The rest of the story...

Now, the rest the story.

One thing that I forgot when I was writing yesterday is like in almost any undertaking, you need a plan. Make meal plans after you get home from shopping.

If you have to answer the what's for dinner ? question after a long hard day, it's to easy to say pizza delivery if you don't have plan. It doesn't have to be entailed,just a list of seven main dishes. You don't even have to stick to the plan, just have a plan.

We were going to have salmon for dinner this week. But, I ran out of stock and two trips to Safeways yielded zero salmon.


The other point that I didn't make was that you need to take a mental note of anything in the fridge that is gone, or is old, but not dead and use it up on your plans soon.
If it is to far gone, give it a decent burial. We call this dump everything dead!

If you check mid week and incorporate anything on the edge into your meals or do something with it, this should be at a minimum. bread crumbs, croutons, banana bread, soup stock? Some things should be frozen up front when you buy on bulk.

Another thing worth mentioning again is Almost free pizza. My co worker's first reaction to this was, who's giving away free pizza? LOL No such luck, the operative word is ALMOST ! You keep two zip lock bags in your freezer door and every time you are chopping something that goes on a pizza you set aside a bit for the bag. The same goes for meat...hamburger crumbles, chicken, sausage. In would probably keep them in separate bags. You can reuse the bags if you want to.

When you have enough for a pizza, you make crust (easy food processor crust ist on previous blog). Sauce can be slightly watered down tomato paste with garlic and Italian herbs or some pasta sauce you have held back from another day with added herbs to taste.

I priced the cheese at Costco yesterday. It was all really expensive compared to previous trips. It has been on sale for 5.00 a brick lately. I have even got shredded for 5.00. I haven't checked the business Costco lately. WinCo used to have big bags cheap. We haven't been there for a while, at the rate thing are going it's hard to predict.

When aren't stable, it takes some true diligence. it's not too arduous task if you just commit to your key staples. The things that you buy one or two of a year,don't really impact you that much.

MY LIST AND THE PRICES I WANT TO PAY

Pasta .88 - 1.00 16 oz...pasta has an 8 YEAR shelf life
Canned diced tomatoes .50-.67
Canned beans .67
Re fried beans .78
Pasta sauce (hunts) .75-1.00
Instant mashed potatoes. .50-1.00
tuna 1.00 or less...be careful meat and fish have a shorter shelf life.
Cheese 2.50 a poumd....not that long ago it was 2.00

I keep some CAMPBELLS soup. I want to pay .75 or less.
If I don't find it on sale, I don't buy it.

We like tomato roasted red pepper soup. When Costco has it, it's about 2.00 a box. it is up to 4.00 or more a box at other stores. Only get it Costco. We add fresh basil, some milk and some blue cheese and some chunks of tomato...YUM.

Guess that all the time I have for today. Work is callimg me...

Thanks for stopping by

Please share. I know that there are unemployed, underemployed and people that have had to resort to food stamps. Our economy is not out of the woods yet. My hope is to reach some of these people and help them.

Some people enjoy a new or old recipe, some the time saving tips, some laugh at my bad keyboard skills..not used to two finger typing with a baby at my side "helping" and the auto spell check!LOL. Whatever your reason, I hope you can fimd something you can use in the blog.

Jane