With everyone feeling the pinch at the grocery store and trying to make better food choices, how can you make your dollar stretch longer? Well I had been looking at the option of buying a FoodSaver to make my own stir fries and marinate/sanction out those big value packs of bonesless chicken breasts. I finally broke down and bought one along with a few rolls of the plastic bags.
A usual bag of pre-made stir fry veggies which gets me one use typically costs $3.50. I bought carrots, celery, zucchini, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, broccoli and green onions. That stuff totaled $11.00 and I got 4 nights of stir fries out of them which averaged to $2.75. Now maybe saving $3.00 doesn’t sound like a big deal but it saves me from having to pick out the freezer burnt green beans and red peppers which I don’t care for which is money in the trash can. I know they’re fresh, the volume is more and no preservatives.
We also used to use 2 chicken breasts and cut them up but as I thin cut those frozen chicken breasts, I realized by thin cutting them we could use one and have it appear like just as much as two, thereby doubling the amount of dinners I can get out of them. I also pre cut each chicken breast and put in a marinade so I would just have to open and stir fry and save my time.
Yes, it took a long time to do (about 3 hours with cutting, peeling, etc) but I watched my soaps while I did it and now all of our dinners for next week are taken care of. Instead of buying those bagged salads we’re making our own and are going to get a canister for that so it keeps longer. Those bagged salads were only good for 2-3 days after we opened them.
So just in my one use of this machine, I can already see the money and time savings for the future. If you use one, feel free to share your experience!
May 30th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Oh yeah those bagged salads are ridiculous. No matter how tight you try and seal that bag after it is opened, the lettuce still end up wilted and slimy after a few days.
June 1st, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I blog this “Grocery Price” topic fairly often. I been hearing good things about http://www.thegrocerygame.com. I have not tried it for myself yet though.
As for Salad, the best thing I have found is to put it in a zip lock, while it up like a toothpaste tube while squeezing the air out, and store it rolled up.
June 1st, 2008 at 4:34 pm
wind it up^ not while. Sorry long day.
June 1st, 2008 at 6:16 pm
I checked out The Grocery Game and I guess my only beef with it is that they charge you for it but I suppose if you’re saving a bundle it doesn’t matter. Here’s their “official” answer on the charge policy:
What is the cost of Teri’s List?
The cost for a 1 store membership is $10 every 8 weeks. That works out to about $1.25 per week. A 2 store membership is $15 every 8 weeks, a 3 store membership is $20 every 8 weeks and so on. Members report savings of up to $100 a week!
We do our salad the same way. I’ll have to report back once we get the canister to see if we get even more time out of it. In the mean time I’ve been vaccuuming everything. I even made batches of roasted garlic and roasted onions! Mmmm….