The main reason I went over this week is simple. I decided yesterday that I was going shopping at Three Bears, which is a bulk type of store we have around here (they actually get a lot of their in inventory from Costco as you can see from the brands I got), but you don't need a membership to shop there. I knew it was going to be more expensive, for the most part, than shopping at the stores, but I decided split second to go there as the carts are huge and I figured I could make my son sit in the cart if he didn't feel like walking as he's still pretty wiped out. That and the store is like less than five minutes from my house by car, so it was just me feeling very tired still after being sick and not wanting to run to multiple stores.
This is one of those shopping trips that you look at the bags and the total and go, "What? This doesn't seem right!" when in fact, it is right. Kind of sad really.
So, here's where my 50.00 (plus) for this week went...
I got two gallons of milk for 7.89. This, to me, is ridiculously expensive for milk regular price as that's actually more expensive than a non-sale price for milk at Safeway, but I committed myself to shopping there and my kids just wanted to get shopping done and go home.
1 small thing of marshmallow creme for 2.12
1 large thing of marshmallow creme for 3.19
Right, so we didn't NEED marshmallow creme, but my daughter and I were talking about growing up in New England and Fluffernutters came up. Okay, for those NOT in the know about these, as unless you grow up on the East Coast you probably won't know what I'm talking about, a Fluffernutter is a heavenly concoction in a sandwich which consists of Marshmallow Fluff (which as far as I know isn't available outside of the East Coast) and peanut butter. Until you taste it, to most of us who grew up in New England, you haven't truly lived *laugh*.
Well with the son's peanut allergy, peanut butter was out, but I had to pick up some almond butter for him for speech anyway as we found out that the Kirkland brand of almond butter was made in a peanut free facility (and is MUCH cheaper than buying specialty brands online) and I didn't have Marshmallow Fluff available, but I could buy marshmallow creme and almond butter, so I did. It will be worth it if I can get my daughter to actually EAT a sandwich as she hates them. As close as we can get her to eat to a sandwich is a tortilla rolled up with melted cheese inside it or a cheeseburger. I'm always trying to find new ways to get calories and protein into that child as she is so tiny, probably a side effect of her stomach condition hitting her during a major growth period in her life, so if she'll try said sandwiches it'll be worth it.
The smaller container of marshmallow creme is for making fudge, pure and simple. I am KIND of hoping to be able to make it for Easter, but we'll see how health and things go around here.
The almond butter was spendy (16.09), but it is nice having a nut butter around the house again that ISN'T peanut butter. I'm hoping this stuff holds up well in things like cookies. I'd love to have a readily available nut butter to use in the kitchen that I can just jet down and buy instead of having to worry about ordering a quantity of four or more at a time. And if my son's SLP can get him to eat some of it during feeding therapy it will help to fill the protein gaps in his diet, which would be wonderful!
The sales so far for this month are just depressing. Corned beef isn't going for less than 3.00 lb (ouch doesn't even BEGIN to cover that one. Average price is ranging at about 3.49 lb right now), so that is definitely off my "buy" list...well maybe. I got this booklet from Fred Meyer in the mail a few days ago...
At least the coupon for the meat and produce and things is good till May 22nd, so I'll have time to shop sales and find a good deal to use them on if I don't use them this week. Always nice!
Butter became a priority to buy finally and the sales just weren't there so I figured I'd get butter at Three Bears while I was there as well. I do have money set aside for these types of purchases as I know that buying items like this would just eat my grocery budget for lunch, but it was still depressing. I found that the price on butter had gone up too. 12.00 plus for four pounds of butter. So, I'll definitely be watching sales at the regular stores now and picking up butter when it goes below 3.00 per lb. It's now worth it to do so instead of just buying it in bulk.
I got a 9 lb box of Cascade for 13.00 and some change. A 2 lb box at the store is normally around 5.00, so this was definitely worth the price I paid for it, but it hurt parting with that much money just for dish washing detergent at one time (and no, making my own has not worked for me. I've tried in the past and it just doesn't work great with my water). Oddly enough I really do like the powder better than the gel detergent. It works much better in my dishwasher and dissolves better than the gel and the double benefit there is that it lasts a LOT longer than the liquid does. And this box will last me for a long time I'm sure.
The hamburger buns were a treat for my son who has been determined to survive on french fries the last week. Thank goodness he IS eating them, so at least he's moving off of the french fry diet.
The cat food was also expensive. I can normally get cat food for about .52 a can at Fred Meyer. At three bears it was nearly .90 a can.
Basically, unless I'm going to Three Bears to get something I know I can't get somewhere else (like the almond butter) or if I'm going to get something in bulk that I know will be worth buying a LOT of it to not have to buy for quite a while (like garbage bags), I don't think I'm going to be buying much there from now on until their prices go down.
Not shown is a big bulk bag of Doritos I got for my son while I was there that was 5.00 (I put it in the pantry when I got home). I passed on the Coke there as it was 3.00 per two liter bottle...um...no.
So, all totaled I spent 64.41 on groceries so far this week
Overall I'm alright since I haven't picked up much on the grocery front the last little bit. I'm debating raising my grocery budget to 60.00 vs. 50.00 just because the prices on things keep jumping up, but I'm still torn about it as I'd like to save as much money as possible, thus the 50.00 grocery budget.
I know some of the prices weren't what you were hoping for, but after being sick, etc. sometimes you just have to do what you can manage and call it done. The store is nearby, you could bring the kids, get what you needed--and scope out prices. Pretty good deal!
ReplyDeleteAnd you found Fluff :-). I haven't had a Fluffernutter for years, but I've been craving one (I do eat peanut butter nearly every day, and I grew up eating Fluffernutters all the time . . . but since I'm about to hit 59 in a few days, it's been a while, lol). Since I live in CT, Fluff is readily available everywhere; I might give in and get some. The problem is, then I'll likely eat it all myself, lol.
Glad to hear everyone is on the mend!
Well, think of it this way. If you end up eating all the fluff yourself it's like, what, 90% air, so you can convince yourself that you aren't eating too much of a bad thing ;).
DeleteI like that! :-)
DeleteSometimes your sanity is worth a few dollars! But your prices do blow me away - even the sale prices are so much more than mine are here. Milk is always, always available for $1.99 and often for $1.89, and yes, that's for a gallon. I painfully paid $3.49 for a pound of butter yesterday, because my daughter used the last I had in the freezer from Sam's and forgot to write it on the list and I was completely out. I can usually get it at Sam's for between $8 and $9 for 4 pounds. I do almost all my grocery shopping at either Walmart or Sprouts, because they have the best prices here. I woke up feeling heavy this morning because I am so, so tired of worrying about money, but that's ridiculous, because we are so blessed. My stress is in trying to figure out how to get another car for when my daughter turns 16, because it will save me SO MUCH TIME. I currently have to leave work twice a day to take her to school and pick her up and I can't even express how much stress it would take away from me to not have to do that. But crap keeps coming up! My older daughter's tires have to be replaced this week (not expected!!!) and a rock hit her windshield coming home from college so that has to be replace this week also. The large, unexpected expenses just keep coming! But I just need to take a deep breath and count my blessings, because they are many. Your menu looked very good this week!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if this will help or not, but check your insurance and see if you have a free windshield allowance in with it. My insurance has it and from what I understand, if you don't use the one windshield a year thing that they give you, your premiums won't go up from redeeming one free windshield here and there (my brother-in-law takes advantage of it on his insurance). Thought I'd put that out there as maybe it will save you a few dollars.
DeleteI did because it's covered on my car, but was not on hers. :( I called around and found one place that would do it for about a hundred dollars less than the other places and which had good reviews, so we took it there and it seems perfect. It was one time that checking several places paid off. One other kind of nice thing that happened was Firestone gave us credit for her tires, as they shouldn't have done what they did, so we only had to pay for just over half the cost of those. Still $653.97 I didn't expect to be out. Hopefully this will be the last incident of this kind for a bit!
DeleteWow, though, 600.00+ savings is always nice. Kind of stinks that they didn't cover the tires completely seeing as how they admitted they shouldn't have done what they did, but unfortunately warranties on things just aren't what they used to be.
DeleteGood work on the windshield too. You know, windshields and tires are two things where I am always glad I call around about as those two things DO seem to have huge price differences depending on where you go. Weird, but it's always worked out that way for me.
We've been so lucky here in Illinois. My local ALDI store... has gallons of milk for .97 cents, a dozen eggs have been .54 cents. And so many other great prices.... I get quite a bit of my groceries there first, then I get other stuff at Walmart, and then I swing by Kroger for most of my meat purchases... they have the best meat there. And we prefer their sandwich cheese above all others and I get bread at Kroger too... my goal this year is to make homemade bread for the first time (I can do this) and to sew a project ---- I have not done any sewing for years and years... I gotta re=read my machine's directions... ha! I would also like to start a small garden to get me started.... I am not confident at gardening -- but I think I am going to give it a whirl.... Nice to hear about your week and glad you are feeling a bit better now.
ReplyDeleteHoly smokes! We live in Chicago and the best I can find is $2.99/gallon for milk (local grocery store has it cheaper than anywhere else as a "loss leader") and was thrilled to finally find eggs for $1.99 dozen on sale recently and bought 3 (recent sales had not gone lower than $2.49/dozen and reg price about $4/dozen). I do have an Aldi, and love it but we don't have your prices. I think Chicago & Cook County taxes account for a lot of the prices, as mine aren't much lower than in Alaska, and we are MUCH closer to Wisconsin for milk, eggs, cheese, etc. We do readily have marshmallow fluff here, although I hadn't heard about a fluffernutter until I was in my 20s...it was all pb&j when we were kids. Fluffernutters are pretty delicious :)
DeleteAldi is one of those stores we'd LOVE to get up here, but I also doubt we ever will as them getting supply lines running smoothly enough to make things as cheap as they like to make them...well it gets difficult up here and thus why some outfits, like Ikea, just haven't made it up here. I'd love to see Aldi make it up here one day, though, as I've heard so many awesome things about them!
DeleteI echo L.E.'s sentiments on your prices too! That's some amazingly cheap stuff you can get where you are! Awesome!
Home made bread is really easy, trust me. If you are doing it completely by hand it takes some arm muscle to do all the kneading, but it just takes time to let it rise :). When the directions call for "warm" water, go for room temp about on the water. I like to get water from the tap that feels...well neutral when I run it over my fingers...not warm, but not cold. I always go cautious on my water temp as too warm of water will kill your yeast. If the water is too cold it might take the bread a bit longer to rise to twice it's normal volume and such, but it won't make the yeast die :).
When starting a garden when I moved up here I started with one plant. Funny is that I started with a tomato plant, which I was later told wasn't supposed to grow or produce anything as I planted it in the ground, but it did so well I was able to can like five quarts of tomatoes for later use and I had plenty of ripe tomatoes through the summer to enjoy. The next year I planted peas, which I thought did horribly, but then I found out that everyone who was coming by the apartment (read: relatives) were eating the peas off the plants *laugh*.
Gardening, to me, is a new adventure every year. You go in worried about utter failure, but hopeful for a bountiful harvest. Past that it's hard work, perseverance and luck :). And I find it really enjoyable!
If you are looking to just get your feet wet when it comes to gardening you might want to try some herbs first. They are at least hard to kill and are useful dried for winter use :).
Good luck with everything and the sewing! I am really hoping to get my sewing machine out this week and get some projects done/started again. Here's hoping I can get to some of it!
Aldi prices vary quite a lot depending on where you live (I live in central CT)--although compared to "regular" grocery stores, they're generally pretty great, lol. I just got home from an Aldi run, and I paid $1.55/dozen for large eggs (considerably less than Stop & Shop, where I do most of my non-Aldi grocery shopping (around $3/dozen)); $0.89/8-ounce brick of cream cheese (a special price, it's usually $0.99/brick); and $2.49/pound for butter (on special as well, it's generally $2.99/pound; Stop & Shop's brand is usually about $4.99/pound, with some name brands in the neighborhood of $6 - $7). Milk was slightly less than $3 a gallon (a good price, as I'm pretty sure it's over $4/gal. at Stop & Shop); I paid $1.79 for a half gallon (again, much less than Stop & Shop). It's just my hubby and me at home now, so we don't use a lot of milk unless I'm cooking for a holiday meal or we have a ton of company. That half gallon will last us more than a week.
DeleteThanks for the words of encouragement, Erica. I am definitely going to try the homemade bread... I'll let you know how it turns out. And I've wanted to get back into sewing for awhile now... I just keep finding excuses to put it off. I work part-time at my daughter's school from 10:30 to 2:00 each school day. So I have a little time after I drop daughter off to run errands or do cleaning/baking... and a little time after work and before school pick-up.... I just have to get organized and get it done.
DeleteI agree with the posts that ALDI is definitely priced differently depending on location. I am in Central Illinois, Bloomington.... and we have a lot of dairy and chicken farms near us... so I am sure that helps with the lower egg and milk prices... but I am thrilled. It has helped with my savings. And I have gotten better at meal planning... I used to be great at it, but life gets busy and I forget to do it... but the last couple of months, I've been much better and I can tell the difference.
With your health, you need to do what you have to. I don't drink milk but my dh does $1.79 for a half gallon and I buy two because he doesn't drink it fast and at times I use it for cooking. I do spend $3.49 for a half gallon of Lactaid for my ds when he us home from school. I know over the holidays I paid 89¢ for fluff for my ds to make those sandwiches. Two months ago I paid $10.00 for four lbs of butter. We also bought that almond butter at Costco for $12.00. Don't know if you used it before but the container said it must be kept in the fridge after opening. Cheryl
ReplyDeleteI haven't used it before, no. I hadn't read the label yet about refrigeration instructions, so thank you for pointing that out as at least now I know and won't miss it somehow :).
DeleteI'm glad you were able to get the things you needed all at one store. Sometimes, you just have to do what you have to do. You don't want to prolong the sickness by over-doing, either.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you got some good things to work with, even though soap is not exciting! It would be worse to not be able to use your dishwasher:)
You know, that is an excellent way to look at it. I was down to 1/2 a dose of dish washing detergent and was getting desperate, so it is good to have enough soap to last for quite a while and be able to operate the dishwasher. Although, I have to say I get worried as my dishwasher makes a horrible screeching noise from time to time lately. My husband is kind of baffled, which doesn't inspire confidence either. Same thing with my sporadically not working right oven. Appliances are fun!
DeleteI can so relate to your annoyance of having to pay higher prices for groceries. Just recently I was at Costco and they had a big jar of mayonnaise on sale for a really good price. I thought I had a bunch still and we take a while to go through those big jars. So I passed since I didn't want it sitting in my pantry and be close to expiry when I finally opened it. Come to find out, the jar at home was almost empty--as in scraping the bottom of the jar empty. I went back to the store only a day or two later and the sale was gone. I was seriously annoyed that I had to buy it at regular price.
ReplyDeleteYou know, whenever you post your prices, they really are close to what I pay in Canadian costs. Milk just increased to $4.25/4 litres (equivalent to about 1 gallon) and there are NEVER sales on milk here. If butter goes on sale below $3/lb, it's a good sale. All your bulk price items are around what I would pay at Costco. The difference is that if I did the exchange from Canadian to American, your prices are actually better.
A tip for the almond butter--before you open it, flip the jar upside down and leave it for a day or two. The separated oil will move back up through the almond butter so it will be easier to mix it back in when opened.
Hope you get back on track this week, Erika.
Thanks for the tip on the almond butter. I HATE mixing that stuff. I finally got to a point where I'd dump the entire contents into my stand mixer and just remix it with the mixer instead of getting oil everywhere trying to do it by hand *laugh*.
DeleteI hope this brand of almond butter tastes good. In the past I've always bought Barney Butter through Amazon, which is a specialty brand that was peanut free. Years ago I was able to get it pretty cheap, now it's gold plated. Makes me hopeful that I'll be able to pick this stuff up, hopefully for a good long while, and not have to worry about ordering it online. With my son's peanut allergy NOT having to buy things in bulk and shell out a ton (like I do for his peanut free M&M's and things) is definitely welcome.
I agree with Rhonda. Many of your prices line up with what I pay here in Ontario.
DeleteAnyone who has an Aldi near by check out their butter prices. Ad this week is $1.99 a lb. Cheryl
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip! My Aldi usually has more expensive prices than the nationally advertised prices, but I swung by and the butter was indeed only $1.99. The cheapest they've had it in recent memory was $2.39 and that was a long time ago...hopefully butter prices are falling everywhere. Thx again.
DeleteYour welcome. I think our ad said the price will be that till Easter. I will try and buy more. Cheryl
DeleteErika, you mentioned before about the War Time Farm episodes on YouTube and I found Coal House at War and Coal House set in the 1920's. Both seem like good shows. The were on British t.v. a couple of years ago. Cheryl
ReplyDeleteI've watched Coal House at War a couple of times on You Tube. It's fun, I have to say, but I still prefer Wartime Farm more. I think mainly because Coal House at War really focuses on the drama, while Wartime Farm they are just doing basically a living history lesson and their attitudes are always so positive that I walk away from the episodes smiling with a good outlook on the day. I'm weird like that, what can I say *laugh*.
DeleteI thought of fluffernutters as soon as I saw the picture. I now feel the need to go buy some marshmallow creme. Not a good week to decide to cut back on sugar :).
ReplyDelete*Laugh* oops, sorry to help sideline your cutting back on sugar plans ;).
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