More about frugal grocery shopping

I'm still cleaning house and organizing the foods in my kitchen.

I decided to take a break from it yesterday to search the web for ideas and inspiration. I came across this couple who had experimented with eating for $1 a day to bring attention to the plight of hunger around the world.... especially in America.

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In order to read about their 30 day project you need to go to "older posts" and get to the original starting post then it will let you read in the right order instead of backwards. It was an interesting read.

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While it was an interesting experimental project and did bring in donations..... I saw many flaws in their way of thinking. For example: the couple attended social functions where food was offered to the attendees. They didn't eat any of it. In my opinion, no one, in any country, who is truly going hungry would ever turn down free food.

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The couple were offered cookies by some of their students. Again, they didn't eat any. Very often the kids in real poverty situations will offer some of their own food to others who are also in the same situation. Even with the knowledge it means less for them self. Those kids were possibly offering a gesture of friendship/kinship and the couple missed the opportunity. The couple also never visited a soup kitchen nor asked for help from a local food bank. Both places are common food stretchers among the poor. There is also the commodity and wic food programs.

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People on food stamps or those in the very low income bracket know how to stretch those dollars in many various ways. Not because they are lazy.... but just because they don't have a choice.

Why do I keep coming back to the subject of food in my frugal posts? It's like this....

During economic hard times when the whole world seems to be falling apart; it's important that you have "something good" to look forward to each day. Three really nice things happening every day will cheer up even the gloomiest of circumstances... don't you think?

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The fact that three nice comforting meals can be done very cheaply is so apparent when you look at the delicious foods cooked by the poorest of people in different areas around the world. The Chinese have their rice, the Italians their pasta and polenta, lentils of the middle east, or even Kedgeree (I hope I spelled that right) of New England, and Hopping John of the Carolinas.

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There are two main requirements for any honest to goodness frugal recipe for economic hard times. 1) It must fill everyone up. 2) You must give everyone the best nutrition you can with the limited funds you have. This might be discouraging until you think about how many frugal recipes have been around since the beginning of time. There have always been the rich and the poor. The kings and the subjects. Every group of the poor has come up with good recipes to "make do" with what was available..... and the foods became the source of comfort.

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Just look at all the movies about poor people and you will see that much of their happiness is happening around the dinner table. One that comes to mind is the movie of Scrooge. Tiny Tim's family didn't have much but their Christmas meal was a very happy time.

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It might sound strange coming from someone like me who has never been "well off"; but, I feel very sorry for the suddenly poor. Those who have never had to "do without" in their lives and are suddenly without income and no idea how to survive. Or, the two income families who have never given much thought to buying groceries..... suddenly having to rethink every penny they spend because one lost their job and the other had their hours cut.

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My frugal food posts are to help those who are just one paycheck away from poverty and happen to stumble on my blog. Or to help the young mothers who are just learning to survive on limited funds. Or to help those who are worried they might be the next victims of these economic times. It's a subject I know all too well and I'm willing to share with others. I've said it before and I believe it very, very true..... the easiest place to save money is at the grocery. The money saved can be put toward other things.

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Just to give you a glance inside my cabinets.... This is one area. See the organizer box? It fits nicely don't you think? I'll post instructions for making them as soon as I can.

Here is inside the new cabinet. Only two shelves filled so far. The organizer box fits really well in here too. I'm going to make more when I get some cardboard the right size.

If you will notice.... no convenience foods! No mac & cheese boxes. No pasta roni bags. No chips. No junk food. The Hershey's bags in the first picture is baking chips. I bought those to make some chocolate covered raisins as a Christmas treat. Some of my food is commodity foods. Yes, I did get signed up on their senior program a few months ago. Also, a friend who gets commodities has given me her juice. She doesn't drink juice. I use it for more than just drinking. I cook with it too.

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I really am a scratch cook. I don't like paying for a personal chef. That's what you are doing when you buy convenience foods. You are paying for some factory machine to "measure and mix" your ingredients together. Measuring and mixing is something that takes very little time to do yourself. The cost of paying for this convenience is very high. The cost of the actual ingredients in convenience foods are very small.

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Think about it.... a cup of macaroni and a tablespoon of powdered cheese would cost about how much? Maybe 10 cents? But a packaged box of mac & cheese was costing about a $1.19 each at the store the other day. Another example is the generic instant pudding. It costs $.85 cents per box but can be made from scratch with cornstarch for about.... hmmm $.20 cents. I'm not a mathematician so I can't figure the exact costs out in my head. One more example is a few ounces of flavored croutons. These sell for about $2.59 per 5 oz bag if I read the shelf label right. But I make them from stale homemade bread, Mrs. Dash, margarine, and garlic powder for just pennies. By the way, I eat the croutons that I make as a snack instead of potato chips.

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I tried a bag of those premade frozen meatballs I bought several days ago. I bought them for my nephew and neighbor but kept one bag for myself. Yuck! I didn't like them at all. I'm too used to making my own from scratch. My neighbor loved them though. I tried one and sent the rest over to him. Then I got to thinking; Oh my, I did the wrong thing when I bought all those convenience foods for the goodie boxes! I have no idea where my mind was at the time. I should have made everything myself ready to be heated and eaten.

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Geeze..... I realized I was type talking one way and doing it another. My lesson is learned. I'll try to do better next time. Ok, in my own defense, my mind was stressed trying to finish the xmas quilts. Hopefully 2009 will be a much better year!

$10 a week groceries? Not this time.

I went shopping on black friday. I haven't done that in ages and ages. I didn't go to the mall or electronic and toy stores like everyone else. I went to the grocery. There was hardly anyone in the grocery. Maybe a dozen people all together. I drove my brother's van and went with my sister in law. (she doesn't drive) As you can see..... I bought a lot.

It's sitting on the table in my studio ready for me to put it away. A couple of bags that belong to my sister in law made their way to my house. My brother is going to pick those up later today.

Some bags had to go onto the floor because the table was out of room.

I bought $458.27 worth of groceries. I paid $205.32. I tried to take a picture of the receipts so you could see the total and the savings but the pictures keep coming out blurry. I paid less than half the normal cost. I took advantage of sales, coupons, and discount bins to get all this food. Only a few items were non-edibles. Furnace filters, frozen food carry bags, laundry detergent, bleach, and napkins.

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Now please don't think all this food is just for me. I was trying to restock my freezer but I also share my foods with my daughter. Sometimes she "shops" at my house. I also bought some things that will be shared with others.

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Some of these groceries will be made into Christmas goodie boxes for my nephew and my neighbor. Neither one of them know how to cook. They can microwave and can make very simple foods but are basically lost in the kitchen. Both are really trying; yet, they are struggling to pay their bills. Their hours have been cut at work so the money just isn't there. I bought foods I wouldn't normally purchase because I knew it would go to those two guys. Can you see the convenience foods? The Bob Evans, the little sausage links, and the frozen cookies? Most of that's for those guys.

There is one more person who will be getting a Christmas goodie box. It's a single mother that my daughter knows is having a hard time right now. She's working full time but her salary just doesn't stretch as much as it used to. My daughter is going to pick up three grocery gift cards to go with the goodie boxes and some diapers for the single mother. The gift cards can be used to buy milk and bread or whatever they need. I didn't buy gift cards instead of the groceries because the guys would pay regular price instead of searching for bargains.

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Normally I would have made my own convenience foods (to be zapped in the microwave) to give to the guys. It doesn't take much time to make a big batch of biscuits and sausage gravy that can be frozen. I can quickly make up a batch of cookie dough too. I just don't have the time right now. I'm too far behind schedule.

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The really urgent food to put away today is 10 heads of cauliflower. These were selling for $2.50 each but on the discount table they were .25 cents each. I bought 10 to equal the amount I would have spent on only one.

I also found green peppers on the discount table. I gave $1 for 8 of them. A slight blemish here and there that's easily cut away. For 25 cents I can deal with cutting away a blemish.

I was really hoping to find bananas on the discount table. I've had the urge for banana nut bread lately. Didn't find any though so I guess I won't make the bread for awhile.

If I deduct the cost of the items for the goodie boxes.... I spent $80 on stock up items for myself and my daughter. This would include the discount meat and produce along with the non-edible items. All in all it was a pretty productive day. I got three major Christmas gifts that I hadn't planned to get before. The rest of my Christmas shopping was finished months ago. So now it's time for me to get into the kitchen. If I'm fast enough I can get the produce in the freezer and still have time for the quilting.

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Saying good bye to the $10 a week groceries.




For a long time my average grocery costs were about $10 a week. It stayed at $10 for at least a few years. What I would do is keep all my receipts for 3 months and divide the total to find my average. I went to the grocery a few days ago for one of my quarterly stock up trips. I bought only my normal staples. My items cost about 3 times what they were only a few months ago. My average is not $10 a week anymore.

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Boo hoo.... can you see me weeping? The economy stinks!!! My mission now is to find a way to get back to the $10 a week average if at all possible. I believe it can be done, I only have to change my way of shopping. I will be going back to shopping every two weeks instead of every 3 or 4 months. I'm doing this more for my sister in law than for myself. She's asked me to start taking her to the grocery so my brother can do some construction work on their house instead of driving her around. The more frequent grocery shopping will help me too.
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Recently, my daughter and I had a discussion about our use of coupons. She was telling me how difficult it's become for her to actually find the items that go with the coupons.

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As more and more people have started using coupons, it's become an exercise in patience to get to the stores before the items are all gone. Did you know stores deliberately have fewer sale items than they expect to sell? Usually it is a popular item they know many people want to buy on sale. It's a marketing tactic to get you to ask for a rain check. Rain checks mean you will return to the store. Each trip inside the store means you are likely to pick up an extra item or two.... since you are there anyway.

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I recently saw a tv news spot featuring a man who had a whole garage full of free items. He had shelf after shelf of things to show. He showed how he had hundreds of deodorants and hundreds of nail polish along with hundreds of other things too. He had more than he and his wife could use in a lifetime. I mean really! Can one couple use 500 bottles of nail polish or 900 deodorants? A person can do an internet search and find examples just like the man on the tv. The people can show how they have HUGH stockpiles of all kinds of items from toothpaste to disposable cameras. What they have is not a stockpile..... it's a small grocery store within their own homes.


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It's almost a culture within the couponing community to see who can get the largest stockpile. Each week you can find examples and the latest photos of stockpiled free groceries. It's almost like seeing the fabric stash of quilters who are fabricaholics and their latest fabric purchases. Their stash is already bulging at the seams but they can't resist buying more fabric.

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Now don't get me wrong, I've been a coupon person since about the late 1950's. I love the savings I can get by using them; especially the free items. The problem is that when some people realize they can get free items they tend to go hog wild to get more and more and more. They get far more than they actually need or can use. Just like the man on tv.... enough is not nearly enough. These people seriously need an intervention!

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So how do I get the best use of my coupons? Well it starts with the idea that my grocery stash is a part of my emergency funds. You know what I mean? The idea that a person should have at least 6 months worth of living expenses put away in savings just in case they loose their income. Instead of having 6 months of grocery money in a savings account I have it in actual items I would need for the length of time. When my freezer and cabinets are full I have enough edible items that I could go for about 6 to 9 months without ever buying a single thing if it should come to that. Using simple "use what I have" cooking methods I could probably stretch this out to a year.

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The reason I have my 6 month supply in actual items instead of cash in a savings account is because of inflation. If I buy the products at today's prices I won't be paying a higher price later. Especially if I loose my income when I would least likely want to be paying inflation prices.

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Instead of 900 deodorants in my stockpile, I have only 3. Instead of 600 bottles of ketchup, I have only 5. (I use it for cooking a lot) Instead of 1000 bottles of shampoo, I have only 2. You get the idea? For each item in my grocery stash, I have only what I could or would use in 6 months. In some rare cases, I will have a year's supply of an item.... but only if I happen upon a really good bargain while already out shopping. Not by rushing to the store to get the latest free item. My free with coupon items are few.... but meaningful.

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When I go to the grocery you are more likely to see me purchasing items like this.


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When I shop I go for the staple items to do scratch cooking. No way am I going to make several trips to several different stores to hunt down dozens and dozens of free convenience foods or free non-edible items. It would drive me crazy going to hunt down all those free things.

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There are different kinds of coupons.

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1. Coupons for things that people are not buying - The reason a manufacturer puts these coupons out is to entice you to buy the product to increase their sales. Very often this is for a convenience food item. If the coupon value is large enough and the sale price low enough you can probably get this free. The manufacturer knows this. They want you to get it free or nearly free. Manufacturers depend on brand loyalty to keep inventory moving. If you retry a product you haven't bought in a long time there's a chance you will go back to using it regularly. This type of coupon is also used when the manufacturer needs to get rid of an overstock of inventory.

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2. Coupons for new products - The manufacturer has a new product they are anxious for customers to try. Again, if the price is low enough and the coupon value high enough you can get it for free. This technique is far cheaper than paying to have a free sample delivered to every door in America. The manufacturer is hoping to get some brand loyal customer for their newest product.

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3. Buy one get one free coupons - This is the manufacturers way of thanking a customer for staying brand loyal. It's also used when a competitor has come out with a product that is likely to draw you away from using your regular brand loyal product. The manufacturer hopes that by giving a free product... by the time you use up two, you will have forgotten all about the competitors new one and will stay brand loyal. This type of coupon is also used to entice customers away from using generic products.

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4. A few cents off coupons - These are put out by the manufacturer to keep you buying their products. Remaining brand loyal is what they depend on for keeping their products moving. You find more of these coupons than any type. A grocery store will often double the value of these coupons. The grocery store considers the doubling to be a part of their advertising campaign which is why you often see the same product in a sales ad. The grocery stores and the manufacturers work together when planning a sale and cents off coupons. Cents off coupons and a good sale is also designed to get you to use brand name products instead of generic.

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5. Totally free coupons - These are put out for many various reasons. To promote a new product. To move or clean out inventory. To get you to switch back to using their product. Sorry, no picture of these.

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Recently there was a high value coupon for frozen meal starter and a fantastic sale on them. The final cost for a package of frozen vegetables was only a few pennies. My first reaction was.... oooo I gotta buy those. After careful thought I decided against buying the frozen meal. Why did I decide not to buy them? Because it was against what I would normally purchase. I mean really.... why would I want to buy frozen meals when I can make them myself to put into the freezer even cheaper than buying ready made? I don't want the manufacturer to become my personal chef.

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Always check your coupons and sale ad after making your list

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Your coupon use should be only for the purpose of saving money on what you would be buying already..... not for the small grocery you intend to make in your house or lulled into having someone else do your cooking for you. Don't be so hung up on getting a name brand item for free that it consumes you. Generic items are just as good if it's right in front of you but the free item is 10 miles down the road at another store. If you take the time to travel the extra 10 miles.... the item might be sold out which would mean another trip to the store to use a rain check.

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The exception to my 6 month stash is my canned vegetables. I buy a year's worth of these to closely imitate the home garden canning I would do if I could. I get canned vegetables in the fall when they are at the lowest yearly cost and purchase enough to last until the next fall. I prefer canned over frozen vegetables because it saves space in my freezer and they are still good if the electicity goes out for any length of time. Although, I admit buying produce from the discount bin to be put into the freezer is very good too.

If anyone is interested in what my neighborhood is really like..... as far as getting good nutritional foods.... please go to this site. Bridging the gap. It's a pdf file all about the availability of foods in my neighborhood. I live in the west end area. Be careful though, the pdf file is large. It's 52 pages.

You can skip over most of it if you are not inclined to read about the troubles of a neighborhood (go down to about page 10) but pay attention to the maps of what we have in this neighborhood and the pictures of fresh produce available in our neighborhood grocery stores. If you read the articles surrounding the maps and pictures you will see that good nutritional food is non-existent in our area of Jefferson County, Kentucky. In order to find good foods we must travel long distances by city bus to get to the foods we need.

This article is about the problem I've struggled with in my quest to be both frugal and keep myself as healthy as possible. Being frugal and eating healthy in this neighborhood doesn't always work together as you can tell from my frequent illnesses. An hour or two by city bus to the closest really good grocery and carrying only what I can put into a pull cart or carry in my hands at the same time while traveling another hour or two back home on a crowded bus are not always an option.

I do have my daughter who takes me to the grocery on the other side of town when she can; but, between working, going to school, taking care of kids, and only one car in her two car family doesn't alway make it easy for her to take me shopping. Which is why I stock up on as many things as I possibly can in one shopping trip only three or four times a year. And is also the main reason I am so appreciative when a customer brings me fresh fruits or vegetables as tips instead of money. A couple of fresh green peppers, a banana or two, or even a bag of good potatoes given to me by a customer is like a bit of sunshine on a really cloudy day!

One thing that wasn't mentioned in the article is that it's easier to get a bottle of beer or liquor than it is to get a good apple in this neighborhood. A person only need walk a block or two to find alcholol products but it's at least an hour bus ride to find the fresh apples.

Even the farmer's markets mentioned in the article leave a gap. The foods the farmers bring are often the lower quality items that aren't sold to food processing plants and major chain stores. Transportation to the farmer's markets is also by city bus. This makes it hard for many residents to actually get the fresh produce. Those who live within a block or two can manage but bus riders often find it too hard to get there.

Well anyway, I thought maybe some of my blog readers might like a better understanding of why I shop the way I do and why it's so important for me to make the most of what money I have.

I am neither a home economist nor a nutritionist nor a financial wizard. There is nothing magical about what I do to save money. I wasn't born knowing how to save money. It was simply something I was taught and I was willing to learn. Anyone who has to live on a tight budget can do what I do. All you need do is keep an open mind and be very observant to learning newer ways to save a penny here and a penny there. Pennies add up to dollars.

By far, the easiest place to save money is with groceries. Now I'm not going to sit here type-talking to tell you that it will make you rich; but, it will certainly stretch the budget by a few pennies up to a few dollars each trip.

Someone once told me that in order to be wealthy I either had to earn more or spend less. Well, I've done both and I'm still not wealthy; although, I can see the logic.

In the old days, grocery stores wanted you as their customer so much that they would give you bonus stamps. The bonus stamps were put into little stamp books. The stamp books were exchanged for things from the stamp stores. Stamp stores were like department stores that used only stamps as money. You used the stamp books to get toys, household items, transportation tickets, and lots of other things. Oh how I wish they would bring back the bonus stamps!!!

So ok, enough of memory lane, back to the coupons.

Coupons are good. Coupons are like someone handing you a handfull of coins to spend. If you are very observant you will find ways to save money by looking through the ads and comparing it to your coupon stash. Like this ad for Pert shampoo this week. The ad even tells you that there is a coupon out there somewhere that you can use too.



And this ad tells you that they will give you a free toothpaste. Free is very good!

Yes, it's true that Pert or Crest may not be my favorite brands.... but brand loyalty is not an option when I need to stretch the budget. Pert and Crest do a good job of cleaning my hair and teeth just like my favorite brands. Why pay $6.38 for only two items when I can get both for only $.99 cents? I don't know about you but I think I would rather use the $5.39 difference for edible items on my list. By reading the fine print of this ad, I saw that I could buy 5 of each of these. This means I can get 5 toothpastes and 5 shampoos for a total of 4.95 before tax. That would be a year supply or more for me. A savings of $26.95 .... not a bad bargain.

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So each Sunday I will sit down with the sale papers and the list of groceries I need to replenish and my coupons. I become very observant of the ads while looking for bargains. I will even read the fine print of ads. Sometimes I find really good information in the fine print. That's how I found out I could get 5 of the toothpastes and shampoos.

Before I actually start my grocery planning from the ads, I clip out and file my coupons. My sister in law also uses coupons but she does her's differently. She will go through the grocery ads, pick out the coupons from that day's inserts she plans to use this week, then throw the rest away. She's loosing money but I can't get her to change her habits.

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I'm just the opposite. I keep every coupon.... for any item I might use if it was free..... until it expires before I will thow it away. I would hate to throw away a coupon for something then next week see it as a free item when the coupon is used.

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One time a friend that refused to use coupons pointed out that coupons are not good bargains. Coupons are only offered for items that the manufacturer can't sell without coupons. She was only partly right.

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Coupons are non-existant for actual good nutritional foods. Coupons are not offered for things like fresh vegetables or fruits or meats. Coupons are for non-edible or convenience foods. Things you might not other wise buy if it were not for the coupons. The manufacturers know you will feed yourself first and buy other items only when necessary. They are competing for your grocery money.

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I use my coupons to buy my non-edible items as cheaply as possible so that I keep the maximum amount of my budget for food. My non-edible items are necessary but not nearly as important as my food. If I can manage to get all the non-edible items for free that's a bonus!

So here are my coupons all clipped out and ready to file.

I have this sorter that came in the coupon mom packet I got a few weeks ago. It's the only part of the packet I still use. I found the small coupon file just wasn't large enough for me. I save too many coupons for its size.

Here are my coupons all sorted using the sorter.

The catagories match the catagories of my binder.

My binder is simply a school binder I got from the discount table after school started and some baseball card holder plastic sheets. I actually got the idea for the binder from youtube. I don't remember who showed it though.

Clipping, sorting, filing coupons, then reading each ad to find the bargains is not a fast thing. A person can't be fast and observant at the same time. I tend to think of it as a part time job. I base my earnings on how much I am able to save for what work I've put into it. A few minutes will save a few pennies. A couple of hours will save dollars.

There are two ways I could handle the bargain I found on the shampoo and toothpaste. I could pass on getting these in the hope that my favorite brands might have the same deal. Or I could go ahead and get what is right before me and not have to buy any shampoo or toothpaste for a year. I will get it now.... while it's available. And I will get the maximum allowed. Because.... Might may never come true.

Survival cooking

You've run out of food and there is still days before payday.... how can you survive? Your kids are screaming "Mommie, I'm sooooo hungry" and you are feeling guilty because even your change jar is empty. You can't go out for fast food and seemingly there's nothing in the kitchen. Don't panic! You will survive. Don't get me wrong.... this is survival cooking..... not a healthy eating formula.

If you open any cookbook, of any type, you will see that the recipes use a tiny bit of this and a tiny bit of that to create a dish of some sort. There will be quarter teaspoons or tablespoons of some ingredients. A dash of another ingredient. A cup of others. I've never really seen a recipe that calls for a whole bag of flour or a whole bottle of a spice.... have you? Well, maybe. It would depend on whether the recipe was to feed a crowd of 100 or not.

So ok, back the the ingredients of the recipe book.

Now imagine that it's not a list of ingredients for a dish in a book; but rather, a list of items a person found in their kitchen when they thought the kitchen was completely empty. My point is that no matter how little you believe you have in the kitchen.... it could be the ingredients for a frugal new dish. Be willing to experiment with whatever you can find. If you write it down as you create.... from list of ingredients to how you prepared them.... then you've got the beginnings of your very own frugal cookbook. If your family likes what you prepared you can read your own recipe to fix it again sometime.

Basically what you do is go into your kitchen and pantry to look for everything you can find and put it in a list. No matter how small the amount.... it can help. List everything from a small scraping in the peanut butter jar to fast food ketchup packets to a limp piece of celery. Put everything into these 5 catagories.

Starches - anything that contains starchy food stuff. Pasta, potatoes, rice, beans, flour, potato chips, ramen noodles, etc.

Vegetables - a piece of celery, an onion, musrooms, cans of peas, frozen corn, etc.

Meat - slices of lunch meat, tuna, left over fast food chicken, left over half a stuffed pepper, cheese, eggs (cheese and eggs are considered meat for this formula), even a can of sardines if you have it.

Spices - pepper, salt, chili powder, italian seasonings, etc.

Odds and ends - Anything that doesn't fit into the other catagories. A can of soup, a can of milk, a bit of spaghetti sauce, a ketchup packet, mustard, butter, cooking oil, mayo, relish, salad dressing, etc.

Ok, you've listed everything you could find, it's time to start cooking. You will use one ingredient from each food group to make a one pot meal. How you cook it will depend on what you found. If the starch needs cooking, start that first.

Cut the meat and veggies very tiny. The smaller you chop them the better they will blend in the dish and feed more people. Add the meat and veggies to the starchy foods.

Now give it some flavor by adding a spice.

And lastly, you need something to make it slide down the throat. Starch, meat, and veggies tend to be very dry if you don't add something to make it slick. Add something from the odds and ends group. Or look to see if you have the ingredients for a gravy. Gravy will also make foods easier to swallow.

How many days can you go on this survival technique? It depends on how much you found and how well you combine them. Before using everything you found into one single dish.... try listing one ingredient from each group.... for one day, then another, then another, until you have nothing else left on your list. This will tell you how many days it will get you by.

For example: you found an onion, an egg, some rice, a chicken wing, and soy sauce. That's one day of stir fry. Another example: you found one potato, a bit of cheese, some beans, and slices of bread. It could be bean, potato, and cheese cassarole. Or bean and cheese hash browns on toast with gravy. Be creative! Mix and match things to come up with new dishes.

Use the right size pots

While I'm on the subject of survival food..... it always pays to use the right size pot or skillet. The larger the pot or skillet the more tempted you will be to cook too much. Or worse, make your survival cooking look like it won't be enough. A small handfull of noodles in a 3 quart pot will look kind of silly or should I say skimpy. Here is an example of a skillet I often use. It's a one person size skillet. That's one half of a boneless chicken breast cut into four pieces in the skillet. The skillet looks full doesn't it? The skillet cooks enough for me to have four meals.

Why did I not use my regular kitchen stove? Well I also want to save energy. This tiny skillet for this size ingredients is much better than my big stove. I also have tiny cast iron skillets that I use on the stove. I collect vintage cast iron pots and love the way they cook. I use the right pot for the right cooking.

Use smaller plates

While on the subject of right size...... a smaller plate size of food tends to make a person feel fuller than a larger plate size. Why? It's all in the perception. A small amount of food on a really large plate tends to look like it's not nearly enough and your brain believes it; but, the same amount on a very small plate makes it look like you are getting plenty and you feel fuller.

Don't believe me? Lets use an example. Have you ever eaten at one of those all you can eat restaurants? They give you a stack of plates so you can go back for seconds or thirds if you want. What size are the plates? Mentally compare those to the plates you use at home. Can you picture the difference?

Ok, at a fast food, all you can eat restaurant, you go up to the food counter and get..... oh maybe a tablespoon full of three items and a couple of tiny pieces of meat on your plate which appears to be over flowing. I know, those spoons the restaurant uses appear to be very large. They may be large but most of the time only a tablespoon lands on your plate. The rest is stuck to the big spoon. It's designed that way and is a deliberate perception thing done by the restaurants.

You eat what you got and go back for seconds. Again you put a spoonfull of three items and a little more meat on your plate and eat it. Now despite you eating only about getting 6 tablespoons of food and a couple of pieces of meat.... you feel extremely over stuffed after eating. It's all in the perception!

If you had gotten the same 6 tablespoons of food on a very large plate I believe you would have gone back for seconds anyway. It's a part of the reason many people over eat. There's something about second helpings that most people crave. So while you are planning your survival meals also plan to use your smallest plates.

After you have gathered and written a few of your own survival recipes you can also use them for frugal grocery shopping in the future. Add the survival recipes to your menu plan for a bit of savings. Give it some thought. I'm sure you will see what I mean.

Never trust the scanner!

Just look what I got from my daughter. She found it at an office supply store for only 99 cents. I put it next to my medium rotary cutter so you could get a scale. Isn't it cute!

Now I can always be sure I have my calculator with me when I shop. It's on the key ring with my house key. I never leave home without locking the door so I'm always going to take this with me too.

Why do I always take a calculator to the store? No it's not only just for the obvious of adding up what I'm spending. There is another purpose. You know how you put your groceries on the conveyor and the salesperson very quickly scans everything and drops it into bags then gives you the total? It's hard to know if they have scanned something more than once or if the right price is done by the scanner. The scanners can make hugh mistakes sometimes!

If you never check to be sure the register total is right.... how can you be sure you're not over paying? Never trust the register scanners!!!! The price changes are put in by a human being. Humans make mistakes. The sale price might not have been entered yet. The typest might have typed a double number. They might be thinking of something else while typing. They might have had a bad day and wanted to take it out on the boss. There are millions of reasons for human errors.

When I'm at the register, no matter how many impatient people are behind me, I know what my total should be because I used my calculator. If the register doesn't agree with my total I know something is wrong. I won't argue with the clerk because of the impatient people behind me. But, if the register total and my total are off by more than a dollar I will stand off to the side and check the whole receipt to look for a mistake. When I find the mistake I will go to the service desk and ask for a refund of the over charge. Even if it means a trip back into the store by the clerk to check the shelf price. The store clerk gets paid an hourly wage. It's the exact same amount whether they are walking back to a shelf or standing at the counter.... so it doesn't bother me to ask them to check a price.

Actually, the big chain stores make millions of dollars in profits each day because the scanners and the shelf price tags don't match and very few people actually check. I have never found a price difference to be in my favor. I started using my calculator to double check my register total a few years ago. I had bought some kool-aid along with some other groceries. The total came to over 70 dollars for a few packs of kool-aid, some bananas, a pound of hamburger, and a bottle of dish detergent. Shocked! Yes, you could say I was shocked. Shocked enough to never, ever forget it. It turns out the register charged 7 dollars each for the kool-aid. The person who had put the prices into the scanner computer had transposed 0.07 to 7.00. (Kool-aid was cheaper back then.)

More often than not the price on the shelf and the price in the scanner are off by only a penny or two; but, with millions of pennies everyday all over the country, that's a lot of profit for the big chain stores. Can you imagine how it would be if a person normally bought large amounts of groceries (like a months worth of food stamps at one time) and never checked the price of the kool-aid? They would have paid way over the correct amount but not thought twice about it.

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Most people are way to busy to be thrifty. They rush into the store after work, grab a few things, then rush through the register to get home. Checking for mistakes are the last thing on their mind. In order to be truly thrifty you must adopt a slower life style. Slower meaning slow enough to check where your money is going. Slow enough to pay attention to everything that could be robbing you of your hard earned money. Especially at the grocery store.

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Invest a little money for a calculator and use it. Also, make use of the in store price scanners. I will often stand at one of those price scanner machines checking several prices before heading to the registers. Sometimes the item on the shelf is not what is on the shelf tag. A clerk may have put the wrong item on the shelf or forgotten to change the tag. Or even worse, there isn't a shelf tag at all for the item.

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I guess I should mention that I also take a small magnifying glass with me to the store too. Senior eyes can't always read the tiny shelf tags. Especially tags that are way down at the floor level. I'm often wondering if this is done on purpose by the stores. If a tag is hard to read there is more chance of a mistake being overlooked by the shopper. No matter how rediculous I look bending way over to look at a shelf tag..... with a fat behind sticking up in the air.... I'm going to check the shelf tag price.

Hot pockets anyone?

I've had several requests for me to explain a little more about how I get by with spending only $10 a week for groceries. I'm trying to find ways to cut this back down again to only $5 per week in spite of the rising costs.

My grocery budget is small because my income is needed elsewhere. I have other major bills that must get paid each month. After paying the bills there is very little left for groceries. I remember one time, a few years ago, I told a friend that I had gotten paid up on all the necessities. Mortgage, gas and electric, taxes, insurance, water, and car gas money are all taken care of for the month.... and look, I still have $20 to spend on luxuries! My friend commented: "But you haven't gotten groceries." I told her: "Groceries are my luxuries."

There are those who might be skeptical that I can do this.

Yes, it can be done! You can do it too!

Maybe you can't get your own grocery bill down to only $5 or $10 a week.... but I believe you could get very close.

First, let me explain that I do eat healthy and regularly. My meals are not full of fillers nor am I living on tv dinners. I am not a nutritionist nor am I a home economist. Most of all I am not a financial genius. I'm sure there are lots of people who have found ways to cut back on expenses just like me.

Anybody who is concerned with keeping a tight budget... and who knows simple arithmatic.... can do what I do. What I do is "think" a lot. I did keep very keep careful records of where my money was going. If I saw too much was being spent for something.... I thought and thought.... until I came up with a way to cut back.

Here is one example of my "thinking" of a way to save. When my daughter was still living at home she ate hot pockets. She liked being able to zap some in the microwave instead of cooking. Have you ever taken a close look at hot pockets or pizza pockets or anything similar that's zapped in a microwave to resemble a meal? A tiny bit of something with a glob of sauce wrapped inside some bread. Far too expensive for what you get. Not very nutritional either.

Well.... being the tightwad that I am I found a solution at a thrift store. Remember these? For awhile these were advertized all the time on tv. Many people bought this gadget..... then donated it to the thrift stores because they didn't use it.




I paid about 50 cents for it back then. I began to make my own hot pockets to put into the freezer. I still use it today. Each time I have a tiny bit of something left over after dinner.... instead of throwing it out.... I make hot pockets. Here's the left overs from last night's pulled pork bar-b-que. Only 4 teaspoons left. I didn't feel like eating the pork for another meal.

Five minutes of cooking..... using 4 slices of bread from the freezer.....

and voila! 4 hot pockets ready for me to eat when I'm too rushed to fix a lunch... or I just want a snack. I could have dressed it up a little by adding a piece of cheese or onion or green pepper but these are ok as they are. I sometimes get really creative with leftovers that become hot pockets.

A written label on the bag tells me what I have inside the bread.

You see? I thought about it and found a way to cut the cost of my grocery bill. I figure its saved me a bundle over the years just from not buying anymore hot pocket type meals.... not to mention keeping leftover food out of the trash can. Maybe you could use your own home made hot pockets for taking to work. Or as an afternoon snack for the kids. It's a great way to get someone to eat the last of the left overs.

I must admit I've gotten my spending habits mostly in my head from years of practice doing the same things over and over. My daughter has asked me to teach her how I got us by all those years when we had so little money. In order to show her - and you - how my system works; I've decided to start it all over as if I was new at it. This is the only way I can take pictures of the process.... by actually doing it and taking the pictures along the way.

If you are interested in saving money at the grocery you can follow along with me as I teach my daughter. For now you should save every receipt.... for everything.... for at least a month. It doesn't matter if you just bought a soda at the convenient store or a dinner out with family or the week's grocery shopping. Keep every receipt! If you aren't given a receipt then create your own. Write the amount and what it was for on a piece of paper.

These receipts are not for working with your budget... well sort of... actually they are going to be the key to what you should stock up on, how cheaply you can buy it, how many you will want to stash, and for thinking of ways to cut back on the costs. These receipts are for doing your mathmatics later. You will use the receipts for putting together a price tracking and stocking up book. With the book you will know when a sale price is really a bargain and how many you will want to buy to stock up.

Ok, I've got to get back to work.