(yeah, the name sucks, got a better one, send me an email)

I just realized I had yet another Wednesday night conflict – my next post, or go through the flyers posted tonight to see what I’ll be trying to stockpile for a rainy day. Then it hit me, why not combine the two, and make it a regular post?

In an effort to streamline my efforts, AND since the saving money while food shopping is part of my every day life, I feel it’s rather fitting to give this a go.

This will revolve around stores in my area, and food that we eat. Saving money by buying in bulk is no good if you are storing food you will never eat. “Eat what you store, store what you eat” will be my guidelines. To me, this means very little food that includes any grains, legumes, or refined sugars. I will have a few of these items, but not many. I will also be buying in bulk, typically 20 or so of the items highlighted, in order to save over a longer period. I saved over 20% of my food bill last year buy buying in bulk, and eating food purchased at the previous year’s prices. Some items may require processing of some sort, canning, dehydrating, etc.

Stores I will be choosing from will be local to me, with most information being pulled from SouthernSavers.com. The stores available include Publix, Winn Dixie, SaveaLot, and WalMart.

I will also include some version of this intro every Wednesday.

Let’s get started!

Publix options:

Rainier Cherries, 16 oz, at $5.99 ($2.99)  That’s $1.50 per pound for Rainier cherries, a decent value. Options would be dehydrate, can, or freeze. Looks like I need to buy (or make!) a cherry pitter. 

$10 off $50 Gas Card WYB $50 in groceries  That’s 20% off your gas purchase!

RealLemon or RealLime 100% Juice, 8 oz, 99¢ Not fresh, but will do in a pinch, handy for salsas and such, and stores well. We prefer lime, btw.

Winn Dixie options:

Fuelperk info: Every $50 spent gives 5 cents off up to 20 gallons. Plus, some items give additional Fuel Perks. Every 5 cents in Fuel Perks equates to $1 saved, as long as you purchase 20 gallons of fuel when you use the Perks. We have an 18 gallon tank, and load up a 2.5 gallon gas can. More info regarding Fuel Perks here. For this exercise, Fuel Perk savings are figured into each individual item that has them.

Sargento Shredded Cheese, 5-8 oz, $2 Plus 5¢ Fuelperk WYB (2)
$4 per pound is my price point to buy, and cheese freezes well. After Fuel Perks, price is $3/lb on 8oz bags.

Save-A-Lot options:

Crystal 2 O Drinking water 24pk, 16.9 oz bottles $2.48 A decent price for bottled water for sporting events for our kids. Yes, we should use refillable bottles. I have to pick and choose my battles…..

Pork Shoulder picnics $0.99/lb  Makes for pretty good pulled pork, then vacuum packed and frozen. Also works as raw-packed then pressure canned.

Whole, Center Cut Beef Strip, $3.99.lb  Looks like its steak cutting and packing time again! Good thing, I’m running low on ribeyes!

Frozen boneless,skinless chicken breasts, $1.79/lb  Keep it frozen until ready to do a batch of pressure canning, and can it also. Saves $0.77 per pound over the typical canned chicken we buy.

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So, my plans for stocking up will include some pressure canning pork and chicken; dehydrating some cherries whole and into fruit leather; cutting, vacuum packing and freezing some strip steaks then adding them and some cheese to the freezer; and adding some bottled water and lime juice to the pantry shelves.

And all of the above will get moved into our regular meals, extending our larder a bit, and saving us some money all at the same time.  The hurricane season has been quiet so far, but I’d rather be ready and have it, than need it and not have it.

You know, like I always say…”just in case”.

Peace,

db