Not hounding related

Well as you have gathered or read (above or below) I was laid off in April and collecting unemployment which isn't much. I've been trying my best to cut corners here and there but I've finally come into hounding the past month or so. My husbands hours were cut down to 32 hours per week and that forced me to take a little more drastic action in stretching every dollar.. so here are a few other ideas I've used.



www.angelfoodministries.com (for some reason the link is not showing on my blog.. nog sure why)

ANGEL FOOD MINISTRIES

I have found this program to be helpful to bulk up on meats. I will buy the main box and then a grilling package depending on which month it is. I just picked up this months offering on Saturday at a new church.



main box included milk, eggs, dark meat breaded chicken chunks, dessert, pasta, pasta sauce, ribs, crock pot meal, fajita meat, corn tortillas, lean cuisine pizza, meatballs, pork roast, salsbury steak, hawaiian punch, blueberry muffin mix, frozen veggies. the main box always cost $30



this extra box cost $20 and included more ribs, 2 steaks, another roast, and italian sausage.

there is always different extra boxes and you can order as many extra boxes as you want. this month there was 4 extra boxes I just ordered one. They ranged from $16-$20.

The one other place I have found that I can stretch my dollars is a food pantry an hour away. Local grocery stores and bakeries donate anything that they are going to throw away. There is no "verification process", you pay $10 to get in, and you "shop" with a grocery cart up and down isles in a warehouse. This is only once per month and of course every month is different supplies.



the list for this was insane and I know I forgot a ton of stuff in the list. The boys were hungry because we had skipped dinner (we ate lunch at 3pm) and on our way home with all the groceries it was 8pm so they started eating things out of the bags on the way home.
Here is the list..
Bread (most of which from local bakeries but some do have Jewel stickers)
6 3 foot cheese/rosmary loaves
8 brat buns
6 multi grain rolls
8 whole wheat hamburger buns
raisin bread

Snacks/chips (all name brand)
Blue corn chips
4 bags pacific rim chips
4 bags pretzel flats
2 bags pizza puffs
2 boxes kashi fire roasted crackers
1 bag trail mix
4 bags of pb filled pretzel puffs
1 box caribou coffee carmel granola bars
2 tins of choc chip maccaroon cookies
2 packages sugar free rocky road cookies
1 package mint cream cookies (some healthy version of oreo's)
4 boxes of Force Gushers (sorta like fun fruit kind of snacks)
1 box of chocolate waffer swirls

meat
6 pork chops
6 italian sausage
2lbs chicken nuggetts
honey ham
4 packages of turkey pepperoni

veggie/fruit
1 jar sun dried tomatoes
1 jar sun dried tomato paste
1 large bag with 6 smaller bags of cut apples like you get at McDonalds
4 packages of fresh blackberries
1 large jar of chopped garlic
6 peach smoothie/yogart drink
6 mango smoothie/yogart drinks

Misc
1 jar Southwest sensations marinade
1 jar of some fancy mustard
organic grahm cracker crust
apple cider mix
4 HUGE FULL THROTTLE energy drinks
2 apple ginseng juice
1 raspberry vinegar
1 turkey steamer kind of like one of those chicken roasters you put a beer can in

So that's it.. my ideas for stretching dollars!