Holy Snarkers!!

[Hound dog]

I made my somewhat monthly trip to aldi's today. It is "somewhat" because sometimes I am lucky and can make 2 trips a month with easy child.

I didn't buy much.

2 flour
2 sugar
1 can shortening
2 pkg of pop tarts
1 box ice cream cones for ice cream
1 carton eggs
1 gallon milk
1 bag of rice
2 cans of beef stew
1 tub of real butter
1 loaf of bread
1 box of saltines
1 box of powdered milk
2 containers of koolaide mix (sugar included)
Total= 41.00



Now granted had I just went out and bought these items elsewhere it would've been much more than that, especially if I didn't look for sales/coupons. But holy moly! That is really not much for 41.00 when the powdered milk alone is 6.99!

Notice these are nearly all staple type foods. No real "luxury" items except maybe the koolaide and the ice cream cups........but hey, the koolaide is cheaper by far than soda and for Travis it is pretty much lemonaide, koolaide or soda........so I pick the cheapest one.

This is my end of the month I have extra left over food money........let's stock up on staples trip.

Later today a local market has ground beef at 2.19 lb and I'm stocking up on that too. I'm rather thrilled kroger had their packages of leg quarters priced at .59 cents a pound......I bought 20 lbs and those will be cut up and go into the freezer today. Their whole chickens were like .88 lb and I went ahead and picked up one of those two.

I also grabbed an application for aldi's while I was in there. Turns out they're hiring. Yay! I'd love to work there. I can drop the completed app off on my way to Nichole's this weekend. No wasted gas.

Katie is having a terrible time of it. I want to take her to aldis but it would have to be in my car and I can't afford the gas to make an extra trip. M has been cut down to 1 day a week so they really can't spare the cash to help me with gas for an extra trip either. I do know she is trying hard to ration food for meals to last the month. But I also know she still hates to walk so much that M is doing the bulk of the buying and he pays little or no attention to her list and will impulse buy like crazy.....which really hurts when you're trying to make food stamps stretch with high prices. Aldis is often cheaper and better quality than sav a lot, which she has about a block away........but the girl is going to have to get up off her backside and do the shopping. Although I am considering letting her do a little shopping in my pantry. I need some more inventory used. Most food can go long past the expiration dates or use by dates and be just fine but anything with tomato in it I'm not so apt to push my luck too far. And I have a LOT of spagetti sauce stacked in there. Got it on several sales for next to nothing. But Travis and I don't eat it up fast enough.

Also did get a great idea for her for xmas. Those shopping carts on wheels. Wish to heck I'd have thought of it earlier. I spotted a young neighbor couple returning from the store with theirs piled high with groceries. I checked and walmart sells them cheapest one is 20.00! I know that would help her get their groceries back home. The apartment complex is located about midway up a steep hill which means either direction she walks she is going to be forced to walk up a steep hill either coming or going. I've walked it many times over 4 yrs and it's not a pleasant walk.

Still can't get over that I paid that much for so little at aldis. omg I just kept staring at it thinking really?? really?? Didn't help I hit krogers sale this week and for 60.00 walked out with a cartload including that 20 plus pounds of chicken.

At this rate I'll be doing all my cooking in my solar oven, washing my clothes on my washboard and hanging them out to dry (already doing the clothes line), and sitting at night with oil lamps burning just to save some extra bucks for food and gas. sheesh I can't cut down much more without doing without utilities all together. Internet I have to keep on so I can job hunt.

 

[AnnieO]

Trust me, I know. Amount of food I buy has dropped drastically since Onyxx left, and I am using a lot of coupons, but I'm paying more. UGH.

I wish Aldis or Sav-a-lot was close. There are two within 10 miles of home (1 each) but... Unless I'm going in that direction, and I am usually not...

 

[Liahona]

I sympathize.

 

[Californiablonde]

I have never heard of Aldi's. I used to do my grocery shopping at Walmart because they were much cheaper than grocery stores. Since we moved it's a half hour drive so I stopped going. Wasting gas money just to go there isn't worth it so I shop at a local Target instead. Target isn't as cheap as Walmart but it's still less expensive than the grocery stores around here. I am taking easy child three weekends in a row this month plus two full weeks at the end of the month so my grocery bill is going to skyrocket. I asked his dad for some help but he says no so I will have to make do with what I can. Grocery prices are ridiculous nowadays. I wonder how some of these people with three or more kids manage but I guess they make it work somehow.

 

[Liahona]

We eat a lot of oatmeal, rice, beans, everything homemade, have a garden, anything to save money on food. husband is a great cook and will cook a big batch of rice with meat and veggies in it. We'll eat that at least once a day for meals for a week. For some reason canned fruit is cheaper than fresh. Our biggest expense right now is diapers and wipes. I know I could do cloth, but I really don't want to. I might have to though.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Cloth diapers... are NOT cheap to get into. We did it. I don't regret it. But it IS a pile of work, and up-front expense... I had two in diapers at the same time.

 

[AnnieO]

The cloth diapers they sell now are not nearly as thick as when I was a baby. They soak through really fast. I did a cost comparison and with the bigger loads of washing, it's about even.

Do you belong to Sams Club?

 

[Hound dog]

Depends on how you wash those diapers. lol But then I grew up washing them that way and hanging them on the line.......so, yeah. lol Liahona if you have aldis near you their diapers and wipes are really cheap and good. That might be an option.

CB do an online search for aldi stores, you might be surprised and there will be one in your area. They are all over the place.

I seriously can't afford walmart or target. I so rarely step inside walmart these days that I forget where things are. Step a once a month good stock up trip to aldi's should not hurt you that much in gas. easy child and I are driving twice as far one way to do so. It more than pays for itself in the end. But if gas prices go up too much more........then it may be sav a lot and there are just so much of their items I won't buy due to quality reasons that I will have to rethink things. At kroger I only buy the sale items that make it cheaper than aldi or things I can't get at aldi but I can at kroger on sale with coupon to help with cost. Kroger and our local market (mom & pop type) I use mainly for meat.........sometimes I can get good meat at sav a lot for a steal but I will not buy aldi meat unless it is name brand. I've have some bad experiences.

I can't wait until my garden starts producing. That will help a LOT. And I already make nearly everything from scratch.......it won't be long before I am making everything from scratch but I have to use the stuff I have in the pantry first and that is going to take a long while to work through.

Gas went back down here to 3.68 a gallon and I hurried and filled the tank and the gas can for the mower. Rumor has it that it is going to shoot back up again. I was on empty driving on fumes......so I wasn't missing the opportunity. Gas can gas will last probably the rest of the summer. The bulk of the mowing I do with the man powered push mower. Takes longer but it is free to use. It just helps if it stops raining long enough I can get out to use it before the grass jumps 6 inches. ugh Car gas (unless I'm lucky and get a job) will last at least 3 months. Don't care, still hurt to have it cost 40.00 just to fill the tank. ouch

Those with children........I empathize. If you don't know how to make much from scratch........start hunting inexpensive recipes online and start. By "from scratch" I mean don't pick up a box of instant mashed potatoes..........peel your own and mash them yourself. Don't grab a bag of egg noodles.........get a recipe and make your own. Bake your own bread (about .25 cents a loaf as opposed to what at least 1.00 at the best price?)

 

[greenrene]

I looooooooove Aldi! There's one 2 miles from my house. It's great for staples, and I like a lot of their rotating merchandise too - this past week they had a really cool thing for the road trip we're on - it's rectangular container that has a soft-sided cooler built in, perfect for snacks and drinks in the van.

 

[Dixies_fire]

We don't have an aldi's anywhere close every time I venture out of my little corner of Colorado Springs seems like it cost me 1/4 of a tank of gas or more, so much so that I have set up my trip to get the kids for the same day I have to go to wic since I have to go to that side of town anyway. And I have a four cylinder SUV, not quite as efficient as a 4 cylinder car but I also have 3 kids need space that a car just doesn't give me. So the SUV is worth it or it will be when it's paid off! I will never ever buy a car with a car payment again. It's my first I felt like I deserved it after I deployed, never again!

Anyway.
I make most of our snacky food from scratch and about all of our food food. I do not have a good recipe for sandwich bread so I pay .99 cent at Safeway buy four and put two in my deep freezer. We also do buy soda which only lasts a few days and after that we drink sweet tea which is helping my waist line slowly when we don't have soda which is most of the time. It's .99 cent if you buy four with the card also at Safeway cheaper then a twenty ounce. Flour at Walmart the store brand is about a dollar twenty cheaper then buying it at the commissary and so were tea bags. It had been literally about six months since we went to Walmart because they price gouge here, there prices largely are based off of the economy which has a higher price of living here, but we went "just to look" and get out of the house and I found sugar, flour and tea bags at a big difference in price also soda was cheapish there too, it's never really cheap unless you drink off brand which I don't. The fels naphtha soap is .99 a bar and the laundry soda is 4.95 for a big box for the home made soap. I wouldn't buy anything else there though. Meat is cheaper at the commissary so that's where I shop for that. When I move I'm going to be looking for a butcher though even though there are many many many cheaper stores in Tulsa but I lived there almost a decade ago so things may have changed somewhat. Prices seem to have increased at least here two to three times what I was paying five years ago before I enlisted but i also lived in the south where agriculture is the thing. But judging off of rent prices in Oklahoma they only seemed to have barely doubled compared to here. So I'm hopeful.

 

[AnnieO]

When I lived in Tulsa I went to Sav-a-Lot and Reasor's. I only was there for about 7 months and it was sticker shock because I'd shopped at the commissary for so long.

 

[Dixies_fire]

The commissary here is even over priced in my opinion, I'm hoping it doesn't give me a heart attack when I no longer have that option when I was young and lived there we shopped at warehouse market and aldi's

 

[Hound dog]

Dixie Nichole has a fabulous sandwich bread recipe.........cost about .25 cents per loaf maybe less. I'll try to get it for you and PM it to you

 

[Dixies_fire]

Hound dog- that would rock! Thanks

 

[KTMom91]

I should be canning and preserving stuff...we have great farmer's markets and I have the stuff to can with.

Hubby and I just spent $200 at Walmart for food and other stuff to last the next two weeks. Cat food, cat litter, all the stuff that is taxed add up more than the food it seems.

 

[Pink Elephant]

Cloth diapers... are NOT cheap to get into. We did it. I don't regret it. But it IS a pile of work, and up-front expense... I had two in diapers at the same time.

What year were you dealing with cloth diapers in your home? When my kids were babies (1980's), cloth diapers were super cheap.

I don't remember the exact cost of everything that I used, but plain flat cotton diapers (12 in a pack) were under $10, and rubber pants and pins were next to nothing. A plastic diaper pail, and my kids had diapers until they were toilet trained.

All could be had for under $50, and the diapers lasted through two kids when line-dried. Aside from the rubber pants, which needed replacing as the kid grew or when they got old or tore, that was the only ongoing expense I had to contend with when using cloth diapers.

I recall the old-fashioned metal-capped diaper pins were the sharpest, the ones where the outer safety-cap slid and clipped down over the latch-head of the pin so said child couldn't undo them.

I'd wait for Baby Week when rubber pants would go on sale, and I'd hit the store first thing Monday morning and buy 2-3 packs, which lasted for months. Hand-washing the rubber pants and hanging them out on the line to dry with the diapers extended the life of them.

Two in diapers at a time in our house, too, which made for a strong case for the use of rubber pants and cloth.

 

[BusynMember]

This is really old. The posters aren't here anymore.

 

[Pink Elephant]

This is really old. The posters aren't here anymore.

What a shame.

 

[AppleCori]

The only thing I used cloth diapers for was putting one on my shoulder in case of baby spit-ups!

 

[Pink Elephant]

The only thing I used cloth diapers for was putting one on my shoulder in case of baby spit-ups!

Apple. I did that, too! What could more simple or practical. We were old-fashioned moms, you and I.

Remember doing the same when burping my baby sibs. Aside from the obvious, cloth diapers doubled as both burp cloths and bibs (when needed) in our house.

I remember burping as a babysitter, too, and I always used a cloth diaper, and when changing my own children, I'd often reach for a flannelette diaper instead of a baby washcloth. I got more mileage out of a cloth diaper.