Long Term Food Storage

I was looking at this weeks sales and noticed that Clorox Bleach 60 oz was on sale at Smith's. (click to go to list page, click on Smiths from the drop down.) Bleach is a great long term food storage item as it can be used for cleaning and water purification, although the later must be done carefully. One recommendation is 1 gallon of bleach per person in the family. 1 Gal=128 oz so what I have done is just used this equation to figure it out: (keep in mind I truly stink at math so if this doesn't make sense please post an easier way for all of us by commenting on this feed!)

# Family member's x 128 oz = total ounces needed divide that by 60 to get the total bottles to purchase.

What's for dinner?

I was looking at the updated ads today to see what is on sell and how i can use the items for dinners this week. Here are some ideas I've had so far. Feel free to post your ideas to the comment board. Don't forget the recipes!


Steak, baked potatoes, salad -sell items: Mrs. Dash marinades, A-1, Kraft Salad Dressings, bagged salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, russet potatoes, propane exchange





Grilled Chicken, broccoli, Alfredo-sell items: chicken breasts, broccoli, Kraft dressings (I marinate the chicken in Zesty Italian then grill), propane exchange




Thai Mango, Pineapple Chicken Salad-sell items: chicken breasts, mango, Jicama is really good in salads, bagged salad, Kraft salad dressings if you don't want to do the thai one found in the recipe link

Potato Bar, salad-sell items: russet potatoes, broccoli, bagged salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, Kraft salad dressings, bacon

Grilled Cheese-Stuffed Turkey burgers-sell items:ground turkey, tomatoes

Pork Chops and rice, salad-sell items:pork chops, bagged salad, Kraft salad dressing, tomatoes
Season and brown 4 pork chops, set aside. Mix 1 can cream of chicken soup, 2 cans water, 1 pouch onion soup mix, 1 cup rice, put rice mixture in a 9x12 baking dish place pork on top. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for one hour or until rice is tender.

Since our pantry and freezer are well stocked we can pull items that we need in the recipes that are not on sell right now. It is great!

Food Storage Calculator

Here is a link to a long term food storage calculator from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Calculator

Provident Living Website

Pamphlet Regarding Food Storage

Cool Website

My cousin Amy recommended this website for exchanging things like coupons, clothes, etc...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Utah-IdahoFreecycle/

Free Rice

Thanks to my friend Megan she had this link on her blog. I thought since it had something to do with food I would include it here. My best score was 40. Feel free to post your score using the comment. No cheating! do not use a dictionary Just see how smart you are.

http://www.freerice.com/

Favorite Purchase This Week

Here is my favorite deal this week. Thanks to Albertsons we have Sunday dinner all planned plus some.

2 Flavored pork loins- B1G1 $9.99

8 boxes Pepperigde Farm Naturals crackers-Get 2 free with every $5 spent on meat

1 2 liter Coke Product- $1.50

1 bag of salad or coleslaw- $1.74

1 Country Crock Side Dish- $3.99

In Store coupon- $6 off

Total $11.47 with Tax

Shopping for week 10

This week my mom, dad and I went shopping. We had fun. I think it was especially fun for my dad to what we are doing each week. I love the way it makes me feel to have him excited and so supportive. When you see all of this please remember we are family of 7 with 4 being adults and we are still in the stocking up phase. Also my parents do not have a limited income like most of us out there. I still think the savings are awesome even though the amount spent might be a little higher than what I would spend on my own.



Here is the run down:
Total
Spent: $161.96
Saved: $176.74
Earned in store coupons for next purchase: $7.50

Typically we don't go to more than one store. This week however I didn't think that there where a whole lot of great things in just one store. I was surprised at what we finally purchased considering that when I printed the list I didn't see anything special this week.

Smiths: 12 ears of corn $3, 4 Dole fruit bowls @ $1.74, 4 Dole fruit parfait @ $1.24, 4 Hormel Compleats @ $1.24, 1 Sour Cream $1, 5 12 packs of Coke products $12, 2 Cheez-It crackers FREE Savings: $37.64

Albertsons: 4 Bertolli pasta sauce* @ $1.25, 4 Ken's salad dressing* FREE, 8 Pepperidge Farm Naturals crackers FREE, 4 Bush Baked Beans FREE, 1 2 Liter Sprite $1.50, 10 12 pack Pepsi products $24, Cinderella book*** FREE, 4 Zone protein bars FREE, Country Crock Side dish $3.99, 2 Hormel flavor crusted pork loin B1G1 @ $9.99, Bag of coleslaw $1.79, Deli Potato Salad** $12, Deli Sliced smoked turkey** $13.30, Deli Sliced ham $2.15, 2 24 pack Spring waters @ $2.99, Redbox Movie Rental FREE, Savings: 135.10

*used rain check from previous shopping, *** Had a coupon for $5 towards children's books, **Lesson learned this week. The sell was buy 1 lb Sara Lee deli meat get $1 off Deli salad. We should have had the meat separated into 1 lb bags because we only got 1-$1 off. Plus we bought way too much salad! Oh well with company this weekend we were able to eat it all up.

Macey's: 2 WF hamburger buns @ $.89, 2 WF Hot dog buns @ $.89, 1 Gal Skim milk $2.89, 10 Yoplait yogurt @5/$3, 2 lbs Cache Valley cheese loaf $7.99, 4 Sausage links and rolls @$.25, Cream Cheese $ .99, 2 Shredded Cheese @ $2, Cameo Apples $1.67, Banana's $1.86, 2 heads lettuce @ $1.49, Pineapple $5.60, grape tomatoes $2.99, Seedless watermelon $4.85

Savings: $4

Catching up with our savings

From here on out I will be taking pictures of our shopping and posting the results each week. I really don't feel like looking through the past receipts and pulling the items out of storage to show you the past so instead just to catch you up I will just tell you what we Spent and what we saved. ~Keep in mind we are a family of 7, and are still in the stocking up phase, plus we were spending over $300 a week instead of the following.

Week 7: Spent $180.54 Saved $196 (this week we stocked up on Tide-We have now almost 9 months worth!)
Week 8: Spent $36.09 Saved $56.37
Week 9: Spent $160.43 Saved $151.35

Exchange Coupons

Do you hate to see coupons go to waste? If you are looking for something or want to help someone get a good deal on something you don't use, this is the place to network. I will not be able to facilitate the exchanges so you will have to contact one another not me please. If anyone out there has a better idea on how to contact each other let me know. For now this will have to work.

KaChing!

Okay so for the fun of it I thought I would share with you all the receipts from our shopping over that past 7 weeks. So here it goes:

WK 1: Spent $129.57 Saved $67.73 No coupons used, about 2 weeks after we learned about this site

WK 2: Spent $103.65 Saved $102.01

WK 3: Spent $104.33 Saved $185.83

WK 4: Spent $27.36 Saved $180.81 Used gifts cards (ask me how to get these)

WK 5: Spent $197.21 Saved $207.37 Bought 20+ lbs of meat for reunion, also got 4 movie tickets free!

WK 6: Spent $121.68 Saved $91.90

Awesome huh? We are still in the stocking up stage which takes 3-4 months. We are also shopping for a family of 7. Our storage room looks amazing. Russ and my dad commented that now there is finally something good to eat! They are also very kind to say that they are so proud of my mom and I for building the storage and saving money at the same time. See this really works. I would love to teach anyone who wants to know how to do this!

No coupon books in the paper

Okay so I freaked out the first week I got the papers and there where no coupon books in them! I thought for sure someone stole them. With a phone call to the paper I learned that on some holiday weekends they don't have coupon books. Good to know! To check out what coupon books you should get and how many, go to my webpage and in the bottom right hand coener there is a list.

This is what it looks like:

Did my Sunday newspapers have all the coupons: The following is a partial schedule of what to expect each Sunday.Also, look for P&G packets, and ANY OTHER packet the "same size" as SS or RP as long as it has manufacturers coupons in it. This list is only Smart Source and Redplum, there are sometimes 2 different Smart Source packets in one Sunday paper (SS1 or SS2). Also, some Sundays may have packets with a different name on them (like Kellogs or General Mills), so pay attention and keep them all.
2008 Sunday paper dates:
Has at least 1 coupon packet of:
5/4
SS and RP
5/11
SS and RP
5/18
SS and RP
5/25
None
6/1
SS and RP
6/8
SS and RP
6/15
SS only
6/22
SS and RP
6/29
SS and RP
7/6
None
7/13
SS and RP
7/20
SS only
7/27
SS and RP

For a complete and up to date list go to the website.

Slow cooked Southwest Pork Loin

A few weeks ago we got salsa for cheap and a boneless pork loin, that I swear was as long as my arm, for $8.88. We made this easy main dish recipe with our find. Thanks to Stephanie who gave me the recipe!

Slow cooked Southwest Pork Loin

1 boneless pork loin
2 16 oz jars of salsa (we used the Frito Lay Peach and Pineapple Salsa)
1/2 cup brown sugar

Add to crock pot and cook on HI 6-8 hours until done.

We served it over rice.

Grocerysmarts

I am so excited! This week I started teaching people how to save money on their grocery shopping. I am an independent instructor for Grocerysmarts.com If you want to learn about the method please let me know. The link above will take you to my webpage and from there you can get my contact info. For those of you who are familiar with this method you can use my passcode g84cso. The website and classes are totally free. Our family saves over $100 a week using the Grocerysmarts simple couponing method. Click this link for a pdf instruction sheet. If you are already familiar with Grocerysmarts.com I would love for you to *post your success stories here.