is to do well enough with the couponing that i can not buy groceries during the summer when i don't get paid.
i'm thinking that cutting out all grocery shopping (excluding crazy azz deals like this week), besides milk & produce could save me about $800-1000 over the summer.
i'm not quite sure how to plan for this and i'm hoping that by listening to input from all of you i might be able to put together a working plan.
my first thought is to meal plan for the entire summer, but idk how realistic that would be.
thoughts?
ita!
eta: we're already talking about putting a deep freeze in the basement and plan to do that after christmas or so. lmk if you see any good deals on one! LMAO!
-- Edited by apies on Wednesday 11th of November 2009 06:54:06 PM
That's probably not going to be too difficult to stock up on pantry items - but you're still going to need bread, meat, dairy, produce...which are probably a good chunk of your grocery bill. And if you did the stockpiling in advance, then you wouldn't be able to get the perishables for cheap or free with the kickass deals, right? It's an interesting idea - I bet someone has a blog somewhere about having done the same thing, LOL!
That's probably not going to be too difficult to stock up on pantry items - but you're still going to need bread, meat, dairy, produce...which are probably a good chunk of your grocery bill. And if you did the stockpiling in advance, then you wouldn't be able to get the perishables for cheap or free with the kickass deals, right? It's an interesting idea - I bet someone has a blog somewhere about having done the same thing, LOL!
all true. but i buy loaves of sliced bread and freeze them on sale. i also read on one of my coupon forums that you can empty a little out of the gallon of milk and then freeze it (so it has room to expand).
i buy lots of our produce at the farm stand for cheap during the summer. i guess more realistically i would like to set a firm number, like maybe $100 per month, and have that cover the things i can't stock up ahead of time.
thanks for giving me more to think about. i will be googling this in a bit! :)
Milk can be frozen, we've done it many many times. Perfectly do-able with a separate freezer. Cheese can also be frozen. That brings you down to produce. i would set aside $ for fruit and produce in-season. This will be your freshest and cheapest time of the year (maybe set aside a goal to hunt out some rolling catalina deals so you front the least amount of $$).
I'm not sure if you already know about this one, but this blog is a mom of three girls who spends under $800 per year on groceries. It has become a little more commercialized since word of her has gotten out (and it is a little slower on groceries right now because she is using her stockpile to get to the end of the year except for crazy deals). Inspiring though.
Milk can be frozen, we've done it many many times. Perfectly do-able with a separate freezer. Cheese can also be frozen. That brings you down to produce. i would set aside $ for fruit and produce in-season. This will be your freshest and cheapest time of the year (maybe set aside a goal to hunt out some rolling catalina deals so you front the least amount of $$).
I'm not sure if you already know about this one, but this blog is a mom of three girls who spends under $800 per year on groceries. It has become a little more commercialized since word of her has gotten out (and it is a little slower on groceries right now because she is using her stockpile to get to the end of the year except for crazy deals). Inspiring though.
link???
are you freezing gallons of milk? my dad and his wife freeze half gallon paper containers, but i've never done the plastic jugs.
Milk can be frozen, we've done it many many times. Perfectly do-able with a separate freezer. Cheese can also be frozen. That brings you down to produce. i would set aside $ for fruit and produce in-season. This will be your freshest and cheapest time of the year (maybe set aside a goal to hunt out some rolling catalina deals so you front the least amount of $$).
I'm not sure if you already know about this one, but this blog is a mom of three girls who spends under $800 per year on groceries. It has become a little more commercialized since word of her has gotten out (and it is a little slower on groceries right now because she is using her stockpile to get to the end of the year except for crazy deals). Inspiring though.
link???
are you freezing gallons of milk? my dad and his wife freeze half gallon paper containers, but i've never done the plastic jugs.
I have frozen plastic gallons, and didn't even pour out any. Found this online, and it sums it up well:
Milk on Ice
I love to stock up on milk when the stores run a good sale, but how do you keep all of that milk from going bad? The best way to store extra milk is to keep it in your freezer. The lower fat milks tend to freeze the best, but all varieties of milk can be frozen with great success. The first dilemma will be finding freezer space for the milk, but once you have some space freed up, it is time to stock up.
When our local stores run sales on milk, I buy six gallons of milk. Four of them go in our chest freezer and the other two go in the refrigerator for immediate consumption. I set the milk in upright in the freezer and allow it to freeze that way. If you are concerned about the milk expansion, you can pour a little of the milk off of the top of each gallon, but I have froze them immediately without doing this and have had no problems with the gallon jug containers.
When you are about halfway through your gallon in the fridge, you will want to pull out one of the frozen gallons. It will take two or three days to completely thaw in the fridge so you will want to make sure you give yourself plenty of time.
Frozen milk will look yellow when you pull it out of the freezer and that is completely normal. When it thaws, it will return to its normal color. Give your milk a good shaking, each time you use it, to reconstitute the milk together. The milk proteins do separate during the freezing process, but if you shake the milk well, you will not notice the difference in taste.
Once the milk has thawed, it will last for approximately five days before going bad. The milk can also be frozen for up to three months.
That's probably not going to be too difficult to stock up on pantry items - but you're still going to need bread, meat, dairy, produce...which are probably a good chunk of your grocery bill. And if you did the stockpiling in advance, then you wouldn't be able to get the perishables for cheap or free with the kickass deals, right? It's an interesting idea - I bet someone has a blog somewhere about having done the same thing, LOL!
all true. but i buy loaves of sliced bread and freeze them on sale. i also read on one of my coupon forums that you can empty a little out of the gallon of milk and then freeze it (so it has room to expand).
i buy lots of our produce at the farm stand for cheap during the summer. i guess more realistically i would like to set a firm number, like maybe $100 per month, and have that cover the things i can't stock up ahead of time.
thanks for giving me more to think about. i will be googling this in a bit! :)
We had our outside fridge set too cold one time and it froze a gallon of milk.
I thawed it in my fridge and didn't tell my boys and they both separately said it was disgusting.
I'm not a milk drinker so I didn't try it but I just thought I'd share.
That's probably not going to be too difficult to stock up on pantry items - but you're still going to need bread, meat, dairy, produce...which are probably a good chunk of your grocery bill. And if you did the stockpiling in advance, then you wouldn't be able to get the perishables for cheap or free with the kickass deals, right? It's an interesting idea - I bet someone has a blog somewhere about having done the same thing, LOL!
all true. but i buy loaves of sliced bread and freeze them on sale. i also read on one of my coupon forums that you can empty a little out of the gallon of milk and then freeze it (so it has room to expand).
i buy lots of our produce at the farm stand for cheap during the summer. i guess more realistically i would like to set a firm number, like maybe $100 per month, and have that cover the things i can't stock up ahead of time.
thanks for giving me more to think about. i will be googling this in a bit! :)
My aunt used to always freeze milk, and it was fine.
ETA: whoops, i didn't see someone had already responded about freezing milk. apies, if you can do this you will be my hero.
-- Edited by crystal on Thursday 12th of November 2009 03:34:03 AM
That's probably not going to be too difficult to stock up on pantry items - but you're still going to need bread, meat, dairy, produce...which are probably a good chunk of your grocery bill. And if you did the stockpiling in advance, then you wouldn't be able to get the perishables for cheap or free with the kickass deals, right? It's an interesting idea - I bet someone has a blog somewhere about having done the same thing, LOL!
all true. but i buy loaves of sliced bread and freeze them on sale. i also read on one of my coupon forums that you can empty a little out of the gallon of milk and then freeze it (so it has room to expand).
i buy lots of our produce at the farm stand for cheap during the summer. i guess more realistically i would like to set a firm number, like maybe $100 per month, and have that cover the things i can't stock up ahead of time.
thanks for giving me more to think about. i will be googling this in a bit! :)
We had our outside fridge set too cold one time and it froze a gallon of milk.
I thawed it in my fridge and didn't tell my boys and they both separately said it was disgusting.
I'm not a milk drinker so I didn't try it but I just thought I'd share.
oh damn.
maybe i'll just try 1 and see what happens.
did you shake it? what i'm reading online says you should shake thawed milk every time you drink it.
Deep freezer for sure. Been using ours for 8 years and can't imagine living without one. If you are cooking meals to freeze then the upright ones would be better. It's a pain digging through my deep freezer but still worth it. For us we don't have the room to freeze milk but my sister always did and had no problem with it. Most of our veges are frozen so it is easy to stock up on that for the summer and supplement with fresh from the farmers market.
What about a garden so you can harvest your own produce over the summer?
You can also can (jar) produce or blanch it and freeze it while you are still working.
We have frozen milk in plastic jugs and loaves of bread without issue.
I must say- you have inspired me to get back on the coupon wagon. We are really tight right now and I know this makes a huge difference. I need to dust off my organizer and get back in the game. I have never ordered coupons before. Where do you order from?
What about a garden so you can harvest your own produce over the summer?
You can also can (jar) produce or blanch it and freeze it while you are still working.
We have frozen milk in plastic jugs and loaves of bread without issue.
I must say- you have inspired me to get back on the coupon wagon. We are really tight right now and I know this makes a huge difference. I need to dust off my organizer and get back in the game. I have never ordered coupons before. Where do you order from?
hi amy!
corey introduced me to coupons things by dede dot com. they are GREAT! i usually order first class and they are here in 3 days. she always ships right away - either later on the day when i order them (if i order them early) or early the next day if i order them late or on sunday.
this past week, i ordered a TON of coupons to build my stash ($25 worth) on monday night. b/c there were so many, they had to go priority mail which was $5. but they got here thursday, even with veteran's day in the middle. they rock.
