Susan Carolan and Jody Stout presented the program Shopping on a Budget at the recent meeting of the Heart-N-Hands Extension Homemakers Club. The meeting was held at the Pursuit Church in White Hall.
Carolan opened the program by presenting 10 tips for thrifty grocery shopping for nutritious foods.
1. Plan ahead. Review your calendar to determine how many meals will be eaten during the week. Consider what is already in your pantry, freezer and refrigerator and plan healthy, nutritious meals.
2. Establish a spending plan, or have an idea how much money you can afford to spend on grocery shopping.
3. Maintaining a grocery list all week will hopefully reduce the number of items you forget to purchase.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
4. Purchase fresh fruits and vegetables in season for better flavor and lower costs.
5. Save money with discount and sale purchases. Utilize coupons. Buy store brands. You can also buy some items in bulk sizes or as family packs that usually cost less.
6. Do not waste money on food you do not eat. Buy in the quantity you can consume before it spoils.
7. The most nutritious foods are around the border of the grocery store (fruits and vegetables, milk and dairy products, meats and breads). Shop for items on the upper and lower shelves as most stores stock the most expensive items at the consumer’s eye level.
8. Check the data-labeling phrases on food products.
Examples of commonly used phrases:
(a) Best if Used By/Before date indicates when a product will be of best flavor or quality.
(b) Sell-By date tells the store how long to display the product for inventory management.
(c) Use-By date is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. It is not a safety date except for when used on infant formula.
(d) Freeze-By date indicates when a product should be frozen to maintain peak quality. Grocery stores typically stock their shelves with the newest items behind the older ones.
9. Never shop on an empty stomach.
10. Get creative in the kitchen.
Stout presented tips for refrigerator storage that will make food last longer. She closed the program by sharing food preparation ideas. Use everything that you can. Scramble leftover vegetables into eggs. Mix leftover vegetable bits into quinoa, rice and other whole grains. Freeze things like dollops of tomato paste that you would have thrown away. Freeze soup leftovers to mix into another soup later. Freeze fruit before it goes bad. Freeze roasted vegetables.
Heart-N-Hands also held its business session. Stout (club president) welcomed Alcina Battenfield, guest of member Kaye Richardson. Battenfield was welcomed as the club’s newest member.
Nancy Rosen, special community projects chairman, asked for volunteers to fill sacks for the Backpack Project at Pursuit Church. Sandy Smith, Lori Rosetti, Terri Penna and Rosen volunteered to help in March. Brenda Hendrix, spring Walk Across Arkansas chairman for Heart-N-Hands EHC, reminded all participants to turn in their minutes exercised.
Upcoming events included a craft workshop at the Jefferson County Cooperative Extension Office on Thursday, 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m.