# grocery saving update



## sunworship (Mar 15, 2019)

Two months ago I posted about grocery shopping tips in Toronto. We were spending $800-900 a month for two people.

This month we only spent $550!!!

Here is what we changed:

1. I didn't host any elaborate dinners or brunches this month.
2. we started shopping at costco 
3. we meal plan and now go to Costco twice a month and no frills twice a month (right after costco) - before we were at no frills like 1.5 times a week.
4. fewer organics!


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## jeffpicone (Oct 30, 2018)

Thats a huge reduction in grocery costs - Great work! 

I usually shop at Costco as well, but sometimes I find I get more than I need (or things I don't really need) because the prices are just so low. After seeing your post, I'm motivated to get my grocery costs down even more.


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## sunworship (Mar 15, 2019)

jeffpicone said:


> Thats a huge reduction in grocery costs - Great work!
> 
> I usually shop at Costco as well, but sometimes I find I get more than I need (or things I don't really need) because the prices are just so low. After seeing your post, I'm motivated to get my grocery costs down even more.


We don't let loose in Costco. We get specific things (and we shop the discounts) and then fill in the gaps at No Frills for the items we do not need or would go to waste if we bought in bulk.

I was skeptical at first so we gave it two months to try it out and we are shopping less and saving more. It is working for us!

All the best! and good luck with your own grocery bill


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## junior minor (Jun 5, 2019)

I decided to go down the vegan road and tried to shop at bulk barn, which worked wonders. The slashing in cost for some basic stuff is very nice ( buying less honey, for instance, and other goods rather than getting it in a bigger size) not to mention the choice helps for frugality. It also gives me a cleaner conscience not to spend so much on wrapping and containers


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

^. you do still need to know your prices. Neither bulk barn or Costco are always cheaper. I used to do a lot of flyer shopping and only buy when it was a good sale and base my menu on that to reduce costs. I was at one point able to feed 3 adults and 2 kids on about $400 month. Now, it’s a lot more than tha, but I still use the basic principle of building my meals on what is on sale (when I have time) 

Also, vegan is definately not cheaper if you are looking for diary Substitutes. Honey is not consider vegan to some. I personally do not care but my closest friend was vegan and it was difficult for her to make her grocery budget. She switched to vegetarian.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

mountains of sensational local produce at lowest-prices-in-canada on sale here. No wonder the cultural communities are going into canning & pickling frenzy.


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## dotnet_nerd (Jul 1, 2009)

Besides Costco, we find the best supermarket is Superstore. They price-match. 

So not only do they have great deals of their own, but you can benefit from _any _advertised discounts; from the Loblaws family or competing


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## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

There is nothing wrong with trying to spend your money wisely, on groceries or anything else. I do however draw the line at changing what I eat, to save money. If I want to eat a steak tonight, then I will eat a steak tonight.

As the saying goes, 'the pendulum swings' and the point of that is to realize that swinging from one extreme (spending more than you can afford) to another extreme (spending less than you can afford and in the process doing without things you can afford) is equally as bad. If someone is spending more than they can afford on something like groceries, then trying to find ways to reduce that cost makes sense, but not at the expense of eating what you want to eat. 

I'm trying to imagine myself going vegan over being a meat eater, to save money. That's just ridiculous. Finding where I can buy a steak for the lowest price I can find makes sense, not giving up eating steak.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

humble_pie said:


> mountains of sensational local produce at lowest-prices-in-canada on sale here. No wonder the cultural communities are going into canning & pickling frenzy.


I am jealous. I dream of cheap fresh produce during the harvest season. Yet, at our farmers market the prices are at a premium because it is the hipsters and foodies that all go there. I did find some little road side stands on my last road trip where I picked a little fruit basket and left some money in the tin for the honour system. I have to make quite trip for the fresh little stand. Mind you, I did Get to see cows On the farm where we will buy a partial wagyu beef When we have room


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

Longtimeago said:


> There is nothing wrong with trying to spend your money wisely, on groceries or anything else. I do however draw the line at changing what I eat, to save money. If I want to eat a steak tonight, then I will eat a steak tonight.
> 
> As the saying goes, 'the pendulum swings' and the point of that is to realize that swinging from one extreme (spending more than you can afford) to another extreme (spending less than you can afford and in the process doing without things you can afford) is equally as bad. If someone is spending more than they can afford on something like groceries, then trying to find ways to reduce that cost makes sense, but not at the expense of eating what you want to eat.
> 
> I'm trying to imagine myself going vegan over being a meat eater, to save money. That's just ridiculous. Finding where I can buy a steak for the lowest price I can find makes sense, not giving up eating steak.


I found a few years ago that if I watched my grocery spending and WHEN I buy something, I was able to save up 50% in my grocery bills. Our family likes it’s steaks, but I tend to stock in the fall and March when the prices are the best. I can get prime ribs AAA for under $5 a lb where it’s can go up to $14 a lb. We bought 4. Same with beef tenderloins. 

I won’t drastically change my eating to vegetarian for dollar saving, but we will buy what is on sale and make our meals around that along with what I have in my freezer and pantry. I volunteered/participated at a community kitchen where I helped low income people learn to cook and eat cheaper, healthier, ect. I was quite surprised at how many had no clue on how to reduce their grocery bills or cook. The though of shopping the flyers and cooking from scratch was so difficult for them that they choose expensive gross fast food almost every day. Once you learn maybe 20 kitchen skills you could make a majority of things. 

The most interesting thing I learned was that some of the most classic recipes came from times of depression or poor economic times.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

Plugging Along said:


> I am jealous. I dream of cheap fresh produce during the harvest season. Yet, at our farmers market the prices are at a premium because it is the hipsters and foodies that all go there. I did find some little road side stands on my last road trip where I picked a little fruit basket and left some money in the tin for the honour system. I have to make quite trip for the fresh little stand. Mind you, I did Get to see cows On the farm where we will buy a partial wagyu beef When we have room




we've posted something like this before, do you remember yourself & jas4 posting lamb prices & i found the same cuts here in quebec about $2 cheaper per pound (granted that was at a low-cost supermarket though)

even the big chains here seem to have gotten into the identify-with-your-local-farmer crush. In their flyers they publish pictures & bios of the farm families - all within 200 km of montreal - who are supplying their basic vegetables, potatoes, onions, etc

the families are always pictured outside working in their fields, sometimes in front of their barns. There's always a pater familias plus anywhere from 2 to 5 adult offspring. Not all males; plenty of daughters & daughters-in-law are working the family farms today it seems.

these farms highlighted in supermarket flyers are not organic. They are rather mechanized super-farms capable of producing hundreds of tons of carrots, for example, to satisfy the contract demands of a big supermarket chain like Metro or IGA.

these farms do use pesticides. But the farmers also "talk" - in the flyers - about how they're practicing contemporary bio-saving ideas such as rotation of crops. They do say they're cutting down on the amount of pesticide they use. If they have animals, they certainly are composting & using barn sweepings instead of chemical fertilizers.

so Plugging i'm troubled by the paucity of similar findings in your area. I know that if such farms could be found easily, you are one who would have discovered them long ago. The situation you're describing sounds like quebec 30, maybe 40 years ago.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

HP. You are correct we did have this conversation. I am at a constant balance of supporting local farmers and being price conscious. I know I am part of the problem when I shop only based on price, so I have been hung really hard O buy local or at least Canadian if there is a choice, and I will pay more. 

I was part of a farmers coop a few years ago, where families and kids where invited to their farm to see where things were grown, help weed, and pick some of the produce in additions to the weekly in city deliveries. Unfortunately after two years of lousy crops they no longer did the coop and became a part of a larger one. I have friend in agriculture and sales, she visits all farmers for her work knows their practices. She will r commend some to me if there is a coop available, but boy is it a lot of work, so it’s at my big box store I go. 

It is troubling for the farmers, that I worry that we will no longer be able to supply ur own food in Canada. Well, at least there will always be Alberta beef.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

what i was trying to say is that the farm families - parents & adult children - running those mechanized operations for the big supermarket chains are, in fact, supplying produce that is all things. It is fresh. It is local. Increasingly as the years pass, it is as "bio" as the farmers can make it, although they do continue to use pesticides & they haven't yet renounced to all chemicals.

best of all, this kind of produce is incredibly cheap. There's no conflicted choice between fresh, local, bio or else cheap.

right now, for example, local lettuces, romaines & chicories are selling 33 pennies each. Cucumbers & courgettes $.69/lb. Local tomatoes haven't come in yet but they'll be down to same price $.69/lb.

after labour day, for example, the big supermarket chains will be selling 5-pound or 10 pound sacks of carrots, turnips, onions & potatoes for $.10 per pound.

10 cents per pound! where you going to get cheaper than $.10 per pound?

no wonder local kitchens are going crazy w pickling, canning & conserving.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

Sorry HP... misunderstood. 





> after labour day, for example, the big supermarket chains will be selling 5-pound or 10 pound sacks of carrots, turnips, onions & potatoes for $.10 per pound.
> 
> 10 cents per pound! where you going to get cheaper than $.10 per pound?


I am back to my first post to you. I am jealous. I have not seen these types of deals here. We are still at $3 for 5lbs of carrots, even if I bought 50lbs at the wholesaler, it's was still $20. 

My mother was great at finding these deals. When she was still well and able, I remember she found the 'deal of the year'. Tomatoes were $20 a case and she could get 50lbs in the case, but had to pick through every single one. I laughed so hard when she went to the supermarket, picked a 60lbs case, then asked the teenage stock boy to carry out to the car, she went home for snack/lunch. Went back again in the afternoon did it again, then went home to cook dinner for my dad. She did this the next day, and then was driving around to all of our family and close friends house to give them tomatoes. She didn't can but figure someone would and give her some back. I thought I had the bargain hunter bulk gene but I have not been able to find these $.010 pound deals. 

So jealous again.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

Plugging Along said:


> My mother was great at finding these deals. When she was still well and able, I remember she found the 'deal of the year'. Tomatoes were $20 a case and she could get 50lbs in the case, but had to pick through every single one. I laughed so hard when she went to the supermarket, picked a 60lbs case, then asked the teenage stock boy to carry out to the car, she went home for snack/lunch. Went back again in the afternoon did it again, then went home to cook dinner for my dad. She did this the next day, and then was driving around to all of our family and close friends house to give them tomatoes.


love the story





> She didn't can but figure someone would and give her some back.


adore the punchline


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## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

humble_pie said:


> what i was trying to say is that the farm families - parents & adult children - running those mechanized operations for the big supermarket chains are, in fact, supplying produce that is all things. It is fresh. It is local. Increasingly as the years pass, it is as "bio" as the farmers can make it, although they do continue to use pesticides & they haven't yet renounced to all chemicals.
> 
> best of all, this kind of produce is incredibly cheap. There's no conflicted choice between fresh, local, bio or else cheap.
> 
> ...


Are you unaware that root vegetables like carrots, onions and potatoes have gone way up in price after a bad season last year?
https://globalnews.ca/news/5653964/carrots-more-expensive-across-canada/

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1...hUKEwiOysCN_vrjAhUPWs0KHVFPACYQ4dUDCAo&uact=5

I doubt very much you will find supermarkets selling them for 10 cents a pound after Labour Day this year.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Plugging Along said:


> Sorry HP... misunderstood.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Every year in september, grocery store chains sell 10lb bags for $1 of carrots, beets, onions, etc. Similar deals with big boxes of field tomatoes. No Frills does it, I think Superstore and others. Just keep an eye on the flyers. It boggles the mind how food can be produced so cheaply.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

andrewf said:


> Every year in september, grocery store chains sell 10lb bags for $1 of carrots, beets, onions, etc. Similar deals with big boxes of field tomatoes. No Frills does it, I think Superstore and others. Just keep an eye on the flyers. It boggles the mind how food can be produced so cheaply.


Sadly not in my city. I check flyers every week for the last 10 years or so. The best I have seen, which is rare is 10lbs for $2 or $3. I stock up then but it’s still double or triple the cost that you guys mention. I am not complaining, it I wonder why there is such a price difference out west vs out east. Even our beef is often more expensive, and it comes from here. I also check flyer out east just for fun comparison.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

Plugging Along said:


> Sadly not in my city. I check flyers every week for the last 10 years or so. The best I have seen, which is rare is 10lbs for $2 or $3. I stock up then but it’s still double or triple the cost that you guys mention. I am not complaining, it I wonder why there is such a price difference out west vs out east. Even our beef is often more expensive, and it comes from here. I also check flyer out east just for fun comparison.




the 10 cents per pound days are extremely rare - underscore that extremely - in montreal supermarkets. Usually in october. More typical would be $.25 cents per pound for the same basic local root vegetables - carrots, turnips, onions, potatoes, beets - that you are finding now & then in calgary.

25 cents per pound is still a good deal, though, don't u think? no wonder the canning brigade comes out w their sealing jars & their boil water baths. As if they weren't exhausted enough already from doing up all the tomatoes in september.

i've seen a few recipes for beet or carrot hummous. One recently from an iitalian chef in london england, he's doing beet hummous w beets, tahini, ground walnuts, evoo, day-old bread. 

some of his readers posted that they do beet hummous w traditional chick peas, not day-old bread. Worth a thought. Bread or pita would then become a standard dipping item. Me i believe i would incline this way. Would add a mashed clove of garlic too.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

andrewf said:


> It boggles the mind how food can be produced so cheaply.



this is what's nice to hear - that canadians are aware of their farmers' efforts, canadians are grateful

the issue of harvest preservation is important. Most people go for freezers but i had an unfortunate experience w a freezer in the country. Hydro is unreliable in the country so most people have a generator that comes on automatically.

our generator failed though & we arrived one weekend to find that a freezer holding all of the last summer's harvest was done for. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, green beans, broccolis, everything was lost.

ever since i've been interested in non-freezer methods of preservation. The best & least expensive would be 1980's root cellar that he built for his new house in newfoundland a few years ago. A root cellar would hold half to 3/4s of the produce needed to feed a family of four or five.

one could then store the precious fragile berries, leafy chards & spinaches in various freezer locatiions - the country mouse & the city mouse - as a hedge against another generator failure.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

humble_pie said:


> the 10 cents per pound days are extremely rare - underscore that extremely - in montreal supermarkets. Usually in october. More typical would be $.25 cents per pound for the same basic local root vegetables - carrots, turnips, onions, potatoes, beets - that you are finding now & then in calgary.
> 
> 25 cents per pound is still a good deal, though, don't u think? no wonder the canning brigade comes out w their sealing jars & their boil water baths. As if they weren't exhausted enough already from doing up all the tomatoes in september.
> 
> ...


Ahhhh… I took your numbers as literal. I won't complain at $.25 produce when I can get it. I pay much more than that usually, but am fine with it. Canning is one of the skills on my bucket list I have just not had time to learn yet. Last two years, I had a canning date with my friend, but due to emergencies with my parents health, I haven't had time. Maybe this year.

I have made so many different types of hummous. Beets, turnips, carrots -though I like the mix with the beets and carrots or beets and turnips, roasted pepper with chickpea, all fun ways to get extra veggies in my kids. I always add a clove or two of garlic and fresh lemon. If I am doing the root vegetables, I roasted them in coconut oil and roast a whole bulb of garlic, and puree it all together with tahini, lemon juice, and EVOO.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

The 10lbs for $1 is usually a 1x per year loss leader, around harvest time.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

Plugging Along said:


> I have made so many different types of hummous. Beets, turnips, carrots -though I like the mix with the beets and carrots or beets and turnips, roasted pepper with chickpea, all fun ways to get extra veggies in my kids. I always add a clove or two of garlic and fresh lemon. If I am doing the root vegetables, I roasted them in coconut oil and roast a whole bulb of garlic, and puree it all together with tahini, lemon juice, and EVOO.



roasting the veggz first, what a great idea

i don't can though, i have IFOB (irrational fear of botulism)

some folks have bought dehydrators & they slice up their veggz & dry them. I don't have a dehydrator but i've had good luck drying chard, kale, dandelions, mustard leaves, even leeks. Works best if you slice or tear them into mini bite size pieces first


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

HP. I am confused. How could one get botulism from roasting veggies? Or is that Irrational part?

In terms of dehydrating veggies. My mom had a massive garden and she would grow leafy veggies. The t ice she us d from her home land was to briefly blanch them, and then she would hang them up to dry. Yep, on the clothes line, she would even pin them with clothes pins when windy. Just as the veggies where drying but flexible but no longer wet, she would tied them in bundles and continue to dehydrate them in the sun. She found ways to preserve food with no machinery. Though, her canning and pickling was awful. 

The trick I have learned with my herbs is the washed them, take them off the stems and it in a large brown bag, near a window sill and shake them every few days. That’s how I have been drying my herb garden.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

Plugging Along said:


> HP. I am confused. How could one get botulism from roasting veggies? Or is that Irrational part?




so sorry i don't see any confusion

my sentence goes "I don't can though"

"can" refers to the elaborate canning process which you mentioned in detail yourself, i believe in post # 21 upthread, no? ... the word "can" is being used as a verb here ... but i "can" see where its meaning could be ambiguous

canning involves processing/simmering the food material, then packing it into sterilized jars using sterilized tongs & funnels, then applying sterilized lids, then loading the jars into racks in large canning pots where they boil for another 20 minutes to achieve a microbe-free state of preservtion, which can last at room temperature with no refrigeration for a year or more.

but if any of those multiple steps are carried out incorrectly, there is a risk of anaerobic bacteria contamination & deadly botulism "can" ensue.

how scary. I suppose that people who can regularly every summer get used to the amount of labour that's required, plus they know how to avoid all risks.

i've just never gotten into that activity & probably never going to

PS there's another kind of pickling/jamming that's much less work. It calls for small batches, no sterilization but the product has to be stored in refrigerator & eaten up real quick. The short frig life is never a problem since a batch is typically small & delicious, therefore tends to disappear immediately.

i do this kind ^^ of brief frig preserving; but i don't do the heavy duty boil water baths


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

Sorry HP... I had my brain in a different area of roasting not canning. the hamster had fallen asleep on the wheel. Thanks for taking the time to explain to me so slowly. I need that. :excitement:


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

humble_pie said:


> i do this kind ^^ of brief frig preserving; but i don't do the heavy duty boil water baths


My mother used to "put down" a feed of good summer crops. They would be stored in the unfinished basement so probably qualified in between, usually always consumed well before the next summer.

"Put down" versus getting "canned" have much different meanings now.


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

Does anyone know which store chain carries dried beans in large 10-20lb bags, specifically navy beans? I've been on a bit of a baked bean tear lately, but all I can find is 2lb bags next to the specialty rice or the lentils. These cost $3.50 for 2 lbs, kinda pricy. 2lbs is the perfect amount for a batch, but there's no reason I should be able to buy 5+ batches in bulk.

There doesn't seem to be large inexpensive bags anywhere I've looked at the chain grocery stores here. The ethnic indian foods aisle does have a selection of beans too, some in 4lbs bags, but they are the wrong beans and also no cheaper. Where can I get 10+lbs of navy beans for < $1/lb ?


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

Peterk: You are just on the cusp of bulk at 10lbs. You can try some restaurant supply stores. In my city, for the public that would be the Real Wholesaler club. I also know a family that orders their dried beans on line (sorry, you will have to do your on checking for that). 

They will most likely have them in 10 but most likely 20lb bags that you store yourself. If you are looking for the 2lb bags, I just wait for them to go on sale at Superstore. I haven't bought in a few years, cause last time, I got mine for about at $1 a pound, but they definitely were not in the right bag size.


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

I think 10 lbs, maybe 20lbs max, is probably the sweet spot for me. I don't want to be storing things for more than ~1 year and having them go stale. I'm not running a soup kitchen here! My 8kg bag of rice is perfect for me, lasts about a year. An 8kg bag of beans would be perfect, too.

Sometimes I wonder who the people at the grocery store are cooking for. Last week I saw a shopper with THREE bags of of 20kg rice. That's 150lbs of rice! Even if I had 4 kids and we loved rice, I dunno how I'd think, after loading the first 50lb bag into the cart - "Not enough! I need two more!" :biggrin:

What's your take PA on keeping things for lengthy time periods > 1 year? Worth it? Asking for trouble? Even dried things go stale or mouldy or mice-y don't they?


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

I had not heard of that Real Wholesale Club store at all! Will definitely check it out next weekend in Edmonton! Sounds right up my alley.

Thanks PA!


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

peterk said:


> I think 10 lbs, maybe 20lbs max, is probably the sweet spot for me. I don't want to be storing things for more than ~1 year and having them go stale. I'm not running a soup kitchen here! My 8kg bag of rice is perfect for me, lasts about a year. An 8kg bag of beans would be perfect, too.
> 
> Sometimes I wonder who the people at the grocery store are cooking for. Last week I saw a shopper with THREE bags of of 20kg rice. That's 150lbs of rice! Even if I had 4 kids and we loved rice, I dunno how I'd think, after loading the first 50lb bag into the cart - "Not enough! I need two more!" :biggrin:
> 
> *What's your take PA on keeping things for lengthy time periods > 1 year? Worth it? Asking for trouble? Even dried things go stale or mouldy or mice-y don't they?*


That wasn't me with the rice, I usually limit myself to 2- 20Kg bags, and that's for a great deal. That' could have been my mom in the day, she use to bring home 100 lbs of rice. She was already really worried there would be a rice shortgage… don't ask. 

In terms of keeping things for lengthy periods, do you want the expert recommendations or PA's recommendations.
Experts often say about year is good, maybe two depending on the item. Keep in mind most food is safe 2 years AFTER the best before (not expiry)

My thoughts. I often go well over a year depending on the item. For beans and rice, I have some probably 4/5 years. The difference is quality and texture, not safety IF properly stored. I have BIG Tupperware bins (coincidently, they hold a 20kg of rice). For beans if you go over a year, it wont be a big deal. They will take longer to soak and rehydrate. I actually found some beans (and other stuff) at my parents place that are probably 15+ years old. As an experiment we rehydrated it, cooked it and test it. I compared them with the same beans that were fresher in my cupboard (still over a year), and found they were a little harder, and took longer to cook. The taste was fine, and none of us got sick.

If you store things in a cold, very dry, sealed place you will be fine over a year. I have had very few dried items go bad. That being said, I recommend that if you are trying to optimize your groceries and savings, then you figure out how much your family consumes of an item, how often the item goes or sale (or if you have to drive to Edmonton how frequently you can replenish), and buy enough to get you to the next two sales. Sale cycle items tend to be 2-4 times a year.


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

Sounds like a great system!

I am currently limited on such activities as 1) I have no basement or cellar to store things in a cool place, 2) no kids to eat it all!


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

kcowan said:


> My mother used to "put down" a feed of good summer crops. They would be stored in the unfinished basement so probably qualified in between, usually always consumed well before the next summer.
> 
> "Put down" versus getting "canned" have much different meanings now.



many people did exactly like your mom. Then the next generation & the next gen after that turned to freezers, so it seems that old-fashioned canning became a lost art across 50 years.

i see that canning is coming back though. At least among the highly food savvy it's considered that home preserves can accomplish those same astonishing marriages of flavours & ingredients that one finds in the best restaurants' fresh plates. Stuff like quince-preserves-with-rosemary-chopped-walnuts-&-sloe-gin.

here in montreal canning is also being introduced/taught at the other end of the economic spectrum, as a way that low income families can preserve the harvest, when fruits & vegetables are cheapest (not only cheapest but healthiest too, imho, since local fruits & vegetables are usually not sprayed with fungicide nearly to the degree that produce from central & south america plus southern USA gets sprayed.)

no one in my life has ever equalled the annual canned food product "put up" by my italian hairdresser. Every year since she married, Marina cans 80 one-litre jars of home-grown tomqtoes, plus hundreds of litres of other vegetables. Everything grown bio on their own property in montreal's Little Italy district (italian gardeners in this city are famous for both quality & quantity of fruit & veg product.)

she says they make all their own wine, too, from grapes they buy in the jean-talon market.

cannot imagine her busy kitchen during august & september. No cooks in sight, only a blur in blue jeans whizzing around. Marina, canning.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

Plugging Along said:


> That' could have been my mom in the day, she use to bring home 100 lbs of rice. She was already really worried there would be a rice shortgage… don't ask.



Plug did you ever read The Jade Peony, a novel by canadian Wayson Choy that's set in vancouver? although she doesn't tell the tale herself, the lead character in this marvellous book is an unforgettable, larger-than-life grandmother.

as your stories unfold your Mom is taking on some of the qualities of unforgettable grandmother.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

HP: I had this book on my read list, and just haven't gotten around to it. It was recommended by people who know my mom and family and said it could have been ghost written by one of us. 

I will have to see if its at my library at my next visit. Thanks for the reminder.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

peterk said:


> I had not heard of that Real Wholesale Club store at all! Will definitely check it out next weekend in Edmonton! Sounds right up my alley.
> 
> Thanks PA!


Be careful at the Real Wholesale Club if you have an infinity for kitchen things and restaurants. I had to pull my spouse out to prevent the purchase of a compact commercial deep fryer, while I was being pulled out from the numerous restaurant serving items such as french fry cones, cute appetizer plating things (I dunno even know what to call them). 

We somehow ended up with an huge bag of donair meat and large box of custard powder. We stopped just short of the 50lbs of product that was the same price as the 20lb at the local store. 

I hope all you find is your navy beans and items that you will for sure use.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

My wife is a farm girl and she did a lot of canning and baking over the years, but that is all in the past now. The joy tends to wear thinner as the years pass on by.

Now we go to the delis and different stores for different things. Food is so abundant and cheap it doesn't even pay to tend a garden anymore.

Still.....our neighbor continued on with the community garden our landlord set up on their land. His gifts of fresh green beans and tomatoes are missed.

My wife crocheted, knitted and made ceramics. Do people even do those things anymore ? I doubt any of my son's long list of girlfriends ever did.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

Plugging Along said:


> HP: I had this book on my read list, and just haven't gotten around to it. It was recommended by people who know my mom and family and said it could have been ghost written by one of us.



it's a wonderful, wonderful book. i so fell in love with it that i borrowed his other 3 novels (they are part of a quartet about the same vancouver famlly) from the library

the Jade Peony was Choy's first novel & it remains head & shoulders the best imho. The other 3 novels were so-so-to-good, but did not have that burnished great-literature glow which rightly belongs to Jade Peony


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

sags said:


> My wife is a farm girl and she did a lot of canning and baking over the years, but that is all in the past now. The joy tends to wear thinner as the years pass on by.



it's coming back. In fact home canning is already chic. When i get some time i'll post about a british cook named pam-the-jam who writes popular cookbooks about things like how to make bramble jelly or how to "put up" fresh raspberries straight off the bush - no cooking - with sugar & sloe gin.

her cookbooks sell like, well, hotcakes. Her recipes are brambles _luxe_ & raspberries _luxe_. I think the french figured out how to do this about 500 years ago.






> our neighbor continued on with the community garden our landlord set up on their land. His gifts of fresh green beans and tomatoes are missed



it's the authentic organic quality. Your own bean, your own tomato, you know the high quality of the soil because you've been composting it since the dawn of creation. You know your produce has never been sprayed with any chemical. You know it's the best thing you can give your kids.






> My wife crocheted, knitted and made ceramics. Do people even do those things anymore ? I doubt any of my son's long list of girlfriends ever did.



there's a knitting ferment going on out there. Been going on quite some time but today's ultra hand knits are chic, designer-heavy & come with prices that would kill ya. Like CAD $1,200 for a stunning dress.

i don't know how many instaGrams websites & blogs feature shetland/fair isle knitting. They're in english, french, norwegian, swedish, finnish, danish, icelandic & russian because the geometric double or triple stranded knitting patterns appear all around the arctic, including in native north american beadwork & weaving. 

people are earning decent incomes off this burgeoning interest. At one extreme the entrepreneur needs a relatiionship with sheep (where the wool comes from) so farming, shearing, spinning & dying technologies. It's possible today to buy a sweater knit kit with special pattern plus enough skeins of hand-dyed wool that all come from one sheep, whose name, biography & pictures are provided. Cost? up to $200 for the raw kit, after that the knitter has to create the garment.

at the other extreme are "knitting humourists" like toronto's Stephanie Pearl McPhee, who's able to travel all over the US of A speaking to audiences about, yes, knitting. L'il ole knitting. Her lecture halls are packed. Easily she'll draw an audience of 500. 

something's afoot in artisan creations & it's more than handknit socks.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

peterk is this your own kitchen? nice-looking arrangement.

but my eye is drawn to the pot, because until recently i was the proud owner of an identical pot. 

i say "was" because it was a dark blue enamelled cast iron beauty, originally from denmark i think. I still do have the lid, a flattish enamelled lid w handles on both sides that was designed to be used as a stand-alone small frying pan & i still do use it as a frying pan. In fact caramelized 2 large onions in it today.

the pot plus lid used to belong to my mother, so it would have dated back to the 1960s when scandinavian design became popular in canada. By the time i inherited it, it had been used heavily, some burns so the enamel was crackling.

another decade & i had to throw it out when the interior enamel started to break off. But the lid part is still fine.

if it's your pot, might i ask how you acqired it? if they're selling them new today, they'd most likely be copies of the danish original.




peterk said:


>


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

Ah, sorry, that sounds nice. It's just a Lodge, and only bought brand new not long ago. Probably Chinese iron *sigh*


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## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

humble_pie said:


> if it's your pot, might i ask how you acqired it? if they're selling them new today, they'd most likely be copies of the danish original.


Maybe danish, but it also looks a bit like a Le Creuset product from France.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

Geez, I will have to tell my wife about the return in popularity of her handicrafts.

For decades she knitted sweaters for family, blankets and baby stuff. Every newborn got one of her custom made baby plates with their name on it and something knitted for the baby.

We had a lot of stuff she made, but it has disappeared over the years. Some broke, some were given away.........but we have one thing left, a vintage ceramic christmas tree.

My son hated to wear the knitted sweaters and socks though. He wanted the store bought items with some designer's name splashed all over the front.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

I find there is a ton of "vintage" stuff in the Salvation Army and Goodwill stores, especially in the cooking/kitchen aisles.

A lot of households built up over decades just get given away because the kids would rather buy from Ikea.

Maybe check some of those places out for a special pot or three Humble......


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

SAGS: Handcrafted items are fetching quite a premium these days. Maybe this should be your million dollar idea instead of the Oreos.

I have paid people to make me special new born items, as I am not very talented in that area. I can make a nice scarf, but cannot seem to do things that come in pairs like socks or mittens. I can make two, but they don't look like they are supposed to go together.


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## like_to_retire (Oct 9, 2016)

Plugging Along said:


> I can make a nice scarf, but cannot seem to do things that come in pairs like socks or mittens.
> 
> I can make two, but they don't look like they are supposed to go together.


Yeah, we get it.

Knit one, purl two.









ltr


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

like_to_retire said:


> Yeah, we get it.
> 
> Knit one, purl two.
> 
> ...


I WISh socks looked like that. One looks like it’s for a toddler the other grown man. I only did a single color and then gave up.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

Practice, practice, practice.....my wife spent many a night on the living room couch while waiting for our teenage son to arrive home safely.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

I remember the wool socks. They were itchy......despite my wife telling me that wasn't possible because this was the non-itchy wool.

Thank goodness she didn't knit underwear.


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## junior minor (Jun 5, 2019)

yes, these are true tips for being frugal. I might sound like I'm being some annoying new kid on the block here, which is neither my goal nor the case (I can't knit nor can although I truly respect those that do and remember fondly eating home made ketchup and jams) one of my tips to save is using protein that I buy online. My favorite site is supplementsource.ca which buy stuff that can is near expiry date yet still very good. I did try to go down the vegan road yet as mentioned in the upper comments, similar to gluten free, organic, etc, it's rather expensive. Sometimes finding the fair middle is better than just attempting to, also as told, trying to stop the pendulum. 

Drinking tea also calms the gut and helps me to digest.


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## northernguy (Oct 19, 2013)

I use the Flipp app on my phone to make a list and to also price match. I buy most of my meat protein at our local Freshco which seems to always over order their meat and sell it off (e.g. chicken breasts will be on sale, then another $3/off a pack so I can get fresh boneless skinless chicken for about $1-1.50/breast and I buy up what they have - got 16 packs of three the other night for under $50 to re-fill the freezer. Also I buy things in bulk when on sale and generally avoid both Costco and Loblaws.


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