#grocery tip

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

I am not generally your grocery tips PSA source, but

Get your spices in the international/ethnic aisle

They aren't gonna have everything, but what they do have is generally HELLA cheaper. In the same store. Same stuff. An aisle or two over from the "white people" spices. They're not even trying to hide this.

This here big thing of oregano was $1.99. I looked online to compare and here's a local one:

That's for 0.75 oz. I got 2.25 oz. And the "fancy" spice aisle usually doesn't have bigger containers at all.

It's not just a worse brand, either. Badia has good flavor - like, I didn't expect to have opinions on brands of black pepper, but Badia's is just pepperier than the whatever I was buying before.

International section. Spices. Do it. Save money, add flavor.

[theadultingadult]

Grocery Tip

Grocery stores often coerce their customers into buying prepackaged, cut up vegetables and sorts which cost the consumer MORE than if they were to buy the veggie or other item individually. Buy the whole bell pepper instead of getting a few pieces cut up in plastic wrap. The plastic wrap won’t save you $$$ and it may not even taste very good. The most ridiculous one I have seen is the already peeled hard boiled eggs. My local grocery store charges almost $4.00 (US) for FIVE hard-boiled eggs. Get yourself a dozen for $2.19 instead and boil half of them with a little bit of vinegar (this makes peeling them easier) and call it a day. Mark the hard-boiled ones with a X using a pencil and enjoy your protein. 

[projectsydney]

Grocery Haul - 4

Hello, all! 

This would've been up sooner, but I just got done with YOGA! It's been a few hectic weeks since I've gotten to enjoy one of the classes, and it's shown. Not in a good way. My hips have all but gone back to the terribly inflexible runner's-like hips mess they've always been. Darn. 

Anyways, on to the post! 

We're back with another grocery haul post. It's been awhile since I did a full-out one of these. But I mentioned how the last couple weeks went in this post. 

This week, I broke one of my big rules. I didn't have much of a list, but mainly because I spent the past weekend at my grandpa's, and I didn't get a whole lot of anything done. We knew we needed the basics, and actually we didn't really have an impulse buy. 

Here's the haul: 

Fruits and Veggies: 

pears

bananas

(we got apples from my grandpa off his apple tree)

(we had lettuce left over from last week)

Cold Stuffs: 

eggs

Brummel and Brown Simply Strawberry Cream Cheese

Ham

Skim Milk

Packaged:

Stuffing - this was an impulse buy. It was on sale for $1.25, and it's one of my favorite foods! 

English Muffins

Bread

Mini Bagels

Pretzels

All together, we spent around $20 total. 

Here's the meal plans for the week: 

Breakfasts - the norm for both of us. Pumpkin Pie Oats for me, until I use up the last of my pumpkin. I bought the Skim milk to use in my oats since I am trying to cut back on sugar, but trust me when I say it's not nearly as good. english muffins for both of us. 

Lunches - sandwiches and salads for Ryan, salads with many different toppings for me. I will hard boil the eggs for a bit of protein on them, too. 

Suppers - last night we had burgers (thanks for the burger, mom!), tonight I had frozen spaghetti squash and Ryan had noodles, with Costco meatballs (which we are almost out of, so we will definitely need to pick some up next weekend!), we also are planning egg sandwiches one night this week, and the other nights will probably be a mixture of salads, sandwiches, and whatever we can scavenge around. 

What are you grocery hauls looking like lately? Any meal ideas or shopping tips you wanna share? 

Past Grocery Hauls

Grocery Haul I

Grocery Haul II

Grocery Haul Week 3

[projectsydney]

Grocery Haul {Week 4}

Hello, all! If you got a long weekend, I hope you enjoyed it! If you didn't, I hope you enjoyed your time off, anyhow. :) 

I'm back today to check in with another quick grocery haul! 

Here was the list this week: 

As you can see, Ryan and I slacked off over the long weekend. We couldn't think of much that we wanted, which could be good or bad. Good, in that we wouldn't spend much since we didn't think we needed many groceries. Bad, because if we don't have a real structured list we sometimes like to get off track and have more impulse buys. 

Here's the haul this week: 

(Sorry for the blurry photo. Ryan was in a hurry to beat some guy to the check out. Haha!) 

Here's what we ended up with (for groceries): 

Produce: 

Bananas

Apples

Pears

Lettuce

Decorative Pumpkins 

Grains/Breads

White bread (for Ryan)

English Muffins

Fettucini 

Canned: 

Chick peas

Pork n Beans

Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

Gatorade Mix (light blue) 

We really didn't get much this week, although definitely more than what was on the list. Since we weren't spending much, we really loaded up on the fruits and veggies that won't be in season much longer, and we splurged on another pack of gatorade mix which was 8 bucks, so that hurt a bit.

We spent about $33 total. This is $7 under budget, making up a bit for last week. We are going to try and spend less next week, too, but we will be needing frozen fruit in bulk again soon. 

Planned Meals for the Week: 

Breakfasts - more pumpkin oatmeal for me! (I can't get enough of this stuff…recipe coming later this week!) and english muffins on days where I'm in a hurry. English muffins or bagels for Ryan

Lunches - lots of salads for me. I am still trying to keep up this salad kick, because as I mentioned last week, I probably haven't been getting enough daily vegetables without them.  I still have leftover artichokes, pretzels, etc. on the fixings from last week, but I also picked up more chick peas for a protein topper, as well as apples and pears which I like to mix into my salads. Ryan will have salad this week too (he says) as well as sandwiches for lunch. 

Suppers - Another reason our list may be smaller is the fact that I have a lot of busy evenings this week. i will be in class/training until 9 pm tonight and tomorrow night, so Ryan and I will just throw something together as we would for lunch. As for Thursday and Friday, we plan on burgers and beans one night, and fettucini with sun dried tomato pesto and sausage for another night (I will most likely substitute spaghetti squash for fettucini, as I have a ton frozen from our first few weeks). 

That wraps it up this week! Let me know what you're grocery haul looked like this week! Did you find any steals? Any new meal ideas? Chat it up in the comments below! 

Past Grocery Hauls

Grocery Haul I

Grocery Haul II

Grocery Haul Week 3

PS - if you come back tomorrow I'll be posting my Pumpkin Oatmeal recipe!! It's a winner! 

[projectsydney]

Grocery Haul {Week 3}

Hello! I hope you all are enjoying a relaxing Sunday cozied up on the couch! I wanted to stop in quick and share our Grocery Haul this week! 

If you remember, last week, Ryan and I went to Costco (it was planned to be our big week), and minus a few impulse buys, we spent around $75. Now, to keep to our average of around $40 a month, we will have to save about $10 the next few upcoming weeks, so this week our budget was supposed to come in at around $30. 

Here was this list: 

We only went to Walmart this week, and here's the final haul: 

Produce:

bananas

pre-cut vegetable blend

Canned/Packaged: 

Pizza Crust (2)

Alfredo Sauce

Peanut Butter

Artichoke Hearts

Pumpkin Puree

Mandarin Oranges

Cinnamon

Honey Dijon Salad Dressing 

Candy Corn

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

White Bread

Cold Stuff: 

Smoked Ham

Orange Juice

And our budget killer, frozen chicken breast

So we ended up spending about $40, which was over budget and this week unfortunately didn't help us compensate from last week. If we didn't need chicken, we would've been in under budget (or right at budget), so next week we're hoping to scrape a little more off since we will have a lot of frozen food and staples. Since the chicken was so expensive, we skimped out on the decorative pumpkin (sadly), eggs, cottage cheese, and extra fruits and veggies that Ryan wouldn't eat with me. We couldn't quite give up the candy corn, though. :) 

Meals planned for the week: 

Breakfasts: for me this week is different variations of pumpkin oatmeal (I told you it was the time to start embracing it!) and the occasional english muffin thrown in on lazy days; for Ryan, english muffins or bagels with pb and honey or jelly and a banana. 

Lunches: I want to hit the salads hard this week, lately I've been too lazy and grabbed easier things, but I am probably not getting enough veggies, so this week I am meal prepping a bunch of chicken and veggies (probably sautéed) and picked up a different salad dressing, since I was SO SICK of ranch, so I will have to eat salad. Also I still have lunch items left from Costco that I can have; Ryan will have sandwiches, salads, and leftovers (he insists on having them, he doesn't get bored with it I guess!). 

Suppers: Our big meal for the week is going to homemade pizzas. I can't wait to try this recipe for spinach artichoke pizza! I am adapting it quite a bit and cutting out a few ingredients for my budget's sake, and Ryan will have pepperoni that he has leftover from a few weeks ago when we had pizzas. We will probably also have chicken Alfredo (mine with frozen spaghetti squash from past grocery hauls), and salads one night. One night of the week I have late lab (til 9 pm), so we both throw together something quick. We are both going home this weekend, so we won't have supper Friday, Saturday, or probably Sunday nights. 

That wraps it up this week! Check ya back here tomorrow (hopefully) with a DIY post! 

Past Grocery Hauls

Grocery Haul I (an intro + few weeks' ideas) 

Grocery Haul II (expensive week) 

[projectsydney]

Grocery Haul: Week 2

If you are just catching up with me now, check out my first Grocery Haul post quick. Ryan and I are working to feed 2 people for under $40 a week.

That being said, this was our expensive week. We were out of a lot of staples and freezer food, so we had to make a Costco run, which means this was our week we spent around $75. Now remember, to keep us at under $40 a week, we have only been spending $25-$30 (maybe 40 on more expensive weeks) for the past 4 weeks to allow us to spend more this week. 

Here was the list: 

Remember, I said, make the list, stick to the list. We don't do a great job of this at Costco, because well it's everything. We do our best, but we did have a couple impulse buys. 

Here was our haul from Costco: 

Applesauce

Mozzarella and Spinach Ravioli

Marinated Salmon

and my our impulse buys: 

Smoked salmon dip

almond cranberry chicken salad singles.

At Costco, we ended up spending about $50. (Keep in mind the impulse buys ended up being around $18 of that $50.) 

Here was our Walmart haul: 

Dairy:

1% mik

Almond Milk

Fiesta Blend Cheese

American Cheese Slices

Ham (not dairy, but it fits)

Canned: 

Marinara Sauce

Chick Peas

Fruits and Veggies

Spinach

Peaches (3)

Apples (2)

Bananas (8?)

Snacks

Pretzel Crisps (for the salmon dip, of course)

Pretzel Sticks

Stride Gum (impulse buy, yes, necessary? yes) 

Bread

White Bread (Ryan)

English Muffins

We ended up spending around $35. 

Total, we spent $95 for the week, but keep in mind that we had 3 impulse buys, which if we knocked out would cut us down to about $78, which the goal was $75, so I call it a success. 

Planned meals for the Week 

Breakfasts: Overnight oats for me (only ingredient I didn't have and needed to buy was the almond milk and bananas); English muffins and peanut butter bananas for Ryan

Lunches: Spinach salads, the chicken salad from Costco, and leftover suppers for me; sandwiches and supper leftovers for Ryan

Suppers: tacos, spaghetti and meatballs (spaghetti squash for me), Chicken Parmigiani Rollatini, and probably a thrown together meal or two which usually consists of salads, eggs, or a quick Arby's run for Ryan. 

That about wraps up this grocery haul! I'll come back next week so that you can see how we compensate the extra spending this week to keep us under $40 a week for 2 people! 

Past Grocery Haul Posts

How 2 People Can Eat for Under $40 a Week

Grocery Haul + Meal Ideas Week 1

Other lists that may interest you: 

2 Day Post Vacation “Cleanse” (complete with meals and grocery list) 

“New Page” 5 Day Cleanse Grocery List (to see the complete meal plan - no grocery list included, see this link)

Back to the Dorms Healthy Shopping List (focuses on more dorm-friendly foods) 

The following “Food Prep” Posts (don’t include complete grocery list)

Summer 2014, Week 1 Preview

Summer 2014, Week 1

Summer 2014, Week 2

Summer 2014, Week 3

[goldingfarms-blog]

Flour-What’s the use?

 Since there are four most used types of flour, we thought you might want to know which one to use according to its intended purpose.

All-Purpose Flour (bleached or unbleached) is one of the most common used flour in the United States. This flour is best for pie crust, cookies, pancakes, waffles and quick breads.

Bread Flour, unbleached flour, is best for yeast products such as dough that will need time to rise.

Self-Rising Flour is low-protein flour with salt and baking powder already added. Recommendations for this flour include biscuits and some quick breads.

Cake Flour is best to use when your baking goods have a high ratio of sugar to flour because it will hold its rise and be less likely to collapse.