So Maybe I'm Not Technically Mormon...

But I think we all know I live the LDS lifestyle (okay except for the whole religious thing, my 2 cups of coffee, occasional glass of sangria... oh... and the swearing).

Well, the other day a reader emailed me suggesting I look into the closest LDS Cannery. With the ever growing rate of my bread baking, muffin making, and pizza dough production... I'm going through about 30 pounds of flour a month... this reader thought I might benefit from buying wheat in bulk and grinding myself.

Being well versed in LDS doctrine I knew about the food storage requirements... BUT... I did not know about the LDS Canneries. I spent all night researching them. Most of the *real* information I could find was not from the LDS Church (although I read all of that) but from crazy survivalists (and I am NOT surprised). It seems that up until Y2K non-members could shop at the Canneries and buy bulk items but that during the time leading up to Y2K non-members cleaned out the Canneries and now non-members are not permitted to shop there without an LDS escort.

Do any of you know anything about this? I really don't want to embarrass myself. The form asks for a member name & ward info... not that I would do this or anything... but do they need to see your temple card?... or... if you happened to know a members name & ward info... would that suffice? (of course I wouldn't do this... I'm just asking... like do they check a picture ID.... I WOULD NEVER DO THIS).

Also does anyone have a flour mill attachment that they use on their Kitchen Aid mixer? Like THIS one? Whether I can get the LDS bulk wheat or not I'm kind of curious about grinding my own fresh flour.

Friends, Romans, Countrymen

You all know of my love of Trader Joe's.... the frozen chocolate croissants, fantastic store brand EVERYTHING from dishwashing detergent to olive oil. I mean the place rocks the house on the cheap front but has enough high end products to assuage the inner food snob.

You also know that we do not have a Trader Joe's here.

Well in my frugal shopping research I discovered that there are two ALDIs here.

Do you know about ALDI?

We didn't have one in Ann Arbor so I never really investigated it before. Then when I was watching The Duggars (what?!!!) I saw that they shop there. That's when I got the low down that this place maximizes savings by not providing free bags (how very environmentally progressive of them), making you rent a cart (25 cent deposit), only taking cash for payment (or equivalent), and eliminating shelves (you pick product off the pallet).

Yeah it sounds so crazy I kind of need to see it. There is one just about a mile away. I hadn't bothered making the trip (until TODAY) because I figured they wouldn't have any organics. Plus they only carry their own private label stuff... and how do I know it's not crap?

How do I know?!! Well it turns out that ALDI and Trader Joe's are owned by the same company. They are essential the low end and high end versions of themselves.

You read that right.

So if you love your "hand selected" private label Trader Joe's olive oil there is a pretty good chance you are going to equally love the private label ALDI's olive oil.

Take that in... all you foodies on a budget.

Now I don't know for a fact that I'm going to find my beloved organic soups (for now)... as ALDI caters to a different market... but I do know that the fish filets are going to be the freaking same... for LESS. Same goes for condiments. And baking products.

I'm doin' it.

I'll report back later.

Holy Schnikeys

Alright, I was doing my daily blog perusing and stumbled upon the best freaking deal ever!

First of all this is legitimate.  

Go to Restaurant.com.  Search for restaurants in your area.  This site typically offers gift certificates for dine-in restaurants for about 60% off.  So you can get a $25 gift certificate for $10.  But it gets better because from now until Saturday the 31st they are offering  70% off your total order (code: SUPER).  That means you can get restaurant gift certificates for 90% off.

At first I thought the restaurants would be cheesy chains... no... they are all independent restaurants.  Each one has their own restrictions (like not applicable towards alcohol... but some exclude weekends so check first).  I got a $25 off for $10 to one of the nicest restaurants in town.  Then I got two $10 off for $3 to a local pizza joint.  So that's $45 worth of food for $16... but after the discount I got $45 worth of food for ... get this... $4.50!!!  

The fancy restaurant requires us to order at least $35 worth of food to use the $25 off certificate... so that's $10 out of pocket for a nice meal.  The pizza joint requires a $15 order to use the $10 off certificate... so we can get a whole pizza and drinks for $5 out of pocket.  Craziness!  Add that all up and we'll pay $24.50 out of pocket (gift certificates and cash needed at restaurants to get a qualifying order) and have 3 restaurant meals out for a family of four.  I think that is a deal.

And we really needed something like this to come our way.  My dad is coming into town this weekend for Baby's birthday and offered to babysit the kids so Mr F and I could go out.  I was kind of upset since we couldn't afford to go anywhere.  Now we can!