One thing we decided to do was to shop somewhere besides the grocery store. I already buy honey locally and shop at our local Dollar General. Now some may wonder why I shop at the DG. Well, one reason is because it's only 4 miles from my home and the other is it carries a lot of what I need. I buy canned beans, bread, rice, four, sugar, greeting cards, laundry soap, dish soap, bottled water, cat food and litter, etc. The two main things I buy from there is cereal and snacks. The price of cereal is very reasonable. At the local grocery store the price of one box of cereal is rarely under $4. At DG, I can buy their off brand for around $2.50 or less per box. The snacks are another item that are priced very reasonable there. Granola bars, chips, cookies, etc. Again, they are off brand, but pretty good.
I shop at Aldi's or Walmart for my meat and produce. I don't buy much meat though; mainly chicken. We freeze and can our deer meat and I buy bacon and pork locally.
So the change we made was we started buying whole turkey's, turkey breast, hams, etc. We purchased a slicer and slice the meat and freeze it.
Turkey, chicken and ham at the deli, sliced, is around $5.99 a pound and up. We found this 9 lb. turkey (roasted) for $24.99. That averages out to $2.78 per lb. That sure beats $5.99!
So my husband sliced it up and froze the slices in 1.5 lb. packages/ freezer bags. We will use this for sandwiches.
Another change we made, is I purchased flour, yeast, butter, and rice (the staples) in bulk today from Sam's club. Now, I know the membership fee at Sams isn't cheap, but we'll find out if it's worth it or not. I wanted to find a store where I could buy things out of bins, by the pound, but the closest store around here is over 2.5 hours away. Anyway, I purchased some food grade 5 gal. buckets and a large tin to store these bulk items.
Make sure you store your food in the "food grade" buckets. They are BPA free and are made for dry foods as well as liquid. They also have an air tight seal! I bought this one above (white with red lid) at TSC for around $5. The metal one with the lid was around $19.99.
I placed the yeast in a glass mason jar and put it in the refrigerator as directed on the package. My idea here is to make our own bread rather than purchase it. One thing I have learned by watching these homesteading videos is the more you can make from scratch at home, the better.
My bread turned out amazing! It is so moist and thick just like we like it! This is definitly going to be a normal item for us. The price of bread in the store is $2.89 (+ or - 50 cents) and I'm sure I can make it tons cheaper and let's face it, better in taste.
I found this great HUGE jar at a yard sale and it has a rubber seal under the wooden lid. I put a coffee mug next to it to show how big it really is. It holds approx. 8 lbs of flour. I keep this right on my counter for quick access.
So please comment if you have any great tips for me or if there is something that you've tried that hasn't worked for storage, baking, or purchases. :)
God Bless & happy baking! :)
