Saturday concepts.

Grocery shopping.

Needless to say, you should go to the grocery store with a plan.   I shopped yesterday inbetween physical therapy and picking up granddaughter from school.   This meant that I had more time than usual.   The more time you spend in a store, the more money you are going to spend.   It is orchestrated that way.  The bigger the cart, the more you feel the need to fill it up.   I didn’t have my normal bags that clip on the cart.   They are well worth the cost,  an alternative would be the ones made out of what we used to call  oil cloth. Fill the bags, put the food on the conveyer belt and put the food back in the bags.  In addition, we have had checkers remark that the bags make their job a lot easier.   They aren’t lifting bags and we have hit and cold bags.

My plan was to get fruit and veggies that were a good price for the week and look for butter and diced tomatoes,   We use a lot of both and I always keep a stock.   There is less saturated fat in a tablespoon of butter than there is in a tablespoon of coconut oil.   November should be a good time for any baking supplies to go on sale.   Winco has a whole wall of pumpkin everything.  Name it, it’s there.

Soon, the new crop of vegetables should have hit .and canned goods from last years crop should go on case lots.   There is still over a year on most cans for a pull date.   It’s a good time to stock. Last year I got corn , green beans diced tomatoes for .39 because safeways also had a basket coupon for 10.00 off of fifty dollars.  I made sure that I stuck to my fifty dollars.

Diced tomatoes have been a dollar a can even at the grocery outlet,   Winco has them for .58 so I have been adding six  cans a shopping trip.   Hopefully I will find a case lot.

Adapting your meal plan to include what you can find that is a good price is an easy way to reduce your food budget.   I found acorn squash for .39 a pound at Winco,   It’s a dollar elsewhere.   It’s good nutrition and easily baked in the microwave.  Microwave for a few minutes after you poke it with a fork a few times so it won’t blow up.  It makes it easy to cut in half .  Then scoop out the seeds and fill with a little butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.  Yum.

Pork roast was well under two dollars a pound,   We didn’t buy any because I bough loins last week, but it would be a good purchase of you needed meat for the week,   You can cut off part of it onto stew meat.  Stew cooks in 35 minutes in the insta pot.   It’s an easy hearty meal.

Roasted pork and acorn squash and a vegetable would be good too.

Taking advantage of vegetables and fruit on season and incorporating them into your meals can make a dismal four dollar a day budget look a whole lot more appealing.

Peppers were a dollar each.   Chicken fajitas comes to mind,   I use red peppers a lot on anything that is too white..you eat first with your eyes.

Grapes  were a buck last week, lettuce was a dollar at Winco, nuts  are in the bulk isle, add chicken and have chicken salad,

A hole bag of croissants were featured inexpensive  and ham and turkey were also within reason.   What a treat for lunch,  you could also use them with some chicken salad the kind that is chicken and mayo based.

I picked up stove top stuffing for 1.98 for a two packet box.  Adding apples and Craisens and pork chops that have been browned on the stove and baking it off is a good meal and not to time consuming.

If you spend more time  shopping and planning, and less time efficiently cooking, you will be better off with your budget and still have time for you other life.

Premade pizza crust was 3.49 for two and a coupon for a dollar off if you bought two PACKAGES.  That makes the crusts 1.50 each,   It is only .19 to make a crust, but in a pinch, or for a fast lunch, that is still really cheap alternative, even considering fake and bake,

Huge container of salsa was 1.98.  Chips were 2.28.  That makes nachos a good alternative for a Friday night movie dinner.

I saw cheese for six dollars a pound.  My buy price for cheese is two to two fifty a pound,  I can usually find it, but not if I were to buy one bag at a time.   Grated cheese has a good refrigerator life and you can freeze it with success.

Cake mix was .88.  Cake mix has been as much as 2.76.   Same cake mix.  Same brand.

Buying the same things every week.  Just what you need without cost observing is not going to cut your food bill.   Would I buy 10 bags of chips. No, if I bought ten bags of chips, they would eat ten bags of chips.   The only bags of chips I buy is tortilla chips.   For an occasional chips and salsa, or to have nachos for dinner or as a condiment for taco soup or chili.

Studies  say that 50 percent of a average market basket is snacks and drinks, cut the snacks and drinks, and you have saved a bundle.   Coffee, tea, and vegetable juice is it here.   Anything else
comes out of an entertainment budget.  It makes how much you are spending on garbage more
visible.

You can do this, it’s just about changing habits, the reward is better food and you s gay within a limited budget.

What we ate on 4.00 a day.

1.  Chili, beer bread 
2. Chicken bowl  
3. Chili burrito bowl
4. Tacos 
5. Chicken fajitas 
6. Tomato blue cheese , basil soup, rolls 
7. Vegetable bean soup 
8. Spaghetti 
9. Hamburgers, fries 
10. Spanish rice, homemade sausages , acorn squash 
11. Pasta primavera 
12. Tacos 
13. Pizza 
14. Bbq ribs , acorn squash 
15. Bacon, lettuce and tomato sliders, fries , salad 
16. Beef sliders, fries, fruit 
17. Cheeseburger macaroni 
18. Shrimp scampi with herb butter sauce, wild and brown rice, mixed veggies, 
19. Bbq pork sandwiches, oven fries, salad 
20. Chicken noodle soup, cheese biscuits 
21. Pumpkin French Toast,  reakfast sausage, fruit
22. Chicken tamale pie, salad 
23. Pizza 
24. Chilli, beer bread 
25. Leftover chilli and rice 
26. Birthday dinner 
27. Pork chops with mushroom gravy, acorn squash, green beans 
28. Pork stew and rolls 
29. White bean soup. 
30. Hamburgers, and Ben fries, salad 
31. Pizza

Our three quarter average for food is 51.90 a week.  Four dollars a say equals 59.05.  

Hauls to 10/ 25

Winco
Hamburger 2.98
Milk 1.28
Yellow cake mix Bc .88
Strawberries 1.98
Buns .92
Acorn squash .79
Grapes 1.58
Parmesesn 4.98
Pork riblet 5.21

Total 23.43


Grocery outlet

Black beans .99
Pumpkin .50
Tarter sauce 1.29
Sliced cheese 1.99
Bacon full pound 2.99

Total 17.52


Safeways

Barilla 5.94 charity

French fries 2.00
Pork loins 8.5 lbs 14.11 with coupon
Hormel pepperoni 3.00 with coupon
Cucumbers .88
Total 21.99

Total 62.94

Big lots
Vanilla wafers
Jelly
Peaches
6.00

68.94

Chain store ads

A lesson in patience.....no mailman ads.  Safeways ad on line was 2 inches by 1.5 inches.
Safeways is the only one that refuses to be on Flipp.

Fred Meyers

Digital, Friday/Saturday only , limit 5
Oscar Mayer hotdogs 1.99
Red barron pizza 1.99

Grapes .99
90/10 hamburger 3.99
Brats 3.99

Progresso soup .99 must buy 8

Foldgers coffee 7.49
Canned chicken breast 6/8.99

QFC

Draper valley chicken breast BOGO
Ore Ida Potatoes BOGO
Orowheat bread BOGO-note that select varieties are at the DT

Oranges, pears, .88
Cottage cheese/sour cream 4/5


Free Friday 9 ounces sausage (hot)

Peppers .99
Pumpkin pie 3.99

Alberways

Eggs .99@@
Ragu 1.99@@-you can use a paper coupon and stack
Pasta .70@@
Bacon 2.99@@


Country ribs 1.99
80/20 hamburger 2.99
Hebrew National 3.99
Hormel pepperoni 2/7$$


Gala apples .88

Peanut butter 2/4   16 Oz

Kellogg’s cereal 4/10 free milk - this would be good if you have coupons

Tuesday : how did she do that?

Que bisquick Impossibke Pies

Last night we had chicken tamale pie.  I didn’t realize it until I started cooking that it was basically an impossible pie.   It was good, I would serve it with salsa and a salad,  

Impossible lies are a good go to when you have little tome and need dinner.   They can be prepared in five minutes and go in the oven about a half hour.  

They come in many many varieties,   From sweet to savory.   From taco to pumpkin pie and everything in between.

Basically you oil the bottom of a pie plate or small, shallow baking pan, dump your ingredients in layers into the pan.   Then mix egg, milk and bisquick together,  I use the blender thing so everything is homogeneous.  Pour the liquid over the solid and place it on the oven.   You are done.  There is protein, sometimes a vegetable, and it comes out with a biscuit topping.

You can make your own bisquick and there is a recipe for it with vegetable oil that has no preservatives and no hydrogenated oil.

It’s not something we eat on even weekly basis, but it is a good go to when times are tough and time  is in short supply,   Anything you can set it and forget it so to speak is a good thing.  I had three active kids and I am well aware of how hectic dinner time can be especially  if you work outside the home.  You hit the door and the kids want to tell you how there day went, the mail comes in, there is homework to do, and the  last thing you want to do is to put dinner on the table.   But, life goes on,  that’s why it is a real help to spend an hour or so prepping on the weekend to make things run smoothly.

Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen management is a tool that takes usually about an hour.  Sometimes that includes putting on the nights dinner.   An hour doing deep cleaning of a small area and prepping goes a long ways towards making the dinner hour go smoothly.

Recap of menus

• Chicken tamale pie 
• Pizza
• Smoked paprika garlic chicken, yellow rice, green beans 
• Chili , cornbread or beer bread 
• Salmon, scalloped potatoes, peas 
• Breakfast for dinner

1. Wash kitchen floor 
2. Clean and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains. 
3. Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. 
4. Clean the microwave. 
5. Thaw the chicken for tamale pie and paprika garlic chicken .
6. Make a batch of pizza dough-Noreen’s kitchen u tube 
7. Make muffins 

Notes 

Muffin mix takes most of the work out of making muffins.  I will use the rest of the pumpkin I didn’t use for the pumpkin French Toast we had last night for dinner.  Using all of your food saves a lot of money. Waste not, want not as our great grandmothers would’ve said. 

Pizza dough is anrecioe from Noreen’s kitchen on u tube,   It makes a batch of pizza dough and you can freeze part of it for other weeks.  It doesn’t take any longer to make 3 batches of dough than it does one and you eat all month...well, almost.  

Yellow rice is a dollar at the DT and is the same product as the one at Winco.  

Beer bread is our substitute for cornbread because some people on our family don’t like cornbread,   It is easy to make and tastes good.  

Turn on some peppy music and happy cooking!

Meal Plans

plans change and we deviate, but it is still important to have a plan.  Having a plan keeps us organized and takes stress out ifmthenhectic dinner hour,  it answers that nagging question, “ what’s for dinner? “  the leaves are falling, fall is on the air.

• Chicken tamale pie 
• Pizza
• Smoked paprika garlic chicken , yellow rice, green beans 
• Chili, beer bread or cornbread 
• Pork stew
• Salmon, scalloped potatoes, peas and carrots 
• Breakfast for dinner 

1. Chicken tamale pie is a Betty Crocker recipe.  You can find it on line.  
2. Pizza is a mainstay around here.  Noreen’s kitchen has a new pizza crust recipe.  You can freeze some for another day, 
3. Smoked paprika chicken is a taste of home recipe and yellow rice is everywhere, but also cheaper at the DT, 
4. Chili In the insta pot and slow cooker button is easy,   Beer bread is even easier.  Cornbread is an option of your family likes it.  Adding mild chillies and cheese is an option, 
5. Pork stew is from the pork loin we bought this week.  35 minutes in the insta pot.   There are also oven and slow cooker options, 
6. Salmon is frozen from Costco,   
7. Breakfast for dinner is a family affair and we all cook.  Fun times.   Even small children can butter the English muffins or set the table.

You can eat on four dollars a day and eat real food.   It just takes some key concepts. 

• Eat fresh fruits and veggies in season, or eat frozen if they are a good price. Watch your frozen vegetables and fruit, produce from China can be found at other stores too.   
• Try to never pay full price,  there can be as much as a two dollar swing between the exact same foods between stores.   Remember RBP on the things you use most  often.   That can of cranberry sauce you buy once a year won’t make much impact on your budget, but the can of diced tomatoes you use twice a week will. 
• Scratch cook when it makes sense.  Some things can be prepped ahead of time when things are more quiet, or delegated to an older child.   Making mixes ahead helps.  
• Buy when prices are low and eat when they aren’t.  Stock a four to six weeks supply.
• Consider eating taste preferences not  in season.  That gingerbread protein bar that is still in its lull date is just as good in August as it was in December, it’s jut 75 percent off.  
• Avoid convenience foods,  you are laying for someone else’s labor and they often have ingredients you don’t want to eat.  Read labels.  There actually are foods that contain soap and wood pulp along other science ingredients.  
• Cut up fruit and vegetables cost more and you risk contamination.  There are more recalls on those products.  Just sayin.
• Simplify.   Less variety makes for less work.   Choose foods that are versatile ingredients for many meals. Basics are best and buy in bulk when it makes sense.  A seven dollar 25 pound bag of flour can save hundreds of dollars.   Pizza is a buck, bread a quarter, muffins .50 plus a fruit,  pancakes are pennies.  They are all much less than ready made.
• Invest in a few well thought out appliances.  They pay for themselves in a shirt period of time. We are nit talking about hot dog makers here, but, rather, insta pot, griddle if you don’t have one for the stove, air fryer to reduce the fat in food, a good food processor, and a blender he,o a lot.   My husband would tell you that the toaster and the coffee pot were necessities.   

Simply Saturday

Unfirtunateky, the coupons on the Sunday paper are almost non existent for anything worth buying.  There  is the usual Cheerios and tube biscuits.  

I am working in haunted house boxes for my granddaughters class for Halloween.   

There is another recall for English cucumbers bought at Costco and for salads and entree bought at Trader Joe’s.   It seems as if Trader Joe’s has more than their fair share of recalls.   It could be that they just carry a lot more hand made entrees  or salads.   Whenever fruit is processed by human hands it is more expensive and you risk the possibility of getting germs from the food.   Consider how much time it takes to cut up a cantaloupe and how much more you are laying for the privilege of having it done for you,   It’s what we call virtual paycheck.  If it takes you ten minutes to cut up a cantaloupe and you pay 4.00 extra for the bowl.  You are paying 24.00 an hour for someone to cut up your food.   

Or to look at it another way, you just made 24.00 an hour,   

That is a good concept when deciding if it is worth it to make scratch vs, buying somethings  ready made.   Making your own tortillas doesn’t pay.  They are so labor intensive that I think you make ten cents an hour.  Especially when I got hem for fifty cents during cinco de mayo.   I just refrigerated them or you can freeze them.  They are a dollar at the DT and reading the labels, they don’t all have bad fats.   

Homemade waffles, pancakes, muffins, and sourdough bread, however, have a huge payday.

If you don’t have time, consider teaching older children how to cook them.  We started baking goodies at 9yo.  I remember making 7 minute frosting.   Our favorites were snicker doodles and a blond brownie because they called for ingredients mom always had in the house.   Peanut butter was another favorite.   Some of those are good for children to help with with washed hands.  Flattening cookies with a glass or fork, or rolling balls are easy and keeps them from making a mess while you are baking.  

Our six yo just set the table complete with silverware and goblets.   You would be surprised what children can do and it give them a sense of accomplishment and belonging,  

Another labor moneymaker is cutting up your own meats.  Pork loin can be as cheap as a dollar a pound.  My buy price is under two dollars.  Center cut pork chops are sometimes 3.50 a pound.  At a dollar or even 1.69 a pound cutting your own is a great savings for a few minutes work.  The end cuts can be stew meat or sausage without sulphates. Also, stir fry meat.  

This also holds true for split chicken breast.  .88 instead of 8.00.  

And deli chicken vs making a whole chicken is another huge savings. 

Grinding your own hamburger works if you find a roast really cheap.   

You can wind up with less fat and you control the far.   

Having proper appliances a good thing and can be paid for in savings if you pick them carefully.  They can make scratch cooking easy and inexpensive. 

Friday recipe

Part of feeding a family on four dollars a day or less is not wasting.  When there are two or three members of a family,  that sometimes means leftovers or planned overs.  Having leftovers for lunch helps.

Spaghetti and meatballs can use the rest of the batch of meatballs on meatball subs.  It helps to skip a day and serve a leftover the next day.  Morphing it into another dish helps.

Eggs are cheap and a good way to stretch your food dollar.   A vegetabke omelette, toast or an English muffin, and fruit makes a good breakfast for dinner.  If your breakfast for dinner has pancakes or another dish that is short on protein, try adding a yogurt parfait with yogurt, fruit, and granola.  

Soup and bread is a good hearty meal and can be really easy and inexpensive.
Peasant bread is .25 to make and takes two sessions of ten minutes or less to make hands on.
A loaf of sourdough bread costs upwards of two dollars.

A twenty five pound bag of flour from Costco can give you many times it’s cost in savings.

A recipe for muffin mix is on the Internet,   I don’t think I can resist it without violating copyright laws.   It’s from taste of home and it’s the one that takes a egg, I stick of butter, and a cup of milk in addition to the mix.  It goes together quickly, and it only takes about five minutes hands on time to make muffins,  you add the extra you want,   Last time I washed and cut up an apple and added cinnamon.  Blueberries can be frozen or fresh.  There are many possibilities.

Pancakes are very expensive the frozen food section of the grocery store.  They take minutes.  And having an electric grill helps.

Bread  is the biggest savings .   Yeast is a bit over three  dollars a jar .  It goes a long ways.  Some recipes call for a quarter teaspoon.   There are breads that take little time.  And, quick breads Re a big savings too.

Finding recipes that you family likes that are inexpensive to cook and don’t take all your time on the kitchen is key to making a four dollar a day budget work.  

Hauls to 10/18

Dollar Tree

Bread 4.00

Winco
Grapes 1.58
Salad 1,98
Salad 1.98 spinach
Sauerkraut 1.36
Diced tomatoes .58
Celery .99
Beef boullion 1.39
Grape tomatoes

Total 19.47

Grand 23.47

Fred Meyers

Ritz crackers 1.49
Barilla pasta 1.00
Pumpkin pie 4.00
Tomatoes .88
Cheese 4.99
Goldfish ..99
Cottage cheese 1.25
Eggs .99
Total 32.00

Total 55.47

Chain store good buys

QFC

Progresso soup .99 - must buy eight

Lean cuisine entree 1.88

Alberways

Clementines  -2lbs 1.99
Classico sauce 1.49

Milk 1.99@@
Pork loin 1.69@@
Bread .89@@

Cucumbers  .88

Pepperoni 6 Oz 2/7 $$

Frozen  potatoes 2 lbs 1.69@@

Barilla pasta.99@@

Note @@ means in ad coupon needed
$$ means there are coupons  s out there

Note coupon for 5.00 off 50.  That’s 10 percent,   Of the prices are below other stores and you stick to the 50.00 that might be a savings. Alberways  tends to be more pricy  than other stores on non sale items.


Fred Meyers
Foster Farms chicken -.88
Whole, legs, or thighs

Lean cuisine 1.88
Progresso .99  must buy 8
Naval oranges .99

Buy  5 save 5

Canola oil 1.99
Pasta sauce store brand, 1.49
Yuban 5.99
Cheese 4.99
Ritz 1.49
Goldfish .99
Cheerios 1.79

———-
Insta pot 79.99
Includes 15.00 worth of meat or seafood in their. Meat department.  +

Tuesday how did she do that? Beer bread

Quick breads are a class of breads all by themselves.   Chocolate zucchini bread is a favorite,   Summers around here oriduce a literal ton of zucchini.   The biggest thing to remember about quick breads is that they are inexpensive, filling, and easy to make.  The one thing to remember is that they can become tough if you overmix.   It is best to mix your wet  ingredients and dry ingredients in separate bowls and then fold the two together just until all the dry ingredients are combined with the wet ingredients.

Beer bread is the simplest bread to make.

Grease thembottom of your loaf pan.   An oil spray works well for this,  

Mix 3 cups bisquick, amd 1 /3 cup sugar together in a bowl,
pour ancan of beer over the dry ingredients and fold in to the dry ingredients.  Don’t  overmix, mix just until no dry pockets of flour remain.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake in a 375 degree oven for 45-55 minutes.  Bread should test done,  cake tester comes out clean and bread is pulling away from sides if pan.  

Take bread out of the oven, brush with butter .  Let sit 10 minutes and turn the bread out of the pan,

Just about any fruit or vegetabke can be made into a bread. Years ago, I used to make a carrot bread.  I’ve kost the recipe now, it was in an instruction  manual for my blender,    You mixed the oil and wet ingredients in the blender and chopped the carrots in the mixture, then folded into the dry mixture,  

Monday Kitchen Management aka food prep

Kitchen  management is a tool that saves time and energy in the kitchen.  ‘A little work when life is less hectic, saves a lot of work when life isn’t.

Reminder if meals

• Soup, bread 
• Pizza
• Mac and cheese, peas and carrots 
• Bbq pork sliders , salad, oven fries 
• Scampi. Seasoned rice , peas 
• Pumpkin pasta, salad (QFC mag) 
• Breakfast for dinner 

1. Wash kitchen floor 
2. Wash and disinfect counters and sinks and drains.
3. Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀.
4. Take the garbage out . 
5. Make soup and bread 
6. Wash potatoes for fries later in the week 
7. Check to be sure the seasoned rice mix is full
8. Wash kitchen cabinets and microwave, 

1. 
   

Meal plans

Meal  plans are a tool that helps you stay on track and saves money and time.

• Bow tie soup , rolls 
• Pizza 
• Mac n cheese, peas and carrots 
• Bbq pork sliders, salad, oven fries 
• Shrimp scampi, seasoned rice with peas, 
• Pumpkin pasta , salad (QFC cookbook) 
• Breakfast for dinner 

Notes 

• Soup is a good meal when you are feeding the family at different times,   A slow cooker on low is a good thing.   The house smells divine and e wry ost gets fed when life becomes busy .
• Pizza is a mainstay.  Everyone likes it and a cheese pizza costs a dollar and is easy to make.  My granddaughter at 4 could make it if the dough and ingredients were gathered for her,   We got 😃 Happy   face pizza, but what the heck, right? 
• Mac and cheese, peas and carrots another happy meal, 
• Bbq pork sliders are from bbq beef meat we got on sale with a coupon.   Cheaper than making it ourselves.   Oven fries are scratch, no fat and done in the hot fryer, 
• Scampi was from when we got BOGO on the shrimp.  I wouldn’t buy it again, there were 16 small shrimp and the cost without the BOGO would have been eight dollars. A bit too pricy for what you get.  Seasoned rice is a homemade mix with chicken broth, and herbs. 
• Pumpkin pasta is from a magazine we got in the mail from the local grocery store along with coupons.  I good to try something new . 
• Breakfast for dinner is a good meal. Everyone cooks and it can be economical, or not. 

Groceries on the cheap takes a different approach to your grocery shopping.   Instead of going once a day or week to buy your food, you go to buy what is on sale that you can use to make meals, and stock up on your food when it’s in a RBP.   The result is that you can cut your grocery budget in half and still eat well.   Our food budget is about half what the USDA has listed.   Cost of food at home including adding  part of grandchild’s food.    We eat regular food that is typical of a family with children.  We have maintained this budget for almost two years now and have grown a stock.   The basis is to keep a stock of versatile foods instead of buying one meal at a time.  You pay a lot less for your food, food purchases are simplified and this, more efficient, and you always have food in the house.   

Concept Saturday.-easy and simple

Groceries  on the cheap is as much economizing on time as it is money.   We all have to put food on the table, but we all have to  wear many other hats too.

The concept we are about to talk about is nothing new.  Business models have used it for years and have been successful.

Simplify.

We all have meals that we love 💕.   Usually they fall into a catagory,   We love Tex mex, Italian, and what I will call modified mid century.  That is, things like Mac and cheese, chicken pot pie, meatloaf, chicken noodle made more healthy.

Concept

If you identify the ingredients of favorite economy meals you will find that you are buying some ingredients that do more than double duty.  We all buy about the same things every week.   By finding the lowest prices  on those ingredients and buying a four  to six week supply of them,  you don’t have to buy it again for a while.  It saves money because you aren’t paying full price, and you save time because you have less items in your cart to have to put away when you get home.  You might have five items in your cart, not fourteen.

Pretty soon, you will find that you are just walking around the perimeter of the store.
You are buying raw ingredients vs things in a package that have ingredients that you can’t pronounce  and take up more room in the pantry.

Basic, efficient food;  Food that does double or triple duty,

With flour, sugar, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda you can bake muffins, pancakes, cakes, and many more baked goods, thicken gravy. bread  meat, and make pizza. All a lot cheaper than buying  the ready made counterparts.

Chicken breast or thighs, hamburger, pork loin, and you have many meals, but only three compartments  in the freezer.  You have purchased it at RBP and you purchase it once in weeks.

Buy dairy on sale, buy enough for a month except maybe milk,   Most dairy has a month pull date.
Sour cream, cottage cheese, eggs, cheese.   I have a “buy price”.  If it isn’t something I just have to have, and it is expensive, I don’t buy it.  Cheese freezes well in the grated form.  Eggs can be dehydrated.

Fruits and vegetables are bought in season,   They taste better and are less expensive.  We can still find frozen vegetables for a dollar a pound.  In some ways , they are fresher  because they are picked at their peak and flash frozen.

Pasta is a labor of love, as well as tortillas.   Buy them when they are on sale,   Pasta has a ....eight year shelf life.   Tortillas can be stored in the refrigerator.

Some canned goods are a necessary part of life.  Everyone should have some on case of an emergency,   In this part of the country, we have hills and trees.   Lots of trees and lots of rain.
Having a tree  fall on power lines and wiping out our power can happen during  the winter.   Snow cripples is because of the hills.  Having food  that can be cooked outside in a bbq or in a fireplace is a
necessity
  Some things are just cheaper than making scratch.

To recap. Buy low and eat high,   It’s a concept the stockbrokers know well.   You profit when you buy the shelf stable food that is on sale or with a coupon cheap, and have enough to last you until it comes on sale again.  It’s just logic if you think about it.

Buy food when it is at its lowest price, eat it when it’s high, and never be without food.   Studies have proven that not having food in the house is putting a stress on you that actually lowers your life span.

We bought mayonnaise for .66 with coupons,.  It is  on sale this week for over two dollars...I want to say 2.69.   That’s a big difference.  Multiply that a few times and you have half price food.

It works, amd it makes eating for as low as four dolkrs a day the difference between potato chops and top ramen like I’ve heard of, and eating a balanced regular meal.   Tacos and refried beans, roasted chicken, potatoes and a vegetable, pork roast, baked potatoes and broccolli.   You can eat well on odor dollars a day.  We have done it for almost two years now and we have a stock of food.   There is a smug satisfaction on knowing you beat the high cost of food and still have food on the house. LOL.

Friday recipe :Pasta Primavera

Pasta Primavera

1/2 package (8 ounces) of Barilla spaghetti

1 T Olive oil
1 tsp Garlic
1/2 cup Grape tomatoes cut in half
3/4 cup frozen Peas
2 handfuls Spinach
6 slices Red and yellow peppers , chopped
Parmesean cheese

Cook the spaghetti in the insta pot for 2 minutes.   Break the spaghetti in two and place in pot loosely as to resemble a bird nest.  Add 1 quart of water.  Place lid on pot and set it to the seal function,   Process on manual for 2 minutes.  Manually de pressurize.  Drain the pasta.       After the spaghetti is cooked start the veggies.


In a sauté pan, place the olive oil and turn on medium heat.
Add vegetables, in order listed.   Sauté until they are warm and the spinach is wilted.

Toss the veggies with the spaghetti.  Top with parm and garnish with parsley.

Haul to 10/11

QFC
Barilla spaghetti (5) 4.00 -charity

Ice cream 3.00
Pumpkin pie 3.99

Total 6.99

Safeways
Coffee 5.99
16 cream soups .88 ea
6 Pillsbury biscuits 4.00
Total 23.93

Fred Meyers
Yoplait 10/ .24 ea
Strawberries 2.99
Hawaiian rolls 3.00
Grapes 1.91
Grapes 1.41
Lemonade apples 3.21
English muffins
Total 16.17

Total  47.09


QFC chicken 4.71

51.80

Winco

Tomato soup .98
Potato rounds 1.98
Olives 2.34
Chillies 2.07
Squash .51
5 lb carrots 2.28
Chili .78
Strawberries 1.98
Total 22.29

74.09

Chain store ads

No ads yet, because of the holiday. This is  from the Internet.   I do the work so you don’t have to.  Please follow or share.  

QFC
Grapes 1.88
Draper valley chicken breast BOGO - don’t know if that’s a bargain or not,

B 5, S 5
Cheese 4.99
Eggs .99
Goldfish .99
Cheerios 1.99 $$
Ritz 1.79
Nathan’s 3.99

ALBERWAYS

Cucumbers 1.00
Foster Farms Whole chicken .97
Grapes 1.88

Ny style sausage 1.99@@
Cheese, 2 lbs limit 2, 4.99@@

Frozen vegetables, 1.00 check pkg size you want a lb
Classico pasta sauce 2.00 **

**note - the jar is the size that a mason jar lid fits.   I don’t know aboutmcanning, but you can use it for dried foods and seal the top with the food saver. Mason jars are close to a dollar empty.

Fred Meyers

Both Kroger stores have Friday and Saturday digital deals for ice cream at 1.99

2 lbs strawberries 2.99
Tomatoes ..88
Bread, eggs 1.00
FF split chicken breast 1.29 not the best price, but better than any I’ve seen lately.  
Campbell’s chunky soup 1.25 $$
Barilla pasta 1.00
Frozen veggies 1.00 some 16 ounces
Cottage cheese, sour cream. 1.25

B 5, S 5
Cheese 4.99
Ritz 1.49
Goldfish .99
Cheerios 1.79$$


Notes - @@ means an in ad coupon is required
$$ means that there aremxohpins out there

Winco does not have an ad
Green peppers. Grapes, Strawberries, Nalleys chili, and Yoplait are all good prices as of yesterday. .

Tuesday : how did she do that ?

Vegetable bean soup  is a recipe I developed a few years back.  Otmosmheaety, but also satisfied the vegetarians in the family




Vegetable Bean Soup

Sauté carrots and celery . This was on the insta pot, but you can do it on the stove also .

Add 2 cans diced tomatoes, and 4 cups vegetable broth or broth of your choice. 

Add 2 cans or 4 cups of cooked beans of choice.  A Tablespoon of Italian seasoning and a teaspoon each of garlic and onion powder.   

If using insta pot, program to slow cooker and cook for 4-8 hours.

   If using slow cooker, sauté vegetables, add remaining ingredients along with the veggies to the slowcooker pot and cook on low for 4-8 hours. 

Monday Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen Management is a tool to keep your kitchen clean and your meals prepped so that the dinner hour is less hectic. A little work in an hour or so time set aside when things are mess hectic can save a lot of time later.

Reminder if next week’s meals

• Chicken pot pie 
• Pizza
• Spaghetti 
• Sliders
• Tacos 
• Vegetable bean soup 
• Breakfast for dinner 

1. Clean the refrigerator and dump anything dead and note things that need to be used up soon, 
2. Wash kitchen floor. 
3. Clean and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains.
4. Cook chicken in the insta pot. -done yesterday 
5. Make spaghetti in the insta pot 
6. Cook beans 
7. Make vegetabke bean soup. 
8. Cut up chicken and freeze. 
9. Make scratch sausage and cook.   

Notes

I did the kitchen management yesterday since we have a busy week.   Foil containers with licks are a dollar at the DT in a three pack.    They are a good thing to have occasionally when you are making a lot  of freezer meals and have a small family. They also come on a large family size.   I pretty much got a head start on this week’s dinners.  

Meal plans

Meal plans are a tool that saves time and money and a lot of frustration.  Anything that takes a little to,e and saves a lot of time and frustration during the hectic dinner hour is a good thing.

Starting with a good stash if basic food helps the creative process.  Having a matrix is a good start.   Everything on life starts with a foundation and an outline.

• Chicken pot pie 
• Pizza
• Pork roast, mashed potatoes and carrots 
• Sliders , salad 
• Tacos, refried beans Spanish rice 
• Vegetable bean soup , rolls 
• Breakfast for dinner 

Notes :

We bought a dozen rolls formsloders because they were a good price.   Besides sliders, I plan to add them to any meal that seems to work. 

Chicken was .88 a pound at QGC (Kroger) .  I cooked it on the insta pot.   It didn’t turn out with a crispy crust, but it was thirialky cooked and we have already had a chicken salad and fajitas with it, 

I still have enough for a couple of lunches and a pot pie or two.    All from about 4.50. 

Pork roast is from a pork loin purchased for . $.99 a pound. 

Re fried beans are cooked in the insta pot.   The price comes out to about the same as the cans on the cheap, but this has more food value and no fat.  

Vegetable bean soup is a recipe I made up years ago.   It weighs in at a couple of dollars for enough to feed an army and it too, has no preservatives or fat. 

Breakfast for dinner is always a winner.   Everyone cooks and it’s good quality family time. 

This week, the new crop of food must be coming on because the canned goods are starting to show good sale prices.   We got Nalleys chili for .75 and Campbell’s soup for a dollar less coupons made it .88.   

I expect the diced tomatoes I am running short of should be cheaper soon.   Replenishing stock only when things are on sale drastically reduces you food bill.   Some things I buy when the price is low, id We run out, , oh well, we can get by with something else.   I have “buy” prices.  If so,etching isn’t my buy price or less, we have to really need it, or we don’t buy it.   

A little planning goes a long ways to cutting your food bill.    We are still averaging at or below four dollars a day, supplement grandchild, and have grown a stock.   Having a stock of food isn’t hoarding, it is saving money and having the security of knowing, on a disaster, you will always have food.   We can’t predict the future, but we can do something to make us better prepared .  

Saturday concepts 10/6/18

Saturday concepts.

 10 things never to buy: 

1.  Bread crumbs,  why pay upwards of two dollars a pound for someone else’s dry bread and throw away the heels of your bread or bread that is getting stale.  Break it up and put it in the  food processor. Pulse until crumbs amd place of sheet pan in the oven after you have cooked something,  when dry, place in a mason jar or storage container,   
2. Baby carrots,   Baby carrots started as a way for a farmer to palm off his ugly carrots.  He devised a way to cut them into Baby carrots  and sell them for more than two times the price of a regular carrots.  One pound of baby carrots are upwards of a dollar.   Five pounds of carrots are 2.28 at Winco.  Less than half price. 
3. Parmesan cheese in a green can.   It’s old, it’s dried out, and it has wood pulp in it.   You can get Parmesans cheese or a blend or Romano for a good price.   Use any hard cheese that has a good price,   It’s just better and you aren’t eating a tree. 
4. Junk food.   Studies of people’s grocery carts show that 1/2 of a typical cart is drinks and snack foods.  Yes, Virginia, there are people that are paid to study your cart.   Their object is to get you to spend more money,   Your health will thank you not to oblige the marketing tactics.  I bought a quart of root beer the first time in years,   I thought granddaughter should taste a root beer float once in her life.   1.67 plus .17 sin tax.  I could serve a whole meal for that! 
5. Cut up fruit.  Many times lately, it is the thing on the tainted list.  Anytime you are buying something that takes a persons time to prepare, you are going to pay more.   Simple fact.   
6. Baked goods.   Caveat here. Pumpkin pie has been 2.99 to 3.99 here,   By the time you buy pumpkin, canned milk and eggs and pastry shell, you are spending more for scratch than buying the pie.  Especially of you have a dollar off coupon,   Bit, making a muffin mix, you can have a muffin made in a matter of five minutes and six muffins are five  bucks.  
7. Hamburger meal in a box.   If you break down what you are getting in that box and look at the science experiment ingredients, it would tell you it’s just plain rip off and nit good for you,   When my daughter and I dissected a box that cost upwards  of two dollars. (Yes, I know you can get them at the DT) . It had 1.57 ounces of a cheese sauce mix that didn’t contain cheese and 4.2 ounces of pasta.   At the time, you could get pasta for 88 cents a pound.   
8. Some cold cereals and boxed Mac and cheese have detergent in them.  Tsp is what we sold at the paint store to people that wanted to get the grease off of kitchen walls before painting,  you needed to wear rubber gloves because it ate  your hands up.   Just saying. 
9. Spices in jars.   Bulk spices are really a lot cheaper and if you already have jars, you can just refill them.  I went to the store for dill weed.  A one inch jar of dill was six dollars.   I went to the bulk section and bought enough to fill a jar, and..wait for it.....it was .17.   
10. Seasoning mixes.   Ranch dressing mix, taco seasoning, sausage seasoning..all a fraction of buying it in that envelope.   Many times, the packaging of something costs more than the product.   Dry buttermilk is really expensive.  It was fractions of that price when I bought it on amazon in a plastic bag.   Save your jars.  Especially ones like the Classico pasta sauce jars.   A mason jar lid works for them.  I have got Classico for as cheap as a buck and it costs .80 for the jar.

And, one thing to buy...

It doesn’t pay to make your own pasta sauce,   Hunts and Del Monte  sauce is less than a dollar at Winco .  Sometimes, you can get sauce in a jar for close to a dollar.   By the to,e you buy he tomatoes, you aren’t saving any money to scratch cook the sauce.

Always buy tomatoes with the seasoning already on them if you can for the same price as the 

tomatoes themselves,   It just saves time and money,   

It is a falsehood to say that cheese is cheaper in a brick than grated cheese,  Cheese is cheese.  A pound of cheese is a pound of cheese whatever shape it is in.   Check your prices.   Often grated cheese is cheaper..  now, sliced cheese is always more expensive.  

Friday recipe -easy whole chicken

Draper valley whole chicken is .88 a pound at QFC.   Re,e,bermnomchicken osma bargain if it’s under 3 pounds

Preface : One  super bowl weekend, I walked into QFC and fresh chickens were .50 a pound in the mark down section of the meat department,   I bought three.  Because that’s what I do.  It’s a sure fire way to cut your food costs and still eat well.   Now, I had the problem of cooking all this chicken in a hurry because the pull date was the next day.  I researched and after putting two of them in the ovens, I put the other one on the slow cooker.   The slowmcooker one was tender and by far, the fastest chicken I ever cooked considering non passive time,  

Slow cooker chicken,  

• Place a peeled onion, or two small peeled onions in the bottom of the slowmcooker.  This is strictly for flavoring, but a must. 
• Take the chicken out if the package, working on a sheet pan, dry the chicken with paper towels.  Rub a dry rub all over the chicken.  Use gloves or wash your hands thoroughly afterward. Place chicken on top of the onions.  Cover and cook on high heat for an hour per pound.  Don’t forget to plug the slow cooker in. Lol
• Test the chicken when the time is up.  I want 180 degrees, and the meat will fall off the bone.
• You miraculously, you will have a full vessel of chicken stock.   

In the insta pot FROM FROZEN.

• Place chicken in pot on top of the trivet. 
• Add 1 cup of water. 
• Cook for 10 minutes PER POUND. 
• Natural release. 

Insta pot for fresh chicken 

•  Place chicken on trivet on the insta pot, 
• Place an orange, lemon, onion, or apple in the cavity. 
• Pour  1 cup of water in the pot. 
• Process : 
• 3 lb chicken 18 minutes, 4 lb chicken 24 minutes , 5 lb chicken 30 minutes.over 5 lbs, add 6 minutes per pound,  add three minutes for an additional 1/2 pound. 
• Natural release at least 10 minutes. 

• 
  

Grocery Hauls / 10/5

Winco
Fries 2.14
Low carb tortillas 4.96
Chillies .69
Grapes 2.99
Strawberries 2.48
Salad 1.98

Total 15.18

QFC
Pie 3.99
Milk .99
Total 4.98



Winco
Strawberries .98
Grapes 🍇 3.79

Total 5.75

Total 25.91

Safeways
Frozen veggies 2.00
Salad 3.75
Eggs 1.98
Brdad .89

DT
Artisan bread 1.00

Grand total 35.53


Safeways
Bacon -🥓 double coupons, netted 2.49 ea
4.98

Total 40.56

Chain store ads

Fred Meyers

Yoplait 3/1.00 cohpon on coupons.com os for .50 on 5.  Makes them .23 each

Grapes .98
Peaches .99
Ritz crackers 2.49
Classico pasta sauce 1.99.  Note : I figure it comes in a mason tyke jar that costs a, ost a dollar by itself.

Insta pot is 79.99 and there is a ten dollar gift card attached.   Look for an in store coupon.

QFC

Draper valley whole chicken .88

Tillamook ice cream 2/5

Barilla pasta 1.00

NAB not a bargain 😥
Roasted chicken 6.99
2 pound chicken.  Never buy anchicken under three pounds,   At three pounds , you are breaking even on the bone to meat ratio.   At two pounds you are paying more for th bones than you are the meat you can eat.   The price per pound including bone is 3.50.  Washington grown (Mount Vernon ) is .88 a pound this week. There are easy, simple ways to cook a chicken.  Like ten minutes non passive time and you get a added bonus of 3.00 worth of broth,

Alberways

Digital coupon folders coffee 5.99

Soda crackers 1.88

Milk 1.99@@
Bread .99@@
@@ means I’m ad coupon


Fab 4
Campbell’s soup 1.00 coupons.com 1.00 on  eight.
Prego 1.49
Old El Paso taco shells .99


Pillsbury cinnamon rolls or grands 1.00 coupons out there for 1.00 off three.   Both inserts and coupons,com has them.

French Toast

French toast for the freezer is a good way to preserve bread and make easy breakfast to get people out the door with breakfast.   Just take from the freezer and pop it on the toaster or microwave for a few seconds.

Total cost using bread (from orowheat -thick sliced) and eggs purchased for a dollar a dozen at safeways, os .28 a serving.

Mix 6 eggs, a half cup of milk and a pinch of cinnamon, a teaspoon of vanilla if you want in a blender.   Pour into a shallow baking rectangle dish.  And coat bread in the mixture,  griddle or fry on a frying pan on medium heat until brown on one side, flip and continue cooking until the other  side is browned.

Cool and place in meal sized portions (2) into quart bags.  Freeze.

How did she do that? Chili in the insta pot ...or not

Yesterday, I made beer bread and chili .

Insta pot Chili

8 ounces of cooked ground beef
1 quart of beef broth
1 can 15.5 Oz tomato sauce
1 can -15.5 Oz diced tomatoes
6 cups cooked pinto beans (cook 3 cups raw)
1 small can mild diced green chillies

1. Cook 3 cups dried pinto beans .  Wash and pick beans.  Place in insta pot liner,  cover with water up to your second buckle. Put the kid in the insta pot and set to seal.   Push the bean button.   
2. When the beans are done, quick release and drain the beans into a colander,   Place back in pot, 
3. Add the stick, cans of tomato, and chillies,   
4. Program the insta pot on slow cooker.  

Serve chilli with cheese, sour cream and tortilla chips.   

We had beer bread because some of our family are not partial to cornbread. Total cost of chili 3.09. 

.
Beer bread
3 cups bisquick
1/3 cup sugar
1 -12 ounce beer

Mix ingredients. Don’t over mix.
Place in a greased loaf pan.
Bake at 375 degrees 45-55 minutes or until it tests done.  Cake tester comes out clean when poked into the center of the bread.

Spread a pat of butter on top of the bread for a softer crust.

Notes :

I used sirloin tips for the beef.   It was the mystery meat I forgot to label in the beef basket in the freezer.   I processed the meat with the beef stock, and them proceeded with the recipe. Save!
You This recipe could be done in the slow cooker using cooked ground meat and canned beans .
Better than boullion makes a good beef broth that doesn’t cost three dollars a quart.

Kitchen management aka meal prep

When you can make some if your food ahead of the dinner hour, it goes a long way to make the hectic dinner hour less hectic.   It saves time because you re setting ho and using one own instead of many through the week to wash.  So, torn on some peppy music and get started, in no time you will we presently surprised.   The look of that organized refrigerator is totally worth it!

Reminder of meals

• Chili, beer bread 
• Pizza
• Sloppy joes , fries, coleslaw 
• Chicken tamale pie , lettuce, tomato 
• Fajitas, 
• Pork chops with apple, cranberry stuffing 
• Breakfast for dinner, 

1. Wash kitchen floor.
2. Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀.
3. Make note of things that need to be used up soon.. check pull dates 
4. Clean and disinfect counters and sinks and drains. 
5. Wash potatoes for fries and apples for stuffing,  dry and place in colander, 
6.  Make beans for chili and make the rest of the chili on the insta pot, programmed for slow cooker.   
7. Make beer bread 
8. Replenish any mixes that are running low. 

Note 

How a on the cheap mind works ...lol 

Yesterday, I got baskets at the DT for the freezer.  The new refrigerator came with no bins and just flimsy shelves.   Don’t judge, I had two choices of side by sides in the measurements that would fit our refrigerator space.  One had stationary shelves that were nit the sturdiest and a ice maker with tooo many buttons for a six year old in the house,  I could just see disaster.  Anyway, I have looked at the container store and amazon, and couldn’t find any baskets to fit.  I finally found them at the dollar store, not the best quality I have see , but they will do until I find better.   

Long story shirt, I found a quarter pound of sausage frozen still in its tube.  I thawed it and yesterday , I cooked it while making breakfast.  I let it cool and saved it on a container.   Last night, I made a quiche with hash browns, eggs, sausage, cheese, and an egg mixture.  Sounds terrible, but it was very good.  And, easy. Five minutes work, and 35 minutes in the oven.  

Hash brown patties 1.00

Sausage .50

Cheese .63

Green Pepper slice, .06

Eggs .16

Milk .12

Total  2.47

Strawberries were a dollar at Winco.   

Meal Plans for week of 10/1/18

Meal plans are a good thing to do because they save time and money.  They just make life easier.  They can be done either before or after you shop because you are planning using your master list of food instead of what you are buying just for the week.  There is some sort of security of knowing you always have food in the house,   Studies have shown that not having food on the house shortens your life span.  It is an anxiety thing.

• Chili, beer bread or cornbread 
• Pizza
• Sloppy joes, fries, coleslaw 
• Chicken Tamale Pie (Betty Crocker ) 
• Fajitas -chicken 
• Pork chops, apple cranberry stuffing , salad 
• Breakfast for dinner -French Toast, bacon , fruit 

Notes :

• Beer bread is a simple thing .  Corn bread is an alternative if you have children. (Betty Crocker)
• Homemade pizza isn’t hard and costs a dollar for a cheese pizza when made with RBP ingredients. 
• Sloppy joes are made with precooked hamburger.  Bins are cheapest at the bread outlet or Winco,  they are smaller with less carbs.  A fast meal, 
• Chicken tamale pie is a Betty Crocker recipe.
• Fajitas are chicken with onion and peppers purchased and frozen when they were a dollar at Winco.  Green peppers were cheaper. 
• Pork chops with stuffing uses bread cubes , chicken broth, Craisens and chopped apple.   

• Breakfast for dinner is always a good meal.   Everyone contributes to the meal and it’s a family time.  Wide sliced bread  (artisan) was at the Dollar Tree .  (DT) .

The latest scientific ?study  showed the cheapest price on food came from the Grocery Outlet , followed  by Winco, then Fred Meyers.   Grocery Outlet is not  a full service grocery store and I hesitate to buy produce and meat there.   I pretty much figured that out myself.  The biggest asset when buy8ng Groceries is knowing the cheapest price that yo7 can find on the things you buy on a regular basis.   Trying to stock enough to last you until the next sale is going to give you your best return. 

What we ate in September

Note😜. Some of these days I was stopped in my tracks with a torn muscle in my shoulder.  Gramps cooked.  Bet you can guess which days that was!!

1. Chicken and rice casserole 
2. Pancakes, bacon, strawberries 
3. Leftovers 
4. Burrito bowls
5. Sliders, fries, salad 
6. Brats, corn on cob, peppers 
7. Pizza
8. Ribs, peas, baked potatoes 
9. Potluck. Pasta salad 
10. Chicken nuggets, peas, oven fries 
11. Chicken strips, fries, vegetable 
12. Hamburgers. Oven fries, strawberries and grapes 
13. Taco bake 
14. Mac and cheese with ham , fruit cup 
15. Sliders. Fries. Fruit
16. Sausage, acorn squash, rolls 
17. Vegetable soup 
18. Hamburgers 
19. Chicken soup 
20. Chicken breast, 
21. Chicken salad 
22. Roast beef sandwiches 
23. Spaghetti, salad 
24. Tuna melts 
25. Chop salad 
26. Chicken tenders, fries 
27. Stew 
28. Chicken pot pie 
29. Shrimp fettuccine, peas 
30. Bacon, eggs, French Toast. 

Saturday concepts.

Groceries on the cheap takes a different approach to grocery shopping,   In a lot of ways it simplifies things.  No more making a list and forgetting it on the kitchen counter.   No more getting home and forgetting so,etching that you need for the meal plan you have already written.  No more open g the cupboard and refrigerator the day before payday and playing the Mother Hubbard song.

And, you can do this for four dollars a day,   There are two of us, and we have a granddaughter that eats with us sometimes.   I have grown and maintained a stock.  We always have fresh fruits and vegetables in season.   This year, we have averaged 51.89 a week.   Four dollars a day equals 55.00 a week.   We eat regular food.  Pork loin roast, chicken pot pie, burritos, enchaladas, tacos, spaghetti , stew, pizza. Garden salads.and more.

The secret is not remarkable,   You don’t pay full price for your food,   You simplify by purchasing scratch ingredients that are versatile and inexpensive and keep a stock by purchasing them in a regulated bulk.   The difference between eating once and eating twice is that you buy your food for 1/2 price or less and for the same amount of money, you have two items instead of one.

Protein is your most expensive item on your grocery list,   Instead of buying five or six packages of meat, you buy one that is on a good sale and buy enough of that meat to make as many meals as you plan to eat on the following four to six weeks.  If you eat chicken twice a week, you will need 8 meals worth,   Buy it in bulk, break it down onto meal sized bags and freeze what you aren’t going to eat that week.  You can buy split chicken breast for as low as .88 a pound.  boneless, skinless chicken breast can be 8.00 a pound.   A little work and you have chicken stock for free instead of 3.00 a quart, and chicken pieces for tacos or a casserole, and your chicken breast at .88 a pound.

Pork loin can be purchased anywhere between 1.00 and 1.89 a pound.  Again, a little work and your center cut pork chops are 1.00 a pound instead of 3.50.

One of the biggest labor saving services is to buy a bulk package or tube of hamburger at a good price and cook and defat it while you are putting the groceries away.  Bag it in meal sized portions .  We use quart bags from the DT and out them in good zip lock gallon bags and label them ground beef and the date.  Dinner time just got sooo much easier,   I can make spaghetti or taco dinner in 15 minutes hands on time.  That’s less time than ordering a pizza and  waiting for it to come. Or waiting at a restaurant.

By learning how to scratch cook efficiently a handful of meals, you can save the preservatives and a lot of money.

There is a concept of virtual paycheck.  If you figure how much you save between scratch and that meal on a bag or box, and divide it by the extra amount of time you spent making the scratch, you will get an amount per  hour.  If it’s ten cents or you spent more, forget it.  Many times, the amount is remarkable.

My daughter and I thoroughly dissected and made a cheeseburger macaroni meal.   The box had 4.2 ounces of pasta.   (.25) and 1.57 ounces (13.00 a pound based in what we paid for the box) of a cheese sauce that had no cheese on it and did have a multitude of ingredients we needed a science degree to know what they were.    You added all the good ingredients.   Why,nit just add the good ingredients from scratch and avoid the science.   It was actually cheaper to scratch and you had a better product with more nutrition.

We have a buy price for things we use in a regular basis.   If the price is too high and I’m not in dire need or there is not  a substitute, I don’t buy it.   When it is a low price, buy as many as you need for four to six weeks. ( the average cycle on sales) .

A little time can make a lot of difference between eating well for low money, or struggling to make dinner with no ingredients.

Better, cheaper, faster : ham balls

A good recipe if you hav an abundance of ham left from a holiday dinner in the freezer.   An old time recipe.

Ham Balls

1 lb ground ham. **
1\3 cup bread crumbs
1T brown sugar
1/2 cup milk

Mix together and form balls.  Place balls in a 12 cup muffin tin.

Mix sauce.
1/3 cup brown sugar and 1 tbls prepared mustard
Brush over balls

Bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until the balls are heated through.
Serve over Cooked rice.

Nice add:   Pineapple chunks to the rice.

** cooked . Ham can be chopped in a food processer or ground with a grinder on the kitchen aid mixer, or ground with great grandmas manual grinder.  Manual grinders can be found at antique stores and estate sales.

Grocery Hauls 9/28/18

Safeways

Broccolli 1.02
Grapes 2.28
Cheese 4 lbs 7.98
Cheese, grated 1.00
Linguine 4.00

Total 16.28

Fred Meyers

16 chicken noodle soup 1.00 less 2.00 coupons
Pork bbq 3.99 less .55

Total 17.44

Winco

French bread .95
Bacon 2- 4.96
Ice cream 3.83
Buns .92
Fries 1.98
Tomatoes 1.56
Salad 2.68
Spinach 3.98
Peppers .48
Peppers 1.96
Total 23.30

Total 57.02

1.02 over.    
Some long term storage.

Chain store ads

Not the best of weeks for bargains,

QFC

Milk .99
Pie , pumpkin 3.99

Fred Meyers
B5S5 sale
Land of lakes butter 2.49
Dreyers 2.49
Yoplait refrigerator yogurt 2.99 - coupons?

DiGiorno pizza 4.99
Pork loin BOGO
Graoes 1.99
Milk .99
Campbell’s soup 1.00   Coupons.
Ragu  2/3

80/20 ground beef 3.49
Sour  cream large 2/4

Alberways

Eggs .99@@
Bacon 2.99@@
Bread .89@@

Frozen vegetables 1.00
Pillsbury grands 3/5 coupons

Digital coupons -or paper
Kens salad dressing 1.99 - .75 coupons dated 9/30. ***. Not sure if they work
Salsa 1.79

How did she do that - scratch cooking

One of the Rights of Youth  is chocolate pudding!    Goes along with watermelon and corn on the cob!  Scratch pudding can take no longer than the boxed stuff, but it is free of preservatives and you can make it from stock food you have in hand,   Simplify your pantry and life will be easier.  

Chocolate Pudding in the microwave

1/4 cup cocoa powder (raw without sugar)
2 T cornstarch
1-1/2 cups milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla


Combine cocoa and cornstarch on a microwave safe large glass measuring bowl and whisk in milk until blended.  Microwave on high 2 minutes . Reduce heat to 70 percent and cook another 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 minutes, stirring every 1-1/2 minutes or until mixture has thickened,

Stir in sugar and vanilla,   Let stand for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep smooth. Transfer to individual cups and cover with plastic wrap to keep from forming a skin,      Refrigerate.

Serves 4.

Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Monday here is kitchen Management aka meal prep day.  It is a tool that takes an hour, but  saves  hours in the long run.

Reminder of meals

• Stew with potatoes, carrots , herbs , peas 
• Pizza
• Pork loin , baked potatoes, veggie 
• Chicken enchaladas 
• Spaghetti , french bread, salad 
• Tuna melts 
• Breakfast for dinner 

1. Wash kitchen floor 
2. Clean refrigerator, and dump anything dead and note what needs to be used soon, 
3. Wash and disinfect counters  and sinks and drains. 
4. Clean the floor under  the refrigerator. 
5. Wash potatoes and carrots with vinegar water and set to dry 
6. Thaw  pork loin 
7. Make muffins 
8. Organize freezer. 

Meal plans

Meal plans are a tool that makes for a smoother experience in the dinner time.   You know what ingredients you will need, you know what might have to come out of the freezer in the morning, and left is just easier.

We meal plan on a matrix based on protein.   It gives a variety of meals and nutritional choices.

• Pork stew with potatoes, carrots, peas, and herbs, 
• Pizza 
• Pork loin, baked potatoes. Broccoli 
• Chicken enchiladas , salad 
• Spaghetti on the insta pot. 😀, salad , French bread 
• Tuna  melts. Salad 
• Breakfast for dinner 

 Notes : 

This week’s grocery shopping had a lot of basic needs on bulk.   Chicken noodle soup was on sale and there were coupons to make it about 1/2 price.   It is a good go to especially if someone is sick.

Cheese was on sale at safeways and we had coupons.  Two dollars and fifty cents is my buy price and it was 2.00 a pound.

Pork cubes are from the butt end of a pork loin.  Cutting the tapered down ends of the meat 

and making stew meat or stir fry is a good way to assure even pork chops.  The rest of the loin is cut  into roasts and center cut pork chops.   Butchering your own saves a lot of money...as much as 2.50 a pound. Protein is the most expensive part of your food budget, so saving a lot on it makes good sense. 

Pizza from scratch costs out at a dollar if you are buying your ingredients at RBP.   That’s is probably  why there are so many pizza places out there,  considering that those places get wholesale prices on their ingredients, they are making a lot of money.  It is easy , anyone can do it .  Our granddaughter at four yo could do it.  You can pat or roll the crust and the DT has most of the ingredients cheap, name brands.  Save bits from other meals and freeze.  Dedicate a door she,f in your freezer and pizza is a piece of cake—or maybe pie.  LOL

Pork loin Roast is from the end of the pork loin, after the stew or stir fry meat.  Roast it on the oven and add potatoes and a vegetable —Classic Sunday dinner,   There have been recipes out there lately with cranberry glaze or some with an Asian flare, 

Chicken enchiladas are easy and sauce can be made simply using a roux ( white sauce technique. 

Basically, make the flour and oil paste, add chicken stock and sour cream.   We add some of a can of mild chillis (Winco).  Fill tortillas with chopped cooked chicken and a little sauce, cheese and chillies. Pour sauce on bottom of a baking pan, place rolled tortillas on top of sauce and top with sauce and grated cheese.  Bake off at 350 degrees until the edges are bubbly.  Everything going in is edible and cooked if needed, so you are just warming it up to a desired temperature,   

Spaghetti is a favorite of many families.  We make it on the insta pot (8 minutes).  French bread is less than a dollar at Winco or it costs about 30 cents to make. Add a salad . 

Tuna melts are made with English muffins.  Sometimes  they can be found at the DT.  Orowheat, or the cheapest price is at Fred Meyer .  They are usually in a basket by the eggs.   

Breakfast for dinner is a hit here.  It is a relaxing way to eat breakfast. Most mornings are grab some breakfast and get out the door.  Buttermilk pancakes are good.  Making your own mix is easy.  It is better price wise to omit the milk powder and use milk instead of water when you make the mix.  My prices on line for dry milk are prohibitive,  I got my dry milk last time at Winco in  the bulk isle.  

Eggs  continue  to be close to a dollar on some places.  Yogurt is on sale and there are coupons for it .

Cinnamon rolls have been on dollar sales lately. 

Thanks for stopping by...

Tips and tricks to organize your freezer / refrigerator.

We are, after twenty years, getting a new fridge.  It’s been a long time coming and it is way past it’s designated useful life.   Lol

So, I thought it would be a good time to discuss organizing your freezer and refrigerator.

Putting like things on a shelf makes finding them in a hurry a lot easier.

Usually the top shelf is the tallest,   That’s where we put things like pickle jars and condiments,  

Using those larger plastic containers that we aren’t supposed to store food in is a good way to contain the clutter,   We have one for yogurt cups.  Another for any items like tube biscuits.
Dairy except milk on the door, is one one shelf excluding eggs.  

The next shelf has tortillas and eggs.   We keep eggs in lock and lock egg keeper.  It really saves of someone  drops the eggs,  like that would ever happen. Lol

The bottom shelf before the bins, has a celery keeper, cheese keepers, and any refrigerator dishes with leftovers or fruit that has been prepped.

The door has a space for butter, and cream cheese, a shelf for milk and juices, and two for condiments,   I separate sweet and savory condiments so they are easier to find,

This is just our organization. You can make your own,

The next drawers are for meat, vegetables and cheese.


The freezer.   We have a side by side.   I hated it at first, but looking at the options now, I prefer it,  
The huge black holes of a freezer would make it a chore to find anything.

In the extra freezer, o got bins from the dollar tree.   All of one thing  is in one bin,  it makes life a
whole lot easier.   In the side by side, I marked the bins with chicken, pork, beef, and fish/ vegetables.  
The doors of the freezer have vegetables, the ingredients for a pizza, and peppers.  

If you keep a bag for anything that can go on a pizza 🍕 takes away from when you are cooking meat or vegetables, and frozen pizza sauce from the jar at the dollar tree, it is really easy to throw a pizza together,   Cut small, frozen meat and veggies thaw and cook quickly at the high heat you cook a pizza.  

We also save scraps for chicken stock.  It is a good use of those tiny shelf’s in the door of a side by side freezer.  

With a little organization , gone are the days of moving a bunch of things to find what you want and buying duplicates because you think you are out of something.

Save time and money.


 

Friday recipes. : insta pot quick meals

I don’t have stock on insta pot, but I wish I did.   It is one of the most versatile and time and money savings workhorse on the kitchen.

Last night we had chicken pot pie,  earlier in the day I put a large chicken breast on the pot with a cup and a half of water.  You always have to add liquid to the pot, that’s what makes the steam.
I set it in poultry for 18 minutes because it was a large and thick breast.   When it was done and de pressurized, I removed it from the pot, checked to be sure it was dime, amd out it in a quart container in the refrigerator.   At dinner time, I cut the chicken on bite sized pieces, added frozen mixed veggies and a can of cream of mushroom soup with a half can of milk.   Put all of it on a casserole amd put it covered in the oven @ 375 for half an hour.  I then made the crescent rolls I got for a dollar last week and we had chicken pot pie.  

Insta pot spaghetti

Place in bottom of insta pot insert,
8 ounces of cooked ground meat
8 ounces (  1/2 a box) of spaghetti that you have broken in half and spread out in a Corel around the meat.  Almost  like a birds nest.
Add a jar or can of pasta sauce
Add 2 cups of broth of your choice pouring it around the Edge of the noodles.
Cover, seal, and  process 8 minutes.
Quick release

Stew is another thing that takes 35 minutes instead of hours.  

Rice is equal parts of rice and water or broth and put the lid on, seal, and push the rice button.

My favorite is making beans without the soak, rinse, and cook with new water for hours.   Watched pot.
Measure the beans.   You should get 3 times the volume .   Wash the beans and pick out any that don’t look good or the occasional rock.
Pour in the insta pot insert.
Cover with water past your second knuckle.
Cover, seal , and push the bean button.  
This will make well done beans, if you want more firm beans reduce the time a couple of minutes.  
NEVER fill the pot more than 1/2 full if you are cooking anything that will expand  like beans, rice, or noodles.  

The internet is full of good recipes.  Chili is a good and inexpensive meal too.  You can cook the beans and add your ingredients and switch the pot to be a slow cooker.  




It’s a slow cooker, a rice cooker, a pressure cooker and you can sauté and some let you make yogurt.

Grocery Hauls 9/21/18

Fred Meyers

Peppers .96
Sausage, chicken and a beef 2/5
Barilla pasta .96
Cottage cheese .96
Hawaiian rolls .96
Strawberries 3.96
Cinnamon rolls
Crescent rolls
Grapes
Scampi BOGO @7.99
Angus beef patties 1.5 lbs 3.99
Butter 2/5
Cucumber
Coffee 5.99
Eggs .96

Total 49.80

Big lots 

Baking powder 1.30/ 2.60

Grocery outlet 

Cheese 1.99

Squash .99

Pepperoni 2.49

Total 8.07

Grand total 57.87

.87 over budget of 4.00 a day.  

Total is under 

Chain store ads

Safeways is. It up on the internet yet and the mail person didn’t bring it,


QFC

Digital Friday and Saturday
Pork 1/2 loin 1.49 lb
Can use 5 times in one transaction,

Buy 5 save 5

Milano cookies 1.99
Dreyers 2.49

FRED MEYERS
Fred Meyers digital Friday and Saturday
Hamburger 80/20 3 lb roll 1.88

Gala apples .99
Soup 1.00 coupons?
Grapes 1.99
Pears .99
Kroger cinnamon rolls or crescents 1.00

Sargent cheese 8 Oz BOGO -coupons ?



Safeways

Cabbage .39
Grapes 1.28
Broccoli .99

Dreyers 2.99

Digital coupon - 10 ct tortillas .88

Milk 1.99@@ limit 2
Progresso soup .99@@limit 4
Bread 1.99@@ limit 2
Barilla pasta .99@@limit 4

Oven joy bread .99

Don’t buy this DBT

6 muffins 3.99 - 10 minutes hot out of the oven about a buck.
Sour cream, 1.26 - a dollar last week at FM
80/20 hamburger 3.99- 1.88 at FM on friday or Saturday   with a digital
Bread - orowheat is a dollar at the DT .

How did she do that? Scratch cooking

Oven roasted sausage and vegetables 

This time I separated the sausage from the vegetables because a family member is vegan. 

Cut up a variety of vegetables in somewhat  equal sizes.  

Toss them with olive oil. 

Shake on seasoning of choice,  we like garlic pepper. 

Some like Monterey steak seasoning 

Bake at anywhere between 350amd 400degrees for 30-45 monitors or until potatoes are tender, 

Potatoes. 

Peppers

Onion 

Carrots

Radishes 

Broccolli 

Turnips 

just about any root  vegetables, 

Monday Kitchen Management aka food prep

Kitchen management is a tool that saves time and money 💰 in the kitchen.  If things are organized , it os more likely that you will be encouraged to scratch cook,   Scratch cooking is more healthy because you aren’t consuming fillers  or chemicals needed to preserve food.   Years ago I wrote that convenience foods start with $$$$.    Some things are drastically cheaoer to make and are also very easy to make and take little time,   The things that take a lot of time or are actually cheaper than scratch, it makes more sense to buy.   Most of us lead busy lives and can’t spend all day on the kitchen,   I, for one , don’t have the stamina to work all day on the kitchen.  Sometimes my granddaughter will help.

Meal plans

• Vegetable bean soup
• Pizza
• Hamburgers, oven fries 
• Gnocchi with Alfredo sauce and peas and chicken , crescent rolls
• Chicken sausage, potatoes and carrots roasted 
• Ham and cheese sliders , salad 
• Breakfast for dinner 

1. Make vegetable soup 
2. Cook beans 
3. Wash potatoes and carrots with vinegar,  according to a chemist professor, most pesticides are water soluble.   Washing your vegetables is a good thing, 
4. Make pancake mix.  Note, using milk powder can be expensove, but you can just use milk instead of water when you are making the mix for cooking,    Just start with the two cups until the right consistency. I think I got my milk at Winco in the bulk isle,   It seem to be very expensive on line.  There are 3.5 cups of milk on a pound,   The cost comes to .59 a batch, still a lot cheaper than ready made.  
5. Wash kitchen floor. 
6. Wash and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains.
7. Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead.  Note what needs to be used up. Yogurt is good to make parfaits out of with granola (homemade) and fruit, 

Sunday meal plans

Meal plans are a kitchen management tool that saves time and money.  It makes meal time a lot less hectic.

This time I am working on eating down the pantry and freezer.

• Vegetable bean soup, cheesy rolls 
• Pizza 
• Hamburgers, oven fries, veggie platter 
• Gnocchi with Alfredo sauce and peas, crescent rolls 
• Chicken sausage, potatoes and carrots , sheet pan oven roasted 
• Ham and cheese sliders , fruit cup, salad 
• Breakfast for dinner 

Notes :

1. Soup can be made in a slow cooker and ready when people are ready to eat.  Cheesy rokls are biscuits with cheese inside.  We got biscuits for a dollar on sale,   
2. Pizza is a no brainier,  scratch pizza cost a buck.  Add bits of leftovers, 
3. Hamburgers are from the hamburger patties we got at Fred Meyers for two dollars a pound, bond are from the bread outlet store,  s ranch fries and a veggie platter , carrots, celery and pepper strips.   
4. Gnocchi is new for us, scratch Alfredo sauce and peas from the freezer, gnocchi is from the DT, 
5. Chicken sausage was in sake for 2.50 for a full rope.  We will use 1;2 because there are only two of us.   Roasted on the oven on a sheet pan covered with parchment.  Olive oil and garlic salt, 
6. Ham and cheese sliders.   Ham from a three pack on sale at Costco.  A little over two dollars a pack.   Cheese from GO at two dollars a package.   Slider rolls are from Fred Meyers on their .96 sale. 
7. Breakfast for dinner is a family meal.  Everyone contributes to cooking.  Buttermilk pancakes are from a homemade mix.  Add bacon 🥓 and fruit,   

Saving money and time

Saving money can be a hard chore, or you can incorporate ways to save a bit here and a bit there,   Just getting into little habits can save a lot and waste less food.   They are saying that we throw 40 percent of our food away in America.  That is a hard number  for me to swallow, but none the less, we do waste food.

• Knowing what we are going to eat on a regular basis is a good starting point.  Then,  stock the shelf stable and freezer ingredients that you use in a regular basis.   By having a stock on hand, you can always find dinner in a hurry or not.   
• Prepping hamburger or other ground meat when you get it home in bulk supply will  save a lot of money and time.  It saves money because you are buying it at the RBP.  It saves time because you are cooking and de fatting once and cleaning the dishes once.  You are also breaking the batch down on meal sized portions so there is no waste. It’s hard to buy a package of meat just the right size for YOUR family.  
• Already precooked  hamburger can make tacos in 15 minutes flat.  Probably less time than  calling  the pizza delivery and waiting on hold and then waiting for the pizza.   
• Buy in bulk what makes sense to buy in bulk.  A 25 pound bag of flour at Costco is 7.00.  A 6 pack of muffins is 5.00.  A bag of frozen pancakes is 3.00.  The savings are enormous.  Make your own muffin and pancake mixes when you have free time.  Muffins can happen  in five minutes real time.  The baking time can happen while you are doing the dinner dishes or washing a load of clothes.
•    Making pancakes 🥞 ahead of .time or making extra when you are eating pancakes can save time and money by freezing them between papers cut from the cereal box liners and putting them in the microwave for 45 seconds . 
• Making mixes, making chicken or vegetable stock, and breadcrumbs and croutons from your garbage or bulk ingredients can save a lot.  It can free up money to be able to buy the real thing instead of fake in some instances.  There is no comparison in real maple syrup and sugar water, or real Parmesean cheese instead of the stuff in a green can, real butter, olive oil, or vanilla. Vanilla right now is terrible in price.  But, a little goes a long ways. 
• Save the heels of bread or bread that is getting stale.  I put it through the food processor and place it on a sheet pan.   When the oven is still hot from baking, Put the sheet pan in and close the door.  Stir after a few minutes.   This toasts the bread .  When it is completely dry, place them in a air tight  container. 
• Wash your potatoes, carrots,  celery and save the ends of the celery and the peels in a bag in the freezer door. Set aside a particular door.  When you are cooking chicken bones for stock, throw them in the stock.   
• As you are chopping or cooking anything that can go on a pizza, set aside a little and out in a bag, one for each meat and one for veggies.   Buy a jar of pizza sauce at the DT and freeze it in an ice cube tray.  If you don’t   have an ice cube tray, the DT has them too.   When the sauce is frozen, snap the cubes out and put them in a quart bag,   Put all the pizza things on a group in the freezer door.   When you are ready to make a scratch pizza that costs a dollar without toppings, you can add the ingredients and sauce. We call that almost free pizza. LOL
• Making a cream soup base ahead is another money saver.   If you are lucky these days,you can find cream soup for a dollar,  even at that low price, the base is cheaper and more convenient,   It takes less room up in the cabinet, and you just add water and stir a few minutes.   
• Making your own taco seasoning is cheaper and you control the heat  you want it. Besides the fact that it has no preservatives.   
• Making your own rice mix is the same thing,   It saves a lot of money,.   Surprisingly, all this done one batch a week or so takes realitively little time. 
• Go to the store with a good idea of what you are going to buy,   If you are really right on money, make a list.   Buy what you can that is at a RBP.  Never say never, but never buy anything at full price unless it is a dire necessity.  Stick to your plan, 70 to 80 percent of purchases in a supermarket are impulse buys. Knowing  that saves tons of money.  Now, there are times when buying something that isn’t on your list and changing your meal plan can be a asset.   This week, we went to Fred Meyer.   Scampi was 8.00 BOGO.  It was a good random  addition, hamburger patties were 4.00 for 2 pounds.  I’m am not passing up two dollar a pound hamburger. LOL.  We just changed our meal plan.  I had hamburger buns  on the freezer because  we bought a month’s worth of bread at the bread outlet earlier his month,  we also got some things at the DT because orowheat bread is back in limited supply.  We could only get bread and bagels.  But since cream cheese was a dollar at qfc, that works great for us.  

To recap, buy I’m bulk when it makes sense, make mixes for things you buy on a regular basis, buy what you need at RBP and as much as you will need for a 4 to 6 week period, save designated garbage to use in ways to save money.  

Don’t buy chicken stock at 3.00 a quart, breadcrumbs at 2.40 a pound, pizza at 20.00 or muffins at 5.00.  All those things can be made in a matter of minutes and making  them saves a lot of money. 

You don’t have to eat rice and beans or top ramen and potato chips to eat on a four dollar a day budget.   We have been eating in less for 20 months now and we have a stock of food too.  We live in one of the 7 most costly places to buy food.   It just takes some education and time to change buying habits.