Frugality: pre-DeepFreeze Food Haul #2

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My goal with these food hauls is to show real world examples of how a frugal vandweller stocks up. :)

Due to a series of admin/logistical issues, I ended up spending yet-another winter in the frozen North. :(
Late January 2023, the winter's 3rd DeepFreeze was forecast, with just over a week of daily Lows in the range of -16F to 10F (-27C to -12C).
I seriously considered a quick Southern migration (to southern Missouri and/or Arkansas), however the forecast was bad for my target National Forests and all the areas I would have had to drive thru.

Instead, I did a major supply run, focused on both food and quality-of-life type purchases, in particular: propane, ibuprofen, earplugs, and multi-vitamins.
The propane was particularly important: while I had several canisters of butane, I was down to about half a pound of propane, which would have been enough if I rationed it carefully, however I knew it would be far less unpleasant if I was free to use as much propane as I wanted, to cook and collaterally release heat. :)

The non-food items were all far cheaper at Walmart, so it was worth the longer drive (twice the distance I normally drive for groceries).
Walmart was also worthwhile for several food items which have either had limited availability or extremely high prices locally, in particular:
bacon bits (I had run out during the summer), hot cocoa (superb for boosting morale during DeepFreezes), and popping corn (a mix of: morale, cheap, relatively healthy snack food, easy to cook (with bonus heat)).
I also wanted to do a somewhat longer drive, to help stress test a recent van mechanical repair.

One regional grocery store was running a superb cheese sale, so it was the 2nd priority on my list.
Dollar General had a sale on "Grande" tortillas (which I use to make copycat Crunchwrap Supremes) so it was highly desireable.
It's always worthwhile to check for specials/sales at one other regional grocery store, as well as "routine" thrifty items at both Dollar Tree and KwikTrip.
All stores visited were on one direct route. :)

I still had plenty of water, however the bulk of it (stored underneath my bed) was hard frozen.
All winter, I was mostly using passive solar to melt it. The forecast included the prospect of days with overcast, which would limit my melting options.
I didn't have enough time to go to any of my main sources of free water, so I decided to keep my eyes peeled for cheap drinks (so I'd have some ready to use fluids), ideally of several different varieties that might have different rates of freezing.

I decided against buying cold sensitive food items, in particular: fresh vegetables, mayonaise.

Numbers:

Bought 65.1 woman-days (based on 1700 calories/day) of food for $159.64
for a cost per calorie-day of $2.45 which is somewhat above my 2022 cost (i.e. $2.24), however it included many irregular higher cost items (e.g. 15.5 pounds of cheese and 7 pouches of bacon bits).

The non-food items cost $32.22 which was significantly less than local stores.

Pictures:

Walmart "core" items, plus some food (see next photo and list for food in body of cart):

from bottom left, by columns (roughly):

sour cream (16oz,454g)
2 cans of condensed milk (on sale for $0.50 each (I regret not buying more))
2 bags of popping corn (2lb each)
1 avocado (medium)
2 propane canisters (1lb each)
ibuprofen (2-pack of 250 tablets each)
earplugs
multi-vitamins
margarine (1lb)
2 packs of uncolored process cheese singles (1lb each)
grated Parmesan cheese (1lb)
chocolate milk (1/2 gallon) (as a treat, plus it was cheaper than any of my local stores)

Walmart food staples:

from top left, by rows (roughly):

canola oil (48 fl oz, 1.42L) (I was down to a couple of ounces, so this was on my must-buy list)
1 bag corn tortilla chips
4 chocolate pudding cups
lightly salted kettle potato chips
can of stewed tomatoes
can of hot dog chili sauce
lemon creme cookies
chocolate chip cookies
elbow macaroni (2lb)
7 pouches of bacon bits (2.5 oz each) (6 low-sodium, 1 regular)
hot Cocoa Mix (27.7 oz)

Almost every item I bought was Walmart's own house brands ("Great Value", "Equate").

Not pictured...

Casey's gas station:

gas
caramel frosted chocolate cake donut
( This was a semi impulse buy - the weather forecast had a risk of local snow showers, and so I wanted to get a Safety Oriented Sugar Boost before I hit that section of my route.
I'm rather fond of Casey's cake donuts, so, after paying inside I did a quick check of their donut rack, noticed a lone intriguing brown colored frosting cake donut, asked the clerk what kind it was, she said "caramel", which I had never had... and Resistance was Futile :)
My apologies for failing to take a picture. :)
While I highly recommend Casey's cake donuts, they're outside of my normal budget range, however not excessively so, and this was my first in almost 4 years. )

Dollar General:

2x bags of Grande Tortillas (6 count, $2 each bag)
Hormel pepperoni (1.75oz,49g) (the $1 packs, which I hadn't seen for over a year)

If it had been a Saturday, I would have bought enough other staples to reach the "$5 off $25" coupon threshold.

Dollar Tree:

2 bags of flour tortillas (each: 12-count; 16oz,453g)
bagels (4 count) (I had been hoping for more English muffins, and reluctantly settled for these (had not yet checked the store that has had much better bagels on sale))
brownie bites, ginger snaps cookies, 2x lemon creme cookies
green tea (100 count bags)
2x sodas (2.75L root beer, 2L twisted mango punch)
nacho cheese sauce (for making knockoff Crunchwrap Supremes)
2x bags of frozen vegetable mixes
frozen cheeseburger (which I "nuked" at KwikTrip)

regional grocery store #1:

25x cheese (8oz each, total 12.5 lb) (on sale)
2x bread (on sale)
2x Hormel pepperoni (3.5oz,99g), shelf stable (on sale)
2x fettuccine (1lb each) (for months, I had been trying to find some, for an intriguing recipe, and these were on semi-sale (i.e. more expensive than Walmart prices, but not terrible))
1x whole wheat rotini (1lb)
Lipton dry soup mix, chicken noodle

regional grocery store #2 (which usually has the best sales, with some being unpublished):

2x bagels (either on unpublished sale or accidentally priced wrongly)
3x kettle potato chips (on sale (frequent))
turkey hotdogs
pecans in shells (unexpected sale)
2x condensed tomato soup, condensed cream of mushroom soup (unexpected sale $0.59 each (I should have bought far more))
apple juice (64oz.fl, 1.89L) (unexpected sale)

Kwik Trip gas station:

2x pre-cooked seasoned ground beef 1 lb chubs (on sale for $2.49 each)
white bread (on sale for $0.79)

I asked politely, and they let me fill up some water containers (about 6L), and let me use their microwave. :)

Note that I used 3 2L bottles to get the free water, then transferred half of each to 3 more 2L bottles, so I had 6 bottles with 1L each.
From experience, I knew smaller quantities melt faster.
Between that, and the other new purchased drinks, I knew I would be fine, fluids wise. :)
Note that the apple juice performed best, freezing last. If I'm ever again (I hope not) in a DeepFreeze scenario, I will try to experiment more with different drink varieties.

Bottom line:

this haul...

plugged several key supply holes (propane, water/drinks, earplugs)
stocked up on some core & sale items (cheese, bacon bits, ibuprofen)
nicely balanced out my pantry with items to make some particularly morale raising meals
provided a few frugal treats
provided some less frugal treats

It was 100% win. :)

Regrets:

In hind sight, I should have bought more bacon bits, at least 1 or 2 more packs of process cheese ("Great Value"), more popping corn, the next larger size of cooking oil, the next larger size of pudding cups (which would have worked out to a wee bit less per cup), another bag of tortilla chips, more of the (on sale) condensed milk, and lots more of the (on sale) condensed soup.