I’m always on the search for things, that will give me the best bang for my buck. I want to feed my kids healthy meals, however I don’t want it to cost an arm and a leg. Our family likes to have meat for our suppers. Meat can get pretty pricey. On our busy days when we’ve got multiple things going on, I don’t want to have to worry about what’s for supper. I’m still struggling with my weekly meal planning, I seem to get on track for a couple of months then fall off. In the past on busy days, I’d just grab a Shepherds Pie or a Lasagna from the M&M meat-shop store. It’s quick and easy, all you have to do is pop it in the oven. The kids are big fans of it, and so am I…but the amount of calories in a small piece is outrageous. It’s not the greatest thing for someone trying to lose weight, so instead I’ve been looking at other alternatives. I’ll start off with Costco. If you don’t have a membership there, I highly recommend you get one. I love shopping at Costco for certain things. It depends what you plan on buying, sometimes it’s cheaper there and other times it’s not. I like to buy my meat there, especially a pork tenderloin.
Yes you have to do the work by cutting it up yourself, but in the long run it’s definitely worth saving some money. You can either cut it into just roasts, or all pork-chops. You could even do what I did, and do half and half! I’ve got three kids to feed, and there’s five of us total in our home. I like the stress-free feeling about not having to stress, about cooking supper. I can just put a roast in the crock-pot along with some spices, set it on low and it’s good to go. Since we’re a family of five I have to cut our roasts larger, I’m sure you could get more depending on how large your family is. I still think it’s a great value for what you’re paying, the prices vary for every pork-loin.
Another one I really like is chicken breast fillets. They’re awesome, you can eat them like that or you can cut them up easily to throw into a salad. They don’t come seasoned, I like seasoning mine with Garlic Plus. Or when I want something with no salt in it, I use some garlic and herb Ms. Dash. They only take 3o minutes in the oven at 375* to cook, and if you use a broil bake sheet and put some water on the bottom they come out awesome. It’s a favourite in our house, it’s like chicken fingers minus the breading. 
If your kids are anything like mine, they like to use ketchup. They even like using ketchup on odd things, stuff you wouldn’t normally use ketchup on! You could waste 4$ dollars, on yet another individual ketchup bottle. Or you can buy this can for a little over 6$ at Costco. I’m usually able to fill about three, almost four ketchup bottles with this one can. It’s definitely worth the savings.
I like going to buy my turkey meat and fish at Superstore. They’ve got these packages of, four extra lean ground turkey rolls in a bag for ten bucks. I’ll admit when you take the turkey out of the package to cook it looks a little odd. Although when it’s cooked it looks, and tastes the same as any other brand. Since I started buying it, I find that I prefer the lean ground turkey to beef. When eating at home that is.. lol. I also like to buy the ten-dollar bag of cod-fish from Superstore, it’s a steal of a price. Now for my produce and fruits I like to go to this FreeStone Produce place here in Calgary, they usually have lots of fresh fruits and veggies in bulk for cheap. It’s a really small store, and it’s usually quite busy if you go on the weekends. So if you go just try to go during the week.
This is perfect when I’m looking for bananas, berries, or tomatoes in bulk. You can always freeze the berries, so you have something later for smoothies. The banana’s are awesome for homemade muffins, or even pancakes. Now with school coming back in the next couple of weeks. Many parents are scrambling around, looking for healthy lunch ideas. You can always use a Tupperware container, for some berries, tomatoes, or even cucumbers. It’s a nice healthy snack, and your avoiding all those bad sugar filled snacks. Of course I’ve sent my kids to school with unhealthy snacks, but this year I really want to focus on it being most healthy foods.
Despite my love of fresh vegetables, I’m going to be real sometimes they go to the fridge to die. Which means frozen vegetable are another must have on my grocery list. There’s no specific kind, you can buy whichever. Personally I like to buy the Green Giant brand. It’s just the brand I’ve bought/had most of my life. I wait until it’s on sale, than I stock up. I like to buy the mixed veggies, or the Japanese style ones (because they’ve got water chestnuts.) My kids also really like broccoli, yes I know I’m lucky. No forcing of vegetables needs to happen in this house. 🙂
I started to buy the cut broccoli, it’s nice because it’s not the overwhelming broccoli sizes. When I’m about to cook supper I take a bag out of the freezer, and put it in my steamer. Then I put some water in the bottom, and put it in the microwave for 5-9 minutes. Depending on what I’m cooking, sometimes I don’t start it until I’m half done cooking supper. Voila you’ve got your whole meal, hot and ready to serve.
If you want to save money on your groceries, you just to have a well thought out plan. Always write a grocery list to take with you to the store. Try to plan out your meals and shopping for when you know somethings going to be on sale. Try only going to the grocery store twice a week, then drop it down to once a week. Don’t shop on an empty stomach, and try to find things that are both healthy and filling. If you notice that your running out of something, and you see it’s on sale go and stock up before you run out. That way you aren’t stuck buying things you absolutely need, when they’re full price. It’s not hard to eat healthy on a budget, it just requires more planning. I could probably yak longer, but here’s just some quick stuff I buy on a regular basis. If you’ve got any questions, post it in the comments.
What’s your favourite place to shop for groceries? What’s a must have item on your grocery list?
TTFN, Erika.