It's not in the ad this week. You have to go to the Fresh and Easy homepage to see the listed price. This is for Jennie-O turkeys. Since it's not in the ad, I suppose there's a chance Fresh and Easy will yank the price. The Fresh and Easy ad in today's paper has coupons for $3 off $30 and $10 off $50. There is nothing in the ad about whether the Fresh and Easy Friends program is still offering 500 points on the turkeys which I mentioned in my previous post. If so, the net cost of the turkeys would be almost free. Even if they aren't, go purchase your limit of two turkeys. A 15-pound turkey would be $5.85, little more than the typical whole chicken.
The Farmer John hams are still 97c/lb and we're still eating and enjoying the one I made on Sunday. It was $10 well spent. Tonight, I heated slices and served with mashed yams from Pro's Ranch (7 lbs/99c) and fresh green beans from the same store (99c/lb, I served 54c worth).
If you don't have a Fresh and Easy near you, Basha's is selling their Norbest turkeys for 59c/lb. I've purchased those turkeys before and found them delicious. Albertson's advertises that they will price match, but I don't know that they sell Norbest or if they will substitute another brand. Call before you shop.
What did shopping day look like here at the stockpile?
$7.06
You read that right. I did it all at Pro's Ranch and purchased 14 pounds of bananas, over 8 pounds of yams, a half-pound of green beans and 3.5 pounds of pinto beans. I don't need the pintos, but at 50c/lb, I figured a few more pounds in the pantry wouldn't hurt.
We still have oranges and pears and apples, as well as some avocados and limes. The garden is still providing bunches of greens. There's plenty of meat in the freezer and grains in the pantry. Beyond milk and eggs, we just don't need much. If I had the freezer space, I'd be buying up those turkeys. Even if all I did was cook them up for pet food, it's cheaper than buying cans for the cats and dogs.
If your freezer is not full, now is the time to stock up those turkeys. Those prices will be history on Black Friday. They have not made a Christmas return in the past few years. Autumn is past and with it go the wonderful harvest prices. Perhaps not so much here in Phoenix, blessed as we are with a year-round growing season.
With Christmas approaching, the sales will turn to baking. Keep an eye for grains, nuts, sugar and dried fruits.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Year-Long Ham and Turkey Buffet
I decided to take advantage of the 59c/lb turkeys (limit 2)
available at Fresh and Easy that I mentioned in my last post. The shopping trip
yielded unexpected savings. Since I was going anyway, I decided to find out
something about the Friends Program Fresh and Easy recently launched.
Basically, buy stuff at Fresh and Easy and get points. The basic reward is 1
point for every dollar spent. Spend 50 bucks, get 50 points. Every hundred
points is worth $1. So every 100 bucks spent equals a reward of $1.
Yes, I understand if you’re not hopping up and down for joy.
Let me make it happier for you.
1)
The points accumulate.
2)
Fresh and Easy is offering double reward points
now through Thanksgiving
3)
Every turkey you buy is worth 500 points. (Yes,
that equals $5)
Here’s how to do it:
1)
You join online and get 250 points just for
signing up ($2.50).
2)
Go to Fresh and Easy and get a Friends Card.
3)
Make your purchases.
4)
When you get home, sign in with your email
address and attach the card to your account.
5)
Check out your new rewards balance.
6)
You can convert the reward points to cash
whenever you want. The site says something about the conversion being ‘rounded
down’ to the nearest 100 points. I don’t know if that means you forfeit points
when you cash out. Call customer service (1-877-338-6546) to find out.
Here’s what I purchased:
1)
Two turkeys, approx. 17 lbs each for 20.39
total.
2)
Two Farmer John Hams approx. 12 lbs each for
$23.75
3)
2 lbs of Whole Bean Fair Trade Coffee for $13.98
I found an online coupon for $10 off $50. I looked for the
biggest turkeys and hams I could find, but still needed $7 worth of stuff to
get to $50. The coffee was a good price for whole bean Fair Trade. If I’d had
more time, I’d have gotten smaller turkeys and hams to get as close to just
over $50 as possible, but I was in a hurry, so I spent about $59, used the $10
off coupon and paid $49.08 for the above. I also received 1116 points for the
transaction, or a little over $11 BACK. With the 250 points I received for
signing up, I now have almost $14 in cash rewards I can use for my next trip.
I wish I had more freezer room, I truly do, but we had to do
some major rearranging to find space for the two turkeys and a single ham. Good
part of having to do that is my freezers and my fridge are all cleaned out and
organized. Second good part is I had an excuse to cook the second ham for
dinner and use some of it to make a homemade split pea soup with split peas
from my pantry. The family is happy. The ham will provide the makings for a ham
casserole, ham croquettes, more soup, pasta salad and ham sandwiches all week. I’m lucky in that
my family will eat food for days in a row, so long as it tastes good and they
don’t actually have to cook anything themselves!
If you’ve some extra cash, stocking up on turkeys and hams
and using the coupon, plus accumulating cash rewards would be worthwhile. Go
for twelve turkeys and twelve hams. Figure cooking one turkey and one ham per
month to provide two weeks of meal fixings per month. It’s plenty for even the
biggest meat eaters.
The above should cost $240 total and will include other
items you may need to get the grocery bill to $50 so you can use the $10 off
coupon. That will be six shopping trips over the next couple of days (6 times
$40). You’ll also get other items you need (the fill out items to get to $50)
and will accumulate a lot of points for a future shopping trip.
Have fun!
Thursday, November 10, 2011
This and That
I'll be away for Thanksgiving, but I'm still going to Fresh and Easy to pick up my 59c/lb turkeys from Jennie-0. Limit is 2 per visit. Fresh and Easy has some kind of new points earning program which may be worth investigating if you shop there a lot. I don't think their prices are particularly low, but they do have good specials sometimes. Like these turkeys. Unfortunately, they don't issue rain checks.
In Albertson's last week, I saw a sign promising a price match on the 59c/lb turkeys. Hopefully, that continues into this week and up thru Thanksgiving.
The easiest way to prepare turkey during the year is to boil it. That's why I prefer smaller turkeys, or to have the butcher saw it in half for me when I purchase it. Add onion, sage, thyme and rosemary and let it simmer for a long time. Lift it onto a plate and let the cooking liquid, aka broth, cool. Skim any obvious scum off the top of the broth. When cool, strain it through a clean tea towel, then freeze or can in smaller quantities to use as needed.
Pull the meat from the turkey. The white meat can be sliced as needed for sandwiches and the dark meat frozen or canned for use in pot pies.
Does making pot pie sound scary? It's not. It's easy and requires very little from you beyond keeping an eye the pot doesn't boil over and you have enough freezer containers or canning supplies. Pot pies are a cinch to make. If pastry dough frightens you, use Pillsbury tube biscuits as an easy substitute. Roll them flat, lay them in the pie plate, add the meat, sprinkle some seasonings, spoon it over with some bechamel sauce and lay another flattened tube biscuit on top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until it browns.
Does Bechamel Sauce sound fancy? It's not. Bechamel is a fancy name for a basic white sauce. Mush softened butter into some flour with a fork. Heat on a low (I mean LOW) saucepan until the butter melts. keep it moving with a wooden spatula. Drizzle in some milk. That means a little at a time. Keep on stirring for about 20 minutes. That's the time needed for the flour to lose the 'raw' flavor. This is a great task to put a tween or teen on, especially if you tell them you don't care if they talk to their friends on the cellphone while they do it. As the flour cooks, it will thicken. If it's too thick, add a little more milk. If it's too thin, add the teeniest amount of flour. Salt and Pepper to taste.
Voila! Bechamel Sauce.
I like pot pies because they are good vehicles for using leftovers. Broccoli and carrots are great choices. As are carrots and potatoes. They'll feed a lot of hungry people and look impressive when placed on the table.
Like Boston Market. Only cheaper.
(BTW, I think the 97c/lb Farmer John Hams are a pretty good at Fresh and Easy. They contain a fair amount of water weight, but freeze well and will make good dinners and sandwiches in the months to come. These are also limit 2. If Fresh and Easy has a new coupon out, you can save a few dollars on the total sale. Check at Pinching Your Pennies, or the store site for a coupon.)
In Albertson's last week, I saw a sign promising a price match on the 59c/lb turkeys. Hopefully, that continues into this week and up thru Thanksgiving.
The easiest way to prepare turkey during the year is to boil it. That's why I prefer smaller turkeys, or to have the butcher saw it in half for me when I purchase it. Add onion, sage, thyme and rosemary and let it simmer for a long time. Lift it onto a plate and let the cooking liquid, aka broth, cool. Skim any obvious scum off the top of the broth. When cool, strain it through a clean tea towel, then freeze or can in smaller quantities to use as needed.
Pull the meat from the turkey. The white meat can be sliced as needed for sandwiches and the dark meat frozen or canned for use in pot pies.
Does making pot pie sound scary? It's not. It's easy and requires very little from you beyond keeping an eye the pot doesn't boil over and you have enough freezer containers or canning supplies. Pot pies are a cinch to make. If pastry dough frightens you, use Pillsbury tube biscuits as an easy substitute. Roll them flat, lay them in the pie plate, add the meat, sprinkle some seasonings, spoon it over with some bechamel sauce and lay another flattened tube biscuit on top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until it browns.
Does Bechamel Sauce sound fancy? It's not. Bechamel is a fancy name for a basic white sauce. Mush softened butter into some flour with a fork. Heat on a low (I mean LOW) saucepan until the butter melts. keep it moving with a wooden spatula. Drizzle in some milk. That means a little at a time. Keep on stirring for about 20 minutes. That's the time needed for the flour to lose the 'raw' flavor. This is a great task to put a tween or teen on, especially if you tell them you don't care if they talk to their friends on the cellphone while they do it. As the flour cooks, it will thicken. If it's too thick, add a little more milk. If it's too thin, add the teeniest amount of flour. Salt and Pepper to taste.
Voila! Bechamel Sauce.
I like pot pies because they are good vehicles for using leftovers. Broccoli and carrots are great choices. As are carrots and potatoes. They'll feed a lot of hungry people and look impressive when placed on the table.
Like Boston Market. Only cheaper.
(BTW, I think the 97c/lb Farmer John Hams are a pretty good at Fresh and Easy. They contain a fair amount of water weight, but freeze well and will make good dinners and sandwiches in the months to come. These are also limit 2. If Fresh and Easy has a new coupon out, you can save a few dollars on the total sale. Check at Pinching Your Pennies, or the store site for a coupon.)
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Correction: Or why lately I avoid Fry's markets
59c/lb for Jenni-O turkey is an amazing price. With great pride, Fry's advertised this price in the upper left corner of this week's ad in Great Big Print and declaring:
Jennie-O Grade A Frozen Turkeys 10-20 lb Average 59c lb with Card.
Okay, so you see this with a picture of a beautifully roasted turkey on the front of Fry's ad, how much do you think this turkey costs?
You'd be wrong.
This turkey is actually $1.39/lb. There is no discount because underneath all of that in fine print even finer than the fine print at the bottom of the ad informing us that Fry's reserves the right to correct all printed errors, Fry's states 'Limit 1 per customer with additional $25.00 purchase.'
Go ahead. Look. Bring a magnifying glass.
I found out this morning. I zipped into Fry's on my way to Pro's Ranch Market to pick up a single turkey which I hoped to defrost and make for dinner tonight. There was nothing on the turkey display case indicating special pricing on the turkey, so I asked the guy in the meat shop. He pointed to the Jennie-O's and told me those were the sale turkeys. The discount did not come off at the register. The cashier couldn't figure it out, it was her first turkey of the day.
Was it the wrong turkey? No.
Was it the wrong-sized turkey? No.
Had I swiped my shopper's card? Yes.
She called the meat guy down and together they checked the ad, checked the turkey, checked the ad, checked the turkey...until the cashier spotted the 'Limit 1' fine print nonsense.
Yeah, the disclaimer is there, albeit in the micro-print, but this situation illustrates the reason I haven't purchased anything at Fry's in months. They tell me a price in Really Big Print, then tell me in much smaller print I can't get that price unless I buy six things I don't want, turn two cartwheels down the cereal aisle, then serenade the customers in Starbucks with 'America the Beautiful' in falsetto.
It may not be false advertising exactly, but it leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.
My deepest apologies. My eyes are not what they used to be, but even now, knowing that micro-print is there, I can barely see it.
I'll get a turkey tomorrow, when the honeycrisps are 88c/lb. I'll purchase enough to get the turkey and shake the dust from my sandals as I exit their doorway.
And I suppose I should change the title of the previous post from 'How to Read a Grocery Ad' to 'How to Read Every Grocery Ad EXCEPT Fry's'.
This is why I like Food City and Basha's and Pro's Ranch Market. when their ad says 59c/lb, they actually mean that I'm paying 59c/lb.
SAVE on Your Thanksgiving Turkey Count on Fry's Famous Low Prices for your Thanksgiving Day feast. From now through Thanksgiving, Jennie-O grade A frozen turkeys are only 59c per pound. That means you can plan a mouthwatering holiday meal that's easier on your budget.Then in even bigger type (and bolded), Fry's prints:
Jennie-O Grade A Frozen Turkeys 10-20 lb Average 59c lb with Card.
Okay, so you see this with a picture of a beautifully roasted turkey on the front of Fry's ad, how much do you think this turkey costs?
You'd be wrong.
This turkey is actually $1.39/lb. There is no discount because underneath all of that in fine print even finer than the fine print at the bottom of the ad informing us that Fry's reserves the right to correct all printed errors, Fry's states 'Limit 1 per customer with additional $25.00 purchase.'
Go ahead. Look. Bring a magnifying glass.
I found out this morning. I zipped into Fry's on my way to Pro's Ranch Market to pick up a single turkey which I hoped to defrost and make for dinner tonight. There was nothing on the turkey display case indicating special pricing on the turkey, so I asked the guy in the meat shop. He pointed to the Jennie-O's and told me those were the sale turkeys. The discount did not come off at the register. The cashier couldn't figure it out, it was her first turkey of the day.
Was it the wrong turkey? No.
Was it the wrong-sized turkey? No.
Had I swiped my shopper's card? Yes.
She called the meat guy down and together they checked the ad, checked the turkey, checked the ad, checked the turkey...until the cashier spotted the 'Limit 1' fine print nonsense.
Yeah, the disclaimer is there, albeit in the micro-print, but this situation illustrates the reason I haven't purchased anything at Fry's in months. They tell me a price in Really Big Print, then tell me in much smaller print I can't get that price unless I buy six things I don't want, turn two cartwheels down the cereal aisle, then serenade the customers in Starbucks with 'America the Beautiful' in falsetto.
It may not be false advertising exactly, but it leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.
My deepest apologies. My eyes are not what they used to be, but even now, knowing that micro-print is there, I can barely see it.
I'll get a turkey tomorrow, when the honeycrisps are 88c/lb. I'll purchase enough to get the turkey and shake the dust from my sandals as I exit their doorway.
And I suppose I should change the title of the previous post from 'How to Read a Grocery Ad' to 'How to Read Every Grocery Ad EXCEPT Fry's'.
This is why I like Food City and Basha's and Pro's Ranch Market. when their ad says 59c/lb, they actually mean that I'm paying 59c/lb.
How to Read a Grocery Ad
Grocery ads are not like really good novels. You don’t have
to read the whole thing. A glance at the first and last pages is enough to get
the goods on the best real food deals a store has to offer. For the inner
pages, there are plenty of websites such as Pinching Your Pennies that detail
the really good coupon matchups (as well as the not-so-good ones. Be
discriminating.), usually in the day or two before the ad actually comes out.
Grocery store owners want you to come into their store. They
know you are busy and they know you have choices, so, like a headline in a
newspaper, they lead with their best story. They want to grab your attention,
lure you into the store even though those First Page Items represent a
financial loss to them. That is why those front page items are referred to as ‘Loss
Leaders’.
Loss Leaders are the hook,
the items you find on the perimeter of a store in the fresh food areas. Once the store hooks you, they’ll lure you
into the inner pages of the ad, or the inner aisles of the store, promising you
cheap, processed calories at prices that often aren’t all that much lower than
the regular price for the item.
Resist. Be savvy. Don’t be embarrassed to walk into every
one of those stores, purchase only their loss leaders and depart. Getting a
good deal on one item does not require you purchase all your groceries there. There’s
no law that states you have to purchase
one item more than the absolute very best deals when you do your weekly
shopping.
That’s the essence of stockpiling. Buy low and in bulk,
enjoy the savings for months to come.
1.
Smaller turkeys are usually more tender and have
better flavor
2.
Smaller turkeys are more likely to be cooked
like big chickens, rather than reserved for once a year holidays
3.
Smaller turkeys are easier to freeze and take
much less time to defrost.
4.
I can debone and process a smaller turkey more
easily than I can a larger turkey
Here’s
a fun tidbit I learned least year. The store butcher will saw a frozen turkey
in half for you. Take advantage of this service. It makes cooking, deboning, processing
and freezing that much easier. Remember the blog post I did on DeboningChicken? The process for a turkey is much the same, but instead of yielding
small filets, will yield entire boneless turkey roasts, such as demonstrated in
this video:
and
in this series of videos:
The
bones, of course, will yield gallons and gallons of turkey stock. At 59c/lb, a
15 pound turkey costs $8.85 and, with a little ingenuity, will feed your family
for days. Fill your freezer.
And
for those of you who just aren’t all that ‘into’ turkey. Your dogs and cats are. Boil them whole, pull the meat from the bone, give the stock to your
neighbor and freeze the meat in
reasonably sized portions.
Other
items worth purchasing this week:
Pro’s
Ranch Wednesday Produce deals:
Oranges
5 lbs – 99c. Think cheap, fresh juice, and lots of good snacking. Or maybe even
Turkey l’orange.
Limes
4 lbs – 99c. These would be great cooking with turkey also.
Bananas
25c/lb – always a staple. Banana/orange smoothie anyone?
The produce ad for the Glendale Ave store is here.
Note the cheap apples and watermelon.
Food
City Wednesday/and week produce deals:
4
lbs tomatoes 99c. – Think cheap and fresh tomato gravy, which is a no effort
item to make yourself. Here's how: Cut up the tomatoes and cook in a pot with a little bit
of water. Add herbs to taste. Stir on occasion. Ladle over pasta.
Cucumbers
are 11c/each. Along with the tomatoes, sounds like chopped salad to me. Today only,
zucchini is 20c/lb.
Apples and Onions are also cheap cheap today. Celery is Cheap all week. This all sounds delicious chopped into a roast turkey salad.
Of note: Fry’s has their Halloween Deals tomorrow evening
(10/27) from 3pm to 9pm. The only item which sent my heart a-flutter were the
Honeycrisp apples at 88c/lb. Honeycrisp are scrumptious and make amazing
applesauce. I’ll be in the produce aisle at 3 pm bagging up and carting out
pounds and pounds of them with a big
smile on my face.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
What $50 looks like at The Stockpile
Food City had a good-looking ad this week. I pick up the super-specials:
8 avocados, $1.98
6 lbs Bartlett pears $1.98 (Wednesday only)
6 lbs dried pinto beans $2.94
Total Food City: $7
at Pro's Ranch, I purchased
15 lbs bananas
1 lb lunchmeat ham
1.25 lbs guava candy - this is a jellied guava. I don't know if they add sugar or not. It's pretty sweet and a refreshing dessert. I like it with a glass of milk.
3 lbs regular-sized limes
3 paks 40ct yellow corn tortillas still warm from the press
1 lb fresh crema con sal
3 pumpkins - small, but not tiny. I'm hoping they're meaty for cooking.
1.25 lbs monterrey jack cheese
2-24 rolls of toilet paper
Total at Pro's Ranch - $33
Total grocery today - $40
Aside from the lunchmeat ham, there's no meat in this order. I have plenty in the deep freeze and no place to store more. To take this to $50, I'd buy two 10 lb bags of chicken legs at Food City for $5.90 each.
I'm annoyed at myself because I meant to purchase yams for 33c/lb at Pro's Ranch and I forgot. How good would mashed yams be this week? If I'm near a Pro's Ranch on another day, I'll duck in and pick some up.
Looking at that list, tortillas piled high with pintos, avocado and crema or monterrey jack and avocado is a no-brainer. But how about fried banana and a thinly sliced pear on a tortilla? The beans are the stock up item. They're 49c/lb at Food City this week, limit 6 lbs. If you pass by a Food City in your travels, it is worth ducking in a few times to purchase your limit. One pound of dried beans provides 10 regular servings and five really big servings. With the added chicken, there's plenty of food here to feed a family of good eaters for a week. If you don't think there's enough produce, switch out on of the packs of toilet paper - $3.99, for an equivalent amount in fruit and veggies at either grocery store.
Happy eating!
8 avocados, $1.98
6 lbs Bartlett pears $1.98 (Wednesday only)
6 lbs dried pinto beans $2.94
Total Food City: $7
at Pro's Ranch, I purchased
15 lbs bananas
1 lb lunchmeat ham
1.25 lbs guava candy - this is a jellied guava. I don't know if they add sugar or not. It's pretty sweet and a refreshing dessert. I like it with a glass of milk.
3 lbs regular-sized limes
3 paks 40ct yellow corn tortillas still warm from the press
1 lb fresh crema con sal
3 pumpkins - small, but not tiny. I'm hoping they're meaty for cooking.
1.25 lbs monterrey jack cheese
2-24 rolls of toilet paper
Total at Pro's Ranch - $33
Total grocery today - $40
Aside from the lunchmeat ham, there's no meat in this order. I have plenty in the deep freeze and no place to store more. To take this to $50, I'd buy two 10 lb bags of chicken legs at Food City for $5.90 each.
I'm annoyed at myself because I meant to purchase yams for 33c/lb at Pro's Ranch and I forgot. How good would mashed yams be this week? If I'm near a Pro's Ranch on another day, I'll duck in and pick some up.
Looking at that list, tortillas piled high with pintos, avocado and crema or monterrey jack and avocado is a no-brainer. But how about fried banana and a thinly sliced pear on a tortilla? The beans are the stock up item. They're 49c/lb at Food City this week, limit 6 lbs. If you pass by a Food City in your travels, it is worth ducking in a few times to purchase your limit. One pound of dried beans provides 10 regular servings and five really big servings. With the added chicken, there's plenty of food here to feed a family of good eaters for a week. If you don't think there's enough produce, switch out on of the packs of toilet paper - $3.99, for an equivalent amount in fruit and veggies at either grocery store.
Happy eating!
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Instant Breakfast
My very first Extreme Couponing score was about 4 years ago, in my early weeks of couponing. Fry's was running a sale that made cereal $1.00/box when you purchased four. After purchase, a coupon spit out of the catalina machine offering $4 off 4 boxes of cereal. Not sure the details are exact, but that's pretty close. The store limited me to one transaction per shopping trip. I had coupons clipped from the paper which made the first four boxes about $2 total. After that, the cereal was free.
I passed a lot of Fry's stores in my daily commutes, and I ducked into every single one of them every single time I passed them. I did that all week, squirreling the boxes in my pantry, certain every time I walked out of the store, buzzers would sound, lights would flash and I'd find Phoenix's Finest waiting in the parking lot with handcuffs and a copy of my Miranda rights. They didn't. It was legal and legit and it yielded me something close to 200 boxes of cereal.
I was hooked. Sometimes, in the years that followed, boxed cereal would end up free, but never as free as it was in those heady weeks when I first discovered the power of coupon clipping. I got lots of other stuff free over those years - Toaster Strudels and granola bars, sweet rolls in a tube and Pop Tarts.
Fast forward to present day. Those 200 boxes of cereal are long-ago eaten or donated, and cereal hasn't been free with coupons for a very long time. Weird thing about clipping coupons, having purchased an item for free, I find it difficult to shell out cold hard cash for it in the future. The kids ate their way through the Cocoa Puffs, Fruity Pebbles and Cap'n Crunch, their expressions becoming more forlorn as they worked their way down through the Honey Bunches of Oats and Frosted Mini-Wheats until all that remained were Plain Cheerios, Shredded Wheat and Grape-Nuts.
The kids turned up their noses and ate leftovers for breakfast. They grabbed bananas, ate the occasional poached egg, begged off their friends and complained they were HUNGRY.
I didn't care. I'd read the ingredients list on all those boxes of free cereal, those free rolls of sweet biscuits, those free sugared fruit-filled pies and came to a conclusion: I'd overpaid. The kids weren't hungry, they were jonesing. In my desire to take the grocery receipt to zero, I was feeding my kids a daily sugar fix sprinkled with rice powder.
Time to go all old-fashioned on their backsides. I broke out the oatmeal. I jazzed it with fruit and nuts and plenty of honey. Most days, my husband and I were the only ones eating it, but in time, the kids came around. The Battle of Breakfast was over.
Today, I buy our oat groats in bulk at the Honeyville Grain store in Chandler. The non-sale price on a 50 pound bag is $32.39. Given a 1-oz serving, the bag provides 800 servings, or enough for 200 days of breakfast for my family of four.
I cook the groats once a week in my slow cooker. I use my slap-chop to cut the apples and walnuts and almonds into bite-sized pieces. I add raisins and cranberries, sometimes a dollop of vanilla. Non-fat powdered milk powder provides additional protein, as well as a rich creaminess and enough natural sweetness, when coupled with the fruit, that added honey or agave nectar isn't always necessary. Prep time is about five minutes.
I store the concoction in mason jars in the fridge and every morning the kids scoop what they want into a bowl, add a little regular milk and eat happy.
Aside from the money, here's what I save by doing breakfast the old-fashioned way:
1) Hours spent clipping coupons and analyzing store ads to find the deals.
2) Time and gas expended ducking in and out of stores to purchase the deals.
3) Guilt over feeding my kids bowls of sugar instead of bowls of nutrition.
4) Pounds of cardboard cereal boxes clogging my recycling bin - the groats come in a single recyclable paper bag.
5) Acres of shelf space in my pantry on which I can store more nutritious options for my family.
Honeyville Grains sells online, but the prices in their retail locations are far cheaper. Retail stores are located in Utah and California. The Arizona location is in Chandler, an easy trip from both Phoenix and Tucson, and one well-worth making. Honeyville in Chandler does sales twice a month. Get on their mailing list. You won't regret it.
I passed a lot of Fry's stores in my daily commutes, and I ducked into every single one of them every single time I passed them. I did that all week, squirreling the boxes in my pantry, certain every time I walked out of the store, buzzers would sound, lights would flash and I'd find Phoenix's Finest waiting in the parking lot with handcuffs and a copy of my Miranda rights. They didn't. It was legal and legit and it yielded me something close to 200 boxes of cereal.
I was hooked. Sometimes, in the years that followed, boxed cereal would end up free, but never as free as it was in those heady weeks when I first discovered the power of coupon clipping. I got lots of other stuff free over those years - Toaster Strudels and granola bars, sweet rolls in a tube and Pop Tarts.
Fast forward to present day. Those 200 boxes of cereal are long-ago eaten or donated, and cereal hasn't been free with coupons for a very long time. Weird thing about clipping coupons, having purchased an item for free, I find it difficult to shell out cold hard cash for it in the future. The kids ate their way through the Cocoa Puffs, Fruity Pebbles and Cap'n Crunch, their expressions becoming more forlorn as they worked their way down through the Honey Bunches of Oats and Frosted Mini-Wheats until all that remained were Plain Cheerios, Shredded Wheat and Grape-Nuts.
The kids turned up their noses and ate leftovers for breakfast. They grabbed bananas, ate the occasional poached egg, begged off their friends and complained they were HUNGRY.
I didn't care. I'd read the ingredients list on all those boxes of free cereal, those free rolls of sweet biscuits, those free sugared fruit-filled pies and came to a conclusion: I'd overpaid. The kids weren't hungry, they were jonesing. In my desire to take the grocery receipt to zero, I was feeding my kids a daily sugar fix sprinkled with rice powder.
Time to go all old-fashioned on their backsides. I broke out the oatmeal. I jazzed it with fruit and nuts and plenty of honey. Most days, my husband and I were the only ones eating it, but in time, the kids came around. The Battle of Breakfast was over.
Today, I buy our oat groats in bulk at the Honeyville Grain store in Chandler. The non-sale price on a 50 pound bag is $32.39. Given a 1-oz serving, the bag provides 800 servings, or enough for 200 days of breakfast for my family of four.
I cook the groats once a week in my slow cooker. I use my slap-chop to cut the apples and walnuts and almonds into bite-sized pieces. I add raisins and cranberries, sometimes a dollop of vanilla. Non-fat powdered milk powder provides additional protein, as well as a rich creaminess and enough natural sweetness, when coupled with the fruit, that added honey or agave nectar isn't always necessary. Prep time is about five minutes.
I store the concoction in mason jars in the fridge and every morning the kids scoop what they want into a bowl, add a little regular milk and eat happy.
Aside from the money, here's what I save by doing breakfast the old-fashioned way:
1) Hours spent clipping coupons and analyzing store ads to find the deals.
2) Time and gas expended ducking in and out of stores to purchase the deals.
3) Guilt over feeding my kids bowls of sugar instead of bowls of nutrition.
4) Pounds of cardboard cereal boxes clogging my recycling bin - the groats come in a single recyclable paper bag.
5) Acres of shelf space in my pantry on which I can store more nutritious options for my family.
Honeyville Grains sells online, but the prices in their retail locations are far cheaper. Retail stores are located in Utah and California. The Arizona location is in Chandler, an easy trip from both Phoenix and Tucson, and one well-worth making. Honeyville in Chandler does sales twice a month. Get on their mailing list. You won't regret it.
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