This post may contain affiliate links. As an affiliate, I make a commission on qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. See Disclaimer for more details.
Sometimes when you’re on a budget you do crazy things.
Like buy 30 lbs of raisins at a time.
You know, I really thought those raisins would last us about a year. I give them 6 months, if that.
Darn kids.
Why does it seem like we are cursed with the “the more food you have, the more food you eat” curse?
Must be all those oatmeal raisin cookies…
Well I bought 30 lbs of raisins, I admit it. I’ve never bought an entire box of raisins before.
They were flame raisins, from Azure Standard, and you know the best part?
When I bought them, they were less than $0.13 an oz!
That’s better than Walmart, people.
In fact, I did the math, and if I would have bought the same amount of raisins at Walmart on the same day, it would have costed me over $19 more!
Duh!
Plus, these raisins:
- Were Non-GMO
- Had BPA Free packaging
- Did not contain Sulphur Dioxide or other added ingredients
Okay okay I get it I’m raving about raisins.
Mom brain is real people.
Well I got the raisins home from the Azure Drop and decided to individually package them into smaller portions.
This was a little tedious, but not unpleasant. It took me about 1-2 hours to individually vacuum seal all 30 lbs into 1-2 lb portions.
(It would have been shorter, but so would everything else in life if I didn’t have children. 🙂 I would always happily take breaks to play with them in between raisin vacuuming.)
That way, I can open one bag at a time when we need more and leave the rest untouched.
Remember, I was hoping they would last a year…
I used my Food Saver vacuum sealer which I bought on an impulse in college (adults buy adult things, I figured). I love these vacuum sealers, they keep your food so fresh and I love using them for storing food in the freezer especially!
I used pint and quart bags for these raisins and they ended up being about 1-2 lbs per bag, respectively.
I took about 50 pictures of this adventure and decided you probably don’t want to see that many… ha
My number one tip to anyone who is going to vacuum seal raisins is this:
Don’t seal them all the way. If you do, all the vacuum sucking power will squish all the raisins together into a giant raisin mass.
Don’t ask me how I know.
(You can still painstakingly separate the raisin blob if this happens, but it is sticky and not ideal.)
I would say the best way to do it is to either just seal the bags (without vacuuming) or just do a very light loose vacuumed seal.
Or just use zippy bags or mason jars or whatever else you have that is airtight, but I think the foodsaver bags are a lot more airtight that zippy bags.
Plus I just wanted an excuse to use my cool machine 🙂
The children thought it was loud and sounded like a cow. I say that’s a plus!
After they were all sealed I threw all the portions into the box, then wrote on the box a calendar so that we could carefully and evenly ration them out over the next 12 months.
Yes. No.
We are going a little faster than expected but kids grow and need raisins and parents grow and need cookies 😂
I’m just so glad to be able to find ways to feed my family healthier, for less.
I’m happy with these raisins. They are a slightly different flavor than “normal” raisins, but we like them! Even the tot and baby like them.
I will definitely be buying these again when they run out!
So that is the story of the first time a bought a 30 lb cube of raisins. But you know what?
I think I’m the type of person who would do it even if I wasn’t on a budget!
Made it this far? Check out these…
- We’ve done some random things to save money, Here’s 12 more.
- Here’s another time I saved $20 by making a shower curtain
- Here’s how paid off a lot of debt last year, even though both of our cars broke down!
I want to tell you a little bit more about Azure Standard.
They are SO cool, especially if you are trying to feed your family healthier on a budget, like I am.
What you do is make an order online, and they ship your order and everyone else’s order together on a big semi truck that drives around the country. They stop in predetermined locations called ‘drops’ where you go at a certain time each month to pick up your order!
I have had great success buying bulk food which are great for food storage (I seal my own food storage in mylar) as well as just bulk food for our growing family.
I am happy with the prices on all the items I have purchased, and they offer a TON of organic and raw items as well.
Sometimes there are items that are out of my budget, but that’s okay. I wish I could buy all organic right now, but that’s one of the compromises I choose to make today. Raw cheese, I will have you someday!
But there has been a great deal that I am very surprised to save on, like these raisins.
I have an acquaintance who also loves Azure, and she buys huge 5 lb blocks of organic cheese and fills her fridge up with nutritious and traditional food.
I have never tasted anything so creamy and delicious as that cheese.
Another great thing about Azure is that they have a really great referral program.
For each person you refer, you can earn $25 when they make their first order or $100 or more. (If you are a bulk food buyer, you know that you spend a little bit more up front, but the savings seriously pay off over time!)
I would love to refer you to Azure, this is my honest opinion about them, I love them! Check out their site and see what awesome choices they have.
Next on my list is their frozen berries!
