Saturday, February 6, 2016

From the beginning.....

It's probably time that we start from the beginning for those that are new and wonder what this is all about.

It came to my attention that some people on SNAP were running out of money before they ran out of month.   My daughter said, you know how to stretch your food dollar.   You should write a blog.    And the rest is history.I have learned more since then.

Groceries on the cheap takes a different approach to grocery shopping.   Instead of making meal plans and shopping for one weeks worth of meals, you shop to replenish your stock and purchase the perishables you will need for the week.   This allows you the luxury  of always having food in the house. If something happens that you can't get out of the house you don't have to shop. No child should suffer the insecurity  of having nothing in the house to eat.

 This allows you  to shop the sales and only purchase your food what is that a rock-bottom price. Most of the time you can get your food for half price.  This takes some planning and organization, but I would say that it will probably take you less time to shop that you were taking before.

Getting started. Lets outline the steps. Anything you do  starts with a plan.

1)  identify the sources of protein that your family likes to eat. In our family that would be eggs,                                                 cheese,  beans, rice, pork, chicken, beef.

2)  write down 7 to 14 main dishes  that use these ingredients.
     Example : speghetti with red sauce, stir fry, chilli, chicken pot pie, quiche, tacos or burritos.
     There are many more .

3) now identify the shelf stable ingredients that you will use to make your meals.
    These will be your stock items.  Most people have a list of 10 to 15 items.
      For example, ours would be beans, rice,  diced tomatoes, green beans, pasta, pasta sauce, green                             chilies, Black olives,  refried beans, instant mashed potatoes, corn.

4).  For your stock items, start a little notebook or a spreadsheet. This is your price book. You want to identify  The item,  The size of the container, and the rock-bottom price. Also, decide how many items  of that product you are going to stock. Example: if you use diced tomatoes and use two cans a week, and four wee and use two cans a week, you will use 8 cans a month.    Either estimate when you think this will go on sale again or pick a comfortable amount of months stock.

5)  this won't happen overnight.  As you see things on sale or on sale with a coupon that makes them the rock-bottom price, you buy your regular food and add  A few cans at a time. You can find more money in your budget by omitting  Snackfood (empty calories)  and things like pop or soda. surprise surprise, you do not get snacks like potato chips and soda and steak and lobster on a snap budget.  Keep a separate budget if you have to have those items. If you have a snack budget you will soon be aware of how  much you are spending on junk food.

Next: analyzing the ads and finding the  rock-bottom price.












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