Monthly Shopping Goals: June-July 2021

I know June is over, but I actually made this list last month and have been working on getting it filled till the end of this month, so I kind of combined two months into one.

When it comes to stocking the pantry, I have become somewhat obsessed researching economic impacts from the pandemic and what I found was that shortages are going to continue into the foreseeable future and grocery prices are going to continue to rise.  So, I sat down with my husband and we decided that it was worth putting more money onto the credit cards to stock up on things we need now when we can find them and before prices go up even more.  After this month, with the exception of things like getting chewable Benadryl for Alvah (just the costs on the Benadryl alone now that we can't use hydroxizine anymore, has added a significant amount onto my grocery bill), I am hoping to work the rest of the year to pay off the the credit cards.  Hopefully major medical events will be over for the year (crossing everything I can at the moment), so that I can start to work on getting bills paid down and/or off by the end of the year.  

So, without further ado, here's my long list of things I need to get for the pantry/household this summer.  I actually have a bunch of this stuff bought at this point.  I took advantage of Prime Day savings to get laundry detergent, dish soap and hand soap cheap as Seventh Generation products had a bunch of different items 40% off for Prime Day and then you could stack Subscribe and Save savings on top of it.  I already got the laundry soap and the hand soap in and the dish soap should be in today, so yay for being stocked up on soap at any rate :).

The following does not contain affiliate links.  I'm just sharing the items I bought.  If you would like to order through my Amazon link to support the blog, the link is on the right hand side of the page (Note:  You may have to turn off your ad blockers to see it) that you can follow to Amazon and order whatever you would like through the link and Amazon will shoot me a small commission on the sale (it doesn't cost you anything extra, essentially Amazon is just paying me a small advertising fee for doing their work for them).  For those who do this, thank you, as every little bit helps around here!

Shopping Goals:  June and July 2021

Regular Stores:

• Stuffing Mix (down to my last box)
• Freezer Bags (Three Bears for the bulk boxes):  Gallon and Quart
• Black Olives (I need to get a bunch to stock up, so am waiting to see if summer sales will help with that)
• Pasta (I've been hitting sales the last couple of weeks and picking up a few boxes of different types of pasta to use later).
• Hunt's Pasta Sauce (big cans)
• Tomato Sauce (like 15 oz can size) for pizza nights and for lunches for the daughter.

Amazon:  

• Chewable Benadryl.  It is worth buying through Amazon as it is at least 8.00 at the stores around here and you're lucky if they have it in stock.
  
• Bob's Red Mill Corn Meal.  I can't find cornmeal locally at the moment, so I just ordered some.
  
• Hunt's All Natural Ketchup.  I ordered both the 14 oz, pack of 12 and the 20 oz pack of 12 when it went down in price as we go through a lot of ketchup around here (and after taking my daughter's word for it that we were out of ketchup and ordering it I found a box of 12 unopened in the pantry...so we are officially drowning in ketchup around here).  If you want to order the 20 oz bottles, my suggestion would be to add it to your cart and then save it for later.  Then check your Amazon cart about twice per day to see if the price has dropped.  I got the 12 pack of 20 oz bottles for 20.00 and some change, but I waited until the price dropped to get it at that price.  We are a pretty loyal Hunt's family and I can't find it locally anymore, so I order through Amazon.  I like the All Natural stuff because it doesn't have the high fructose corn syrup that so many things have in it now a days.
  
• Smucker's Reduced Sugar Strawberry Squeezable Fruit Spread, Pack of 12  Doesn't contain high fructose corn syrup (it is a thing in the US I've found that tons of things contain corn syrup unnecessarily and this is one of the few jellies/jams that don't contain it) or fake sugars.  It was more jelly than I really wanted to buy at one time, but the price was really good (if you order 5 things on Subscribe and Save it is only 26.00 and some change) and this saves me from having to buy strawberries just to can jam, saves my back from hauling the canner back and forth to the sink, saves me from using more canning lids to make jam/jelly and saves me from having to buy tons of sugar during canning season.  I know, home made tastes better, but this year I'm just trying to take it a bit easier on myself.
  
• Cling Wrap.  Ended up at about 1200 feet of cling wrap for 10.00.  I was having problems finding it in stock locally, so I just bought it through Amazon.
  
• Van Camp Baked Beans, pack of 12.  Original flavor.  Some of the cheapest baked beans you can find, but also don't contain corn syrup.  It has some modified corn starch in it, but that I don't mind as much as the corn syrup.  The daughter has found she likes baked beans as a side with dinner and since beans are definitely good for her and her gut, I am happy to get these.  I've had problems with Amazon and dented cans, but these actually came find this time.
  
• Seventh Generation Dish Soap, Pack of 6, Clementine Scent.  Bought for 8.00 on Prime Day
  
• Seventh Generation Hand Soap, Pack of 8.  Bought for 9.00 on Prime Day.
  
• Seventh Generation Laundry Detergent Packs, 90 Ct..  Got these for 12.00 a pop on Prime Day.  I purchased three as we go through a lot of laundry soap around here.
  
• Campbell's Healthy Request Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup, Pack of 12.  I got this for 9.00 on Prime Day.  I have found I do like the Healthy Request Cream of Chicken and Cream of Mushroom as I can season them to my tastes better and they come out of the can a lot easier.
  
• Campbell's Healthy Request Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup, Pack of 12.  You can get this for 8.92 right now (same price I paid) if you Subscribe and Save at least five items.  The nicest part, for me, with the Campbell's condensed soups and Amazon, is, so far, I haven't gotten a bunch of dented cans when I order them.  The cream of chicken and the cream of mushroom both came with perfect cans this time, as well.
  
• Kraft BBQ sauce, Pack of 12.  If you get 5 items on Subscribe and Save you can get the Mesquite Smoked for 12.00 about right now, which is the same as sale prices around here, but you don't have to worry about the store being out of the BBQ sauce (something I've been running into a lot of late) or having restrictions on how many items you can buy at the sale price (or worse, if the sales even go on at all...I've noticed a tremendous lack of sales this year on usually cheap seasonal items).
  
• Canned Peaches, pack of 12 (no longer available on Amazon and the cans came dented on top of that).  I couldn't find canned peaches in bulk locally, so I turned to Amazon and found a good deal.  I still want to get a few more cans (as we had to use a few cans up that were really badly dented when they got here), so hopefully I'll be able to find those at the regular grocery store.
• Japanese Made Soy Sauce, Pack of 5.  I really prefer the flavor of the Japanese soy sauce to the Kikkoman soy sauce that I can just buy at the local stores.  I've been paying like nearly 10.00 for a container of soy sauce, but ran into this deal and ordered it with a gift card's help, so I ended up paying 2.00 out of pocket for the pack.  It is nice having soy sauce in the pantry in bulk as I make Japanese meals a lot.
  
• Royal Instant Pudding, Sugar and Fat Free Chocolate, Pack of 12.  This is only 5.00 and some change.  I mix a package with some almond milk and add some egg white powder to make a home made chocolate protein shake that doesn't get to my stomach.  Sometimes I've found that I need extra protein after losing weight, so I got a box to keep around.
  
• Curel Itch Defense Hydrating, Soap Free Body Wash.  Of all of the eczema products we've tried, we keep coming back to the Curel Itch Defense line.  Alvah reaches for that lotion first and it seems to do the best about not irritating his skin, so we've been going with it of late.  I decided to try the body wash as it was only 6.00 with Subscribe and Save.  Alvah loves this stuff and doesn't demand you get it off of his skin like he does with regular soap, so I'm happy.
  
• Curel Itch Defense Body Lotion.  We were nearly out.
  
• Amazon Brand Canola Oil, 1 Gallon.  Couldn't find any large jugs of vegetable oil locally, so I got two gallons from Amazon.  And it actually got here in one piece, more's the miracle!  Vegetable oils are sighted to go up in price by the end of the year, so I was happy to get some to put in the pantry.
  

And that is my long list of things I needed to get at the stores the last couple of months.  I still need to get a few items that I need to see what the best price is going to be (like Worcestershire Sauce), but this list is certainly long enough!  How about you?  Working on getting stocked up for winter?