Saving $$$ on food

sweepyhead

sweepyhead

Member
A lot of people are complaining about the high cost of food lately, but I personally haven't felt it much because I shop so carefully. I thought it would be a fun and informative thread if could pass along tips we have to save a buck.

Here is an example of how I save on food:

My local supermarkets have meat that is marked down for quick sale, and I frequently pounce when I see the red stickers. A while back there was turkey breakfast sausages going for .99 for a pound, so I bought four packages and froze them. I don't normally use this and it sat in the freezer for a while until I thought of a good recipe. Details below.

My local fruit and veggie place sells large (7-8 lb.) boxes of ugly/overripe fruit and veggies for $1.50, so I bought a box of potatoes and onions. I boiled a couple of nice sized potatoes and chilled them.

The next day I defrosted 5 sausage links, uncased them and browned them on the stove with a large minced onion. Then I added diced cold potato and seasonings. The result: hash that cost about 25 cents and fed two. Also great with an egg (add .10 to the cost of the meal).

How are you managing it?
 
:cheers: Great idea sweepy! If you don't already have a food vacuum system, get one. Ours has paid for itself several times over. One of our local stores has a big meat bonanza every other month. We stock up on meat at the time. The vacuum sealer keeps food/meat fresh in the freezer forever it seems. When cheese goes on sale, we also stock up and vacuum seal.
Summertime is here and it's a great time to visit the local farmer's markets to stock up on fruits and veggies.
 
pmeek said:
Summertime is here and it's a great time to visit the local farmer's markets to stock up on fruits and veggies.
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This reminds me... the same excellent store that has the fruit and veg values sells huge boxes of stuff like squash. Once I got stuck with more than I could use, so I washed and diced them and froze and a bag. I didn't even bother to steam them or any thing. I pull out a handful as I need it.
 
We've been doing various things. I'll make up a menu for the week and buy the items I need. Our Kroger has a meat sale every Wednesday so I buy all of my meat on Wednesday. I don't use many food coupons but I do use a lot of other coupons for toiletries so the money I save on those items gives me more money to spend on food.

Buying off brand helps as well. Some things I won't consider but a good amount of our buys are off brand.

Supplement some of your fresh veggies for canned veggies. I just read somewhere on line where canned veggies aren't as bad as everyone thinks. I rinse them in water before cooking to remove excess salt. Same goes for canned fruit and I rinse that as well to remove excess sugar.

It's actually been cheaper for us to eat since summer is here. We do a lot of grilling and we are no strangers to hotdogs LOL
 
Corn freezes okay. My kids eat it like crazy even after it has been frozen. My advice to you, just freeze a little to make sure you can eat it that way ~ lol! Onions freeze great ~ can't tell the difference ~ I grow my own and cut them up to use in all of my recipes ~ wonderful in soups and casseroles!! Saves us quite a bit and I don't have to smell like onions everytime I cook!!
 
Great thread.

Check the clearance shelves, you might find some good items at a great discount with nothing wrong with the food.

Example, I posted this in the bargain area.

If you have a kroger, go check the clearance area. I picked up 2 Quaker whole grain simple harvest Apple cinnamon boxes of oatmeal and 2 Kroger apple cinnamon boxes of oatmeal for $2 total today! I don't know why they were on clearance, they have a far off expiration date.

I also picked up 5 precooked uncle bens rice pouches for .50 each as well

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I try very hard to separate my packs of meat into 2, this way if I am able to I can get 2 meals out of one pack of beef or chicken. With the costs going up, the packs are getting smaller so it's tough to do that anymore. I bought 2 packs of chicken the other day though and was able to sep. it into 3 packs. Even though my ground beef was in a smaller pack, I still separated those into 2. Maybe, I can use them for chili and things like that.

I don't get coupons because, it's hard to get a sunday paper here. They ship them from Memphis TN and each store is limited. I do however, sign up for coupons, trade for them, etc. We don't have any double coupon stores here but, every penny saved is good. Use your rewards cards!

If you have rewards cards, register them on upromise and set up an account for your kids. You can save for college, I think mine have about $60 so far saved up, a majority of the savings came from my mother who signed up as my friend.
 
Even though I'm a guy, I appreciate the value of money-saved. I like to grocery shop anyhow. I clip coupons, as well as trade for them and I do the "refunding" bit as well. Yes, Kroger usually has a clearance shelf near the front of the store...some cheap items can be picked up there. Many times, Kroger will not be stocking a certain item any longer...and will place what product they have left on the clearance shelf to get rid of it.

Most stores have a marked-down area of the Meat Dept. Best times to hit that area is mid-morning. Bulk shopping of some items is worth the effort, if you have the space for storing the stuff.

I have a seperate box freezer with which I can store perishables. I enjoy purple-hull peas, and now's the time to buy them from farmers markets in the area. I buy them unshelled in bags, and I will mark the purchase date on the bag, then freeze them. Peas will usually last a year frozen. I also freeze fresh peaches, fresh-caught fish, etc.

I buy whole fryer chickens when they are on sale. I will crockpot them, then debone the meat. I then freeze the chicken. I can use the chicken at a future date for chicken salad and reheat as an entree, use in fresh-made chicken noodle soup, etc.
 
Turkey is good if you cook it the same way...we cook turkey breast in the crockpot. I haven't tried to freeze it because we never have any left over, but I would think that it might be good as well.
 
NotDeadYet said:
Mom cuts corn off the cob, blanches it and freezes it, really good. Here is a link on how to blanche vegetables before freezing
http://missourifamilies.org/features/foodsafetyarticles/fdsftyfeature12.htm
Right now I am eating a phesant. They are a little dry but not bad. Best of all, they are free (well, we do have to put out birdseed) :crazytongue:
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blech.

One suggest I have is to get a food vaccum and use that for things like corn, fresh veggies.

There are pretty cheap ones and if you buy in bulk DURING THE SEASON, you can save a lot.

I use to can until we moved here. I actually donated all of my cannings from last fall to neighbors and have a few neighbors who are now taking care of and will be taking everything from my garden.

And a garden is a great thing. I have a 5 acre garden" lol. But I have 1000 acres. My sister has a very small backyard and still planted 20 tomato plants, eggplant, jalepenos, peppers and cucumbers and with a family of 5 and the tomato scare, it helped this summer. She is still taking off veggies.

And she's an idiot about plants.

And yes red, you can tell her I said taht.. I told her a few weeks ago about her garden.. she wasn't too happy :whistle:
 
Michael, anybody who gardens knows that the people who have the best luck with gardens are the ones who throw something in the ground and forget about it. :crazytongue: The more you try and look after a garden, the quicker it dies. :cry: The best fruit and veg we've ever had here has been from volunteer plants that just came up somewhere....tomatoes are very good about this.
 
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