Golden SHARE Foods is the largest and oldest grocery cooperative in SoCal – and they have things down to a science. If you’re not familiar with a cooperative, it’s a buying organization that pools resources to to buy in large quantities — and in doing that they save money. Golden SHARE Foods is run by volunteers – another way they keep costs down.

What I found really great is there’s no membership fee or requirement to work in order to purchase food from the cooperative. All you need to do is volunteer in your community (it doesn’t have to be at GSF, but you could volunteer there).

We sampled the Thanksgiving meal box. It included a LOT of food:

• Frozen turkey (ours was 17 pounds!)
• Box of stuffing
• 3# russet potatoes
• 3# sweet potatoes
• Broccoli bunch
• Bag of apples (ours were little washington apples – perfect for our kiddo)
• Bag of onions
• Baby carrots (peeled)
• Bunch of celery
• 1 can cranberry sauce
• 1 doz dinner rolls (ours were potato rolls & they were super fresh & soft)
• 10 inch pumpkin pie

And if you had bought all of that food for Thanksgiving, you would have paid exactly $36 at GSF. Now we could have made our entire meal just from these items, but there are other things we like to make, too. So this was our family’s Thanksgiving menu, supplemented with some things we had on hand, and a few things from the grocery store:

• Roasted turkey
• Dressing (made in my crockpot with a couple other boxes, too – I really like dressing)
• Mashed potatoes
• Candied sweet potatoes (yes, the ones with marshmallows on top. YUM.)
• Glazed baby carrots
• Green bean casserole
• Organic yellow corn (we had this on hand in the freezer)
• Homemade gravy
• Dinner rolls (we did need more than 1 dozen for 6 adults & 1 kid – we really like our bread)
• Pumpkin pie w/whipped topping

We used the broccoli as an appetizer & chopped it up for dipping in dressing, along with some grape tomatoes and more baby carrots we had on hand.

So how was the food quality? We got rave reviews on the turkey. I think this is the second time we’ve roasted a turkey (we’ve deep fried them in the past). We just watched the temp very closely and pulled it out as soon as it was near the temp we wanted (so it could rest while we made the gravy & finished things).

We did have one bad potato in the russets. But I recently bought a bag of reds at a big name warehouse store and it had a couple of bad ones in there, too. It just happens sometimes. The broccoli and celery were excellent. The baby carrots were the same ones you would buy at the grocery store.

When you buy a package from Golden SHARE Foods, you do have to pick it up at their central warehouse or a nearby distribution location. We had a pick-up point a few miles from us, so we went there. Pick up was to start at 9:30 am, but they were running a little bit late. Turns out they had a lot of orders the day we were there. It was a small delay and no big deal for us. As soon as the trucks arrived with the food, we just jumped in and helped unload. It was all unloaded and sorted in less than 10 minutes.

Getting our items took very little time as well. I swear it was easier than going to my local grocery store – everything is packed in boxes and ready to go. You can see the types of packages that you can buy on the Golden SHARE web site. And definitely check out the sell-off days (where they sell leftover items as even greater savings).

And now the fun part – we get to give away a Christmas meal package!

Here’s what the Holiday Meal package includes:

• (1)7-9 lbs. Spiral Cut Honey Ham w/ Glaze Packet
• 1 bag Fresh Yukon Gold Potatoes
• 3 lbs. Fresh Sweet Potatoes
• 3 lbs. Fresh Apples
• 2 lbs. Fresh Onions
• 1 lbs. Fresh Green Beans
• 1 ea. Fresh Celery Sleeved
• 1 can Pineapple Chunks in Natural Juice
• 1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
• 1 can Apple Sauce
• 1 doz Dinner Rolls
• 1 Whole Pumpkin Pie (10 inch/ 40 oz)

This package is valued at $36. How would you like to have your Christmas or Holiday meal paid for? Enter this contest to win by leaving a comment on this post.

To be eligible to win, you need to live near a pickup location in Southern California.

Contest ends on December 4th at 6 pm (PST). I will choose a winner via random drawing. You must be able to pick up your meal package at one of the Golden SHARE Foods pickup locations or at the main warehouse. One comment per person, please.

Disclosure: We received a Thanksgiving meal package so we could try GSF’s services and review it.

Enter BlogHer and JCPenney. Or should I say, to the rescue? Armed with a $300 gift card courtesy of BlogHer and JCPenney, and a shopping list probably a little too big for my budget, I started my holiday shopping early.

And y’all, let me tell you, it was fabulous. JCPenney had some serious sales going on. Like 50% off a lot of things. And even more savings on clearance items. I got almost all of my holiday shopping done. Before Thanksgiving. Can you believe it? My family won’t – I never finish my shopping early.

Let me tell you how it went down. I was already planning on meeting my girlfriend for shopping and lunch. We both pushed our little boys around the store while we oooh’d and aaaah’d over the deals to be had.

I really wanted to find some east5th brand blouses. After visiting my parents in September, and stealing a couple of my mom’s east5th blouses, I decided I liked their style. Unfortunately, it’s the wrong time of year for a short sleeved blouse, even in San Diego. Instead, I found a beautiful plum blouse with long sleeves. It’s almost like silk. I plan to wear it the next time I go out with a girlfriend – or hubby – sans rug rat.

But I quit after trying on a few blouses. My son absolutely did NOT like the dressing room. The door chime totally freaked him out and I seriously wanted to hulk-smash it. The dressing room was a popular place and the chime was constantly going off. You moms have been there – hurriedly trying on a few outfits while trying to keep your child from a meltdown.

It only partially worked. So I decided the clothing could wait for another day and I moved on to other things.

Let me say, I love Carter’s children’s clothes. And Okie Dokie. My son is rapidly outgrowing the clothes for his age group and we don’t have a lot of bigger clothes on hand. I was planning on getting him some clothing for Christmas – because he’s not going to remember it anyway and I might as well set the precedent now that clothing is an acceptable gift for Christmas. What?

I found some adorable footie pajamas that will be perfect for Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. And since we’ll be headed to colder weather, I had to get him a jacket. Tell me, could you resist this outfit? {pic coming}

I thought not.

Everything was on sale. From this point, I’m not going to tell you who the items are for, just in case family happens to read this. *Ahem.* Okay, except one thing for my husband, which he’ll figure out anyway.

I found a beautiful quilt. At first, I picked up a star-patterned quilt that reminded me of quilts my Granny used to make. My girlfriend pointed out another quilt. And while it was twice the price, it was much higher quality. The quilting was a closer pattern, and the entire thing was heavier than the first one. But the best part? It was $90 off. (My inner bargain shopper is doing a happy dance right now.) I think you have to see this quilt. You really should take a close look and compare the stitching on the various quilts available. I mean, look at this: {pic coming}

Meanwhile, my little guy was fighting sleep, since I woke him up as I put him in the stroller. I occasionally had to stop what I was doing and wander around to make him happy. Have you ever tried to shop with a stroller? Smaller items like clothing are fine, but once you add in things like a quilt and a couple of (super soft) throw blankets (50% off!) and it gets a little dicey. Fortunately, customer service was happy to hold the larger items for me until I was done. It’s a good thing, because I wanted to buy about ten of those soft blankets, but settled on two.

I also found a 3-tray buffet warmer (also 50% off), perfect for holiday meals. And a vintage leather jacket that was too good to pass up, too. Oh, and an outfit for my great niece (it’s obvious who it’s for, and she won’t see this anyway). Those little girl clothes are simply adorable!

{more pics coming}

At checkout, I got an extra 20% off, too. Over all, I got everything for half of what you’d pay without a sale. I paid under $20 out of pocket, which I wouldn’t have if I’d put back one of the kid’s outfits or one of the throw blankets. After all that time in the store, my little guy was done. I really should have planned to shop without him. But he loves getting out of the house, and I took him to lunch afterwards.

I didn’t think I’d complete pretty much all of my shopping for $300. I still have a couple of smaller things to get and that’s it. And I may go back for more of those throw blankets. I am so excited to get the chance to do this. I’ve been watching everyone doing the Linden Street shopping with just a wee bit of jealousy. *grin*

Would you like to have your own shopping spree? BlogHer and JCPenney are giving away a $300 gift card each week for the next five weeks. What are you waiting for? Go enter the drawing!