Saving $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ !

[EMC45]

Found a 10lb bag of chicken the other day at Food City for 7 bucks. Kind of a good deal I guess. Wife cut it up and made dinner. Froze the rest.

[shooterg]

IF YOU'RE NOT USING COUPONS - START !! My wife never used 'em before we got married, I always have. Most grocery stores have some type of savings card, get 'em and use 'em. Between those and coupons(some printed off line) we probably spend $100 a month less than we would've. Heck, I won't even go to Hardee's for a biscuit with the other old farts w/o a coupon for my $1 biscuit and gravy - and ALWAYS ask if there's a senior discount - heck with the kids working nowadays, you'll get it if you're over 40 !

[dragon813gt]

A peculiar thing I have encountered several times is that when you buy more of something it is supposed to cost less, but sometimes when you look at the smaller unit it figures out to be less expensive to buy two or four of them. Usually it's because they raised the price on the larger quantity item and forgot to go back and adjust the price of the lesser quantity item.

They didn't forget to adjust the price. This is a normal sales tactic. You have to check the cost per unit before buying. These costs are required to be on the shelf price tags here. For instance cereal is listed in cost per ounce. But when there is a sale it won't have the unit cost on it, not required by law. They are expecting you to buy what's on sale, not the cheaper per unit. I run into this all the time w/ cereal. They will have the small boxes on sale but it costs more per ounce then the regular price large box.

Have a calculator w/ you. I'm saying that because I know most of you are older and don't have smart phones. I've never been able to perform math quickly in my head and rely on my smartphone for figuring out unit cost.

[gwpercle]

Store brands and I eat a lot of inexpensive stuff .
Dried beans , store brand spam , vieanna sausage, hot dogs . Stuff like liver , gizzards anything that's cheap I will eat it. My brother is a butcher and saves me anything that's edible. They once got a truck load of whole goats , by mistake, they didn't sell so he got two at below cost, we butchered , wrapped and stocked our freezers. We have access to 300 acres of land where we can take outlaw and nuisance game like armadillo , nutria and hogs with no limit .
Canning , freezing and preserving. Buy from farmers market , grow it , have friends that give you fruits and vegetables when in season and put it up . Make your own jams jellies and preserves . Make your own Jerky.
Having a freezer is almost a requirement to take advantage of hunting , whole goats , stuff that's in season and cheap , mine stays full .
Gary

[HangFireW8]

Canceled all cable service except Internet. Got 2 antennas (VHF & UHF) and a booster & cable for less than $100 total. Got 3 set-tops for $40/ea. Got 3 streaming services for $10 or 12 a month.

I have all major networks, all local stations that cable wouldn't give me ("sorry you're outside the service area"), HD OTA is less compressed and a better picture than cable, and I can drop or pick up a streaming service at any time. Netflix rules. I already had Amazon Video with Prime, now I use it.

OTA works great even in bad weather, and I'm in a rural area outside the ideal 30 mile range. It's all about picking the right antenna and putting it in the right place in the right direction. For me that meant a highly directional UHF and a simple dipole VHF. Your needs may differ.

Best part cable bill doesn't go up every year. I save about $100 a month.

-HF

[HangFireW8]

I bring a calculator with me to every supermarket. It's called my brain.

A usual tactic is to give one unit price in oz and another in lbs. Sorry but I'm a Computer Scientist. Base 16 math is easy.

-HF

[Soundguy]

Found a 10lb bag of chicken the other day at Food City for 7 bucks. Kind of a good deal I guess. Wife cut it up and made dinner. Froze the rest.

4.90 at WalMart sometimes

[Soundguy]

They didn't forget to adjust the price. This is a normal sales tactic. You have to check the cost per unit before buying. These costs are required to be on the shelf price tags here. For instance cereal is listed in cost per ounce. But when there is a sale it won't have the unit cost on it, not required by law. They are expecting you to buy what's on sale, not the cheaper per unit. I run into this all the time w/ cereal. They will have the small boxes on sale but it costs more per ounce then the regular price large box.

Have a calculator w/ you. I'm saying that because I know most of you are older and don't have smart phones. I've never been able to perform math quickly in my head and rely on my smartphone for figuring out unit cost.

Also, many times whatever sells best may have the best unit price. Odd sizes that move slow may cost more per unit.

[Soundguy]

Brewing tea as a drink option is also cheaper than just about anything else other than tap water.

[dragon813gt]

A usual tactic is to give one unit price in oz and another in lbs. Sorry but I'm a Computer Scientist. Base 16 math is easy.

-HF

It is not for me. My mind works great in metric

[adcoch1]

Spend $150 a year on the garden and pull about $1000 worth of veggies out, make and can our own salsa, pickled beans and carrots, canned peppers for toppings on food. Make chicken soup to stretch a chicken for about three meals instead of one. Only buy meat in bulk and repackage to save a few bucks a pound. Buy oats in 25# bags, sugar, flour, rice, and beans in bulk. We don't drink soda, we make our own kombucha, almost never eat out, bake almost all our bread products, and make large meals and package to eat later. A little work, but we save about 50% over how we used to do it. Plus I reload to save money...... If only that worked. All kidding aside though, gas is about the only thing we can't cut back costs on. I do all our own auto and house maintenance and repair,truthfully I don't see how most people afford to live when they won't/can't do for themselves...

[jonp]

Buy bulk and split into mylar bags with an oxy tab. 20lb bags of rice, beans etc. Can from the garden. Shop on Sunday morning when the meat is half price to make way for the next weeks. Either make our own bread or shop at the outlet bread store. When we were home we either bought a calf or went in half with someone and raised on a farm them slaughtered it ourselves. Bake a chicken, strip it for sandwiches, boil the carcass for soup. Same as most on this site i guess. We grew up without any money but always ate well. Fished year round, hunted in the fall and winter, gigged frogs etc. Still put up a garden and buy like I said even though we can afford not too. My wife jokes that every fall we fill our freezers and pantry out of shear panic we will run out of food but it's just what our parents did. Kills me when there is a snowstorm down this way and everyone runs to the store to buy out the milk and bread.

We always buy groceries on sale or clearance. Rarely do we pay full price then only for dairy products for the most part.

[jonp]

4.90 at WalMart sometimes

$.49/lb like that here too. Cut it up and freeze it.

[labradigger1]

If you want to save money stay out of swapping and selling

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I bring a calculator with me to every supermarket. It's called my brain.

A usual tactic is to give one unit price in oz and another in lbs. Sorry but I'm a Computer Scientist. Base 16 math is easy.

-HF

I find base 16 troublesome, I much prefer Hexadecimal.

[Boaz]

Huh ?

[Thin Man]

I do all of our grocery store shopping. SWMBO hates going into the store so I took on the job early and learned one reliable fact - if I do the shopping I get to eat a lot more meals that I enjoy than if someone else does the shopping. This has been our routine for 47 years and counting. I watch newspaper circulars for special and bulk price deals. With "buy 1 get 1 free" I always calculate the final actual cost of the single item, then compare that against the lowest priced similar product from all choices. Yes, I have seen some stores elevate the price on their "buy 1 get 1" items just before the sale and respond accordingly. My $$ goes where the price takes me. On bulk package buys I break down and re-pack the contents for single meal use, then put all pack in the freezer. Use what is needed when needed. I will "buy ahead" favorite foods that are seasonal (packaged Corned Beef" - St. Patrick's Day item) for later use because it comes around only once a year and we enjoy it more often than that. Same for turkey, lowest prices are seasonal and they freeze very well. Put 3 deer in the freezer last season and love watching the volume of it shrink from the freezer. Wish we had garden space but don't. Farmers markets are popular here, but prices can jump because this is the "campy-trendy" thing to do. A place to "see and be seen". I learned there is a real difference in package notices between "best before" and "use before". Quality and flavor are nice, safety is mandatory. Lots of left-overs from the refrigerator. Sometimes a meal looks like a sampler plate from the local mall food court. A bit of this and a drop of that. If I enjoyed it when it was fresh and new on the table, odds are I will enjoy it again. And for versatility, we enjoy many different cooking styles - Southern, Cajun, Hispanic, Asian, Italian, etc. etc. The list goes on and on. With the way I love to eat I should weigh 400 pounds or more but metabolism and daily activities keep the waist line in check. This encourages me to look for new recipes and hone my skills on the outdoor grill. Got a sourdough starter from a friend about 30+ years ago. Still make bread and supply the daughters and their families with bread. With this recipe I can make 3 loaves of bread for what the market asks for one. Yup, I ought to be a pork barrel. Maybe some day, but not yet.

[dragon813gt]

I find base 16 troublesome, I much prefer Hexadecimal.

Huh ?

Funny thing is that hexadecimal has 16 digits. They are 0-9 then A B C D E F. Binary is much easier to understand :laugh:

[redriverhunter]

This is a bit off topic but it reminded me of a conversation with my grandmother. We were talking out my great grandmother, and she said that woman could cook, I asked something about the flavor. My grandmother responded by telling me "she could go into that with kitchen and the cabinets that were next to empty and she would have a meal for a family of 8 fed, I never knew how she did it" I was young when I was told of this account it took years before I was able to appreciate the point my grandmother was making, that a good cook is one who and make a meal with little or not much to work with.

stuff I do is think about how one meal can go into the next. IE roast chicken with mixed vegies (boned before going onto plates) second meal boil bones a some of the dripping not used for gravy from meal one make a chicken soup with left over mixed vegie and what ever else usually rice. speaking of rice we eat quite often here cheap and stores well.

I remember when I was going up my mother would cook rice and I hated it what ever that rice was that was in a pound plastic bag, I always felt sorry the Asians because they ate rice a a lot. I went to Japan while in the navy I now understand why they eat a lot of rice its good.

[Half Dog]

This is a great and helpful post. Can anyone recommend a place to get a half- cow in the Dallas area?