Free Groceries

I'm not ashamed to say this: I go to the local food pantry once a week. Money is tight for me and my wife especially after buying a house. We are saving up for the future and set up a strict budget for ourselves.

Our local food banks are teamed up with grocery stores to sell items closer to the expiration date.

The food banks want to get rid of all their food because they are required to report how much groceries are left behind. If there are any left overs, then the government will provide less food in the following weeks or months.

The one I go to is actually linked to my local community college. It is set up like a traditional grocery store, and it's convenient because they are open from ~noon to 6pm Monday thru Thursday.

Here has been my free grocery haul for the past month:

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The avocado day was weird. So apparently, they restock on Friday. Normally, there is a limit to vegetables. But to get rid of old inventory, and to get rid of vegetables as much as possible (for reasons stated above), they remove the vegetable restrictions on Thursday before closing. But growing up, my family never had that stigma because my parents had to rely on welfare and food banks when they were brand new immigrants in the early 80's. They pinched every penny until they could create business. By the late 90's, my parents were in the upper-middle class, but even so (or perhaps because of it), my parents still were very frugal, only bought things used, and went to food banks. (Actually, my parents were such frequent visitors that food banks would call my parents to take food that the food banks needed to get rid ASAP.)