Bulk Grocery shopping

formerlyGDaisy09 · August 2014

I know a lot of you have mentioned bulk shopping, H and I are thinking about doing this, or at least doing one big shopping trip a month and then little trips each week for things like milk.

What do you buy in bulk?

What do you not buy in bulk? why?

Do you have a second freezer (chest or upright)? how big is it?

hoffse · August 2014

We did not have a second freezer until we bought the house (came with one). It's a chest freezer, and we haven't filled it up yet.

But just for two of us, we buy cereal, chicken breasts (frozen), pork loin (frozen), ground turkey (frozen), canned goods, bread (freeze half, use half), and some condiments that we use frequently. We also buy spinach and avocados because we eat it fast enough to buy in bulk. I actually do buy milk and half n half at Costco because we have one close by, and they sell regular sizes of those things. It's usually cheaper than Target.

Paper products, cleaning products, OTC meds, etc. are also things we buy in bulk.

The things we don't buy at Costco are really just things costco doesn't sell, plus smaller quantities of certain condiments (ketchup, mustard, mayo, etc). We also buy most other produce at a regular grocery store because we can't eat it fast enough for it to not spoil. Previously we always bought red meat elsewhere because the quantities were too big... but now that we have a deep freezer H wants to try Costco's steaks too.

Our Costco is close enough that we usually go every week. Sometimes we go more than once a week. It typically works out that we're spending less than $100 per costco run when we do it that way, though we could definitely stock u

smbenevides1989 · August 2014

This is what I buy in bulk:

Chicken breasts - I can then cut it up into cubes, tenders, or clean the breast up and separate it all into freezer bags.

Depends on how much it costs/pound, I buy ground turkey meat, either in a large container where I can separate myself, or I just buy a few small containers that I know will last me all month.

I do buy Sprite 2-liter bottles, english muffins in the 18-pack, DH likes a certain yogurt that comes in a 12 pack (it's protein yogurt), frozen fruits, tilapia, shredded cheese, and protein bars.

Weekly trips - milk, eggs, veggies, fruits, and other dairy.

mc0113 · August 2014

We mainly buy meat in bulk at Costco. Chicken, ground beef, ground turkey, fish. Then once I bring it home, I separate it into smaller freezer bags and stack in the freezer.

We don't buy anything that can't be frozen in bulk - like fruits, veggies, milk. We can't eat it fast enough to make it worth it.

And nope, no second freezer at the moment since we are renting. Once we buy a home we will definitely get one for the basement.

brij2006 · August 2014

What do you buy in bulk?
I do a bulk grocery trip to Aldi's once a month.

There I buy.....

cheese - sliced, shredded, string, and bricks (freeze)

cream cheese

sour cream

OJ

eggs

milk

baking supplies

canned goods

frozen pizzas

frozen veggies

greek yogurt

lunch meat (freeze)

french fries

rice

pasta

boxed potatoes

chips

onions

potatoes

apples (keep in fridge for about a month)

oranges (fridge for month)

baby carrots

celery

What do you not buy in bulk? why?
Usually produce that won't keep that long. Such as bananas, strawberries, blueberries, etc.

Greek yogurt I sometimes won't buy in bulk just because I like changing up the flavors often.

Do you have a second freezer (chest or upright)? how big is it?

We have 2 extra freezers. 1 upright and 1 chest freezer. However, we get 1/4th of a cow each year and 1 whole pig. So those are mostly filled with those items and the vegetables I freeze from the garden. I also make 20 freezer meals once every 5-6 months, and those are stashed in the freezers too.

Our stand-up is similar to this one.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/frigidaire-20-6-cu-ft-frost-free-upright-freezer-white/8822544.p?id=1207352154370&skuId=8822544&st=categoryid$abcat0902002&cp=1&lp=3

Then the chest freezer is like this.

formerlyGDaisy09 · August 2014

Thanks all, I've been thinking about pulling some money from our appliance savings to pick-up a chest freezer from a dent-and-scratch sale...I just have no idea how big of a freezer to look for. We have a BJ's about 10 minutes from our house and I go back and forth on getting a membership, we used to have one, but didn't have a lot of freezer space, so found that it wasn't saving us a lot.

I've also got tons of veggies coming out of my garden, so I'm thinking that a freezer would mean freezer meals and grocery savings later....I'm attaching a photo of my haul from my garden yesterday and my garden hardly looks like it's been touched.

jessica490 · August 2014

We just go to BJ's to buy meat. We separate it into small portions and freeze it. That's all we really buy there because we feel our grocery store is really cheap so we stock up on everything there. We also have a chest freezer about up to our waist and it's usually half full.

hoffse · August 2014

I agree that uprights are more efficient. If our house didn't already have a chest freezer we would have bought an upright first thing upon closing. We'll live with this one for now but will certainly replace it with an upright at some point.

You have enough veggies, etc. that a deep freezer and one of those vacuum food storage bag things would probably be a good investment. I would also look into canning. Jars aren't very expensive.

formerlyGDaisy09 · August 2014

my inlaws actually gave us a vacuum sealer for Christmas 3-4 years ago...I've hardly used it, I'm thinking my weekend plans are looking like I'll be pickling, canning, and making freezer meals...might as well go pick-up a freezer...several of the 15 cu.ft. uprights appear to be about 25% off right now.

hoffse · August 2014

Gdaisy09 said:

my inlaws actually gave us a vacuum sealer for Christmas 3-4 years ago...I've hardly used it, I'm thinking my weekend plans are looking like I'll be pickling, canning, and making freezer meals...might as well go pick-up a freezer...several of the 15 cu.ft. uprights appear to be about 25% off right now.

That's a great idea. My parents have found that things like corn, peas, etc. from their garden freeze very well after vacuum sealed.

formerlyGDaisy09 · August 2014

hoffse said:

Gdaisy09 said:

my inlaws actually gave us a vacuum sealer for Christmas 3-4 years ago...I've hardly used it, I'm thinking my weekend plans are looking like I'll be pickling, canning, and making freezer meals...might as well go pick-up a freezer...several of the 15 cu.ft. uprights appear to be about 25% off right now.

That's a great idea. My parents have found that things like corn, peas, etc. from their garden freeze very well after vacuum sealed.

I've blown through the peas I had this season, the few that were left I'm drying to plant next year. I have sooo many green beans, I'm planning to make several batches of dilly-beans and probably some freezer meals with green beans in them. I'll probably make a few batches of zucchini bread too (there are 4 zucchini in that photo and probably another 6 still growing in the garden). I have tons of Kale, but I'm not sure that will freeze well, unless I make some basic soups that pasta or rice could be added to later.

KatieCutie05 · August 2014

i shop sales. i've found that theres some things bj's is good for and some things that i can get cheaper when they are on sale at the grocery store. I go to BJ's for cheese, breakfast bars, pierogies, ground beef, hot dogs and other frozen items. Otherwise sales at the grocery store are better and those generally rotate every 6-8 weeks so i buy atleast enough to last us a few months... sometimes more.

I also have a foodsaver thats our life saver. I can't even say how much freezer burnt meat we threw out before that. In a regular ziplock bag it gets nasty looking after a month or 2- but in the freezer bags we have stuff in there from almost a year ago and it still looks just as fresh as the day i put it in there. it allows me to stock up when things are on sale. I love it. it ends up paying for itself.

The only problem is we forget to put stuff in the fridge so its always frozen. lol but most stuff can easily be defrosted or just cooked frozen. We don't have any spare freezer either... but with just the 2 of us its not a problem - we can easily fit a few months worth.vaccume sealing saves space too which helps. We may have to invest in another freezer when our kid(s) are older.

formerlyGDaisy09 · August 2014

Awesome! thanks all. Yea I think we let our BJ's membership go after a new grocery store opened up and we found most things were cheaper there.

I'm going to see what kind of space my weekend freezer-meal creation eats-up in our freezer (we have a french-door fridge with a freezer drawer that has quite a bit of space) and then decide from there what size freezer we'd benefit from. freezers are most efficient if you can keep them full, so I don't want to buy something too big.

Xstatic3333 · August 2014

Gdaisy09 said:

hoffse said:

Gdaisy09 said:

my inlaws actually gave us a vacuum sealer for Christmas 3-4 years ago...I've hardly used it, I'm thinking my weekend plans are looking like I'll be pickling, canning, and making freezer meals...might as well go pick-up a freezer...several of the 15 cu.ft. uprights appear to be about 25% off right now.

That's a great idea. My parents have found that things like corn, peas, etc. from their garden freeze very well after vacuum sealed.

I've blown through the peas I had this season, the few that were left I'm drying to plant next year. I have sooo many green beans, I'm planning to make several batches of dilly-beans and probably some freezer meals with green beans in them. I'll probably make a few batches of zucchini bread too (there are 4 zucchini in that photo and probably another 6 still growing in the garden). I have tons of Kale, but I'm not sure that will freeze well, unless I make some basic soups that pasta or rice could be added to later.

Kale freezes great! Honestly, it's one of my favorite things to freeze. I used to blanch it, but found that isn't actually necessary and I get less ice crystals just freezing it raw. I cut it into pieces, stick it in a freezer bag, squeeze out the air, and it's fine for up to 6-8 months in my experience. The only thing is you can't use it for kale chips, just for cooking. I most frequently throw it in soups or pastas like you described. Sometimes I'll just steam the bag's worth with a little garlic for a side.

ETA: Awful punctuation

formerlyGDaisy09 · August 2014

Xstatic3333 said:

Gdaisy09 said:

hoffse said:

Gdaisy09 said:

my inlaws actually gave us a vacuum sealer for Christmas 3-4 years ago...I've hardly used it, I'm thinking my weekend plans are looking like I'll be pickling, canning, and making freezer meals...might as well go pick-up a freezer...several of the 15 cu.ft. uprights appear to be about 25% off right now.

That's a great idea. My parents have found that things like corn, peas, etc. from their garden freeze very well after vacuum sealed.

I've blown through the peas I had this season, the few that were left I'm drying to plant next year. I have sooo many green beans, I'm planning to make several batches of dilly-beans and probably some freezer meals with green beans in them. I'll probably make a few batches of zucchini bread too (there are 4 zucchini in that photo and probably another 6 still growing in the garden). I have tons of Kale, but I'm not sure that will freeze well, unless I make some basic soups that pasta or rice could be added to later.

Kale freezes great! Honestly, it's one of my favorite things to freeze. I used to blanch it, but found that isn't actually necessary and I get less ice crystals just freezing it raw. I cut it into pieces, stick it in a freezer bag, squeeze out the air, and it's fine for up to 6-8 months in my experience. The only thing is you can't use it for kale chips, just for cooking. I most frequently throw it in soups or pastas like you described. Sometimes I'll just steam the bag's worth with a little garlic for a side.

ETA: Awful punctuation

Awesome! I was thinking of blanching it...I have swiss chard too, it might just be an experiment to see what works! Glad to know I can also try it raw. One of our favorite ways to prepare Kale is actually sautéed/wilted in some olive oil with garlic, salt, pepper, and maybe a little cayenne, then I top it with some parmesean and a few poached eggs, the yolk from the eggs makes a nice sauce.

brij2006 · August 2014

For freezing a lot of the garden vegetables, we just bought Ziploc brand quart size freezer bags. With the tomatoes I made salsa, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, and just bagged diced tomatoes and crushed tomatoes for recipes. Just label them and squeeze the air out.

With the zucchini, you can shred it then freeze it in 1-2 cup portions for future recipe use. Our garden seriously gave me easily 50 cups of shredded zucchini. There was no way I was making that much zucchini bread or cake to freeze.

Green beans freeze very easily. Just pop the ends off, cut them to the size you like to eat them (or keep whole) and toss them into a freezer bag. I portioned ours out to portion sizes for just the 2 of us so I can grab it and microwave them. Sometimes I will pull the ziploc bag out and put it in boiling water to cook. The plastic doesn't melt since it's a thicker freezer bag, and it's less dishes.

formerlyGDaisy09 · August 2014

brij2006 said:

For freezing a lot of the garden vegetables, we just bought Ziploc brand quart size freezer bags. With the tomatoes I made salsa, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, and just bagged diced tomatoes and crushed tomatoes for recipes. Just label them and squeeze the air out.

With the zucchini, you can shred it then freeze it in 1-2 cup portions for future recipe use. Our garden seriously gave me easily 50 cups of shredded zucchini. There was no way I was making that much zucchini bread or cake to freeze.

Green beans freeze very easily. Just pop the ends off, cut them to the size you like to eat them (or keep whole) and toss them into a freezer bag. I portioned ours out to portion sizes for just the 2 of us so I can grab it and microwave them. Sometimes I will pull the ziploc bag out and put it in boiling water to cook. The plastic doesn't melt since it's a thicker freezer bag, and it's less dishes.

Thanks! for the tomato sauces I have canning supplies, so those actually don't need to be frozen. I have a dozen quart-sized mason jars for canning/pickling I'm thinking I'll use half for pickles and half for sauces and that should get me pretty far. I also have a few older jars that could also be used for lactic acid pickling.

my green beans from last year lasted in the freezer in just freezer bags until the end of April.

edited for grammar.

Xstatic3333 · August 2014

Gdaisy09 said:

Xstatic3333 said:

Gdaisy09 said:

hoffse said:

Gdaisy09 said:

my inlaws actually gave us a vacuum sealer for Christmas 3-4 years ago...I've hardly used it, I'm thinking my weekend plans are looking like I'll be pickling, canning, and making freezer meals...might as well go pick-up a freezer...several of the 15 cu.ft. uprights appear to be about 25% off right now.

That's a great idea. My parents have found that things like corn, peas, etc. from their garden freeze very well after vacuum sealed.

I've blown through the peas I had this season, the few that were left I'm drying to plant next year. I have sooo many green beans, I'm planning to make several batches of dilly-beans and probably some freezer meals with green beans in them. I'll probably make a few batches of zucchini bread too (there are 4 zucchini in that photo and probably another 6 still growing in the garden). I have tons of Kale, but I'm not sure that will freeze well, unless I make some basic soups that pasta or rice could be added to later.

Kale freezes great! Honestly, it's one of my favorite things to freeze. I used to blanch it, but found that isn't actually necessary and I get less ice crystals just freezing it raw. I cut it into pieces, stick it in a freezer bag, squeeze out the air, and it's fine for up to 6-8 months in my experience. The only thing is you can't use it for kale chips, just for cooking. I most frequently throw it in soups or pastas like you described. Sometimes I'll just steam the bag's worth with a little garlic for a side.

ETA: Awful punctuation

Awesome! I was thinking of blanching it...I have swiss chard too, it might just be an experiment to see what works! Glad to know I can also try it raw. One of our favorite ways to prepare Kale is actually sautéed/wilted in some olive oil with garlic, salt, pepper, and maybe a little cayenne, then I top it with some parmesean and a few poached eggs, the yolk from the eggs makes a nice sauce.

Oh my goodness that sounds amazing! I've been wanting to try poaching eggs but am not really into eggs benedict, so I will definitely be trying this!

formerlyGDaisy09 · August 2014

Xstatic3333 said:

Gdaisy09 said:

Xstatic3333 said:

Gdaisy09 said:

hoffse said:

Gdaisy09 said:

my inlaws actually gave us a vacuum sealer for Christmas 3-4 years ago...I've hardly used it, I'm thinking my weekend plans are looking like I'll be pickling, canning, and making freezer meals...might as well go pick-up a freezer...several of the 15 cu.ft. uprights appear to be about 25% off right now.

That's a great idea. My parents have found that things like corn, peas, etc. from their garden freeze very well after vacuum sealed.

I've blown through the peas I had this season, the few that were left I'm drying to plant next year. I have sooo many green beans, I'm planning to make several batches of dilly-beans and probably some freezer meals with green beans in them. I'll probably make a few batches of zucchini bread too (there are 4 zucchini in that photo and probably another 6 still growing in the garden). I have tons of Kale, but I'm not sure that will freeze well, unless I make some basic soups that pasta or rice could be added to later.

Kale freezes great! Honestly, it's one of my favorite things to freeze. I used to blanch it, but found that isn't actually necessary and I get less ice crystals just freezing it raw. I cut it into pieces, stick it in a freezer bag, squeeze out the air, and it's fine for up to 6-8 months in my experience. The only thing is you can't use it for kale chips, just for cooking. I most frequently throw it in soups or pastas like you described. Sometimes I'll just steam the bag's worth with a little garlic for a side.

ETA: Awful punctuation

Awesome! I was thinking of blanching it...I have swiss chard too, it might just be an experiment to see what works! Glad to know I can also try it raw. One of our favorite ways to prepare Kale is actually sautéed/wilted in some olive oil with garlic, salt, pepper, and maybe a little cayenne, then I top it with some parmesean and a few poached eggs, the yolk from the eggs makes a nice sauce.

Oh my goodness that sounds amazing! I've been wanting to try poaching eggs but am not really into eggs benedict, so I will definitely be trying this!

I've found the key to poached eggs is to boil the water in a frying pan (not a sauce pot) and add some vinegar to the water, it keeps the white part of the egg together better. this recipe works with most dark leafy greens, I've done it with swiss chard and beet greens.

maple2 · August 2014

We actually have a coop where we can place an order through them directly with their supplier and pay the same price the coop pays. We buy oats, raisins, peanut butter, canned beans and tomatoes, and toiletries as needed. I may start buying flour and sugar in bulk too, but it gets difficult to store a lot of 50lb bags and avoid critters. During the appropriate season we stock up on berries, tomatoes, peaches, apples and ingredients for pesto and pasta sauce for canning and freezing. When it is on sale we buy lots of frozen peas and corn, pasta, veggie burgers, and bread. We still end up doing a relatively big shopping trip each week because we go through a lot of fresh produce, but we are a family of 4 with young kids who prefer fresh produce to what we can make with canned or frozen fruit and veggies. Someday I hope to eat more seasonally, but for now I want to make sure they eat lots of veggies! We have a chest freezer that we keep fairly well organized with plastic baskets that each hold a different type of food (fruits, veggies, nuts and flours, etc.).

Erikan73 · September 2014

We buy paper products & cleaning products from the wholesale club. We also buy some meat and the divide it up to proper portions & vacuum seal it. We don't currently have a second freezer but are planning on getting one in December when I get my bonus. This will allow me to prepare more meals in advance that I can just dump in the crockpot in the morning & have dinner ready to go when we get home from work. I would rather give up 1-2 hours every other week or so & prep meals for the freezer if it means more free time during the week. When we can do that, I'll probably buy more food products in bulk. Right now we only have 3 people in our household and most foods go stale/bad before we can finish them.

als1982 · September 2014

I'm not a huge fan of Costco for food (in our house we get tired quickly of the things we buy in bulk, and so much ends up going to waste that it would negate any savings). But we do usually end up with half or a quarter side of beef each year, and I would love to have a deep freeze for that!!

formerlyGDaisy09 · September 2014

Thanks everyone. we've put the freezer on our long-term wish list. I don't generally buy meats from the BJ's near us (we don't have costco), I prefer to spend a little more on local grass-fed, free-range, antibiotic-free...meats from the local butcher probably a few more $$ a lb, but the environmental health classes I had to take as part of my MS in public health have scared me off mass-produced meats forever.

I was able to fit 13 meals into our freezer with one section still reserved for things we consume more regularly. that feels pretty good, I was able to accomplish that in less than $200 at the grocery store.

brij2006 · September 2014

Have you ever thought to buy a package from that same local butcher? We are picky about our meat too, and we ended up going straight to the farmer to buy directly from him. Yes, it's a little more complicated because you pay them a set price, then the butcher a set price for processing. But it's much cheaper than buying it from a store. The butchers also usually have a package you can get that makes them cheaper. So it may be $150 for X amount of pounds of meat, and these 5 cuts. Yet it's still cheaper than buying those cuts separately whenever you need them.

formerlyGDaisy09 · September 2014

the local place is a Co-op, I haven't looked into if they'll sell meats in bulk. They do a case-sale once a year but that's usually just produce and packaged goods. and often not less expensive than the other grocery stores in the area.

But that would be interesting to look into. the other thing I've thought about doing (but would definitely need a 2nd freezer) is a Meat CSA with a local farm, our garden does so well that a traditional CSA isn't worth it to us, but some non-traditional meat CSAs are starting to show up in our area.

edited because my brain moves faster than my fingers.

natzville · October 2014

stuf that can spoil

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