Adventures in Eating: Cheap. Easy. and Healthy

Join me on my quest to dissect the world of eating, learn to make everything from scratch, find a more simple solution to everyday feeding, and to do it all as cheap as I possibly can. Keep in mind that I have no idea what I’m doing, and that I’m attempting to teach myself; mostly through trial and error, mixed with some internet research and advice from friends. Read more about my blog...

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Moment of Weakness: 42 lbs of BEANS

As I was out-n-about this afternoon I happened to stop by my local Macey’s grocery store. I don’t do this very often, as it is sort of out of the way for me, but I do like the store and they usually have pretty good sales. Today, it happened to be on my exact route home, and I had only 3 things on my list: milk, celery, and hair gel. I was focused, and determined to run in quickly and not deviate from my direct objective.

Haha, yea right.

I’ve been contemplating over the last few days about what would be the most effective way to shop. I was deciding between either 1. buying bargain items and finding uses for them, or 2. waiting for the items I use regularly to go on sale and then stocking up at that time. Well I had just come to the decision that I would go with #2, and buy only items on my list, and when I saw an item on sale that I regularly stock in my pantry (even if I have plenty at the moment) I will buy a bunch of it.

The first thing I saw when I walked in the store was a huge sale display of bulk food storage items! How could I not at least look? Since I had given myself permission to stock up on stuff, I was able to browse through quickly (without feeling guilty) and find the things I use that were at a good price. I ended up with: dried onion flakes, onion powder, garlic powder, yeast, wheat gluten, and a 42 lb bucket of Black Beans!
(oh yeah, I also did get the 3 original items on my list)


I am so excited! I know I was waiting to buy the beans at Costco, but I decided I’ve found a sufficient amount of bean uses to at least get me started. Plus, Costco only has Pinto beans, and I was going to need to find somewhere to buy Black Beans anyway.



So, that’s my story. I did it. I gave in. And I’m pretty pleased at the moment. I paid $39 for the beans, so I’m hoping that’s a good price; I really have no idea. That would make them just under $1 a lb…but they are in a huge bucket that would cost at least $5-8 in addition, so that makes it a little cheaper. I’ll round it down to an even .85/lb. Now I’ll have to look around and see how much Walmart and Winco charge for Black Beans, just to make sure I got a good deal, and to know for future purchasing. I am so new to actually comparing prices that I really haven’t got a clue about what’s a good deal for most things.

I recently did some comparing between Walmart, Winco, and Costco for some items and made an unofficial (but official in for my own shopping needs) decision that Costco has the best deals in general, on name brand items. Some things I won’t buy generic, so I definitely buy those at Costco. Winco and Walmart are similar for generic brand items, but Winco sells more things in bulk than Walmart.

Basically, to summarize: I buy most bulk things from Costco, if Costco doesn’t have it and I want it in bulk I buy it from Winco, and anything I don’t need in bulk I buy from Walmart. I guess I will now have to throw in an occasional trip to Macey’s to see what they have on sale.


Little hands love beans too

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