Butcher Adventure

In my quest for a lower grocery bill, I came across an idea. If I buy meat for the entire month from a butcher, maybe it will help cut costs.

Here is my thinking:

#1, If I buy for an entire month, I can split things as I please and always have the meat portion of our meal on hand. If my husband says, "I am not in the mood for blah blah blah," I can pull something else out without wasting a trip to the store or the meat I had planned for.

#2 When you buy from a butcher, it comes in freezer paper. According to the website, the meat stays freezer burn free for up to 8 months! 8 months! I think we will eat all of our meat in 8 months. No wasting meat!

#3 Along with the "no wasting meat" theory, I tend to only need a portion of what I buy. I try to buy directly from the meat section so I can portion control what I buy, but many times it is easier to just buy the meat in the 1 lb package it already comes in. This happens a lot with chicken. I buy a package of chicken because it is cheaper than picking out my own, yet throw half of it away because there are only 2 of us and I don't need the rest of the package. ( I have tried freezing this meat but I am terrible at it and even with freezer wrap and freezer bags it ends up with freezer burn by the end of the month )

So, I grab my monthly menu and get my meat listed.

I bought--->

• 7 chicken breasts
• 2, 12 oz steaks (to be split so one steak per meal)
• 2.5 lbs of stew meat
• 4 sausage links
• 6 lbs ground beef

That is around 17 pounds of meat, to be used in 19 meals throughout the month, for $66.02

Check out my freezer :)

My bill for the week on groceries was $71.05, not including the meat. I am making shrimp alfredo, chicken pot pie (makes 2, so one will go in the freezer), steak, baked potato soup, sandwich night, and pizza. 

With shopping done, I am now going to get to work on my lesson plans as school starts tomorrow :)

Grocery Shopping Rules

As a follow up to my last post, I have the "grocery shopping rules" to follow. Most are things you may already know about, but a quick reminder never hurts.

Here's what it says with a brief explanation:

1. Meal Plan around circulars and schedule 

   - Check the weekly grocery ads for the best deals. Compare sale items across grocery stores and pick one or two stores that work best for you to shop from for the week. Also, think about your schedule- if you have a busy night, you may need a crock pot meal or something quick. 

2. Eat seasonally 

   - fruits and vegetables are cheaper and taste better when they are in season. Know your seasons! Here is a link to an eat seasonally chart I found on pinterest. http://www.accomacinn.com/restaurant/2011/12/whats-in-season-now/

3. Shop pantry, fridge, and freezer before store

   - Look at what you have and try to get creative. Lots of leftover vegetables? Make a soup or vegetable stir fry. Canned green beans and corn? Add some meat and make it a meal.

4. Set a monthly budget instead of a weekly budget.

   - This one was the most important one to me. Kimberlee does the number of Sundays (her shopping day) in the month X her weekly budget to get a monthly total. This is good because even though you may only spend $40 one week, the next week may be $95. If you set a monthly budget, it will even out and you won't over spend by doing something with your "savings" before you actually finish the month. Reasons your budget goes over: the staples are out- eggs, flour, sugar, etc, it is time to purchase a seasoning such as cumin or cayenne pepper, you have more expensive meat in your meals.

5. Not every meat needs a meal.

   - This is easy for me, tough for my husband. I love cheese ravioli, cheese pizza, vegetable soup, peanut butter and jelly, etc. My husband says "where's the meat?" 

6. Be willing to shop at two places.

   - Luckily, where I am from there are about 7 grocery stores within a 7 mile radius from my house. Seriously. Albertson's (two), Kroger, Wal-Mart, Aldi's, Sprout's, and one more Kroger being built. It is easy to swing by two stores and quicker than one if you follow rule number 7.

7. Buy what is on the grocery list.

   - This means if you want cookies, put it on the list. Don't show up to the store and buy cookies, ice cream, and donuts because you didn't know which sweet you wanted for the week. If you have a husband or kids, leave them behind or make sure they know the rule. Also, no toilet paper and office supply runs at the grocery store!

8. Designate certain nights within the month for a cheap and easy meal

   - examples: Homemade pizza night, breakfast for dinner, leftovers, baked potato day, soup night, sandwiches...

9. Cook large batches and freeze meals.

   - As a family of two, this is great for us. It means my husband is not having "leftovers" and we don't throw food away. It is very easy to split large meals before putting them in the oven or serving. It also means you have one less meal to cook / pay for on another night in your current or next month.

10. Consider investing in a seal-a-meal

   - Well if you read my previous note you know how well that worked out for me... My new plan is to go to a butcher. I found 4 in my area, three of which are corn - fed and one is grass - fed. Unfortunately, grass - fed is currently out of my price range, but I am hoping to switch once I can. Anyways, the butcher packages your meat however you want (ex. 1 lb of ground beef x 6 bags or 6 oz sirloins x 2) and the meat is good for up to 8 months!

11. Buy in Bulk IF it is something you can freeze, it is non perishable, or it is something you will use.

   - You will use toilet paper. It does not go bad. You can buy toilet paper in bulk. A 1 gallon container of mayonnaise? Not so much

12. Consider making from scratch instead of buying processed

   - You can MAKE a lot of things CHEAPER than if you BUY them... When you make your own you also control what goes in your food :) Examples: Bread, pizza dough, granola bars, cookies

Well, that is all for the tips. Thanks again Kimberlee for sharing :) 

Craig's List Adventure

With my new "save the money on groceries" phase slowly coming together, I did some research and thought about purchasing a seal-a-meal or food saver. When you have these, you can seal meat from the grocery store in your freezer without it getting freezer burn. Also, if you buy from a butcher who already puts their meat in freezer paper, you could use the seal a meal when splitting up packages for later use.

It seems easy enough to use...

So I went searching. Unfortunately, they are a little pricey to "just try it." The seal-a-meal is considerably cheaper than a food saver, $49.99 compared to $183.00. When you invest in the seal-a-meal or food saver, you also need the bags or rolls of wrap to go with it.

I thought to myself, hey- I bet someone would be selling it on craigslist or ebay, so I went searching. What do you know, I found an ad on Craig's List for a BRAND NEW seal-a-meal in package for $25 OBO. I offered $10 and next day pick up, and everything seemed to be falling in place.

Fast forward to 5:00 yesterday. I sat in the Target parking lot in a town about 30 minutes away from my house (but a middle spot for meeting the other person) for 15 minutes and did not see them. They had my number and I knew I was in the right place, so I figured they were running late and went into the store to do some browsing. About 30 minutes later, with still no call, I knew something was up. My husband was with me so we went to dinner (AHHH! Not in the budget or plans, but what can you do at 6:00 when you are hungry and 30 minutes from home?) We finished at 7:00 and still no phone call.

 Craigslist FAIL.

So I ended up not getting my brand new seal-a-meal for $10.00. I e-mailed the person and let them know I was no longer interested in wasting my time and will continue the search elsewhere.

On the bright side, I did not get stabbed, robbed, or scammed :)

Grocery Budget Adventure

Let me preface this blog by saying the past month has been AWFULly expensive when it comes to food. I guess the price of corn has gone up which means everything is going up and grocery shopping is no longer enjoyable. I was spending between 40 and 50 dollars twice a week, so around $80- $100 a week on groceries. Not the best budget, but comfortable for my lifestyle.

Well, lately it has been $120- $140 a week!!! NO WAY can I afford that. This does not include any eating out either! I knew something had to be done.

I met with my neighbor, Kimberlee, and she gave me some budget tips and ideas for how to save on groceries. I will share this in another post. Anyways, we came up with a plan and this is how it went.

 Meal Plan:

Breakfast- Herbalife for me, Coffee for John.

Lunch- leftovers for me, Ham and cheese sandwiches with chips for John.

Dinner-

Saturday: Burgers with baked potatoes, cantaloupe, and baked beans.
Sunday: Andrea's Wedding :)
Monday: Italian sausage, corn, rice, salad
Tuesday: Spaghetti with meatballs, salad, homemade bread
Wednesday: Hot dogs, beans, mac n cheese
Thursday: Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Friday: Pizza

Dessert- I make one dessert a week, and when it is gone, it is gone. This week: Ice cream!

That is 6 days of eating from home. This has become increasingly important as the exit to my neighborhood is blocked off so any time I leave the house it adds an extra 7 minutes and 3 miles ( I live in a big neighborhood). I needed to save time, gas, and money.


Here are the results:

1. Sprouts: $4.96
2. Aldi's: $30.76
3. Albertson's: $10.57

For a grand total of..... $46.29 !!!!! That is about $80 I saved this week in groceries!

Needless to say, it was a big success!