Savings on Groceries

So many people are having a hard time affording groceries in this economy. So I have decided to show how I am cutting costs every day by eating what we have in our home. Even if you don’t have a well stocked pantry, I would bet that you can make some meals with what you all ready have on hand. You paid for these items and if you don’t use them it is wasted money.

How many of us have purchased a food item that we have never used before and then just let it linger in our fridges, freezer, or pantry? You see it everytime you open those doors. But you ignore it. I know I have.

Today, I want you to go get one of those items. Then go to https://www.allrecipes.com/ . Plug that ingredient into the search bar and get a recipe to use it up. You don’t have to choose a complicated recipe. Choose a recipe with just a few ingredients that you already have in your home. Or make up your own recipe from your years of experience cooking.

Stay out of the grocery store or at least make a small list of necessities and only buy those. Sure those chips, soda, snacks and sweets are so tempting but they are empty calories that cost a fortune. I started keeping track a year ago of how much of those items were costing us every week. I was shocked to find that it was 25-30% of our grocery budget. I would rather use that money for real food like meat, veggies, and fruits. Do I never buy those treats now? No, once in a while, I will buy a bag of chips or tortilla chips. But that is about it. I did buy chocolates last week but they will keep a long time. The dark chocolate orange ones have been saved to put in cookies. Hubby is savoring the chocolate covered raisins. Do we buy chocolate all the time? Absoutely not! I have a stash of baking chips so if we need something sweet, I can make homemade cookies, cupcakes, or muffins with them. We also eat a lot of SF pudding or jello. It is cheap and satisfies our sweet tooths. Our favorite snack is popcorn. We have a popcorn popper so we buy kernels and pop them. They are cheaper than microwave popcorn. If you don’t have a popper, you can do it in a fry pan or pot. That is how my grandmother and mother made it.

This is the fourth week in a row that I have not shopped Top’s. The sales have been dismal so the ads get thrown out. I only try to buy when things are on a great sale. It is also one the most expensive stores in my area. So I try not to buy regular priced items there. My Walmart and Aldi’s are way cheaper.

I have had some items shipped to me using my Walmart + but they were not food. Because of my back issue, we are going through a lot of large bandages and hydrogen peroxide. The bandages have to be changed twice a day. I also have to take probiotics with my antibiotics so I ordered Florastor. The antibiotics were not working that they ordered me from the hospital. I saw my doctor yesterday and he ordered me a high dose one three times a day for 10 days. If that doesn’t work, I will need to go in the hospital to get them through an IV. I am praying they work. Sorry I didn’t mean to get off topic.

I did do a meat shop at Pelicano’s Market a week ago today when I went there with my friend. But the majority of the items were on sale. I did my research before I went and made a list from their store ad of the meats that I was low on. I kept mostly to the list. I did buy a 5 lb. bag of white meat chicken patties to try theirs on my friend’s recommendation. We like these for quick meals. We just pop them in the air fryer and then make a sandwich with them. I also used them to make a quick chicken parmigiana one day last week. It was so good.

All of the meals I talk about today came from our stockpile which is how we are and have been eating. A few days ago, I thawed the pork you see pictured above. It was 1.2 lbs. and said it was 5 servings. I bought 2 of them a while ago on a B1G1F sale at Top’s. I paid $ 9.99 for both or about $5.00 each. I purchased the brussel sprouts at Walmart for $ 1.16. They were 4 servings. The fried apples were purchased almost 2 years ago for $.59 at Aldi’s. There are 3 servings.

I roasted the pork, microwaved the brussel sprouts, and heated the apple slices. I am showing my plate but I forgot to take the picture until I had started eating. So add 1 brussel sprout and one apple piece to my plate. These were the proper portions. Yes, we are rationing our portions so that we don’t overeat and to make our stockpile last as long as possible.

Each brunch I have been eating three eggs($ .25 for all 3) and a serving of brussel sprouts. Hubby makes his own breakfast of either than omelet, sauteed corned beef hash, a bowl of cereal, or my homemade peach jam on toast, an English muffin or a bagel.

The day after I made this, I turned the pork into sweet and sour pork. Recipe is here: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/86402/sweet-and-sour-pork/ . I tweaked the recipe a bit though to use what we had. I used less oil because I only cooked 1 carrot and about 1 pepper. Hubby isn’t crazy about carrots but I love them. We hate green peppers so I thawed an orange one from the freezer. It was pretty orange looking when it was done between the carrot and the pepper but you go with what you have on hand. I diced all of the pork. Since the meat was cooked, I put the soy sauce with cornstarch together but didn’t throw it into the pan until last minute. The meat was so tender so I did not want to overcook it. I threw the sweet and sour sauce in. I thought I had brought up a can of pineapple chunks but it was a can of slices. No problem because I just took three slices and chunked them up. The other slices have been frozen for other meals. I saved the pineapple juice in the fridge in a canning jar. I will use it in quick bread or muffins. Waste not, want not! Hubby was going to make some rice in the rice cooker but I have these microwaveable rices to use up first.

This was so delicious and we had enough for dinner last night and a brunch for one of us this week. So we got 5 servings out of that pork like they said we would. That cost us $ 1.00 per serving. The apples will be used up tonight along with the last serving of brussel sprouts. The sprouts are giving us 4 servings so $ .29 each serving. The apples will give us 3 servings after they get used tonight. Our first dinner for 2 people cost us $2.00 for the pork, $.29 for the brussel sprouts and about $ .20 for the apples. So a total of $ 2.49 or $ 1.25 each. You can’t beat that for a meal with meat.

The second meal cost a bit more but we got 2 servings from it with a serving leftover for one of us for brunch. It will get eaten. We do not waste food.

Our brunches are cheap! Eggs are cheap now people. Take advantage of that. Serve breakfast for dinner once a week. Hard boil some eggs to eat for a snack or to make egg salad.

We will continue to eat from our stockpile. I will only buy necessities when needed at rock bottom price. Don’t run out to the store to get an ingredient at full price. Wait to use that recipe with that ingredient until you see a good sale for it. I will show you what I purchase when I do it. I have no plans to go our to the market this week. I will be placing an order to get more bandages, some shampoo, deodorant for Hubby, etc. today. But that all comes out of our medical and our personal care budget.

Food is just way too expensive to just give our dollars over to these corporations without a plan. Think before you buy. USE UP THAT FOOD IN YOUR HOME!

Sorry this is so long but there is a lot I wanted to pack into it. I hope it has helped someone. I know a few people who can use the advice.