How to build a HUGE food storage on zero budget.

[Lekrii]

I tend to measure frugality in terms of time more than dollars. If something takes a LOT of time and effort, but is free (in terms of dollars), I don't consider it frugal. I know some here will disagree with my mindset, but I would honestly just work and pay cash to build food stores, instead of putting the effort into the methods described in the original post

[insulator_king]

I just looked at one food item, Nellie's Free-Range Grade A Large Brown Eggs - 12ct at target. They are $4.49, and you save $1 with the coupon.
It's OK, but not free.


Still might be useful for some people, and elnina did well to post it for those who might find it useful.

[ebbe]

Originally Posted by elnina

^^^ I understand, but this is a Frugal Living Forum, so I thought perhaps someone would be interested.
I noticed that there is a lot of work involved, but some of the stuff is not advertised at the stores.
Frugal people like to explore ways to save on products they buy, especially those on very tight budget.
I have friends in retirement communities, and they often buy bulk, then divide.

I think buying in bulk and dividing is a fine idea.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by ebbe

I think buying in bulk and dividing is a fine idea.

We do a lot of that.

I walk into the local Kroger affiliate and see spiral cut hams for $0.49-0.99/ lb the week after Easter. I send a text to several people and see if people are interested. I end up buying six hams. We call that a MOABO (Mother of all buying opportunities) alert.

One of the women who I will occasionally cook for orders two tomatoes from the local grocery. Last week, she gets charged for 2# of tomatoes but actually received two large bags of tomatoes. She sent them to me and I froze the equivalent of ten cans of tomatoes.

Another lady volunteers at a charity right next to the produce rescue. She comes back each week with a trunk filled with produce that she distributes to us. We grab what we can use in a week and she sends the rest to the rescue mission. We slip her a little money for the gas every few weeks.

Every 2-3 weeks, I head to the Grupo Bimbo Bakery Outlet. I buy for my household. Increasingly, I am buying for several others families. They give me an order for what they want and I get them bread for often less that half of the grocery store prices. In addition, we get senior discounts and a free bakery item for every $8 purchased.

Then, every three weeks, we hit the local grocery salvage store. It is certainly NOT as good as the Amish ones in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest. Again, if I see any great specials, I sent out a MOABO alert to the people on my list. Last week's big special was packages of Kind bars for $0.50-1.00/box which is a substantial deal.

Since we live in an area with a large snowbird population, when people decide to leave for the season, they drop off all of their perishable groceries as well as their open pantry items. I will get boxes of things like pancake mixes and the like. In return,if they need spices or other pantry items, they know that I always have a good quantity of pantry items. Who wants to buy a large far of caraway seeds of rubbed sage which most people use about once a year?

We have been doing this for many years in some way in an effort to reduce our food costs as well as to do our part in reducing the 40% if the food wasted in the US each year. Now with COVID in the rear view mirror we can get back to doing more of this.