Feeding hungry mouths on a budget

Protein and grains stay with you.  Carbs go into your bloodstream quickly.   Fat fills you up.

Ideas you can use,   Kids, especially growing teens just can’t get enough to eat.

1. Have a number  - like maybe 4 - things that are FREE.   That is to say, they can make themselves and eat when they are hungry provided it isn’t an hour before dinner,   With my children it was air popped popcorn , ramen noodles, beef and bean burritos, and  PBand J. I would change the ramen out to a baked potato 🥔 these days,   They are things that get protein into the children and aren’t garbage,   
2. I would buy a bulk bag of flour, rice and oatmeal.  @@Costco. That would be about less than 25.00.  You can make bread for as low as .25.  Easy bread.   You can get orowheat with healthy grains and bagels, buns, etc at the dollar tree.  There are some coupons out there.   Save the inserts.  If you don’t get the later, it’s a dollar at the dollar tree (DT) and you can get it Saturday.   Mark the date on the front.   Rice in bulk calculates to a few cents a serving.   Oatmeal is less than ten cents a serving and fills a kid up.   Use 1/2 cup per serving.  We add fruit and a splash of milk.   
3. Buy meat  in bulk and limit your choices to things you can get for an average of 2.00 a pound,   Buy limiting to a pork, a beef and a chicken, you can buy in bulk and rotate what you buy based on RBP sales.  Recently we got pork loin for a dollar at Fred Meyers.  I got chicken for a buck in bulk at Zaycon.  I get boneless skinless chicken breast at FM for 1.77.  You can almost always get whole chickens for a buck a pound.   Hamburger is more expensive, we just eat it once a week.  If another cut is cheaper, we grind our own.   Not serving a piece of meat is always a stretcher.   Sloppy joes go further than hamburgers.   Serve children smaller portions and offer seconds if they eat the first portion ...and their veggies .    
4. Eggs are a good source of protein and I can still find diktat a dozen eggs.   My family loves impossible pies.   A good dinner that stretches.  
5. Growing up, we never saw a can of pop, a bag of potato chips , a specialty child food., or a fresh piece of fruit except bananas that were given to us.  No kool aid.  We just didn’t see junk food.   I do always have fresh fruit in the house fir granddaughter.   Snacks didn’t happen.   
6. A lot of child friendly recipes can be made cheap.   Cheese pizza cost 1.05.  Burritos can be made with a combo of meat and beans,  
7. Beans (pinto) are cheapest  at the DT.  Made in USA, no gmo. 
8. Hearty soups can simmer a,omg in a slow cooker and are a good , cheap meal.  
9. The more cheap, efficient, scratch meals you can make the better, the less ready made foods the better.  

Its not what you buy, it when and where you buy it.

Winco haul

Note that cases of corn or green beans are five bucks.   That’s less than 50 cents a can.  

Sour cream 2.22
Hot dog buns 1.07
Milk 1.49
Olives .88
Strawberries 1.98
Tomstoes .99
Potatoes 10 lbs 1.98
Total 11.37

This month sitting at 50.00 a week
2016. 72.00 week
2017  55.00 a week
2018  50.00 a week

Includes building a small stock.

Chain store ads...finally

Our world has been crazy the last month.  It f8nnally caught up with me.     ......just got the ads last night .


QFC

Chuck roasts or London broil BOGO, no prices here, you have to judge when you get to the store,

Strawberries 2/5

DIGITAL COUPONS - YOU MUST DIWNLOAD BEFORE YOU GO TO THE STORE.

Lean cuisine 4/6
Cheerios 1.79
Chobani 10/8
Tide 3.99
Spaghetti .50
Frizen  fruit 2.99
————
Grapes 2.49
Pears .99
Avocados 4 ea 2.99


Alberways

Apple juice .99@@
Bread .79@@
Greek yogurt .88@@

Oranges 3 lbs 3.47
Apples .99
V8 2.50
Digiorno 5.49 $$.  There are paper coupons


Friday only
Dijorno 5.00$$

@@ means with in store ad , you can’t match with a manufacturers coupon
$$ means there are paper coupons you can use out there.  Usually in an insert or on line at coupons,com

QFC Haul and lesson learned.

QFC Haul

5 lbs gala apples 5.99 less 60 cent coupon or 5.39 Florida 5 lbs or 1.078 a lb

2 blueberries, , 2 raspberries 2.50 each

1 lb sausage free.  

45 percent savings


The lesson

Its not what you buy, it’s when and where you buy it.  

BC cake mix was supposed to be free with a coupon at qfc.  Somehow I messed up the download.   The reality became clear when the charge for the cake was 2.39.

Here is  the reality

QFC reg price 2.39
Safeway reg price (dec) 1.79
Winco price twomweeks ago .88

Same brand, same mix
Swing is 1.50.   That’s a lot of money.
The upshot of that is that you can compound your savings by using that 1.50 to buy something else that is at a RBP.  

Tuesday notes

it is Tuesday and my keyboard is still broken .   They told me how to fix it, but I already tried that.  I’ll try again,  

I was watching a video about a 1940 kitchen,   Having been an antique dealer, I have a few 1940 things,  the interesting thing about this video was that it was set in England and it showed war rations and the food that was on their list.   Those homemakers had to do a lot of improvising to make a balanced meal.   It must have been a far cry from the vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free, carb free, diets we choose these days to be on today.    Just an observation

Our lives need to be balanced.   When we deviate from balance in our lives, we fail.   You can’t work and sleep and work, you need down time.   You can’t play all day. You need to do a certain amount of work. Meals need to nurture our bodies in a balanced way.  

Taking one food group at a time and finding ways to cut your costs.  Get one tackled and start on another.   Its a life long learning process.  

• Meat can be purchased in bulk from the farmer.  Haven’t done that yet, but I’m working in it.   You can also purchase meat in bulk when it is in a good sale,   Rotate your meats,   Portion control.   If you have a monthly allotment, set a budget,   My budget for meat is 2.00 a lb.   it was 2.00 a meal in the early  70s and I had the same sized family,    We just eat different adjusting for COL.   
• Dairy is on sale at least once a month at Fred Meyers,   I got it free last time with cereal.   I 
• found yoplait for .25.   Sour cream 1.25.   
• Bread is cheapest right now at the DT.   I’ve even seen bagels, dinner rolls. And hamburger buns,   They are several dollars elsewhere.  You can also make your own for pennies.   Anthree dollar loaf of artisan bread can cost as low as a quarter.   
• Vegetables can be frozen, canned, or fresh.   Fresh in season is good, but frozen can be fresher because it is frozen soon after it is picked,   Cans are shelf stable and a good fall back on item. 
• Making your own waffles, etc is a real money saver.  Muffins can cost as low as a fifty cents a batch.   

• 
  

Monday, just Monday

It would be Monday, Kitchen Management day. But I need to know if people want that subject.  So, we’ll try something different.

Taking some time every now and then to take inventory and straighten an auxiliary freezer is a good thing.  We did that yesterday.   I use baskets from the dollar tree to organize my freezer.   It makes life simpler to know where things are.    And, you can tell at a glance what you may need to watch for a sale to replentish.

Dollar tree now has 200 count tissue and it’s not sandpaper.   Lol

Go tos at the DT are :

• Office supplies, notebooks 
• Tissue not toilet paper 
• That being said , I get one TP from the DT for emergency.  Putting it in the back of the cabinet tells us that we need to go to costco. But we are never in a pickle.   
• Pizza sauce.   Its a name brand, less than any other sauce. As cheap as homemade.   You can get 5 pizzas out of a jar and we freeze the rest of the jar after the first pizza in ice cube tray and put the cubes in a zip lock.  One jar fills an ice cube tray 
• Tortillas - they are cheaper and not made with lard. 
• Orowheat bread .  Sometimes they have buns and bagels.   There are coupons out there. 
•  Chocolate   striped shortbread.   - cheaper than the GO. 
• Suddenly salad with coupons. 
• Sugar free applesauce for school lunches 

Not to be a broken record, but the key is to know your prices.  The cost of food can be made cheaper just by knowing what is the RBP and where to get it.   No one store has the best price on everything,   Making a list of what you do use and finding where it is the cheapest goes a long way to cutting your food costs.   You don’t go to five stores a week, you buy enough to carry you through until you find it cheap again or you have run out.   There are a few things that you need on a regular basis.   So,e things can be skipped until you get a cheaper price..

In our area, Winco and Fred Meyers are the cheapest overall.   QFC is a Kroger store , but almost everything is about 10-20 percent more than other stores.   They work on mega sales and coupons,  

Grocery outlet and the dollar store are side by side at Kenmore and north Seattle.   Grocery Outlet (GO) is good for some things,  you do have to know your RBP.   I can almost always  get designer cheeses for reasonable.   Sometimes yogurt, condiments are usually a bargain.   It is a treasure hunt.  Some things are always there, some things are surprises.   

Safeway/Albertsons (Alberways ) is giid when they have a case lot sale But, when a cake mix is 1,79 and the same brand is .88 at Winco...well.....Barilla pasta was 2.00; it is a dollar when they have it at the DT and it’s little more than a dollar at Winco.    There haven’t been coupons lately.  

The specialty type whole paycheck stores are  pretty much off limits for those trying to feed their family for 1/2 the USDA stats for poor people.    The USDA stats are published by the USDA every few months,   Google “cost of food at home USDA” for current list.   Note there are adjustments for sizes of your family.  

Being open to all avenues of saving :maximizes your savings.  

• Know your prices of things you buy on a regular basis 
• Use coupons 
• Scratch cook
• Buy in bulk when it makes sense 
• Stock up when things are RBP- shelf stable foods that have decent pull dates.  Decide on a stock plan.   If you use something twice a wwe, and you want a six week supp,y, you need 12 cans or packages.   
• Cut waste, start step leftovers.  If you drain a can of diced tomatoes, save the juice for stock. Etc. 

The more you do, the more money you can save.  Learn tricks to maximize your time.  

Meal plans

Meal plans are a necessary part of the time planning and shopping 🛒.  It saves time and money and makes your life easier,   No more answering the question what’s for dinner?

This week we are still on our let’s eat down the freezer mantra.   We have one month until our bulk meat comes .   Lol

• Split pea soup with ham - baguettes
• Pizza bbq chicken ( use a batch of chicken for pizza, burritos, and stir-fry. 
• Spaghetti and meatballs , bread, salad ( save some spaghetti fir stir fry )
• Chicken stir fry 
• Salmon cakes , oven potatoes, carrots 
• Chicken burritos ( tortillas are from DT) no lard 
• Breakfast 4 dinner ( use the rest of the ham ) 

Notes

Using slow cooker part of insta pot.  NEVER use the regular insta pot! It just spells MESS!

Cooking 1 batch of chicken in the insta pot just saves time.

QFC haul

5 butter at 2.00
4 soup at .55 coupons stacked
Nathan’s hot dogs
Tortillas 1.00

Fred Meyer ad for Sunday

• Butter is two dollars a pound today only with andigitL coupon at qfc . You can have 5

• WTH F only w digital coupon. Shrimp 5.77 and salmon fir 5.77
• Petite sirloin steaks 2.97
• Grapes 1.68
• Apples 1.47

DIGITAL COUPONS 

Lean cuisine 4/6

Cheerios 1.49

Breyers ice cream 1.99

Cream soups 4/2

Pasta .50

Best foods 2.99

Peanut butter .99

———————

Ground turkey 2/5

80/20 beef 3.49   Not a good buy 

Apples .99 🍎 apples 🍏 

Note insta pot is 79.00 and vets or service get 10 percent off on Thursday.  Bring the ads 

Sloppy joe recipe. .....scratch

It’s almost as cheap to use the can, but there is some samvings and you can tailor the recipe for picky eaters.  


Sloppy joes -serves 4

• 3/4 lb of ground beef, cooked **
• 1 can diced tomatoes, drained, reserving juice 
• 1/2 of a pepper, chopped -green is good or u can use what u have 
• 1/2 medium onion , chopped 
• 1 clove garlic , chopped 
• Tomato paste as needed 

• In the insta pot on sauté, put the peppers and onion.   Cook until somewhat soft . 
• Turn off sauté function and add cooked ground beef, 
• Put diced tomatoes threw a sieve or pulse in a food processer.   Add to pot. 
• Add seasonings.  
• Add tomato paste until you have the desired color and consistency,  about 1 Tbls
• Slow cook 4-8 hours.  

Notes :  I used the juice from the tomatoes for part of the water in rice.  Also used a yellow pepper because that was what we found on sale at GO.  

We always cook ground beef when it comes home from the store.  Its a real time saver to batch cook and portion control the beef.  It means you can find time to de-fat and when it’s tome to cook dinner, you are half way done.   

Dinner in the slow cooker means all you have to do is make oven fries and get out your ore made veggie tray,   Easy dinner,    

GO haul

GO is our discount overstock grocery store.  Its no frills and the stock is limited to overstocks.  Some things are almost a,ways there, but the rest is a treasure hunt.  Be sure to watch for  pull dates .

Caramel cookie blondness - a takenoff of Girl Scout cookies    ,99
Hot sauce  .69
Mini marshmallows .89
Thin mint cupcake mix .99
Ketchup 1.59
Dill pickles, 1.99

6 English cucumbers 2.99
Peppers 2/1.00

Sliced cheese 1.99
Smoked rope sausage 1,.99
Bacon 2,99

Total 22.08.  Still under budget

Weekly ads

Its a holiday ! Usually the ads for regular  food are not great on holiday weeks,  
No exception.  


QFC

Saturday only, digital coupon, 1.99 butter

Draper valley whole chicken .99


Digital coupons you have to load them on your card can buy 5

The coupon guru says that you can use a paper coupon with digital when it is a store digital

Campbell’s soup 4/3. Or .75 each.   Coupons out there

General Mills cereal 1:79. Coupons

American beauty pasta :50

Best foods 2.99

Kleenex .99 when u buy 1

HF smoked sausage 1.99

Frozen fruit 2.99 when u buy 1

Tide 3.99.when I buy 1 there r coupons out there , but it depends on what kind of a coupon the first one is,   If the coupon works, it would make it 1.99

 __________
Pork shoulder 1:79

Berries 2/5

Alberways

Bacon 3.99, in 2 lb pkg. @@

The methodology...

• Groceries on the cheap takes a different approach to grocery shopping.   Instead  of going to the  store and buying a list of things that you will use to make dinner for a  specific week, you go to replentish your stock.   I have a dry goods pantry and a freezer.   I have done this without my upright freezer, but I have to admit that having a freezer helps.

Once every quarter or less , we do a costco run for the bulk purchases of flour, oatmeal, and rice.

Weekly, I usually hit two stores after I study the ads and share them with you. I am going looking for

• The rotation protein that is a RBP I have identified in an ad. Sometimes this happens, sometimes it doesn’t.   
• Dairy:   I almost always have yoplait yogurt coupons.   I am looking for a sale on sour cream, milk, cottage cheese sometimes, and cheese.  I want milk, sour cream, cottage cheese for as close to a dollar as possible.   Cheese I want for two dollars a pound, but never over 2.35.  Don’t overlook the cases of yogurt, I got a case for 1.98 yesterday.   I have a buy price for eggs at a dollar and butter for 2.50.   I have bought butter for as low as 1.50 and eggs for ass low as .7.  When eggs were .78 I dehydrated them.   
• Fresh fruits and veggies in season.   Always check multiples.   One pound of carrots was a dollar yesterday, 5 pounds were 2.28.   Carrots have a every long fridge life.   Carrot sticks are good for a veggie tray.  Glazed carrots with honey, butter, and ginger are delicious with chicken or pork.   Baby carrots are just carrots that they BLEACH and cut small.   One pound is a dollar. Another drastic price difference.   
• Anything on a good sale that the dry pantry is in need of.   The pantry has shelves an my designated limit of storage of a particular product is mapped out.   I can tell at a glacial if I am short of a particular item.   It has to be a very special price, or I don't buy it.   We do have the luxury of diced green chilies that I get at Winco for 1/2 the price of the national brand an sliced black olives that I got at GO for .69 last time.  Winco has a price of .72 usually.   FM is a lot more.   Making things look and taste good makes groceries on the cheap sustainable.  

Stocking: the what and when of it.

First of all, stocking is not hoarding if it is done with some thought.    None needs a coat closet full of sodas.   LOL.  One does not need 150 bottles of hot pepper sauce.

What:

Things like mustard, mayo, catsup and coffee can be stocked for one ahead.   Look for a sale when you pull your backup unit off the shelf.   That way you never run out of something in the middle of cooking.   If you are efficient you should never have to run to the store or the neighbours because you dont have a much needed item.

As for any other food stuff, it depends on how many of that product you use on a regular basis.   Decide how much of xxx you use on a weekly basis.  Now decide how many weeks you need ahead.  This often is predicated on how often there are sales on something.    Shelf stable items can be. Stored up to a year or more depending on pull dates.   Some things are good past pull dales, depending on the item.  There are good articles out there that will give you good clues.   Pasta is supposed to have an eight year shelf life.    Beans , and anything with an acid content do not have much grace period beyond the pull date.

Some canned goods have taken a large hike in cost.   It really is a benefit if you keep enough stock to last you until you find a good sale.    Green beans can be over a dollar a can.   They can also be five dollars a dozen in a case lot.    The difference in cost means that you can eat three times instead of one.


A list of canned items that are a good thing to stock ( provided you eat and use these things on a regular basis ;

• Green beans 
• Corn 
• Diced tomatoes 
• Some canned beans 
• Salad dressing 
• BBQ sauce
• Dehydrated potatoes 
• Pasta 
• Some soups 

 Keep a few of : 

Black olives 

Mild green chilies 

Pepperoni 

Top ramen ( emergency rations )

Dry milk 

Flour 

Sugar 

Brown sugar 

Water:  emergency rations 

Back up salad oil 

Back up catsup 

Back up mustard 

Back up coffee 

Tea 

The key is to know how much to keep.   You don’t want to have the pull date get away from you, but you don't want to get stuck paying full price either.    

This can be done on a shoestring budget.  It takes time and a skill set to buy things whether you need the immediately or not when you find something o a RBP.    You dot wait until you have a fire to buy a fire detector.   Plan.   If you know you are going to go through a financial crisis, or a month where the expenses are great, save for them, but having a full part can also tide you through.   

We know we have a donut hole to ride through the third to fourth quarter of the year.   Maybe for you, you know you are having a baby and aren't going to feel or have time to shop a lot, or maybe not feel like shopping.   Maybe you know you are gong to have surgery or your spouse is going to have to go away for work and you are carrying the full load.      Whatever it is, plan for it.   There is a wonderful sense of satisfaction knowing you always have food in the house.   No one should have to carry the stress of not hang anything in the cupboards.   That stress lowers your life expectancy.   And it is a terrible hardship on children.   If you have any steady food money at all, you can stretch it to cover a small stock.   Sometimes it takes a can or case at a time.    But you can

do it.    

Winco Haul

Winco Haul -some good buys

Maxwell House Coffee 6.48
Nalleys chilli .99 less 20 cent coupon is .79

Stir fry veggies 1.51
Leaf lettuce 1.58
2 grape tomatoes 2.56
Strawberries 1.98
Celery .98
Blues 3.98
Bc cake mix .88
Pickles 1.88
Yoplait yogurt 8 pack 1.98. -thats .25 a carton

Bacon 2.98

5 lbs carrots 2.28
Ham 2.48
Hamburger buns .78
Case of green beans 4.98

The real scoop....on 80/20 hamburger

On a recent U tube, a gal did a sorta scientific experiment on which hamburger was cheaper, 80/20 or 93/7.   A lot of her information was flawed.   Here is the real scoop.


Package w hamburger weighs 1.33 lbs.
Package weighed .39 pounds
Net hamburger less than 16 ounces.

Tare weight of the shy 1 lb hamburger is 11.25 ounces.
80/20 hamburger should be 12.8 ounces
Tare weight , drained and de fatted was 11.64 ounces

11.64 ounces / 1.99 is .17 an ounce.  

Kitchen Management

Kitchen management is a tool that enables one to be organized and keep the kitchen clean on an ongoing basis.   By doing one small deep clean chore a week on a rotation basis, the kitchen stays clean with little work.    Prepping meals for a few minutes one day can save countless stress at dinner
Time.  

Reprint menu:

• Split pea soup/ bread 
• Pizza
• Chicken stir fry , rice , mandarin oranges 
• Tacos , Spanish rice , 
• Sloppy joes, oven fries, veggie platter
• Salmon, potatoes, broccolli 
• Breakfast for dinner 

1. Wash kitchen floor 
2. Wash and disinfect counters, sinks, and drains 
3. Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead. 
4. Wash stove drip plans. 
5. Wax south side cabinets. 
6. Wash veggies:  celery, carrots, potatoes 
7. Chop carrots for split pea soup
8. Start bread rising 
9. Thaw chicken 
10. Make sloppy joe filling 
11. Fry hamburger and measure for scientific experiment 
12. Make a veggie tray .   
13. Straighten pantry. 

Meal Plans

Meal Plans are a useful tool to keep you on track.   If you are organized even a bit, you can avoid the takeout demon.

• Split pea soup    Bread 
• Pizza
• Chicken stir fry  rice , mandarin oranges
• Tacos, Spanish rice 
• Sloppy joes , oven fries, veggie platter 
• Salmon , baked potatoes, broccolli 
• Breakfast for dinner.    

Notes:   

1. I finally found split peas.   Seem like I was hunting forever.   Add vegetable stock and carrots.   Garnish with bacon.   The bread dough is hanging in the fridge. A very cheap dinner.   
2. Pizza is a mainstay. The cost is less than a buck when you get your cheese for two dollars a pound.   We make our own crust for .19 and save veggie pieces for toppings. 
3. Chicken stir fry is easy....make double rice for stair stepping into taco day. J
4. Salmon is in the freezer.   We are going to eat down the freezer so we are ready for a bulk meat delivery in spring   Baked potato’s uses up the excess potatoes.   
5. Breakfast for dinner is always a favorite and can be as inexpensive as you want it to be.   
6. Taco shells were .50 for twelve.  That makes 2 meals for us.   
7. Sloppy joes are scratch.   With hamburger for 1.50 a lb, its also a cheap dinner.   Oven fries are a bit more complicated than the frozen ones, but we have potatoes to use up.   

Fred Meyer ad for Sunday

Usually , the ‘holiday’ ads are not a good time for bargain hunters.  This time there is not a lot, but what there is can be good.

My pick for rotation meat would be either 10 FF boneless, skinless chicken breast or 2) kroger 20 percent hamburger.   When you figure the best price for hamburger , calculate the price times 1.xx with xx being the fat content.   This makes sense to me.   There was a person on a u tube that somewhat thought she was doing an experiment. But, it didnt make my accountant logic test. LOL
20 percent at 1.99 equals 2.39 a lb ; angus ground sirloin cost 4.14 a lb.   Now, I did get sirloin for 2.39 a lb and ground it myself.   You can reduce fat by as much as 17 percent by de-fatting it.   Seniors get the ground sirloin on Tuesday for 3.39 or net 3.73

Mandarins -5 lb. 4.77
Blackberries .99
Milk .99

Digital coupons -your qfc card works here .
You cant pair a digital coupon with a paper one.
Net prices

Tide 3.99
Sour cream .99
HS sausage 1.99

Kleenex tissue .99 -   You can get 160 count tissue at DT most of the time.  Sometimes you can get 210 at winco for a dollar.  

QFC Haul

QFC has a mega event.  I’ve seen better, but coupled with the 2 day sale, it netted me over fifty percent off .  


5 -1 lb 80/20 hamburger @1.99

Roma speghetti .49. Given to the foodbank

Digiorno pizza 2.99

Chocolate milk. .99

Goldfish crackers .99

Tillamook ice cream 3.00

Total 22.77 minus the dollar food bank. 21.77

Still umder budget.