I think they're a little cheaper at bulkfoods.com.this is what i mean:
$41.99 For 1.5 lb. of dried peas and carrots (NOT FREEZE DRIED)
https://www.amazon.com/Its-Delish-D...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=
I have been to WM three times in the past two weeks tryong to get cream. This last time the dairy guy said they just got the truck and there wasn't any on it.
I happened to look at salt. It was nearly empty. There was no white sugar either.
Like you,, I am very careful when I shop. I do price comparison between Kroger, Walmart, Target, Sam's, Amazon, and Costco. I check ounces, coupons, the works. I have apps on my phone to save money. I really want to learn to do the hard core couponing. I did it somewhat for a while, but life got crazy busy. I may not use some of the food coupons, but I would definitely use the cleaners, soaps, shampoos. We raise a lot of what we eat, but I'm always looking to save money.You have to carefully shop!
I got 189 things in a recent Walmart online pick-up.
Two smaller 20 oz. bottles of the same catsup was a dollar cheaper than the one big 32 oz. bottle.
pork loin unsliced, was $2 a pound cheaper than sliced.
I found the 28 oz can of diced tomatoes to be the same price as the 14 oz!
Fresh corn was $.50 cents an ear, unshucked, or $4 for 4 ears shucked ($1 an ear)
After I picked up my order, i noticed the
(CELERY hearts- I have NEVER seen such SMALL "celery hearts" (2) in a bag- so small they almost get lost in the bag!
NORMALLY, YOU have a hard time getting
ONE out of the bag, they are so big!
All the big outer celery stems were removed. I suppose to sell separately.
I ordered the cheap generic ribeye steak (no substitutions) and get "grass fed'" ribeyes for TWICE the price.
The Great Value jars of Pizza Sauce was $1.20 a jar whether you ordered the 14 oz jar or the 23.5 oz jar!
Banner-SHELF STABLE PORK SAUSAGE was $1.80 a 10oz can CHEAPEST CANNED MEAT other than canned tuna.
I have taken HEB’s 5lb bag of mixed veg, and dehydrated it, and stored it in quart jars. Works great!i put some frozen peas (2 -12oz pkg) and one peas and carrots 12oz in the dehydrator when i got home to see how they do in a dehydrator. Its been 12hrs I better check them.
They're done and i put two trays of bananas, one of tricolor bell peppers,
and one of sliced mushrooms in to dry.
That little dehydrator has just been sittin for two years since I got it, its about time I put it to work The price of dried vegetables gave me the incentive. OUTRAGEOUS PRICES FOR DRIED VEGETABLES! i like TOP RAMEN OR CUP OF NOODLES, but I like to add dried veggies to my ramen and maybe dried mushrooms.
Thats a great price! I’ve been ordering ours from Amazon in 5lb bags because it’s outrageous $$& when IF o can find a decent brand around here.Earlier this week at Dollar Tree they had two 1# packages of pink Himalayan salt for $1. Salt is something I buy as a barter item and .50/lb for Himalayan salt is a great deal.
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5lb bags? I gotta look for those!I have taken HEB’s 5lb bag of mixed veg, and dehydrated it, and stored it in quart jars. Works great!
I have always forget my coupons.Like you,, I am very careful when I shop. I do price comparison between Kroger, Walmart, Target, Sam's, Amazon, and Costco. I check ounces, coupons, the works. I have apps on my phone to save money. I really want to learn to do the hard core couponing. I did it somewhat for a while, but life got crazy busy. I may not use some of the food coupons, but I would definitely use the cleaners, soaps, shampoos. We raise a lot of what we eat, but I'm always looking to save money.
I do the digital coupons on the Kroger app/website. That way I can't forget them. I had a $15 off coupon for order last week.I have always forget my coupons.
As many of you already know, I use the local food bank to get alot of my family’s food, and then use the cost savings to help pay for my wife’s very expensive cancer care.
So I hit a mobile pantry this morning. The kind where you wait in your car, in lines that might extend several miles long even before start time, and then your line drives up to the food distribution point and volunteers put your food allotment into the trunk of your car.
The Memphis Food Bank has formulas they use to guide how much food is distributed to each family in line.
They try to be as generous as they can be, because they are very aware that alot of the people in that line are the WORKING poor who have a job that keeps them from qualifying for food stamps,, yet they don’t make enough money to pay bills AND feed their families.
Others are senior citizens, trying to live on meager social security checks amid rapidly rising food prices.
Alot of times at this particular place, I get there in the middle of the night, sleep in the car a few hours, then get out when the food truck arrives and lend the volunteers a helping hand in manhandling the heavy cases of food, and in bagging the groceries into family sized units. Most of the mobile food pantries frown upon that - they want recipients to sit in their cars and wait. But this group welcomes the extra muscle I can provide as they get ready. I am still able to jump in my car and get my food at the appropriate time. So it works out.
By getting out and lending some muscle to the job, I get to talk with the volunteers. I learn things from time to time that I would never know just sitting in that car.
The theory - from the food bank’s perspective - is to offer two weeks of supplemental food supplies for each family - where they define a family as consisting of somewhere between 1 and 4 people who eat their meals as a group. Food recipients must fill out an application each time they go to a mobile pantry. If they have more than four members in a family, they are given a double allotment.
Now, I am finally getting to the information that you folks might be interested in.
I have always told you folks how we here in Memphis are among the best supplied, because we live at the intersection of nation wide interstate I-40 going east-west and nation wide I-55 going north-south.
I have always warned you: if Memphis cannot get supplies, pull out your umbrella, because the sky is about to fall in.
Right?
Well, I cannot speak for the large number of folks in this town who buy all their food at the local grocery stores, but for those who must rely on the food bank for a signifivant part of their family’s food - open up the umbrella, and brace yourself.
The food bank is almost out of protein, at the same times the lines are growing expotentially!
The Memphis Food Bank supplies 38 counties in three different states, and the needs are growing so fast that they just cannot keep up. They have to keep opening new mobile pantries - often in remote rural areas where the poverty is even more severe than in the city.
Because we do live in the midst of rural areas that can grow alot of food, the local food pantry is still meeting their goal of trying to give every family at least five fresh produce offerings. Because food banks have to pay for picking up donations where ever they might be, and then shipping them into their own AO, the Memphis food bank is in great shape right now as far as fresh fruits and vegetables are concerned. The healthy, fresh stuff is the cheapest food they can fill those trunks with.
And unlike reports I am hearing from folks here and in Boots on the Ground, our fresh produce is truly fresh when we get it. The food bank fetches it as quick as it is made available, cutting out middlemen, and the quality shows up on our dinner tables.
BUTT, they are having an increasingly more difficult time meeting their goals for the rest of the food they put into our trunks.
Especially protein, dairy and canned vegetables.
The folks at the food bank warned the group that was sponsoring today’s mobile pantry that they would not be able to send any protein at all today.
In the end, they dug deep and found one half of a single pallet of those pre-packaged kids meals that they call Lunchables, and they did send them over.
Each of these individual, pre packaged meals consist of five small rounds of turkey cold cut (the five together probably make up one regular, thin slice of sandwich turkey), five small squares of American cheese, 5 crackers and two cookies.
Whole families in this morning’s line were given only six of these tiny, pre-made children’s meals. That - in essence - amounted to only six slices of cold cut turkey and six thin slices of American cheese per family. And this is suppose to last them for two weeks.
That was all the protein that the food bank had to give.
There was no milk - either fluid nor dried. No other dairy. No canned fruits, vegetables or meats.
That line extended for about two miles, at its longest point - possibly as many as 500 families lined up to be served.
The food bank people gave the best they could give this morning. And I must say - as somebody concerned about my family’s health and willing to cook from scratch, I was glad to see alot of fresh food in the trunk. They did not have fresh potatoes, as they tend to be in short supply everywhere, but they gave us two pounds of pre-made potato salad, which we like.
But folks, The lines are getting longer inside the city. Meanwhile, the need in the outlying rural areas is growing even faster than inside the city.
I was told this morning that the food bank procurers are feeling under seige. So much demand, and so little they are able to get right now.
Memphis is in a much better position to get food than most other parts of the nation.
If our food bank is feeling the pressure, other food banks in other parts of the country must REALLY be in dire straits.
I like Abita Root Beer.Barq's is my favorite. A&W will do in a pinch, but I like Barq's best.
Try Ingles if you have one nearby.Try buying succatash.
nobody sells it anymore.
The Memphis food bank is actually hit with a double whammy.I feel for you, Barry. Hopefully those fairly local farms can keep producing.
It's my understanding that of US metro areas of 1,000,000+ in population, the Memphis area is the single poorest in the entire country. There are areas in the country poorer, they are just less populated.
While you have great distribution points because of the major interstates, the food bank system could be overwhelmed because of your area's demographics, combined with current inflation and supply chain issues.
WOW! Pre-covid a gallon was 5.49, last year it was 7.49, here. Year-round there are usually about 5 gallons total of it (in various sized containers), in each store. Soon comes the fall display in the center aisle, usually 50+ gallon jugs. stacked on shelves, in sort of a short flattened pyramid shape.I saw a half gallon of apple cider for a little over $9.00.
Mind you where I live I am literally surrounded by apple trees (over 20,000 acres of trees). And it's coming to season, with many types already being harvested.
Madness.
Wow! Good deals!Did a Kroger run yesterday (SW Ohio) and was shocked to see no boxes in the aisles, shelves stocked with multiple rows of product and freezer cases overflowing with chicken.
1/2 gal milk $1.29
Canned mandarin oranges 10 for $10
The large Raisin Bran $2.99
VO5 shampoo BOGO $1
All bell peppers .99 each (huge)
Pork shoulder $1.34#
Breakfast sausage links $1.99
28 oz Gatorade .50 each
AND a free case of bottled water and $10 off any purchase of $40+.
As for chicken paws, I freeze and dole out to the dog as a treat.
Included in the counties that the Memphis food bank is charged with feeding is the counties that make up the Mississippi Delta. The two largest concentrations of poverty anywhere in this entire nation are both rural areas - several Appalation mountain counties, mostly in eastern Kentucky, and the rural, Mississippi Delta region.
The poverty deep in the Mississippi Delta region is similar to what you would find in a third workd nation like Bangladesh, it is so bad. And so well hidden. (It is my understanding that there are parts of Appalachia that are just as bad.)
I switched over to using cloth napkins and bar towels / washcloths in place of paper towels and paper napkins. It definitely adds up in savings over time. Just thought I’d mention it -Toilet paper is already astronomical. We bought extra last weekend.
I pulled out a roll to show the wife, compared to a roll from a month ago. Same "package" of Charmin, the "12=48" "mega" rolls, IIRC. The outside diameter of the new roll was a good 1/4" less than the month-old roll.
Kroger-brand paper towels have gone from $5.99 (I think) to $10.99 for a pack of 6 mega rolls.
I don't think we will wait for pork loin on sale at $1.49/lb for canning. I'm gonna catch it at $1.99 or $2.49 and buy enough for 14 quarts. I'm thinking too about pork butts, they had them recently for $0.99/lb. Pork hasn't really gone up yet, but sure it will. Beef has gone up a little, but due to big sellouts by farmers, the price is artificial at this point. I can't eat much red meat, but I can certainly stock it. Planning to can a ton of venison too. Good to have for family and fur kids, I may just need a lot of ibuprofen if forced to eat a lot of it.
Appreciate it. Yes, I've thought of the same. We're no spring chickens, both work from home, very busy and stressed. I'm not too far from retirement (but not close enough! Lol). We don't have time and energy to constantly wash cloths, but rethinking that.I switched over to using cloth napkins and bar towels / washcloths in place of paper towels and paper napkins. It definitely adds up in savings over time. Just thought I’d mention it -
Hubby is retired - I’m about 7 years out myself.Appreciate it. Yes, I've thought of the same. We're no spring chickens, both work from home, very busy and stressed. I'm not too far from retirement (but not close enough! Lol). We don't have time and energy to constantly wash cloths, but rethinking that.
I switched over to using cloth napkins and bar towels / washcloths in place of paper towels and paper napkins. It definitely adds up in savings over time. Just thought I’d mention it -