One thing that will help a lot is to move toward cooking everything from scratch. Don't buy any prepared box foods, such as frozen pizza, Rice-a-Roni, and others. You can make them all from basic ingredients, which are much cheaper.
Buy flour, sugar, spices, baking soda, rice, beans, pasta, etc. Buy meat only when it's about to expire and is on a steep discount, then freeze it for later. There are recipes online to recreate just about any box product. For example, regular Rice-a-Roni is made of rice, broken spaghetti, and a flavor packet. There are recipes online for making your own flavor packet.
In the long term, you might consider buying a pressure canner, jars, lids, and other canning supplies. Then you can preserve meats, vegetables, and fruits for long term storage that doesn't rely on electricity.
Look at your last grocery receipts and see what could be replaced by scratch cooking from basic ingredients, or even things that can be eliminated entirely and replaced with healthier alternatives.
I have cut our bill down enough that almost half of what I buy now is for the stockpile. I buy multiples whenever there is a good sale.
I was never one for using a lot of different spices before. Here in the South, we use salt, pepper, and bacon grease as seasoning. Also vinegar in collards. But the flavor packets in Rice-a-Roni, ramen noodles, and other foods require other spices.
I did find bulk chicken bouillon in bags in the Mexican section of my local store. I think that would be useful for flavoring noodles, maybe other foods too.
Careful of the ingredients in those bouillon cubes, they tend to have a lot of MSG in them sometimes. I like McCormick spices because I saw a documentary on how their manufacturing plants are run. They're very clean and they use normal, natural ingredients the old fashioned way on a larger scale. Theirs is the only taco seasoning I will use, unless I make my own, because there are no chemicals in it. Everything you read on their label (cumin, salt, chili powder, garlic powder, etc.) are things you can readily identify and pronounce. They're even making organic spices now.
I don't care about the MSG, and it would be a miniscule amount anyway. My mother quit using paprika when she saw on TV decades ago how many bug parts were allowed to be in spices.
I wouldn't waste any money on anything "organic." A lot of times, there is no measurable difference between an organic vegetable and the non-organic vegetable next to it, other than the outrageous price difference.
We make almost everything from scratch. I cook 4-5 days a week and she cooks the remainder. We do splurge and get a pizza or go to a mom and pop restaurant twice a month. I'm super frugal. It's almost like a hobby to me. We always buy to stock too. We have a FIFO rotation on all of our goods.
Cereal on sale is now original price pre-plandemic. Meat has went up almost 50% and I am seeing around 25% increase across the board for all the other eatable foods.
Remember to buy the cereal in bags, as it's a lot cheaper. Also, wait for meat to be marked down for quick sale. That's all I buy at our regular grocery store. There's another store in another county that has meat sales occasionally, and I'll drive over and get several coolers full of pork loins, which they cut up for free. The beef is great and a good price for what it is, but it's too expensive for me.
One thing that will help a lot is to move toward cooking everything from scratch. Don't buy any prepared box foods, such as frozen pizza, Rice-a-Roni, and others. You can make them all from basic ingredients, which are much cheaper.
Buy flour, sugar, spices, baking soda, rice, beans, pasta, etc. Buy meat only when it's about to expire and is on a steep discount, then freeze it for later. There are recipes online to recreate just about any box product. For example, regular Rice-a-Roni is made of rice, broken spaghetti, and a flavor packet. There are recipes online for making your own flavor packet.
In the long term, you might consider buying a pressure canner, jars, lids, and other canning supplies. Then you can preserve meats, vegetables, and fruits for long term storage that doesn't rely on electricity.
Look at your last grocery receipts and see what could be replaced by scratch cooking from basic ingredients, or even things that can be eliminated entirely and replaced with healthier alternatives.
I have cut our bill down enough that almost half of what I buy now is for the stockpile. I buy multiples whenever there is a good sale.
You can do this.
Very good advice - I was never one for prepared foods even before all this crap began. This is even more reason to adopt that mindset.
I was never one for using a lot of different spices before. Here in the South, we use salt, pepper, and bacon grease as seasoning. Also vinegar in collards. But the flavor packets in Rice-a-Roni, ramen noodles, and other foods require other spices.
I did find bulk chicken bouillon in bags in the Mexican section of my local store. I think that would be useful for flavoring noodles, maybe other foods too.
Careful of the ingredients in those bouillon cubes, they tend to have a lot of MSG in them sometimes. I like McCormick spices because I saw a documentary on how their manufacturing plants are run. They're very clean and they use normal, natural ingredients the old fashioned way on a larger scale. Theirs is the only taco seasoning I will use, unless I make my own, because there are no chemicals in it. Everything you read on their label (cumin, salt, chili powder, garlic powder, etc.) are things you can readily identify and pronounce. They're even making organic spices now.
I don't care about the MSG, and it would be a miniscule amount anyway. My mother quit using paprika when she saw on TV decades ago how many bug parts were allowed to be in spices.
I wouldn't waste any money on anything "organic." A lot of times, there is no measurable difference between an organic vegetable and the non-organic vegetable next to it, other than the outrageous price difference.
Thanks, good advice for multiple reasons.
We make almost everything from scratch. I cook 4-5 days a week and she cooks the remainder. We do splurge and get a pizza or go to a mom and pop restaurant twice a month. I'm super frugal. It's almost like a hobby to me. We always buy to stock too. We have a FIFO rotation on all of our goods.
Cereal on sale is now original price pre-plandemic. Meat has went up almost 50% and I am seeing around 25% increase across the board for all the other eatable foods.
Non-eatable is around 35% increase.
Remember to buy the cereal in bags, as it's a lot cheaper. Also, wait for meat to be marked down for quick sale. That's all I buy at our regular grocery store. There's another store in another county that has meat sales occasionally, and I'll drive over and get several coolers full of pork loins, which they cut up for free. The beef is great and a good price for what it is, but it's too expensive for me.