Thinking about a new post we saw a young mother of three
children on TV talking about her new book,
called something like “How to Survive Inflation” or
“How to Shop and Save”
Patty looked at me and I said
“WE DO ALL THAT AT KITCHEN TIPS”
What we have done here is put it all together in one post.
1) Write a “to buy list” of “must-haves” or a “ wants and needs list”.
2) Take a look at the ads for your area. In our case, if you have been keeping up on the posts and blogs you know that since Covid, we only shop once a month. (usually the first Wed. of each month) We drive 100 miles in each direction and make a day of it, buying most of what we will need for the month (except for milk). After we adjusted to this schedule we’ve found it saves us time and money. Patty pulls up Albertson’s, Farmers Market, and Sam’s Club, compares prices at each location, and writes a list for each.
3) Try to buy only what is on the lists, watch for specials, and buy in bulk when possible.
A couple of examples are: Hamburger. Usually, Sam’s has the best pricing but understand the fat content vs price (80/20 vs 95/5). If you need help check our blog
“Buying ground meat”. If you & your family eat a lot of burgers you may take a look at Sam’s Club Members Mark pre-shaped sirloin hamburger patties. They are 85 lean/15 fat, 1/3 pound each, come in an 18 count package and can be taken out of the freezer and put right in the skillet. They are a bit more expensive but this is time or convenience vs price deal. If you want to treat yourself to steak such as ribeyes, ask the butcher (usually at Sam’s) to bring out a few whole rib loin roasts. Pick the size and price and buy the entire roast. ( This brings a challenge in our house. Patty likes a thinner 3/4 inch steak and I like a thicker 1.25 inch steak . We put the roast on the chopping block, Patty cuts the steaks, passes them to me and I vacuum seal 2 steaks. If we have purchased the 10lb tube of ground meat Patty weighs 2lbs, hands them to me and I bag and vacuum seal them. During the summer months we often BBQ 80/20 because the fat drips out and burns off giving you a charred on the outside and less done inside. Yum-Yum. We also watch for sales of pork chops or chicken breasts or pieces in volume. We do the same sealing process.
If you are interested in vacuum sealing, we recommend Food Saver. (We use model #v4400.) There are many pre-sized bag options or rolls your machine can cut to custom size your packaging. There are many different options of sealers as well.
4) Don’t cook a big meal every night, cook enough so it will cover 2-3 meals. Cook a good-sized roast, eat what you eat but have enough left over for another meal. This applies to almost everything. I mentioned above that we vacuum seal burger meat thus we make a large amount of spaghetti sauce that will last more than one meal. For us, a 2 lb package of ground meat seasoned into taco meat will last for three meals. Tacos one night, burritos another and an enchilada or tamale pie casserole the third. If you are into vacuum sealing, you may make a big batch of meatballs and freeze them in meal size packages to save time later or during the week.
5) We are going to refer to this as P.S.S.S. – Plan, Shop, Save and Store.
