Sense to Save

When you don’t have an elevator and you have 3,237 lbs. of groceries

Quick tip before I head off into the kitchen to cook potatoes forever:

We live on the third floor of our apartment building. All of those stairs can get old fast, especially when you have a bunch of heavy groceries to take up. If I put bag handles on my arms, they cut into them and also make it difficult to walk.

My solution: I keep a very sturdy laundry basket in my trunk when I go to the grocery. I put the bags in the basket, and carry it upstairs that way.

The rest of my $35/week grocery budget

Just got back from Kuhn’s grocery to wrap up my shopping for the week. The purchases don’t look that interesting, so I won’t bother with a photo. I went slightly over budget, spending $24.90 there, and putting me at $36.55. I blame the milk.

Here’s what I bought:

• Mueller’s dry elbow macaroni .50
• Mueller’s dry spaghetti .50
• Sargento shredded cheese, 3 packs for $5
• Ragu pasta sauce, on sale for $1.33. Got two and used a $1-off coupon, making them .84 per jar
• Pack of margarine. Four sticks for .85. I probably could have gotten it cheaper at Aldi, but I didn’t think about it. Better luck next time
• Frozen strawberries $1.69
• Dozen large eggs $1.78 (These have got to be cheaper elsewhere, too. Right?)
• Ziplock freezer bags (to store all my potato goods and more) $2.19 with coupon
• Yotastic yogurt .33 each (got 10)
• Two gallons 1% milk $3.61 each. I saw it for more than $4 at Target. Yeesh!

I’ll post my menu for the week soon.

You say "potato," I say, "What in the world am I going to do with 39 po-TAH-toes?!"

I think 10-pounds of Idaho potatoes for $1.99 is a pretty good deal. So, I bought a bag. It contains 29 potatoes (some big some little, and the spuds join 10 potatoes I bought last week for a much more expensive price of 5 lbs./$2.

I’m going to cook every last one of them today, to make sure they don’t go to waste. I’ll show you what I made, the recipe for each, and how much it costs per dish and per serving.

I’m planning to make potato salad, potato wedge fries, twice-baked potatoes, and au gratin potatoes. I’ll be freezing most of this hearty bounty in single or double-serving portions, so I can just grab a ziplock, reheat and eat.

Hope this doesn’t take all day! Stay tuned…