The making of a Budget Menu

For those of you who want to do your own thing, here are some pointers. When I get the ads on Wednesday morning, I peruse them as soon as I get everyone to where they need to be, to see what is good, what is killer prices for the week and to see what we need from the sales. When I get some time, I then go back with pen and paper and write down the best sale prices. I jot down only the meat sales on the front pages of the ads, and even then sometimes they are not really smokin deals. Like this past week, Fry's had pork loin for buy one, get one free. Sounds great, huh? When I checked it out at Fry's each pork loin was averaging $31. So not so great, if buying two that's about $15 per loin when the week before I got a decent pork loin that fed us for 4 dinners, for $7. So, I jot down the things we like, the things that are great prices for that week and then I look at ingredients and think what could be made for breakfasts, lunches and dinners for the week out of those ingredients. For fresh fruit, anything a dollar or under is good. Really great when oranges or apples are .49 lb. Same for fresh vegetables. Anything a dollar or under. Really great when broccoli is .69 lb. Eating vegetarian for a couple of night meals is a great way to keep food costs down. Like macaroni and cheese or meatless spaghetti or a pasta salad or big cobb salad. Stocking up on hamburger, pork loin and chicken when they are killer prices and freezing them is a great way to save money as well. You spend more the weeks that they are on sale but then other weeks you are not buying meat at all. If you can keep away from grocery store bakery items and make your own, other than bread, then you can save a lot of $ also.