The Grocery Guru: Get Your Crap Together!

This entry is all about grocery-shopping. From ideas on how to save money to the 2-week dinner plan that inspired my last fantastic grocery trip, I've got some good things to share. If you'd rather eat fast food or go to the grocery store every other day buying meal-to-meal, suit yourself. This is for the smart kids out there. Or, in my experience, for the women. Because most men don't care or realize how much money they spend on food. haha. First up, the general stuff. Then I'll post a section including the meal plan and accompanying grocery list as well as the first night's recipes!

General Rules for Saving Money while Grocery Shopping

1) Stick to your list. I wasted so much money going into the store without a plan. I'd head in to grab one thing and come out with ten. Sticking to the list means that you should plan for snack foods and contingency meals in addition to the main event foods. Contingency meals are things like cans of soup or boxed mac and cheese. You never know when a meal will go wrong or if something will prevent you from cooking.

2) Check the price per unit (printed on the shelf-tag that gives you the price). Imagine choosing between two bags of chips equal in quality. One bag is $2 and one is $3. You're probably going to gravitate toward the "cheaper" one automatically, but check the unit price first. You might notice that the $2 bag is 12 ounces while the $3 bag is 24 ounces. You could get twice the product for only a dollar more and save money in the long run. My mom taught me that. It might seem like common sense, but you would be surprised how many people don't realize that the product with the better unit price is truly the cheaper product.

3) Know the deals. One thing I like to do is check out my grocery store's weekly ad. That way, I know what's on sale. For example, this last trip, I had apples on my list. Well, I normally like Red Delicious, but they had Jazz apples on sale for much cheaper. So, I got the apples that were on sale. Still yummy, still healthy. If you don't get the newspaper, it would be a good idea to look at your store's website.

I shop at Kroger. I went to their website and set up an account. I use my Kroger card all the time. You get all sorts of discounts, including an automatic 3 cents off of every gallon of gas when you fuel up there or at Shell stations (trust me, it adds up). Well, on the website, they have a section for digital coupons. You can load them directly on your card instead of having to find printable ones (although you may want to do that, too). I also discovered that if I transferred and filled a prescription, I would get $25 off of my groceries. I have a monthly prescription that just so happened to be up for a refill. It ended up being free through my insurance, so I didn't even have to spend money to get that $25 reward loaded onto my Kroger card! AND I got double fuel points (you always do when you fill a prescription there). So not only did I find all the applicable in-store discounts and get $25 off, I also ended up saving 20 cents per gallon the next time I filled up my gas tank.

4) Look for coupons...SELECTIVELY. Now, a lot of people use coupons the way the manufacturer's want you to--exactly the wrong way. Don't go out and buy something that isn't on your list or that you normally wouldn't use just because you found a 50 cent discount. A good resource for deals, coupons, and obsessive bargaining is The Krazy Coupon Lady. I am not going to spend time hulking out over a copiously filled coupon binder and piss everyone off in the grocery line, but I do enjoy using some of the coupons they post and plan to use more in the future. If you want to get into extreme couponing, more power to you. Maybe one day if I'm a housewife.

Precisely.

5) Don't be afraid of off-brands...well, only be afraid sometimes. In some cases, the generic product is the exact same thing as the name brand, just with a different label and price tag. Don't automatically grab generic brands, though. Sometimes, store brand items are more expensive. I don't know why. Maybe for those people who are inattentive and just grab what looks cheapest. DON'T BE ONE OF THOSE! Just don't be a sucker, mmkay? Be an educated and attentive shopper.

Other times, the ingredients are way different (and probably taste like crap). Sometimes the best brand is the best for a reason other than good advertising. For example, my fella loves Cheez-Itz. I wanted to buy some, but they were $3.77/box. The generic brand was half of that price. I almost went for it--but then I read the ingredients. The name brand used pretty much all-natural ingredients. It was a short list. The store brand ingredients filled up almost the whole side of the box. More chemicals, more ingredients=less healthy (and yes, I know Cheez-Itz aren't really healthy to begin with). I skipped the item altogether. Tom also likes Ritz. In this case, the off-branded crackers had identical ingredients, so I went ahead and bought them (even though Tom is a sucker for branding and complained a little, haha).

...That's all for now. Now to the dinner plan. I planned on only cooking every other day because we will have leftovers. I also made sure that several of the meals were able to be made ahead and frozen (crockpot!!) so that I won't have to fall off the wagon due to coming home late from work or what-have-you. Here we go:

1) Eggs Benedict, Asparagus, Pan-Fried Potatoes
2) Crockpot Mac and Cheese with Broccoli and Canadian Bacon
3) Pot Roast & Veggies
4) Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf & Asparagus
5) Crockpot Chicken Vegetable Soup & Cheese Toast
6) BBQ Roasted Salmon, Parmesan Broccoli, & Baked Potatoes
7) Poor Man's Prime Rib, Green Beans, & Mashed Potatoes
8) Crockpot Spaghetti & Meatballs with Garlic Toast

Next up, the grocery list:

Meats

Canadian Bacon, 2 lb. Pot Roast, 1 lb. Ground Chicken, 2 Boneless/Skinless Chicken Breasts (I substituted thighs because they were cheaper and would still work with the recipe), 4--6 oz. Salmon Filets, Eye of Round Roast, 16 oz. frozen (fully cooked) meatballs

Dairy

Parmesan Cheese, Shredded Italian Cheese, Shredded Cheddar (32 oz.), some sort of Sliced/Block Cheese*, Cream Cheese*, Milk

Veggies

Potatoes (5 lb. Russets were on sale, so I got those!), 6 carrots, Asparagus, Large Bag Frozen Chopped Broccoli, 3 Onions, Celery, Diced Tomatoes (canned)

Fruit

Apples, Bananas, 2 Lemons

Various Items

2 Cans Pasta Sauce, Pineapple Juice (I substituted a can of sliced pineapple in the juice--not in heavy syrup--because I can use the juice and have the slices as a garnish without buying a large bottle of juice I'll never use), English Muffins (I got 2 bags, one to use for the E.B. and one to use for snacks/lunches), Eggs, Thyme (I didn't have it), 24-oz. Evaporated Milk, 16-oz. Noodles for Macaroni (I went fancy on these and got a more expensive brand so I could get the ones you use for stuffed shells--personal preference, not required), 56-oz. Chicken Broth, Butter, Gallon Ziploc Bags, Boxed Mac and Cheese*, Ritz* (off-brand), Turkey Pepperonis*, Peanut Butter*, Jelly*, Oats*, 1 Packet Instant Hollandaise Sauce

*For various uses unrelated to the recipes. Obviously, you'll have different snacks or other things that you want for lunch or breakfast.

Keep in mind, if you don't have basic things like Olive Oil or Milk in stock, always check the recipes. I only made a list for things that weren't basic/I didn't have in my pantry or on my spice rack.

Lastly, the first night's basic recipes. I didn't do measurements because it's all just according to how much you want to make. Here they are:

Eggs Benedict: Ingredients--Canadian Bacon, Eggs, English Muffins, Hollandaise Sauce Packet (feel free to do fresh, I just wanted to make it quick!), Parsley (I used dried because it's cheaper and it's just a garnish anyway)

Fry Canadian Bacon until brown. Set aside.
Poach eggs. I used this easy Microwave Method!
Make sauce according to directions on packet.
Layer from the bottom thus: English muffin, canadian bacon, egg, Hollandaise sauce, parsley for garnish.

BOOM.

Yummers.

Fried Potatoes: Ingredients--Potatoes [(duh) I used 2 large Russets], Olive Oil, Salt&Pepper, Onion Powder or Onion, Water

Slice potatoes into many small chunks. Fry in the olive oil until brown and at desired texture. Periodically add 1/3 cup water (a few times, as it will start to cook out) to soften the potatoes. While cooking, salt&pepper to taste. If using onion powder, season to taste. If using onion, make sure it's chopped up and cooked in with the potatoes. I used onion powder because it's cheap and I already had it.

Ah yeah.

Sauteed Asparagus: Cook on medium in olive oil. Salt&pepper to taste. Typically I cook with white wine and parmesan as well, but this time I stuck with a basic recipe. It's delicious either way. Cook until bright green. Drizzle with the excess Hollandaise sauce.

That's it! A delicious, easy dinner that looked FANCY AS HELL. Cook the meat, potatoes, and asparagus all in the same pan without washing inbetween. Gives it excellent flavor.

Heretofore, I'll be posting actual detailed recipes from their sources. If you're double-checking for ingredients, visit my Pinterest food board. Every recipe I used is listed there by name with the links. This time, I just did my own thing. But the rest of the meal plan is based on legit sources. Anywho, tune in next time for other tips and a new recipe. In the meantime...