Thrifty Tips to Stretch Your Food Dollars

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Dale

Super Moderator
Staff member
This time of year fresh fruits and vegetables are great if you can get them at a good affordable price.
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
We have a 'Dollar Store' in Newberg here that has some food items including produce. I bought a bunch of apples there recently and they were selling Honey Crisp apples 2 for a dollar. At the big market in Newberg, Honey Crisp apples are selling there for $2.99 a pound. Fuji apples were 3 for a dollar.
 

Crabbergirl

Super Moderator
Staff member
We have a farm store that has their own grown fresh produce. They alwasy have a $1 table. I buy everything I can from that table. Last week they had Napa Cabbage and yellow neck squash
 

Dale

Super Moderator
Staff member
I would love to see a $1 table. That would put a smile on anybodies face!!!
 

Kya D

Active Member
I love the dollar store too.
I really have to watch the things that I buy. But as long as I watch and don't spend on things I don't need then I do pretty good.
 

Dale

Super Moderator
Staff member
Dawn you are like me you are addicted to sending packages to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. You frequent the Dollar stores a lot!!!
 

Bernie

New Member
At one point we had four teenagers who as my DH always says would eat a sandwich while they tried to think of what to have for breakfast and two while they planned what to have for lunch. As a result I needed to learn every trick in the book.
I seldom use coupons. We don't take the paper or magazines so we don't get many any way. I seldom buy National Brand names unless they are on sale big time.
When I worked in the Libby pineapple cannery as a teen not only did we can for Libby's but we canned for stores like Safeway, Albertson’s, and stores from the east coast I’d never heard of. Same fruit, same cans just different labels. My late mother in law worked in a National brand cannery (I think it saw Star-Kist) canning tuna. A friend worked in the Lindsay cannery canning olives. My DH worked as a mechanic for Del Monte. All of these companies have contracts with private label stores across the country. Most major brands names do. The cans run through the lines and at the end someone feeds labels in to the machine. When one contract is filled they put in a different store’s private labels. So there is no reason to by brand names when you can get the same product and same great quality for far less. We have Western Family here and they usually have great prices. The same goes for frozen foods and packaged foods like pasta.
I rarely shop menus except during the holidays. I keep my cupboards stocked and can usually make any recipe with what I have on hand. We are blessed to live in an area that hasn’t seen a disaster since Mt. St. Helen’s erupted but I am prepared should something befall us.
We get the store flyers in our mail once a week. I make a list of the items I want that’s on sale for each store. I note the store name and price of each item. I find our locally owned stores to be cheaper then National stores. I start my shopping at the store I know has the lowest prices and work my way to the store having the highest prices. Luckily for me it doesn’t mean driving in circles. At each store I look for every item on my list. Most of the time I don’t make it to the last store because I usually find what I need for cheaper before I get there. I don't shop every week, only shop when there are bargains worth spending the gas to go get.

I never buy meats, poultry or sea food unless it’s on sale and when I find a good sale I stock up, package for my needs and freeze. I never ever buy stew meat, it’s far too expensive. I buy a roast on sale and cut up it up for stew instead. I always scan the labels of meat. It’s amazing how often meats are miss labeled. Last year I found a ten pound roast for thirty nine cents! Not a pound but thirty nine cents for the whole thing. A few weeks ago ground beef was on sale for $1.99 a pound but I found four five pound packages labeled .99 a pound. I hadn’t planed on buying 20# of ground beef but I did. When I got home I browned 10#, packaged and froze it. I made a meat loaf and invited the family over. The rest was frozen fresh and will be used first. Another trick I use is to check out the reduced for quick sale section the day after a big sale on meat. Quite often the store will bring in more meat then they can sell during the sale and will reduce it when the sale is over. I always check the date the meat was packaged not the sell by date. Some stores have to big a gap between the two dates then I like. If I can’t see the date it was packaged I don’t buy it.
I have a veggie garden and freeze or can what I can. When the fruit stand and farmers are open I shop there for what I don't grow myself.

I shop at Costco once a month or sooner if I need gas. They have the cheapest gas in the area. Not everything at Costco is a bargain but they sure do have some great prices.

We have a Hostess Bakery outlet and Orowheat Bakery outlet. They both sell fresh bread for far less then the markets do so I stock up and freeze that as well.
 

Dale

Super Moderator
Staff member
Bernie I love to buy at Costco as well. Closest Costco to me is Myrtle Beach SC, 80 miles from me. Only get to go about twice a month.
 

Crabbergirl

Super Moderator
Staff member
As most of you know we live in a small town far from a big town. Anyway we do have a Wal Mart and I just have to express my dissatisfaction with what they have become. You may or may not remember when Sam Walton first hit the TV saying how he supported the American way of life and with that the American working family , and that he would do everything possible to put quality low cost American made goods in WalMart. Oh how that has changed. I had to pick up a handfull of stuff this am. Not only are most products imported from Asia but the low cost American made products are being discontinued at break neck speed. One example.....Laundry Soaps & softeners. They have discontinued all the affordable low cost soaps. No Fab. no Arm & Hammer, No Sun, no Arrow all you can find is Tide, Gain, Woolite and such and the same with the softeners. So someone please tell me what is there to keep those on a true budget shopping at WALMART?????
 

Kya D

Active Member
We live so far from a store that we have 2 freezers and a huge storage area as a pantry.
We can’t get in on all of the sales but we try to but in bulk and at case lot sales. Anything that is on sale when we are in the city we but heavy on those things that we need.
Last time I was in the city corned beef was on sale so I bought several to put in the freezer.
It is a challenge to live here but we love it and we pay by not being able to get in on sales as often as we would like to. We don’t own a cel-phone because we don’t have service here. We save on eating out cuz there is nowhere to eat out. We don’t pay for entertainment we have to make our own. We grow lots of veggies when we can because fresh fruits and veggies are tough to come by out here.
Everyone here will ask “do you need anything from town” when ever they go to town.
I have chickens, so I furnish people with fresh eggs.
We were given a house if we could move it. Take my word there is no such thing as a FREE house. BUT we saved a ton of money by getting into this house.
Well those are some of the things we do to save money.
 

Randy

Super Moderator
Staff member
They are far enough away from me that I don't go there often. We have three markets in town and all three are chain stores, but one is privately owned. But it's also the most expensive and the closest.
 

richnkim

New Member
I really like this thread!! It took me some time to read it but like it.
We have a Winco here. I shop there for the bulk items. I love the spices, they are really cheap! The granola is great, rice, and pasta are cheap too! They have meat on sale quite often for a good price. I don't like their ground turkey though. I buy that at Costco.
It is just my husband and I so when we use a package of ground turkey it is too much for one meal. I like to mix it up for meatloaf, we have part of it for the meat loaf one night, and I make the other into meatballs. I put the meatballs on a cookie sheet on parchment paper in the freezer. When they a frozen individually I put them in freezer bag and then I can use how many I want. I add them to soup, or cook some in sauce for meatball sandwiches, or spaghetti.
They are really good with a small amount of pasta, homemade sauce, add a little water and the meatballs. Put all of the ingredients in a baking dish, sprayed with cooking spray, cover and bake until the pasta and meatballs are done. Top with a little cheese.

I find that I can make meat go farther if I add beans, or corn, or other veggies, or pasta. I add corn to my taco meat, and canned tomatoes, throw in some taco seasoning and beans. I can make 1 pound of ground turkey feed 8 to 10 people, depending on how hungry they are. Or save the remainder for othere meals.

I make pasta sauce ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator or you can freeze it. This summer I'm going to can it! When the season starts I will shop all of the local fruit stands for what I don't have as well Bernie!
 

Dale

Super Moderator
Staff member
Never heard of Winco's but we have Aldi that is the cheapest place in my town and has good fresh produce reasonable year round.

Kim do you have a good pasta sauce recipe you want share with us?
 

Annette99

New Member
I cook a 15 or 20 lb turkey every month, freeze the leftovers and make turkey soup, turkey pie, turkey tetrazinni, creamed turkey on toast. Also buy meat, paper products veges, in bulk from Sams, only store name brands for other foods.
 

richnkim

New Member
Never heard of Winco's but we have Aldi that is the cheapest place in my town and has good fresh produce reasonable year round.

Kim do you have a good pasta sauce recipe you want share with us?

Winco is a employee owned market. I haden't heard of them before it came here. I have seen a few up north. I was told by our pastor, they built by our church, that they were from the east. Does anyone else know about them?

Yes Dale, I do have a recipe. I will get it out. Should I post it in this thread or the recipe thread?
 

Bernie

New Member
I make the other into meatballs. I put the meatballs on a cookie sheet on parchment paper in the freezer. When they a frozen individually I put them in freezer bag and then I can use how many I want.

I do this with fresh fruit as well. I buy whatever is in season and on sale. I clean and slice or cube the fruits and freeze like you do. I freeze berries whole. Grab enough to make a fruit salad, a few pieces to top off a desert or dish of ice cream or enough to make a pie. The grandkids love to have a few pieces of frozen fruit and eat them like Popsicles on a hot summer day. Kim when I lived in your area there were pick your own strawberry farms. They had the best berries and the price was great. We’d pick and freeze enough strawberries to last the year. I also puree fruit and make what we call Orange Julius drinks. Some of the farmers would allow people to glean after their harvest as well. They don't do that here because the liability insurance would put them out of buisness.
 

Bernie

New Member
CG I think poor Sam Walton is rolling over in his grave. Wal-Mart isn't the store he started. At the moment it's not convenient for me to shop there so I rarely do. They will be opening a store near by at the end of the year so I will be shopping there more often. (Especially in the garden center. :) ) I will still employ all my money saving tricks as I do in any other store.
I do try to buy products made in the USA but that is getting more difficult every day. Some foods are no longer canned here. Pineapple, mushrooms, corned beef and I believe artichokes are all canned over seas so there are no options there.
BTW When I buy canned products especially those canned overseas I put them in the back of the cupboards for at least a month or more. I do this to protect my family in case there is a recall of one of these products. I know people think I’m paranoid but honestly after all the recalls we have heard over the years I think I’m just being careful.
 


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