Monday Madness

It's Monday again,    Still our weekend.  I love retirement.  I don't miss that rat race at all. The money, not so much!  The days seem to run together.  I schedule chores to keep track of what day it is!   LOL

I haven't gone to rite aid yet, and need to use my up rewards.  Couponconnections is a valuable resource.  I am not finding a lot of bargains thos week.  The special toothbrush is about it.



Betty Crocker this time has a lot of slow cooker recipes, just in time for fall and busy families.  I love to put something in the crockpot and go about my business and have dinner ready when we are.  I batch cooked three pounds of sausage from Costco yesterday.  Surprisingly, there was little fat.  We had sausage quiche last night.  I  dovoded it into six portions. ( only two of us are meat eaters unless our son comes to dinner.  I usually add another protein to anything I cook with sausage anyway, so a little goes a long way.  Costco was cheaper than SAFEWAYS on sale.  It still was more than two dollars a pound, up from last year.  I used to get it for a buck in the 70's.


Sausage and bean soup
Sausage and eggs
Sausage quiche
Pizza
Meat sauce might be the exception.

It might be important to note that you are not going to eat sausage five nights a week.  I batch cook.  Cook once, eat several times.  It is much easier.  You clean up once, and putting dinner together is a snap when your meat is already cooked.  .  It takes the longest time to cook.

Buying the most inexpensive meat for the week and rotating so you are covered for a month is the cheapest  and most efficient way  of providing your meat.

I usually can find chicken , pork loin or roast, hamburger, and and fill in with sausage or roast beef whichever I can find.  Roast beef is getting out of reach.  To make it on a tight budget, you need to keep the meat or protein at a two- 3 dollar average.  Four people, one meal, five bucks.  I am basing this on a three hundred dollar budget for the proverbial family of two adults and two school aged children.  If your family is a different matrix,you need to adjust accordingly.  

If  you get yourself down to rock bottom prices, then you can interject a treat when momey permits.  It is easier to add more than it is to reduce your spending. Buying anything you want is easy, sticking to a budget takes some discipline and effort.  The effort is worth it if it means you have a pantry at the end of the month and you are on snap or of you can afford a few luxuries if you aren't.  In our case, it means we can go out to happy hour dinner once a week with friends and I can buy a book or other fun thing for my grandbaby.  We still eat well and healthy, but we can afford more than just eating on a fixed  income .  

That's about it.

Thanks for stopping by

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Jane