Cheap groceries- Angel Food Ministries

[EMTGuard]

OK, first off, I'm not trying to spam the board.
Second, while the link I'm posting in this thread is to a religious group I am in no way endorsing that church or trying to evangalize to anyone on this list. As a very vocal Atheist I'm the last one who would normally bring up using the services of many church based aid programs.
Heck, I'm the guy who wears a Atheist cap out and about.
See?

Just took that here at my desk.
So if there's any problem with this thread I am perfectly fine with the moderators moving or removing it. I posted it in the General Discussions for greatest coverage.

ANYWAY....
The point is that we have had discussions here about how hard it is making ends meet while employeed as Security Officers. Many of us are barely scratching by. We look for ways to save money on the the things we buy.
Recently I read a newspaper article about a local church which had become part of the Angel Food http://www.angelfoodministries.com/default.asp network which is available in about 32 US States. It's not free. The deal is that it's like a bulk buy program. Local churches take orders for "menus" that are sent out each month and the orders are filled in Georga and shipped to the local churches to be distributed. Similar to the FDA commodities food program but without the requirements to be below the poverty line. Instead, you buy pay for the groceries, usually about $25 average. Because of the bulk buy they use you receive about $50+ of stuff.
A typical menu may look like this-
(4) 5 oz. Ribeye Steaks
(1) 3 lbs. Breaded Frying Chicken
(1) 2 lbs. Salisbury Steak Entree w/ Gravy
(1) 24.5 oz. Supreme Pizza
(1) 2 lb. Chicken Chunks
(1) 24 oz. Pork Roast
(1) 16 oz. Chicken Breast Fajitas
(1) 12 ct. Corn Tortilla
(1) 15 oz. Pork & Beans
(1) 16 oz. Fresh Carrots
(1) 24 oz. Homestyle Hashbrowns
(1) 16 oz. Corn
(1) 16 oz. Bean Soup Mix
(1) 5.5 oz. Pancake Mix
(1) 7.5 oz. Mac & Cheese
(1) 7 oz. Lasagna Dinner
(1) Dessert Item

That's about $25. You can preorder as menu menus as you want for $25 each. You can also spend about $18 each on Special Menus which are offered each month. Here's what was offered this month for us....
** One or more specials available only with the purchase of a regular unit. **
OCTOBER SPECIAL #1
Meat Combo Box - $18.00
(4 8-oz. T-Bones, 2 lb. Ribeye Roast)
OCTOBER SPECIAL #2
Strip Steak Special - $18.00
(4 8-oz. K.C. Strip Steaks, 4 8-oz. New York Strip Steaks)
OCTOBER SPECIAL #3
Family Convenience Meal Special from Golden Cuisine - $18.00
(Five Delicious Individual Dinner Entrees with 2 sides per meal: Cheese Manicotti, Macaroni & Beef, Beef Pattie & Gravy, Chicken & Noodle, Chicken Breast & Mushroom Sauce, Includes five breads, five milks, ten margarine cups, and five desserts.)
In a couple of weeks the orders arrive at the church, you show up with a big cardboard box and they send you home with your order.
You don't have to be in a specific economic range. As long as you have the money you can buy in. They even accept Food Stamps. If a godless hethen like me can take part, anyone can.

So, I drove out to the nearest church in the program last week and put in my order for one box. I'll get off work in a couple of Saturdays and stop by on my way home and pick up my order. I picked up a couple of fliers while at the church and passed on the info to my fellow Security officers. At least one of the Scale Operators we work with ordered a box also.
To learn more about the progam check out their website at http://www.angelfoodministries.com/default.asp .
There you will find tabs to click to find out if the program is available near you.
I hope this has been informative and useful to some here on the board.

Steve

[Ron Jessee]

sweet!, I've been riding the ramen railroad myself lately- but I do have a weapons collection and child support

[Lawson]

None in Washington

[NRM_Oz]

A work colleague used to live near a catering supplier who sold to the public but in bulk. He would buy a case or mixed case of tv dinner meals and would just charge us $2.00 each from the fridge at work. Good if you could get to cook or bring a feed with you. Usually you had 2 meals in a 12 hour night shift (day shift had a canteen). It is not only the cost but the lost sleeping time to get out and buy the stuff to cook and eat.

[ValleyOne]

That looks like a great deal... Wish they were out here in Oregon...

[SecTrainer]

Here's an article on saving money on food.

Amazing to me how hardly anybody clips coupons anymore. We only shop twice a month (on purpose) because it gives us time to accumulate coupons on things we really need (instead of whatever's in today's paper) because coupons usually run for 60 days or longer...and we typically save about $20 each trip.

Another tip: Eat your veggies!

Another tip: Take the time to eat breakfast - ideally one of the granola type cereals. You'll be much less ravenous and eat less at lunch.

Another tip: Speaking of lunch, brown-bag it - don't eat that fast food. (I'd do this if even if I was Bill Gates.) Not only is most fast food garbage (my dogs won't eat a Mickey D burger even without the sauce or pickles), but it ain't cheap anymore either. I remember when you could get a "sack of burgers" for a few bucks. Now, a couple of burgers, fries and a Pepsi (as rotten as all that is for you) will make you take out a bank loan.

Another tip: If you can afford it, see if you can find a real butcher shop and purchase beef in quarters, etc. It's usually the best meat you'll buy, and it can be quite a bit cheaper than at the grocery store. If you can, get a used freezer and stick it out in the garage, or else some shops will rent you a locker for your meat purchase. Some butcher shops have "family variety packs" that include pork, chicken as well as beef, etc.

Another tip: If you don't have a crock pot, get one. Some of the less expensive cuts of meat come out just fine after simmering all day in the crock.

Another tip: Turkey ain't just for Thanksgiving, and it's usually reasonably priced. You can get just the breast instead of a whole turkey, and make a whole lot of tasty sandwiches from that.

Another tip: There are places on the Interweb that sell certain foods such as canned goods, coffee, beans, rice, etc. by the case. NOT ALL ARE CHEAPER, but many are. So compare quantities and prices carefully. For instance, you can find instant coffee for around $6 a jar that would run you $8 or 9 in the grocery store.

Another tip: Limit bread to your lunch sandwiches. You don't need bread otherwise, and I don't know if you've noticed or not, but bread these days will set you back some bread.

Another tip: Eat less - it costs less! Eat slowly, chew every bite for about an hour and a half and make as many meals an opportunity to enjoy someone else's company as possible instead of eating alone. The benefits of this simple trick are enormous:

1. You'll actually taste what you're eating instead of it barely touching your tongue.

2. You'll have fewer digestive problems. Lots of people don't realize that a big part of digestion is supposed to take place in the mouth (saliva is a digestive juice) and so they pass along too much of the job to the stomach.

3. You'll be completely satisfied (and I mean JUST as satisfied) with less food because it takes about 20 minutes for the stomach to send the "full signal" to the brain. Many of us have already overeaten before the signal can be sent.

4. Fat is more readily digested than protein. This means that when you force food through your system rapidly, it will be picking up more of the fat content and less of the protein.

5. Beneficial fiber in your food is not as available to the system either when you do not thoroughly break down your food by chewing.

To slow down your eating, put your fork (or your sandwich) down between bites, chew thoroughly (learn to savor your food...experience it...don't just swallow it whole), completely empty your mouth and take a good sip of ice-cold water before taking another bite. Try to consume 8 oz of cold water during the meal...it will help fill you up. Note that I did not say "a 16-ounce soft drink". Switching to water is easy, will save you both bucks and calories.

Another tip: Also to eat less, don't eat so many different things at one meal. The more different things on your plate, the more you'll eat. Salad or soup, a meat dish and a vegetable for dinner...not soup, salad, meat, potatoes, corn on the cob, dinner rolls, cheese and dessert.

Another tip: The last biggie on eating less. Please don't roll yourself a fat boy before dinner (I'm sure none of us do that ) or drink wine with dinner. Either one will almost guarantee you're gonna chow down more than you would otherwise (doctors still sometimes prescribe wine before or during meals for people who have poor appetites)...and, of course, the more you eat, the bigger the food bill. NOTE: The heart-related benefits of red wine seem to be more and more well established. To get this benefit, have a sociable glass (not two!) after dinner...when it won't increase your appetite.

Follow all these tips and I bet you cut your food bill by 25%, maybe more.

[N. A. Corbier]

Crock pots are awesome. There is a lot of stuff you can do with "less than desirable" cuts of meat.

For beef or chicken, make fajitas or taco "meat." Cut it into proper strips, or shred it. Throw it and a 1/4th of a seasoning packet from McCormick or whoever into the crock pot. Throw in some water, then let it cook down.

I make chili with both ground beef and steak. It takes a better part of a day. My ex-girlfriend didn't like chili, but noted that what came out of the crockpot smelled good.

Pastas are also cheap, and good. Chili plus macaroni or spaghetti is good, a change of pace, and makes 2 days of chili (I eat a lot of chili when I make it... ) last up to five.

Also, WTF is wrong with Bread these days? Why is bread up to 3 dollars a loaf? This isn't fancy nuclear derived artesian bread (which any of us could make ourselves), this is freaking white bread!

Go find a bread outlet. There was one next to our apartment when I lived in Kenosha, literally 1 block away. "Old" bread is actually bread that has a shelf life of 2 weeks according to the date stamp. In the winter, the bread would last up to 2 months. (Seriously, we thought it was mutant Sara Lee bread.) In the summer, refrigerate it.

We would get every kind of bread and small cake that we wanted for... .59-.99 cents for bread. A dollar for hostess boxes. Stuff like that. Sara Lee pound cake (Which I love) was 1.50 a box. Not 3.75 like at Sentry.

I wish I could find a bread store that's a Sara Lee outlet around here.

[OccamsRazor]

Try to consume 8 oz of cold water during the meal...it will help fill you up. Note that I did not say "a 16-ounce soft drink". Switching to water is easy, will save you both bucks and calories.

And as a lot of oldsters and those of us with old injuries (shattered knee cap here) know, your bones and joints will greatly benefit from increased water consumption. As a chiropractor friend put it, "think of it as KY lube for your joints".

Arthritis sucks, but it sucks worse while dehydrated.

[SecTrainer]

You bring up a good point with the bread - find a "day-old" outlet. Prices are ridiculous, even for mostly-air-and-crap white bread, let alone any of the better whole grain type breads.

Refrigerating bread does keep it longer which brings up a few other points:

1. In terms of anything other than canned goods, buying in bulk is ONLY economical if you can eat what you buy, which means eating it all now or freezing some of it. Sometimes it's better to pass up that enormous "family pack" of pork steaks and buy a smaller package that won't get tossed away.

2. Keep your refrigerator set cold enough that food is not spoiling. I couldn't figure out why I could only get about 3 or 4 days of refrigerator time for milk, which would go south even before the sell-by date. I even took a gallon back to the store and complained. Then, I realized that my other half, in an "economy move", had turned the temperature up so it wasn't cooling the milk properly. This obviously was a false economy - to save a relatively few cents in electricity, we were losing more in spoilage. When I turned the fridge down a couple of notches, the grocery store mysteriously stopped selling me "bad" milk.

3. You can freeze a lot of foods that you don't think about freezing and keep them forever, practically - even certain cheeses. The secret to freezing most things is eliminating the air, which is where vacuum sealing really can save you money.

4. Eat up the leftovers. I have a friend who hates leftovers, and this forces his wife to (a) buy small amounts of things, and (b) shop frequently. As you can imagine, they end up paying through the nose for my friend's little personality quirk. Personally, I like leftovers, and often find that many dishes such as chili and home-made soups actually taste better the second time around.

5. Try using about half the amount of the meat/sauce that you're accustomed to pouring over your rice or pasta. You won't really notice the difference by cutting down on the sauce, and by saving half the sauce you can have another meal that's cheap, fast and tasty by just cooking up some more rice/pasta.

[Black Caesar]

I lost 15 pounds just switching frm soft drinks to water. I do still sometimes drink iced tea or fruit juices with meals, but not very often. Now a Coke or a Dr. Pepper is a once/twice a month treat, and I feel Sooooooo much better every night at work.

[Lawson]

I have just recently gone to no pop. I am trying to go to just water, but I will have something else every once in a while.

[OccamsRazor]

I do water nearly exclusively, but throw in an 'energy' drink of some sorts occasionally- making up for it with an extra 35 or so ounces of water (2 bottles).

[N. A. Corbier]

I need to flavor my water. Either those drink sticks, kool-aid (Yes, kool-aid), or more commonly, tea and coffee.

[CAPTAIN KOOLAID]

Kool aid

I need to flavor my water. Either those drink sticks, kool-aid (Yes, kool-aid), or more commonly, tea and coffee.

You can't drink me. lol I like the power aid flavored water it has help me lose a pants size. But I still love me coke.

[Lawson]

For flavor, I have started drinking Propel Fitness Water from the makers of Gatorade.