Posted on 12/16/2021 9:47:02 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
We’re getting a Costco within 30 minutes of us. I am considering NOT signing up, too.
Mom loves to use hers, so I can just tag along with her if need be. She’s my ‘Tuna Broker’ though. That Kirkland canned Tuna in water is the BEST stuff ever, though the price has really increased on that, too. You have to buy it in an 8-pack and it’s up to $26.89, or $3.36 a can! So, I’m hoarding the last four cans I have of that.
At that price, they may end up as Christmas Gifts, LOL!
One thing that's often discounted in food budgets is the cost of going out to eat. I ashamed that one day this week we were in a crunch for time, errands all over the place, and ended up eating at a fast food joint for lunch and supper. The cost was ridiculous, especially considering the quality and nutritional value of the food.
Back in the day, I did budget counseling for young service families. The first question was "How often do you eat out in a week?" The answer often shocked me.
I do the same thing. Bought a $4 chicken from the Walmart deli, today. It will get the same treatment and be at least 3 meals.
If there’s a chicken carcass in the house I HAVE to make stock with it. It’s a compulsion, LOL!
Thanks! Great link. I was a HUGE Coupon Clipper back when it was worth the time to sit down with the Sunday paper. I think Wednesdays had coupons too, to a lesser extent.
I’ll try your suggestion with the Quinoa. I got Beau to eat some Couscous last week. Even with an extra sprinkling of real Parmesan, it wasn’t a huge hit.
How to cut your bill? VOTE REPUBLICAN! And if you’re in California, you simply walk into the grocery store, pick up what you want, and walk out without paying.
I was raised by a mother who thought it sinful to waste food, and my wife's mother was the same way.
I’ve gone back to doing that, too. Again, it’s just the two of us, so you’d think this would be a lot easier - but it doesn’t seem to be!
Right now my QUEST is to clean out the freezers because we’re having our steer butchered in March, and he’s a BIG boy, so I need the room!
Another daughter raises egg and meat chickens. She gets about 12-15 eggs a day for a family of 6. Right now, she has 30 meat chickens which will be ready in January (I’m getting 5 of them) and had 9 egg layers. Egg production is slow in winter tho. A fox got into her hen house and killed 3 egg layers. The dog was slacking that night, so she got a rooster, lol.
It’s nearly impossible to get a side of beef unless you know someone, most places that do that have a 2 year wait. So, if you can, chicks are the way to go. Luckily for us, she has the space, and I know a chicken farmer that sells the chicks to her for .50. So, we do what we can.
Barf Alert in spades. Every single SNAP recipe has food I never eat, like sugar. I also don’t do recipes..
My dad had a lot of restaurants, taught me to cook: “Buy the best food you can afford and do as little as possible to it.”
I buy excellent quality fresh and/or frozen veggies and steam them. Organic when necessary. Organic little red potatoes are my starch. Get really nice pasture-raised chicken and eggs and beef in local stores, often at sale prices. And Alaskan Salmon Burgers from Costco. And have meatless burgers a couple of times a week. Buy organic pasture-raised butter and nice CA organic olive oil, all last a very long time. Use a ton of pepper, which I grind myself and no salt.
Eat twice a day—I couldn’t eat lunch, just too much food. About to make an omelet with a sliced steamed potato, sliced tomato, slice of avocado in it. Not really hungry, but I know I have to eat.
Zero health problems and my doc says I’ll live to be 100.
For wonderful holiday food, I go to my daughter’s house. Best cook within 100 miles. She loves to cook, inherited that from her grandfather.
I’d say we are probably spending $30 per week more. Plus twice as much at the pump.
“Buy a FoodSaver and use it.”
Yep. And buy the primals and do your own cutting. We get whole pork loins at Costco for $1.99. About $20 or so out the door. We cut them into inch thick pork chops and a roast or two.
Those get vacuum sealed and into the deep freeze. We get at least a dozen meals out of one. And they keep for a year easy.
L
Been a couple years, but the basement freezer is again stocked with venison. No meat shopping for me for a while.
That sugar is in every recipe but one is not the worst part, it’s that every single recipe has as its FIRST instruction to WASH YOUR HANDS WITH SOAP AND WATER!
How filthy a creature are you that when about to prepare, move, handle or portion food you don’t AUTOMATICALLY wash your hands? Even between different items to prevent cross-contamination.
When I’m cooking I often need to change the towel because I’m washing between products. Then again, I was raised in a house where food safety was a primary concern.
Ha we spend $230 a week. Would love to spend only 144.
“The first question was ‘How often do you eat out in a week?’ The answer often shocked me.”
I’m sure you’ve seen it all!
That always amazes me, too! Even when I lived closer to civilization, it never occurred to me to eat dinner out. Once in a while I’d go out for lunch with people from work, but normally I was a Brown Bagger.
Growing up, we never went out to eat unless it was for a very special occasion - or if Grandpa was paying, LOL!
Yes where I live a family dining place would be $12 to $15 for a meal say two years ago. Now its $16 to $22.
At my other farm I raised chickens for many, many years. I raised them from chicks; the ‘Easter Eggers’ that laid the colorful eggs. I sold the eggs locally - usually just broke even for food costs, but that means the eggs for my family were pretty much free.
I don’t have laying hens at my new farm - yet! Beau stole my Chicken Coop Spot for more dog kennels (we raise hunting dogs for fun and NO profit) so I’m working on him this winter to help me pick out another spot for a coop. ;)
My dad had a lot of restaurants, taught me to cook: “Buy the best food you can afford and do as little as possible to it.”
That is so true! :)
We had a terrible deer season around here. One small buck harvested, and that was it.
I’ve got elk, bear, beef and lots of fish to work through before the steer is butchered in March.
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