I hesitated when I chose a forum to place this link and open this discussion, but stretching our dollars at the grocery store is becoming a Daily Challenge, especially for elderly folks and those on fixed incomes.

Check out the link, then help us out with tips that YOU would like to share with others...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/09/earlyshow/liv...source=related_story

quote:

Just don't go until you hafta!

I am TOTALLY so there! And I would add: and when you MUST go, MAKE IT COUNT! It may cost more at the checkout, but the time & travel expenses have to be factored. It takes only a little longer to buy for a month than it does for a week or three days...

Be sure to keep STAPLES around from which you can make lots of different meals, like rice, beans, flour, biscuit mix, eggs, milk, cheese, stew meat, ham scraps, etc. I can nearly always come up with SOMETHING relatively nutritious, tasty and filling from an "empty" refrigerator, freezer and pantry. Eating should be pleasurable, but it's not ALL about that!! It's also majorly about fueling the engine. Getting sufficient quantities of nutrients to one's body on a regular basis is how the machine operates best! One can't consume sodas, ice cream, chips, burgers, pizza and lasagna daily and expect to thrive!

My tip is very simple. Born from the inability (taking care of mama)to go to the grocery store whenever I want.

Just don't go until you hafta!

You would be surprised at the things you can come up with when the pantry is low. Or find internet recipes. Even having a few vegetarian meals instead of meat all the time has worked in my house. I agree with the wonder of eggs and cheese. But I do use potatoes, pasta and breads freely as well as rice.

Most don't appreciate the "value" of hunger and that you will eat whatever you have if that's all that's available.

Save gas and money, wait until you REALLY hafta go to get groceries.

As for the elderly, I know they are a proud generation, but Meals on Wheels is an excellent resource I have known many that have used it and even liked the "visit" of someone new.

Another serious consideration for the elderly is that for the most part, not only are they on a fixed income, but that income only arrives in a single chunk once per month. This calls for very careful budgeting. Keeping the grocery bill down can make a major contribution toward keeping total costs down while utility costs and fuel costs remain high and unpredictable!

My favorite method for this is to buy my major proteins (for supper) only once per month (this also saves in transportation costs, in that you're not always going to the store!) Additionally, I divide each week into “designated protein” days.

For instance, Sundays are my MEAT days. There are only four or five Sundays in a month, so I survey what is on sale, and I will buy four or five portions of meat for my family.

In a given month, the grocery cart might contain a pork roast, a stewing hen, a family pack of pork chops, beef stew meat, and a package of ground beef. That's it for the month!

You'll think I'm crazy, but I also try to keep the price per pound, for meat, in the vicinity of $1.00 per pound! Truly, it can be done!--you just have to pay attention. For chicken, I like to keep the price between $0.25 -- $0.50 per pound. You can often find these prices for a large bag of fresh leg quarters.

When the sales don't seem to be going my way, I can always depend on organ meats. I have NEVER seen chicken liver or gizzards for more than $1.00 per pound. Calf liver, kidneys, etc. are other possibilities. When things are very tight, think creatively. These “variety” meats provide the very highest nutritional value and are wonderfully versatile and rich in flavor.

In our house Mondays are BEAN days. Beans and rice provide a complete compliment of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins). Beans and rice are absolute bargains, no matter how you look at them—but in order to get the most nutrition and value for your money, buy a variety of dried beans (only $0.50 - $1.00 per pound!) and the largest sack of brown rice you can afford. Canned beans are over priced, over cooked, and contain high amounts of sodium and other additives. Parboiled rice, minute-rice, pre-seasoned rice dinner mixes are outrageously over priced and have too many bad additives and preservatives to even begin to list! As a bonus, if you have left-over beans or rice, they freeze very nicely, providing you with a pre-cooked meal on some other day!

Traditionally, Wednesdays are my SOUP days. If I have left-over meat, beans and rice, I will build my soup around these. But generally, we consider Wednesday to be a moderate “fast” day (keeping the meals light for religious discipline), so vegetable soup with no meat would certainly fit the bill. When building a veggie soup, fresh veggies are always the best bargain for nutrition—(watch the sales, buy fresh, local, and in-season)—and frozen veggies are a close second-best option. If you think your soup needs more protein than veggies alone will provide, throw in some barley, chickpeas or lentils!

Thursdays are my EGG and/or CHEESE days. So, the meal is built around one or both of these proteins. It might be a pasta dish, a fried rice dish, a huge main-course salad with boiled egg or grated cheese... or even “breakfast” for supper. The possibilities are endless.

We consider Fridays to be days of “fast” and “abstinence”--I keep the meals light and no meat is taken. Fridays are my Fish/Seafood days. As often as not, this may mean a simple tuna salad sandwich for supper. But it might mean green salad with tiny shrimp, a seafood gumbo, or a simple grilled fish filet. Canned tuna, canned salmon and jack mackerel are all good nutritional bargains. ...and believe it or not, you can always count on canned salmon to be wild-caught (a huge nutritional bonus!).

I don't buy any proteins whatsoever with Saturday in mind. Saturdays are for USING UP my week's allowance of fresh proteins. I simply survey what had been allotted for that week and there is always something still left unused. It might be a little bit of ground beef, a few fresh eggs, or 3 chicken leg quarters left from a 5 pound bag... Whatever seems to need to be eaten of what I still have available is used.

To summarize, I go shopping with the idea that I need only 4-5 meats, and 4-5 meals worth of eggs & cheese, beans & rice, and seafood. Our supper meals are rounded out with fresh salad, a starch (potatoes, whole grains, or whole grain breads or pasta), and fresh seasonal veggies.

When all the children were living at home, I could feed my family using this method for about $250 per month—including lunches, breakfasts, beverages, all of the various staples (flour, sugar, butter, etc.) and herbs & spices. These days prices are much higher, but I have fewer folks to feed so, incredibly, I really don't spend much more than that today.

• Always figure cost per unit measure
Manufacturers will charge the same or higher price but have a little less product. A larger container doesn't necessarily mean a smaller cost per oz.
• Avoid bite-sized food, especially candy and cookies, snacks, etc.
• Bake cookies instead of buying them
• Purchase different lettuces and garnish with herbs that you grow rather than purchase pre-mixed salads (most lettuces are easy to grow in containers, as are most herbs)
• GROW easy things in containers or a "square foot" style garden. "Lasagna" gardening is the easiest ever!
• Cook in quantity when you can and freeze extra portions. It doesn't take much more time to make a BIG pot of spaghetti sauce or chili or stew, etc.
• Purchase whole chickens, ribeyes, etc. and cut them up yourself. Most cookbooks have a section that has handy information like how to cut up a chicken or center-cut ham slice or boned chicken, etc. Freeze single pieces on waxed paper, then throw them in a zip lock bag for quick defrosting.
• Purchase ground meat in quantity and form into individual patties, freeze individually on waxed paper, then stack (with the waxed paper between patties) in a zip lock bag. Partially cook basic ingredients like ground meat, onions, peppers, etc. that form the basis for many different recipes.
• Purchase the ingredients for vegetable soup instead of buying the canned stuff. Soup generally freezes well.
• Use common cleansers like Sudsy ammonia, pine oil and other home prepared cleaning preparations rather than buying expensive products like scrubbing bubbles that have ingredient lists you cannot begin to pronounce.
• Purchase bread at bakery outlet stores (dayold bread) Watch the prices, but you should be able to pick up some bargains.
• Many communities have surplus canned and dry goods stores. Watch the dates on perishable items, but usually there are excellent values there.
• Eat more rice and grains instead of potatoes and pasta. They are more nutritious and less expensive.
• Instead of purchasing cleaning cloths, use old tee shirts, socks and worn out clothing. You can either wash them or throw them away after use.
• Newspaper makes an excellent polishing cloth for windows.
• Shopping at farmer's markets and smaller grocery stores can net good values and fresh food that was produced more locally.

Oh my gosh! Here is a topic that I really could write a book on—(in fact, maybe I will ).

There was a time when I was the sole bread winner in our large family (9 children) and my hubby was in school. Those were some very tight times, but I sure did learn a lot. Necessity really is the mother of invention!

My tip for BREAKFAST is: Hot Cereal (especially, Old Fashioned Rolled Oats)

You can hardly find a less expensive, more nutritious way to start the day. It's full of fiber to protect the colon and circulatory system, it's filling, and has zero additives or perservatives. One cup cooked oats (1/2 cup dry) has only 145 calories but provides 12% DV of protein, 25 grams of complex carbohydrate, and 16% DV of dietary fiber. It's vitamin profile is pretty good too, but it's mineral profile is out of this world. Oats are especially rich in Manganese and Selenium. They provide a wide array of essential fatty acids and even contain 2% DV of Omega 3 fats!

I like mine with no milk or sugar, but cooked with 1 teaspoon of virgin coconut oil and a few dried cherries or blueberries added. (a chopped dried apricot is also tasty!)

My favorite PROTEIN for price, value, and versatility: Eggs

Until recently, you could buy a dozen eggs for about $1.00. That comes out to an incredible $0.083 per serving! But even if you are now paying $3.00 for a dozen eggs, it still comes to only $0.25 each. If you do buy them on sale (watch for sales near Easter time!), you can buy several dozen, freeze them in ice trays and then store them in freezer bags until you need them—just toss them into a bowl, cover, and place in the fridge the night before you plan to use them.

Eggs are nutritional giants. That tiny ovoid package is a good source of protein, selenium, iodine, molybdenum, phosphorous, potassium, vitamins B2, B5 and B12, and vitamin D. Eggs also contain vitamin A, as retinol, which is essential to protecting our vision by maintaining a healty retina in the eye.

Two recent studies published in the Journal of Nutrition show even further evidence that a daily egg—whose yolk is a rich source of vision-protective carotenoids, including not only lutein but also zeaxanthin—may reduce the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

The studies, both conducted at the University of Massachusetts, demonstrate, that in addition to keeping hunger at bay longer (eggs' satiety index is 50% greater than that of most breakfast cereals), consuming one egg per day boosts blood levels of both lutein and zeaxanthin, thus reducing the risk of AMD—without increasing cholesterol or triglyceride levels.

In AMD, the macula, the central part of the retina which controls fine vision, deteriorates, greatly limiting eyesight or even resulting in blindness in those afflicted. AMD is the leading cause of blindness in people over age 50; afflicting more than 10 million people in the United States, plus an additional 15 to 20 million worldwide.

If you are still worried about cholesterol—cholesterol is necessary for communication between the cells in your brain! In fact, the actual make-up of the brain is mostly fat and cholesterol. Personally, it makes me wonder whether the across-the-board limiting of fats and cholesterol in the diet is a contributing factor in much of the brain disease we are witnessing today (but that's a different book! ).

Good Thinking, Moms Buddy.I am one who knows her prices and only purchases the best buys.Some of out big markets are so expensive.The difference in prices can be as much as one to two dollars more.To be honest, many bargains I find are at walmart, K mart.Some times I frequent the stores that sell things that are mistakes made at the factory.The food is fine but not up to be sold as perfect.I am close to all of the stores so it does not require much time and gas to go to the various places.