I've gone on record here many times arguing that low-carb eating can
be cost-effective if people a) lay off the expensive specialty
products and b)  just bother to do some smart shopping. I also often
urge people to seek out wholesale grocers in their area, where they
can get good deals on a lot of groovy stuff.

Here in Portland, I shop every couple of weeks at Cash & Carry, the
wholesale outlet for United Grocers (they are, I believe, entirely
seperate from Cash & Carry grocery stores in other parts of the
country.) Ostensibly, you're supposed to have a business license to
shop there. In reality, they never check and they don't care (I even
asked one of the employees about this and he confirmed it). There are
a couple of locations here -- I go to the one in Delta Park.

I went there this afternoon to pick up a few things -- the best deal
at the moment is on Da Vinci syrups. They carry most of the sugar-free
flavors and all were on sale for $2.99 a bottle (even when they're not
on sale, they;re usually only around $3.50).

I also picked up:

Tillamook shredded medium cheddar - 5 lb. $8.99
Ready-to-eat salad (iceberg/cabbage/carrots) - 3 lb. $2.88
Polish sausages - 3 lb. $4.19
Darigold heavy cream - 1/2 gal. $4.86
IQF whole green beans - 4 lb. $3.84

The salad is, frankly, more than we can eat before it starts to go bad
-- when it starts to turn it goes into the compost heap, and it's
still one helluva lot cheaper than buying those 5 oz. bags at the
grocery store. The cheese gets broken up into smaller ziploc bags and
2/3 goes in the freezer -- I usually buy eggs 5 dozen at a time and 5
lb. packs of bacon there when I need them.

But if you're in the Portland area and want Da Vinci syrups -- check
out Cash & Carry. I only bought a couple of bottles, but I'm going to
head over there again tomorrow on the chance they're still on sale and
pick up a few more flavors.

Dawn