frugal low carbing tips?

I have not heard of Zaycon, I am going to register.

I read every label and pay attention to every sale.  I quickly learned that Whole Foods 365 degree brand (their own brand) is the best price for my Almond Milk Unsweetened and the greek yogurt with 18grams of protein.  I like FAGE, but wait until it's on sale.  The 365 degree brand is $1.29 each.  Cheaper than the Kroger plain greek yogurt and less carbs. 

At Whole Foods, if you buy a case of something you get a 10% off discount.  I do that with Greek Yogurt because I have it with a scoop of protein every morning. 

ITA w/Patty about WalMart & Sams.

I did break down for a Costco membership.  Which all the beef, fish and chicken are excellent prices and can be frozen!  Plus, if you do not have an Rx plan, you get a bigger discount on Rx's.  Plus as you go along, they have excellent buys for those things you might need (wipes).

CVS seems to have some great "bonus bucks" and can be used towards future purchases.

Walgreens (although I do not care for any generic product I've purchased there so I no longer get those types of things), has good deals on Paper Towels and TP.  6 rolls $4 ($1 off coupon w/card)

Various grocery stores around have a card.  If you use it for prescriptions, you can accumulate points which allow free stuff.  I have got eggs, water and various things with that.

As for protein, I have tried a lot of different ones, the only one that doesn't make me vomit is Unjury.  I was able to use any of them prior to my DS.  WOW!  Did things change!  With Unjury, I am on autodelivery, which gives you 10 or 15% off each order.  You can pu**** back move it forward and change it.  It's great!

I buy the loaf of gluten free bread which I "maybe" have twice a month, I keep it in the freezer.

95% of what I buy is on sale or some kind of discount.  I buy the package of 2 Almond Milks rather than the individual which saves me .40cents on each one. 

The little things count.  The one thing with me, I do not care for leftovers after this surgery.  Very odd.  At 10mo out, I'm still that way.

I am googling all the cheaper grocery stores in cities near me.  For me, I have to weigh the price of driving 45 minutes to one of these as aposed to going to the nearest Safeway.  So I need to register on line and get the flyers in advance so I can do 1 trip - and do it up big.

I swear, I go in for one small thing and come out with 100 dollars worth of 'savings' that I found.  My freezer is full of stuff.   I do pretty good with the club card and coupons - I average 38% off my total.  But I'm still spending money.  I'm going to have to get into the habit of going twice a month - and that is it.  I just keep finding sales, and that lures me back into the stores.

Thanks for all the tips.  Keep them coming.

jashley,

I look at the ads for Mi Pueblo.  They're in the East and South Bay, mostly, but also in San Rafael and Vallejo. They're really good stores, and inexpensive.

http://www.mipueblo.com/mipueblo/stores/area-de-la-bahia/

I used to work right down the road from one in Palo Alto.  Love that store!  Cheap pork and produce.  Now, the nearest one would be an hour's drive at least. 

I guess I need to travel out and hit these stores.  Lion is another great supermarket.  I even used to do FoodMax on my way home - now that was an experience.  Smart & Final has some great sales also.

This is a great thread. I've been letting my brother use my freezer but now  I think he will have to buy his own.

PeteA,

Why in the world can I see the conversation with your brother... LOL!!!  You should put the video up... LOL!

I will share something that I've been working on.  Another lady posted that she made a protein shake with 2 raw eggs, some almond milk, some cocoa powder and some sweetener - and it was the best protein shake she had ever tasted, with the same grams of protein, for a fraction of the cost.  She used a magic bullet to mix it, and said she would not know there were eggs in if she hadn't made it herself.

That really resonated with me, so I started researching how to do this safely.  It would be so much cheaper to use eggs for a shake than the powders - not to mention they have other vitamins and minerals in them and are a complete protein. 

So I am going to pasteurize (coddle) - 3 cartons of eggs (because buying them pasteurized is expensive), put them into an ice bath, then crack them open and blend them.  They will be frozen 3 eggs at a time in paper cups.  I'm going to try making protein shakes with them.  Each egg has 6 to 7 grams of protein, 18-21 grams per cup.  Her milk substitute (almond milk I think) had as many protein grams as one large egg, so she used just 2 eggs for 20 grams of protein.

Mix with yogurt, or a little cream, vanilla extract, a banana, cocoa powder, fruit, what ever I have. - and I will have 20 grams of protein for 37 cents plus the cost of flavorings.   The cheapest I've come on my powders is 1 dollar for 30 gms of protein.  I would save about 40% every time I swapped in an egg shake.

please let us know how this works out for you.  i use champion pure whey stack protein powder and at $50 for a 5 lb tub (s&h included), drinking 4 shakes a day...let just say, it's becoming a bit tight on the budget.

In my area Walmart and local grocery stores mark down meat on Sunday AM that will expire on monday.  I go early 5-6 am .  Get a few roasts to put in the crockpot on Sunday and have beef dinners for weeks. (enough to share). Chicken I need to portion as they packages are LARGE but the breasts are very moist as I find the pre frozen ones dry. I find for me if I shop at club stores I waste too much food.  I do not like most reheated items. Wish I could find fish on a great sale.  Have found some bags of frozen shrimp (raw) at good prices if you buy 5# bags which last a LLONG time.  Friends like to eat at my house, for foods they consider rare treats.  I only have me to feed so things last a long long time.  Anyone in the St Louis area want to share shopping trips / large purchases? ;o) 

I used to go to Costco twice a year, like a pilgrimage.   Bought 600 dollars’ worth of meat/food every time.  2 years ago I started noticing that Costco prices were going up.  I did a study one weekend.  Went to Safeway (local grocery store) and wrote down every cut of meat, fish, eggs, dairy prices.  Then I took that to Costco.  The prices were the same on beef, but the meet is Prime grade – one grade above what Safeway sells (Select).  Pork is about the same price.  Now Safeway sells the cryo-vacuum sealed bags of pork or beef that you take home and cut up yourself (just like Costco).  Chicken is cheaper at Costco on a regular basis, but Safeway has chicken sales at 79 cents a lb, which is 20 cents cheaper than Costco.  If I hit the sales at Safeway, I get better pricing than at Costco.  Dairy and eggs – Costco is definitely cheaper – if you don’t allow other things to jump into your cart (like I do).

So do a check on meat, fish, dairy, and egg prices and see if Costco prices warrant that membership fee.  Figure in the cost of the vacuum bags and machines you use to re-package all that meat into individual portions (this was costing me a small fortune!  I do not eat near as much as I used to). 

I have a Costco membership.  You can get up to 5 membership cards on 1 membership.  So I share the cost of membership with a group of women.  My card has someone else's name on it, but I use cash anyway.