Freezer Cooking Shopping Trip

After I went through all the recipes and figured out how many I wanted to make (6 full meals of each recipe), I multiplied the ingredients. I went through all of the ingredients and totalled up how many of each I needed overall (ex. 6 lbs of chicken times 10 recipes = 60 lbs chicken).

I then went through my kitchen to see how much I already had and figured up how much I needed from the store. I made my list and we headed to Kroger since they had most of what I needed on super good deal. When we got to the store everything we needed was pretty much on sale (most for a great price).

We started in the produce section:
45 bell peppers, various colors (luckily they were on sale for $1.00 each)
53 onions (on sale for 99c a pound)
2 2-lb bags baby carrots
5 heads garlic

Then we moved onto the packaged stuff:
10 boxes Barilla whole-wheat pasta (on sale for $1.25 each)
6 bags egg noodles (on sale for $1.69 each)
21 jars pasta sauce (on sale for $1.91 each)
1 box instant mashed potatoes (on sale for $1.75)
9 cartons chicken broth (on sale for $1.89 each)
24 cans Cream of Chicken soup (on sale for $1.00 each)
6 cans Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic soup (on sale for $1.50 each)
Breadcrumbs (on sale for $1.39)
Giant thing of honey (on sale for $7.49)
2 Heinz ketchups (on sale for $1.49 each)
6 Heinz beef gravy (on sale for $1.39 each)
Parmesan cheese ($2.37)
Apple cider vinegar (on sale for 79 cents)
Soy sauce (on sale for $1.19)
Balsamic vinegar ($3.39)
2 Kraft BBQ sauces (on sale for $1.00 each)
14 3pk aluminum baking dishes (on sale for $1.00 for 3pk)
4 2pk stuffing mixes ($2.29 each)
1 1pk stuffing mix ($1.29)

Then we went to the cold stuff:
2 18pk eggs (on sale for $1.19 each)
7 bags mozzarella cheese (on sale for $1.50 each)
7 giant bags frozen mixed veggies (on sale for $2.00 each)
44 lbs 93% lean ground turkey ($3.19 a pound)
14 pounds pork chops ($3.79 a pound)
8 pounds pork loin ($1.99 a pound)
62 lbs chicken breasts ($1.99 a pound)

We spent about a hour and a half at the store including a marathon checkout, 3 carts, and help out to our car. When we got home, we spent about 30+ minutes unloading and piling stuff into our fridge and pantry. It was insane. We even had to take stuff up to the mini-fridge on the 3rd floor to make room. It is all ready to go tomorrow. I will blog about how I did it. I might take pictures if I am not too overwhelmed.

In case anyone was wondering, we spent $600 and saved $220 plus the fact that Kroger has decent prices anyways. We also earned $6.00 in a coupon for another trip. So by my calculation if we make 120 meals (a good amount will give us leftovers - some a whole 2nd meal) plus 6 pots of soup for lunch, we are under $5.00 a dish. Not bad. Of course some recipes will still require starch and veggies, but that will keep them under $7.00 with couponed items.