It is time for another round of cheapskate lowcarb!

[carbkinky]

Just my opinion on Aldi-

Produce!!!-eggs-block cheese-milk-veggies(freshest around!)-canned goods-chx wings and breast are great!

pre-shredded cheese-yogurt-cream cheese-butter-sour cream-Yuk!-I think they have a filler/stabilizer in 'em. cottage cheese is OK.

My Aldi just started carrying fresh ground beef-pretty good-priced ok.

[Mickey Lou]

Chicken, pork...all that, good prices. And Tillmook cheese!

[LoriWants2Lose]

Originally posted by Kimberli33
Well we live on a ranch so in some ways im really lucky.We have our own beef,pork,chickens,and eggs.I pretty much just have to buy veggies and cheese.I dont mean to sound offensive to anyone but i have a hard time buying store bought meat anymore.So expensive and not near as good.

Kimberli, that is awesome and probably much, much healthier. My problem would be that I would get attached to the dang chickens and wouldn't be able to eat them Dang city folk that I am.

I eat a lot of eggs. They are cheap and nutritious. We do have a friend up the road who has about 100 acres and will sometimes give us brown eggs. I love that. I try to catch canned tuna on sale (sometimes you can find it for .33/can and I'll buy the limit and then go back later for more). We have tuna about twice a week. Chicken is usually something else you can find on sale. Even with all this, my grocery bill is a solid 100.00/week for the four of us. However, I figure if we eat at home more that it balances the cost.

I'm also determined to get my own greenhouse when we move. I would love to have fresh tomatoes, strawberries and cucumbers year round. Ahhhh, and then there are the herbs. I'd be in Heaven.

[LoriWants2Lose]

Just had another thought. In the summertime here in my small town, we have a farmer's market on Saturday mornings at the courthouse. Many of the fruits and vegetables are organic and are either the same cost as you can buy non-organic at the store or sometimes cheaper. It also supports local farmers.

There are also some co-ops that just started, where you can join a gardening club. Each family has a plot of land and you might plant say tomatoes. You would then take what you need and let another family come and take what they need while you went to their pumpkin patch and took the pumpkins you needed. I haven't tried joining it but it sounded very intriguing and a nice way to get a little of everything without having to have a huge garden. It is organic only, so you can't use pesticides, which might be challenging if you have a lot of beetles, but it can be done.

[Laurenaddict]

I found the ATKINS pizza at the .99 store!!

[LunaAshling]

Hey don't forget that meringue cookies are lowcarb, quick and pretty cheap to make.... plus you can do a ton of things with them for the holiday season!

[nitenurse]

Thanks so much for the ideas-for a treat, since I can't afford scampi at a steakhouse, I buy frozen salad shrimp precooked in 1# pkg-on sale for $4, sometimes a twofer,, melt butter, garlic to taste, add shrimp, and saute gently. for a few minutes, don't overcook, as it will get tough. We can get 2 meals for 2 out of that !# bag.

[GLC3]

My favorite low budget/low carb meal is quiche. You can make it anyway you want and the combinations are endless.

Also, I am a big fan of boston butt port roast. It goes on sale around here every other month or so for 80cents a pound. I load up and freeze them.

GLC3.

[Shrinkerbell]

Great web site for coupon users. By using this site, you organize your packs of coupons and only clip a coupon when you need it. It saves so much time! It also is a database, so you can search to see if there is a coupon for something you are going to buy anyway. You can sort by expiration date, print bonus coupons, and more! http://cutouthunger.org

[LunaAshling]

One more thing.


If you are STUCK in a REAL bind.... we are talking you can't eat eggs one more time and have to use a food bank kind of bind.


Please remember that brown rice and black beans are cheap, lower glycemic and have protein.

Not real lowcarb but a heck of alot better for you than giving in to the Top Ramein!!!

[LunaAshling]

Brown rice, black beans, seasoning...maybe some cheese or a can of chopped tomatoes or peppers....and then throw in several eggs. And bake.


Makes a casserole with fiber and protein... lower glycemic... and better than starving!

[wils]

I also watch the marked down meat section at the local grocery store, and buy up the good stuff and freeze it, also the marked down veggie cart, recently scored a bunch of red, yellow and green peppers, and chopped them up a froze them for putting in stuff.(since the hurricanes in Florida, fresh veggies have been out of sight up here. I also buy the large blocks of cheese, and grate them by hand, only takes a few minutes,plus maybe burn a few calories, and freeze them in bags. The pre-grated is so expensive!

[debbio]

I have really enjoyed reading these ideas. I did want to add one thing: We were eating a lot of black soybeans (very low in carbs and very tasty) in our chili mostly and sometimes for ham & beans. The beans I was buying were the Eden's in a can, but they were pretty expensive, so I bought a 25 pound bag of Eden's dried black soybeans. It takes a day or so to prepare them (soaking, cooking), so I prepare them and then freeze a couple of containers of them. That way, when I need them, I just pull a container from the freezer and plop them into the crockpot. That has saved us some $$.

Debbio

[JONAH'S GRANNY]

This may already be listed here somewhere but anyway, I have been looking at the Jimmy Dean Frozen Omelets for sometime. Finally decided to try them. They come in a package of two for less than $2.00 at Super Walmart, 4 carbs, made with real eggs, and taste just like the real thing. My new breakfast find for less than a $1.00/day.

[zoes_mama]

Between my husband and I, I think we do pretty good on the food saving department... he's our bargain hunter and I'm all over the Dollar Stores... the past week we found 3 dozen Medium eggs for $1 and I had a rain check for 8 oz. packages of shredded cheeses 10 for $10.... so we made 8 quiches! Crab quiche, quiche lorraine with ham, spinach quiche, and bacon / veggie quiche... my hubby did the math and basically we made 32 meals for about 47-cents each!! (figuring we eat about a quarter of a quiche as a full meal... smaller if we have it with salad, so that brings the cost-per down on the quiche).

Smokin' deal!!!

Trader Joe's keeps me stocked up on all sorts of nuts.

The Dollar Store has been having 7 oz. packages of tuna and 3.5 oz. packages of salmon, so I stocked up on those... plus cheeses, nuts, sugar free drink mixes and jellos, canned crab and other seafoods & meats... it changes all the time, but it's worth the trip!

[Diabeticmom2004]

This year I have bought green beans, tomato's, green peppers, leaf lettuce,cucumber seeds. I have not had a garden in 22 yrs lol[has it been that long] Any pointers? Its going to be a small area. I have a big wooden tub with a valace in it that I will plant the greenbeans. I have the spot for tomato plants from the guy that use to live here. I also have grape vines they said. I thought about buying some hanging baskets of strawberrys and planting a couple of rasberry bushes? I live in the midwest. I figure I will save a fortune and get excercise weeding planting. And there isnt anything better than home grown tomato's. I'm in zone 6
Thank you

[LunaAshling]

Diabeticmom2004... I honestly would browse online or check out free books at the library on container gardening. There are many good ones out there and they guide you through step by step!

I am still struggling with mine... biggest issue is the dang squirrels... they even ate my Habenero plants! They are unstoppable!







I did just find a large amount of Dreamfields pasta on clearance at a Super Walmart for 50 cents. I bought about 15 of them to save. My kids like it. Not positive on the whole carb count thing with them, but at 50 cents I can let the kiddies eat it!

[DivaWannaBe]

My favorite, inexpensive LC meal is a staple at my house. I crumble and brown a pound of Jimmy Dean (find it on sale and throw it in the freezer). When the sausage is done, I add a head or two of coarsely chopped cabbage. Put a lid on it and simmer it until the cabbage is transparent and wilted. This has the best flavor and is a real 'comfort food'. Love it on cold, rainy days. No one else in my house eats it, so the pot lasts me for quite a while, or I freeze half of it for another week.

[JONAH'S GRANNY]

If anyone gets a real "chocolate syrup" urge, I found the Russell Stover SF Chocolate Sauce sweetened with Splenda for .25/jar. I can remember when it was almost $4.00.

[maya-twinkles]

Ground turkey!!!!! 69 cents a puond at aldi (but cheap anywhere)
(ya gotta get used to it-but can use it in anything that calls for beef)

chicken legs and thighs- in the 10 pound bags-.39 cents a pound

venison and fish if you know an hunter or fishing person.

eggs are .59 at both aldi and walmart in my town.. I live on 'em!

whole chickens .69 a pound(same stores) our only"regular "grocery has em for .99 this week

I buy cases of green beans for 25 cents a can on sale- thenb I'm good til the next sale!

[Diabeticmom2004]

I bought a loaf of low carb wheat bread on sale for 2.20 I think it was. I went back to my Aldi's bread .69 cents a loaf and was gripping one day about it had 60 calories a slice because it was so thick. I ran and grabbed a serated knive that was straight [not a steak knive] and sliced it in 1/2 lol it takes a while and once I had to smash the bread together when I tore one piece but i love having 2 pcs of wheat bread with only 60 calories for 2 pieces. Only problem is I dont eat much bread and the men in the house refuse to eat it even if thats all thats in the house. I tried to wait them out.

[KJGmn10]

I spent about 200 on Sunday and another 67 yesterday. Sheesh. Groceries are sky high here in the Twin Cities.

Anyways.....

Instead of getting sirloin steak, I bought one of those huge round steaks. Oh I know it's like night and day, but you CAN tenderize a round steak so that it's pretty tender and season it (Emerils Essence and Cajun seasoning) so it's more tasty. And about a third of what sirloin costs LOL.....I panfry it, more or less sear it, in butter rather than broil it or grill it. It is more tender that way too.

I cut it up into quarters and it's good for a few meals

I am a sale freak. Not much into coupons, but I hit sales at grocery stores. I buy my eggs in the flats of 30 whenever possible, and this week shredded cheese was cheap (for here anyway) so I stocked up.

[ravengal]

Check out the Gordon Food Service stores. We get a carton of 12 or 15 dozen eggs for around $7.00, depending on market conditions. Their frozen vegetables are reasonable and of good quality as well. A box of 2000 Splenda packets costs $29.95 and that's the cheapest price I've ever found.

[toomuchcaffeinegirl]

My favorite budget low carb snack it Devilled Eggs. I put a hot sauce in the mixture called Cholula.
I also like to make hot wings. FYI: Hooters brand wing sauce has 0 carbs.

[LaShawn]

Here you go!

TUNA OR SALMON MUFFINS
Two 6 ounce cans tuna or salmon, drained well
2 eggs
1/4 cup celery, chopped fine (1 ounce)
2 tablespoons onion, chopped fine (1/2 ounce)
1/4 cup green pepper, minced (1 ounce)
2 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
Salt and pepper, to taste
Pinch Old Bay seasoning

Mix all ingredients and spoon into 6 well-greased muffin cups. Bake at 350? for 30 minutes until puffed, set and lightly browned around the edges.

[rediscovering me]

Yum, fresh lettuce, tomatoes, cauliflower, cukes and peppers with the initial cost of less than $2 per seed pack.

[Jugo]

Not sure if this was mentioned as I don't have time right now to read all the posts but our Super Walmart has turkeys for 58 cents a lb all the time...

Juls

[SJK+]

We do lots of stuff from a food co-op!

Also, I am frequently at my local kroger about an hour before closing, and they usually discount the routisserie chicken or turkey to half price to get rid of them. Always a nice treat...cheap and already cooked!