Making a Master List of the Least Expensive Foods Available in Winter Months

The other day, I was brainstorming ways that I could save money on groceries in this new year. This is what I came up with. 

• shop more at discount stores, such as Grocery Outlet, check all clearance sections of other stores I frequent
• cook meals from scratch
• prepare snack foods at home in place of commercial snack foods (this is a critical downfall for me)
• concentrate on creating menus from the least expensive foods available in winter

The last item on this list side-tracked me and prompted a look into the least expensive foods in winter, based on basic food group or nutritional need. 

So, just what are the least expensive foods? Obviously, marked down foods in any category can beat the price on foods that fill a similar nutritional need. For now, I'm looking for foods that would be available to most folks during the winter.

Here's the start of my list. As I was brainstorming, I added some ideas for how I could use some of my least expensive foods for our family meals. I've included those notes as well.

What else can we add to the list?

least expensive sources of protein

• milk -- use milk to scratch-prepare yogurt, pudding, cottage cheese, white sauce
• eggs -- frittatas, baked, scrambled, fried (as is or to top other dishes, like beans and rice or ramen soup), boiled (egg salad, deviled, or chopped and sprinkled over other foods to boost protein)
• peanut butter
• canned tuna
• dried beans
• chicken legs/leg quarters

least expensive winter vegetables

• fresh cabbage
• fresh carrots
• fresh onions
• fresh winter squash
• fresh celery
• canned pumpkin
• canned tomatoes
• canned green beans
• homegrown sprouts

least expensive winter fruits

• fresh oranges
• fresh grapefruit
• fresh apples
• fresh bananas
• canned applesauce
• frozen concentrate 100% fruit juice, such as orange juice

least expensive starchy foods

• fresh potatoes -- baked, mashed, oven fries, hashed, cubed/sliced in casseroles
• rice -- pilafs, desserts, plain as hot side dish or hot breakfast cereal
• oats -- hot cereal, granola, baked oatmeal, breakfast cookies, desserts
• wheat flour -- white and whole wheat to bake quick or yeast breads, blend half white/half wheat when making muffins, biscuits, pancakes, quick breads, or for making yeast breads and rolls
• popcorn kernels -- pop in a pan on stove or in an air popper
• cornmeal -- cornbread, polenta/cornmeal mush
• simple pasta shapes, such as spaghetti and macaroni. (I buy both at Dollar Tree in 24 oz packages -- so 67 cents/lb. In contrast, I find ramen in 3 oz packages for 20 cents, or $1.07/lb. It's less expensive to make a noodle soup using spaghetti noodles, homemade chicken, turkey, or ham stock, salt, and a bit of onion powder, garlic powder, and soy sauce.)
• canned corn

least expensive cooking fats

• leftover fat from cooking meat, such as ham, turkey, bacon, chicken, pork, or beef fat
• vegetable oils, such as soybean, corn, safflower (We do buy and use olive oil, but mostly reserve it for dressing salads or for finishing soup or pasta.)
• vegetable shortening and/or margarine (My family has chosen to limit consumption of hydrogenated vegetable fats, but I do buy Crisco-style vegetable shortening to use for pie pastry and greasing baking pans.)

inexpensive flavor and color enhancers

• fresh radishes, green onions
• bulk herbs, spices
• lemons, limes, bottled lemon or lime juice
• bulk onion powder
• Worcestershire sauce

I originally made this list for my own purpose. I then thought this list might be helpful to someone else or someone else here could share their expertise with us and offer suggestions. As you share your thoughts on other least expensive foods, I'll add them to the above list.

How Does Your State Stack Up?

image from money.yahoo.com

An article on Yahoo Finance caught my eye yesterday. The topic was which state offered the best financial outlook for retirees. Yahoo Finance cited a study by GOBankingRates as the source of information to rate each of the 50 states. GOBankingRates based their ranking on how long $100,000 would last for a typical retiree, given the expected expenses for a person 65 or over and the cost of living in each state. The study took into account that each retiree would also be receiving Social Security income in addition to using their savings.

Just above the map are blue and green boxes with ascending number of months and years, from left to right, just below. These time spans provide rough estimates for how long that $100,000 of savings would last in their color-coordinating states. Upon finding your state on the map, look at the number. The higher the number, the lower the amount of time $100,000 of retirement savings will last. The lower the number, the greater the desirability.

I live in Washington state, with a teal blue fill and a ranking of 36. This means that out of 50 states, my state is 14 from the bottom on the list of best states in which to retire. The teal fill indicates that $100,000 would last a 65 year old in Washington state, on average, between 1 year 9 months and 2 years.

This study didn't address situations such as one part of a state having a significantly higher cost of living than another part of the same state. In addition, it's not clear what kind of spending habits this study forecasted for typical retirees for a $100,000 draw down of their savings. It's very possible that some folks in my state could go through $100,000 in much less time than 1 year 9 months, if they live in the Seattle metropolitan area and tend to live more extravagantly than others. Meanwhile, it's also very possible that other folks may take much longer than 2 years to draw down $100,000, if they live away from the urban center and have always made frugal choices for their life.

They say that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. I know several people who earn over $100,000 per year, yet they say they're living month to month with nothing left over to put into savings. And I also know some people who earn half that amount and still have enough left over to add a substantial amount to their savings each month. This knowledge gives me hope that we'll be able to make that $100,000 last much longer than the experts forecast. 

Part of that achievement will be in the provisions that we make now that will enable us to spend less in years to come, such as making our home more energy efficient, setting up easy-to-work raised vegetable garden areas in our yard, planting fruit trees now for harvest in the next decade, making sensible health choices today in order to use less medical care later, and creating streams of income to sustain us in post-retirement years. Or, we may just move to Mississippi.

How did your state stack up in this ranking? What kinds of provisions are you making now that will help you live frugally later?

Not Too Late to Pick Up a Few Clearance Bargains on Pantry Goods

The more perishable holiday foods were marked down to clear in the first week of January. Foods like eggnog and refrigerated holiday cookie dough were deeply discounted by the 5th of January in my stores. Those items are obviously holiday foods and not as interesting to many consumers once the holiday season is over.

However, there's another group of "holiday" foods that are very useful year round. These foods could be used at any time of the year. They're non-perishable and, in most cases, don't look so holiday-ish. Most of these items do not have images of snowmen, Christmas trees, or Santa on the package label. It's their use on holiday menus that associates them with the entire holiday season. 

By the middle to the third week of January, I find these food items on deep discount in my stores. As non-perishables, they often have expiration dates over a year away. And they're all foods that I could use in my menus almost all weeks of the year.

So, this is what I found last weekend at Walmart:

• jarred turkey gravy for 50 cents -- great not only on turkey but also for chicken or to have over mashed potatoes or rice. Exp. date: March 2021
• Libby's canned pumpkin for 75 cents -- pumpkin bread, muffins, soup -- YES!! Exp. date: Sept 2021
• Great Value turkey stuffing mix for 30 cents -- can be used as a quick side with many dishes, not just turkey. Exp. date: May 2021

It's amazing how far into the future some of the expiration dates are on these items, yet stores don't want to keep them on their shelves any longer. This just means more great deals for me and my grocery budget.

When I was running errands on Saturday, I also stopped by an import store that carries a food line. In their holiday section I found the above holiday-themed pasta shapes for 74 cents, or 67 cents/lb. The expiration date on this package is in 2022. While the price per pound is a good price for pasta for everyday meals, I think I'll hang onto this package for next Christmas, either for my small family or as part of an Italian gift basket to my son and DIL.

The deals are still out there!

Even a Novice Can Learn a New Plumbing Trick

My daughter had a rather unfortunate accident with one of the upstairs bathroom sinks. She uses this bathroom for cleaning up her paintbrushes and making an occasional pot of tea for herself to sip while painting. Two weeks ago, she was using the electric tea kettle in the bathroom. Once she poured the boiling water into the tea cup, she poured the rest of the super-heated water into the sink. The porcelain of the sink was likely very cold. When the boiling water met the cold porcelain, my daughter heard a loud pop and then noticed a long cracked where she had poured. Not a good moment.

the old sink after she removed it from the cabinetry

Needless to say, she was devastated that this happened and wanted to do what she could to right the situation. This daughter is not shy in the least when it comes to trying something new. She asked if she could try taking out the old sink and replace it with a new one. I knew she'd be careful, so I thought I should let her see what she could do.

she used the turkey roaster to catch water as she unhooked the trap

Believe it or not, this young lady (with zero plumbing skills but very good youtube skills) not only took the old sink out, but with the help of her sister, she replaced it with a new one from Home Depot.

the opening in the counter after the old sink was taken out -- she "caught" the sink in a pile of quilts

My kids inspire me constantly. They tackle jobs from which I shy away. They teach themselves new skills routinely. Perhaps my husband and I did something right when raising them. Or perhaps we just got kids who are not afraid to try.

the brand new sink installed, including plumbing

I have no idea how much we saved on hiring a plumber. When my daughter asked to do this, my initial thought was that she might feel empowered by learning another skill. My second thought, now that she has done this with an under mount sink, is to have her work with me this summer to replace 2 over mount sinks in another bathroom that are in bad repair. Maybe this old dog can learn a new trick with the help of one of her pups.


You know, youtube is a great resource for all kinds of DIY. Someone out there has done just the thing I'm trying to learn and recorded just how to do the job. It may take a few different videos for me to hit upon the very one that is well-presented. But when I do, it's like having that know-it-all neighbor giving me the how-to's over the fence in my backyard. My kids have grown up with youtube and tend to rely on it even more than I do. I'm trying to move with the times.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for a Week of Snow Days

the road in front of my house

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were snow days for the schools in my district. And Thursday was a delayed start for the day. That meant that my daughters couldn't teach for 3 full days and only taught an afternoon session for Thursday. When it snows here, modern life comes to a screeching halt. The road in front of our house (a main street through the neighborhood) was un-drivable for our small sedan, so I just stayed in for the week.

In case it's not obvious, I didn't do any grocery shopping for the week. So, my January grocery spending still stands at $81.02, total. I don't need anything, but I will watch for special deals and markdowns.

I failed to take photos this week, again. I'm still working at getting back into the swing of things. But here's what we had for our dinners all week.


Friday (we de-decked the Christmas tree tonight, so it was a "fun" sort of dinner)
homemade mushroom and black olive pizza
cole slaw dressed with homemade dressing -- mayo, vinegar, salt, pinch sugar, onion powder
trail mix of nuts, pretzels, raisins, marshmallows
chocolates from Christmas

Saturday
turkey hash with leftover Thanksgiving turkey, potatoes, onions, and carrots, topped with homemade ketchup
orange wedges
last of the trail mix

Sunday
scrambled eggs and ham
pasta with tomato sauce --canned tomatoes mixed with leftover homemade pizza sauce
cole slaw
orange wedges

Monday
baked beans, flavored with ham fat, onions, tomato liquid from canned tomatoes, brown sugar, mustard powder, and chili powder
baked butternut squash
orange wedges
homemade bread and homemade soft butter
cookies (the 49 cent ones, clearance Christmas cookies)

Tuesday (daughter's night to cook)
scratch pizza that she made and froze a couple of weeks ago
veggies and dip
apple pie -- Dollar Tree canned pie filling that is truly awful but made palatable with 2 more green apples, lots of lemon juice, cloves, cinnamon, salt, sugar, all in a scratch pie crust. (I bought a few cans of the DT pie filling last year and we discovered we didn't care for it. The doctored-up version was pretty good. I now have 1 can remaining.)

Wednesday (other daughter's night to cook -- she was very short on time so she asked me for ideas for a quick dinner. She was pleased that she could make this so quickly.)
scrambled eggs
toast
cole slaw
leftover apple pie

Thursday
Mexican rice bowls with brown rice, refried beans, canned corn, cheese, salsa, and plain yogurt -- very tasty
orange wedges
peanut butter cookies -- I had the dough in the freezer


Another week of home-cooked meals. With the cold weather, I baked something almost every day this week. That kept the kitchen warm, at least. It's supposed to warm up slightly over the weekend. I'm a weather wimp -- I've had my taste of winter; now I want to move on to spring.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Taking Screenshots When Conducting Online Transactions

Do you use the screenshot function on your computer very often? It's super handy when you want to remotely show someone a program that is malfunctioning and how the results appear on your screen. Screenshots are also super helpful when you need to "prove" something that you read online, after the fact.

I make it a habit to screenshot the final page on an order just before hitting "submit." This is the page that usually outlines the item ordered, the cost per item, and the shipping costs and delivery estimates. If I've used a coupon code, this page also indicates the associated discount.

I recently placed an online order for a bunch of small items that were on sale. I did as I always do, I screen-shotted that last page before submitting. After placing the order, I received an email invoice/receipt for the items. On this receipt, I noticed the prices per items on a couple of like-items were more than what I believed I would be charged. I went back to the website and the prices were now higher than I'd seen just 30 minutes earlier.

I reached out to customer support immediately and offered to send files of my screenshots to verify the prices I had seen online. After a few back and forth emails, I was able to get my account credited for this overcharge. Had I not taken the screen shots, I either would not have spoken up about the overcharge, or if I did, I would not have had any proof of what price I had been offered.

This week, everything was finally settled. I ended up saving over $8 by taking 10 seconds to screenshot my transaction with pricing info, then following up with customer support contact. I just wanted to pass this on for your future online transactions. Screenshots are a quick and easy way to document online information and could save you some real cash should you find yourself in a conflict over pricing with an online vendor.

My Sprout Growing Operation

I know, I know. This may be of no interest to many of you. But for the one person who may be interested, I wanted to show just how un-sophisticated it is to grow your own sprouts.

I keep sprouts at all three stages, at all times. When the finished batch is first refrigerated, I start a new jar of lentils soaking. The middle batch would be about halfway sprouted at this point, and those new ones would be lentils soaking in water overnight. Within 3 or 4 days, the finished batch would be nearly consumed, the middle batch would be a day away from finishing, and the newest batch would be about 3 days in (4 or 5 days from finishing). I will keep this up until our kale comes back in March for a last harvest before going to seed. 

right to left for the sprouts progression -- 1) newly sprouted, 2) almost done, 3) fully done and in process of consuming

I use repurposed food jars and pyrex baking dishes

the jars are from salsa, queso, natural peanut butter, and instant coffee --
these sprouts are 1 day away from being completely sprouted

these sprouts were completed about 4 days ago, keeping fresh in the refrigerator in a glass bowl
lined with a paper towel, then covered with a lid

As for how we use the sprouts, I add them to soups, stir fry, shredded cabbage when making cole slaw, and as is, for an impromptu salad. For a quick lunch on Sunday, I heated 2 cans of chicken and noodle soup (bought from the clearance table due to can dents) and tossed in handfuls of the sprouts as the soup finished heating. Delicious and easy. When I make a stir fry, I substitute sprouts where I might add chopped cabbage. In fall as we were finishing off the garden lettuce, I stretched what little lettuce we had with lots of sprouts when making salads. And now, when I make cole slaw, I mix in several large handfuls of sprouts with the shredded cabbage for taste and texture variety.

my lunch the other day -- reheated baked beans, toasted, homemade
whole wheat bread, and a salad of sprouts with ranch-style dressing

But the way, I most often eat these sprouts as a simple salad plainly dressed with oil and vinegar or ranch-style dressing. I use the sprouts in my lunch nearly every day. A handful of sprouts cost me about 2 cents in lentils and another penny in water for the soaking and rinsing. I can't buy a serving of produce at the market for 3 cents, especially not at this time of year. 

In addition, I haven't bought a single piece of equipment for sprouting. I use previously-used food jars and glass baking dishes. I don't even use cheesecloth or a screen on the opening of the jars. Super-duper simple and extremely little effort -- that's my kind of gardening.

Some Thoughts on Why Groceries Go on Sale in Fall, are More Expensive in Winter, and What We Can Do to Shop Frugally Now

Following up on yesterday's post of how much I spend on groceries in fall in comparison to winter, I thought I'd explore some of the reasons and conditions that allow me to find more great deals in one season in contrast to another. I would guess that low and high prices are cause/allowed by a complexity of conditions and there is no single answer. Here are my thoughts. In your opinion, what else might be contributors?

Some reasons why prices could be lower in fall on groceries

• late summer and early fall are peak harvest season for traditional farms, which means there is an abundance of fresh produce to sell. High supply lowers prices.
• since the harvest season brings in such abundance, late summer through early fall is peak commercial canning and freezing season. Due to shipping and distribution, there is a bit of lag time between harvesting/processing and product reaching store shelves. Retailers want to unload last year's canned and frozen goods to make room for this year's, so they feature canned goods as an advertised sale long enough to deplete the stores of last year's goods while not cutting in too much to this year's.
• the abundance of fresh, traditional fall farm produce, such as carrots, potatoes, onions, and winter squash overlaps with the income of the fresh citrus crop in November and December. This leads to an even larger supply of fresh produce to sell.
• in addition, fresh citrus is rarely canned or frozen, with the exception of processing into juices. Growers can usually get a better price for their less-blemished citrus when sold fresh, provided the price does not drop too much. The more-blemished citrus is harder to sell as fresh, so that is what is generally used for juice. This idea is changing, however, as more people are buying "gourmet" bottled juices (which are often simply unusual combinations of produce processed into one juice blend). The "gourmet" juices are able to garner a significantly larger price per unit than the fresh citrus.
• the produce gluts overlap with some end-of-season dairy gluts in the form of cheese and butter. Even with modern dairy production, there is still a peak production period for animals. Only so much milk can be sold as fresh. The rest of the milk is processed into other dairy products, such as butter, cheese, and yogurt, as well as canned and dried forms of milk. A glut means high supply/ability to lower prices. 
• grocers know that consumers will buy and eat more food on and around Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years. This fore-knowledge leads to grocers ordering in greater bulk and perhaps paying a lower wholesale price per unit, then passing on some of this savings to the consumer.
• With some version of the fall and winter holidays universally celebrated in the US and Canada, at least to some extent, grocers capitalize on this by using loss-leader sales to get the consumer to spend a larger share of their shopping dollars in-store. This applies not only to the foods used for these traditional holidays, but to non-food items as well. The store gets you in to buy a turkey, and you buy not only the trimmings but several non-food gifts as well. The store can afford to offer a lower than cost price on that turkey because they know you will buy other products that have a significant mark-up.

Some reasons why prices could be higher in winter

• in January, February, and sometimes March, there are only a couple of minor food-related events or occasions that are universally celebrated. The two that I can think of are the Superbowl and Valentine's Day. Neither holiday/event produce much of a spending frenzy on food as we see for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and New Years. Because of that, grocers can't be certain that if they offer many loss-leaders than consumers will buy much else to compensate for the store's loss.
• this is compounded by the need to tighten a budget that many consumers feel after the winter holidays. Even if the Superbowl or Valentine's Day were significant feasting holidays, many consumers would still likely scale back on their spending, out of need, in comparison to how they spent in the fall and early winter. This provides even less incentive for a retailer to offer a lot of loss-leaders.
• the glut of produce from the fall has dwindled to a supply that is near or less than demand, which drives prices up. The types of local produce that are available in winter are fewer, so for a store to have variety, more has to be shipped in from distant farms.
• egg prices are driven up by a reduced supply in mid-winter. Even with modern laying set-ups, which can produce eggs year round, there is still a season to peak production of hens, which is not in winter. This is compounded with the farms that do support more natural conditions for laying, such as free range hens. These hens have a very definite production season. The supply of more naturally-produced eggs is reduced in most regions in winter, which means folks who would have bought "natural" eggs during the peak season may now be buying some or all of their eggs from the more commercial laying operations, adding to the existing demand for the more commercial product.

What can we do now, with fall behind us, to avoid overspending on winter groceries

• there will still be one or two loss-leaders per sales cycle. Stores need to offer some sort of incentive to get buyers into the store. Keeping an eye out for those especially good deals could net some bargains. Remember, some of these deals may come in a different format, such as you may need to use an online order or in-store pickup to get a deal.
• when you do find a clearance on holiday food items, consider whether or not it could be useful this winter or spring. An example, I found some frozen holiday cookie dough for 49 cents a package. Yes, they look like holiday cookies, but we can overlook that for a small treat later this month. But I bypassed the significantly-marked down eggnog last week, because I didn't feel my family would enjoy it that much, and regular milk was so much cheaper per gallon. (Eggnog is typically drunk instead of milk in my house, not in addition to milk.) I did buy a small container of fruitcake fruit because I use it in a sweet bread that I bake for Easter. And I bought those pumpkin-spice marshmallows that I mentioned last week, because I can use them in cocoa and to make bar cookies this winter. So, some holiday foods, when marked down, can be useful and provide inexpensive treats while keeping grocery spending low.
• if fresh produce isn't really necessary for a dish, use canned or frozen. An example, while soup made with fresh veggies in summer is delicious, in winter a very similar soup can be made with canned veggies. And if only half of a can is needed for a recipe, the other half can be frozen to use another time.
• use this time to use up any surpluses that you may have.
• start an indoor garden -- grow sprouts! Sprouts are a practically-free fresh vegetable to grow in the off-season.
• stick to the lower-priced fresh produce. Even when carrots are on the expensive side for their variety, they're still a lot cheaper than fresh green beans or zucchini out of season. 
• keep a close eye on perishable fresh produce so that it is consumed or processed before it spoils.
• carefully consider "deals" on produce this time of year. Do you have time to consume or process produce before it goes soft or develops signs of rot? Do you have room in your fridge or other cold storage to store fresh produce? Even long-keepers can spoil eventually. This time of year, I refrigerate produce that I might otherwise store in my pantry, such as potatoes, onions, winter squash, and oranges. I figure the foods were harvested months ago and at this point their remaining life is very limited.
• St. Patrick's Day brings sales on cabbage, corned beef, and potatoes for about 1 week. These are all long-keeping foods that can be stocked up on. I don't often buy the corned beef, but I do always buy several heads of cabbage and a bag of potatoes.
• find substitutes as you see you are running low on an item that you don't expect to find on sale for a few weeks. Look for no-egg baking recipes, egg substitutions, recipes that can use oil in place of butter, etc. This may be a period of creative cookery, but its time will come to an end when the Easter and Passover sales start up. I typically find butter, eggs, granulated and confectioner's sugar, canned pineapple, and coconut on sale then. Feature more meatless meals to stretch your limited supply of meat. Hams frequently go on sale for Easter and the price of roasting chickens and chicken parts seem to drop to their seasonal low in mid to late spring. 

Savvy shoppers on a tight budget are a lot like squirrels. When there is plenty, we work hard to store away as much as we can. Then in the lean months, we live off of our stored supplies. Later, the warm weather in early spring tempts us to peek our heads out of our warm nests and seek out enough deals to tide us over until the abundance returns.

My High Fall Grocery Spends Appear to Lead to Low Winter Grocery Spends: The Numbers

I think most of us realize that in the grocery stores, the fall months have more of the basic cooking and baking items featured on sale than the later winter months. And I myself have mentioned that I spend a lot in the fall stocking up on supplies and comparatively less following in the first couple of months of the year. 

I wanted to see the actual numbers (comparing fall and winter spends) in a long-range perspective (not just one or two years). So, here they are. I have listed my spending amounts for late fall and early winter of the past 9 years.

I consider November and December to be my primary stocking up months, while January and February are my "coasting" months, where we use what we bought at a discount or seasonally-low price in the fall.

Nov. 2012 $290   Dec. 2012 $247   Jan. 2013 $137  Feb. 2013 $191
Nov. 2013 $254   Dec. 2013 $162    Jan. 2014 $119  Feb. 2014 $135
Nov. 2014 $297   Dec. 2014 $159    Jan. 2015 $94    Feb. 2015 $201
Nov. 2015 $232   Dec. 2015 $91      Jan. 2016 $118  Feb. 2016 $164 
Nov. 2016 $493   Dec. 2016 $142   Jan. 2017 $129  Feb. 2017 $158
Nov. 2017 $284   Dec. 2017 $330   Jan 2018  $110  Feb. 2018 $183
Nov. 2018 $275   Dec. 2018 $265   Jan 2019  $162  Feb. 2019 $90
Nov. 2019 $157    Dec. 2019 $171    Jan 2020 (current $81, budget -- $106)  Feb 2020 (budget - $105)

In the numbers below, I've combined together November and December, then January and February of specific years, to get an idea of how the higher fall spending leads to lower winter spending.

The amounts spent per month varied quite a bit, and in one or two cases an isolated month bucked the trend and either incurred less or more spending than would have been projected. However, when the fall months are combined and weighed against the combined winter months, the trend is consistent -- I spend more in the fall and less in the winter. In some years, I spent over $300 more in fall than in I spent in winter.

Part of this could be due to buying holiday foods in fall, whereas, I don't do a lot of holiday food shopping in winter. Even so, I don't spend $300 on holiday foods between Thanksgiving and Christmas, ever. My holiday dinners run about $15 to $25 per holiday. In addition, while I bake more during the holidays, I don't believe that I bake $300 worth of goodies each holiday season. My waistline couldn't handle that much baking. Also, we bake a relatively small amount of goodies to be given to others during the holidays. 

The other plausible explanation for the difference in spending between fall and winter is I have found more deals in the fall (and therefore stocked up) than I have in winter.

In the fall, I find a lot of advertised sales on shelf-stable baking ingredients, canned goods, long-keeping refrigerated foods (like cheese and butter), and of course, turkey and ham (both which freeze well). In winter, my primary source of great deals is the clearance rack. Other than that, great deals on basic cooking and baking supplies are few and far between from January through February.

2012 Fall $537 2013 Winter $328
2013 Fall $416 2014 Winter $254
2014 Fall $456 2015 Winter $295
2015 Fall $323 2016 Winter $282
2016 Fall $635 2017 Winter $287
2017 Fall $614 2018 Winter $293
2018 Fall $540 2019 Winter $252*
2019 Fall $328 2020 Winter (budget of $211) 

What does all of this mean? Well, it's interesting to see this typed out -- just how great of a difference the spending between fall and winter of the same "year" can be. But also, as I mentioned at the beginning of November, knowing this allows me to plan my budgeting for these four months. My grocery budget, then, is dynamic and responsive to available deals. 

This past fall, I "borrowed" $30 each from both January 2020 and February 2020's grocery budget to give me a larger, stocking-up grocery budget for both November and December. January and February of 2020 are "coasting" months, meaning I will buy less and instead rely on all that I bought at seasonally-low prices previously.

There you have it -- a very geeky look at one household's grocery spending in the fall and winter months.


*to note: Our reduced grocery budget, due to my husband's employment situation, did not kick in until March of 2019. So, the fall 2018 and winter 2019 comparison does not include any cutbacks to the budget, which could have skewed this assessment for that year. The fall 2019 and winter 2020 months all contain our budgetary cutbacks, so the comparison should be accurate and again not skewed.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for a New Year

I finished up most of January's grocery shopping this week. Of course, there wasn't a whole lot on the list. I picked up a few pounds of bananas, a head of cabbage, a jar of decaf coffee, 5 cans of pumpkin (on clearance), 9 gallons of 2% milk ($1.19 each), fruitcake fruit, Pringles potato chips (only bought 1 can -- 79 cents), a pound of mushrooms ($1.69), pumpkin-spice marshmallows (29 cents/bag, bought 3 bags), about 6 lbs of apples, 1 package hot dogs, a free energy bar, 40 lbs of oranges, 15 dozen eggs, and 10 lbs of carrots. I spent $62.91 this week, leaving me with $25.02 leftover in  January's budget of $106.04. Our fridges, freezers, and pantry are bursting right now. When the wintry weather finally hits our area, I think we'll be just fine, as far as supplies go.

In case you're curious -- a 40-lb case of oranges has between 72 and 88 oranges, which will probably last us through mid-February. With the eggs, our family goes through 6 dozen or so per month, if we're regularly using eggs in baking, for breakfasts/lunches, and for dinner entrees, such as quiches. So, 15 dozen should be about a 2-month supply for us, with a couple dozen for freezing, as well. I like having some eggs in the freezer, to use in those weeks when I'm waiting to find a good deal on eggs.

Friday's and Saturday's dinners used some of the ham that was baked on New Year's Day. It felt like we were eating a lot of meat over the holidays. So, by Sunday, I was pretty happy to have vegetarian dinners again.

I'm sorry, I didn't take many photos this week.

Friday
leftover ham
roasted butternut squash
leftover potato casserole
leftover marinated artichoke hearts (clearance- dented can)

Saturday

Saturday
lentil, ham, and carrot soup
roasted butternut squash
Christmas candy for dessert

Sunday
refried beans and salsa
brown rice
tortilla chips
carrot sticks


Monday
lentil-based minestrone
butternut-spice muffins
cheddar cheese slices
peanut butter cookies

Tuesday (daughter cooked)
Traditional Vulcan Breakfast -- Plomeek Soup, a vegetable soup, using beets, carrots, and sweet potatoes, among other veggies --my daughter used this recipe, it freezes well
grilled cheese sandwiches
blackberries (frozen) topped with dusting of sugar

Wednesday

Wednesday
leftover lentil minestrone soup from Monday
egg, bread, cheese strata
orange wedges

Thursday (other daughter cooked)
tuna-noodle casserole, adding peas and some celery leaves
canned green beans


Tonight is the night that we take our tree down. I've planned a dinner of homemade pizza, cole slaw, and snack mix made from mixed nuts, raisins, and pretzels.

The holidays featured a lot of rich or snacky foods. I think it'll will be a lovely change to sink into menus of soup, homemade breads, and simple desserts. You may have noticed, 4 of the 7 nights featured soup this past week for us.

You may be wondering a bit about the Vulcan soup. I previously mentioned that my two daughters are big Star Trek fans. One of my daughters came across Vulcan recipes and thought she'd try this out. The soup was surprisingly delicious, and it used up a bag of beets that I'd dug in late fall and had been sitting in the fridge. (Without the leaves, beet roots can keep in cold storage for several weeks. I did use the greens within days of harvesting the beets.)

That's my week of suppers. What was on your menu this past week? After a rich and decadent holiday season, what was the simpler food that you craved the most?

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Nipping My Internal Whining in the Bud

a casserole of egg strata

I'm writing this today as much to convince myself as anything else. Sometimes, saving lots of money on groceries is not at all convenient, easy, or pleasant. I say this, not as a complaint, but as a realistic statement about this part of my role in my household. It's my job to make our money stretch as far as possible, so there will be enough money to care for ourselves. We stretch our money in just about every department. Some of that is second-nature, but some of it is work.

Yesterday, I had a project, money-earning tasks, and cleaning on my agenda. My time slots were completely filled for the day. Then an unexpected opportunity to use our family car midday came up. I had a moment where I thought to decline the opportunity and continue in my original plans for the day. Then I thought maybe I could use this opportunity to pick up some of the last of my grocery items before the rest of the locals decide to hit the stores in advance of this impending snowstorm.

I went online to check prices at my last store from my shopping list. To my family's and my fortune, both eggs and oranges were on sale at an even further discount from what I'd thought I'd be saving. Cash & Carry (our restaurant supply that also sells to the public) had 15-dozen cases of eggs for $12.59 (about 84 cents/dozen -- fab price for eggs this time of year) and 40-lb cases of oranges for $15.95 (about 40 cents/lb). These prices were too good to pass up. Yet, going to Cash & Carry also meant I'd have to interrupt my current work and switch around my tasks for the week. But, I'd save about $8 on these two items alone.

What kept going through my head was "this is not convenient today." Yet, I remembered that it isn't exactly convenient for my husband to leave the house around 6 each morning to get to his job. And it isn't exactly convenient for small business owners to work 7 days a week at times. And it isn't exactly convenient for people to make those miserable commutes in rush-hour traffic for an hour or more each way, each day. My own inconvenience is beginning to pale in comparison.

So, my job has some inconvenient aspects to it. I often have to drop whatever I'm doing to tend to someone else's need or schedule. But that is part of my "job." And I know that no job is completely convenient. That's why they call them "work," right?


It helps me to remind myself of how much money I saved by rearranging my plans. Yes, I would probably feel better if after my run out to get those eggs, oranges and other items, if someone had placed a $10 bill in the palm of my hand. 

The appreciation for my work may not come in the form of a paycheck, but instead it comes in the happiness my husband and daughters experience being able to have an abundance of good foods around for snacks, breakfasts, and lunches. 


To refocus myself after this little whining session, I took an additional 30 minutes from my scheduled activities and made a delicious strata that would double as a side dish to dinner and a grab-and-go breakfast the next morning. With an abundance of eggs, milk, ham fat, and onions, plus some stale bread, such a strata was very do-able. Breakfast was easy and filling for my family this morning. Making my family happy can be a reward in itself.

Using the Frozen Blackberries We Foraged Last Summer: Blackberry Gelatin

Here's another way we're keeping our fresh produce purchases down this winter -- we're using the frozen blackberries that we foraged late last summer. We picked enough bags of blackberries to nearly fill our small freezer (size of a standard dishwasher). 

While I love blackberry pie, there's only so much pie a person can eat, right? My daughters have been using them in smoothies and homemade yogurt. I also wanted to make the frozen blackberries useful in a way that didn't depend on other ingredients (or not much). So, I've been making blackberry gelatin.

Making Blackberry Gelatin
Blackberry gelatin requires plain gelatin, the berries, water, and a bit of sugar, plus a blender. To make an 8 X 8-inch pan of blackberry gelatin I soften 1 tablespoon of plain gelatin in 1/2 cup of cold water. While that softens, I dump about a quart of frozen berries in the blender. Because our berries are a bit on the tart side, I add about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of sugar to the berries. 

Next, I heat about 1 cup of water in a small measuring cup and pour about half of this over the frozen berries, then run the blender in pulses. I add a bit more water, as needed, to get the berries and sugar to puree. I usually use all but about 1/8 cup of the water. I taste to see if the flavor is good. It's too sweet, I add more frozen berries and water. If it's too tart, I add a bit more sugar.

The gelatin should be soft by now, so I melt it in the microwave, about 30 seconds. Next, I pour the gelatin over the berry/sugar puree in the blender and pulse to incorporate. Finally, I pour the mixture into an 8 X 8-inch glass baking dish and refrigerate until firm.

I think it takes more time to explain this than it does to actually make the gelatin. The process goes very quickly.


This has been a great way to make the blackberries ready for easy consumption. I find I'm much more likely to add a dish of this gelatin to my own meals and snacks, boosting my produce intake enough to meet my daily goals. I'm sure this would work with other frozen berries, if you happen to have an abundance of strawberries, raspberries, or blueberries.

The only drawback that I've found is the blackberry seeds. Our wild blackberries have large-ish seeds and this could put  off people who prefer or require less texture. 

But for me, the seeds are a bonus. The seeds in blackberries are nutrient-dense and high in fiber. They are rich in omega-3's and 6's, plus protein and ellagic acid/ellagitannins (cancer preventatives -- https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/herbs/ellagic-acid -- and may inhibit memory and cognitive decline, such as with Alzheimers --http://jbcp.shahed.ac.ir/article_369_3fec06963bfd0de2f6fedba463681a9a.pdf.)

Winter Vegetable Gardening

We had a mild December, here, enough that the kale began to grow a tiny bit since I harvested last in mid-November. The trough planter on the deck is filled with radish greens. In addition, the sorrel and watercress are also putting out some new leaves. I harvested kale on Friday and radish greens yesterday. I'll need to get out and grab some sorrel and watercress for a salad in the next day or two. Snow is in the forecast for the end of this week, so my outdoor winter gardening may be put on hold for a month or so.

Indoors, the lentil sprouts have been a fantastic addition to our vegetable supply. I sprout between 1/2 cup and 1 cup of dry lentils every week. I try to keep at least one quart-size jar of sprouting lentils going at all times. Since I try for 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day, the sprouts get gobbled up quickly, mostly as a plainly dressed side salad with vinegar, oil, and salt. If I have a day where I feel I just haven't had enough fruits and veggies, I grab a handful of sprouts and eat as-is.

As the weather forecast is now looking like a snowy period coming up, I was thinking about how useful sprouting lentils could potentially be for my household. Last winter, we had a month of snow, where the road in front of our house wasn't plowed until the tail end of the third week of snowfall. As we have neither winter tires or a car with all-wheel drive, we were stranded at home for weeks, with exception to hiking out of the neighborhood to catch a bus somewhere. 

So, my thinking this week is that it's possible that we will have severals days very soon where we can't get out to stores. I really don't want to be one of the many who descend upon grocery stores later this week, clearing the shelves of food. 

Last year, my daughter and I made what we thought would be a quick stop for milk the night before a major storm was predicted. It was after 9 PM (I was picking her up from work) and the parking lot was packed with cars, there were no grocery carts in the store, and the lines were the longest I've ever seen in this one store. This was not an experience I want to relive. 

Sprouting lentils may be part of the solution to avoiding going out, for produce at least. With sprouted lentils, we can time the readiness of our in-home produce supply, down to the very day. And once they're fully-sprouted, they keep in the fridge for 5 days. I started an extra jar of lentils yesterday morning, anticipating the need for fresh produce this next week, just in case I don't make it to all of the stores on my shopping list before the snow falls.

If I sound like I talk about lentil sprouts a lot, it's only because I can't believe how simple they are, yet they produce a nice vegetable product when my garden is slow. For anyone here who enjoys sprouts, I encourage you to try sprouting a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of dried lentils to see if this is something you and your family would enjoy. And for anyone else who is on a limited grocery budget, lentil sprouts will save you money on fresh produce purchases in the winter months, when there are few bargains in the produce department. Okay, off the lentil sprout soap box.

I'm still growing microgreens, but I find that I'm much more satisfied by the quickness of the lentil sprouts. The microgreens take close to a month until they're ready for harvest, whereas the lentil sprouts are ready within a week.

I made one change to my sprouting technique during the holiday season. I was simply too busy to remember to rinse them twice per day. Instead, once per day, I covered the lentils with water in the jars, allowed to stand for 2 to 5 hours, then drained and set the jars on their sides. The sprouts seemed to do okay with this treatment. They never dried not nor became moldy, so this has been my technique going forward. My even lazier method of sprouting.

I am about 2 weeks away from starting seeds indoors for transplanting into the garden in very early spring. I'll begin with parsley and cold-tolerant leafy greens like kale and chard. I'll use my light set-up, which I place on top of the dryer in the laundry room. The heated surface of the dryer provides a good temp for germinating seeds.


I don't know about you but I'm still catching up from the holidays. My house needs a good cleaning, the decorations need putting away, I need to catch up on baking and cooking, the laundry has piled up, and I'm just this week catching up on comments here. I'm sorry I've been mostly absent the past few weeks. As you know, it takes an enormous amount of effort to pull everything together for the holidays, and often on a limited time schedule (with special programs, family get togethers, and friendship group gatherings all entering the mix). Thanks for your patience with me! 

This morning, I'm off to Fred Meyer for Senior Shopping Day. I don't need a lot, but will be picking a month's supply of milk and checking all of the clearance items. I hope your day is off to a great start!

Giving Those Good Intentions a Nudge: Making Leftover Meat Fat User Friendly for Cooking

You all know that I save the fat from cooking meat to use in future cooking. Scooping it all into a container for the freezer is the simple way to save the fat. However,  I find that when the fat is in a solid blob in a single container, I just don't use it as much as I would have liked. Then, after a year or so, I have a freezer full of containers of fat that are only partially-used, and I've relied on other cooking fats in daily meal prep. My plan for saving meat fat is to offset some of my use of other cooking fats, both to use what I've been provided (I hate to think an animal isn't fully used seeing as how they have paid with their life for my consumption) and using the fat from meat will save some money on groceries.

My solution is to make it more appealing to reach into the freezer for fat when I'm starting a pot of soup or sautéing veggies. How I did that is by freezing the fat in tablespoon-size dollops.

I refrigerated the fat to firm up, then scooped small portions onto a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. This part takes about 3 to 5 minutes of work.

I froze these spoonfuls on the sheet until solid, then transferred them to a container which is kept in the top basket of the kitchen freezer. When I start a pot of soup by sautéing some onions, I use a fat-dollop in place of oil.

I baked a ham on New Year's Day this year. Afterward, I had about  1  and 1/2 cups of leftover fat. For best flavor, frozen ham fat should be used within 3 to 4 months, or until about the time I bake my next ham, on Easter.