Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Saving Money with Canned Foods and Two Money Saving Tips

This is national canned food month and the time to stock up. I have been shopping sales and really stocking my pantry. I am working on going back to grocery shopping every two weeks instead of weekly. That requires a very well stocked pantry of goods, so I have been really cleaning and sprucing up my pantry. More on that later.

canned food aisle


Okay, onto the two tips for the day:

First, never buy olives already chopped. You will pay about 1 1/2 times more for them prechopped.
Instead, cut up what you need and put the rest in the refrigerator. They keep a long time in there and then use them in your next recipe or toss in a salad.

chopped olives

Second money saving tip. I no longer buy tomato sauce. You get far more for your money with paste. I find a heaping tablespoon of tomato paste diluted with about a half cup of water equals the average small can of tomato sauce. BUT, what you have left is three more large tablespoons of paste. So to save them, scoop each one onto a plate and place in the freezer.

tomato paste

Once they are frozen, pop them into a plastic bag or container and keep frozen until you are ready to use the next time. For my easy Spanish rice I use one of these tablespoons and about a half cup of water to equal the tomato sauce called for.

frozen tomato paste

For that and my other recipes you can check my recipe page.

12 comments:

  1. I didn't know that about olives.
    Thanks for the tip, Elaine!

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  2. Clever! I never thought of diluting tomato paste to make tomato sauce but the big difference is, of course, the water content. I have a running list of things I need to stock up on, I'm in the process of making sure the pantry is full of things we need.

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  3. Didn't realize the tip about the tomato sauce. Hummm...going to try that one!

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  4. I am going to buy paste and do this from now on, and I will refrain from buying sliced olives, too. Good tips. xo

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  5. What a great tip on the tomato paste. Definitely going to try that out, and also a very good idea not to go in to the grocery so often!

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  6. Great idea on the tomato paste (using it with water instead of buying sauce). Thanks!

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  7. Great tips!
    I didn't know this about the olives.
    I always forget that little tip with paste. Thanks for the reminder.

    Pat

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  8. Great post! I've been away from blog land for a while..I didn't think about the olive thing and honestly never even gave a thought to the tomato paste..! So you could make a whole pot of sauce just using paste then?
    Robyn

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  9. Great reminders. I hate running out of paste when I need it. I shared this with my Facebook group. :) Have a blessed day.

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  10. I have a $20 china cupboard and a set of gray metal shelves full of canned and boxed goods in the cellar; we call going downstairs "going to the store." When money is tighter, I live a lot more off the cupboard shelves. This time of year canned veggies are often cheaper because they are getting rid of last year's crop. If I buy on sale and use coupons, I often don't need to buy that thing again till it is on sale. WIN-WIN. I was married to a man who worked seasonally--come fall I started squirreling groceries away for unemployment sized paychecks. Still do it; now I don't lug as many groceries up icy winter steps!

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