QFC Haul

QFC has a buy 5, save 5.  As far as I can tell, its also at Kroger stores nationwide.  

We spent a total of 17,40.   That ads to my 8,57 from another day this week.

Five save five

Pasta sauce
Goldfish
Peanut butter
2 pasta

Fresh vegetables buy 15, save 5.

Tri color peppers
Vegetable medley :  broccoli cauliflower, carrots
Red potatoes
Oranges
Head lettuce ( recall on lef lettuce)
Green beans

In addition , the Christmas candy is 70 percent off.

Week total 51.52 budget 55.00

And that box costs WHAAT?

Dinner kits can be a bargain....or not.......

Most of the time dinner kits are not a bargain.   Convenience costs money......sometimes more than other times.    I bought a enchaladas kit from Grocery Outlet.   I did it because the kit was a dollar and it cost more than that for the enchaladas sauce .  That’s an exception to the rule.   Most times you are paying dearly for some cornstarch and seasoning.   

Years ago, my daughter and I tore apart a box of hamburger meal box.   The upshot of it was that there was about 4 ounces of macaroni and a ‘cheese sauce’ envelope that was 1.57 ounces and did not have an ounce of cheese in it.   At that rate , we figured you were paying 13.00 a pound for cheese sauce that didnt have any cheese in it.   It contained dried cheese whey.  The cost of the meal was over two dollars.   Pasta is a dollar a pound or less if you can get it on sale with a coupon ...right now, it is 2.00 for a pound of Barilla at safeways.   The bottom line was that at the time, what you got was a .22 bag of pasta and a envelope of less than two ounces of a sauce mix that had a butload of things we couldn’t pronounce.  It was 2.40 for about .25 worth of merchandise.   You still added meat and I think milk.   You can have better nutrition for less money.   

Next time you are tempted to buy a meal kit. Take a look at the ingredients and the weight.   With the invent of counter top appliances, scratch cooking  just got a whole lot faster.   Pasta cooks i the insta pot , unwatched, in two minutes.   The big thing is that you set it up, and walk away to make your sauce and a side dish and go back and release the pot and drain your pasta.   No watching a pot and  stirring.  

A pizza crust cost 2.00 I am told at central market.   Pizza crust cost .17 and about 5 minutes work.   

Our 5 yo granddaughter can fill a pizza.   

There are a lot of recipes out there that take minutes to put together and the cooking pretty much takes care of itself.  We all know how helpful the slow cookers are.   The price of slow cookers have gone down and the goodwill is full of them.   Besides a coffee pot if you drink coffee and a toaster, I would invest in a slow cooker and a bread maker if I was just starting out.   It’s minutes in the machine, and the rewards are remarkable.   Both can be had at thrift stores and estate sales for little money.    Of course, I am a insta pot enthusiast because dollar for dollar, it is one of the most efficient countertop appliances in your kitchen.   The insta pot and a food processer pay for themselves in savings with very little physical work.   

The difference between being able to buy food and have enough for the week with food left over and just barely having enough food or running out of money can be as simple as learning to cook basics from scratch.   

Safeway haul

2 egg at .98.   1.96

8 yogurt at .25.  2.00

2 Blueberry pudding ring bogo 3.99

Roma tomatoes .62

8.57 total

Chain store ads -

Chain store ads : Alberways.    

First: hamburger lesson :I feel that part of a balanced diet should include at least one serving of beef a week.   A good trick is to be demonstrated in the Alberways ad. 

Extra Lean ground beef 6.99

Lean ground beef 20 percent fat. 3.49

Sirloin tip roast 2.87

All of this comes from sirloin.   Back in the day, we had ground chuck, ground beef, and ground round.  Ground round was the best quality.   Then we went to percentage of fat.   Obviously, the less fat the better your nutrition .   A certain amount of fat is necessary for your body to function.   Your brain is made up of cholesterol.   But, too much fat, we all know , is not good for you especially trans fats.   

Its not hard to see from the prices that the sirloin roast is less than half the price of the best hamburger—almost 60 percent .     Honestly, it takes less than ten minutes to “grind” a 2-3 lb roast in the food processor.   Like about 20 seconds a batch.   Cut the meat into cubes.   I usually save some for stew or soup.  The rest can be ‘chopped’ in batches really fast.   The difference is remarkable and you control the fat.   If I want more fat for a meatloaf , I add ground pork from the scraps gleamed when I cut the pork loin.   

Sometimes a little bit of work can save a ton of money.  

Center cut pork chops are 1.87 a lb. If you got the .99 a lb pork loin from Kroger, you just saved .87 a lb.   Pork Loin is 1.99 this week. 

Lucerne yogurt 4/1 limit 8 

Eggs .99 ( coupon ) in ad 

Buns .78 (coupon) in ad 

Mushrooms 2/4 

Sour cream 1.25

QFC: kroger 

Oranges .88

Draper valley chicken - whole .99

Apples 1.49

 Buy 5, save 5 -net costs 

Classico pasta sauce .99

16 ounces jiff .99

Goldfish .99

Breyers  ice cream. 3.49 

The best of this is the Classico pasta sauce.  Meatballs were 1.50 a lb at qfc on sunday only with a electronic coupon.  Add pasta on sale with coupons and you have a very inexpensive meal.   Pasta can now be purchased with veggies or  double fiber an be more healthy.   Its a good way to get veggies into a non vegetable eater.   Double fiber is good  if you are watching your weight or diabetic.   Even with our a discounted speghetti, that is 3.50 for fourndinners and that leaves you a 1.50 fr a veggie and maybe even a desert.   

Pasta sauce is one thing that is cheaper than scratch.   By the time you buy enough tomato product for a whole can of sauce, you might break even, but most of the time the ready made is a better buy.   

Time is something you can  never  get back.  Save your cooking time for cooking/ prepping  things  that make you  money and you will be better off in the long haul.   

Teaching children to cook .....

Theere is an old adage from the Native  Americans that basically says, if you give a guy a fish, he eats for a day.  If you teach a guy to fish, they eat for a lifetime.   Not the exact words, but the message is there.   

That’s the basis of this blog.   I want to teach people how to shop so they can eat well on little money.  We all give to the food bank, and there is a serious need for the food bank.  But there are still people that have some money that can benefit from knowing how to s t r e t c h their dollars.   

I digress.   My granddaughter has demonstrated a great 👍 interest in learning to cook.   She is five and has been helping in the kitchen for several years.   Her mother is not as culinary minded as her daughter.    I figure if they ever move further away than they are now, someone will have to cook.   LOL 

Granddaughter started with. Pizza.   She is really good at putting a pizza together.   I basicly , now have to make the dough and gather the ingredients.   I was shocked when she decided that the gluten in the pizza dough would behave better if she was using the ball pin rolling pin instead of the french one (smaller) that I gave her.   I didnt know she knew we had the larger rolling pin.   

Granddaughter got a baby waffle iron for Christmas. It came with its own cookbook.   We made waffle batter and she made her own waffles.   

We: 

• Retrieved the tray from the family room. 
• Put measuring cups on the tray. 
• Gathered the ingredients .  Talking about leveling off ingredients placed in the measuring cups and spoons.  Which spoons were Tablespoons and which were teaspoons.  The smallest is 1/4 of a teaspoon. 
• We talked about putting the dry ingredients in the bowl first.  And stirring it so the salt and baking powder is all mixed with the flour.  
• We talked about cracking eggs, making sure there were no egg shells in the cup.  Breaking the yolks and stirring them into the whites. 
• We talked about making a well and dumping the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and not over-beating so the batter wouldn’t be tough.  
• My rules for children is no sharp, no raw meat, and no hot.   
• So, we had a serious discussion about what part (the handle) to touch and what not to touch .  HOT was one of her first words.   She gets it.    LOL 😂 
• She used a silicone spatula to remove the waffles.   

I was surprised that she maticulously poured her 1/4 cup of batter over the entire surface of the waffle iron.   

Children can do little things in the kitchen at a young age.  There is a u tube family of 7 children that I follow.   All except the one year old, do things in the kitchen.   The oldest, about 14 now can make full meals and things I am just now learning to cook.   I dont expect granddaughter to remember everything we talked about, but repetition will take care of that.   

My mother hated to bake.  We learned to bake.   We didn't learn to make meals, I suspect because she didnt want to waste food if we messed up.    I was also slower than a ten year itch and we would have been eating dinner at midnight.   LOL.  

They dont have home ec in schools like they did when we were going to school.   Someone has to teach children how to cook.  Its a basic necessity of life.   I have the opinion that children need to learn that food doesn’t come out of a box.  Scratch is healthier and less money.   A win -win situation.   

New Years kitchen management

Scratch cooking is a good tool to reduce the cost of your food.   You will be more likely to b motivated to cook from scratch if it isn’t a pain in the neck to do it.   A kitchen that isn’t organized and that you a to unearth your appliances and hunt for ingredients is just calling the food kit and take out demons.   LOL.   

A few organizational hours can save many hours the rest of the year.  If necessary, take a section of the kitachen at a time.   Stand in the middle of the kitchen and picture yourself making the thing you make most.   Coffee?   Sometimes the first thing you make in the morning?   Where’s the coffee pot.   Near the sink?   The first thing you do to make coffee is to fill a receptacle with water.   Where’s the coffee?  The mugs?   A small coffee bar or section of the counter delighted to coffee and tea is a good start.   

Grouping your supplies into categories in the cupboards, is another good start: 

• Baking supplies with the baking implements:   Cupcake liners, measuring spoons and cups, piping bags, thermometers, cake testing wire......baking pans in a cupboard together.   
• Ah...the minimalist....its my opinion that if the appliances that you use on a regular basis are sitting out, you will probably use them more often.   The thought of carrying a kitchen aid mixer from a pantry to the countertop is enough for me to skip the project.   I think that is one reason why I like the insta pot.  It takes one footprint and does several jobs.   Right now, I have simplified to a coffee pot, hot water pot,   Single use coffee pot (daughter) , hot afar fryer, insta pot an kitchen aid mixer, food processer and blender.   All tools I use on a regular basis.   
• Utensils in a crock makes it easy to grab and use instead of hunting in a drawer.   Make things easy on yourself.   Have more than one pancake turner if you use more than one at a time.   Washing a inexpensve tool between uses in the same cooking time is countr productive.  You disrupt your flow.   
• Place things where you use them.   Unloading the dishwasher (or drai Er ) pick all of one thing and stack them.   Then you are putting everything away with one step, not six or seven.   You are opening the cupboard once. Dump the silverware basket on the counter.   Now, picking up all the knives are easy, and you are saving steps.   
• Zone the kitchen. Even a tiny kitchen can have zones.   If  like things are in the same place it saves a lot of steps.    Coffee, baking. Pots near the stove or sink.   Small kitchen, use every available space...walls can hold racks, ceilings can hold racks.   

Organizing your kitchen can save time and money.   

Fred Meyers Haul - qfc

Fred Meyer Haul and qfc special purchase

QFC:   2 pg meatballs at 1.50 a lb

Fred Meyers

Gala apples
2 Snap peas. Dry
Grape tomatoes
Turkey lunch meat 3.29. (1/2 price)
Cucumber
3 Classico pasta sauce
Hebrew national franks
2 lean cuisine

Total cost 25.55



                                                

Fred Meyer ad

Fred Meyers ad for today.  

SATURDAY ONLY, JAN 6TH
CHEESE .99 - 8 OUNCES

Use digital coupon, you can buy up to five.   You do not have to buy more food with this one.  

5 lb clementines 4.49
FF chicken breast 1.77
Lean cuisine entrees 2/3

Honeycrisp apples 1.47
Mission tortilla chips and tortillas 1.88
Oranges .99 lb
Pears .99
4 avocados 2.99
Grape tomatoes 1.99



Buy 5, save 5
Sometimes you can clean up using coupons in addition to the sale.   Its a good time to stock up if the prices are right.  

Kraft boxed mac and cheese .49 (not something I buy, but it is a good price.  The only inference in nutrition between Annies and Kraft is the fat content....annie’s Has more.  

Tide 4.99 :    Coupon at brandSAVER.com

Goldfish .99

Jiff Peanut butter or Smucker jelly 1.99

Classico pasta sauce .99 (1/2 Price ).

Kellogg’s cereal 1.49 - you can usually find coupons.  


Point of reference:  the reason why buying on rotation makes more sense than buying just what you you need any given week.   20 percent fat hamburger is 3.49 a lb.   by taking a few moments to process your own when really lean meat is on sale, I paid 2.40 a lb and got less fat....a lot less.

End of the year wrap up.

The USDA stats for ‘Thrifty” aka poor people for our family (November 2017) is 122.15.   Our actual expense this year was an average of 55.05 a month.   That included building a stock of emergency food :  the USDA stats are actual food eaten at home.  

That’s less than 1/2 price.   -about 45 percent of the USDA stats.  
Last years figures were 72 dollars a week.   The difference is that we started making some of our own bread and the insta pot and its efficent way of cooking rice and beans from scratch.   The difference between ready made rice or instant rice and canned beans is remarkable.   The savings are about 90 percent on bread, rice, and beans.   All basics staples.  

No, people, we do not eat a steady diet of rice and beans.   We do eat proper amounts of protein.  Beans are a good source of protein and can augment meat to boost nutrition,   Soup is another good, comforting meal that stretches the dollar and makes for a satisfying meal.   Add homemade bread and you can feed a family of four for well under five dollars.  

Pantry challenges are a fun way to use up something that is close to the pull date.   I have two cans of beans and a can of mandarin oranges to use up that have December 2017 pull dates.   This could be fun anyone have any ideas?  

I won’t say that getting your food 1/2 price is due to non existent effort.   It, like anything worthwhile, takes some planning and some education.   But, the rewards can be remarkable.   You are probably going to eat better (less presrataives, fat, sugar, salt, hydroginated oils, HFCS) , eat a more healthy amount of food, and enjoy a few extra dollars in the budget, or at least reduce the stress of not having enough for other necessities.  

We make up some of the time (probably an additional hour a week) by scratch cooking efficiently.  
Some things don’t take but a few minutes longer than opening that box of whatever.   Simplifying the sources (cuts of meat) you buy can simplify your life.   That’s a good thing.  

A new year, a new life, a new leaf.  

Book Review : How to Insta Pot

My christmas present was a “How to Insta Pot” cookbook by Daniel Shumski .
100 recipes and a lot of information on how to convert your own personal recipes to insta pot recipes.
The price was in the ten dollar range from Amazon.

Those people that think they would never use an insta pot have not tried an insta pot.   I have been on a mission to cut our food costs without sacrificing good basic nutrition .   That didnt mean eati g bans and rice as a steady diet.   It has been a learning experience of many years.  
I digress
My mother always said that everyone pays their dues.   Life is not all peaches and cream.   I planned for our retirement, but both sets of our parents had professions that had their medical pretty much taken care of in retirement.   Neither of us worked in union or government jobs.   That didnt happen.   Our medical takes my entire social security check.   I’m not complaining, I just dont want others to fall into the same trap.  I guess thats a heads up.

My children are the ones that encouraged me to write a blog on economy food.   My daughter has taught children from low income families for years.  She was hearing that some families were having a hard time making it through the month on their SNAP money.   My daughter told a mother that hr mom knew how.   I started this blog to help those people.   It has turned into more and reaches a variety of  people in a variety of circumstances.  

I digress:  the insta pot....it is a remarkable tool that can save its cost in less than a year.  The more foods that you can cook from scratch, the better your pocketbook and your health will be.   Cooking from scratch lets you control the amount of sodium and the kinds of fats you are using.  

I just couldn’t manage to get cooking rice down to a science.  Rice and beans do not have a long refrigerator life.  Freezing beans does not produce a great result.   There are four of us in the house tht at beans.   Small batches of scratch beans are a royal pain to cook—not efficient.   Beans in the instapot take less than five minutes hands on time and are a fraction of the cost of canned beans.  
Rice is another less than five minute hands on cooking.  How many times have you forgotten to take meat out of the freezer?  A boneless chicken breast cooks from frozen in 8 minutes if its not too thick.  A thicker one takes a few more minutes .

Recipes in the cookbook:

• Beef Barbacoa Tacos
• Beef stew
• Cumin spiced pork sirloin with avocado salsa 
• Pork shoulder 
• Pinto beans with chorizo,
• Polenta. No stir 
• Quick chili 
• Beyond black bean soup 
• Bacon, corn and potato chowder 
• Butternut squash
• Refried beans 
• Chocolate lava cakes 
• Korean style short ribs with garlic and ginger
• Meatloaf 
• Tomatillo pork stew 
• Shredded chicken tacos with tomato and lime
• Chicken soup 
• Barley mushroom soup
• White bean soup with panchetta
• Parmesan brad Pudding with bacon and  broccoli
• French toast cassarole w maple 
• Mashed cauliflower with garlic and cream cheese 
• 
  

Thursday Notes:

Every morning, I wake up before my hubby.   I spend that time looking at u tube and facebook , ‘READING” anything that doesn’t take sound to understand.   I see a lot of recipes and grocery hauls.

After I discovered that my readership is not just people from the PNW, I started watching grocery hauls from other parts of the country.    I have discovered that not including Alaska and Hawaii, the PNW has some of the highest prices, even on some things that come from the PNW.   Go figure.   I also see a lot of mistakes of people that are trying to cut their food bill.   I don’t comment because that would be rude and everyone has their own values and circumstances.              

I can, however learn from their choices , what can be done to cut a food bill that needs to wants to be cut.   Everyone has their own priorities.  Ours is to eat well, have fresh fruits and vegetables in the house and stock enough food so that if hard times hit, be it sickness, a government shut down, or snow Apocalypse, we at least can eat for a few days.

I have mastered that....now my goal is to pay off bills and purge 40 years of ‘stuff” accumulation in the storage room.   It would be a good room if granddaughter could play in the winter.

The basics of groceries on the cheap is to never pay full price for anything.   Some things, just never go on sale, some things basically only go on sale seasonally.   Some staples go on sale in cycles.   If you find that cycle, you can clean up.  Some things are almost. always cheaper at certain stores.   Learning what is cheapest where and how to maximize your shopping trips, is a key.
We have two places within reasonable distance from our home that have grocery outlets (discount grocery overstocks) and dollar trees side by side.    We try to hit those places about every month to six weeks.   Dollar Tree is usually pretty stable.  You can bet that they will have pinto beans, pizza sauce, tortillas, and orowheat bread.   The grocery outlet is a lot of here today, gone tomorrow.   You can most generally find sliced cheese for between two and two dollars and thirty nine cents.   Some other prices are more than the RBP I can get other places.   I most generally stick to name brands I can count on.   If there is a good price on something, I might buy one to see if it is a good quality.   I’m not gambling on a lot of money.   Always check pull dates.  Lately, I have found organic Hunts diced tomatoes for 50 cents at both Grocery Outlet and Dollar Tree.   I suspect they were an overstock .   The quality is fine.   Hunts peels their tomatoes with steam, not chemicals, and organic diced tomatoes were 2.29 at safeways and .70 at costco.   That is a prime example of why its not what you buy, or the quality you buy, its how much you pay for what you buy.   I did get tomatoes, not organic from safeways on a case lot sale for .39 net using a basket coupon.  

All of this is manageable because we have simplified our grocery carts.   By buying basics and efficiently scratch cooking, we have less prices to carry around in our heads.   Some people carry a small spiral notebook (3/1.00 at DT) to use instead.   Picking rotation meats that are versatile, and one type of canned tomato that can do double duty helps.

Years ago, we found ourselves, both out of work.   Scary time.   My husband started going with me
to get out of the house.   We we’re building the house and living in the basement.   He passed an end cap with 8  ounce cans of tomato sauce marked a quarter.   He said “ that’s no bargain , you paid a dime last week.”   I about fell over.   I wasn’t aware he was paying attention .

It doesn’t make sense to buy one of an item at FULL price one week, and one for a drastically lower price the next.   I’m not saying buy out the store and it is rude to clear the shelf at the store.   Don’t hog.   I usually stick to six of something unless the store is stipulating case lots.   This isn’t about hoarding.  Its about stocking enough to get you to the next sale so you don't have to pay full price—that nasty F word.   LOL.

Some people stock and then when they have an abundance , they go on a maintenance “no spend month” and creatively eat down the stock.   This is especially good if you know you have a high expense month coming.   You could save your money, buy buying food at half price is better return on your money than you can get at any bank.   We all have to eat.

Shopping Haul

Went to another town today and shopped at Grocery Outlet and DT.

Also stopped by the qfc.   

The good price on meatballs is only sunday with a digital coupon.   I must have misread the on line ad.   I do better with the REAL ad, but we didn’t get it on time, again.   

QFC : 5 for 5 

3 Kleenex 

2 snap peas regular 2.99..99

2 raspberries at 2/5 

Total 10.00

Dollar Tree

Oval platter with poinsettias .50

Freeze dried strawberries 

1 loaf orowheat grain bread 

1 Sara Lee large hamburger buns 

Pickles 

Ketchup 

5.50

Grocery Outlet 

Olives .79

Pkg kind bars oats and honey 1.99

Vermicelli .34

Cheddar cheese slices. 1.99

Pepper jack slices 2.39

Swiss slices 2.39

Orange danish in tube (pillsbury) .75

11.39

Total 26.85

 

Chain store ads for week of 12/27/17

HOLIDAY ADS ARE TYPICALLY SPARSE ON GOOD BUYS.   MOST OF IT IS BOOZE AND ENTERTAINMENT FOOD.

ALBERWAYS

Cantaloupe 2/3
Crackers 2/5 - $$
Cheese 2.50 a lb @@@
Hoagie rolls .79@@

$$ - there is a coupon out there in coupon land
@@@ clip in ad coupon


QFC - A BIT BETTER

Berries. 2/5
Apples .99
crackers 3/5

BUY 5 SAVE 5
 COUPONS WORK WITH THESE KINDS OF ADS.  THATS WHEN YOU CAN CLEAN UP

TIDE 4.99 - COUPON I THE P AND G COMING OUT PROABLY SUNDAY.
DAVES KILLER BREAD 2.99
2 BS CHEESE 4.99
HEFTY BAGS .99
KLEENEX TISSUE 160 CT .99


HILLSHIRE FARMS LUNCH MEAT 1.99
SNAP PEAS -DRIED. .99

Cooked perfect meatballs are 2.99 on sunday only with a digital coupon.   You cant use paper coupons with a digital coupon.   Regular price is 4.99.

IT HELPS WITH BUY 5, SAVE 5 TO BE ABLE TO SNEAK IN A COUPLE OF .99 ITEMS TO MAKE YOUR 5.   KLEEEX AT .99 IS THE SAME PRICE I PAY AT DOLLAR TREE OR WI NCO REGULARLY.   SNAP PEAS ARE A GOOD HEATHY SNACK AND WORK WITH SCHOOL GUIDELINES FOR SOMETHING CRUNCHY.

Four plus One is FIVE.

One of the basis of Groceries on the cheap is the catch phrase:  Four plus one is FIVE.  Four people, one meal, five bucks.   It is based on the fact that SNAP money is based on a meal costing 1.40 a plate.  You can eat well on that if you shop wisely.   Wether or not you are on SNAP, you can eat well on half the national average for a food budget.   I’m not going to tell you that it takes no effort.   But, like anything worth doing, take reward is good.

Five dollar dinners are attainable because you can average the cost.   One really inexpensive dinner plus one more moderate dinner can cost the same as two average priced dinners.   An inexpensive pizza and a salmon cake can average to stay in budget.  

Fortunately, most children love a lot of inexpensive food.   You can have quality food if you shop right.  

The internet is full of recipes:  the Betty Crocker cookbook and pinterest is free.   Don’t overlook a recipe because it starts with a ready made product or an expensive ingredient.  There is almost always a viable substitutions .   There are recipes for about every mix you could need on the internet.   Google is a good resource.   Many substitutions are as good or better because they dont have preservatives or other chemicals that you don’t need . Eating food in season helps the budget a lot.   Fruits and veggies taste better and cost less—a winning combination .  

Look for recipes that use up leftovers, or have inexpensive ingredients and recipes that your family will eat.   No food will do your family good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.  

• Shredded beef sandwiches (sliders) are popular and there are roll recipes that are simple that bring the cost of the rolls down.   Anytime you can make bread, the cost will be remarkably cheaper.   A three dollar loaf of sour dough, can cost as little as .30 cents.   No misplaced decimal here.  A great recipe for leftover meat .  Leftovers won’t seem like leftovers.   
• Chicken tortilla soup is another recipe that uses leftovers that disguise the fact that they are leftovers.   
• Broccolli beer cheese soup is timely because of holiday food leftovers.   
• Turkey a la king with rice.   Rice cost .03 a serving when buying it in bulk.  
• Apple chicken quesadillas .  Another inexpensive food that takes in season food (apples) and leftover chicken or turkey and tortillas that can be had at the DT. 
• Meatloaf muffins.   Its all about portion control 
• Chicken enchiladas.  Another leftover chicken or turkey dish.   You can cook a chicken breast from frozen in the insta pot in minutes.   Adjust the time for really fat ones. 
• Burrito bake uses cresent rolls that are on sale this time of year and there are coupons out there too.  
• Pork roast with cranberry orange relish.   Another in season recipe .  Pork Loin was a dollar a pound last week and oranges are the lowest price in January.   
• Vanilla french toast 

All recipes are from Taste of Home annual recipes 2018.   Most of the time they can be found on the internet.   Like google “ Burrito Bake/Taste of Home” .

Merry Christmas

We got a surprise snow for Christmas Eve celebrations.   We made spinach dip stuffed mushrooms (scratch). Baby ham and Swiss cheese quiches, and hot poppers.  I made another batch of shortbread. Supposedly ou were supposed to be able to pipe it into swirls.   We broke the bag trying.   I wound up rolling it into balls and flattening it.  It all tastes the same, right?    

Kitchen management is being postponed until tomorrow.  

I hope everayone has a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.    

Merry Christmas 

Meal Plans- Sunday

Merry Christmas Eve

Meal plans are a necessary part of Groceries on the Cheap.  Staying grounded and having a plan keeps you from going astray and winding up ordering take out or pizza.   The difference between ordering a pizza and making a pizza is dramatic in cost.

• Christmas:  roast turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, homemade cranberry sauce, stuffed celery and olives .
• Leftovers 
• Tacos , refried beans, Spanish rice. 
• Pizza
• Soup , rolls 
• Breakfast for dinner 
• Chicken nuggets (homemade) , oven fries, veggies (movie night ) 

Winco Haul....Hey, its Christmas !

So much to say. Christmas entertaining is not part of our regular grocery budget.  Its a time where we splurge on things that we don’t normally buy.  


4 boxes tissue at .98
Salmon cakes 2.88
Steak fries 1.68
Barilla pasta .98

Mushrooms 2.86
Cresent rolls 2.56
Celery 1.58
Spinach 1.78
Naval orange .80
Poppers 6.98
Pie crust 2.38
Ham 2.62

Cake mix .88
Cranberries 1.98
Swiss cheese 3.22
Lemon lime soda .48

Total 39.44

Ez dinner rolls

On my hunt for ez dinner rolls.  The first few recipes I found convinced me that my MIL was an angel making them for us numerous times through the years.  

1 cup plus 2T warm water
1/3 cup oil
2 Tbls yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
3.5 cups flour

Heat oven to 400 degrees

In stand mixer, place water, oil, yeast, and sugar.  Let rest 15 minutes
Mix 2 cups of the flour , salt and egg into the wet mixture with the dough hook.
Add remaining flour until dough is no longer sticky .

Remove dough from mixer bowl and shape into balls.  Place in 9x13 pad and let rise 10 minutes.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes until the tops of the rolls are brown.  

Thursday : Notes

Sometimes, you just have to do what you gotta do.   We have granddaughter for the week because of winter vacation and Costco is a zoo.   We needed a few things and there was no way I was going to drive around for half an hour looking for a parking place and battling the crowds to get the four things we always buy in bulk   So, I dodged the bullet and ordered on line for the first time.  I was pleasantly surprised .   The food prices were close to the price of instore, there was no shipping g charge, and we got our food in 40 minutes. I ordered bacon, oatmeal, and soap....dishwasher tablets, and soft soap.  

Then we went to QFC and I made up any extra I paid with three dollars worth of coupons.  
That made darigold butter 1.50 and meatballs about 2.00 a pound.  I cant make good meatballs for two dollars a pound.   This was an experiment.   The expensive meatballs are bigger and I think ar more dense than the Armor ones that are about 2.00 a lb normally at Winco.   Both taste fine.   I used the new ones for a meatball sub for dinner.   We split and hollowed out a small baguette, I brushed it with olive oil on both sides and toasted it in the oven for a few minutes.   I heated the meatballs with some bbq sauce in the microwave for four minutes.  Then I filled the hollowed out side of the bread with the meatballs and sauce and topped it with mozzarella.   I put both sides of the bread in. The oven and heated it until the cheese had melted.   The bread was not soggy.   I might put some cheese in the bottom of the bread if I did it again.   I also would make my own baguette, but this time w made cookies and shopped and granddaughter and I had popcorn and snuggled and watched the Lorax.   Like I said, sometimes you just have to do what you gotta do.

Overall, we did’nt break the budget too much and spoiling granddaughter is a right of grandmothers.   Right?  LOL

We met  people at the grocery store.  One of which I shared my extra butter coupon with.  Random acts of kindness don’t have to cost anything, and especially in this political climate, they go a long way to make things better.   I first encounterd a coupon angel one day back when all three kids were home.   A lady stopped me in Albertons at James village.   As usual, my cart was getting full.   She had a coupon for FREE milk if you spent like 50.00.  She said she wasnt going to spend that much but at the looks of my cart, I probably was and gave me the coupon.   It made my day.

One day I was shopping at winco.  I ran across a gentlemen that I could tell was adding up the few things in his cart to see how much he had amassed.   He was buying Progresso soups.   I asked him how many he had.  He said “two”.   I had a coupon for buy three, save......it made the third one free.
I handed him the coupon.   He said thank you and we went on our separate ways.   He ran into us in another part of the store.  He thanked me again.   I got the impression that we had just given him another meal.   Little acts of kindness don't have to cost money, but can really make someone’s day.

QFC haul.

We are still under 55.00 a week this year.  

QFC Haul

Apples , Fuji. 4.11
French baguette 1.99
Meatballs 4.99 less coupon. 3.99 - almost 2 lb.
butter (2) 1.50 ea
Blueberries 2/5


43 percent savings.  
Meal plans are meant to be broken.   We have our grandchild home from school this week and we have been baking christmas cookies all week.  Super no brainer dinner was in order when I got meatballs as cheap as I did.  I cant buy the meat for two dollars a pound.   So we had meatball subs and french fries that were air fried.