Pantry Stuff

Blessings, Darlings!

My son just finished making a sheet cake, and I've just started a sponge for a loaf of bread.  All this yummy use of on-hand ingredients leads to a question - do you know how much of what you use in a typical month?  At least of staples like flour, sugar, coffee?

I've been thinking about that, and compiling next-month's shopping list.  So I'm going to bore treat you to some of my figures.  Most are a bit more than I use in a typical month, but buying this month allows a LITTLE natural accumulation of supplies.

Minimum purchases from Aldi's (staples, no name brands, store profit goes to Germany, but GREAT prices):

Flour -           5 5-pound bags
Sugar -          2 5-pound bags
lunchmeat       3 pounds
croutons         1 bag ( really should make them myself)
soup - cream of  mushroom      5 cans
peas             2 cans
canned mushrooms 9 cans
canned tuna    5 cans
canned ham     1 can
onions              6 pounds
potatoes          10 pounds
canned tomatoes     6 cans (pints)
cooking spray        1 can
oil                  2 bottles 48 oz
napkins            2 packages
hash browns        1 package, frzn
frozen veggies       9 bags
Milk                10 gallons
eggs                 9 dozen
half & half          4 quarts
OJ                   4 half gallons
cereal                4 boxes
mac & cheese mix       3
scalloped 'tater mix      1
canned nuts        2 cans
bar cheese          1 1/2 pounds
sliced cheese        2 pounds
butter                  4 pounds
Coffee                4 pounds
salt                    1 round
Brown sugar        2 lb
saltine crackers     1 lb
apples                   15 lb
oranges                 8 lb
bananas                 11 lb
hamburger buns       2 packages
hoagie rolls              1 or 2 packages
yogurt                1 qt
lettuce                 5 heads
carrots                 8 lb
cabbage                2 of 'em
celery                   1
green peppers       1 package
garlic                    lots
paper towels         2 rolls

And those are just the 'normal' purchases I make each month.  The meat, meds, cat stuff, etc are all at other stores (and on sales if possible). I didn't even include chocolate of ANY type!

What are you 'every month' purchases?  How much money do you need to allot to those, before you can even think of buying other stuff? 

Frondly, Fern

More Cheap Eats

Blessings, Darlings!

Since we're still digging out from moving expenses (not only was moving more costly than we had figured, but when you're self-employed all that time spent packing, loading, unloading, unpacking you don't earn a penny!) my choice for February is to either have a working cell phone or food.  And my cell phone isn't that expensive... so it's going to be a very low food budget month.  Like $200 for the month.

So last Friday I did shopping that will get us thru' 2 - 4 weeks, with some fresh food added at times.  I bought 15 pounds of white flour (I grind my own whole wheat flour already, but husband and son aren't yet hungry enough to eat 100% whole wheat everything), two dozen eggs, two gallons of milk, lots of sale priced apples and oranges, two pounds of carrots, a bunch of celery, three pounds of frozen green veggies, cat litter, and a few other things. I do wish I could have afforded more veggies and a few cans of cream of mushroom soup, but I just didn't have the money.

I figure we can get thru' February spending maybe $40 a week on food and such.  That would be $8 on milk, $15 on produce, $15 on meat, and $5 on 'misc'. "Meat" includes eggs and cheese, for those keeping score at home.

Oatmeal with dried milk and raisins for breakfast.  Soup and maybe peanut butter sandwiches for lunch.  Lots of cabbage and carrots featured in dinners.  I've 2 1/2 weeks of dinners planned, and we'll see what meats may or may not go on sale for meals later in the month. Sunday night we had shrimp yaki soba (the shrimp was a BOGO purchase, and we used bean sprouts and cabbage in it), Monday night we had a little sausage with cole slaw and buns, Tuesday pot roast leftovers became a stew that will double as a lunch later this week, tonight is veggie/cheese omelets and home made rolls......

Of course, as this hits it has also become clear that the bag of mung beans I've been using for sprouts are past their prime - the sprouting ratio has dropped.  Instead of getting 3+ cups of sprouts from every 1/4 cup of dry beans I barely got 1 1/2 cups the last time.  I've one more bag that's about the same age - we'll see how that goes - but I also have two newer bags I bought this fall.  They should still be in good shape. 

Prep Shopping

Blessings, Darlings!

As of this moment, I have $12 left to spend on food thru' the end of Thursday, given our food budget and the shopping I've done so far.  Which is pretty good, given that I underspent by $8 last week, and I really don't have anything left of the 'need for meals this week' list.

Which leaves me more money than usual to add to our food storage.  And that's a good thing since all of us preppers and survivalists and preparedness and just plain broke folks have noticed that food prices have been rising thru' the roof!  Last summer's droughts in Europe and Asia, this winter's flooding in Australia and South American (well, summer floods for them) have caused havoc in food prices.  Rising oil prices are affecting food prices, too, as is diversion of grain into ethanol and into increased meat production.  And the weather we've had in the US is causing 'temporary' jumps in produce prices due to damage to crops in the deep south and California.  Even my winter veggie mainstay, cabbage, has been hit hard by the freezes in Florida.  Strawberries are off the scale in price!

So I'm looking at what foodstuffs to use the food dollars for.  I could use more white wine for cooking, I'm getting a bit low.  That won't take much of it.  So, do I get two 5 pound bags of sugar and one 5 pound bag of flour to add to my storage?  Or do I get another 50 pounds of wheat berries really meant for livestock feed at Southern States or Tractor Supply?

Frondly, Fern