Brandon and I are trying to save money and my personal area of weakness (as you can probably guess) is baking/food. It is almost like I walk into the grocery store with 5 things on my list, and it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to walk out with anything less than 10 things... okay let's be real, more like 20 things. I usually shop at HyVee since it is close, I started working there, and I think they have a lot of good products and selection. It seems like there is always some kind of good deal going on as well, and I am a huge fan of their Fuel Buster program. Pretty much you sign up for this card that they swipe on your checkout and it keeps track of the money you earn. For instance I bought a certain pizza last week and since I bought it, I get 10 cents off per gallon of gas the next time I fill up my car. The money keeps accumulating until you use it (or it expires after a month if you don't use it). The last time I filled up, I ended up paying $2.29 per gallon for gas! But anyway... I am getting off track of my original point. I see good deals, fuel savers, food that just looks good that I don't really "need", and I know I buy way too many groceries for just the 2 of us. Granted most of the things I buy that we don't need at the moment are on a good sale. I simply put it in the freezer, or it has a long shelf life or something like that so we can use it later. Butter was an example... usually it is somewhere around $3-$3.50 for a pound, but one particular day it was $1 a pound. The ad said "limit 2 please", so Brandon and I paid separately and we each got our limit. (We may or may not have stopped back later in the day and do the same thing...) I know we didn't really need 8 pounds of butter, but it keeps well in the freezer and I know we would use it eventually, so why not get it when it is on sale? Sorry, I'm rambling again, I will stay on topic now...
So one strategy we are trying for saving money when it comes to groceries is planning out a menu for the week based on the ads/sales, figuring out the ingredients for the recipes, and then go shopping and ONLY GET WHAT IS ON THE LIST. (I realize this it NOT rocket science and a pretty basic concept, but it is hard for me). I think what helps the most is planning what we are going to have for lunch/supper each day so I don't have to come up with something last minute.
So to finally get to the title of this blog, I bought a rotisserie chicken and will be using it for a few meals. Tonight I cleaned it all up, took the skin off, and got all the good meat off the bones and chopped it up. I ended up with a pretty big bowl full too. Tonight I used some of the meat to make chicken quesadillas. Tomorrow I was planning BBQ chicken sandwiches, and the next meal could be chicken salad sandwiches. When I stop and think about it, by planning out three meals from this one chicken (that was $4.99) it is pretty darn good.
I will have to let you know how the rest of my menu planning goes :)
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