Buy in bulk?

[Dan]

I have a bad (or good) habit. When something is on sale, I buy it. Usually a LOT of it. Freezable foods mostly. The reason that I thought of this is last Thanksgiving, I bought around 13 or so turkeys. I cooked one today, and still have 2 left..... We gave away 5 or so, and cooked 4 for others.... 

We have the main fridge/freezer in the kitchen (3 door), a top freezer/fridge in my office, and we just upgraded from a small chest freezer to an upright, also in my office. We have a SS Side-by-side in the cabin under construction, but we aren't using it... And of course, my mini beer fridge with no discernable freezer.  

Anyone else?

[frodi]

I very seldom buy in bulk. Mostly due to lack of decent storage space. When I had a decent shed built a few years ago we got a second fridge/freezer. It was quickly filled with Gráinne's bulk cooking. (Eat one and freeze rest for later) and Cormac's cider. Occasionally I get some beer into it.
Even in the pharmacy I don't bulk buy. Just about everything is on pack replacement. One pack out/one pack in. Again space is the issue but it also helps to keep stock levels tight.

[graham]

Nov 7, 2019 15:37:40 GMT -5 Dan said:

I have a bad (or good) habit. When something is on sale, I buy it. Usually a LOT of it.

I don't buy in serious bulk, but, in the past, I've bought a large joint of beef, roasted it, carved it, then frozen individual bags of a meal's worth which I could defrost when I wanted it.

Similarly, for some time, I used to cook up a big batch of mashed potato and freeze that in portions too.

Mostly, though, it depends on having adequate storage space and I don't have a very large freezer.

Occasionally, if something non-perishable is on sale, I'll buy a larger amount, for instance once there was a good deal on the brand of orange squash (cordial) I drank, so I bought a carton of 12 bottles knowing they wouldn't go off.

[MalcolmR]

As a one-man household who thinks that frozen food tastes shit.

No.

[Drea]

Nov 7, 2019 15:37:40 GMT -5 Dan said:

I have a bad (or good) habit. When something is on sale, I buy it. Usually a LOT of it. Freezable foods mostly. The reason that I thought of this is last Thanksgiving, I bought around 13 or so turkeys. I cooked one today, and still have 2 left..... We gave away 5 or so, and cooked 4 for others.... 

We have the main fridge/freezer in the kitchen (3 door), a top freezer/fridge in my office, and we just upgraded from a small chest freezer to an upright, also in my office. We have a SS Side-by-side in the cabin under construction, but we aren't using it... And of course, my mini beer fridge with no discernable freezer.  

Anyone else?

I'd LOVE to be able to buy a bunch of turkeys and be able to have them year-round!!  (Yummmmm!)  Michael told me yesterday that he had to talk with at least three different people, all the way to the top meat manager, at a grocery store last night just to BEG them to sell him one stinkin' turkey!  Here's the crazy part - the had PALLETS of them in the back!! But they weren't put out in the store yet, because "it's too early" they said.  Michael was like "then why has the store been chock-full of turkey fixin's and turkey roaster pans, etc. for a couple of weeks?"  Apparently it's VERY strategic as to the date the turkeys are actually put out... the sale of the stores' other meat products goes way down when the 69 cents per pound turkeys available.  So they only show up for a few days of the year.  GOOD GRIEF!!!!

We only have one side-by-side refrigerator/freezer that has no room for turkeys.  Maybe I need to ask Santa for a separate freezer this year...

[martycanuck]

We buy meat in bulk at Costco. Not huge packs but bigger than typical grocery store packs. Then we bring it home and separate the packs, vacuum seal them into sizes we can use for 1 meal and then freeze them.

In the case of ground beef we’ll usually make it into burgers and / or meatballs first and then freeze them for future use. For those we freeze them individually then vacuum seal them so they don’t just become a big hunk of seasoned ground beef.

Once in.a while our regular grocery store has enormous pork shoulders at an awesome price. Those we’ll buy a few of for future use on the smoker to make pulled pork.

[Jeannette]

I very seldom buy food stuffs in bulk but will buy paper products (paper towels, plates, toilet paper) in bulk. Storage is an issue for the food stuffs and I always forget to pull things out of the freezer to thaw.

[Debbie]

Currently, I don't as it's just me and my roommate. I do remember my Mom doing it when I was growing up. We had a separate freezer in our basement just for meat.

[Jim]

Now that it's just me, no.

When my deep freezer failed, I lost about $700 worth of food.

When it was the two of us, we would drop about $600 at Costco every few months.

[mank]

We buy somethings in bulk from Sam's Club. We buy large packages of boneless skinless thighs and break them into smaller packages of 4 thighs. My wife puts them in Ziploc freezer bags and I place them in our downstairs freezer. We always have at least 20 or so thighs on hand. We also buy 96%/4% lean ground beef and freeze it in 1 or 2 lb packages. Again, we generally have around 5 to 10 lbs of really lean ground beef in our freezer.

Oh I almost forgot...

We usually have at least two frozen turkeys in our freezer at all times. We like turkey all year round.

[Rob]

When I can, I like to buy large supplies of meat from the Brower Farms. It's just a big farm in Brown City that has its own butcher shop. You can order a whole cow or a whole pig and they'll slaughter it and package it for you.

[Jackie]

Nov 8, 2019 7:16:28 GMT -5 martycanuck said:

We buy meat in bulk at Costco. Not huge packs but bigger than typical grocery store packs. Then we bring it home and separate the packs, vacuum seal them into sizes we can use for 1 meal and then freeze them.

That's what we do too. We do have a chest freezer so we've got plenty of room. I've gotten to the point where I only buy stuff like paper towels and toilet paper at Costco or when they're on sale at the local grocery store. Right now I have enough toilet paper to last a couple months.

[fritobandito]

I buy whole hunks of meat at Costco, slice steaks, vacuum seal them, and freeze. I only have the top freezer on the fridge so I don't have room to freeze a lot of stuff.

[Ben]

We buy in bulk, but storage isn't a problem. We have three boys. If food lasts until the end of the week, we did well.

[martycanuck]

Nov 8, 2019 22:04:23 GMT -5 fritobandito said:

I buy whole hunks of meat at Costco, slice steaks, vacuum seal them, and freeze. I only have the top freezer on the fridge so I don't have room to freeze a lot of stuff.

Yeah us too. We buy the entire ribeye and slice it ourselves into thick steaks for future use.

[mank]

Nov 9, 2019 6:56:33 GMT -5 Ben said:

We buy in bulk, but storage isn't a problem. We have three boys. If food lasts until the end of the week, we did well.

Ben,

I know the feeling. I have 5 kids, three of them boys. When the boys were teenagers I need a cow for milk and another one to feed them.