Wow, those are good deals.  I love meat deals but we honestly don't go though enough meat to buy lots on sale. It will go bad. Of course when the kids are teenagers I am sure that will change! I have been stocking up for the last few months but probably have 20-30lbs in total in the freezer between all types of meat and sausage. Now that the weather is getting cooler, I will be starting to cook more oven meals and use them up more especially since freezer burn is starting on some of it. 

I have never seen sausage seasoning packs. I will have to keep an eye out for them. I like the idea of making your own sausage because I don't like reg. breakfast sausage. We have the attachment pack for my kitchenaid mixer so I will have to look and see if has a grinder. (was a gift but haven't used any of the attachments)

 You have to ask the butcher's for the packets.  They use them when they make the breakfast and/or Italian sausage themselves.  

 
We are planning for some very serious stocking up.   Since we gave away all our food storage when we moved almost 4 years ago we have just been getting by thinking we'd be moving soon. No such luck and times just keep getting worse so we'll be buying wheat and storing it in metal garbage cans. Buying the basic sugar, oil, salt, and then a good amount of canned goods. Here people get snowed in for weeks- never used to buy much canned stuff but it comes in handy when you can't get out.  I"ll buy a couple of cases of canned milk for now and stock up - like 12 cases minimum at Thanksgiving.  I also have been working on our business instead of canning this summer so we'll need applesauce, veggies and some fruits.  I buy imitation maple syrup by the gallon.  I"ll buy flour, beans, oatmeal and rice- also plan to store in garbage cans as we have mice on occasion and very limited amount of kitchen space.  I"m so glad I picked extra chokecherrries last year as the drought  has reduced the number of berries down to almost nil and I use them for syrup as well.   I'm hoping to get the youngest potty trained and then I won't have to stock up on diapers.  I do have cloth as a back up but our septic tank is "troubled".   John is in charge of the meat and will probably restock the freezer here soon, either with elk or whatever is a deal at the time, it's always pretty full.  The elk's a sweet deal as everyone around here but us hunts, John just helps them cut it up and we get free meat ( they're very generous and their wives are tired of elk). 

I already did a little stocking up with a good sale a few weeks ago; veggies 3/$1, canned soups 2//$1, buckets of laundry soap $3.99.  Apple juice 11/$10.  I"ll get just enough crackers and breakfast cereal for  our emergency kits but not major stocking up unless it's a very cheap deal.  

joan of ark

ps also peanut butter and jam.  Plus John always gets me fancy jams and syrups for Christmas and other fun food storage items. I get him real maple syrup, hot sauces, tabasco and fancy canned peppers.   

I can't find your report, and wouldn't use your meat report as we are vegetarian- but found the site friendly and liked reading about your family!  Can you post your report in general?

You are a very resourceful person Joan of ark!  We hardly get snow so that is not an issue. We like to get specialty items for xmas for each other and family. Makes them more special.

Yeah I only give access to the report when you sign up for the free e-zine and then I mail you the secret page url and password.  It'l probably show up in google eventurally and then I'll have to figure something else out.  It doesn't have a lot of vegetarian meals as I was showing that you can eat meat for less. But I give recipes for pancakes, waffles, homemade bread, omlettes( do you eat eggs? cheese?) fruit shakes, pizza,  fried rice, chili and cornbread, etc. It'll end up as a chapter in my book so don't want it too freely distributed at this point. 

 You'll probably be more interested in the new site I"ll be starting soon http://www.secretsofthebutcherswife.com   ( just a blog for now but will transfer the domain to the new site.  The goal is to use the site to encourage me to get my book ( same title as the site) worked on and hopefully done asap.  We actually use  meat sparingly but I also have to eat what the Lord's provided as I"m trying to stay on budget and the deals John gets are way good.  I think using 2 lbs or less of meat to feed a family of ten is making it stretch pretty well.

Have a joyous day,

joan of ark
 

Pizza and fruit shakes sound great- I'll sign up!  I'm dependent on frozen pizza and English muffin pizza.  It's our fast food meal, and dh can heat frozen pizza.  Looked at the blog- my 5 yo and 2 yo are looking into trouble after Kindergarten too, they like to get away from the baby and go upstairs where the 4 oldest girls sleep, and look at all the things up there, the 2 yo has been finding lip gloss. 

Tracy 

Sounds great but I can't find the blog! Love cheese and eggs but dh can't eat eggs.

I stock up this time for year too.. I stock up on beef and chickens for the freezer I have cans goods purchased at a .10 a can I have lots of things stock piled ... does anyone stock pile medication ??? and how much cash do you keep in emergency stuff ??

I've never heard of flour in cans.  Is it commercially sold that way or something you did yourself?  Do you have a name brand if it is a commercial product? That has sparked my curiosity.  I wonder what other things not normally in cans are available.  E

I bought a shelf at the thrift store for my stocking up! It looks so nice, with rows of veg, fruit, my homecanned pickles, applesauce, and dill beans and carrots, juice.  I have a much better idea of what I have now-

Tracy