I haven't been to a grocery store for quite awhile, but I keep a watch on prices and sales through mygrocerydeals.com and, of course, from what I read on the Dollar Stretcher Community as well as listening to friends and family complain!
So... grocery shopping is on my to-do list today and I'm dreading it because prices just keep going up and up and up some more.
One thing I have to buy is milk... yikes. You can bet I'm going to be using every cheap tactic I can find to keep that cost under control. To begin with, half of what I buy will be frozen right away because I don't plan on using a full half gallon before its expiration date. I could buy less, but that would cost more in the long run.
Which leads to some really cheap tricks to save milk:
When you need a cupful, use 3/4 of a cup and add 1/4 cup of water. I've yet to see it make any difference at all in a recipe, not even chowders and puddings.
When the container is empty, or almost, add a couple of tablespoons of water to it, and swish it around to get the very last out of it.
Powdered milk is usually cheaper than fresh and more so right now, but watch out because the price will probably catch up. Be sure to do the math! Just because it's powdered doesn't guarantee that it's cheaper. The one saving factor of powdered milk is that it keeps for a long time so you won't usually waste money by having it go bad.
I don't like the taste of powdered milk so I add just a little to the container to stretch fresh milk. I sometimes rinse out the measuring cup after using it to measure milk or mix powdered milk for a recipe. Just a couple of teaspoon or so of water does it, then I pour this into the fresh milk container.
I've used water instead of milk to make scrambled eggs for a long time. Not only does it work just as well (cheaper), you get fewer calories.
Well, there are my frugal confessions for the day. Wish me luck at the grocery store!
Good call with the milk! I'm a firm believer in freezing-- if you make friends with the dairy manager in your store, he/she will let you know when milk at that store usually nears its expiration date, resulting in bigger consumer savings. They don't want to have to send too much back to their distributer, after all. I just bought a gallon of whole milk for $.50!
ReplyDeleteI have a quick suggestion to "milk" your eggs, if you will. I use mostly egg whites in my eggs (scrambled or omelets), and refridgerate the extra yolks for up to 2 days. These can be used to make pancakes the next day, with a little extra water to make up for the missing white, and you have a low cholesterol breakfast for 2 days, since the egg yolk is only an ingredient in pancakes, not the main course. Also good in any baking endeavor!
Keep posting! This is a fantastic blog!
Great idea about the eggs, thanks! They're 'way expensive, too.
ReplyDelete