Do You Shop the Weekly Specials?

With newspaper flyer or online flyer, do you shop your favorite supermarket's specials and plan meals around them?  Do you shop several local (gas is still pricey) stores?  If not, you may want to reconsider. 

We're in the enviable position of having new Trader Joe's and Walmart within easy driving distance. The Walmart has an expanded food section, and I'm quite pleased with it.  The salad offerings are fresh;  the Polish ham is cheap; bananas are cheap, too.  Bread at $1.68 a loaf!  When was the last time you saw that price?  Dairy is also good, and I'm crazy about the Triscuit, the Shredded Wheat and Bran and the granola bar prices.  

Walmart doesn't have everything.  Cheese selection is poor.  Not a lot of organics (salad excepted).  You probably won't find radicchio and fennel.  We like Trader Joe's for cheese and dairy, wine, and the odd delicacy or frozen item.  When I asked whether the peppercorns could be removed from the peppermill they came in, the clerk demonstrated  by opening it up that they could.  

What is it with peppercorns?  I have two pepper grinders that I LOVE, and do not, repeat, do not want to buy pepper in a grinder, but that seems to be the latest thing.  I had to return a jar that didn't indicate except in small print that it was only a grinder.  One could not open it.  Phooey!  

Yesterday, we shopped the specials, spent $79.00 and saved $ 29.00.  These savings add up fast.  We don't buy a lot of heavily processed food, so I'm pleased to find avocados, strawberries, pears, pork chops, pasta, orange juice and cheese marked down.  Pizza dough!  Never see that on sale.  Good prices is the dairy aisle always welcome.  Savings on laundry detergent and seltzer.  BTW, I don't like seltzer but other family members do. 

We had a dynamite vegetarian stuffed shells this week.  The shells were stuffed with fennel, radicchio, red onion and ricotta bound with egg.  Somehow, this turned into a meaty concoction that was extremely satisfying and I am not always "satisfied" by vegetarian food.  I bought the pasta, and eggs and the cheese at Walmart, the veggies at Whole Foods, sort of the Yin and the Yang of grocery shopping.  The veggies had to cook forever,  but was the dish ever good and it made enough for 4 meals, which makes it economical even with the trip to Whole Foods.  The recipe came from Food and Wine.  

What are you making for the SuperBowl?  Meatloaf is out traditional  offering with bean dip and chips to nibble during the game.  Maybe Brussels sprouts and baked potatoes as sides.  It has to be something easy to eat in front of the TV, although we can usually time dinner for half time.  Everyone in Boston is bummed that the Pats lost to the Ravens, but whatchagonna do? 

It got so cold this week that I had to haul my ancient sheepskin coat out of the cedar closet.   It must weigh 10 pounds and is as warm as toast.   Patriots fans can be  glad the playoff was last weekend in mild weather rather than this weekend in the freezer compartment.  

Latkes with sour cream and apple sauce make a delicious cheap vegetarian meal

What do you eat on Superbowl Sunday?  Significant Other doesn't like chicken wings, or I would make them.   We have to journey to Stop and Shop because it's impossible to find Bean Dip anywhere else.  Some things just don't make any sense.  

Shop well and you'll save a bundle.  Now that's sensible!  


The Cheeseparer  

More Chicken Soup for the Pocketbook

Chocolate Pecan Pie *

We have a low-cal cheap quiche that it going into it's second night.  I've also made some of my chicken soup with found everything and a big pot of homemade broth with chicken leftover from a Dr. Atkins low-carb menu.  We'll finish the quiche for breakfast and the chicken soup for lunch. 


Leverage your cooking.  One of the ways to do that is to read the grocery ads and cook for the week by buying the specials.  For example, this week our supermarket had steak, chicken breasts and kielbasa on sale.  Roast beef in the deli.  Baby carrots and slice mushrooms.  Hey, those would be good with steak.  Some spaghetti sauce over the chicken and you have the makings of chicken parm.  The Kielbasa lends itself to grilling or cooking in a big heap of saurkraut and veggies.  Cheap veggies, like carrots, potatoes and onion.  Yukon Golds were on special.  Good with steak and with kielbasa.  Fruit salad with strawberries, bananas, apple and oranges.  All on sale.  Make a dinner salad with oranges, too.  Maybe a rice pudding using on sale milk.  Go for it!  


Every week I save between $10 and $25 by using coupons and buying specials.  And we eat well, thank you, with very few processed foods.   You can, too.  It takes a bit of menu planning, and this you can do during commercials or whenever.  Doesn't take a lot of time.  $25 a week is $1300 a year.     That's a new computer, a nice little vacation or money socked away in the savings account.  Or just eking along to get by.  Healthy eating, too.  You can do this.   Give it a whirl. 

* Pecans were a gift, chocolate left over from holiday baking, homemade crust.  Every now and then we all deserve a treat.  Remember that nuts, while not low-cal, are nutritious.  


The Cheeseparer

Cheap Trick

On Saturday, I saved $48.57 on a $93.36 grocery bill. 21 of the items were on sale. The savings broke down at $1.60 for coupons, Sales items $26.55, and BOGO savings $20.42.

Saturday's shopping involved several challenges. I only had $97.00 left in the grocery budget for the month. The store had some specials I needed to stock up on for houseguests arriving th second week in July. We needed meat for two meals.

I didn't buy any specials that I didn't need immediately or else for the guests. The guests have difficult to meat eating requirements. We don't even want to go there.

What we are eating. I had a package of chicken breasts, and we ate chicken piccata two nights, one night with grilled zucchini and lettuce from the garden, and the second night with corn on the cob and organic romaine hearts on sale at a good price. With the romaine, I could plan that I would use all the lettuce before leaving for the 4th of July weekend.

Last night we had petite sirloin on the grill, and I saved one of the steaks and a portion of a 2nd for steak salad (remember the romaine?) tonight. Cluster tomatoes were also on sale. Tomorrow I'm making a minestrone with Italian sausage, on sale two weeks ago. I bought zucchini and coleslaw mix for the soup, and one can of tomatoes.

Eating cheap does not mean forgoing food pleasures. Remember the steak! Cherries and blueberries were also on sale, and we had blueberry waffles yesterday morning and blueberry pancakes this morning. Sale bacon, of course. Some of the cherries went into a ricotta dessert last night. Tonight I may use the rest of the blueberries for a freeform tart. I'll be making the crust myself and baking some food processor bread tomorrow to go with the soup. I do hate to pay $4.00 a loaf for decent bakery bread. I can make the bread while dealing with the soup.

Thursday, en route to the holiday weekend locale, we're packing a lunch of chicken sandwiches on home made bread, cookies (on sale two weeks ago), chips, plums and coke on special last weekend. We'll eat better and faster.

Remember, eating cheap(er) doesn't mean yucko margarine and boiled cabbage. We had a delicious salad last weekend of cucumber, dill from the garden, and a dressing of plain yogurt and sour cream.

Menu planning and keeping a well-stocked pantry are your greatest helpers on the road to supermarket savings.

For instance, after the chicken piccata, we need capers. I'll haunt the job lot for a nice big jar at a fab price instead of paying through the nose at the grocery store. Capers (if you like them) add zest and flavor to a lot of dishes.

Everything is a balancing act between time, money, health and taste. It's a lot to consider, and you do have to plan ahead.

Yours in frugality,

The Cheeseparer

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

Hearty Breakfast

Woke up to gloomy weather and rain on a bleak Saturday. First thought was "ugggh!" and the next thought was oatmeal!

Oatmeal is cheap and filling and nourishing. It even tastes good. We make sure it tastes good by sticking a few plump golden raisins into the pot right before it's done. 2% milk with a dollop of cream and a spoonful of demarara sugar (or brown) puts the icing on the cake, so to speak. Of course you will want a helping of juice or fruit to balance the meal.

At our house we don't "do" instant oatmeal. We buy the stuff that has to cook for five (5!) whole minutes, which gives you time to set out the bowls, tiding up the kitchen, pour the juice and get your head centered. It tastes better, too. For a real (non cheeseparing) treat, sometime buy the steel cut oats when they are on sale. I also like Silver Palate oats, but don't have anymore coupons. Occasionally the house brand oatmeal can be purchased for a dollar.

Oatmeal also makes good filler for meatloat, and good bread, and you canmake make oatflour out of it in the Cuisinart and use it in cookies. Good source of fiber, too. So what are you waiting for?

It's tasty anytime, so don't procrastinate until you get a gloomy Saturday.

The Cheeseparer.

May The Eastern Bunny Bring Coupons Galore

Here's the Friday stuff:

From the Contra-Costa Times.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/columns/ci_8622799?nclick_check=1

The tip about using the Sunday funnies for wrapping kids birthday presents is great. I used to do that a million years ago. The presents always looked cool.

Cook and home and save money. Save even more money with these tips:
http://sixoclockscramble.blogspot.com/

Wallet Pop:
http://www.walletpop.com/2008/03/21/get-a-great-start-on-a-healthy-frugal-and-green-life/

Eat Ethnic!

One of the best ways to cut your grocery bill is to cook "ethnic" meals. Goulash soup, Puerto Rican rice and beans, stuffed cabbage, pasta with tomato sauce--the list of yummy, nourishing recipes imported from countries near and far is amazing. One of my favorites is to take the scraps from a chicken or a pork roast and make fried rice.

In the coming weeks, I'll feature some of my favorite cheap ethnic treats. In the meantime, here's more cheap living (grocery) tips from our friends in California:

Stretch your food budget! http://www.insidebayarea.com/food/ci_8622808