Buying discount foods

I've type-talked quite a bit about how I find lots of discount bin things.  Here is one example from the fabric store.  I bought these cabone rings months before I actually used them.  I knew I was planning to make window quilts for all my windows and would need these.

I also found these in the discount bin at Walmart.  I knew I would need these  for my window quilts.  I bought these a couple of years before I actually got around to using them. 

If I'm very patient I can find almost anything I need in a discount bin eventually.  Most people can understand and appreciate buying at least some discount stuff this way.  What really makes people squeamish about buying from a discount bin is buying food.

Most people believe that if a food has a red discount sticker on it that it's not safe to eat.   Red means danger doesn't it?  So what is the safe eating date?  Packages have several different dating systems.  There's the best by date. 

The sell by date. 

The use or freeze by date on meats.  The use by date on dairy products.  Or simply a date with no words on bakery products.

And several other terms that guide the store in rotating stock.  These dates are given to the store (and us) by food producers. 

So who determines these package dates?  The food producer of course.  What better way to get the consumer to buy more of their products than to give us a shortened date.  If people are convinced a product is not good beyond the date stamped they won't eat it.  The food is tossed out and new bought.  It's very hard for me to come up with the right words to describe this but I'm trying. 

A long time ago, I noticed a "use by" date on a bottle of honey.   The date stamped was about a year from when I purchased it.  I thought it odd, very odd, to have an expiration date on honey.   Honey has a natural preservative and it never, ever goes bad.  You ever heard of a bee hive tossing out it's oldest honey?  Honey will start to get a grainy texture that is easily fixable by warming it..... but honey does not go bad.  

 I started wondering about other dates on packages.  I noticed the wording of a date on a container of sour cream.  It was a "best by" date.  What the heck does a best by date mean anyway?  Best for the store to sell it by that date?  Best eaten by a consumer by that date?  Not as good tasting after that date?  Will I get food poisoning if I eat the sour cream after that best by date? 

I started thinking about my Grandma Mama and how she knew when foods could no longer be eaten.  For example we milked the cows every morning and every evening.  Some milk was sold to neighbors and some we kept.  Grandma Mama knew just how long the milk would last before it was no longer usable.  Even sour milk was used in recipes but at some point she knew not to use it anymore and gave it to the pigs.  Then there were the foods Grandma Mama canned herself.  She dated every jar with the date she canned it.  She did not put a "use by" date on her jars.  It was knowledge that told her how long a canned jar of green beans would last.  Knowledge taught to her by her mother.  Carefully using the oldest canned foods first meant her stock was always rotating.  Grandma Mama had knowledge and experience to know and remember how long foods were safe to eat.

We, as consumers, have lost our ability to know the safe shelf life of foods.  Well no wonder.... we are taught to listen to the producers and follow their confusing date systems.  We've been taught the date means "don't eat it, throw it away".  Knowing the true safe life of foods has not been taught by one generation to the next.  Grandma Mama's foods were preserved in ways that she could look at it and know if it was safe to eat.  Looking inside a glass jar of green beans, without opening, and she knew to either use it or toss it by the color of the food.  Can we do that with green beans bought in the store today?  Green beans are either in metal cans or frozen in plastic bags which we can't look inside to see for ourselves if they look ok or not.  Do we have a choice about the packaging?  No!

Well, what about fresh produce?  Hmm.... Grandma Mama had a garden and fruit trees.  She picked her produce and preserved it.  Food from the garden and orchard had blemishes.  Bugs ate on it or the hoe nicked it.  These days if an apple has a slight blemish people won't buy it.  If a mushroom has a single dark dot on it people won't buy it.  If green beans look slightly wilted people won't buy any.   Lucky for me people feel this way though because I can find lots of food in the discount bin and buy it.

Next time you look at the date on a package of food.... before you toss it out..... think about it first.  Next time you see a red discount sticker.... take a second look before walking right on by.  I'm not telling you to eat rotten produce or freezer burned food.  I'm just saying the date stamped on a package by a food producer may not be it's true expiration date.  Let knowledge and experience (and your nose) be your guide; not just a date stamp given to you by someone who wants to sell you more than you really need.

Making ground beef

Sometimes I find beef roast or steak at a price cheaper than the price of ground beef.  A very, very long time ago I had a hand crank grinder.  It was also one of the things I gave away in a fit of organizing.  I regret that decision as well.  

Now that I have a new Kitchen Aid with a grinder attachment I'm making my own ground beef again.  Yippie!  I'd still love to have a hand crank grinder again.  I may start watching the thrift stores to see if I can find one.

Ok, about making the ground beef..... I take a pack or two or three of discounted beef.  Whatever amount I want to use. 

I cut it into strips small enough to fit into the grinder attachment.  Partially freezing for about half an hour  helps the cutting be much easier to do.

I feed it through the grinder a piece at a time.

It comes out like this. 

Before I know it there's a whole bowl full of ground beef. 

Simply pack it away in freezer bags. 

Other options could be to cook it right away to be frozen and used in quick fix meals.  I could mix up a couple of meat loaves to freeze and be ready to cook.  There are lots of options about how to use ground beef once I have it. 

I had to laugh at my neighbor who came over when I was grinding the beef.  He asked what I was doing and I told him.  What?  You can do that?  How?  So I showed him how I made my own ground beef.  He didn't know people could make it themselves.  He thought only stores could make it.  Then I got really sad.  Far too many things have disappeared from the grocery shelves in favor of convenience.  Our younger generation doesn't know what real food is these days.  Their taste buds are trained to believe starchy fillers to be zapped in a microwave are the way foods are supposed to taste.  There are so many things I remember from only about 40 years ago that are no longer available in the stores.

There was a time when I could go to the butcher and get a pack of beef or pork fat to make my own lard for cooking.  Despite what we have been told by the media hype; lard is not a bad thing to cook with. Bits of meat in the fat became cracklings to flavor other dishes.  There was a time when all meat came with bones in it.  Bones were saved to make our own beef or chicken stock.  These days bones are removed from the meat before it's sold. 

There was a time when, as a young person, I learned to cut up a chicken into 10 or 12 pieces for a family meal.  Even the back, neck, gizzard, heart, and liver were eaten when we had chicken for Sunday dinner.  My father loved the back and neck.  I loved the gizzard and liver.  When was the last time you saw a pack of backs, necks, and gizzards sold in a store?  If you are a young person you may not have ever seen those chicken parts in the grocery. 

Sad, so sad.  What have we done to our younger generations?  Is it too late to reverse the damage?  I don't know but I'm sure going to do all I can and as much as I can to educate the younger generation about lost skills by posting them on my blogs.

Freezing grapes

Fruit goes bad very quickly once it's been picked. Sometimes I get fruit in season but there's not enough time to deal with it because of my quilting schedule. I could dehydrate these grapes but then I'd have raisins instead of grapes.  I could make grape jelly or juice.  I don't want jelly or juice right now and there's not enough time for me to make it anyway.  I like grapes as a treat on cold winter days without paying an out of season price for them. 

I decided to flash freeze these.  It's easy, just pick the grapes off the vine, rinse them really well, and put onto the tray to flash freeze.  In about half an hour I'll stir them around to prevent sticking together as one big lump of grapes.

That's it.  No other work to it.  In about an hour they are ready to pack into freezer bags. 

If I want a snack, I simply take out a handful and eat them as frozen treats or let them thaw in a bowl.  These grapes are as sweet as candy.  If I decide to make jelly or juice in a few weeks these work just as well as fresh ones do. 

Freezing corn

I've said lots of times how we should not be paying for our own personal chef when buying groceries.  Frozen corn on the cob is one of those personal chef convenience foods.  The cost of buying tiny ears of frozen corn on the cob is far more than it should be when it's so easy to do it yourself. 

Most of the time I would pass right on by fresh corn on the cob that's been shucked and put into packages as fresh convenience foods.  You know the one's I'm talking about?  The packages of fresh fruits and veggies all cut up and ready to use.  I don't like paying a personal chef to prepare my fruits and veggies for me either.  I'm perfectly capable of cutting up my own fruits and veggies for half the cost of convenience.

I'm also a discount bin cook.  If the price, marked down, is less than buying corn with shucks on them I'll buy it.  Only if I actually need the corn though.  Ladybug loves corn on the cob so I decided to spoil indulge her a bit.  I bought two discounted packs to put into the freezer just for her.  The cost of the two packages discounted was half the price of regular ears of corn. 

I remove the rest of the shucks and silks then break the ears in half.  Hmm.... My son once asked me why they are called ears and not noses or chins?  Stopped me right in my tracks.  Duh, I don't know, go ask your Daddy.

I start a pan of water to boiling while I'm cleaning them.

I put a few into the boiling water.  I realize that's too many in the pot.  I remove one.

I want room around the corn so the bubbling water will turn them for me.  I won't need to stand there making sure all the ears are turned for the blanching.

When the water starts boiling again I set the timer for 10 minutes and go do something else.

I get a bowl of really cold water.  Adding ice is optional if the water from the tap is already cold from the weather.

When the timer goes off I remove the corn and put it into the cold water to stop the cooking process.

I put the drained corn onto a tray to flash freeze them.  The liner on the tray is a corn flake cereal bag I cut open.  Nothing sticks to it.  I wash it and reuse it all the time. 

I set the timer for an hour and go do something else.  When the corn is frozen I put it into packages for the freezer.  I could have wrapped the corn individually but chose to put them into a bag which will go inside another bag that's numbered for inventory.

That's it.  Now wasn't that easy?  So why would anyone pay double the price in order to pay a personal chef do this work for them?  Personally, I would rather use the extra money for something or someone special. 

Started my price book

I bought one of these little note books last week.  One of the stores had them on sale for 25 cents because it's school time.  It's pocket sized so it will be easy to carry with me on shopping trips. 

The first thing I did was write in the stuff that needs to be permanent.  Then went back and started writing in the stuff that should be in pencil.  I chose my 3 favorite places to shop then added 3 more stores just to check now and then.  No, I won't be going to all the stores to check prices, I'll explain that in a moment.

I decided, for me, it's best to keep the prices based on "units of measure" instead of container prices.  Why?  Well because often the container sizes are different for different stores.  When the price is in equal amounts (like pounds) it's easy to compare prices.  But, when it comes to knowing if a 100 oz bottle of dish detergent is a better bargain than three 35 oz bottles at a different store, it becomes more difficult to check for the lowest price. 

Once my price book is made, it will be easy to maintain it.  An occasional erasing and a new price penciled in will be all it takes to keep prices current.  My price book contains one sheet for every item I found in my cabinets.  These are items I know I will purchase again when I run out.  I can add new items by making a new sheet.  Right now, my price book is not in alphabetical order.  When I'm satisfied I have a sheet for most items I buy, I plan to remove the wire spine, put the sheets in order, then put the wire back.

My price book does not have all the prices in it yet.  I will not be going on a price finding mission at several stores.  I will simply add unit prices as I find them.  For me, the easiest way is to use the sale ads I get in the Sunday paper each week.  (My thoughts about sale ads at the end of this post, please read it.)

I look through the sale ads and write the unit prices of the loss leaders into my price book along with the date.  Later, when loss leaders of the same items appear in the ad again, I can write down how long the cycle is for that item.  For example, the chicken thighs for 99 cents a pound.  In my price book the date is August 15.  The chicken thighs may remain on sale for a couple of weeks then a different loss leader takes it's place.  Next time the chicken thighs go on sale as a loss leader I can figure out an approximate length of time between.  I'll write the cycle length on the bottom of the sheet.

Why would I need to know the length of time between an item being a loss leader?  Hmm... suppose for some reason I ran out of chicken thighs.  I really don't want to buy thighs when the cost is at it's highest.  I can look in my price book to see when I may expect to see thighs as loss leaders again.  I can make plans to buy enough thighs to last until the next cycle. 

Suppose I'm running low on toilet tissue.  I can start watching sales for a loss leader of toilet tissue.  Knowing the unit price (one roll) and the length of time before it will become a loss leader, I can plan my purchase.  One store might have the brand I prefer at .50 cents a roll but a different store might have it for .40 cents a roll.  Different packages, different roll count, but the unit cost is what I look at.

The other way I use my price book is to write down the "normal" shelf price of items that rarely make it to the status of loss leaders.  For example, Mrs Dash.  I use Mrs Dash in a lot of my cooking.  Yes, it will be on sale once in awhile but rarely as a loss leader.  I do want to know if one store consistently prices Mrs Dash a few cents lower than other stores I shop. 

Suppose I'm in Kroger and see the price of Mrs Dash.  I believe it's a good price, but I wonder to myself if it's cheaper at Meijer which will be my next stop.  I don't want to loose out on a bargain and I'm not returning to this store until the next shopping trip.  I don't want to pay what I believe is a good price only to find out Meijer has is for a better price.  Do I buy Mrs Dash at Kroger or Meijer?  I simply look in my price book to find out which store has the best price based on the last time I checked the normal price of Mrs Dash. 

Another thing I haven't written into my price book yet is my current inventory and how many I want to keep in the stockpile.  I wanted to get started writing in the prices.  I can add the have/need part later. 

I do hope I've made this post about creating a price book understandable.  It really is a valuable tool for saving money.... if you use it.  It wouldn't make much sense to go to all the trouble of creating a price comparison chart or book then not take full advantage of the information.  I prefer my price book to be portable while other people might prefer to keep the information on a computer.  The idea is to save money so create your price book in whatever way you are most likely to update consistently and compare prices before making purchases.

About those grocery ads..... let me give you one more thought before I leave this post.  Any store can put a "sale" sign on anything and have you believing you are getting a real bargain.  Sale does not always mean "bargain price", sale can also mean the item is merely "for sale".  If you have nothing to compare prices you may be happily over paying for an item week after week because you see it in a sale ad.  Sale ads are the equivalent of a "sale" sign in a store.  A price book will let you know when a sale really is a good deal and not simply for sale. 

Quilting and groceries?

You might be wondering to yourself..... what has stockpiling groceries, washing plastic bags, flash freezing food, and various other things on this blog have got to do with being a professional machine quilter?  Well, think about it, if you are extremely busy with the xmas rush season or a quilt show deadline.... how much time can you devote to staying within your budget? 

Trust me, if you are truly being a professional, your personal life will start to fall through the cracks in time management.  As a result you will start to take shortcuts by buying things and doing stuff just to keep your quilting schedule.  It will happen gradually, one shortcut at a time.  Buying takeout instead of cooking.  Rushing through a grocery store buying prepared frozen foods (the personal chef) instead of carefully planning meals.  Paying someone to do repairs around the house that you could do yourself but just don't have the time because quilts are waiting.

It happened to me and it could happen to you if you let it... like I did.  It happened so gradually I didn't even notice except for a slight twinge of guilt the first couple of times I took a shortcut.  After that it got easier and easier to take shortcuts..... until one day I realized I was working just to keep working.

Here's a thought for you.  Suppose you are spending on average of $200 a week for grocery items.  That would be both food and non-food stuff that makes your life easier so you can keep on quilting.  Hmm.... do you realize that $200 per week adds up to over $10,000 a year?   I don't know about you but I sure could find other uses for ten thousand dollars, can you?  How many hours does it take you to earn $200 at the quilting machine?  Would you really be happy giving ten thousand dollars a year to someone else just so you can earn another ten thousand to give away again and again?  Really?

If there was a way to cut that $10,000 down to $5,000 or even $2,500 couldn't you find another use for the extra $2,500 or $7,500?  A nice vacation?  A new organizer system for your quilting studio?  A new bedroom set?  Yes, I think everyone can find a use for the extra money.  That's why having a stockpile of groceries can be so helpful to a professional quilter.  Just go to your pantry to find what you need for a quick meal and then you can get back to quilting OR spend quality time with family.  Having a well stocked pantry is just one item in your professional tools that will allow you more time to have a life.

That's the reason I'm writing so many posts these days about creating a well stocked pantry.  It's a tool I plan to use once more.   A tool I had long ago set aside and forgot how much it helps... until recently.  I have other tools that I long ago dropped in favor of keeping a quilting schedule.  I will be posting about those too.  I don't mind others using what I type-talk about so they too can become a better professional quilter.  In fact, I hope it helps before someone make the same mistakes I made.

What groceries to stockpile

I've been talking about stocking up on groceries when things are in season.  A stockpile should also have non-food items as well. 

What items should you have in your stockpile?  How many of each item should you have?  Take a look through your cabinets, closets, and your freezer right now.  What's in there?  Do a complete inventory of all food and non-food items.  What's in your cabinets?  Do you use it all constantly?  That's what to stock up on.  Is there items in the cabinets you seldom use?  Those items you don't need to stock up as much because they won't get used but write those on the list too.  Do a complete inventory of everything... both food and non-food items.

What recipes do you find yourself fixing when you are in a rush?  Does this happen often?  Write down those ingredients on your list.  You will want to have a stock of those quick fix meal items too.  

How many times do you use your listed items a month?  Guesstimate how many you use a month.  Multiply that amount by 12 to get a guesstimate of what you would use in a year.

For now, it's important just to get a stockpile created through your normal purchases at the store. That's why a list is important.  It will be your guide to what to purchase when things go on sale.  Later things like gardening, canning, freezing, and drying can be added if you want to go that route.  Growing a garden and preserving the harvest will save money only if you want to do those things and will eat it.  For right now the idea is to have foods and non-foods already in your home for whatever reason, whether it be prices getting higher, or a natural disaster, or simply trying to save money.

For now concentrate only on creating a list of what you will want to have in your grocery stockpile.  You can work on buying the items after you have your list.  Be sure to include some items on your list that can be eaten if there is no power for several days as well as a few items you can carry should you have to evacuate your home.   Why would you have to evacuate?  Fires, floods, hurricane, that sort of thing.

My daughter is working on getting her stockpile list together.  I'm going to do the same.  It's not something that can be done in a single day for us.  We must go through the cabinets and closets a little at a time because we both work.  I work fewer hours than she does so mine can be done quicker. 

Why have a grocery stockpile

I guess the number one question is why would anyone want to have a grocery stockpile?  Well, hmm..... it keeps you from going into a grocery so often.  Every time you enter a store you will come out with more than you planned to buy.  There is always one or two things you spot in the store that temps you to buy it.  List or no list, people tend to pick up one or two extra items.  Stores are designed that way.

 How many times have you gone into a store to buy milk and bread only to come out of the store with several bags of groceries?  It's much easier and cheaper to go to your own personal little grocery just a few steps away from the kitchen.

Another reason is that it's not always convenient for everyone to go to the store.  Like me, I don't have a car so I'm dependant on someone taking me or being a chauffeur for my SIL.  If I can't get a ride when I need groceries then I am forced to do without.  If I have a well stocked pantry this isn't a problem.  I can make do with what I have.

Then there are the natural disasters that happen.  In a short few months, the Louisville area went through a wind storm, an ice storm, and a flood.  The first thing anyone does when there is a natural disaster is rush to the store to stock up on foods and toiletries.  The shelves are empty really quickly.  When the news tells us that we are expecting a major snow storm people start to panic and rush to the store.  Pretty soon the shelves are empty of essentials like milk and bread. 

Natural disasters in other areas will also wreck havoc with your grocery budget.  A flood in an area that supplies corn for cornmeal means that the cost of cornmeal will get higher in our area.  An ice storm or hard frost in the area where fruits are just forming buds may mean there won't be as much fruit sold in our area.  The cost will skyrocket on fruits.  Fires in California can destroy foods sold in this area.  A drought in the west can cause the cost of foods like tomatoes grown in that area to cost way more than normal. 

Everyone knows the cost of gasoline will have an impact on the cost of foods.  If the cost of gas goes higher it's passed on to the consumer.  The oil spill in the gulf caused the price of sea foods to rise dramatically, despite the fact that seafood comes from other places like Maine and Alaska.  Remember the economic melt down we went through not long ago?  Remember what happened to the price of groceries?  The rising costs could happen again.

Creating a stockpile of groceries from a store is the modern version of what Grandma and Great-grandma did.  They would have harvested and preserved everything the could so it would last until harvest time again.  You should harvest foods from the grocery at the lowest price to last until lowest price again.   

How did we fail?

My daughter asked me a question yesterday and I couldn't answer her.  She wanted to know how to figure up and write down all the things she would need for a 6 months supply of groceries and why she would want to have a grocery stockpile in the first place.  I told her I needed to think about it first and then I could explain it to her.  Ever since our outing I've thought about what she asked.  I kept asking myself several questions. 

How is it that in only two or three generations we have gone from a nation of people mostly self-reliant to being dependant on manufacturers and credit?  How is it that since the time of WW1 when almost every household had a backyard garden and never considered using credit; we are now a nation of people with thousands of dollars debt and a backyard garden is a rarity? 

Why is it that my garden harvest consists of a few tomatoes with a sort of cucumber thingie and

if I want fresh vegetables I get them in packages like this?

Why is it that I have 20 dozen canning jars still in boxes but

my grocery stockpile looks like this?

How is it we have forgotten to teach our children and grandchildren the importance of stocking up?  My grandmother would be appalled to see what's in my kitchen cabinets.  Her mother (my great grandmother) would probably have thought I was either extremely rich or terribly lazy.  Don't get me wrong, people bought can goods back then but it was only for things they either couldn't grow themselves or couldn't find while foraging. 

As a group, we have failed to teach our children the importance of staying out of debt and keeping a supply of groceries.  In our ancestor's time, the garden was planted, everything that grew was preserved, and grandma hoped it would be enough to last for a whole year until harvest time again.  How did she know how much to store?  She stored all she could get!  Even with a city backyard garden people preserved a lot of food back then.  One neighbor might have abundance of tomatoes so she traded with someone who had an abundance of cucumbers.  Grandma would also have preserved enough foods that she could donate to families when there was a need.

People didn't plan their meals around what to buy.... they planned meals based on what was preserved the year before and stored in the pantry.  One year there might be an abundance of beets so meals had lots of beets and another year they had lots of green beans so that was on the table most often.  Meals were dependant on what was abundant.  People didn't plan meals around a weekly meat purchase either, they used what they had.

Hmm.... how to teach a young person what to stock for a 6 months supply and why.  I don't think it should only be for 6 months, it should be for a year.  Why?  Well because what is bought in season now won't be in season again for a year.  Unless it grows on a shorter cycle.  Ok, it's true we can get strawberries in the middle of a January snow storm and oranges in August but that's not when strawberries or oranges are cheapest.  

If my readers don't mind, over the next few posts I'm going to be teaching my daughter how and why to have a year's worth of foods stored away. I'm hoping that other young people will find the information useful too.  She will have to purchase what she needs herself but I can help with the preserving of fresh foods.  If I'm really lucky, my daughter will come to understand the importance of having a backyard victory garden.  Victory over debt garden.  Hmm.... I wonder how long it will take that phrase to make it's way around the internet?

Yes, I can tell you how it is I have so many canning jars and nothing in them.  I got too busy as a professional quilter to be frugal.  It was easier to just spend the money I was earning.... to buy what I needed.... so I could keep working..... to buy more of what I needed.  Thank goodness slowing down has given me the free time to be frugal again.