Posted on 09/15/2022 9:54:04 AM PDT by ConservativeInPA
If we didn’t eat it fresh from the garden, we canned it.
Beans, corn, pumpkin, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries and the wild black raspberries and mulberry.
We also shop the sales...and rarely eat out anymore
I travel extensively for work. I let them pay for my meals.
Actually I’m usually frugal on trips too.
The last trip included the grocery store and several meals in the hotel room.
I might bake during the winter but usually use a bread machine instead.
I let the loaf fully, 100% cool, then slice it and freeze it, then I pull out a day’s supply at a time.
Still eat meat..just bulk it up with beans and lentils.
Microgreens.
I make jugs of bone broth. I also make most of my own condiments especially chili oils, salsas, sauces, salad dressings. As well as pickles, kim chi, sauerkraut. Back when I drank I brewed kraptons of beer. Though I don’t really do this to save money, and in some cases it probably costs more, I mostly do it because it tastes infinitely better, and there is satisfaction to it.
It’s called the x42 skip plan.
1. Cook from scratch as much as I can;
2. I use coupons extensively. Typically, if I don't have a coupon, I don't buy it;
3. If I have a coupon for "FREE" at the grocery store, I also buy one. (Examples: Oatmeal, fresh meats, frozen veggies, canned soups);
4. I always look at the per ounce price and go for the lowest cost per ounce, especially when buying bulk;
5. I avoid pre-packaged/pre-prepared meals, the cost for what you get is too high. I'll spend the time preparing my own food.
I may go out to eat once or twice a month now, that's it, and not to an expensive restaurant either. GF and I are aren't "cheap" we both prefer to get something basic at a decent place and get on with our evening.
My Costco membership pays for itself in gas alone.
I buy many things there but I’ll emphasize bread. You have to buy two large loves but I freeze them in chunks of ten slices or so. Keeps wonderfully, good quality bread.
Other random thoughts:
Drink tap water.
If you must buy coffee out (kinda part of my job) get the peets gift certificates at Costco save 20-30%.
Banana bread with your old bananas. Old bananas grease until you need them too.
Otc meds at Costco are the best deal.
Buy gallons of milk and freeze some - best deal is on gallons.
Butter also at Costco. Butter also freezes.
Fly to Mexico, walk across border into USA WOP (With Out Papers), ask for political asylum, after being processed ask for transportation to New York City, check into NYC supplied hotel, look over room service menu and order whatever you like, check room minibar for appropriate adult beverage for the meal you ordered from room service, repeat 3 times a day for as long as Democrats remain in power. You will save a lot more than cutting out coupons.
The most fundamental way to save money on food is to cook.
If you are poor cook your poor foods, if you are used to dining out, then buy your shrimp and steaks and baking potatoes and cook them yourself.
People can eat pretty well on a home stir-fry with a little luxury in it, such as a few shrimp.
You will eat food every day of your life, find ways to attain those foods in the cheapest manner possible.
*old bananas FREEZE not grease. Yuck. Just through overripe bananas in the freezer. When you have three in there make a loaf of banana bread.
Things I water down: jam, sour cream. Stretches it and hey, lower cal.
~ I do not eat out. Period.
~ Fresh food, no processed food, no vegetable seed oils, no sugar.
~Being about 95-98% carnivore, I eat meat, dairy & eggs. I buy meat in bulk or on sale & freeze until I need it. I have a relative who hunts so I usually have venison as well. Red ruminant meat is what I mostly eat although in the interest of ‘food security’, I just bought a half hog from a regenerative farmer - raised on pasture and some feed that is non-GMO, no soybeans, & milled local to the farm.
~ For veggies (mostly for family) I have a garden.
~ Do not buy any soda type drinks - cold brew my own tea, make my own ‘electrolyte’ drinks. Brew my own coffee - never buy it ‘out’.
~ Find local sources of food (farmer’s markets, etc.) & buy food from them. While not necessarily the cheapest, local food retains a lot more nutrition since it’s not traveling long distances/in storage until it can be sold in a grocery store.
~ Go for foods with “nutrient density” rather than merely ‘calories’
What Is Nutrient Density and Why Is It Important?
https://chriskresser.com/what-is-nutrient-density-and-why-is-it-important/
Bottom line, I make my dollars count with the best nutrition I can buy, taking into account sales, bulk purchases, coupons if I can find them AND cultivating local sources so I don’t rely on grocery stores as a primary food source.
How do you wrap your bread for freezing?
At the 99cent store I buy plastic bottles of diet drinks. They are very sweet, and can be cut four or five times. Thus, your drink of soda pop is really quite cheap. I have noted that cans of peas and corn are quite inexpensive at the 99cent; cans bought for a dollar (and sometimes less) costs 1.67 at Wallmart and 1.89 at Safeway. Finally, depending on the store, a 12 oz container of coffee now costs 4.99. It’s somewhat bland, but mix it with Bustelo, the Brazilian grind, that is sold at the same cost, and sprinkle with cheap cinnamon and you have a nice cuppa.
In discussing this same topic with family I find that they swear that Trader Joe has tried to hold the line one grocery costs. I don’t have one near, so I can’t compare.
I have developed my own wine cooler. I buy a gallon jug of merlot or Dago red at Wallmart. Mix it with cheap white wine Moscato that Wallmart offers. Add a few chops of pineapple or some sort of fruit, eat with cheap crackers and a cheap spread, and voila, you have a Lucullan fest.
Intermittent fasting.
To save on food costs, I shop at Kroger. Every week they have excellent deals. And when they do have things needed/wanted, I buy extra and long-term store them (can, dehydrate, vacuum seal). Yesterday, they had Land o Lakes butter @$1.99 lb...bought 20. Vacuumed sealed with a oxygen absorbers inside and put in deep freezer. Should last a long time. They also had Nolan Ryan Angus T-bones @5.77 lb. Got 6 of them, vacuumed 5. Daughter and I ate the other last night (they were huge and excellent.
That’s one way...look for deals and prepare them to last well into the future.
I see no end to price inflation for groceries.
The current high prices for grains now being harvested have not been ‘baked into’ the prices for all of the groceries based on grains being an input cost.
So my plan has been to buy as much ‘non-perishable’ items as possible and keep my pantry very overfilled.
Conservative Tree House posted a great chart today on inflation. If FReepers had stocked up on non-perishables in August 2021, they would have saved 23.5% vs buying those same groceries in August 2022.
**ANYTHING that mixes with water is a deal.**
My wife and I have found juices like apple, orange, and Pom, are plenty sweet and flavorful at 50% or less when mixed with water.
If we go to a fast food joint, we often just get a sandwich at the driveup. We usually have our own drinks from home in a thermos or cooler.
At a steakhouse we still just get water. Their flavored drinks are ridiculously priced.
A garden is good to have too.
Heh...Winner!
$ Use coupons and stock up on grocery store "loss leaders" when they appear.
$ Bulk shop at Big Box store for TP, flour, sugar, etc.
$ Grow our own vegetables and can the excess.
$ Buy beef and pork in bulk and stock our freezer.
$ Buy very few "prepared" foods.
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