Good food, Great price

In the ongoing effort to feed my family good food at a low price, I have stumbled upon some amazing opportunities that I wanted to share with the rest of you. I love a good deal and most of what I find is passed on from some other wise person so I thought it only fair to continue passing this along.

I wrote awhile back how we had taken part in a CSA where we had a share in a farm and did weekly produce pick-ups. This ended last week and while the idea was nice, it didn't quite meet our standards. Since then we have been turned on to a program called Bountiful Baskets (thank you Kira and Dani!). I can honestly say since the first time we participated, we were hooked. What this is is a co-op of people who pool their money to get produce at reduced prices. You pay $15 (or $25 for organic) for approximately $50 worth of produce. This is what our first weeks pick-up looked like:

2 lb bag potatoes, 2 honeydew, cauliflower, lettuce, 6 ears of corn, 2 cucumbers, 3 pears, several apples and oranges and nectarines, bananas, broccoli

They also have occasional extra offers that you can take part in. For instance, we just added an order of 7 dozen tortillas for $10 to our next weeks pick-up. I would definitely recommend checking out the website and seeing if this is taking place where you live. You check the site Tuesday to place your order and pay and then pick up at a specific date and time later in the week. This has worked better than the CSA for us because we can choose week by week whether or not to participate. The food was also high quality and all things that we would use on a regular basis. I foresee us using being a part of this for a long time.

The second thing I have come across (just today actually) is a similar concept but with meat. This is through Zaycon Foods and right now they are doing there fall chicken sale event where you can get a 40 lb box of boneless chicken breasts for $59.20 ($1.48 a lb). That is a pretty amazing price. They currently are only doing drop offs in Washington, Idaho and Oregon but if you register with your city and state and your area generates enough interest, they may expand. Like the bountiful baskets, there are specific locations and pick-up times and dates depending on where you live. We decided to go in on a box with my in-laws since we have an extra freezer and there are a million things I can do with chicken (posts about this to come I am sure:).

I will keep you posted as I continue to find these bargains. I believe that feeding our families healthy foods shouldn't cost an arm and a leg so I am constantly looking for cheaper ways to get what we use the most of. Feel free to share any of the amazing finds you have come to love.