I can't wait to hear how everyone did with the first pantry building challenge of 2023! Let's take a look at what it was before we start sharing ...
January is usually a good month for sales, so the pantry challenge for this week is to purchase something for your pantry that's on sale. That's it! Let's get out there and see what we can find this week. We'll report back next Monday, which will be our new pantry building challenge check in day.
Here's what I scored, and I do mean scored ... we hit the jackpot!!!
ground beef on sale for $1.99/lb (we purchased 3 of these)
deli ham on clearance for $.99 each (we purchased 4 of these)
diced ham on clearance for $.99 (we purchased 1 of these)
sausage links on clearance for $.99 each (we purchased 11 of these)
I'm going to divide the ground beef and freeze it into meal size portions. I already have meatballs, meatloaf and browned ground beef in the freezer from a previous ground beef purchase so I'm going to freeze this like it is. I froze all the deli meat except one that we'll use to make hot ham and cheese sandwiches with for lunches or ham and cheese wraps. I froze all the sausage links as well as the diced ham. The sausage links will be used for breakfast meals and the diced ham will be used in omelets or maybe ham salad. All this came from the same store. I'd say we were there at just the right time. Thank you, Lord, for going before us and preparing the way for these great buys.
Okay, that's how I did, how did you do?
Our challenge for next week has us looking for good deals again but this time shop for them from the outside aisles of the store. This is a bit more challenging, but I have confidence that we can do it! Remember, outside aisles of the store only for this challenge, of course, if this challenge doesn't suit you any sales items will work just as well. The goal is to restock or fill our pantries with things our families will eat!
Let's get busy and have some fun in the process!
Patsi
Sharing 42 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building
My second blog: From This Heart of Mine
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27
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Holiday clearance has come and I was able to take advantage of some wonderful clearance prices on mostly baking ingredients that I use regularly! This is when I usually buy enough to last the year, if possible.
ReplyDeleteThis week I was able to buy:
Nestles chocolate chips (regular, milk choc, mini) for 50 cents (regular $3.49 each)
Pecans- chopped and halves- $3/ 10 ounce (regular $12.49/bag)!
Marshmallows - 50 cents (regular $1.69)
AP flour- 50 cents/5 pounds- (regular $2.49)
Brown sugar- 50 cents/2 pounds - (regular $1.99)
Snickerdoodle flavored whole almonds- 43 cents/6 Oz- (regular price $4.49)
Candy canes- 25 cents/box- (regular $3.99)
I spent about $60 and came home with 150 pounds of flour, 40 pounds of brown sugar, 30 cans of flavored almonds, 12 bags (7.5 pounds) of pecans, 20 bags of chocolate chips, 20 bags of mini-marshmallows and 12 boxes of candy canes (that I crushed and vacuum sealed into half gallon mason jar! Oh! I’ve been buying the half gallon Ball mason jars (6 in a case) for $13 from WM when they have them in stock (which is usually 2 cases In the store). This way I have them available for the pecans, marshmallows, peppermint, etc!
My receipt from Krogers said that in the first 4 days of January, I have saved over $400!!
Gardenpat in Ohio
Gardenpat, that's what I'm talking about!!!! You did some savvy shopping and oh how inspiring it is to read of your efforts! Thank you for sharing!
DeleteWay to go, Patsy and GardenPat!!!! Great deals, for sure! My pantry was well stocked between Thanksgiving and Christmas sales, and I'm trying to do a no-shop January, allowing exception for perishables. I stayed out of the grocery store last week, saving myself approx $60.
ReplyDeleteLori, isn't it great that your well-stocked pantry allows you to do that!
DeleteLori K- Although my post doesn’t sound like it, I am doing an Eat through my Pantry this month where all of our meals are using ingredients I already had in my house on Jan 1. I didn’t shop ahead of that to “stock up”. However, there are some things on clearance that only come around once a year in January like these baking ingredients that I do go ahead and buy in bulk! I don’t add these into my inventory that I am using in my pantry challenge though.
DeleteHope that clarifies my Pantry challenge in January! Now back to nibbling on the apple snickerdoodle cookies I just made to use up two withering apples and some leftover sticks of butter that were going to be tossed after a church dinner because their wrappers were off. The peels and cores are in a mason jar to start some more apple scrap vinegar and in two weeks when it is strained, my chickens will gobble up the peels and cores that were strained out! And they will turn it into eggs!! Lol!!
Gardenpat in Ohio
Thanks for the clarification! I'm a single-person household and I have no more space in my freezer or pantry, so I'm taking a break to make space and use up some of the languishing pasta, vegetables, and home-canned goods that are several years old.
DeletePatsy, you got some great deals! Those are all items I like to keep here, too. My husband did venture out on his own over the weekend. He bought chicken thighs for .99#, cube steak for 3.98# which is the lowest I have seen it for over a year. Then onto Lidl where he had a $20 off coupon for buying $100 in gift cards a few weeks ago. He got all our perishable food needs for $3.87! That included 3# mandarins on sale for $2.49. He got milk, lettuce, spinach, strawberries on sale for 2.29, tomatoes, cucumbers bananas, and 3 cans of cream soups all for $3.87!
ReplyDeleteThis morning I saw that one of our salvage stores has a sale today. We got 6 boxes of 4 Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches for $1 each,. Hillshire Farm tubs of ham lunch meat for $1, 3 packs of chicken tenderloins for $2 each, organic black beans were 3/$1 and cottage cheese was 35 cents. I can't make a sausage, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich for 25 cents. These are so good and take 5 minutes to go from freezer to eating!
Lana, no, you nor anyone else can make breakfast sandwiches for $.25!!! What a deal! Your hubby did well! I hope you are starting to feel better.
DeleteI was happy to pick up the last frozen turkey at a reduced price. Roasted it for a meal, saved a portion for turkey pot pie and sandwiches this week, and divided the rest into freezer bags. It's the 3rd turkey I've roasted since Thanksgiving, and I admit to being a little tired of eating turkey, but I haven't seen any other meat for .89/pound lately, and in a few weeks we won't mind eating it again.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, when we start getting tired of eating a specific item, we just give ourselves a break from it and come back to it later too. Price determines what we eat and if that means we have a bit much of one item, we just deal with it in the aforementioned way!
DeleteSorry Patsy, I didn't intend to be anonymous ~~ Linda
DeletePatsi, those are great deals. Well done to Gardenpat, too. Wow!
ReplyDeleteI am doing like the other ladies and eating through my pantry as we transition into stocking healthier versions of things we are using up. I didn't go grocery shopping, but I did find a deal at Dollar Tree that I couldn't pass up. They have 1 pound bags of pink Himalayan salt for $1.25, so I bought 3 bags!
Kelsey, we get our pink Himalayan salt at the Dollar Tree too!
DeletePatsi, you really got some great deals as did Garden Pat. This was a no shopping week for me . I did, however, save about $45 . English muffins here are about $6 for 6.
ReplyDeleteI made my husband 4 dozen, that if bought would be $48. I figured possibly $3 for ingredients I used bringing the savings to $45. Cookie
Cookie, staying out of the store is one way to save and there are other ways too. Look how much you saved without even leaving your home! I love it!
DeleteI almost didn't comment, as mine is so small. Didn't really need much. I had a $3.00 coupon for Fred Meyer to use on three Kraft items. Most of the items were really expensive. However, they did have Kraft Macaroni and cheese, in the blue box for $1.25, so I got three for a total of 75¢. I will use them as a side dish when I am serving something else.
ReplyDeleteNancy, there is no such thing as too small of a savings to share! Each and every savings that is shared is inspiration for everyone. Thank you for sharing, it's inspiring to me for those weeks when I have very little to work with!
DeleteEveryone found such great deals! I have not yet gone shopping. I go every two weeks and my week to go is this Wednesday. I will look for good sale items in the store and around the perimeter!
ReplyDeleteI was quite annoyed to find out that my market ships most of their post Christmas glut to other stores! I was finding no real deals and I finally asked where it all was. So, next year I'll be heading to the chains less affluent stores to look for my bargains. Hmph!!
ReplyDeleteMy pantry challenge items were 20 packs of whole wheat tortillas for 89¢ each. I got 5 of them. That's 100 tortillas in the freezer!
For my savings challenges, I transferred $9.27 yesterday and drew the $21 card today. That's an extra $45 going to the emergency fund with last week's draw. Thanks for the great idea!
Debby, there are stores that do that rather than mark items down in the local stores. I guess they just don't want to fool with markdown clearance items.
DeleteThat's a really good price for tortillas! I transferred $6.76 yesterday and drew the $52 card today. That's $58.76 towards building back up our emergency fund. Every little bit helps, slow and steady wins the race!
If you can find the store you can do really well. We have a Walmart that gets pallets of clearance that we never see in other Walmarts. They also have racks and racks of $1 clothing.
DeleteWe took advantage of a meat sale at a higher end grocery. Not the greatest prices, but lower than sales prices at the regular stores. I got ground beef and boneless skinless chicken breasts. I saved $30 over regular prices.
ReplyDeleteTerri, $30 is quite the savings. "Lower than sale prices' at the regular stores equates to a good deal in the current economy!
DeleteThose are great buys, Patsy! I haven't had time to do much bargain shopping since Christmas as I have the two well grandkids with us. I did find 8 cans of Libby pumpkin for $.45 a can and 6 boxes of banana bread and pumpkin bread mix for $.50 a box at Kroger. All had expiration dates of at least a year from now.
ReplyDeleteMy Emma was impressed with the bargains. Her mom doesn't have time for such things and just does the Walmart store pickup. I've found a new area where I can teach her!.....Glenda
Glenda, what a blessing you are to your family! How is Lilly doing? Emma is not too young to start learning how to bargain shop, what a help it would be to her mom when she is old enough to do the shopping on her own and most definitely when she is old enough to be on her own. Also, what a fun, memory making bonding experience for the two of you! It sounds like a beautiful win, win situation!
DeleteOh, Patsy! What a great idea! I hadn't even thought of Emma being able to help her mom shop. I was just thinking of her needing the skill as an adult.
DeleteLilly is slowly improving. She's still on the ventilator, but the doctor says she is stable enough to be flown back to Children's Hospital here at home. The hospital here is saving a room for her and the only hurdle now is getting the insurance to approve the flight. Hopefully that will happen later this week. Thank you for asking about her and for the prayers!...Glenda
I had to get regular strength Tylenol. Fortunately, the store I was at had their store brand for half the cost of name brand. And, the store app gave me a coupon for $1 off the second one. So hooray for two more bottles in my stock and not paying full price.
ReplyDeleteLeah, I love reading things like this. Way to make 'lemonade' out of the store being out of what you wanted! You did good!
DeleteI don't know where my mind is! I just remembered I did purchase something! About once a month I treat myself to breakfast at a local cafe. I did so this past week. While I waited for my to go order, I went in to a shop next door that had 50% all of their Christmas stock, and I picked up three gifts for the gift cupboard!
ReplyDeleteJennilee, I'm glad you were able to take advantage of the sales!
DeleteI picked up 6 toothpaste for $1 each, 8 1 litre bottles of liquid clothes detergent $1 each and 8 bottles of dish washing detergent for $1 each so i now have enough for a year. I bought a few Christmas gifts at half price and i was given a bagful of lemons i have juiced and put in the freezer.
ReplyDeleteLeanne, we'll just call you a smart shopper! You did good!
DeleteI was able to get bone in chicken breast the other day for $1.49/lb!!!! Needless to say I got 60 lbs. It's almost $35 for a 10 lb in my area at Walmart so I jumped at $1.49/lb!
ReplyDeleteDenise, $1.49/lb is an unheard-of price anymore! I would have stocked up too!
DeleteI bought two turkey breasts for $1. 49.lb. We can eat for a week, two of us on one turkey breast.
ReplyDeletePractical Parsimony, that's a good price for meat for a week!
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