I often will go the morning after the sale has ended and buy the marked down meats from that sale.
I only buy what is on sale or marked down. I’ll even buy marked down apples to make applesauce or marked down potatoes as they will still store for a while. A little higher than I can pay come June/July but they were still cheaper than normal and nice to have some in the middle of winter. Strawberries were recently $2.50 a pound. I will sometimes buy grapes, blueberries, or other produce in small quantities out of season for my kids because they only like certain fruits. Our fresh produce comes from what is on sale and in season. Just like with the whole chicken, we bag up the leftover meat and freeze it. In fact, I plan on cooking one this week.
We buy 3-4 turkeys when they are only $0.47 a pound before Thanksgiving. We will cook up the chicken then freeze some of the leftover meat in freezer bags for future casseroles or chicken salad. Whole chickens are often on sale for $0.88 to $0.99 a pound. It saves so much to not have Matt buy lunch or have to buy lunch meat for sandwiches. Then if we don’t have any leftovers one night, Matt will still have lunch for the next day. I also will sometimes freeze the leftovers in a lunch container. We do leftover night once a week, usually a night we have plans that have us pressed for time. I purposely make a bit extra so that Matt can take leftovers in his lunch. What a waste of food to throw out anything not eaten at the meal. I know a few people who think leftovers are disgusting. There are so many good casserole type meals you can try. It is so much meat and no good way to stretch it. This is part of the reason meatloaf is a treat in this house. The bulk of your casserole comes from the starch, not the meat. The best thing about casseroles that you can stretch the meat. I then mix everything up and continue cooking for a couple minutes. I often make my sauce in the pan with the meat. I do a lot of things I call “stove top casserole.” I will cook up the meat then add the pasta or rice and vegetables right to the pan and make my sauce. Note: We do buy some canned soups as they make a good Sunday lunch combined with grilled cheese if we ran out of leftovers. It may take a little more time but you don’t have to store as much stuff. Not only is it cheaper and healthier to make your own convenience foods, it’s simpler too. We no longer buy cream of mushroom soups but make a white sauce when we need to make a casserole or anything else that calls for cream of something soup. Canned soup, bagged cookies, bakery muffins, cake mixes, frozen chicken nuggets, etc. We all think of frozen dinners as convenience foods.
Here are some “crash course” type tips on how to start cooking frugally when you hadn’t been before. Not only does it save money but it is healthier too. I have learned how to make most of the things that we eat from scratch.
I used to buy much more convenience type foods. Over the years, how I cook and what I buy has changed drastically. Whether you want to save more money in your food budget because you recently lost your job or you’re saving for something special or just looking for more ways to cut back, how you cook and what you buy plays a big role in that.