Thursday notes

Just a few notes on bargains found this week.   This was the last week that Alberways  has a twenty percent off basket coupon.   We got them in the mail.   This is the first week that it made sense to use it.   If the prices are too high, it doesn’t make sense to use the coupon.  You need to look at the bottom line price to see if it is a RBP.   I got roast that I made stew meat and hamburger out of for 2.40 a lb.  it was really lean : probably 2 per cent fat.   When you grind your own, you can control the fat.   Sirloin is one of the least fat cuts there is.   We also got coffee for 4.80 cents a ‘three pound ‘ can.
Sour cream for 1.00 as well as cottage cheese.   Eggs were .78 a dozen.   Apples were 1.18 a lb.  
Conversly, a cake mix was 1.79. I did t buy it.  I paid .79 for the same cake mix a few weeks ago.  

Buying food just as you need it at full price is one of the worst mistakes you can make if you want to keep your food budget down.  The difference between finding the RBP and using all the tools you have at your disposal ( ibotta, coupons, basket coupons, stacking coupons, checking the scratch and dent shelves) makes your grocery bill drastically different.   We operate on about 40 percent of the USDA. Stats for poor people.   We eat normal food.   The last 3 nights , we had a turkey casserole with the last of the Thanksgiving  turkey , pizza, and shrimp stir fry with vegetables, shrimp, and rice.  

Organic, Hunts brand, diced tomatoes 🍅 are .50 at the dollar tree.   I found them at the same price at Grocery Outlet.   We have used them, they are fine and have a far out pull date.   Organic tomatoes are more than twice that price.   We use diced tomatoes for everything.   If you need them to be more the consistency of tomato sauce, just drain them , save the ‘water” for soup stock (freeze) and put the pulp through the food processor, blender, or ricer.  

Simplify your food.  By picking a basic cut of meat and buying it in bulk , you save a lot of time and money.   Pick cuts that are versatile.  The same concept works for tomato’s and basic veggies.  
Less means more.  

The food prices this week were beyond expensive.   Five dollar a pound for cheese and they ride to get you to believe that was 2.00 less than regular price.   I had just paid .99 for 8 ounces.   1.98 is a far cry from 7.00.   At a dollar for 8 ounces, you don't buy just what you need for the week.   You can freeze cheese.   When you consider that you are getting your food at at least 50 percent off, you can justify buying a 139.00 freezer at costco.   I had an extra refrigerator in my small 2 bedroom apartment.   I also used an ottoman to store extra canned goods.   My 4yo kept busy while i cooked dinner looking for the green beans !  

This is the time to stock the foods that are traditional for the holidays.   They will probably never bee cheaper.   Things like cream of mushroom soup, cream cheese, green beans, were the thing to buy in bulk for thanksgiving and beyond.   Baking supplies are the thing to look for in thee coming weeks.  Anything that can be frozen or is shelf stable with a good shelf life should be bought in enough quantity to last you at least six months.  

Anything that you use on a regular basis that you can purchase for a dollar or more less, or at least 50 percent off a realistic base price is a good thing to buy in bulk.  

Think of it this way.   I was getting 2/10 of a percent on my retirement CD at Chase and I was paying  for the privilege of having it.   Nowhere that I know of can you get 50 percent on your money.   At least not somewhere that is safe and legal.  LOL.  An added bonus is that you have the  luxury of always having food in the house.  

Studies have shown that the poor people have more stress during their lives just getting the necessities of living and it contributes to their life expectancy.   Always having food in the cupboards, reduces that stress.  

Making best use of the Safeways basket coupon .

We have a basket coupon for the month of December.  Twenty percent off of fifty.   

Apples 1.47 

Eggs 98

Milk 1.77

Bacon 2.99 lb 

Sirloin roast (hamburger ) 2.99 lb 

Sour cream/ cottage cheese 1.25

I plan to get what I can and fill in to 50.00 with the roast.    At 2.99 less twenty percent , you are getting 10 percent hamburger for 2.39 a lb.    You stretch your meat dollar more with hamburger than you do with roast.    

The trick is to spend as close to 50.00 as possible to get the most bang for your buck.    

Chain store ads

Not much here.    Note Safeways has a 20 percent coupon that they sent out for sales of 50.00/

Alberways

Milk 1.79
Honeycrisp apples 1.47
Eggs .98@@
Top round or sirloin tip roast 2.99 ( makes for good ground beef )


QFC

4 days only
Sirloin tip roast 2.99 ( makes for good ground beef )

Buy 4, save 4

Johnsonville breakfast sausage 1.99
Brownies mix 1.49
Cream cheese 1.49 $$
Kleenex 160 count .99
NOTE: orowheat bread is at the dollar tree with coupon for .45


QFC regular
Berries 2/4
Avacados 1.00
Pie 3.99
Ritz 2/4
Mangos 1.00
Pars .99

Bullet list : Easy steps

Groceries on the cheap is not a one day process.   It takes time and a commitment.   The good news is that any one thing that you do will help you get to your goal—whatever that goal is.  

• The easiest change you can make is to go over the ads and mark things that are a good buy—the ones that are healthy and are ingredients for a meal.   Pay special attention to any stock up items that are an extra special price.   This week, I found kroger cheese for .99 an 8 ounce package.   The same Kroger cheese was on a buy 4 , save 4 for 2.50.(the net price).  That’s the same as getting 2.5 lbs of cheese instead of 1 lb of cheese.    Cheese is a basic in our house.  There is a lot you can do with cheese and its a good source of protein and calcium.   
• Installing a good basic cookbook to your computer or tablet helps too.   Betty Crocker has basic recipes and a search engine that allows you to put in an ingredient that you need to us up and receipts appear...LOL. They also send you a calander every year if you ask for it and occasionally have coupons.  Many times I adapt recipes to include scratch instead of prepackaged items, but the basis is there.   Not all their recipes start with a mix.   
• When a muffin mix calls for yogurt, I have been known to substitute sour cream without a problem.   
• Often times, when you hear about recipe from Taste of Home, you can google it and the words taste of home and you can print it off the computer.   Taste of Home magazines and books are a good resource for home made recipies.   They are discounted at Winco and sometimes I find them at the Goodwill for .50.   I read them, download the recipes I might want to keep, an give the magazine back to the Goodwill to sell again.  A win, win situation.   
• If your family eats oatmeal, the box of oatmeal (10 lbs) is around 8.00 at costco. It makes a serving of oatmeal around .08 and takes 1.5 minutes in the microwave.   A serving of the regular oatmeal has FOUR times the nutrition as the little packets that are at least .10.   
• Watch your brands.   Some brands on the BUYXX, SAVEXX sales are not good quality.   If your family won’t eat something, its not a bargain.   Nothing is a bargain if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.   Ditto Organic foods that spoil before you can use them.   I bought ten pounds of organic carrots one time at costco.   It was the second day when I discovered they were rotting.   I should have taken them back , but I set out and blanched and froze the ten pounds.   If you spend a little time planning a buyxx, savexx sale, you can clean up.   Buy matching coupons with the sale, I have saved as much as 78 percent, especially when there is a basket coupon running at the same time.   
• Eating a no meat dinner once or twice a week saves money.   
• Learning one scratch item a month makes a lot of difference.   The difference between a take and bake pizza can be 10.00 or 1.00.   And the time is probably no more than driving to the store to pick it up or making it.   Our 5yo can make it with supervision .   Its not hard.   Ditto something like peasant bread.  A loaf of sourdough costs 3.00 here at the lowest price I can find.   A loaf of peasant bread takes about 10 minutes if you are slow (hands on time ) an d costs under a quarter.   No preservatives.   Muffins are another item that takes almost no time, but saves a bundle.   Muffins can cost up to a dollar each.   
• Rotisserie chicken is a rip off......just saying....   another 10 minutes hands on time.   

This weeks haul 32.00

This week , we took inventory and bought just what I could fill in with that was a good price.


25 lb flour
20 lbs rice

2.5 lbs of cheese
5 lbs butter

2 doz eggs.

Kitchen Management

Kitchen management along with meal plans just takes a few minutes, but saves a lot of time and stress come dinnertime.   Also incorporated is rotating chores that keep the kitchen clean.

1. Wash and disinfect countertops, sinks, and drains.  
2. Wash kitchen floor. 
3. Wash refrigerator and ‘dump anything dead” and note things that need to be used up soon. 
4. First of the month:   Put the stove vent screen through the dishwasher.   
5. Wash potatoes and carrots with vinegar water 
6. Cut stir fry veggies 
7. Make rolls for sliders. 
8. Straighten pantry
9. Wax north side cabinets. 

Meal plans for week of 11/27/17

Meal plans are a necessary tool to efficiently put dinner on the table.  The holiday time can be stressful with extra projects added to our already full lives.   Making double batches of dinner and freezing 1/2 is a good way to reduce some of the stress.   Having a few ‘dinners on the shelf” is another.   Teaching a teen or preteen how to cook a meal is a good thing.  It gives them confidence and teaches tem a life skill that apparently they are not getting at school.  

Note:  when making meal plans, take an inventory of the food you already have, especially the perishables.    If you do rotation protein, you already know what is in your freeezer.    This weeks rotation. Protein would be the 87 cent a pound chicken at FM.  

Meal Plans

• Turkey Cassarole , peas and carrots 
• Pizza
• Pork Roast, potatoes, carrots, celery, rolls 
• Tourtieres (meat pie) 
• Shrimp stir fry 
• BBQ Pork sliders, oven fries, salad 
• Breakfast for dinner 

 Notes:

1. Turkey leftover from Thanksgiving 
2. Pizza is a staple, a cheese pizza cost less than 1.04 considering I got cheese for as low as 1.86 an 2.00 a lb lately. 
3. Pork roast is from a whole pork loin.  It is easy to butcher, an cuts the cost dramatically.   
4. Pork slides are planned overs from the roast
5. Shrimp stir fry.   Rice 
6. Breakfast for dinner.
7. Tourtieres ( Meat pie) make double batch - a taste of home recipe.   Google it. 

Fred Meyer SUNDAY ad

This is a prime expample why I preach KNOW YOUR PRICES.  

FM has a buy four, save 4, promotion.   Most of it is either cheap quality, junk food, or over priced even with the discount.   I found :

Tide: 4.99 - probably coupons out there 
Ghirardelli brownie mix 1.49. ——just say YUMM
Johnsonville bratts 1.99
Tillamook ice cream 2.99


Kroger cheese is 2.49-that makes it 5.00 a lb.   I just got it for 1.98 a pound at qfc.   It was a friday coupon.   There is also a coupon for sunday for 2.00 butter.  

Orowheat bread is 2.50....It is a dollar at the dollar store and there is a .55 coupon out three.  Makes it .45 centts.   That’s a 2.05 savings.  

Now, to the good stuff.......

Foster Farms chicken parts or whole chicken .87 a lb 
Hamburger, 10 percent fat....3.99 with an added note that it is 10 percent.off on Tuesday for seniors with the in ad coupon .   Nets 3.60 a lb. 

Avacados .77
Berries 2/5
Pears .99
Cucumbers. 2/1 


Note: canned tomatoes have shrunk to 14.5 ounce cans.   They are a dollar.   I have been getting tomatoes for as low as.39 cents.   That’s a big thing.

Leftovers

The best part of Thanksgiving besides friends and family is the leftovers.  

I did see a lady that added chicken broth and leftover vegetables to leftover mashed potatoes and called it soup.  

Just about anything you can do with chicken , you can do with turkey.  

Turkey and noodles comes to mind.
How about a turkey and cheese quesadilla.

Turkey in a Cobb salad.

Pesto chicken (turkey) Tacos

Wild rice chicken dinner.  

Crustless chicken  quiche (taste of home) -eggs, whipping cream, chicken , cheese , bacon

Just warming a plate of leftovers is good too.  I gauged pretty close this year and we dont have a lot of leftovers.   Maybe one meal.   I bought a turkey breast because there were.only three adults and a child eating meat.  

Happy thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving....

Last night I finished making sweet dinner rolls.   The easiest recipe I could find.   Thanksgiving is for all to enjoy.....even the cook.......

I found a recipe for rolls that start in the bread machine and you finish them off by hand.    

The cranberry sauce is scratch, but it was only cranberries, water, honey and orange peel.   Granddaughter helped by stirring and licking the honey measuring cup.   LOL

I will make pumpkin pies this morning.   

Clean up the house is to be a family affair.   Uncle is working.   

My goal is to make this a relaxing holiday.   No stress.     

Basics: Part 10 : review

The main mantra of Groceries on the cheap is to never pay full price for your groceries.  Obviously, paying 1/2 price affords you the luxury of having a built stock for emergencies.   It’s no secret that bleep happens to us all.   Being prepared is just a good thing. Paying half price for your food makes that happen without breaking the smallest of budgets.

Basically, there are small steps to take to make this happen.  One step at a time, inch by inch, this can happen even with the smallest of budgets.   The USDA has stats on how much it should cost for a variety of sizes of families and for a variety of budgets.  Google : USDA cost of food at home. 

Be sure to read the notes , there is a formula for additional monies for smaller families.   

• Find the TWO stores that are cheaper and shop the cheapest prices on the things you need.  This is a biggie.   Its the easiest way to cut your food budget.   No one store has the best prices on everything.   Shopping two stores gives you the best chance of good produce, and a double chance of getting the lowest prices on the other things you need. 
• 1/2 the average grocery cart is filled with drinks and snack foods.   Avoiding the snack food an pop etc will drastically lower your food bill and make you more healthy at the same time. 
• Simplify your choice of protein.  Pick cuts of meats that you can buy for a RBP of about two dollars a pound.   Beef and salmon are an exception.   Buying cuts of meat that are versatile will make buying easier and buying them in bulk on a rotation basis will make them cheaper.   Buy as much as you will use in a month to six weeks.   Portion control it before you freeze it.  Cook ground meats and portion control them.   Putting the portion controlled packets in a gallon freezer bag will make retrieving more efficient.   It will also make it easy to see when you need to look for a sale more efficient.  Stores put a so called loss leader on the front page of their ad frequently.   
• My mother used to say :  some people could have a bargain get up and bite them in thee butt, and they wouldn’t see it.  Don’t be that person.   Know the RBP of the things you buy on a regular basis. When they go on sale at that price, buy:  a) as much as you can (store limits), b) as much as you can afford , or c) as much as you need to meet your self imposed stock limit.   Whichever comes first.  Six weeks works for a lot of families.   If the item is a popular staple, they usually go on sale with that frequency.   If you use diced tomatoes, for example, at a rate of 4 cans a week, you need to keep 24 cans.   That’s a lot easier to do if you pay 39 or 49 cents a can instead of .68 to 1.00.   
• Look for dairy sale and buy a months worth.  Check pull dates and check the verbage on reading them.   A lot of times, sour cream, cottage cheese, yogurt and eggs will be out a month.   Dairy usually goes on sale at least once a month. Cheaper at costco if you use that much quanity.   
• Buy veggies in season at the lowest price.   
• Portion control.   If you don’t put the entire roast on the table , you won’t eat the entire roast o the table.    America has an obesity problem....all I’m saying. 
• Learn to scratch cook efficiently.   If you can, get the kitchen tools to help you.  A insta pot, blender or food processer, and kitchen aid mixer are all good tools.   There are all kinds of recipes on the internet that call for less than five ingredients.   Avoid buying too much ready made food.   One of the biggest mistakes you can make is buying a rotisserie chicken.   Chickens are often .88 a lb.   Check out the recipe for “easiest chicken ever” on the blog.   When you buy ready made mixes etc. you are paying for someone elses labor and many times it is just as easy to make the thing from scratch.   

• 
  

Basics : part 9: Retailers dirty little secrets.

Retailers (stores) have studied our shopping habits.   They have used what they found to their benefit to get us to spend more.   Knowing their dirty little secrets will enable you to not fall into their traps.
We have all heard the trick of to gong to the store hungry.   Not going with children or mates that would be likely to sneer garbage into the cart is a help also.

1. It is no accident that there are drinks and chips and fancy crackers and bakery items when you first walk into a store.  The object is to tempt you and get you to start putting things into the cart.   
2. It is also no accident that carts are getting bigger and bigger..  It is a natural tendency to fill your basket.   
3. 1/2 the average grocery cart is made up of drinks and junk food.   Avoiding that statistic will save you a lot of money.   Set a separate budget for drinks and junk food.  When you see a separate ticket for them, you will spend less.  Considering that pop and chips are bad for a diet and your health, its a good thing. 
4. Not all the items on an end cap is a special buy.   Know your prices 
5. Have a good idea of what you are going to the store for.   Idly throwing things in the cart will bump up your bill. I don't have  a list, but I have a clear idea of the things I need.   Leaving it open to dairy, veggies and fruit, and our rotation protein is enough.  Also, I only buy things that are a good buy.   If it isn’t close to my target price, we don't buy it.   My short inventory of perishable list on our meal plan form tells me what we have to purchase.
6. Manufacturers pay a slotting fee to the stores.   Basically they rent the desirable shelf space—the eye level ones.   Looking up and down will help you find the cheapest prices.
7. The store brand is usually cheaper than the name brand.   Often times, it is the same product.   Those stores don't have factories.   They buy the merchandise and have the factories put a store label on them. 
8. The music playing is to keep you in the store.  The longer you spend in a store, the more you are going to buy. Get in and get out.  
9. The buy 10 , save 5 type sales are to get you to buy in bulk.  Often times there are a lot of junk food on their mix an match list.   Avoid the junk.   If there are shelf stable things that are at a RBP, try to find a coupon to go with them.   You can clean up if you study the list a bit.   Sometimes its just a “ We’ll pass event.”  If you can use a buy 10, save 5 type sale, coupons, and a basket coupon at the same time, you can clean up.  
10. Many times 10 for 10 type verb-age doesn’t mean you have to buy 10. 
11. Do the math.   Pricing smaller packages can be a bargain ....or NOT.   Check the package size.  Some of that small package cheese is 6 or 8 dollars a pound.   Buying a five pound bag at costco or on sale with coupons or not is usually a better buy.   Grated cheese freezes well.   
12. Small packets of microwave oatmeal are not a bargain.   Even at a dollar, they are 10 cents a packet.   It takes four packets to equal 1 serving of bulk oatmeal.   A serving of bulk oatmeal is .08 an takes no more time.   Use a larger bowl than necessary.   Put 1 cup water, 1/ 2 cup oatmeal, and cook it for 1.5 minutes.   We like some cinnamon sugar and a banana or some raisins.  
13. Retailers sell convenience at a high price.  Many things can be efficiently replicated with little hand on time and a whole lot less money.   Rotisserie chicken can cost 5.50 a lb for the meat you are going to eat.   A recent article states there are nasty preservatives in the as well.   Check out “easiest chicken ever” on the blog.   Especially if you just want cooked chicken for soup or a casserole or burrito.   

Basics: part 8: are we eating too much?

Basics: Part 8 : Are we eating too much?

Portion control is important for several reasons, namely maintaining a good body weight and keeping a budget.    This information is from the best source on the internet I could find,  nothing can take the place of an consultation of your own nutritionist.    These are basic guidelines and should be taken as such.  I'm am not a nutritionist and you have to make your own decisions  regarding your nutrition. 

Dairy : 2-3 servings a day ( some of this doubles for protein )

A serving of dairy is

8 ounces of milk for an adult, six for  a child

1cup  yogurt

2 cups of cottage  cheese

1/2 cup  non fat milk

1 cup frozen yogurt

Vegetables - 5 servings a day

Protein

The basic guideline are for .08 grams per kilograms of weight.   In American language, that's .65 grams per pound of body weight.

Average is 56-91 grams for a male, depending in activity levels.

Average for a woman is 46-75 grams depending on activity level.   The 75 is if you are an athlete or do heavy manual labor at work. 

Animal protein provides all essential amino acids for the right ratio for us to make full use of them.    This only makes sense because animal fossils are like our own.   

In obese men, protein at 25 percent of total calories makes you feel full and helps you to loose weight.

Beef has 7 grams per ounce of protein

Chicken has 21 grams in three ounces of cooked chicken breast

Chicken thighs have 10 grams in a average thigh, 

Eggs have 6 grams - and good fat

Yogurt has 5 grams per serving average. . Greek yogurt has more.   Check the label.   

Note  bread and peanut butter.  - 15 grams of protein

My daughters nutritionalist when she was a toddler said not to give her juices.   She was better off eating the fruit.  Fruit juice from concentrate has more sugar than pop. 

Sugar, beer, and too much meat will cause your kidneys to go bad a I just read that and have some doctors info to assume it is true. 

It goes without saying, if you let your kid fill up on snack garbage, they won't have room for good food, especially if they are picky or light eaters. 

Personally, we stick to three to four ounces per person for meat for a dinner,   By the time we add breakfast, dairy, and lunch, we have more than enough to meet the RDA for seniors.   Obviously, a teen age boy in sports needs more calories and more meat,   They don't , however, need to eat a whole 2 pound roast.    Lol. 

Kitchen Managment

Kitchen management is a tool to save time and stress at the dinner hour and deep clean the kitchen a little at a time.  

Recap of meals :

1. Hamburger soup, bread 
2. Pizza
3. Pork stew rolls : cranberry sauce, rolls for tomorrow 
4. Thankgiving:  turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green beans, relish tray , cranberry sauce , salad 
5. Salmon and rice with peas 
6. Leftovers 
7. Breakfast for dinner 

Things to do : 

• Make soup and bread
• Wash potatoes and carrots 
• Put thanksgiving serving dishes through the dishwasher. 
• Gather special ingredients on tray. 
• Make list and timeline for thanksgiving 
• Wash kitchen floor 
• Clean and disinfect counters, sinks, and drains.   
• Wax east side cabinets.   
• Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead. 
• Gather recipes. 
• Fill the flour and rice canisters/ bucket 
• Breathe.    

Basics; part 7: Oh NO - that dreaded scratch cooking

Basics : Part 7:  Oh No. that dreaded scratch cooking.....

I saved this one for almost the last.  It was one of my last hold outs.    I got our food budget down to 72.00 a week.   The stats  were close to 150.00.   But, I wanted to challenge myself to see just how low are expense can be and still eat well balanced good food.    It was a game by now,   My original object if this blog was to help people on low incomes or SNAP to stretch their food dollars so they could have good food and still build a small emergency stock.   I started cooking a lot more things from scratch and I cut our budget  to 53.00 a week and we still are building our stock. The USDA stats  are based on actual food eaten at home, they don't count  school lunches or stock .   We are sitting at 45 percent of the USDA stats.   We eat well. We eat fresh fruits and veggies, we portion control,  none of us are overweight.   We try to avoid extra salt, sugar, trans fats, hydrogenated oils, HFCS and fake food. 

The words scratch cooking scares some people and they envision spending all day in the kitchen while the laundry stacks up , the house is a mess and you don't get to work.    Not so. I set out to scratch cook efficiently,    My mantra is that  if you spend  a little more time planning  and shopping wisely, you can spend less time cooking.   Of course, with a five yo in the house, the neat house doesn't always happen.   

The internet is full of scratch recipes-  some efficient, some not so much.   Developing your personal cookbook  one recipe at a time will take time.  It's totally worth it,   I have my first one from 1970.   I brought a new one up to date with more healthy choices-- times have changed and some things never change.   Grandmas recipes have just got a little more healthy, 

Spending a block of time to make your own mixes helps greatly,   You have the convenience of mixes, but not the cost  or preservatives.   Engage your children,   I have been following some people on u tube.   I have learned  a lot.   There is one family of nine  that all work together at maintaining their  quality of life.   Children as young as 1.5 years are "helping " in the kitchen. Consequently, their 13 yo can cook remarkable dinners.    It is a good thing to do at home since the schools don't have the same home ec departments they once had.  It is really a necessity if life to learn to cook.    My daughter never wanted to, my son wanted to learn to bake.   My granddaughter wants to do anything she can.   Engage them.    Mixes are good for learning fractions, counting, and children love to stir or push the buttons on the food processor.  My mother used to say that if children were helping, they weren't making a mess for you to clean up afterwords .   How true. 

 Making your own spice blends and mixes saves a lot of money,   You can get small amounts of spices in the bulk isle of some grocery stores pretty cheap. I needed dill one time .  It was six dollars for a tiny one by one inch bottle.   That much dill in the bulk isle was.    W a i t.   For it........   seventeen cents.  

Baking mix, pancake mix, or muffin mix are all cheap especially when you get bulk flour. 

Making your own bread can take all day, or you can make easy ones that take ten minutes hands  on time,    The time that you let something sit on the counter while you grocery shop, or do the laundry , or take the kids to the park doesn't count ! Lol. 

Anything you can throw in the slow cooker or insta pot and walk way from is a good thing. 

I don't have stock in insta pot, but I wish I Did! Lol.   It's one of the most versatile work horses in the kitchen.   It's a slow cooker, it's a rice cooker, it is a pressure cooker that is almost fool proof.  Remember to put it on seal to pressure cook , and remember to add enough water.   That s about it.   Don't put more than 1/2 full  when cooking anything that expands like pasta or beans.   Easy peasy.  And saves sooo much time!   Scratch soups in five minutes, Pork chops in three,   Chicken from frozen in 8 minutes..   considering that it is three appliances that  all  work well in one footprint, it's a real bargain. It also sautés. 

Going out on a limb and trying to do  all this at once is a deal breaker.   Terminal burnout.  Take baby steps and build your talent.   Every little thing will save money.   The snowball effect is a 
wonderful phenomenon.  It works.   Give it time. 

Daily blogs at www.janegrocerysavy.blogspot.com 

Meal Plans for week of November 20, 2017

Thanksgiving food is included in our budget calculations.  

Meal plans help take the stress out of the question “ What’s for Dinner”.  .

• Hamburger Soup , bread 
• Pizza 
• Pork stew, rolls (make cranberry sauce and dinner rolls ) 
• Thanksgiving :   Roast Turkey Breast, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans, relish tray:  pickled veggies, stuffed celery, pumpkin pie with whipping cream.  
• Salmon, rice with peas 
• Leftovers 
• Breakfast for dinner.  

Notes :   Having easy meals before the holiday saves some terminal burnout with marathon cookig of a thanksgiving meal.    Doing some things ahead helps too.   A spacer between turkey dinner and leftovers is a nice respid.   

The only things I bought for Thanksgiving dinner were the turkey breast , celery i would have bought anyway, and the pies.   I would have made pies, but GO had them for two dollars.   I cant buy the ingredients for two dollars.    I did buy sparkling cider for 1.33 a bottle.    It just makes things festive.  

Grocery Outlet Haul

Grocery Outlet is a grocery /misc store that carries overstocks.   They do not take coupons., but often you can get good buys.   Sometimes their merchandise is products that had test markets that didn’t test well.



Cream of Chicken soup , campbells .66
Pies 2.00 - pumpkin and cherry
Sparkling cider 1.33 a bottle

Deli Swiss cheese slices 2.39
Smoked Gouda 2.39
Salsa .99
Lunchables .50


Total 16.72

Sparkling cider and pies are for Thanksgiving.

Dollar tree

Whole wheat orowheat bread
Flour tortillas

Fred Meyer Sunday ad

Holiday ads are not the best times for good prices on staples.    Too much of the ad is spent on booze and snack type items.   It is, however, a good time to stock things that we tradionally use for the holiday.   Summer picnic supplies are always cheaper around Memorial Day and the Fourth of July .  It’s the time to by a years supply of catsup and bbq sauce with coupons.  Baking supplies are their best prices now through the first part of December.   Closer to the holiday, prices go up for the last minute shoppers.   Planning ahead is the key.   

The ad.....

Turkey, Foster Farms 1.29 lb

Turkey breasts 1.59

NY Holiday roast 3.99

Honeycrisp apples 1.49 

Asparagus 1.99

Cranberries 2/5

Broccolli .99

Brussel sprouts 1.99

Berries 2/5 

Celery .99

Butter 2.99

Sour cream 4/5 

Pillsbury biscuits 2/3$$

Ice cream 2/6

Orowheat bread 2.49 (note:  its a dollar at DT and there are .55 coupons out thre. 

Fruit pie 3.99 

Basics : part 6 : bulk buying—when is it logical.

Basics, part 6 : Bulk buying: when is it logical

We covered protein, the most expensive part of your food budget.  To recap, picking bulk meats that are  versatile are your best bet in reducing the cost of protein.  Eating a vegetarian meal once or twice a week helps greatly too.    Buy bulk meat enough to rotate that meal for a month.  In other words, if you want to eat Pork for two nights a week, you will need enough for 8 meals.   Portions should be around four ounces.   The RDA for protein is 45 grams for women and 55 for men, minimum, for low activity people.     There are 61 in a 8 ounce boneless, skinless chicken  breast.

 Knowing the RBP of rotation meats is key,   Chicken breasts should be no more than a dollar and a half a pound.   In most places, you can get them for that.  Seattle is one of the most costly places to live and I can get chicken breasts with ribs for 1.50 and cut the ribs off for stock, pick the bones for more meals.   Pork loins are between 1.50 and 1.79.   Good (7 percent ) hamburger is 3.77 here.   Ground turkey a dollar  a pound chub  in other parts of the country, frozen.

Buying other things in bulk only makes sense if you use it regularity,   There are three of us basically.    I can still buy certain things in bulk.  Rice is one.   Rice has a long shelf life.   It is 8.47 for 25 lbs at Costco.   That makes a rice serving pennies.

Oatmeal is close to 8.50 at Costco for ten pounds,   We eat oatmeal everyday for breakfast and I use it for oatmeal, blueberry, banana bread and oatmeal cookies. 

Flour is  6.39 for 25 pounds.  25 pounds lasts us about three months,  I make our own  baking mix, cream soup base, muffin mix and bread.   Bread cost about .25-30 cents a loaf.  It takes about ten hands on minutes.    Making your own mixes means you can control the fats and avoid hydroginated  oils and too much sugar.    Cream soup base is a lot less than opening a can of cream of....soup and takes not much more time. 

Bulk yeast is a good investment if you are going to make bread.    For little more  the cost of one packet you can have enough for dozens of loaves. 

I don't buy pinto beans on bulk because we don't eat enough to use them up before they are hard to cook.     The cost difference is ten cents a pound.  I can  get 1.5 pounds at the dollar tree for a buck and they are non gmo and grown on the USA. 

Our Winco has a bulk food isle and some things are cheaper. .   It is especially good for anyone that wants to try something or need just a little bit  - yeast comes to  mind if you just want to try bread baking.  Don't give up, it may take a few loaves to get the hang of it.   

We like the chocolate and white chocolate chips. Dry milk, and spices.    Look on your area for a  bulk isle.   Our Kroger has one, but the prices are a lot higher.

Cold cereal in bags are a lot cheaper than in the boxes.   We don't eat a lot of cold cereal.  I buy chocolate rice crispies for rice crispy treats.   Store them in a sealed canister.   

Contrary to some opinions out there, bulk buying can be a money saver.   You need to exercise caution and buy the things that you use a lot of on a regular basis.  One pound  of rice at the dollar  tree is a buck. Twenty five pounds of rice cost 8.47.   For the cost of  8.5 pounds, you can have 25 poumds,    That's a remarkable difference,    That's almost three times as much.

It just makes sense. 

Daily blogs at www.janegrocerysavy.blogspot.com 

Basics: Part 5 RBP- what is it.

Basics , part 5:  RBP. What is it 

Finding the best prices on food is not such a hard task.   It can be overwhelming, but not of you break it down to a few steps

You have already--

• Identified sources of protein  that you will use in your meal plans.    These should be less than two dollars a pound of you are trying for a four dollar a day budget.   (Snap guidelines ) 
• Identified the items you buy on a regular basis to prepare meals from those protein sources. 
• Now, gather your ads,    Our Winco doesn't have an ad, so you just have to visit the store. Every Winco has different prices because they work  off of a list to provide prices lower than  the competitors.  It's important to note, that no one store can have the best prices on everything,   
• Take a short inventory of your fridge,pantry  and freezer.    This will tell you what you are missing.  
• Now, start circling everything that you need that is a good price.   Check for coupons to  remember what you clipped.   $$.    I usually do that for people on the Seattle area.  There are some sites that work in other areas.   Try favado.   
• Soon, you might start seeing better prices at one store over another in an item.  
• Circle, star, or tag any item you intend to buy,   I put a check mark on anything I might have a coupon for,   The best use of coupons is when you find a good buy and can stack a coupon with it.  You can't stack an electronic coupon with a paper one. Most  all stores take them.   
• I have a meal plan form I made in excell.   It has seven blocks in one side of the landscape sheet and two columns on the other,   In one column I have listed the things we buy on a regular basis that are perishable to fill in meals,    The second column is blank so I can either mark how many we have or note that we need it.   This  makes doing an inventory a couple of minutes. 
• Now, decide who has the RBP  on what you need.   Here, it is usually Fred Meyers and Winco,    Occasionally, we find a good sale with coupons at Safeways or QFC.   Costco is always go to to for bulk Purchases.    I continue to check prices, but unless something is in a huge sale, you can't beat the few things I get from Costco,   Not everything is a bargain at Costco.   Look for a rotation meat.    My standby if I can't find pork loin cheap is to look at Costco business.    It's in the next town, so I don't go unless I'm out of a few things that they have that regular Costco doesn't carry.  Costco has grains 
• that were not part of our vocabulary in the fifties, and seaweed.   But, they 
• don't carry corn starch, or large canisters of broth granules or some spices.    I bought a larger than large sack of salt and soda.   I will never have to buy them again! Lol.  They were cheap.    They can be used for cleaning as well as food.    
• Having a target figure ( nothing to do with the store with the red balls ) for your basics list is basic necessity  in knowing if something is a stock up price.  Try to never lay full price  for your basic needs list.    Canned veggies should be less than fifty cents,   Ditto diced tomatoes, beans of you buy canned.   I want 149-1.69 a pound for pork loins,   I want .88-1.00 a pound for Foster Farms chicken,    (Locally grown ) hamburger  3.28 or less for 7 percent fat.   I want pasta sauce in glass for close to a dollar.   In cans for under a dollar, pasta ( Barilla) should be under a  dollar...preferably .50-.75 cents.    It is always a dollar at the DT. ( dollar tree) as is canned pasta sauce and they take coupons- up to four a  day, and some won't take two  coupons for two   of the same thing.    That's not the written coupon policy, but best not to argue.  They have the last word.   I want frozen veggies for under a dollar a POUND.   Many vegetables are in 12 ounce pkg.  Cheese  should be less than 2.35 a pound.  Different stores have different prices.   
• If you live where there isn't a variety of stores, you probably have higher prices,because there is no competition.  Consider scoping out the next big town and finding the best priced stores.   You can sometimes get the store to send you the ad, or find it on line.  Or get a family member or friend to take a snapshot of other and Facebook it to you.  Find the best sale week and go once a month,   if it isn't  near other errands you,need to do, consider carpooling with a friend or neighbor.  Split the gas bill, or take turns.    We used to drive ten mikes to Winco once a month before we got one in our town.   I hear Aldi is expanding to almost double stores.  Think outside the box.    
• The best prices you can get with coupons is when you can find something on a mark down table and have a coupon. ( I got two cans of s and w beans for .08  total.    ) or you have a buy XX things, save XX dollar sale .  Our Kroger has those often,    You have to make your choices carefully, a lot of junk food here sometimes, but with careful planning, you can match coupons and make out.  I saved 91 percent one time.   
• You can also make out with a basket coupon ,   That's where they give you  XX number of dollars off a XX dollar basket of food.   Do the math,    Find the percentage of discount,    A five dollar off of fifty dollar basket is only ten percent,   If the prices are already high, it doesn't  pay.  This is another time when buying what's on sale with a coupon and adding the basket coupon can make you really clean up.   IF.  You stick to buying the maximum of the blanket or basket coupon.  Any amount over will lower your percentage off.   

Why bother, my time is worth more than that!  Is the most heard excuse about coupons and target shopping.    Let's break that down.     The average family our size spends 7800 a year on food.   We are at a pace to spend 2700 dollars his year and maintain a small emergency stock.    That's FIVE  THOUSAND dollars.    That's one nice trip to Disneyland or Hawaii.    Or covers the cable and the heat bill.   Or makes a car payment.     

Using every available tool to reduce your food costs just makes sense as long as it doesn't consume you.   

Daily blogs at www.janegrocerysavy.blogspot.com