Friday, July 27, 2007

Shopping for the Basics

We made a run into town today for soymilk (Silk $2.79, generic $2.49), whole wheat bread ($1.69) and bananas (3 pounds for $1.00). They must think we're nutty whent hey see our cart filled with 17 loaves of bread, 18 1/2 gallons of soymilk and 22 pounds of bananas. By shopping this way, we've been able to keep our trips to the store down to once every 2 weeks. The only other foray we make in the car is to our weekly CSA pickup. This pleases everyone since none of my kids like grocery shopping anyhow.

Jim discovered an unexpected use for the cotton dishcloths that I just finished knitting yesterday. It turns out they make great washcloths too. I have to agree with him. They have a great texture, good for scrubbing off the sweat and grime of the day but not too abrasive. I think my next knitting project will be the granny squares. It seems to hot to think about knitting a whole blanket. Doing it one square at a time sounds more manageable.

Rob's got his own little project going on right now. He's in the process of making a new rack for the pool table. (I'm talking about the triangular thing you rack the balls in.) Biscuit chewed the one that came with the table and we're all tired of doing it with our hands. There's nothing quite as deliberate looking as an eight year old with a miter box.

5 comments:

Ruthie said...

What a cartload! I have a question -- does ALL that soymilk fit into your two fridges?? We have trouble fitting 4 1/2 gallons into our fridge, granted it has lots of other stuff in it :)
Also, what type of decent bread do you buy for $1.69? The only bread I can find without hydrogenated oils or dairy products is over $3.00 a loaf. Ugh!

Katie said...

I keep all the soymilk in the spare fridge except for one plain and one vanilla that I keep in the kitchen fridge. Its stacked inside the garage fridge like cordwood. The spare fridge makes a HUGE difference. I couldn't have done this last year.

I agree quality bread is a total budget buster. That's why I bake my own during the school year. However, there's a Price Rite supermarket about 25 minutes from here and they have a pretty high quality whole grain bread that boasts no dairy, no hydrogentated oils and 5 grams of fiber. Its only flaw is it does have corn syrup but, for the summer, I'm willing to compromise. The brand is Ultimate Grains but I've never seen it anywhere other than this Price Rite store.

Anonymous said...

I try to stock up on Silk when I find it on sale as well. For now, we have an extra fridge that comes in handy when the soymilk's on sale at 2/$5. Sure wish the freezer part was usable for something other than ice though. (Hint: don't put a case of overripe bananas in the garage freezer for banana bread if there is even the slightest chance it will ever be unplugged and forgotten for 2 whole days. The stink is unbelievable and permanent if the nasty juice runs down the insulation in the back. Nothing will remove the smell...ever.)

Katie said...

Once my hubby unplugged my freezer to plug in a power saw and forgot it for 2 days. What a smelly mess! Thankfully we were able to get the smell out.

Anonymous said...

A great place to check for good deals on soymilk is BigLots. I just picked up a couple dozen for .99 per quart/liter last week. The brand is Vitasoy and they had vanilla, green tea, and chocolate mint flavors. The great part is that you don't need to refrigerate them until you open the aseptic package.

If you look carefully, you can find some great items at BigLots. My DH and I are training for a half marathon. I found the Knudsen Recharge for $1.00 per liter bottle. I like it much better than Gatorade (and Recharge does not have high fructose corn syrup, as does Gatorade).

Also found Cascadian Farms organic cereals for $2.00 as well.