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

[saundyl]

We do our own food prep as well for the majority of meals. The odd occasion we will get fish and chips, burgers or chicken strips but we know the boys mom feeds them a lot of that at her place so make a point of scratch made meals here. So much of the premade stuff is so expensive here and very high in sodium.

We buy bulk rice. This year grew our own potatoes, carrots, beans and onions. Previously the carrots and onions didn't do well in our old garden but I tried.

I try to shop sales. More bang for our buck. Or we save a list and shop south.

Sent from my ASUS_Z01BDC using Tapatalk

[Frugalbigmama]

I spent $20 on Saturday that should get us till the end of the week.

2 dozen eggs
2 x wraps ( for tacos- meat cooked in the freezer)
English muffins (to make breakfast sandwiches)
cantaloupe
2 x pilsbury cookies
pilsbury cinnamon buns (figure kids would like to make while off)
2 x OJ

I am pulling a roast from the freezer tonight and will cook in the crockpot tomorrow with potatoes and carrots.
Tacos, breakfast for dinner and leftovers should do us the rest of the week.
Really need to clean out the freezer on bottom of fridge. Will add stuff to meals from there to get it cleaned out over the holidays.

[Frugalbigmama]

I am really hunting food deals. I've already seen food prices increasing lately and know we will see more with the min wage jump. Boxing day I found tons of meat marked down to $2lb. Blsl chicken breast. Pork chops. Pork loin. Extra lean ground beef. I bought $70 worth (well used PC pts) today I used the McCormick gourmet coupons overage to get more food items to stock the freezer etc. All we need in Jan and Feb is fresh stuff. And I have tons of chicken and veggies for my healthy eating!!

[GoodBoy]

From what I learned here on SC I do well with price matching and couponing. The price matching research every week takes time (an hour a week more or less) but in the end you can really get good deals. I have saved mucho on some shops... this week alone the final bill was $51.00 but that was after saving $25 with price matching. So I can live with that... more dosh for wine and hops based beverages!

[Ciel]

The current plan is to find some casserole/one-pan meals that will cover two or more meals in a week. Getting tired of pasta most days but it's cheap. Wish to have baking once per week just to ensure I have a flatbread, buns or muffins on hand.

Also shifting away from some purcahsed treats so as to have money for supplements/healthier food-another motivator for this is due to a friend who will have dietary restrictions this year. May as well start making some recipe changes on my end so we both can enjoy tea time together.

[Frugalbigmama]

Used the last of the Mccormick coupons i found to stock up on a few groceries for cheap. And hand soap x 4. That sure was a great coupon and stocked up on free gravy for 2 years plus. ( I have a bunch to give to family and friends)

[saundyl]

I love cheesewhiz but the prices here make me sad. Small ones are 5.45. And it ones are $15 plus change!

Sent from my ASUS_Z01BDC using Tapatalk

[Silk]

I've been making my own salad dressings. For one I use some dip powder I got from bulk barn, add it to sour cream and add some non-dairy milk to make it pourable. The other one I made from scratch.

[macw1960]

I love cheesewhiz but the prices here make me sad. Small ones are 5.45. And it ones are $15 plus change!

Sent from my ASUS_Z01BDC using Tapatalk

Ouch! Food Basics has it on sale herein ON for $2.88 for the 450 ml size.

[sweetmomma]

I love cheesewhiz but the prices here make me sad. Small ones are 5.45. And it ones are $15 plus change!

Sent from my ASUS_Z01BDC using Tapatalk

Where do you live?

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

[mulock]

I'm spending more on generic/store branded groceries, and buying in bulk (when it makes sense to do so). Although having received an Instant Pot for Christmas, I've seen my grocery bill jump up trying to buy the ingredients for all the new delicious recipes

[Ciel]

Saturday night, I took a 32page notebook out and started jotting down my bank fees for the year, some planned spending for certain months and also wrote what I got in tax credits for the past 4 years (thanks to having bank books on hand). I will work this week to analyze what taxed food items and non taxed food items get priority this year and also sum up 2017 totals spent on pop, chips, candy & chocolate, sparkling juices and the like. Those sums will be cut back greatly on the quest to change things for better health.
Actually, when I was getting into the task despite not being able to look at last year's spreadsheet, I was starting to think about when I buy non food items like certain clothing items and how often in a year so I could revise budget category amounts for each month. That was very insightful-this review is going to make me more aware that some months will be tighter for food purchases because there are other needs requiring purchases too.

[Arjon]

It's only one small thing, but I kept my 2018 budget at the same level as last year. This is a change from past years where I added a couple of percent more often than not. Barring an unexpected increase in prices, the same budget amount should be fine since I managed to come in a few hundred below it last year. In addition, I have a decent amount of PC and OPT points that will be easier to redeem for groceries soon... far easier than it is for me to find things I want at SDM that involve redeeming at the upper levels.

And thankfully, it seems likely that our household income to be somewhat higher this year. Not enough for me to pay less attention to saving though. ;p

[Ciel]

I've noticed that I don't like frozen French Fries from the grocery store so I don't miss them. I will work on improving my crispy oven fries recipe so that I can boil/then bake fries at home (using sweet potatoes when I can) as the recipe does not require any egg whites. I've discovered I've become picky about frozen pizzas as well in terms of seasonings and crusts (sibling buys most of the pizzas but even then, I find I have a low threshold for spicy seasonings or meats). So either I'll have to make my own crust or sometimes get the Dr. Oetker Casa di Mama pulled pork pizza on sale at a grocery store on occasion (my Shoppers does not stock that variety).

Generally I've noticed that items that tended to be $2.99 on sale in the past at Shoppers seem to have gone to a $3.49 sale price point starting last year and continuing into this year.
Have a general feeling I'll be cutting back on flavoured canned fish too even if it's on sale and lean more on lentils, rice and canned beans this year. I can easily eat more than one tin at a time but I'm trying to stick to one can per meal or use it on pasta to potentially get two big servings of pasta (one for supper and one serving for another meal).
Almond-coconut milk beverage tetra packages likely will become a staple item on a semi-regular basis each month. Mom has found the beverage tasty for her needs.
Liquid milk is mostly used for cooking or baking needs when needed, but my dairy preferences are more for Minigo, flavoured yogurts and Haagen-Daaz spirit ice creams (and sometimes a little cheese).
@mulock -happy cooking with your new appliance! I too have taken a grocery bill hit in buying some new grocery items to try a few new recipes. I won't be buying Castelvetrano olives regularly but they did taste marvelous. I have a jar of Unico stuffed manzanilla olives to use for my next batch of the veracruz sauce & potatoes portion of Chicken Veracruz (not buying chicken again this month after that $4.95 purchase last week for 4 chicken skin-on thighs) later this week.

[greentires4me]

Eating fluffernutter sandwiches!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk