November in the U.S. is a great month to stock up on so many items on sale for holiday cooking. Canned goods and baking supplies are on sale. Meats are on great sales, with turkey for Thanksgiving being the main feature. Squash, potatoes, onions, apples, celery, clementines, and cranberries go on sale.
Some items (such as canned vegetables) have a limit of the number you can purchase on sale. I’m looking for canned corn and canned green beans on sale for under $0.49 a can. There are likely to be coupons online that I can print for these as well to bring the price even lower. In years past, I have been able to pick up these two items as low as $0.20 a can on sale in November with coupons.
I’m not sure who will have the best prices for several seasonal sale items, so I’ll look at the ads each week. The grocery ads come in the mail here. There are a number of stores within 2 miles from my house, so I expect good competition. My budget for our family of 10 for the month is $300. I also have $30 worth of Target gift cards that I earned last month, which I may or may not use for groceries, depending on the deals I see.
Produce:
potatoes
clementines
lettuce
carrots
celery
frozen petite peas
squash
apples
cranberries
onions
Canned goods:
corn
green beans
pumpkin
evaporated milk
cream of mushroom soup
enchilada sauce (Note: I’m buying green enchilada sauce).
Meat:
whole chickens
turkey (I’ll buy several if the price per pound is low enough)
pork roast
Baking items:
flour (I’ll get this at Sam’s Club.)
sugar (also Sam’s Club)
Ghiradelli white and dark chocolate melting chips (Sam’s Club has these on sale this month for an incredible price.)
chocolate chips (also Sam’s Club)
Butter, if I see a low enough price. The lowest I’ve seen so far is $2.49 a pound. I’m not sure if this is the best price yet or not.
marshmallows
eggs
whipping cream
Other items:
salsa
ketchup (at Sam’s Club)
milk
spreadable margarine
mozzarella cheese
toilet paper
What are you planning to stock up on this month?
I’d like to stock up on some baking supplies and turkey breasts. Maybe a roast or two… we’ll see. Today we are hitting a store to see if there is discounted Halloween candy to tuck away in the pantry. I also saw little bottles of water with Halloween labels, so I’m hoping those will be marked down as well. They would be a great addition to our preparedness efforts and we won’t care if they jave pumpkins on them if we need a drink!
Target has turkey’s on sale here for .69 lb with coupon, limit 2. If I have freezer space, i’ll buy just one. I have one 5.00 GC I can use. My husband’s not much of a turkey eater. I have one from Easter that will be served at Thanksgiving when our son visits. I wouldn’t have thought of clementines if I hadn’t read your list but those would be nice. I don’t eat much citrus. But, when Winter hits I seem to get a huge craving for it. Otherwise, i’m happy to be pretty well stocked. Of course, if I see something that we can’t live without……..
Beautiful photographs, as usual, Brandy! That Fall table is gorgeous!
Coupons.com has a coupon for $1 off any Darigold product this morning.
My youngest loves Cuties and I was just wondering aloud yesterday “What kind of fresh things can I buy this time of year?! It feels like everything is out of season and expensive!” Thanks for the reminder Brandy! This love of fresh clementines has had me hemming and hawing over canned Mandarin oranges for our food storage. Most are in sugar water which I don’t care for, and the only kind I have found that is in juice instead is definitely produced in China (of course, makes sense with the product and all) but it makes me nervous with some of the quality issues with that country which have been raised in the last few years. I saw at Sprouts yesterday that they carry some (half as much for the same price as what I’ve been buying though) from Spain in pear juice. They are in cans, not plastic, like the others I have been buying, which is better for storage though. I bought one can to try and if we like them, I will look to see if they go on sale or can be purchased with a case discount. I think they are a seasonal item for the store so I need to work that out before they don’t have them anymore :/ I need to get frozen turkeys for a roundup our school district does jointly with our local food bank, and I think I can knock off other regular grocery items (flour, maybe butter, a few boxed brownie/cake mixes for specific needs that don’t do as well with homemade, yogurt, orange juice, etc.) while getting at least one for free at our Safeway, so I need to plan that out. I cube and can our jack o lantern pumpkins, and also puree and freeze some for baking, and now that Halloween has past, I better get on it 🙂 I could probably use more celery, but I have to watch for a good price. It often goes for close to $2/bunch here, so I pick it up when it goes to $0.99 each and then I dehydrate what we won’t use fresh. Canned green beans are on my Costco list too. We don’t have case lot sales where I live and I almost never see amazing deals on canned anything, so I find the best price with the least amount of time invested in it is to get boxes of what I need at Costco 😀 I’m hoping to find a markdown deal or just regular deal on fresh cranberries for some muffin-baking; those always seem to be pricey! I’m hoping for a good sale on evaporated and condensed milks, butter, and canned pineapple too. Watching for a big drop on yam prices – that used to last for a while but a couple years ago I noticed it only goes rock bottom once and only for about a week. I need to pay attention there. I’ve decided going forward to use our bread ends for stuffing instead of buying bags or boxes of dried mix, to make my cream of soup with a white sauce base, and to make salsa using canned tomatoes and home-dried peppers. I made cilantro salt that I’m storing in the fridge to try to work around wasting so much buying it by the bunch fresh (I don’t have other recipes that call for it!!). Have to test that this month and see how it holds up.
I’m going to buy our Thanksgiving turkey, for sure. I’m hoping for a good price on fresh sweet potatoes — if I find it, I’ll buy 10 pounds, which will keep in the refrigerator a while. City Market (Kroger affiliate) has butter for $1.99 a pound if you buy 10 pounds, so I’ll probably buy 10 lbs. I haven’t seen that price in a while. Clementines and cranberries are also on my list, and I’ll buy pecans — sale or not — for a pie.
Brandy, Have you thought of planting a Satsuma tree in your yard? Our one tree produces hundreds of Satsumas each year in the fall here in South Louisiana. Satsumas are somewhat like a clementine but are slightly larger.
Margaret
I will stock up on sweet potatoes, cranberries (we freeze for smoothies and oatmeal throughout the year), onions, and citrus. Our local high school does a fruit sale every year, so we always buy a case of grapefruit and mandarins to keep in the basement. They usually last us through about January or February. I will probably buy a turkey too, which we will keep in the freezer and roast one snow day. I will also stock up on brown sugar, though we are cutting way back on sugar for health reasons.
I used to have Algerian tangerine trees, which were supposed to taste like clementines, but they were more of a regular tangerine–very sour and full of seeds. Eventually, I lost all of my trees to frost.
I then planted two Valencia oranges. Both of these also died due to frost.
I currently have two small potted mandarin trees. They are very small still, and as they’re potted, they won’t be able to get real big. I’m hoping they grow some more and can survive the frosts each winter, and will give us fruit. They have a few fruits hanging on them this year.
We only get a few light frosts (usually the worst if 28º F) but a few years we had a couple of nights at 22º, which is when I lost my tangerines, oranges, limes, and also grapefruit. The Meyer lemons that I grow are more tolerant of frost. I have lost some of those too, but I now have two large remaining trees (in the ground) and three small trees (in the ground). I also have one in a pot.
I would LOVE to have great success with mandarins, but I am cautious, as I have seen so much loss of citrus trees here.
We’ve got a big trip to Sam’s coming up (cheese, rice, olive oil, dried fruit, toilet paper, a couple baking sheets, etc), so the rest of our shopping for the month consists of what I just picked up at Aldi. I bought 15 lbs of onions for less than $3.50, and I’ll be using that to make a bunch of caramelized, dehydrated, and frozen onions. I also picked up 10 lbs of potatoes, which should last us the month plus leave extra to dehydrate (I love dehydrated shredded potato- it’s great for adding to soups!) and a bunch of bell peppers, which were also on sale. Other than that, I just stuck to the usual items in small enough quantities that we wouldn’t be over budget for November. I don’t think we’ll be buying much the rest of the month other than a gallon of milk or two.
I also picked up the few items needed to make my contribution to my family’s Thanksgiving table- I’ll be making pumpkin spice rice pudding (ala Noreen’s Kitchen). I hope it turns out delicious!
Our local Wal-Mart has Halloween candy 50% off. Usually it goes to 75% off in 3 or 4 days, but there is very little left at that point. I bought a bag of Nestle chocolates – 3lbs. 6.2 oz. for $4.97 for Christmas stockings.
Albertson’s has Pillsbury cake and brownie mixes for 2 for $1 in the Just for U app this week. Eggs are also 99 cents for a dozen, the lowest price we have been having around here. (I know some of you have had really low egg prices.)
I am buying lettuce, milk and fruit – probably mostly 59 cent per pound bananas. I am processing a sugar pumpkin for pumpkin dump cake and maybe something else?
On our November list is:
Almonds, Pecans (if I can find a reasonable price or trade)
Evaporated Milk
Sugars, Dark Chocolate, Yeast, Eggs, Cloves
Reduced Meats , a turkey breast.
Onions, Sweet and New Potatoes
Celery, Apples, Spinach, Lettuce, Asparagus, Carrots
Frozen Tortellini , Broccoli, Corn
Various Pasta Noodles
Cream Cheese, Cheddar, Mozzerela, Feta and Parm
Toilet Paper, Furniture Polish
Thank you Brandy. I love your beautiful blog. So much inspiration and useful information and I read it regularly. Warmest good wishes to you and your family, Wendy (New Zealand)
Tomorrow we have an Aldi store opening just 6 miles from our home. I am totally looking forward to checking it out. Have down loaded 3 books about shopping at Aldi stores. (free on Amazon) Looking forward to checking it out.
I check the turkeys and hams this time of year and I also stock the freezers with frozen veggies bought at rock bottom prices. I have ton of eggs and I don’t really do baked items except a few times per year everyone hear will not eat them.
I will make pumpkin muffins soon and I will make an apple pie soon.
Then nothing again until Christmas for the sugar items.
I made lasagnas today.
I also did corned beef this past week they had a sale two for the price of one plus they were 4.00 per pound that made it cheap enough for me to buy it. I made two beef roast last week that I had bought on clearance. Those also made a stroganoff.
I have been making a lot of chickens.
Kroger is having their once a year Mega sale. Green beans are .49 a can I believe. Not sure about Costco’s prices (we don’t have one), but this is a great deal for us.
Brandy, you might want to try making your own enchilada sauce instead of buying it. It’s quick and easy and way cheaper than what you can buy in a can. It is just as easy to double the recipe and freeze what you don’t use. http://www.network54.com/Forum/501970/message/1428689673/Penny%27s+enchilada+and+sauce+recipe%2C+in+her+own+words
A link at the top of the page will take you to The Frugalista Files forum. We would like to welcome any of your readers. Anyone may post..as long as they play nice with the other children, LOL.
I’m hoping you’ll be doing your annual Gift in a Day series this year. I’ve already completed two, and will be cutting out a third gift tonight.
Best wishes for a happy and productive November.
I plan to stock up on baking supplies. Today I got 5lb. of sugar, flour, and cream cheese for .99 each. I recently got cranberrries, fresh from the grower, for .50/lb.-what a great deal. I just made a turkey that DH and I served to guests who were visiting. We will stock up on turkey, hope to make one turkey every month.
Other items I plan to buy and tuck away include:
-Socks (good sales near the holidays)
-Pie Pumpkins that we used to decorate our porch, but didn’t carve, will now be cooked down for pies, bars, etc.
-Close out on Halloween candy
-Apples…great sales, will freeze for future baking of muffins/breads
-Just printed my Christmas card at Walgreens, 50% off, closer it gets to Christmas the prices go up.
Nice opportunity to save….
Hi Brandy:
I am hosting Thanksgiving so I will look for the best deal on a turkey and potatoes especially. Although Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, I really do not love the food….but my family is used to having the same things each year. We have a small freezer compartment for our current fridge and gifted our garage fridge/freezer when we moved so I will likely only get one turkey but that’s okay! More recently for health reasons I have been trying to find deals on organic food and grass fed beef and Sprouts has the best deals….I wait for the right week to stock up on my favorites, and this has been working out well to keep the costs of organic food down. 🙂
I belong to a provident living group and just bought 20# of organic apples for $25, 6# bell peppers for $1.50/lb, and 6# asian pears for $6.00. I cut up and froze the bell peppers to use throughout the winter. The apples and pears are sitting in my cold garage for use during the winter too. I’m also buying 1/4 a grass-fed cow, so extra money for stocking up is a little tight right now. If there’s room in the fridge, I’d love to get some chickens and/or turkey. I’d also love to stock up on butter, but we’ll see what’s left over after buying the cow.
I should have specified. I make my own red enchilada sauce with tomato sauce that I buy in a #10 can; it’s super cheap to make. I buy the green one. There is a coupon right now on coupons.com that brings the price down too. I can print two coupons so I will do that.
Brandy I’m so glad you have money to spend on groceries this month after two months of non-spending.
I’d like to have enough of some items put away to last through winter. It is such a relief to have a well stocked pantry and freezer when the roads are icy and dark comes so early.
I was planning a big stock up shop until I had an $850 car repair bill on Monday. Now the budget needs rejiggering.
Anyway this is what was on my list:
6 large packages of TP
steel cut oats x 3
garbage bags
kleenex x 6
arborio rice x 3
onions
cranberry juice
butter
cream
flour
dark brown sugar
chocolate chips
flax seed
potatoes
diced canned tomatoes
Happy Hunting everyone!
I just came from Kroger and they are having their Mega Event. I stocked up on Swanson chicken and beef broth, Green Giant whole kernel corn, Ronzoni Pasta – 10 cans each. I also bought two pounds of butter and two pounds f margarine. I have stocked up on ground beef from Sam’s Wholesale and chicken breasts from Zaycon. I need to stock up on sugar and flour and some random items but I’m in very good shape for the winter months.
How do you keep your potatoes from going bad? I know you tend to buy a lot when the price is right and they usually last you a couple of months. It seems as if mine sprout or rot in only a month. I rarely find a good deal on potatoes here and would like to stock up at least a little when I do.
Have you ever tried making your own “cream of” soups? Here’s a website that explains how. I’ve tried the recipes and they are the best for using in casseroles. http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/family-recipes/make-your-own-condensed-cream-of-mushroom-soup-in-less-than-5-minutes She also does cream of celery and cream of chicken. So easy, cheap, healthy and all stuff from food storage.
I forgot to say that I use dry milk from the Home Storage center instead of canned evaporated milk. Double the amount for a cup of milk and you have the equivalent. (6 tablespoons of dry + 3/4 cup water)
If you haven’t downloaded the Flipp app yet, you need to. You type in your ZIP code or one where you shop and it gives you the sales ads for most stores in that area. You can even tap on the deals you’re interested in and make a shopping list.
Your table is just beautiful! We continue to buy very little. With that said, I would like to add some of the baking basics to my pantry. I’m not able to conveniently bake or cook right now, but still want to replenish as the funds are available. I remember reading on this blog that having chocolate and oil in storage is important. We also think that peanutbutter is an essential, and we are running low on peanutbutter. I’ve noticed that we are not fond of chocolate normally; however a little bit of chocolate is welcome during times of stess.
We bought a ham. That will feed us a while and I can use it in beans. Will be buying toilet paper and some basic groceries. I will watch for sales. I do this online to get the best prices. But this month we may try to eat most of what we have and pay minimum payments on things, just because we may need more money later to make payments. As before,we were trying to pay things down quickly. I think an emergency fund is more important right now. May not get internet when we go out to farm, although I try to find work on it and I write articles for magazines. We will see what we can afford.
I may buy some seeds to plant in the house for food. I have some seeds already and will start some to see what will still grow.
Since we’ve already had Thanksgiving in Canada I still have leftover turkey and ham in the freezer so won’t be buying anymore until December. I also picked up some extra stuffing mix and cranberry sauce when it was on sale last month and they are in the pantry for Christmas.
I will concentrate on items to prep for bad weather like toilet paper, kleenex, shelf stable milk and more cans of fruit, some canned veg such as corn and potatoes and whatever else I find on sale. I do keep cans of spam, ham, corned beef, sardines, salmon & tuna as well – but only when they’re on sale.
Christmas goodies have started to make their appearance in the shops so I will probably use loyalty points to purchase a few of these items – they will go into the pantry and that’s less I have to remember to buy later – I will also pick up an extra couple of bottles of wine as I have a gift card for our liquor store – another thing off the list.
I don’t know how Americans manage it with Thanksgiving and Christmas being so close together – it must be exhausting. I like that we can have Thanksgiving in October with the beautiful Fall colours but the weather still decent and then we get a breather before Christmas. It must also be terribly expensive with both holidays so close together – at least we get the chance to recover a wee bit and spread out the expense.
I love the tablescape! Those squash and flowers look so festive and fallish:)
This month, I am going to try to use up a bunch of things that are in the freezers. The reason I need to clear a bit of space in the freezers is that I’m sure the 1/4 beef we have ordered will be ready before long. It will be any day now. Since our needs have changed, we are not using as much beef as we have in years past. We have to put our order in by spring of every year, so the farmer knows what to expect. We have purchased 1/2 beef for many years now, but found last fall we had a lot left over, so we lowered our order to 1/4. We still have a lot left over. I’m going to see how far the 1/4, plus the leftover takes us….then, we will know if we need even less next year.
Of course, I am still on the hunt for butter at $2/lb. I have been buying just what I need when I can find it for around $2.50/lb, but that is getting hard to find, too. It seems like $3 is the new “sale” price around here, so I’m holding out! I have not checked the new ads yet, maybe I’ll get fortunate:) Hopefully, you will, too.
I am hosting Thanksgiving this year. People will bring things, but I will probably need more potatoes since I plan to cook them in some form, plus we will eat a bunch before them. There are about 10 lbs left and we really like potatoes:) I need celery, carrots and onions besides. I need to get to the bottom of the chest freezer and see how many turkeys and hams I have, if any. Once I do that, I will cook what I have, and if I find a great price, replace them. Once people let me know what they want to bring, I will fill in the rest. At this point, I don’t even know how many guests I will have. 19, including us, for sure, but most likely several more. It will be great!
Grocery Store:
Potatoes
celery (at least twice–we use a lot)
onions
milk, eggs, 1/2 and 1/2, bread, as needed
gluten free items as I run low on them or if I see on a really good sale
really good deals, as they come up, on my commonly used items, if they are running low (like butter–if it was $2–I’d buy 10 or 20 lbs–as much $ as I could scrape up)
My plan is to spend $50 a week for the first 2 weeks of November. I will make it go as far as possible, buying the sales and staple items as I run out. Then, I will likely add to the weekly amount, especially during the week of Thanksgiving, if I need to buy extra things.
After I get paid in the middle of the month, I will likely do a Costco run. Things on my Costco list are:
10 lbs carrots
4-8 lbs butter, unless I find it cheaper elsewhere first
t.p.
cheese (shredded cheddar)
frozen gluten-free pizzas (3-pkg)
If I can make it up there: Bob’s Red Mill
gluten-free 1-1 flour (so much less expensive from there, in bulk, unless really on sale elsewhere)
white rice flour
sorghum flour
(I’ll check my bin before I go to see if I need more items)
Natural Grocers:
gf cornbread mix
Tranquil Sleep tablets (melatonin)
I will add items to each of these stores if something runs out before I visit them. The basic plan is to replace items in my storage, as we use them.
I want to really utilize the home-canned jars of food and hit the freezers hard. There are berries, veggies, meat, even frozen trout from last summer when we went fishing. I have canned tuna and crab, along with enough green beans to feed an army. There are peaches, pears and applesauce. Plus much, much more.
If for any reason, there is money left in the envelope (from the $50) at the end of each week, I will simply save it for when I find a great deal to stock up on.
Apples are in season, so we are eating a lot of those.
Trader Joe’s has mandarins from Spain, but they are in light syrup. We only use 2-3 cans each year, so I buy them there.
What brand is the green enchilada sauce? I don’t know that I can find it here, but I’d like to try!
The one that has a coupon right now is La Victoria. When someone we know moved, they gave us the contents of their pantry. They had another brand and I liked it much more, but I don’t remember the name. It is one of two other brands I have seen at the store. The La Victoria brand is cheaper to start and the coupon makes it so even more so, so I buy that one. I like them as chicken or turkey and/or with white beans inside corn tortillas, with the green sauce and a mild white cheese on top. I prefer the green sauce over red 10 to 1.
We had an 18-hour power outage Monday. Thankfully, we were able to save almost everything in our freezers, but lost a fair amount of random, half-used condiments and sauces from the fridge. I don’t plan to replace those. Shuffling it all around helped me take stock of what we have.
I will try to replace the bell peppers I lost if I can find them on markdown shelf. I chop and freeze them for fajitas, casseroles and pasta dishes. I plan to buy fresh cranberries and clementines at the end of the month, and possibly a turkey. I found plain hershey’s kisses on clearance today. I bought two bags to use on holiday cookies.
I’m hoping to get a pressure canner and custom insulated blinds for my living room on Black Friday. I’ve been saving my money since last Christmas for both of these purchases, knowing that there would likely be a good sale after Thanksgiving.
Hi Rozy,
Thanks for the link about cream of mushroom soup. I don’t like eating canned soup because of the high sodium so this will be great! Ann
My November shopping list is basically baking supplies, a turkey, sweet potatoes and fruits and vegetables.
Today I found butter for 1.99 so I got 20 as I’ll be baking a lot for the next several months. I also found pasta for .49. Any other items will just be good deals I can use.
So far I have stocked up on pasta (50 packages at 0.49 cents per package.
I also bought 30 cans of fruit. I have a supply of my favourite lentils. I have 4 bags of oats only oatmeal for cold winter days (it is really snowing now!) And I’m stocking up on toilet paper. And cans of stewed tomatoes with green peppers, celery and onions. I stocked up on packages of frozen fruit.I still have apples that were given to me. I found a nice egg free mayonnaise so it’s nice for a change! I want to start making my own bread soon. I’ve stocked up on flour, sugar.
Maybe you can negotiate a low cost internet plan with your telephone company? I hope you don’t give up your internet!
again, I had good luck negotiating low cost phone, tv, and internet with one carrier. Ann
I went out today to reap the November baking sales. I try to get enough to last most of the year. I am out of butter and I have one store offering it for 2.49 also. I want it to go to 2.00. But I was able to get brown sugar and powder sugar for .99 a 2 lb bag. Canned milk for storage, flower and regular sugar. Our chickens are slowing their laying so I will have to start buying eggs. Cheese was on a great sale here so I bought 4 lbs of that. Tomorrow I will go buy some butter and tomato paste and I will be done for this week. I have budgeted $300.00 for this month just to stock up.
Hi Meridith from Australia 🙂 and I noticed you and many others are after evaporated milk and condensed milk in their list of grocery purchases and wasn’t sure if yourself or others knew how to make both out of their food storage so I thought I would put up recipes for both. We make our own here rather than buying the cans which can be rather expensive.
These recipes work for instant or non instant powdered milk too.
Sweetened condensed milk –
1/2 cup of hot water.
1 cup of powdered milk.
1 cup of sugar.
1T of butter.
Combine ingredients and mix thoroughly in blender. Use straight away or store in the refrigerator or freezer.
Evaporated milk.
– 1 1/2 cups of water.
– 1/2 cup + 1T powdered milk.
Combine ingredients and mix well. Makes 1 1/2 cups or equivalent to a 12oz can.
I hope this helps you and others here too.
Hello Brandy and everyone from Australia 🙂 .
This month we plan to stock up on 9kg of raw sugar, 8kg of all purpose flour and bottled water. We are also planning to stock up on any meat that we see at a reasonable price such as a leg of ham, legs of lamb and particularly whole chickens as we put away an allowance for this at home in cash and pick things up as we see specials. Currently we are working on stocking our flour and sugar to 12 month levels and this month will see that for our sugar.
Already this month on special we have stocked up on 2yrs supply of worming tablets for our cat, a pair of cat nail clippers, 15kg of oranges for juicing and we juice them and keep the juice in the freezer to use, tinned lychees and sarsaparilla.
Apart from these we will by our usual being –
– 2kg of cheese.
– 1 sour cream.
– 1 whipping cream.
– butter.
– ice cream.
– tinned champignons.
– tinned lychees.
– tinned mangoes.
– tinned pie apples.
– powdered milk.
– cocoa powder.
– toilet paper.
– body wash.
– tinned cat food.
– dry cat food biscuits.
– Paracetamol.
I hope everyone can find some bargains to stock up their pantries, fridges and freezers this month 🙂 .
I use Tightwad gazette (vol 2 page 122) base cream soup mix…I can add celery/mushrooms/ chicken etc
Hi Brandy,
This week, I intend to not shop until I have given the fridge and freezer a good clean out and inventory. Same with the pantry, it’s been quite a few months since I did this last and I want to make sure nothing has been overlooked before buying more food. Our son has been away on a fishing trip this week and I am so totally amazed at just how little lovley hubby and I eat, we have had left overs for the two meals I have made so far this week. So, no hints from me on what I am buying, but I always find it really interesting, the specials you have and how much you pay for them, on your side of the world. Have a lovely day.
Fi
Margie from Toronto… It is hard for our family so we (the kids had a vote also)picked Thanksgiving to do the family get together. We also have our dinner the Sunday before the actually holiday as we are a blended family and then the kids can either go to their other side or have a dinner in their own home.Less stress, less cost..plus the kids don’t have to figure out Christmas concerts and such with the grandkids being in different schools. We try to deliver Christmas gifts,cookies and candy on Dec 6th so the kids can enjoy it through the month. I also try to give them soup if I can afford to do so (usually made with leftover Turkey from the dinner).
I had 19 things on the list.. Ordered 6 of them from Amazon using part of the gift card I have there as it was the lowest price I have found.
Added a couple things that the kids had mentioned they wanted for Christmas. Yes they ask for food.
Kraut in a jar (we don’t eat if from a can and I store it in the pantry in the basement)
Dried beef (we wrap pickles in them with cream cheese or make gravy with them)
cranberry sauce whole berry
Horseradish cream sauce
canned apricots
graham crackers crusts (for Tday dinner and Daddy)
choc cookie crusts (for Tday dinner)
peanut brittle (kids request and I don’t make this ..usually can find at Dollar General)
cranberries
butter
cream cheese
2 hams
4 chuck roast (Krogers has buy one get one and I will make beef broth from them along with beef and noodles for Tday dinner plus a roast for us as Hubby isn’t one to eat a lot of poultry)
8 turkeys… 4 for Tday dinner, 1 for broth, noodles and soup, 3 for us.
1-5 bone prime rib for Christmas eve. I have to order and pay for this in Nov from our butcher.This is Hubby’s annual Christmas gift as his grandparents always served it on Christmas eve. My mother always served BBQ (her own ) ribs for New Year’s day so I have that for me. (I have pork roast in freezer for New Year’s eve)
I have a 3 coupons for $5 off $35 from Aldi’s due to their grand opening last week… it’s one coupon for each of the next 3 weeks.
My Aldi list is : First week… 6 Kraut in a jar( I have 6 and we use 1 jar a month we don’t eat it from a can) and graham cracker crusts for Daddy…he puts pudding in them for a pie for himself, possible eggs, if they don’t have the kraut in a jar I will buy fruit or veggies. Second week will be ham and turkey. Third week will be ham and turkey.
I will also be watching the sales on turkeys. If I find them cheaper than Aldi’s I will get something else at Aldi’s.
Walmart has the same turkeys for 68 cents a pound and no limit.
This months grocery plans include stocking up on pantry staples that are running low. We’ll be hosting a simple Thanksgiving dinner and I’m hoping to have a head count for who’s coming to decide on my menu.
My planned purchases include:
-Rice (Jasmine and Basmati)
-Unsalted Butter if I can find a decent price. I was at Aldi yesterday and would have bought a pound to hold me over but they were completely out of unsalted and I don’t really have a need for salted butter
-Sugar (i’ll buy the 10lb bag from costco)
-King Arthur all purpose flour
-Almond flour (buy from Costco)
-Multivitamins
-OTC cold and pain relievers, tums, Zantac and flonase
-Assorted baking chips in preparation for Christmas cookies
If you are concerned about quality when it comes to canned mandarin oranges, then why not can your own? If you buy up a case of cuties, you could process most of them in jars (there are plenty of instructions on how to do this on line) and save a few for fresh eating. I canned my own pineapple when it went on sale really cheap ($1/pineapple is cheap here in Canada) and it tastes way better than the canned stuff you buy, plus it was cheaper!
I am still deciding whether or not I am going to just unplug our freezer for awhile. In the interim, I picked up canned tomatoes, pasta, mayonnaise, and milk at Costco. The day after Halloween I picked up steeply discounted candy, soaps, and candles to put in Christmas gifts (huge savings). Other than that, I am trying to spend as little as possible this month. I do have some things on my list, but hoping to hold off until December.
Even though we are on Canada, we also celebrate US Thanksgiving because my husband works in finance and only gets the US holidays. I actually love doing this – who doesn’t want to celebrate Thanksgiving twice? Even though I lost all my turkeys with the freezer debacle, if frozen ones come on sale I will get one for US Thanksgiving. Others maybe chicken. I have all other sides and ingredients on hand already.
4 more weeks until I am back at work and receiving a pay cheque again. 🙂
My mother and her fiancee are coming to visit this week, so I will have larger meals than usual and new ones every day (I typically eat a lot of leftovers). I plan to use her visit to clear out the larger cuts of meat and a few crock pot meals I got in a meal swap from the freezer.
My stock ups include 3 – 4 turkeys (I will roast and cube the meat), nuts, butter, potatoes, onions, and smoked salmon (holiday prices are best here). I’m ok on sugars, flours, spices and canned vegetables.
For those of you who are looking for rock bottom sale prices on butter, it may be higher in price this year than previous. There is a butter shortage, which is why the price has inflated. Here is a news report from the NY times on the issue (though there are multiple news reports available to read on the internet): http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/butter-shortage-major-crisis-europe-article-1.3397156.
Of course, we have already had our Thanksgiving here in Canada, so those sales happened last month for us. As for my list this month, I’m relatively well stocked on most items, but I still have a few things we need:
*Calcium tablets
*Condiments: Ketchup & mayo
*Lemon Juice
*Toilet Paper
*Cleaning supplies: Laundry detergent & Swiffer wet refills (watching for sales @ Costco)
*Meat: Chicken Breast & Meatballs (watching for sale @ Costco to stock up)
*Sweet Potato Fries (won’t buy unless on sale @ Costco)
*Cheese (we use a lot, so always watching for sales on this)
Weekly needs include:
*Fresh produce (we have a Guinea Pig that needs fresh greens and veggies which we eat as well)
*Milk (big milk drinkers in our house)
Of course I always watch sale fliers for loss leader items, as well as the discount items to restock the pantry. Also looking for new things or recipes to try. DD is really restricting what she will eat and the rest of us are getting tired of the same old, same old. Anything different that everyone likes is a win for me right now!
Rhonda, I knew it was a problem in France, but not worldwide. Perhaps I’ll buy some at $2.50 then.
This month may be pretty tight due to unexpected dental work and a car repair. I’m stressing a little bit, as we have not been able to adequately save for Christmas. I plan to stock up as much as I can on great sales this month for Thanksgiving. I plan to buy:
Canned veggies for .49/can
Frozen veggies
Turkeys (at least 2)
Potatoes (right now they’re .20/lb, that’s about the lowest here)
Baking spices
Pork loin (if there’s a good sale)
My husband and I are hunters, and we can hunt on my parents’ property. Hopefully we can at least get a doe for meat. My dad and my husband can process the deer, so that also saves us money.
Kroger stores have for 1.99 this week.
After 18 hours the contents of your fridge and freezer should have been fine, as long as you kept the door closed.
I kept the contents of my big freezer after 5 DAYS of no power by keeping the door shut and preloading some ice gallons in there. Seriously everything was still fully frozen.
Our Kroger affiliate (Smith’s) is the one that has it for $2.49 here. The other stores’ ads say $3.99!
Brandy,
Have you checked your lical Kroger/affiliate ad this week? Ours has American Beauty pasta on sale for $.49 each after the Buy 10, Save $5 sale. It hasn’t been that low here for about 2 years.
Thank you! It was very helpful.
It’s not in our ad here; I double checked today with everyone mentioning it on my Facebook page. One person said that it’s at the store where she is but not in the ad. I will have to look when I go.
That is a good idea Ann. I really don’t want to give it up. Our house is coming along. We worked on it today.
I didn’t know you could make either of those! Thank you!
Oh darn! Hope its on sale unadvertised! Our ad jas a picture of canned veggies and only mentions the pasta in the fine priint underneath.
Most welcome Cassandra and Marney for the recipes and I didn’t know either until I did some further investigation either. There is also a wonderful book called “I can’t Believe It’s food storage” by Crystal Godfrey that has a myriad of things you can make with food storage and is well worth getting. This is where the above recipes came from and I believe these recipes are also on other various websites I found.
You can substitute your homemade evaporated milk and condensed milk in any recipes you have as it is the same as the shop purchased variety.
We make chocolate puddings, chocolate fudge, white sauce mixes and lots of things from our powdered milk and a few other ingredients. It is amazing what you can delete from your shopping list when you know how to make it from what you already have.
Love your photos always and yes simple things like toilet paper are indeed a necessary item to stock up on. For us it’s also tissues and 3ply pocket packs of tissues which I got at a ridiculous price at Aldi some months ago….so I took a whole box without a blink from the cashier
That’s a great idea! I might try that! Thanks.
Thank you!
Power went out at 1 am and by 8 am with no one opening it, the kitchen fridge was warm. The basement fridge was fine. The outage confirmed that we either need to replace the seals or get a new, better quality fridge for upstairs (the basement fridge is too big for our kitchen). I am honestly happy to be rid of the bizarre condiments that no one was eating…many were leftover from potlucks and parties. 😀
I can keep the chest freezer frozen solid for five days, no problem, though i feel ice cream and fish are suspect after two or three. In addition to frozen gallon jugs, I wrap the chest freezer in a space blanket and put heavy boxes on top to remind people not to open it!
Hi Brandy. Your table scape is so beautiful! I noticed that you were going to buy canned enchilada sauce this month. Not sure if this is helpful or not, but I found a wonderful recipe on Pinterest from “the garden grazer.com” for home made sauce that is delicious. It takes about 10 minutes to make from scratch.
3 cups broth (I use chicken base and add water. Very inexpensive)
1/4 cup tomato paste (I have substituted tomato sauce in a pinch)
1/4 cup flour
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
Salt and pepper
In small bowl combine dry ingredients. In medium saucepan heat olive oil. Add tomato paste and bowl of flour and spices. Cook 1 minute whisking constantly. Then whisk in broth and bring to a light boil. Reduce to simmer for 8 minutes until thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste.
This makes enough sauce for one 9×13 pan of enchiladas.
Easy, inexpensive and delicious
Becky, I was just at Bob’s Red Mill store and the 1:1 Gluten-free flour was on sale (20% off). I also got a $5.00 off my next visit if I spend $25.00 (no bakery goods!). It would definitely be worth the trip.
I will mostly be buying for our Thanksgiving dinner this month: sweet potatoes, potatoes, cranberries, onions, turkey, squash, and apples.
My husband picked up some butter on a one-day sale for $1.67. The limit was two so that is what he bought. I will continue to look for anything on a good sale for holiday baking.
Thanks Nikki! I need to look over the inclusions and make my shopping list – our local Kroger is King Soopers. I love the site Kroger Krazy for coupon matchups and what not. 🙂
We have an apple tree (we picked clean, processed, and filled the fridge with the rest) and pears have been good prices too (need to plant a tree for those I think too) — but the kids are giving me looks when I say “Apple or pear or carrots?” LOL They really are good kids; I get it – gets old after a while – like Brandy has said variety is the spice of life. We will try the mandarins from TJs – the ones from Sprouts sadly had no flavor. I prefer the juice pack to syrup pack for food storage reasons. It’s not that we can’t make use of fruit syrups, but if we don’t have refrigeration during a disaster, that means sugar syrup consumed every day to keep from wasting it :/ I came upon a couple small cans of pineapple juice we had forgotten about so I tried resoaking them in that, but didn’t help 🙁 Thanks for the tip!!
Thanks Lorna! I do have these recipes in my homemade ‘cookbook,’ but in case of disaster, I’ve decided it’s best for us to have canned on hand. All the recipes I’ve found call for the use of a blender which we wouldn’t be able to use without electricity. (There is a manual one made by GSI but it is expensive.) I *could* try the recipe with manual beaters instead, but at the same time, I look for ways to have ease of use in case of a disaster, which the canned versions provide. Cans also mean less water I have to store specifically since they’re already prepared. It looks like some others didn’t know those recipes so I’m glad you shared them! Some just don’t have a real need for large numbers of canned milks (I have a few recipes that call for them) so being able to make from powdered milk every once in a while instead is a better fit!
Rhonda, I have considered this, but I feel like the time intensive work of sectioning them won’t be worth it for the 12 or so we’d use each year 🙂
Ahhh, The Tightwad Gazette….I credit that book with the ideas we used to save like crazy to buy our first home! It’s the first book on my reading list in January. A must-read for anyone trying to save money.
Hi Meredith I do agree that keeping some tins for emergencies is a good idea good and you could make the milks with a hand mixer too or if you are really industrious a strong whisk as well if the power was out, just with a lot more effort 😀 .
A couple years ago, a poster here mentioned that Dollar General usually did a canned veggie sale at 3 cans for $1. I stocked up on that in both ’15 & ’16. I’m hoping (crossing fingers & toes!) that they’re going to do that again this year. We’re having the .49 sale at Dillon’s (Kroger) this week and I’m going to be mighty unhappy if I miss a good price. However, I am still taking some advantage of that sale to buy chicken broth, diced tomatoes, pasta & a few other .49 items. They have 5# bags of potatoes for .99, too.
I already stocked up on butter. A local dairy store, based in OK, I think, had it on sale for 1.99#. I still had 5 in the freezer from last year so I bought 5 more. That’s the only place I’ve seen it for less than $2.49.
We’re buying much the same as everyone else. I love cranberries, but I usually wait until after C’mas to stock up on those. Last year I got big bags of Ocean Spray for only .49 ea!
I wanted to add that those canned veggies at Dollar General were Libby’s brand, in case anyone was wondering.
My Kroger (SE Georgia) has $2.49 butter this week. I had been holding out for $1.99.
I bought butter from Aldi for 2.89. I had several 5$/30$ coupons so that helped. I was happy for 2.89 before coupons. We may all need to buy a cow!
I have a few items I want to add to my stockpile but am going to wait. Most of the things I want I already have at least a moderate supply of. I am going to stockpile all the holiday type loss leaders during these holiday sales. I aim to pickup 80 cans of cream of chicken soup at 40 cents a can this week. I am also holding out for butter below 2.50 a pound.
Brandy, I meant to ask…did you grow all those beautiful squash/gourds on your table?
Like many I’m stocking up on baking supplies. Today I picked 5Lb bag of flour for .99 and Nestlé chocolate chips for .99 a bag. I got 4 of each, they had a limit. . I’m looking for cheap butter next.
Is anyone else having trouble finding canned pumpkin for a decent price? I live in California, and the lowest price l have found in my area for a 15-ounce can is $2.12 and that is on sale!!
Michelle, I found it for $1 a can (the Safeway brand) at Albertson’s this week as part of the buy 10 mix and match sale.
This is a photo from last November. I grew the butternut squash and bought the others. I tried planting several kinds this year, but all of my plants died except for butternut squash, and one vine fro the eeds I collected fro that white pumpkin. The white one was definitely a hybrid; it grew one fruit and it is very odd colored.
Okay! Good to know! I will check ours and see if they have that price. Thank you.
you can see if your phone is a hot spot. If so you can run your computer off it…just make sure you have unlimited data first. We live in boonies. Century link is our provider and we have DSL but when it goes out we use our phones. I have Straight Talk. Hubby has Net 10 both less than $50 each for unlimited phone, text and data. And we have used the hot spot on our phones when our internet is down
I use the sweetened condensed milk recipe all the time! Works great. Thanks for the evaporated milk one
I usually stock up in November on some things like turkeys and butter. This month, I have chosen to do a No Spend November. However, part of my no spend rules are $25 a week to be spend towards groceries and I have a $50 Visa gift card and $15 in gift cards to Publix. So, even though I have imposed a limited budget, I still believe I can do some stocking up. This past week, I have only spend about $11 of my $25 out if pocket (I used the Publix gift cards to make some purchases of necessities–laundry detergent, dryer sheets and dog food.)
I have noticed Kroger has butter at $2.49/lb. I usually get it for $1.99/lb but I wonder if it will be higher this year. So far, I haven’t seen a sale on turkey.
I actually enjoy the challenge of a no spend month and find it fun to see how much I can stock up with the limitations.
Come by and see me: frugalhappyhome.com
I am waiting on that $1.99/lb butter but I don’t know if I will see it this year. Kroger has it for $2.49 right now.
Here in Utah $2.50 is the best price for butter that I’ve seen in a long time. A few years ago I got it for $1.50. I’m hoping it comes down as Christmas gets closer.