Frugal Eats

10/15/2024

These racks always have fresh bread on them and CHEAP! I haven’t seen any more than $2. If you won’t eat them in a few days you can freeze it!

10/10/2024

10/10/2024

Let’s talk about cheese! Are you grating your own? If not you should be 😉 For plenty of reasons but the major one is how AMAZING fresh grated cheese is.

Dollar tree has cheese graters and they aren’t $20😑

Buying a block of cheese and grating it yourself is a lot cheaper and it doesn’t have all the extra wood pulp😝

You can store it in a air tight container or a baggie if you don’t have a container.

10/10/2024

Peanut butter chicken over rice 🙂

We were going to make egg rolls but we decided to just eat it all mixed into a bowl 🙂

10/08/2024

Let’s talk about grocery shopping! How do you guys do your shopping? How do you figure out what you need or don’t need? Do you make a list or do you just shop and get what you want?

I wanted to share how we shop and plan as a family of 7.

Brandon and I usually always do our shopping together. It’s easier but also it’s nice to have both suggestions when discussing what we should buy or do with that item. Before we go we always check and see what we already have. Unless we are completely out of something we usually never have to buy the whole entire meal we are planning. This helps rotate food out of your pantry/fridge and you will try new meals this way too 🙂

Make a list and stick to it. Yes it’s extremely hard and no we will not always stick to it. I always have a round about number that we will spend at checkout. It takes time but it helps with not over spending.

ON SALE. SHOP THE SALES!! Just take the time and check around what is on sale or will be on sale the following week. This saves so much money! It doesn’t seem like a lot but it all adds up and if you can save money why the heck not. If you make a list of food that you already have it helps determine if could use unexpected items on sale. The prices on these groceries are no joke and every single penny counts. It does take a little more time but it is a must if you are trying to save money and still feed your family home cooked meals.

I know some people are on the fence about clearanced out meat and sometimes you really should be but that is not always the case. A lot of times it either expires the day after or the day of. I would either cook it that day or prepare it for the freezer. It is still good and if you are getting it at half price that is fantastic!

I can’t express this enough either. Buy for your family and what you will eat. We are not shopping like anyone else. We are not buying new stuff all the time to try and then hate it. We are buying what we know our family will eat and not waste. Obviously we are going to try new things and occasionally will buy something new but never do we buy a massive amount of food we have no idea if we even like it. Start small! Introduce new things on a smaller scale. That also goes for Organic and simple ingridents. Start small! I started switching over our food, condiments and baking products one at a time. It was not an arm and a leg and it gave our family time to adjust. Things do taste different when you are used to mostly processed food but it’s a good different. Our kids are used to most of the things we cook or use for cooking so they don’t complain too much. We also don’t make new things that we know they will not eat. We choose our menus for our kids because they are the ones who are eating the majority of our food.

We still use some processed foods so don’t feel bad if you are also using processed foods. It’s just important you aren’t only using and consuming processed foods.

10/07/2024

2 pounds of hamburger $10.00
1 package of white American cheese $2.50
2 cups of milk 0.38
1 jalapeños(or any pepper, chili powder) 0.40
1 package of tortilla chips $2.00
1 can of organic refried beans-$1.98

We spent a little over $17.00 for this meal and it’s definitely a meals worth 😉

If you buy your meat in bulk then your meat should be much cheaper than $10. We also use great value for everything else besides the refried beans and hamburger 🙂

10/06/2024

Bacon life hack:)

I actually just learned this like last week! I love it though because one and done and no mess. I just dump my grease into a jar. I don’t get burnt for almost 30 minutes because we have to cook so much😑

Pop it into the oven I use air fry but if your oven doesn’t have that just put it on 400. You cook for at least 10 minutes but can cook longer for bacon crisp preference🙂 BE CAREFUL getting it out. The grease will be hott! Make sure you have a place it put it immediately and let it cool down a minute before getting the bacon.

10/05/2024

I got to tag along today with my friends Misty Durham and Curtis Durham to Soulard Farmers Market! I have never been before and OH MY HECK👀 There were so many options and such reasonable prices. There was not even half of what is there on the weekend they said. Saturday is the day to go if you want to see it all. This place was SO BEAUTIFUL so many fresh options. It is not just fruit and vegetables. There was meat, cafes, SPICES outta this world and the list goes on and on. I did have a caramel coffee that was very tasty and Curt & Misty shared this BIG and BEAUTIFUL Bloody Mary. I did not get a picture because of course my phone died🤦🏼‍♀️ I highly recommend if you ever get the opportunity to go or if someone ask you to go, GO! They have stuff for everyone.

Look at all of that color! I spent $101 on all of my food and $40 on my Sea Moss drink. I am still amazed at how fresh and beautiful all of this is!

Oh hey! Super fun fact for those who didn’t know. Most of these places at the market accept EBT and how wonderful is that. I love that they give the opportunity to those having to use the extra help healthier options. That is seriously so nice to see. I feel like if more people knew about the cheaper and healthier options they have they would be using them more.

I love this place and I can’t wait to go back.

10/04/2024

What did everyone have for dinner tonight? We had homemade pizza and homemade cheesy garlic bread. I wanted to share all of the ingredients we used for our pizza and cheese sticks. Now tonight’s dinner wasn’t the cheapest way to eat but my kids love pizza night and will eat almost every single bit. It is still cheaper and WAY better than ordering out. It is not cheaper than frozen pizza but it’s definitely better ingredients you are choosing.

We use a lot of cheese on pizza and garlic sticks and still didn’t use that much. We also made a massive pizza and a huge pan of cheesey sticks so keep in mind if you aren’t feeding an army you can use way less. If you are feeding an army this is a cheaper way to do it 😉

It’s a very filling dinner for everyone and who doesn’t love pizza night.

Homemade dough-can’t be more than $1.50
Marinara sauce x2- $4.00
Cheeses- 2 moz balls and 2 provel $11
Pepperonis-1/2 pnd $4.23
Sausage-1/2 pnd $1.72

Tonight’s dinner was around $23.00 🙂

I’m not exactly sure on the dough but I know the amount of ingredients I used was not a lot so there is no way it’s more than $1.50

10/03/2024

I’m not sure where everyone is from or what they have near them but if you have an Aldi near go there! My mom and I made an Aldi trip today. It is a great place to get cheap and GOOD food. They have so many healthier options than most places. A little fun fact about Aldi is that ALDI-exclusive brand food products are completely free from certified synthetic colors and has no added MSG or partially hydrogenated oils. Which means that they are providing actual food to their customers at a much lower price. They of course have the name brand items too but they are double the price. It’s totally fine to get name brand things because some are a must. Aldi products are not bad though and to be honest are better than a lot of other things. I did not take pictures of all of our stuff but the things I did I will include the prices. They are all mostly simple and organic🤌🏼 My mom was able to find fresh salmon and a few other types of fish and none of them were more than $10

I also bought downy laundry conditioner and lunch baggies. I spent around $70 dollars today:)