Is it over yet?

Been doing a lot of traveling this month and doing some more traveling tomorrow, meaning I haven't been into stockpiling or shopping at all. Finally made it to Pros Ranch yesterday to pick up produce, mostly fruit because our home garden provides plenty of veggie type choices. I spent less than $28 total for 3 giant pork roasts, apples, oranges, kiwis, avocados, bananas, tomatoes, and sour cream.

Not exciting, but there's a stockpile item there, the pork roasts. The roasts are bone-in for 98c/lb, sold only in mega-packages of 3 roasts. I cooked a roast yesterday for dinner. There are plenty of leftovers. The other two roasts I froze.

Tonight I'm making spaghetti and meatballs. The ground beef is from the freezer, part of a an entire grass-fed steer I purchased a year and half ago and we're still working our way through. The spaghetti was a coupon freebie still in my pantry along with several other coupon freebie boxes. The sauce will be tweeked Hunt's diced tomatoes in a can because my son ate every single one of the tomatoes I purchased yesterday pretty much as soon as I got home.

Here's how I make meatballs, with egg and Italian-style breadcrumbs, and whatever bits of leftovers might be lurking in the fridge, broccoli, sweet potato, beans... Brown them in a little olive oil, then bake them until cooked through. Or let them simmer in the tomatoes until they're done cooking.

The salad to accompany is compliments of my garden.

Good eating is cheap. It just requires a few basic cooking skills and an eye for the price. Fifty dollars would purchase 50 pounds of the bone-in pork roasts (bones are minimal, by the way. Barely there). That's good for 50 dinners. I didn't purchase more because, despite my best efforts to empty it, my freezer is always full. It's like magic in there. I keep the items rotating, but about the point I put a dent in the contents, another great price comes along. With a 50 dinner cushion, I've plenty of time to wait for that really good price.

By the way - Pros Ranch sells really nice pork. I'm pretty careful about where I purchase my meats and I think pork looks best at Pros Ranch. Nice flavor, also. The 98c/lb price is good until 1/3/12.

And Maple Syrup for All!

Deal Chicken has an amazing deal today on Vermont Maple Syrup. Six pints for $36. You may buy multiples. That's $6/pint or 37.5 cents/ounce. I just paid $20.21 for a quart of maple syrup at the grocery store.

We don't use the fake maple syrup products typically available at the grocery. For us, it's a matter of taste. Maple syrup tastes real, everything else tastes like corn syrup and so many of those fake syrups contain the high fructose kind of corn syrup. We spend so little on groceries, I'm willing to pay the money where it matters. I won't say how many of these six pint deals I purchased. Let's just say I took full advantage of the amazing price.

No affiliate links in this post. No advantage to me if you order. Since this is a Vermont company, I assume this is a national deal. By the way THE SHIPPING IS FREE!

You read that right.

Only another 13 hours to go as of this posting, so get over there.

Ladies, start your griddles and waffle irons.

Good Stockup Items this week

Been sick. Been busy. Been away.

Have not been into grocery shopping. Did my turkey/ham thing before Thanksgiving, then...nothing. Not even Pro's Ranch for the produce. The garden is still giving eggplants and peppers, kale and chard and lettuce, even tomatoes, and there's plenty of fruit either canned or in the freezer.


The ads were looking kind of blah this week, until I got to Albertson's. Then I got into my car and drove the few blocks to my nearest store where I picked up 29 boxes of cereal (no significance to the number, just that it filled the cart) 5 dozen eggs, 12 8-oz packages of Albertson's Brand butter, three packs of dental floss, seven tubes of toothpaste, five toothbrushes, and a bag of marshmellows for $62.

I'm embarrassed to admit I pulled out my calculator to do that simple math. The items were $1 each and there are 62 items...

I'm equally embarrassed to admit to buying cereal after my tirade about its sugary evilness a few months ago. Most of it is Raisin Bran and Shredded Wheat. Also got Corn Flakes, Cheerios and Apple Cinnamon and Honey Nut Cheerios.

All the items in the haul were Albertson's Store brand. Yes, it all tastes just like the name brands. The non-sweetened cereal were all big boxes, too, not these puny little things the name brand manufacturers are passing off as a proper box of cereal.

Other items: any time butter works out to $2/lb or less is a good time to stock up. Butter freezes beautifully. Eggs are expensive lately, so I'm happy to pick up 5 dozen for 5 bucks. For myself and my family, I don't worry about expiration dates, but for everybody else, and to keep the lawyers happy, I recommend buying only what you can eat before the expiration date.

Seven tubes of toothpaste is a year's supply for us. I mean, seriously, only a tiny dab is required for toothbrushing. Pinching Your Pennies let me know there weren't any coupons available for the sale brands. We're getting a little low, so I bit the bullet and purchased. Same goes for the floss and toothbrushes. I've typically purchased these items for free with coupons, but haven't seen them free for a long time.

And the marshmallows? Hot chocoate, anyone? Maybe toast a few over the barbecue? Everybody else must be thinking like me because I got the last bag of normal-sized marshmallows in the store.

I'll be doing a lot more traveling this month, so the blog will be pretty quiet. If I don't post beforehand, have fun this holiday season!