Shopping them sales and making dinner!!!

Every week you get those weekly grocery store adds in your mailbox. You know its Wed. because your mailbox is full of them. Possibly in your town a different day. In my town its Wed. Either way you get em. These little grocery store pamphlets are awesome for several reasons. First of all if your a grocery dork like me they are fun to look at. Secondly they are your map for how you are going to plan your grocery store trips. (Yes I said trips) Plural. I start with the three closest stores to me and browse these papers methodically. If you only want to do one store at first go for it. I know there are some items that i will always use. Peanut butter, bread, jelly, eggs, on sale meat, toothpaste, soap, etc... next when you see a kick ass deal like three cans of corn for $1, write down on a piece of paper the store name at the top then the sales you are finding for that particular store.

Note: Shopping for sales takes concentration if your an idiot like me. It is not fun going grocery shopping with children. If you can do it alone that is awesome. If not then I guess you will have to put up with the "Daddy look, look, look, can we get this, how about this, daddy, daddy, daddy" If your a mom substitute the word Mommy of course. Kids will get you to buy things that are not good deals. Yogurt with some disney channel person on the label twice the price for half the yogurt.

-Fry's grocery-

Canned corn 3 for $1, Frozen burritos 4 for $1, hot dogs 75cents, milk $1.79 gallon, cereal 1.50 box, apples 4lbs. for $1, Mac n cheese 4 for $1, Butter 99cents , corn Tortillas 99 cents, eggs 99cent dozen, Potatoes $149 ten lb. bag, Bacon $2.00, Tomatoes 2lbs. for $1.00, Romain greens 99cents., 5lbs. onions 1.50, salad dressing 99cents, carrots 2.5lb bag $1.29.

Lets say thats all the good deals you found at that store. Next store.

-Safeway-

Chicken leg quarters 49 cents lb. (ten lb. bag), Tooth paste 99cents ea. (aim), Shampoo and conditioner 99cents ea. (white rain), (my daughters refuse to use this crap, but its fine for us dads)., Pace salsa $1.00, sour cream 97cents, avocados 2 for $1.00, white rice 5lb.'s $2.50, enchilada sauce 99cents , Mexican blend cheese shredded 5lb. bag $11.99., refried beans 2 for $1.00, frozen french fries 99cents 2lb bag, Barilla pasta 99cents box.

Lets say thats all the good deals we found at that store. Next store.

-Albersons-

Blue Bunny ice cream $2.50 a gallon. thats all this store has because Albertsons always sucks. I always check though just in case they have that one item that is worth making the extra trip for. About twice a year they have a kick ass deal like spaghetti sauce for 75 cents a can. so i will buy $10 bucks worth and throw it in the pantry. but mostly they suck.

Ok so this list is just an example. their will be other stores, and other products. But now that we have our basic lists. We go buy the items as per the add prices. Things that wont go bad get a few of each. 3 boxes of pasta, 2 corn tortillas(they freeze well), 6 cans of corn, etc. depending on your budget. The more things you have in your pantry the more meal options you will have.

So your in the grocery store popping things into your cart and marking them off your list. You happen to walk past the back of the store and you see this cart that says 75% off. Dont pass this cart by. You can find some kick ass deals in here. alot of times they will have spices real cheap, or other items they either bought to much of or cant get rid of. Vanilla extract here, cake sprinkles there, a cake mix for 25 cents. Not great food for the body, but in moderation its fun to bake a cake with your daughter and have all the stuff you need to do it. Train yourself to do a quick sweep of any grocery store your in, if you have the time to look for those on sale carts. Also cruise by the discount meat area in the grocery store meat section. They have 30 to 50% off items that are going to have to be gotten rid of because of due dates. Bring em home and freeze them and plan meals around them. Bring all your items home and ones you bought that were not on your list and put them into your pantry for dry goods, fridge duh for spoilable items. The ten lb. bag of chicken leg thigh quarters goes right into the sink with cold water before you do anything that way the lil bird pieces can start thawing. While that is thawing you can start packaging the 5lbs. of shredded cheese you bought into 1/2 lb. zip lock bags and put two in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. Once the chicken is thawed you can part it into drumsticks and thighs or just leave it in leg/thigh quarters if you want. I find kids like drumsticks for some unknown reason.

Ok ya got everything put away and repackaged. Does not take as long as you would think. You dont have to watch the chicken thaw. It can be thawing for a couple hours while your doing laundry, working on dinner or what ever. Oviously your not having chicken tonight because it aint thawed yet. Chicken is for tomorrow and when ever you want it, but atleast you will have it.

So now call your daughters into the kitchen because kids love to cook especially when you say how good the stuff they made is. Will keep em comming back to the kitchen to help over and over. Hand each one some vegis and a knife (hopefully you have tought them basic knife skills, if not do so. fingers hurt when steel goes through them.) give each a cutting board (the floppy plastic ones are cheap and good for kids) Start them to chopping vegis. Separate the kids to different sides of the kitchen if possible so they are not temped to fight or argue about who gets to cutt more items or how one is doing it wrong etc.... Pop a huge salad bowl down and let them use the plastic cutting boards to dump what they cutt into the bowl.
While they are doing that you can take the can of enchilada sauce (will teach you how to make your own easily another time for alot cheaper. Mona Bonilla's recipe) spread a ladle of it on the bottom of a cascerole dish lay down 4 frozen burritos, then the rest of the enchilada sauce, top with cheese pop in the oven on 350 for 30 min. ovens varry in temps so check to make sure they are cooked through. Kids set the table, you dish up the salad and "Enchiladas" which are not enchiladas, duh. and salad. You pray and give thanks for your meal with your children, talk, eat, laugh, then dad gets stuck with the clean up. All for about $2.50 to feed three people dinner. you still have alot of items left for other meals. You could have also opened a can of refried beans to go with this meal. Or cooked some rice and dumped the can of pace salsa in it while it was cooking and made "spanish rice". Use your imagination. I will put some recipes together at a later date. You get the point though. $2.50 for three people to eat dinner is pretty damn cheap. In the morning its Breakfast burritos with the eggs, potatoes, cheese, bacon and tortillas, avocado, sour cream.!!!!!!!!!!