I don’t have to tell you how expensive groceries have gotten over the past 4 years. As I track the price of things that we buy over and over again, it is really obvious. There are many things that we will not buy because the prices have gone up.
At the top of our list is junk food. We no longer buy candy, chips or any other snack like these. Instead we are buying fresh mandarins when we can find them on sale. Lately they have been on sale for $ 2.99 for a 3 lb. bag. If we need a snack in the afternoon, we just grab one of these. They satisfy our sweet tooth and are a good source of fiber. We also buy apples on sale for snacks and to make pies. Both of these last a very long time in the refrigerator.
If we need muffins, brownies, a cake, cupcakes, or cookies, we now make them at home. No more sweet treats from the bakery at exorbitant prices.
We want zero waste of food in our home. We did well this week. We used up all of our leftovers. Yesterday, I had one hamburger and some potato salad left from two other meals. That was it. So Hubby wanted to finish those. I thawed a bowl of turkey soup that I froze when we had roasted our turkey not too long ago. This week we will eat a lot of produce and leftover ham and turkey in salads. Last night, I made a homemade pizza. Today, I will make corned beef and cabbage since it is St. Patrick’s Day. I ended up buying another corned beef for $ 4.89 a lb. this past week at Aldi’s. It was about $ .80 cheaper per lb. than the one I purchased at B.J.’s. These will give us many reuben sandwiches over the next year.
We still buy eggs even though they are so expensive. We just don’t have them every day like we used to. They are a part of our diet that we do not want to give up. I am happy to hear that the price of eggs will be coming down in the next couple of months.
We are trying to stick to proper portions of beef, chicken, lamb and pork when we have them. The same goes for fish and shrimp. I have not purchased scallops in over a year because the price is too high.
We eat salads a lot for dinner. Sometimes for brunch instead of eggs.
We want the prices of food to come down. To make sure they do we are only buying foods made in the U.S. No foreign food for us to avoid the tariffs. It is harder than it sounds. I have been researching the products we buy and a lot of it comes from Brazil, Mexico, China, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany and Vietnam. You even have to watch your fresh meats and fresh produce. Many are coming in from outside our country.
We no longer buy fresh milk. Hubby and I do not drink milk so many times after making puddings and other recipes, we ended up throwing it out because it had spoiled. We use evaporated milk, powdered milk, and shelf stable milk when we need some.
I have started to replace Eloise’s food with homemade. The store bought prices are outrageous. I have made a recipe with ground cooked chicken, rice, and gravy that she loves. She hates liver and I won’t give her tuna because of the mercury. But we are working on some other recipes for her.
Hubby and I thought about buying a second freezer because there have been so many sales lately on them. However, we decided against it. We have a full freezer right now that we need to use up. If we had a second one, we would fill that up and things would not get eaten in a proper amount of time and spoil. We have decided to use what we have and then replace those items with steaks, hamburgers, chicken, pork ribeyes, etc. These will be things that we will grill outside over the summer instead of using electricity and natural gas to cook in our kitchen. The money that I have been saving on our grocery bill each month will help us buy those meats when they go on sale.
I had planned on doing this post last Friday but life got in the way. We had company, nice weather to enjoy, and many appointments to deal with. Getting old is a pain in the butt. Too many doctors to deal with. UGH!
I am going to try to post as frequently as I can. We will see how this week goes.
What are you doing to cut some of your grocery costs?