Stretch your grocery money - Bountiful Baskets Food Co-Op

This is the food we got last week!!

Finding ways to make your grocery dollars stretch is not easy. But what if I told you that you could buy over $35 worth of fruits and vegetables for only $15?

The idea behind Bountiful Baskets, is a food co-op, where average citizens leverage the power of group buying to purchase fruits and vegetables at wholesale prices.

Basically you pay up front (by Wednesday at 10:00 pm) and they pool all the money, then spend it all where the grocery stores shop. Then volunteers show up an hour before pickup (just show up if you want to help!) to divide up the produce, then all the participants show up and take home their baskets and bread!

In addition to getting produce at a screaming deal, you can order items like bread, or granola or larger boxes of various produce. What you get depends on what is on special or in season that week. Just remember to sign up early each week, as there are only a limited number of spaces open.

In today's economy, we need to do all we can to live frugally. Bountiful Baskets is a great way to make sure your family eats healthy, but still  keeps within your budget. Stop by http://www.BountifulBaskets.org and give it a try.

Free is a very good price.

You probably know I'm all about getting prepared for the least amount of cost. Well, one way that I've found to store things like wheat and beans or whatever is to put them in plastic buckets. But those buckets can get spendy if you need more than a few. But what if I told you could get all the buckets you could ever want for FREE!

You probably don't know it, but bakeries all across the city get most of their frostings, and fillings and other items shipped to them in plastic buckets. When they empty the buckets, they just throw them away.

So one or twice a month, I'll call the bakeries in Smith's, or Albertsons or whomever and see if they have any buckets. Or if I happen to be in the store shopping, I just stop by and ask. They are usually more than happy to hand them over. Just make sure you get the lids with them and that they have no cracks. You won't always get large 5 gallon buckets, but that's ok, as I like to store my items in smaller containers anyway.

Then when you get home, wash and disinfect them, and they are ready to be filled up with whatever you'd like. You can also purchase the oxygen absorbers from Emergency Essentials or Macy's to increase the shelf life of whatever you put in it.

Here are just a few ideas of some things you can use your buckets for:

Store All varieties of food especially Grains and Beans
Keep Flashlights and Batteries
Keep a 72 hour kit
Separate your food into meals and put one days worth of food in a bucket
Shelter in Place kit
Emergency toilet
Carrying water