We have radishes, lemons, Swiss chard, beets, a tiny bit of asparagus, arugula and several herbs ripe in the garden. We should have snow peas, lettuce, and spinach lettuce ready later in the month.
Here are my shopping plans for the month. We’ll eat mostly from the pantry and freezers.
Sam’s Club:
Sugar
Mozzarella cheese
Whipping cream
Flour tortillas
Corn tortillas
Milk
Lawry’s Chicken and Poultry rub seasoning (on sale this month)
Best Foods mayonnaise (on sale this month)
Tomato sauce (in the #10 can)
Winco:
Kidney beans
Milk
Spreadable margarine
Potatoes
Target:
Trash bags
Oxi-Clean stain remover
I’ll use a $15 off $50 coupon that was in Sunday’s ad for these items (I don’t get the paper but my mom gave me the ad; you can get it through Target Cartwheel as well I believe). The coupon is really specific about what items apply, but I normally buy the Target brand trash bags and oxi-clean, and both of these qualify.
Smith’s:
Ice cream: on sale plus there is another $0.49 off digital coupon on their website that I will upload first
I’ll also pick up last week’s Friday Freebie (a Lindt chocolate) and this week’s if it is one I like. Friday Freebie deals at Kroger affiliates need to loaded to your store card on Friday and are available to pick up for 2 weeks.
Albertson’s:
Strawberries: $0.99 a pound this week; I imagine they’ll go on sale again this month too.
Clementines: $2.99 for a 3-pound bag
Albertson’s is having a Monopoly game right now. My mom and the woman she takes shopping are giving me all of their Monopoly pieces, plus I have a few of my own. The game pieces are attached to coupons. I have 2 instant win coupons that I will use to pick up a free 8-ounce container of sour cream and a free 26-ounce container of salt.
I’ll look for sales on the following items. My target price is $0.99 a pound for each of these, except for the cabbage, which I hope to find for $0.39 or less a pound:
Asparagus
Cabbage
Frozen petite peas
What sales are you looking for this month?
Some of Augason’s products were on sale at Walmart.com recently so I ordered eight cans that will go into the pantry. I probably will be opening the powdered cheese can much sooner than later because I want to see how it is at flavoring popcorn. Ditto for the sliced potatoes since fresh potatoes don’t keep for very long in the spring. We have a similar sale on strawberries at our nearest grocery store. I want to try drying strawberries to see how they turn out. I have heard they taste like candy. I know freeze-dried ones are delicious.
Holly, we dried some strawberries last year on the dehydrator and they were very easy to do–and yes, they taste [i]wonderful[/i]! We found it easy to cut the leaves off and then use an egg slicer to slice a whole bunch of them quickly to dry on the dehydrator. This time of year I like to stock up on strawberries; I freeze them, make jam, dry some, use them at breakfast, and make lots of desserts!
I am fairly well stocked, and because I have cooked a large pumpkin, my freezer is full.I will probably only but something if it is a good deal, and I know I will use it. Perhaps, towards the end of the month, I may buy plain Greek yogurt to use in the place of sour cream.I was given some, and have found it to be a great substitute, and the yogurt actually has calcium and protein. I may also but ice cream after I finish what I have already in the freezer. I think I have enough eggs for the month. I may but a backup jar of pickles if the price is right, and also jalapenos. I eat a lot of both.
I just came off of a NO SPEND month so my pantry is fairly low. I need to stock up on several items. Our weather has been so much warmer than normal so our garden is doing well. Have a little more to plant. Want to find a Meyer lemon tree.
Buy not but….sigh
A local grocery store is having a large sale on meat next Monday, plus they have a $5 off of a $55 purchase coupon. Chickens for $0.77/lb, ground beef for $1.88/lb, bacon for $3/lb, and pork loin for $1.49/lb are all sales I’m looking at. The only issue is that I need to clear out freezer space if I’m going to buy all that!
I’ll probably pick up a few sale items from another store as well (like tissues, since both I and my SO have been sick and we went through 3 boxes of tissues!). I’ll have to take a look ag our budget and meal plan to see if I can shift some meals in anticipation of the coming sales.
Those radishes look amazing, Brandy! I really admire your photography skills.
I don’t have big shopping plans this month. I’m still trying to reduce the amount of food I have in my freezer and pantry, so will be making lots of meals from that with only a few items bought to supplement it. Plus, I have enough pasta, rice, beans, and flour to make all the meals that I need.
I’ll buy lactose-free milk for cereal, regular milk to make into yoghurt (the longer yoghurt is cultured, the less lactose it has in it), bananas, apples, broccoli (on sale next week at a local store), cheese (on sale next week too) and whatever other fruits and veggies are on sale each week (such as grapes, and possibly potatoes if I see an amazing deal, but otherwise not). Happily, strawberries go on sale next week, just in time for me to make a fancy-pants strawberry cake for the DH’s upcoming birthday. I was hoping that would be the case, and it is! I still have lettuce in the fridge, and by the time that is finished, mayyyyyyybe I’ll have some ready to be harvested from my indoor ‘garden’. I would love to be able to take lettuce off my shopping list permanently!
Brandy, how long do you dry your strawberry slices for? Are they still soft when they’re finished? I’ve dehydrated strawberries too, but tend to dry them until they’re wafer-thin and crunchy, as I’m worried about mold growing on them if there’s too much moisture left on them, especially because I do tend to store my dried fruit for a long time. I’ve read books on dehydrating fruit, but haven’t found a clear answer. I have turned dried strawberries into powder so that I can add them to my baking (or to my oatmeal when camping), but am curious as to how to whether one can store dehydrated strawberries without having to dry them to a literal crisp. Thanks!
Shopping for March: started off the month’s shopping today by spending $111. Some good deals but my freezer will not hold ONE more thing, so hope that is the majority of shopping for the month. We only have Aldi’s and one other store, so I shop weekly at the other store and buy their loss leader items when they are things I use. Today I bought 18 large Italian sausages for $2.25 a lb. Frozen crab cakes BOGO minus $1 coupon (a real treat for us–husband prefers eating at home to frequently eating out so I sneak in a few treats.) We ran OUT of ice cream this week so I bought 3 cartons on sale this week also.
I rearranged a couple shelves in the big freezer the other day and we seem to have enough boneless chicken breasts for the rest of the year. Time to check out some new recipes for chicken! Aside from that things are fairly evenly distributed. I don’t want to get too far ahead as there are only 2 of us, a fact I keep forgetting!
I also have a question–I had some commercially packaged dried apricots, opened but not all used. The apricots had turned somewhat dark–brownish. I ended up tossing and replacing them, but I wondered if I should have used them? I was planning on chopping them in the food chopper and adding them to the granola. So I bought more, but usually I will take a chance on using unopened expired items. These had been opened so I gave up on them. Was this the right choice?
I have no particular needs for the rest of the month except for perishables. My cupboards and freezers are full to the brim.
I did make 2# of baked beans last week and husband has already eaten more than half. Good thing I found another ham bone when I was arranging the shelves. I believe I will be making more baked beans quite soon. I don’t care for them, so they are all his!!
I actually have a large shopping plan for this month. My baby is due at the beginning of April so I’m stocking up on staples and snacks. I really don’t want to go to the grocery store for a month after he comes, so I need to get everything now. I’ll also be getting ingredients to make a few freezer meals and stock up on muffins, pancakes, waffles, ets to pop into the toaster later. My mom will be coming up to help around the house for a few days, so I’ll borrow her Costco membership when I go shopping.
I recently defrosted and reorganized one of our freezers. I’ve done a pretty good job of rotation the meat we keep in there, plus the food saver packaging has made it possible to store meats longer without freezer burn. However, there are some items that need using up. So this month I hope to incorporate them into our meals to use them up.
Last summer was so hot, that I did not do as much blanching and freezing of veggie for winter. Because of this, we are now having to buy frozen veggies pretty regularly. This has helped me realize I do need to preserve more next time to make it through our long winter. This summer we are hoping to redo our back deck, as the wood is rotting to the point it must be replaced. The garden space I use is right underneath the deck. If I plant a garden there, the likelihood is that it will get destroyed by men working on the deck. So this year, I will only be doing container gardening. I plan to buy fresh produce from the farmers market and grocery store sales to make up for what we can’t grow.
I always watch sales and restock our pantry with sale items my family will eat. It has saved me quite a bit over the years to buy items on sale and have it there to use as needed. As for our grocery needs, I have been keeping a list of items we need to stock up on as we run low/out. So far my list this month includes:
[u]Costco[/u]
Conditioner
Sweet Potato Fries
Veggie Spring Rolls
Pancake Mix
BLSL Chicken Breasts
[u]Grocery Store or wherever there is a good sale[/u]
SOS Pads
Pasta Sauce
Cheese
Of course this is a working list, so more than likely there will be more items added throughout the month. I will be continuing my quest for new recipes/meal ideas this month as well. We really need some new food options!
Margaret, I have the same concern as you did, and mine were just as dry as yours!
Marcia, they would have still been okay to eat. Apricots can lose their color rather qucikly when dried.
The news here in AZ just talked about it being National Frozen food month !! That being said now that we have moved and gotten settled into our new state I need to get back into shape with my shopping. I have been shopping weekly and my spending is out of control. So I will go back to shopping on paydays and making my menu list again…..
I am using my freezers/canning/pantry for the most part, while still buying fresh produce, eggs, milk, wheat bread products for the family, etc. I’m putting $50 in an envelope each week and seeing how much I can have left over at the end of the week. The excess will be used to re-stock staples or saved for summer, a time when our income will be lower.
I was delighted that I was able to get eggs, milk, bagels, really ripe bananas, lettuce, lemons, celery and english muffins this morning at a store 1 block from home, for only $18. I spent $11 of it last week. It’s going well
You can read my self-imposed rules for my challenge here:https://beckyathome.wordpress.com/2017/02/28/my-low-budget-march-grocery-challenge/
It’s so great to have a community that is all on the same page–to live frugally, happily and well, while keeping within our budgets! It’s also so encouraging to see all the different ways we each do it.
I’ll keep a watch on sales for cabbage. I’m hoping to can some this year. Beyond that I am hoping we are pretty stocked for the month. I do have a Zaycon order coming in soon and I’ll be putting that away.
How do you store your number 10 can of tomato sauce? I’ve been toying with buying ketchup that way, but I cannot decide if I could seal it (canner) in jars and it be fine or not.
Shara, there are 9 of us eating the sauce. I use the whole can at once 🙂
But when there were a few less of us, I would make the whole thing into sauce, and then freeze the leftover amount in a quart-sized bag and use it to make pizza.
I buy a big container of ketchup and we put it into several squeeze bottles. I just buy the large refill bottle from Sam’s Club (it does have a lid and it comes in plastic, so that might be a better option for you than the can if you want to keep the rest in the original container in the fridge). I buy their brand (Bakers and Chefs).
I live in the Deep South (read:seriously humid!) and my home dehydrated strawberries keep just fine. I pour them into half gallon mason jars and just hand tighten the lid (no vacuum seal, no O2 absorbers). I do the same with bananas. No issues
I am still eating out of the freezers (and pantry) from my freezer/pantry challenge back in January! Its usually just the 2 of us, but my husband is deployed so I am using far less food than usual. It is making the freezer clean out really really slow.
Plus, my friends are making a point to send me meals and invite me over (or out) to dinner regularly so I don’t have to eat alone so much.
I did do some restocking at Costco last month – paper bags. tp, trash bags, dishwasher detergent (can’t find a good homemade one), nuts, olives, maple syrup, honey, and cheeses.
This month I will buy a couple of pounds of shrimp and a fillet of salmon for the freezer to help with meal making for Lent, but I think that might be it!
The sweet petite peas in lb bags are on sale this week at the grocer in town, now owned by Kroger. They are part of the mix and match 10 for $10 though there is really no limit. I bought 25 of just peas. Cream cheese was also part of that (bought 10) Also fresh mushroom (bought 5 1lb boxes) and those are all chopped and cooked with onions and olive oil and in freezer containers to make mushroom soup later on that I use in casserole dishes. I saved half a box to use on our dinner salad.
Oh, last month they had peas for .88 per lb but they were not the petite sweet. I don’t mind those if I’m adding to soup or casserole but we eat a lot of the fresh thawed just added to coleslaw, green salads, pasta salads and they taste more like a home picked pea.
Brandy,
For my family of nine I buy trash bags at Home Depot they have 150 bags they sell for $10 and I always find a box that has been open which they always discount by 15 to 50% off and then I apply the 20% off that I have in a coupon from Harbor Freight to get Trash bags for next to nothing.
I do this for anything I can at home depot and I have friend who is in the construction biz and they always have a ton of homedepot cards from returns when they get under $3.00 they give them to me. so if I get another $1.80 off from a gift card that helps too. Also home depot takes coupons for things like Tide, Dawn, Batteries etc. so I get these things on the cheap.
So Home Depot will take the 20% off Harbour Freight coupons? I get those in the mail all the time! Does Lowe’s do the same?
Loyda,
Where in AZ are you? I find the best deals at Fry’s (also fuel points) and Bashas who regularly have son great sales.
Amy
I did not know that about Home Depot, thank you!
Thanks, Brandy and Jennifer! 🙂
I have been to Sam’s and Aldi’s already.
I bought avacados, butter, flour, sugar, canned chicken, grated cheddar cheese and apple juice at Sam’s. At Aldi I bought stir fry veggies,noodles, milk, eggs, cottage cheese, tomato sauce, sour creams, buns and bread. I spent $92.55.
When the ads came late Wednesday the only extras I want to buy are butter at $1.69 and asparagus at $.99 a pound. The butter has a limit of 2. I go buy that store everyday so I will stop if I can to stock up! The store with this asparagus sale is only about three miles away so I will pick that up next Monday.
Other than those two things I will only purchase fresh items the rest of the month unless there is a great sale on something we need to stock up on
Thank you! I can’t use a whole can at once. I will definitely check for the ketchup. I hate walking passed those #10 cans at such good prices, but I know they’re only a good price if I can avoid wasting the contents.
I buy my SOS pads at the Dollar Tree for a dollar.
Hello Brandy and everyone from Australia 🙂 .
In the gardens we have just had all of the plants finish in 4 of our garden beds so have amended the soil and they are now ready to plant. We do have some silver beet, spinach, some cherry tomatoes and carrots ready to be picked in the other garden beds that are still growing and plenty of vegetable stocks in the vegetable freezer that we have frozen from excess crops from our gardens to get us through until the new plants grow.
We shop once a month here with our grocery shopping day being on the 7th.
So far this month we have stocked back up on tinned lychees, tinned mangoes, 16kg of flour to fill 2 storage containers that were empty, topped up on rolled oats, 2 cocoa, ammonia, 2 dozen eggs, 9kg of raw sugar and 3 kg of white sugar and 4 tins of baked beans.
Specials we picked up were 4 tins of blueberry pie filling on a 50% off sale saving $10 now that we are in Autumn and heading for winter. These will be a nice addition to the cupboards to make blueberry pies. On special also were the tins of baked beans.
We have reduced our grocery budget down to $180 a month and are keeping $100 in reserve for bulk orders of meat and some raw ingredients for the pantries that we order once every 6 – 12 months. Our bulk orders of meat we only order once a year and plan in advance and have the cash in the home for.
Yet to purchase is –
– Powdered milk.
– 2kg of cheese.
– dishwashing liquid.
– almonds.
– sultanas.
So far this month we are doing very well on keeping within budget.
I’m planning to place an order with San Francisco Herb Company this month. Thank you Brandy for telling us about this mail order company – I’ve now been using them for years! My purchase will include 5 lbs of sea salt, 5 lbs of cocoa, powdered coconut milk (fantastic to have on hand to make curries), and maybe sesame seeds.
I’m hoping a good sale on Apple & Eve 100% cranberry juice will happen this month.
Roxy, i found my lemon tree from Amazon; I’m sure it would be doing much better in a warmer climate, but it keeps hanging in there. I have five lemons in various stages of growing. One is starting to turn yellow. The others seem to be a bit stunted. All in all, i’m happy.
This week’s ads had a few items I will use to price match. I’ll price match and shop on the store’s once a month 10% off day. I’m buying razor refills, pasta sauce, dish soap and vitamins that way. I really love to price match as it also saves me time and gas when I am only going to one store.
I started seeds last Tuesday and they are already starting to sprout today, Saturday. It’s too early to garden outside.
I continue to work on making meals out of my pantry items and using food in my freezer.
We don’t really need a thing. We went by a Target yesterday and didn’t stop. Today, i thought i should’ve got a few cases of their canning jars for 7.99. grr…my fault. My husband had good medical news and all i could think about was the ice cream (BOGO) we ate to celebrate. (While looking out the window at Target!! Good ahead and kick me, i deserve it!) I won a bid for a new pressure canner, so i’m happy about that. Hopefully, jars will go on sale again before the season gets going. I ordered some frozen vegetables since we go through so many. We’re thinking about joining a CSA but the monies are due in April, a bad month for us. We shall see. The math tells me that it works out to 18.10 a week for fresh produce and herbs. Doesn’t sound too bad at all. I guess we’re in a pretty good place when i can’t name anything we need!
Hi Loyda,
Another Phoenix person here! Agree with Amy about Frys and sometimes Bashas. Also look at American Discount Foods in Mesa, they are a clearance place and have occasional great deals too.
Have you read “America’s cheapest family?” I LOVE that book, so many saving ideas and they live in AZ, too, so specific stores listed for your state.
Can’t agree with you more! I have learned so much from the wonderful tips posted every week.
My husband is traveling for a couple of weeks so I am using this time to eat out from our fridge, freezer and cupboards as much as I can. I only purchased some bananas, yogurt and bread. I have everything else 🙂
Went over budget but had money back for it so , not so bad. Wishing for the weather to warm up and stay warm so I can plant for Spring garden.
http://chefowings.blogspot.com/2017/03/march-shopping.html