Savings at the Grocery Store

This week, with a hard memory of our retirement investments tanking, I went over the grocery specials more earnestly than usual, and the store, perhaps responding to the bad economic news, had a number of tempting specials.

We broke down and bought one large pumpkin for $9.99. We usually buy three but the crop failure this year has them at astronomical prices. Hard to do without a pumpkin. Just need one.

Except for the specials, I only bought groceries I needed for this week. We're trying a new cheese spread for the cocktail hour. We've discovered some of the pretty good "spreads" made in-house at the store are about $5.00 a pound, which is a decent price, cheese-wise.

So the final grocery total came to $65.77 and the savings were $40.73. That's not bad. I didn't have to buy any paper, plastic or cleaning products. We bought a 24 case pack of cat food earlier in the week at Walmart. BTW, Walmart has the best and the cheapest cat litter. We never buy anything else.

I potted up 8 geraniums that I saved last winter and put in the big whiskey barrell by the side of the house. They grew and flourished and will spend the winter indoors again, thereby saving beaucoup bucks.

I made spaghetti alla amatriciana this week. We got three meals out of a pound of spaghetti and a 28 oz. can of tomatoes and 1/4 lb of bacon. This works out to pennies a meal. Can't beat that. Tasted first-rate, too.

Cheaply yours,

The Cheeseparer

Eating on the Cheap

Amatriciana Sauce With Bacon and Tomatoes AKA Bucattini all'Amatriciana from the province of Abruzzi

Serves 4-6

I splurge and buy Schaler and Weber smoked slab bacon. We use it for everything and for flavoring several meals, it pays for itself. Meat as flavoring.

1 medium onion, chopped fine
2 oz. slab bacon or pancetta, finely diced
3 T. butter
28 oz can Italian plum tomatoes, crushed (from the Ocean State Job Lot)
1/4 t. chili pepper flakes or to taste
salt and pepper
1/4 cup pecorino Romano cheese

1 lb. bucattini, penne or spaghetti (from the Ocean State Job Lot)

Melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat. Saute onion until transparent, about 5 minutes.

Add the chili flakes and bacon and saute until the onion is golden and the bacon nice and crisp, about 8 - 10 minutes.
Add tomatoes and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, making sure sauce does not burn, about 15 minutes.

Add salt to taste. Go easy, as the bacon and cheese are salty.

Cook the pasta during the last 15 minutes of the sauce prep. When done to taste, drain and pour into a warm serving bowl or directly into the pan with the sauce, mixing well, adding grated cheese to taste.

Pass extra cheese at table.

Serve with bread sticks and a green salad. Tonight ours will have red leaf lettuce, English cucumber, and arthichoke hearts with dressing and blue cheese.

The Ocean State Job Lot, in the Massachusetts/Rhode Island area, sells sale-priced prepared foods. I also bought the artichoke hearts for the salad there. They have interesting ethnic foods, and great buys on jam, coffee, cereal and pasta.

I hope your area offers a similiar business where you can buy cheap foodstuffs. Shop smarter, not harder.