Grocery outlet and DT haul

We went to amtown a few towns away.  I thought I could get a few more diced chillis and holiday nuts.   There were no more of those items.    I did find taco kits for a dollar.   I have purchased them from grocery outlet before.   These were a different brand.  But getting the taco sauce and seasoning  along with the shells for the same price as the shells is good.

Stewed tomatoes, hunts were 3/1.  Some were dated March, other’s June.  I bought 6.  I know I can use six before June date.

You can score good if you are not season sensitive.   Pumpkin Oreo type cookies are a dollar.   They are not stale dated, just seasonal.  

Dollar tree netted ancient grains suddenly salad , and tortilla chips for taco soup.  

Mexican Chicken casserole......

Gather ingredients,   Diced mild green chillies , diced tomatoes, drained. Pasts and cheese,   

Cook pasta. I used the insta pot with a pound of pasta and a quart plus of water,   

Didn’t wind up adding the pasta because it was good without and I’m trying to avoid some carbs, ,   

Shredded chicken .  I cooked a chicken breast in the instant pot from frozen for 15 minutes. Place on rack and add two cups of water . Sometimes,  I add chicken stock instead of water,   

Layer the chicken, chillies, diced tomatoes, and cheese.  I used a blend of any these I had in the cheese drawer,   Sharp cheddar, white cheddar, and some parm.   

Normally, I would add cooked pasta and top with some reserved cheese,   This would taste good In a quesadilla.  

Cheeseburger macaroni..then and now

I dig out the recipe for cheeseburger macaroni that I priced for channel 5 news , probavly at least six  years ago.  Costs have risen 45 percent. If you add organic upcharges you are adding some 80 percent.  

Prices  are then/ now

1 lb hamburger. 1.66/ 2.44
3 ounces celery .06/.10
1 slice red pepper .10/.08
Garlic, onion
1can diced tomatoes .59/.39
1 8 Oz tomato sauce .33/.33
1 cup grated cheese .38/.50
1/2 lb macaroni .35/.50
Total  3.47/4.34

Serves 6. prorate  4

2.31/2.89

Still a 5.00 dinner

Add homemade bread and a salad or vegetable

Directions
Sauté veggies on a small amount of olive oil.  Add gRkic powder and onion powder to taste. Add cooked hamburger or cook hamburger until no longer pink.  
Add 🍅  products.
Simmer  15 minutes for flavors to blend.
Top with cheese and put a lid on it.  Turn off heat.

Pantry /freezer dinners

we have all had those days.    Those beautiful days when the meal plan has gone out the window.   Thief days when no sick in the bin will satisfy the child, it’s gym day and those aren’t gym socks. Those are valentine socks, see... the have hearts! Those days when a project takes longer than expected, or the meat didn’t thaw.....those days....

Having pantry or freezer meals are a rescue,

• The obvious one is frozen pizza.   It can be cheap and it is a no brainier,   
• Frozen salmon comes in shrink wrap individual packages and is also a pull and cook.   Add rice, instant mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes and a frozen veggie or sliced  cucumbers and tomatoes and you have a dinner, 
• Chicken parm can be made from chicken patties from Foster Farms, tomato sauce and a half package of spaghetti.  Spaghetti can be cooked in TWO minutes in the insta pot...no watching the pot.   
• Tuna cassarole is a pantry item that is a good mainstay if you can’t get out if the house for some reason,   We add frozen peas, 
• Mac and cheese is a favorite,   White sauce, cheese , and again, elbows in the insta pot.   Don’t buy that Mac and cheese in a box,  most of it has SOAP in it,   TSP or its derivative is the soap or detergent that we sold at the paint store to clean the grease etc off the walls to ready it for paint,  you need to use rubber gloves with it because it eats your hands,   And,,,,you are feeding it to ....
•  Breakfast for dinner is a good alternative,  pancakes or waffles are made from shelf staples, eggs are a basic , and cheese adds protein.    
• Tacos are a go to here.   I always keep taco shells when o get them for anywhere between .50 and a dollar.    Taco meat is always in the freezer because we cook hamburger, de fat it, and freeze it in meal sized portions,   You don’t need a lot of hamburger for tacos, because you are adding cheese too to supplement,   You can also add beans to the meat to s t r e t c h it if you need to,   
• Cheeseburger macaroni is a long favorite,   NOT out of a box,   It’s actualky cheaper than the box and the ingredients are REAL.   When my daughter and I dissected a big mix to prove a point,   It had 1,57 ounces of a cheese sauce mix that had no cheese 🧀 in it..no cholesterol is a clue here, and 4.2 ounces of elbows,   And, ingredients you can’t pronounce. ( the recipe is on the blog, use he search key) if you are interested.   

We are waiting fir the tech guy to install the printer,   I finally got the computer up and running,and data changed over ....three days..long story...our error,   But the WiFi keyboard, mouse and printer are another story,   LOL.  

I am sure there are more pantry ideas, but this is a good start.    

.....tomato soup and toasted cheese or quesadillas.   We also always have tortillas in the fridge,    

Having basics in the house makes it so that you always have food,   And, she; purchased right, you can do it on four dollars a day ,

Thursday Notes

 Disclaimer: my keyboard has lost its fuzzy logic.   I am  back to using the keyboard with two fingers, 

My recommendation is to never buy a keyboard from amazon.   This is the second one, they replaced it once before,   Ugh.   

Last night the chicken I had planned to cook hadn’t thawed,   So, I improvised,   It’s always good to have a few easy entrees in your back up plan, 

We had salmon cakes, a few french fries to use bits up, green beans with red peppers, tomato and cucumber salad, and some strawberries.   

Previously, we were dealing with a freezer meltdown, so I cooked several pounds of hamburger,   The menu plan went out the window,    

We had: 

Taco salad

Shrimp and salad, 

Tacos

I think tonight we can go back to normal.   Just an example of sometimes you have to punt, and having food in the house makes it easy,  

We went to grocery outlet this week because we needed coffee and we were already almost there so we could make best use of our trip.    We get e mails telling us what is on sale.   This time they had chocolate yoplait yum....a good way to have a little desert, including protein and low carbs.   

QFC has a special where if you sign up for their e mail, they will give you a basket coupon for five dollars off of twenty five,   I’ll use it next week, they have a two week ad this week,    Barilla pasta is a dollar,  it is also right now at dollar tree,  including spaghetti and elbows,   

Basket coupons work well if you stick to the amount on the coupon ( in this case 25 dollars) and only buy things that are at RBP.   It’s getting the most bang for your buck,    Twenty percent off your food bill is a good thing, but every item you purchase over the dollar amount of the coupon is a loss in percentage.  If I were to buy a box of pasta for a dollar and stay at 25.00 worth of food, I am actually paying .80 for the pasta.   At the prices here, that’s a good deal,  Barilla is up to 2.00 some places. 

It isn’t one thing that makes you be able to eat on four dollars a day, it’s a lot of little things that all add up.  

• Make good use of any coupons that come your way. 
• Efficiently scratch  cook whenever possible .  Convenience foods start with $$$
• Buy in bulk when the price is lowest for any foods that you will use a lot of.   Its a lesson in evaluating how much of a particular product you will use before it can go bad, 
• Buy basic sources of protein in bulk at the RBP and buy enough to carry you with that meal for four to six weeks,   In other words,  if you eat pork once a week, you will need enough for 4-6 meals. Buy things hat average two dollars a pound,   Here that would be hamburger, pork loin, chicken breast, eggs, cheese, and beans.   These are all versatile enough that you will not get bored with meals.  Buying the meat when it’s on sale and buying one thing a week and portion controlling enough for a meal avoids waste. 
• Planning meals saves time and money.   It doesn’t have to be fancy or time consuming,   
• Basically, you are going to the store to replentish your stock and buying a rotation meat and your perishables. By keeping a 4 to 6 week stock of the things you use on  a regular basis that are shelf stable or freezer ready means you never have to pay that nasty f word...full price . You actually spend less and always have food in the house,   
• We spend less than 4.00per person a day considering that we supplement our granddaughter and add to a stock.   We eat well balanced and don’t eat rice and beans as a steady diet,  we have pork roast, pork chops, pork stew, hamburger meals, boneless , skinless chicken breast locally grown, salmon and supplement cheese, eggs, and beans,   
• Portion control is good for your budget and your health . Your doctor will tell you that three squares of portion controlled balanced food is better for you than binge eating. 

Fred Meyer and DT haul

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

Bread, orowheat, 

BC suddenly salad, ancient grains 

Spaghetti, Bareila x2 

Egg noodles 

5.00

Lean cuisine meals 2.00

Baguette 1.00

Foster Farms chicken breast, frozen 4.99

FF Chicken wings 4.99

Strawberries 2.77

23.75

Pork loin was .99 a lb. it did not look good.   Full of fat.   

In addition , there was chicken parts for .99 a pound,  

I am 28.75 over so far, but that includes a bulk hamburger buy,   This only means I have to shirt each week for the next three weeks 10.00.   

Chain Store ads

ALBERWAYS

DIGITAL COUPON LIMIT ONE - ICE CREAM .99

Cheese 2 # 4.99
Tilamook ice cream 2/6
Artichokes .99
Butter 1.99 limit 2
Safeways brand pasta .79
Nathan’s 3.99


QFC - THIS IS A TWO WEEK AD -sign up for e mails and get 5.00 off of 25.00

DIGITAL, SATURDAY 5/12
HUMMUS 1.49
RIBS 1.77

——-
Milk .99
Barilla pasta 1.00


BUY 4, save 4
BREYERS 1.99
DAVES KILLER 2.99
JIMMY DEAN SAUSAGE 2.49
ALMONDS 7.99

FRED MEYERS
STRAWBERRIES 2# 2.77
Pie 4.00
Baguette 1.
Barilla pasta 1.
Chicken thighs . And legs.  99
80/20 beef 2.99

Grocery Outlet Haul

Grocery Outlet Haul
Note:  they have a cereal sale on.  We dont buy cold cereal, so I didnt pay much attention.



Hills Bros Coffee 6.99
Holiday Nuts. 2.99
Pumpkin Bread .50

Chili’s- Old Ole Paso .50 ( 1.28 at winco and winco brand is .66.

Bacon 198 lb
Cheese, Holland.  2.00

Sliced cheeses 1.99

Chocolate whips - yoplait.  .33


Total for food 24.43 including. Coffee.  

Cost of Meals

It is not what you buy perhaps, but when and where you buy it.   Finding a RBP and buying at that RBP is necessary to keep your costs at a minimum.   If you face the challenge of feeding your family on four dollars a day and you want to feed them good, nutritious food, it is a necessary thing.

Last night we had taco salad.  It was a nice spring day and I had cooked and de fatted four pounds of hamburger.  It was just a natural choice since we bought a bunch of Mexican food on sale for Cinco de Mayo.  

1/2 Pound of hamburger , cooked with taco seasoning,
1/2 bag lettuce
1Tomato
1cup shredded cheese
Sour cream, salsa, chips
Cost two dollars and fifty cents for 2.  

Hamburger at two forty four a pound
Lettuce was a dollar a bag
Cheese at two dollars a pound
Tomato at a dollar a pound
Sour cream was seventy nine cents
Chips were a dollar a bag
Salsa was a dollar a twenty four ounce jar.

Costco Haul

Costco Haul—just then food stuff 

3 REAL whip cream 8.69

Romas   3.49

Kirkland Nut Bars 16.99 minus 3.50....good and only 7 net carbs.   

Chocolate and nuts and only 7 carbs......yeah!

Bananas 1.39

Thats it....

The Plan .....

Groceries on the Cheap is a different way to buy groceries and meal plan.   We all know that someone gets to buy food and get meals on the table.  Fact of life.  How you go about it can save a ton of money and a lot of time.

Normally, we learned in Home Ec to make a meal plan, make a grocery list, check the ads and buy groceries.   All this takes a fair amount of time.    I am not going to pretend that the new way is not going to take any time.   I am going to say that it is more simplified in that you are taking less steps and dealing with less food choices.

• This is done once.....Identify the sources of protein your family eats. 
• Identify the entrees that your family likes and you make on a regular basis. 
• List the shelf stable and freezer foods that you use to make those meals. 
• Now, find the lowest prices on those foods.  Simplify:   We buy diced tomatoes because they can be used for many things and adapted using a blender or food processor.   
• Some people have used a price book to facilitate finding lowest prices.   
• Buy low, eat high.   Just like a stockbroker, you want to buy in bulk when these items are low prices and eat when they are high prices.   Finding the lowest price and buying in bulk saves a ton of money.
• Rotate your meat.  Buy one meat in bulk at its lowest price a week.   Buy four to six weeks of that ‘protein” .   It is the best way to get your protein at the lowest possible price.   Simplify.  Buy cuts that are versatile and easy to prepare.   Examples would be boneless, skinless, chicken breast, pork loin, and low fat hamburger.  Add eggs, cheese, and beans. 
• We eat on four dollars a day per person and supplement granddaughter and grow a stock.   
• It is possible, it just takes some time to get up and running, meanwhile , you are saving money bit by bit. 
• Efficient scratch cooking is part of the package. 
• This means you always have food in the house.   Statistics show that when people have to wonder where the next meal is coming from, they reduce their life expectancy.   

Meal plans

ok, this is going to be short and sweet.  My keyboard isn’t working and I have to type with two fingers,    Just another agrevation in a long l o n g. Day.   Mother told me there would be days like this,,,,  

Menus save time and money.

• Chicken breast, rice, veggies 
• Pizza
• Chicken enchaladas 
• Salmon cakes, veggies, corn 
• Tacos, refried beans 
• Pork stew
• Breakfast for dinner 

We are cooking a load of chicken and hamburger because the freezer decided to hiccup last night and thaw the ice cream.   It magically  decided to run again,   I thawed as much as I could on the refrigerator to cook and save some.   Now I guess I’m going to cook a lot.    Its still a mystery how the freezer just decided to thaw and the fan didn’t work.    

Chicken and rice is easy and will use up some of the chicken I cook,   

Pizza is a good basic.  Everyone likes it and it’s cheap.   A cheese pizza is about a buck when you buy your ingredients on the cheap.   

Chicken enchiladas take a sauce that is homemade.   Enchiladas sauce can be pricey , 

Salmon cakes are good and stretch salmon,    

Tacos are good and the meat is being cooked in batches.   We have plenty of taco shells because if the sales  this week, 

Pork stew is from the pork loin we got last week.  

Breakfast 4 dinner,   Another meal winner. The whole family cooks.   

This example is to show the mindset of how we go about meal planning.   

Next, why.  .....

CHICKEN ENCHILADAS FOR CINCO DE MAYO

1 large or two small chicken breasts.  , cooked

1 cup ( 4 ounces ) grated cheese

1 can green diced mild chili's, drained.

3 cups white sauce made with chicken stock instead of milk.

1/2 cup sour cream

 6  inch flour tortillas

• In small bowl, combine shredded chicken, 1/2 the cheese, and just enough sauce to combine.  
• Spread 2-3 Tbls chicken mixture onto lower third of the tortilla.  Roll up.   
• Spread a thin layer of sauce in bottom of baking dish 
• Place rolled , filled, tortillas into baking dish until filled.   
• To with rest of sauce and the diced green chillis and remaining cheese 
• 
  

Bake at 350 degrees. Until the sauce is bubbly around the edges and cheese is melted, about. 30 minutes.   

Dinner Diary

This week.....

We had chili on Monday.   A new recipe that has corn in it as well as tomatoes and beans.

Tuesday we ate out with friends.  I had a chicken cordon blue with asparagus.

Wednesday we had stew,  a meal that wasn’t planned.  I happened on to a discounted package of stew meat at Safeways for 4.00 a pound.   I cooked it in the insta pot with veggies (potatoes ad carrots ) and it took 45 minutes.   I had leftovers on Thursday.

Thursday we had rice and planned  over chili.   I garnished it with sharp cheddar cheese.  

Tonight we are having roasted red pepper, tomato, and carrot soup and tuna melts.   We have extra English muffins that we paid 1.67 a dozen for.   I got both the tomatoes and the peppers for under my 1.00 target price.

Saturday we will have pizza.   I have some ham cubes we got for 2.00 a package.  We can also get a quiche and some flavor in a potato soup with the rest of the two dollars.    We will add the tops of the peppers that were cut from the peppers we got for .88.
We can add pineapple and plan for sweet and sour pork or chicken on Monday.

Sunday , we have sausage in the freezer.   A quiche of sausage and cheese sounds good.  We will still have English muffins left, and we have a cantaloupe.

Stretching a piece or package of meat and using all of a vegetable stretches your food dollar.   Every little thing you can do to stretch, and find food for a RBP helps.   Its the little things that add up to make your food bill 4.00 a day.  I have adapted my regular shopping/cooking habits to finally come down to four dollars a day per person.  The theory is that if you can do it for 4.00 a day, spending more isn’t hard.  We have salmon, pork loin, good hamburger, boneless, skinless chicken breast, and fresh fruit always.   I buy what vegetables I can that are 1.00 or nearly a dollar a pound or each, and supplement with frozen or canned.   We eat balanced, we eat well.   Four dollars a day also supplements granddaughter and grows a stock.


Simplify, buy at RBP, and always have food in the house.

4 plus 1 is FIVE.   Four people, 1 meal, 5 bucks.
Keeping guidelines in mind helps to keep you on track.

No food is going to do your family well if you are feeding it to the garage disposal.

Some people wouldn’t see a bargain if it got up and bit them in the butt, Don’t be that person.

Friday Recipe

Roasted red pepper, tomato and carrot soup

Line sheet pan with parchment paper

1/2 red pepper , sliced and cored.
2 pounds Roma romatoes, quartered and seeded
1 Lb  carrots, scrubbed and cut into uniform pieces, small coins would work best.
Garlic
Olive oil

Roast at 400 degrees for  55 minutes or until carrots are tender. You should have some carmelizing.

Cool slightly,

Place 1/2 of the veggies in a food processer and add 1 cup water to process.
Transfer to a bowl and process the remaining veggies with another cup of water or just enough to process.

At this point, you can put the purée in a covered container and place in fridge.

When ready to eat. Place purée in sauce pan and add enough milk to soup to make it the desired consistency.  Garnish with parsley and salt and pepper.  


In cooked the carrots for 75 minters.   I would either cut the carrots smaller, or zap them a few ministers in the microwave first.

Carrots, peppers, tomatoes ready for roasting.   

Thursday Notes

Yesterday, we had stew for dinner.   It wasn’t planned.   I shopped three stores yesterday.   I am over budget for the week, but became of the quantities I purchased, we won’t have to have much next week.  I got stew meat for 4.00 a pound because it had today as a pull date.   I just cooked it yesterday.  Tomato paste, broth, meat, carrots and potatoes in the insta pot for 45 minutes.   I actually threw  it together, started the pot and went and watched the news.  

Because of cinco de Mayo, there was a lot of Mexican inspired foods on sale.  Really really really cheap.   A lot of 4 day sales that end Saturday.   We got 24 ounce salsa for a dollar, as well as flour tortillas for .49.  It is easy to make a ‘toasted cheese’ sandwich with tortillas instead of bread.  Using smaller ones for enchiladas keeps the carbs down.  

In addition, dairy was on sale, so I got enough to last the rest of the month.   Most of it was 1/2 price Or at least discounted drastically.  I am not finding coupons for much of anything, and the yogurt was no exception.    Sour cream and cottage cheese was greatly reduced, as well as 1/2 price milk.  

Buying things when they are a good price saves a lot of money.   It is what affords you good meals for a small budget.  

We still have chili leftover from Monday.  Tuesday we went out with friends, and yesterday we had stew.   I think we will have chili over rice tonight.   Its not what is planned, but it works and we wot waste.  

Sausage was 1.99 .   That’s  enough for the month’s worth of breakfast for dinners.  

Because we have a new pork loin, and hamburger and chicken, we wont have to buy meat the rest of the month.   That cuts a lot off of the food bill.   The dairy is bought also, so that leaves fresh fruits and veggies.   When you are in that position, it is a good time to take stock in the stales and see if you have enough .   Certain things have a very very long shelf life, like some never spoil.   Buying in bulk just means that you don't have that thing on your list for a long time.   It simplifies things.  

•  Salt 
• Honey
• Rice 
• Sugar 
• Beans 
• Pasta - 8 years 
• Pure maple syrup
• Dry milk 
• Soy sauce 

Some of those things can be really really inexpensive.   I bought a bag of salt for 5.00.  Swear we have enough salt for my lifetime, my daughters lifetime, and probably into my granddaughters. LOL 

I also buy soda in bulk.   Ditto vinegar.   Soda and vinegar make for good cleaning agents.   They are not caustic and cheap when bought in bulk. 

Buying quantities, just means you don't have to put them on your shopping list, and the simpler  the list, the easier and faster you can get in and out of the store.   We went to 3 stores yesterday, we were gone 1.5 hours and I didn't hurry.  I was also checking prices so I know where to find the cheapest .  I actually get inquiries from people asking that question. Safeways overcharged for the milk and we had to go back.  That took an additional ten minutes from the 1.5 hours.   

The more you can stock at RBP , especially things that don't go bad or will last the month at least, the more you can get to the point where some weeks you can just shop the perimeter of the store.   That is the fastest trip you can make.   

Spending more time planning a trip and shopping will save a lot of money.   Making cooking scratch efficient will balance the amount of time spent.   Most meals take me less than 20 minutes.   Stew last night took 15 minutes.  That was mostly browning the meat and making gravy. 

Having the right tools, as with any job, makes a big difference.   My insta pot and food processor are my workhorses in the kitchen.   I rarely use the mixer.   It does knead bread well and is good for Christmas cookies.   I hear you can shred meat, but I dont know anyone that has done it.     Before I discovered that you can grind meat in the food processor, I used the kitchen aid to do that.  I think it does a better job, but the food processor is a lot more  efficient.   

.

Yesterday, because I knew we were going to three stores and it was going to be a big haul because of the prices, I made a list and used a piece of copy paper out of the recycle.   I marked off columns and identified them by store.   We always have a cooler bag in the car for cold things so we ca go t multiple stores or errands.   Monday’s winco run was in conjunction with my doctors appointment.   The three stores we went to were located in a circle of about 3 miles from the house.   Before we got a winco, we made a once a month  trip to winco in a town three towns away - about 20 miles round trip.   

By next week, I should be on target for the 4.00 a day challenge.   

Pasta sauce and pasta are .88 each at winco this week.   It is a good time to buy for the needy.   It is quite remarkable that you can spend 1.76 for a package of spaghetti and a can of pasta sauce and feed a family dinner.  That is probably less than a cup of coffee .   Random acts of kindness can be as simple as taking your clean paper bags to the food bank, giving someone a coupon for something they have in their carts, or stopping on you walk to help  someone with their weed eater.   It doesn’t have to cost you money, but you can still make a difference in someone’s life.   

Thanks for visiting.   

Multi grocery haul

Part of the Haul. ...

QFC 

Salsa 24 ounces .  2.49 paid .99

Lettuce .99

Cole slaw .99

Sour cream .79

Yoplait .50

Peppers .88

La Victoria salsa bogo 3.29/2

Cream cheese 1.50

Tortillas .49

Turkey breast, beef sliced 2.50

Hard taco shells 1.00

Taco seasoning FREE

Sausage links 1.99

30.19

WINCO 

Tortilla chips .98

Spaghetti .88

Beans, canned .48

Roma tomatoes 1.51

Taco shells .98

Total 7.09

SAFEWAYS 

Milk .88

Muffins .99  (4)

Beef stew -markdown 1.5 bs 6.54

Shrimp 7.96 2 lbs 

Total 16.37 

Total 53.69

Chain store ads

I have to get FM electronically.   QFC and Alberways are not much there.   It may be a good time to alternative shop.

QFC

Peppers, cucumbers, .88

ELECTRONIC COUPONS
There is some discussion on whether you can use a paper coupon with a digital coupon.   My source says you can use both a Kroger stores, coming from corporate Kroger.   I’m not sure that you can.  It wouldnt hurt to try.

BUY 4, SAVE 4
You must buy 4, but not necessarily the same thing.   Use your store card

Ritz 1.79 -$$
Land of Lakes Butter 2.49



FOUR DAYS ONLY W TH F SAT ONLY - DIGITAL COUPONS -YOU CAN USE 5 TIMES
AVACADO  .77
TORILLA CHIPS .99
TORTILLAS  ,49

DIGITAL AY DAY YOU CAN USE 5 TIMES

KROGER CHEESE 2.49 (TOP OF THE TARGET PRICE)
MARIE CALLENDERS DINNERS 4/8
YOPLALIT 10/5
SOUR CREAM/ COTTAGE CHEESE .79
BREAKFAST SAUSAGE 1.99
———————————————-

ALBERWAYS

Breyers ice cream 2/5
Bread .78@@
Milk .88 @@
Raw shrimp 2.98@@

4 DAY SALE, W TH F S
Pork shoulder blade 1.59
Taco shells, 1.00
Sour cream 1.00
Tortillas 1.00
Note sour cream and tortillas are cheaper at qfc

About it.

Fred Meyers

Milk .99
18 ounces blues 2.99
Lettuce .99
Taco shells 1.00

Digital coupons
Cheerios, 1.49
Cr cheese 1.49
Pastas .49
Marie. C dinners 4/7

Chilli

Yesterday I made chili .  We had stopped by winco for a few things.   I got tortilla chips and beans were on sale for .50.   That was my target price.  I usually make scratch beans because they are so much cheaper.  But, I also want to keep a few on hand because if we have an emergency, dry beans won’t work.  

1/2 pound cooked hamburger
2 cans or 4 cups cooked beans , kidney
2 cans diced tomatoes with chillies
1 quart vegetable broth
1 cup corn ( I used frozen)
1 T TACO seasoning

I used the insta pot.   The hamburger was frozen, so I put the pot on sauté until the soup came to a boil and switched the pot off and then to slow cook.  

We served it with grated cheese, and chips.

Cost:
1/2 lb hamburger 1.22
2 cans beans 1.00 ( or .10 for 4 cups scratch)
Diced tomatoes .78
Corn .25
Taco seasoning and vegetable broth (bouillon ) are too small to cost.
Total:
3.29 or 2.39 for scratch

The chips were .98.  We used maybe .25 worth .
This chili  would have served 4.  We had a lot left.  It made the six quart almost full.

It isn’t necessarily what you buy, its more when and where you buy it.

Beans in the insta pot.   Wash beans and pick for any rocks etc.   place in insta pot.   Cover with water    Up to 2 inches above the beans.  Always be sure to not fill the pot more than 1/2 full when you are cooking something that expands—like beans or pasta.  
Close lid and turn the lever to seal.   Push the “bean” button.
Walk away.  Open the pot when it is finished depressurizing by itself.

Drain beans in a colander over the sink.

Winco Haul - May

Winco

Tortilla chips .98

Cookie mixe .49

Apple rain .88

Winco beans .50

Chicken dinner 1.98

Strawberries 1.98

Total 13.50

Kitchen Management

Monday Kitchen Management is a tool that keeps dinner time in control and saves time and money .

Menu :

• Chili, tortilla strips 
• Pizza 
• Pork stew, rolls 
• Tuna melts, roasted carrot, tomato soup 
• Chicken enchiladas , salad 
• Chix nuggets , oven fries, veggie platter 
• Breakfast 4 dinner. 

1. IMake chili , bake chips 
2. Make pizza dough, refrigerate. 
3. Wash veggies and cut up fruit
4. Cook chicken 
5. Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead.
6. Wash kitchen floor 
7. Wash the counters, sinks, and drains ,disinfect 
8. Straighten the freezer drawers. 

Meal Plans

Meal plans are a good way to get organized and save time and money.   Have a plan , or plan to fail.

First, the pork loin from Fred Meyer was nasty.   My granddaughter got it out to help me , so I proceeded to cut it.   It was fine for the first 12 Pork chops.   The rest presented fat all the way through the middle.   I was intending to make it a roast.   I wound up making stew meat.

I am sitting at 56.63 a week for the year.  (4 months) thats .63 a week more than the proverbial 4.00 a day.   Considering that we bought a bulk lot of both boneless, skinless chicken breast and 80/20 hamburger, that isn’t a bad average.

Meals.....we use a protein based matrix to expedite the processs.   Being as efficient as you can in both plannng and scratch cooking, makes groceries on the cheap possible while maintaining a quality balanced diet.

• Chllli, tortilla chips 
• Pizza, salads 
• Pork stew, rolls 
• Tuna melts., roasted carrot and tomato soup 
• Chicken enchaladas, salad 
• Chicken nuggets, oven baked fries, vegetable platter. 
• Breakfast for dinner. 

Notes:   We hae an abundance of English muffins,  egg muffins and tuna melts are a good way to use them up. 

Chilli is easy one pot meal in the insta pot.  Make beans, drain, put pot on sauté and cook meat if not already cooked, and add tomatoes, seasonings.   

Pizza is a dollar a pizza, so its an inexpensive meal that is a hit with everyone.  A homemade pizza crust takes minutes and cost .19.   

Pork stew is from the pork loin I purchased and is also a insta pot meal.   

Somewhere, I have a recipe for roasted carrot and tomato soup.   

Chicken nuggets are from the tenderloin and are homemade with a breading of bread crumbs (homemade) chopped nuts, and parm cheese.   (Real cheese) .  Chopped nuts are cheaper in the bulk isle at winco.   

Breakfast for Dinner is a family affair, everyone cooks.   

Thanks for stopping by..... 

Fred Meyer Haul

The last for the month...

Fruit bars -3.34
Fruit pie 5.00
Pork loin 5.64
Mission tortillas 1.00
Corn 1.00
Cantaloupe 2.00
Peppers .88
Cherry tomatoes 2.00
Cucumber , English .88
25.50 total


Total for the month 296.50 or 70.60 a week
Includes bulk hamburger cost -without bulk purchase 45.36 a week.

Last quarter 51.98 a week.
Total for 4 months including bulk meat 56.63-   .63 over 4.00 a day.  

Friday recipe -

Groceries on the cheap takes a different approach to grocery shopping.   Instead of going to the store and buying a weeks worth of  groceries and repeating the process the next week when the cupboards are bare, you shop to replentish your basic stash.   Simplify, lower your costs, always have food in the house.   

The cooking part is made simpler by scratch cooking efficiently.   Finding recipes that take 5 or less ingredients is a good way to start. 

Buying your diced tomatoes with seasoning is a good way to simplify things.  Most brands have Mexican and Italian seasonings.  

Adding diced seasoned tomatoes and cheese to a cooked meat and pasta makes a quick dinner.   You can use diced chicken, sausage , or ground meat.   

Summer is coming.   A dinner salad is a good way to eat .   Add a nice crusty piece of bread or a muffin.  

Soup is a good go to when you dont want to cook in a hot kitchen.   Dump ingredients in a slow cooker and get out of the kitchen in a hurry.  

Pasta cooks in 2 minutes in the insta pot.  There is a pressure up time and you need to de pressure manually soon after the cycle is done.   Drain as usual.   If the pasta sits in the pot and depressurizes automatically, the pasta will be over done.   The time it takes is just enough to gather ingredients or 

heat sauce. 

One of our go to meals in a hurry is chicken parm.   The chicken is patties from Foster Farms.   They heat in the microwave in minutes.   Put over cooked spaghetti and add sauce and parmesean cheese.   

It takes minutes.   

Last night we had chicken chimichangas.    They took a matter of minutes because I had cooked the chicken in the insta pot earlier in the day.   I added a green salad.   

Spaghetti and meatballs is also easy.   I buy meatballs, but I have also make meatballs in a bulk meat cooking time.   I make them with a portion scoop and put them on a rack over a sheetpan.   That way, the fat drips onto the sheet pan as they bake in the oven.  They are not stewing in their own fat.  

 Garnish spaghetti and meatballs with Parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes.   

Anything that you can put together in minutes and hand off to a instapot, slowcooker, or oven is a 

good pick.   I make stove top stuffing, add craisens an apple pieces and put it in the oven with pork chops I have browned on the stove.  Cover and cook until the meat is done.   I make scratch stuffing when I happen to have enough dry bread. 

Sausage or meatball subs work well too.   You can sometimes get sub rolls at the DT that are orowheat brands they carry.   I have a scratch recipe, but it takes a lot of fussing.  You can make it in the kitchenaid, but it still has shaping and rising times.   

Spinach, tomato, and feta sandwiches???????    Obviously, the spinach is raw.   

Dinner Diary

Peasant Bread ...a rustic bread -cost .25 

Leftover cake crumbs made in the food processer 

A good way to make best use of the last of the cake.

Crush in a bag from cereal inserts or cake mix, oatmeal.....

Finish in the food processer.  Who says garbage is garbage.   LOL.  

Dinner 

Chicken Primavera

Bread 

Vanilla Pudding with cake topping.  

Chain store ads

QFC

FOUR DAYS ONLY -april 26-29 - TH, F,S,S 

Pork Shoulder Roast .99

BUY 4, SAVE 4

BREYERS 2.99

RITZ 1.79

KROGER SMOKED SAUSAGE 1.49

LAND OF LAKES BUTTER 2.99

DIGITAL COUPONS - you ca buy up to 5 of each item 

GM cereal 1.49 - should be paper coupons to stack 

Kroger cheese 2.49 - top of the target price 

Yoplait 10/5

Marie Calllender’s Pot Pies 2/5

Oscar Mayer bacon 3.99

Goldfish 2.99

Tide 3.99 / 50 ounces 

Phil. Cream cheese 1.49

Corn 2/1 

Regular ad 

Flank steak 5.99

Strawberries 2.99

Asparagus 1.99

Alberways 

Pudding Rings 2/5

Cheese .99@@

Lean Cuisine 1.89@@

Kelloggs Cereal 1.69 - coupons out there, you must buy 3

Buy 10 Dannon Lite and Fit, or Oikos yogurt and get butter or eggs free

The yogurt is a dollar each.  

Thats about it.   

Fred Meyer next.  I have to get it on line.  

English cucumbers, peppers.  .88
Foster Farms BS chicken breast 1.97


DIGITAL COUPONS
Tide.3.99
Cheese 2.49 - top of the target price
GM cereal 1.49 - coupons are out there

——-

Flour tortillas 1.00
Honey 3.99
Pr shoulder bone in 1.79

Digorno pizza 4.99
Berries  2/5
Corn 2/1
Hebrew national 3.99

Tuesday Food Diary

Last night we had taco soup and quesadillas.  We had derviated from our normal breakfast for dinner the night before and had nachos.   My husband said he didnt feel like eggs.   We had leftovers, so I made taco soup and added a quesadilla.  

Leftover taco meat,
Black olives
Milk green chillies.
2 cans diced tomatoes with jalapeños
1/2 quart of tomato boullion.
12 ounces of frozen corn.

Simmer in slow cooker.


Quesadilla

Spray small flour tortilla with cooking spray
Put sprayed side down in small sauté pan.
Fill with grated cheese
Top with another tortilla and spray with cooking spray.

Brown on both sides to melt cheese.
Cut into quarters.  


Leftovers don’t have to be boring, or look like leftovers.  

Fred Meyer Haul

I am way under budget, if you dont count the bulk beef purchase we made this month.   I expect by next month we will be back on track or lower without having to buy much meat.   We are down to just buying pork.

Frozen entrees 1.88
Fruit bars 1.88

Goldfish .99
Cookies 1.99
Snapeas .99

Diced ham 2.00
English muffins (12) 1.67
Butter 2.50

Grapes 1.99
Tomatoes 1.29

Total 24.90

I went for 4/5 strawberries.   As typical of FM mentality, bait and switch, they had none.

Kitchen Management

Kitchen Management, aka meal prep and clean kitchen.....is a good way to get a head start on dinners and take some of the stress out of a hectic dinner hour.  

Meal. Plan recap:

• Taco soup, tortilla chips 
• Pizza 
• Chicken Primavera
• Tacos, Spanish rice 
• Chix chimichangas 
• Baked Potato bar 
• Breakfast 4 dinner 

1.  Find taco soup recipe 
2. Make pizza dough...you can freeze it. 
3. Wash veggies , including potatoes 
4. Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead.  
5. Incorporate anything on the edge in the next few meals. 
6. Wash and disinfect counters, sinks, and drains. 
7. Wash kitchen floor 
8. Straighten pantry 
9. Mark meal plan to precook chicken for primavera and chimichangas.

Clean inside of dishwasher -part of deep clean.  

Meal Plans

Meal Plans are a tool that saves time and money .   Being organized is a good thing.   Even if a plan doesn’t work, you are still better off to have a plan.

• Soup and Bread 
• Pizza , salad 
• Chicken Primavera, bread sticks ,  
• Tacos, Spanish rice.
• Chicken Chimichangas, lettuce, tomato 
• Baked Potato bar 
• Breakfast for Dinner. 

1. Soup of choice, bread is a good fill in.   Something about a crusty loaf of bread just make soup and bread fulfilling.   Homemade bread can take as little ass 10 hands on minutes and cost a quarter.   
2. Pizza is 1.00 a cheese pizza.   Add toppings and you still have an inexpensive crowd pleaser.   Pizza dough can be purchased for 1.50-2.00 and made for.......19 cents.  
3. Chicken Primavera is an old recipe revisited.   Healthy and good.   
4. Tacos are another easy meal.   Taco meat is already cooked in the freezer.  A couple of seconds in the microwave and you can add it to a little water and taco seasoning in a sauté pan.   Let it simmer while you chop tomatoes, onion, and lettuce.  Gather the salsa and cheese.   Spanish rice is a few minutes hands on in the insta pot. 
5. Chicken chimichangas are another easy dish. Chicken cooks from frozen in the insta pot in mere minutes.  Before insta pot, I cooked it in the microwave in water.   Add cream cheese, diced chicken, and pepper jack cheese, add mild green chillies.  Spray with oil and bake.   Basically, everything is cooked, you are just melting cheese and browning the tortilla.   
6. Baked potato bar uses up about any leftovers in the fridge.     Another easy dinner the family likes because they can make it themselves.   
7. Breakfast for dinner is a family affair , everyone cooks.  I want to try oven french toast.   Hoping to find french bread at the DT.  

On another note.   The center for disease control is recommending that you dont eat romaine in any form. I assume that they are not including romaine you grew yourself.   But, a lot of people are getting sick 🤕.   

Saturday Notes

This would be the day when I posted Fred Meyer Ad.  But, they went to a regular Wednesday thru Tuesday ad and they arent in the Sunday Paper anymore.   We dont get their ad in the mail.  I have to get it on line.

Checking your stock frequently helps to keep yourself on track.   Putting like thugs together makes it easy to tell at a glance how much of any one thing you have left, or better, how much you need to fill in.  

5 Breakfasts that cost less than a dollar.

1. Scratch Oatmeal w topping and whole wheat toast. Oatmeal when purchasednin bulk from costco costs .085 a serving.   You can add brown sugar, apple, or a 1/2 a banana and still feed yourself for well under .50 .  If you use a half apple you can probably serve a family of 4 for a dollar. 
2. An egg, whole wheat toast, part of a piece of fruit. Eggs recently are seven cents a piece.  Add whole wheat toast from the dollar store (orowheat) and some applesauce or 1/2 an orange and you are well under fifty cents.   
3. Breakfast Muffin 
4. Breakfast burrito 
5. Pancakes, syrup, hot cocoa. Turkey bacon 
6. Yogurt parfait.  Yogurt,granola, fruit layereed in a glass. 

All these prices are based on seattle prices, purchased on sale with or without coupons. 

Friday

My outline says its recipe day.    Did that yesterday.   My husband did go to safeways and get 5 frozen veggies and he stopped by QFC today for free chips.   I’m over budget, but considering I bought a bulk beef purchase that obviously will last more than this month, its not bad.   I’m still well below the USDA stats for my husband and I, and we supplement our granddaughter.  

Groceries on the cheap takes a different manta on grocery shopping. Basicly , instead of shopping for a weeks groceries and rushing to the store on payday to buy another weeks groceries, you stock the basic necessities and shop sales when you are running low.   By keeping a four to six week supply of your basics, you always have food in the house and you are just replacing your perishables and looking for a rotation protein and sales to restock.   It simplifies things and you actually spend less time shopping .  A result of this is that my shopping hauls are not what anyone would consider well balanced.   Our meals are well balanced and I stress low fat, sugar, salt, HFCA and hydroginated oils.
The benefit of all this is that we eat on less than four dollars a day per person and we eat well.  

Simplify, lower your costs, always have food in the house.  
Its not a new concept.  Stock market traders want to buy low and sell high.   Same principal.   Buy when prices are low and eat when they are high.  Our great grandmothers gathered fruits and veggies in the summer when the gardens were producing, and canned the bounty to get through the winter months.    Nothing new, just modernized.

On another note, dollar tree now carries orowheat bread.   The selection of bread products varies .   Nonetheless, products that are upwards of two dollars are a dollar.    Anything goes.   Bagels, English muffins, wheat bread, rolls, hogie rolls, thick bread for french toast.    Obviously, the closer you go to delivery day, the best selection you have.

Oven French Toast is going to be my next Sunday night dinner.   I have never made it enforce.   This should be interesting.   Anyone ever made it?    Tips?  

Thanks for tuning in.....please share.  

So, what’s in a price.

Prices even in the same area can be drastically different.  There is a big push by food retailers to make things really convenient for people.   Having had two children under the age of 2 at one time, I can certainly understand why people would buy into pick up delivery.

My daughter had development problems due to a medical issue when she was a baby.   At three we had here tested.   She tests with a high IQ and a vocabulary several years past her chronological age.   The doctor asked her where milk came from.....her answer....my Dad.   LOL.  This was because I wasn’t about to drag two children under the age of 2 to the store for bread and milk.   I would call my husband and have him stop on his way home from work.   It was just a whole lot easier.

The fact, none the less, is that they add on a charge one way or another for the convenience of having someone else shop for you.

At Christmas time, I had no desire to battle the crowds to get a few things from Costco.  They offered free delivery, so I used it.  I noticed that the items I bought were more expensive than the same counterparts in the warehouse.  No joke, you are going to pay one way or another for the privilege.   Sometimes, its just worth it.

There is just no doubt, different stores can charge different prices for the exact same thing.   A lot has to do with the climate of the store.   Full service stores with deli’s and meat markets staffed with personnel are more expensive than the no frills store.   If you don’t need the services of a deli or manned meat market, don’t pay the price.   The fancier the store and the more items it has, the more you are going to pay.   Rightly so, if you have to pay the wages and benefits for personnel to provide
services amd stock and rotate stock for a zillion items, it is going to be reflected in the price of the things you buy.

If you are trying to feed your family on the lowest column of the USDA cost of food at home list, using the full service stores sparingly, is a good idea.   Winco and Aldi  save money because you bag your own food.   I prefer it because I know what items need to go to the downstairs freezer and I can pack the food accordingly.   That way, we are not bringing things upstairs , only to bring them down to flights of stairs.   I also have no one to blame but myself for putting the bread on the bottom.  LOL

That being said, I have found as much as a 1.50 swing between the most expensive store and the cheapest store.   That’s  a lot of money percentage wise.   The lesson here is to know your prices.

My mother used to say that some people could have a bargain get up and bite them in the butt and they wouldn’t see it.   Don’t be that person.

To pay 1.50 for a can of veggies one week, .50 the next week, and 1.50 the third week is just plain Stupid unless you live in a fourth floor walk up in NYC.   You are much better off buying three when they are .50.   It’s just plain simple logic.   Moderation is the key.   If you buy a bunch of things that your family doesn’t eat a lot of and they go to waste, its not smart either.
I read a interesting article on facebook by Taste of Home, that identified things that we have been throwing away that are good a long time after their pull dates.   Eggs and yogurt come to mind.


Using as many bits of leftovers as you can can save a lot of money .  Its a mindset.   My Dad used to say the more you do, the more you want to do.   You just have to take that first step.   Motivation is a strong word.

We eat on less than four dollars a person per day.   It took a long arduous path to get to this point.   There were hits and misses...a lot of misses.   We struggled through cooking soy beans and them still being Little Rock’s.....my experience with  lentils weren’t much better.   I succeeded with bean sprouts only to be told they were dangerous.   But, we succeeded in the end.   We eat good hamburger, boneless skinless chicken breast, pork loin , and salmon.  No, Virginia, we don't eat beans every meal.   LOL.  ( a take from the Santa Claus letter ) .

Simplify, lower costs, and always have food in the house.  

Four plus one is five....four people, one meal, five bucks.

No food is going to do your family good if you feed it to the garbage disposal.

A stockbroker’s concept is to buy low and sell high.   Buying your groceries is no different.Buy when the price is low, and eat when the price is high.   Think of it as making a profit.

Thursday Notes: recipe

Last night we had oven chicken for dinner.   I added an on the spot pasta side dish to go with it.

Basically , I opened the fridge; and started throwing things into a sauté pan 

A recipe of pasta 

Leftover corn 

Leftover beans 

Some grape tomatoes , cut in half 

A small zucchini, sliced 

A handful of raw spinach.  

Olive oil 

Red pepper flakes 

Italian seasoning,   

Chain Store ads....

QFC is the same as last week.

Fred Meyers
Watermelon 1.77
Strawberries 4/5
Raspberries 4/5

Beef Roast 2.99
Bacon 3.49 ( watch sizes some are 12 oz.)

Milk .99
Sliced cheese 1.99
Butter 2/5

Buy 5, save 5
2 lb cheese 4.99 (top of the target price )
Dryers 1.99
Phil.cream cheese 2 pk. 2.99
Turkey bacon 1.49
Goldfish .99
Note: orowheat bread, pan bread is 2.49 (1.00 at the DT)

Alberways

Dollar days
Garden sala
Avacados
Peppers
Baby carrots
Lettuce

Coupons in ad
Milk 1.79@@
Bacon 2.99@@in three pound packages. This bacon is thick sliced.
Butter 2.99@@

Frozen veggies (some are 16 ounces) 1.00

Some meat is BOGO, no prices listed
Buy at your own risk.....LOL

Dollar Tree Haul

7.00

Sara Lee bagels are 1.00 w a .55 coupon attached
Thin sandwich rolls
Cranberry nut sandwich breads

Sun dried tomatoes
Fudge grahams
Mustard

Barrilla elbow pasta.     (2.00 next door at safeways. )

Tuesday Notes

I stayed up late last night reading Comey’s new book.  It is an interesting read.   I don’t agree with the people saying it’s just a way for him to make money.  There are a lot of life’s lessons in there.  I find it interesting that someone that came from a family that appears to be of modest means could rise from it to be where he is .  It seems more about his upbringing and attitude than money or status.   I would have to say from experience that instilling a good sense of values and a good sense of self worth in a child is more important than money.   It is amazing how suttle attitudes can be picked up by children .

This is about food.  I digress .....

Attitudes make a big difference in our lives.   Motivation is a good thing.   After hearing that the one thing I was good at could help people , especially children, I set out to write this blog to help people
S t r e t c h their food dollars.  I Learned a lot in the process.  I still want to reach more people, I know I can help people eat better and spend less.  Having food in the house goes a long ways to make people feel more secure in their lives.   Security is a step up from wanting to sit down and give up.
They say adversity builds character; personally, I don't think I want more character.   LOL

Trying something new for dinner is a good thing.   It breaks up monotony.   Even working with a small budget, you can make things fun.   How about a meal that all starts with the same letter.   Kids could have a fun time thinking of things to eat.

There’s inspiration. Everywhere.  We got a magazine fro QFC last week that is full of recipes...and coupons.  The internet and pinterest is full of them.   You can get magazines from the goodwill for .50.  Read them and return them .  Food has changed , but its still food.   I have recipe books from WWII.  They are real money savers because certain things were in short supply and the recipes compensated for that.

I got more ideas from the little 1/2 page books you can get at the supermarket.  They are usually full of ideas.

Overnight Maple French Toast.   A good recipe for Sunday morning.   It is made the night before and cooked in the morning.   Or, make it in the morning and have it for dinner .   We like breakfast for dinner.   Ditto a puffed pancake. Breakfast Burritos.

Buffalo chicken wraps

Pork chops with sour cream sauce.

Pork, onion and apple hoagies - rolls are often at the DT- orowheat

Chicken Primivera

Mediterranean Pasta with beans

Lemon basil vegetables and rice.

Strawberry Vinaigrette

Pillsbury mini  cookbook.

5 things that save pennies.

It is the mindset.   Save pennies, make dollars.   You would be surprised what can be made from those things that people normally would shove in the trash..

• Last week, we splurged and bought chicken wings for 1.00 a pound.   I say splurged because i had just paid the same amount for boneless, skinless chicken breast.   I cut the “drums” from the “thighs” and there was the wing left.   Not much meat there.   I threw them in a bag and put them in the “garbage “ door shelf of the freezer.   When I have enough chicken bones , I will make chicken stock overnight.   
• There are always scraps .   We wash the carrots and celery in vinegar water.   Vinegar is 4.26 a two gallon pack at costco.  The peelings and the tops and bottoms of the celery can be frozen and saved for stock.   Stock, when purchased can be 2.00 a quart.   Its a no brainier to dump saved chicken bones and veggie scraps into a slow cooker with water to within a inch of the top and let it go all night.   Pour it through a sieve or colander in the morning.  Let cool and freeze.  
• Freezing the pizza sauce in an ice cube tray and dumping the cubes into a quart bag is a good addition to the ‘garbage” door shelf.   That makes a pizza sauce (2 cubes ) for a medium sized pizza .20.   
• Anything that can go on a pizza that is left from another meal can be frozen for a pizza.   The smallest amount can be used .   A little sausage, peppers, ham cubes, mushrooms, chopped onion, anything you put on a pizza.   
• It goes without saying that you can use the heels of the bread or any extra hamburger or bot dog buns to make bread crumbs.   Put it through the food processer with a plastic blade and the children can make them.   Or, if you dont have a food processer, let the bread dry in the oven and grate it with a box grater.   I used to do that out on the deck with a sheet pan under the grater.   Again, bread crumbs are often 2.40 cents a pound.   There are better uses for your 2.40.
• The ‘juice’ that is left from draining the diced tomatoes can be used to flavor rice instead of the water.  Sometimes I also add some vegetable or chicken bouillon .   It s more flavor and maybe just a little nutrition .   
• Many cooks put a little pasta water in their sauces.   
• That little bit of peas and carrots in the frozen bag can be added to a cheeseburger macaroni cassarole....homemade.  
• I save the coarse salt that my daughter doesn’t use from their frozen pretzels. 
• Leftover cornbread can be the base for a chilli bowl. 
• Leftover black beans can make their way into a salad or hamburger used for enchaladas.  
• Leftovers dont have to be just the same thing heated up.  I cant tell you how many men are against eating leftovers.  I have heard it many times.   I suspect if they were the ones cooking and doing the cleanup, they might not be so opinionated .(hows that for being snarky LOL) but, reimagining a bit of leftover, can solve the problem.  
• Bits of cheese make their way into mac and cheese in our house. I stole that idea from a happy hour menu!LOL.  They are a rich source of ideas.  Flatbread comes to mind...and it doesn’t have to be burned and like a cracker.   
• We had two strawberries left from our fruit plate the other night.  I threw them in my oatmeal just before my husband go to them to throw in the garbage disposal.   “No food is going to do you any good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.  HHA  HA /!

Kitchen Management

Kitchen management is a concept that goes a long way towards being organized and saving valuable time during the hectic dinner hour.    I remember those days when I got home from work, and had hungry children and the mail, laundry, and dinner staring me in the face.   All I really wanted was to put my feet up and watch the news with a cup of nice tea.   LOL.   Reality.  

Prepping for the weeks meals and zone cleaning the kitchen makes life so much easier the rest of the week.

• Oven Roast Broccolli 
• Make pizza dough and freeze /refridgerate 
• Cook chicken breast in insta pot. 
• Wash salad greens, potatoes, carrots and celery 
• Mark meal plan calander to thaw chicken 
• straighten the pantry, fill canisters.   
• Wash kitchen floor 
• Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead.  
• Clean countertops and sinks and drains with disinfectant 
• Wax island cupboards.  
• Make breadcrumbs . 
• Post food purchases to spread sheet 

I started this blog almost six years ago because my children encouraged me to.  My daughter had taught children from low income families for a number of years and one of her students mothers had reached out to her because she was running out of money before she ran out of month.   My daughter told her that I knew how to s t r e t c h a buck.   It seemed like a good idea to write a blog so that I could help people.   I had been studying the subject for some fifty years.   

It wasnt until my daughter and I set out to give a class on cutting your food bill in half that I did the math and realized I had changed enough habits to feed us on less than four dollars a day and grew a stock and supplemented granddaughter.  After I started this blog I decided to work at every angle I could find to further the concept of cutting the food bill. 

Simplify, lower your costs, always have food in the house.   

Four plus one is five.   Four people, one meal, five bucks.  

No food is going to do your family good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal. 

Waste not, want not. 

My mother used to say, some people could have a bargain get up and bite them in the but and they wouldn’t see it.  Don’t be that person.  

Meal Plans for wk of 4/16/18

Eat well when you make a plan.   It takes away the answer to the question “ What’s for Dinner”

1. Potluck : broccolli 
2. Pizza 
3. Chicken Chimichangas 
4. Speghetti and Meatballs 
5. Sloppy joes 
6. Stuffed Chicken Breasts 
7. Breakfast for dinner 

Notes:   

Pizza is a easy way to make everyone happy.....cheap . Homemade pizza is about a dollar.  More to add toppings of meat.   

Chicken chimichangas are easy and quick.  They can have Spanish rice and beans for sides. 

No Brainer:   Spaghetti and Meatballs.  Easy, quick and a crowd pleaser.

Sloppy Joes use the buns we got from the DT.  Fresh potatoes.

Chicken breast stuffed with spinach and cheese and topped with a breadcrumb mixture that is homemade.   

Fred Meyer mini ad and beyond

There is a mini ad in tomorrow’s paper for FM.   There isn’t one for Alberways .

Cantaloupe is a dollar each.
Mandarins are 3.99 for 5 pounds.

TWO pounds of rotisserie chicken is 5.99 when you buy 5, save 5.   That means that you are paying six dollars a pound for chicken.   Not of my money. LOL.  

Buy 5, save 5, is only good if the prices are at RBP and especially if you can match with a coupon.   Seems like coupons are drying up.   I found a coupon for mandarin oranges in glass jars.  Period.  
There is one for toothpaste.  

Simplify, spend less, and always have food....the reason to grocery shop on the cheap.

By simplifying your grocery list and buying multiples , you save time and money.  buy versatile things that make good meals.   Last night we had salmon, smashed red potatoes, and honey ginger carrot coins.  

Spending time to teach your children 👶 how to cook and shop by observation is a good thing.  The gap between the poor and the rich is shrinking .  We never know what the future will bring.   If you know how to stretch a buck, you will always be able to cope.   It’s not hard to spend more.  It is not always the fact that you don’t have money.  Sometimes, people want to save for a particular project.  A special vacation , a rental unit to make money for the future or ?????.



Cooking is a good life skill.   My mother taught us how to bake ,  I think because she didn’t want to.
She was less generous with her teaching of dinner items, I think because she couldnt afford it if we messed up.   LOL.   Besides, I was so slow and deliberate, dinner would have been past our bedtimes! LOL.  I had to learn to cook what I didn’t learn in home ec.   I don’t remember learning anything about meat.   It was probably more than their budget.   I remember making a roux and potato soup and muffins.   I remember “planned overs” .  

I have always been busy.  We had three children and a house, boat, yard, and cars to keep up.   A lot of the time I held two jobs.  I learned to make efficient dishes.   You can scratch cook and spend less time in the kitchen.   With the inventions of good kitchen appliances, you can cook almost anything and not spend hours on your feet. Some  basic appliances can more than pay for themselves in a few months.   The difference between cooking beans in the insta pot and buying canned. Beans is remarkable. Even at my buy price of .50, scratch is saving 95 percent. The time involved is minimal.    Rice is more savings.   Pinto beans are cheapest at the DT and they are grown in USA and non GMO.   Rice is really cheap at Costco and its not a huge investment to buy a bulk sack.   If you don’t use a lot, consider splitting a bag with a neighbor or friend.

Rice and beans are a staple.   They are also a good go to if you are flat broke or there is nothing in the house and you cant get to a store or the stores have no food.    Not a pipe dream by the way.  One not so distant past christmas, the main road (I-5) was flooded and trucks couldnt bring the grocery stores food.   It’s  not a good idea to buy groceries one day at a time and not have a minimal at least stockpile even if you have tons of money.  

Look at the menus at the neighborhood’s   eateries.   When the cost of food jumped up, especially beef, the chefs used their creative assets to come up with meals or snacks that were delightful, but less expensive.   Flatbread, baby meatballs, tacos , sliders.....

Anyone but me wonder why the cost of beef went up drastically
because of a year of drought, and it never went down.   We just limited our beef consumption to one or two nights a week if we needed to use leftovers (Planned overs) . My husband had to learn to like chicken.   LOL.   His main objective to chicken was that it had no flavor.   I started to look for flavorful chicken recipes.  Fortunately, even the 6 yo likes spicey foods.

 Simplify, spend less, always have food.  

Friday Recipe

Baked Chicken Nuggets

Face it, chicken nuggets are just plain nasty.   Most of them are made from reconstituted chicken .
Kids love them, but I offer a adult version.   More heathy and tastes a lot better.  

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast , cut into 1 to 1/2 inch cubes .

Combine :
1/2 cup breadcrumbs , dried
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts ( walnut or pecan)

1 stick butter, melted split between two small bowl.   *

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Dip chicken pieces in the melted butter, then the crumb mixture.
Place on baking rack on a sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes in th preheatednoven or unti the chicken tests done.  180 degrees is my benchmark.

Hint:  the bulk food isle (Winco here ) has broken pieces of nuts.   You are going to chop them up anyway, so they save both money and time.  

* you might not use all of the butter, by splitting the butter between two bowls and adding to the first bowl as you need it, you are not contaminating all the butter.  Do not reuse the butter for another purpose.  

Thursday Notes

Another episode of This NOT That

Butter instead of Fake Butter.
The real thing is just better.  My nutritionalist said a skim of butter is better than the fake stuff.  Fake butter often is laced with hydroginated oil.   Almost all oils with the exception of canola (GMO) and olive oil are bad for you.   Hydroginated oil, so they say, thickens your blood.   You are better off, in my opinion with the real thing in moderation.  Moderation is key.  

Roma tomatoes are better than regular tomatoes.
This is just because they have more “meat” and less seeds.   Again, no food can do your family any good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.  

Real maple syrup, parmesean cheese, vanilla...is better than fake.
It just tastes better.   Moderation on the syrup is key.   Parmesean cheese in the green can is laced with wood pulp and it is old.   If parmesean is more expensive than Romano or other hard cheeses, use he other cheeses.   It works the same .  

Nut pieces , not whole pieces.
Winco (or Bulk Food isles ) has broken pieces in the bulk section.   If you are using it for breading or in a recipe, why pay for whole nuts when you are going to cut them up anyway.  Thisnisoe time wen something already done is cheaper.

Insta pot chicken or slow cooker chicken , not rotisserie chicken .
Rotisserie chicken is really , really expensive.   Cooking a whole chicken (.88 a lb ) is twice as expensive as one made in the slow cooker.   That crispy skin is not good for you anyway.  Why ay for it to be pulled off.  Both slow cooker and insta pot chicken take no longer than making the special trip to the store. Ten minutes tops and you are saving 1/2 or more if you buy a 5 pound chicken.   Three pound chickens are the most expensive chicken .   Hands down. And the chicken that is 2 lbs is just a joke.  

Homemade coating mix and bread crumbs , not boxed.  
Why pay 2.40 a pound for someone elses dry bread.   If our 6yo can make breadcrumbs in a snap,  you can too.   Another , it takes minutes and saves a bundle idea.   If I pay 2.44 a pound for hamburger, why would I pay 2.40 for someone elses garbage.   There is more food value in the hamburger.  

Coupons are a waste of time vs use coupons when they make sense.   Don’t take hours clipping every coupon in ten newspapers.  Do print coupons once a month and only print the ones for wha you are likely to use.   Save a batch of inserts from 1 newspaper you buy for a dollar at the DT and match it up with a sale.   Less than a half hour can save you up to 50.00 a month.   That’s 100.00 an hour virtual pay check.  

Homemade quick breads , not bakery breads.  
The operative word here is quick.   It takes a matter of minutes to throw a quick bread into the oven.   The savings are remarkable and you control the sugar.  

Frozen vs fresh blueberries.  
There are times in the year when frozen blueberries are a lot cheaper than fresh.  If you are makin blueberry bread or muffins or smoothies, frozen is better most of the time.   Winco has 2 lb bags for less than 2.00 a pound.   That’s almost the equivalent of three 6 ounce boxes.  

Fred Meyer Haul

Because we were just about out of fruit and Ihad money left in the budget, hubby went to Fred Meyers for fruit and veggies.   This should keep us Ok for a while .

Gala apples .99
Strawberries
Cantaloupe
Zucchini

Total 10.38

That still leaves us 10.00 under and in very good shape for next week.  

New Chain store ads.

Alberways 

2 lbs strawberries 2.99

Extra Lean Ground Beef 3.77

FSSun.  Only 

Turkey breast .99

Lucerne yogurt 4/1 

Chicken of sea tuna .59@@

Eggs 1.49 dozen @@????

QFC

Draper Valley BSCB : BOGO.....no prices here....

BUY 5, save 5 

Goldfish .99

Cheese 4.99 - top of buy price

Dreyers  2.99

Note: orowheat bread and Thomas English Muffins are at the DT.   So, 2.49 is not a bargain. Cheese is barely over 2.00 at costco business.   I paid 1.98 last week at QFC

Oranges .67

Tomatoes .88

Apples, pears .99

Not a lot there ....

FRED MEYER

5 bs mandarins 3.99

Cantaloupe .99

FM cheese2 lbs 4.99 **

JD Sausage 2/7**

Berries ( strawberry, blackberries ) 2/5 

Foster Farms 

Drums, thighs, whole, and split breast..99

Zucchini.99

**. Cheese is at the top of the buy price.   

** jimmy dean sausage is 2.48 at winco.   

Split breast is breast with the ribs attached.  Cut off the ribs, save for stock, and free in portion controlled bags.   I use dollar store quarts and put the quarts in a zip lock with dat and item on it.  Put your ribs in the slow cooker before you go to bed with water up to an inch from the top and add eggie scraps.   You have stock in the morning to put through a colander and you can pick he ones for another days meat.   

Tuesday Notes

Groceries on the Cheap is not about cheap, inferior food.   Its more like buying your food wholesale.   I discovered that food from a wholesale supplier is sometimes more expensive than getting your food from a big box store. (Costco) .  

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

A cake mix can be 2.38 , or it can be .88.  Same box, same brand, different store.

A almost pound bag of meatballs can be 2.00 or 3.50.   Same brand, different store

A pound of Jimmy Dean sausage can be 6.50 or it can be 2.47.  Same package, different store.

You get the picture.   Knowing where to buy certain things , makes a big step in lowering your food bill. You dont hae to go to ten stores every week.   Just know when you need a certain thing and go there and buy enough for four to six weeks.   Freeze what you can.  

I know that I am going to buy pizza sauce, taco shells, pinto beans parchment paper , and Orowheat bread products at the Dollar Tree.   I check stock before I go.   Our Dollar tree is either next to Safeways , or next to Grocery Outlet , depending on where we go.   I can make 1 trip do double duty. So, I will tend To base my trip on what else is on sale or things I need that are low prices at other stores.   Knowing your prices helps with this.   I can go through GO in a few minutes and find the bargains that we can use to make meals in a few minutes.  GO is a treasure hunt.   You know that there are some tried and true things.  I can almost always find sliced cheese, hard taco shells or a taco kit for a dollar.  After that, its a surprise.  I do know that I can always get pizza sauce, flour taco shells, and a selection of bread at the DT.  

Dollar Trees are rated by the franchise.  The better rating gets you a better selection of things.   I found that out by listening to a u tuber that worked for Dollar 💵 Stores.   I suspect it to be true, our towns DT is not as good as the one east of here.  

The trick is to buyin bulk and knowing how much your family will eat in a given month, provided that the item is non perishable.  Overbuying can be a problem.   In any case, finding your food at discount prices goes a long ways to eating well for little money.

Our grocery expense for the last 15 months has been around 55.05 a week.  That is or two of us and supplementing our granddaughter.   ( Her mother is on a restricted diet and we eat a complete diet.)
This also keeps an pantry so we always have food.  

Simplify, lower your food costs, always have food.  

Everyone has basic dinners their family likes.   I suspect most families with children eat Mexican and Italian a lot.   I try to avoid processed foods on a regular basis.   We sill eat them, we like them, but moderation. Is the name of the game.   We eat beef.   Again, I think we need a certain amount for good nutrition.   We dont need it 7 days a week.   That’s why we meal plan with a protein based matrix.  It gives sun variety.   We just buy versatile cuts of meat that can be found in bulk for a reasonable price.  

Shelf stable and freezer products are a regular part of cooking balanced meals.   We all have a list of 10-15 items we buy on a regular basis.   Finding the rock bottom price of these things is key to garoceries of the cheap.   IF you fin the price and buy enough to cover your family for 4-6 weeks, you usually can find a sale again sometime during that period of time.   Organize your pantry or cupboard so that you can see a a glance how much you have of your specified amount.   This isn’t about hoarding.   Its about buying your food basically wholesale.  

Not all things at any one store are ever at a RBP.   I is really necessary to know then prices of your key foods.   I have  a target price of those food in my mind.   If they aren't my price, I don’t buy
them.   Conversely, if they are below it, I am all over it , being mindful of how many we eat in a particular time period.  

I keep 2 boxes of ‘stove top stuffing “ in case I dont have enough dry bread for scratch.   When I found some at Winco for .75, I bought one because I knew I had one in the  pantry.   I didnt buy six.  

Now, I did pass o the .99 prego this weekend, because I have enough.    Its controlled bulk buying.  
I don't want too be caught having to pay full price for anything if I can help it.   If I can substitute something else , I will.  

I bought bulk ground ref from the farmer.   I wont do it agai.   80/20 hamburger was 2.44 a pound.   I frie 5 pounds and got 3.5 pounds of meat and 1 cup of fat.  I measured it and no doubt, missed some clinging to the drain dish.   I defatted it.   I am better off finding a 93/7 sale or grinding my own when I find  three dollar roasts with low fat.   I may change my mind if the next batch I cook is better.   Basically, we paid as much meat for meat as if I bought the good stuff.   I might try the better  quality next year if the price is right.  

I haven’t cooked the  chicken yet. I’m still using my upstairs stash.  

Dairy usually goes on sale once a month at Fred Meyers.   Fred Meyers is joining the Wednesday to Tuesday’s ad stores.  I am wondering if taheir food is going to match QFC is soon.   Time will tell.