Great point! I had a blast doing that in Italy when I was walking distance from the lakeside plaza. You're right, if you feel the need to splurge on some portabellas or sun dried tomatoes it doesn't feel so bad if you know you are stocked up on cheap pasta and great wine at home. And you're going green by buying locally.

It's funny you mention bulk wine because one of the best deals we ever found was in southern Arizona. There's a great little winery that will sell you a case of bottles for $110, and you get to select any 12 bottles you want. The only ones off limits are their special reserves. Now, you can go pick out 12 bottles of 10 ten dollar wine and save 10 bucks, or you can pick from their really great collection of twenty-five to thirty-five dollar stuff. Of course you know what I chose, but hey, that's up to you. I don't know if they would go lower if you bought several cases or not. But getting a 30 dollar bottle of wine for less than 10 bucks is my kind of deal. I've had a bulk buying post in the works for a while now, but I have to say I hadn't even considered the extra bonus of what you just wrote up. Now I feel extra great about stocking up.