Replenishing Your Freezer — Last of This Week

When you’re replenishing your freezer and pantry after “eating down your freezer,” it’s great to encounter an incredible sale.  This Saturday, HyVee had wonderful deals in a 6-hour sale.  It was quite an experience.

I braced when I saw the parking lot so full.  There were limited spots in the incredibly huge lot, and I have never seen that, even right before Thanksgiving.   Inside, it was chaos.  But I had my list, and was in my Happy Place, so the log jams, pokey people and sold out deals didn’t really take a toll.   A friend told me later that she saw how crazy it was, and went to WalMart to price match, instead.  Very smart. 

Here’s the remainder of my list for the week, and what I got. 

milk (1) skim 6-hr sale HV .99

bread S. Lee honey wheat .99 HV C x 2

fruit! bananas .29/# HV 6 hr sale x 2.62#

Hormel pork shoulder roast .99$ HV  out of stock

store frozen OJ .88 HVCoupon Limit 1

FLand sausage 1# .99 (freeze) x 2

shredded cheeses .99 8 oz.  (freeze) x 6

store 1/2 gal ice cream 1.18 HV (store for holiday recipe) x 2

Total:  17.41

Grand total for the week:  60.73

So, for about 70% of my weekly budget, I’ve come away with some fresh, frozen and staple items. I’ve made some very thrifty purchases, repackaged some of it for easy fixin’, and have made more progress in replenishing my freezer.

This is just one week.  Next week will see different deals.  And the weeks to come.  There is no need to pay full price, and no need to overspend on prepackaged “food” all the time.

“But can you make regular meals from it?”  I certainly can!  Having eaten down your freezer, you know you can, too.  It helps that I have fresh and frozen vegs already on-hand.  But if I didn’t, there were plenty of veg deals this week that I could have bought.  Broccoli for .99/#, frozen vegs for .88/16 oz pkg, and more.  Again, you don’t have to get every deal every week.

Today, along with some bulk cooking, I trimmed the pork loin roast, cut eight chops from one end, and repackaged into three meals of chops and a roast with seasonings.  They’re in the freezer now, nicely labeled and dated.  Later this week, I’ll make twice-baked potatoes with some of the 10# bag and cheese.  The sausage will stay in the freezer until we have a festive family brunch, probably around Thanksgiving weekend. 

The point is that I planned my purchases.  I didn’t just get all the deals on items we won’t eat.  Over two or three weeks’ sales, I have enough variety to be choosey with my shopping.  And I do sometimes get the unusual item for pennies, but I know how I want to use it, and I eventually will.

What did I do with the extra $25 this week?  Well, I could have gone back to get more of these deals.  I could have saved it for next week.  I could have picked up some items for the local food pantry.  I could have purchased a 5-shelf storage unit on sale at Menard’s.  What would you have done?