You wanna go shopping?

I didn't want the whole town to think I was nuts walking around flashing pictures everywhere so I tried to keep a low-profile with my flash! ;)

This was only about 2/3 of my shopping as I was not able to finish because DH called saying one of the kiddies had a fever again. -gulp-

I do want to share something I did before I even left to go shopping. (Well, outside of taking one day to print and clip coupons and sort out the old ones. Then I also took 2 days off and on gathering recipes and making lists based on those and what we were out of.) ..I made a pot of sloppy joe meat and I had some leftover bread on the counter along with a bowl of slaw in the fridge prepared for those who stayed home. I also had many baked goods around so as not to get one of those calls...you know, the ones where you hear these words "well, aren't you about done because we are hungry?!!!?" This is a VERY important step to having a good shopping trip!!! Ok, first stop was at the Cash-n-Carry. I bought that sack of flour there but I got it for 1/2 of that price; $10. I also bought three of those jugs of raw honey since winter is coming, we'll be drinking more teas and using more honey. I also picked up some chili powder as you might can see.

This is a freezer bag stuffed with some things from the Cash-n-Carry. There are chopped bell peppers (2lbs are like $2.39- not bad!), yellow squash for later in the month, lima beans, frozen coconut, and some fruit.

This is my shopping cart upon leaving Food Lion. I bought a couple of pineapples, cucumbers, bag of spinach, radishes, celery, alfalfa sprouts, bananas, rosemary, clementines, some frozen veggies (about 15 lbs worth), about 6 chickens, 6 boxes of Frosted Mini Wheats, org. Milk, 2 pks of manager's special chicken breasts, and several other things. Right at $100 after coupons.

We then left FL and went to my beloved Kroger.

I love Kroger. The produce department makes me so happy! ;) It gives me a good feeling when I walk in that area.

One of my buggies was 2/3 full nearly of produce.

I bought; green onions, salad mix, 2 bunches of beets (one to cook and one for Kvass), broccoli crowns, org. red onions, yellow onions, pomegranates, cauliflower, pecans, pistachios, cabbage, mushrooms, lemons, yellow squash, zukes, acorn squash, butternut squash (winter squash is on sale for .68lb), garlic bulbs, and probably more. Then I went through the meat buying more buffalo, Laura's Lean Beef, ground turkey, ground chicken, free beef fat to render, fish, turkey bacon, turkey polish sausage, some sandwich meat to make Sammy's since I had some good coupons, and I asked for beef bones but he didn't have any.


If you can see in this bag, I loaded up on the Ronzoni pastas since they were on sale and coupons were plenteous as well. Its a great product- high fiber, whole grain. I think you can see a bucket of lard in this picture too. I would like to render my own lard, since most of the commercial brands put those weird preservatives in it. (hmm, note to self, bug meat man at Kroger next time and ask for pork fat!- maybe you can get it free too self!)

Here's a little bit of everything all scattered and piled up. There's cottage cheese, ground chicken, org. ketchup, and several canned goods too. Del Monte vegetables were on sale 2/$1. Most of these will go to storage, but one recipe I have on the list for this month called for canned corn.

In this pic I think you can see more of that ketchup and some boxes of tea. Celestial Seasonings tea is on sale and I also had coupons from inside previous boxes. Love my tea! (And so do most of my kids!)

Here you see that big sack of flour again, along with the honey. I think there is some low-fat crackers there to go along with the fish eggs. The freezer bags are full of those chickens and frozen veggies.

Here's the only non-food items that I picked up. (All on sale and coupons!)

Here's part of the fresh, non-refrigerator food that I brought in.

Here's bananas, org. red onions, and garlic that's always handy in my hanging basket.

Here's several cans of coconut milk, a can of sweetened condensed milk, and numerous cans of organic tomato paste that I caught on clearance for .34 a can.

I am very low on wheat berries so I bought up some spelt flour, along with some polenta and the rest you see was already in the freezer.

Here you see Ro-tel and jarred garlic, but if you can see that jar up front you will notice that this is Spectrum mayo that I also got on clearance for under .50 a jar. I bought all that they had. (This mayo is usually almost $5!)

When I come home from shopping, I usually pull out at least one very cool treat. It adds to all the excitement! (Bringing in that much food at once is pretty exciting too!)

I found these Halloween Peeps on a clearance for .30 a pack -and boy were the little peeps here excited!

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I found that the sloppy joe mix was still waiting so that was a cinch to a starving crew, along with the slaw.

Meanwhile, I set into finishing broth (later bagging 9- 2 cup baggies for the freezer). I also put those two special-priced packages of chicken breasts on to boil so I could shred for quick meals later on in the week. Then I set in to rendering the beef fat.

-All in a day's work!-