First Grocery Haul of 2024

Happy, belated, Holidays and Happy (late) New Year everyone!

I had plans to blog some more coming up to Christmas and the holiday season, but my husband brought home the flu right before he got off for Christmas vacation and he and I ended up horribly sick (my husband and I did not get flu shots yet, which my husband especially regretted as he got it the worst of all of us) for the entire holiday season, which, to put it bluntly, sucked.  We managed to get the gifts unwrapped on Christmas, I made lasagna and beef roast for Christmas Eve and Christmas and that was about it for holiday celebrations.  The kids got sick, but to a much lesser extent than we did (yay flu vaccines), but they are both still tiring easily still.  I have about one thing in me a day before my energy levels just bottom out right now, but at least I'm finally getting a sense of smell and taste back, which makes eating a lot more enjoyable and I got enough energy out of myself day before yesterday to get the laundry caught up (HUGE project after being sick for so long).  Hopefully I can keep the cough at bay as I'm actively fighting it and trying to stop it from giving me the creeping crud for the remainder of the winter.  Despite being sick, somehow I managed to keep cooking and getting food on the table for everyone (yay me), which saved us a ton of money that we didn't spend eating out or getting delivery.  I just postponed my birthday cake for a later date as I didn't feel like making a cake I couldn't enjoy, so I'm hoping that I can maybe make that this weekend and be able to eat it and actually taste it.  

I managed to go and get grocery shopping done for the next couple of weeks yesterday, so I thought I'd share what my grocery haul looked like (well part of it...I didn't take pictures of Alvah's food, a box of wet cat food and a bag of frozen cod fillets....that stuff was already in the freezer or put away).  I do have blog posts lined up, some even half done (yay for progress!) and I actually figured out a few goals for this year that I'll share here, hopefully soon (I'm not making plans other than getting well and doing what I feel up to at this point), but watch for a hint on one of my goals for this year when I go over the shopping haul (ooooo!!!  Excitement!!!  *Laugh*).

So, without further ado, let's get to it!

So, including what is above there and also Alvah's food and the aforementioned cat food and cod fillets, I spent a total of 233.01 after taxes, fees and the like.  I still have to pick up cheese at Three Bears (local Costco-like bulk store) and milk later on and I had to order a box of Zyrtec for Alvah from Amazon as Carrs was out of the dissolvable tablets (the only ones Alvah can take), so I'll probably be getting close to my usual 300.00 grocery budget for the next couple of weeks when those things are picked up/received.

You'll notice a lack of produce on the table.  Reasons for that are simple.  During sick time we didn't eat much at all, including produce and before the Christmas holiday Carrs had apples, oranges and pears on sale for 1.25 lb, which is UNHEARD of cheap, especially for this time of year, so I ended up buying a lot, so we still have fruit to go through around here.  Also, I still have a bag of salad I bought last grocery trip that is still good and hasn't been used yet.  I also have a few bags of coleslaw mix I bought as well that are still hanging in there in the fridge, so I'm going to work hard to use up the produce that is already in the fridge the next couple of weeks.

There are substitutions that Carrs put into my order as I guess they were out of the things I asked for, so I'll highlight those as I get to them.

Breaking it down by the numbers I got...

1.  Three packages of boneless, skinless, chicken thighs.  One of my goals this year is to do more freezer cooking, so these will be used partially for that.  I got these on sale for 3.49 lb and on top of that I redeemed some fuel rewards (we weren't using them because of the aforementioned sickness, so I wanted to use them before they expired) for 7.00 off meat, so that took off a bit from each package as well.  Also, they had a sale that if you spent 50.00 you got 10.00 off your shopping trip, so that took off some cost as well (on everything, so if you notice weird pricing that would be why).  I paid right around 8.17 for each of them.

2.  Next up is two dozen eggs, which I ordered the regular store brand eggs and they subbed out the Eggland's Best eggs at no additional cost, so that was 4.01 for the two dozen (I had a personalized price on the eggs).  

The Sheba cat food was free with a digital coupon, so hopefully my cats will eat it.  

The ham is my daughter's preferred for sandwiches and we use it as a sub for Canadian bacon on pizzas on pizza night too.  That cost me 4.99 after a sale and personalized price on the item.  

The tortillas were such a disappointment to me.  Tortillas went crazy in price, so I ordered the street taco tortillas as they were on sale and when I got them  could see why they were only 3.82 as they are smaller than corn tortillas.  We'll be having mini-tacos one night in the next couple of weeks and I'll be trying my hand at making tortillas here soon.

3.  Next up is a box of sandwich bags as I needed them.  3.82 for those.

I also got two bags of unbleached all purpose flour as I go through about a bag a week between baking bread and other baking projects.  6.19 for the two of those after a personalized price on flour for the week.

The Provolone cheese was for sandwiches I wanted to make.  2.64 on sale.

4.  The deodorant was for me as I am nearly out, 5.26 for that (and that was a cheap deodorant!!!  My brain seized a bit when I saw those prices).

The vitamins my daughter needed and were on sale Buy 1 Get 1 Free, so 18.17 for the both of them.

The Parmesan cheese is something I buy every shopping trip.  My son eats that on pasta, as a topping for bread sticks and such, so we go through quite a bit.  9.56 for that.

2 things of heavy cream.  My husband uses cream in his coffee every day for work and I am also hoping to use some of it to make some ice cream in the next bit.  10.43 for both of those (I had a personalized price on these as well as the money off basket sale).

2, 1/2 gallons of 2% milk (they were out of whole milk, so subbed out the 2% instead).  These were on sale for CHEAP so ended up spending 3.54 for both of them.   These are something else I bought for freezer cooking as I prefer to use our nice, expensive, local milk for drinking as much as possible.

5.  4 cans of sliced olives.  These were substitutes for the Carrs brand olives.  I had ordered three of one type of olive (ended up being 7.16 for those three) and I had ordered some chopped olives to try as they came with more in them, but they didn't have those so they gave me one more can of the sliced olives for 2.39 instead.  We use these on pizza for pizza night and the daughter likes to have sliced olives on her ham sandwiches as well.

All Free and Clear laundry pods were 16.22 after a sale and a 1.00/1 digital coupon.  These I got just to have one container ahead as I just opened my last container.

Cascade powder, 7.73.  I had a personalized price on Cascade for the week, so I got it for cheaper than normal price.

And there you go folks.  The prices I spent this week for groceries (well some of them anyway :).  Stay tuned to see what I do with some of the stuff for a freezer cooking day (hoping to do it this weekend) and getting some stuff into my freezer to make my life easier when it comes to cooking when I'm busy :).

Hope you all had a great holiday season.  Enjoy!

Grocery Haul for the First Part of July and Menu Plan

So, I have had people e-mail me and ask if I had any advice on saving money at the grocery store.  

I find it funny, in an odd sort of way.  Back when the kids were still in diapers, I ended up running a coupon blog for my area of Alaska.  I and about three other people started blogs at the same time, realizing the need for bargain blogs in Alaska with how crazy things were going back then.  Back then I'd run to three stores in a day, with little kids in tow, to get whatever bargains I could with coupons.  It DID save me a bunch of money back then, I have to say that.  Coupons were a means to save money back then.  Unfortunately, coupons changed and getting good deals with coupons...it came to a point that I gave up on paper coupons for the most part at the store because they just weren't save me money anymore.  

Then E-Coupons became a thing and those HAVE saved me money and I love the convenience of being able to load them to my shopping card every week to go shopping, so I haven't turned my back on coupons all together, but I just don't carry a coupon binder with me to the store anymore.  And yes, I said "store".  With the stage of life I am in, with two older kiddos and one who is over 6 ft tall and special needs, going to multiple stores anymore...I just don't have the energy, or the time, to do it.  Years ago, I settled on Carrs/Safeway to do my shopping as I got better deals there on the things we normally bought, and back then I loved the fact that I could ask for someone to come out and help me load the groceries into my car while I got the kids into their car seats and got them somewhat content for the ride home.

Things started to change over the years.  Amazon started shipping more grocery types of items to Alaska, so I was able to peruse it every day looking for those illusive deals (still do hit Amazon about twice a day to look), so I utilize Amazon for bulk shopping a lot around here.  Covid happened and Pick up and Go became popular amongst the stores.

And thus leads me to what I am doing today to do grocery shopping.

My husband and I sat down a while ago and decided that with his two week pay schedule and how crazy inflation was, that it was just going to be worth our time to just do a "Pick Up and Go" order with Carrs once every two weeks and on the off week we'd pick up milk and that would be about it.  We have made a change with milk and we started picking up locally sourced milk about a year ago.  It is more expensive than the Lucerne milk we were buying (like 8.49 a gallon expensive), but the milk is unhomogenized, so it has more fat than normal whole milk you buy at the store, so the milk goes further around here and I find it keeps a LOT longer than the stuff we were getting trucked into Carrs from the Lower 48, which I was running into a problem with store bought milk going bad even before the expiration date on the milk last year, which is why we ended up switching.  I got tired of throwing money away.

Anyway, I've found some really nice advantages to doing the every two week grocery pick ups.  For one, I can put in my order a few days early (I normally do it on Wednesday) and I have till midnight that night to put in any edits I need to my grocery order.  No more, "Oh shoot!  I forgot..." moments after I get home from the store.  I can add or delete items as I need to in the order that day to make sure I get everything I need, which is nice.  I can also comparison shop right from the comfort of my living room on what items are on sale, which of this item is the best deal, etc.  Second, if the store is out of this or that item, most times they will offer me substitutions on my order and a lot of times I get upgraded to a more expensive product without having to pay extra.  One thing I've found to be a major advantage to this, as well, is that when meat is on sale, they have been out of things I wanted to get and they will substitute other packages of meat and not charge me extra (like chicken thighs were on sale B1G1 a few weeks ago and they substituted me out meat counter thighs, which were bigger and better trimmed, for no extra money on my part) .  This, to me, is a great advantage to using the Pick Up and Go option as I can not relate how many times in the past years I've had to rush to the store at the first day of a sale to HOPEFULLY get that item before the store was sold out of it and I was out of luck.  The final advantage I've found is one my husband loves probably more than I do.  No more moments of me running into the store for "2 items" and coming out with 20 because they were marked down or I ran into a sale or something.  We don't have to worry about having to get Alvah McDonald's to keep him happy or things like that.  It has really simplified the shopping and with how I'm getting busier and busier, or so it seems to me, it really has helped to alleviate one more thing I'd have to go run and do.  No more waiting in line with Alvah getting cranky because the person ahead of me is taking too long because of a price check or other things.  Seriously, I love this new way of grocery shopping. 

Am I missing out on deals?  Oh, yes, I am sure I am.  Do I think it is worth it, to me, to miss those deals?  Absolutely!

So, in this post, I decided to show one of my big "every two week" hauls of groceries and what we have on the menu plan to use some of those groceries in the next couple of weeks.  

First a warning.  I am not showing all of the groceries I bought.  Things I am not including in the pictures is my son's staple food items (frozen French fries, junk food) because they take up a ton of room to photograph.  I'm also not including snack foods (popsicles, any chips I might get for my daughter's lunch, etc) as I don't really consider those to be important to the menu plans around here.

So, let's get into what I bought and you can compare it to prices in your area.  Enjoy!

First up is the stuff I ended up sticking into the freezer or pantry downstairs as soon as I was done shooting the shot with my phone, so excuse the poor lighting...I didn't feel like hauling it upstairs just to haul it back downstairs.

So, I got...

• 2 Packages Green Giant corn on the cob "nibblers".  This was a substitution for a 12 pack of Signature Select mini corn on the cob that I had a coupon to get for free.  So, total for those was $0.00.
• 1 package frozen chopped spinach:  $2.75
• 2 packages Petite Broccoli Florets.  These were steam in a bag florets, but were cheaper than just getting some bags of broccoli to eat with cheese sauce at dinner, so I got them instead.  $4.51.
• 1 Corned Beef Brisket:  $21.30
• 2 packages spaghetti (Alvah is blowing through pounds per week, so this is going to end up being a common item in my grocery hauls):  $3.53

I just shared the totals there and not cost per unit on the multiples.

And now onto the main, very full table of stuff.  You will notice that I'm buying the bowls of melon and berries a lot as I've found that I am getting decent quality items doing it this way and it saves me from having to throw away the fruit scraps and things, so to me, it is worth it.  

I will break this down by different parts of the table as it seems easier, so let's go!

First up is the meat.  The totals are going to be a bit off from the actual as I used some fuel rewards to get $7.00 off of meat and they tend to apply a bit to each package of meat you get in  your order.  So, the corned beef brisket had a bit off of it because of that too.  Anyway, I got...

• Land O' Frost Black Forest Ham (for my daughter's work sandwiches and also as a stand in for Canadian bacon on home made pizza):  $5.25 after 1.00/1 coupon (I won a 1.00 off lunchmeat coupon on the Flavor Adventure online game).
• 2 Packages of Pork Chops on sale for $1.97 lb.  They substituted in pork chops that were $2.49 lb instead, but only charged me for the $1.97 lb.  $6.51 and $8.95 each.
• Boneless, Skinless chicken thighs (I have started to buy these more as I've found them to be really versatile in my cooking and I don't end up throwing away anything at the end of dinner this way, so it is worth it to me to buy it this way):  13.05 for the value pack.
• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, two pack (I am going to butterfly them to make a pack of four when I go to cook them):  $8.87 after a $2.00/1 coupon (won 2.00 off boneless, skinless chicken breasts on the Flavor Adventure game).
• Waterfront Bistro Imitation Crab meat:  $3.13.  Put this into the freezer until I'm ready to use it this week.

Next up, working our way around the table a bit, we run into the produce.  In the first round/picture, I got...

• 2 Heads of cabbage:  $8.37
• 1 Cucumber:  $1.47
• 8 Roma Tomatoes:  $2.96
• 1 Bell pepper:  $1.47
• 1 bunch Cilantro:  $1.47
• 1 large avocado:  $2.75

Next picture:

• 1 Bag of spinach:  $2.95
• 2 bunches green onions:  $2.94

• 1 bag Fuji apples:  Free, from a coupon I redeemed last month for some fuel rewards that were going to expire.
• Melon bowl, mixed:  $6.88 (this is for snacking)
• Strawberry bowl:  $7.47, personalized price.
• Cantaloupe bowl:  Free (the bowls are B2G1)
• Lighthouse Poppyseed Dressing:  $5.90 (not the cheapest dressing, but it was cheaper than getting poppyseeds to make my own dressing).
• Pompeian Extra Virgin Olive Oil:  $8.84 after 1.00/1 coupon (this is for the son's pasta and Amazon was out of pretty much any olive oil for months when I went to see if I could order it, so this was the next best option).
• 2 cans black olives:  $3.53
• 5lbs of Unbleached All Purpose Flour:  $3.27 personalized price.
• Buttermilk, 1/2 gallon:  $3.99 (it was only .49 more than a quart, so I just went with it)

Continuing here...

• 1 box, quart sized freezer bags:  $3.19
• 1 box, gallon sized freezer bags:  $3.93
• 1, 4 pack, canned peaches:  $9.83
• 2 packages Lucerne European style salted butter:  Free after a couple of won coupons from the Flavor Adventure game.
• 2 packages Danish Creamery European Style butter:  $5.00 after a 2.00/2 coupon.
• 1 bag shredded Mozzarella cheese:  $7.05 (I actually got this because Alvah has been on a kick where he wants to eat frozen cheese, and unlike the home grated stuff this stuff will separate and allow me to get him small bowls of cheese to eat straight from the freezer).

Okay, and now onto some things that aren't shown:

Ibuprofen and Tums (forgot to take pics before we put them away in the bathroom)

Alvah food and a bag of chips for the daughter's work lunches (she puts a big bag into small sandwich bags to give herself a treat to eat with her sandwiches).

So, all totaled I spent:

$311.61 after various coupons, discounts and other things were taken.

+$9.35 taxes and fees

$320.96 total spent.

That seems like a lot every time I spend it, but my grocery budget has just gone up the worse inflation has gotten (as I know everyone is in that boat), so really $160.00 a week for groceries for a family of four with a special needs teen who eats constantly...I don't think I'm doing too bad, honestly.  Sad, but true.

Okay, so it's more like 168.49 a week as we are spending 17.00 for two gallons of milk as well, so keep that in mind.

Anyway, let's move onto some of the meals I'm going to make with these groceries :).

1  For the following items, I'm going to be using them to make Farmhouse On Boone's Lacto Fermented Salsa.  I made some of this a few months ago and my husband and I loved it and just used up the final bits of it, so it was time to ferment a new batch.  So, for this recipe I'm going to be using...

• 4 tomatoes (the rest of the tomatoes are slated for tomato sandwiches for my lunches)
• The bell pepper
• The Cilantro

The rest of the ingredients I already have on hand.

2.  For the corned beef and one of the heads of cabbage I'm going to be making slow cooked corned beef brisket with potatoes, carrots and cabbage.

3.  The spinach and strawberries will be combined with some crumbled feta I have in the fridge and some of the dehydrated pecans I have in the freezer to make a spinach strawberry salad.  I am going to put the poppyseed dressing on top of it to dress it.  This will be my second time making said salad and my husband and I love it.  

4.  The chicken breasts I'm going to slice in half butterfly wise and make four chicken breasts.  I'm then going to pound them flat and turn them into schnitzel and soak them in some buttermilk to give them a bit of tang.  I'm then going to bread them with some home ground sourdough breadcrumbs that I made.  I'm then going to take a stick of the European butter to make a yummy compound butter with some herbs and we'll have that on top of the chicken to make a lazy man's Chicken Kiev out of it.  

5.  Another half stick of butter is destined to make Easy Lemon Curd.  I got lemons last week on a good sale price and I used a couple to make this recipe.  I also got a really good deal on eggs a few weeks ago and bought five dozen to see us through for a while and so I used some of those in the recipe as well.  It turned out GREAT and I'm going to use the lemon curd to make lemon and strawberry cheesecake for dessert tonight (I made the lemon curd last night so it'd have time to sit).

6.  I will be using some of the buttermilk in lemon zucchini bread.  I bought a few zucchini with groceries last month and didn't get a chance to use it, so I grated it and threw it into the freezer.  Two tiny zucchini from the store netted me a cup of grated zucchini so I will pull that out of the freezer, ring it out and use it in the recipe as well.  And I will use another lemon from my bag-o-lemons I bought in this recipe as well :).

7.  The avocado, cucumber and imitation crab meat I'm going to use tomorrow to make sushi, along with some miso soup, for dinner.  I have some sushi nori (seaweed) to use up in the pantry, so I figured it would be a good time to use it.  I'll also use some of the green onions in the miso soup and the rest I will put in the freezer to use over the winter.

8.  The all purpose flour will be used to make sourdough items.  My two go-to recipes every week are Rustic Sourdough and Sourdough pizza crust...I double the pizza crust recipe and make breadsticks for the son out of the same dough.  Works great.  I'll also use some of the ham for pizza nights and we'll use a can of the black olives for pizza nights as well.  We tend to have pizza once a week around here, so we definitely keep stuff around to make it.

9.  The pork chops were gotten because they were cheap and will be used partially by marinating them in some type of marinade and grilling them later in the week (we are looking at the 70s and with how humid it has been this summer...that's not going to be a fun couple of days.  I might be grilling in the rain, but if I had to, so be it).

10.  The second head of cabbage may be made into coleslaw or some other cold cabbage dish or I might ferment it into fresh sauerkraut or make it into hot seasoned cabbage to go with sausages or something one night.  I'm still undecided, but I've found cabbage is a great versatile vegetable to have around.

11.  The melon bowls are for dessert or if my husband feels hungry after dinner at some point.  The chicken thighs will be used for sure, if in nothing else than in baked chicken as my daughter's favorite cooked meat is chicken, quickly followed by fish.

And there you go folks.  My grocery haul and how I plan to use it (God willing the produce keeps).  I'll probably be sharing grocery hauls more often to maybe give people some ideas.  Never hurts to get inspiration, I say.  

Enjoy!

March Wholy Living Haul

"Wholy Living?"  you may ask, "What the Heck is that?"

Well, if you are in Alaska, this might interest you :).

Wholy Living is a whole foods dealer in Palmer, Alaska.  I honestly didn't have a clue this place really existed until recently.

It all started when I was watching Three Rivers Homstead on YouTube.  She was grinding wheat to use in baking.  No biggie, I thought, I do that.  BUT instead of going to the hand sifting step that I always had to go through to make the flour lighter and fluffier (and it makes a huge mess), she just popped the flour into a contraption that was attached to the top of her Bosch, ran it and the flour came out super light and fluffy.  Without tons of hand sifting needed, which meant a lot less hand aches.  Without all of the mess!  

The device she was using was a sifter that someone had developed for the Bosch, she explained, and she loved it.  I looked over at my Nutrimill Artiste mixer (I bought it after the earthquake as my Viking mixer wasn't working properly, but once my husband fixed the Viking the NutriMill became my back up mixer :), went online and found out that the device would indeed attach to the Artiste mixer.  I called my husband and told him straight that if I could find it, I was taking the money out of savings and buying it as the sifter would quickly pay for itself just in labor hours saved.  Now, mind you, I do not normally look at an item brand new and say, "We are getting this".  I can recall twice that has happened in my life.  One was when I test drove our Equinox (now that was partly my husband's fault as he found the car *laugh*)  and the other was this sifter.

The hard part, for me, was finding somewhere to get one.  I found a few outfits online, but their shipping on a 90.00 item was astronomical to Alaska, so I decided to call around, text my mother-in-law (who knows the Bosch way better than I do as she's had one for years), etc.  My mother-in-law and Allen and Peterson (our local Kitchen appliance and kitchenware outfit), both came out with Wholy Living as my best bet for finding the attachment.  And she did, indeed have it in stock!  I was thrilled.

I then started going through her site and realizing that there was things in her store that I could really use, so I started to compile a list of things to get.  I pooled all of my money for March for bulk foods/pantry restock, and took the 90.00 out of savings to pay for the sifter on top of it.  I managed to kidnap/convince my mother-in-law to help me find the place and we took off up Clark-Wolverine Road to go and get a sifter.

When we got there, I had a list, which I think was the best way to do things as a bulk food store like that, without prices listed in the place...I could have easily gotten out of there spending wayyyyyy more than I planned on.  I had prices written down from the site and had everything added up on top of it.  The only thing I ended up buying that wasn't on my list was she had a bunch of local potatoes for .99 lb and my mother-in-law really wanted to get some, so I ended up with more potatoes when she insisted on splitting the bag with me *laugh*.  Margaret (the owner of Wholy Living) also didn't have the size of Italian seasoning I wanted (she only had 4 oz bags, and only two at that, so instead of a pound of seasoning I ended up with 1/2 lb) so she took off 5.00 from the total to compensate. 

Funny enough, since she runs a co-op type of operation, she carries Azure Standard stuff (I never thought I'd be able to get those types of items), which was awesome as I really wanted to try out some of their products :).  

In total, I spent 266.00 total, minus the sifter attachment the total up top cost me 176.00, which wasn't bad for what I got.  The sifter was 90.00 and it is TOTALLY worth getting if you grind your own grain and have a Bosch or NutriMill Artiste mixer.  I know it is a convenience item, but when you get into doing as much baking as I do anymore, this thing is just wonderful to have.

So, let's break down what I got.

1. 25 lbs, 9 grain cereal.  

My husband and I have been eating the Bob's Red Mill 5 grain hot cereal for breakfast a lot, but the only place I could get it was Amazon and it was getting really spendy to buy as it came in one pound packages and cost like 25.00 for a box of four.  When I saw that I could get 25 lbs of NINE grain cereal for like 33.00, I was thrilled!  It was a MUCH better deal than what I was buying.  

I then took 1 lb out of the bag and put it into my cereal container to eat for breakfasts (it is also really good added to bread to make a nice whole grain bread).   

Then, I separated out the rest into 1 lb increments in freezer bags and put them in the freezer to pull out as needed.  I am thinking this will easily last us a year.

  2.  25 lbs of Alaska grown hulless barley (the white bag above).

I was really happy to see this when I saw it as I have been wanting to get some barley from Alaska flour company, but to ship a bag to myself would have cost significantly more than the amount she was charging (I think it was like 30.00 or something close to that).

This stuff takes a while to cook, but if you cook it in some chicken broth and get it tender, it is really good.  And if you add it to rice pilaf or other dishes it lends a wonderful texture and flavor!  I haven't even ground some into flour yet (the majority of it went into a five gallon bucket with some oxy absorbers and got sealed up tight for future use), but am looking forward to grinding some into flour for bread :).

3.  5 lbs of allergy free mini chocolate chips.

This was for Alvah.  He loves the Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips, but the bags not only get smaller (so it seems anyway), but they are terribly expensive, so I got these to use for bribes/snacks for him.

4.  1 lb beef gelatin. 

I got this to start making more home made jello and get in some added nutrition into our diets.  I still haven't used it yet (waiting for closer to summer), but I really am looking forward to making it with some of my home canned raspberry juice.  Yum!!!

5.  Almond Extract, 8 oz.

I have been needing almond extract, but haven't had much luck finding it at the store, so I got it here.  It is a big bottle and will last me for quite a while, I think.

6.  Italian Seasoning, 4 oz packages, two total.

I was hoping to get the 1 lb package, but she only had two four oz packages left, so I went with those.  I needed Italian seasoning (I use it all the time), so it was great being able to pick it up while I was there.

7.  Montreal Steak Seasoning, 1 lb.

This was another "I need that" as I was completely out, so I decided to give the Azure Market brand a try instead of going with my usual McCormick.  I have to say it is really good and I'm enjoying it :).

8.  SAF Instant Yeast, 1 lb.

I rarely pass up an opportunity to pick up another block of yeast when I get a chance, so I definitely took advantage and grabbed a pound there.  For 8.00 it was cheaper than what I was finding on Amazon for yeast prices as well.

9.  And, of course, the star of the show...

The sifter!!!  Seen here up top of my NutriMill in all of it's sifting glory!

10.  And, I almost forgot the potatoes...

The potatoes are nice potatoes and a lot of them are really large.  I can't remember if we got Yukon gold or German Butterball, but either way the potatoes are nice potatoes.  I split my mother-in-laws half into a box and kept my half in the burlap sack.  I didn't really NEED potatoes and the potato drawer in my fridge was full up, so I ended up having to use them up quickly as they started to sprout and some were getting green (I'll show what I did with them in another post :).

And there you go folks.  My bulk shopping I did in March.  I know it doesn't do a lot of people any good as they don't have Wholy Living to shop at, but I do encourage you to check in your local area to see what bulk foods outfits are available to you as with current inflation and things going the way they are, honestly buying in bulk might be a good option for a lot of us.  I had no idea Wholy Living existed until others told me about it, so who knows what is hiding in your local area as well.

Enjoy!

February Amazon Grocery Haul

 

 

I tend to buy an odd assortment of stuff from Amazon from month to month, I have to say.  There are some things that I just plain buy from Amazon regularly (like for instance, I tend to buy my Chewable children's Benadryl from Amazon when they have it as it is MUCH cheaper than buying it at my local stores) because my stores don't have it available or because Amazon just beats local prices by large amounts.  This is definitely one of those hauls.

So, what did I buy?  Let's break it down 

(Quick warning:  This post contains affiliate links to the products when possible.  If you order the products through these links I'll get a small commission from Amazon for pushing the sale their way.  This will not cost you any extra to do and helps to support the blog a bit.  If you do purchase through these links, thank you!).

Well, first, I actually ordered more than this but Amazon back ordered some things that I just plain ended up cancelling or reordering because it was quicker to get through a third party seller or something.  For instance I originally ordered this olive oil, but it just would not ship and just kept getting delayed (it is a good deal, though, as it is imported from Italy and is 50% off with a coupon code), so I gave up and just cancelled the order.  Instead I got this one on subscribe and save instead.  It actually came, which was a nice change of pace!  I'm trying to start buying things like olive oil in tins instead of in plastic bottles for the sake of the tins being opaque (so the light doesn't get to the oil) and they tend to come packed in a couple of nice thick boxes to avoid them getting too damaged where the plastic bottles I have LITERALLY gotten in from Amazon with a shipping label slapped onto the bottle itself and mailed.  Amazon is great that way.  You have no idea what you are going to get when you order from them.

By the way, to get the Subscribe and Save discount you have to order five or more things to be delivered on your delivery date in a month to get the best deals.  After the items get to you in your order (if you don't want them on a continual rotation, which I never do), just go to "Subscribe and Save Items" under your Amazon account, go to the "subscriptions" tab under Subscribe and Save and then just click one item at a time and go down to the very bottom of the screen to "cancel subscription".  I always pick "Other" as a reason for cancelling the items and voila.  No worries about getting items shipped to you that you don't want six months down the line (I always order items on a six month rotation, just in case I forget to cancel my subscription for a little bit).  Another thing that ordering your Subscribe and Save items fresh every month does for you is if there is a coupon for your first Subscribe and Save order only, you'll be able to take advantage of those coupons (sometimes up to like 20% off of the already reduced price) where if you had it on rotation, you wouldn't be able to use the coupon since you already had an order in for it.

Right, so let's break down the items I got (I'm including the Subscribe and Save amounts that I bought them for after the discounts apply).

Colavita Oilve Oil, 101 fl oz tin.  This is now a bit cheaper than when I got it (as of 3/2/23 anyway).  It was 25.54 when I got mine.  We go through a lot of olive oil around here as my son eats it on pasta nearly every day.  

Always Pads, Ultra Thin, Size 2 Long Super Absorbency 126 ct (2).  I got these on a buy 1, get 1 50% off sale, so I ended up spending 27.73 after the sale and the Subscribe and Save discounts were applied.  This is enough feminine care products to last us for quite a while, so I was happy to get them on sale.

Guittard Baking Wafers, Milk Chocolate, 12 oz bag  I was able to get these for 14.98 (other types of Guittard chocolate wafers are cheaper than the current price listed on this one right now if you search for it).  I know that this is expensive, but this is a peanut free chocolate (made in a peanut free facility) and while I was sick through Valentine's Day, I still want to make my kids some chocolate goodies (better late than never).  So, I got these as I can't find them at my local store right now.

Gold Medal Self Rising Flour, 5 lb.  I don't live in the South, obviously, where it seems self rising flour is really easy to find.  I wanted to get some to make biscuits with, but self rising flour here, if you can find it (which ain't easy it seems) is like 8.00 per bag and making my own just gave me some inconsistent results (not sure why).  So, I ordered one through Amazon for 3.42 after Subscribe and Save discount.  Not pictured as I put it into a plastic bag to avoid anymore flour spilling out as it was not in a bag when it was shipped, so I forgot to put it back in the picture.

Wholesome Organic Cane Sugar, 10 lbs.  Yup, this is an odd one to order from Amazon, I'll admit.  But, after Subscribe and Save Discounts were applied (you get 15% off with five items added onto your order), it comes down to 9.89 for 10 lbs of sugar.  I know that 4 lb bags of sugar at my store have gotten RIDICULOUSLY expensive, so it was actually cheaper for me to get 10 lbs of organic sugar then getting 8 lbs of non-organic sugar.  The world is nuts.

LorAnn Bakery Emulsions, Peppermint, 4 fl oz).  I was able to get this on Subscribe and Save, which brought the price at the time down to 4.74.  I couldn't find peppermint extract at the store and wanted it to make cookies, so this is what I got instead (alcohol containing items, like extracts, don't ship to Alaska, so bakery emulsions are a good way to get around that).  True to form with Amazon, I got a bottle that was missing the cap out of the blue.  Why?  Who knows!  The safety seal was perfect, but no cap.  I would have returned it and complained, but I had a cap off of another bottle that would work (I couldn't believe it when it happened as that was a long shot).  I did complain, though, as that is kind of ridiculous.

French's Crispy Onions, 24 oz bag.  Cheaper than a smaller bag at my local store, I wanted to get some of these to make Swedish hot dogs and a few other things with.  They were 8.25 after Subscribe and Save discount.

Amazon Basic Care Esomeprazole with Magnesium, 42 ct..  My husband takes this medication daily for his acid reflux, so I tend to buy this pretty often from Amazon when it is on sale.  42 caplets cost me 6.36 after Subscribe and Save discounts were applied.  This is way cheaper than the 30.00 to 40.00  this would have cost me at my local stores.

Clear Book Tape, 15 yard roll, 1 inch.  Book tape is something that when you need it, you need it.  Book tape is acid free tape, so you don't have to worry about it slowly eating your books that you repair with it.  I got some because my little embroidery book that was my great grandma's has always had a binding that was coming off, but it is getting worse and trying to lose pages,  So, I got this and some book glue (not shown) to try and repair the little book as it is really precious to me.  It cost me 9.85 after discounts were applied.

Tempered Glass Screen Protector for iPad Mini, 1st generation.  My son finally managed to spiderweb a screen protector.  I was impressed that the iPad mini wasn't damaged.  Alvah's been REALLY hard on things the last bit, so I ordered this and a really heavy duty case to replace his current one as well.  The screen protector got here first, so I put that on so the iPad was able to get back in service for a bit until the case gets picked up.  I paid regular 8.88 price for this, but it came in at the same time as the Subscribe and Save order, so they threw it into the same box and it ended up in the photo.

32 pack Friskies wet cat food variety pack, 16.09 after subscribe and save discount and a coupon for 5.75 off on the full price.  It isn't available right now, but I know how hard it is to find cat food at the stores at the moment, so if you need cat food, keep checking Amazon as they do get it in and it does go on sale decently cheap (at least by Alaska standards).  This is one of those items I've been buying from Amazon a LOT as it has been darned near impossible to find cat food at the local stores (dry food is also something I've been getting from Amazon).  Not pictured as my husband dropped the box when getting it out of the car and dented a bunch of the cans horribly, so we were doing triage work with cat food cans and didn't get them into the photo.

Organic Chia Seeds, 2 lbs.  This seems like another odd one doesn't it?  I got these for two reasons.  One, the son's PICA is back of late and since he's eating cardboard, I thought he might eat chia seeds again (as he likes to eat dirt and the texture raw is similar since they are so tiny) and get some added nutrition into his diet instead of eating non-food items.  I also ordered these because I can use them as an egg extender by making chia eggs to use in baking (it's like 1 TBS chia seeds to 3 TBS water...it's been a while, so I'll have to look it up to be sure.  For 2 lbs, after discounts, I paid 9.34.  This was another one that I couldn't seem to find locally at the stores.

And last but not least (also not pictured) is...

Willow Garlic Ear Oil.  This stuff is great and a now essential thing I keep in my house.  The Prudent Homemaker/Brandy turned me onto this stuff years ago.  It has staved off many an ear infection for my kids.  I actually used up nearly all of my old bottle helping Alvah with his discomfort with an ear infection earlier in the year, so when this stuff came available again (it seems like it comes into stock and then is sold out EVERYWHERE online for months at a time), I used my Amazon Associate fees from the last few months (THANK you to those who order through my associate links!  I truly appreciate it!!!) to buy a new bottle to have in the house.  It is currently 14.39, which is actually a bit cheaper than I paid for it (I paid 14.99 through the seller I ended up getting it through), but worth every penny!

So, my total spent for my haul for the month was 140.31 (after Amazon Associates fees paid for the ear oil and gave me an additional tiny bit toward my groceries).

I've been doing a big grocery order/trip one week and then the next week I'll try to aim for anything we've run out of (like Alvah essentials) and milk for the next week.  We get paid every two weeks, so this has worked pretty well for being able to use some of the money from the "light week" of grocery shopping to buy things in bulk or pick up things from Amazon and such.  It is the only way, really, that I beat inflation in a lot of ways.  I'll go into some more tips later on, but this is one way I'm trying to get things at a good cost (or get them at all) with the resources I have available to me right now :).

Hope this was interesting if nothing else.  Enjoy folks!

August/September Amazon Haul

 Note:  The Frugal Friday post will hopefully be on Saturday this week (we have plans on Friday so hopefully will be busy in a good way) and I'll give you a recap of the last two weeks and what has been going on around here.

When I asked if people would like to see what I'm purchasing on Amazon, I got a surprising number of people e-mailing me and asking me to share, so I wanted to post up what I got from Amazon for my August/September Subscribe and Save order.  My current Subscribe and Save delivery date is set at the last day of the month, for some reason as it used to be set in the middle, so while I ordered this stuff back in August, I was still getting some of this order in last week due to shipping delays and things, so that's why I put August/September.  I have another Subscribe and Save order for the end of this month set up, and I'm hoping this one goes better as last month a bunch of stuff got back ordered till November and things and I ended up cancelling a bunch of orders so I could go and get what I could at my local stores instead as I needed said items.

The following break down won't match the picture above completely as I did grab a few things to act as "Stand ins" for other things I bought in the photo.  For instance I grabbed a can of mango slices to stand in for pineapple as the pineapple got buried at the bottom of a pile and I plain didn't want to mess around with juggling flats of cans to get it out.

Also, please note:  The following post does NOT contain affiliate links.  I'm just going to share links if available to what I purchased and how much I paid for said items.  If you would like to support the blog by purchasing through my Amazon affiliate link, you'll find it on the right hand side of the blog and you can click through to Amazon from there and do your shopping as normal and I'll get a small commission from Amazon (no extra cost to you to do this) for pointing sales their way.  If you do this, thank you so much for supporting the blog and I really appreciate it!

Ok, so here is a breakdown of what I got this time around...

Happy Homes Lemon Extract.  You will notice that on the table it is NOT lemon extract but imitation butter extract.  Yeah, the inventory sticker someone stuck onto the bottle said lemon extract, but they obviously sent me the total wrong thing.  The item was not returnable, but after a call to Amazon customer service I got a refund for the order and they told me to keep the butter flavoring.  So, yeah, that happened.  I didn't want butter flavoring, but that is what I got, so now I'll have to find different ways to use up butter flavoring.

Pillsbury Buttercream Flavored Frosting Pack of 8.  I had a hard time finding this locally and like to keep it in the pantry for a quick frosting base that I can just add like cocoa powder, or lemon extract and things to, to make different flavors of icing.  I got my 8 pack for like 8.94 after the Subscribe and Save discount, so it is more expensive now.

Ivory Soap, Pack of 30 (10 packs x 3).  This was a result of me being UNABLE to find Ivory locally, like at all.  Carrs didn't even have a SPOT on the shelf for it.  Crazy.  My husband uses Ivory exclusively, so I was definitely hunting around for it.  So, I ended up ordering soap through Amazon.  This should last us for quite a while, I hope.  I paid 20.40 for the 30 bars.

Crest Toothpaste, 8.2 oz containers, pack of 6.  These are up to over 4.00 for a tube here, so it was cheaper buying it in bulk through Amazon.  I paid 16.97 for 6 large tubes of toothpaste.

3 lbs Wild Soil Almonds.  These are peanut free almonds that I ran into and ordered.  I got mine for 16.89, though, so I definitely got mine cheaper than they are right now.  It'll be great having this many almonds come Christmas baking time.

Dole Tropical Fruit, 12 pack.  If you watch the price on these, you can get them decently cheap.  I got mine for 14.22.  I have one can standing in for the 12 pack in the photo (I got lazy).  These go for nearly 3.00 per can if I buy them locally, so it is so worth buying them on Amazon.  We actually eat this decently regular around here and I'll had a few maraschino cherries and (now that I have them in the pantry after getting them cheap) some mango slices and we have a really nice tropical fruit salad for a side dish :).

12 pack, Pillsbury White Cake Mix.  I honestly thought this was a misprint when I ordered it.  It was almost a "well I'll get my money back when I don't get the order in" as I thought for sure the listing was for one box of cake mix, not twelve and I was going to end up paying way too much for one box of cake mix and have to get my money back.  I actually did end up getting 12 boxes of cake mix for 5.44.  And yes, I actually GOT 12 boxes in and the expiration date is for December of next year.  I was jaw dropping shocked when I got the order in.  I have no idea why it was so cheap when I ran into it that day, but I'm well stocked up on cake mix now.  One box is representing the 12 in the picture above as I had already put them away in the pantry and didn't feel like pulling out all 12 for the photo.

Au Jus Mix, 6 lbs.  Yup, 6 LBS of Au Jus Mix.  Normally I get the McCormick bulk spices size containers (usually I get a pack of 2 and it'll last me a year) of Au Jus, but everywhere local stopped carrying it except in over priced small envelopes and Amazon wanted a fortune for the McCormick size I normally get.  So, I got a huge container of Au Jus for 19.60 after Subscribe and Save discount.  I officially won't have to buy Au Jus mix for probably forever and I'll even doubly use it in soups and things to add depth of flavor to dishes, but yeah...6 lbs.  That's a lot.  It cost me 19.60 after Subscribe and Save discount, which is where it is sitting today as well, so I'm thinking I got it pretty much regular price.

Jello, Coconut Cream Pudding Mix, pack of 24.  No where local carries this flavor of pudding at all anymore and we eat it quite a bit, especially when I make Mexican food.  Buying smaller sizes was not half as economical as buying it in bulk, so I bought it in bulk and got enough to last us two years or so.  I spent 20.60 after subscribe and save discount, which breaks down to less than 1.00 per box, which is a really good price for pudding mix.  I put one box in the pic above to substitute out for the full order as I had already put all 24 away in the pantry and didn't feel like trying to stack them all on the table :).  We've been eating a lot more pudding for dessert as it is such a quick and cheap dessert that doesn't result in a ton of left overs to eat, so this will get used for sure.

Curad Adhesive Bandages, pack of 300.  We needed these as we were like out of Band-Aids and we use Band aids a lot around here with the son's eczema.  I like this pack off of Amazon because the quality is pretty good and the price is right.  A pack of 300 bandages cost me 8.49 after Subscribe and Save discount.

Dole Crushed Pineapple, 12 pack, 8 oz cans.  I got these primarily for using in baking and when I want to make certain Chinese food dishes and things.  I paid 11.27 for the 12 pack, so got it cheaper than it is now.  The mango slices are standing in for the pineapple in the above picture as they were kind of buried in the pantry *laugh*.

So, yeah, there you go folks.  My Amazon order for August/September.  I got the money for the order by saving it from my regular grocery budget (the one area of my budget I really have any wiggle room) and putting it aside for the order at the end of the month.  If you can find the room in your budget I definitely recommend buying a bit extra to add to your food storage right now.  With how crazy prices are, goodness knows how bad inflation is going to get, so it just seems wise to put up some extra now at lower prices than buying later at goodness knows what price.