Bringing my food from afar

She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
Proverbs 31: 14

I do most of my stock up shopping once a month. It usually takes me all of one day and perhaps one trip the following day if I shop at the super store on the far north side of the County.

I probably work backwards from how many people make out a grocery list. I do have my basic grocery list printed out with one copy in my household manual and others in my file cabinet. This way I don't have to think much about what I always purchase, it is right before me and I just have to check everything off I need this month.

Then I go through the sales flyers of the three biggest stores and write a grocery list for each store for what is on sale. So yesterday when I took off for shopping, I had my main list and three others (one each for three individual stores). I ended up finding enough good purchases that I didn't need to go to the third store today.

I stock up when I find a good sale (for instance, this month I purchased ten large cans of tomatoes and five smaller cans because I use them a lot and they were on a great sale--especially the larger cans). I also usually purchase only meat that is on sale. The only time I differ from that is to by Laura's ground beef which is rarely on sale. This week, I also bought a family size package of my guy's favorite boneless ribs as they have asked for me to make those soon (I did save by getting a family pack).

There were so many great meat sales this month, I've already stocked the freezer above my frig (my only freezer at the moment) with everything I will use for the month, except I need to get a small Thanksgiving turkey as we near the holiday. I just slip each package of meat into a Zip Lock bag as it is and it keeps well, unless I have to open a package to divide into smaller portions. When I take them out to defrost, I will leave them in the Zip Lock bag if I think the juices will drain out, otherwise the bags go back into the freezer until I need them next time.

I need to cut up two items this weekend before putting them in the freezer. I bought one of those large pork loin roasts that will be cut into two roasts and two packages of chops. I also bought two large bottom round roasts, one of which was put into the freezer "as is" and the other will be cut into three packages of stew meat (cheaper and better quality than buying stew meat in a package). Most of the time during the month, I will then work my menus around what I found on sale. Sometimes I'll have to make a purchase to try something new but not often.

I purchased all baking needs so they are there when I want to bake. I'm also continuing the updating of my spices, throwing out a small jar of ground ginger and replacing it with another this month. I think my baking powder is still good because I use it so much but I will check the date on it before my next bulk shopping trips. (I by yeast in bulk and keep it in the refrigerator.) I continued to purchase a few more items for next months baking (extra flour, brown sugar, butter--put in a zip lock bag and then in the freezer), etc.). Once we begin having snow, I always stock extra cartons of eggs and milk, too. Eggs can last a LONG time in the refrigerator. I remember one January when, due to heavy snows, there were no fresh eggs in the grocery stores for a couple of weeks. After that, I kept at least two extra cartons at all times.

I always purchase the November issue of Southern Living, too. If you were to look through my file that contains complete recipe articles, a lot of them come from this issue over the years. They have great recipes for entertaining as well as family parties. (This is not their Holiday magazine but just the November issue of their regular magazine.)

I also purchased the latest copy of Tea Time (which I must get a subscription for!). I will save it for a time when the household gotta do's are done and I can have a relaxing magazine vacation. I cannot usually afford to purchase more than two magazines but I did so this month. These two will give me great recipes for years to come. The first was Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Baking, loaded with wonderful recipes for gift giving. The other is a brand new magazine by the King Arthur flour people called The Bakers Companion. It is so good, I want to subscribe to it already. If you like to bake bread, cookies, cakes, etc., you have got to check out this new magazine. I figure for the price of a couple bagels and a coffee for each magazine, they will give me great ideas for frugal gift giving.