Concept: meals:a master list

Groceries on the cheap takes a different approach to shopping for groceries.   Instead of the panic method, you use a replentishntish method,   This is good  because  you always have food in the house.   Studies have shown that not having food on the house lowers your life expectancy.   It is not good for children.  It is also not good because bleep happens.   Snow, sickness, government shutdowns, layoffs, any number of things can happen  Having a month to six weeks worth of food on the house is not hoarding, it is being responsible.

• Make a lot of 10-14 meals you family eats on a regular basis.  The average cook on a house has that many on their memory.  Now, list the ingredients.  Use inexpensive sources of protein if you are on a budget . 
• Pull out the non perishable things on your list.  The perishables on a separate list,  I have them on my meal plan form. 
• Non perishable list:  estimate how many if that item you will use in a month period.   If you typically use two to four cans of diced tomatoes, do the math.  This is easy on a spreadsheet.   
• Now, when things are on sale at their RBP, buy as many as you can until you get to your self imposed storage number.   
• The average family will have 10-15 items.  
• Things like ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard, I keep one ahead.   When I pull my backup out of the pantry, I start watching for a good price on the backup.  
• Flour, sugar. Yeast. Oatmeal. Baking powder, vanilla, beans. Dry milk I reolentish when I feel I am running low.   
• The basic survival list is part of my regular stock.  It comes in 2 parts of 5 items. One is from a Costco type store, the other is from a dis pint store like Winco.   The size of the packages can be determined by the size of your family,   
• Flour, beans, oatmeal, rice, yeast.  Yeast is close to 3.50 at winco.  A lot lot more at QFC.   
• Sugar, Vegetable  oil, butter, baking powder, dry milk.  
• Organize a closet, pantry, or cupboard so that  things are grouped together and you can tell at a glance when you need to look for a sale. 
• Simplify.  One or two kinds of tomatoes are sufficient.  The more variety you have, the harder it is to shop and maintain stock.