I went to Sam's last week for my OAMC trial so I have quite a bit of food in my house. Here's the break down of the items I bought:
- Toilet Paper - wanted to test it out the store brand to compare it to Scott's brand.
- onions - need
- 1 bag green apples for the pie
- apples and an avocado were okay prices, not amazing, but low enough to buy
- The mushrooms were 2/$1.00. This is a stock up price for me. They often go down to $.50 so I buy enough to last us until the next sale. I'm sure that for a lot of people this wouldn't be a pantry staple. I swear my husband could eat mushrooms in his cold cereal. Okay not really, but he LOVES mushrooms so they go in most of our meals.
- The mac & cheese. Disgusting food! My kids love it so I usually buy a few boxes when they go to $.50 per box. I only like this store brand - not crazy about Kraft. They were down to $.33 so I bought a LOT. Now I have to hide them somewhere so the kids can't find them.
- The sausage was a great price (well, for sausage) $2.25/lb. My husband likes to make brats on Sundays sometimes and I love Kielbasa in our red beans and rice. I was planning on stocking up on these at this price. However, considering my husband and I have both gained a few pounds over the winter I think I need to cut back on sausage. In my red beans I'm going to cut back on the amount of sausage I use and add chicken as well. The other issue is the nitrates and other gunk in them. Not the healthiest food around. I think I'd be better off in the long run serving more fish. But goodness fish sure does stink up the house! Next time I make it I need to use the BBQ!
Notice how weird pantry principle shopping is....what on Earth will I make? With few exceptions, I buy everything that is on sale. By the way, I just remembered I bought 1 pack of oriental ramen because I had a recipe that called for it and I haven't seen them on sale for a year.
There is another recipe that I'm dying to make, but cream cheese is not on sale. I know it will go on sale soon so why waste the $.50. Big deal you say...it's only $.50. If I can save $.50 on 10 items every week that saves me $5.00 for that week. Over the year, that will save me $260.00. For doing NOTHING other than being patient. It doesn't take me more time to be patient and it doesn't make me feel deprived! It makes me grateful that I can save money at the store because I took the time to read the grocery ad and write down a few prices.
The pantry principle works for me!!!
This post is linked to the Grocery Cart Challenge and WFMW.
We also use the Pantry Principle. Isn't it fund scouring for deals?
ReplyDeleteBtw, I'm enjoying reading your blogs.
Blessings
I'm like you--nearly everything we eat was purchase on sale and then stored until time to eat it. My grocery trips come out looking like yours, except I have used coupons on virtually everything as well.
ReplyDeleteOh how I wish we had coupons here!
ReplyDeleteI see that you live in AZ, Katie. When we lived there I got a lot of stuff for pennies...especially supply type things.
Carolyn - I don't know why my comment didn't post the first time. Maybe it'll show up later. Anyway, I said something about it's fun now scouring for deals, but when I first started this journey I was completely overwhelmed. I'm still that way sometimes!
ReplyDeleteWe use that sausage but we get the turkey smoked sausage for our jimbalaya and you can't tell a difference between it and beef and there's a lot less fat and calories!
ReplyDeleteI just asked someone about the turkey sausage on another blog. Thanks for telling me! It's amazing the difference in fat and calories.
ReplyDeleteNext time there is a sale I'll check it out.
Have you ever had the person next to you in line in the store look at your cart and ask in a puzzled voice, "What are you MAKING?" :-D That happens to me sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI laughed at your Mac & Cheese comment. My kids also aren't fond of Kraft. They'd rather have the store brand! I enjoyed reading your post.
ReplyDelete