Smart Shopping: More Important Than Ever

[DuckieLady]

I'm waiting to get in my Korean red chili peppers, nori, calrose rice, sprout seeds, kefir grains, and reusable milk containers for making oat milk... Milk is close to $5 a gallon here.

And micro greens sets.

Eggs are expensive too, but the bar sells them for cheap.

It's the first part of supplies for doing really well off of not very much, since groceries are really expensive here.

From what I hear pizzas can be good eatin for cheap if you make it yourself and use canned tomato sauce.

Accurate

Get you on that Margherita pizza game, that's ancient poor people/Great Depression food taken from a curious king.

If you were in the victorian era you'd probably spend all your wages on a little meat pie after work.

Y'all can get some Banquet and throw some mashed potatoes and green beans on the side, that's what I did when it got rough.

$5-6 for multiple people

 

[Hidden In Him]

Y'all can get some Banquet and throw some mashed potatoes and green beans on the side, that's what I did when it got rough.

$5-6 for multiple people

This sounds like a good idea, only it's been quite awhile since I recall having a Pot Pie I thought was any good.

Can't remember which ones I was eating last.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Btw, here's another one that's affordable and good.

Red Beans & Rice with Sausage. It's excellent. Plain red beans is a bit too bland for me, but when you add cayenne pepper and sausage it's great, and it doesn't take a ton of sausage to give it some flavor either. We have a friend who provides us with Venison sausage during hunting season, so we don't have to buy ours, but so long as your area sells some decent stuff (Richards and Savoie's are the better brands here), you can make a great meal that lasts several days on about $10. Use Blue Runner Red Beans.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Red Beans & Rice with Sausage.

I have a variation on this, btw. I'll sometimes cook Black-eyed Peas and Sausage.

Not much rice, though. Dilutes the taste in this case. Some add onions and/or a little green pepper. Trappey's Black-eyed Peas are the best, but while they may be more local to this area, I've substituted store brand before and it seemed just as good. Finding good sausage is the key to these recipes.

 

[Hidden In Him]

I'm waiting to get in my Korean red chili peppers, nori, calrose rice, sprout seeds, kefir grains, and reusable milk containers for making oat milk...

This sounds like something I could do without, Lol. I think my body would go into shock if I started eating full-blown health food.

Btw, I saw someone refer to you as "Fluffy" in another post. If so, that means I know you better than I thought. Either way, I thought you might benefit from some of the posts in this thread as well.

God bless,
- H

US Food Prices To Double Soon?

 

[Cristo Rei]

Btw, here's another one that's affordable and good.

Red Beans & Rice with Sausage. It's excellent. Plain red beans is a bit too bland for me, but when you add cayenne pepper and sausage it's great, and it doesn't take a ton of sausage to give it some flavor either. We have a friend who provides us with Venison sausage during hunting season, so we don't have to buy ours, but so long as your area sells some decent stuff (Richards and Savoie's are the better brands here), you can make a great meal that lasts several days on about $10. Use Blue Runner Red Beans.

That looks awesome. The problem i have is that i live by myself. I make a dish like that and im eating it for the next few days.
But i definitely need to look at the way im eating and budget better i think. I know i can eat decent meals for under $5, even for just $2.
I made a list on your other thread with ways to save money. I was going to start up a similar thread as i see inflation is going up faster than usual, interest rates going up and im worried how people are going to cope including myself. I need to be more resourceful

 

[Hidden In Him]

I make a dish like that and im eating it for the next few days.
But i definitely need to look at the way im eating and budget better i think.

I missed this post, Cristo Rei, so sorry about the late reply.

What you can do to make dishes is simply half everything before you prepare it. That turns it into something you won't get sick from having to eat it forever before it's gone. I ask my wife to do the same thing sometimes, cuz she used to be notorious for making enough of something to feed a small army.

Btw, another tip I just came across that relates to a few of my earlier posts: Many of the big retailers are now badly overstocked in the US as a result of over-ordering back when Covid was in full swing, and people were spending mostly on goods. Now they are not, so retailers have a glut of stuff they can't sell, and the same is probably true in your part of the world.

The guest in the following video is predicting that the discount wholesalers will likely be the ones ending up with most of it, and that's where people may be able to find some real bargains. We have a bunch of them here, though up till now I haven't done much shopping there. But we have Dollar Tree and Family Dollar and several others.

Time to maybe look into shopping at the cheapie stores for some things the big retailers will soon have to be unloading on someone.

 

[Hidden In Him]

I need to be more resourceful

Btw, you know what's also still cheap? Tuna fish. I think it's because the fish market isn't being effected by rising fertilizer prices and droughts like the farming industry is, so it's still close to a dollar a can.

If you add stuff to it like tomatoes, lettuce, olives, etc., a single can of tuna can make one large club sandwich or a full-sized submarine that you can eat off of with some chips at least twice.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Btw, you know what's also still cheap? Tuna fish. I think it's because the fish market isn't being effected by rising fertilizer prices and droughts like the farming industry is, so it's still close to a dollar a can.

If you add stuff to it like tomatoes, lettuce, olives, etc., a single can of tuna can make one large club sandwich or a full-sized submarine that you can eat off of with some chips at least twice.

And here's something interesting. I haven't tried this yet, so don't shoot the messenger, but tunafish grilled cheese sandwiches.

I'm guessing you'd only need a little tuna or the tuna would overpower it, so that means cheese would be the main expense, but it sounds like it might be good if it was made right.

 

[Cristo Rei]

Btw, you know what's also still cheap? Tuna fish. I think it's because the fish market isn't being effected by rising fertilizer prices and droughts like the farming industry is, so it's still close to a dollar a can.

If you add stuff to it like tomatoes, lettuce, olives, etc., a single can of tuna can make one large club sandwich or a full-sized submarine that you can eat off of with some chips at least twice.

Ah you read my mind... I bought some tuna...
I was thinking of a bean salad with tuna...
Thanks for the ideas.

 

[Cristo Rei]

@Hidden In Him

Pasta dishes are fairly cheap. For 10-15 bucks you can make spaghetti bolognese for 4-5 servings.

Noodles are good too. Add sausage, beans, chicken, pork, mince or whatever you like to them.

What else? I need to broaden my menu. I can't afford to eat red meat like I used to.

Tuna Pasta my mum makes as well... Shouldn't be too hard to make
Soups are good for the cold winter...

 

[Dropship]

Can I sneak in a question here as cooking's a mystery to me?- some food wrappers say the product can be cooked in an oven with or without "fan assist", and the printed timings show that with fan assist the stuff will cook quicker and will require a lower temperature (thereby reducing the electricity bill).
So why on earth would we want to use non-fan assist??

 

[Cristo Rei]

Can I sneak in a question here as cooking's a mystery to me?- some food wrappers say the product can be cooked in an oven with or without "fan assist", and the printed timings show that with fan assist the stuff will cook quicker and will require a lower temperature (thereby reducing the electricity bill).
So why on earth would we want to use non-fan assist??

Cooking is a mystery to you... LoL
I know what you mean. It was to me as well.
You must be lucky enough to have a good woman cook for you.
To answer your question I think an old oven like a wood fire one don't have a fan.
Do you remember your mums oven? Did it have a fan? Or your grandma's oven?

 

[Hidden In Him]

Pasta dishes are fairly cheap. For 10-15 bucks you can make spaghetti bolognese for 4-5 servings.

Noodles are good too.

My wife sometimes makes a very basic dish with just a little tomato sauce and spaghetti, and it's decent. A little too bland for me, but very cheap and simple to make, and she likes it.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Can I sneak in a question here as cooking's a mystery to me?- some food wrappers say the product can be cooked in an oven with or without "fan assist", and the printed timings show that with fan assist the stuff will cook quicker and will require a lower temperature (thereby reducing the electricity bill).
So why on earth would we want to use non-fan assist??

Sorry, but I've never even heard of "fan assist." Must be more of a European thing... unless we have it too, and I'm just clueless, LoL.

I don't do a ton of cooking. Only out of necessity, really.

 

[Cristo Rei]

Sorry, but I've never even heard of "fan assist." Must be more of a European thing... unless we have it too, and I'm just clueless, LoL.

I don't do a ton of cooking. Only out of necessity, really.

Surely your oven has a fan?

 

[Hidden In Him]

Surely your oven has a fan?

I dunno. I've never asked it.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Went to Wally World again tonight, and noticed some things.

1. Buying brand name stuff - especially bread - seems unnecessary unless that's all that's left. That appeared to be the case tonight. Everything that was left on the bread aisle was $3.50 or more, and for bread that goes bad quickly and is overpriced. Then I found one last loaf of Great Value (i.e. the generic Walmart brand) Texas Toast for $1.88, and snagged it. It's actually a bigger loaf of bread so it can be stretched farther on things like sandwiches, and Walmart generic breads generally lasts longer and taste just as good if not better.

2. Walmart Brand Tater Tots and Hashbrowns (the square kind) sell out quickly, and for the same reasons. That's another Walmart product that's surprisingly good for a generic, and not just because they're cheap.

3. Potatoes are still the cheapest thing on the market. I bought a 10 Lbs. bag for under $2.50.

4. Apples and Bacon are NOT cheap right now. Higher than I've ever seen them. Neither is ice cream. Blue Bell Ice Cream used to sell for under $5.00 a gallon. Now it's closing in on $8.00, except where you can find it on sale. Hagen Das is also about 60% higher in price. Soft drinks are now more than twice what they were, and that includes even the generics. But I'm trying to quit them now anyway since they're not great for one's health, and that's just more motivation.

- I also noticed a few more grim faces than usual. And I met a neighbor who in complaining about the high prices was about to go into a long spiel about how things were back during the Jimmy Carter era. I tried to avoid that and focus on the positives, cuz in not losing focus I managed to find myself a good loaf of bread, Lol.

 

[Angelina]

From what I hear pizzas can be good eatin for cheap if you make it yourself and use canned tomato sauce.

I buy very cheap pizzas sometimes and add my own toppings. It can really spread across when needed. At the moment I add an extra few cans to my store when they are on specials. This will help during difficult days or when the supermarket is running low and you need to get creative.