How to Save Money on Food (sell, sale, best, prices)
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I have multiple good grocery stores in my area -- and I have time as I am retired. So I am a "cherry picker"and drive to several stores and buy mostly all their sale items. Just checked the Harris Teeter weekly flyer which comes out on Wednesday and see they have chicken leg quarters for 99 cents. I will buy a big pack and freeze some. They also do the BOGO (buy one get one free) and you don't have to buy two -- you can get one at half price. They have yukon gold potoatoes at BOGO and the larger Quaker Oats -- will buy both of those.
I hope you wait a day and shop on "Old Folks" Thursday, where you get a 5% discount.
or... Grow (raise) your own livestock, poultry, and produce (not always cheap, but you know what you're consuming)
The conversations tend to be... "Do you want to go out to eat?" ... "Not really, I prefer home cooked food and ingrediants" (And no loud blaring music(?), n o waiting in line, no grumpy servers, no one chopping off your Catalytic Converter while you eat, less chance of being carjacked while at home). I should learn to tip more at home The cook(s) deserve it and will put it to good use.
Just yesterday talking with a few neighbors who share the wealth (of our local homegrown food and livestock and plenty of wild game and fish). The nearest neighbor has an entire chest freezer of local wild mushrooms, and we each have freezers of salmon and beef and venison. (and we have one filled with berries, wild and domestic). We are hosting and getting together tomorrow night for a neighborhood feast. (frequent). Nothing fancy, just come and enjoy each other and our bounty. No need to bring anything, there is always plenty. Summers we BBQ at the neighbor's pond, with 10#+ trout. Or buy from Native American fishery ($3/#)
The PNW (50 - 100" of dreadful drizzle) is quite a good location for WTSHTF, barring any drops into the ocean, or an invasion from China, USSR (renegades), or NK. Could happen.
Soils seem to have been happy with Mt St Helens ash. (It's only 30 miles away)
Forest replenishes firewood and timber every 20 yrs.
Cows can graze all summer for free (no hay required), then make an early entrance to the freezer.
Train recently took out 28 head of elk, but I still see 50+ in the local herd.
gardens? Consider they look like Jurrassic Park by Sept. , even if you plant in June.
Apples and tree fruit? Plentiful for gleaning, or... buy windfalls / discards by the 1000# bin. The cows get a bin just for themselves, and the chickens and pigs get the grindings from the Cider Press.
"Fruit 'finished' livestock seems to be nice flavor.
Can you post a link to the 3.00 per lb Native American raised/caught fish?
Also what kind of trout are you pulling out of a pond that are 10# or more?
The best savings I get on food is through loyalty. I can't fathom spending $1.75 in gasoline to drive to another store just to save $1.05 on some food item. Nor can I imagine spending 25 cents less at another store which means no 50 cents off coupon from your own store's loyalty program.
I added up all the discount coupons my store sends based on my repeated purchases and spending habits that no amount of bargain hunting can match that amount of loyalty savings. I just spent $160 on groceries and low and behold, there was a $15 best customer coupon applied for spending $150. I doubt I would have saved that amount after driving all over town shopping circulars and discounts especially since the $160 was after they applied all my other individual product loyalty savings coupons.
Loyalty goes a long way in food savings than some off the street shopper buying a couple cans of discounted tuna fish.
Can you post a link to the 3.00 per lb Native American raised/caught fish?
This may shock some people, but not everything in life can be validated or "proven" with an internet link. Sounds like he probably bought it direct at a local market.
Can you post a link to the 3.00 per lb Native American raised/caught fish?
Also what kind of trout are you pulling out of a pond that are 10# or more?
In the Columbia Gorge, the Native Americans are exempt from the fishing laws and so a few of them will sit in a good spot and catch salmon or other fish and sell them out of an ice chest at rest areas.
There are several Native owned and operated fish hatcheries in the PNW, although I don't have any information about their selling of fish.
The record trout caught in Washington weighed 35.36 pounds (Lake Trout). The record trout in Oregon weighed 40 pounds (Mackinaw trout)
Steelhead can go up to 35 pounds, rainbows up to 28 pounds.
Kokanee which are easily caught don't get any bigger than 10 pounds, but they can be pretty close to that weight. It's easy fishing to catch a legal limit of Kokanee and the limit amount is generous, up to 25 in a day and you are allowed to have three day's worth at a time.
If you go down to the docks when the fishing boats come in, you can often buy whole fish, flash frozen, for about the same cost as the wholesalers are paying to the fisherman, and that is puny amount compared to what you would pay for the same fish in a market
In the Columbia Gorge, the Native Americans are exempt from the fishing laws and so a few of them will sit in a good spot and catch salmon or other fish and sell them out of an ice chest at rest areas.
There are several Native owned and operated fish hatcheries in the PNW, although I don't have any information about their selling of fish.
The record trout caught in Washington weighed 35.36 pounds (Lake Trout). The record trout in Oregon weighed 40 pounds (Mackinaw trout)
Steelhead can go up to 35 pounds, rainbows up to 28 pounds.
Kokanee which are easily caught don't get any bigger than 10 pounds, but they can be pretty close to that weight. It's easy fishing to catch a legal limit of Kokanee and the limit amount is generous, up to 25 in a day and you are allowed to have three day's worth at a time.
If you go down to the docks when the fishing boats come in, you can often buy whole fish, flash frozen, for about the same cost as the wholesalers are paying to the fisherman, and that is puny amount compared to what you would pay for the same fish in a market
And my ask is where the 3.00 fish is seeing as how that well below the price of bologna and pushing the loss leader of Costco chickens it’s a steal or the natives are being ripped off
I’m asking specifically about Trout in a pond, specially the neighbors pond
I do try to shop on the "senior day" to get the extra 5% BUT I have found that about every 3 weeks HT offers a $5 off $30 deal (I get an email from them but if you have a VIC card it is automatically applied) which runs only Friday thru Tuesday -- the ads change starting on Wednesday. So if I limit myself to about $30 and go on Friday (which is what I did today) that discount is closer to 9% and feels like a better deal. It also makes me tally up things in my head and stay to a strict shopping list. I pretty much only buy what is on sale.
The best savings I get on food is through loyalty. I can't fathom spending $1.75 in gasoline to drive to another store just to save $1.05 on some food item. Nor can I imagine spending 25 cents less at another store which means no 50 cents off coupon from your own store's loyalty program.
I added up all the discount coupons my store sends based on my repeated purchases and spending habits that no amount of bargain hunting can match that amount of loyalty savings. I just spent $160 on groceries and low and behold, there was a $15 best customer coupon applied for spending $150. I doubt I would have saved that amount after driving all over town shopping circulars and discounts especially since the $160 was after they applied all my other individual product loyalty savings coupons.
Loyalty goes a long way in food savings than some off the street shopper buying a couple cans of discounted tuna fish.
An astute shopper takes all things into consideration.
In no particular order, learn to cook, learn to use spices, store left overs, cook for the week so food just needs to be warmed up, make lots of stews and casseroles (haven't started that one yet). Cook from raw goods, buy the cheaper cuts of meat to use in the stews, learn to bake.
Buy a freezer and buy things on sale and keep them in there until ready to use, even day old bread from Wally World. Consider buying big cuts for what they cost at the individual portions. Buy family packs, game day packs and freeze.
I love StealthRabbits idea of potlucks as. way to save $ on food.
The area we decided upon moving to, well 10 min up is a different town but a tiny community with a community center. Every Saturday they have a coffee chat and let anyone sell what they want which is a small handful of people who grow items. I thought it would be fun to join and have a monthly potluck.
If we get back into cycling heavy enough and join a cycling group, a monthly potluck might be a great idea.
Much better than eating out. We only eat out at Wendys for their Biggie Bags about 3x a month but I've heard the prices are increasing so we'll see.
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The cook(s) deserve it and will put it to good use. 
