Thursday

Has anyone ever noticed that when you are sick, everything else takes a back seat to your getting up and well to get on with life and responsibilities.  I think that the same holds true, when you are short of money grocery shopping takes on a more important role in your life, because you have to eat, but you have to eat cheaper.  Throwing ready made food in a basket that looks good, is replaced by finding healthy food for your family within your budget.  It takes more effort to live when you don't have money and have to make ends meet.

My goal is to help people get through the process somewhat efficiently , and still cut the grocery bill in half.  What would you do with four thousand dollars?   The average family spends 150.00 a week.  If you save half, you would have about four thousand dollars a year more in you bank account.  Provided you had the four thousand in the first place.  LOL. When I was a single parent, I didn't have thousands to save, it was a matter of survival.

There was a study that came out recently that said that peoples IQ could actually go down when they were poor and struggling to make ends meet.  I'm guessing that it is the stress.  Once  you get the hang of it,  groceries on the cheap can lower the stress.  Having food in the pantry is a welcoming site.  The worry of what am I going to feed my kids slips away.  That's a good thing.

The whole key is to know your prices.  You don't have to know the price of everything in the grocery store, just the small list of things that you buy on a regular basis that you use  to cook your meals.
Only buy them when they are rock bottom prices.  It means that you can buy twice as many when they are on sale.  You have spent the same amount, but have one for another day.

Why pay 1.59 for a can of pasta sauce, when you can get two and have money left over?   It just makes logical sense.

When you find something on a really good sale that your family will eat, buy it and incorporate it into your meal.

My family loves blue cheese.  I found it at grocery outlet really cheap.  We like buffalo chicken pizza, and blue cheese and apple salad.  Apples are beginning to be in season and cheaper.

Stocking meat per week and rotating a sale protein on a monthly cycle, and using a meal plan matrix makes eating a variety of meals easy.  You have a road map.  You are rotating, so you always have a month worth of protein.  It doesn't take a lot of room,because you are dealing with already cooked meat and some meals are vegetarian.  It takes less time to make a batch of meat, and less clean up, and you portion control meals so you have less waste.

Blue cheese salad

Lettuce, or field greens
1 crisp tart apple, sliced thinly.

Dressing

3 T vinegar
1tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup blue cheese,crumbles.  ( 1 ounce)
Pepper.

Arrange apple on lettuce
In small bowl,, mix together vinegar, mustard.  Add oil and wisk in,
Add 1/2 of the blue cheese.
Sprinkle the other 1/2 of the blue cheese on the salad.

You can eat gourmet meals on a thrifty budget.  It just takes some smart shopping.


If you care to comment, what constitutes a gourmet, yummy meal to you?

Thanks for stopping by

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Jane