And just for variety, I took advantage of the sale on cereal at Kroger a couple days ago--got the last 16 boxes of my favorite granola cereal for $2 a box:
I guess the one caveat I'll add to the page header is that the year's worth of breakfast for about $80 is for one person...but at less than 50 cents a day for two people (my wife likes to eat, too), that's not a bad deal!
And for what it's worth, I know that a lot of people have privacy concerns over putting down personal information on the preferred-customer cards at grocery stores and elsewhere, but I've never even bothered to return the application form and have never had anyone say anything about my personal information not being in their computer system. So I get all the discounts and none of the creepiness of Big Brother knowing how much food I have stashed away. And if I ever had to actually turn in one of those info cards to continue to get store discounts, my name is Ted Nugent and I live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. :D
Happy eating, folks!
Looks like you have a post-apocalyptic camera.
ReplyDeleteDoes the $80 include the mylars, O2 absorbers and buckets? I'm eying the 10 lb boxes of Quaker Oats from Costco at about $.69/lb. Wondering if GV is a better deal. How many pounds are you getting per bucket, btw? 12?
Another good variety item (also from Costco) is the 10 lb bag of Krusteaz Pancake mix (just add water).
I'm thinking 200 lbs of Oats and 50 lbs of pancake mix could do breakfast for a year for us.
Thanks, appreciate the site and info!
Good eye on the date, Doug. ;) But just remember what Charles Schulz said--the world isn't going to end today, because it's already tomorrow in Australia!
ReplyDeleteThe $80 doesn't include mylar bags, O2 absorbers or buckets. I get my mylar bags from the same company that I got my Snorkel-Vac vacuum sealer from, Sorbent Systems. I typically only use O2 absorbers on dehydrated and/or jerked meats that might still have residual fat, to keep the fat from turning rancid. I don't think there's any need to use O2 absorbers in vacuum-sealed bags because by the time all the air is sucked out of the bag, the amount of residual oxygen is so inconsequential that O2 absorbers won't make any difference. Air is only 21 percent oxygen anyway, so if you vacuum out most of the air, 21 percent of almost nothing is nothing to be worried about, in my opinion.
The Great Value oats are $2.24 per 42-ounce container. I can comfortably fit about four 10-by-14-inch sealed (but not vacuum-sealed) mylar bags of oats in a 5-gallon bucket. I get most of my buckets for free or pretty close to free at local groceries and bakeries. I don't use my vacuum-sealer (just the heat-sealer to close the bag) on dry products that are granular, powdery or otherwise with particles so small that trying to vacuum the air out of the bag will also cause the product itself to get sucked through the machine. I just squeeze out all the air I can and then seal the bag. Some people would argue that flour should be vacuum-sealed to keep it from turning rancid, but I'd argue back that they shouldn't grind their grain until they're ready to use flour, because intact grain will stay fresh MUCH longer than ground flour. I've heard of people losing a lot of flour because they ground their grain when the didn't need to and the flour turned rancid in the interim.
I haven't had a chance to get to Costco because the closest one is 80 miles away, and with a Sam's Club and four Walmart Supercenters within a three-county area, I'm able to get most of what I'm stocking up on locally. I was going to get a Costco membership after hearing their very reasonable prices on honey (less than $2 per pound for 6-pound containers), but then when I found a honey producer just a couple counties away from mine, I figured that'd be the much better product and deal.
Speaking of big-box stores, I think I'll post an entry soon on where to get better bargains on certain items. Stores such as Kroger seem to have lower prices than Walmart on some items, and vice-versa.
I'm glad you like the site! Please tell others about it, and if you have ideas for articles, let me know!