Tips for saving $$ at the supermarket

[Chef Mark]

Dear friends:

Please see my article right here on MomsMenu about ways of saving money at the supermarket:

http://www.momsmenu.com/food_for_thought/penny.shtml

[DeBora4BobbyL]

My biggest problem is my lifestyle. I go to graduate school full-time, work part-time, and I live in an RV while I am attending school. That means that my time and space are limited. Plus, 3 days out of the week, I work all day and go to school for 3 hours straight. I don't get home until after 10pm for 2 of those days. Next semester it will be 3 days of the week that I won't get home until after 10pm. I would love short cuts to saving time and money. I know the best thing that I can do thus far, is the planning ahead as you have mentioned in your article Chef Mark. I also think it is a great idea to keep paper handy to keep track of things you run out of. There is nothing worse than having to make a second trip to the store because of something forgotten.

[ajrsmom]

Good article filled with lots of good tips! :D

[barbszy]

Thanks for a great article, Chef Mark!

I do want to add that if you have a chance at a good size bunch of produce, why not invite a friend to share it with you? I have neighbors who will be happy to split a big bunch of something with me. None of us could use it up on our own.

A neighbor and I also buy rice in bulk together. I have a larger family, with older children, so I take more of it than she does. She pays for 1/4 of the 20-lb bag, and takes 5 pounds. I go through 15 pounds of rice in the time it takes her family to use 5. This really helps her more than me, because she doesn't have the storage for that much rice and I do. But to buy the rice in bulk is a big money saver for us both.

[DeBora4BobbyL]

Barb, do you ever save time by cooking more rice than you need and freezing some to heat up for later? If you do, how does it turn out? Also, do you eat white rice or brown rice? We eat brown rice.

[barbszy]

DeBora, actually I buy jasmine rice in bulk. It's much cheaper that way. A little more expensive than regular rice but we really like it.

I buy brown rice but a max of 5 pounds at a time because it doesn't keep as well as white rice.

If I have leftover rice I use it in fried rice (I can freeze the rice for that) or I use it up as a rice pudding or breakfast rice. I don't usually make extra rice on purpose. I have a rice cooker, so it's easy to just make it as we need it.

[DeBora4BobbyL]

Barb, this is a silly question, but can rice cookers cook brown rice? We rarely eat white rice and brown rice takes much longer to cook than the white.

[barbszy]

I cook brown rice in my rice cooker. I use more water with brown rice than I do with white. It takes about 40 minutes to cook the brown rice as opposed to 20 minutes for white.