Eating healthy on a budget....about Meat....

Hey all,
I have been away from this blog for quite a while, but have been spending the last few days really studying how to cut my grocery bill while maintaining a healthy diet.
I have found a few things that I am thinking of trying.
1.) Buy meat that is reduced...meaning it's expiration date is tomorrow..but you can freeze it.  This includes tough cuts of meat that are already cheap but made cheaper by the fact that "time's up", so to speak.
With tough cuts of meat you can use a crock pot or simmer on the stove in a dutch over for a few hours to make it tender, and you'll never notice the difference. Except in your pocketbook.
I bought two packages of red meat..beef round top steak reduced...each package was around 2.30 cents per package..each has a little over a pound of beef. 

What I like to do with these thin steaks is to cook them in a crockpot..add bell peppers, green ones mostly....because they are the cheapest...and onion and beef broth (I found a great substitute for wylers beef broth..it's  knorr beef broth 2.08 for a huge jar)...and let it cook till the meat falls apart...then into a pan on the stove I add a can diced or stewed tomatoes and then add a cup of juice from the crockpot and a packet of brown gravy and make tomato gravy.. Then I pour the gravy back into the meat....and I make mashed potatoes on the stove with 5 or 6 potatoes... Put the gravy and meat over the potatoes.
You can serve this meal with some green beans if  you like...
Grand total for this meal..
meat 2.32
potatoes 1.00 maybe...
broth .05 cents
2 green bell peppers .80 cents
1 can tomatoes...80 cents
1 beef gravy packet 33 cents
1 onion 10 cents
1 can green beans (or two depending) 80 cents to 1.60.
That's 6.20 cents for a good dinner or 7.00  with 2 cans of green beans.
for a family of 4 That is a 1.55 a meal per person (a 1.75 for 2 cans of Green beans).
And if you don't like canned you can use frozen grean beans for not much more.
To up the vitamins in your meal....leave the skin on your mashed potatoes and put a clove of garlic in there...

2.) Extending you meat with additives...
I buy 93 percent lean meat and I get mine from the commissary.
I know how lucky I am because meat is pretty cheap (compared to walmart)
To get the most bang for your buck, you can add stuff to your ground beef to make it go further..
for things like meatballs and meatloaf you can add crackers or oats...a cup or two can make a pound stretch much further...especially if it's meatballs. You can also use barley.
For mexican food, I like to add black  beans...you can double or triple your meat with this and it adds fiber and tastes great.  I especially like this in tacos or enchiladas..
black beans and hamburger also make great chili...
And it is a cheap dinner
a half a pound of hamburger at the commissary 1.50 in reality land 2.20...
1 bag of beans 1.20 to 1.50
1or 2 cans of tomatoes .80/1.60 cents
1 packet of chili seasonings
(or even better, make your own here.)
buying your seasonings in bulk and putting them in baggies is cheaper and you can buy only what you need...a plus when you are trying to save money.
Grand total: 4.90/5.70 in reality land.  That my dears is enough for a lunch and a dinner. 
I personally add rotel tomatoes to my chili...gives it a little kick for the same price. 
that's about 8 servings for a grand total .61/.71 cents a serving.

So those are two of my ideas for saving money in the meat department...tomorrow I will talk chicken. 

What do you do to make your food budget stretch when it comes to the meat department?
Any ideas are appreciated.
Have a wonderful day,
Chris out.

ouch! that hurt.

yeah...somehow the electric company has been undercharging me and overcharging my neighbor...now it's time to pay the piper. 761 dollars worth.
That is an average of around 30 dollars a month more than my neighbor.
Which means not only do we have one heck of an electric bill.
We also use too much energy.
So It's time to be vigilant about turning off those lights and unplugging things.
For the longest time I have thought putting or pluggin in those power strips and then turning them off at night took care of the problem.
Nope.
They still draw energy.
So tonight I went around unplugging small appliances.
We'll see how or if things improve.
better now than never.
I am not sure I hold much store in those energy saver lights.
They cost a lot and ours burn out every other month.
I am not sure the small savings is worth the outlay and constant light bulb changes.
My clear bulbs last longer.
I also wrote up this thing people call a Bud-get (N): A budget (from old French bougette, purse) is a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving and spending.^[1] A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods. In other terms, a budget is an organizational plan stated in monetary terms..
A budget is NOT when you pay all your bills and then the rest of the money is just a great big free for all.
yeah.
So my budget consists of bills, grocery money, gas money (currently an arm and a kidney), spending money for everyone in our family, SAVINGS ( a new category lol) and project money...
we are idea people.
My project currently is fencing off an area for a garden.
Tim's project is garage organization.
We each have 60 dollars a month allotted to our project after initial outlay.
Either way we are going to have to be cutting back whether we like it or not.
So I am going to be eating dinners with the family.
I am also going to be making menus so I don't overspend at the grocery store...
(which isn't hard to do these days)
Do you guys have favorite family recipes?
Post them and I will put them up to share.
I am thinking about making this blog a kind of open forum where anyone who wants to post can post.
Let me know if you all are interested.
The more ideas the better.
Talk to you all later,
Chris out.

emergency essentials for your car

Hey all,
It's been a while....but I have been busy.
I am cleaning out closets and organizing my food storage areas.
I have been working on getting the different areas organized.
If you don't know where things are, you can spend money you don't need to spend on items you already have.
Which is why I have been cleaning.
Tonight I put a bug out bag in my van.
It has 4 mre's (meals ready to eat)...a swiss army knife...an emergency blanket.
I am going to put together a first aid kit for the car as well.
I would also like to put emergency purified water in the car and a case of mre's.
Each MRE has 2000 calories.
A case has 12...or three days of food for a family of four.
You can get mre's through emergency essentials (in the link on the left).
They stay good for a long time..
at least 3 years.
usually for many more than that.
Especially if stored indoors.
flares, and orange triangles, jumper cables, a flashlight..a firestarter wouldn't go amiss either.
A jack and a spare tire...
These are all good things to keep in the car.
If you have anything you like to keep in your car in case of emergency...put it in the comments below and I will share it with everyone.
Have a great night guys,
will be back soon with more information and updates.
Chris out.

reader tip of the day

from yellow rose jasmine:

My tip for the day: from experience, I actually did this- try those composite 'sticky back' tiles if you want to make a cheap linoleum floor look like you redid it in tile. I even got the ones that appear to have 'grout' and it turned out awesome. My bathroom floor would have cost me about $500 to have it done in tile (got several estimates), but the composite tiles were $35 plus 1 day of my time. The kitchen would have been $1400 dollars and cost me $230 to do it myself this way with cool 20 inch European looking stuff. I was careful to do everything as right as I could, sealed and caulked and all. I had never done anything like this before. I've had these floors for over 2 years and they still look brand new. My bathroom even survived a flooding by my beloved nephew and is good as new!

THANKS!
Any other money saving ideas..
all are welcome.
I do have an upstairs bathroom that needs some serious help.
have a good one.

do it yourself to save some money....

Hey guys,
I am back...it's been awhile..
like I said...I am all for anyone with ideas just throwing them out there. I want this to be an open forum.
But to the subject of this post.
Easy (or easier) ways to save money on Groceries.
You can do quite a few things...coupons...shopping sales and stocking up then.
But for day to day purchases you can do a few simple things.
1.)Don't buy premade or premixed anything.
Not even chicken noodle soup.
egg noodles are basically a buck fifty for one big ole bag (make it two).
Or even better use flour and eggs and milk and make your own for even less.
A whole chicken is about 4 or 5 bucks.
a can of off brand carrots (or better yet fresh carrots...a buck or so)
and celery which is a buck or so and one onion...25 cents.
Chicken bullion which is about 3 bucks for a bin of it.....and that will make a ton of soup...not jus this batch...so you maybe use one dollar of it..
four cans of progresso soup is 5 bucks.
For like 10 or 11 dollars you could have four meals of chicken soup. I mean to feed a family of four...so at least 16 servings...

nuff said.

vegetable soup is another one you can make and then freeze.
get the little plastic containers (or even tupperware if you want to make an investment)
spend a day or two at the beginning of the month and make 20 or so meals of soup for the month.
You'll save a ton.
I think I will do this, this coming sunday and post some pics.
It will give you an idea of how far the food will go.
Most of saving money is simply time spent as opposed to money spent.
Doing it yourself instead of having it done.
I intend to invest in some tools so I can do some basic home repair myself.
Do any of you all have money saving meals?
Do you do your own car maintenance or home repair?
Drop me a comment.
Hugs,
Chris

Starting food storage part II-The video edition

Food storage video..
How to get up a 3 month supply



Enjoy

Starting food storage...

Okay,
There are some obvious obstacles to starting food storage.
Here were some of mine.
1.) Money
Where was I going to get the money.
How much would 'it' cost?
Was it worth the investment
(This is what I will be dealing with tonight.)

2.) Space
Where would I put It?
Where did it need to go?
What could I get rid of to make room?

3.) Won't people think I am an end of the world kook?
Who cares.
You won't when  a natural disaster happens.
Or..
When you or your husband loses their job and you don't have to worry about the cost of food because you have enough stored to last a few months.

You see, food storage isn't just about  inflation, or end of the world hysteria.
It is about being prepared for very real world  problems like unexpected job loss or unexpected expenses.
So Let's do our first real blog about money.
That is really where the rubber meets the road.
Maybe you are lucky and have lots of money just laying around, waiting to  be used.
I wasn't so lucky.
I had to 'find' money.
Where can we find money.

1.) Get rid of fast food...This ties in nicely with my other blog about weight loss. lol.
How much money are you spending on eating out?
That is found money.
For the 20 dollars it takes to feed a family of four at Mcdonalds (and that is being cheap)...
Do that once a week.
It's 80 dollars a month (math genius here :o))
What can you get for 80 dollars a month?
Let's see, a 20 lb bag of rice at walmart is 14 dollars.
If you buy one bag of bulk kidney beans 25 lb bag...28 dollars.
Right there you have a complete protein.
Meaning it can take the place of meat.
All that for 42 dollars.
You could be buying emergency rations
Each bar contains 3600 calories (or 9-400 calorie meal bars) for about 7 bucks a pop.
Now these aren't something you are going to want to eat for a year, but it is relatively inexpensive to get a quick three day supply for your entire family.
You could keep these in your care for road trips etc.
A three day supply for a family of four with 1800 calories apiece...52 dollars.

Another way to 'find' money.
Horror of horrors....lol.
Shut off your cable or satellite television.
I did this a year ago and it is the best decision we have made as a family.
We spend more time together.
My kids read, play the wii, or browse the internet.
You can get tv shows off hulu if you really want to watch something.
The biggest difference (besides the part where I DON'T pay a cable bill)
My kids don't invent new wants every two seconds.
Their christmas list this year, respectively...four items each.
On average savings....around 50 dollars a month (600 dollars a year).
That would be about 35 cans of chunky soup.
250 packages of ramen...
Well, you get the picture.

3.) Get rid of your fancy  cell phone.
Get a 'pay as you go' for emergencies only.
biggest bennie besides the fact that you don't have the phone ringing when you are trying to go to the bathroom...
money, money , money..
That and you aren't constantly within reach of everyone...
we should all have some alone time.

4.) Pay attention
Money that goes in drips and drabs is like a leaky faucet.
Late fees for movies
library book late fees
interest on credit cards
paying for insurance that is double coverage..like emergency road side assistance on your auto insurance and triple A.
Not having updated your insurance for a while..not looking to see if you are eligable for a lower rate with a different company..or maybe moving your  car and house insurance to the same company to take advantage of bundling and getting a discount that way.
Paying attention to how you use your car.
Meaning...can you do all your errands on one day instead of three seperate days.
Can you car pool
Are your tires properly inflated, and is your care maintained.
It can save a ton in gas over time.
Turn your lights off.
Put your appliances on a power strip and when you are done using them turn off the power so you don't have a phantom energy draw on appliances you are not using.
How much is that latte...could you make it cheaper at home.

5.) coupons.
I started using coupons in conjunction with weekly fliers and I have saved on average 15 dollars a week...
or 60 dollars a month.
This takes some effort.
don't just use a coupon because you have it.
Use only coupons for items you already buy.
peruse ads (like king souper or krogers)
find out when they are going to have big sales like 10 for 10...
or keep an eye out for big half off sales.
Then with your grocery budget set aside 10 dollars for stocking up per week.
Take your coupon and combine it with a 10 for 10 or something.
for instance....
I bought 10 tubes of Colgate for 5 dollars.
How...I had saved up 5-1 dollar off Colgate coupons.
They were a part of a 10 for 10 dollar deal.
after you buy 10 of any given item you get them for half off.
So, I bought 10 and used my 5 coupons.
You see, if the store has a coupon and a card...you can still use a manufacturer coupon on top of the store discount.
I have alot of toothpaste for storage.
Pretty cool huh.


Another good money saver...
Well, do we really need everything brand new?
NO.
This is especially silly if you have small children.
I am sure we have all had this happen to us.
You buy a cute little outfit from gymboree for 30 dollars.
They wear it two or three times and then YOU sell it for 5 bucks if you are lucky.
I love good will and I love thrift stores.
I bought a ton of really nice clothes for church from a local goodwill in town.
I went to the rich part of town and scored a ton of really nice skirts and shirts.
Stuff from Ann taylor loft and brand name articles.
Nice shoes.
I look like I spent quite a bit..but for around 50 dollars I bought myself a wardrobe that people think I spent well over a thousand for.
I let others spend thousands and I reap the rewards in a nice wardrobe and a thicker pocket book.
Well, That is all for tonight.

If anyone can think of more ideas...put them in the comments below and I will add them  to my list.
This is all about the free exchange of ideas.
Have a great night guys.
Hugs,
chris