Groceries: 3 Stores

So, I eat my words about no longer frequenting the conventional grocery stores.  I made it to 3 in one morning this week, with the kids!  The sales were too good to pass up.  I put a cooler in the trunk and off we went for 2 hours and 15 minutes.  Everyone cooperated and the service was great; phew!

The sweetest deals: peaches (regionally grown) for 68 cents a pound, cantalope for 99 cents apiece, lettuce for 38 cents apiece, and fresh Italian sausage (no fake ingredients; I checked) marked down to $1.49 a pound because it needed to sell.

Have you ever looked at the ingredients in cottage cheese?  We love cottage cheese around here, but one time I looked at the ingredients of the kinds from Costco and Aldi and was appalled: artificial flavors and colors!  Who needs those in cottage cheese?  The kind I purchased this week was on sale at the grocery store for the typical Aldi price and appears a little less modified.  My best bet would be to buy it from the farm with our milk, but it is pretty expensive there, compared to what I am used to.  I have been getting yogurt from the farm, though.

I spent 90 cents on 3 boxed dinners that I figure we can save to donate.  The sugar and Kool-Aid are for when we get together with friends and need to provide drinks.  They were a great sale.  The bag of chicken breasts is not my favorite purchase because they are enhanced with so much solution, but they will come in handy when I need to make some meals for others (who don't really care about where their chicken came from).  I don't mean that to sound harsh; I'm being honest.  The Sara Lee bread is a Michael Pollan no-no, I know, but it was on sale and my husband likes it.  Although, after watching some videos that I will share with you soon, he wasn't so excited about some of the treats that I brought home for him.  I'm ok with that.  Actually, I'm a little pleased!

Total: $53 and change, including tax.

I calculate that I saved about $40 by strategically shopping at these 3 stores.  And that's without using any clipped newspaper coupons or printed internet coupons.  I did use store coupons from the sales flyer at one store and a frequent shopper coupon at another.

It was a satisfying shopping excursion.