I recently made a trip to Costco. Overall, it was a pretty conservative trip in terms of purchases... most of the items were items I use all the time in baking or cooking. However, due to the types of purchases made at Costco - the volume (and cost) was pretty high. It has sort of thrown the "10 dollar day" plan for a loop. I've decided to keep tracking things as I have been - just to see what happens. It would be neat if it starts to level off. I suspect it might.
Buying in bulk is the oft promoted way for saving money on food costs. Judging by my costco membership and my referencing of stuffed cabinetry. I obviously subscribed to this method as well.
It's a good method. Many things have a shelf life of much more than two weeks... "the usual shopping cycle", so if I find them on sale, or can buy them at costco (lower per unit price), then I can really stretch my dollar.
Obvious things I buy in bulk are:
noodles, crackers, cereal bars, flour, sugar, canned tomatoes, olives, canned beans, dried beans evaporated milk and sweeted condensed milk - most of these items have a shelf life of a minimum of 2 years - some of them a lot more.
Some not so obvious things I buy in bulk are:
mayo, ranch, ketchup and other condiments - these items are refrigerate after opening... you can store them on the shelf until then and they often have a shelf life of a year or more.
Some items I buy in bulk - because of the invention of the freezer:
meat, vegetables, other frozen foods (duh!), bread (yes - you can freeze this - but I do keep my quantities on this smaller than other things) and tortillas (same as bread)
This the list of things I buy in bulk or for storage, but other people make other choices. I'd be curious if there is anything you depend on from your storage.
Saving money this way suits my personality. I have half a dozen dishes I could whoop out of food storage at any moment, and to be honest I get a perhaps weird sense of security out of this.
There are risks with this method however, as food does expire. Also, many fresh foods are healthier as well (though not always the case). If I were to stock more than I could use by the expiration date - this would not be a practice in saving, but in losing. Loss of foods that have expired. It's important that I mention this is just not a loss to my budget, but a loss in terms of environmental resources as well. Resources were used to create the food, package the food, move the food to wherever you bought it from. If these are wasted; I waste those resources too.
Do you "stock up"? Are you careful to avoid over stocking? Do you freeze anything interesting (such as bread)?
Well, as far as freezing, I often freeze dough. I make a huge batch (8 cups of flour for a single person), section and individually freeze it. I can do practically anything with it. I also freeze cooked white pasta (sauce can be done in a whim) and soup stock.
ReplyDeleteI can't buy in bulk due to limited/shared refrigerator space, but I'd definitely overbuy bread, pasta and canned/frozen veggies. I do ALWAYS keep evaporated milk in my pantry, though.
For some reason freezing dough makes me nervous - perhaps I should get over that though?? It would be a good way to go. DO you think you can freeze pizza dough. I wouldn't have thought of the noodles either.
ReplyDeleteI also freeze stocks and other pre-cooked items, but was sort of keeping list to things I buy. Though I guess I didn't say that -hmm.
Freezing pizza dough would be no problem at all....a friend does it all the time. I also freeze cooked noodles....even with the sauce. I have a couple of favorite pasta dishes and when motivated will make two at a time and freeze one for future use.
ReplyDeleteI also buy hamburger in bulk and brown it as soon as I get home, then freeze in single serving sizes to use for chili, tacos, whatever. Way quicker then thawing out a block of hamburger to brown when I need it. Same concept for chicken breasts....cook ahead and freeze already cooked to be used in dishes later.
Does Ramen count? I think you've got just about everything else on my "dream stock-up list" already.
ReplyDeleteOh, wait. Spices. I went on a mad "taco" making spree a couple years ago. Rather than buy individual packets of taco seasoning, I ordered a pound of it from Penzey's. Lasted me about two years for less than twenty bucks. I totally saved there.
When (good) RM and I had CSA delivery, we considered that bulk. We strung onions in braids around the kitchen, made ristras of chilis, pickled beets and other veggies, and blanched and froze greens. Rather more work, tho...
I definitely stock up, though I have so much food storage at this point that it's becoming a priority for me to work through some of it and I've disallowed certain purchases (most notably, pasta and rice). I keep stuff like extra butter, bread (typically in the form of pita) and a year-long supply of cranberries and pumpkin in the freezer.
ReplyDeleteYou can definitely freeze pizza dough (and pretty much every other bread dough. I do it all the time, including making a huge batch of scones and freezing them pre-cut-but-not baked so I can just have as much as I want, when I want). Just toss it in the fridge the night before you want to bake it, and try to use the dough w/in 3 months.
ReplyDeleteI try to always keep homemade chili in the freezer. In individual servings - that way when I am "out of time" or "out of lunch stuff", I can grab one and throw it in my bag.
ReplyDeleteI also stockpile ingredients for certain "favorite" meals (like, ironically, chili - does that make it double-stockpiled?).
This weekend, I was able to make homemade whole wheat bread, soup and chili all out of the pantry and/or freezer. I felt very self sufficient.