Food Saving Strategies

If you're trying to save money on food you should be buying food at the lowest possible price. Figure out the prices you're willing to pay and watch the sales to see if you can get it even lower. Then stock up! 
When the grocery store is selling pasta for $1.00 per box you'll have a nice warm feeling when you're eating the pasta you stocked up on when it was 50¢ per box. 
Rotate your food to keep the older food in the front where it will be used first. When I bought pasta at 50¢ per box, I took all the pasta out of my cabinet and put the new pasta in the back and the older pasta in the front. That way I would use the older pasta first, not let any go to waste, thus saving money.  
Base your meals around those inexpensive items like pasta, beans, and rice. Buy generic or store brand. Shop with a list to avoid impulse buys (but don't avoid any items on sale/clearance, yellow sticker)
Buy what is on sale and in bulk and then shop and cook from what you have on hand. You will always have food to eat that you didn't pay full price for. Invest in a chest freezer, so you have a place to store items you find on sale.
Planning ahead because you're organized can be made easier by keeping track of what you have and making a plan. 
Eliminate waste - run your kitchen like a well oiled machine. Keep track of what you have on hand and use it up before it expires. You've spent time and money on your food, don't let it go to waste now. Treat your food inventory and cooking and planning like a business. 
Make yourself accountable. Track your food spending money and identify any problem areas. Do the same thing with your leftovers and ensure there is no waste. 
Shop at Multiple Stores - We shop at different stores to get the best possible price on our food. We peruse the store ads and make a list and then we shop the stores as we run errands. If I'm picking up an RX at Food City then I'll get their deals, same with Publix. 
Shop the discount grocery stores. Our area includes United Grocery Outlet, Fresh & Low, Dollar Tree, Save A Lot, and Aldi. 
Just some thoughts this morning to help save money on food. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Saturday Errands

Saturday was a busy day here this weekend. We started the day with a home cooked breakfast. 

Scrambled eggs with cheese, fried potatoes, ham, and buttered toast. 
Afterwards we went to town to run errands and stopped at a couple of yard sales. 

I found these containers for 5¢ each. I couldn't believe she had the Tupperware marinating container included, but she did. I looked and the item sells for $22.00 on the Tupperware site and $12.00 on Etsy. What a bargain! So, 25¢ for all five containers. I couldn't help but pick these up as they are useful for many things. 

Afterwards we went to our local Goodwill store, since March 5th is the first Saturday of the month and everything is 50% off the first Saturday of the month. 

We picked up four blankets for our cats. One of them was $2.50, but the others were $1.00 as was the Better Homes and Gardens gold towel. 

I like to buy the blankets for our cats at yard sales and thrift stores and let the cats use them until they need replacing and then just toss them because I do not want to clean them in my washer & dryer. So, buying them at yard sales and thrift stores makes them more affordable. 

   

We found these baskets in a free bin on Friday and I knew the cats would love them, so we picked them up and put the blankets in there yesterday. 

Big Kitty, on Friday night, didn't even want to wait for a blanket for his basket. He is a funny cat and loves to have new items to sleep on. If I have a towel drying on the banister and it falls to the ground, he is on top of it almost instantly. :)  

Other items we found include these organizers and two shirts. The Made Smart Junk Drawer Organizer is brand new and retails for $12.00 at Ace Hardware. I picked it up for $1.50.

We stopped in at Fresh & Low and Cooke's Hometown Grocer to pick up a few sale items. 
I went to Cooke's for their sale on Kraft cheddar cheese. They have this sale about every three months where you buy eight of a certain product and they take off $8.00 of your order. I picked up eight of the eight ounce blocks of cheese and ended up paying $1.49 each. 
Next stop was Fresh & Low, which is actually owned by Cooke's, and picked up some dried beans, sugar, bread, macaroni and cheese, and canned chili. 

The two pound bags of mixed beans were $2.01 each while the cranberry beans, a favorite of mine, were one pound bags for $1.36 each. These will make very frugal dinners of beans & cornbread served with a green vegetable. And beans are a great item to keep my blood sugar lower.  

I also picked up two boxes of the Best Choice Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese dinners. I picked one up about a month ago to try it and we liked them, so I decided to pick up two more boxes. 

These will make a good dinner on a night when I am too tired to cook after working all day. A can of chili stirred into the Mac & Cheese after it is cooked makes for a great addition. 

The Mac & Cheese was on sale for $1.25 and the chili for $1.19, which makes it a very frugal dinner. Of course I will add a vegetable when the times comes. 

We also went to McKay's Used books where I traded some books and received $5.76 in trade credit and bought two movies. One was The Long Walk Home for $1.95 and the other was volume 30 of The Heartland Series with Bill Landry for $6.95. 

How was your Saturday?

Belinda ~ Living within my means in Southern Tennessee ~
Earn with Swagbucks

Saturday

I'm grateful because I was able to work all five days this week. We have a three day weekend since Monday is Labor Day, and after that I have three days scheduled for next week so far. 

On Friday night I started getting ready for next week. I went to the outside freezer and pulled the last of my breakfast burritos out and stored them in the inside freezer. There are enough to last all week long. I also pulled out two loaves of bread as we used up what we had in the house. 

I also pulled out some flour tortillas and Flat Out wraps to use as pizza bases this weekend. Freezing food to serve at a later time saves me a great deal of money. 

This pizza was made with a Flat Out Wrap, which we bought for free with coupons, a squirt of ketchup for the sauce (free with coupons), and cheese we obtained free as well. Now, we do not always get free cheese, but this mozzarella cheese was free. Otherwise, we are sometimes able to get cheese with coupons. Anyway, these cost me nothing to make, and feeding my family in the most affordable way is what I am after these days.

All breakfasts, lunches, and dinners were eaten at home this week in order to save money. Dinner on Friday was pizza using marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, and some Flat Out wraps as the base. 

There is a company that always donate bottles of water to all the schools in our county. This year the middle school has taken to stocking the teacher's refrigerators with these water bottles, so whenever I sub there I am able to get a free water bottle for the day. This week I was able to get a free bottle of water on two different days. A very nice little perk that trickles down to the subs. I love it.  :)

Fresh N' Low is having a one day sale today and they have Oscar Meyer hot dogs on sale for 99¢ while supplies last, which means no rain checks. I had ten coupons for 75¢ off two packages, so I went early this morning, as soon as they were about to open, and bought 20 packages, which cost me 62¢ each after the coupons. I also picked up some cheese, butter, mayonnaise, and buttermilk while I was there. 

The last time I bought hotdogs way in May when Piggly Wiggly had them on sale for 99¢. We had just finished using up those hotdogs about two weeks ago, so I know that those lasted me for three months. At that rate these should last for six months, although sometimes my daughter will eat one for breakfast. Fine tuning this process by figuring out how much we consume and how often these go on sale will help me save money.  Adjustments to our budgets and goals are constantly needed to continue to live frugally. 

Last night I put Field Peas on to soak to make for dinner today. I've already made some cornbread, and I plan on making fried potatoes to go along with that for dinner tonight. 

What is on your menu for tonight?

Belinda
Live simply by not spending money you don't have.
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011 - 2015.