Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Frugal Dippity Doo Meals

The other day I bought 4.2 KG Mitchells boneless ham at Superstore for $16.75.  Cut it into 6 ham roasts and four packets of ham slices for breakfasts.  We had one of the hams last night for dinner and will have the leftovers tonight (egg, ham and cheese toasted sandwiches) for a quick and easy meal.

Savings?  About 60% off buying the smaller hams that I have purchased in the past.  Now I have ham for a couple of months.  We are trying to eat less bacon due to fat content and cost so ham is an easy alternative having fewer calories.  It has high sodium but I am cutting salt out of a lot of other things in our diet so it evens out.

I was making a tuna casserole the other night and it struck me that everything in it was bought on sale, in bulk or reduced.

Ingredients
Two cups dry macaroni   - no name macaroni bought in bulk
Bread Crumbs                 - used bread ends and made crumbs in my mini food processor (love it)
Cheese                            - found two large blocks of cheese this week in the 50% off bin at Superstore, cut into small packs and froze much of it for later use
Celery                              - $1.29/head
Onion                               - bought 3lb bag of onions for $1 a few weeks ago
mushroom soup                - bought a case of Campbells soup a few weeks ago for $5.60
handful of frozen corn        - bought 3kg no name brand bag two months ago - this was the last
Tuna                                  -tuna 1 can bought on sale for .77 (sorry I forgot to list this in the original post - thanks Wean!)

Dinner and lunch the next day for less than $2.  It was yummy.

It pays to constantly scour the ads for deals and only try to buy when things are on sale.  Today I am off to get my 30 rolls of toilet paper on bargain and .25 cent mustard after coupon.  Cheers!


13 comments:

  1. I can't imagine shopping without pouring over the flyers - it amazes me how much the people that just throw into the cart must be paying for their cartload of groceries. Food is becoming so expensive - I had two reusable bags full today and it was $70, my most expensive item was a small $7 roast - it's getting crazy!

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    1. It is. I only shop the deals now. Some things on the grocery list stay on the list until I find a deal. For this reason I don't mealplan so I can use up leftovers and take advantage of sales on produce.

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  2. We did the same thing with ham we bought on sale in November (US Thanksgiving sales). I sliced a bunch very thin, for frying bacon-style in a skillet, some slices thicker for dinner servings, and cubed the rest for adding to soups and casseroles.

    Earlier this week we were working on a turkey breast that was bought in November. I sliced a good part of it very thin for sandwich meat, and wrapped a family's worth for one lunch in waxed paper packets.

    And tonight's dinner is French dip sandwiches, made with a small chunk of beef from a large roast. bought on sale and cut into smaller pieces and frozen.

    I see figures put out by the USDA, for a family of 4 for grocery expenses, and am always shocked that that size family often spends about $800 USD or more per month. That's a whole lot of money, and almost 4 times what we spend for our family of 5.

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    1. The next time turkey is on sale for less than a dollar a pound I will stock up too. I have a little freezer so have to be careful not taking up too much space for one item!

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    2. One thing you can do, if your freezer space is limited, is to buy the turkey, then roast it right away, instead of freezing the whole bird as is. Pick the meat off, make stock from the bones, freeze that. The the whole turkey, which might have taken up 1/3 or more of your freezer space now just takes up about 1/6 or less.

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  3. Is it me ? sorry, I can't find any tuna listed in the ingredients for your tuna casserole ?
    The only things I buy that aren't reduced are milk/margerine and toiletries, and then I get the cheapest I can.

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    1. It was not you :) I updated the posting with one can of tuna - thanks for letting me know!

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  4. Good job! Superstore (Maxi here in Quebec, I think) has really good deals.

    Grocery shopping is more and more expensive, YIKES! I too go through the flyers.

    Now what is your trick to freeze ham because mine always looks spongy when I defrost it!

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    1. Not sure about the spongy part, I guess I haven't experienced that! We generally eat all meat (small freezer) within six months of freezing it to avoid spoilage.

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  5. I don't like ham as a rule -- except for breakfast! Or with quiche. I think you have the right idea with this. I try to mostly buy meat on sale of if it's marked down for immediate consumption. The nice thing about a ham is that it does keep well.

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    1. Quiche sounds good. I was thinking of making one so that would be a great use of some of the smaller packages of ham I cut up.

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