buying cheap and stacking deep.....

[97guns]

its what i do when theres a sale so i went to safeway friday for some ground turkey on sale 3# for $5 and as i was loading up my cart i hear a "good lord", i look up and this middle aged lady is staring me down then darts her eyes to my cart and back at me again. i look at her cart and she has 1 pack of turkey in her cart versus my 6.

i didn't comment back and just wheeled away, i coulda layed into her but i was having a great day and wasn't gonna let her ruin it. just wondering if and what kind of encounters you experience buying food in bulk.

[Aatami Sotkea]

I like to buy the steam in the bag frozen broccoli- one bag is perfect for the hub and I and we eat it very often. When it is on sale for 99¢ a bag it goes very quickly, so when I see it in the weekly ad I get there early the first day it is offered.
So last week I get there around 7am, which is coincidentally the same time they restock the freezer section. I have to ask the stock guy to scoot out of my way so I can get to the broccoli and I get all there is- about fifteen or so bags. He kind of watches me but doesn't say anything.
The next day I am there again and as he watches me again grab all there is on the shelf (another dozen or so) he says "Somebody sure likes broccoli" to which I reply "Somebody sure likes broccoli on sale."

In the same store I also bought 10 jugs of cranberry juice a day for three days in a row, done that way because I only felt like carrying ten a day into the house.
The checkers are used to my buying habits by now

In my defense I only buy items on sale I would have to buy anyway, and I do have storage space available and time to go to the same store multiple times each week. I drive a very high mpg car and the store is less than two miles away.
I see this as frugal and smart, not obsessive or hoarder-y.
ymmv

[bjl584]

I buy chicken breasts in bulk when they go on sale and freeze them.

No one has ever looked at me dirty or commented however.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

She said, "Good lord." but was thinking, "Now I'm going to have to drive to 30 miles to another Safeway. I was going to buy ground turkey for the neighborhood grill-out but this guy else has gotten it all before I could. I wonder if he could be having a barbeque party, too."

People probably aren't always judging you when you think they might be. Peope are thinking about themselves much more often than about the strangers around them.

I stock up, too.

[BuckyBadger]

Do you often want to "lay into" strangers at the supermarket?

I agree with Joan -- it's a bad idea to assume what people are thinking when you have no basis for it. Unless she was also interested in ground turkey and you cleared the shelf in front of her, I'll bet she didn't care in the smallest but how much turkey you were buying.

I've never had anyone give me a funny look. And once I made the butcher go back and literally cut some freaking pigs in half because I needed more pork butt for a Superbowl party. I bought like 25 pounds! He didn't care, nor did anyone else in the meat section.

[riverwed070707]

Ha I know the feeling. DH calls me the crazy chicken lady because when whole chicken goes on sale for $.55-.65/lb I quite literally come home with 12-15 chickens depending on what they had available. If there isn't enough for me to stock the freezer, I get a rain check. It saves us oodles and its not worth cooking a whole chicken if I'm not getting a stellar deal.

[BuckyBadger]

Ha I know the feeling. DH calls me the crazy chicken lady because when whole chicken goes on sale for $.55-.65/lb I quite literally come home with 12-15 chickens depending on what they had available. If there isn't enough for me to stock the freezer, I get a rain check. It saves us oodles and its not worth cooking a whole chicken if I'm not getting a stellar deal.

You know -- we really need to do this more often. We always say after holidays when we cook a whole bird of some sort, "we should do this more often! They're cheap and it's really not that hard to cook a whole bird!" but then we never do.

I'm inspired! Once I have a kitchen again, I'm going to remember how easy it is to cook a whole bird

[Redraidernurse]

We have a big deep freeze and regularly stock on meat and cheese when it's on sale. I also stock up on peanut butter, ketchup, etc and store them in the pantry. I try to leave a few for someone else but don't hesitate to grab a ton.

[EarlyRetirementJoy]

Well, just today I bought 10 each of three pretty good loss leader offers from Ralph's - 10 jars of Ragu for .99 each, 10 boxes of Ronzoni pasta for .49 each, and 10 bottles of Ocean Spray juice for $1.99 each. The store's sale circular required that 10 of each item be purchased in order to get the deepest discount, so clearly the store was supporting buying in mass!

The check out clerk couldn't believe the final prices either, particularly on the pasta, commenting she clearly needed to do some grocery shopping herself once her shift was over. As I left I heard her yell to her manager to call the local food pantry and tell them to get over there pronto to go shopping.

[snafu]

97, I try to offer a compliment to the biddy making the comment. You should see the look of surprise on their face!

[riverwed070707]

You know -- we really need to do this more often. We always say after holidays when we cook a whole bird of some sort, "we should do this more often! They're cheap and it's really not that hard to cook a whole bird!" but then we never do.

I'm inspired! Once I have a kitchen again, I'm going to remember how easy it is to cook a whole bird

Really is! When we cook chicken, I pull it from the deep freeze two days in advance and put it in the fridge. On the cooking day, I wash it, stick it in the crockpot and turn it on low for 6 hours. When it's done, I let it cool, debone it and make one meal that night and usually have enough chicken left to make 1 or 2 additional meals (or use it on salads for lunches!), which saves time later in the week because the chicken is already cooked. If I'm low on chicken broth, I save the bones/skin/drippings in the crockpot, add water to the brim, and some chopped carrots and celery if I have them on hand and turn it back on high for another 6 hours. When that's done I strain and bag the broth in 1-4 cup portions (vary them so you can unfreeze what you need with minimal waste) and put them in the deep freeze. Homemade chicken broth virtually free! Sounds like doing a lot but since everything takes so long to cook, its really not a long cookin session, just a couple steps throughout the day.

[97guns]

went for some chicken breast today .99/lb , all out on the shelf so i go to the guy in the back and he say's we'll get some right out. i loaded up the maximum of 4 packs and was on my way without incident except for the lady stocking the fridge, she must have really hated her job, annoyed that i wanted cheap chicken, or was just a plain sour puss.

[laurend1985]

I don't stock up because it's just me and my husband. Let them stare maybe they think you are one of those extreme couponers.

[BuckyBadger]

Really is! When we cook chicken, I pull it from the deep freeze two days in advance and put it in the fridge. On the cooking day, I wash it, stick it in the crockpot and turn it on low for 6 hours. When it's done, I let it cool, debone it and make one meal that night and usually have enough chicken left to make 1 or 2 additional meals (or use it on salads for lunches!), which saves time later in the week because the chicken is already cooked. If I'm low on chicken broth, I save the bones/skin/drippings in the crockpot, add water to the brim, and some chopped carrots and celery if I have them on hand and turn it back on high for another 6 hours. When that's done I strain and bag the broth in 1-4 cup portions (vary them so you can unfreeze what you need with minimal waste) and put them in the deep freeze. Homemade chicken broth virtually free! Sounds like doing a lot but since everything takes so long to cook, its really not a long cookin session, just a couple steps throughout the day.

Do you put anything in with it when you initially cook it? Liquid? Seasonings?

[riverwed070707]

Do you put anything in with it when you initially cook it? Liquid? Seasonings?

Sometimes I'll toss some seasonings (salt and pepper or just a seasoning salt) on the top but we don't eat the skin so I don't find it really ever adds a lot to the chicken. No liquid. Makes its own drippings pretty quick. If you've never done chicken in the crockpot, its a must try. Its so tender you literally can pick the bone clean with your fingers, no cutting necessary.