Saturday, March 7, 2009

What We Bought This Week

We suppose this is very 'bloglike' to post things a simple as what you bought at the grocery store. We want to make this particular post a follow-up educational piece. In the previous blog we told you what the good deals were and what Theresia wrote on her shopping list, now we want to share a little bit about what we bought this week (from that list) and how we will use it. Oh, and we'll share the fun part (for us), how much we saved.

Fred Meyer (we shopped at our local Freddy's at 6495 SE Tualatin Valley Hwy in Hillsboro.)
Corned Beef- 3 pound package $4.23
Grapefruit- 3 for $1.00 - we bought 3
Garden Seeds- 50% off, we bought 20 packets (*see note below), So we got $40.58 worth of seeds for $20.29)
Other things not on the list - but Jeff was doing the shopping and is cooking spaghetti tonight:
Red Onion (1) for 65 cents
Fresh Herbs $1.99 for a package
White Mushrooms $1.23 for just under half a pound
Bananas $1.83 (59 cents a pound) See notes**

Safeway (remember to bring your Club Card) We spent $73.17 on this trip, but we saved $90.10
Tostito Lime Chips - one bag for $1.73
Cereal: (see notes***)
Life Cereal - 5 boxes of assorted flavors at 99 cents a box
Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats - 4 boxes of assorted flavors at 99 cents a box plus one Capn Crunch at 99 cents.
Bathroom Tissue - Two 12-count double roll packages for $7.98 (you can never have enough TP!)
Tillamook Medium Cheddar Cheese - 2 pound loaf $4.99
Safeway Bacon - 6.5 pounds for $9.99 (see notes****)
Chicken Breasts - Boneless/Skinless frozen. Two four-pound packages for $13.52
Hamburger 80% lean Value pack - Two packages for $10.90 (See notes *****)
Carrots - 5 pound bag for 99 cents
Yellow Onions - 5 pound bag for 99 cents
Oranges - 10 pound bag for $3.60
Other things not on the list - but Jeff was doing the shopping and is cooking spaghetti tonight:
Cucumber - one for 99 cents (salad with the spaghetti tonight!)
French Bread - two at 99 cents each (and it was warm when we bought it!)

Albertsons - (remember your savings card) We spent $3.26 and saved $5.43.
Bread - Albertsons White Bread 2 at $1.29 each
Apples - Granny Smith Apples 3 pound bag for $1.50



Notes:
* 20 packets of garden seeds may seem like a lot, because it is. The other thing about buying seeds is that they might become important as a food storage item in case there is a shortage of seeds and/or food next year, we will have at least a year's supply of gardening seeds. So, we went through the display looking for vegetable we have grown in the past and what might be fun to try this year. We will use some of each packet this year as well as some from previous year's packets. Seeds are supposed to last up to three years so I want to keep them rotating just in case 'fresher is better' as far as seeds go. The seeds we purchased include: Oregon Sugar Pod Peas, Butterhead Lettuce, Imperator Carrots, Hollow Crown Parsnip, Little Finger Carrot, Burpless Cucumber, Anaheim Chili Pepper (new for us), Blue Lake Bush Beans, Olympia Spinach, Lettuce Sampler (Black Seeded Simpson, Bibb, Prize Head, Grand Rapids), Red Cored Chantenay, White Bunching Onions, Table King (Bush Acorn) Squash, and Champion Radish. This year we are going to try growing some herbs, so we purchased: Mint, Sweet Basil, and Thyme. We will also plant some flowers from seed including: 'Blue Bird' Forget-Me-Not, Moss Rose, and Nasturtium.

** We usually buy bananas at Costco for about 43 cents a pound, but they are often pretty green and take a little while to ripen. We tend to use bananas as a base for smoothies so we like to keep some yellow ones on hand. 59 cents a pound fits Jeff's idea of a good price for ripe bananas.

***As far as breafast cereal goes, anything under $2.00 a box is a good price for us. The only one we buy over that price is Jeff's favorite, Cocoa Crispies, and he'll go up to $3.00 a box for that. We feel like breakfast cereal comes on sale frequently enough that if you stock up on what you like when it is on sale, you shouldn't ever have to pay the three, four, or five dollar full price.

****For the bacon, we cut the package in half length-wise. Then we count out ten pieces (2 half-pieces per person) and put them in a sandwich baggie. Then we 3 or four of those in a gallon ziplock bag.) Then we have bacon, at a good price, whenever we want.

*****Ground Beef: We buy the value pack and then divide it by putting one pound in a quart ziplock bag. We flatten the package which makes it easier to store in the freezer and to thaw in the microwave.

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