot higher on most things.  Even a lot of things that come from California and Washington.

• Loaded potato soup 
• Chicken noodle soup, scratch 
• Tomato basil soup with or without blue cheese 
• Taco soup 
• Chili 
• Vegetable bean soup 
• Tacos 
• Enchaladas 
• Tostadas 
• Burrito bowls 
• Breakfast burritos 
• Green Chile pork tacos 
• Pizza. Pepperoni. 
• Pizza chicken 
• Sausage sheet pan 
• Sausage quiche 
• Sausage and bean soup 
• Spaghetti and meatballs or meat 
• Chicken spaghetti 
• Meatball subs 
• Pork cube sandwich 
• Pork roast
• Pork sliders
• Pulled pork sliders
• Pork fajitas 
• Mexican green chili pork (taste of Home ) 
• Sausage, pancakes, fruit 
• Bacon , eggs, pancakes 
• Hash browns, eggs, fruit 
• Spinach, feta and tomato omelet 
• Waffles , bacon, sliced oranges 
• Mac and cheese, peas and carrots 
• Toasted cheese, tomato soup 
• Broccolli and cheese pizza pockets 
• Pork stir fry 
• Chicken stir fry 
• Baked potato bar 
• Vegetable omelet 
• 
  
• Roast chicken Sunday dinner 
• Chicken stew
• Bbq chicken thighs and legs, wings 
• Sweet and sour chicken with rice
• Split Pea soup with ham 
• White beans and ham 
• Frittata 
• Red beans and rice 
• Pasta e Fagioli 
• Sloppy joes 
• Meatballs w gravy over mashed potatoes 
• Meatballs with cream sauce over noodles 
• Beef stroganoff 
• Pork stew 
• Pantry spaghetti (taste of Home ) 
• Bow tie and tomato, cream with sausage rounds, 
• Pork with orange sauce and rice 
• Glazed pork with sweet potatoes 
• Brats with apples and cabbage 
• Chicken with vegetables and biscuits 
• Chicken Normandy 
• Chicken and dumpling 
• Pork chops with apple, Craisens , stuffing. 
• Smoked paprika chicken 🍗 
• Beef tortilla taco casserole (Pillsbury) 
• Baked chicken nuggets. (Scratch) oven fries 
• 
  
• Meat ball subs

Basic ideas 

Pork loin is from one to two dollars a pound,   You can easily cut roasts, chops, and stew and stir fry meat from it.   

Chicken can be purchased for around a dollar all the time here. Breasts are 1.28 at winco often.  They come from Idaho.  Buy local chicken . 

Buy ground beef when it is on sale.   Cook it, made fat it, amd portion control it in bags in the freezer.  It just makes life easier.  Meatballs can be purchased cheaper than scratch. Use coupons if you can find them.  Costco ones are good, but I haven’t compared prices. 

Easiest , fastest. Way to cook a whole chicken when crispy skin isn’t an issue is to cook it in the slow cooker.  Cut an onion, roughly, quarter a large one or half 2 small ones. Dump on the bottom of the skow cooker,   Open the chicken, drain off any liquid and pay it m dry with a paper towel.  Using a sheet pan contains the mess.  Shake a seasoning salt or rub of choice on top of the chicken. Place on top of the onion.   Set the slow cooker on high for an hour a pound. Check for doneness 3/4 of the way through. I like 180 degrees—well done!   

Chicken will be moist with a lot of stock.   Remember your stock will be flavored by the rub you use.  

Meal plans

Part of groceries on the cheap is to be somewhat organized.   Make a plan, or plan to fail is an old adage.   Meal plans save time and money.   Things are just less stressful if you have a plan.

We rarely have hamburgers and French fries. Anytime you have a big hunk of meat, you eat more meat and meat is the most  expensive part of the meal.   The GOTC God’s were with us this weekend.  We have a new Sprouts.  They had marvelous sales.  85/15 beef patties were 1.99 for two pounds.  I walked next door to the dollar tree and they had orowheat shelf out and they had thin sandwich buns.  Top it off, QFC this week has frozen potatoes 1.69 for 2 pounds and I had a .50 coupon,  which made the potatoes 1.19.   Hamburger and French fries for 2 is 1.12 plus a salad.

• Hamburgers, French fries, salad 
• Pizza - chicken
• Chicken noodle soup 
• Tortilla taco casserole 
• Red beans and rice 
• Chicken Normandy, green beans, pear salad 
• Breakfast for dinner, 

Notes 

• Pizza chicken and chicken noodle soup share the same batch of chicken,   
• Tortilla taco casserole is Pillsbury and on the Internet. 
• Pear salad is from a pear bought for .64.  
• Beans and rice is a recipe out of a 10.00 or less dinner cookbook. 
• Beans can be added to the tortilla taco casserole. Double duty. 

Last month, we averaged a bit more than 40.00 a week.  That included 66 pounds of stock foods.   We are well stocked again.   I had been waiting for a case lot sale on diced tomatoes.  It wasn’t advertised as a case lot sale.ot was hiding on a little space in the ad.   Diced tomatoes can be a dollar.   Fifty cents is a way to get your stock and not pay more.   

Saturday

Simple ways to cut your food budget no one will ever notice.


Bread crumbs can be really expensive, at least two dollars a pound.  When you figure that you can get chicken breasts  and pork loins  for two dollars a pound or less. it’s not  too big of a stretch to discover making your own from the bread ends is a good idea.   Switching from bread crumbs alone to bread meat or make chicken nuggets from scratch to a mixture of equal parts of nuts, parm, and breadcrumbs is a way to reduce carbs and make the dish more healthy.  Winco has real parm cheese and broken nuts cheaper.  Nuts are in the bulk isle so you can I just what you need.

• Cream soup base is another way to control what ingredients you  use and makes a casserole much cheaper.  There are a couple of recipes, you choose the ingredients you want to use. 
• Making your own seasoned rice instead of a box is another way to spend a few minutes and save a lot.   It takes a lot of preservatives out of your diet to make your own mixes.  Measuring things is good  math skills for children.  
• Making some if the things that are easy and not too time consuming frees up money  for the things that are more expensive.  We would much rather have a pound of chicken breast than someone else’s dry bread. 
• Baby carrots are someone’s ugly carrots put  through a machine.  They are more than a dollar a pound.  Five pounds of carrots are 2.28 .   And you get the peelings for stock. 
• Stock can be almost three dollars a quart.   It can cost almost zero.  Again, it is ten minutes of time.  Dump it on an insta pot or a slow cooker and walk away. Vegetable or,chicken stock. 
• There are crusty bread rolls and peasant bread recipes that take minutes and cost fractions of what a loaf of bread costs.  Crusty rolls .21.  No, the decimal is not off. And peasant bread is a quarter.   Salt, water, yeast and flour.   
• Buying dry bean instead of canned beans saves a ton,  I didn’t do that before I got an insta pot. Beans don’t freeze well.  They have a very short  refrigerator life along with rice.   If you have a small family, scratch beans on the stove isn’t practical.  In the insta pot, or takes no more time than opening the can.  We just got beans for .50.  That’s a great price that doesn’t always happen. They can cost upwards of a dollar.  Scratch costs a nickel for the equivalent of a can. 
• Pinto beans are .67 a pound at the dollar tree.  Non gmo, and grown in the USA. 
• Rice when purchased at Costco in a bag costs .02 a serving. A bag of premade seasoned rice can be well over two dollars. Again, less than five minutes in the insta pot.
• Meal plans and carving out an hour a week to clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead saves a lot of time during the dinner hour. Prep ingredients once for the week and make note of things you need to use up.  Make a plan, or plan to fail.   It is just less stressful. 
• Beans are a good way to stretch meat for tacos or even spaghetti .   If you are short on money, adding beans to enchiladas or rice to chicken enchiladas stretches your meat.   
• Stair stepping saves time and money.  That is the term I coined years  ago.  It is making more of something to be used later on the week. Cook once, eat twice.  That chili you had Monday can become a baked potato bar topping on Wednesday. Or a burrito bowl with rice and peppers and lettuce and tomato.   Or, the rice you cooked on Tuesday can be under meat and veggies Tuesday and in a casserole another day.  
• Soup is always a good idea.  Warm, comforting with a piece of hard crusty bread 🥖 and cheap.  Potato soup cost less than a dollar for four servings.  Chicken noodle less than two.  Chili 2.32.   
• Revisit chili or taco meat and beans with cheese, tomato, black olives and peppers on top of tortilla chips.   Mild chilies are .69 a can at Winco.  Double that for the name brand.  So,e product, different label. 
• Best time saver is to cook a batch of ground beef when you get it home.  De fat it, and portion control in bags for the freezer.   It saves countless hours at dinner time. Tacos on ten minutes.   Take it out of the freezer, bang it on the counter or give it ten seconds o the microwave, and place room a small pan with taco seasoning and water.   While it is heating, chop the toppings,  and heat the shells in the microwave.   

Things like taco seasoning, gravy mix, ranch dressing mix can be full of preservatives and cost a dollar an OUNCE.  Make your own.  It is a good lesson in fractions and measurements  for a child,

27.89 a week...bump

So far this month, we have averaged 27.89 a week on groceries.   That’s what can happen when you are on a replentish based grocery shopping mantra instead of a panic grocery shopping mantra.  Instead of buying your groceries one week at a time or one day at a time and looking at a barren refrigerator and cupboards, you replentish  what you have used from a basic, calculated ingredient supply.

It is based on the same premise of a stockbroker.  You wouldn’t trust a stockbroker that bought stocks  when they were at their highest, and sold them when they were at their lowest .  Replenish grocery shopping buys your stable items when they are at their lowest, and eats them when they are at their highest,   You buy produce that is in season.  It just makes sense.

Our grocery bill has been less than thirty dollars a week, until this week.  I was waiting for months now for a case lot sale.   It never happened.  But, this week beans and tomatoes were .50 a can at Fred Meyers.  It was a little blurb on the ad.  Certainly not front and center.  I knew we needed to look for diced tomatoes because the designated shelf space for tomatoes was showing white.  LOL

I stocked diced tomatoes and some canned beans,  I make dried beans, but it is a good thing to have some canned in case the power goes out.  That happened this week, but it was back on by morning,
I bought black and garbanzo beans because those dry beans are expensive and hard to find,

Tomorrow, bacon and Yoplait is in sale cheap at the Kroger stores.  I will take advantage of that too.
That’s how we eat on less than four dollars a day and eat well.

It is not necessarily what you buy as much as it is when and where you buy it.  Prices can be as much as a two dollar spread on the same exact item.  It has nothing to do with labor costs, both stores employees belong  to the same labor union.  It pays to know your prices on the things you buy on a regular basis.   I am not worried about that can of cranberry sauce I buy once a year, but I am worried about that can of diced tomatoes that I probably use four of per week.

Stocking basic food enough for a month to six weeks just makes sense. Your life expectancy is impacted by whether or not you have food in the house.  Food anxiety is a real thing and it isn’t good.

Unless you are in an area like NY city where space is at a premium, you should be able on a regular food budget to stock a pantry.  If we can do it on four dollars a day, anyone with a regular paycheck or snap money can too.   Rice. Beans, flour, tomatoes, pasta, pasta sauce, canned or frozen vegetables, some canned fish or chicken.  It is enough to get you by if you need to.   Don't depend on someone else to bail you out in an emergency.  They might not be able to bail themselves out.

Hauls to 2/20. 27.89 week.

QFC

Eggs .99
Yoplait .50
Blueberries 3.99
Tomatoes 2.50
Milk .99
Total 10.96


Costco
Mozzarella cheese 5 lbs 10.79
Bacon 13.99

35.74 total

Winco
Roma tomatoes .88
Naval oranges. .78
Bell peppers .98
Grapes  1.98
Cucumbers .48
Apples .98
Ice cream 2.98
Tortilla chips .98
Hormel ham cubes 2.48
Diced tomatoes .58
Tortillas. (20) 1.48
Total 28.67

Grand total 64.41