Saving Money on Canned Fruits and Veggies at Sam's Club

For the past few months, I've been saving time and money by buying some canned fruits and vegetables at Sam's Club.  They come in 101-107 oz cans...so I had never given them a second glance except to think that this would be the way to go if I was feeding a small army.  Then I read the idea of buying the large can for my small family, and repackaging it for meal sized portions.  It REALLY does save time and money while giving us a nice name brand product to enjoy.  Here's what we do:  I like to buy the Del Monte Tropical Fruit Salad, Libby's Sliced Peaches, Red Gold Diced Tomatoes, and Del Monte Cut Green Beans.  I'll open one of the fruit cans per week, and dish them up into clean deli meat containers that I've saved.  This can of Tropical Fruit Salad made 5 containers of fruit for the refrigerator.

The Passion Fruit juice in this salad gives it such a great flavor.  And if there is cold, ready-to-eat fruit in the fridge that I don't have to wash or peel, I am much more apt to reach for it as a snack than the crackers and chips that are calling my name.  :)  With just three of us in the home these days, one of these containers will do us for a fruit salad with dinner.  The price for this one can is $5.58.  I don't know if you have priced canned fruit at the regular grocery store recently, but I can't get 5 dinners of fruit salad for $5.58 anyplace else, except maybe Aldi.  And the Aldi can's serving is much smaller than the servings I can put on the table from this container.  

24 servings per 107 ounce can.  Fruit salad for a gang!

$5.58 for 5 nice sized containers of delicious tropical fruit.

The Del Monte Blue Lake Cut Green Beans dished up 6 containers.  I have found that we just prefer a good canned green bean over frozen ones.  These have excellent flavor and texture, and are so, so easy.  I will put 2 of these in the fridge to use for meals this week, and freeze the other four.  They thaw and heat up just fine.  Yum!  And are an easy, last minute addition to a meal or to add to soup.

The 6.3 pound can of green beans costs $3.48.  That's 6 meals of green beans for my  family of three.

Again, this can provides 24 servings.  Not bad, eh?

I freeze the diced tomatoes in these same containers to use for soups, casseroles, and making homemade salsa.  The peaches are terrific too, and also dish up into 5-6 containers for just $4.98.  It only takes about 5 minutes to open the can, dish them up with a slotted spoon, then add a ladle of the juice to each container.  Snap on the lids, and BAM!  Done.  :)  I recycle the cans or save them for a project.  I used one of these big cans to hold gardening supplies in my outdoor bench.  :)

So keep this trick in mind the next time you are at Sam's Club or Costco.  Maybe you'd like to buy their large containers of spaghetti sauce, corn, or tomato sauce to divide up and freeze.  Aside from Aldi and places like it, this might be the best buy you'll find.  :)

Blessings,
Donna