CUT YOUR GROCERY BILLS IN HALF!

Transcription

1 CUT YOUR GROCERY BILLS IN HALF! Another money-saving White Paper from Independent Living newsletter HIGHLIGHTS: #1 shopping habit that is a colossal waste of money Decisive steps that put cash in your pocket Leading causes of ever-higher food prices How to ask for and get unadvertised discounts Save 24 percent or more on your meat purchases One tip alone that saves 15% to 45% on groceries Simple trick for eliminating wasted food And much more!

2 CUT YOUR GROCERY BILLS IN HALF! Another money-saving White Paper from Independent Living newsletter By Lee Bellinger and Heather Robson Dear Valued Reader: Every day more and more families struggle under the crush of rising food prices. If you believe official government statistics, food prices are rising between 5.3 and 7.8 percent per year. But since government officials routinely and grossly under-report any type of bad news, there can be little doubt that grocery price inflation is well into the double digits. That s a heavy load to bear for millions of American families especially those on a fixed income, unemployed, or who just haven t seen a cost of living wage increase in a while. When food prices go up, you have to cut back on other things often important things like quality medical care, saving for retirement or emergencies, or paying down debt. I can tell you from extensive research and personal experience that doing all your food shopping at a conventional supermarket is a colossal waste of money! Fortunately, taking decisive steps to dramatically reduce your basic food budget is an easy (and essential) first step toward smart self-reliance... and will put cash in your pocket to pay for other purchases. With some minor adjustments in how you buy groceries, you can save as much as a whopping 50 percent on your personal food bills. If you ve read my Ultimate Self Reliance Mega-Manual, you learned how the foods you purchase at your local supermarket are expensively over-packaged to make tiny portions appear to be bigger than they are. (Bags of snack food that are 60% air? This is just for starters in terms of how most consumers get fleeced every time they set foot in a supermarket, or worse, a convenience store.) As with all the recommendations in any publication I send to you, I have personally tested and implemented them. Saving BIG money on food is easier than you think if you learn the ropes, know the traps to avoid, and plan ahead. In this report, you ll find several strategies you can use to start saving on food bills from basic changes to your shopping habits to more involved ideas like growing and/or canning some of your own food. Independent Living 377 Rubin Center Dr Suite 203 Fort Mill, SC

3 2 Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half! Each strategy offers significant savings on your food bills. When taken together, you can cut your food bills in half from where they are now. If this sounds too good to be true, stick with me and I ll prove it to you in the next several pages. The Only Thing Predictable About Current Food Prices is that They re Unpredictable Average food prices have risen steadily during the last decade, and increased volatility in the market means experts and government officials alike expect those prices to keep going up. A growing demand for food in countries with rapidly expanding economies, a higherthan-average number of devastating weather-related events, and agricultural resources being wasted on inefficient biofuel production are all straining our food supply to its limit. That means higher and higher food bills with no end in sight. Even in the U.S., where food demands are relatively stable, food prices are rising faster than overall inflation. You d never know it to listen to government happy-talk, but you sure feel it every time you check out at the local supermarket. If you re already struggling to control your grocery bills, it s likely to get worse. I m bringing you this report to help you save money now and to help you be better prepared for an uncertain future. Easy Ways to Dramatically Slash Your Grocery Bill The first thing to do when you re looking to cut your grocery bill is to examine your current shopping habits in an effort to find some easy ways to cut costs. Storage, menu planning, and shopping habits can all change the landscape when it comes to the size of your food bill. So, let s start there. Set Yourself Up for Success The ability to stock up on good buys, whether it s meats, frozen foods, canned vegetables or even milk, can make a substantial difference in how much you re spending on your groceries. Think about it. If your family eats an average of four pounds of ground beef in a month and you usually pay $2.89 per pound for ground chuck, when your favorite store runs a special on that same ground chuck for $2.19 per pound, it makes sense to buy two or three months worth if the store will allow that big a purchase. In fact if you look around, you may find some stores that specialize in larger bundles of meat. The Karn s chain in central Pennsylvania, for example, has weekly specials on meat sold in ten pound packages. Deals like these can save you 24 percent or more on your meat purchases for however many meals worth you purchased. Confidential Subscriber Briefing 2012 American Lantern Press

4 Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half! 3 Not too bad. And easy to do, so long as you have a place to store it. I would also not be shy about negotiating for groceries. That s right, negotiating. If your favorite store s competitor is running a great deal on meat, don t be afraid to ask the meat manager at your store to match it. And even if he can t match it exactly, he may be able to give you a special unadvertised price on a similar cut. This tactic will probably work best if you are a recognized customer, if you show the manager the other store s ad, and if you make your request for a discount outside the earshot of other customers. Then after profusely thanking the meat manager for the deal, be sure to seek out the store manager before you leave the store. Tell her about the great service you got in the meat department. (No need to mention that you got a special deal.) Chances are this meat manager may approach you with a money-saving deal next time he sees you. Of course you can work this same tactic in other departments produce, dairy, what have you. Capitalizing on specials (or requesting your own special) is your first task when it comes to cutting down on your grocery bills. Next you want to optimize your pantry and freezer so that you can snatch up great deals whenever you find them. How to Set Up an Expanded Pantry The first thing you need is a cool, dry place to store your dry goods. Your home may have a built in pantry in the kitchen many modern homes do. You can also purchase affordable shelves from your local home improvement store and create an expanded pantry space in your basement or garage. You do need to be careful with garage storage, though. Garage temperatures tend to fluctuate widely throughout the year and that can cause foods to spoil before their expiration date. If you don t have a kitchen pantry, garage, or basement to work with (or if you just want even more space for storage) a hallway linen closet is the perfect place. It stays at an even temperature most of the time, which makes it ideal. Avoid bathroom linen closets the extra humidity and heat from the shower make it a poor choice. Relocate the items in your linen closet to under-the-bed storage or any other place you ve got. Then start using your new pantry to store big purchases from the grocery store. Now you ve got a place to keep your cans and boxes when you find an extra good sale at the market. So, stock up! How to Purchase the Right Freezer for You For items that aren t shelf stable like meats and fruits and vegetables, a good stand-alone freezer makes it possible for you to stock up on bargains. American Lantern Press 377 Rubin Center Dr Suite 203 Fort Mill, SC

5 4 Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half! When buying a freezer, the first thing to consider is the size. For each cubic foot of freezer space, you ll be able to store about 35 pounds of food. That sounds like a lot, and even a small freezer will make it possible for you to cut your grocery bills. But, depending on how much you plan to store and how much you want to save, I recommend you get the largest freezer that s practical for the space you re in. An upright freezer is a little less fussy when it come to organization, but a chest freezer works just as well, is less expensive to buy, and costs less to run, so that s my preference. See Appendix B at the end of this report for tips on rotating foods and using your freezer wisely. Savings Quick Tip: When you purchase your freezer, buy a backup battery for it at the same time. A freezer battery costs about $20 and will help you preserve your food even when the power goes out. Deal Shopping 101 Once you ve got your storage plan in place, you re ready to start saving. The first thing to do is review how you typically shop and start making improvements from square one. In the typical household, you plan a menu, make a list, and go shopping. That seems logical and I understand why people do it, but it s also a habit that results in spending more money than you need to and to setting yourself up to waste food. When you plan a dinner for each night of the week, most people don t think about planning for leftovers and crossover ingredients. By doing a little big picture planning, you cut down on the number of things you need to buy and that helps cut both spending and waste. Also, if you wait to find out what specials are running particularly on meats you can build your menus around what s at the best price and save big-time. Plan Big Picture Menus For example, if I were to plan a week-long dinner menu that had hamburgers, chicken enchiladas, pork chops, a pot roast, and fish, then I ve to buy totally different ingredients for every night of the week. I d be buying five different kinds of meats and lots of things that come in bigger packages than I need, especially if I m planning on feeding only two to four people. On the other hand, if I plan to have roasted chickens, chicken ranch sandwiches, chicken and dumpling soup, pork roasts and pulled pork sandwiches, I ll spend a lot less buying for that menu. Just the meat alone for the first menu would run around $30 depending on the size of the packages you buy, what cuts you buy, and the average prices in your region. For the second menu, I d expect to spend around $15 on the meats a 50 percent savings right there. Confidential Subscriber Briefing 2012 American Lantern Press

6 Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half! 5 For the first menu, I d have to buy around 20 additional ingredients to pull that week s menu items together. For the second menu, I d need only about 15. In most cases I d have unused portions of those 20 ingredients from the first menu, many of which wouldn t keep well. But, I d use nearly everything I purchased for the second menu. Depending on what you purchase to round out your menu, this strategy can save between 15 and 45 percent on your grocery bill. That s without shopping for deals, without coupons, without any extra strategies at all. Planning for Savings Another good strategy for planning your menus is to tour the store before making your list. Note what items you use that are on sale for a good price. You could also pick up a copy of the store s weekly flyer, and ask in each department about what s on special. Then stop for a cup of coffee (most stores around here have a coffee shop either on the premises or close by) and make your menu plan based on the special prices you observed while in the store. For example, our local employee-owned grocery store runs some amazing specials on meats from time to time. They usually have at least one really good special per week. Sometimes they ll have rib-eye steaks on special for $4.98 per pound instead of $8.98 per pound. Sometimes their pork roasts run at less than $2 per pound when they re usually around $4. They don t advertise these specials. But if I walk in and see them, I can plan two or three meals around those specials and save quite a bit. This brings an extra layer of savings to big picture menu planning and may be enough to push your grocery bill below the halfway mark. But, I m not going to stop there. I ve got lots of great ways you can save you can mix and match these strategies to suit your own needs and style, and immediately start saving some big bucks on your food bill. Learn Your Grocery Store Options You may think that prices on items at different supermarkets are within a couple of percentage points of each other, but they can vary widely. By finding the grocery store nearest you that offers the best prices on the things you buy, you could cut anywhere from 10, 20, even 40 percent from your average grocery bill. Here s how you do this: 1. Plan a day to do a comparison check of all your local supermarket options. American Lantern Press 377 Rubin Center Dr Suite 203 Fort Mill, SC

7 6 Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half! 2. Make a list of 20 to 30 things you regularly buy. Include milk, butter, bread, two or three meat selections, a few snack selections, your favorite fruits and vegetables, some staples like cooking oil and flour, and some domestics like toilet paper. 3. On your chosen day, take your list and a calculator from store to store and find what the total cost would be at each location. If you cut just ten dollars from your grocery bill each week by finding the store with the best buys, you ll save $520 per year. Cut $20 per week, and you ll save more than a thousand annually. 4. Make sure you compare the regular prices at each store. Pay attention to the sales, but you re looking for the store that has the best everyday prices on the things you re likely to buy. 5. Take note of the two or three stores that have the best prices overall, and begin doing your shopping at one of those locations on a regular basis. Don t forget to visit your local discount club store, like Sam s Club or Costco. I don t recommend you do your weekly shopping at these kinds of stores. Rather do a monthly trip to pick up things like canned goods, cooking oils, domestic items, and certain meats and dairy products. The more familiar you get with the prices at your local grocery store, the easier it will be to recognize when you ve found a really good deal at your big-box store. Depending on the type of products you purchase, you can realize significant savings. Your total savings will probably be around 30 percent. But depending on the types of products you buy, you may find that number is even bigger. Cereals, breads, snack items, and baking items are often about 40 percent cheaper than at regular grocery stores. Two big box caveats to watch out for: Just because something is packaged in bulk doesn t mean it s cheaper. Get familiar with the per unit pricing of the items you buy most so you know when you re getting a good deal and when you re not. It s easy to overbuy or to buy things you don t really need. Just like any other grocery trip, it s best to go in with a list and stick to it. When you do find good deals on things you ll actually use, stock up and put those items in storage. Carefully label and package meats before freezing. Most meat will keep for a year in the freezer when packaged properly. Just make sure you use the meat you purchase before it spoils. There s no bigger waste of grocery money than wasted food. You also want to visit any stores in your area that actually specialize in savings. In Pennsylvania, for example, a small local chain called BB s Grocery Outlet offers quality groceries at unexpectedly good prices. Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, on the West Coast, buys surplus products and product overruns. They don t offer a consistent product line but you can find many common brand name items there, often at half the retail cost (or better). Another Confidential Subscriber Briefing 2012 American Lantern Press

8 Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half! 7 example is Trader Joe s, a national grocery chain that provides gourmet food options at very reasonable prices. Local, year-round farmer s markets provide another great option for savings. It s not my position to endorse these stores necessarily, only to bring to your attention that you may be able to find great savings by looking for alternatives to the usual chains. Couponing Without Going to Extremes Extreme couponing is quite the fad right now to the point where it s a little silly sometimes. You see people in line at the grocery store with eight jumbo bottles of mustard just because they can get a good deal with coupons. It takes me a while to get through a bottle of mustard eight big bottles would probably be a lifetime supply. But, you can use coupons to save on groceries without going overboard. Just make sure you use coupons on items you actually want and would normally buy anyway. Spending on something you don t really want just to say you got a great deal doesn t make sense when your big goal is to save money. In 2011, manufacturers and stores report that shoppers redeemed $4.6 billion worth of coupons. Shoppers themselves report an average of 11.5 percent savings on their grocery bills from coupons. Tips for coupons: Get the Sunday paper and collect coupons for items you normally buy. Visit the websites for your favorite stores each week they ll often have coupons you can print out. Find out about double coupon days. Ask about your grocery store s matching policy on other store coupons. Sign up for your store s membership card for extra deals. Check your store s privacy policy before taking this step, though, and make sure you re comfortable with the terms and conditions. To take the best advantage of coupons, you need to organize them. A coupon wallet is what I recommend. It isn t bulky, so it s easy to grab and take with you to the store. I suggest organizing your coupons by category or by expiration date. When you make your grocery list, look through your coupons and pull the ones you know you ll use. American Lantern Press 377 Rubin Center Dr Suite 203 Fort Mill, SC

9 8 Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half! Less Processing Means a Lower Price The more processed a food is, the more it s likely to cost. For example, on my most recent grocery trip, I found that whole chickens were $.89 per pound. Skinless, boneless chicken breasts were $3.98 per pound. Unless I m serving chicken breasts, I m more than 75 percent better off if I purchase and roast the whole chicken and pull the meat I need. Whole chicken meat works for Caesar salads, stir fries, enchiladas, soups and more. If I buy breast for these types of meals, I m just frittering money away. Another great example is popcorn. Sure, microwave popcorn is easy. But it costs five times as much to buy microwave popcorn as it does to buy popcorn kernels. With an air popper or deep pan and a little oil, you can have popcorn that s tastier than that microwave stuff and 80 percent cheaper. Potato chips are $.19 per ounce. That works out to $3.04 per pound. Potatoes cost about $.29 per pound that s a 91 percent difference! Did you know you can slice potatoes with a mandolin and deep fry them in a couple dollars worth of oil (oil that you can strain, store, and reuse several times) for the best tasting potato chips you ll ever eat? Another example of how processing bumps up the price of food is cheese. If you buy 8 ounces of pre-sliced cheddar cheese, you ll pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.47 for the package. You can buy two pounds of unsliced cheese for $5.97 in my neck of the woods. Slice it yourself and save 57 percent. Also steer clear of buying cheese in the deli department; it s almost always cheaper in the dairy section. Look for things you can do yourself and reduce the amount of processing you pay for. You ll save big, big bucks. The Price of Processing: A Dollar to Dollar Comparison Chicken Popcorn Potato Chips Cheese More Processing Less Processing Confidential Subscriber Briefing 2012 American Lantern Press

10 Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half! 9 Bulk Dry Goods A Great Source of Savings When most people talk about buying in bulk, they mean buying a lot of one type of item. Time was buying in bulk meant buying unpackaged dry goods. You can still find stores that sell some dry goods in bulk. These stores have bins of different products that you scoop into plastic bags and pay for by the pound. The savings can be dramatic. Price Comparison: Packaged Foods vs. Bulk Goods Nuts Cinnamon Cereal Flour Packaged Bulk As you can see from the chart, the savings you can find through dry bulk goods varies. And, sometimes, you can actually do better on the packaged goods. It pays to know that per unit average price. An informed shopper has the best chance of getting the best deal. Check Out the Store Brands A lot of grocery stores have respectable store brands that offer good quality on items you probably usually buy under a brand name. Everything from crackers to juice to bread to soup is available through a store brand. Again the savings can be impressive. Price Comparison: Name Brands vs. Store Brand Canned Tomatoes Bread Soup Pasta Brand Name Store Brand Again, savings vary when you shop the store brands. On some items, you ll save 25 percent and others you ll save over 50 percent. American Lantern Press 377 Rubin Center Dr Suite 203 Fort Mill, SC

11 10 Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half! Between looking for foods that have been through less processing, shopping in the bulk dry goods section (especially for dried herbs and spices), and buying the store brand, you can easily reduce how much you re spending on staple items by anywhere from 25 to a whopping 80 percent. Start Tracking Your Waste Another easy way to cut your grocery bill is to buy less food. According to the EPA, Americans throw away 34 million tons of food every year. That means each person in the country discards around 226 pounds of food each year. The more you cut down on that number, the more you ll save each year. Here s what to do: 1. Purchase a notebook to use for tracking your food waste. Keep it in the kitchen with a pen. 2. Every time you throw out food from your fridge, from your cupboard, or after a meal, make a note of what you threw out and roughly how much in your notebook. 3. After a month or so, start reviewing your notebook for patterns right before you make your grocery list. 4. Adjust your grocery list according to what you see. If you re throwing out half a box of crackers every other week, maybe you should buy a smaller box. True, the cost per pound will be higher, but that only helps you save if you actually eat the product. You could also buy a better storage container to help your foods keep better. Your tracking notebook will reveal where you need improvement. How you improve is up to you. Knowing what you purchase only to throw out will help you reduce the size of your grocery purchases and that will add up to hundreds of dollars in savings every year. Long-Term Food Storage: Things to Consider The foods that have the longest shelf lives are also the cheapest to buy. That means you can actually build up a larger reserve of food for your family and even your neighbors while saving money and hedging against inflation. Purchasing foods with longer shelf lives means less care is needed in rotating food stores (i.e., eating your old stocks of food and replacing it with new food). The longer the shelf life of food you store for an emergency, the less time you have to spend replenishing and rotating it. And the more money you stand to save. Confidential Subscriber Briefing 2012 American Lantern Press

12 Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half! 11 Canned Foods Most canned foods have a relatively short shelf life. After six months to one year, most start to taper off in their nutritional content. They re usually still edible after one year; they just won t supply the nutrients you would expect them to normally have or necessarily taste as good as they once would have. The exceptions to this rule are canned meats and non-citrus fruits; these can often be stored for well over a year before their contents start to lose nutritional value. The approximate one-year shelf life of most canned foods puts a limit on the amount of food you can store. So you must plan on consuming the older canned foods periodically before they go bad and then rotate in newer canned foods into your inventory to replace what you consume. Otherwise, you ll have to discard cans that have exceeded their shelf life (or donate them to charity). While this might be a viable option if you want to make regular contributions to a food kitchen or some similar charity, it doesn't strictly make good financial sense. Ideally you ll keep up to a year's worth of extra canned food on hand for an emergency. But if you want a buy-and-forget emergency food supply, then you'll need to supplement your canned foods stash. Dry Goods Other commercial foods have storage lives of more than a year. These include bouillon, instant cream, nuts, cereals, and some types of fats and vegetable oil. Vegetable oils last longer than lard or similar products and are better for you health-wise. Olive oil lasts the longest and may be used after several years if care is taken to keep it cool and away from exposure to the light. Pasta products (dried spaghetti, macaroni, noodles, etc.) have shelf lives of two years. All types of flour will also have shelf lives of two years. The big plus of pasta and flour is that they are inexpensive and they can be used to create a wide variety of food with the addition of a few simple ingredients and spices. The downside to these foods is that you once again are presented with the need to either rotate and use supplies or otherwise dispose of them within a year or two. Freeze-Dried Food Storage Freeze-dried and dehydrated foods have storage lives of five to six years or with modern canning techniques and the use of inert gases, up to ten years. These have the added plus of tasting better than many canned foods and, most importantly in an emergency situation, these foods are quick and easy to prepare provided you have a good source of water. Be sure you do if you opt for these types of food. Ideally you ll heat these foods to make them more palatable. American Lantern Press 377 Rubin Center Dr Suite 203 Fort Mill, SC

13 12 Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half! The Best Long-Term Food Storage Options Some foods can be stored for a very, very long time. Among the best of these items are certain grains, coffee, tea, cocoa, salt, sugar, and spices. Over time they may lose some of their taste while still remaining quite edible. Provided you keep them cool and dry, they ll last a very, very long time. You ll want to store a lot of salt. It can be used as a barter item and is essential for processing foods and making them palatable. Not only that, it is essential (in small quantities) for good health something many people may learn the hard way if they ever go through a period when this commodity becomes scarce. A lack of salt leads to a condition called hyponatremia, and moderate symptoms include tiredness, disorientation, headache, muscle cramps, and nausea. Severe hyponatremia can lead to seizures and coma. Generally, a person needs about one-sixth of an ounce (about 5 grams) to one-third of an ounce of salt per day. Most people get more than enough salt through processed foods and meals at restaurants, so they don t need to add salt to their foods. However, if you are relying on grains, raw fruits and vegetables, and fresh fish/meat as staples in your diet, then you may very well need to add salt to your food. If you re going to store grains for processing, then you should also store packets of dry yeast. Leaving dough exposed to the air might allow you to create a culture of yeast that could be used in baking. But this will take a while. It s easier to create stock from a bit of dough that already has yeast in it. Packets of yeast that remain in a cool, dry spot will store for many years. Unprocessed grains give you the most nutritional calories for your money. And when they are stored properly, they last almost forever. This makes them ideal for many people who have the space to store them. At the time of this writing it is possible to buy enough food to feed a family of four for one year (or more) for just a couple thousand dollars (or less). Once the food is purchased and stored away in a basement in the airtight plastic containers it comes in, it can be forgotten about until it is needed. The storage life of wheat that s kept sealed and dry is easily several decades, if not centuries. Dried beans, soybeans, oats, barley, corn, and other grains will all last for a lifetime if you take care to keep them cool and dry. The only caveat with grains and beans is that they are also appetizing to mice, rats, and a variety of insects. If you buy your grain packed in an inert gas inside plastic buckets, this takes care of the insect and mouse dangers. However, rats will occasionally chew through these plastic containers; be sure to place poisons and traps around your store if there is any chance such vermin could reach it. Because of the many different considerations that go into long-term food storage, I ve done my own research and come up with a food reserve system that will last for decades and that tastes good, too. It s my Maximum Shelf Life Emergency Food Reserve, and it s an easy way to start building a long-term food reserve at a very good price. Confidential Subscriber Briefing 2012 American Lantern Press

14 Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half! 13 Grocery Store Tricks Designed to Make You Spend More and How to Avoid Them Tricky Prices: Have you ever seen Buy 2 for $3! or Get 10 for $10! Unless the sales tag also qualifies that the price of single purchase is different, then you can take advantage of the deal on as many items as you need. If there s a 10-for-$10 sale on cereal, you don t have to buy 10 boxes to get them each for a buck, unless the fine print says so. Pricing and Labeling Errors: Most grocery stores regularly update the prices on items throughout the store. Usually the sales prices are entered into the system correctly, but not always. Keep a close eye on the price you re charged on sales items to make sure you get the discount you think you re getting. Stores do make mistakes, and it s up to you to take that last step for quality control. If you re buying zucchini and cucumbers are twice as expensive, you don t want to pay cucumber-prices for your zucchini. We know of one store recently that had a sign in the produce section, with the words Florida Avocados in big letters. Beneath these words was small type that read, Product of Mexico. Oops! Guiding Your Path: Most grocery stores are set up to maximize the amount of time you spend in the store. Typically, shoppers turn to the right when entering a store. You ll encounter produce first and then work your way back through the aisles to common staple items like milk, eggs, and butter. You can break this pattern meant to keep you shopping for longer (which gives you more chance to make impulse buys) by going to the back of the store and then shopping forward. Also, make a list, stick to it, and skip the aisles that don t have anything from your list. Low Shelf Placement: Grocery stores often place the items they make the largest markup on at eye level or higher. The best bargains are usually located on the bottom shelf where most people never look. Train yourself to look at the options on the bottom shelf. Peak Shopping Days: Many grocery stores hike prices (or at least don t offer as many discounts) on peak shopping days. Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays are the worst days of the week to shop. The 1st, the 15 th, and the last day of any month are also bad, since those are commonly paydays, and lots of people do their shopping then. The day before a holiday is also a bad day to shop. If possible, do your shopping on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday during the week and avoid paydays and holidays. You ll find better prices in general and more special bargains. Digging Deeper: More Ways to Save I ve already show you several easy-to-implement strategies you can begin using right away to cut your average grocery bill in half. In this difficult economy, faced with rising food prices, I know how welcome an extra couple of thousand dollars can be. American Lantern Press 377 Rubin Center Dr Suite 203 Fort Mill, SC

15 14 Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half! So, if you want to save even more money, the following more advanced savings tips are for you. 1. Look for ways to make substitutions for the most expensive things you buy. You can often substitute cheaper cuts of meat into meals for big savings without making a substantial reduction in quality or grade. When it comes to vegetables, substitute cheaper, in-season vegetables in the place of off-season choices. 2. Consider buying a quarter, half, or whole cow or a half or whole pig. You can purchase meat in this fashion direct from a farmer or from a butcher. The meat comes butchered and packaged. You just drop it in your freezer and use it through the year. A whole cow can take care of a family of four s beef needs for a year. You save significantly on the per-pound cost when your purchase meat this way. 3. Learn to can and dry foods. When you re able to can or dry fruits and vegetables, you can purchase them in bulk from your local store, from a farmer s market, or direct from the farm. They ll be in season, at the height of flavor and nutrition, and at the cheapest price. Then you can preserve them to enjoy throughout the year. 4. Plant a backyard garden. Growing and preserving your own harvest is an excellent way to cut grocery bills. For example, a single tomato plant will produce about 25 pounds of tomatoes. That s between $25 and $50 you don t have to fork over at the supermarket. A small garden can easily save you several hundreds of dollars in a year especially if you find ways to preserve your harvest. 5. Expand your cooking skills. Taking a cooking class is a worthwhile investment. The more you know about preparing and using foods, the better you ll be able to save on groceries. For example, making your own bread is much cheaper than buying a loaf at the store. Not only that, but the ability to prepare a wide variety of foods including bread is an important self-sufficiency skill that will serve you well should there ever be a major disruption in our society. At the end of this report, I ve included a bread recipe you can use to bake tasty, wholesome bread at home with only a few basic ingredients. Saving half on your grocery bills is an attainable goal. During these times of economic uncertainty, the money you save can make it possible for you to prepare for difficult times ahead, to plan for emergencies, or to better manage a tight budget. All it takes is a little extra planning, and you ll be putting hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, back into your family budget every year. Confidential Subscriber Briefing 2012 American Lantern Press

16 Appendix A How to Make Your Own Bread First, make sure that your kitchen is warm. This helps the proving (rising) process. The yeast will not grow properly if it is too cold. The following is a recipe for whole-grain bread, which is full of fiber: 1 1/2 pounds whole grain flour (approx.) 1 1/2 teaspoons of dried active yeast* 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar (you can use honey) 1 teaspoon of oil (vegetable, corn or olive) 1/2-1 teaspoon of salt, to taste 3/4 pint water *Yeast comes in many forms. Dried, active yeast is easily available and has a long shelf life if stored in cool, dark conditions. Fresh yeast is sustainable and can live for generations but is highly perishable if not treated correctly. Method Sieve the flour into a large bowl. (It s good to let the flour warm in a bowl for an hour before starting the process.) Add the yeast and sugar to the water. Stir well and set aside for about 15 minutes, or until the mixture becomes frothy. Pour the yeast mix into the flour: Make a well in the center of the flour and gradually mix in the yeast mixture with fork. Use your floured hands to shape and mix the dough. Once you have a smooth, non-lumpy ball of dough, start kneading. If the dough is too wet it will stick to your hands. Too dry and it will crumble. Add a little more water or flour to correct either of these problems. American Lantern Press 377 Rubin Center Dr Suite 203 Fort Mill, SC

17 16 Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half! Kneading This is a key part of any bread recipe and especially for wholegrain bread. On a board or work surface push and stretch and roll your ball of dough. Open out the middle with your fingers or your knuckles and then fold the ball over on itself to let air into the mix. Push and roll it back into a ball shape. This will help the bread to rise properly. Carry on doing all of this repeatedly until the ball of dough feels elastic and easy to shape (5-10 minutes). Set the dough aside in the bowl. Cover it with a damp clean cloth, and wait for the dough to double in size. This will take anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours. The fresher the yeast, the faster the rise. Leave overnight if preferred, but cover with a damp cloth. When it has risen, repeat the kneading until it is elastic and workable. Cut or break off the dough into pieces for your bread tins. Place the dough into each tin (brush with a little oil first to prevent sticking). You can also fashion a round loaf and bake it on a greased baking tray. Leave the bread dough to rise a second time. Baking When the dough has nearly doubled in size, heat your oven to 390 degrees F and bake for minutes, depending on size. Tap the bottom of the loaf with your knuckle; if it makes a tapping sound, it s done; if it makes a thud, bake a few minutes longer. If the loaves appear cooked on the top but are doughy on the underside, just turn them out of their tins and cook upside down for a few minutes. Do not overcook or you will make a brick of bread! If it doesn t come out perfect the first time, chalk it up to experience and try again tomorrow. To spice up your whole grain bread recipe, just add some seeds or herbs. Suitable seeds include: poppy, pumpkin, sunflower and sesame. Herbs and chopped olives are other delicious additives. Baking your own bread is very satisfying and rewarding. It s also a special treat to share with family and friends, who will appreciate not only the fresh, homemade taste but also the personal care and attention that you baked into every loaf! Confidential Subscriber Briefing 2012 American Lantern Press

18 Appendix B Rotating Frozen Food and Avoiding Freezer Burn To use your freezer efficiently, you need to rotate your foods periodically. There s nothing worse than having to throw away food that went bad in your freezer. The chief enemy of frozen foods is freezer burn. Here s what causes of freezer burn, and how you can prevent it from ruining your well planned food reserve. Freezer burn produces dry, leathery or pale patches. Freezer burn does not make foods unsafe to eat, but it will make them unpleasant or difficult to eat. The automatic defrost feature which operates periodically to prevent ice from building up inside a refrigerator freezer results in fluctuations in temperature. Moisture is also drawn from the foods during this defrosting process; this is why ice cubes tend to shrink in a refrigerator freezer. People also tend to retrieve foods from a refrigerator freezer more often than from full size freezer units, resulting in additional temperature fluctuations. All this contributes to quicker freezer burn. Many upright freezers also have automatic defrost, versus chest freezers which are generally manual defrost. Foods last longer and get less freezer burn if stored in a chest freezer. Regardless of which type(s) of freezer you have, you can safeguard your food and limit freezer burn by with these simple steps: Keep your frozen food well organized, with all packages labeled and dated for fast retrieval. Better yet, post a list of your freezer s contents right on the door and update it every time you add or remove contents. Avoid freezing with flimsy packaging that food is generally sold in. Ordinary plastic food wrap in itself does not provide protection. This is why they make freezer bags! Remove as much air as possible from the freezer bag or container. A vacuum sealing system is the best, but any method that draws out air will provide at least some protection from freezer burn. Clean out your refrigerator freezer compartment regularly, rotate and use foods up quickly. American Lantern Press 377 Rubin Center Dr Suite 203 Fort Mill, SC

19 18 Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half! Use your refrigerator freezer for short-term storage only. Place other foods in a chest or upright freezer. They still need to be rotated, but on a significantly longer interval (several months as opposed to a few weeks). A freezer is a great tool for food storage and for helping to reduce your grocery bills. Use it wisely and it will pay for itself over time, and give you the added security of back-up food for emergencies or hard times. Confidential Subscriber Briefing 2012 American Lantern Press