Frugal Tips Friday – Saving Money on Groceries, part 3

Part 1
Part 2
Part 4 (frequent use meals)
February’s Shopping Trips
February’s Meals
February’s Meals Photojournal
September 2013 budget update

Ok folks – part three! Next Friday you’ll finally get a list of meals. Sorry it’s taking so long… I only last so long while thinking about food these days…

11. Eat inexpensive breakfasts and lunches
We buy cereal only for special or if I am couponing. Otherwise, we eat a lot of oatmeal with frozen blueberries (from the summer). Quite a bit of yogurt (in the bigger containers) is consumed here too. Brian’s normal breakfast is peanut butter and freezer jam on a piece of toast and a little yogurt. Anna eats yogurt with blueberries. Maggie, Jordan and I eat oatmeal with blueberries usually. Simple, repetitive… makes it easier to stock up when it’s on sale when we eat only a few things. 🙂
Lunch… well, for us, it’s usually leftovers. That’s good, because I have only spent time trying to get my dinner meals less expensive. I occasionally buy on sale lunchmeat. I try to spend $2.50/lb or less on lunchmeat and we don’t like bologna. Lunchmeat does freeze pretty good, but it gets a little “wet” when it thaws. The girls eat a lot of pbj and noodles (with butter or parmesan or cheddar on top) at lunchtimes. Dinnertime, they have the unfortunate experience of being forced to eat real people food. haha

12. Buy store brands
Unless you’re couponing, store brands are cheaper. The only times I’ve found store brands to not be worth it so far is canned pinapples (more juice than pineapple) and canned beans. But I usually buy dry beans these days – just keep a couple canned ones for those times I forgot the beans and don’t have time to cook them.

13. Eat lots of whole grains…. yes, carbs!
I think one of the big reasons you’re not supposed to eat lots of carbs is because you can only eat a small volume before you have used up your daily caloric needs. But hey…. wait… does that mean you only have to buy a few before you’ve fulfilled your daily caloric needs? Buy whole grains – they have substantial protein. Throw in beans when you can, because then you are getting every bit of protein you need. So yep – the workhorse of my meals is always carbs, not meats or veggies. I use meats and veggies and cheeses to dress up and make my cheaper ingredients taste good!

14. Mix inexpensive ingredients in with expensive ones as fillers
This goes along with the last one – I use just normal recipes (having a hard time finding truly vegetarian dishes I like). Then I use half the meat called for and add beans and rice or whatever healthy, inexpensive filler is appropriate… noodles are cheap too.

15. Make your own broth when you can
I spent a lot of money on broth this fall. I was really wanting yummy homemade soup. And I didn’t have any homemade, so even with the broth on sale at $.40/can or so, it got spendy. But the soup and homemade bread were just so yummy! Anyway – Thanksgiving rolled around and I was given two turkey carcasses. Made LOADS of beautiful broth by boiling them overnight. It’s now in gallon freezer bags in the freezer. Would have put it in reusable tupperware to save money, but I don’t have enough tubs. 🙂

16. Grow as much as you can in the garden, do u-pick, shop local farms in the spring/summer/fall
I think I’ve already mentioned how much I’m looking forward to spring! Things I’ve been successful in growing so far (not going to list the failures today): lettuce, spinach, chard, carrots, turnips (good mashed!), tomatoes (so-so), radishes, beans, peas. Hoping to get much better tomatoes this year!

U-pick: strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries. Ideally, you’ll find a neighbor or friend who doesn’t want their pears and apples.
Deals I’ve found in the farmers market – though I had to search for the good prices: $.50/lb tomatoes and cheap peppers and onions for salsa (hope I can find that group again this year!!!)

Preserve! I can and dry things like crazy come late summer. I have dried squash, strawberries, apples, pears, plums… I can applesauce, pears, peaches, pearsauce, cherries…. umm… the pears alone are enough. lol There are LOTS of pears on my neighbor’s trees!

17. Shop the bulk section.
THinking particularly of winco. Their flour, oatmeal, nuts and yeast are at a great price. And last I checked they had white whole wheat in there, which is my favorite whole wheat flour.

18. Use less meat.
I already said this. But I am going to go buy some expensive steak here this week because I’m out of yummy expensive stead. lol (we freeze it and it lasts a long time!

19. Cook your own desserts… cook from scratch
You probably got the feeling I cook from scratch a lot. It’s worth it to me and it’s fun. Not that I’ve been cooking much lately with morning sickness. Blehhhhhh
Things that are probably easier to make from scratch than you think: brownies, pudding, umm… cookies, bread, pita, pumpkin/banana bread

eeew – can’t think about food any more!

Coming next – my favorite low-cost recipes and possibly what I spent on groceries this month.