Frugal Grocery Shopping

How do you get back on the frugal wagon after blowing a large chunk of change?

It's a great question and there isn't one answer. For me, I have to totally stop spending money. So this week I've been digging around in my freezer for food. Last night I made chili (oops - meant to make taco meat!) served with rice and green beans. WEIRD!!! But we didn't go hungry!

We have another all day track meet coming up so I bought lunch meat. It's a total rip off, but it's definitely convenient. Hopefully for the following track meet I'll have my act together and make some chicken and egg salad.

I mentioned in a previous post that I messed up my grocery money so I'm playing financial catch up right now. I may end up using monopoly money like my sister does so I can go back to a weekly grocery budget (gets confusing with a bulk beef order and wanting to limit trips to the butcher). How do you handle your grocery budget when you buy some stuff in bulk and some stuff weekly? I probably gave some advice about this in my blog a while back, maybe I should re-read my blog!

I bought a pork roast from the grocery store. I really like supporting our local butcher so I have to remember to be more financially responsible in the future :-)

Here's my plan for the next few days:

Breakfast: I found some sausage links in the freezer and some ground pork that I will make into patties. My husband still has cereal and we have yogurt available for my son. As long as my daughter gets a piece of meat she's happy. As long as my daughter eats meat we're all happy since she has blood sugar issues (crabby crabby crabby!) if she doesn't eat meat first thing in the morning. I usually eat a hamburger and some veggies.

Lunch: Sandwiches for my family, not sure what I'll have.

Dinners:

• Fri - Spaghetti Sauce with burger, sausage and ground pork
• Sat - Pork Shoulder roast in the crockpot
• Sun - Hot Dogs from the butcher shop
• Mon - Carbonara with burger and bacon (I'll try to find the recipe and update it. I know it was on my other blog, but can't seem to find it right now)
• Tues - Chicken/Tuna/Egg/Peanut Butter Sandwiches (track and baseball night)
• Wed - Bacon, eggs and smoothie night! 
• Thur - Ham and Bean Soup (depending on weather)
• Fri - Beef and Broccoli

I spent about $25.00 at the stores picking up the few things that I mentioned as well as some fruits, veggies and ranch dressing. My goal was to spend less than $35.00 this week.

With the baseball and softball season coming up, I really need to figure out food that I can bring with to the games. My husband won't eat until about 7:00 and I will have to leave the house with his food at about 5:15. I haven't figured out how to pack hamburgers and have them stay warm. I don't want to serve him chicken salad sandwiches 4 nights a week! I could put the beef and broccoli in one of the kids' thermos. Any other suggestions anyone? 

This post has been linked to:
11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven
GroceryCartChallenge

Happy Wednesday

Just writing a quick note to tell you that I have not disappeared for good....two all day track meets, company and a few other things are taking priority right now.

I have been reading this blog called Cooling Inflammation and it's quite interesting.

Hope to write again soon!

Home making: Procrastination

Image Credit

What is the chore that you absolutely HATE to do?

You know the one that you put off until you absolutely cannot wait any longer?

Years ago I absolutely HATED unloading the dishwasher. Dishes would stack up on the counter and then pretty soon we didn't have any dishes left in the cupboards. I'd finally unload the dishwasher, fill it up again, run the dishwasher and start the entire HATE cycle all over again.

Hate is such a strong word, but I really hated everything about it. I thought it took forever to unload the dishwasher. I'd like to take credit for the way I overcame this strange issue, but I think it was FLYLADY that told me to do it.

Time Yourself!

Do you know it only takes 3 MINUTES to unload the dishwasher if you are completely focused on it? Yes, if you have little ones "helping" you it will take longer, but if you're doing it yourself it only takes about 3 minutes.

I have to give my husband credit here. For a LONG time, I'd run the dishwasher every night and every.single.morning before he left for work he'd empty it for me - now that is true love.
What's the chore you avoid the most because you just don't want to do it?

Easter Menu / Company Menu

Here's my plan for Easter weekend. Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Saturday:

Lunch - Not sure what time our company is getting here - will throw chili in the crockpot, well I'll have my husband throw it in the crockpot since he's MUCH better at chili than I am!)
Dinner - spaghetti and salad

Sunday:
Breakfast - PB Oatmeal, sausage links, and Fruit
Easter Dinner

• Ham
• Potato Salad (I was going to make mashed potatoes and gravy one year, but apparently that's just not done in my husband's family. They thought I had fallen off my rocker. Anyone else make ham gravy or am I the only one?)
• Black Bean Salad (something like this...)
• Cabbage Slaw (cabbage, apples, dressing is 1/3 c mayo, 1/3 brown sugar, splash of lime juice) I like this room temperature, my husband likes it cold. I try to make it about 30 minutes before we eat and I put his in the fridge
• Some sort of relish tray
• Fresh Fruit with Homemade Whipped Cream
• Need to make some homemade bread for people who want a sandwich later on

Monday:
Breakfast - fried potatoes with sausage links and scrambled eggs/fried eggs over the top
Lunch and Dinner - plan aheads/CORD (clean out refrigerator day)/leftovers whatever you want to call it

At some point we'll be making something like these Mini Cheesecakes (I use graham crackers/melted butter intead of vanilla wafers, but I might try almond flour this time). My husband loves cherry pie filling so I'll either put that on top or a blueberry syrup.

P.S. A really easy fruit salad idea - cut up strawberries and bananas, then throw in a bit of yogurt (sweeten with honey if needed).

So I wrote this post yesterday and then went to the store this morning. I didn't use my debit card thankfully, but as I walked by the cabbage and apples I realized that I completely and TOTALLY forgot to look at my menu when I was planning my shopping trip. DOH!!! So I bought some stuff not on my list, but kept to my budget anyway.

Here's my picture:

Grocery Shopping: Sam's Club and Butcher Shops

On Monday, I went to Sam's Club and then to two different butcher shops (one I buy only bacon and it's absolutely the BEST homemade bacon). I was supposed to go to a track meet, but it was cancelled due to snow....still snowing here now too. I guess we're supposed to get 3-5 inches by tomorrow. It sure makes the hills pretty, but I'm ready for spring!

I think I may have stocked up a bit too much on my "pantry" given my current financial status (AKA...I don't have much money in my savings account to buy the 1/4 of a cow that we'll be getting in May...) so we'll be eating from the pantry for the next few weeks - excluding Easter dinner and company food.

Sam's:

• 3 English Cucumbers $4.00
• Romaine Lettuce $4.00
• Heavy Whipping Cream $4.00 - plan to serve fresh fruits with whipped cream for dessert at Easter
• 1 pound Kerrygold butter $7.25 (GULP! Expensive, but I think it's much better for you)
• Spinach $4.00 (seriously need to stop buying this! I buy it only because it's organic and cheap. I'm the only one who eats it and now I'm hearing that maybe I shouldn't eat it raw (don't like it cooked) because of the BLAH BLAH BLAHs in it (can you tell I'm not too scientific...you can read over at The World's Healthiest Foods if you want more info). Since I'm still in "healing my body with food" phase I need to be really careful about what I eat.

Butcher Shop in Sturgis:

• 3 packages of regular bacon $12.00 ( I cook 1 package a week, mostly to flavor different dishes)
• 1 package of bacon ends $2.00 - curious to see if this has more fat than the regular bacon since it's half the price

Butcher Shop in Piedmont:

• link sausages
• ground pork

This post has been linked to Grocery Cart Challenge.

Junk Food

I originally posted this random thought April 1, 2010

Random thought:

Why is it that I'll pay $4.00 for 2 bags of potato chips for a special treat (they were on sale!) but I won't pay $1.87 for a pack of strawberries (on sale, but not the best price I'll see)?

Stinkin' Thinkin' as my flylady would say!

Update on April 19, 2010:
Sometimes it's nice to see that I have made progress in my healthy frugal journey. I'm happy to say that I don't use the grocery money to buy potato chips anymore. We still eat them, but it comes out of the entertainment money (I usually buy them when we have company every 3-4 months or if it's the Super Bowl!)

I'm still working on buying fruits and vegetables that are not at their lowest price. I should buy asparagus more often than I do. It's one vegetable that my husband absolutely loves and it's only in season for a short period of time. I need to remember/realize that sometimes it's okay not to buy something on sale.

Menu Planning

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you have figured out by now that I'm desperate to menu plan, but the traditional way to plan doesn't seem to work for me.

The kinda/sorta menu planning kinda/sorta worked for a while.

Today, here is what my non-traditional menu planning looks like:

Breakfast:
We always have a meat of some sort. My daughter and husband will have sausage and my son and I will have whatever....leftovers, a hamburger, hamburger sausage.

Instead of making my sausage homemade, I've been buying sausage links from the local butcher shop (cheaper than the grocery store - yeah!) then cooking it on Mondays and Thursdays. Although I pay an extra $.20 per pound, I actually save money because of portion control. My husband has 2 sausage links, my daughter has 1 sausage link.  When I made my own patties they would eat more meat.

My husband always eats some sort of grain with the sausage - cereal, granola or PB oatmeal. He's recently discovered that he REALLY dislikes leftover oatmeal. He's the "unpickiest" person I know too so I think it must be a texture thing. I haven't quite figured out how to make oatmeal just for him (I don't eat it and my kids don't like it). I have rolled oats, steel cut oats, oat groats - any suggestions for fresh oatmeal (for one person) that is easy in the morning?

My son will usually have homemade yogurt as well as some sort of meat and my daughter has whatever fruit I cut up. They'll eat Peanut Butter Oatmeal too, but they don't seem to care much if they have that. I don't usually eat breakfast until about 10:00 or so. Today I had a coconut milk smoothie with frozen cherries, spinach, and an egg yolk, 1 piece of bacon, 1 fried egg, brussel sprouts in butter and a half of an apple.

This is a HUGE change from last year at this time where I made some sort of carb every morning for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Not only did I spend a lot of time making those items, my kids ate ALL.THE.TIME.

Lunch:
Everyone is pretty much on their own. My husband usually has lunch provided for him, but today he brought some leftover BBQ'd sausage links and an apple. My kids either have school lunch or a sandwich (money spent on their lunch is NOT included in my grocery budget - the experiment that we're trying is failing miserable, but I won't change it until next school year).  Today I will have a sweet potato with butter, a hamburger with sauteed onions and garlic and the other half of my apple.

Dinner/Supper:
I refer to my Menu Plans A, B, C, D (look at the bottom of the page). This has changed a bit though since discovering a dairy intolerance for both my son and myself. I serve hamburgers almost every week and we have smoothie night every Wednesday. I always try to have cooked meat and beans in the freezer. Last night we got home at 6:30 from the track meet and I was able to make tacos/taco salads very quickly because the meat was already cooked. I dumped the cooked meat and beans in a pan, then added a jar of salsa.

I try to keep our dinners at about $8.00. Last week we had fried eggs and bacon. Unfortunately I can't add a bunch of veggies when I do this or it would be the ideal meal. We ended up having carrots and apples, but I usually add/hide a bunch of vegies in our meals.

I collect recipes that I want to try. For instance:

1. White Chicken Chili from Tammy'sRecipes
2. Fancy Oatmeal for my husband from KathEatsRealFood
3. Homemade Clif Bars

Okay, there are too many to list...but you get the idea. Amy D. mentioned in her book The Complete Tightwad Gazette, that they plan their meals the night before. I am always thinking ahead/planning ahead. For example, tonight most of the family will be having leftovers, but my son will have a tuna fish sandwich in the car because he goes from track practice to baseball practice to hunter's safety. I certainly have to eat my words - "I'll never let my kid be in more than one activity at a time."  Baseball and track will overlap a few weeks and hunter's safety is offered only two times a year. Thankfully it's only 4 days!

I hope I've given you ideas if traditional meal planning doesn't work for you!

Home making - PICTURES

The BEST gift that my mom left us before she died is her photo albums.

The pictures are dated along with the names of the people in the pictures. I scrapbook, but I'm really far behind. I don't enjoy it as a hobby, but I love them one they are done! I try to spend 10 minutes a day on scrapbooking/pictures/stamping. It doesn't always work (like yesterday and today) but I'm definitely making progress.

I think the most important part right now while my kids are young is to journal. Making notes of the funny things that they say, how old they are, what their likes/dislikes are. We can always go back and put them in order as long as we have the labels on the pictures.

Where did I get my name? I've told people for years that my name came from someone that my Dad knew when he was in the army. I had no idea that the person actually existed until I went through the photo albums and found a picture with Johnlin marked on it. I must say I was shocked! Not sure why they spelled my name Johnlyn though.

I believe that taking care of pictures and precious memories is part of homemaking. It's important and can be overwhelming. Try to some time every week working on this every week - it's IMPORTANT to those people you leave behind.

What better way to bribe someone too???

Grocery Planning and Shopping

Throughout the week, I write down what I need from the grocery store in my three ring binder (I have different sections, one is my "to do list" for that week, one is for "weekly grocery shopping", one is for "azure standard" list, one is for my "buy when on sale" list etc.)

For example, this week I have the following on my list:

• 3 oz cream cheese (I have a recipe that I want to try)
• curry powder
• potatoes
• brussel sprouts
• crackers (waiting for them to go on sale)
• pickles
• small sour cream
• white beans

On Tuesday afternoons I get the paper with our ads. I look through them - one time only - writing down what what I'm going to buy at the two stores we get ads for. Grocery stores generally try to lure you into their store with some fabulous loss leaders.

Easter is coming up so there will probably be items on sale having to do with Easter (ham, potatoes, eggs, baking items). At Safeway this week I see the following on the front page:

• Wed spiral hams
• Thurs 8 pounds of oranges for $2.49
• Fri 2 liters of Pepsi $.69
• Sat Bacon
• Friday-Monday only Cantaloupe $2.00
• Frozen Pizza
• 12 packs of Pepsi
• Chicken wings $1.99/lb
• Carrots $1.00/lb
• Lettuce/Spinach $1.00 per bag

The sale amounts are probably really good for those items. The only way to know for sure is to have a price book.

I don't usually go to the store on Thursdays, but in this case I might pop into the store right after I drop my kids off at school.  We are hosting Easter dinner this year so I will be buying a ham at some point, but I'm not too worried about finding a good price on a ham. So after looking through the Safeway ad I have on my Safeway list:

• Oranges $2.49
• Leaf Lettuce or Romaine $1.00
• Yams $1.00/lb (stocking up on these - will probably spend $10)
• Organic apples $1.00/lb (if they have any and we need them)
• Bananas
• Total cost: $18

 Now for my favorite store here in town. They are the old time mom and pop store - smaller carts, BEST customer service, small aisles, etc. Yes, some items cost more money than our local Walmart, but I am choosing to support them. Plus, sometimes things are actually cheaper there. Oh I still go to Walmart occasionally, but if I can, I enjoy going to Lueders so much more.

• Look at that, hams are on sale...not sure if I'll pick one up or not.
• Wow! Peanut butter $1.39 (I usually pay $.10 per ounce) this is actually less than that. Unfortunately there is a limit of 1. Even if we didn't eat PB I'd buy it to donate to the food pantry.
• Smart Chicken leg quarters $.99/lb (regular price $1.49/lb) I'll buy a lot of these, not sure how much yet. With the warmer weather, we BBQ a lot so this works better for me than buying whole chickens from the local Hutterites (yes, I could cut them up myself, but UGGGGG. I've tried that and it's just not happening again for a while). Haven't been able to order from the Hutterites in about 10 weeks and I'm just dying for more of their honey!
• Lookie at that - pickles are $1.99
• Cantaloupe $.69/lb (is it getting to be cantaloupe season?)
• Pineapple $3.00 each (not sure if I'll get one this time or not. We absolutely love them and I haven't seen a better price for months and months)
• 2 pounds baby carrots $1.99
• Apples are on sale as well

I always know what I'm getting from Safeway right away. Lueders takes me a bit because that's where I buy everything I need even if it's not on sale. After I figure out what I need from Lueders then  I add up how much cash I need to have on hand ($20.00 per week plus anything I'm stocking up on like chicken). The day I go to the store I re-write my list so it's fresh in my mind. Then, I write down approximately how much I'm going to spend per item (ie. bananas $2.00) and get a grand total per store.

This process might seem complicated or too time consuming, but now that I've done it many many times it doesn't take long at all. Going through the ads one time and one time only saves a ton of time! I rarely use coupons so that doesn't take much time at all.

In the "pantry" we have plenty of sausage, bacon, burger, veggies, fruit, oats, beans, butter and baking items.

Today is Thursday - I wrote that post on Tuesday. My best advice today is:

Do as I say, not as I have done.

I used my DEBIT CARD this week. WHAT?!? I haven't done that in months and months. Not sure what happened there,I guess I let other non-important things take priority over my planning time.

• Lueders I spent $30 (debit card) mostly meat stock up and a few extra things for Easter
• Walmart $5 Bananas and sour cream Leuders only had green bananas and I needed them last night for smoothie night, which we didn't end up having because of many reasons.
• Safeway $13 milk, oranges and other fruits and veggies
• Lueders (again) $4 for eggs and peanut butter that was on sale.

So much for my $20 cash per week plan!

This post has been linked to:
Grocery Cart Challenge
Money Saving Mom

What Can I Do For My Spouse Today???

You should ask yourself this question

EVERY SINGLE DAY

If you could remind me to do this too that would be great :-)

Tightwad Gazette Tip

My husband is a smart man. Unfortunately, all too often I forget that. I think it's part of my controlling nature....I ask for his opinion, but then I don't really listen to the answer. Yesterday I was trying to figure out what size of a shirt I should get my son. He knew what size he would get in a matter of seconds. I wrestled with it, thinking of every situation that my son would wear the shirt and spent hours on the "problem". I'm exaggerating a bit, but you get the point. Sometimes I just need to stop and listen to the guy. I think that's one of the best ways to show him that I love him...by listening to him, AKA respecting him.

This tip comes to you from The Complete Tightwad Gazette. On Page 536, Amy D. talks about "Three Steps to a Frito-Free Child." It's a great article about basic parenting.

My son has standardized tests this week Monday-Wednesday. The teachers are providing pancakes and french toast for them. The kids can bring in their own special drinks or buy milk and/or orange juice. I had decided that he shouldn't have any kind of drink (can't have milk because of an intolerance) because of the amount of sugar carbs being served by the teachers. I was thinking he might have a blood sugar issue if he had too much sugar. When I mentioned it to my husband, he reminded me that he doesn't have the same blood sugar issues that our daughter and I have so it'd be fine for him to have some orange juice.

However, he was wondering WHY he needed to have a special drink when we normally just drink water at home. Good point - one I hadn't thought of. I decided that if he wanted to have a drink then he could earn it.

Please note that this is NOT about the $.25 it costs to buy the drink.

It's the principle of working for what you want, not what you need. I certainly wouldn't have him work so he could drink water. He decided that he didn't want to do a small job to earn the money, nor did he want to spend his allowance buying a drink.

Sometimes I feel sorry for my kids. They are SO deprived COMPARED to other kids at their school.

• They don't get to go on "real family vacations".
• They don't have a "real" cell phone.
• They have to buy junk food at ball games when other kids get whatever they want.
• They don't have a t.v. in their room, an IPOD nano (?), the latest video games
• They don't have a lot of clothes.
• Etc.

When I feel sorry for my kids, that is when I am failing as a parent. They are so very rich compared to the rest of the world. They have no health issues, they are never hungry, they have a mom to run them around and come to every single activity that they have, they have a dad that plays with them and teaches them constantly, etc. When I feel sorry for them I parent them WAY different than when I realize how blessed they are. Anyone else struggle with being different or is it just me?

Frugal Recipe Makeover

I posted my jambalya recipe a while back. I made it more primal friendly on Wednesday night. Last night I made it budget friendly by changing it into soup.

One of the best frugal things that you can do is learn how to cook. It's taken me YEARS to figure out how to cook....my friends used to laugh at me when I'd pull out the measuring spoons to measure out 1/8 teaspoon of pepper.

Unfortunately, I still can't figure out how to bake. I can follow a recipe, but that's it. I want to change the PB oatmeal into more of a cake texture or a brownie texture, but I have no idea how to do that. Any help would be much appreciated!

Not Quite Primal Jambalaya Soup

• saute some chopped onion (1 cup?)
• add leftover meat - I used sausage, burger and chicken
• 1 28 oz can of tomatoes
• 3 cloves garlic
• Some chicken broth (I think I added about 4 cups homemade)
• 1 fried egg that was cooked too long chopped up into itty bitty pieces. No sense in that going to waste
• I added heart of palm...bought it the other day and don't care much for it, but you can't taste it in the soup
• cajun seasoning (1-2T?), celery powder, pepper, salt, Italian seasoning (1-2 T?)
• I threw in some red beans, corn, chopped green beans, overcooked disgusting broccoli  (can't imagine there was much nutrition left in it because I totally overcooked it the night before), fresh spinach chopped into little tiny pieces
• Few dashes of Franks hot sauce

Notes: I'm trying for fewer carb grains in our meals so I don't add any rice when I make jambalaya.

3 out of 4 people loved this soup...in my family that is a hit! My son told me it belonged in a 5 star restaurant. I think that might have been a bit of an exaggeration - he must want something.

Check out other recipes at Grocery Cart Challenge.

This post has been linked to:
Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom
11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven
Heavenly Homemakers Gluten Free Recipe Parade

Complete Random Post

Is this not the cutest picture? I wish I knew the name of the person who took it over at sxc.hu.

Sorry, when I don't FLY, I don't post!

I'm totally off track right now. When I follow my routine, I write on Tuesdays for one hour and then again possibly Thursday morning after I go to the store. This week we're eating from the pantry (bought some milk and an avocado on Sunday). Remember, that there will always be another sale (that's a reminder for me so I don't run to the store for the items on sale - we have all the food we need, but there is more that I want!)

Yesterday I was working on Clothe-A-Kid stuff and trying to create a pumpkin granola breakfast bake similar to my peanut butter breakfast bake that I make. I tasted the baked pumpkin oatmeal and thought YUCK! So I threw the recipe away only to have my kids polish off the food. Wonder where the recipe is now - doesn't really matter if I like it since I don't eat it anyway!

I'm in the process of updating my "Grocery Details" post and working on some behind the scenes stuff. Notice over on my other blog Groceries101 that I said these famous words:

If I had a million dollars I'd probably buy a few more fruits and veggies that weren't on sale. However, I wouldn't change many other things; maybe more steak for my husband, maybe more fish for me. I still wouldn't buy organic :-)

Famous last words. Please note on your calendars that in April 2010 I bought organic carrots. :-)

Funny how things have changed! After I finish up this post I'm shutting down the computer so I can work on my house stuff for the day (had a mini heart attack writing that - I don't want to get off the computer!) Amazing how quickly I can fall off the FLYing wagon.

Equally amazing is how quickly I can get back on - LOVE FLYLADY's system! No guilt, just jump in where you are.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

P.S. I did manage to work in my zone yesterday for 15 minutes. My lazy susan cupboard and the disgustingly dirty vent thank me!

P.P.S. I'm not re-reading this very random post so thanks for ignoring my mistakes!

Spring Cleaning Tip

DON'T DO IT.

That is my best spring cleaning tip.

I know that some people enjoy spring cleaning. I know that some people don't get overwhelmed at the idea of spring cleaning.

However, if you are a person that does not enjoy spring cleaning or if you get overwhelmed at the idea, seriously....DON'T DO IT!

Wondering how your house will ever be clean?

Follow FLYLADY

15 minutes a day in your zone and your house will be beautiful! You might not get to your zone for a while, but that's okay because your life will be less stressful and you will be happier. I've been flying for YEARS and last year, I finally started working for 5 minutes in the zone of the week. I cannot believe what a difference 5 minutes made.

This year (starting in September - I base my "year" off of the school year)...I started working for 15 minutes a day in my zone. What a huge difference it has made. Last week I cleaned out the heating vents in the living room. I don't work in my zone on the weekend or if I'm working on a special project (like re-tiling the floor).

You can see more posts about home making here: Homemaking

I really want to know if you enjoy spring cleaning. Not the end result, I'd like that as well, but do you actually enjoy the process?




If you enjoy spring cleaning, you can find other tips at We are THAT Family. You can find more help with home making at 11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven.

Money Saving Idea: Calculate Price Per Ounce

Money Saving Idea:

If my family eats one pound of frozen vegetables each day of the year, we could save $299.30 for doing nothing more than buying the vegetables when they are on sale instead of at regular price.

Rock bottom price:
$2.50 regular price - $1.68 "rock bottom" sale price = $.82/day savings $299.30 per year

If you miss the rock bottom sale price (or don't want to use your brain power to figure out the buy $15.00 worth and get it for $10.00 sale) I see they are on sale next week as well.

On sale:
Normal sale price:  $2.50 regular price - $2.00 "normal" sale price = $.50/day savings $182.50 per year


Disclaimers:
Even in the summer we eat some frozen vegetables, but I'm not sure we go through a pound a day. Also, I'd rather buy them locally and fresh if possible. This is just an example of how the small things add up over time.

Would something like this work for you and your family at all? Is  fresh produce is better for you than frozen even in the middle of winter?

P.S. I use the frozen spinach in smoothies.