Tips To Reduce Your Grocery Bills - Make Your Own And Save....

This stuff is awesome! It wasn't on our list, but we just had to try it out. I ordered a couple more. It is a limited time offering, so I wanted to have an extra bottle or two.

Don't Be Afraid To Use Spices to make your foods more flavorful!

We went into the city yesterday. Ugh! Number One figured out that the differences in gas prices between city and town was so great that it was worth it. There is also no tax on food in the city unlike the closest town that takes advantage of its citizens by charging city taxes on food. So, we also did a little grocery shopping while we were there. 

No Tax On Groceries

And I do mean a "little" shopping although the price tag did not reflect it. It was crazy! Items that we purchase quarterly, like chocolate chips, have increased by $3 bucks a package. We saw a lot of price increases like this. Most items have doubled or worse over the last three years or so. 

Beating Inflation

Make Your Own Baked Goods...

Oh my, meat prices are rising again! There were also shortages in the meat section, and we were unable to find certain cheaper cuts of meat that we grind make to sausage. After searching two stores, we ended up purchasing a more expensive alternative. It was still less expensive than purchasing the pre-made stuff by far. I can make sausage for about $1.30 a pound compared to $5 a pound for the store-bought stuff.

Did you know that you are paying the same price per pound for the packaging that you are paying for the meat itself?
Do not buy the
15% added water, salt and other ingredient chicken. It is not worth it.  

We also make most of our lunchmeats and sausages.
We season meat the way we like it then we grill or bake it. Lunchmeat is so expensive, but we can make chicken lunchmeat for as little as $3 a pound. It also does not include all the nitrates and other unhealthy ingredients.

Slice it up and make a grand sandwich. 

I bagged up and froze the extra meat this morning. I portioned it out to fit our needs. 

Follow Your List! It cost us an extra $15 bucks because I did not follow this rule.

I am pretty focused on the task at hand and our list when shopping. I want to get in and out as fast as possible, so I did not check out too many sections in the stores we visited. What I did see sent chills right up my spine. What if the prices continue to serge? What if they never go back down? What if? You can fill in the blank ...

Make Your Own Breakfast Sandwiches and Cereals...

Make You Own Salads - Don't buy pre-packaged!

These are just a few examples on how to save money on your grocery bills. Share your tips in the comment section with us. 

Thanks,

Mrs. Smith

Shortages - Out Of Stock - Substitutions - Shrinkflation - Inflation...

It is getting harder and harder to find the items that we are used to buying at the grocery store. I recently placed an online order and was unable to get several items. I continued trying to purchase the items online for a couple of weeks. I was successful on a couple items, but the rest I just had to make substitutions. 

There are also policy changes along with everything else. For instance, I have to buy two of the same item instead of one even though we are experiencing shortages in order for the item to ship. Walmart will not ship my canned spaghetti sauce anymore. I don't purchase a lot from Walmart, but that was one item that I buy to help me reach my $35 free shipping quota. Keeping up with these changes on top of everything else affects my budget.

It was also time to buy the dreaded toilet paper. They did not have my brand in stock, so I decided that Cottonelle was reasonably priced. Ha! It has been shrunk by at least 1/2 inch in width and has less sheets. Shrinkflation!!! I called my mom to see if her brand had done the same thing, but she had also switched to Cottonelle. Her rolls were also ridiculously narrow.

This is a normal sized roll that has been on the spool, so half of  it is missing.

Ridiculously narrow. 

Way shorter and a lot less sheets.

Loosely wrapped. 

Here is a list of items that were out of stock or unavailable and the substitutions I made:

Toilet paper - Out of stock - Purchased Cottonelle toilet paper, Shrinkflation!                                                      

Tones taco seasoning - Out of Stock - Purchased Tones ground cumin - I had to buy two                                           

Mustard - I would have had to buy 13 pounds, so I bought it elsewhere.                                                                 

Jalapeños - Out of stock, eventually shipped

Chocolate Chips - Out of stock, no substitution

Spaghetti sauce - Unavailable, purchased tomato sauce

Ramen - Out of stock, purchased angel hair pasta

Peanut Butter - Out of stock, had to buy two, eventually shipped

Tortillas - Out of stock, had to buy two, eventually shipped

Roasted Peanuts - Had to buy two

Canned veg and beans  - Had to buy two

Honey - Had to buy two two packs for $35                                                                                                                                                     

You can see that I really had to work hard to stay within my budget and plan meals around having to buy two of the same item in order for my order to be eligible for shipping. Some of these items had gone up over $4 to $6 like the honey and cumin. Most everything else was up $2 or more. What on earth would I use 13 LBS of mustard on? I ended up buying mustard from Walmart for less money.  

I replaced the taco seasoning that was out of stock with cumin, because cumin is the dominant flavor in taco seasoning. It is very strong and does not take much to flavor a dish. I can also make my own taco seasoning now if I need to. I have made it before and it was just fine. It was actually less expensive to buy a large container than making my own. I am not so sure if that is the case now since prices have gone through the roof. I also replaced the spaghetti sauce with tomato sauce, because I can just doll it up like I do with the spaghetti sauce. It was just a better deal to buy the canned spaghetti sauce. 

I did not purchase any fresh meat, dairy or produce. I spent the same amount of money and got a lot less. This is crazy. I will keep an eye out for sales on the fresh stuff and do a pick-up order if possible. I am or will be way over budget on groceries this time. It is definitely time to make some changes, I'm just not sure what they will be.... 

Blessings,

Mrs. Smith