Recipes and Tips for Healthier Living and Smarter Budgeting

Monday, February 22, 2010

Buying Wheat: Budgeting Tip #2

Because my family eats so much wheat, we buy it in bulk through our church's home storage centers. So far we have only had to buy it when we have lived in the western part of the country where more of these centers are located, but there are centers around the country. (Here is a map that will help you locate the closest one to you.) If you are not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, you are still welcome to contact one of these centers. While there are commercial companies from whom you can buy bulk wheat, none that I have found even begin to compare with the prices offered by the Church. If you don't yet use a lot of wheat, you may can the wheat at their cannery locations into #10 cans and use it that way. Since my family goes through about 200 lbs. of wheat per year, we buy it in 25- or 50-lb. bags, depending on what's available. You can find a pricing chart here of all the items the canneries offer. Hard white wheat, our wheat of choice, is currently priced at $5.80 per 25-lb. bag. (As compared to other sites I have found which do conveniently ship it to you, but the prices are more in the $60-$80 range for 50 lbs. of wheat.) If you do the math, purchasing wheat from Church canneries, grinding it yourself, and using it as one staple of your family's diet, is extremely inexpensive. And if you end up overestimating how much you can eat in a given amount of time, wheat has a shelf life of 30+ years!

6 comments:

dan said...

I checked out the link of Church provident living prices and it's interesting to compare prices on some things. While I am sure you're right on wheat prices being very good there, some of the other prices were not that great, compared to other options like Sams Club (which I know has a yearly membership to include as well)

25# flour - Church $9.35 - Sams $6.39

Beans I was unclear if/how you could compare the dried beans the Church sells with canned beans in the store, but the refried beans at over $1 per lb did not seem to compare well to a 16oz can you could buy in the store.

Spaghetti, Oats and Milk prices seemed pretty good.

I guess it's not that surprising since typically different items can be bought cheaper in different places usually.

Thanks for the link!

Katrina said...

Very good point. As with anything, to get the best deal, you must check various sources and not assume that everything is cheapest at one place.

Note: 1 lb of dried beans makes many times more than a 16 oz can.

Amanda said...

Hi Katrina! Somehow Rich linked me up to your blog. I am excited to read it and learn from you!

Would you mind posting an entry about grinding wheat/grains? I am interested in grinding wheat but am a little intimidated by the machinery and cost. So I would enjoy reading about your experience with grinders/what to look for, as well as what you use for your bread machine/mixer.

Thanks!

Katrina said...

You've got it, Amanda! I'll get to it as soon as I can. That was actually one topic on my list, so I'm glad someone out there is interested... :)

Jenni said...

The refried beans that the church has are DEHYDRATED refried beans. So just a few oz + water makes a lot...so it's not as expensive as it looks. With that said, they are really gross.

With a pound of dry beans I get in the neighborhood of 3-4 cans worth of beans. Honestly I use/store both, because sometimes I just have a day when I need something fast, and I'd rather pour together some canned things (w/o additives) for a fast meal than have to rely on prepared boxed something. 3 cans of beans plus an onion and some spices makes a nice fast chili on a day when I forgot to get the beans in the crockpot in the morning.

Katrina said...

Not to mention: instant dehydrated beans probably have very little nutritional value!

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