Tag: grocery haul

Categories
Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

We were invited to a July 4th party and I was making a fruit bowl in a watermelon shell to bring. Trying to find fruit that was decent was not easy. I went to Niagara Produce and got the watermelon for $7.99. I also purchased seedless green grapes for $8.37, blueberries for $3.99, and 4 dozen XL eggs that I needed for $ .99 each. That came to $ 24.30. Their strawberries were small and not in vey good condition.

Then I went to Top’s and got cherries(I pitted them all) for $8.42, more blueberries for $6.99 and cantaloupe for $ 14.97(I had to buy precut because I could not find a whole cantaloupe in the store.). I hate doing that but Hubby really wanted cantaloupe in the fruit bowl. Top’s strawberries were really orange. There was not a red strawberry in the store. They were far from ripe.

So on Friday morning I went to Walmart to pick up a prescription for Hubby. While I was there, I looked at their strawberries. I was shocked to see that they had perfect strawberries. So I purchased 4 small containers for a total of $ 10.32. They are not in the picture. I was so happy that they had them because if they didn’t I was going to head to the next town to go to Wegman’s or B.J.’s.

This was a large party with lots of kids, I brought over a much bigger half of the watermelon filled with fruit. I made this extra one in case it was needed and put it in my refrigerator. I also had a bag of fruit leftover for us to munch on the next few days.

I didn’t find out that the fruit had run out until after everyone had eaten. The hosts of the party said it was gone by the time they dished up their meal. If I had known, I would have gotten this other one in the refrigerator. Looks like everyone was loving it. So yesterday, I brought over this half of the watermelon of fruit to the hosts for them and their 2 boys to enjoy. Lesson learned: Bring double next year and put it in a big bowl.

One of their fathers makes the burgers every year for them to grill. He is a hunter and got a deer this past season. They are the best burgers I have ever had. He makes them out of venison and ground pork and I don’t know what kind of spices he uses. So when I brought the fruit over, they gave me 4 of the burgers that were leftover and not cooked yet. We each had one for dinner last night. The other two I have frozen for another meal. I have always hated venison because it tastes gamey to me. Not these burgers. They were so yummy!

There were so many fireworks in our neighborhood on July 4th night that I could not get to sleep until after 11am. So I was dragging yesterday. However last night, I had to do some work in the basement to make room for a purchase that is coming today.

But now I am rested. I have a very busy day. I have an appointment in the next town and then have to run some errands near me. Then I have more work in the basement to do.

I hope you all had a good 4th.

Categories
Every Day

Grocery Haul

I do not like shopping on Sunday. However, I have learned my lesson when it comes to Top’s. After having to get rainchecks for the best deals on Mondays, I started going on Sundays. I quickly found out that when the meat department opens at 8AM that they never have the beef deals ready. So yesterday I went at 10AM. The NY strip steaks were fully stocked. I was able to pick and choose 4 large packages with 4 steaks in each. They had the best price that I have seen in months. They were $11.88 a lb. so I paid $ 125.57 for all of them. These steaks are always tender and delicious. When I got home I used my foodsaver to package them up. We now have 16 meals of strip steaks in the freezer. I may roast a turkey this week. If I do, I will free up some space in the freezer. Then I might get some more steaks. We love grilling them outside in the summer and fall.

The rest of the items pictured were purchased at Walmart because they had much cheaper prices than Top’s. I bought 2 frozen mixed berries for $3.52 a bag. I eat these with zero sugar whipped cream when I need a sweet snack. I just put a serving in a bowl and defrost it in the microwave for a few seconds. It always satisfies my cravings for snacks but it is much healthier than candy or chips. I also purchased one bag of dates for $ 4.97, 1/2 gallon of milk for $ 1.96 and the cottage cheese was $ 2.87. I love cottage cheese with diced fresh tomatoes for brunch. My total for all was $16.84.

Hubby has been using up my half and half that I use in my coffee on his cereal. So I purchased the milk for him. The half and half is $ 4.98 so paying $ 1.96 for the milk was a no brainer. I do have shelf stable milk in the pantry but it is all within date so we will keep that for emergencies.

I do track prices so that I can do a couple of stores and know that I am always getting the best price. Top’s and Walmart are only a block apart so a round trip is only 7 miles. I am not so good at tracking Aldi’s because they have to have a very good deal to get me in the store. I did go last week when I got the 8 lbs. of organic ground beef but I was too tired to look at other items that day. I need to go again and do that. I wonder if I can find the prices online or are those prices just if you have delivery or pickup. Does anyone know?

We had a good day yesterday. My sons both called Hubby to wish him a Happy Father’s Day and they had long chats. My son who lives closer spent part of Friday here. My other son was planning on making the 4 and 1/2 hour trip but his dog is sick so he couldn’t. I don’t know when we will see him again. I am seriously considering flying there. It is too long a car trip for us. We have no direct flight from here to there. However, Hubby could take me to an airport that is about an hour and 15 minutes away that does have a direct flight. Hubby no longer flies either. It is just too hard for him. But I can go alone. The only other way is to hitch a ride with my other son when they go to New Hampshire to visit his in-laws. My son could pick me up along the route they take.

My grandson is coming this Friday to stay with us for the weekend. I am hoping since he loves organizing that he will help me take some inventory in the pantry. We will enjoy having him here(spoiling him) and he is always a big help to us.

Hubby and I watched a lot of soccer this weekend. We are enjoying those games.

Tonight my sister and I will have our usual Monday chat. Her granddaughter got married this weekend. So I am looking forward to hearing all about it.

I have two medical appointments this week so I don’t know when I will post again.

I hope you all have a great week!

Categories
Every Day

A Little of This and A Little of That

I went to Niagara Produce this week to get 4 dozen eggs to fill up my 5 dozen container in the refrigerator. They were still on sale for $.99 each. I also purchased fresh broccoli crowns( $1.49 a lb.) for $ 1.59 to cook as a side for a couple of dinners this week. I always check for marked down meat. While I was looking, I saw this package of on sale cheese and parsley Italian sausage. It was $3.99 a lb. so it cost $ 7.14. This will give us two homemade meals: a pasta one and a pizza one. My total was $ 12.69.

Then I went to Aldi’s to get sliced mushrooms for $ 1.29 for burgers this week and peppers($2.55) to make fajitas last night for dinner. I also got the flour tortillas for $ 1.95 for the fajitas. The organic ketchup was $2.15. The cantaloupe was $ 2.49 and the brioche buns were $3.99. I picked up 2 more butter at $2.89 lb. to add to my freezer stash. The frozen California Medley vegetables were $ 1.15. My total was $21.65.

I stopped at Panera Bread and purchased the dozen bagels Tuesday deal for $9.99 using my Panera giftcard that I purchased 3 to 4 years ago on the Top’s deal at Christmas. They give you 13 bagels so I got 7 asiago cheese and 6 cinnamon crunch. I froze most of them for future meals.

Top’s was my second to last stop. We rarely buy cereal but we do use Rice Chex in our party mix so I picked up 2 boxes on sale for $3.00 a box. The Kraft salad dressings were on sale for $ 3.00 each. We eat a lot of salads in the spring and summer so I am now stockpiled on dressings. The Skinny Pop was a treat for me. It cost $ 3.50. I got 2 Peter Pan peanut butter on sale B1G1F so it was $3.69 for 2 of them. We love this for a snack with celery. The Smithfield pork tenderloins were on B1G1F for $ 9.99 for both. We will cook these on the grill for a couple of meals this summer. The leftovers will get used in pork fried rice. The grapes were on sale for $1.88 a lb. so I paid $ 3.42 for $ 1.82 lbs. They will be used in chicken salad and for snacking. The bread was on sale for $ 2.99. I use this for French toast for my grandson and Hubby on Sundays when we are all together for breakfast. The cheddar cheese block was $ 1.88. My total for all was $ 37.47 minus my 6% senior discount of $ 2.25. So OOP was $35.22.

My last stop was at Consumer Beverage where I returned bottles for $6.00 which I used to defray the cost of a 24 pack of Yuengling Lager that cost $22.99 plus bottle deposits of $1.20 – $6.00 plus $ 1.84 in tax totaled $20.03. I am also submitting an $ 8.00 rebate. This is Hubby’s treat after he is done mowing the lawn.

We needed food so I finally had to go shopping. The only way I could get through it was to use a lidocaine patch. But I was totally exhausted when I got home.

I submitted a $6.00 rebate for 3 bottles of Kendall Jackson wine.

We have not turned on the A/C yet even though we have had a couple of 80+ days. Our home has high ceilings so we stay pretty cool in here. We also have ceiling fans in 2 bedrooms, a portable fan in the 3rd bedroom, and ceiling fans in the breakfast room, which is where we eat all of our meals, the great room, and the office. We have only had to use select fans a couple of days.

Our landscaper replaced the tree that died since he planted it last fall. It was under a year warranty. It is a nice red maple and is a bit bigger than the one that died. I pray that this one survives.

What have you been doing to save a few dollars?

Categories
Every Day

Living on Less to Save Some Dollars

Are you sick and tired of all of these price increases on everything? I know that I certainly am. It is time to really start ramping up our frugality even more than we do now.

Finally, we were able to turn the heat off. We have gone from winter to summer this weekend. Right now(5AM) it is 77 in my home. It is comfortable. That is because we kept the windows closed and the shades and blinds drawn on the windows where the sun was coming in yesterday. It was 89 and humid and the overnight temperature is only going down to 67. Today the high is supposed to be around 84 but much more humid However, we have not turned on the A/C. I would like to see how many days we can go without it. We used our ceiling fans to stay comfortable while we watched our hockey game last night and the ceiling fan is on overnight in our bedroom. We will use them in any room we spend time in today.

The results of me tracking when we turn things on that use electricity is showing me that the worst offender is the dryer. I used it the other day to dry some sheets and towels and that is what is spiking my kwh’s. It is incredible how much it uses. Fortunately, I hang a lot to dry. I wish I had a place to hang these big things but I don’t.

Did you hit your Memorial Day Sales this week? I went on Sunday and bought 6 lbs. of ground beef for $ 4.29 a lb. which I will be taking back today because the meat is bad, 3 lbs. of Sahlen’s hot dogs for $10.99 only to find out that Niagara Produce has them on sale for $9.99. I will be going there and stocking on a few more packages to get us through the summer. I also purchased a 6 lb. package of boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.99 a lb., a 30 oz. jar of Hellmann’s mayonnaise using a digital coupon for $ 3.79, and 3 32. oz. bottles of Heinz Ketchup for $3.99 each.

I have been taking inventory of the food in our home and I will be trying to fill in the necessary gaps this week. We have used quite a bit of our pantry foods since January. But we still have a lot to go through. We are carefully rotating the items we are using by date- the oldest gets eaten first.

So sometime this week, I will fill in those gaps. I have a trip planned to BJ’s in another town to get produce, 2 of their roasted chickens at $ 4.99 each, and stock on a cheese spread they have that Hubby loves to put on wheat thins or triscuits. One of the roasting chickens will be kept on warm in the crockpot for dinner that night. The other will go in the fridge. I will cut up all of the meat except for our dinner that night into portions for future meals and freeze them. The bones and skin will be put into the crockpot to simmer in water in the garage all night. Then I will have my bone broth for soup. On the way down I will quickly stop at N.P. to see what their produce looks like and how much it costs there on the fresh things that we need. I will buy 2 more dozen extra large eggs for $.99 each. I will also pick up the Sahlen’s hot dogs. I will then compare their produce prices with B.J.’s and buy whatever looks healthy and costs less at each of those stores. I can quickly run back in again on my way home to N.P. if need be.

I will also stop into Wegman’s and Trader Joe’s to look at their meat and produce and gather some prices for my price book.

Last stop will be to get gas to fill up the car. My cash station is $ 4.39 a gallon. BJ’s is $ 4.37. However, Top’s is $4.49 a gallon. I will have to check and see how many gas points I have. It is rare for these three stations to be this close together on price.

After those trips, I will not be buying much. I am getting really tired of making the billionaire corporations richer and richer and then listening to them whine about how people aren’t spending much these days and when they do they are buying store brands. Here is my tip for the big guys. Lower your prices and perhaps more people will come in and shop! I know all the reasons everyone is giving for all of the price increases but I still think they are somewhat gouging us also because they can use those excuses. BTW, Walmart announced that they are removing all of the self checkouts because of all of the theft in their stores. They say it is millions of dollars a month. They also said they are laying off 1000 executive people because not as many people are shopping or buying as much as they used to.

Since it is so hot here, I will be bringing my Yeti cooler with me. I don’t want anything I buy to go bad. My travel mug will be filled with ice and water to keep me cool and hydrated. I also always keep protein bars in the car in case I get hungry while I am out.

We will be eating what we have in our home. Prices are getting so high on food that I won’t pay for most things. If I do any shopping it will only be for a great meat deal (on any beef) or something that is a necessity like produce. If produce prices skyrocket this summer, we will go without except for an occasional tomato to make BLT’s with. Many times the frozen fruits and vegetables cost less than the fresh. I will be comparing prices. I am hoping that when our local crops come in season that there are some better prices than what we are seeing now on shipped in items.

We are also rationing our food by eating the proper portions.

We are trying to get our electricity bill down. We will keep the A/C off as much as we can. We will cook outside on the grill when we can. Crockpots and other small appliances can be used outside or in the garage. That will keep the heat out of the house. I have also stopped using the blow dryer to dry my hair. That also spikes the kwh’s. The same goes for the curling iron. I just brush it and let it dry by itself. We will have our new bill on May 21st. I will let you know about it soon.

Our cellphone company is offering internet now. Hubby is researching it. So far it looks like it would save us $49. a month unless our cable company ups our bill when we cancel it. We will still keep the home phone and cable TV. To me that is a bundle but they may up the price.

I am off to cook 3 lbs. of bacon. I will undercook it so that I can freeze it in portions and then reheat it in the microwave. Some will be kept in the fridge to reheat with our eggs this week.

Categories
Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

I did just a bit of shopping this week for things that we really needed. I went to Dollar Tree and got 6 shelf stable whole milk and 2 shelf stable chocolate milk for $ 1.25 each. I know this milk has chemicals to preserve it but I don’t feel the pasteurization of regular milk is that great for it either. It tastes just like fresh when chilled. It also keeps a long, long time.

Next I went to Top’s and got tomatoes on the vine for $1.88 lb. One we have already cut into for hamburgers we had one night this week. But there are 4 whole ones left. I spent $ 2.97 for them. FYI: Tomatoes are going to be in short supply this season. 80-90% come from California and they have drought and a lack of water. The ones you are able to get will be very expensive. I have plenty of canned tomatoes of all kinds purchased when they were cheaper. If you don’t and use them, you should stock them now before the prices go higher than they are. If you can grow tomatoes, do it. If I see them at a good price at a farmer’s market or at Niagara Produce, I will buy just to eat fresh for BLT’s. Otherwise, we will go without fresh.

I had to go to Walmart to pick up 2 prescriptions for me. While I was there I browsed the grocery and household sections. I was absolutely shocked at how understocked they were. Their pasta section has shrunk down to one very tiny section. It should be gone by now. Their produce sections looked awful. Half of the shelves in some aisles were empty and fronted. Their candy aisle that usually is one full set of shelves on one side of the aisle had hardly anything. Their vegetable, fruit and canned meat and fish aisles weren’t much better. I have never seen it this bad. Either it is because the Strait of Hormuz is closed, people are worried about shortages, or worried that prices will skyrocket this month and are stocking up. The only things I purchased were in the household goods aisle. I got 2 boxes of 80 kitchen garbage bags for $11.22 each and 2 boxes of 30 gallon 40 ct. black garbage bags for $ 8.97 each. I hated to spend the money but this is one household good I can’t go without and I was down to my last box of each. Our garbage service will not empty your barrel unless everything is bagged. I may pick up a few more this month.

My last stop was Niagara Produce to pick up 2 dozen xtra large eggs for $.99 each. They have already been put in my 5 dozen box in the order that they expire. They also had the 3 count bag of romaine lettuce for $ 3.99.

I did stop at Top’s to get a lb. of Jimmy Dean bacon for $ 4.99 but they had none. So I got a raincheck.

I had a dental appointment earlier in the week and that is when I got all of the groceries. Six months ago when I got a cleaning, it cost me $ 276. This week it was up to $ 293. We have no dental insurance. At least the hygienist gave me a great goodie bag. It had 4 tubes of toothpaste, a toothbrush which I use for household cleaning( we have electric toothbrushes), 2 floss, etc. It has all been added to my stockpile.

While I write this, my dishwasher is running on the quick cycle and it is really full. I will open it to let the dishes air dry. We have been using really cheap paper plates when we can so we don’t have to run it as often. It should make a difference in our bill at least a little bit.

This week I only ran one load of wash and hung most of it to dry.

Our sprinkler system company came to open it up for the season and make sure everything was in good working order and all of the sprinkler heads were adjusted to hit the areas they should. We have no idea what the bill will be because they mail it. It will be interesting to see how much it has gone up.

Today is the deadline that NYS says the counties and towns must post the proposed assessments online that our next school and property taxes are based on. I have been very worried about that because each year they have been majorly raising it. Since we have lost our senior deduction for the school taxes in September, I did not want to see the assessment raised too. I was so happy to see that my assessment was not raised from what it was last year. That gives us a needed break at least for a year.

Besides hamburgers this week, we have had cheeseburger skillet dish with sausage that I had cooked up and put in the freezer, Chinese food, and ham sandwiches. Our breakfasts have been eggs and sausage, cereal with fruit, and English muffins with homemade peach jam.

Now that it is May 1st and I have all of my figures for April, we had extra income in the amount of $ 2644. 25. April was a good month.

How have you guys saved a few bucks this week?

Categories
Every Day

A Little of This and a Little of That

Since gasoline is so expensive, I bundled errands yesterday. First stop was at Top’s for some loss leaders. They had Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts on sale for $ 2.19 a lb. But they were totally out. The new sale ad just went into effect the day before. I find this quite aggravating. The butcher told me that they would get a truck in last night. Since I am not about to waste gasoline and make another trip chasing this sale, I got a raincheck for 2 large packages. The raincheck is good for about 6 weeks. I will use it next time I need something at or near Top’s.

For those of you who have freezer space, Market in the Square is having a chicken sale if you buy 40 lbs. Info:

𝐏𝐫𝐞-𝐎𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝟒𝟎 𝐥𝐛. 𝐁𝐨𝐱:

(MUST order online before Tues. 4/14 at noon)

40lb of Chicken Breasts: $79

40lb of Chicken Leg Quarters: $39

40lb of Whole Chicken Wings: $59

40lb of Chicken Drumsticks: $35

Plus… No sales tax! 💰

* Pickup: Fri 4/17 – Sun 4/19 from 8am-4pm

* Available from both West Seneca & North Tonawanda Meat Departments

This is a great deal. The chicken breasts work out to $ 1.795 per lb. I don’t have the freezer space. If I did, I would be all over this sale.

I did pick up 3 chicken broths and 2 beef broths at $1.49 each when you buy 5. This was a really good deal for here. I can my own chicken broth but sometimes I am out so these fill in when that happens. I never have enough beef bones to make beef broth. Bananas were on sale with a super coupon for $ .39 a lb. Limit 5 pounds. Each week during the Moolahville game that Top’s is running they have a coupon for a deep discount. So I picked up this package of hamburger buns for $ .49. If you shop Top’s, make sure to add this coupon to your digital wallet attached to your bonus card. That is all I got. We still have lots of stockpile items to work our way through.

Then I went to Walmart to pick up some special toothpaste that the dentist recommended for Hubby. It was cheaper for a 2 pack at $ 12.47 than one tube for $7.49. I also picked up his 3 prescriptions. They shocked me when they told me the bill was $ 3706. I told the cashier that I didn’t think they applied our insurance. Sure enough they hadn’t so they fixed their error and the total came to $78.+ before they added the toothpaste on.

We got a disappointing letter in the mail yesterday from NYS. They informed us that we did not qualify for the Enhanced Star Rebate(must be over 65 and own and live in your home) for our school taxes in September. Each year they up the cut off income amount. Unfortunately, we made much more income for the 2024 year than they based it on. They go 2 years back so 2026 taxes are based on 2004 income tax year. I was so happy when we qualified last September. We had not qualified in years. But looking at our income on our 2025 taxes which they will base the 2027 cut off on, I don’t think we will qualify again for 2027. I know we should be happy that we make more and more income each year. But this reduction was quite a bit of money last year. It saved us $ 1080.49 last year. Every year we will be chasing it so I don’t think we will qualify again. Our investments keep our income high. I will make that money up by doing some more cutting back.

I have decided to clean the inside of our SUV myself this year. It is pretty muddy and dirty from the winter. I got a $ 200. quote from the company who did my carpet cleaning and it is a good price. However with the disappointing letter on the school taxes, I will save that $200. by doing it myself.

On a different subject, we had our new neighbors over for dinner on Saturday night this past weekend. We had a terrific time and enjoyed their company very much. I made the best chicken in wine sauce that I have made in a long time. We added a caesar salad and broccoli for sides. For dessert, I stuffed cara mia oranges with orange sherbert and spooned fresh strawberries in a bit of juice over the top. I just cut off the tops(about 1/4 to 1/3 down) off the oranges and cut out the insides and save them to go with breakfasts. Then fill the shells. Put them in the freezer until you are ready to serve them. This dessert is so refreshing and easy and the combination is so yummy. You can also add a pinch of coconut on top of the strawberries if you like that.

Have you saved any money recently by getting a great deal? Please feel free to share with us.

Categories
Every Day

Our New Grocery Plan

So sorry this is so late today. I fell asleep for hours today after going shopping at Aldi’s. Eloise is still getting me up between 2am & 3am. After a while I have to catch up because I am so exhausted.

I went to Aldi’s today to get 2(limit) of their ribeye roasts at $8.99 a lb. I purchased them for $123.17. I also bought some naan( $3.55) to make 2 pizzas. One roast will be used for Easter in case I can’t find a leg of lamb. They had spiral sliced hams on sale for $1.49 a lb. I am going to wait until after Easter to see if they get marked down at Aldi’s or Walmart. We still have ham slices in the freezer from Christmas.

If you have noticed we are eating down our pantries and now buying only loss leaders. Yes, we have processed food to go through but I refuse to throw it out and waste the money I paid for it. We have eaten processed foods our entire life and it hasn’t killed us yet. But after all of the information that has come out about the chemicals in most of the food supply in our country, we will be buying very little of it anymore.

So we are basically buying from the perimeter of the stores which house produce, fish, meat, and dairy, etc. Now that Top’s is marking a lot of these things down that are soon to expire, I am finding some great deals.

We will can most of our vegetables and fruits in season this spring, summer, and fall. Otherwise, I will buy frozen that has only one ingredient.

We will buy baking supplies because we bake desserts, muffins, and breads regularly. I buy them in bulk. We also make pancakes and waffle with them. We only buy 100% Pure Maple Syrup to put on them which is in season in NY right now. We have a diabetic in the family but I have deemed that the SF crap is far worse than the maple syrup because of all the petroleum products in it.

We also buy flour, sugar, rice, dry beans, pasta, oatmeal, etc. in bulk when the price is right. We have an Amish store near us. I can make my own pasta because I have a machine. When my pasta is gone, I will make it again.

That’s our plan, buy ingredients and cook from scratch. Prepare some of the foods to put in our freezer to make easy meals. I freeze onions, potatoes, and carrots immediately so they don’t go bad. We also freeze berries when they are in season. With prices as high as they are, I refuse to waste food.

Tomorrow, I will make some banana bread for a new neighbor using up 3 bananas that are in our freezer. We have bananas that are getting really ripe so Hubby will make a banana salad to go with dinner tomorrow night.

Making it simple will be a theme also. Hubby is doing some of the cooking because after almost 59 years, it is his turn.

Categories
Every Day

A Large Grocery Haul At Top’s

There were finally some good deals at Top’s yesterday. But it was a struggle to do all I had to do there. They open at 6:00am. However, the bottle return room does not open until 7:00am. So I went up when it got light here because I don’t drive in the dark. That was about 7:10am. The bottle return room has 3 machines. One needed to be emptied so it was not working. Another took glass only and I had no glass. The last one which was working but it was being used. I waited. Finally, I went into the store to go to customer service to get my $ 1.49 overcharge back from the reduced price produce that I purchased last week. Guess what? They weren’t open yet. They don’t open until 8:00am. So I went and did my shopping and then went there last. NY Strip steaks were on sale so I went to get them. They only had 1 package of 4 in the case. So I spied both the store manager and butcher shop manager having a chit chat in the aisle behind me. I went over and asked if someone could get me another package. More waiting while they cut them up! UGH! My day was not starting well. Top’s needs to get it’s act together. Either you are open or you are not open. Three different times is ridiculous and a waste of my energy. When you have to plan these things out, it is ludicrous! I like to go early so that I have less contact with sick people.

Flour was on sale for $ 2.29 for a 5 lb. bag. Since we are making our own bread products, I have been stocking up when I see a great deal! The 2 lbs. of carrots was $2.49 and I used a digital coupon for $.50 making them $1.99. I got a 3 lb. bag of seedless mandarins $ 4.99 minus a $ 2.00 digital coupon = $ 2.99.

Large eggs were on sale for $. 99. I paid that price for 2 of them. However, I had a blockbuster coupon for 1 dozen eggs from a new game that Top’s has. It has replaced the Monopoly game that they used to have. So I paid $ .49 for the third dozen.

I found this package of reduced price Italian sausage for $ 2.54 instead of $3.91. It expires today but I quickly froze it yesterday.

Sour cream was on sale for 2/$5.00. We were low so I purchased 2. The butter was on sale for the lowest price that I have seen here in almost 3 years. I got 8 lbs. for $ 2.50 each. They also gave me a coupon for $ .50 off one so I got all 8 for $ 19.50. They have been added to my stash in the freezer. I got another package of reduced for quick sale Italian sausage for $ 2.45. The 2 lb. container of fresh strawberries was $ 6.99 minus $ 1.00 digital coupon = $ 5.99. They have been cleaned and cut up for dessert and snacks this week.

The NY strip steaks were on sale for $ 11.99 a lb. so I paid $73.14 for them. I ended up with 8 steaks which I have repackaged into food saver bags. We grill 2 when we want them and it gives us a dinner and a brunch. We will be using leftover macaroni bacon goulash for dinner again tonight. But we will grill 2 steaks tomorrow night so that we can see if they are tender or not. You never know! If they are tender, I will be going back to buy a few more packages. I have a lot of money in my grocery budget leftover from the lst couple of months because I have been trying to eat from our pantry as much as possible and buying mostly loss leaders that we needed. That way we can afford beef when it is on loss leader. My total for everything today was $ 117.15 after they deducted my $ 2.35 bottle return slip.

I have shopped loss leaders for almost 59 years. I am really concentrating hard on them now. Prices are just too darn high to buy anything at full price. We eat what we have stocked at the best prices. We live in NY and food prices are high because we live in the Buffalo area. Buffalo is the second largest city in NY after NYC. Food is not cheap here. But you plan and work with what you know to be a good deal for you.

Perhaps you can guess what my topic will be tomorrow after this post today. See you then.

Did you get any great deals this week?

Categories
Every Day

Grocery Haul and Other Things

I ran quite a few errands yesterday. Besides going to a dental appointment, I went to Aldi’s and Runnings. Runnings had 100 count extra large kitchen garbage bags on sale for $ 9.99 each and a gallon jug of glass cleaner for $5.99. I got 2 boxes of bags and 1 jug of cleaner since it was the best prices that I have seen in a long time. I will need the glass cleaner to wash my windows in a few weeks when spring gets here. They are so dirty.

I rarely go to Aldi’s but I decided to go and see what all the hype is about them being cheaper than anyone else. I only purchased the items that were cheaper than anywhere else in my area. I was out of yogurt so got a whole milk greek one for $3.49. I eat this for brunch once in a while with bluberries or tomatoes added to it. Also, many people are saying this sauce is delicious and had clean ingredients like Raos. So I purchased two to try at $ 3.59 each.

Hubby has been wanting antipasto for dinner. So I got two different salamis- one at $4.39 and one at $8.49. I also purchased 2 packages of prosciutto at $3.59 each. He added ham, olives, and cheese that we already we had in the fridge and some Italian dressing.

Since we are fasting overnight, I have been using heavy whipping cream in my coffee. That was $ 4.99. Hubby also wanted to try their English muffins which were $ 1.59. He tried them with my homemade peach preserves and said they were better than Thomases. I also bought penne rigate($.98), zero carb wraps($2.69), organic chicken breasts($7.82), Irish butter($3.99), and 2 packages of Truffle English cheddar($4.49 each). I tried some of this cheese for a snack and it was delicious.

Lastly, I picked up white bread($1.39) to make French toast for West when he visits, some soudough bread for sandwiches($3.29), a French baguette($1.85) to make garlic bread for dinner tonight( I freeze all bread so that it doesn’t go bad), cranberry white cheddar cheese($2.79), and aged white cheddar cheese($2.49). I eat cheese for snacks so we like to have an assortment in our home. Then my son told us about this dark chocolate. So I picked up two bars at $3.29 each. We will eat one square a week so they will last a while. My total for Aldi’s was $ 77.16.

I went to Top’s and returned the rest of the bottles and got the cash. I got $20.05 back(from yesterday and the other day) and used it to defray the cost of my Aldi groceries.

I made chicken parmesan for dinner last night. I liked the chicken. Hubby did not. I really liked the sauce and he did not. He said it was too acid. About the only thing he seemed to love was the garlic bread. So I will be buying Raos instead of this sauce and will not buy the organic chicken there again. He started to lose his taste buds a few years back so a lot of things he will not eat that he used to love. We had one serving of leftovers from dinner, so I froze it for a brunch in the future for me. Most of the time, I make easy dinners(meat and veggie or salad) because he seems to like that.

I needed to go to B.J.’s yesterday after the dentist but we were expecting freezing rain and the temps down in that town were dropping rapidly so I came home. Later I did shopping in my own town because we had no freezing rain here.

With all of the errands, I was exhausted when I got home so I took a 2 hour nap. For entertainment, Hubby and I watched the USA ice hockey team win their game at the Olympics.

I did do some organizing in the pantry and refrigerator yesterday too. I also entered the prices from Aldi into my price book.

I think we will make Chef’s salads tonight to use up some veggies and some of the meats I bought.

Do any of you shop at Aldi’s regularly and what do you just love from there?

Categories
Every Day

A Small Grocery Haul This Week

I did a bit of shopping this week at Top’s on Monday. Since Rosina sent me 3 more $1.00 coupons(came on Friday last week) to add to the one I had, I did a deal on them buying 8 bags. They were on sale B1G1F. Total before coupons came to $24.76. The bananas weighed 3.94 lbs. and came to $2.17 before a Free Top’s coupon.

We needed more Wheat Chex for party mix and they were on sale so I got 2. They came to $7.00 for both. Hubby asked me to get bagels and one cream cheese. The cream cheese was full price which was $ 4.69. I rarely buy anything not on sale but this is a new product in our store so I decided we would try it. It is a much better price than the Philadelphia brand here. The bagels were on B1G1F and were $ 5.49 for both. Not pictured were raspberry turnovers from the bakery because Hubby already ate them this week. These are Hubby’s favorite so I got him a 4 pack. They were $ 6.49.

My total before coupons was $50.60. I tell you this because I had a Top’s coupon for $5./$50. order. I also had a free coupon for the bananas because I stayed under their 4 lb. limit. I had $ 4.00 in Rosina coupons, and a $1.00 digital coupon off of 2 boxes of Wheat Chex. So my total after all coupons came to $ 38.43.

Top’s sent me 4 weeks of coupons in the mail. Next week I have a fresh meat $10.00 coupon and a Free box of pasta coupon. I will be using the meat coupon to get a spiral sliced ham. The sale price is $ 1.49 a lb. That is the lowest I have seen in my area. They have many other items on sale including Tillamook cheeses on B1G1F, salmon filets for $8.99 a lb., $1.99 per pound BS Chicken breasts, Daisy sour cream at 2/$5, etc. I must spend $50. to be able to use all coupons and I can easily do this with all of these sales.

We had grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, filet mignons, broccoli, and the leftover mashed potatoes that I had frozen from Thanksgiving, spicy jambalaya soup with crackers and butter, and chicken patties on buns for recent meals.

My son, DIL, and grandson are all coming for a visit tomorrow afternoon. We are looking forward to that. So I had better get moving and dust and vacuum the house.

I hope you had good shopping this week for food or perhaps for Christmas gifts. The only thing I have left to do is to get small treats for West’s stocking. I also am going to make some homemade cat food for Eloise. I will do a small batch for her to try. I have tried almost every kind of commercial wet cat food that there is and Eloise will not eat it. I gave Chris cases of it for her cat when she visited this summer. I am hoping that Eloise will like this food. If she does, then I will make a big batch and freeze it in portions.

Share your best deal this week with all of us and where you purchased it. Thanks!