Just because I'm not growing anything right now
doesnt mean I cant find an excuse to get out the
canner, jars, clean the freezer and exercise my food budgeting prowess! When having limited space/time for growing food sometimes you have to meet in the middle with 'normal' folk and rely on the wonders of the local supermarket . Some have 'points' you get back in the form of coupons or store credit rewards, its nice to get some money back to spend on other necessities. If you pay close enough attention
theres a cycle to the prices of meat
and produce when they are in season and plentiful. I have price "limits" that I set for myself to know when to buy/
stockup and when to pass. Just read the weekly
flyers they mail you for a few weeks and you will see the trends.
For example I do not buy boneless, skinless chicken breast unless they are $1.99 a pound or less. Usual price is 4-5 a pound, but every 4-6 weeks 1 or more stores will have them on sale.
Latly I
havent been buying it as much since I finally learned how to cut up my own whole chicken and take the breasts off myself- which on sale is usually 69-79 cents a pound instead of 3.99 a pound. More cluck for my buck, I got some inspiration from another blogger and now
I take the breasts off and freeze them separately, roast the rest of the bird and then use the bones to make stock. This week whole chickens were 77 cents a pound, so I got the limit of 3 birds and
happily brought home my days 'hunt'.
My other favorite 'budget' staple is chuck roast. This humble piece of meat is more then just a pot roast. Using my wonderful slow cooker I can leave it cooking overnight until its
falling apart and shred
ot make tacos/fajitas. Or I add red wine and
potatoes and make a Portuguese meal called Al
Catra, which is a roast with red wine, lots of onions, garlic and
potatoes. The shredded meat is also good stuffed in pitas with hummus like a gyro, or fried crispy with some eggs to make
machaca for breakfast. Add broth and rice/
quinoa and we have a gluten free version of beef n 'barley' soup. Normal price is 3-4 dollars a pound, this week
Vons had it on sale for $1.47 a pound. So I bought 4 5 pound roasts to freeze and cooked one for meals this week.
London Broil is another good 'cheap' cut- also known as top round, or more specifically its the bottom part of a top round cut. ( or maybe its the other way, need to check my book again). It can serve all the functions of a chuck roast, but when cut into cubes and marinated it can be quickly cooked to make tender cubes of beef for kebabs, stir fry, fajitas, curries and stew. The trick with
London broil is to cook quickly and marinate well first, or you get little cubes of rubber. I learned this by trial and error!
Ground beef always comes in sale for $1.99 or less occasionally. Its endlessly useful, from adding some protein and flavor to red rice n beans to meatloaf (stretched with rice/
quinoa) to thickening pasta sauces, I love ground beef, and try to always have some on hand for a fast meal my toddler and preschooler will eat.
Last but not least
theres pork shoulder/
boston butt roast or a picnic shoulder roast ( with bone). Once again I rely on the slow cooker to make a nice sort of pulled pork. Sometimes I use wine and garlic, or tomato sauce and
Italian herbs, sometimes BBQ sauce, sometimes salsa- the variations are endless. Leftovers have same use as shredded beef. If the roast has a bone I save the bone and boil it later to add some flavor to split pea soup. a Ham bone from Easter also works well for this and has even more flavor.
Deals on supermarket produce come in handy as well. Bananas turning brown are
clearenced to 10 cents a pound before they toss them: freeze them for smoothies or make banana bread/muffins, which also freezes well. Bruised apples can still be chopped with onions and fried for a side dish. If i had a cider press I would try cider or vinegar. I got a
kitchenaid artisan mixer for Christmas from my
birthmom and hubby got me the
attachment set for my birthday, so we now have a food mill, I want to try my hand at applesauce. In
strawberry season I know the berries are local so when they are $2.99 for the flat (6 pints) I get a few and make a bunch of jam and/or syrup, so far everyone tells me my jam is better then anything store bought. That always cheers me up.
One market was carrying "rainbow" carrots (bag mixed with white, yellow, purple, and red carrots as well as orange) for the first time and no one was buying them. I guess people saw they
werent all orange and
didnt want to try them. So they were a managers special: 5 x 2 pound bags for only $1. Yup, 10 cents a pound. I bought a whole lot and canned them. The colors fade a bit when canned but they still look pretty in their jars, and taste very nice and sweet. It was the first vegetable I used the pressure
canner for this summer.
You just have to know whats on season and know when to take advantage of the stores having
alot of supply or just a great limited sale.
Stater Bros had a 2 days sale on
potatoes this weekend: 10 pound bag for $1.99- so 20 cents a pound, can't beat that nowadays! I
remember when that was the normal price and on sale they were 1.00 a bag...but oh well, food prices keep going up. So I clipped my coupons and hit 2 stores to get 40 pounds, (4 bags) of
potatoes. I should have got more, but I'm on my last case of new quart mason jars, and now that
its winter no local stores carry them- I checked everywhere. Rather then order them online I'll just use what I have, now that we're cycling
thru the pantry
more with better meal planning ( relying on my pantry instead of running to the stores for everything) I end up with 2-3 empty jars a week to be washed and put away anyhow.
My plan is to peel/slice 2 bags and can them in quarts, for stews, pot roast etc, and the other 2 bags peel and dice into cubs and can in pints, for quicker things like hash or soups or whatnot. I don't cook
with potatoes as much as I used to- now that I have expanded my
repertoire of vegetables beyond carrots, onions and
potatoes. What usually gets me hung up is scrubbing and peeling them while watching 2 kids and getting other things cooked and cleaned at the same time. Rather then pay $2 per 16 oz can of sliced
potatoes at the store, I'd rather just do them myself. Sounds pretty simple, peel, slice/dice, boil for 2 minutes, and hot pack into jars ( add salt is desired). Can in pressure
canner at 10 pounds for 40 minutes.
Overall I'm quite proud of myself this week. I spent $40 at
Vons just getting roasts and chickens that were on sale and a couple of gallons of milk and my total was about $47 with tax, and at the bottom of the receipt it said "You saved $39.85 this week"
Woot! So my chest freezer has more then enough meat to last us
thru the rest of this month, I have
potatoes to can and I still have canned squash, green beans and carrots in the pantry. I used the last of my canned whole
tomatoes and sauce tho :(
Hence why I am dreaming and drooling of the
tomatoes I hope to plant this year, and pray they do wonderfully in the containers I am planning.
Just because you arent completly self sufficient in the food you eat doesnt mean you can't exercise some good homesteading skills of 'waste not, want not', preserving 'extra' food for later and being in tune with the produce of the season. All it costs is a little time to plan out and patience to wait for the sales. :)
