I went to several stores this week, so let me break it down a bit.
First off, I hit Fred Meyer on Sunday as we were in the area getting my son some french fries. I wanted to hit Fred Meyer because as part of their Customer Appreciation sale they had two pounds of strawberries for 3.99 each. I grabbed two to make strawberry jam with. When I got home I looked everywhere and couldn't find the one thing of pectin I swear I have somewhere (I really need to get some more anyway, but I figured I could get by for now). To save the strawberries I cleaned and sliced them and stuck them in the freezer temporarily.
After doing some research I figure I'll just make the strawberries into strawberry preserves instead. I can do that with just strawberries and sugar, it saves me from having to purchase a 3.00 thing of pectin, so therefore cheaper. I'm hoping to do that tomorrow.
Total spent for the strawberries 7.98
I also found a bag of Purina One cat food marked down to 3.96. I had a 2.00/1 E-Coupon loaded and desperately needed dry cat food so for a 3 lb bag I paid 1.96.
My husband and I hit the Franz outlet to get bread and goodies for my son. We got two big loaves of whole wheat bread, two loaves of white bread, some brown and serve bread sticks, two things of hot dog buns and one thing of English muffins. We also got a thing of hamburger buns as well. Total spent was 12.25, but that was two week's worth of bread (at least) so I'm only counting 6.00 on this week's grocery shopping from that trip.
The rest of my shopping can be seen above. I hit Fred Meyer looking for a product they ended up being out of, but I found a bunch of stuff on reduced cheap. I got cans of beans for .39 per can, cans of cat food for .29 per can, cans of spinach (not my favorite veggie canned, but it works okay in soups and things) for .49 per can and a thing of stuffing marked down to 1.12. I also needed dish washing rinse aid and found that they had Cascade rinse aid on mark down on the shelf for 1.55 a piece. That's CHEAP, so I grabbed 4 of them (well honestly that was all I could reach while climbing the shelf safely or I would have grabbed a few more...short people...the struggle is real). The only thing regular price I got at Fred Meyer was the Cameo cleaner that I needed and shampoo. We were running low and 4 bottles will last us quite a while. The Dipitizers were free from Freebie Friday last week.
I then ran to Carrs to get the rest of the shopping for the week done. Highlights included milk for 2.99 a gallon with the in-ad coupon this week (limit of 2 per coupon), Hunts BBQ sauce for 1.25 per bottle on sale (no coupon needed) and pasta for .75 per box on sale (once again, no coupon needed). I was thrilled to hit these sales as we were starting to run low on BBQ sauce and we can always use pasta with how much of it we end up going through around here. I also got a free thing of Chobani yogurt with an E-Coupon, but it's not shown because I had left it in the bag and didn't realize it until after I was putting the groceries away. The Chobani yogurt was cool because the computer not only gave it to me for free, but it took off the regular price of the yogurt, vs the sale price, so I got .34 of overage that I wasn't expecting.
So, all totaled for those shopping trips I spent 34.50.
Final price for the week's shopping: 50.44
Not too bad, really. Tomorrow, since we'll be on a new week, I have to go and get things like Doritos for my son, which always makes the grocery bill go up quickly, but I feel like I did decent this week.
How is your shopping going lately? Any cool finds?
You got some great deals!
ReplyDeleteI can relate to the being short problems. My husband and daughter are tall and both have helped with high shelves on many occasions :)
ReplyDelete*Laugh* yes, my husband gets drafted when we go grocery shopping together to get things on the high shelves. Luckily I come from a short family so if there was one thing we knew how to do it was climb shelves like a pro *laugh*.
DeleteWow, you found some great deals at Fred Meyers this week! Glad you were able to buy some fresh strawberries for preserving too. I like keeping some strawberries in freezer as well. Great for pulling out in the winter and eating them thawed with a little cool whip or for using in smoothies.
ReplyDeleteI found a few really good buys recently. I came across cans of whole cranberry sauce on sale for $0.50/can, so I bought 2 for future holiday meals. I had bought some canned cranberry sauce around Christmas on sale for $0.88/can and thought it was an awesome deal then...but $0.50 beat that for sure! I also discovered that Walmart has a store brand version of my daughter's beloved flavoured rice for $2.50/bag (name brand version is over $3/bag!) so I bought 2 to restock the pantry. So glad I discovered this cost saving alternative!
Wow, I can't even make cranberry sauce that cheap! That was a great find!
DeleteIsn't it great when you can find good deals on those foods the kiddos will eat? I had a personalized price on tuna salad kits at Carrs this week and man I stocked up just because it was a dollar cheaper than normal price for me and it's one of the only "healthy" foods my son will eat.
Ohh if you don't need pectin, I need to research strawberry preserves too!
ReplyDeleteMy kroger trip was uneventful, and I spent $76 instead of my budget of $65 but they had 64 oz apple juices for $1. So I got 10, and that will hold my 3 year old about 3 months, so took an advance on next week's money. But then! As we were leaving target, I walked pet the freezer door where they have the clearance and I saw a bunch of spiral hams at the bottom so I stopped and looked and they had a $5 discount instantly off of these half ham, each about about 9 pounds so after the coupon about a dollar a pound so I put two in my cart and then I was about to check out and I thought you know what let me check my cartwheel app ... I did and saw that those exact hams had a 50% off on the Cartwheel app so I ran back and got two more since before was the max and ended up getting 4 half hamsfor about $0.50 a pound. I've never had ham in the freezer before so I'm kind of excited and I'm hoping that they'll last for a while. I might pull one out Mother's Day and this summer when my in-laws coming to visit.
Also, I saw a a show you might like! It's on YouTube too, though I saw it on hulu. It's called The Supersizers. It's a food critic husband and wife who spend one week living and eating just like how the did in a particular time perioid. The first episode is British wartime in the second world war. So they had to live off of the rationing, make mock dishes, and etc...What's facinating, is they get a health test before they start, then afterwards, so see how the diet and lifestyle were. I've only seen one episode so far but they do the Roman days recency era, 80s, etc...really cool.
Nice buy on the hams!
DeleteWhat Sheila said! Our Target doesn't have fresh groceries (well they have a teeny tiny bit, but nothing like hams or anything) or I'd probably shop there more. Great job on that find!!!
DeleteStrawberry preserves are basically like old fashioned jelly making where you boil the sugar and fruit down until it sheets from a spoon to set instead of using pectin. I just finished making them. It wasn't really that bad, although it did take a while to boil the mix down. Pectin is definitely quicker, but this was cheaper, so I'm not complaining *laugh*.
I am in awe of how great you are doing with your grocery budget, especially given how much higher your prices are than mine! I am just now getting ready to make my menu and shopping list, so such good time to read your update and the comments.
ReplyDeleteI use vinegar in the rinse cycle of my dishwasher and never had a problem. I don't know what your water is like but we have hard water with rust in it. Cheryl
ReplyDeleteI've tried vinegar for the rinse cycle and it just doesn't seem to work well with our water or something as I end up with residual crud on the dishes when I use it, so I end up rewashing a bunch of them. For some odd reason the rinse aid works better for me :).
ReplyDeleteYou did great! I'm sure you felt great getting back to your target amount! I'm short, but don't climb shelves, because my family is short, but clumsy, so I'd had a big doctor's bill if I did that:) Glad it works for you!
ReplyDeleteGood job on the deals! You are getting better every week.
ReplyDeleteI could NEVER get the jelly to do right until I purchased an electronic cooking thermometer at Wal-mart for about $15.00 ten years ago. You program in the temp and it beeps when it gets there. Then you start timing for about one or two minutes (would have to get out my recipe books) and it usually jells perfect.
I will warn anyone with a glass or ceramic stove top. If the jelly splashes or boils over, it will melt the stove top. I learned this the hard way.