What are you doing to deal with the rising cost of groceries?

[Natalka]

@jasperandchar - I just heard about how amazing this cup is, and I'll be getting one for my son, who likes to take soup to work as well.
Lowest price I've seen on it is at WM, as well.

http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/corningw...lastic-vented-

http://www.thebay.com/webapp/wcs/sto.../6000016941060

[coupon girl]

today I went to lococos for fruit and veggies (local store) and saved a good 15.00 from buying there instead of fortinos

[Silk]

We have started to use meat as a side dish and at least two nights a week we go meatless. I also recommend a site called budgetbytes.com. Many meals are meat less or have just a little bit. Our fave is a recipe called Dragon Noodles. We eat this almost every week and the left over are fought over. I am feeding an almost 16 yr old boy child so I do add meat. Usually 1 chicken breast or some shrimp. It's also a great site to use when kids are learning to cook.

I made the Dragon Noodles and it was pretty good! I'll definitely make it again I had to improvise with garlic chili sauce but I think it was a good stand-in and will use it again next time. Thanks for the recommendation!

I'll also mention for you and anyone else reading this who may check out that site that I also tried her pumpkin soup recipe and that one unfortunately wasn't good at all. As one of the reviewers posted, it was very bland. I tweaked it big time and ended up with something pretty ok but would not use that recipe again. Just want to save others the time and money

Silk

[lilo0003]

Silk: I am glad you liked it. We discovered last week that you can make the sauce ahead. My older son was double the recipe as we always do but he actually quadrupled it. So I split it in half and put it in the fridge. 5 days later he used it and it was just as good. I am going to do the garlic noodles next, they are super cheap and look like something we would like. Thanks for the tip about the pumpkin soup.

[Silk]

lilo - thanks for the info about making the sauce in advance - that always makes life easier Ooooh - garlic noodles sounds intriguing - would you please report back how you like it? And you're welcome for the tip about the pumpkin soup. Sometimes it's hard to know from the reviews on a site if a recipe is really good or not because people don't like to hurt the site blogger's feelings

Silk

[Frugalbigmama]

Tonight we eat leftovers from fridge and bits of this and that. Then we start laundry after 7pm and hang it ALL to dry.
DS's lunch will be packed with stuff on hand (didn't make a special shopping trip for lunch stuff) Tomorrow he gets: pepperettes, pickles, cheese, crackers, orange, cucumber slices and if I'm feeling nice a few cookies

[Ciel]

The last two times that Palmolive 828ml original dish detergent was on sale for less than $2, I've gone to the store offering it to get one bottle, which lasts about two and a half weeks (I refill a smaller detergent bottle with the larger bottle). I've been fortunate to find stock both times but Walmart's supply was down to three bottles on the shelf (I went about two days after the flyer change...) so I need to make sure to move on a offer earlier.

Reduced produce is my standard stop at Food Basics or Forintos, but I will take notice if a favourite vegetable goes on sale in a flyer at either store.

Flyer reading here and at home has been most helpful in following the peaks and valleys of prices and seeing patterns on how often some items go on sale in a month.

[PurpleBunny89]

I do the same thing as jasperandchar and save every vegetable scrap and meat bone. I put it all in a jumbo ziploc bag in the freezer until I have quite a bit and then make stock. I then use right away or re-freeze in jumbo plastic containers. I save everything - broccoli stalks, potato peelings, ends of carrots and celery, onion peelings, etc.

As a fellow lover of mason jars I wanted to warn people about using them to freeze as glass in the freezer is likely to break often. Also freezing glass shortens its life span.

[lilo0003]

I have not tried the garlic noodles yet, but DH found a recipe on budget bakes for fajitas that you bake in the oven, they are so yummy and my whole family loves fajitas. Today he used one chicken breast for all 4 of us an then loaded up the veg. I had mostly veg as we are feeding a teen so one chicken breast was skinny or so I thought but we all felt satisfied. I hate onions and yet he can hide them in this and I will eat them.

[Frugalbigmama]

Went to buy a loaf of bread last night (RCSS $1)
Found 2Lb clementines for $2
Pm'd strawberries for $1.67 (FB)

Just have to shop the sales. (next week gala apples .88 lb (FB) Cucumbers .77 (Freshco I think) 3 pk romaine -Metro etc. Good sales to get us through the week.

[macw1960]

With all the bacon and B3G1F coupons for ML stuffed chicken or precooked bacon strips that I have been using lately to my advantage for the stuffed chicken rather than the precooked bacon I got creative.

I lined a cookie sheet with tin foil, topped it with a cookie cooling rack, added bacon, cooked at 375 for 20 minutes or so, froze individually in layers and I now have my own precooked bacon just like everyone else and my stuffed chicken...best of both worlds for me.

[jasperandchar]

I make extra for suppers and makes lots of side dishes, the side dish (rice, potatoes, veggies, etc) really stretch the mighty dollar.

[Scottishgal]

I find I really enjoy canned mushroom soup if I add one or a combination of the following. Fried red pepper or mushrooms, potatoes ( Leftovers are great ) broc., cauliflower, green onions, carrots, celery, etc. I find one can of soup with the one can of milk just to salty. This way a couple of cans of the mushroom soup with two cans of milk, stock, and lots of vegetables feeds my large family and not salty Add a sandwich and everyone is stuffed Tonight they wanted egg salad with red peppers and green onions

[PurpleBunny89]

I find I really enjoy canned mushroom soup if I add one or a combination of the following. Fried red pepper or mushrooms, potatoes ( Leftovers are great ) broc., cauliflower, green onions, carrots, celery, etc. I find one can of soup with the one can of milk just to salty. This way a couple of cans of the mushroom soup with two cans of milk, stock, and lots of vegetables feeds my large family and not salty Add a sandwich and everyone is stuffed Tonight they wanted egg salad with red peppers and green onions

You reminded me of something we do too.

We have a can of campbells chunky beef "soup" which is more stew like. I add some extra spices with it and then do up some rice. Plate the rice and pour over half the can of soup on each plate. Feeds two easily for $1 all together. Soup was on for a $1 a year or two ago and I got the rice free with FPC's from Uncle Ben last year.

tonight DH is eating spaghettini noodles that I cooked in chicken broth, soya sauce, red pepper flakes and some minced garlic and then at the end added a few tablespoons apricot jam. Super cheap and there is atleast 3 bowls worth when I only used 1/3 of the package. Considering you can get a large bag of pasta for $1 this is a super cheap meal. We had the same thing last night but he didn't like all the veg I put in it.

And myself tonight I am having a free prime stuffed chicken breast and two baked potatoes. 10lbs of potatoes for $1.67 really goes a long way for cheap meals.

I wonder which dinner is cheaper haha.

[jasperandchar]

I got back into couponing about 1 month ago, so really watching for the maple leaf sales so I can use free prime stuffed chicken for free, going to stock up on the Country naturals wieners $2.50 at independent and make a huge batch of pogos, then use b3g1 free prime chicken, the store let me do this when the bacon was on sale a couple weeks ago. Also going to stock up on Maple leaf ham at Metro $4.49 after coupons, the hams make 2 suppers so the price is right.

Today I made a large pot of soup with chicken bones, carrots and noodles and voila cheap and tasty soup for numerous meals