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Cutting corners and making ends meet during the tough times

cutting-corners-and-making-ends-meet-during-the-tough-times

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We’re at the beginning of week 2 on unemployment. Our emergency fund is still in the bank, but we’re scrutinizing each penny that goes out the way Dave teaches in the first few weeks of Financial Peace. I’d wager that we’d be in even better shape had we done it “religiously” since beginning Financial Peace. One thing that we’ve learned to love is Angel Food Ministries.  We’ve got the boxes sporadically over the past year, and even when we don’t I can’t bring myself to pay for meat in grocery stores unless I can get it very cheaply.  

When I do get a great deal on meat, I plan our entire week around it.  For example, I got a ham on sale this weekend.  I cooked it tonight.  We’ll snack on it during lunch the next few days and I’ll make a ham and potato casserole later this week.  I’ll freeze the scraps to be used in butter beans at a later and give the hambone to my dogs.  I’m just as frugal with chicken.  I get two whole chickens insteaf of the pre-cut pieces. I roast them at the beginning of the week and make a casserole or maybe two later in the week.  Whatever isn’t used is put in the freezer for use at a later date.  I onlt buy ground beef on sale- cook it all at the same time- usually we have tacos- and freeze the rest.  Last week I got pork roast for .88 a lb. What an incredible deal! I got two.  $17 roasts for $5.  I made BBQ with one and I froze the other.  I’m going to use it Memorial Day weekend and make another roast. We took advantage of Angel Food ministries again this week and will be picking up our food this weekend.  I’m looking forward to having a variety of meat in the freezer.  

It’s amazing the money you can save if you just look at sale papers.  If you don’t get your local paper, try looking up your grocery store on-line, or just pay attention to your store as you passby.  One of my favorite grocery stores has a digital sign that scrolls that weeks deals.  Menu4Moms has a free on-line source of grocery deals.  Just enter in your zip code and get your areas best deals. It’s a pretty comprehsive list, but you can limit it by product- I most often use it to see what meat is on sale.

The Grocery Game is a service that you pay for.  The ladies that run the site have extensive lists on what is on sale each week and will cross reference it with coupons to let you know where you should buy what with what coupon and when.  They’ve figured out the rotation for sales. Have you ever noticed that paper towels were on sale one week- and then again 8 or 9 weeks later.  Use this list faithfully, and they tell you when to stock up.  Although, as a Green Consumer is is penny pinching, I encourage you to give up paper towels all together and get a good pack of cloth towels and use them instead.  They pay for themselves in just one month- and each month for years to come.  Technically, you could save money using this service- so it might be worth the subscription.  I did a $1 4 week trial and found that I didn’t use the service so I cancelled it.  I might be better motivated to save money these days.

If you have other ideas to share on how to feed a family cheaply, but healthily- please feel free to post your comment.

April 13, 2009 | Filed Under Just Whatever 

One Response to “Cutting corners and making ends meet during the tough times”

  1. LIke to save, serve on April 15th, 2009

    I volunteer to distribute Angel Food in my community in Virginia and I can tell you that Angel Food is a big help to a lot of people. For $30 you get a box of food worth about $60, and the menu varies each month. Everyone qualifies to participate. It’s really a great system. Local Angel Food host sites are listed at http://www.angelfoodministries.com/hosts.asp.

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