Speaker 1: Episode to fourteen, how to save money on groceries. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money,
Speaker 1: embrace simplicity, rice and liver with your life. Here your
Speaker 1: host Jen and Jill. Welcome to Frugal Friends podcast. My
Speaker 1: name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we
Speaker 1: are bringing back a listener favorite. We got some frugal
Speaker 1: food tips for you. We we need groceries and it's
Speaker 1: a massive but yet variable expense and we're always looking
Speaker 1: where we can cut costs on groceries, how we can
Speaker 1: eat at home more, and then when we're eating at home,
Speaker 1: how to save on groceries. Right, we need all the tips,
Speaker 1: were collecting all the tips. Yes, um, interminute fasting is
Speaker 1: not one of the tips. You can try not eating,
Speaker 1: but it's not something we recommend because we person and
Speaker 1: only love eating is the thing that we love to do.
Speaker 1: So we have tips for people who also love to eat.
Speaker 1: And that's what's uh, that's what we're talking about today.
Speaker 1: But first, our sponsors, speaking of eating, eating, sponsored this episode.
Speaker 1: Believe it or not so good serious seriously, I mean
Speaker 1: they're they're big money and eating, so that eating eating
Speaker 1: we all do it. We all need to do it.
Speaker 1: Some of us do it three times a day. Now
Speaker 1: there's five times a day. Many of us prefer to
Speaker 1: eat rather than cook. Wherever you find yourselves on the
Speaker 1: spectrum of food consumption, we all have to purchase food,
Speaker 1: and we will be purchasing food to eat food for
Speaker 1: the rest of our lives. So why not start saving?
Speaker 1: Did that feel like a jump? It kind of was.
Speaker 1: And if you love eating as much as we do,
Speaker 1: you can queue up a few more episodes to listen
Speaker 1: to after this one. I promise you this won't be
Speaker 1: regurgitating what you've already heard on the show. We like
Speaker 1: to reiterate a topic without repeating it. So we've got
Speaker 1: episode one nineties six, which is how to do a
Speaker 1: pantry Challenge, so shopping your pantry, doing shelf cooking. We
Speaker 1: got one two which is Eat Healthier and More Affordably
Speaker 1: with Cassie joy Garcia from Fed and Fit. She's so wonderful.
Speaker 1: I love her so much. You will love this episode.
Speaker 1: And then episode one seventies six which is zero Waste
Speaker 1: Ish Cooking with Debt, Kick and Mom. So these are
Speaker 1: all really good episodes to queue up after this one.
Speaker 1: And so for our articles today, we're really looking at
Speaker 1: frugal food tips. But we're not going to, like I said,
Speaker 1: regurgitate the tips you've already heard on the show. We
Speaker 1: chose some articles with some fresh ideas and those are
Speaker 1: the ones that we are going to go through. So
Speaker 1: this first one is seventeen grocery store hacks that will
Speaker 1: cut your bill in half. And we also know that
Speaker 1: you love hacks. Literally, any time we put the word
Speaker 1: hacks in something, it's like skyrockets in downloads. So we're listening,
Speaker 1: and here are some some hacks. I think maybe it's
Speaker 1: that internal desire to maybe like chop something. We just
Speaker 1: want to hack something down, and we can do that
Speaker 1: with our groceries. I don't want to build it, I
Speaker 1: want to hack it exactly. That's that's that's a bumper sticker.
Speaker 1: There's destruction rooms built around this. So all right, here
Speaker 1: you go get out your aggression by hacking your grocery
Speaker 1: bill and hacking it. Okay, okay, So this first one,
Speaker 1: I will I will say that it does bear repeating,
Speaker 1: and I know I said we wouldn't say the same
Speaker 1: thing we say in every episode, but I'm lying for
Speaker 1: this first one. Just this first one plan plan plan,
Speaker 1: that's the literal first one from this article on Pure Wow.
Speaker 1: And yeah, we can't stress this one enough. You have
Speaker 1: to plan what you're going to eat before you have
Speaker 1: to cook it or eat it. It's the once we
Speaker 1: get to the end of the day, especially by dinner time,
Speaker 1: but even by lunch, our brains are fatigued. We've made
Speaker 1: a lot of decisions and we are not ready to
Speaker 1: make more decisions. And cooking involves a lot of micro decisions,
Speaker 1: and so you have to take the big decisions off
Speaker 1: the plate. Said that was upon I'm so sorry. You
Speaker 1: have to take the big decisions away to make sure
Speaker 1: that you follow through with what you want to do
Speaker 1: with your goal. So making a meal plan, making a
Speaker 1: realistic meal plan that you can follow through, making sure
Speaker 1: that it is appropriate for the season that you are in.
Speaker 1: And if you can't meal plan, if you don't know how,
Speaker 1: or you're comfortable using a meal plan service like cook smarts.
Speaker 1: We we love cook smarts, even if even for a season,
Speaker 1: to just get kind of acclimated to meal planning. I mean,
Speaker 1: you can even try out two free weeks Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: podcast dot com slash cook Smarts, but Yeah, planning is
Speaker 1: so important. It's worth the hour it takes on Sunday,
Speaker 1: or the seven dollars and fifty cents a month it
Speaker 1: takes to purchase a meal planning service, but it should
Speaker 1: be done. It is amazing how much more I spend
Speaker 1: when I haven't made a plan on getting duplicates of something,
Speaker 1: or I just go off of what looks good and
Speaker 1: I'm not really thinking through the versatility of the things
Speaker 1: that I'm purchasing. But also I'm more likely to also
Speaker 1: to go to the grocery store and get the things
Speaker 1: if I have a plan, I'm less likely if I've
Speaker 1: not thought it through. It's the same thing with exercise,
Speaker 1: like unless I know what exercise am I doing the
Speaker 1: next day, I'm less likely to do it. So there's
Speaker 1: also this motivation and like habit forming technique that goes
Speaker 1: into planning. So people want to talk about this a lot.
Speaker 1: But if you don't plan and then you have to
Speaker 1: send your husband or partner to the grocery store to
Speaker 1: get something, they will always come back with more. Yes,
Speaker 1: always come back with more, typically bogo donuts that you
Speaker 1: don't need. So, yeah, make a plan so you can
Speaker 1: get everything in one fell swoop one shopping trip and
Speaker 1: keep your donut loving partner away from the grocery store.
Speaker 1: Just sent Eric to the store the other day, and
Speaker 1: I mean, bless his heart. I never say that, but
Speaker 1: I mean I love him, and I was so grateful
Speaker 1: because I did not want to go the stores. In
Speaker 1: the middle of making dinner, I thought I had butter,
Speaker 1: didn't have butter, so he had to quick run and
Speaker 1: grab butter. Of course he did not just get butter.
Speaker 1: He got famished at the check outline and had to
Speaker 1: buy Cheetos. Well as one does, butter is dift to find.
Speaker 1: Speaking of that goes into number two, which is shop alone.
Speaker 1: So if you have been the one to plan, plan, plan,
Speaker 1: implement that plan by yourself. We love community, we love accountability,
Speaker 1: we love collaboration, but when it comes to stepping foot
Speaker 1: into the grocery store, it really is best to do
Speaker 1: that by yourself. Utilize your accountability and your friends and
Speaker 1: your people in all of the other important ways that
Speaker 1: that matters. But if you bring someone along with you
Speaker 1: to the grocery store, chances are they're gonna want They're
Speaker 1: gonna coax you into buying more than what you intend
Speaker 1: to purchase all of your tiny humans. This is this
Speaker 1: is maybe like less realistic for some then for others.
Speaker 1: I get it that if your routine includes you've got
Speaker 1: to bring your kids to the store, well, then that's
Speaker 1: when the first step of the plan, plan, plan is
Speaker 1: going to be really helpful and stick to that list.
Speaker 1: I will say there have been times where I bring
Speaker 1: my husband Eric to the store with me and it
Speaker 1: goes well when we have that plan. So many of
Speaker 1: you have heard me talk about how I make like
Speaker 1: a Google sheet list, like a checklist on my phone
Speaker 1: that is shared with him of the things that we're
Speaker 1: going to purchase, and we make a rule for ourselves
Speaker 1: that unless it's on the list, we don't get it.
Speaker 1: Things can go on the list before you step foot
Speaker 1: into the store, but once you step foot into the store,
Speaker 1: it's like it locks and that's all we get. And
Speaker 1: then we can kind of gamify it where we go
Speaker 1: our separate ways, we check things off the list, we
Speaker 1: can see what's checked off. It cuts our time at
Speaker 1: the grocery store in half. It makes it kind of fun.
Speaker 1: But he has actually done really well with not adding
Speaker 1: extra things to the cart when we gamify it. So
Speaker 1: if you can't shop alone, which is still I think
Speaker 1: it's a great tip. Do something like that where you
Speaker 1: are more ensured that we're only going to buy the
Speaker 1: things that we need. More isn't going to find its
Speaker 1: way into our cart. Yeah, if you are a mom,
Speaker 1: my tips are shop online. So I have a Walmart
Speaker 1: grocery pickup near my house and that's how I shop.
Speaker 1: I'll do all my grocery shopping through the app and
Speaker 1: then I'll just pick it up Otherwise, if I do
Speaker 1: have to go to the store, YouTube is your best friend.
Speaker 1: I will no shame, put the YouTube in front of
Speaker 1: my kid and just let him tunnel vision because he's
Speaker 1: the he's just like me. He gets very tunneled vision
Speaker 1: into what he's watching, so he doesn't notice the candies
Speaker 1: and the pouches and and the things. Um, so I
Speaker 1: can go in and get what I need. I just
Speaker 1: have to steer clear of the produce section because when
Speaker 1: he sees strawberries like it's at he's he has to
Speaker 1: have like a kind of strawberry on that, or the
Speaker 1: tiny tomatoes or the tiny So using the lesser of
Speaker 1: two evils, everyone's going to choose their own thing in
Speaker 1: the midst of that, or give your kid a snack
Speaker 1: wall they're in the store. So you're not someone who
Speaker 1: is okay with screen time at the grocery store, then
Speaker 1: snack time. Snack time, Yeah, I will do that. I
Speaker 1: have done that as well. So those are my solutions
Speaker 1: to shopping with a child. My next tip that I
Speaker 1: liked was number nine, and that is try meatless. Mondays y'all,
Speaker 1: when you cut out meat, it saved so much money.
Speaker 1: You have like no idea. I was a vegetarian for
Speaker 1: ten years and I spend and now I eat meat.
Speaker 1: I spend so much more money on groceries. I mean
Speaker 1: so much more. And I'm not saying you have to
Speaker 1: be a vegetarian, but eggs are cheaper than chicken and
Speaker 1: definitely cheaper than beef, and beans are cheaper lentils. I know,
Speaker 1: I looked at your eyes and I knew I used
Speaker 1: the sea word, but they are like these vegetarian sources
Speaker 1: of protein are so much less expensive than animal sources.
Speaker 1: And so if you just took one meal a week
Speaker 1: at least and just transitioned to these plant based sources
Speaker 1: of protein, you can really save money over time. And
Speaker 1: and I think it's a healthier way to live. We
Speaker 1: we still have probably three out of four vegetarian meals
Speaker 1: per week, and it might even be part of your
Speaker 1: plan already, but just making it a more intentional part
Speaker 1: of your plan, where you know, at least one meal
Speaker 1: a week, but chances are many of us have a
Speaker 1: meatless meal at least once a week. So just incorporate
Speaker 1: that you don't. You don't have to eat meat every day.
Speaker 1: You can get protein in other ways for sure. Alright,
Speaker 1: my next tip that I enjoyed on here was number four,
Speaker 1: which is right, a reverse shopping list. Learning this one
Speaker 1: how has been so so helpful for me. So it
Speaker 1: is obviously connected to the plan, Plan, plan tip, but
Speaker 1: not just planning when you're out and about. Okay, I
Speaker 1: can write my list, my shopping list in the car.
Speaker 1: This really does require us to be aware of what
Speaker 1: we already have on hand. So starting backwards, looking at
Speaker 1: what do I have in my fridge, freezer, pantry, how
Speaker 1: can I utilize that in the upcoming week? And what
Speaker 1: do I need to purchase in order to supplement. So
Speaker 1: not only is that going to save money because we're
Speaker 1: utilizing what we already have on hand, but it's going
Speaker 1: to keep us from buying duplicates, which I am notorious for.
Speaker 1: I get to the store and for whatever reason, these
Speaker 1: things come to mind that I had run out of,
Speaker 1: maybe even a year ago. But I think in my mind,
Speaker 1: I don't have that thing. For our first year of marriage,
Speaker 1: it was shredded cheese. I don't know what it was
Speaker 1: about shredded cheese. Like for weeks straight, I would go
Speaker 1: to the store and be like, I know, I know
Speaker 1: that I was out, and I bought more, but I
Speaker 1: think I'm out again, and I think I really do
Speaker 1: need shredded cheese. And I ended up, I kid you not,
Speaker 1: with five unopened bags of shredded cheese somehow. So maybe
Speaker 1: you're not that extreme, but still we could think that, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I have that spice. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I still love butter or not. Do I
Speaker 1: have milk? You just came over to my house and
Speaker 1: you're like, is there any coffee? Like, yeah, but we
Speaker 1: don't have any more milk. And she goes in the
Speaker 1: fridges like, you totally have milk, and it was like unopened.
Speaker 1: So here we go. And so we we just don't
Speaker 1: know as much as we think we have a handle
Speaker 1: on what's in our fridge, what's in our pantry. Most
Speaker 1: likely there's something hidden in there that you've forgotten about.
Speaker 1: So go backwards and make your plan around what you
Speaker 1: already have. It will save you a ton of money, yeah,
Speaker 1: and food waste, because when you know what you have,
Speaker 1: you can plan around that stuff that's you know, like
Speaker 1: the in the restaurant industry, they go first in, first out,
Speaker 1: So like the older stuff, you can try to incorporate
Speaker 1: more of um is this especially in pantry like shelf
Speaker 1: stable items that can just sit there forever, you can
Speaker 1: start to use them up when you do something like this.
Speaker 1: My next favorite tip on here, which I have talked
Speaker 1: about four years, by frozen when you can, So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna read it. It's on Pure Wow. If you don't
Speaker 1: believe me, believe the Internet. Contrary to popular belief, frozen
Speaker 1: food isn't inherently less healthy than it's fresh counterpart. In fact,
Speaker 1: fruits and vegetables are frozen at their peak, so they're
Speaker 1: great alternative to price produce that's out of season. Plus
Speaker 1: they're cheaper, less expensive and last longer win win, And
Speaker 1: it's already cut like you don't have to cut it up.
Speaker 1: There are so many reasons to love frozen. I don't
Speaker 1: buy regular broccoli anymore, only by frozen broccoli because it
Speaker 1: saves me time. Like one of the tips on here
Speaker 1: was to like, don't buy pre prepared foods or whatever,
Speaker 1: But for me, it's like, I if I that's a
Speaker 1: big jump for me because I don't always get time
Speaker 1: on Sundays to meal prep so I will not eat
Speaker 1: at home if I have to take that extra step
Speaker 1: of preparing the produce, and that's going to cause me
Speaker 1: to spend more. So I buy frozen to kind of
Speaker 1: fill that gap that's already pre cut, and I can
Speaker 1: use it whenever I want. It's like a win win
Speaker 1: win for me. Especially if you plan on cooking the
Speaker 1: produce anyhow, then you might as well go frozen, unless
Speaker 1: you plan to eat the thing raw, like you prefer
Speaker 1: the thing raw. That would be the reason to go fresh. However,
Speaker 1: I will even say that I've had some friends introduced
Speaker 1: me to the idea of just defrosting frozen fruits and
Speaker 1: throwing it into oatmeal or yogurt that doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be fresh, that could come frozen first, defrosted, set it
Speaker 1: out on the counter for a little bit, and it's
Speaker 1: fantastic frozen fruits exclusively in like my overnight oats or
Speaker 1: my oatmeal bakes or whatever. It's already prepared. It's just
Speaker 1: needs to defrost a little. It's fantastic. Love buying frozen. Okay.
Speaker 1: My next tip from here is number six, no where
Speaker 1: to look. So obviously, buying generic brands of products is
Speaker 1: going to be less expensive than the name brands, So
Speaker 1: certainly get get yourself into that, but recognize that they're
Speaker 1: gonna put the name brand items at eye level. So
Speaker 1: if you're buying any kind of canned good, boxed good,
Speaker 1: whatever in the center aisles of the grocery store, don't
Speaker 1: just go for whatever's right in front of you and
Speaker 1: what's familiar. Look for a generic alternative. It is always
Speaker 1: going to be less expensive and it almost never is
Speaker 1: going to have much of a flavor difference. I will
Speaker 1: also say something that I've noticed in my deep dives
Speaker 1: of grocery stores is that different aisles will have the
Speaker 1: same product and at different prices. So sometimes in the
Speaker 1: ethnic food section, for instance, for me, I've noticed this
Speaker 1: with coconut water, they'll have coconut water and the ethnics
Speaker 1: food section, and also coconut water in your general juice section.
Speaker 1: But for whatever reason, it's cheaper less expensive, it's less
Speaker 1: expensive in one aisle over the other, So do your
Speaker 1: research on that and kind of and the ingredients. There's
Speaker 1: a reason some are cheap people. That's like literally, there's
Speaker 1: a reason for what is cheaper than the other. It's interesting,
Speaker 1: you know. I I posted on an Instagram story about that.
Speaker 1: I think it might have been coconut milk at the
Speaker 1: time that I had bought it, and it was like
Speaker 1: a dollar difference between one brand over the other. And
Speaker 1: of course I got tons of d ms like check
Speaker 1: the ingradients. And while that can be the case for
Speaker 1: some of it, for the this it was it was
Speaker 1: the same. So sure, look at the ingredients. But if
Speaker 1: it's something that you're not that concerned about and you
Speaker 1: can find it less expensively in another section, that's just
Speaker 1: that's this concept of knowing where to look. We're talking
Speaker 1: about saving on groceries. I'm mostly going to recommend that
Speaker 1: we shot the perimeter of the store because that is
Speaker 1: your your fresh, your meets the staples of course frozen
Speaker 1: section two. But when we need to buy things from
Speaker 1: the center. If we need the can goods, we need
Speaker 1: some of the condiments or the spices, just know that
Speaker 1: whatever is right in front of you might not be
Speaker 1: the least expensive option. We can dig a little bit further,
Speaker 1: look a little bit more by generic, you can find
Speaker 1: it less expensive. Well that's one of the perks of
Speaker 1: grocery shopping online because I could just search for what
Speaker 1: I want and then everything that's in the store pops
Speaker 1: up regardless of what aisle it's on, which has been
Speaker 1: super helpful, and then I can compare ingredients right on
Speaker 1: my phone. So my next one is number sixteen, play
Speaker 1: the long game in the produce section. And I am
Speaker 1: really just I'm this is a I just want to
Speaker 1: read this first sentence. People love to squeeze and grope
Speaker 1: fruit in the produce section in search of the ripest
Speaker 1: and readiest piece, and there's nothing wrong with that approach,
Speaker 1: per se, provided you plan to use it in a
Speaker 1: short amount of time. And so this one, I think
Speaker 1: really not just because you know I wanted to read
Speaker 1: that you squeeze and grope your fruit, but it also
Speaker 1: comes down to your plan. If you know when you're
Speaker 1: going to cook something and when you are going to
Speaker 1: use your produce. You can choose under ripe fruit and
Speaker 1: vegetables if you need it fresh, because if you're not
Speaker 1: going to use it for five days, then if you
Speaker 1: buy it at its peak right now, like what's the
Speaker 1: point because it still has five days to sit on
Speaker 1: your shelf, So it's not that bad to like, or
Speaker 1: if you know all of the avocados in the grocery
Speaker 1: store are under ripe, you don't plan your taco night
Speaker 1: for the night you go grocery shopping. You plan it
Speaker 1: for four or five days later, so the avocado is ripe.
Speaker 1: And so that's where again planning is so important, so
Speaker 1: that you can you know what you're buying. You can
Speaker 1: buy at its peak or a little under ripe. I've
Speaker 1: started to do this with bananas. I would always look
Speaker 1: for the best looking banana right then and there, and
Speaker 1: then a few days later they'd all be going brown.
Speaker 1: And I get it that you can put them in
Speaker 1: the freezer. You can, like I never let them go
Speaker 1: to waste, but I would always get bummed, like I
Speaker 1: just really wanted to eat that banana, not throwing in
Speaker 1: my smoothie, but it's like just too mushy for that
Speaker 1: right now, so and and they ripe and really quickly.
Speaker 1: And so I've been now getting some that are ready
Speaker 1: to eat now and some that are going to be
Speaker 1: ready to eat in four days. You don't have to
Speaker 1: get like a bunch together. You can get single bananas
Speaker 1: and just get a few green ones, get a few
Speaker 1: yellow ones. Like you can do that. You're loud, you
Speaker 1: have permission. I saw a meme that was I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was mean. It was just a funny
Speaker 1: cartoon I guess of a banana and it was green.
Speaker 1: It was like not ripe green, not ripe green, not
Speaker 1: ripe yellow, like for four hours in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night and it's like hello, I'm ready and by
Speaker 1: the next morning brown. Yeah. That is expensive thing. So yeah,
Speaker 1: they're a great food to have as a staple in
Speaker 1: your house. Okay, thirteen is partner up. We love this.
Speaker 1: Get with a friend, Get with a buddy, find someone
Speaker 1: nearby that you can split some of the cars of
Speaker 1: food on. So this might be the things that you
Speaker 1: would consider buying in bulk. Sometimes it could be meat
Speaker 1: that you could buy a lot of, divvy it out
Speaker 1: and split the cost on, so then you don't have
Speaker 1: to take up as much space. You know, if you're
Speaker 1: like Hi, I want the cost savings of buying in bulk,
Speaker 1: but I don't have the space for it. This is
Speaker 1: where we could utilize our friends. Many of you have
Speaker 1: also heard me talk about this concept with cooking as well,
Speaker 1: so I'm going a little bit adjacent to this idea.
Speaker 1: But it can also save us money to be able
Speaker 1: to bulk cook meals and also split that with friends
Speaker 1: as well, so that gives us variety. It can give
Speaker 1: us some cost savings. So wherever we can utilize our community,
Speaker 1: our network for splitting the cost of groceries, dividing and
Speaker 1: conquering cooking together, splitting meals, it's fantastic. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1: And the last one for me, which we don't talk
Speaker 1: about this much anymore, but we used to talk about
Speaker 1: it all the time, is switching up your grocery store.
Speaker 1: And we love all d obviously, but if you don't
Speaker 1: have an all day around, just try switching up your
Speaker 1: grocery store. If you are using all of these tips
Speaker 1: and still feel like you're spending like a lot on groceries,
Speaker 1: which you granted inflation is real, you are going to
Speaker 1: be spending more on groceries than you did before. That's okay,
Speaker 1: But if you still feel like your budget is out
Speaker 1: of control, try using a less expensive grocery store, one
Speaker 1: that does not offer such a pleasurable experience while shopping.
Speaker 1: It's okay. Maybe you don't shop there all the time,
Speaker 1: and maybe you go there it's horrible, you never go
Speaker 1: there again. You don't know until you try it. I
Speaker 1: know so many people who don't want to go to
Speaker 1: All D because they're worried about it. It's like, try
Speaker 1: it one week. One week is not going to like
Speaker 1: ruin your life, and you may fall in love with
Speaker 1: it like so many other people. Now they're selling All
Speaker 1: D merge like because people love it so much. Just
Speaker 1: try to switch it up and see if you can
Speaker 1: get some better deals elsewhere. And the last tip for
Speaker 1: me that I just want to read because it's funny
Speaker 1: and I can't believe it made it on this list,
Speaker 1: but fifteen by a Rotissary Chicken. This has been my
Speaker 1: go to for as long as I can remember, like
Speaker 1: nearly nearly out the womb by Rotissory Chicken. It was
Speaker 1: a child picking up rotisserie chickens on Wednesdays. The chicken
Speaker 1: was lightly smaller than me. And it is interesting. Rotisserie chickens,
Speaker 1: as this article points out, is one of the very
Speaker 1: few meals that often cost more to make at home.
Speaker 1: It has something to do with the grocery store potentially
Speaker 1: having a surplus of chickens, knowing that they're not going
Speaker 1: to be able to sell it, and so they roast
Speaker 1: it and they passed the savings along to you. But
Speaker 1: I love it for yes quick meal. But usually this
Speaker 1: is many of you who have listened for so long,
Speaker 1: you know this. You could fill in the blanks and
Speaker 1: what I'm about to say. But with the leftovers, you
Speaker 1: can utilize it to make lunch the next day by
Speaker 1: picking off that extra chicken from the bone and making
Speaker 1: chicken salad or whatever else you want to make with it.
Speaker 1: Then you can keep the bones and you can make
Speaker 1: a broth. You can throw that extra chicken into some
Speaker 1: chicken tacos, you can make a soup, you name it.
Speaker 1: There's so many ways that a rotisserie chicken can turn
Speaker 1: into two meals. And usually it's like five dollars. And
Speaker 1: that's amazing. And here's the real hack. If you don't
Speaker 1: have one that sells five dollar rotisserie chickens or you
Speaker 1: don't have access to it. Skip the rotisserie section and
Speaker 1: head to the refrigerated because you'll see cold rotisseries that
Speaker 1: they didn't sell and they're half the price. Just got
Speaker 1: a cold, you know you're gonna turn it into chicken salad. Anyways,
Speaker 1: just skip the Yeah, hold rotisserie chickens. Even less expend.
Speaker 1: Everywhere that has rotisserie sells rotisserie chickens. You can also
Speaker 1: find like I guess day old ones or something. Findament
Speaker 1: like cold in the culture. Walmart actually shreds it for you.
Speaker 1: Like I will buy a pound of rotisserie chicken already shredded,
Speaker 1: and so that's a little bit more expensive. It's kind
Speaker 1: of in the in between between the hot and the cold. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, head to the refrigerated section in the deli
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you will find a cold rotisserie chicken
Speaker 1: at half the price. Is this turning into an episode
Speaker 1: about rotisserie chickens because I'm here for it. Well, we're
Speaker 1: done talking about rotisserie chickens, but we are actually going
Speaker 1: to move into an article talking about eight foods you
Speaker 1: are throwing out that you can actually use. So we
Speaker 1: want to reduce food waste as much as possible. That's
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that's planning and reducing food waste. But
Speaker 1: we plan to reduce food waste. Those are the things
Speaker 1: that save us the most money. But what about the
Speaker 1: foods that happened to be wasted but can actually have
Speaker 1: another use? And so we're gonna talk real quick about
Speaker 1: eight of those. The first is sour milk, and this
Speaker 1: is this was an interesting one to Yeah, the fifty
Speaker 1: frugal mom is who writes this, and she says, if
Speaker 1: you aren't used to the idea, I know it sounds
Speaker 1: kind of gross, but trust me, you can use sour
Speaker 1: milk to make some absolutely delicious things. And I'm still skeptical.
Speaker 1: And she says, when I say sour milk, I mean
Speaker 1: milk that's just starting to sour and taste bad. If
Speaker 1: the milk is starting to discolor, kurdle or smell awful,
Speaker 1: it is too sour to consume. But you can use
Speaker 1: it kind of like in a replacement as a replacement
Speaker 1: for buttermilk and pancakes, cake and biscuits. I will also
Speaker 1: say that milk can freeze. I don't drink milk. I
Speaker 1: only use it in other dishes, maybe that I'm preparing.
Speaker 1: So we don't ever keep a ton of milk on hand,
Speaker 1: and when we do, we don't always use it all.
Speaker 1: So I freeze it and it freezes fe line and
Speaker 1: I'll freeze it and maybe like an ice cube tray
Speaker 1: or something where I could pop out little bits at
Speaker 1: a time for future use. So that's another thing that
Speaker 1: you could consider. If your milk is just starting to
Speaker 1: go bad, you know you're not going to finish it up.
Speaker 1: It freeze is fine. The second one on here is
Speaker 1: chicken and turkey bones. Many of you frugal folks already
Speaker 1: know about this, but in case you don't, you can
Speaker 1: utilize any leftover bones from prepared chicken or turkey that
Speaker 1: you've made, or that rotisserie chicken that you've bought, and
Speaker 1: you can boil it down to create your own stock.
Speaker 1: So before you get rid of that bone, make your
Speaker 1: own stock so you can make your own soup. Absolutely
Speaker 1: and it's healthier, taste better, yeah things. Third is bacon grease,
Speaker 1: and this is this is a yummy one that I use.
Speaker 1: You can just use it as a replacement for um
Speaker 1: oil and just any dish you want and it can
Speaker 1: be kept in a fridge for up to six months.
Speaker 1: I do appreciate this one. Many of you will remember
Speaker 1: all the way back. I don't even remember which episode,
Speaker 1: but this was my thing that I would use paper
Speaker 1: towels to clean out bacon grease, and like, I can't
Speaker 1: stop using paper towels because it's how I clean out
Speaker 1: bacon grease. And then we got a ton of d
Speaker 1: ms from people like here's what you can do with
Speaker 1: the bacon grease. It seems kind of gross to me.
Speaker 1: I didn't grow up utilizing bacon grease in further cooking.
Speaker 1: But reality is as I use oil and butter, and
Speaker 1: so I'm not saying like I want to cook with
Speaker 1: it all the time or like eat spoonfuls of it.
Speaker 1: But this article links to another article which I found
Speaker 1: really interesting, of twenty five ways that you could use
Speaker 1: bacon grease, and so popcorn or mashed potatoes or beans
Speaker 1: or all sorts of ways that you can utilize, not
Speaker 1: not in hoards small amounts, and bacon grease can keep
Speaker 1: for up to six months in your fridge. So yeah,
Speaker 1: instead of throwing it out and making your trash smell gross,
Speaker 1: consider using it if you're already eating bacon, then you're
Speaker 1: already okay with eating some of the grease to let's
Speaker 1: just recognize that. Okay. Number four stale bread. I love
Speaker 1: this one. We don't need to throw away bread just
Speaker 1: because it gets stale. First of all, you can just
Speaker 1: reheat it. Usually that takes the staleness out of it.
Speaker 1: But also you can repurpose it into things like casseroles.
Speaker 1: Remember that term casseroles bakes. The millennial generation is replacing
Speaker 1: the lord casserole with bake. So whatever you choose, you could.
Speaker 1: They give links to all sorts of recipes, whether it's
Speaker 1: a bacon, egg cheese spinach casserole or bake or tread
Speaker 1: pudding and red breading, coast casserole, creutons. I love making
Speaker 1: crutons with bread that's going a little bit bad bread crumb.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I'll make French toast with bread that's just and
Speaker 1: it actually makes it good like maintains, it doesn't make
Speaker 1: it soggy. So many good things to do with stale bread. Fifth.
Speaker 1: I don't eat ham, but hambone. I guess you could
Speaker 1: treat it the same way as a chicken or turkey
Speaker 1: bone and create broth. Or they put it in their
Speaker 1: soups to give extra flavor to soup. So if you
Speaker 1: if you eat ham, there you go. Number six is
Speaker 1: back to the stale stuff. Stale chips or crackers. You
Speaker 1: can easily crisp them right back up again by putting
Speaker 1: them in a single layer on a cookie sheet, putting
Speaker 1: it in the oven for three at three seventy five
Speaker 1: for five to ten minutes, they are crisp again. I
Speaker 1: will also shott and delicious my own little tip here chips,
Speaker 1: crackers or pretzels that are going stale, crunch them up
Speaker 1: and do it as um, like a layer around chicken.
Speaker 1: That's yes, that's what I like, a pretzel chicken. Or
Speaker 1: yeah again, even the chips. You could also crunch up
Speaker 1: tortilla chips and use them in like a layered Mexican dish,
Speaker 1: like a taco dish or something, so all sorts of ways.
Speaker 1: Don't just throw it out because they don't taste that
Speaker 1: great anymore. Repurpose them in a meal that you're mass
Speaker 1: or the random cheetos that your partner comes home with.
Speaker 1: When you send them, they were already eaten. They were
Speaker 1: all gone by the time he got home. Um, we
Speaker 1: don't have a problem with wasted Number seven, but it's
Speaker 1: brewed coffee. We would never, we would never. But if
Speaker 1: you have leftover coffee, you can use it in like desserts.
Speaker 1: So maybe a chocolate cake. Instant coffee and a chocolate
Speaker 1: cake brings out the chocolate flavor so much, so it's
Speaker 1: kind of similar using brewed coffee in a chocolate dessert.
Speaker 1: It just accentuates that chocolate flavor. Or you can make
Speaker 1: a um like coffee ice cubes and make homemade pepper
Speaker 1: and smoker or little frapp chinos using your coffee ice cubes.
Speaker 1: So many options, but we never have a problem with
Speaker 1: leftover coffee. We do We don't either, How do I
Speaker 1: make more coffee quickly? Faster now? And lastly, number eight
Speaker 1: dried out cheese. So I don't know if you've ever
Speaker 1: had this problem before, like not properly storing your cheese
Speaker 1: and a little bit gets dried out, or maybe a
Speaker 1: lot of it gets dried out. It doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: it's bad unless it's moldy. But you can grate that
Speaker 1: dried out portion and still use it. So sometimes I
Speaker 1: will great dried out cheese just onto a salad. Or
Speaker 1: you can cook with it. Use it melted in some
Speaker 1: sort of dish, and it's gonna taste just like smelted.
Speaker 1: No one will know. They don't know. Yeah, you know
Speaker 1: what else they don't know. They aren't ready for, but
Speaker 1: we're bringing it out them in every episode. The Bill
Speaker 1: of the wet That's right, it's time for the best
Speaker 1: minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born
Speaker 1: and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage,
Speaker 1: Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have
Speaker 1: to pay that bill anymore. That's bills, Buffalo Bills, Bill Clinton.
Speaker 1: This is the Bill of the week. Hi, sen and Jail.
Speaker 1: This is Kim calling for Madison. Just want to say
Speaker 1: thanks for the awesome podcast. I just found it very
Speaker 1: recently because I'm trying to turn my financial situation around
Speaker 1: and it's been really helpful. Calling to say that my
Speaker 1: favorite Bill of the week is my book cover bill
Speaker 1: that I just had professionally designed because I have decided
Speaker 1: to take the plunge and become an author. Thanks bye.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that is so gratifying. A so happy
Speaker 1: you found us and that you're getting your finances together
Speaker 1: and be as an author. The cover is so important
Speaker 1: I've had. I actually I actually redesigned my own cover
Speaker 1: because my I was so picky and I don't recommend
Speaker 1: doing this, but I was so picky about my the
Speaker 1: No Spend Challenge Guide second edition cover that I just
Speaker 1: did it myself, but I tried to have it professionally done.
Speaker 1: But yes, when you find a good designer and they
Speaker 1: produced something like pay off your Debt for Good, that cover,
Speaker 1: um was professionally done and it was like I could
Speaker 1: never have it was so great. So yeah, that is
Speaker 1: that is so great. Congratulations. It is a huge accomplishment
Speaker 1: to write a book, um, and it really will change
Speaker 1: your life. Yes, Kim from Madison. It is so gratifying
Speaker 1: to spend on an investment in ourselves the things that
Speaker 1: were good at what we want to be growing in
Speaker 1: and accomplishing. So well done. If you are in our
Speaker 1: Facebook group, feel free to let us know what the
Speaker 1: what the book is. Yes please, And if you all
Speaker 1: listening want to some that your bill, whether it has
Speaker 1: to do with a personal professional endeavor that you're so
Speaker 1: excited to invest in, or just you know your neighbor
Speaker 1: named Bill, we'd love to hear about it. Visit Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast dot com slash bill, leave us your bill
Speaker 1: and now it's time for Now that I'm sitting in
Speaker 1: front of you, I just wanted to like see you
Speaker 1: say that and all your glory, just like sat here
Speaker 1: and watched it happen. Yeah, weird stuff happened, but that's
Speaker 1: how you know you're at the Lightning Round. We don't
Speaker 1: always record together, but when we do, I love to
Speaker 1: see's facial expressions. So this week's Lightning Round is what
Speaker 1: is your non negotiable grocery item, the grocery item that
Speaker 1: always makes it onto the list, always gets used, And
Speaker 1: for me, it's kale. That's amazing. So like that, there's
Speaker 1: the standard ones, like the shredded cheese and the almond
Speaker 1: milk and you know, like the stuff that everybody has,
Speaker 1: but for me, the unique one is kale because I
Speaker 1: do love kale salads. It is a hardy green. I'm
Speaker 1: not like a spinach. I hate arugula. I could do
Speaker 1: an iceberg or romaine, but I just love how well
Speaker 1: kale holds up. It's like a salad green. You can
Speaker 1: kneel prep because it just gets better when you put
Speaker 1: dressing on it and all of the things. It's just
Speaker 1: a hardy good and so the secret is you have
Speaker 1: to massage it. You've got a massage it there, I
Speaker 1: mean sixty seconds, like just feeling it up, groping it
Speaker 1: like you would with your produce in the grocery store.
Speaker 1: You got to do that with your kale. Butter her
Speaker 1: up and she will treat you so good. And right now,
Speaker 1: this is why I'm loving to be in person, because
Speaker 1: you're making all of the motions that corresponds with massage
Speaker 1: and kale. And this is why we're allowed on YouTube. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you taught me. You introduced me to the massage and
Speaker 1: kale concept, and I thought I didn't like kale until
Speaker 1: you massage the kale, and I'm like, it's so much
Speaker 1: better behaved in my mouth after it's been massaged. It's
Speaker 1: like me, you thought you didn't like me, and then
Speaker 1: I got a massage, and then there I all my glory.
Speaker 1: I don't think that that's not true to the story.
Speaker 1: It's loosely based on a true story. For me, it's
Speaker 1: not that healthy. But y'all, y'all know me. It's gum.
Speaker 1: Gum is always. I can't cut that out. I will
Speaker 1: sooner cut out literally anything else. My grocery list, but
Speaker 1: gum is a must have. I'm chewing gum all the
Speaker 1: time and straight out the womb, even before I was
Speaker 1: hooked on rotisserie chickens. I was hooked on gum and
Speaker 1: gum before she had tea. It's a rough time for
Speaker 1: her mom. So I mean, I don't it doesn't make
Speaker 1: it on the list every single week. I'm not. I
Speaker 1: can space out my gum consumption, but you're not going
Speaker 1: to talk me out of it. Yeah, and you are
Speaker 1: not an annoying gum tour It's not like every time
Speaker 1: I think of Jill, I think of like gum. It's
Speaker 1: you just like it and you do it. I guess conspicuously. Well,
Speaker 1: you know I don't chew gum while we podcast, so
Speaker 1: you're welcome. That's a sacrifice for you. I realized quickly,
Speaker 1: I can't have gun in my mouth while we're podcasting.
Speaker 1: So anyhow, that's our nonnegotiables. Yes, So thank you so
Speaker 1: much for listening. I hope you picked up a new
Speaker 1: tip or two from this episode, and if you want
Speaker 1: to hear more tips. You know, we have a private
Speaker 1: community where we do monthly challenges, and we we have
Speaker 1: a whole channel where we talk about meal planning and groceries,
Speaker 1: and we want to congratulate one of our members, not
Speaker 1: necessarily for a grocery win, us like a win in general.
Speaker 1: This is from Zerlin. She says, we paid off ten
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Yes, we have a personal loan that came
Speaker 1: from consolidating our consumer debt that we are going to
Speaker 1: be paying off. It was scheduled to be paid off
Speaker 1: in January three and by the time we, you know,
Speaker 1: pay it off by the time they paid off by
Speaker 1: the time this episode airs, So congratulations, Zerlin. She said.
Speaker 1: The biggest thing that help was doing the no Spend challenge.
Speaker 1: We did that in January as a membership, as a
Speaker 1: group um. It made us really think about any purchase
Speaker 1: before actually going through with it. Most of the time
Speaker 1: we ended up not buying that item slash items anyways,
Speaker 1: because we didn't really need it. When the challenge was over,
Speaker 1: we had developed the habit of not making any impulse
Speaker 1: purchases and that has helped tremendously. My hobby appreciated the
Speaker 1: challenge so much that we've already scheduled to other no
Speaker 1: spend months this year just to keep us in check.
Speaker 1: We used the extra quote unquote money towards aggressively paying
Speaker 1: off more debt or adding a large chunk into our savings.
Speaker 1: That's amazing, Zerlin congratulation. So thrilled to hear what an amazing,
Speaker 1: what an amazing dent a challenge has made for your finances,
Speaker 1: and then what that's producing for you going forward in
Speaker 1: the future, and that it was one of the things
Speaker 1: that helped get a spouse on board. How incredible. We're
Speaker 1: cheering you on and celebrating with you. Yeah, it's definitely
Speaker 1: easier to get a partner on board when you can
Speaker 1: gamify something, so we're excited about that. So again, thanks
Speaker 1: for listening. If you want to check out our monthly
Speaker 1: challenge community, head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash
Speaker 1: club to see what challenge we have coming up next.
Speaker 1: See you next week. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian.
Speaker 1: All Right, what are we eating today? Oh, that's such
Speaker 1: a great question. Well, I had brought some leftover chicken
Speaker 1: salad actually from a rotisserie chicken. Yeah you did not,
Speaker 1: it is exactly. Oh, we're such good friends, so um,
Speaker 1: so yeah, that's what I brought over to your house.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. Okay, um, I have actually let us in
Speaker 1: my garden that I have been needing to pick for
Speaker 1: a very long time, So we're probably going to do that.
Speaker 1: And we've got some ripe green beans that I'm going
Speaker 1: to pick. And then we've got a lot of leftovers
Speaker 1: that we need to eat up, Like I think enough
Speaker 1: to make one taco. We've got like a slice of pizza,
Speaker 1: a serving of pasta. So you were just gonna over lunch,
Speaker 1: it's left over lunch, that left over lunch Friday. Yes,
Speaker 1: let's do it. I'm hongry. Let's eat