Food
As I said in part one, I was a at home mom, raising 6 kids on one income and at one point living below poverty level. I want to share so tips and tricks of what I did to live well in spite of it. Inflation is so out of control… we all know it.. we all see it and feel it. Sometimes I feel like I am in the kid’s story “ The Emperor’s New Clothes” we are told one thing and see another. So how do we feed ourselves now?
Grocery Shopping
I always went grocery shopping and ran my errands once a week. Saved on gas and needed to make sure the kids could handle the day out so there was planning, lots of planning. First was menu planning. I did that the day all the grocery ads came out. The items with big colored pictures were the best deals… they are called loss leaders. The store was willing to take a loss to lead you into the doors of their store knowing you weren’t coming just for those few things. Except- basically, I was.
Here is an ad from 1960! I will show you how I used the ads to make my menu.
Fir the most part we all have staples and spices and probably a good amount of food in our homes to start out with and can be a meal jumping off place. Say you have ground beef or a few cans of beans, some canned tomatoes, rice or pasta. With some chili powder, onions and peppers you can make chili with a side of rice- or pick up a cheap package of Taco seasoning and taco shells, side of beans and rice mixed with sautéed onions and peppers, with those same onions.. and if you want add peppers, canned tomatoes with basil and oregano, same seasoning, salt and pepper, an egg mixed with the beef and you have spaghetti and meatballs.
Back to this ad! You know the old game how many words can you find using the letters in this word? Same thing- how many meals can you make from this add? Don’t go for ready prepared foods and snacks- not good for you with the additives and only one meal you get out if it!
•Roast Chicken, side of carrots, and a starch ( this is where another ad may have potatoes or again you may have rice as a side dish
• Day two put all the left over chicken bones- meat etc in a stock pot- onions and carrots- any other vegetables you have around. You can make Chicken vegetable soup with the leftover rice, you can buy the flour and shortening and make Biscuits to go with the soup- make extra biscuits while you are at it
•Day three Breakfast sausage Biscuits & eggs— extra biscuits with the raspberry jam on sale can be a snack along with a piece of fruit
You can make Banana Bread and peach pie with this sale.
I would buy the bacon, tuna and tomato soup knowing future meals can be made with these inexpensive sale items in the future or paired with something at another store’s ad.
Cooking from scratch is making a comeback- with all the extra chemicals in our processed food causing issues with our health it is an important skill to learn.
Garden
Yes this was for World War 2!
But we have our own little war going on that we need to battle to get bills paid and family fed as inexpensively as we can. This all takes work, real work.
Next part 3 Gardening
Comments
Post a Comment