Stocking Up On a Budget

by Elizabeth on March 13, 2010 · 2 comments

in Frugality, Grocery shopping, How Tos


This weekend is one of my local grocery store’s warehouse sale. This isn’t a store I frequent very often because I find it to be a little more expensive, but it’s just down the road and is usually where we stop by when we need just one or two things. While there prices are usually higher, I still check the circulars every week looking for good deals, especially on meat.

Meat is the most expensive thing we buy and I’m always on the lookout for great deals. We take advantage of the warehouse sale because we can stock up on many items without breaking the bank. This weekend we were able to buy:

  • 12 beef tenderloin steaks
  • 3 pounds extra lean ground chuck
  • 7 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 8 pounds russet potatoes
  • 12 pack of Diet Dr. Pepper

We spent $86.00 on these items. That may seem like a lot, but all the meat will last for months in the freezer. As soon as we got home, Mom and I portioned out the steaks and the chicken into freezer bags so only what we need for dinner will get defrosted. I was really excited about the chicken since it was $1.99 a pound. That’s the lowest price on chicken around here and whenever I find that price, I stock up. (That would explain why there are 10 bags of chicken in my freezer.) I was most excited about the potatoes because all 8 pounds only cost – get this – 99¢!! I’ve never seen potatoes that cheap. Given that an individual russet potato is usually 79¢ or more, this was the best deal by far. I would have bought more, except we don’t eat tons of potatoes and I’m going to have to work extra hard to plan meals around potatoes and/or make and freeze tons of mashed potatoes.

Obviously the steaks were the most expensive. I’m not a huge fan of steak, but my parents are. We try to limit how much red meat we eat, both for health reasons and because it can be very expensive. Finding really great steaks (and they really are amazing cuts of meat; even I like them) at a such a great price is great and it’s worth stocking up on. They will last for months in the freezer and we can enjoy steak whenever we want.

Besides the warehouse sale, I use the circulars that come in the paper as a guide to let me know what to stock up on. For example, my usual grocery store has my favorite brand of pasta on BOGO, so I plan on running out to pick up some. In this house there is no such thing as to much pasta! I also like to stock up on soup; when a sale is combined with a coupon, good deals are going to happen! I’m always on the lookout for flour sales since I bake so much. I know that flour usually goes on sale around the holidays, and with Easter just around the corner, I’m hoping to see flour on sale soon!

Do you stock up? What do you like to buy in larger quantities?

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

1 darksideofthefridge March 16, 2010 at 4:03 pm

We like to stock up like that too – I have a "budget" for groceries, and every two weeks (our pay cycle), whatever's left, we transfer to a separate envelope. When we come across a good sale, we have the cash to stock up.

Last fall, a local butchershop had their "black Friday" sale – we stood in line the day after Thanksgiving and ended up with a whole beef strip loin (divided it into a roast beef and several steaks), about 10 ribeye steaks (straight into the freezer) and a standing rib roast for Christmas dinner for the whole family – all for just over $100.

Yeah, I love to stock up, too. 🙂

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