$1 food and stocking up in the freezer (+ grocery haul) -- Budget Girl 40: -$27,866

[@FrugalEnthusiast]

Thank you for your content.

[@anitaroberts5980]

Groceries have always been my biggest challenge, but thanks to all your tips, I now have a written grocery budget including an inventory of what's on hand so I can easily track what I need. I am trying to lose weight in addition to debt so I made a weekly meal planner that includes nutrient values as well as dollar costs per meal, per day and per week. I found this so helpful when I went shopping. It really kept me focused on the goals. I also made a graphical timeline that shows my planned progress over the next 5 years. I am very visual so this helps me stay motivated. You are so smart to have taken control of your finances while you are young! Sure wish I could find a dollar sale in my neck of the woods.

[@kippytx]

Love your channel. Good ideas. My daughter in law loves the taste of onions but can't stand the texture. I LOVE the taste of onion in many things. SO we came up with an alternative that works. She has a Ninja kind of blender but I think a food processor would work too. She quartered several onions ( a small bag ) and blended them til they were kind of " slushy". Then she put them in ice cube trays and froze them. Finally she popped them out of the trays and put in a zip lock. Whenever we want onions for a dish--we just take out a few cubes and add it. Works great for both of us.

[@1andonlylynda]

a month or so ago our store had onions and beets for 10 lb for $3. I bought 2 bags of beets and made 20 jars of beet pickles. the onions I bought 40 lbs and dehydrated them all. I like onions in casseroles meat loafs but hate chopping them all the time. Now I have enough onions to last me about a year and I will grind them up for onion powder which I use a lot of. The 2nd trip for more onions I got 20 lbs for $2. I do not usually buy in that quantity but it was still nice enough to set up the dehydrator outside. When potatoes are on sale I buy quite a few and can them for mashed potatoes home fries and just deep fried as a special treat for a side dish.

[@BudgetGirl]

+grandma lynda Wonderful!

[@Mary-pw1ki]

Another video I love! Why can't my store have a $1 sale? That's just awesome. One suggestion, chop some of the potatoes into fries for oven fries.

[@10529Erin]

When you chop your onions to freeze, you can spread them out on a cookie sheet and freeze first and then put them in a container and then they are frozen separately and you don't get a blob of frozen onions. You can get out as much as you want that way :) You can keep all in one container. Also, works well with cheese, although cheese is crumbly anyway when you freeze it and dethaw. I don't freeze cream cheese(mine separated and was disgusting).

[@BudgetGirl]

I've done cream cheese before and it definitely changes the texture, but if you're using it in something, like rotel dip or a dish, it's okay. I don't flash freeze because I just don't have room in my freezer. Fortunately, my onions haven't stuck together. Thanks for the tips!

[@cinthia0299]

you can freeze breads! veggies and freeze bananas but don't store them on the door I've found they keep best inside where the temp doesn't change that much. :-) I didn't know about potatoes thanks for that tip. and thank you to everyone else posting tips too

[@bellusnatura3991]

New susscriber here..I always get potatos when they are on sale and try to store them any way i can.I used to live in the wilds of Wyoming , but now im in MO..I hate the humidity here lol.So storing potaots here is more difficult to store the old fashinoed way.

[@evabognar9167]

Budget Girl A fairly new subscriber here, I love your videos! I've never known you can freeze potatoes, will try it out! You can also freeze eggs: open and mix the yolk and white a bit in a zip lock bag, put a sticker on it with the number of eggs in there and you can just pull it out whenever you need! Good for omelette, scrambled eggs or for baking. I'm going to check out the soup mix you posted, great idea! I wonder if you can search for a similar mix for the banana bread? I used an easy-peasy muffin mix that I found on Living Well, Spending Less, Rachel provided the measurements there. I'm sure someone figured out a similar thing for banana breads, too :)

[@BudgetGirl]

Éva Bognár Thanks, will try that out!

[@nunyabiznizz5619]

You can caramelize onions in a big batch and then freeze in smaller batches. Just defrost and use.

[@chasingsimpledreams]

That is pretty amazing wow. So you cut up your potatoes and freeze them? Never knew you could do that, thanks for the tip!

[@joanjean3904]

You can freeze those bananas, butter, milk and so much more!! Joan again

[@tinkerbellzful]

I heard if you put an apple in with your potatoes it makes them last longer. And a peice of bread over some foods works as well.

[@joanjean3904]

You might want to look into getting a Food Saver (Goodwill etc always have them). You might also think about getting the attachments too (ebay). With the canning jars your buying you could easily vac-u-seal.all of your dry goods. WHAT A GREAT WAY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SALES. After the holidays I buy my candy for the next year at 50 to 75% off.and any other seasonal merchandize as well. You could also use the vac bags for meats. It's also a good idea for friends (they'll know what to give you for special occasions without breaking the bank) Just an idea. Joan

[@BudgetGirl]

Joan Hackney Thanks for the tips! THose are awesome.

[@maureencairney9549]

Congratulations to you I never seem to get bargains like these on my side of the world, I live in Australia..

[@BudgetGirl]

I've heard things are very expensive over there, I'm sorry. But welcome! I'm so happy to make friends with people on the other side of the world! Do you have any budget tips from living in a very expensive area you'd care to share?

[@maureencairney9549]

I shop Aldi and we have just recently had a Costco open near us, I cook from scratch grow most of my own fruit and veg as we are in sunny Queensland. I have written myself out a fairly strict zero based budget, which for the most part I stick to. Those are my main budgeting tips, I wish there were more Australian vloggers out there as it's hard to compare apples to pears, but you guys give me great tips and of course motivation...

[@AnnieB_itsjustmylife]

those are some great bargains no wonder you stocked up on some things I would have also.

[@BudgetGirl]

Thanks you! I was very lucky the sale came at the beginning of the month when I had my full grocery budget to work with!

[@WellBehavedWallet]

Wow! Super deals!! Thanks for sharing. Did you end up chopping everything up? Not many tips to share, just be sure to check expiration dates, especially on the cans. (PS - Where did you get the planner you wrote your meals in? I'm always on the lookout for spiral bound planners with full sized boxes for each day.)

[@BudgetGirl]

I chopped up two of the three bags of onions last night, then got exhausted (and super teary -- but I found out that if you put a spoon in your mouth, that cuts the pain a lot!) I'm not the best at expiration dates, but I try to cycle things out from oldest first - I probably need to develop some sort of organizing system for it, but right now I stock my pantry from under my bed and under my bed from the store. The planner is actually from like 2012 or so, but they still have the same weekly box kind at Walmart pretty cheap. I don't pay attention to the dates, I've been using that sporadically to plan meals for a couple years now. The upside of course is that if I get stuck for ideas, I can look at past plans for old recipes in that same book!

[@OurFamilyofFour]

Great deals!!! Do you flash freeze your onions first on a baking sheet? I can't ever seem to get them to not all stick together without doing that.

[@BudgetGirl]

I did not flash freeze them, I stick my onions in the freezer for about a half an hour before chopping them up, mostly to help with the eye-watering, but it also seems to dry them a little. I diced them and put it all in a bowl, when I was done with both bags I just dumped sections into quart baggies. When I went to get some out for dinner, no stickage, they came right out. I hope that helps!

[@OurFamilyofFour]

Cool! I will try that next time, thank you :)

[@donnafuller3226]

Budget Girl

[@greeneyedmomma41]

just wanted to say hello.. .I really enjoy your videos.....

[@BudgetGirl]

+jill anderson Hello! Thanks so much!

[@dariannjackson]

Great deals. Would love to hear about the cream mix. :)

[@BudgetGirl]

Hi! Here is the link to the recipe I used. I've only tested it out once, but I really liked it! -- So much better for you (all ingredients I can pronounce!) and cheaper than cans of cream of mushroom/ chicken too! 1orangegiraffe.blogspot.com/2011/07/anything-you-wanna-call-it-casserole.html?showComment=1310864846151#c3489139395376988271

[@jessicaashley8907]

Awesome sale! I have been wanting to make one of those cream of ___ mixes. Is it good??

[@BudgetGirl]

It is! I actually just uploaded a video on how to make it!

[@Xballoway]

why have I never thought about freezing potatoes?

[@Mary-pw1ki]

Duh, I forgot this was an old video!

[@cdogvlog5557]

Is that brown rice? Brown rice is a lot less hassle to cook for me anyway because it doesn't have all that starch. If you want to do that with onions you really need to invest in a nicer dicer contraption or else you will cry way too much with them. You should have bought more eggs and freeze them in ice cube trays. How are you going to survive with no sugar?

[@BudgetGirl]

Cdogvlog 55 Oh I cried plenty, but I have enough onions to last me through this year. I used the spoon in the mouth method to keep it to a minimum. I should have bought more eggs, and some sugar. But I don't eat much sugar. Thanks for commenting!

[@ksgOV]

+Budget Girl If you put the onion in the freezer for about 15 minutes before you won't cry.

[@cdogvlog5557]

+ksgOV I will try that thanks.

[@kathleen90]

Potatoes blacken in the freezer, in case you didn't know.

[@Adeline9418]

Get an instant pot! You'll save on your electric.