Last Week

Last week we spent $117.27 on groceries (I splurged and bought some shrimp). The week before we spent $98.16. This includes everything for five people (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks). My focus is going to be on dinners. Breakfast and lunch is usually dried cereal, oatmeal during the week and pancakes, waffles, biscuits, bagals. eggs on the weekend. Lunch is pasta salads, tuna sandwiches, fruit, etc.

Dinners were baked potatoes, meatloaf, spaghetti, pizza, roasted chicken, chili. Side dishes were mashed potatoes, steamed carrots, mixed asian vegetables, spinich salad, peas and other normal stuff.

I try to create meals around a starch. In America we usually create meals around meat (protein). If you want to save money start thinking starch. The working people of every culture structure their meals around a starchy grain of some kind. These are primarily rice, pasta, tortillas, bread, potatoes and beans. All of these groups are filling and inexpensive. These are all whole food products that can be purchased in bulk at much less money per pound than any meat. When meat is cheap there is usually a lot of waste . If you buy a whole chicken at $.69
a lb you will probably throw away 25 percent of it (skin, bones, fat). Starches are usually 100% edible.

A good example is homemade pizza dough. At your local warehouse club you can buy 25 pound bags of flour for $6-$7. That equals around 76 cups of flour at $.09 cents per cup or $.25 per pound! You can make two medium pizzas from 3 cups of flour a little yeast and some tap water. That's around $.30! The expense comes with the toppings you choose. A bag of shredded mozerella cheese is around $2 on sale. You can buy a can of crushed tomatos for $1.20. You only need a few tablespoons per pizza. The rest can be frozen in ice cube trays (one ice cube per pizza). Pepperoni, ham, sausage are around $2 each but you only need a few ounces per pizza. A $2 package of diced ham will last us a month (6-8 pizzas). Veggie pizzas are less expensive and better for you. I figure that our cost for a medium pizza is around a $1.50. Pancakes, waffles, bagels and biscuits are all easy to make and really inexpensive. Twelve waffles cost about $1.25 and twelve bagels cost around $.65 cents!