How I bought our new supply of bath tissue (and saved $26.89!)

Okay, so I mentioned at the end of my last post on ship to store shopping that I would be stocking up on bath tissue in the same way that I stocked up on baking soda.

I spent several days looking into the various places that I could buy bath tissue, including our local Cash and Carry, Dollar Tree, and a couple of office supply stores. Yes, online office supply stores.

Why would an office supply store carry bath tissue? Well, offices usually have bathroom facilities, right? And they have to keep some items (bath tissue, hand soap, paper towels) available for use in those office bathrooms, right? And a business would most likely shop in bulk, as I do, right? Well then. . .

Staples' website has a very long list of bath tissue to scroll through. I found a product similar to what I've been buying for many years, at Albertson's (a store-brand version of Scott's 1000). Although our family manages with a very inexpensive bath tissue, you should know that Staples' website carries Quilted Northern, Charmin, Angel Soft, Seventh Generation, Kleenex Cottonelle, and Scotts, in addition to the institutional brands that businesses/restaurants often buy, such as Brighton (the brand that I bought this time) and Tork.

It may be worth taking a look at their website, if you have a Staples in your area. If you use the ship to store option, you will save on shipping charges. You will have to drive to the store location that you choose to pick up your order.  If it's not inconvenient to make that drive, and Staples carries a brand that you would try, for less than your grocery store, then this might work for you, too.

About my purchase and my savings -- as I said, our usual brand is the Albertson's house brand of Scott's 1000. I buy it in the 20-roll package, for $14.99, on sale. I went online to Staples website, and bought Brighton 1000, in a case of 96 rolls. The individual sheets of Brighton are slightly bigger than the Albertson's brand. The list price at Staples was $51.79, or the equivalent of $10.79 for 20 rolls.

But wait, my price gets better. I put the case into my cart and looked around at other deals on their site. While I was doing this, the site put a special offer into my cart, good for 20 minutes. I knew I was ready to make this purchase, so I took the extra discount, an additional $6.73 off of my purchase, if I acted then. So, I did, of course.

My final price on the bath tissue was $45.06, or $9.38 for every 20 rolls (plus sales tax). I saved over $5.00 per 20-roll package, on our new supply of bath tissue, or $26.89 total, on the 96 rolls.

I could have had my order shipped to my home address, but instead chose to bypass the shipping charges, and have it shipped to my nearby Staples storefront, free of shipping charges. The online stores which offer this free ship to store option are hoping to just get you in the door and look around and buy more stuff while there. And probably many shoppers do just this. But, if you're like me and can walk in, pick up what you're after, and walk out, then there's no "spending-risk" choosing ship to store.

I do admit, I've never tried this brand, that I'm aware of. So, this was a roll of the dice on the purchase. But the way that I look at it is this. If we absolutely don't like this brand of bath tissue, then I never have to buy it again. My new supply will last us about 9 months. The very worst case scenario is we have to live with this for 9 months, then I am free to choose another brand. The very best case scenario is this product was satisfactory for us, and we saved money to put towards our financial goals. Either way, we saved a chunk of cash with this purchase.

It's hard to know how to compare the dollar value one brand of bath tissue to another. The sheet sizes are all over the place. And with two-ply, one-ply, you can't really compare the linear amount. And even when you think you have all things in consideration being even, the manufacturers can use a thinner tissue sheet for their rolls, giving the impression on the label that you are getting more mileage than you will, in practice. The bottom line, financially, is how how long will a dollar's worth (or $10 worth) of bath tissue last your family with the various brands.

My best method of calculating which bath tissue is the best deal is to actually time our use of bath tissue. I mark on a package when I open it. Then, when we finish that package (or fraction of that package, if I'm making a calculation based on a very large package, and don't want to wait that long), I calculate as follows: price of bath tissue divided by weeks of use we received. I can easily compare 1 brand to the next, based on our use to dollar ratio. It does mean that I will need to try a couple of brands/styles to reach my conclusion on which will be the better value for our family. Every time I've run this calculation on bath tissue, I've come up with 1000 sheet, single-ply as the most cost-effective bath tissue for our family, when sticking with a store house-brand, or now, with an institutional/restaurant supply brand.

All of this very lengthy post, just to say, look around at other possible places to buy your bath tissue. You may be pleasantly surprised where you find a great deal. And in case you're wondering, the case I bought was quite large in size, and didn't fit in my trunk! I had a dream about this very thing the night before, and found myself wide awake for an hour, strategizing how I would get this home. My default plan would be to open the case in the parking lot and unload into the trunk, roll by roll. (As it turned out, the case fit into the back seat of my small sedan, so no problem there.)

Making fruity granola: so simple, but oh, so delicious!!

While we love our cinnamon, maple, pumpkin, etc granola, we also really enjoy fruity granolas. They're so easy to make. In fact, it's even simpler and less hands-on time involved, than some of the hearty, autumnal granolas. You bake the granola for 15 minutes, then can walk away for the remainder of the drying time.

This time of year, I'm culling through my homemade jellies and jams. We're right up against the time of year that I begin making jelly and jam, so I'm needing to use up last year's supply.

To make a batch of fruity granola, you'll need:

• 2/3 to 3/4 cup of any flavor of jelly or jam (this is a great way to use up that too-runny jam made last summer! I like granola to be less sweet, so I use the lesser amount.)
• 1-2 tablespoons honey (optional, but makes the granola sweeter, if that's what your family prefers)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 cups of oats
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional -- if I'm using the orange zest, then I skip the almond extract. The extract just boosts the flavor a bit.)
• 1 tablespoon orange zest (optional)
• 1 to 2 handfuls of dried fruit, about 1 cup (I've been using dried cranberries)

• a large jelly roll pan or large baking sheet with raised edges
• bit of butter for buttering the baking sheet

Melt jam or jelly in a large glass bowl in the microwave, for about 30-45 seconds. Mix in additional ingredients, except the dried fruit (those go in later, so they don't scorch). Toss well until oats are all coated.

Preheat oven to 325 F. Butter a jelly roll pan. Spread the coated oats in the prepared pan, leaving more of the oats towards the edges and corners than in the center of the pan.

Bake for 15 minutes. Turn off oven, stir oats, and leave the pan in oven, with the door closed, for 1 & 1/2  to  2 hours. The granola will continue to dry out as the oven cools. After a couple of hours, remove from the oven and stir in dried fruit. Allow to finish cooling in the pan on a rack.

The granola that I made when my step-mom was visiting was a combination of red currant jelly and blackberry syrup, with dried cranberries added at the end. She was "wowed!" to say the least, and raved over how delicious the granola was.

I've also been using up some too-runny plum jam, which is nice as it uses that jam, but also the bits of fruit are nice in the granola.

We typically serve our homemade fruity granola with our plain yogurt mixed with blackberry syrup. It's quite delicious and very suiting to the warming weather of spring.


The other day, I made the granola even more frugally. I had a whole chicken in the oven roasting at 325 degrees F in the late afternoon. I popped a pan of fruity granola into the oven just as I pulled the chicken out, so there was no preheating involved. And the granola did it's drying time while we ate dinner and cleaned up the kitchen for the evening.

Rhubarb sticky buns

These are soooo delicious!

I made these very yummy rhubarb sticky buns the other day. And seeing as it IS rhubarb season, I thought I'd share this recipe with you. If you have rhubarb in your garden, and you like sticky buns, I urge you to give these a try!

For the dough, while you can use a biscuit dough, I like these with a yeast dough. Use any yeast dough that you would normally use to make a pan of a dozen cinnamon rolls (a recipe that uses about 2 cups of flour). I made these with some of my refrigerator roll dough.

You will need:

yeast dough enough for 1 dozen rolls (or biscuit dough, see notes at the bottom)

filling:
3 cups finely chopped, fresh rhubarb
scant 1 cup of sugar *
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

syrup:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/8 cup boiling water
1  1/2 tablespoons butter

• Butter a 9 X 12-inch baking dish.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out your dough to a large rectangle, about 12 inches long and 9 inches wide.
• Toss the finely chopped rhubarb with cinnamon and sugar. Sprinkle evenly over surface of rectangle of dough, leaving an unfilled inch along one of the long edges of dough. Roll up tightly, jelly roll-style. Pinch the seam closed.
• Cut into 1-inch slices and place in prepared baking dish. Allow to rise until doubled in  bulk.
• Meanwhile, make syrup. Stir together boiling water and sugar. Add butter. Allow to cool while rolls rise.
• When dough is about doubled, heat oven to 350 F degrees. Pour syrup over rolls. Bake for about 35-40 minutes, until rolls are golden on top.

*to reduce sugar in filling, you can add about 1/8 teaspoon baking soda to the fruit, and cut the sugar to about 2/3 cup. The baking soda will reduce some of the acidity in the rhubarb.

If you can keep your family from eating all of these, they do freeze well. I usually make a double-batch and freeze half.

Notes about dough

If you'd like to make these with a Basic Biscuit Dough:

Prepare your rhubarb filling and syrup before making the dough.

Make a dough of 2 cups flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon baking powder, with 1/2 cup butter or margarine cut in to flour mixture. Stir together with 3/4 cup milk. Gently roll out on a floured surface, into a rectangle of about 9 X 12 inches. Then fill and cut as above.

Instead of allowing to rise, right after placing biscuit-style rolls into buttered baking dish, pour the syrup over all, and bake at 350 F for about 35-40 minutes.


For a Basic Yeast Dough yielding 1 dozen sweet rolls:

1 1/2 teaspoons yeast
3/4 cup warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups of flour, all-purpose or half all-purpose, half whole wheat

In a large mixing bowl pour water and sprinkle with yeast.

Stir in salt and sugar.

Mix in 1 cup of flour and the butter. Add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time. In the last cup, the dough will become stiff. Knead right in the bowl, for about 4-6 minutes. Allow to sit for about 40 minutes.

Prepare your baking sheet/pan.

Punch down dough. Turn onto a floured surface. Turn and punch about 20 times. Dough is ready to roll out.

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