One way to do it.

Lost, overwhelmed..  You have a hundred dollars a month for food and incidentals.    How do you start.  

Buy basics you can do a lot with.  Buy bulk of those things.  Ifmyoumdimt have enough money for everything bulk in one month, buy one thing bulk, fill  in with a smaller amount of the rest.

• Rice at Costco - 25 pounds is about 8.00
• Beans - they are a dollar for 1.5 pounds at the dollar tree.   
• Cheese.  As expensive as you can find,  buy a Mexican blend to go with everything.    
• Eggs, a whole , Cheap protein that is recommended for your RDA of protein.   
• 2 nice fat chickens.    
• Oatmeal.   It's 7.99 at Costco for ten pounds.       It's a dollar a pound at the dollar tree for a finer grained oatmeal.  Another healthy cheap source of good nutrition.  
• Flour and bulk yeast.    Our Winco has a bulk isle and you can buy it by the ounce if you,need to.    

You can make a multitude of things from these basics.    Take fifty dollars and do your best to get as much of these in bulk.   Take the rest and buy dairy, produce, and canned tomatoes to fill in,  meal plan,   Stair step .   Make small batches of beans and rice so they don't go bad before you eat them up.    

One cup of beans makes three cups.    In bulk, a serving of rice is three cents a serving of beans is four cents.  (1/2 cup at this time) prices fluctuate.   

Scratch cook.    There are recipes in the Internet and on Pinterest for almost everything,   Take easy ones.    

One fat chicken can make 8 meals for two people.    The RDA for protein is 6 ounces a day and that should include eggs.    

• Breakfast : eggs, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, breakfast burrito. 
• Lunch - leftovers or homemade soup.  Bread 
• Dinner : bean and cheese burritos, chicken soup, chicken casserole with rice or homemade noodles., impossible pie, stirfry, chilli, pizza, sliced chicken breast with rice and veggies. to name  a few . 

By purchasing bulk , even if you have to rotate the bulk per month, you,can stretch your dollars and maybe fill in other meats other months.   Chicken, sausage,  pasta ( I pay less than a dollar - use coupons ) get pasta with extra fiber or veggies of possible .   

Buy fruit and veggies in season.   Don't hesitate to return that bag of potatoes that goes bad in two days.    

• .    

My budget fell apart.- now what do I do ?

Answer to my budget fell apart, now what do I do!

• Don't be afraid to ask for help.   Some cities have a number where you can call for referrals.   
• Coupons are free and you can get them, from friends or neighbors or the recycle bin.   Some come in the mail. With  coupons, you can  get personal  products for free or nearly free.   You do have to pay the applicable sales tax .  
• Food can be greatly reduced with coupons too.   Look for sales. Go  to more than one grocery store.    Look in the bins where they keep managers specials..   Don't overbuy and eat it immediately-- like that day or cook it and freeze it,   
• Rice and beans are a good and can be bought in bulk cheap.   Rice is .03 a serving: beans are four.   
• Soups  are a good way to stretch and feed you for many meals.   
• Overstock grocery stores sometimes are resources for inexpensive  food.   Some is near pull date, but still good.  Use it soon.   
• Scratch cook.   Don't be afraid to De-bone  chicken, or chop meat, or make bread.   There are recipes for ez breads out there.    
• Pinterest is full of recipes and ideas for cheap meals.  
• Know your prices and only buy things that are the cheapest price they can be.   
• Eat foods high in protein and high in fiber for breakfast,  you will stay fuller, longer- like an egg and a bowl of oatmeal.   
• Sign  up for all the grocery stores rewards cards.  Sometimes  they offer free food or basket 
• coupons. 
• Buy the basics first--things  you can make a multitude of meals from -- flour, beans, rice, eggs, cheese. Oatmeal, a couple of chickens on sale.    Add diced  tomatoes and dairy and vegetables as you go.      
• Use Ibotta to get rebates from things you buy.   There are several companies that will give you rebates and you can use more than one.   That would pay for things like socks , personal products , etc.  
• get down to no frills basics.   

Hope this helps !    

• 
  

Dinner , yes chicken dinner.

We had stir fry chicken dinner.   I cooked a pound if chicken breast that Had de-boned  and purchased for a less than a dollar a pound,    I added frozen stir fry veggies that were .66 at QFC and a package of top ramen that I got for .17,   Two of us ate and there is still, enough for two more meals.    1.84 .  

Lunch was a California flat bread pizza that we got for free from QFC.

Chicken stir fry - 1.83 for the pam

Free lunch!   

Happy labor Day!

It's Monday,    Our week is unusual this week, hard to  keep the days straight,   We did go to Fred Meyers yesterday because they have a really really good dairy sale on.    With higher prices looming, I want to be prepared to soften the blow.    That doesn't mean I'm going to hoard dairy; but, rather, I'm going to keep our stock up to the self imposed limit.  

Yogurt is fifty cents and I had a coupon that made it .30.  I bought five.  
I bought the six 1/2 of cheeses that were the limit.    I kept enough to FIL, our cheese canister in the fridge and froze the rest.    I bought amvarietynofmthngsmthatyiumatia had white cheese for pizzas and yellow for casseroles.   1.98 a pound.  
Sour cream was a dollar.    
I bought milk, and  chocolate milk for the granddaughter.    That's 1.5 gallons.    Probably,enough to last us until it goes on sale again.   2.00 a gallon

I had 1-1/2 dozen eggs, and I got another 1-1/2 dozen for a dollar.   We will have breakfast for dinner and I have been keeping us in a desert on the counter.     It usually lasts us most of a week.  

Monday is kitchen management day.   Time to clean the refrigerator and Oreo anything that needs to be prepped.    It makes dinner time a whole lot more manageable.    It's hectic here around meal time like most households I imagine especially,when school starts and kids are anxious to tell all about their day.   I want it all:  good scratch meals and the time to spend with children before the get ready for bed time.   Kitchen prep makes the process smoother.    I'm not flying by the seat of my pants and throwing a dinner together at the last minute: that just spells S T R E S S to me.  

1. Clean the refrigerator door baskets.  I noticed that the condiment one is nasty.   The oven needs a good clean too.    
2. Go over the menu plan and list and prep anything that I can ahead.   
3. Number the things in the fridge.   I saw this on a u tube and it makes good sense.  This when implemented, makes sure you eat the oldest of anything first.    What we used to call grease pencils are cheap at the tree.    
4. Make a desert.   I'm going to make an apple bread and probably take granddaughter along for the ride.  I got apples for a dollar a pound at Winco.   
5. Wash the kitchen floor.    I got a " broom" at QFC for 1/2 price.   It made it about six dollars.    The head is fixed to take any kind of cloth you want to put on in it.  It co,ex with two micro fiber cloths, but I can see a dryer sheet when I need to kick up glitter.    My son and granddaughter glitter  fiends!   LOL.  I don't use dryer sheets, they are supposed to wreck your dryer.    But, I get them from the dollar tree just for when I need to pick up e,bossing powder or glitter.    The stuff is incideous amd multiplying like rabbits.!    LOL.  

Kitchen management is a tool to make your meal time more pleasant and less stressful and still cook from scratch.    Meal plans are a close second.    

Planning a shopping trip is a tool to lower your food bill .    

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

Better, cheaper. Faster.    Better food, cheaper food, and get out of the kitchen so you can spend more time with family or doing what you want to do.   

Next weeks meal plans,

Meal  plans are done.    The RDA for protein is 6 ounces, part if which should be eggs.   Meal plans are listed ,but not always eaten in the order listed.    Most generally I use a protein based matrix so that we  eat a varied diet.

1. Breakfast 4 dinner 
2. Pizza    - homemade crust. 
3. Mac and cheese ( homemade) peas and carrots - Barilla pasta is .75with coupons 
4. Stir fry chicken with noodles 
5. Shepard's pie.    
6. Tuna casserole, peas -
7. Sausage and sauerkraut.   Rolls 

Notes 

1) eggs continue to be inexpensive so far.   Keeping a small amount ahead will at least soften the blow when the effects of the buyout may hit.   I found a waffle recipe that uses a cake mix.   We have cake mixes I got on sale.    Orange juice is a dollar at Freddies this week.    

2) Homemade pizza crust is .30 and really easy.   My recipe calls for loading flour, yeast and salt into the food processor, blending for a few seconds, pouring warm water and olive oil into the flour mixture while the processor is working until the mixture forms a ball.  That's it,   Take it out and knead it a couple of times in a floured board or counter, and place in a oiled bowl for ten minutes.    You're ready to roll.    Motts is two dollars a pound at Costco.  Pepperoni is .50 (instead of 3.00) for the same brand at the tree with coupons.   

  It is a misconception that it saves money to grate your own cheese.  Check the prices.    The bigger the sack the lower the price not necessarily true either,   Cheese is .99 for 8 ounces this week at Freddies.   Some packages are six ounces, watch the packages.  Base your purchases on price per pound.   A pound of cheese is a pound of cheese, whatever shape it's in.   We toured the Tillamook factory.   They make big blocks of cheese.   Then they put it in a machine and use what looks like a giant cheese slicer- with metal strings and cut it into the two pound bricks.   Whatever is left over they put into a big bus- boy tray and send to be grated.    

3) Mac and cheese is homemade.  Cheese is another thing to stock while the prices are low.    Grated cheese freezes well and I'm doing a WAG that the buyout will result in higher prices.   I got Barilla pasta for .75 each at the tree with a coupon.    I make a white sauce myself from a homemade mix that has low sodium chicken stock and non fat dry milk.    You can also make it scratch with a mixture of butter and olive oil, flour, and chicken stock and milk to make it more healthy.    Pasta is 1.59 at QFC. Seventy-five cents is less than 1/2 price.    

4) chicken stir fry.   I de-boned my chicken breasts and freeze them individually pin quart bags and then multiples in a gallon bag. a chicken breast cooked in a pressure cooker in 8 minutes.    Stir fry veggies were 66 at QFC a few weeks ago.    Ramen noodles are cheapest at Winco - (.17)  I don't use the flavor packet that is full of salt.    

5) Shepherds Pie - I've never made it, but I see a recipe and I have already cooked hamburger and instant mashed potatoes.    Flavored instant mashed potatoes are a good go to and are cheapest at

Winco.   

6) Tuna  casserole.   I always buy my tuna at Costco.   It's not cheap, but well worth the splurge.    Again homemade white sauce and I add some kind of a green vegetable.   I was in the hospital one time when the children were young,  my husband called me to ask how to make tuna casserole.   I told him to boil the noodles, use cream of mushroom soup, and add drained tuna and something green ( like peas or peas  and carrots ).  Hating green veggies, he took green to be chopped pickles! Lol 

7) Sausage  and sauerkraut.  Sauerkraut in glass jars are cheap at Winco.   I drain and rinse and add apple to cut the acidity.    The sausage was a dollar at QFC with a coupon and the buy 5, save 5.   Not everything in the ad was a good buy, a lot of it was junk food.    But, I used coupons and bought cereal    For a charity .    You could stock cereal of your family ate cold cereal.   We tend to eat oatmeal-- even grandchild.    

Knowing your prices and buying accordingly is the best way to cut your food bill.  You can eat well on four dollars or less.   This week, I must have been in a comfort food mood.    Looking at the plan in retrospect.    I tend to use the tried and true and make it with less fat, sugar, and salt and avoid hydrogenated oils.   

Anything you want  to eat, someone will tell you it's bad for you.  Of you eat too much kale , you can get lead poisoning.

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

You eat first with your eyes.  Some of the "healthy " foods honestly, look like someone has already eaten them or like dog poop.    My take is to eat the tried and true.   Just eat moderation and make it as healthy as possible , reducing fat, salt, sugar and hydrogenated oils. It he,so to make as much as possible from scratch.   Grandmas cooking with bacon drippings. Shortening and mass sugar was not healthy.   You can still find that cooking in u tube.   It is possible to cook tasty regular food more healthy and not spend the entire day in the kitchen.   Our grandmothers didn't have a lot of outside activities. They had small houses so there wasn't a lot to clean.  They didn't work outside the home.   They cooked.  all day.  Our lifestyle is not conducive of that.  We do have tools these days to make the job of scratch cooking easier.    And, we can rethink retro recipes to make them tasty and more healthy.    



Better, cheaper, faster 
Four plus one is five : Four people. One meal, Five  bucks.    

Dinner

White fish , mixed veggies and Spanish rice.    

Freddies tomorrow ad

Unlike last week, this Sunday ad is good.

Sunday and Monday only 

Nathan's hot dogs ( note both Nathan's and nneed national have less garbage in them.  Hebrew national has soy based product and Nathan's has corn.   Nathan's is the best of the two evils.    
2/4
Another nite, they  get you with the buns.   Winco is the cheapest on buns, or you can make them pigs in blankets.   

Corn on cob 3/1 

Watermelon 3.99

Some will say all of this isn't good for you.   Perhaps only for picnic holiday and then back to a better diet.   

Regular ad.   

18  eggs .99
Kroger shredded cheese .99 - watch and get the 8 ounce bags!
Milk .99
Yoplait yogurt 10/5 - note there are coupons for another .20 off each
Vegetables, tomatoes,means 2/1 limit 6@@
Sour cream/'cottage cheese .99@@
La croix  water 2/5@@
Foster farms chicken, while or parts .87

My rotation protein would be eggs and beans.   Pinto beans are .75 lb in a four pound bag at grocery outlet.    They are .67 a pound in a 1.5 pound bag at the dollar tree.   Seems Kroger has all but quit carrying them, amd they are a much higher price at Winco, I'm seeing what seems to be a trend and I would be stocking some.

Eggs are one of the USDA bailouts.   18 count per dollar at Fred Meyer is probably the lowest you are going  to see .   Breakfast for dinner is a good alternative.  

Ditto cheese at .99 a half pound,    Cheese freezes.   That is less than two dollars a pound.    I would buy the six limit and freeze.

Dinner - well kinda

What's left of dinner.    I forgot to take the picture before we ate.   LOL.  

We had potatoes,radishes, and cauliflower roasted with sausage.   

2.25 fed four of us,    

Book and sea salt

Testing new pic program.   

Book with many ide as at the dollar tree.   

Also Himalayan sea salt  in a bigger grinder than Costco's at dollar tree.   

Reading the book, I am seeing many recipes that, indeed can be made for five dollars or less.   There seem however, some that cannot.  I think some can be adapted to make them a five dollar or less dinner.   Phyllo dough is too expensive to make a dinner with it and still keep the cost down,   A pie crust recipe should, however, do the trick.    

Rice, brown rice,beans, cheese, hamburger occasionally, chicken, pork, ham cubes, eggs, all sources of protein and  are inexpensive at this point in time.  

Fill in with vegetables in season amd dairy.   

Cooking vegetarian a couple times a week will reduce your average meal cost.   

Book and sea salt

Testing new pic program.   

Book with many ide as at the dollar tree.   

Also Himalayan sea salt  in a bigger grinder than Costco's at dollar tree.   

Hauls......groceries for the week are done.

We had to go to town on another errand or two.  Grandpas flip phone needed a decent funeral.    It just died.   Anyway, we went to dollar tree and grocery outlet.  

At dollar tree I got

•  15 pounds of pinto beans 
• Brown n serve bread.   
• 4 Barilla pasta : paid for three using a dollar off coupon.    (.75) 
• Delicious five dollar dinners book.   

 Total on food 5.00

At grocery outlet I got 

• 4 pounds of pinto beans 2.99
• 2 sugar free cake mixes.    

Total spend 5.00

Total for the week 31.69

Winco haul

Since Winco has no ads, you just have to go and know your prices.  

Eggs, 18 count 1.44.      18 eggs were less than 1.5 times the cost of a dozen.    Since I suspect the cost of eggs to go up, at least maybe I can suspend the sticker shock a little of o keep a supply.  

Green grapes,.99.   They looked really bog and fresh,  

Gala apples.  .99.  Some of,the, had pimctire spots . You have to pick  through.

Whole wheat bread 1.60

Winco green chilies - mild.   .58 - far cheaper than any other store.  - like about a dollar .

Diced tomatoes - .58.   I'd rather lay fifty cents, but far cheaper than 1.59.  After cleaning the pantry, I discovered we were running short.    I rearranged the pantry and made room for more on the shelf and purged some of the beans.

Bottle of lemon juice - 2.14. - by far the cheapest way to get lemon juice.   Lemons are expensive and don't look that great.  

Winco coffee - 5.48 - cheapest price around.   We are not coffee snobs, as you can tell.  

Chicken noodle soup. .75.  Less coupons for .40 off three.  

Credit for bags .18.  

Total 21.6

Cantaloupe continues to be cheap by the pound.
Steak was also very reasonable.  
Sour cream and cottage cheese were pennies different than Fred Meyer sale price .
Canned veggies were 58

On another note. I took some inventory and cleaned the pantry.  Thing were just put in there and I like things in  the pantry and fridge grouped together.    It keeps you from thinking you are out of something and then finding another one in the back corner.    

It told me we have plenty of whole black olives, and not enough of tomatoes.     I reduced the amount of canned beans. I am going to using dry beans since I discovered I can cook them without soaking in
the pressure cooker for as little as a cup that makes three cups.    By rearranging and organizing I got almost everything off the floor and room for canisters of dried beans.    I still want cans for emergencies and times when I don't have an hour to cook beans.    It only takes 28 minutes, but it has to have time to come to pressure, and time to release pressure.  Beans need to release on their own and not be nudged into it!  

Before the pressure cooker. I would have not cooked beans,  it is to time consuming to cook a cup of beans from scratch and we can't use a whole stock lot of beans before they go bad.    Beans and rice
have a very short fridge life.    I'm not going to compromise my family's health to save ten cents and I don't want to waste and throw out.  

A serving of rice costs .03 and a serving of beans cost .04.    I get beans at grocery outlet.    The price seems to be going up and Kroger barely carries them.    They are close to .90 at Wimco a pound and I can still get beans for 1.00 for a pound and a half.    That's down from two pounds earlier im the year.
They are cheaper at Costco in bulk but we can't use a enormous bag of beans.    I do get bulk rice at Costco. We use a lot of rice and it doesn't go bad.  

I spend average of seventy five dollars a week.    Basically for three of us,    The USDA stats for my husband and I is closer to a hundred.    That is for food eaten at home,    I spend seventy five and stock.    I do that by never paying full price for food.   In fact, I usually pay 50 percent less or more.  

We aren't on snap, but we eat for less than snap.    I, not going to tell you that I snap my fingers and food appears in the pantry, catalogued and ready to eat.    I spent  an hour yesterday printing 2 sets of coupons.  That would have been a lot less time , but my computer wouldn't cooperate, it kept hanging and Internet explorer kept quitting .    That will be about it for couponing.    I will glance at the inserts and file them.   Favado at a quick glance before shopping will tell me if there  is a coupon on something on my list.     Ibotta will tell me of something I bought has a rebate.  

I balance my time by spending  more time planning and shopping, and less time cooking,  there are many ways you can cook scratch, without standing in your feet for hours.  

If you have something you want addressed on the blog, please feel free to comment.


Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a different perspectives. 

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food  for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it  goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you  use  on a weekly basis. 

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for a month or for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week. 
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level. 

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food.   This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget.   You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by cooking more efficiently. 

 Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not hard.    

Alberways and QFC

the ads
QFC

Peaches 1.28
Peppers. English cucumbers .99
Watermelons 2/4
Tillamook cheese 5.99


Buy 5, save 5  - net prices

Ritz crackers 1.69
Birds eye veggies ,99
General Mills cereal 1.29
Foster farms crispy strips 5.99

Eckrich smokes sausage 1.99 - plus in the mail with the ads, coupon for BOGO.   Nets 1.00 per package

Raspberries 2/5


Alberways

Grapes .99
Tillamook cheese -2ln 5.49@@


Five dollar Friday
Corn (10)
Hormel pork tenderloin

About it.    Traditionally, holiday weekends are not the best "buy" weekends,  

Whats for dinner.?

Spicy chicken tomato soup .   I added chopped tomatoes because it looked to pasty to me.   Sori joked with parm cheese.   Dinner rolls from the dollar store.    

Winner, winner, not chicken dinner!

Last night we had a taco boat, not fried - refried beans, and rice.    I saved some peppers  and some of the rice for the spicy chicken soup for tonight.  Waste not, want not.

I saw a lady on U-tube make bread sticks from pizza dough,   ( living on a dime ) she added white to the tops. I think I'll add some melted butter and finely grated parm.   It should be a good project for granddaughter and I .   She will probably enjoy rolling them out.    She also loves soup.    The soup recipe is a Taste  of Home.    When I wrote  for them, they posted the recipe on the Internet.    This one could be there.    http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/quick-and-spicy-chicken-rice-soup

I found room for the pinto beans  in the cupboard rather than the pantry because I use them a lot.   The price of beans has gone up.  They are still cheapest at the dollar tree  except maybe Costco in bulk.   I haven't eaten down the canned supply yet, so that's not happening,    I do intend to keep a few cans.for emergency and as my daughter put it, sometimes,  you may not have an hour to cook beans,

Being in transition is hard for the pantry organization.
We are so lucky to have a closet full of food.     I got two packages of pronto speghetti from the dollar tree yesterday.  I did pay a dollar, because you can only use two printed coupons per day, and  door coupons total per family per day.    I used two coupons for puffs.  They are a smaller box count, buy they are better quality and with a coupon, they are .75 .   I have a coupon that is a dollar off of four.    Thinking about this, a .75 box of speghetti, a .85 cent can of pasta sauce, and package of meatballs would put dinner on the table for 2.60 for a family of four.   Add some green beans for .50 and some bread sticks for .15.   Total 3.25.  For the three of us, I can save so,e for lunch the next day. Or freeze some for a dinner.    for granddaughter when we are going out or she doesn't like our dinner.   And, it cooks in ten minutes flat.  

On another note, we did  go to the dollar tree.   I wanted brown n serve rolls for meatball subs.   There are six to a package, they usually come in on Mondays, they are no GMO, no artificial. Easy, Peasy.  They also come in two thin baguettes.   I haven't found a good baguette recipe yet.  

They also have what looks like a light switch.   It runs on batteries and I plan to out it on the utility closet so I can see on there.    I keep the staging things for the dining table, vases, placemats, flower arranging supplies, and  the mops and vacuume cleaner.  
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a different perspectives. 

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food  for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it  goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you  use  on a weekly basis. 

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week. 
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level. 

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food.   This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget.   You spend more time on the 
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently. 

 Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending

Clark Howard and Jesse jones

I love Jesse Jones .   He helped my daughter with a sticky situation with a health club and we truly appreciate it.  

The  what looked like costco article about bulk foods was from Clark Howard.   I can't agree with most of what was said.  To be fair, this person may very well  live in a different part of the country,    I am , many of you know, a big fan of buying in bulk and stocking a pantry.  My mantra  is to pay the very least you can for a product.   Buy quality, buy it on sale, preferably with some kind of a coupon.    Most of what we buy is 50-68 or more percent off. We eat for less than what most people spend on their morning coffee at the big bucks store.   Buying good food cheap is my thing: it's just what I do.

My take on her list of bulk foods to buy

1) cheese.   I almost never pay 2.75 a pound for regular cheese.    Costco has motts for 2.00: Mexican blend closer to 2.35 .  Their blue cheese is a remarkable price.    Today.   All bets are off when the government buy out has happened  and we see the consequences. 
I paid 1.98 a pound last week at Safeways and got a twenty percent basket coupon on it as well.

2) spices.     Some large bottle spices at Costco are a deal especially if it's a spice that you use a lot.   I suspect Italian -and Mexican typical spices are popular as well as Asian in some families. Spices that you use less often and expensive  spices, you are better off getting on the bulk isle at Winco.  A one inch type "jar" of dill was over six dollars.   Enough to fill the "jar" in the bulk isle was less than .20.
 M.

3) dry pasta . Dry pasta, stored properly, according to a BYU class I listened to, has an eight year shelf life. I always stock pasta.   The big, but here is that I usually pay between .38 and .75 a box ( some 12 oz, some 16) for the pasta in the blue box using sales and coupons.  

4) canned goods are not necessarily a good buy at Costco.    The green beans are comparable and have less sodium.   Canned goods are good to stock, but in moderation especially the canned meat or fish that have a shorter shelf life.    They do have a boxed tomato, roasted red pepper soup that is organic and sells for about 1/2 the price compared to a regular chain grocery store.

5) oats.  Hands down the best  buy of oats I have found at a dollar a pound.   They are a dollar a pound at the store with that name, but the quality isn't as good .   We get ten pounds at a time and use it every day.

6) meat:    And, pray tell, when has anyone got ground beef of any quality for two dollars a pound?   Maybe in 1980!   Winco has had it for 3.18 a pound for 7 percent fat.   I don't find Costco meat  cheaper except for sausage in chubs and bacon.    Costco wholesale was cheaper, but I didn't like the texture.

7) grouping together produce: onions and peppers, strawberries and apples.    The strawberries I saw were past their prime and the apples I bought were in fact rotten.   I should have taken them back.   I have had strawberries that were good before, but the price of apples is prohibitive.   I can't pay almost  a buck an apple.   Produce at other places and the fresh food market is cheaper and you can pick your item,so you don't pay for one bad piece, jacking up the price.   Bananas are , hands  down ( pardon the pun) the Best Buy around as well as the baby romaine.   It's less expensive  and lasts longer


Things to stock :  Rice, beans, oatmeal, Popcorn.  Frozen veggies in five pound bags.

Best buys at Costco on butter, cottage cheese and sour cream.

I shop at Costco.   We love Costco.




Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a different perspectives. 

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food  for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you  use  on a weekly basis. 

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week. 
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level. 

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food.   This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget.   You spend more time on the 
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently. 

 Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending

1. 
   

Sugar. ....

we all know that sugar is not good for us, or rather, too much sugar is,not good for us.     A conversation with a friend sparked  my curiosity,      I started researching.     ......
Grams of sugar oj ready to eat cereals.    

Corn flakes.  2.7
Honey nitmxheerios. 9
Cheerios 1.2
Cocoa oops 12
Cookie Crisp 9
Raisen bran. 18
Lucky charms 10
Trix 10
Cocoa Puffs 10
Raisen bran crunch 10.5
Rice crispies 3.3
Rice Chex 2.0


Now, the six million dollar question is how many teaspoons of sugar is a kid going to add to a cereal that has no Sugar?     LOL.  

Making the most of a coupon -- not extreme

Making the most of a coupon does not take extreme couponing,  Couponing  has gotten a bad wrap from the tv show.   No one needs to have a whole room in their basement the  or a closet full of pop; and no one needs to buy 70 bottles of red pepper sauce, more? than they would one on a lifetime.  

Couponing responsibly can seriously lower your food bill.   A lot of coupons are for high priced junk food and things you don't need.   But, there are still high value coupons for things you do need.   It doesn't have to take a lot of time.   Spend 20 minutes or so downloading coupons from coupons,com at the beginning of the month.   Coupons come out the first of the month.  Their is a limit on what can print,   The high value ones go  first.   You snooze, you loose.  

I file mine in a binder. I got the binder from the goodwill and I bought baseball card sleeves and photo sleeves.   If you are an occasional couponer, you can use a coupon wallet from the dollar tree.
Take it to the store with you.  You never know when you find a match.

Grouping coupons is what saves  you the most money,   I usually don't plan a shopping trip.   I look at the ads and make a mental note of which store has the most of what I need on sale for the lowest price.   I'm looking for a rotation protein, anything  I am running low on or perishables I need and any staple stock item that's a really good price.  

I go, walk down the isles that are important to me, skip the baby and dog food isles because I don't have a baby or dog .  That cuts time ,   The perimeter of the store  has the most perishable items.  The rest of the store usually has isles you don't need to go down unless you have a special  need.   Skipping those isles saves time.   Be on the lookout for things you buy on a regular basis that may be at a lower price.   When something you need is at a lower price, check your coupon book.   If I need to look or cut a coupon, I tuck my cart into an isle that is less traveled and do it.  The cosmetic or pet food isle usually works.  

The most percentage off is when you can use a basket coupon, a true sale, and manufacturers coupons.   The five for five type sales are the best.   So,stores, I skip them because they are for expensive  drinks and junk food.  But , occasionally , the stars are in alignment and a basket coupon, five for five sake in real food, and manufacturers coupons all come at the same time.   That's when it's important to plan and act.    I have got as much as 78 percent off.

QFC is one of the best places for that kind of a sale.   They let you use the basket coupon first, and then use your manufacturers coupons , and then the five for five rings up last.   Cha Ching!  

Example :

12 ounce boxes of Cheerios are 2.79.  Sale price was 2.29, less the dollar for the "bulk" sale made them 1.29.  Now, add a 1.00 off two coupon and I got them for .79.
I bought four. ( food bank) .
I added a bag of goldfish crackers for .99.

There is usually a few small items priced at a dollar or so to use for fill ins.   I can use goldfish for a little snack for granddaughter, or to float in a bowl of soup to make it more appetizing.
There was no blanket coupon on this sake, but I have done blanket sales with bulk sales before.    It maximizes your discounts.  

Here's the best one I've ever seen.  My sister did it.

6.99  detergent for HD washers.   On sale , less coupon, less basket  coupon, net 1.10.   WOW


Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a different perspectives. 

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food  for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you  use  on a weekly basis. 

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week. 
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level. 

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food.   This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget.   You spend more time on the 
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently. 

 Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending

Leaf frog or stair step.

One kitchen management or quick cooking tool is to leap frog or stair step your meals.   It's an age old trick.    This week, we are having tacos, rice and non-fried refried beans.   We are also having sliced chicken and rice soup.   I can save some of the rice and some ofmthemoeooers from the beans and use  them in the soup.   We are also having a rox medley or pilaf  if you want to be fancy.   Rice and beans have a three day fridge life.   That might be pushing it.   Rice in the rice cooker is a no brainer.   Not fried - refried beans, not so much. Spicy  chicken soup is from taste of home.    Many times you can google it for the recipe.  

Stair stepping or leap frogging is when you save something from one nights dinner and use it for th mn still nights dinner,  it especially is good if you have a small family and need to use up a whole can of something.   Or you can cook once and ise it twice , as in rice or beans.  

It took me a long time to get the refried bean recipe down to 1 cup of beans,   It's just the right amount for a quart deli tub of product.   There are four of us for anything that is vegetable based.  

Just another way to save time and money.


Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a different perspectives. 

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food  for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you  use  on a weekly basis. 

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week. 
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level. 

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food.   This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget.   You spend more time on the 
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently. It also means when payday comes, you still have food in the pantry.   

 Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending

Perfectionist or not so much

moone ever accused me of being s perfectionist.   It's just not my personality,    My Mac and cheese doesn't have to have just the right amount of dark spots on it to be good.    Make look tasty, season it so it tastes good, bit go on to the next thing to do.  I always have a to do list as long as your arm, so perfectionism just slows me down.   

I use spell check. I am writing this in a reader that won't scroll and sometimes I am writing it blind.   It outs words in my mouth.  This thing must have a relationship with chocolate because it says Oreo all the time.   LOL.  I try my best, but I will never live up to the perfectionist.    Ain't gonna happen.    

Today on my list is to 

• Clean myself up 
• Write a blog 
• Do the kitchen management which includes making bread from scratch , washing the f,Ior and fridge, regrouping things on the pantry.    Posting the meals on the fridge.    Posting the sakes slips for food and downloading coupons,   
• Clean my studio and start another inventory section 
• Call the pt and see when my a lot is so I haven't double booked appointments.  
• Find a ride to a meeting 
• Babysit my granddaughter 
• Get the garden cut down and ready for fall.    
• Figure out how a picture works on the blog now that Google changed the program.  
• Figure out how to be able to have both the reader and the printer on wifi at the same time,   Arh!   

Just get it done.    If I had to worry about perfection, I wouldn't get it all done.    I admire perfectionists when it comes to woodworking, or a painting, and we can all strive for it.   But getting things done around the house is not a time  for perfection unless you are getting your house ready to sell.    

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a different perspectives. 

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food  for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you  use  on a weekly basis. 

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week. 
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level. 

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food.   This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget.   You spend more time on the 
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently. 

 Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending

Meal plans and notes

Walking you through the brains .... Behind meal plans.   Not to brag or make this blog all about me,,, bit, rather to help people that may be struggling with the planning oset of meals on the table,     It's a very important step in keeping your cost down.   Of you aren't on the Seattle area, you can use the methodology to make it work for you,   Watching food hauls from other parts of the country, food prices vary, some things are more expensive , some less.   

My rotation.protein for this week would be a 1/2 pork loin from Fred Meyers or the hambirger at Fred Meyers.    

Using the matrix 

1 beef 

1 fish 

3 chicken or pork 

2 vegetarian.   

I have a work sheet I use,  it tells me what we have in the fridge, because I have just cleaned it and made note of things near their pull dates.    The form has two columns on the right side of the paper,  perishables we have normally, and things we need to buy to complete meals.   The left side has boxes for 7 meals and the matrix printed.    It's a simple form made on excel.   

Take a look at your daytimer and note any appointments that will make for a hectic day.   You can plan meals to compensate.    That may be the day you decide to put a chicken noodle soup on the slow cooker early on the morning, or stage ot in the fridge to place on the slow cooker before you leave in the morning.   Find a few minutes on the weekend, if you work, so you can do some kitchen management and get organized.    Wash veggies and prep anything you can ahead of time.  Of you do that part while you are batch cooking your rotation meat, it doesn't take long.   Enlist help if you can. You would be surprised what even a small child can do.   I don't let granddaughter do anything that has sharp or hot connected to it, but she knows how to do a lot.   She loves to cook.   She can make breadcrumbs, roll and fill an pizza. Stir things, butter and top a French bread, hollow out bag gets for meat ball subs.   Just teach them how to scrub their hands well.   I don't let her touch raw meat either. She can also brush the veggies in vinegar water.    It keeps her busy while o do other things.   

Using the matrix ( makes it easy-- less reinventing the wheel ) write down seven meals that fill the matrix and use what you have to use up and the rotation protein you have in the freezer/pantry.   

I have yogurt we need to use up, and sausage I got for a dollar a package.  I try for onkyone or less processed meat a week,    

1. Pizza 
2. Taco salad, beans and rice 
3. Slow cooker chicken noodle soup and cheezy biscuits. 
4. Sausage and roasted root veggies , bread 
5. White fish, rice medley, mixed veggies 
6. Meat ball subs , salad 
7. Breakfast for dinner

Notes : 

Daughter is making pizza from scratch for the first time.    Granddaughter has done it.   

Baby romaine at Costco lasts longer and tastes better amd is cheaper.    Taco meat is ready made in the freezer from batch cooking.    Rice in the rice cooker, non fried, refried beans from scratch.    

Chicken noodle soup from stock in the freezer and fresh veggies and bulk noodles.   To,e to portion control the noodles into bags.  Cheezy biscuits are Bisquick ( or homemade baking mix) biscuits rolled out like a jelly roll.   Spread with cheese and rolled up like a jelly roll, sliced and baked.   

Oven roasted veggies : potato, carrots. Radishes  sausage was a dollar at QFC.   We will use. 1/2 of one.   Make scratch bread 

Rice medley is rice made from a home made mix ( herbs and chicken stock) frozen veggies ( .33) 

Bake fish 

Meat ball subs - meat balls from batch cooking or from the freezer case I got for .98 a short pound.  

Hallow out brown and serve rolls ( dollar tree, no GMO, no artificial ingredients ) fill with meatballs that are dressed with BBQ sauce ( .55 beginning of season with coupons and sale) Fred Meyers .79 . 

Breakfast 4 dinner.     79 eggs , .30 yogurt parfaits , and English muffins (1.67 a doz -Fred Meyers  or home made muffins.   Scratch muffin formula from Katie cooks and crafts u tube or mix from dollar tree with yogurt or substitute sour cream.  

Variety, good food, easy to make. Cheap?    

Better, cheaper, faster 

4 plus 1 is five. Four people, ome meal, five bucks.   

.

The Freddies ad

Tomorrows ad


Ground beef - 10 percent fat.  3.90

Grapes .99

Goldfish .99

Pears .99

Corn 3/1

Coupons coupons coupons - in ad

Ritz  crackers 3/5
Best foods 2.49
Sweet baby rays sauce .79
Sour cream/ cottage cheese 2/4
Yoban coffe 6.99

Pork loin 1.99 ( I'd rather pay 1.69, but that's not bad.

New ads coming

Let's talk meal plans.   I have an app that I subscribe to called deals to meals.   It's five dollars a month,  I have to pull ot up every time I use it and have forgotten about it,   I'll leave it on my reader now. E  I think it was interesting that they took ordinary food that I already cook and gave it fancy names.    I just cook.    Plain  and simple cook.  I add seasonings, etc, but have never thought to add fancy names to make things look more interesting,    Cheeseburger macaroni is goulash?   A rice medley is rice pilaf?    Go figure.

I am trying to write on a level that everyone, regardless of their educational experience, can understand,   Eating for four dollar or less a day is a lesson in frugality, and imagination.    No, you don't have to imagine the food! LOL.   But, Pinterest and on line cookbooks are full of new ways to cook old food.    It's getting down to basics.    Junk food and processed food is for the most part not part of this life.    That's a good thing.    That kind of food , everyone will admit , is not good for you.  
It forces you to buy basics and cook basics.   Every family has their favorites and I can't address ethnic foods, because it's not my expertise.    I can not address the basics that I know.   Still, the basics of eating on the cheap is based on shopping wisely with every tool you can legitimately use to make good food happen in your dinner table.  

I say legitimately.  Obvious midnight gardening from your neighbors garden isn't legitimate.
There is a fine line.   Some things are legal, but not ethical.    I bought eight boxes of sale cereal this week.  For my own use, it would not be  ethical.    We can't use eight boxes of cereal,they would go
to waste, and someone else who needed them would not get them,   Truth is, I bought them for children that needed food. ( basically a food bank) .   That changes the rules.  

You have to adhere to the coupon rules.    Many stores have rules.   When I wanted to buy multiples of tuna, I asked before if I could because they were going to basically a food bank.   If I was purchasing them for our use, I would have honored the six limit.    Cheating the system just hurts someone else.   You are allowed two coupons per household when downloading from your computer. Some greedy people will have more than one printer set up and print multiples.    It's somewhat legal, but not ethical.

We don't need to take more than we can use before it goes bad.    Check the shelf life and judge accordingly based on the amount you family will eat in a given week.    I tend to stick more heavy than some,   I'm paying 50-70 percent less than a normal price for things.  No bank or safe investment I know will give me 50 percent on my money,   Some seniors on medicare hit  the donut hole : that's where you have used their limit on meds including your copay, and the med bill is on you.    One of my meds is 530.00 a month.   If I stock high, we can eat from the pantry and have the money for the meds.

Don't buy something just because its on sale. Identify the things you need to make the normal meals you cook.   Write a list.   For is it is, black olives. Diced tomatoes , beans, rice, some chicken noodle soup, some boxed tomato soup, pasta, instant mashed potatoes, dried beans, minced milk peppers, small tomato sauce, ramen noodles. Green beans, small amount of corn.,

Some things I just replace when I'm down to two and start looking for a sale,   Some things like catchup  and baking supplies, I buy seasonably - enough for the year because they are at their lowest price once a year.    Some things I have allocated a certain amount of shelf space and when I see white shelf, it's time to look for a sale.


Being flexible with your meals based on a really good sale helps.   I found sausage on a buy 5 things, save five dollars sale.   It was legitimately 2.99.  Less a dollar made it 1.99- the deal turner eas that it had a dollar instant coupon on it.   That made enough meat for two of us for a meal .50.   It doesn't get much cheaper than that unless you count the free one we got last week.
I do try to limit our processed meats to once a week or less.

Incorporating what on sake and produce in season goes a long way to reducing your food bill.

QFC haul.

I went to QFC.    Savings was 66 percent, or two thi do off.   I also got a .75 Ibotta on caramels.   U hoo.  I am at 25.00 and get a Amazon gift card!     Basically, that more than makes this weeks haul FREE,  

Ok. Free angel food cake
Ritz bacon crackers 1.69
Werthers original candy retail 2.99 paid .99 less the .75
Sausage, 2.99 less 1.00 on the five for five , less a dollar coupon on the meat.   Nets 100 for two meals.
Goldfish parm crackers retail 2.50, paid .99
Raspberries (2) @1.88
Frozen peas .99
Tomatoes .99 lb
Cheerios 4@ .79. 12 ounces.   Whole  grain , honey nut. - for backpack kids
Pickles 2.50
Freschetta pizza 4.29

Savings 46.58
Paid 23.03
66 percent savings.
You are getting  69.61 worth of food for 22.28.
That's how yougert well on three dollars a day.

Tonight we are having shrimp stir fry,    I can't post pics lately because my phone dies a lot and it the only way I can post a picture on the blog.



Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a different perspectives. 

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food  for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you  use  on a weekly basis. 

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week. 
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level. 

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food.   This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget.   You spend more time on the 
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently. 

 Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending

Freaky Friday!

Recap  in a nutshell.    The basics of groceries on the cheap in bullets.  

1. Spend less, eat  more 
2. Stock the things that you use on a regular basis when they are at a RBP. 
3. Know your prices on the things that you use in a regular basis and how much you typically use. 
4. Base your stock levels on when things go on sale Hor pick a time- based limit.   If you use two cans of tomatoes a week, and you want to keep a three month supply, you need 24 cans. 
5. Identify the proteins your family likes.    Ours are eggs, cheese, chicken, pork, beef, rice and beans.     
6. Buy the amount you will use  of that protein on a rotation basis based on grocery chain store sales.    In other words, if chicken is .77 a pound, and you eat it twice a week, you need enough chicken to feed your family 8 times.    In our case, that's two chickens.   
7. If  appropriate, when you get home or shortly after, batch cook if needed and portion control in freezer containers or bags , label and freeze.    A standard refrigerator freezer will hold a small families month of food,   It's hard to look at a three pound hunk of ground beef and do something with it frozen.   Conversely. Taking a small bag out of the freezer and making tacos is a lot easier and there is no waste.    
8. Waste not, want not,   Try to use every bit of something,  look for recipes if you are stumped. Berry Crocker on line cookbook is free and you can plug in what you have, and  find recipes when you are bored with the same old. 
9. Set limits.    Don't buy something just because you are hungry for it or it looks good    Have a top dollar you are willing to pay for something : 1.00 for fresh veggies, two dollars for meat, have a target amount on basic things and try to stick at or lower.    .50 for tomatoes, beans, pasta can be had for under a dollar-  with coupons closer to .50.   
10. Food is everywhere.  At overstock stores, and chain stores, and warehouse stores.   Know which ones on your area have the cheapest price on the things you buy.  Our Costco has bananas the cheapest and the price doesn't fluctuate.    Usually a three pound bag has more than three pounds    Look for a bag without single bananas on it. 
11. You No one store has the best buys on everything,   Shop two stores a week if possible,   Some parts of the country inky have one store, so consider carpooling with a friend or neighbor and getting the store flyer on line or sent to you. 
12. Learn your stores layout so you can get in and get out.   Taking another family member is a mistake the more people you take with you the more money you will spend.  Children  are a distraction .   You can't do math with a screaming kid.    When we have grandchild, grampa takes her in a car cart and looks for the sale plus coupon things at one me of the store while I work the produce and meat section.    
13. Use every available means to legally to  reduce your bill.    Sales, coupons, Ibotta, store reward cards, basket savings coupons.   Matching a sale, manufacturers coupon, and basket coupon and spending just the top amount in the basket coupon is the best way to stretch your dollar and  maximize your percentage off.   By using every available means, we had dinner for two of us for .....05.    No typo there, a nickel.    It pays to pay attention. 
14. Percentages off are deceiving,   At a high end store, it will look like you are getting a lot off, but you could be spending what amounts to your regular price   It boils down to the bottom line again    Only buy something if the bottom line is at or less than your target price.  Target price has no relationship to the store with the red balls.    Obviously, you can't skip eggs and a few things, even if the prevailing price is high.   Then your best bet is to use less   This, we eat less eggs on the winter, and more in the summer  After doing this for a while. It doesn't take a lot more time than if you buy weekly for daily groceries paycheck to paycheck and you always have food in the pantry.    We have actually has  bouncing  pay checks before.   Any amount of things can go wrong and a stock of food can bridge a lot.    No child should suffer the insecurity of having nothing in the house to eat.  
15. Make up the difference in time management by using kitchen management.    Cook efficiently. Try to get appliances that help you.   Some things can be bought at garage sales or estate sales, or you can let it known in your circles that you are looking for them.  Someone might find one and tell you about it.   It doesn't happen overnight, but the right equipment really helps.   Save up for it.   More time planning your meals and planning your trip, picking the right stores to shop in and less  time in the kitchen pays off in big savings.    
16. There is something very satisfying about knowing you don't have to rush to the store of you don't feel like it, you can pull ingredients out of the pantry and put  a meal on the table.  

I have read and studied all I could find about cooking and shopping strategies to lower food bills.   I am passing them in for people that may need them.   This isn't a ploy to make money on the Internet.   I'm not getting our food on the backs of someone else that may need it worse.    I, in fact, give to the 

food banks and share information so others can feed more for less.

Why?   Some people may not get it.   The classic answer came from a sweet, pleasantly plump African American woman . She was on the Today show talking about couponing.    Matt Lauer asked her what she would say to Naysayers.  Her reply will stick in my mind forever.   She said , paraphrasing, if you don't understand, you ain't been broke  enough !   

My mother always  said everybody pays  their dues sooner or later.    No one gets throu live life with a free card.   Learning to cope is the key.    I decided when I was a struggling single mother , I was going to write a book entitled. " Cope  is a four letter word spelled HELL.   

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a different perspectives. 

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food  for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you  use  on a weekly basis. 

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week. 
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level. 

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food.   This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget.   You spend more time on the 
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently. 

 Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending

Thursday......

I made scratch muffins from the build your own basic muffin recipe.   I used blueberries and apple pieces to use up my one lone apple and I used 1 cup of f,our and 1 cup of the dollar tree oatmeal.   I figured it was a good way to use it up.   It's still good food value. It's just not what I want to eat for breakfast.    Costco for the same price is a better texture. The muffins were fine.  

I also made the penne pasta with a red cream sauce and sausage.    It was fine.   It's almost like a hamburger helper in technique, which made it easy.   The total cost was 1.08 for the three of us for the meal.   I had it with fresh green beans and a hard roll from the dollar tree.    Total meal cost 1.58.   

I adjusted the recipe to meet our needs.   It called for cream cheese.  Cream cheese is expensive.   I substituted sour cream.  I almost always have sour cream on hand,   I didn't want to open a .58 can of peppers, so I added red pepper flakes.   My husband doesn't like onion pieces on anything, so I used onion  powder.    It still tasted delicious and it kept the cost down.   Little things can make the dish taste the same, but cut the costs.   

The government is bailing out the dairy farmers because they are producing too much cheese and there is an abundance of it.   That's good news for people going to the food banks, but bad news for the consumer.   Less cheese means the price in dairy will go up.    I have a stock on hand and I will try for another five pounds or so.   That will soften the blow.    Another reason why stocking helps.   

We use a lot of cheese ,but  my daughter went vegan, so we probably will use  a bit less of cheese and sour cream. 

Groceries on the cheap just means you have to reinvent and be flexible.   Our great grandmothers did during the Great Depression, and we can too.    Incorporate anything that is in Abundance that  is healthy and avoid the things that are not.    Unfortunately, once for any reason , a food product goes up in this country it seem it never goes down.  Coffee went up after the coffee shortage of the 70's , beef had a drought several years ago.  The prices are still really high.    We adjusted by using less.   Beans have taken a hike.   It all about supply and demand.    With people getting in the vegetarian and vegan bandwagon, the demand is higher.     We used to get two pounds of pintos for a dollar.   The new packages at the dollar tree are a pound and a half.    That is still cheaper than Winco bulk.    I'm not seeing a lot of dry beans at Kroger for any price.    You can still get them at grocery outlet and in bulk at Costco.    The price at Costco has risen also.  

For saying that the Feds seem to think that the seniors COL hasn't rise , our mandatory bills have risen  1600 dollars and the price of food is going up.    Three tenth of one percent isn't going to cut it.      Because we get a raise, they can raise the amount of Medicare premium too.    It's just going to take a lot of imagination and ingenuity to make the ends meet.   We can do this as the commercial says.     Maybe things will improve of the right person gets elected.  LOL.  We were supposed to get a supplemental bonus, instead, they balanced the budget on the backs of the old people by raising Medicare and Medicare deductibles.    Enough complaining. I this is supposed to be about stretching a buck.    

Go with the flow, make meals from the foods that are abundant and healthy.    Find the RBP of the foods you eat.    Buy on bulk when it's the lowest as long as you can keep it from going bad.    Recognize the eating habits of your family and portion control.    The RDA of protein for a normal person is 6 ounces a day, part of which is supposed to be eggs.   Balance protein and starch to make for more healthy diet.    Moderation is the key and you might even loose a little weight in the process.  

We can do this.   It's all about not paying  top dollar for your food.    The fancier the store, the more you are going to pay.   Know your prices of the items you buy in a regular basis.    Stock when the prices are low.   

The big argument with this is that of you don't have enough money, how do you do that?   If you are laying 1/2, you get twice as much for your buck.  It snowballs.  Buy an extra can of something one week when it's 1/2 price. . Buy another thing because you aren't buying the first thing. Just buy basics at first.    Don't let your children gorge themselves on so,etching just because you have more.   I have seen mothers lock the preferred food up.   I've also seen some give  each child a box of cereal for a specific time frame, mark it with their name and when it's gone, it's gone.    Some clever mother that wanted to make the Christmas cookies ahead, but feared her children. Would eat the, if they saw them, wrapped  them up on butcher paper and marked them LIVER!    

Whatever works.   Children don't need to gorge themselves in something they like and. It eat balanced.   It's not good for them. Or your budget.  Portion control.  No child needs to eat an entire two pound roast!    They don't need to gorge themselves on everybody's share of what they like and not leave some for the rest of the family.   Have plenty of food so no one goes hungry.   I met a family once that said, everyone was welcome to second helpings. But up I had to take a little bit of everything.   I also have taken to giving my granddaughter a small portion of everything.  If she wants more, she  can have more.   Also, don't serve big  glasses of juice at meals.   The sugar fills you up and then they don't eat a good meal.    The nutritionist when my children were little told me not to feed the children nice at all.   She said they were better off with the apple than the apple juice.  The dentist will tell you that apple juice in a tippy cup is really bad for their teeth.    Stick to a adequate amount of milk, and water or herbal tea without sugar.    

I hope this helps people.   Take from it what you can use.    It's free and I'm not getting paid for doing it.   LOL.   

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a different perspectives. 

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food  for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you  use  on a weekly basis. 

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week. 
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level. 

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food.   This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget.   You spend more time on the 
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently. 

 Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not hard.  

Wicked or wonderful wednesday

This is zone cleaning day and I need to bake something.    I'm toying with the idea of trying the basic muffin recipe .  We have dried strawberries and blueberries.    Sausage with a red cream sauce directly from Pinterest.  

We are rapidly approaching the load day for coupons.    It's the first of the month and the good coupons will go fast.  You can print two of each coupon.   Resist the urge to print them all; you will just waste paper and keep someone that really might need one that you throw away.  
Be polite.    This is the most time consuming part of couponing.   The rest is a few , and sometimes very few minutes a week.    The rewards can be great.    I almost always find cereal, pepperoni, yogurt, and sometimes a coupon for pork  tenderloins.   There are always surprises.    Those I print and clip and file.  The inserts come in the Sunday paper and one in the mail.    Procter and gamble comes in the paper on the first Sunday of the month or sometimes  the last of the previous month.   It's good for tissue or laundry soap.   The toilet paper coupons are a joke but there is usually a coupon for puffs that you can get at the dollar tree.  

The coupon themselves are a savings.   But, if you can match them up with a sale and/ or a basket coupon you can hit pay dirt.   That's when the 58-78 percent savings come in,   QFC and Fred Meyers (Kroger) have a free thing every Friday.    Sometimes  it's garbage that we would never eat, and I pass unless I know someone that can use it. One time it was cat treats and we have a grandcat.  
Every little bit helps.   We, actually, with coupons and Ibotta and a generous neighbor that shared her vegetable gardens bounty can have a dinner for..........05.    No typo here , that's a nickel.  

Ibotta is a ap that you can have on your phone or tablet that allows you to get rebates on food items: some specific brand things and some basic necessity items like milk, bread, fresh veggies and cheese.  
When you have enough money built  up, you can cash it in for a gift card or pay pal will deposit it on your bank account.  I, personally, don't want to give  anyone my bank account number, I have been compromised too many times.   I will opt for a Amazon gift card.   I have done  it for a year and I'm almost (.70 short ) at 25.00.    Hey, that's 25.00 I didn't have yesterday,   I don't read Ibotta and base my purchases on it and I don't buy expensive  wine or beer .  I check it after I shop and post things while we are putting the food away,   I also, don't buy a lot of name brand prepared food.  

Favado is another app.  It tells you what's on sale at a lot of chain stores.   It also tells you of there is an Ibotta , or a coupon and directs you to the coupon.    Unfortunately, they are not always correct and you have to exercise some  due diligence.    It's a good start.   I file my inserts by month in file folders in a cubby of the computer desk.   When they tell me where a coupon I want is, I can pill or quickly.   All of this sound like it takes a lot of time, in actuality, it's just a few minutes.   But, you can save a lot on your grocery bill.   The same food as the next guy, but you pay half as much.   This allows you to eat eight dollars a day and only spend  four.  


Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a different perspectives. 

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food  for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you  use  on a weekly basis. 

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week. 
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level. 

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food.   This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget.   You spend more time on the 
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently. 

 Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending