5 easy concepts.

I now have new readers.  For a little background, I have always been frugal.   In the 70s I was a single parent that lived through double digit inflation , no raises, no child support.   Enough said.   I started making it my mission to learn more than my mother taught me to s t r e t c h the food budget. Five years ago, my daughter came to me.   She has been teaching children of low income families for years.    The mothers were lamenting that they were running out of grocery money before they ran out of month.   My daughter said, Oh, my mom knows how to fix that.     I started a blog with the help and encouragement of my children.  

Five years later.....

Five basic concepts....  this won't happen overnight.    It has taken me 50 years and I am still evolving.   I got my education .piecemeal.  This is more concise.   One step at a time.  

• The gambling concept.  If you are buying your groceries at one store and buying just what you need for a weeks worth of meal plans, you are going to loose.   Like when one goes to a casino, the odds are against you.    The house always wins in the end.   No one store has the best prices on everything.   Picking two stores and buying the best of both stores, affords you the best opportunity for low prices and freshest produce.   
• My mother used to say that some people could have a bargain get up and bite them in the butt and they wouldn't see it.   Don't be that person.  Know what your core products are and what the rock bottom price (target price or buy price ) is for those items.   Make a list of the meals you cook on a regular basis.  Most people have a list of 10 or so.  Now list the staple ingredients.   We use a lot of diced tomatoes, pasta, pasta sauce, green beans, .....find the lowest sale price on those items in your area.   Try not to buy those things unless they are at your target price.   When thy are, buy enough to last until they go on sale again.   Usually that is a four to six week cycle.  Things like bbq sauce, pumpkin, catsup, cream of mushroom soup, are seasonal an it's best to get a years supply.   The difference is remarkable.   With coupons, I got bbq sauce for .56 instead of 2.56.   I just got salad dressing for .50 instead of 2.50.  Those savings add up quickly.  
• Waste not, want not.  Try to buy perishables in quantities that you know you will use up before they go bad.   Note that expiration dates on dairy usually mean that you have some time past that date to use it up.  Let your nose be your guide.   Still, when in doubt, throw it out.   Before that happens, keep track and find recipes that will use it up.   Google it.  I often use sour cream in place of yogurt in some recipes.   Can you dehydrate it?  Freeze it?   Eggs can be dehydrated for future use.   
• BULK.  Grocery stores have "loss leaders" usually on the front page of the ad.   Some of our grocery stores don't have ads or have ads that you can get on line or in the newspaper.   Protein sales stagger.   If you plan your meals using a set list of meats that are flexible, you will save a bundle.   Rotate your purchases and buy enough of a particular meat for a month to six weeks of that meal.   If you have something with hamburger in it twice a week, you need 8-12 portion controlled meals.   Example: We buy 7 percent fat hamburger, whole pork loin, split chicken breasts, and bulk sausage.   We buy bulk cheese from Costco usually, and dried beans.   Buy one bulk meat a week, portion control it, and cook it if it makes sense to.   I don't cook pork and chicken, but I bulk cook and de-fat hamburger and sausage.  The hamburger is portion controlled in quart bags, then the batch is put into a gallon bag that I mark and date.   I use cheaper quart bags and a more expensive gallon one.   Sausage is in a gallon. Bag.  It makes it easier to pull just a bit for a pizza or to use in a quiche.  Bulk beans I keep in popcorn canisters that I get at Costco. Air popped popcorn is a great healthy cheap  treat.  
• Use a different concept of grocery shopping.   Instead of going to the grocery store and buying just what you need for a few days or a week worth of food, you buy to replenish your stock.   This affords you the opportunity to only buy most things at a discounted rate.   You are going to buy a rotation protein perishables in season, an what's on sale you need to replentish.  You cook off your stock.   This takes some time to build, but with patience it does happen.   You can do this piecemeal, one week at a time buying double portions of things that are1/2 price. Or you can take a tax return and start a stash.   It will pay you off in the long run in savings.   We eat for 45.00 a week for three of us.   Granted, we are old and not as active as some families.   But, that figure is 40 percent  of the USDA stats for thrifty people.   We eat well, but this concept makes us have most of our food for 1/2 price.   

•