What you get for the money...

Pittsburgh has long been considered a great place to live...

the cultural events and museums

the low cost of living

family friendly environment

and many other reasons...

I had been reading a series from here over the past week about cutting your budget and frugal grocery shopping while maintaining high quality nutritional food.  I found it pretty interesting reading the comments from people about things they do to reduce the cost of wholesome food...

About once a month my husband and I sit down and take stock of the cupboards and freezer and make a big order (or two...when we forget or run out before the order is picked up) from here.  Usually it totals about $300.  For the most part, this is the bulk of our groceries for the month. We supplement with previous bulk bought items, frozen and canned food from the summer, and during the summer items that we get from our garden.  For meat, we bought a quarter of a cow from here, and supplement from here.

2 # butter (Amish roll butter! yummy)*

6 gallons milk (low heat pasteurized, non homogenized- good for making yogurt)*

10 blue corn tortillas*

2 boxes frozen spinach*

5# potatoes*

5# dried beans*
1 bottle disinfectant cleaner

1 loaf bread (we usually make our own, but it's nice to have a frozen loaf on hand)*

1 box vegetable bullion cubes*

1 case tomato soup*

1 bottle Mexican seasoning*

1# cinnamon*

1 jar salsa*

25# rice*

1 gallon honey

25# unbleached flour*

5# raisins*

1# cocoa*

1# oregano*

1# Italian seasoning*

4 oz. vanilla

8 oz. artichoke fettuccine*

3# apples*

1 bunch celery*

1 case pretzels*

# pound(s)

*organic

I like to go on Saturdays when you can shop the warehouse (other days it is closed and you just come by and they load you up.) Occasionally they'll have produce that is not so pretty or dairy that's on it's way out for a steal...such as

SCORE!

ORGANIC BANANAS!
8.5 pounds after the kids ate all the bananas that they could over 2 days
and the 1-2 pounds that went straight to the compost heap
(wet and moldy...not good for human consumption/storage!)

The guys in the warehouse said that they weren't pretty enough to sell so they let the kids have them.  They also joked that we could only have them if we made them some banana bread...who knows they are such great people I may just do so!

They also had 3# blocks of cream cheese for $4 and some change...past date, but still good...

I was thinking cheesecake, but decided not to.

It's just not that good for me.

(but my tongue and tummy are regretting that decision.)

(No, I currently receive no compensation from them, it's just a really great company)