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Post by rumplesnat on Sept 29, 2014 17:30:37 GMT
K-Cups are ridiculously priced. I bought a 3 pack of reusable ones from Amazon for $4.99. A ginormous can of coffee is only $6.99 at our Wegmans and we're set for at least a month. Most the things on your menu are great finds and available staples at Aldi's. Going 15 minutes out of your way isn't anything if you're going to be in a pinch. Also, desperate times call for desperate measures and if that means your husband is less than thrilled with a $.49 can of green beans from Aldi's (which I personally challenge him to a taste test) vs. a $.89 can of brand name green beans, then so be it. You're stressing out about how to make this work for your family. He can suck it up and you can drive 15 minutes out of the way. Good luck!
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Post by snugglebutter on Sept 30, 2014 1:44:42 GMT
Looking at your menu, could you trade one of the beef meals (roast or steak) for chicken? I've been making this Amish Baked Chicken and it is easy and very popular with Dh. It's in the hearty/comfort food category. Chicken thighs can be found for on sale for .99/pound or less in my area. Also, what about taco soup instead of tacos? It is super easy and you can make your own seasoning mixes for it instead of the packets. Fall is a great time to try out some soups!
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Post by librarylady on Sept 30, 2014 2:06:10 GMT
If you are near an Aldi store, they really are cheaper place to shop. All of their items are the Aldi brand (except ours has Charmin now) and we have found the quality of the canned goods, cereals, crackers etc. to be good. I LOVE the crackers and spiral cut ham.
Since it is not a full service supermarket, we go there for "staples" and then to another store for the rest of our groceries.
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Post by SabrinaM on Sept 30, 2014 2:37:35 GMT
I can't tell you the last time I bought paper towels. I bought a set of cheap/thin dish towels at WM and use those. Snacks- I cut these down to a minimum in my house. (My pre-teen could eat all afternoon if I let her. Thankfully she has a good metabolism. ) No prepackaged apple sauces, yogurts or cookies. If they want applesauce I buy a large jar or make my own from a bag of apples if they're on sale. Snacks in my house are a 1/2 peanut butter or ham sandwich, fruit or vegetables and ranch, bowl of cereal. While I don't micromanage what they eat, I can't let them gorge themselves on snacks in the afternoon. It's not healthy and it's $$. We've been through TWO year long layoffs and they stink. The first go around we lived on severance, saved $, and stock options we had sold. We didn't cut back on much. The second layoff we cut back on EverYthinG and quickly learned that being brand loyal or "I can't live without my XYZ" doesn't pay the bills.
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Post by BeckyTech on Sept 30, 2014 14:13:45 GMT
I came back to mention that Colgate toothpaste goes on sale a few times a year for less than $1 at both WM and my King Soopers (Kroger). That's the time to stock up on toothpaste. Doing coupons on things like toothpaste, laundry detergent, and other non-food items and pairing them with sales can give you significant savings.
I'm surprised to read from a couple of you that your WM prices are higher than Kroger. I have found the opposite to be true on many of the items I buy. Not all, but a lot.
Also check into the corners of the grocery store. They often put bread items, milk, and other things on a super discount price when it's really close to the "best by" date.
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christinec68
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,129
Location: New York, NY
Jun 26, 2014 18:02:19 GMT
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Post by christinec68 on Sept 30, 2014 14:22:03 GMT
We eat more chicken than beef now since it is far less expensive. I also try to make foods in bigger batches that freeze well so I can take advantage of sales even on perishable foods
We have a BJs membership which saves us on staples, cleaning supplies and personal care items. But you have to know prices to be sure you're getting a bargain. I like them since they have their own monthly coupon books and take manufacturers coupons too.
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breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,919
Location: PNW
Jul 20, 2014 21:57:23 GMT
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Post by breetheflea on Sept 30, 2014 14:42:08 GMT
the "family size" box is not always less cents per serving than buying the regular size box. Check the unit prices.
Target will often have different prices on the same thing in different places on the shelf. So check the top and bottom shelves. Also sometimes they will have different prices on things in different parts of the store. Really annoying!
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Post by Lexica on Sept 30, 2014 14:47:48 GMT
I haven't read any of the responses, so this may be just a repeat of what others have recommended. I am not working now and need to spend each penny I have wisely. Fortunately, my mom and I share a Costco membership so that it is half price for both of us. I tend to shop there for the majority of my food items. I like chicken and build a lot of my meals around it. I buy a couple of Costco chickens every week. They are only $4.99 and ready to eat. You can't beat that price, even if you buy a chicken on sale, you are using your time and electricity to cook it.
I remove all the chicken immediately and put it in a zip lock bag. I use this for a variety of meals from roast chicken and broccoli, sliced chicken on a green salad, cold chicken salad with apples, raisins, celery, chopped lettuce, and nonfat Greek yogurt. I might make chicken tacos, enchiladas, or taquitos with some of it. Maybe some chicken and mushroom crepes, and I grind up some of it and freeze it to add to my pup's raw food meals so it smells edible to him. He won't eat just raw food, I have to mix in some cooked chicken or even a spoon of chicken baby food. Spoiled pup.
I boil the carcasses to make soup broth. I use the majority of it to make a generic chicken soup that I can alter the flavor of when I'm ready to eat it. I usually separate the soup into single portions and freeze them.
The soup is great as is, but if I'm tired of regular soup, I will turn it into another flavor such as Mexican tortilla soup by adding some taco seasoning, sliced avocado if I have one, cilantro (from my garden), a squeeze of lime (also from my garden) and put a bit of crushed up tortilla chips on top. It has a totally different taste. You can do the same thing to achieve other flavors, depending on what you like.
The basic soup contains onions, carrots, potato, celery, etc. Just add whatever alternate ingredients you want after you have thawed a bowl.
I round this out with some grilled fish from Costco (the tilapia is cheap and individually packaged and really tasty and quick to fix) I eat a lot of grilled broccoli from the giant bags sold at Costco too.
Once in a while I make zucchini pasta with my latest kitchen toy, a vegetable slicer that makes pasta "noodles" out of zucchini (http://www.amazon.com/Paderno-World-Cuisine-A4982799-Tri-Blade/dp/B0007Y9WHQ), and I use jarred pasta sauce if I haven't got any homemade in the freezer, and maybe add the cooked chicken to that too.
I may hard boil some eggs for egg salad for a light meal.
If you don't like chicken, obviously none of this is going to work for you, but the only meat I eat anymore is chicken and fish.
For breakfast every day, I have a bowl of Coaches Oats, also a Costco product, with homemade raisins made from sale grapes every summer, and almond mild from Costco.
That's about my typical diet and if you eat chicken, you will find you can turn that cooked chicken into a huge number of dishes that keep you from getting sick of it. Of course, you also have to love soups, because those can really save you money. You can turn any favorite dish into a soup with a little creativity. My dad used to make pierogi soup and lasagna soup because he loved the flavors but didn't want to take the time to make the more expensive and time-consuming dishes. I've done hamburger soup (from a scratch recipe, not using purchased hamburgers),chicken long-rice soup, and even Kung Pao soup.
My food budget is the one area I can manipulate when I have an unexpected expense pop up. I hope these were not all repeat ideas from everyone else. I will have to read this whole thread when I have the time to maybe incorporate other ideas into my meals.
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gloryjoy
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,332
Jun 26, 2014 12:35:32 GMT
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Post by gloryjoy on Sept 30, 2014 14:54:27 GMT
I agree drinking the milk that is mixed with powdered milk is kind of yuck. But it is great for baking with. I've made sauces with it as well and I can't tell the difference, and I'm a person who isn't fond of milk.
I don't meal plan in advance, but my meals are based around what meat I can get on sale, not what we want to eat.
And I buy when things are on sale. I will not pay full price for toilet paper, if it's on sale I will buy serveral packages of it. I will buy 6 cans of tomatoes when they are on sale, etc.
I think it helps to be stocked up, that way you don't have to run out and buy ingredients for something and pay full price.
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Post by *KAS* on Sept 30, 2014 15:04:41 GMT
DO you have an Aldi? I trusted shopping there at first because when I was a kid, it was the bitter end to shop there. Dirty stores and gross food. It's not like that at all anymore, at least the ones I've been in recently! I can buy almost every single thing I need on my list other than a few specialty items, and I save a ton of money. At least 40% I'd guess. Funny, same for me. Growing up we had an Aldi, and it was just gross. You only shopped there if you were REALLY broke. Now? There's several brand new stores around me in zip codes with quite high incomes, and it's seriously my favorite place to shop. Clean, bright lights, not too big, not too crowded. I hardly ever go to Publix anymore. There's a few things I can't get there (like fresh deli meat, and the fruits/veggies aren't always the best) but I actually like the simplicity and lack of 57 brands to choose from. I really like most of their store brand stuff, and it's much cheaper. There's a Kroger across the street in case I need to supplement fruits/veggies. That has saved me a ton b/c I 'm not picking up soda and "OMG it's new and I must try it" items, and magazines, and cards, and on and on that I was getting!
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Post by nnnsmom on Sept 30, 2014 15:38:39 GMT
Best tip I've got:
Leave the kids at home with Dad while grocery shopping!
My kids can easily add $25-30 to the bill when they tag along!
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Post by meowgal on Sept 30, 2014 16:06:59 GMT
I'm going back 30 years here, but I was on a very, very tight budget to feed four people (2 adults and 2 toddlers). I made EVERYTHING from scratch, including my own version of hamburger helper/goulash and we all enjoyed casseroles (especially my San Angelo casserole, which I made up then and is still popular with friends...and DOES use cheap canned ingredients). Monday was always beans and cornbread night. I would fix a huge pot of beans with a ham bone/hock (I used to get that free from the butcher!) and always made my cornbread from scratch. I bought the big things of hamburger meat and split it into one pound packages. I DID use coupons, but only for things we normally used anyway. And when chickens were on sale, I'd stock up the freezer with them and fix one a week! I never bought ANY meat unless it was on sale and always stocked up with that. Soon, I had my own little store in my freezer and making a good meal was easy and cheap. Oh, breakfasts were oatmeal, except on weekends when I made french toast with the leftover, getting dry, bread. I ate leftovers for lunch and he took sandwiches...the little ones were fed at daycare as part of the fee. Oddly, I ENJOYED making a dollar go far! I still do some of these things too! And the one year old's first word was "MORE!" cuz he did like my cooking!
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Post by Dori~Mama~Bear on Sept 30, 2014 16:50:27 GMT
groceries WITHOUT couponing??? Or wasting gas money driving to a bunch of stores around town....
Dh may be losing his job in January and I want to figure out how to stretch our grocery budget now. I'd like to be able to buy the supplies for our meals and possibly a few items each week to store. I'd really like to be able to make full meals that we can just freeze and use later.
I spend about $150 each week on groceries (3 people, supplies for 5-6 dinners, 5-6 breakfasts, snacks, cat and dog food, cat litter). Dh is a meat-and-potatoes guy, ds would never eat a vegetable if he could help it. Ds hates tomato-based sauces.
I usually shop at WalMart for boxed and canned goods, Giant Eagle for meat and fresh veggies/fruits. I go to one and stop on the way home at the other. I'd rather not have to drive an extra 15-20 minutes one way to hit any other places.
And then, what should I start to stock up on?
Would it be worth looking up one of the stock-piling blogs (not the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it even if it feels like it ones, kwim?) and start following their directions?
I am sorry your husband is maybe going to lose his job. We always buy our meat in bulk like at Costco or Cash & Carry. Then we break it up into meal size portions. This brings the cost of the meal size portions done. It is amazing on the money we save by doing this. We also Do our shopping either on the weekend so we can go to all the stores or do it in the evening on the way home from work. If we need to go during the week for something then we will look on the on going list and figure out if there is any other errands we need to do. Either that I will have my daughter stop by the store on her way home. She has to pass Safeway anyway on her way. We also make our red sauce and chili in large pots and freeze them. We usually get enough for a few months. that way we don't have to buy it every time we want it... but that won't help you with your son. What kind of sauces does he like? I would find a recipe and figure out how to make big portions so that you could freeze them. We, also buy our skinless boneless chicken breasts at Costco. Price it out it comes to about $1 per breast. We can get about 7 meals out of a bag. ground beef (I hate it but husband won't eat ground turkey) and ground turkey also comes from Costco. we save about $4 per pound of turkey. We buy our paper products at Costco. That saves us a great deal. We are toilet paper and paper towel pigs in this house. We usually go to Safeway or Walmart. There are stuff at both places that the other store doesn't carry for what ever reason. I just stocked up on our fried rice it was 10 for $10. Yes I use rice a roni fried rice. normally we don't buy a lot of box foods. I try to make each meal from scratch. We buy pork chops in bulk as well and we portion them out to meal size. Same with our ground breakfast sausage. When we make taco meat we do big pans full and then we portion them in meal size food saver bags and freeze them. That way I don't have to make 2 pans of taco meat every time I cook Mexican food. Have you tried to go to a local farm stand and get your veggies and freeze them. they are fresher and it doesn't take much work to freeze them. We used to freeze or can most of our veggies out of our garden when I was a kid. I loved helping my mom specially with the green beans. I thought it was cool that I could use a sharp knife. I think I was 8 or 9 when I started to help her. We froze all our own fruits too...
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