Monday, just Monday

It would be Monday, Kitchen Management day. But I need to know if people want that subject.  So, we’ll try something different.

Taking some time every now and then to take inventory and straighten an auxiliary freezer is a good thing.  We did that yesterday.   I use baskets from the dollar tree to organize my freezer.   It makes life simpler to know where things are.    And, you can tell at a glance what you may need to watch for a sale to replentish.

Dollar tree now has 200 count tissue and it’s not sandpaper.   Lol

Go tos at the DT are :

• Office supplies, notebooks 
• Tissue not toilet paper 
• That being said , I get one TP from the DT for emergency.  Putting it in the back of the cabinet tells us that we need to go to costco. But we are never in a pickle.   
• Pizza sauce.   Its a name brand, less than any other sauce. As cheap as homemade.   You can get 5 pizzas out of a jar and we freeze the rest of the jar after the first pizza in ice cube tray and put the cubes in a zip lock.  One jar fills an ice cube tray 
• Tortillas - they are cheaper and not made with lard. 
• Orowheat bread .  Sometimes they have buns and bagels.   There are coupons out there. 
•  Chocolate   striped shortbread.   - cheaper than the GO. 
• Suddenly salad with coupons. 
• Sugar free applesauce for school lunches 

Not to be a broken record, but the key is to know your prices.  The cost of food can be made cheaper just by knowing what is the RBP and where to get it.   No one store has the best price on everything,   Making a list of what you do use and finding where it is the cheapest goes a long way to cutting your food costs.   You don’t go to five stores a week, you buy enough to carry you through until you find it cheap again or you have run out.   There are a few things that you need on a regular basis.   So,e things can be skipped until you get a cheaper price..

In our area, Winco and Fred Meyers are the cheapest overall.   QFC is a Kroger store , but almost everything is about 10-20 percent more than other stores.   They work on mega sales and coupons,  

Grocery outlet and the dollar store are side by side at Kenmore and north Seattle.   Grocery Outlet (GO) is good for some things,  you do have to know your RBP.   I can almost always  get designer cheeses for reasonable.   Sometimes yogurt, condiments are usually a bargain.   It is a treasure hunt.  Some things are always there, some things are surprises.   

Safeway/Albertsons (Alberways ) is giid when they have a case lot sale But, when a cake mix is 1,79 and the same brand is .88 at Winco...well.....Barilla pasta was 2.00; it is a dollar when they have it at the DT and it’s little more than a dollar at Winco.    There haven’t been coupons lately.  

The specialty type whole paycheck stores are  pretty much off limits for those trying to feed their family for 1/2 the USDA stats for poor people.    The USDA stats are published by the USDA every few months,   Google “cost of food at home USDA” for current list.   Note there are adjustments for sizes of your family.  

Being open to all avenues of saving :maximizes your savings.  

• Know your prices of things you buy on a regular basis 
• Use coupons 
• Scratch cook
• Buy in bulk when it makes sense 
• Stock up when things are RBP- shelf stable foods that have decent pull dates.  Decide on a stock plan.   If you use something twice a wwe, and you want a six week supp,y, you need 12 cans or packages.   
• Cut waste, start step leftovers.  If you drain a can of diced tomatoes, save the juice for stock. Etc. 

The more you do, the more money you can save.  Learn tricks to maximize your time.  

Meal plans

Meal plans are a necessary part of the time planning and shopping 🛒.  It saves time and money and makes your life easier,   No more answering the question what’s for dinner?

This week we are still on our let’s eat down the freezer mantra.   We have one month until our bulk meat comes .   Lol

• Split pea soup with ham - baguettes
• Pizza bbq chicken ( use a batch of chicken for pizza, burritos, and stir-fry. 
• Spaghetti and meatballs , bread, salad ( save some spaghetti fir stir fry )
• Chicken stir fry 
• Salmon cakes , oven potatoes, carrots 
• Chicken burritos ( tortillas are from DT) no lard 
• Breakfast 4 dinner ( use the rest of the ham ) 

Notes

Using slow cooker part of insta pot.  NEVER use the regular insta pot! It just spells MESS!

Cooking 1 batch of chicken in the insta pot just saves time.

QFC haul

5 butter at 2.00
4 soup at .55 coupons stacked
Nathan’s hot dogs
Tortillas 1.00

Fred Meyer ad for Sunday

• Butter is two dollars a pound today only with andigitL coupon at qfc . You can have 5

• WTH F only w digital coupon. Shrimp 5.77 and salmon fir 5.77
• Petite sirloin steaks 2.97
• Grapes 1.68
• Apples 1.47

DIGITAL COUPONS 

Lean cuisine 4/6

Cheerios 1.49

Breyers ice cream 1.99

Cream soups 4/2

Pasta .50

Best foods 2.99

Peanut butter .99

———————

Ground turkey 2/5

80/20 beef 3.49   Not a good buy 

Apples .99 🍎 apples 🍏 

Note insta pot is 79.00 and vets or service get 10 percent off on Thursday.  Bring the ads 

Sloppy joe recipe. .....scratch

It’s almost as cheap to use the can, but there is some samvings and you can tailor the recipe for picky eaters.  


Sloppy joes -serves 4

• 3/4 lb of ground beef, cooked **
• 1 can diced tomatoes, drained, reserving juice 
• 1/2 of a pepper, chopped -green is good or u can use what u have 
• 1/2 medium onion , chopped 
• 1 clove garlic , chopped 
• Tomato paste as needed 

• In the insta pot on sauté, put the peppers and onion.   Cook until somewhat soft . 
• Turn off sauté function and add cooked ground beef, 
• Put diced tomatoes threw a sieve or pulse in a food processer.   Add to pot. 
• Add seasonings.  
• Add tomato paste until you have the desired color and consistency,  about 1 Tbls
• Slow cook 4-8 hours.  

Notes :  I used the juice from the tomatoes for part of the water in rice.  Also used a yellow pepper because that was what we found on sale at GO.  

We always cook ground beef when it comes home from the store.  Its a real time saver to batch cook and portion control the beef.  It means you can find time to de-fat and when it’s tome to cook dinner, you are half way done.   

Dinner in the slow cooker means all you have to do is make oven fries and get out your ore made veggie tray,   Easy dinner,    

GO haul

GO is our discount overstock grocery store.  Its no frills and the stock is limited to overstocks.  Some things are almost a,ways there, but the rest is a treasure hunt.  Be sure to watch for  pull dates .

Caramel cookie blondness - a takenoff of Girl Scout cookies    ,99
Hot sauce  .69
Mini marshmallows .89
Thin mint cupcake mix .99
Ketchup 1.59
Dill pickles, 1.99

6 English cucumbers 2.99
Peppers 2/1.00

Sliced cheese 1.99
Smoked rope sausage 1,.99
Bacon 2,99

Total 22.08.  Still under budget

Weekly ads

Its a holiday ! Usually the ads for regular  food are not great on holiday weeks,  
No exception.  


QFC

Saturday only, digital coupon, 1.99 butter

Draper valley whole chicken .99


Digital coupons you have to load them on your card can buy 5

The coupon guru says that you can use a paper coupon with digital when it is a store digital

Campbell’s soup 4/3. Or .75 each.   Coupons out there

General Mills cereal 1:79. Coupons

American beauty pasta :50

Best foods 2.99

Kleenex .99 when u buy 1

HF smoked sausage 1.99

Frozen fruit 2.99 when u buy 1

Tide 3.99.when I buy 1 there r coupons out there , but it depends on what kind of a coupon the first one is,   If the coupon works, it would make it 1.99

 __________
Pork shoulder 1:79

Berries 2/5

Alberways

Bacon 3.99, in 2 lb pkg. @@

The methodology...

• Groceries on the cheap takes a different approach to grocery shopping.   Instead  of going to the  store and buying a list of things that you will use to make dinner for a  specific week, you go to replentish your stock.   I have a dry goods pantry and a freezer.   I have done this without my upright freezer, but I have to admit that having a freezer helps.

Once every quarter or less , we do a costco run for the bulk purchases of flour, oatmeal, and rice.

Weekly, I usually hit two stores after I study the ads and share them with you. I am going looking for

• The rotation protein that is a RBP I have identified in an ad. Sometimes this happens, sometimes it doesn’t.   
• Dairy:   I almost always have yoplait yogurt coupons.   I am looking for a sale on sour cream, milk, cottage cheese sometimes, and cheese.  I want milk, sour cream, cottage cheese for as close to a dollar as possible.   Cheese I want for two dollars a pound, but never over 2.35.  Don’t overlook the cases of yogurt, I got a case for 1.98 yesterday.   I have a buy price for eggs at a dollar and butter for 2.50.   I have bought butter for as low as 1.50 and eggs for ass low as .7.  When eggs were .78 I dehydrated them.   
• Fresh fruits and veggies in season.   Always check multiples.   One pound of carrots was a dollar yesterday, 5 pounds were 2.28.   Carrots have a every long fridge life.   Carrot sticks are good for a veggie tray.  Glazed carrots with honey, butter, and ginger are delicious with chicken or pork.   Baby carrots are just carrots that they BLEACH and cut small.   One pound is a dollar. Another drastic price difference.   
• Anything on a good sale that the dry pantry is in need of.   The pantry has shelves an my designated limit of storage of a particular product is mapped out.   I can tell at a glacial if I am short of a particular item.   It has to be a very special price, or I don't buy it.   We do have the luxury of diced green chilies that I get at Winco for 1/2 the price of the national brand an sliced black olives that I got at GO for .69 last time.  Winco has a price of .72 usually.   FM is a lot more.   Making things look and taste good makes groceries on the cheap sustainable.  

Stocking: the what and when of it.

First of all, stocking is not hoarding if it is done with some thought.    None needs a coat closet full of sodas.   LOL.  One does not need 150 bottles of hot pepper sauce.

What:

Things like mustard, mayo, catsup and coffee can be stocked for one ahead.   Look for a sale when you pull your backup unit off the shelf.   That way you never run out of something in the middle of cooking.   If you are efficient you should never have to run to the store or the neighbours because you dont have a much needed item.

As for any other food stuff, it depends on how many of that product you use on a regular basis.   Decide how much of xxx you use on a weekly basis.  Now decide how many weeks you need ahead.  This often is predicated on how often there are sales on something.    Shelf stable items can be. Stored up to a year or more depending on pull dates.   Some things are good past pull dales, depending on the item.  There are good articles out there that will give you good clues.   Pasta is supposed to have an eight year shelf life.    Beans , and anything with an acid content do not have much grace period beyond the pull date.

Some canned goods have taken a large hike in cost.   It really is a benefit if you keep enough stock to last you until you find a good sale.    Green beans can be over a dollar a can.   They can also be five dollars a dozen in a case lot.    The difference in cost means that you can eat three times instead of one.


A list of canned items that are a good thing to stock ( provided you eat and use these things on a regular basis ;

• Green beans 
• Corn 
• Diced tomatoes 
• Some canned beans 
• Salad dressing 
• BBQ sauce
• Dehydrated potatoes 
• Pasta 
• Some soups 

 Keep a few of : 

Black olives 

Mild green chilies 

Pepperoni 

Top ramen ( emergency rations )

Dry milk 

Flour 

Sugar 

Brown sugar 

Water:  emergency rations 

Back up salad oil 

Back up catsup 

Back up mustard 

Back up coffee 

Tea 

The key is to know how much to keep.   You don’t want to have the pull date get away from you, but you don't want to get stuck paying full price either.    

This can be done on a shoestring budget.  It takes time and a skill set to buy things whether you need the immediately or not when you find something o a RBP.    You dot wait until you have a fire to buy a fire detector.   Plan.   If you know you are going to go through a financial crisis, or a month where the expenses are great, save for them, but having a full part can also tide you through.   

We know we have a donut hole to ride through the third to fourth quarter of the year.   Maybe for you, you know you are having a baby and aren't going to feel or have time to shop a lot, or maybe not feel like shopping.   Maybe you know you are gong to have surgery or your spouse is going to have to go away for work and you are carrying the full load.      Whatever it is, plan for it.   There is a wonderful sense of satisfaction knowing you always have food in the house.   No one should have to carry the stress of not hang anything in the cupboards.   That stress lowers your life expectancy.   And it is a terrible hardship on children.   If you have any steady food money at all, you can stretch it to cover a small stock.   Sometimes it takes a can or case at a time.    But you can

do it.    

Winco Haul

Winco Haul -some good buys

Maxwell House Coffee 6.48
Nalleys chilli .99 less 20 cent coupon is .79

Stir fry veggies 1.51
Leaf lettuce 1.58
2 grape tomatoes 2.56
Strawberries 1.98
Celery .98
Blues 3.98
Bc cake mix .88
Pickles 1.88
Yoplait yogurt 8 pack 1.98. -thats .25 a carton

Bacon 2.98

5 lbs carrots 2.28
Ham 2.48
Hamburger buns .78
Case of green beans 4.98

The real scoop....on 80/20 hamburger

On a recent U tube, a gal did a sorta scientific experiment on which hamburger was cheaper, 80/20 or 93/7.   A lot of her information was flawed.   Here is the real scoop.


Package w hamburger weighs 1.33 lbs.
Package weighed .39 pounds
Net hamburger less than 16 ounces.

Tare weight of the shy 1 lb hamburger is 11.25 ounces.
80/20 hamburger should be 12.8 ounces
Tare weight , drained and de fatted was 11.64 ounces

11.64 ounces / 1.99 is .17 an ounce.  

Kitchen Management

Kitchen management is a tool that enables one to be organized and keep the kitchen clean on an ongoing basis.   By doing one small deep clean chore a week on a rotation basis, the kitchen stays clean with little work.    Prepping meals for a few minutes one day can save countless stress at dinner
Time.  

Reprint menu:

• Split pea soup/ bread 
• Pizza
• Chicken stir fry , rice , mandarin oranges 
• Tacos , Spanish rice , 
• Sloppy joes, oven fries, veggie platter
• Salmon, potatoes, broccolli 
• Breakfast for dinner 

1. Wash kitchen floor 
2. Wash and disinfect counters, sinks, and drains 
3. Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead. 
4. Wash stove drip plans. 
5. Wax south side cabinets. 
6. Wash veggies:  celery, carrots, potatoes 
7. Chop carrots for split pea soup
8. Start bread rising 
9. Thaw chicken 
10. Make sloppy joe filling 
11. Fry hamburger and measure for scientific experiment 
12. Make a veggie tray .   
13. Straighten pantry. 

Meal Plans

Meal Plans are a useful tool to keep you on track.   If you are organized even a bit, you can avoid the takeout demon.

• Split pea soup    Bread 
• Pizza
• Chicken stir fry  rice , mandarin oranges
• Tacos, Spanish rice 
• Sloppy joes , oven fries, veggie platter 
• Salmon , baked potatoes, broccolli 
• Breakfast for dinner.    

Notes:   

1. I finally found split peas.   Seem like I was hunting forever.   Add vegetable stock and carrots.   Garnish with bacon.   The bread dough is hanging in the fridge. A very cheap dinner.   
2. Pizza is a mainstay. The cost is less than a buck when you get your cheese for two dollars a pound.   We make our own crust for .19 and save veggie pieces for toppings. 
3. Chicken stir fry is easy....make double rice for stair stepping into taco day. J
4. Salmon is in the freezer.   We are going to eat down the freezer so we are ready for a bulk meat delivery in spring   Baked potato’s uses up the excess potatoes.   
5. Breakfast for dinner is always a favorite and can be as inexpensive as you want it to be.   
6. Taco shells were .50 for twelve.  That makes 2 meals for us.   
7. Sloppy joes are scratch.   With hamburger for 1.50 a lb, its also a cheap dinner.   Oven fries are a bit more complicated than the frozen ones, but we have potatoes to use up.   

Fred Meyer ad for Sunday

Usually , the ‘holiday’ ads are not a good time for bargain hunters.  This time there is not a lot, but what there is can be good.

My pick for rotation meat would be either 10 FF boneless, skinless chicken breast or 2) kroger 20 percent hamburger.   When you figure the best price for hamburger , calculate the price times 1.xx with xx being the fat content.   This makes sense to me.   There was a person on a u tube that somewhat thought she was doing an experiment. But, it didnt make my accountant logic test. LOL
20 percent at 1.99 equals 2.39 a lb ; angus ground sirloin cost 4.14 a lb.   Now, I did get sirloin for 2.39 a lb and ground it myself.   You can reduce fat by as much as 17 percent by de-fatting it.   Seniors get the ground sirloin on Tuesday for 3.39 or net 3.73

Mandarins -5 lb. 4.77
Blackberries .99
Milk .99

Digital coupons -your qfc card works here .
You cant pair a digital coupon with a paper one.
Net prices

Tide 3.99
Sour cream .99
HS sausage 1.99

Kleenex tissue .99 -   You can get 160 count tissue at DT most of the time.  Sometimes you can get 210 at winco for a dollar.  

QFC Haul

QFC has a mega event.  I’ve seen better, but coupled with the 2 day sale, it netted me over fifty percent off .  


5 -1 lb 80/20 hamburger @1.99

Roma speghetti .49. Given to the foodbank

Digiorno pizza 2.99

Chocolate milk. .99

Goldfish crackers .99

Tillamook ice cream 3.00

Total 22.77 minus the dollar food bank. 21.77

Still umder budget.

Crunchy Baked Chicken

Any meal that you can fix and put in the oven to finish cooking is a good thing.   No watched pot.


1 egg, beaten
2 T milk

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup grated parmesean cheese
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
Salt
Pepper

3-4 lbs chicken pieces
1/4 cup olive oil

1. Beat egg and milk 
2. Put all dry ingredients in a shallow bowl and stir.  
3. Dip chicken pieces in egg mixture and then in breadcrumb mixture.  
4. Place chicken pieces in greased baking pan.  Drizzle with olive oil. 
5. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes or until chicken tests done and juices run clear.   

Thursday bullets: substitutions

It is a real bummer to start a receipt and discover you don't have an ingredient.   Don’t let that deter you.   Yes, I guess if you don’t have the chicken for your chicken salad, that would be a problem.  But, not having tomato paste can be rectified.  

• Baking powder:  1 tsp. 1/4 tsp soda, plus 1/2 tsp cream of tarter 
• Bread crumbs :   Crushed crackers 
• Buttermilk:   1 cup. Plain yogurt or 1 cup milk plus 1T lemon juice or vinegar.  Let stand 5 minutes.
• Cake flour :  1 cup regular flour minus 2 T .
• Unsweetened Chocolate:  1 ounce equals 3T cocoa plus 1T butter
• Sour cream:  1 cup equals 1 cup buttermilk plus 3T melted butter.
• Heavy cream:  1 cup equals 3/4 cup milk plus 1/4 cup melted butter. 
• 1T mustard equals 1 tsp dry mustard 
• Tomato paste can be substituted with ketchup 
• 1 small onion equals 1 T dryed minced onion 
• 1T fresh herbs equals 1 tsp dried.  
• Tartar sauce  -1/2 cup equals 6 T mayonaise plus 2T sweet pickle relish 

Chain store ads for today

Alberways

Basket coupon for 5 dollars off of 50.   It’s something , but not enough with their prices to entice me.

Grapes 1.79
Hamburger buns .89@@
Cheese 4.99@@
Medium avacados .88
Hillshire Farms sausage 2/5
Nathan’s hot dogs 3.99

QFC

Cream cheese 1.00

Buy 6, save 5
Tillamook ice cream 2.99
Goldfish .99
Chunky soup .99
Pasta .49
Milk .99
Classico pasta sauce 1.49
Pace Salsa 1.49
Pepperoni 2.99

NOTE:
Download coupons for Friday or Saturday only
Buy ten dollars worth of food,
80/20 hamburger 1.99
Dijorno pizza 2.99
Sausage 1.99

Buy up to 5 ea

Tuesday Notes

It’s definitely Tuesday and I dont have a clue what I want to talk about.  Yesterday it was Kitcenn Management day ,   I made Wednesdays Spicy Pork Tacos filling.    This comes from a very old cookbook from the 70s.  Its like fifty years old.   Some things are still economical.   And healthy enough to add to your good cheap meal list.   I stick with good cheap meals here because everyone can make a meal that costs ten bucks a plate.   If you cant, there are meal services out there that will deliver your food and instructions for ten dollars a plate.   If you know how to eat good food cheap, its not a big stretch to make more expensive dinners.   Knowing how to do it on the cheap gives you the confidence to know you can handle anything life throws at  you.  

I had ground my own pork when I made pork stew meat and ground pork from a pork sirloin I got from Winco for 1.69, and i got 12 taco shells for less than 50 with a coupon .   (And, who says you cant get real food with coupons ?). This made spicy pork tacos an interesting  experiment.

SPICY PORK TACOS

Oil
Chopped onion or onion powder
Garlic
Celery , 1 stalk
8 ounces of tomato sauce
Diced green chillies
Oregano
Salt
1.5 cups ground pork (1/2 lb ).  

Sauté onion, celery, garlic in the oil.  Add tomato sauce.  
Pour into a bowl .  
Fry ground pork until no longer pink and tests done.
Add 1/2 can of green chilies.  
Add back reserved tomato mixture.
Simmer for a few minutes or until the meat sauce is somewhat reduced.

Serve in taco shells with cheese and lettuce.


Notes:
Because of family members personal preferences , i used onion and garlic powder.
I used the top skinny part of the celery stalk.   It just made chopping easier and used what some people throw away. Tomato sauce can be less than thirty five cents, I used tomato paste and water I
got for .16.   Green chilies are cheapest at Winco.  Their brand is .66 —half the National brand.
Ground pork was 1.69 a lb. or .85.  This made 2 cups of meat .  

Total cost :   Celery .10, tomato sauce .16, chillies .33, ground pork .85.   Total 1.44. Add .50 for taco shells, .50 for cheese and .25 for lettuce.   Total 2.69.

At a five dollar meal, you could still add Spanish rice / and /or refried beans.  

It’s Monday, Kitchen Management

No surprise, Kitchen Management day.
Kitchen management is a tool that keeps your kitchen clean and preps diners so the dinner hour  is less hectic. It is an hour well spent.

• Wash kitchen floor 
• Disinfect kitchen counters and sinks and drains. 
• Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead. Wash shelves. 
• Put stove fan screen through the dishwasher .
• Mark the meal plan with anything that needs to be defrosted before the day of dinner. 
• make salad , put in container with a paper towel . Wash tomatoes . 
• Wash carrots and potatoes in vinegar water and dry. 
• Wash cheese containers and fill. 
• Clean and straighten pantry.   
• Deep clean the self serve coffee pot.   Clean under the hot boards.   

Like bulk buying, prepping saves time and money.  It saves money because you are prepping a sink of vinegar water once and washing all your veggies at the same time.   It, by the way, is a favorite chore of our 5 yo.   Maybe because our vegetable brush is a lady bug.   LOL.  

There is something to be said for having a small stock of food on hand. You can eat well and have a stock on hand even on a budget that is less than SNAP allotment. I’m not going to say that it doesn’t take some planning and some work at first, but it is surprisingly low maintenance once you get the hang of it.   Being organized is key.   Having all of one thing in the same place helps.   A few plastic baskets from the dollar store makes a big difference.   That black hole of a freezer becomes manageable and you can see at a glance what you need to replenish.  Most of the time, you don’t put yourself in the  position of having to go to the store.   

We are on the emergency ration toilet paper.  We do have to go to Costco today.  LOL.  A simple trick. Buy yourself a four pack of TP at the DT.  Put it in the back of the closet.  When you hit the DT stuff, it’s time to go to Costco, but you have avoided a disaster!!  LOL