we got the ads today. I a, not going to tell you that you need to rush down someplace here and find the bargains. Winco and Fred Meyers have the best.
Eggs at Winco are .98
Frozen vegetables are .88 a pounds. I found mixed, broccoli and green beans
I didn't 't do a full shopping experience, I was there to pick up a few things,
QFC
Top sirloin 5.77
Chicken breast BOGO. Nets 4.00 a pound. Note: split breasts are often around a dollar at Fred Fred Meyers. It takes almost no time to De-bone them and the difference in cost is about three dollars a pound vs the sale price.
Grapes 1.28
Milk .99
Oranges .99
Roma's .99
Electronic coupons,
Hefty bags .99
Kraft singles 1.99
Alberways
Buy 5, save 5
Jiffy peanut butter 1.99
Herdez salsa 1.99$$
Ortega taco shells .99
Red Barron 2.99
1/2 pork loin 1.79
Grapes 1.28
Bumble bee tuna .59 ***backpack alert ! Limit 6
Friday only N
Freschetta pizza 5.00
7 percent hamburger 3.99
Ragu 2/3$$
Nalleys chilli .99@@
Greek yogurt @@
About it,
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Surprise! Not all advertised bargains are bargains!
Surprise. My granddaughter and I were enjoying a blue bunny ice cream cone. It's a great treat and they are lift ion controlled so we so to have too much. Granddaughters was full sized , mine was a mini -- like 1/2 the size. Calling customer service today. Usually of you call, they learn ot Halle Ed and can make adjustments to the manufacturing line to correct the problem, amd you usually get coupons for free product, It pays to complain. But, complain nicely.
I got my just 4 you feed today from Safeways. Besides the five dollar off of twentyfold coupon that may or may may not be a bargain, the rest of it was ornery much a joke,
You can't believe everything that you see as being a bargain,
Sour cream 24 ounces 1.99. I got sour cream for .88 at Fred Meyers this week. Granted, it is or a key 16 ounces, but still, that's. It a bargain at 1.99
The inferior brand of brownie mix is 1.61. I almost never pay more than a dollar and sometimes .88 for Betty Crocker or Pillsbury. I did pay 1.60 for Giravaldi chocolate at Costco. Yum!
BBQ sauce, Rays, I paid .55 or .58 for with sake and coupon is on sale for 2.88
The kicker,,.,,,,refried beans, They were on sale for 80 at Safeways a few weeks back. I can buy one variety for .78 at Costco, and .88 all the time at Winco. They are on sale coupon for .....wait for. It...1.13.
It goes back to a main principle.......
My mother used to say that some people would t know a bargain of it got up and bit them in the butt.
Don't be that person. KNOW YOUR PRICES. .......
You don't have to know every price in the store, just the things you buy on a regular basis. That usually is 15-20 things, Some things I just know I don't buy unless they are under a dollar. I have target prices ....nothing to do with the red ball store. ......
It's a good rule of thumb . My vegetable target used to be .39. Then .69. Now it's a buck. But, of course, the COL hasn't risen according to the government, LOL on that one.
I digress. I want fruits and veggies for a buck, Green chillies , canned fruit, cake mix, pasta -- all under a dollar.
Meat's target price is two dollars. Granted, ground beef is more like almost four, but I can average and ise chicken, eggs, beans and pork for one and two dollars to average.
Target prices mean you don't have to remember so many numbers.
Knowing your prices saves a lot of money. By saving money on the staple items, you can buy a variety of things so children get the benefit of tasting new things and you aren't eating rice and beans every night.
The last calculations I did, we were eating for three dollars a day. That is is less than a lot of people spend on their morning coffee at the big bucks store. I have spent a lot more this quarter because we replenish the freezer after the big thaw. But, we don't need any protein for quite some time so it will
Average out.
We eat well. We eat balanced and we eat the best quality I can find for the money. We just don't ever , pretty much, pay full price for our food. We find the best price available. It takes some time, I make the time up by cooking efficiently. Time is money, make your money count.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
I got my just 4 you feed today from Safeways. Besides the five dollar off of twentyfold coupon that may or may may not be a bargain, the rest of it was ornery much a joke,
You can't believe everything that you see as being a bargain,
Sour cream 24 ounces 1.99. I got sour cream for .88 at Fred Meyers this week. Granted, it is or a key 16 ounces, but still, that's. It a bargain at 1.99
The inferior brand of brownie mix is 1.61. I almost never pay more than a dollar and sometimes .88 for Betty Crocker or Pillsbury. I did pay 1.60 for Giravaldi chocolate at Costco. Yum!
BBQ sauce, Rays, I paid .55 or .58 for with sake and coupon is on sale for 2.88
The kicker,,.,,,,refried beans, They were on sale for 80 at Safeways a few weeks back. I can buy one variety for .78 at Costco, and .88 all the time at Winco. They are on sale coupon for .....wait for. It...1.13.
It goes back to a main principle.......
My mother used to say that some people would t know a bargain of it got up and bit them in the butt.
Don't be that person. KNOW YOUR PRICES. .......
You don't have to know every price in the store, just the things you buy on a regular basis. That usually is 15-20 things, Some things I just know I don't buy unless they are under a dollar. I have target prices ....nothing to do with the red ball store. ......
It's a good rule of thumb . My vegetable target used to be .39. Then .69. Now it's a buck. But, of course, the COL hasn't risen according to the government, LOL on that one.
I digress. I want fruits and veggies for a buck, Green chillies , canned fruit, cake mix, pasta -- all under a dollar.
Meat's target price is two dollars. Granted, ground beef is more like almost four, but I can average and ise chicken, eggs, beans and pork for one and two dollars to average.
Target prices mean you don't have to remember so many numbers.
Knowing your prices saves a lot of money. By saving money on the staple items, you can buy a variety of things so children get the benefit of tasting new things and you aren't eating rice and beans every night.
The last calculations I did, we were eating for three dollars a day. That is is less than a lot of people spend on their morning coffee at the big bucks store. I have spent a lot more this quarter because we replenish the freezer after the big thaw. But, we don't need any protein for quite some time so it will
Average out.
We eat well. We eat balanced and we eat the best quality I can find for the money. We just don't ever , pretty much, pay full price for our food. We find the best price available. It takes some time, I make the time up by cooking efficiently. Time is money, make your money count.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Terrific Tuesday
Yesterday. We took a tip to Costco wholesale and stopped at dollar tree along the way. I needed a basket for the wash rags. We don't have a linen closet in our bathroom and wash rags on a shelf can get out of hand. I also picked up two pint jars for dried fruit, and some beans. I am trying to stock some canned beans for emergencies and when I can't cook scratch, and some dry beans. I also got some fly paper strips - fruit fly season is upon us, and a brush and dustpan. Soap so cheaper at the dollar store - major brands.
At Costco, we needed baguettes , soap, toilet paper and I got new steak knives because, ours were shot. One snapped when my husband was cutting his meat.
I read an article about why you should never shop at the dollar store or Walmart. Most of it was pure propaganda. -- but here is my answer to that !
I don't shop at Walmart.
1) they pay their people the least they can get away with no benefits to most of them.
2) they are anti Union, but, they have higher prices and pay their people less wages and benefits than Costco that isn't anti - Union. That tells me that someone is making a lot of money on the backs of their workers and the taxpayers. It has been estimated that for every worker at Walmart, it costs the taxpayer six thousand dollars a year for welfare that the workers need to supplement their income to exist.
3) Their prices aren't the lowest. They expect you to do their homework and argue to price match things to get a lower price. That slows down the checkout lines and is a bunch of bother.
4) Their merchandise is as much from China as any other store.
5) I ordered a present one Christmas on line to be picked up at the store. They e mailed me that the product was back ordered and I could cancel the order by replying to the email. I cancelled the order, not knowing if I could get the merchandise before Christmas. They sent it anyway. But, the kicker was that when I returned the merchandise to the store, they charged me 8.00 shipping, and refused to refund the shipping charges. I bought it elsewhere, paid nothing for shipping and got a cheaper
price.
Now, the dollar store
1) the stores are independently owned , so you are buying from local people.
2) there is no more Chinese merchandise than any other store.
3) think if it as the modern dime store. A lot of things are as good a quality as anywhere else, they are just cheaper. It is true that they have a lot of party supplies and seasonal decor. No one is twisting your arm to buy them.
4) they have a whole isle of junk food, no one is twisting your arm to buy that either, Ditto the children's cheap plastic toys. They also have very good children's work books. And six pair of sox for a buck. If you have a child that looses their sox, six pair of the same color is a good thing.
5) some food is cheaper than any other place. You pick and choose and read labels , but good and
bad buys can be found. There are overstocks and some major American brands that are cheaper.
Beans are cheaper in some instances. 1.5 pounds of pinto beans are a buck. They are .69 in bulk at Winco, Pizza sauce is cheaper. Name brand mandarin oranges - del monte, Betty Crocker food and kitchen implements. A baby spatula that gets the bits of a narrow jar.
Like anyplace, let the buyer beware, their linens are crap. I did get plastic trays from them that have been more than worth their weight. I have carried things down to the freezer and to the deck, used
Zthem to serve our food on the deck -- putting each persons place etc on a tray. I have placed ingredients on one, and then took them off as I used them. It's a good way not to forget what you have used if you are interrupted. I use them constantly.
The organizational tools are marvelous as well as paper products. Tablets, etc.
They accept coupons that make some things even cheaper. Wet and wild makeup, Hormel pepperoni, puffs and bounty paper products. Uncle beans rice.
A lot of products are not cheaper because the quanity is low. I can see where hat might be useful of you are stocking a new apartment, or a travel trailer or boat and don't have room. When you are living in 200 square feet, you can't have 25 pounds of rice! LOL.
If you haven't gathered, I love the dollar store for certain things. I keep a package of toilet paper on the very back of the toilet paper shelf. That way, of we hit the back up tissue, we know we haven't estimated right, and we need a Costco haul. You never want to run out of toilet paper! LOL.
Ours is stored on a bottom shelf in the main bathroom linen closet. It's my granddaughters job to restock the shelf . She loves it, and I don't have to bend down.
I don't like walmarts business practices. There are some people that would cheat you out of a dime, and have no conscious. Kinda like a candidate we are aware of. That behavior is despicable in my opinion. -- just my opinion!
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
At Costco, we needed baguettes , soap, toilet paper and I got new steak knives because, ours were shot. One snapped when my husband was cutting his meat.
I read an article about why you should never shop at the dollar store or Walmart. Most of it was pure propaganda. -- but here is my answer to that !
I don't shop at Walmart.
1) they pay their people the least they can get away with no benefits to most of them.
2) they are anti Union, but, they have higher prices and pay their people less wages and benefits than Costco that isn't anti - Union. That tells me that someone is making a lot of money on the backs of their workers and the taxpayers. It has been estimated that for every worker at Walmart, it costs the taxpayer six thousand dollars a year for welfare that the workers need to supplement their income to exist.
3) Their prices aren't the lowest. They expect you to do their homework and argue to price match things to get a lower price. That slows down the checkout lines and is a bunch of bother.
4) Their merchandise is as much from China as any other store.
5) I ordered a present one Christmas on line to be picked up at the store. They e mailed me that the product was back ordered and I could cancel the order by replying to the email. I cancelled the order, not knowing if I could get the merchandise before Christmas. They sent it anyway. But, the kicker was that when I returned the merchandise to the store, they charged me 8.00 shipping, and refused to refund the shipping charges. I bought it elsewhere, paid nothing for shipping and got a cheaper
price.
Now, the dollar store
1) the stores are independently owned , so you are buying from local people.
2) there is no more Chinese merchandise than any other store.
3) think if it as the modern dime store. A lot of things are as good a quality as anywhere else, they are just cheaper. It is true that they have a lot of party supplies and seasonal decor. No one is twisting your arm to buy them.
4) they have a whole isle of junk food, no one is twisting your arm to buy that either, Ditto the children's cheap plastic toys. They also have very good children's work books. And six pair of sox for a buck. If you have a child that looses their sox, six pair of the same color is a good thing.
5) some food is cheaper than any other place. You pick and choose and read labels , but good and
bad buys can be found. There are overstocks and some major American brands that are cheaper.
Beans are cheaper in some instances. 1.5 pounds of pinto beans are a buck. They are .69 in bulk at Winco, Pizza sauce is cheaper. Name brand mandarin oranges - del monte, Betty Crocker food and kitchen implements. A baby spatula that gets the bits of a narrow jar.
Like anyplace, let the buyer beware, their linens are crap. I did get plastic trays from them that have been more than worth their weight. I have carried things down to the freezer and to the deck, used
Zthem to serve our food on the deck -- putting each persons place etc on a tray. I have placed ingredients on one, and then took them off as I used them. It's a good way not to forget what you have used if you are interrupted. I use them constantly.
The organizational tools are marvelous as well as paper products. Tablets, etc.
They accept coupons that make some things even cheaper. Wet and wild makeup, Hormel pepperoni, puffs and bounty paper products. Uncle beans rice.
A lot of products are not cheaper because the quanity is low. I can see where hat might be useful of you are stocking a new apartment, or a travel trailer or boat and don't have room. When you are living in 200 square feet, you can't have 25 pounds of rice! LOL.
If you haven't gathered, I love the dollar store for certain things. I keep a package of toilet paper on the very back of the toilet paper shelf. That way, of we hit the back up tissue, we know we haven't estimated right, and we need a Costco haul. You never want to run out of toilet paper! LOL.
Ours is stored on a bottom shelf in the main bathroom linen closet. It's my granddaughters job to restock the shelf . She loves it, and I don't have to bend down.
I don't like walmarts business practices. There are some people that would cheat you out of a dime, and have no conscious. Kinda like a candidate we are aware of. That behavior is despicable in my opinion. -- just my opinion!
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Monday, August 8, 2016
Monday madness
Spot clean the house after the weekend and butcher the pork roasts that I got for 1.48 a pound at Winco. Pork chops were on the menu plan and 1.48 more than fits the two dollar a pound target amount for meat. I did more than my one rotation protein lately, so I'm free for a few weeks. I bought hamburger and sausage last week and white fish, shrimp and pork yesterday. Winco has good prices on frozen fish.
Yesterday we went to Fred Meyers and Winco with my daughter. I replenished our sour cream and cottage cheese at .88 and added a few veggies. The radishes were remarkable! I might have to redirect the food plan to incorporate some roasts root veggies and the green beans my neighbour gave us. Plan, but be flexible.
The last time I roasted vegetables, we had radishes, cauliflower, potatoes and carrots. My hubby turned his nose up at everything but the potatoes and carrots,....all the more good stuff for the rest of us! LOL.
QFC has free downloads every Friday. Sometimes I don't bother because times something I'll never use. I try to avoid anything that is empty calories. In other words, if it has no food value, I don't usually buy it. Groceries on the cheap is all about getting the most bang for your buck.
When you have a limited amount of money for food, you can't afford to waste it on frills. Not to mention that junk food is not good for us. My mothers answer to not having kool-aid, and pop and potato chips was that dad thought it was bad for you, He said, if cola can take the rust off a screw, what is it doing to your insides. Stick to the basics. Don't over eat . Drink water. You will find that you could even loose weight.
You eat first with your eyes. Make things look tasty. We use a lot of parm and parsley. My granddaughter has become an expert at making French bread, We butter it, sprinkle oars key and a hard cheese ( usually parm, but sometimes any hard cheese that is the cheapest. ) Costco has one that I don't know the name of that is 12.oo for huge wedge. I usually just pre grate some of it on the micro plane. Sometimes a tool is a good investment because the return on your money is remarkable. A micro plane grates cheese so fine that it's a good cheese stretcher.
The second real money stretcher is to not waste food. Keeping on top of what's in the fridge and adapting meals to use it up is one way, Revamping your recipes to make less quantity is another. My daughter has decided to be vegan. She used to eat a lot of anything vegetarian that used cheese. I have taken to weighing my pasta to use smaller portions and making an 8 inch square pan of pasta dishes instead of a 9X13 pan. There is enough after three of us eat for a lunch.
Groceries on the cheap has nothing to do with poor quality food; it's more about getting the most bang for your buck. Buy the best quality for the least amount of money. I just picked up a black long skirt marked thirty dollars, for ten dollars. A black skirt can be a good investment because it will take you anywhere. Dress it up or dress it down. Buying basic food is the same.
When something is a really good price. Buy as much as you can use before it goes bad. Incorporate it into your food plan. Eggs were .79 a dozen, So much better than the two dollars we were paying in the winter. I bought the limit. We will have breakfast for dinner every week. I have been eating a hard boiled egg for breakfast. It has no carbs and makes my blood sugar hit slower. It fills you up and sustains you until lunch.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Yesterday we went to Fred Meyers and Winco with my daughter. I replenished our sour cream and cottage cheese at .88 and added a few veggies. The radishes were remarkable! I might have to redirect the food plan to incorporate some roasts root veggies and the green beans my neighbour gave us. Plan, but be flexible.
The last time I roasted vegetables, we had radishes, cauliflower, potatoes and carrots. My hubby turned his nose up at everything but the potatoes and carrots,....all the more good stuff for the rest of us! LOL.
QFC has free downloads every Friday. Sometimes I don't bother because times something I'll never use. I try to avoid anything that is empty calories. In other words, if it has no food value, I don't usually buy it. Groceries on the cheap is all about getting the most bang for your buck.
When you have a limited amount of money for food, you can't afford to waste it on frills. Not to mention that junk food is not good for us. My mothers answer to not having kool-aid, and pop and potato chips was that dad thought it was bad for you, He said, if cola can take the rust off a screw, what is it doing to your insides. Stick to the basics. Don't over eat . Drink water. You will find that you could even loose weight.
You eat first with your eyes. Make things look tasty. We use a lot of parm and parsley. My granddaughter has become an expert at making French bread, We butter it, sprinkle oars key and a hard cheese ( usually parm, but sometimes any hard cheese that is the cheapest. ) Costco has one that I don't know the name of that is 12.oo for huge wedge. I usually just pre grate some of it on the micro plane. Sometimes a tool is a good investment because the return on your money is remarkable. A micro plane grates cheese so fine that it's a good cheese stretcher.
The second real money stretcher is to not waste food. Keeping on top of what's in the fridge and adapting meals to use it up is one way, Revamping your recipes to make less quantity is another. My daughter has decided to be vegan. She used to eat a lot of anything vegetarian that used cheese. I have taken to weighing my pasta to use smaller portions and making an 8 inch square pan of pasta dishes instead of a 9X13 pan. There is enough after three of us eat for a lunch.
Groceries on the cheap has nothing to do with poor quality food; it's more about getting the most bang for your buck. Buy the best quality for the least amount of money. I just picked up a black long skirt marked thirty dollars, for ten dollars. A black skirt can be a good investment because it will take you anywhere. Dress it up or dress it down. Buying basic food is the same.
When something is a really good price. Buy as much as you can use before it goes bad. Incorporate it into your food plan. Eggs were .79 a dozen, So much better than the two dollars we were paying in the winter. I bought the limit. We will have breakfast for dinner every week. I have been eating a hard boiled egg for breakfast. It has no carbs and makes my blood sugar hit slower. It fills you up and sustains you until lunch.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Sunday, August 7, 2016
Pizza
I have been watching some big families blogs lately. They are real eye openers. It's not hard to understand that with six children, one mother can't earn all or part ofmamliving and still cook, clean, and keep a yard up. Everyone needs to pitch in. The thing that surprised me was that children as small as two years old could do their part. Storing, peeling carrots . Safety first, etc.
I started letting our granddaughter help with cooking. She loves it and takes great pride on everything she does. Now, I'm not condoning children working with hot stoves etc, but some things they can wash their hands thorally and help. Tonight, we are having pizza. I made crust from scratch amd rolled it out. I defrosted the pizza sauce and granddaughter spread it with a pastry brush. Then she sori joes the cheese and arranged the pepperoni. Gramps took over from there.
I knew just where she was while I cooked dinner and she got much pleasure from a job well done.
She stirs, helps count cups and pours cups into bowls. She's figuring out that food doesn't come from a box or the take out!
I am trying pizza dough recipes until one works well for me. Imhadmcoupoms thick crust recipe years ago. We want thin crust now,so we are trying new recipes.
After I tackle pizza dough, I will start on baguettes without using the bread machine or cold rise method, Then, tortillas. I don't have the right kind of a pan for those. It'll be down the road a while. I just bought a pressure cooker. I can get tortillas for as cheap as a quarter with coupons,
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
I knew just where she was while I cooked dinner and she got much pleasure from a job well done.
She stirs, helps count cups and pours cups into bowls. She's figuring out that food doesn't come from a box or the take out!
I am trying pizza dough recipes until one works well for me. Imhadmcoupoms thick crust recipe years ago. We want thin crust now,so we are trying new recipes.
After I tackle pizza dough, I will start on baguettes without using the bread machine or cold rise method, Then, tortillas. I don't have the right kind of a pan for those. It'll be down the road a while. I just bought a pressure cooker. I can get tortillas for as cheap as a quarter with coupons,
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Meal plans for week of 8/8 - 8/14
Taking you along for the ride...I have taken an informal inventory of the fridge and pantry. We are well stocked of pepperoni ( .50 at the dollar tree with coupons,) amd eggs ( .79 at Safeways) . That tells me we are having breakfast for dinner and pizza once a week for a few weeks. I will switch to a theme based meal plan for a while .
- Breakfast 4 dinner
- Pizza
- Tex-mex
- Soup and bread
- Casserole or meat and starch. ( meat balls over noodles etc)
- Sunday dinner
- Pasta
Meal plans matrix can be protein based, theme based, rotation based, or freezer meals.
The first step in meal plans is to shop the specials and take inventory of what is in your stash ( another word for pantry and fridge and freezer. ) LOL Paying attention to what needs to be eaten soon.
Last night we were going to have pasta primavera. Our neighbour generously gave us a basket of veggies. The squash needed to be eaten. We had a stir fry instead because we also had leftover rice and a lot of veggies. I had shrimp in the freezer. Plan. But be flexible.
- Pepperoni pizza ( make dough early in the morning and refrigerate.
- Scrambled eggs. Bacon, muffins ( made with Greek yogurt) or yogurt cups
- Chicken bow tie pasta dish
- Pork chops with Apple- craisens dressing. , salad
- Tomato , basil, Gorgonzola soup, cheezy biscuits.
- Chicken enchiladas. Rice and beans
- Meatball subs, salad
I have to say that this matrix is harder to follow than the protein based one. I will share my meal plan work sheet as soon as I can figure out how. I am still learning the tech thing.
Work plan:
1) make pizza crust early in the morning and out in fridge.
2) make muffins
3) cook chicken breast from frozen in the pressure cooker. This will work for the vow toe pasta and the chicken enchiladas.
4) thaw pork chops and make bread cubes .
5) make cheezy biscuits
6) make rice and cook beans in pressure cooker.
7) make green salad, croutons, and buy rolls if I can't find baguettes.
I still have to tackle making baguettes from scratch. I make bread in the bread baker, or I make cold start , no knead bread. Granddaughter and I made bag bread that was on the Internet. It didn't turn out so well. How many ways can you say hockey puck!
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by
cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Fred Meyers - EARLY
tomorrow's ad
Milk 10/10
Cantaloupe 2/3
Country oven bread 3/4@@
Sour cream .88
Broccoli .99
Cucumbers 2/1
Radishes 2/.99
Green peppers .79
Grapes 1.69
Raspberries 2/5
Strawberries 2/4
Roma tomatoes .99
Romaine .99
Blackberries 2/5
Ground turkey 2.99. Foster farms
Split chicken breasts 1.29
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Milk 10/10
Cantaloupe 2/3
Country oven bread 3/4@@
Sour cream .88
Broccoli .99
Cucumbers 2/1
Radishes 2/.99
Green peppers .79
Grapes 1.69
Raspberries 2/5
Strawberries 2/4
Roma tomatoes .99
Romaine .99
Blackberries 2/5
Ground turkey 2.99. Foster farms
Split chicken breasts 1.29
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Now that you have it......
Now that you have it...what to do with it.
One concept of groceries on the cheap is to do a rotation of protein. Most of the time, you can find a so called loss leader meat in the grocery ads. Buying in bulk and buying enough to feed your family a months worth those meals saves time and money. In other words, if you eat ground beef once a week, you will buy enough for four meals.
What to do with .....
Ground beef : meatballs cooked on the oven. Pinterest has a good recipe, or use your own. Make your mix up, I use a portion scoop to form the balls and place them on a rack that is placed on a sheet pan. The broiler pan works too. The object is to drain the fat. Place portion controlled ,eat balls on individual bags , label and freeze. A regular fridge freezer can hold a months worth of meals.
Baby meat loafs. I usually do is the day I bring the meat home. Small meat loafs cook faster and can be cooked on the microwave if it's hot outside or you are in a hurry.
Hamburger crumbles : fry the meat in a large pan, break it up ( a pasta to masher works) and drain and defat it. To defat, drain the meat into a colander, using a catch bowl of you don't want the grease to go down the drain. Pour boiling water over the filled colander and let drain. Place in meal sized cartons or bags for the freezer. Flat bags store well and take kess room. Use for sloppy joes , or on red sauce.
Taco meat: Same as hambirger crumbles except return to the pan after defat ting and add taco seasoning. Taco seasoning recipe is in another blog. Add some water.
PORK LOIN
Pork loin can be as low as 1.69 a pound. I try for a half loin. Cut 1/2 inch pork chops off one end after you square up the end. Save the end pieces that aren't as thick for pork cubes. Leave a two pound or so section for roast. Portion control the pork chops and cubes and freeze, Cook the roast and slice the leftovers thin for BBQ pork sandwiches.
That makes :
1) pork stew or pie from the cubes or meat over rice or mashed potatoes.
2) pork roast and sliced thin pieces for BBQ pork Sandwiches.
3) pork chops
Whole chicken :
Roast the chicken in the oven or pit in the slow cooker.
1) to roast a chicken fast: clean the cavity, stuff it with anything you have hanging around the kitchen : an onion, a lemon, a apple, a orange.....place chicken on a rack on a roasting pan , and massage it with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and rosemary if you have it. Bake at 375 until it's temperature is 170-180.
2) to cook in slow cooker: clean the cavity, place a roughly cut onion in the bottom of your slow cooker, put the chicken on top, give it a spice rub, amd cook it on high a hour a pound. Check three quarters of the way through.
This makes : two dinners of chicken breast , a dinner of dark meat, and soup stock.
SPLIT CHICKEN BREAST : Fred Meyers has them often for under a buck a pound.
Debone the chicken, saving the bones and meat attached onto a stock pot. Portion control the breasts. I put each breast into a quart bag and put the quart bags into a gallon bag. This makes it easier to find in the freezer and keeps it from getting freezer burn.
Every cookbook or Betty Crocker in line cookbook has a host of chicken breast recipes. Essentially you are getting boneless, skinless chicken breast for a buck instead of six bucks and have the added bonus of chicken soup and chicken pieces for a casserole or tacos.
Other weeks, when one of the above are on sale :
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
One concept of groceries on the cheap is to do a rotation of protein. Most of the time, you can find a so called loss leader meat in the grocery ads. Buying in bulk and buying enough to feed your family a months worth those meals saves time and money. In other words, if you eat ground beef once a week, you will buy enough for four meals.
What to do with .....
Ground beef : meatballs cooked on the oven. Pinterest has a good recipe, or use your own. Make your mix up, I use a portion scoop to form the balls and place them on a rack that is placed on a sheet pan. The broiler pan works too. The object is to drain the fat. Place portion controlled ,eat balls on individual bags , label and freeze. A regular fridge freezer can hold a months worth of meals.
Baby meat loafs. I usually do is the day I bring the meat home. Small meat loafs cook faster and can be cooked on the microwave if it's hot outside or you are in a hurry.
Hamburger crumbles : fry the meat in a large pan, break it up ( a pasta to masher works) and drain and defat it. To defat, drain the meat into a colander, using a catch bowl of you don't want the grease to go down the drain. Pour boiling water over the filled colander and let drain. Place in meal sized cartons or bags for the freezer. Flat bags store well and take kess room. Use for sloppy joes , or on red sauce.
Taco meat: Same as hambirger crumbles except return to the pan after defat ting and add taco seasoning. Taco seasoning recipe is in another blog. Add some water.
PORK LOIN
Pork loin can be as low as 1.69 a pound. I try for a half loin. Cut 1/2 inch pork chops off one end after you square up the end. Save the end pieces that aren't as thick for pork cubes. Leave a two pound or so section for roast. Portion control the pork chops and cubes and freeze, Cook the roast and slice the leftovers thin for BBQ pork sandwiches.
That makes :
1) pork stew or pie from the cubes or meat over rice or mashed potatoes.
2) pork roast and sliced thin pieces for BBQ pork Sandwiches.
3) pork chops
Whole chicken :
Roast the chicken in the oven or pit in the slow cooker.
1) to roast a chicken fast: clean the cavity, stuff it with anything you have hanging around the kitchen : an onion, a lemon, a apple, a orange.....place chicken on a rack on a roasting pan , and massage it with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and rosemary if you have it. Bake at 375 until it's temperature is 170-180.
2) to cook in slow cooker: clean the cavity, place a roughly cut onion in the bottom of your slow cooker, put the chicken on top, give it a spice rub, amd cook it on high a hour a pound. Check three quarters of the way through.
This makes : two dinners of chicken breast , a dinner of dark meat, and soup stock.
SPLIT CHICKEN BREAST : Fred Meyers has them often for under a buck a pound.
Debone the chicken, saving the bones and meat attached onto a stock pot. Portion control the breasts. I put each breast into a quart bag and put the quart bags into a gallon bag. This makes it easier to find in the freezer and keeps it from getting freezer burn.
Every cookbook or Betty Crocker in line cookbook has a host of chicken breast recipes. Essentially you are getting boneless, skinless chicken breast for a buck instead of six bucks and have the added bonus of chicken soup and chicken pieces for a casserole or tacos.
Other weeks, when one of the above are on sale :
- Pepperoni is at the dollar store and dollar coupons are almost always at coupons,com makes the packages .50 if you buy two.
- Cheese is around two dollars a pound at Costco. Sometimes cheap at grocery outlet. I got it cheap at Safeways this week. Watch your price per pound. Small packages are deceiving.
- Beans are cheap at the dollar tree and at Winco in bulk.
- Fish in frozen individually wrapped portions is cheap at Winco.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Friday, August 5, 2016
Extremes shopping some treats
We went to Safeways and QFC for next weeks groceries. Finally, there are some bargains at those stores.
QFC - we spent 25.67 and saved 23.34. For a savings of 47 percent.
- splurge of real maple syrup
- Splurge -a blueberry pie
- Free cookies
- Sausage , was supposed to be free, I have to investigate.
- Blue bunny bars , 100 off for five and 1.00 coupon,
- Sausage rolls 2.99 less coupons
Safeways
Week end only
Spent 11.99 saved 12.44 or 51 percent
6- pastas, blue box, veggie and bow ties.
10 yoplait in sale for .40 less 2-1 dollar coupons. .20 each and they had chocolare! Does it get any better than that?
Strawberries 2.99
Potato salad 2.00
Almost 50 percent over all and I picked up expensive syrup, a pie , and potato,salad for lunch.
I am still under budget and we are well stocked. We will be having breakfast 4 dinner and pizza once a week for several weeks going Forward.
Freaky Friday
We are down to pasta primavera , breakfast 4 dinner, and fish on our meal plans, we ornery much followed them exactly this week. I do think we will adapt a little because our neighbour generously shared green beans with us. So fish and chips might become fish packets. Seems like a no dish Friday to me. We got a notice of free food at QFC. Cookies and sausage! Yum!
Pinterest of full of new recipes and ideas. Reader beware, there are some things that might look like scams, but plenty of inspiration there. Sometimes that's all one need to combat their lazy butt even if we have good excuses-- the dog ate the vacuum. LOL.
I have several u-tubers that I watch. They give me motivation to try new things and organize the house better. There are days when I just need a push to keep on Going. You wonder if life is worth the fight! Whatever works.
She's on her apron is a young mother of four that does grocery hauls ( not inexpensive ones ) , organizational ones, and motivational ones. She fights anxiety, and shows you can function well coping, She u- tubes and sells cleaning products as well as taking care if a household of six with children in school and church activities.
The Kneady homesteader is a gal with I think 4 children and two of them live with she and her husband. She is making the switch from boxed foods to scratch and does Kroger and SAMs club hauls.
I made the cream soup base yesterday and made mac and cheese from scratch. I made it early and put it in the fridge. I put it in the oven when the family came home. Good job, because all heck broke loose yesterday afternoon, I would not have had the stamina to set out and cook from scratch.
Some dinner times are more hectic than others. It pays to be prepared. We would have resorted to pizza or take out. I digress. The Mac and cheese was drier than I would have liked. Next time I would add sour cream or milk if I was making it ahead. When made it, there was cheese sauce on top after I mixed cheese sauce in. Sitting in the fridge must have dried it out some, I covered it with a silicone lid.
I also took the bread they didn't eat all of the other night and I made croutons. That saved a bundle. I didn't t throw away .60 worth of bread and I didn't buy croutons for upwards of two dollars.
I out the remaining slices from the potluck Tuesday on top of the Mac and cheese before I added the topping that I made from bread crusts that were drying in the food processor. It's the little things that add up. They make for better dinners for little money.
Cheap dinners dint have to be hamburger meal boxes. In fact, the cheese sauce mix in those boxes is about the most expensive cheese on the store. I would rather savor a piece of extra sharp white cheese or some good parm than a reconstituted cheese sauce made from the stiff my grandmother used to sell to the farmers to slop the hogs! -- and I would have money to spare. I would have to go back to look, but if my memory serves, it was about 13 dollars a pound.
There are a few things, in my opinion, that aren't a bargain at any price: hamburger meal boxes and a certain brand of chicken . Think nutrition for your money, and cleanliness.
With some effort, a change of attitude, and thinking your our chases, you can eat well on a limited budget.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Pinterest of full of new recipes and ideas. Reader beware, there are some things that might look like scams, but plenty of inspiration there. Sometimes that's all one need to combat their lazy butt even if we have good excuses-- the dog ate the vacuum. LOL.
I have several u-tubers that I watch. They give me motivation to try new things and organize the house better. There are days when I just need a push to keep on Going. You wonder if life is worth the fight! Whatever works.
She's on her apron is a young mother of four that does grocery hauls ( not inexpensive ones ) , organizational ones, and motivational ones. She fights anxiety, and shows you can function well coping, She u- tubes and sells cleaning products as well as taking care if a household of six with children in school and church activities.
The Kneady homesteader is a gal with I think 4 children and two of them live with she and her husband. She is making the switch from boxed foods to scratch and does Kroger and SAMs club hauls.
I made the cream soup base yesterday and made mac and cheese from scratch. I made it early and put it in the fridge. I put it in the oven when the family came home. Good job, because all heck broke loose yesterday afternoon, I would not have had the stamina to set out and cook from scratch.
Some dinner times are more hectic than others. It pays to be prepared. We would have resorted to pizza or take out. I digress. The Mac and cheese was drier than I would have liked. Next time I would add sour cream or milk if I was making it ahead. When made it, there was cheese sauce on top after I mixed cheese sauce in. Sitting in the fridge must have dried it out some, I covered it with a silicone lid.
I also took the bread they didn't eat all of the other night and I made croutons. That saved a bundle. I didn't t throw away .60 worth of bread and I didn't buy croutons for upwards of two dollars.
I out the remaining slices from the potluck Tuesday on top of the Mac and cheese before I added the topping that I made from bread crusts that were drying in the food processor. It's the little things that add up. They make for better dinners for little money.
Cheap dinners dint have to be hamburger meal boxes. In fact, the cheese sauce mix in those boxes is about the most expensive cheese on the store. I would rather savor a piece of extra sharp white cheese or some good parm than a reconstituted cheese sauce made from the stiff my grandmother used to sell to the farmers to slop the hogs! -- and I would have money to spare. I would have to go back to look, but if my memory serves, it was about 13 dollars a pound.
There are a few things, in my opinion, that aren't a bargain at any price: hamburger meal boxes and a certain brand of chicken . Think nutrition for your money, and cleanliness.
With some effort, a change of attitude, and thinking your our chases, you can eat well on a limited budget.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Cream sauce mix.
Cream of xxx soup is expensive and has ingredients you can't pronounce. An easy alternative can be found on the Internet.
Soup base for small family. This has to be kept cold, like on a fridge or freezer. Since, I have a very small family, freezer, and fridge I cut the recipe down to a manageable size. It had flour, milk and butter, basicly a white Sauce.
I have made a white sauce mix from taste of home before. It uses milk, a dried stock, and cornstarch. Some people do not like the idea of cornstarch. This version, however is low in fat because of the dry milk, and low in sodium because you use low sodium stock. Just add water. !
It would be interesting to calculate how much fat is in a recipe ( equate lent to 1 can) vs the actual can. I did the math. The can has considerably less fat, but more preservatives. Taste of home is less fat, but corn starch. The fat version isn't much cheaper than getting the canned soup on sale at thanksgiving time. I paid .39.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Alberways .....
QFC has no ad this week, last week was a two week ad.
Winco had some good buys yesterday, -- eggs and whole pork loin especially.
Alberways
Buy 5 : save 5
Pills bury cake or brownie mix .89
Folders coffee 5.99
Frozen veggies .99
Milk 2.99@@
Hot dog, hamburger buns .88@@. CK Winco first
Strawberries 2lbs 2.99 - today's looked really good
Yoplait 10/4
Mayonaise 2.88@@
Friday, Saturday Sunday specials
Tomatoes 1.00 lb
Rinaidi pasta sauce, Barilla pronto or reg pasta 5/5
I could not match coupons with any of Safeways 5/5 sale. I did for QFC, that I believe is still running, I did not save last weeks ad.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Winco had some good buys yesterday, -- eggs and whole pork loin especially.
Alberways
Buy 5 : save 5
Pills bury cake or brownie mix .89
Folders coffee 5.99
Frozen veggies .99
Milk 2.99@@
Hot dog, hamburger buns .88@@. CK Winco first
Strawberries 2lbs 2.99 - today's looked really good
Yoplait 10/4
Mayonaise 2.88@@
Friday, Saturday Sunday specials
Tomatoes 1.00 lb
Rinaidi pasta sauce, Barilla pronto or reg pasta 5/5
I could not match coupons with any of Safeways 5/5 sale. I did for QFC, that I believe is still running, I did not save last weeks ad.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Extreme couponing.....Alberways,
Armed with the just 4 U loaded on my card, we went to Safeways and dollar tree .
Safeways spent 33.01
I used 5.00 off basket coupon , five dollars off of five savings. Their calculations were 44 percent savings.
I got
10 yoplait yogurt for 4.00. - reg price 6.00
Large salsa 4.79. Reg 4.99
Folders coffee - 5.99- reg 10.49
2 yellow cake mix 1.98 Reg 3.98
1 protein veggies 1.98. Reg 6.28
2 grated cheese -8 ounces 2.50 reg 5.58
1-2 percent milk 1.99 reg 2.99
Strawberries 2.99 retail 5.99
Total 46.30 retail
Total spent 26.22
Total 26.22 less 5.00 is 21.22 or 25.08 savings
Savings 54 percent.
Added treats
Donuts 5.00
Chicken nuggets 6.99 should have been 1.00 off on just 4 you
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Safeways spent 33.01
I used 5.00 off basket coupon , five dollars off of five savings. Their calculations were 44 percent savings.
I got
10 yoplait yogurt for 4.00. - reg price 6.00
Large salsa 4.79. Reg 4.99
Folders coffee - 5.99- reg 10.49
2 yellow cake mix 1.98 Reg 3.98
1 protein veggies 1.98. Reg 6.28
2 grated cheese -8 ounces 2.50 reg 5.58
1-2 percent milk 1.99 reg 2.99
Strawberries 2.99 retail 5.99
Total 46.30 retail
Total spent 26.22
Total 26.22 less 5.00 is 21.22 or 25.08 savings
Savings 54 percent.
Added treats
Donuts 5.00
Chicken nuggets 6.99 should have been 1.00 off on just 4 you
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Kitchen management
When we were in school , home Ec was a required subject. Now, I am hearing that it is not. There used to be an extension service where you could call and find out answers to food related questions.
Now, we have the Internet.
There is a whole generation of people that have grown up in generational welfare homes, where if their mothers didn't know how to make end meet and still have nutritious food, and they don't know either. It's not just a low income issue: many working mothers took to prepackaged food and fast food to bridge the gap and make their time count. There are only so many hours on a day and this is especially true of single parents.
Enter kitchen management and efficient cooking. I did our kitchen management today and thought I would take you on for the ride with bullet points.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Now, we have the Internet.
There is a whole generation of people that have grown up in generational welfare homes, where if their mothers didn't know how to make end meet and still have nutritious food, and they don't know either. It's not just a low income issue: many working mothers took to prepackaged food and fast food to bridge the gap and make their time count. There are only so many hours on a day and this is especially true of single parents.
Enter kitchen management and efficient cooking. I did our kitchen management today and thought I would take you on for the ride with bullet points.
- First, I did the dishes and opened up a clean sink, counters and drainer.
- I have already cooked the hamburger and sausage I got on sale after I came home from the store. It can be cooking while you are putting away the food. Start it on low on the biggest pan you have or put it on high in a slow cooker.
- I took everything out of the fridge and washed the shelves, and arranged like things together on the condiment, shelf. Mayo, pickles, whip cream cans and anything else that needs to be on a tall shelf. The soy sauce gets its place.
- We have an abundance of eggs since I got them for .79 at Alberways. I placed the oldest in a muffin tin and baked them for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
- While they were baking, I started in the vegetable bin and the green boxes of fruit.
- I fixed a bowl of vinegar water and dumped the radishes, carrots,potatoes , and cauliflower we are going to have oven roasted for dinner tonight.
- I cut up the strawberries that were still good. Seems strawberries are at the end of the season and have to be eaten the day you buy them. I placed the strawberries in a saucepan and cooked them a little, extracting some juice, drained them , catching the juice into a bowl. Poured the juice back into the pan and thickened it with a cornstarch slurry.
- While the strawberries were cooking, I washed the veggies with my specified ladybug brush and trimmed and cut them for dinner and put them in quart deli cartons .
- I took mental inventory of the bakery basket and decided we could have strawberries on the angel food cake that was left for dinner. We still have cookies and odd and ends, so I will put off baking until tomorrow.
- By this time, the eggs were done, and oiplaced them in an ice bath in the sink. After they cooked, I ate one for breakfast and placed the others in a quart deli carton in the fridge.
- I washed the plastics from cleaning out the fridge and I was done.
- Total time, less than an hour. When the children were babies, I used nap time to get these things done. One summer, I hired a sixth grader to be a mothers helper and play with the children so I could do things like clean the oven and paint etc. she got money, and her working mother didn't have to lay for daycare the child wouldn't have wanted to go to. Win-win situation. When my daughter was that age I paid for her to be an aid at a preschool. She would up getting four years of college and two degrees to be a preschool teacher with special Ed training.
Basically. We are prepped for dinner and beyond. Dinners will be easy to cook and take little time when it's the hectic dinner time.
I took a quick break and went through a dozen inserts my friend gave me and pulled two coupons worth their weight in gold......puffs tissue I can find at the dollar tree, and blue bunny ice cream.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Monday, August 1, 2016
Nutrition, healthy foods
Nutrition and healthy eating are frequent buzz words these days. They mean different things to different people. One lady I saw , said that nutrition wise, organic is not different than regular. No, in some cases, organic is less nutritious than regular. Before people get all up in arms, organic probably has its virtues, but it's not beneficial to a bare bones, four dollar a day budget. Putting things in perspective, we spend less for breakfast, lunch, and dinner a day than a lot of people spend on their morning coffee at the big bucks place. A lot of organic is at least three times the price of regular.
The three things that are the the enemies of healthy foods are
1) fat- trans fat and hydrogenated oils--margarine,fake butter, fatty meats, hydrogenated oils that are on everything from refried beans to peanut butter and salad dressing. Only safflower, canola, amd olive oil are not hydrogenated. Olive oil boosts your good cholesterol.
2) sugar. Sugar is an enemy of your oral health, as well as the rest of your body. Avoid excess sugar especially fruit juices and pop. Refined sugar especially.
It,motor is hiding in all kinds of prepared food.
3) salt. Salt is another thing that creeps into our diets in pre made foods. Some people salt their foods before they even taste them. Many things can be cooked with herbs instead of salt. It's not good for your heart health.
It is realitively easy to reduce the amount of salt, sugar, and fat in your menus. Just sharing the mantra that you aren't going to buy anything that has little food value. That leaves out pop and potato chips and other things too numerous to mention. Making your own deserts and trying to eat more fruits instead of cakes etc helps too.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
The three things that are the the enemies of healthy foods are
1) fat- trans fat and hydrogenated oils--margarine,fake butter, fatty meats, hydrogenated oils that are on everything from refried beans to peanut butter and salad dressing. Only safflower, canola, amd olive oil are not hydrogenated. Olive oil boosts your good cholesterol.
2) sugar. Sugar is an enemy of your oral health, as well as the rest of your body. Avoid excess sugar especially fruit juices and pop. Refined sugar especially.
It,motor is hiding in all kinds of prepared food.
3) salt. Salt is another thing that creeps into our diets in pre made foods. Some people salt their foods before they even taste them. Many things can be cooked with herbs instead of salt. It's not good for your heart health.
It is realitively easy to reduce the amount of salt, sugar, and fat in your menus. Just sharing the mantra that you aren't going to buy anything that has little food value. That leaves out pop and potato chips and other things too numerous to mention. Making your own deserts and trying to eat more fruits instead of cakes etc helps too.
- If it doesn't have food value ( good nutrients ) , don't buy it.
- If it's full price, and you don't have to buy it, don't. Chocolate and ice cream are not must haves.....darn it! Use coupons and stack when possible.
- If veggies aren't in season and less than a dollar, don't buy it. We don't eat much asparagus, but do eat fresh green beans.
- A ready made anything needs to be cheaper than scratch, good tasting,and the alternative scratch recipe needs to be easy and not take all day. I found a recipe to make non-fried refried beans easy....low carb tortillas....not so much!
- If it isn't a RBP, think twice before putting something in your cart. Studies show that of you pick something up, you are more likely to put it in your cart.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Where is this going?
My stats are the lowest they have ever been. I think this is,not going to google. If you are seeing this on Google, please comment,
18 ounces of blueberries 2.49
Tomatoes .99
Butter 2/5@@
Krigermicemcream 1.99@@
Folders coffee 5.99@@@
DiGiorno pizza 4.99
Fahd Greek yogurt ,88
Pears .99
Heritage farm chicken is Tyson. Just a FYI.
The paper has the p amd grams a smart source.
2.00 off of tide. Tide is a dollar off on the B5,S5 T QFC. That makes three dollars off.
.25 coupon off puffs, it's at the dollar tree.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Yesterday, I got up early and started getting things done. Of you make a list of,things to do you are more likely to get s lot more done. I also watch a couple of people videos every morning that they post. I get new ideas and motivation to get up and going. It's so easy to say your butt hurts and sit the morning, Mind you, I am doing things sitting.....working in my studio, writing blogs, meal plans, grocery lists, learning how to cook more from scratch and lower our food bill more. I do more than the average person on food tracking because of the blog. But, that is not gardening or deep cleaning.
You can eat well on the amount of snap. It takes some effort and organization. Once you are set up, it's really,easier than the old way and you eat better for less.
Think about this. If you have more to spend, and you work at using a coupon or two, or learning a new way to scratch cook something, saving three to six thousand dollars a year could mean a nice vacation, more in the retirement account, savings for a house or condo........the kids or grand kids college fund.....
I digress ....
I find motivation seeing what others have accomplished.
Today, I want to pull some weeds in the vegetable garden that hasn't been planted since the year I broke my hip. I did the beds aroimd the perimeter of the house , but the middle garden has grass taller than my granddaughter was at two. LOL.
We are having speghetti and meatballs, the meatballs are already cooked ( love batch cooking ) amd all i have to do is cook the pasta ( pronto ) and add sauce. I'll make a green salad and get granddaughter with supervision, to do the French bread. It's her favorite meal. Amd she loves to help in the kitchen. I am doing double duty, she gets the bread fixed, amd I am watching her and teaching her how to make French bread. Prepping anyway. I butter it, sprinkle dried parsley and some parmesean cheese on it and bake it until the cheese and butter melts. Yum!
Total cost (more because the bread is purchased - somehow yesterday, scratch wasn't going to happen.) is 1.39 /2 bread , 1.00 for meatballs. .25 for pronto pasta with coupon, amd .75 for sauce. 1.00 for a small green salad. 3.70 for dinner.
That's a decent dinner in my estimation. It's all in the shopping, Dinner will take about fifteen minutes non-passive time- maybe a little more since granddaughter is making the bread ( she's 4yo)
The trick is to spend less time in the kitchen, assuming you have a limited time and a busy life) and more time planning your shopping trip and shopping, I still can get in and out of a store in twenty minutes flat, and hit two stores , planning the trip as to not waste gas. I sound loke a broken record, but mastering the planning is ambit key on saving a lot of dollars. Three thousand dollars times ten years is thirty thousand dollars. In anyone's estimation, that's a lot of bucks. And, we don't eat rice and beans every day.
Our neighbour grows all their vegetables. She shared green beans and a couple of yellow squash
with us. We can have fish packets instead of fish and chips and I will add squash to the oven roasted vegetables. Being flexible helps too -- and having generous neighbors.
Winco ,yesterday , had cantaloupe for .38 a pound. Peaches were .98. I didn't see any meat worthy of rotation status. My best bet would be the sausage at QFC with coupons ( stacking ) .
To those naysayers about them having more important things to do than clip coupons. Here's something that might make a believer of you. My sister has a HD washer. It takes expensive soap. Oxy clean HD detergent has three dollar coupons. By planning her trip to cost forty dollars at QFC, and the five for five sale, and a three dollar coupon , the 6.00 detergent was 1.10 .
6.00 detergent.
-1.00 five for five
-3.00 for manufacturers coupon
- 25% off blanket coupon ( use blanket coupon first amd stick to a forty dollar grocery cart. My hubby used a calculater while I shopped) 25 percent of six dollars is .90.
Balance 1.10
That's extreme couponing.
The Ad...this is early.
18 ounces of blueberries 2.49
Tomatoes .99
Butter 2/5@@
Krigermicemcream 1.99@@
Folders coffee 5.99@@@
DiGiorno pizza 4.99
Fahd Greek yogurt ,88
Pears .99
Heritage farm chicken is Tyson. Just a FYI.
The paper has the p amd grams a smart source.
2.00 off of tide. Tide is a dollar off on the B5,S5 T QFC. That makes three dollars off.
.25 coupon off puffs, it's at the dollar tree.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Sunday , July 31, 2016
In all that we do, there is good and there is bad. We are very well stocked and recovered from the freezer meltdown. The good thing is that the pantry so full and I can meal plan from my stock. The bad thing is that we are over budget. No surprise, you can't restock a freezer in one month without spending over budget. It just means that I need to spend less for the next two months to maintain a quarterly figure. No problem.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Meal planning is a necessary part of groceries on the cheap. It can be formal on computer generated sheet, ormyoumcwn wrote it on the back of an envelope from the recycle bin. Either way, it'll work.
Some people make rotating meal plans so that things are canned and they don't have to reinvent the wheel every week. Their meals and grocery list is "in the bag" . The only problem I see with that is sales and availability of inexpensive, in season fruit and veggies change.
Using a matrix that is protein based or theme based works well and is flexible.
Because a meal is scheduled for a particular day, doesn't mean you have to eat it that day.
When you fail to plan, you plan to fail!
Ok, meal plans for next week.....
1 beef
1 fish or seafood
3 chicken or pork
2 vegetarian
Equals 7 meals, with varied protein.
- I just bought 4 pounds of sausage and cooked and defatted it ( jimmy Dean bulk) .ot made sense because I had coupons and a blanket coupon that made it less than the RBP at Costco. I had to buy four instead of the three pound chub at Costco because of how the coupons worked.
- I also bought three pounds of 7 percent hamburger. I fried and defatted both at the same time, I did use separate colandes and pans.
- I have blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, bananas, apples. And a few strawberries.
- I have lettuce, tomato. Cucumbers and frozen red peppers.
- I always have and celery and carrots.
My rotation protein this week was sausage and hamburger. I am not finding a big bargain in anything else. Just because they advertise a meat, doesn't mean it's a bargain. A few weeks ago they did have split chicken breast for around a dollar. I stocked then. I can cook chicken breast from frizen in the pressure cooker. Betty Crocker on line has numerous cooked chicken recipes or recipes that can be adapted. I have been getting alfredo sauce in jars for less than a dollar.
My husband went to the tree while I shopped Safeways to save time. He couponed big time. Pepperoni was .50- the same pepperoni that is upwards of two dollars anywhere else. Puffs tissue was .75.
Deodorant was free and he added a sleeve of potato chips that are usually 1.24 at Winco.
1) spaghetti and meatballs , lettuce salad
2) fish n chips , cucumber and tomato salad
3) Mac n cheese, peas and carrots
4) breakfast 4 dinner : waffles. Bacon. Fruit compote.
5) pasta Alfredo with peas
6) pasta salad ( potluck) with chicken
7) BBQ thighs , oven roasted veggies, fruit.
That's about it. Please share .
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Fred Meyers ad. For tomorrow
The Ad...this is early.
18 ounces of blueberries 2.49
Tomatoes .99
Butter 2/5@@
Krigermicemcream 1.99@@
Folders coffee 5.99@@@
DiGiorno pizza 4.99
Fahd Greek yogurt ,88
Pears .99
Heritage farm chicken is Tyson. Just a FYI.
The paper has the p amd grams a smart source.
2.00 off of tide. Tide is a dollar off on the B5,S5 T QFC. That makes three dollars off.
.25 coupon off puffs, it's at the dollar tree.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
18 ounces of blueberries 2.49
Tomatoes .99
Butter 2/5@@
Krigermicemcream 1.99@@
Folders coffee 5.99@@@
DiGiorno pizza 4.99
Fahd Greek yogurt ,88
Pears .99
Heritage farm chicken is Tyson. Just a FYI.
The paper has the p amd grams a smart source.
2.00 off of tide. Tide is a dollar off on the B5,S5 T QFC. That makes three dollars off.
.25 coupon off puffs, it's at the dollar tree.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspectives.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Friday, July 29, 2016
Freaky Friday
I don't know what is freaky about it, but I have to call this something. They make me give this thing a title.
I am so wondering if anyone out there is reading this and if I am helping just one person, or am I just wasting time.
Yesterday, I went to Safeways and QFC. Finally, with a ten dollar off coupon, I was able to get some real discounts. Safeway has a buy ten sale, but there wasn't anything we needed on it. I did that a few months back. The pantry is full. We would be good for quite a few months. They did have whipped yoplait...yum! Anything chocolate can't be bad, right. And I had a coupon. And eggs are .79 plus there is a .25 Ibotta. That makes a dozen eggs .54. I would have to say that breakfast for dinner just got as cheap as it could be. LOL.
I also got 7 percent hamburger for about 4.00 a pound, I took it home and cooked and defatted it at the same time that I cooked and defatted the sausage I got for two dollars a pound. I bagged the beef in portion controlled bags and then in a gallon bag. I bagged the sausage in a gallon bag. We usually use sausage as a flavor enhancer and I can just bang the bag in the counter and pour out what I need. Sausage quiche is a good and cheap dinner with a mixed greens salad with fruit.
There are many good recipes for dinners that cost less than five dollars for the proverbial family of
four. I saw a lady profess that a quesadilla was dinner for her family of seven and she could make them for five dollars. My idea of dinner is a bit more balanced than a quesadilla. Feeding a teen boy on four dollars a day becomes more challenging. They would forge themselves of they were let to do that. My answer would be to offer the RDA of the foods they need, encourage them to eat vegetables and the things they need to be healthy. And, buy inexpensive "fillers". When my son was a teen with a hollow leg, he loved burritos. I kept a handful of items that the children could eat as much as they wanted of in the pantry/ freezer. They were "free foods". That is to say, they weren't part of a meal I had planned. Beef and bean burritos, PBand and J, top ramen. Vegetable sticks. Popcorn- air popped.
I don't want any child to go hungry, but it is inappropriate for them to eat everyone's share of dinner.
I had heard and have heard since I started this blog of horror stories of children eating top ramen and potato chips for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Of children eating corn and watermelon for Sunday dinner. Or how about hamburger helper, 16 carb juice drink and 16 carb fruit cups and then have nothing in the house for dinner at the end of the month.
I write this blog to teach people how to have food left at the end of the month and still eat well balanced meals . A lot of people get something else out of the blog-- where to find a good deal on their food, a recipe, how to cook more efficiently. That's more important when the kitchen is hot on the summer. We don't have air conditioning a lot in the PNW because the really hot daycare few and far between.
Food prices have gone up dramatically. I suspect it just isn't because we have a monopoly of two major companies holding the strings. We have Kroger and Albertsons owning fair if the grocery chains here. We also have Winco, grocery outlet, and Costco and SAMs club.
The prices were really crazy before we got Winco to mix things up. My grocery bill went down ten percent when we got Winco. My guess is that part of it was Winco's low prices on a lot of things and the fact that because of them, Fred Meyer has lowered some of their prices.
The only way you can beat the grocery stores at their own game is to shop at more than one store. This gives you the advantage of both stores sales, and the freedom of picking the best produce.
Yesterday, strawberries were 1.50 a box at QFC. It's the end of the season, and they looked terrible. Some of them had hair prettier than mine. At best, you could have made jelly. My idea was to dehydrate them, it wasn't going to work. The raspberries were more expensive, but looked a lot
better.
By carefully planning and being able to punt when things don't go as planned, I could benefit by a actual 58 percent discount. I say actual, because of a price is already inflated, a discount isn't really a discount. That's where knowing the prices of the things you buy in a regular basis is soo important.
My mother used to say 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. Bit also, some people would buy 100 bottles of hot sauce because it was a bargain. Don't be that person either.
No food will do your family any good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.
I ran on to something I wrote several years ago on this method of shopping. --I, not going to say that there isn't any work involved here. I'm going to tell you that food will magically appear on your cupboard and some little fairy will have dinner in the table every night at six o'clock. It takes some work, once you are set up and get the concept, it probably takes the same time as you spent before. You are just redirecting your work load. The payoff is better meals for less money. The average family can save three to six thousand dollars a year. That's a chunk of change.
Shop wisely, shop in bulk when it makes sense. Buy a controlled pantry. Fifteen cans of hot sauce doesn't make sense, fifteen cans of diced tomatoes when you use at least two cans a week, mares more sense. Buy enough to last you until it goes on sale again- or keep a stock that will last you a set number of months, It's a good idea to have enough canned or dried foods to last you a couple of weeks in case of a disaster. I keep a larger supply than a lot of people. Ot is because I am getting at least fifty percent on my investment. No bank is going to give me fifty percent interest. No investment that isn't risked is going to give me fifty percent return on my money. Seniors have a Medicare donut hole- a time when they have reached a dollar amount that is allowed for medication, then they have to pay for the medication themselves. One of my meds cost upward of five hundred
dollars a month. I need it to stay alive. If I can stock enough when Medicare pays the biggest share of the meds, we can eat off the pantry when we are paying the lions share.
I am down to 20 cans of tomatoes. I can tell because I lit all the same item in the same place in the pantry. I'm not comfortable with that. We are eating down some of the beans. I have discovered that I can cook beans on the pressure cooker and I can cook as few as a cup. I will still keep a supply of canned beans, it's not a,ways convenient to cook scratch, and in an emergency, the ability to cook may not be available. - It's cheaper and we don't throw a lot away. Beans and rice have a very short fridge life. No amount of money is worth risking your family's health. When in doubt, throw it out. Food illness is no joke. Cook your meat well, disinfect the counters and anything you touch with raw meat and flour. Don't eat raw meat or batter made with flour - or any non cooked food.
Stay safe.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspective.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
I am so wondering if anyone out there is reading this and if I am helping just one person, or am I just wasting time.
Yesterday, I went to Safeways and QFC. Finally, with a ten dollar off coupon, I was able to get some real discounts. Safeway has a buy ten sale, but there wasn't anything we needed on it. I did that a few months back. The pantry is full. We would be good for quite a few months. They did have whipped yoplait...yum! Anything chocolate can't be bad, right. And I had a coupon. And eggs are .79 plus there is a .25 Ibotta. That makes a dozen eggs .54. I would have to say that breakfast for dinner just got as cheap as it could be. LOL.
I also got 7 percent hamburger for about 4.00 a pound, I took it home and cooked and defatted it at the same time that I cooked and defatted the sausage I got for two dollars a pound. I bagged the beef in portion controlled bags and then in a gallon bag. I bagged the sausage in a gallon bag. We usually use sausage as a flavor enhancer and I can just bang the bag in the counter and pour out what I need. Sausage quiche is a good and cheap dinner with a mixed greens salad with fruit.
There are many good recipes for dinners that cost less than five dollars for the proverbial family of
four. I saw a lady profess that a quesadilla was dinner for her family of seven and she could make them for five dollars. My idea of dinner is a bit more balanced than a quesadilla. Feeding a teen boy on four dollars a day becomes more challenging. They would forge themselves of they were let to do that. My answer would be to offer the RDA of the foods they need, encourage them to eat vegetables and the things they need to be healthy. And, buy inexpensive "fillers". When my son was a teen with a hollow leg, he loved burritos. I kept a handful of items that the children could eat as much as they wanted of in the pantry/ freezer. They were "free foods". That is to say, they weren't part of a meal I had planned. Beef and bean burritos, PBand and J, top ramen. Vegetable sticks. Popcorn- air popped.
I don't want any child to go hungry, but it is inappropriate for them to eat everyone's share of dinner.
I had heard and have heard since I started this blog of horror stories of children eating top ramen and potato chips for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Of children eating corn and watermelon for Sunday dinner. Or how about hamburger helper, 16 carb juice drink and 16 carb fruit cups and then have nothing in the house for dinner at the end of the month.
I write this blog to teach people how to have food left at the end of the month and still eat well balanced meals . A lot of people get something else out of the blog-- where to find a good deal on their food, a recipe, how to cook more efficiently. That's more important when the kitchen is hot on the summer. We don't have air conditioning a lot in the PNW because the really hot daycare few and far between.
Food prices have gone up dramatically. I suspect it just isn't because we have a monopoly of two major companies holding the strings. We have Kroger and Albertsons owning fair if the grocery chains here. We also have Winco, grocery outlet, and Costco and SAMs club.
The prices were really crazy before we got Winco to mix things up. My grocery bill went down ten percent when we got Winco. My guess is that part of it was Winco's low prices on a lot of things and the fact that because of them, Fred Meyer has lowered some of their prices.
The only way you can beat the grocery stores at their own game is to shop at more than one store. This gives you the advantage of both stores sales, and the freedom of picking the best produce.
Yesterday, strawberries were 1.50 a box at QFC. It's the end of the season, and they looked terrible. Some of them had hair prettier than mine. At best, you could have made jelly. My idea was to dehydrate them, it wasn't going to work. The raspberries were more expensive, but looked a lot
better.
By carefully planning and being able to punt when things don't go as planned, I could benefit by a actual 58 percent discount. I say actual, because of a price is already inflated, a discount isn't really a discount. That's where knowing the prices of the things you buy in a regular basis is soo important.
My mother used to say 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. Bit also, some people would buy 100 bottles of hot sauce because it was a bargain. Don't be that person either.
No food will do your family any good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.
I ran on to something I wrote several years ago on this method of shopping. --I, not going to say that there isn't any work involved here. I'm going to tell you that food will magically appear on your cupboard and some little fairy will have dinner in the table every night at six o'clock. It takes some work, once you are set up and get the concept, it probably takes the same time as you spent before. You are just redirecting your work load. The payoff is better meals for less money. The average family can save three to six thousand dollars a year. That's a chunk of change.
Shop wisely, shop in bulk when it makes sense. Buy a controlled pantry. Fifteen cans of hot sauce doesn't make sense, fifteen cans of diced tomatoes when you use at least two cans a week, mares more sense. Buy enough to last you until it goes on sale again- or keep a stock that will last you a set number of months, It's a good idea to have enough canned or dried foods to last you a couple of weeks in case of a disaster. I keep a larger supply than a lot of people. Ot is because I am getting at least fifty percent on my investment. No bank is going to give me fifty percent interest. No investment that isn't risked is going to give me fifty percent return on my money. Seniors have a Medicare donut hole- a time when they have reached a dollar amount that is allowed for medication, then they have to pay for the medication themselves. One of my meds cost upward of five hundred
dollars a month. I need it to stay alive. If I can stock enough when Medicare pays the biggest share of the meds, we can eat off the pantry when we are paying the lions share.
I am down to 20 cans of tomatoes. I can tell because I lit all the same item in the same place in the pantry. I'm not comfortable with that. We are eating down some of the beans. I have discovered that I can cook beans on the pressure cooker and I can cook as few as a cup. I will still keep a supply of canned beans, it's not a,ways convenient to cook scratch, and in an emergency, the ability to cook may not be available. - It's cheaper and we don't throw a lot away. Beans and rice have a very short fridge life. No amount of money is worth risking your family's health. When in doubt, throw it out. Food illness is no joke. Cook your meat well, disinfect the counters and anything you touch with raw meat and flour. Don't eat raw meat or batter made with flour - or any non cooked food.
Stay safe.
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspective.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Extreme couponing at QFC
the rest of the story
Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from a different perspective.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
QFC sent is a coupon for ten dollars off of forty.
We went. Coupon on hand actually in grandpas pocket along with a calculator. You get the most bang for your buck if you spend as close to forty dollars as possible. Use the dollars off basket coupon first.
I was armed with a list and the ad. As I found coupons to match, I gave them to grandpa to put on his short pocket.
58 percent savings
Blue bunny 1.00 off each with a dollar off manufacturers coupon plus the 25 percent off.
Corn at 2/1.00
Raspberries 2/5, the strawberries that were 2/3 were rotten, like gray hair rotten!
Jimmy Dean sausage was 2.99 used a .75 coupon on 2 and then got the 25 percent off. Made it less than Costco.
Corn tortillas were 2.99 minus a .55 coupon.
Angel food cake was 2.98 less the 25 percent
The following were 1.49 less the 25 percent :
Peanut butter, snack Oreos. Ice cream topping
Extra sharp cheese 1.49 - 8 ounces.
The water was only 8 cans for three dollars. Winco has 12 cans for three dollars at times.
Total spent 29.73
Savings 58 percent
That was actual savings, I didn't buy things that were over inflated to begin with. Of something is more than my target price and is one of my staple items, I don't buy it.
The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a weekly basis.
This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week.
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level.
You often are paying 1/2 price for your food. This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget. You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by cooking more efficiently.
Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap. My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.
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