Jacks 99 Cent Store 34 Street Grocery Haul

For Groceries as a New Yorker the secret to cheap cheap groceries is Jacks 99 Cent Store near the 34 STREET train station. Seriously if you want to eat top quality foods without couponing etc just go to Jacks 99 Cent Store!!!

Look at my entire haul Hirshire Italian Sausage , 2 packs of Turkey Breast,  Frozen Barramundi Fish (I know this is what WHOLE FOODS carries) , 3 Packs of Whole Wheat Bread and 1 Pack of Raisin Cinnamon Bread, Saltines and Coconut Macroons and I forgot to take picture of the huge Coconut Water I got.  Everything cost me total of $14.79!!!!!!!

Lately, I haven't been able to catch their Whole Wheat Bread deals so when I saw it was totally filled with breads today at cost of $1.29!!!!!!!!! I went crazy and got 4 packs.  I'm going to freeze 3 packs because Whole Wheat Bread is just so freaking expensive.  At a regular supermarket the lowest price is $1.99 and that is seriously rare! Usually I get them on sale for $2.50 so $1.29 is crazy cheap for Whole Wheat Bread!!!!!!

So if you want to stock on some staples and have your unlimited metrocard totally get to Cheap Jacks. Notable things I just didn't buy was they had quart sized milk, half and half for $.99, Brie Cheese for $1.29, Activia 4 pack Yogurt for $1.29 (keep in mind on sale at Pathmark it's $2.50 ), adorable mini hot dogs for pigs in the blanket.  They also have a more gourmet food section on the 3rd floor yummo I finally found my second source for Mascapone Cheese in NYC-- Cheap Jacks they pretty much have the two varieites they have at Whole Foods (identical) for $3.49 and $4.49.  And Smoke Salmon Packs for $4.99 !!!!

How much does a dry ONE pound bag of Black Beans yield?

I've always wanted to know but have been to lazy to answer this question.  I've really become obsessed with adding Black Beans into my meals.  One reason is I can not stress enough how healthy black beans are! The other is Target still has a ONE pound bag of dry black beans at $.76 !!!!  Which is the cheapest you'll find anywhere in NYC!!!!

So I finally decided to find out how much a bag yields to figure out if it would ever be worth it to buy the canned beans.  So I first soaked them overnight in water.

Then cooked them in boiling water for an hour.

Strained the liquids from the beans

This is how much beans are created after cooked!

This is just another reason why I love my LockNLock containers, I have one that is exactly 16 oz aka 1 lb so that I can easily measure the beans.

Batch # 1

Batch # 2

Batch # 3 

Last Batch is about 1/3

So the answer is ONE lb dry bag of Black Beans yields about 3.33 lb of actual cooked beans!!!!!  Or about $.23/ lb if you buy yours at Target while they have there Black Beans priced so low!!!!

Veggie Freezer Storage

Whenever Veggies go on sale, I don't let the fact that I'm single and cook for mostly myself deter me from buying them.  Otherwise, I'd almost never be able to finish my a whole bag of anyting before they expire.  Especially living in Queens, and all these great Asian Supermarkets getting on the dollar bag for fruits and veggies bandwagon.  My solution is to freeze them!!!!!!

I love this because it allows me to really stockpile healthy foods when their on sale.  Otherwise with the RISING cost in all healthy foods these days..I'd literally go poor from eating healthy.  It's so so sad to hear these days from a lot of normal responsible middle class even people say they can't afford fruits and veggies anymore.

I love freezing veggies because everyday that your veggies and fruits just sit there, they lose more and more nutrients even if their still in good looking shape.  And this allows to you save those nutrients.  And also, I am the laziest cook on the planet, I admit I love cooking but I hate veggie preparation.  It takes forever to wash, chop, peel and clean up that mess.  So having it all done and in the freezer saves me a lot of time and more likely to cook a healthy meal.

Here's My List of Great Veggies to Freeze

Celery

Carrots

Onions

Bell Peppers

Broccoli

I admit you won't be able to get great crunchy stir fries from them after freezing but you can use these to make great quick healthy soups and you won't notice a difference in taste. 

 I know everyone has limited freezer space so my suggestion is to prioritize on the things you know will be out of season and ridiculously expensive for me that's TOMATO's and Bell Peppers.    I don't freeze tomato's instead I make either quick tomato sauce or tomato soup base to freeze instead. And things you use the most often and would like conveniently chopped and ready. 

Cooking healthy meals, when your super busy can become SO  much easier if you do this.  I can't stress enough how I got majorly sick last time from eating all that take out and how much that ends up costing you in doctors visits, sick days and medicine.  

Operation Declutter (Part 3): Under the Bed Shoe Storage Box

I was at Bed Bath and Beyond yesterday and I saw the above in store.  The friend I was shopping with was totally going to grab it at $9.99 but I remembered that I literally saw the same product even the As Seen on TV Logo at one of my local Dollar stores for $4.99!!!!  And I just picked it up for my friend and its the exact same box brand new.  

I'm loving that dollar store its the one right by the Main Street 7 train elevator and Macy's.  You don't even have to leave the block to pick it up.  Another thing I noticed is they have a 4 compartment version of this also from the "As Seen on TV line" for clothes for $3.99!!!!!!  Lightbulb in my head for DIY project is if I really wanted this for shoe organizer, I could cut up my own cardboard and make 8 dividers out of card board.  Taking it even further because I hate card board, I could reinforce plastic bags to them via the iron.  Great way to not collect dust and use your left over plastic bags.

Operation Declutter (Part 2): Comparing Under Bed Storage bags

Finding the Perfectly Valued Under the Bed Storage Bag

Bed Bath and Beyond: has a vinyl version for $7.99 each

This is what I want but that will be over $8 a bag! 

Why not buy more Space Bags??

While I love space bags ($2-3 a bag); there are somethings space bags are not that much useful for regularly dense clothing like sweatshirts.  And sometimes I don't want the hassle of decompressing a whole bag to get access to one item.  Plus they are some what delicate and the more you do that the more you wear and tear you space bags.  So I really wanted to get some under the bed bags. Normally I use the heavy duty clear vinyl zip bags that you get when you buy a comforter, but I've used them all up already. I need these bags to help store my out of season clothes that I may still want access to.  

So I searched a couple of my Dollar Stores and found my solution!!

Dollar Store: Under the Underbed Storage Bag

Cost $.99

I only bought one because it was in a sealed bag and I wanted to test one first, but basically this one is exact same size as the one at Bed Bath and Beyond.  And it has side pockets!  Con: is that its semi clear and the plastic is not strong as Space Bag or Vinyl.  I took up close picture below, because its likely your Dollar Store will have this version too (since all 3 stores I visited had this bag)

Conclusion:  If you don't plan on constantly abusing the storage bag (like grabbing it by the plastic to move, have NYC rat problem) its a great buy.  I save $7 a bag buying this version. So I am going to go back to get more!  For me, I'll just be putting these under my bed and occasionally accessing them.  Because there so cheap, I can buy more and organize my things better!

Cheap DIY Tip:  The Fabric Lining on the bag is really great to my surprise.  If you really want to make the bags sturdier you can just add duck tape.  I get a huge roll from dollar store so I don't have to be conservative with it. 

WHY not buy clear Plastic Under the Bed Tote Boxes?

The average price for the plainest kind of those huge under the bed Tote boxes is $15.  They are great because their easy to clean and durable.  Aside from the pricing issue.  It's not as flexible in terms of space, most beds can probably only handle 1-2 layers.  For me, I'm trying to organize things by actual items so it's easier for me to buy the bag version so I can organize more things and my space limitation is dictated by the size of my items vs the storage box.  Also if you don't own a home and you do have to move a lot... sometimes these will get cracked in the move depending on how careful your movers are.  Also if you have to move to another state via plane, you will not be able to take these with you.  Versus the bags you can just pack as usual and the barely add any additional space or weight.  My lesson was learned in my last move where I had to throw all mine out because I couldn't fit them in my suit cases.

Operation Declutter

My Dream Closet 

Reality check, my closet is half that size and I have a ton more clothes than that.  I’ve been totally on a decluttering mission.  I just hate organizing, cleaning!!!!!!! 

Trying to keep New Years resolution, so first step was to watch some free episodes of those decluttering shows on HG TV’s website.  Main tip I got is to get rid of stuff you don’t use and group all your “similar” objects together so you see how many of one object you have (so you don’t keep onto stuff you have a lot of and prevents you from buying more of stuff you already have a lot of).  For me I always keep buying grey and black slacker like sweaters now that I’ve started to group them together I realize I have a lot and I don’t need more. It’s also great idea because you learn to return objects to designated spot.   

Anyways, I conclude that I must not be the only slob in NYC because there are literally tons of stores in NYC for organizing.  The container store is like this magical toyland for the OCD !!  Target and Bed Bath Beyond are filled with super cool containers and closet things.  Only problem is that everything is super expensive !!!!!  So I’m going to start touring my local dollar stores and discount stores first before forking over a ton of cash to be more organized.

SO far I’ve only been to one dollar store and I’ve found some great deals!!!!!!

Pop-Up Laundry Bag

Instead of getting it at Bed Bath and Beyond; I found it in dollar store for $1.49 each   make it $1.29 each at my other dollar store!!!  I bought two because that’s all the space I have room for .  You could buy more just because these babies once folded take up less space than a t-shirt.

Amount saved  {$14.99-$2.98  2.58}

$12.21

Clear Storage Box (for shoes and misc items)

Container Store so far has the best price at $1.89 see below.

And I can't believe how much of a Rip Off Target is along with Staples.  Both stores have them around $6 a box ridiculous!!!!!

The funny thing is if you don't mind having a color top, my local Dollar store has the exact same boxes even same colors for $1.19 each!!!!!!!!!  If I were to buy 5 of these at the Dollar store, I'd save myself $24.04!!!

I've only been to one store so far I'm not going to grab them yet.  The frugal girl in me is aiming for $.99.

More to post about later... after i get my camera to work.