Cooking and shopping on the cheap

Ok so I will admit that I do like to cook around the household here.  I figure the cheaper the better alot of the times for the place and I do not mind it at all.  With that being said I am getting back into the coupons here for the household to drag the prices down totally for the place since the weather and the trucking are not going to lie here to me.  So now I did use a coupon last night here while I was at Walmart and saved 55 cents on the total here at the check out lane.  With tomarrow coming up soon here I will have the coupons along with the sales on my side here and my Husband knows this.  That leads up to what I have to say with the sales here with the cooking on the cheap.  Normally if you can get something on sale it is even better on the grocery budget.  This is why I go for the potatoes, flour, onions, butter, pastas, some cheeses, milk by the gallon and or powdered, baking powder, and shortning here for the household as a starter.  In what I do is hike out of the household early in the morning some time during the week here and catch the sales on the meats at the stores.  That also helps out on the budget here for my place.  It was at least a month ago that one of the news channels had a run on the dollar store foods here in the area and how you can pretty much eat out of them totally.  With that being said you have to watch prices totally in the dollar stores nomatter in what you do.  This is why I kept a notebook for the prices where I shopped at totally for the first 6 months for the dollar stores, discount stores, and the supermarket at first.  After I wrote down the size of the item and the price at one store for the month here, then I moved to the next store for the next month here and did the same thing.  With that part said here some items are not that bad at all from the dollar stores.  Some of the stuff that is there you have to get use to the taste.  Since I like the off brand cherrios at one of the stores it pretty much stuck at the trailer then here to the house.  Also we all found out that the box stuffing with the off brand is better than the name brand things and alot cheaper also.  What I am trying to say is if you are on a very tight budget for the household do not knock the dollar stores and discout stores at all for food.  I still laugh at times since I have shopped at the dollar stores here for years and noticed that I can get better deals at times there than anyplace else in the area for some of the things here for the house.  Some of the folks that have came over to the house and walked into the kitchen have seen the tags on the items that I have bought and shake their head.  With budgets getting tighter here for alot of things in every household the food budget gets nailed the first it seems nomatter where you go.  All I can say is take a look around for alot of things at the dollar stores and see what you can get out of them to your advantage here.  They also take internet coupons now days for alot of things that they have. 

May as well here

Well I may as well give up while I am ahead now and go from there with the diet bizz here now.  All I can say is that I am shaking my head at this point now.  Since I know in what I have to do here totally and what you get with some programs like NutriSystem is not enough here at all to feed someone at all compaired to other diets here and the point systems out there.  Ok so I had someone that I know real well here with diet after diet that has failed except one here totally.  That is part of what the heck is wrong with me now here after all of these years.  So now try to explain to some folks that I have food alergies here totally and they think I am nuts here after all of these years also.  So I came to realize that I need to start walking more and eat less also on some things along with other things here that are dirty habbits totally here.  I may have it done here and now along with screw this diet crap on top of it here.  Also the only thing that I did was look at the portion sizes here in what some are calling for and I can do alot of it totally at this point in time for breakfast and lunch here pluss snacks.  That is part of the reason in why I wanted the garden to really take off this year for my place since I know that I need more free food to eat in the household.  What I call free food is the veggies that you have to chew and there is more water content to them than anything else.  So now here I can make in what I have here already and there is part of the things that are needed here anyway.  All I can say is that I could have made things alot cheaper than what I got and will do that from now on and to get fruit on sale for other things here in the household while I am at it.  At this point it is food for thought and have one or two pancakes at a time and a small amout of morning food also. 

Finally

Well I have switched news stations totally around here for the mornings.  On channel 2 they still have the money tips out of the day here unlike channel 4.  So now they ran a segment on the dollar stores this morning saying how they can save you money also.  Since I am still within walking distance here with at least 3 of the dollar stores it works out better on me.  Like all stores you have to watch the prices totally here and that is how it goes in every area.  So at this point in time since I can walk to alot of the stores and take my wheeled cart with me here it is not so bad.  Also with the house here I do not have to jump over the mud puddles in the back path way anymore to get to all of them.  I know that I still have a Dollar General store coupon that will be used here shortly and I will walk to that place also here sometime this up coming week to get things from there.  Alot of what the dollar stores have is almost the same thing as the regular stores have and some of the food that you can get there is better I think after all said and done.  The funny thing of it all is that I will still get the boxed stuffing from the Dollar General and I think it is better than the name brand stuff from the bigger stores here in the area.  So now with that said here it is all about watching who has the better sales for the week or the month depending on how you shop for the household. 

Lots of sales and rebates on web sites

I got to looking around before I totally get off of the monster that is my computer and there are alot of sales and rebates going down. The first one is www.pauladean.com for 20%off her coffee untill Febuary 11 of this month. Where to click is near the top of the left of the page.

The next one is for www.kitchenaid.com. They have a tab at the bottom of the page to the right with the promotions and rebates. Pluss energy star appliances. Depending on what you are looking for they may have it for you.

Another one is www.hsn.com. The deal of the day and it depends on what you are looking for also. Most of the shopping channels on cable providers or the dish providers they have sites for them also. I like HSN and QVC. Take a look around and see what kind of deals you can get off of the sites that they all don't show during the day or night.

One more site for the day is www.foodnetwork.com. The place to click is about half way down the page to the left. It looked like alot of sweet deals with 60% off some items. Depending on what you like they may have it.

At times thru out the year if you shop around you get better deals and sale items and the rebates. There are promo coupons for sites also. Sometimes you have to dig for them sometimes you do not. I normally go to the search box on the provider that I use and pick out a web site that you can get the coupon codes off of. This is why I save up for things for times of the year to make a major buy. The old saying don't buy anything untill you shop around is a true statement. Ok folks that is my tidbit for the day here. Have fun and play hard.

I must admit I am the worst

Well I went to the bank today nice that the branch is open on sundays.  Got at least one pay check in the bank today.  Then off to the other side of the grocery store to get the paper.  Coupons and sale ads are a great thing.  Normally I pick 2 papers up today was just one.  Well some is buy one get one free with the coupons.  Gotta keep the dog and cat happy around here.  Olliver is being himself a pretty bird.  Now to wing everyone off of the Paula Dean show.  Football season has hit my house.  Pretty much I stay home for the football now on sundays.  Oh well at least it's never boring around my place to say the least now.  Now to start in on the fried chicken that I was suppose to cook lastnight.  Regular pasta gets old after a bit.  What the heck so does rice.  At least it is food during the week with me here by myself of course.  And the more I am home alone during the past weeks I started to cook even cheaper.  Why shoulden't I anyway.  Pluss there is fresh baked bread here in the can also.  I baked on Friday at least.  Not as much as I wanted to but it was a start.  Next is to start makeing biscuts from scratch again.  It works great if people have food alergies.  And I noticed that I feel better when I cook from scratch also.  Well yes it takes longer in the prep time of course also well worth the time and effort to cook better for the family.  My grocery bill has went down literally becuase of it now.  I can spend 100 dollars at the store and get the same results as the boxed foods that are there.  Some months are more of course I won't deny that.  I keep a good invatory of the stuff that I do have.  Some months I spend maybe 50 dollars when I start running out of everything then it is more of course.  I have a list for things to do here in the can and a grocery list also.  When I notice that I am low I wright it down.  Now normally I go shopping once a month except if I run low on regular milk I will pick up a half a gallon when I go out to do other things for the household.  Now alot of times when I don't feel like going out and I dont have regular milk in the place I will use the powdered milk for bakeing.  It seems like the baked goods last longer with the powdered milk.  Also there are some recipies that call for powdered milk that I use also.  I do not mind niether does the household.  Some people that come over are amazed that I used the powdered milk for something.  And a BIG THANK YOU  to Sussane at the http://www.hilbillyhousewife.com/ for alot of recipies.  Sussane's are a good base for my house and I do doctor them up of course.  Any good cook should do that.  You may want extra of something in it go for it.  Onions and Garlic are a big thing in my place.  If I run out of onions I better run for the hills and take cover.  I can laugh about it only becuase it is a thing in my household.  Those 2 things are a big staple in my can.  Along with the flour.  I feel naked without at least 2 bags of flour in the place.  Granted I go to Aldi or Save A Lot for the flour.  They have the best deals going on it.  And sugar is going on sale as of now for the holidays.  So I will start stocking up on that also while I am at it.  The big laugh is with some of us if I run out of flour and sugar I go thru a major fit.  I can go thru alot during the holidays becuase of pies and cookies pluss bread.  It looks like the flour bomb went off on me.  I go thru alot of honey also.  I pick up the 5- 10 pound jars of the good stuff.  I use it for tea, bread, and pies.  Even for coffee if im suffering from a cold.  And the honey jars make good piggy banks for other things.  I keep my stove fund in a honey jar.  Just like when you empty out a Jack Danniles bottle use it for dimes.  It means something if you are saveing for it.  And you can brag that I saved up for something out of this and this.  When I was waitressing I loved the change that people would leave me.  It ment a payment on something or a trip over to Target for something nice.  The change ads up along with other things that you do.  Now this year I am going way cheap of course for the holidays.  I was asked what I wanted and said a samwich maker.  Now being here alone I eat alot of soups and leftovers.  A hot cheese sandwich is alot to me.  So does the George Forman Grill that I have.  I have the small one and a family sized one.  You would be amazed in what you can do with the both of them.  So go cheap one night for dinner it won't hurt anyone I promise on it.  Ok folks have fun and play even harder.

Something I hardly do

I just did something I hardly ever ever do anymore.  I just paid a bill over at the grocery store.  Yes I paid a service charge also.  Now normally I pay bills on line or go to the office to pay them when ever possible.  And I need to start paying bills on time also starting next month.  I will have enough and then some for next month to start that.  I just do not like paying the charge for the convienance of paying at the grocery store at all.  Another is becuase I don't go into the store that I went to today.  The sales ads are not that great for groceries and other things.  And thier meat counter is out of this world with being way over priced.  Now with myself walking more in the coming weeks I will be able to do more at other stores.  Walmart is one of my favorite places and Wegmans is right across the street from there I shoulden't have a problem.  Walmart I can see from my kitchen window.  There is another great store named Ollies down the street with in walking distance also.  Ollies is like a Big Lots and the Dollar Stores combined but messier.  They have a card for you spend so much in the store and you get a coupon for a persentage off the next bill that you are there.  I can get alot of stuff way cheaper in there than even Walmarts prices.  On top of everything it is right on top of the bus lines.  So even better on my part.  So there are ways to get around without a car at all times.  I can laugh about it now in how many times I have walked somewhere and it hasent bothered me at all.  When I had my Honda it was down more than up for the longest time and I walked every place on this end of town.  And I will begin that again here next week also.  I will start dropping pounds also.  So 2 birds with one stone in my book.  Another good thing about walking in the Winter months is that Any parishable foods will not spoil on the walk back.  In the summer months when I was walking everywhere I would go out very early in the morning and get stuff.  It takes me the same amount of time to get to the store walking as it does to drive it.  With all the traffic between the Mall,Wegmans,Tops,Walmart, and a few other stores in the area.  So I will never be board around here.  Ok folks have fun and play even harder.