Buying in Bulk...

Sometimes, I think I have a disease. I enjoy shopping--all kinds of shopping. I do not, however, enjoy spending money. The combination of these two traits is a good thing, as it keeps me from going out and spending loads of money in shopping trips.

The problem really comes in that I dislike spending money so much that it's hard for me to spend money even on a good quality product. When I see some clothing that I like, that's well made, and everything, I look at the price tag, and the only thing that crosses my mind is, "But, I could get like, 3 other shirts for the same price!" Again, this isn't too bad of a thing, because it keeps me from spending inordinate amounts of money. I also get really excited when I see sales. Sure, the stuff on sale may be less quality than the stuff that's not on sale, but it's less expensive! I like to say that I'm thrifty...honestly though, I think I'm just cheap. I'm working on it, but it's not the easiest thing to fix.

In an effort to be more frugal, and not cheap, I've been learning to do some things at home to save us some money. With all the floods and everything else, and the issues with the economy, I want us to be able to have some money now, and hopefully be prepared for later. One of the best things I've learned to do is flash freezing. You take something, you put it on a cookie sheet or some other flat surface, and put it into the freezer without covering it for a bit--usually around an hour or so. Things you can do this with include fruit, vegetables, etc. I learned this trick from pioneer woman, and it has changed my kitchen life. Seriously.

Anyway, Nate and I went grocery shopping last night. We bought two items in serious bulk, because they were really good deals.
1. We bought a flat of raspberries for $9.99 Last night, we washed most all of them, let them dry, and then put them on the cookie sheets and left them in the fridge overnight. This morning, I took our now individually frozen raspberries and put them into a gallon freezer bag. I've done the same thing with balled watermelon, and it's also really good. Now we have raspberries to last us for quite awhile, and it was much cheaper than buying all the frozen bags of them...and they don't have any added sugar or anything. Mmmm. I put some of the ones we left unfrozen in my cereal this morning, and it was delicious.
2. 20 pounds of red potatoes for $5.99. OK, this was a deal I couldn't pass up, because I looked at the 5 pound bag, and it cost $3.99. When I can get 4 times as much for 2 dollars more, how can I refuse? I will be spending much of the afternoon turning many of those potatoes into french fries and cubed hash browns. Again with the flash freezing...hooray!

Anyway, I suggest you do some of the same thing. It's really not that hard, and it's really easy to use later.

Also, we got a swamp cooler yesterday, and it was pretty much like Christmas. For all who want to know, the inside of our house is no longer 80 degrees, and it's fantastic.