Thrifty Tips to Stretch Your Food Dollars

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plantlover

New Member
I always use coupons. My local grocery store has their own coupons as well. I try to check the sales before I go to the store. That way I can tailor the menus I plan according to what's on sale. Since there are only two of us, I will still buy bulk packs of meat, especially when the things are on sale. Then I divide them into freezer packages of two servings.

Another thing I do, since my husband gets tired of left overs, if we have stuff that stretches pretty far, I freeze the left overs in small serving containers. I always freeze things in microwaveable containers.

With left over meat, I can make a hash, and mix it with potatoes and onions, or I can use stuff like left over ham or chicken on a salad. I often eat a salad with left over meat on it for lunch.

I love making home made soups. When I do, they are usually the main part of a meal, and I serve them with salad and some home made bread. A big pot of leek and potato soup that will probably have 10 servings may wind up costing $5 by the time all is said and done.

I regularly buy canned goods on every trip to the grocery store. I like to keep a hurricane readiness kit on hand at all times. I know that if we were in such an emergency, I couldn't count on having potable or usable water, so I always buy bottled water, usually in smaller bottles. I also buy individual servings of fruit, tuna, small cans of beans, and then I used to keep peanut butter, crackers, shelf stable milk, juice that doesn't need refrigeration and other things on hand.

When I use coupons for grocery shopping, I typically save $10 - $15 per trip. When I use coupons in addition to the store coupons, I may save an additional $5 or $10.

Last night, we had a pork roast. It was kind of spicy so I was worried my husband wouldn't eat the rest of it. I made home made refried beans, cut up the pork, used some roasted sweet peppers that I had in a jar, and shredded cheese, and we had that with tortillas for dinner. I always have ground turkey in my freezer, so we can use the ground turkey and make burritos with some of the refried beans.

Whenever I have fruit that's a little bit over the weather, I will either turn it into a fruit crisp, make an apple cake out of apples, or bake or poach the fruit. Then I serve it with a sauce that is made of a small amount of cream cheese, sour cream, milk, Splenda or Stevia, and a couple of teaspoons of vanilla.

I often reuse small amounts of left overs for lunches if there isn't enough for a full dinner.

One of my recent steals was 5 oz bacon wrapped filet mignon and a package of two of them was $3.00 I can sometimes buy meat that is marked down for quick sale for as little as $1 a pound.
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
I have rarely used coupons and the ladies of the house don't use them either. It would behoove us to do so though. My lunch today was leftover from last night's dinner.
 

Dale

Super Moderator
Staff member
Randy I hardly ever coupons either. The discount grocery store I go to most often doesn't accept coupons and other stores I go to I usually buy the store brands.
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
I buy store brands too. And I will take advantage of sales and stock up. I have a good supply of staples, so if we should be snowed in for any length of time, we might get tired of beans and rice, but we won't go hungry.
 

SandiB

New Member
I am a coupon clipper. And I will usually shop where they offer double off coupons. The buy 1 get 1 free coupons are great.
I have noticed recently that more coupons are being printed as DO NOT DOUBLE (especially coupons you print yourself from the internet)..or that you have to buy 2 or 3 of same item to get the discount.
Not always saving $$ that way.
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
It's really smart to take advantage of the coupons. I am sure though that the people that issue coupons realize that most people do not take advantage of them, so they get the benefit of some advertising without having to redeem all of them. I did an air conditioning job for a company one time whose business was to act as a clearing house for all those coupons. That place was full of all kinds of coupons from the various businesses that honored them. Those coupons are really big business.
 

Dale

Super Moderator
Staff member
Coupons are big business. Often when I do clip coupons I buy things I wouldn't normally buy and full of fats and sugar. At Aldi my favorite grocery store, 2 pound bag of powdered sugar or brown sugar is 99 cents about the same price as branded 1 pound boxes. At Costco last week I purchased butter $1.49 a pound. That is at least $1 less than name brand butter. Just my thoughts.
 
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GardenBear1

New Member
with one person in the house its hard to buy for one, so now I buy in bulk and spend on day a month cooking up TV dinners and putting them in the freezer, so I don't have to fuss over cooking lots of food that I won't eat at one time, I just pot my dinner in the mic and I can eat from the same plate I heat it up on. this will also work for those of you who are on the run all the time. I still cook when I have friends over other than that its my own TV dinners:D
 

Dale

Super Moderator
Staff member
Great idea. That would work for me and my husband as well. We don't eat near as much as we used to and I still can't cook a smaller amount. I freeze a lot of left overs but I like your idea of making complete meals. Great time saver in the long run.
 

Crabbergirl

Super Moderator
Staff member
Crabber, denatured alcohol is 95% ethanol. The rest is methanol which makes the ethanol undrinkable. But you can buy a gallon of denatured alcohol for about that price. My other thought was vodka. It's about as close to pure ethanol as you can get, but the cost is going to be pretty close to the cost mentioned above. BTW, denatured alcohol is the fuel that is used in those canned heat devices that are used to keep food warm.

I never thought of that. But as you mentioned the methanol , I think is why the book I got the idea from suggested grain. No risk of poisoning. But now with no babies in the house I guess I really don't have to worry to much about that.
 

Crabbergirl

Super Moderator
Staff member
I use coupns only for something I usually buy. I will use the $10 off a $50 purchase that I get at the register that I get butwhen it comes to clipping I only use what I am shopping for. I trade with my neighbor ...something like this she has kids and buys kid snacks so I will trade her my kid snacks for coffee or rice or whatever. We have a good little thing going and it works well for both of us.
 

gonepostal

New Member
Sometimes clipping coupons is such a "scam".
Last winter My 10 yr 0ld granddaughter decided she was going to help me by clipping coupons for me. ;) Of course she was "attracted" by all the " big name brand" items. Without bursting her bubble too much, I had to show her that(most of the time) by the time you had to buy 2,3 or 4 of the product to get 50 cents off--you could usually save more by buying either a no name brand or store brand of the same thing. By the time I was done all the explaining and figuring-she had decided it was too much effort!:rolleyes::)
Which is not to say I dont clip coupons-I certainly do--but ,as most of you know, its just a matter of figuring where you're actually going to save any money.
Until the price of gas went up---I did a lot of my shopping "in the city" , which is a 100 mile drive for us. I could pay for the gas to get there, eat "out", and still save money on my shopping!! But , as I said" that was before the price of gas(and consequently everything else) went up.
Now --if 2 or 3 of us go together--it's just a break even shopping trip, but it's a day "out"!:D;)
 

Dor

Active Member
My daughter and I exchange coupons. I use them at Krogers and Randalls when I shop there. They triple up to 35 center and double up to 50 cents. I use my toiletry coupons and Walmart, Walgreens, and CVS. When the items are on sale such as cereal I used the $1.50 off w. I don't like the other buy 2 or 3 items.

I have some coupns from Randalls get a $30 giftcare for a new or transferred persciption, I have 2 from Walgreens for $25 coupons, Krogers $20, and CVS $30. CVS honors all others coupons. I use those gift cards for my cleaning and paper towels, and toilet paper.

Yes I forgot, I used coupons on my dog food and DSW shoes send coupons I use those when I can find someting I like. I use them on fabric and patterns, quilting and sewi notions. These coupons I sent out by the fabric stores.
 
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Mainegal

Super Moderator
Staff member
I went to NH this weekend and they have a grocery store chain called the market bakset so whenever i'm down there i will stop and see what they have
it's cheaper than our grocery stores. i got melons 2/3 summer and zucchini squash for 1.19 a lb, tomaotes for .99, cukes 2/1.19, our cukes here are .99 each
now to eat all the fruit and produce that i got before it spoils...... bobbi aka woodstock is coming this weekend and i have offered her to stay at my house instead of a hotel.
i'm taking her to oxford on sat so she can pick up a maine coon kitten that she is getting
it will be nice to see her again
i use coupons on food that i usally buy, esp cat food and treats
 

Mainegal

Super Moderator
Staff member
Last weekend Rite Aid had their fish oil on sale buy 1 get one free so i got the 500 count bottles, got 2 for $23 then used a $5 off coupon for spending $20. got 1000 capsules for $18
 

Mainegal

Super Moderator
Staff member
Shaw's here has buy one get one free alot on products but you have to be careful as they up their prices when they have their sales
i watch the store fliers every week, esp for produce and fruit to see what is on sale
wished we had a super walmart closer as they are usually cheaper then the grocery stores here
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
If you buy grain alcohol (ethanol), you will pay much more for it though as it is drinkable and the government will tax it like liquor. There are ways around it, but it involves record keeping as to how it is used. When I worked at the rocket plant in the 50's and 60's, we had a 55 gallon barrel of 180 proof grain alcohol for 'laboratory' use and the company chose to pay the taxes on it rather than try and keep records on every bit that was used. I have a gallon can of denatured alcohol out in the garage that I use occasionally. But children have no access to that. It is stored with paint thinner, toluol, acetone, and stuff like that. One of the ways I use that denatured alcohol is in a small alcohol burner that I use when working on fishing rods. I use it to melt the rod cement when I apply hardware to the rods.
 

Dale

Super Moderator
Staff member
Mainegal I buy most of my groceries at Aldi then go to WalMart to buy the rest of my groceries. For specialty meats I go to a local market. If anyone has an Aldi grocery store near them they ought to give it a chance. You can go to www.aldi.com to see if one is near you. You can definitely save money shopping at Aldi.
 

Dor

Active Member
We don't have Aldi here in the Houston area. I buy my fruits and veggies at Fiesta and HEB. HEB is more expensive than Fiesta unless there is a sale but they have a larger variety.
 


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