The way I did this was a new shopping algorithm. Every time I pick and item and have it in my hand (ready to drop into the shopping cart) I ask myself these questions:
- Do we really need this, or is this an impulse buy?
- If we need it, is there a different brand that's cheaper?
- If it's a good price, do I save in the long term by buying more and saving the rest? (say, freezing meat)
But I really shouldn't be too smug, because the Chiefio has been posting on how to eat really cheaply, while still eating well (e.g. paella - my one splurge was a pineapple and bacon sausage that would be really, really good in a paella). The posts are long and information-dense, but if you want to save serious money at the grocery store, they're important reads. It dovetails nicely with prepping as well.
Car yogurt and cheap eats
A Variety of Low Cost Meals
Meals By The Numbers
I still find it hard to believe there are people that still lack the skill to butcher a whole chicken. You shop much like me.
ReplyDeleteI don't bother with a whole chicken when I can get breasts for 99c/lb.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, my food budget is right at $3.00 a day of which I beed ~100g of protein. So I eat a lot of eggs. I am thinking of starting to make my own cheese and bread though.
Stephen, it's pretty simple to cut up a whole chicken. I have to say that the only thing I sort of lust after at the high end kitchen stores is a nice boning knife, though.
ReplyDeleteAnd the neck and "bits" go into the stock pot (reduce the stock and thicken with flour for gravy, add in meat you scavenged from the previous day's roast, add a biscuit crust and you have pot pie for basically zero cost.
We get two dinners for the family from a $6 chicken. Stop by sometime, and I'dd do pot pie. ;-)
R. K. Brumbelow, breast is about my least favorite cut (unless maybe you're pan frying), but that's a pretty good price for chicken breast. It's usually twice that at Kroger.
Interesting what you say about eggs. The Chiefio goes into the use of eggs for protein at some length in one of those posts.
A good pair of kitchen shears makes the chicken cutting a breeze. But as many people as we have in this family, there are no leftovers.
ReplyDeleteOne of these days I'll have the space to put in a garden, and then the food will really be cheap.