Appliances that save you money and/or time

The Christmas world s full of appliances that, in my estimation are gadgets.  Hot dog cookers, breakfast machines come to mind.

There are, in reality some appliances that are worth their weight in gold.   Of course, if you are going to leave them in the box to collect dish because you don’t like appliances, they aren’t going to do you any good.  Lol.

10 appliances that will save you money —

1. Air pop corn popper.   Uses no oil, and replaces the nasty microwave popcorn. When  you make air popped popcorn, you control what goes on it and it doesn’t have any chemicals or ingredients  you can’t pronounce.  It is also really cheap compared to microwave popcorn. A very large canister at Costco was close to 12.00 last time I bought it.  
2. Drip coffee maker.   Compared to the big bucks store.....anyway, it makes a lot more coffee for the same price as a cup of Joe at one of those coffee shops.   
3. Toasters are nice, most people have them, but I can’t say that they save money,   
4. Food processor.   Again, worth its space on the counter.   Grind meat.  Make breadcrumbs.  Breadcrumbs, even at the dollar store are two dollars a pound.  It takes minutes to make them from the bread that you might ordinarily throw away.  So easy, my 6 yo granddaughter has been doing it for years.   Pizza dough.  The cost of pizza dough is .19.   It costs anywhere from 1.50 to 2.00 to buy in the deli department.  The dregs of a pork loin if I have any  are pulsed in the food processor to be added to good beef for a flavorful meatloaf.   
5. Hot air fryer.  Cooks fries or other would be deep fried foods in little or no fat— fast.    The savings here are in your health and time.  
6. Insta pot.   Cooks things easier and in less time than cooking scratch and watching the pot.   A can of beans can cost upwards of a dollar.   Even at Winco they are .58.   The equivalent of beans cooked on the insta pot are .05 .  A nickel.   Cooking scratch beans is an ordeal at best and you have to be home for hours.   Beans don’t freeze well, and they have a short refrigerator life as does rice.  The insta pot takes 1 footprint on the counter, but does the work of a rice cooker, a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, and some make yogurt.   They even make cheesecake.  Don’t let it overwhelm you, take 1 item to cook at a time.  How many times did you make something else for dinner or order pizza because you forgot to pull out the chicken to thaw and defrosted chicken in the microwave is yuk yuk,  cook a frozen chicken breast in a few minutes.   
7. Upside down blender.  There is a name for this, but I don’t know what it is,   It makes smoothies and blends or “ beats “ things like eggs to a homogeneous consistency .  Not money saving , but time savings.  I guess of you are buying smoothies, they are probably cheaper to make at home. 
8. Waffle iron.  You can get waffle irons at reasonable price if you don’t get a commercial one.  The price of waffles in the frozen food case is about 90 percent more than making scratch.  You can  still make more than you need for Sunday breakfast and freeze them. Chocolate waffles are to die for!   Lol
9. A food saver extends the life of freezer meat and dehydrated veggies in mason jars. 
10. Our electric grill was about 20.00 on same at kohl’s. It doesn’t save money, but it makes French Toast, pancakes, and toasted sandwiches a whole lot easier to cook and in less time because  you can cook them in one batch instead of the many batches that you might have to cook if using a frying pan.  

December what we ate

1. Beef stroganoff 
2. Spaghetti 
3. Pork roast , mashed potatoes, green beans 
4. Pizza
5. Pork sliders , tater tots, fruit 
6. Loaded potato soup 
7. Pork chops, dressing with apple and Craisens, green beans pear salad 
8. Meatball subs, oven fries 
9. Fajitas, rice 
10. Spaghetti 
11. Meatballs, white gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans 
12. Steak, baked potatoes, mixed veg, sslad 
13. Chicken pot pie 
14. Nachos 
15. Chicken noodle soup 
16. Taco soup 
17. Leftovers 
18. Chicken chimichanga 
19. Potato soup 
20. Leftovers 
21. Spaghetti 
22. Roast beef a jus 
23. Baked potato bar 
24. Christmas Eve. Greenbeans with pecans and blue cheese or bacon 
25. French Toast, berry compote. Bacon, sparkling cider 
26. Chicken enchaladas with green sauce, 
27. French bread pizza. 
28. 
    
29. 
    
30. 
    
31.  
32. 
    

Hauls to 12/26 Left 22.75

left 6.12

Budget 30.00
Total 36.12

Olives 1.00
Pumpkin 2 ea .50
Tomato sauce  3 /1.00
Bacon 3 lbs 5.00
Cream cheese .50
Sliced cheese 2.19

Total. 13.37

Left 22.75

Hauls to 1/2 /19

Winco

Carrots (5#) 2.28

Roast beef 1.84

Grapes 6.20

Boullion 4.98

Total 

15.30

QFC
Bacon (5) 14.95

Total 30,25

December recap hauls

No spend 30.00 budget for December

12/6 to 12/13
21.24

12/13-12/19
32.64

12/19-12/26
44.93


12/26-1/2 19
30.25

Average 32.26

Includes  bulk bacon and cheese.

The best of the chains store ads

note that Winco does. It have an ad.  I post when I have been to the store and can verify a good deal. 

Safeways 

Berries  BOGO

Digital coupon for nakkys chili .90 limit 2

QFC 

Clementines, 5 lb bag 4.88

Milk .99

Eggs .99

Oranges .99

Pork shoulder roast BOGO 

Fred Meyers 

Foster Farms whole chicken .99

Note the legs, thighs and quarters are the same price, but nit a bargain 

Digital 5, FRIDAY to Monday. Breakfast sausage 1.50

Barilla pasta 1.00

Pillsbury tube rolls 2/4 $$

B5 S 5

Crisco oil 1.99

Coffee, foldgers 6.99

Red Barron pizza 3/10

Traditionally  , the holiday ads are more, what’s FOR  sale than they are what’s ON sale.   

Not many bargains here, exception would be milk and eggs at qfc. 

Eggs have a long refrigerator life and are a good stores of protein and versatile.  You can easily keep a months supply and rotate out as they come on sale.  This affords you to always buy eggs at a good price most of the time.   We have buy prices or target prices for things,   If the item isn’t better than the buy price, we just don’t buy it unless there is no substitute and we have to have it.  If you stock a 4-6 week supply, you can usually avoid getting stuck paying a top dollar price.   

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas. 

Stories from Christmas past


The Christmas the Grinch was pranked.

One Christmas our family was invited to  tea by a Greek captain of a ship.  We had marvelous tea and Greek cookies in the captains quarters.   When we got home, some naughty little elves had broken into  my parents home and stole my gift.   I can only imagine the look on their faces when what to their wandering eyes should appear, but an empty box saying my present wasn’t here .   My mom had ordered sewing scissors for me and they hadn’t come yet .


The Christmas miracle.
My best Christmas was the one when I brought my youngest son home  from the hospital.  My husband picked me up and we picked the rest of the kids from his family’s Christmas and we went to my parents home  on the island.  They had served canned chicken Chinese food for dinner at the hospital. I was grateful, for the plate my mother saved for me...roast beef.   I was especially grateful that my mother and my husband took turns feeding my son so I could get a much needed full night’s sleep.

Home for Christmas
Then there was the Christmas that we had to decide to pull the plug on my dad’s respirator.  A really memorable night to remember.   My sisters and mom ate leftovers together. That hadn’t happened for a long time and hasn’t happened since.  It was the Christmas that dad went to see his mom he hadn’t seen since he was 14 .


The rock.
The Christmas that my eldest son got a rock!  It was just too funny .  We had bought him a bike for Christmas.  He was 10 yo and got home  from school  a few minutes before I got home from work.  I just knew he would snoop .  So, we left the bike in Grampas garage.   Early Christmas Eve, my husband went to fetch the bike. Meanwhile , our eldest was very upset because there weren’t any packages under the tree for him .  Did I say he would snoop!   So, I went outside and picked up the big rock that was in the flower bed next to the front door.  I wrapped it up complete with fancy bow.  He shook that package until it was thread bare.  He kept saying, what is it?   I finally  said it was a rock .  Yah, right mom was his answer.  We let him open the rock while  my husband went down and got the bike.

The Barbie Christmas
My daughter walked in on me wrapping gifts.  She was getting Barbie stuff for Christmas .  I told her they were for her cousin, Kristin.   I didn’t want to spoil her Christmas.  She then proceed to be get upset  because  Kristin was getting all the Barbie stuff !

Merry Christmas !  Hope that  you new year is filled with new beginnings and memorable moments.

Insta pot tutorials

It’s  Christmas Eve and Monday Kitchen Management  has been preempted.   In case  someone is getting an insta pot for Christmas, or you have one and am wondering what to do with it, this is for you,   

Modern pressure cookers  are a far cry from our grandmothers.  They are much safer and most are electronic.   The insta pot is a pressure cooker, a rice cooker, a slow cooker  and some are yogurt makers too.   Unlike some appliances that fall into the trap where if they are multi task, they don’t  do anything well, the insta pot is a workhorse in the kitchen and take a lot less of a footprint on your countertop.   No, I don’t have stock in insta pot!   Lol

Just a few basics. It is important to check you seals every now and then and make sure that they are all in tact and clean.  Also the pressure valve — a little bump out inside the lid needs  to be clean. 

Always use the pressure cooker function with a clear LIQUID.   And, never make split pea soup on the pressure mode, unless you want to be cleaning for e v e r.  Lol 

Many foods that can take a lot of time and attention can be made a lot more efficiently.  

• Rice : measure rice, wash it if you  ordinarily wash your rice,   Place equal parts of rice and water or stock in the bowl, cover, seal, and push the rice button. 
• Beans: pick over your beans and discard any foreign material. Rinse in colander,   Poor beans in the bowl. Cover with water to above your second knuckle.  Cover, seal, and push the bean button.   Seal means place your valve to the seal position. 
• Spaghetti with meat sauce.   Place cooked meat on the bottom of the bowl. Alternative,y, you can set the cooker to sauté and cook your raw meat until no longer pink and drain off the fat.  If you cook raw meat, you then need to turn off the cooker.  Add 1/2 a package (8 ounces) of spaghetti that has been broken in half over the meat in a bird nest fashion,   That will insure that your noodles won’t stick together.  Norm pour a can or jar of pasta sauce over the noodles, Pour 2 cups of water or broth AROUND the outside of the bowl as to not disturb the sauce and noodles.   Place the cover on the insta pot, set to seal, and manually program it for 8 minutes.   You can finish the salad or bread or whatever else you are going to eat, because you,need to catch the pot when it finishes cooking or shortly after and manually release.  Be careful and use a wooden spoon type instrument to release.  You can also put a dish towel over the vent .  Not manually releasing will result in over cooked pasta.   
• Cooking just pasta.  Place pasta in the bowl, you will need a quart of water for a package of pasta.  Cover, set the valve to seal and process on manual for 2 minutes.  Again, don’t let the pasta sit on the water .  Most of the water will be absorbed and sitting will make it over cooked.  
• Cook frozen chicken breast on a trivet, with at least a cup of water or stock and cook for anywhere from 8-15 minutes depending on the thickness of your  chicken breast.  Test for doneness with a meat thermometer and make sure you have no pink in the center.  This is good for anything you are making that calls for cooker chicken.  

We make pork or beef stew in 35 minutes.   You can make pork chops with cream of mushroom gravy in a matter of minutes.   I prefer a pork roast in the oven.  Cheesecake is marvelous.  Also, a taco pie that is another ten minute meal. 

The. Internet is full of ideas and recipes.  Six  sisters on  U tube is a good resource .  

As well as a guy that is called something like Pressure Luck. 

Meal Plans

Meal plans are an necessary tool  to save  time and money.  It’s one ofnthe things along with kitchen management that takes away a lot of the stress of making dinner during the busy dinner hour.

• Christmas Eve:  green beans with blue cheese and oceans, or green beans with bacon on the side. 
• Christmas breakfast: sparkling juice, waffles or French Toast, bacon, fruit, yogurt, English muffins, 
• Pork roast, mashed potatoes. Green beans, 
• Pork sliders , oven fries, 
• Pizza
• Enchaladas, rice, beans 
• Breakfast for dinner 

We continue to have no spend.   Christmas Eve comes out of the entertainment budget.  Christmas Day is food at home.   Our average for the YEAR is under four dollars a day per person, and we still have a stock. We saved almostmfive dollars a week, 

Simplify your shopping list , make efficient scratch meals, buy groceries at their lowest orice, stock up on non perishables when they are cheap, and rotate buying protein in bulk. 

Try a soup  once or twice a week.  

Try breakfast for dinner .  We don’t mean cereal here, but a full diner breakfast will put you over.

Pizza costs a dollar a pizza.  Add topping from leftover meals.   

Pork and chicken are rmeoeated and varied over weekmbecaise with two of us, we use a larger piece of meat twice in the same week,   Pork roast becomes pork sliders.  Chicken breast becomes chicken pot pie and maybe chicken enchaladas or pizza.   

Portion control.  Portion control, portion control. Your waistline and your health will appreciate it. 

Be Prepared

Every Part of our great country has some weather phenomenon that can put us high and dry so to speak.   Windstorms, tornados, floods, earthquakes among a few,   It is always good to have some back up plans to eat with little or no ingredients or prep.   

I’m an remember a snowstorm where we lost power.   We had a power box to he,o for a short time.  I made a fire in the fireplace and let the fire die down to coals.   We put a cast iron Dutch oven in the coals and heated soup and I made sandwiches from things in the pantry.  If you open the freezer or refrigerator, you let air n and you loose their efficiency.   

While others were driving in the snow looking for a restraint that had lower, we were eating and listening to the basketball game, warm and dry, 

Meals n a jar is a good way to be prepared,   Most take a bit of water and can be made on the fireplace or on a bbq.   In your desk drawer , it makes for a quick bit of food if you are stuck in the office in a deadline.   

Potato soup in a jar. 

2/3 cup mix to a cup of hot water. Or use water until the consistency you desire, 

Mix 

2 cups dried potatoes 

1-1/4 cups dry milk powder 

1-1/2 T chicken boullion 

1/2 tsp parsley 

1/4 tsp pepper 

Mix and store  in a clean dry jar.  Shake before using, 

Cream soup base 

2 cups dry milk 

1-1/2 cups cornstarch 

1/2 cup chicken granulated stock 

4 T onion powder 

2 tsp basil

2 tsp thyme 

1 tsp pepper 

Place 2/3 cup in a pint jar and add dried veggie of your choice. 

Cook with 1 part mix to two parts water,   

Note :  you can get non msg and low sodium chicken granules, 

Saxon 

Equal parts 

Coriander 

Cumin

Paprika 

Garlic POWDER 

Salt 

Use in any Mexican type dish 

Hauls to 12/26

Left 6.12


franz bread

14.81

Cheese snacks
6 large French bread
5 bagels. English muffins, Texas toast
1 hoagie rolls
1 oganic whole grain
1 chocolate donuts
2 white bread


Fred Meyers
Tortilla chips
4 boxes raspberries, blueberries
Grapes
Sour cream
Total 13.97

Total 28.76

Left 7.34

Milk 1.37
Eggs 1.53

Friday Recipe Day

Last  night we made insta pot potato soup.   This was in the insta pot, but it could be made on the stove, it would just take a bit more watching . the whole thing comes in at 1.50 to feed four .

2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
1 large, or two small carrots, peeled and sliced thin,
1 stalk celery, chopped onto cubes.
3 cups chicken or vegetabke stock
Pouches of :
Thyme, salt, pepper, parsley, onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic, minced

Place ingredients in insta pot and close lid and set vent to “seal”
Program to process manually for 3 minutes.

When done  processing, let partially de pressure and then finish it manually. Open the lid and turn  the pot off.  Switch  to sauté mode.

Mix 1 cup milk with 2 Tablespoons of corn starch.  Stir until thickened


Optional garnish with cooked crumbled bacon, green onion tops or cheese .

We served it with  French bread 🥖 buttered and sprinkled  with parmesean cheese and parsley,

This can also be made by putting the ingredients all but the milk and cornstarch inna pot on the stove and simmering until the potatoes and vegetables are tender. Turn the heat up and add the milk and cornstarch .

Bread from Franz Outlet Store

Franz Outlet Store is on 164th street near Wall Mart.  It is well worth the trip every month or so for us.  Yes, it is cheaper to make bread from scratch.  That doesn’t always happen here. Especially when talking bagels and English muffins. Also, the high fiber breads.

Wednesday’s and Sunday’s are ten percent off for military and seniors.  
Also, there are free bread for bulk purchases.  We spent 15.00 to get two loads of white bread. They gave us a box of chocolate donuts as well.

We got
6 only 12 inch French breads
6 inky smaller hoagie rolls
2 English muffins
1 blueberry bagels
1 loaf bread for French Toast
1 package cheese snacks
1 loaf of high fiber bread, organic
Totaled 14.81

10 items, one of which was six loaves of bread, so really 16 loaves for 14.81 or less than .92.5 cents a loaf . English muffins were 1.99 someplace, the grain bread would have been at least 4.00 and the Texas  Toast loaf is on sale for 2.00 and I’ve seen it for 4.00.  Bread has taken a big hike lately. Even Winco wanted 1.19 for hamburger buns.  

Hauls to 12/19

8.76 left

30.00

Total 38.76

Winco 

18 eggs 1.89

Yellow squash .70

Cucumber .48

Pears 1.26

Brownie mix 2 - 1.36

Grapes 4.54

Ice cream 2.98

Parm 2.38

Tomatoes 1.69

Egg rolls 2.48

Diced tomatoes (10) 5.80

Total 25.44

Left 13.32

QFC
5 cheese .99
10 Yoplait 2.15

Total 7.20

Left 6.12 

Chain store ads - the best of

QFC

Spiral ham 1.27
Strawberries, blackberries 2/5

Tillamook brick cheese 4.99
Pumpkin pie 3.99

Digital coupons

Progresso soup  2/2
Cake mix .79
Yoplait 10/4 $$
American beauty pasta 4/3

*****
Sour cream 4/5

Marie callnders pie 4.99 with FREE ice cream
Crescent rolls 3/5$$
Ritz crackers 1.99
Sweet potatoes .99

Safeways

Mandarines 2.99 - 3 lbs
Potatoes 1.99 10 lbs


Butter 1.99@@

Extra lean ground beef 3.99
Jimmy Dean sausage 2/6$$
Foldgers coffee 5.99@@
Frozen veggies 1.49 -2lbs @@




Fred Meyers

Ham 1.27
Berries 2/3
Oranges 2.99
Sweet potatoes .99

Pork loin BOGO

Ritz crackers 1.77

DIGITAL COUPONS
Cake mix .79 ( note Alberways wants 1.25)
Artisan bread 1.99
Hillshire farm sausage 2/5


B4S4

Sausage 2.49$$
Frozen fruit 2.99 -  best if 16 ounces 

$$ means there are coupons out there 
@@ means with an in ad coupon 

Lentil soup in a pot.

Carrie Ulness 

Monday Kitchen Management aka food prep

Kitchen Management is a tool that can help you save money and time.  It deflates some of the stress bubble that happens around the hectic dinner hour,

Reminder of meals

• Taco soup 
• Pizza 
• Chicken enchaladas 
• Chicken chilli 
• Loaded potato soup 
• Fish cakes oven fries 
• Breakfast for dinner 

Prep 

1. Wash kitchen floor 
2. Clean and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains.
3. Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. 
4. Note things in refrigerator that need to be used up soon 
5. Wash potatoes and carrots 
6. Make pizza dough , freeze 
7. Straighten pantry

Watching your perishables carefully helps to make sore that you keep waste down.  Apples hanging around too long?  Make applesauce or muffins.   Vegetables 🌶, make vegetable omelets.   

Yogurt, make parfaits for dinner with breakfast for dinner,   It works well if you are having a entree that has little protein.   If a dimmer is short on the protein like the loaded potato soup, you can either add cheese , bacon, or ham to the soup or have a protein loaded desert.   Remember, we don’t need as much protein as Americans are used to eating. One peanut butter sandwich  is enough to satisfy the protein grams for our 6 yo.  She eats  more, but that is the stats.  

Things like homemade granola bars with honey and popcorn are better alternatives than sugary or calorie laden no food valise junk food.  Apples and oranges are a good alternative and usually can be purchased for under a dollar a pound.  The doctors and nutrition people will tell you to give a child an apple instead of that sugar laden juice box or apple juice. 

Meal Plans

Meal plans are necessary to keep things running smoothly,   This week before Christmas there are so many extra things to do, that soup seems to be the word of the day,   It’s fast, easy and warm on the cold weather.

• Taco soup 
• Pizza
• Chicken enchaladas 
• Potato soup loaded 
• Fish cakes, oven fries, fruit 
• White chicken  chili 
• Breakfast for dinner 

Notes :

1. Hamburger meat was a bulk purchase last spring,  cooking hamburger , de fatting it and freezing it takes a lot of work out of the dinner hour.  Taco soup is a pretty much dump and go on the insta pot or slow cooker . 
2. Pizza is a mainstay here.  Batch making pizza dough in the kitchen aid saves time.  Anything that you can give a little attention to and an appliance takes over is a good thing on my book.  
3. Chicken is also from a bulk purchase.   Enchiladas take a bit more to,e, but well worth it.  They can  be made early on the day and put on the oven when it’s time for dinner,   
4. Insta pot potato soup is full of vegetables and the toppings add more protein,   Yum! And it’s easy, 
5. Fish cakes can be made and chilled ahead.   Fried in a little olive oil.   Oven fries in the hot pot means a little olive oil is all. 
6. White chicken chili uses the rest of a batch of chicken .
7. Breakfast for dinner is a family meal. Everyone cooks.   

Spending more time planning your shopping trips and meals and less time cooking is a more efficient way to save money and still eat well.    

Quotes ....

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,  

No food  does anyone good if  you are  feeding it to the garbage disposal.

It’s not  what you buy as much as it is when and where you buy it.

Make a plan or plan to fail.

Help to reduce your food costs is everywhere, you just have to be open to it.

The operative word in junk food is junk.

Read labels. Do you want to eat that?    There are wood pulp and caustic soap on s,e of the boxes out there.   Fortunately, there are other choices.

Christmas cookie time.

Since  I wrote today’s blog yesterday and hit the wrong button, you already have read it.   Oops,!

Today is a half day for school....again.

It’s time for chocolate Kringle cookies.   I always enjoy the he,o of granddaughter because rolling cookie dough is not my favorite thing to do and she is sooo good at it.

I usually make the dough, use a portion scoop and hand it off for her to roll and dip.  

What are your favorite cookies to make?  

Involving  children on the cookie making is a good way to keep them busy and make memories.  

Friday Focus

Basic foods that are versatile and inexpensive are your key to eating well on a budget.   Picking a few cuts if meat and some inexoemsove other origin choices makes life easier and affords you to buy bulk and save time and money.

A pork loin, good hamburger, and chicken breast are all good alternatives.   Add cheese, beans and eggs.   Buy on bulk as inexpensive  as you can find them.  Rotate your expenses to maximize your budget.  

Versatile osmthe key word.  There are zillions, no exaggeration, of recipes out there for chicken and hamburger.  Pork loin can be cut into roasts, pork chops, stew meat, amd stir fry,  

Since protein is one of the most expensive parts of your bidget, saving money on it first is a good idea.

You can have good meals and still keep a very inexpensive budget.

• Pork chops, bread stuffing with Craisens and apple. Vegetable 
• Pork roast, mashed potatoes. Fruit salad 
• Pork sliders. Oven fries, coleslaw 
• Burritos. Spanish rice, lettuce. Tomatoes
• Taco soup , tortilla chips. Grated cheese. 
• Meatballs amd gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans 
• Tacos. Homemade refried beans, 
• Chicken pot pie 
• Roast chicken , rice seasoned with chicken stock and herbs, honey ginger glazed carrots, 
• Chicken stir fry , rice 
• French Toast. Maple syrup, yogurt and fruit parfaits, bacon 
• Egg omlettes, English muffins, fruit
• Quiche, field greens with strawberries 
• Chilli, cheese, tortilla chips, sour cream 
• Enchaladas, salad 
• Rice and beans 
• Pork stew, sourdough bread 
• Pork stir fry , rice 
• Chicken noodle soup 
• Pizza: chicken, or sausage and pepperoni, or vegetables  or a combination .also leftover meat. 
• Breakfast burritos. 

Versatile sources of protein that can be purchased for around two dollars a pound average are a good way to s t r e t c h your food dollar and still eat well.   

Hauls to 12/13

Costco

Oatmeal 8.29

Qfc
Buns  1.19

Grocery outlet
Bacon 5.00 (3 ea)
Cheese 2.29

Total 7.29

QFC
2 sugars (8 lbs) @ .99
1 canola oil @ 1.49
Total 3.47

Total 20.24


9.76 left,

QFC
Bread 1.00

Total Left
8.76



Tips and  tricks.

Oatmeal in bulk at Costco costs .085 a serving,   Add milk and something for flavor and you have a hearty breakfast with fiber and protein.  A little apple chunks, banana, honey, cinnamon sugar, raisins or Craisens go a long way to make it delightful

Buy things like sugar, vegetabke oil and other baking needs at holiday time.  Buy sugar and anything else that doesn’t spoil in bulk and buy enough for the year.   The savings can be remarkable and you don’t have that item on your list for a year.  Simplify.  The less things you oit in your cart, the quicker the checkout and the faster you can get through one of your two stores.    It os also faster to out things away.

I bought a large bag of salt and soda a long long time ago.   They dint go bad and those things are off my list.   The salt  was five dollars and will last my lifetime and my daughters lifetime, and probably into my granddaughters lifetime.  Soda and vinegar are both good inexpensive cleaning  supplies.

Chain store ads/ the best of

QFC

Digital , buy up to five , Thursday, Friday, Saturday 

Cheese .99


Raspberries or blues 2/4
Oranges .99
Apples .99

Tillamook  ice cream 2/6

More digital all week

American beauty pasta 4/3 (.75)
Yoplait 10/4 $$$$
******

Tillamook cheese on a brick 5.99
Free ice cream when you buy a 4.99 pie.


Fred Meyers

Digital, buy up to 5, Thu, Fri, Sat 
Kroger cheese .99

Progresso soup 1.00
American beauty pasta 4/3
Yoplait .50
Cake mix .79


Alberways

BOGO - bargain ????
Round steak
Lean ground beef 80/20
New York steak
Pork loin chops

Navisco snack crackers 1.69@@
Milk 1.99@@

Tube biscuits 1.00@@

Coupons, digital or part in ad
Cream soup. .89
Coffee, foldgers 5.99

Winco
18 eggs 1.89
Pears and yellow squash .88
Graoes 1.48
Diced tomatoes .58. All of Winco canned foods are BPA free.
BC brownie mix .68

Sandstrom chicken thighs and legs are a good buy.  I can’t re,e,get exact, but around .78.

Tuesday Notes

I have been watching a lot of how to save money videos and radio whenever my back is out,   I tend to listen to the radio when I am working in my art room.   Like on the news sometimes, I have heard some whoppers.

First  of all, it is not cheaper to buy a  block of cheese and grate it yourself.   Cheese is cheese.   Check the price per pound.   I have been getting it for under two dollars a pound. Always  check your per pound unit price.   It makes no sense to work any harder than you have to.   Now, if you want a specialty cheese instead of sharp cheddar, Mexican blend or mozzarella, it is probably going   to necessitate your grating it yourself.   But, for what we use for everyday cheese, it just isn’t to your advantage to buy a brick.

We toured the Tillamook cheese factory years ago.  They make a huge block of cheese.  Then it goes to a station here it os out through a giant cheese slicer where it is cut into two pound bricks.  The pieces that are leftover go into what I would describe as a bus boy tray.  These trays go on to the shredder to be made into bags of cheese. In other words, shredded cheese is the leftovers.

Next whopper is that it is cheaper to have your food delivered.  It is just common sense that if you ask someone to do your labor , it is going to cost you more.  If you price check the items, you will find that they are more expensive than you can find elsewhere; or sometimes, even at that particular store.  Even if they wave a delivery charge, you should tip the delivery person.  You loose the control of price comparison, and looking for alternatives if something is priced  too high.  It’s true you avoid impulse buys, but that’s a high price  for not  having self control.   If I only  want a few things and I don’t want to see markdowns or special buys, I send my hubby to do the shopping.  He will usually come home with just what is on the list, and only deviate if he sees the item cheaper.  He has shopped with me long enough to know what’s a bargain.

When we were both out of work, he would go with me to shop.   I truly thought he was just walking around aimlessly and bored. One day we came upon a end can display of 8 ounce cans of tomato sauce marked .25 .  He said, “ that’s not a bargain, they were a dime last week.”
He is a lot more savvy a shopper than he was when we were first married.

The best rule of thumb is of someone  has to extend their labor on a product, it is going to be more expensive.  A bowl of cut up fruit is going to be a lot more expensive  than buying the fruit and cutting it yourself for example.   A rotisserie chicken will be about three times what it cost to buy it and cook it yourself. There are ways to cook a whole chicken that takes less than 10 minutes.   

For the most part, any boxed mix or bag dinner in the freezer section, will be a lot more expensive than making it from scratch. The exception is pasta sauce when you get it on sale.  By the time you buy tomatoes fresh or canned, you have spent more than pasta sauce especially if you get it on sale.  The exception is of you grow your own tomatoes.  And, as I was reminded by a reader, some people are sensitive and can taste metallic from canned food.  You can get pasta sauce in jars.  I got Classico for a dollar not long ago.  It costs .80 for the jar and a canning jar lid works on it.  I don’t think I would can in them,  but I use them for dehydrated food and food storage.  We are trying to avoid plastic when we can.

Virtual paycheck.  It is a concept not everyone can grasp.  If you compare the price of something made from scratch with the ready made product, you will find the price difference. Now, time how long it will take you to make the product from scratch.  Divide the time by the profit.  This will give you the amount per hour that you are saving.  If you make Starbucks lemon pound cake, it is about 212.00 an hour.  If you make tortillas, it’s about  ten cents an hour. I have purchased tortillas for as little as .50 a package.   Use your time wisely.

The concept that using an insta pot takes just as long as making a dish in the stove is a misconception.
It is true that the pot has to come up to pressure, and  then it cooks sometimes in a fraction of the time.  The difference is in the fact that you can take a few minutes to load the pan on an insta pot, and after you program it, you can walk away.  Instead of watching a pot, you can finish the rest of dinner.  In the time it takes to cook spaghetti complete with meat sauce, you can make a salad and butter the French bread.  Maybe even set the table! Lol 😂
Stew cooks on 35 minutes, not two hours.  Chicken breast from frozen on 15 minutes.  If you de frost it on the microwave and cook it, it won’t be as moist  and it will take longer. Now, I, not going to tell you that it will have a crispy skin, but boneless, skinless chicken breast won’t have skin anyway.

The bottom line is that you can’t always believe everything you hear and common sense has to prevail.   When buying food, do the math.

Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen management is setting aside an hour when things are less hectic can save a lot of time when they aren’t, namely dinner  time.  

By prepping for dinner and using a meal plan, you save time and money and reduce your stress.   If you clean one thing towards a deep clean a week , your kitchen deep clean  is a lot less work.

Meal plans are a plan, and plans can change, but you are a step ahead of no plan. I was sick last night and didn’t feel like cooking.  I defrosted a bag of fajitas and added diced tomatoes and we had fajitas.  
Now that have part of a can of diced tomatoes.   Tonight we will  have spaghetti in the insta pot so I can use the rest of the can of tomatoes.  

Spaghetti in the insta pot—

1 ) Cooked hamburger, about 1/2 a pound.  Or, cook it on sauté and drain of fatty hamburger,  
2) Add 1/2 pound of spaghetti noodles, broken in half, and placed in a circle around the meat,   Like a birds nest.  This is to prevent noodles sticking together.
3) pour a jar or can of pasta sauce over the noodles and hamburger.
4) pour 2 cups of broth of your choice AROUND the outside of the noodles.  You don’t want to disturb the noodles and pasta sauce.
5) put the lid on the pot and make sure it is set to the seal position.
6) process on manual for 8 minutes.
7) when it is done, manually release the pressure.  Letting the pot release its own pressure will result in water logged noodles.  
8) while the pot is coming to pressure and cooking, you can make the rest of dinner without tending to a pot.

Meal plans

• Chicken pot pie 
• Fajitas 
• Chicken noodle soup 
• Shrimp and noodles 
• Christmas party out
• Pizza 
• Breakfast  for dinner 

Kitchen management 

1. Put the stove vent screen in the dishwasher 
2. Change the lightbulbs on the task lights 
3. Wash kitchen floor 
4. Clean and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains. 
5. Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀.
6. Note things on refrigerator that need to be used up soon 
7. Cook chicken for the chicken pot pie and soup 
8. Wash vegetables for the soup and pot pie.
9. Check the mixes and replentish any that need  to be added to.

Rice mix 

Taco seasoning 

Ranch dressing mix 

Cream soup base 

Meal plans for week of 12/10 no spend

No spend December with  a 30.00 budget .

Meal plans arema way to make life easier and save time and money .

We use a protein based matrix.

• Chicken pot pie 
• Dinner party out 
• Pizza - buffalo chicken 
• Chicken noodle soup. Biscuits 
• Breakfast for dinner 
•  Fajitas, rice 
• Shrimp and noodles 

Notes 

1. Chicken pot pie uses chicken breast purchased on bulk for a  dollar a pound.   Mixed veggies were .88.  Cream of chicken soup was .49.   
2. Buffalo chicken pizza uses some chicken from the chicken breast, hot sauce. White cheese, parm, blue cheese dressing.   Blue cheese if you have it. 
3. Fajitas are leftover from a previous meal in the freezer. 
4. Chicken noodle soup is a good cold weather meal. Comfort food is always good. 
5. Shrimp and noodles uses the rest of the noodles from the soup. 
6. Breakfast for dinner is a mainstay here, everyone participates.   Eggs continue to be cheap, one dozen of ours was free.   Keeping a controlled supply gives you the luxury of waiting for cheap prices.  We also have dehydrated eggs in a mason jar that has been food saver processed.  They were .78 a dozen and a good back up for emergencies.   

Buying food as inexpensive as you can keeps your food budget down.  Bulk buying some things inexpensive is a good tool.  Anticipating your needs and buying multiples to last you until the next sale is another way to cut your costs.   Relate it to a stockbroker.  They want to buy low and sell high.   You want to buy low and eat then food when the price is high. Not too different than when our great grandmothers on the farm, bought fruit and veggies when they were plentiful in the summer and canned for the winter.   

Start saving for bulk purchases.  Soon the new crop will be filling stores warehouses.  Last years crop  will be put on case sales.   Last year I lucked out and the case sales coincided with a basket  coupon.  

Still half price food is never something to pass up if you can help it.   

Planning to use leftovers is a good way to stretch your meals.  It saves time and money.  One study says tha we throw out 40 percent of our food.   That seems high to me, but with the fad of buying organic food, it is not surprising.   Most pesticides are water based.  They wash off.  We use vinegar in the water.   Organic food spoils almost as soon as you get it on the house.   At least, that is my experience.  The cost is  almost always twice that of regular food.  The farmers  aren’t making as much money.   That tells me that it just might be a marketing ploy to make higher profits.   Just my opinion .   

 

Concept Saturday

Yesterday. We talked about basics.  It’s a state of mind.   Our grandmothers or great grandmothers went through the Great Depression and the Workd Wars where food was either in short supply or rationed or money was more than tight.  There was no welfare back in the depression time.  Soup kitchens was it.   They learned to stretch what they had and morph a bit of a leftover into  something new.

Using what you have and using inexpensive  ingredients can stretch your food dollar a lot.  Carrots can be on a stew or they can be on a carrot bread or on carrot and raisin salad.

Rice can be a side dish, rice pudding, or rice and beans.  Spanish rice, or rice pilaf .

A pork loin can be a roast, sliders, stew, stir fry, or pork chops.  Pork chops with stuffing, pork chops with rice.  

Potato dumplings, mashed potatoes, potato fries, boiled potatoes or potatoes in stew, hash browns....

Sausage pizza, sausage omelette, sausage on soup.

Eggs, well, just about a zillion different ways.  Besides breakfast for dinner, they go in a host of baked goods and pasta. A good source of protein that can supplement a dinner that is short on protein.
Yogurt parfaits are another way to stretch the protein . Layer yogurt, fruit, yogurt, granola, etc until a small glass or dish is full. Top with granola and a berry of you have one.  Frozen blueberries work well.

Pizza is a good way to stretch bits of meat and cheese.  The cheapest pizza sauce is to either set aside a couple of tablespoons from pasta sauce or get it from the dollar store aka DT.   Freeze the pasta sauce in an ice cube tray and then when frozen, pop them into a zip lock bag and put them in the door of the freezer.  Two cubes dress a small pizza.  Also, whenever you are chopping anything that can go on a pizza, set aside a couple of tablespoons  and freeze.    Soon, you will have a stash in the freezer ready to make a pizza in a hurry.   Just be sure to keep it all in a section of the freezer,  we have a side by side refrigerator so one shelf works.  The bulk pizza dough fits on the shelf as well.   Making four pizza crusts in the kitchen aid takes nit much more time than making one pizza.  Now, putting a pizza together is done in a matter of minutes.  My granddaughter did it from the ball of dough to ready for the oven at four years old.

Of course, we had happy face pizzas, but she was happy, felt accomplished, and stayed out of trouble. LOL

Chicken pizza can use a little bit of cooked  chicken.  Buffalo chicken pizza is a good alternative and can be as hot or not as you like it.

Chicken is a versatile meat.  The internet and cookbooks are full of recipes.
A lot of southwest or Tex mex recipes as well as old family favorites.  Chicken can often be found for a dollar or less a pound.  Rotisserie chicken is never a bargain. That is on another blog.

Ground meat is another budget stretcher. Figure a quarter pound per person unless you are also using another source of protein in the meal.  Tacos have cheese, chili has beans.  Hamburger crumbles stretch further than patties.  Armor meatballs are cheaper than buying the meat AD making them yourself.  I have been finding coupons lately.  The cheapest I have seen are at Winco.  With coupon they netted 1.45 for the equivalent of making a pound hamburger into meatballs from scratch.

Simplifying your ingredients means you can buy your ingredients in bulk and buying in bulk means less time and money in the store .

What we ate ...

December 2018

1. Beef stroganoff 
2. Spaghetti 
3. Roast pork, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans 
4. Pork sliders,, tater tots , fruit 
5. Pizza
6. Potato soup, loaded 
7. Pork chops with gravy, stuffing with craisens, pear salad, green beans 
8. 
   

Basics

Grocery on the cheap takes a different approach to putting food on the table .   A few concepts can drastically reduce your food bill along with eating basic food.   I strive for less salt, sugar, trans fats, HFCS, hydrogenated oil, and additives.

• Instead of going to a store and buying just what you need for a week, you go to two stores and buy what you need to replenish your stock.   What you buy is based in your needs and the items that are advertised at a rock bottom price (RBP) .  
• Simplify your stock.   Everyone has a list of about 15 things that they buy on a regular basis.  It is important to know the RBP of those items. Spending too much for a can of cranberry sauce you use once a year doesn’t effect your budget near as much as that can of diced tomatoes that you use every week.   
• Never, never never pay full price.  Something  has to be really necessary and have no substitute for me to pay full price.   If you rotate stock and buy in bulk using a calculated amount of stock.  In other words, calculate how many of an item you will use in four to six weeks.   That is how many of that item you will stock.   Now, when that item is in sale for a big discount, buy a four to six weeks supply.  Rotate items until you have a supply of your master list.   
• Our master list would be pasta, Pasta sauce, diced tomatoes, green beans, frozen vegetables, meat ( hamburger, pork loin, chicken breast) dry beans.  
• Rotate meat when you find it on sale.  Again, buy a four to six week supply.  In other words, if you eat hamburger once a week, you need enough for four meals. This week maybe hamburger. Next might be a pork loin.   I have been getting pork loin for a dollar a pound.  
• Efficiently scratch cook.  The object is to spend more time prepping or planning a grocery trip and less time cooking from scratch. The internet and Pinterest are full of ideas. 
• Use coupons when they are a help.  Lots of coupons are for things you would be better off without.  But, there are also coupons for good food and every little bit helps.   Ibotta is a rebate type ap that give you money back.   
• Know what stores have the best prices on what you need.  There is a recent blog on what you can find in the PNW .  Fred Meyers usually had dairy on sale at least once a month.   
• In the Seattle area, grocery outlet. Fred Meyers and Winco are the cheapest  stores.  When we didn’t have a local Winco, we went once a month to six weeks.  
• The twenty dollars that gives over and over..again and again .  Costco’s bulk flour, oatmeal, and rice.  Add 3.50 for bulk yeast.   
• Food for thought...the average cart has 50 percent snacks and drinks.  Eliminate them and you are on your way to a good budget.  Popcorn at Costco was 12.00 for almost a years supply last I purchased it.  Use an air popper.  
• You don’t need a list to go to the store, you do need a plan.   I can tell what we are short of that I need to look for a good price by looking at the shelf.  Can I see white?   The refrigerator tells me of we have milk, eggs, sour cream and cheese.  I want the lowest price.   2.50 is my highest price I will pay for cheese.  I often get it for 1.00 a half pound.   

My advise would be to pick one thing and tackle that and then keep adding until you are comfortable with your budget.

First, list 7-10 meals that your family likes that use inexpensive sources of protein.   We like eggs, dry beans, cheese, good hamburger, boneless skinless chicken breast, and pork loin that
can be cut into pork roast, chops, or stew and stir fry.   All of the parts of a pork loin cost a lot more when purchased individually.   Your goal is to keep the cost per pound at two dollars or lower average of you are going for a four dollar a day per person budget.

List your meal main dishes.  Now, write down the main things you use to make the dishes.  Keep things simple.  Remember efficient scratch cooking. Now decode how many of that meal you will use in a month. Do the math and you will have a target list of your eventual stock.

Start with the protein. Watch the sakes and pick one protein on your list that is a RBP. Buy a months supply. Next week. Buy something  different.  Pretty soon you will be on a roll. If you don’t have enough in the budget, Rock the boat and cut down drastically on the junk food.   Your doctor, and your budget will be happy.

Hauls to 12/6

QFC
Savings 54 percent

Mission tortilla chips 1.49
Round steak, ( 4 ) 6.36
Puffs tissue .99
3 lbs cheese @2.49 less .70 coupon
5 tater tots and steak fries @.99
Marshmekkiws, pumpkin .79
Sweet potatoes .79lb
Pumpkin pie 3.99
Gala apples .99 total 2.22
PeRs (2) 1.29

Total 33.39

Grocery Outlet
Cheese slices 2.29
Total
4.58

Total 41.58

Fred Meyers
Cereal 1.79
English muffins .99
Bread 1.19
Pork loin 4.11
Barilla Shells 1.00
Mission low carb tortillas 3.29
Grapes 2.77
Total 15.14

Total  56.72

Chain store ads - the best of

Alberways

Oven joy bread ..89@@
Land of lakes butter 1.99 digital coupon


QFC

Barilla pasta 1.0


Digital Thursday , Friday, Saturday
Flour, vegetabke oil 1.49
4 lbs sugar .99
Baking chips .99


Sour cream log  1.89


Fred Meyers

Milk .99
Peppers, English cucumbers .99
Berries 2/3
Cream, half and half, butter 2/5
Pears .99
3 pound bacon 10.99



B5, S 5
Cream cheese .99
Cheese 2.49
Cereal 1.79
Coffee 5.99

How did she do that? Why 2 stores?

it’s no secret, nit any one store ism healers on everything.  The concept of moving to two stores affords you the best of two worlds.   Of thenlroduce doesn’t look good or is tool  expensive one place, you have an option.

Prices can vary drastically  between stores.  A cake mix can be 2.79, or it can be .79 on a holiday sale,  it is almost always a dollar or two under at Winco.  We got Jimmy Dean sausafemfor 6.39 for THREE pounds,  at Kroger, it was 6.99 for ONE pound.

So, in the Seattle area, here is a breakdown,   Note that if you aren’t in the Seattle area, the same concept prevails.  The mod west has also and save a lot.  Further north east, Price chopper and Aldi,
Wherever you are, there is usually one or two stores that are discount.  Walmart doesn’t seem to be the one here last time I was there.

Winco
Mild green chillies are .69 as opposed to the name brand that is twice as much.
Vegetables and potatoes are almost always cheaper and good quality. Ten pounds of potatoes are almost always about two dollars.
Canned diced tomatoes and beans are about .58.   Their cans are BPA free.
Hamburger buns are under a dollar.
Armor meatballs are two dollars for almost a pound,   Lately I have had coupons too.
They aren’t the cheapest usually on meat,  the exception is pork roasts like sirloin that can be less than two dollars frequently.
Recently chicken breast was a 1.28 and thighs 1.00. Sandstrom chicken is from Idaho.

Alberways has sales ans in ad coupons for basics like milk and bread. Cheese sales are good.  My buy price on cheese is 2.50 a pound or lower. I would prefer 2.00 a pound.

Fred Meyers and QFC are both Kroger stores.  Of the two, Fred Meyers is cheaper.
Fred Meyers has English muffins for  3/5.00.  The packages are large, I am guessing a dozen. They are located usually by the Eggs in a metal basket.

Meat is often cheap.  Watch for pork loins and chicken.   I have found  diced tomatoes and ice cream cheap too.  Lately, some of the vegetables have been cheap .  Dairy is usually cheap once a month at least.

A scientific study showed that Fred Meyers , grocery Outlet, and Winco were the cheapest  stores in the area. Grocery outlet is not a full service store.  It is an overstock store and has no in store deli or meat and floral departments.  I personally, don’t buy anything but name brand deli meat and I don’t buy the produce at all.   I bought a bag of apples that was bad—the whole bag. They wouldn’t make it good. To be fair, those stores are franchised and not owned by the same people.  But, their produce comes from the same warehouse.  Many Times, you can get boxed goods far cheaper.  You need to know your prices.   Taco kits are often a dollar.  Often there will have been a test market and the rest of the stock will be there at an extreme mark down. Again, know your prices. I have got Pillsbury whole wheat flour for a dollar, and diced tomatoes for .33. You just have to have a discerning eye.  Their cheese department has sliced cheese reasonable and they have a lot of varieties. Dairy is often really cheap and sometimes needs to be used soon.   Always check pull dates. Lately, bacon has been really cheap.  They give you a credit to put their specials on your e mail.   Again, buyer beware, check the pull dates and know your prices.  

Monday Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen management is a tool that saves time and money and takes stress out of the mix of dinner time.   The more you can do at your leisure, the less you have to do when time is in short supply,

Reminder of meals :

1. pork roast 
2. Pizza
3. Pork sliders , salad 
4. Spaghetti 
5. Chicken pot pie 
6. Chi
7. Breakfast for dinner 

1. Wash and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains, 
2. Wash kitchen floor.
3. Wash refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. 
4. Cut pork loin into  a roast  and chops, stew meat if the ends are not even. 
5. Freeze everything but the roast.  Season roast. 
6. Make a batch of pizza dough: Noreen’s kitchen big batch pizza dough. ( u tube ) 
7. Organize pantry
8. Wash sweet potatoes and peel for tonight’s dinner

Meal plans 😀 no spend December

the end of November and the first of December brought a regular 56.00 grocery shopping.  I, however bought bulk meat.  The rest of the month should average less.   A lot less.  I have budgeted 30.00 a week for perishables.

Meal plans

• Roast pork , mashed fresh sweet potatoes, green beans 
• Pork sliders, fruit 
• Pizza
• Spaghetti with meatballs. Salad 
• Chicken pot pie 
• Breakfast for dinner 
• Chili or chili and rice bowls 

Notes :

1. Pork loin was a dollar a pound at our Fred Meyers.   I will cut a roast, some chops and some stew meat from it.  The total cost was around for dollars.   Fresh sweet potatoes were .79 a pound, down from .99 at thanksgiving.  Grapes were .98 amd we have blueberries and blackberries from last week.   Also apples that were less than a dollar a pound, 
2. Pork sliders are leftover from the roast.   I will make buns.   Fruit is a good salad since we cannot have lettuce these days. 
3. Pizzas are favorite and a cheese pizza cost a dollar.   I got cheese for 1.80 a package with a coupon. Both Fred Meyer and QFC have it for 2.50 a package of 8 ounces.  Five dollars a pound or less is my buy price, I’d rather have two dollars a pound.   We have pepperoni bought with a coupon and sausage that was greatly discounted at Costco.  A three pound chub was 6.39.  I saw it this weekend for 6.99 a pound,   Same brand 
4. Spaghetti and pasta is an 8 minutes in the insta pot.   Spaghetti was a dollar for Barilla at Fred Meyers, you can usually get it at the dollar tree.  We got sauce for a dollar at qfc a week or so ago.   We paid 2.44 for 80/20 in bulk for hamburger.  Cook it and de fat it.  Dinner in minutes if you already have the meat cooked,  it thaws in a few minutes. 
5. Chicken pot pie can use mixed veggies, cream soup (.49) and chicken breast bought in bulk for a dollar a pound.  
6. Breakfast for dinner can use the rest of the blackberries in muffins and eggs, 
7. Chili is a simple dish in the insta pot.  The equivalent of a can of beans costs a nickel.  They can be upwards of a dollar and  have salt in them.  Us a half pound of already cooked hamburger and diced tomatoes.   

You can eat well on a four dollar a day budget and keep a pantry.   It just takes going to more than one store, making sure you know the buy price on the limited stock of foods you have, and efficiently scratch cooking.   Spend more time planning, and shopping, and less time  cooking.  You time will be well spent.

No Spend December

We are going to do a no spend December.   It osma popular thing to do.  Time to deplete the pantry and freezers amd make room for new things.  It keeps your stock fresh,


First: take inventory .

Chicken breasts
Chicken thighs ( few)
Hamburger
Roast (1)
Rope  sausage ( 1.5)
Cooked bulk sausage
Chicken nuggets
Hamburger patties ( part box)
Pork chops
Pork roast

French fries and tater tots
Frozen veggies a few bags

Blueberries-1 bag

Pasta
Pasta sauce
Diced tomatoes (some)
Green beans canned
Corn canned
Dry beans
Dry rice
Bisquick
Cream soup
Tomato soup
Chicken noodle soup
Chili
Instant mashed potatoes
Instant sweet potatoes
Gnocchi-1
Tortillini -1
Bbq sauce,
Mayonnaise
Catsup
Dry milk

Eggs
Cheese

Now, make meals using what we have.   We want 28 dinners and know there will be fillips to buy and fresh dairy and vegetables.   Dinners can repeat up to four times.

• Pizza - pepperoni and sausage, or chicken 
• Spaghetti and meatballs and sauce or meat sauce. 
• Tacos. Burritos. Or enchaladas , chicken or beef 
• Breakfast for dinner : pancakes, breakfast burritos, waffles, French Toast, omlettes, quiche 
• Soups, vegetabke bean, chicken noodle or potato 
• Pork chops or roast 
• Chicken nuggets (homemade), chicken pot pie, chicken roasted, chicken and noodles 

Come along with us to see what we can eat.   It’s a lesson in life and the way you can make it happen. 

Chicken pot pie

Chicken  pot pie is a favorite around here and it can be quick —or not

Frozen chicken breast can be cooked on the insta pot in 15 minutes.   Place frozen chicken in the pot on a rack. Do not overlap.    Place a cup of liquid of choice.  Water, or chicken stock,
Close the lid, set to seal, and cook 12 to 18 minutes depending on the thickness of the chicken breast, 15 is a good go to time,  check to see if it is cooked thoroughly  with a thermometer.

Make cream soup from a cream soup base or use a can of cream of ... soup.

Place cooked, cubed chicken, frozen mixed vegetables or peas and carrots , and creamed soup in a baking dish.

Now, this is where it gets to how much time do you have,

Your “crust” can be

Biscuits.
A ready made pie crust,
A scratch pie crust
Or home made biscuits.

Your preference.

Bake according to your crust directions.  The filling is already good to go. You are just heating it through,

I usually only do one crust becaise we don’t need more carbs.

Another option is to just heat the filling in the insta pot or on the stove or oven and make the biscuits and serve the chicken mixture over biscuits.

Whatever works with your family and time constraints.

Haul to 11/30

Costco

6 lbs Jimmy Dean sausage. 12.78

Dollar tree

Bread
Cookies 2
Pickles

4.00

QFC
Blueberries 4.99
Less coupon
2.99

Pasta sauce .99
Celery 3.28
Green pepper .99
Blackberries .99
Milk .99
Total 15.18


Winco

V8 2.44
Meatballs 1.45 coupon
Beans, frozen .88
Mixed veggies .88
Stove top stuffing twin pack 1.98
Bacon 3.23 coupon
Acorn squash .50
Tomatoes 1.25
Yoplait 5 ea coupon .48 ea
Graoes 2.95
Granny Smith apples 2.81
Chicken thighs 1.00 a pound
Total 28.26

Grand total 60.22

Over 4.22



Bulk purchases of chicken, meatballs and sausage.

Chain store ads 11/28

Alberways

BOGO
Bargains?...
Chicken breast
80/20 ground beef
Pork chops
Petite sirloin steaks

Oranges .99 lb

Progresso soup,  is 2, get 3 free bargain ....??

Milk 1.99@@
Farmland bacon 3.49 $$$
English muffins 1.29

*******
5 dollar Friday
49 Oz jif peanut butter
Salsa
Bread 4/5
10 lbs  c and h sugar
Donuts
***********


QFC
12 Oz berries 2.99
Oranges 4 lbs 2.99
Many different varieties apples .99


Digital, buy up to five thurs to sat only 

2 lbs frozen potatoes .99
Brats 2.49

Buy 5, save 5
Lean cuisine 1.88
Farmland bacon 3.99$$


Fred Meyers 

Whole chicken .79 ( heritage farms is southern grown Tyson )
Grapes  .98
 Sirloin steak 2.99
Campbell’s soup, chunky .99 when u buy 8
Tube rolls 10/10
Cheese slices 2.49
Blueberries 2/4

B5, S5
Cheese 8 Oz 2.49
Cheese slices 1.99

Same digital 5, Thursday thru Saturday as QFC

Notes
@@ means you need an in ad coupon
$$ means there is a coupon out there. This time it was for .75 and it was in an insert, but I don’t know which one.  I used it at Winco and netted 3.25 .

Several things are cheaper at different stores.

0ranges  are cheaper at qfc as well as apples.  Apples at Winco are often a dollar a pound, select
varieties.  

English muffins are always 1.67 (3/5) at Fred Meyer for a very large bag.  They are in a metal basket usually near the eggs,

Cheese prices are confusing,   Buy price is 2.00 a pound with a cap of 2.50.  Slices are more, usually 2.00 a package.  You can usually find that price at grocery outlet.

Tuesday- how did she do that. .....

Let’s talk about easy hacks that save time and/or money.

1. After making chicken breast or thighs on the insta pot, or on the stove, save th chicken stock for soup.  You can freeze it in ice cube trays or just keep it on a jar in the fridge if you are going to use it soon,   
2. Save heels of your bread for bread crumbs.  Why pay two dollars or more a pound for someone  else’s dry bread. Just break it up and put it through the food processer and put on a sheet pan on an oven you have usd and turned off.   
3. A small spatula gets all of the mayonnaise oit if the jar.   
4. Pickle juice can be used again by adding jalapeños , or carrots and cauliflower, blanched green beans, etc. I would hear the pickle juice and blanch the veggies. 
5. Leftover piece of chicken that’s too small for another meal.  Make chicken salad sandwich.  Just add mayo and pickles .  
6. A u tube friend ( April Holly Smith) cooks a bunch of potatoes 🥔 ahead and keeps them in the refrigerator.  She calls them refrigerator potatoes. Then you can use them through the week. She has a lot of grocery Hauls and ideas in food, 
7. Portion control, portion control, portion control.   If you don’t serve more than one mealsmworth of food, no one can eat more than one meals worth of food.   No one person needs to eat the most of a two pound roast.   If you are expecting to get another meal out of it, don’t put all of it on the table.   Teach children to look at who hasn’t eaten yet before they serve themselves .   
8. Yogurt parfaits are a good addition to a breakfast for dinner meal that is shy on protein,   
9. Milk that is near its pull date?  Make pudding.  Or bread pudding f you have bread going stale.   
10. Leftover rice can become rice pudding, or added to a soup. 
11. If you use half of something, make a concentrated effort to plan how you are going to use the other half. 
12. Leftover chili. Have burrito bowls or rice and beans to stretch it and not have the same thing two days on a row.  It is especially hard to cook a smaller amount of somethings  or there are only two or three in the family, 
13. Taco meat can be tacos, taco soup, or nachos,  
14. Cooking a bulk hamburger meat and de fatting it then portion controlling it in quart bags saves a lot of to,e.  You are more likely to de fat a large batch, than you are if you are cooking a smaller amount at dinner time,   Out the quart bags in a gallon bag and label.  You have double bagged you meat and have better organization in the freezer. 
15. Dollar store baskets in the freezer and refrigerator are an easy inexpensive way to organize . 
16. Containing all of one item is a good way to avoid that mystery thing in the back of the freezer or fridge. 
17. Meal plans are a great time and stress saver. Posting them tells other family members that you plan on using that leftover rice or whatever for another meal.   
18. Having a certain amount of “free” foods tells older children that they can snack on all they want of those foods and you are,nit depending on the ingredients for a meal.  We had top ramen, PBand J. Beef and bean burritos, and air popped popcorn .   
19. Keeping a small stock of food, preferably a four to six week supply, means you don’t have to go to the store of you are sick or have that dreaded s word.  (Snow and ice ) .
20. Always keep a few easy easy meals in your freezer/pantry for times when the resident cook is sick, or not available.   That frozen pizza is nit so bad if you have the flu or are away.   It’s insurance against the take out demons, 

4 people, 5 days, 30.00 challenge

Breakfast
Eggs, toast
Oatmeal, milk

Lunch
Hard cooked eggs , carrots, fruit
Or
P b and j

Dinners
Spaghetti , meat sauce, salad. Dressing
French Toast, bacon, orange slices
Chilli, tortilla chips
Beans, rice
Vegetable bean soup


2 doz eggs 2.00
2bread
Oatmeal canister
1 gal milk
Peanut butter
Milk
Jelly
Spaghetti
Hamburger 1 lb
Pasta sauce
Salad
Dressing
Bag of oranges
Pinto beans 1.5 lbs
4 cans diced tomatoes
Tortilla chips
Rice
Carrots, 5 lbs 2.28
Mixed vegetables
Celery
Parm cheese
Apples

Total 29.77


Notes

1. Most likely the children would get free breakfast and lunch on that budget. 
2. There is enough milk and rice to make a rice pudding . 
3. There will b e enough mixed vegetables and carrots to stir fry veggies to go with the other 1/2 of the spaghetti.

Re,e,ver Sox dollars a day means you can only spend thirty dollars. Not eat thirty dollars.   

Monday motivation : kitchen Management aka meal prep

kitchen management takes an hour or so our of you week and saves a lot of time and stress during the hectic dinner hour,

Reminder of meals :

1. Potato kielbasa skillet 
2. Pizza
3. Ranch Mac and cheese 
4. Chili cottage pie 
5. Shrimp orzo with feta 
6. Chicken with fore roasted tomatoes 
7. Breakfast for dinner including blackberry muffins, 

• Wash kitchen floor 
• Clean and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains. 
• Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. 
• Wash potatoes and carrots with vinegar water. 
• Make blackberry muffins and freeze, 
• Make a batch if Liza dough 
• Cook pork sausage and de fat and portion control bags. 
• Portion control chicken thighs ( 1.00 a pound at Winco. ) 
• Clean microwave 
• Wash south side cabinets. 
• 
  

Meal plans for week of 11/26

Meal plans are a good way to save time and money and make dinner hour a lot less hectic.

This week we are working from the taste of home annual cookbook. Most Taste Of Home recipes can be found on the Internet by a search.  

It just makes sense to use what you have and what is on sale for a reasonable price that particular week.  Blackberries were a dollar a box and QFC has a 2.00 coupon on ten dollars worth of vegetables.   It was hard to find reasonable vegetables there, but there were a few. 

• Potato Kielbasa skillet 

• Pizza 

•  Ranch Mac and cheese, mixed veggies 

•  Chili cottage pie 

•  Shrimp orzo with feta 

•  Chicken with fire roasted tomatoes 

•  Breakfast for dinner with blackberry muffins, 

Notes

1. Kielbasa was free at QFC. 
2. Pizza is a mainstay,  homemade pizzas  cost a dollar for a cheese pizza using on the cheap prices. 
3. Ranch Mac and cheese can use homemade ranch seasoning,   
4. Chili cottage pie uses beans to stretch the meat. 
5. Shrimp orzo uses the rest of the package when we had gumbo.   
6. Chicken with fire roasted tomatoes —thinking I can use the insta pot. 
7. Breakfast for dinner is using blackberries from QFC that were .80 with a discount coupon for vegetables of you bought ten dollars worth.   We also got blueberries, green pepper, celery . 

Using every available option for free or reduced price ingredients makes for a inexpensive meal. 

Incorporating ingredient that need to be used and fresh produce makes for more economy without sacrificing taste or nutrition. 

Minimum ads

I found ads, they are very short on scope and time constraints.   Most of the ads were non food items,

QFC
Insta pot for fifty dollars.   It is a Six quart, but don’t know which one.

Milk .99

Digital up to five Friday, Saturday
Butter 1.99
Classico pasta sauce .99

Fred Meyers
The same digital five limited sale

Grapes 98
Berries 2/3
Sour cream 2/3
Kroger sausage 2/4

Alberways

Salad .79
80/20 ground beef 1.99
Pork loin 1.99 - the top of my buy list, we would rather have .99 to 1.69

Costco has Jimmy Dean sausage in a three pound chub for 6.39.

Recipe for success

This  is about setting up a coupon book.  If you just sticking  a coupon in a envelope and shoving  it in your purse, you are not likely to use it.  If you clip every coupon you see in an insert and on coupons,com , you are likely to be overwhelmed and not use anything.

Only clip the coupons and print the coupons from coupons.com  that you are likely to use.

Coupons,com is a website that allows you to print up to two coupons per item per computer.  There are a limited number of coupons that can be printed and when they are gone they are gone.  It is a good idea to print your coupons the first of the month when they are first listed.   Please don’t print coupons that you are nit going to use, or you don’t know someone that is.  Leave the things you are not likely to buy to someone that is likely to buy the product.

The coupon inserts here come in the Sunday paper and some people get another in the mail.  The dollar tree has the Sunday paper for a dollar.  Not every paper has coupons,   The Seattle Times does not, the Everett herald does.  Again, just cut the ones you know you would likely use.

We find that one paper is enough.  I get another set of inserts from a friend that saves hers for me.

A three ring binder with dividers and photo pages is a good way to organize your coupons.  Photo sleeves are at the office supply stores.  They are a copy paper size and have clear pockets that easily hold a coupon.  The other option is baseball card sleeves.

I added a pencil pouch that has a small pair of scissors, a calculator and a red pen.

My categories  for dividers are :
Baking
Breakfast
Cleaners
Condiments
Dairy
Dental
Drinks
Dry goods
Frozen
Grains
Meat/ cheese
Paper
Sweet

Use the ones that you are likely to buy.

One final idea.   If I have a coupon, and I see someone in line ahead of me with items that I have a coupon for, I do a random act of kindness.  It has cost me nothing and you never know what can make someone’s day,

One day, I was in Winco.   I saw a young man that was buying progresso soup.  I could see that he was stopped adding the purchases  up in his head.  I asked him how many soups  he was buying.  He said two.  I had a coupon that would make another  soup free.   I passed him the coupon.  He thanked me,  he ran into me in another part of the store and thanked me again.  That never happened to me before.  I think that I just gave someone a meal he needed and it didn’t cost me a thing.  Random act of kindness.

Hauls to 11/21/18

Dollar Tree

Sara Lee bread, whole wheat (2)
Enchilada sauce
Pinto beans (2)

Total 5.00

Safeways
Eggs free
Sour cream 2.50
Tillamook ice cream 3.00 (2)
Muffins (2);BOGO 3.99
Ground turkey 2.50
Fresh cranberries 2/5.00
Yams 1.36

Total
21.35

Total 26.35

Fred Meyers

Pork roast 3.97 -8 lbs

Ice cream FREE
Pie 4.99

Oranges 1.11

Hummus (2) 3.99

Total 14.06

40.41 grand total

Happy Thanksgiving

🍁🦃🍽

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone has a wonderful relaxing day.


I am thankful that the have the opportunity to teach people how to s t r e t c h their food dollars and have food in the pantry at the end of the month.

10 easy ways you can do to cut your food cost.

We didn’t get the ads yesterday, I am assuming they are coming Black Friday like some other parts of the country.

So, ten easy ways to cut your food costs.

• Eat breakfast for dinner one night a week.  Eggs continue to be a cheap source of protein.  Add waffles or pancakes and some fruit. Or make a quiche and a field green salad . 
• Eat vegetarian two meals a week. 
• Portion control your meat to a four ounce portion.  
• Shop two stores .  Plan meals around what’s on a real sale and produce  that is in season. Remember just because the ad says it is a good deal, doesn’t necessarily mean it is. 
• When something is a rock bottom price, buy two instead of one.  This, of course is providing you can  freeze it or it is a shelf stable item. 
• Cut your snack food consumption.   It’s good for your waistline, your pocketbook and your health.  The average grocery cart is 1/2 full of drinks and snacks.   
• Soup is a good , easy meal.  It’s versatile and stretches protein. It is also flexible in a slow cooker for days whenever family is on different schedules.   
• Buy mega packs of meat, portion control it for the freezer in quart bags and out the quart bags in a gallon bag and label.   Bulk meat on sale can work even for small families.   
• Pork loin can be as cheap as a dollar a pound.   It is an easy butcher jobs and saves a lot of money and you control how thick you want your pork chops.
• Split chicken breasts can be a lot cheaper than boneless skinkessmchicken breast.  Processing them is easymand nets you chicken stock and chicken pieces for soup or burrito filling, 
• Stir fries, soups, fried rice, enchiladas or burrito bowls all can stretch meat quietly. 

Tuesday - how did she do that?

Tuesday is usually the quest for an efficient scratch cooking recipe.   There is a comment section on the bottom of the blog..  Please feel free to let me know what you would like to see.

Instead of taco Tuesday, we have pizza Tuesday.

I make a thin pizza crust, but I ran on to a recipe to make pizza crust in the kitchen aid and it makes 4 crusts.  That is enough for us to have one crust and freeze the other three for the rest of a months worth of pizzas.

I freeze the pizza sauce from the dollar tree in ice cube tray and then twist it out into a quart. Freezer bag,  two cubes cover a small pizza.  That makes the sauce twenty cents a pizza.   I keep the sauce and crusts in a door shelf in the freezer.  You can also save bits of any vegetable or meat that you can put in a pizza.   I would keep separate bags for the meat, but the veggies can be in the same bag.  Pepperoni has been on coupons lately, but you can also get it at the dollar store,   Both the pepperoni and the pizza sauce are name brands that sell for a lot more elsewhere.

I take advantage of anything that I can find that is a huge rice difference and is good quality name brand.  It’s a way to cut your food bill without cutting your quality of life.

Little steps placed on the freezer make for a good dinner without much work.  At 4, we let our granddaughter fill a pizza.   She announced to her mother when she came in the door from work that she was making a happy face.  I guess you know we had a pepperoni happy face pizza for dinner!   Lol 😂.   It wasn’t long until she was helping her mother roll out their dough.  Teaching a child to cook with you keeps them out of trouble and give them self confidence.   When they are a bit older, it can take a lot of pressure off of you.  I follow a large family in u tube,  their teen makes dinner some of the time and she makes recipes I have never tackled.

The kitchen aid pizza crust is from Noreen’s kitchen on u tube.

My thin crust in the food processor, can be made by hand too.   It takes less time to make the thin crust, roll out and fill it than it does to go for a pizza and get back from the take and bake,  the cost of a cheese pizza with grocery on the cheap ingredients is a dollar.  

Please look the recipe up on the internet.  you can print it from there. 

gather ingredients : oil, flour, water, salt yeast 

place dry ingredients in processor bowl.  add water and oil through the tube and 

process until dough forms a ball. 

place dough on a floured board and knead a few times for form a ball. 

let dough rest 10 minutes while you gather your toppings.  

or, dough can be stored in a zip lock until dinnertime and stored in the refrigerator. 

Roll dough thin, place sauce, cheese and toppings of choice and bake at 450 until dough is done and cheese is melted.   

Epic fail .......

how many hits can this bring!  Lol.

We cooked the pork shoulder in the insta pot slow cooker mode,   In ten hours it never came up to temp.   I’m afraid to eat it.  It isn’t worth four dollars to give us food poisoning.  If I were to do it again, I would cook it on the pressure cooker mode for an hour.  I am glad I only bought one.  It was the first time for cooking pork shoulder so I decided to error on the side of caution,  

Win some, loose some.

On to kitchen management .  Kitchen management is a tool to save time and money on the kitchen and make the dinner hour less hectic.  Normally , anyway.  This is thanksgiving week.  

• Take the turkey out to thaw in the refrigerator.  Be sure to use a tray to keep any juices from contaminating other foods. 
• Wash vegetables that you will  use in meals this week, 
• Wash and disinfect the kitchen counters, sinks and drains. 
• Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. 
• Make taco soup and place on the slow cooker, 
• Wash kitchen floor 
• Clean oven 
• Wash the microwave. 

• 
  

Meal plans

Meal plans are a way to save time, money and stress.   Knowing what you are going to eat and knowing you have all the ingredients isnanreal stress buster.  Most dinner hours are hectic, especially if you are dealing with coming home from work and children.   Prepping ahead of time and having a plan is a good start in making life easier.  Knowing scratch cooking recipes that are efficient that your family will eat is another good trick.  

This is Thanksgiving  week, like no one knew that.   Lol.  

• Soup. Bread 
• Pizza
• Pork sliders 
• Thanksgiving 
• Leftovers 
• Tacos, refried beans or Spanish rice 
• Breakfast for dinner 

Notes :

Fred Meyers had pork shoulder roast for .49 a pound.   I have never cooked pork shoulder roast before.  I’ll take you along.  Otnwqs not on my plan, but adapting to someth8ng that is a remarkable buy isnanway to reduce your food bill more.  It has been a lot of little things that have added and snowballed onto the food for less that just happened.  Finding a very easy bread recipe , learning to cook efficiently from scratch, having an insta pot, rotation meats, all added to the journey,

1. Soup in the slow cooker is a good meal when people are eating at different times.  It’s ready when they are and almost anyone can serve themselves.  
2. Pizza is a mainstay,  the crust dough is in the frezer.  Making a monthly batch in the Kitchen Aid is a great time saver.  Just take it out to thaw in the refrigerator in the morning,  
3. Pork sliders are happening because if the bargain roast. It is always good to check the large bins on the meat department as well as the markdown bin,   The markdown bin sizes too yield much here,  it it does on other parts of the country and I have sound a few bargains every now and then.  
4. Thanksgiving , is well, thanksgiving.  Fred Meyers has a deal where if you bought a Marie C. Pie for five dollars, you got a ice cream for free,  I got peppermint ice cream and turtle pie.  Yum!   Please remember the CDC is warning of salmonella in turkey this year,  take extra s actually steps.  Wash your hands, use gloves, contain any raw juices on a sheet pan you can put in the dishwasher including on the refrigerator when you thaw it.  Cook it to well done and check more than one place on the bird.
5.    Leftover thanksgiving is better than the day itself.  All the good taste, without the work.   
6. Tacos mix things up after a couple of days of thanksgiving meal. 
7. Breakfast for dinner is a family cooks dinner, 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving menu plan

• Turkey breast - thaw Monday or Tuesday. 
• Mashed potatoes, gravy 
• Sweet potatoes, mashed with a strusel topping 
• Green beans with mustard 
• Stuffed celery, green and black olives and pickled veggies 
• Cranberry sauce 
• Pumpkin pie, apple pie. , whip cream
• Sparkling cider

Notes 

1. Cook turkey thoroughly.  Make gravy from drippings. 
2. Boil potatoes and sweet potatoes , mash 
3. Make topping from flour , brown sugar and butter , cinnamon 
4. Stuff celery, arrange platter 
5. Make pumpkin pie early .
6. Chill cider
7. Make cranberry sauce 
8. Make mustard sauce 

Numbers 5-8 can be done ahead of time.