Debt Diet Cooking School
I spoke to Lisa from Oprah's Debt Diet on the phone yesterday. (a very nice lady by the way!) She had some questions about getting started cooking and cutting her grocery bill. I am going to share some of the notes about what we talked about.
Enjoy!
Tawra Jean
www.LivingOnADime.comShe asked how to cut her grocery budget from $880 a month they budgeted her down even more.
She said was frustrated using coupons and quit. She took my book to the store and was able to save more than she did messing with coupons. Here's part of her email.
"I am looking forward to the tips, enjoyed shopping with your book on yesterday versus using coupons and groceries came to 105.00 and my budget is 220.00 per week."
Shopping at Aldi’s
I spend $250 a month on groceries. The best way is to do most of your food shopping at Aldi’s. I only use about 5 coupons a year! By shopping at Aldi’s I can get the best price without the hassle of coupons.
Aldi’s is a small discount warehouse store. It is not an outlet store selling outdated or rejected products. They offer a double your money back guarantee for all of their products. If you don’t like it, they will give you your money back plus a new item. The foods are mostly Aldi brand foods. I have only had one or two items where my family preferred the name brand over the Aldi brand.
Here is the link to their website to see if one is near you.
http://www.aldi.com/
There are a few rules to follow:
1- They accept only cash, debit or food stamps.
2- You bag your groceries. Bring your own bags. Put all your extra plastic sacks in an empty tissue box and bring it with you. You can also use the boxes they have there. If they don’t have any boxes available and you forget your bags, they charge $.10 per bag for you to buy them.
3- You have to pay a .25 deposit to get a shopping basket. There is a little quarter machine on the basket. When you return your basket, it gives you the quarter back. This keeps prices down because they don’t have to pay someone to get baskets.
By shopping at Aldi, I get two weeks worth of groceries for $100. I am in and out in 30 minutes including bagging my groceries. Plan for longer the first time.
Milk and Meat
I purchase milk for $1 a gallon and don’t pay more than $2/lb for meat. I found out that my grocery store marks milk down to $1 a gallon when it will expire in one week. They mark it down on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings or Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoons.
Ask the dairy worker when they mark down the milk at your store. I buy extra milk and store it in my freezer. I remove a small amount off the top and keep it in the fridge so that it doesn’t leak out of the milk jug in the freezer. (Milk expands when frozen.)
I wait for
meat to go on sale for $2/lb. or less. Whatever is on sale is what we eat. I stock my freezer so that I usually have a variety of items at any given time. Ask your butcher when they mark down their meat that needs to be sold that day. You can find some great deals going at those times and purchasing meat. Meat is good 3-4 days past the “SELL BY” date when you keep it in the refrigerator.
Lisa "Where do you purchase your cleaning supplies?"
Tawra - Don’t purchase your cleaning supplies at the grocery store unless they are on sale. Buy them only at discount stores such as Walmart, Dollar General or Dollar Tree (everything is $1).
Lisa "
How do I save time cooking?"
Tawra -
Invest in a crockpot if you don’t have one. (They didn't give her one when they helped her set up her kitchen with all the stuff on the show)
Make meals that are simple.
Here are a couple of examples.
Make three meals from one roast. Here is the link to the recipes below.
http://www.livingonadime.com/articles/recycleroast.htmYou can also do this with chicken. Make roast chicken one day, chicken and dumplings the next day and chicken soup the last day.
When chopping things like onions and peppers, chop extra and have them ready for the following nights meals.
Make a large pot of rice and keep the extra to use the rest of the week.
Make as many shortcuts like that as you can and you will save yourself a lot of time and money.
