Basic Pantry

Yesterday was a good day to clean the pantry and organize, take inventory.  We have gone with a thirty dollar a week pantry challenge  and went a little over, bit  we can  go another month easy and save some more towards the real estate taxes.   It is no secret that our stock market has taken a dump and anyone with  a 401k has taken gas.

Keeping a stock on  a four dollars a day budget is totally believable.   We have a decent stock and we averaged five dollars a week LESS than four dollars a day per person.

The basis for groceries in the cheap is to stock basic food when the price is low and stock enough to last you until it goes on sale again.   This is not a new concept, my mother had done it for years.  The trick is to simplify your stock list .  It just makes life easier.  Buying in bulk simplifies your grocery cart and gets you in and out of the store faster.   It also helps you with the concept of having a stock of food on hand in case of an emergency. Remember, if the power goes out, opening yoir refrigerator or freezer is not a good idea.   The longer the door is shut, the more cold  stays in and the longer you food will stay frozen,  having even a few things that are shelf stable, like cans or jars of dry food kits will facilitate you having emergency food and keep your freezer in tact as long as possible.   It is a concept that not everyone can grasp.

Buying a limited variety of meats allows you the luxury of buying it in bulk at the lowest possible price.  Picking a versatile meat allows you to eat a variety of dishes, while taking advantage of bargain prices.  Rotate your protein selections.  On our house, that would be hamburger, pork loin, chicken breast, and cheese, beans, and eggs.  I want to keep four dozen eggs at a time.  That is about a months supply.  The pull dates are usually a month out. So, buy purchasing two dozen at a time when they are at a low price, you can rotate out about every few weeks and always have fresh cheap eggs,  our eggs are about a dollar to one and a half dollars a dozen,  if they are more than the highest price, we don’t buy them.  I call that my “buy “ price or a target price.   Nothing to do with the store with the red balls.

Shelf ready pantry

1. Diced tomatoes.  Buy price .58 or less, Winco has no BPA in their cans . 
2. Pasta - it has an 8 YEAR shelf life.  Buy price 1.00 a POUND. Some packages are 12 ounces.  A four serving size is 1/2 a box. 
3. Pasta sauce.  I have been getting jars for a dollar  .  Classico comes in a canning jar size and the jars are a dollar alone. You  can’t can in them but  they are super for dehydrated foods and can be food saver sucked. 
4. Keep one ahead on catsup, mustard, and we have a few bbq sauce.  I want less than a dollar.   Use coupons when it is picnic time.  Also mayo.  Our last one was .67 with coupons and a sale. 
5. Instant mashed potatoes.  Try the bulk isle. 
6. Salad dressing.  Again, use sales and coupons. A dollar is a good price. You can make it yourself, but it is wasteful. 
7. Some canned soups for an emergency,  sales and coupons are great,  some of ours were  41 cents.  Cream soup base is inexpensive and quick the make. 
8. Chili, canned (some) cost less than a dollar. Bulk purchases. 
9. Dry beans.   Pintos are 67 a pound at the dollar  tree.  Non gmo, grown in USA. 
10. Popcorn, bulk from Costco 
11. A few cake mixes. Some at .68. Also brownie. 
12. Oatmeal one box at a time. 10 pounds at Costco is close to 8.00.  It comes out to .085 a serving.  There is no typo there. It is that cheap. 

1. Flour, sugar, yeast.   Costco for flour and sugar during the holidays when baking supplies are their cheapest.   Easter is the next one, 

I dry veggies and fruit when they look like I am not going to use all we have before they will go bad.  I have zucchini that we grated in the food processor and dried.  It is a good way to sneak veggies into a soup. 

Keeping a back up of some things and a small four to six week supply of other things is a good way to accommodate having food in the house and doing it at RBP.  (Rock bottom prices) soon, there will be case lot sales to move canned goods that are last years crop and make room for this years.  There is still usually well over a year on the pull dates.  The usda web site has listings of how past a pull date still makes your food safe.  It is not necessarily a day past the pull date, as much as some adult children think. Lol 

I am always reminded of a conversation I heard on the today show.  It made a lot more impression to me when I discovered that the host asking the question loved in a ten MILLION dollar house. He asked a lady what she would say to naysayers about couponing.  She matter of factory said, I would say, If you don’t understand, you have never been broke enough.  

Appliances that save you money and/or time

The Christmas world s full of appliances that, in my estimation are gadgets.  Hot dog cookers, breakfast machines come to mind.

There are, in reality some appliances that are worth their weight in gold.   Of course, if you are going to leave them in the box to collect dish because you don’t like appliances, they aren’t going to do you any good.  Lol.

10 appliances that will save you money —

1. Air pop corn popper.   Uses no oil, and replaces the nasty microwave popcorn. When  you make air popped popcorn, you control what goes on it and it doesn’t have any chemicals or ingredients  you can’t pronounce.  It is also really cheap compared to microwave popcorn. A very large canister at Costco was close to 12.00 last time I bought it.  
2. Drip coffee maker.   Compared to the big bucks store.....anyway, it makes a lot more coffee for the same price as a cup of Joe at one of those coffee shops.   
3. Toasters are nice, most people have them, but I can’t say that they save money,   
4. Food processor.   Again, worth its space on the counter.   Grind meat.  Make breadcrumbs.  Breadcrumbs, even at the dollar store are two dollars a pound.  It takes minutes to make them from the bread that you might ordinarily throw away.  So easy, my 6 yo granddaughter has been doing it for years.   Pizza dough.  The cost of pizza dough is .19.   It costs anywhere from 1.50 to 2.00 to buy in the deli department.  The dregs of a pork loin if I have any  are pulsed in the food processor to be added to good beef for a flavorful meatloaf.   
5. Hot air fryer.  Cooks fries or other would be deep fried foods in little or no fat— fast.    The savings here are in your health and time.  
6. Insta pot.   Cooks things easier and in less time than cooking scratch and watching the pot.   A can of beans can cost upwards of a dollar.   Even at Winco they are .58.   The equivalent of beans cooked on the insta pot are .05 .  A nickel.   Cooking scratch beans is an ordeal at best and you have to be home for hours.   Beans don’t freeze well, and they have a short refrigerator life as does rice.  The insta pot takes 1 footprint on the counter, but does the work of a rice cooker, a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, and some make yogurt.   They even make cheesecake.  Don’t let it overwhelm you, take 1 item to cook at a time.  How many times did you make something else for dinner or order pizza because you forgot to pull out the chicken to thaw and defrosted chicken in the microwave is yuk yuk,  cook a frozen chicken breast in a few minutes.   
7. Upside down blender.  There is a name for this, but I don’t know what it is,   It makes smoothies and blends or “ beats “ things like eggs to a homogeneous consistency .  Not money saving , but time savings.  I guess of you are buying smoothies, they are probably cheaper to make at home. 
8. Waffle iron.  You can get waffle irons at reasonable price if you don’t get a commercial one.  The price of waffles in the frozen food case is about 90 percent more than making scratch.  You can  still make more than you need for Sunday breakfast and freeze them. Chocolate waffles are to die for!   Lol
9. A food saver extends the life of freezer meat and dehydrated veggies in mason jars. 
10. Our electric grill was about 20.00 on same at kohl’s. It doesn’t save money, but it makes French Toast, pancakes, and toasted sandwiches a whole lot easier to cook and in less time because  you can cook them in one batch instead of the many batches that you might have to cook if using a frying pan.  

December what we ate

1. Beef stroganoff 
2. Spaghetti 
3. Pork roast , mashed potatoes, green beans 
4. Pizza
5. Pork sliders , tater tots, fruit 
6. Loaded potato soup 
7. Pork chops, dressing with apple and Craisens, green beans pear salad 
8. Meatball subs, oven fries 
9. Fajitas, rice 
10. Spaghetti 
11. Meatballs, white gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans 
12. Steak, baked potatoes, mixed veg, sslad 
13. Chicken pot pie 
14. Nachos 
15. Chicken noodle soup 
16. Taco soup 
17. Leftovers 
18. Chicken chimichanga 
19. Potato soup 
20. Leftovers 
21. Spaghetti 
22. Roast beef a jus 
23. Baked potato bar 
24. Christmas Eve. Greenbeans with pecans and blue cheese or bacon 
25. French Toast, berry compote. Bacon, sparkling cider 
26. Chicken enchaladas with green sauce, 
27. French bread pizza. 
28. 
    
29. 
    
30. 
    
31.  
32. 
    

Hauls to 12/26 Left 22.75

left 6.12

Budget 30.00
Total 36.12

Olives 1.00
Pumpkin 2 ea .50
Tomato sauce  3 /1.00
Bacon 3 lbs 5.00
Cream cheese .50
Sliced cheese 2.19

Total. 13.37

Left 22.75

Hauls to 1/2 /19

Winco

Carrots (5#) 2.28

Roast beef 1.84

Grapes 6.20

Boullion 4.98

Total 

15.30

QFC
Bacon (5) 14.95

Total 30,25

December recap hauls

No spend 30.00 budget for December

12/6 to 12/13
21.24

12/13-12/19
32.64

12/19-12/26
44.93


12/26-1/2 19
30.25

Average 32.26

Includes  bulk bacon and cheese.

The best of the chains store ads

note that Winco does. It have an ad.  I post when I have been to the store and can verify a good deal. 

Safeways 

Berries  BOGO

Digital coupon for nakkys chili .90 limit 2

QFC 

Clementines, 5 lb bag 4.88

Milk .99

Eggs .99

Oranges .99

Pork shoulder roast BOGO 

Fred Meyers 

Foster Farms whole chicken .99

Note the legs, thighs and quarters are the same price, but nit a bargain 

Digital 5, FRIDAY to Monday. Breakfast sausage 1.50

Barilla pasta 1.00

Pillsbury tube rolls 2/4 $$

B5 S 5

Crisco oil 1.99

Coffee, foldgers 6.99

Red Barron pizza 3/10

Traditionally  , the holiday ads are more, what’s FOR  sale than they are what’s ON sale.   

Not many bargains here, exception would be milk and eggs at qfc. 

Eggs have a long refrigerator life and are a good stores of protein and versatile.  You can easily keep a months supply and rotate out as they come on sale.  This affords you to always buy eggs at a good price most of the time.   We have buy prices or target prices for things,   If the item isn’t better than the buy price, we just don’t buy it unless there is no substitute and we have to have it.  If you stock a 4-6 week supply, you can usually avoid getting stuck paying a top dollar price.   

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas. 

Stories from Christmas past


The Christmas the Grinch was pranked.

One Christmas our family was invited to  tea by a Greek captain of a ship.  We had marvelous tea and Greek cookies in the captains quarters.   When we got home, some naughty little elves had broken into  my parents home and stole my gift.   I can only imagine the look on their faces when what to their wandering eyes should appear, but an empty box saying my present wasn’t here .   My mom had ordered sewing scissors for me and they hadn’t come yet .


The Christmas miracle.
My best Christmas was the one when I brought my youngest son home  from the hospital.  My husband picked me up and we picked the rest of the kids from his family’s Christmas and we went to my parents home  on the island.  They had served canned chicken Chinese food for dinner at the hospital. I was grateful, for the plate my mother saved for me...roast beef.   I was especially grateful that my mother and my husband took turns feeding my son so I could get a much needed full night’s sleep.

Home for Christmas
Then there was the Christmas that we had to decide to pull the plug on my dad’s respirator.  A really memorable night to remember.   My sisters and mom ate leftovers together. That hadn’t happened for a long time and hasn’t happened since.  It was the Christmas that dad went to see his mom he hadn’t seen since he was 14 .


The rock.
The Christmas that my eldest son got a rock!  It was just too funny .  We had bought him a bike for Christmas.  He was 10 yo and got home  from school  a few minutes before I got home from work.  I just knew he would snoop .  So, we left the bike in Grampas garage.   Early Christmas Eve, my husband went to fetch the bike. Meanwhile , our eldest was very upset because there weren’t any packages under the tree for him .  Did I say he would snoop!   So, I went outside and picked up the big rock that was in the flower bed next to the front door.  I wrapped it up complete with fancy bow.  He shook that package until it was thread bare.  He kept saying, what is it?   I finally  said it was a rock .  Yah, right mom was his answer.  We let him open the rock while  my husband went down and got the bike.

The Barbie Christmas
My daughter walked in on me wrapping gifts.  She was getting Barbie stuff for Christmas .  I told her they were for her cousin, Kristin.   I didn’t want to spoil her Christmas.  She then proceed to be get upset  because  Kristin was getting all the Barbie stuff !

Merry Christmas !  Hope that  you new year is filled with new beginnings and memorable moments.

Insta pot tutorials

It’s  Christmas Eve and Monday Kitchen Management  has been preempted.   In case  someone is getting an insta pot for Christmas, or you have one and am wondering what to do with it, this is for you,   

Modern pressure cookers  are a far cry from our grandmothers.  They are much safer and most are electronic.   The insta pot is a pressure cooker, a rice cooker, a slow cooker  and some are yogurt makers too.   Unlike some appliances that fall into the trap where if they are multi task, they don’t  do anything well, the insta pot is a workhorse in the kitchen and take a lot less of a footprint on your countertop.   No, I don’t have stock in insta pot!   Lol

Just a few basics. It is important to check you seals every now and then and make sure that they are all in tact and clean.  Also the pressure valve — a little bump out inside the lid needs  to be clean. 

Always use the pressure cooker function with a clear LIQUID.   And, never make split pea soup on the pressure mode, unless you want to be cleaning for e v e r.  Lol 

Many foods that can take a lot of time and attention can be made a lot more efficiently.  

• Rice : measure rice, wash it if you  ordinarily wash your rice,   Place equal parts of rice and water or stock in the bowl, cover, seal, and push the rice button. 
• Beans: pick over your beans and discard any foreign material. Rinse in colander,   Poor beans in the bowl. Cover with water to above your second knuckle.  Cover, seal, and push the bean button.   Seal means place your valve to the seal position. 
• Spaghetti with meat sauce.   Place cooked meat on the bottom of the bowl. Alternative,y, you can set the cooker to sauté and cook your raw meat until no longer pink and drain off the fat.  If you cook raw meat, you then need to turn off the cooker.  Add 1/2 a package (8 ounces) of spaghetti that has been broken in half over the meat in a bird nest fashion,   That will insure that your noodles won’t stick together.  Norm pour a can or jar of pasta sauce over the noodles, Pour 2 cups of water or broth AROUND the outside of the bowl as to not disturb the sauce and noodles.   Place the cover on the insta pot, set to seal, and manually program it for 8 minutes.   You can finish the salad or bread or whatever else you are going to eat, because you,need to catch the pot when it finishes cooking or shortly after and manually release.  Be careful and use a wooden spoon type instrument to release.  You can also put a dish towel over the vent .  Not manually releasing will result in over cooked pasta.   
• Cooking just pasta.  Place pasta in the bowl, you will need a quart of water for a package of pasta.  Cover, set the valve to seal and process on manual for 2 minutes.  Again, don’t let the pasta sit on the water .  Most of the water will be absorbed and sitting will make it over cooked.  
• Cook frozen chicken breast on a trivet, with at least a cup of water or stock and cook for anywhere from 8-15 minutes depending on the thickness of your  chicken breast.  Test for doneness with a meat thermometer and make sure you have no pink in the center.  This is good for anything you are making that calls for cooker chicken.  

We make pork or beef stew in 35 minutes.   You can make pork chops with cream of mushroom gravy in a matter of minutes.   I prefer a pork roast in the oven.  Cheesecake is marvelous.  Also, a taco pie that is another ten minute meal. 

The. Internet is full of ideas and recipes.  Six  sisters on  U tube is a good resource .  

As well as a guy that is called something like Pressure Luck. 

Meal Plans

Meal plans are an necessary tool  to save  time and money.  It’s one ofnthe things along with kitchen management that takes away a lot of the stress of making dinner during the busy dinner hour.

• Christmas Eve:  green beans with blue cheese and oceans, or green beans with bacon on the side. 
• Christmas breakfast: sparkling juice, waffles or French Toast, bacon, fruit, yogurt, English muffins, 
• Pork roast, mashed potatoes. Green beans, 
• Pork sliders , oven fries, 
• Pizza
• Enchaladas, rice, beans 
• Breakfast for dinner 

We continue to have no spend.   Christmas Eve comes out of the entertainment budget.  Christmas Day is food at home.   Our average for the YEAR is under four dollars a day per person, and we still have a stock. We saved almostmfive dollars a week, 

Simplify your shopping list , make efficient scratch meals, buy groceries at their lowest orice, stock up on non perishables when they are cheap, and rotate buying protein in bulk. 

Try a soup  once or twice a week.  

Try breakfast for dinner .  We don’t mean cereal here, but a full diner breakfast will put you over.

Pizza costs a dollar a pizza.  Add topping from leftover meals.   

Pork and chicken are rmeoeated and varied over weekmbecaise with two of us, we use a larger piece of meat twice in the same week,   Pork roast becomes pork sliders.  Chicken breast becomes chicken pot pie and maybe chicken enchaladas or pizza.   

Portion control.  Portion control, portion control. Your waistline and your health will appreciate it. 

Be Prepared

Every Part of our great country has some weather phenomenon that can put us high and dry so to speak.   Windstorms, tornados, floods, earthquakes among a few,   It is always good to have some back up plans to eat with little or no ingredients or prep.   

I’m an remember a snowstorm where we lost power.   We had a power box to he,o for a short time.  I made a fire in the fireplace and let the fire die down to coals.   We put a cast iron Dutch oven in the coals and heated soup and I made sandwiches from things in the pantry.  If you open the freezer or refrigerator, you let air n and you loose their efficiency.   

While others were driving in the snow looking for a restraint that had lower, we were eating and listening to the basketball game, warm and dry, 

Meals n a jar is a good way to be prepared,   Most take a bit of water and can be made on the fireplace or on a bbq.   In your desk drawer , it makes for a quick bit of food if you are stuck in the office in a deadline.   

Potato soup in a jar. 

2/3 cup mix to a cup of hot water. Or use water until the consistency you desire, 

Mix 

2 cups dried potatoes 

1-1/4 cups dry milk powder 

1-1/2 T chicken boullion 

1/2 tsp parsley 

1/4 tsp pepper 

Mix and store  in a clean dry jar.  Shake before using, 

Cream soup base 

2 cups dry milk 

1-1/2 cups cornstarch 

1/2 cup chicken granulated stock 

4 T onion powder 

2 tsp basil

2 tsp thyme 

1 tsp pepper 

Place 2/3 cup in a pint jar and add dried veggie of your choice. 

Cook with 1 part mix to two parts water,   

Note :  you can get non msg and low sodium chicken granules, 

Saxon 

Equal parts 

Coriander 

Cumin

Paprika 

Garlic POWDER 

Salt 

Use in any Mexican type dish 

Hauls to 12/26

Left 6.12


franz bread

14.81

Cheese snacks
6 large French bread
5 bagels. English muffins, Texas toast
1 hoagie rolls
1 oganic whole grain
1 chocolate donuts
2 white bread


Fred Meyers
Tortilla chips
4 boxes raspberries, blueberries
Grapes
Sour cream
Total 13.97

Total 28.76

Left 7.34

Milk 1.37
Eggs 1.53

Friday Recipe Day

Last  night we made insta pot potato soup.   This was in the insta pot, but it could be made on the stove, it would just take a bit more watching . the whole thing comes in at 1.50 to feed four .

2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
1 large, or two small carrots, peeled and sliced thin,
1 stalk celery, chopped onto cubes.
3 cups chicken or vegetabke stock
Pouches of :
Thyme, salt, pepper, parsley, onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic, minced

Place ingredients in insta pot and close lid and set vent to “seal”
Program to process manually for 3 minutes.

When done  processing, let partially de pressure and then finish it manually. Open the lid and turn  the pot off.  Switch  to sauté mode.

Mix 1 cup milk with 2 Tablespoons of corn starch.  Stir until thickened


Optional garnish with cooked crumbled bacon, green onion tops or cheese .

We served it with  French bread 🥖 buttered and sprinkled  with parmesean cheese and parsley,

This can also be made by putting the ingredients all but the milk and cornstarch inna pot on the stove and simmering until the potatoes and vegetables are tender. Turn the heat up and add the milk and cornstarch .

Bread from Franz Outlet Store

Franz Outlet Store is on 164th street near Wall Mart.  It is well worth the trip every month or so for us.  Yes, it is cheaper to make bread from scratch.  That doesn’t always happen here. Especially when talking bagels and English muffins. Also, the high fiber breads.

Wednesday’s and Sunday’s are ten percent off for military and seniors.  
Also, there are free bread for bulk purchases.  We spent 15.00 to get two loads of white bread. They gave us a box of chocolate donuts as well.

We got
6 only 12 inch French breads
6 inky smaller hoagie rolls
2 English muffins
1 blueberry bagels
1 loaf bread for French Toast
1 package cheese snacks
1 loaf of high fiber bread, organic
Totaled 14.81

10 items, one of which was six loaves of bread, so really 16 loaves for 14.81 or less than .92.5 cents a loaf . English muffins were 1.99 someplace, the grain bread would have been at least 4.00 and the Texas  Toast loaf is on sale for 2.00 and I’ve seen it for 4.00.  Bread has taken a big hike lately. Even Winco wanted 1.19 for hamburger buns.  

Hauls to 12/19

8.76 left

30.00

Total 38.76

Winco 

18 eggs 1.89

Yellow squash .70

Cucumber .48

Pears 1.26

Brownie mix 2 - 1.36

Grapes 4.54

Ice cream 2.98

Parm 2.38

Tomatoes 1.69

Egg rolls 2.48

Diced tomatoes (10) 5.80

Total 25.44

Left 13.32

QFC
5 cheese .99
10 Yoplait 2.15

Total 7.20

Left 6.12 

Chain store ads - the best of

QFC

Spiral ham 1.27
Strawberries, blackberries 2/5

Tillamook brick cheese 4.99
Pumpkin pie 3.99

Digital coupons

Progresso soup  2/2
Cake mix .79
Yoplait 10/4 $$
American beauty pasta 4/3

*****
Sour cream 4/5

Marie callnders pie 4.99 with FREE ice cream
Crescent rolls 3/5$$
Ritz crackers 1.99
Sweet potatoes .99

Safeways

Mandarines 2.99 - 3 lbs
Potatoes 1.99 10 lbs


Butter 1.99@@

Extra lean ground beef 3.99
Jimmy Dean sausage 2/6$$
Foldgers coffee 5.99@@
Frozen veggies 1.49 -2lbs @@




Fred Meyers

Ham 1.27
Berries 2/3
Oranges 2.99
Sweet potatoes .99

Pork loin BOGO

Ritz crackers 1.77

DIGITAL COUPONS
Cake mix .79 ( note Alberways wants 1.25)
Artisan bread 1.99
Hillshire farm sausage 2/5


B4S4

Sausage 2.49$$
Frozen fruit 2.99 -  best if 16 ounces 

$$ means there are coupons out there 
@@ means with an in ad coupon 

Lentil soup in a pot.

Carrie Ulness 

Monday Kitchen Management aka food prep

Kitchen Management is a tool that can help you save money and time.  It deflates some of the stress bubble that happens around the hectic dinner hour,

Reminder of meals

• Taco soup 
• Pizza 
• Chicken enchaladas 
• Chicken chilli 
• Loaded potato soup 
• Fish cakes oven fries 
• Breakfast for dinner 

Prep 

1. Wash kitchen floor 
2. Clean and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains.
3. Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. 
4. Note things in refrigerator that need to be used up soon 
5. Wash potatoes and carrots 
6. Make pizza dough , freeze 
7. Straighten pantry

Watching your perishables carefully helps to make sore that you keep waste down.  Apples hanging around too long?  Make applesauce or muffins.   Vegetables 🌶, make vegetable omelets.   

Yogurt, make parfaits for dinner with breakfast for dinner,   It works well if you are having a entree that has little protein.   If a dimmer is short on the protein like the loaded potato soup, you can either add cheese , bacon, or ham to the soup or have a protein loaded desert.   Remember, we don’t need as much protein as Americans are used to eating. One peanut butter sandwich  is enough to satisfy the protein grams for our 6 yo.  She eats  more, but that is the stats.  

Things like homemade granola bars with honey and popcorn are better alternatives than sugary or calorie laden no food valise junk food.  Apples and oranges are a good alternative and usually can be purchased for under a dollar a pound.  The doctors and nutrition people will tell you to give a child an apple instead of that sugar laden juice box or apple juice. 

Meal Plans

Meal plans are necessary to keep things running smoothly,   This week before Christmas there are so many extra things to do, that soup seems to be the word of the day,   It’s fast, easy and warm on the cold weather.

• Taco soup 
• Pizza
• Chicken enchaladas 
• Potato soup loaded 
• Fish cakes, oven fries, fruit 
• White chicken  chili 
• Breakfast for dinner 

Notes :

1. Hamburger meat was a bulk purchase last spring,  cooking hamburger , de fatting it and freezing it takes a lot of work out of the dinner hour.  Taco soup is a pretty much dump and go on the insta pot or slow cooker . 
2. Pizza is a mainstay here.  Batch making pizza dough in the kitchen aid saves time.  Anything that you can give a little attention to and an appliance takes over is a good thing on my book.  
3. Chicken is also from a bulk purchase.   Enchiladas take a bit more to,e, but well worth it.  They can  be made early on the day and put on the oven when it’s time for dinner,   
4. Insta pot potato soup is full of vegetables and the toppings add more protein,   Yum! And it’s easy, 
5. Fish cakes can be made and chilled ahead.   Fried in a little olive oil.   Oven fries in the hot pot means a little olive oil is all. 
6. White chicken chili uses the rest of a batch of chicken .
7. Breakfast for dinner is a family meal. Everyone cooks.   

Spending more time planning your shopping trips and meals and less time cooking is a more efficient way to save money and still eat well.    

Quotes ....

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,  

No food  does anyone good if  you are  feeding it to the garbage disposal.

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

Make a plan or plan to fail.

Help to reduce your food costs is everywhere, you just have to be open to it.

The operative word in junk food is junk.

Read labels. Do you want to eat that?    There are wood pulp and caustic soap on s,e of the boxes out there.   Fortunately, there are other choices.