2015 Grocery Challenge

[dogmom]

Mar 13, 2015 11:16:52 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

no Kroger affiliates that I'm aware of. the big names around here are Market Basket, Stop & Shop (aka Giant elsewhere), Hannaford and some smaller regional chains.

I looked up the delallo website, that logo looks familiar. I will give it a shot if I see a sale. I am not a fan of whole wheat pasta, but it looks like they have other options, too. thanks for the tip!   

oh, and I'm totally making this....with whatever capellini I have on hand.  
recipe link

Chiver...love the recipe. 

[chiver78]

Mar 13, 2015 21:51:33 GMT -5 FreeSalsa said:

Well now that you said you don't want to discuss your dislike for Barilla I am very curious!

the short version is that I do not appreciate the public statements made by the CEO. I don't want to introduce politics to a SS thread though.

as far as pasta, I wouldn't say that I'm a pasta snob, per se, but I do enjoy a texture and quality that does well with being cooked al dente. I am a mutt by heritage, but my Italian nana taught me the basics of cooking. I hate mushy overcooked pasta, and want a new label that I can trust. that's one thing Barilla was very good for - consistent product.

I do have a KA mixer that I intend to actually unpack in the new house. for the poster who said they use that, how versatile is the pasta attachment? hmm...

[FreeSalsa]

Thanks, chiver, I hadn't heard about that.  I've been trying to avoid the news lately because it all seems to be bad news.  We do appreciate everyone keeping away from politics on this thread.  This is a nice, happy place!  

I would look for anything on sale that says "Product of Italy." I remember getting organic pasta at Costco with a friend's membership ages ago.  I think it came out to $1.29 a package with six packages together.  I wonder what it would cost now.

[marvholly]

Strange. Every Thur I check the ad for my big, fav fruit & veg market. This week they have 1 fruit, 1 pasta and 2 meats listed as sale items. That is WAAAAY below the number ot items usually on their ad.  Nothing I really want but I will check them out esp because another store is quite close and I have a nearly $10 list there.

[hitenney]

Hello everybody!  I've been lost - kept getting re-directed to strangeness that my non-technical brain could not decipher.  I finally got Dancin Mama to help me get here.  Thanks, Dancin!  Not much news as far as bargains here - just like to keep up with everybody.  I was so sad to think I'd never find the board again. Silly, I know...   Murphath - congrats on the new son-in-law!  Sounds like a most excellent wedding.  Holly - I find where Sam's really helps me is buying staples - I can't beat their prices on chicken noodle soup, Top Ramen, tomato sauce, chicken broth, pasta, and chicken and hamburger.  Where I sometimes end up losing money is when I buy things that are too big - for instance their giant bottles of pasta sauce.  But as it is, the shopping trip is always long, because when I get home, I have to divvy up the chicken and hamburger into manageable size packages.

Well, better get home - I need to clean out my back area and carport, because some mice have moved in! Our neighbor's dog does not eat his kibble fast enough, and so the birds and mice are having a great time! So many projects, so little time.

[marvholly]

WTF! The news everywhere is filled w/articles on the consistently falling price of crude oil. Can someone tell me why gasoline has gone from about 2.46 on 3/16 to 2.79 today? I still have half a tank so I can wait at least another 7-10 days.

I sent an email to the big fruit/veg market complaining about only 4 items on their ‘ad’ and saying I was NOT about to waste my time & gas shopping there this week. Like they will miss my $3-$5. Be interesting to see if they bother to respond.  I will be passing them today so will check the parking lot to see how many others feel as I do.

[saveinla]

Mar 20, 2015 6:12:09 GMT -5 marvholly said:

WTF! The news everywhere is filled w/articles on the consistently falling price of crude oil. Can someone tell me why gasoline has gone from about 2.46 on 3/16 to 2.79 today? I still have half a tank so I can wait at least another 7-10 days.

I sent an email to the big fruit/veg market complaining about only 4 items on their ‘ad’ and saying I was NOT about to waste my time & gas shopping there this week. Like they will miss my $3-$5. Be interesting to see if they bother to respond.  I will be passing them today so will check the parking lot to see how many others feel as I do.

Here in CA at least, the price hike is due to the switching to summer blend. The prices went down very slowly when crude oil prices plummeted, but went they went back up, it changed from 2.59 to 3.59 within a week. Now it's coming back down again - it's 3.31 here this week.

[marvholly]

Mar 20, 2015 9:18:00 GMT -5 saveinla said:

Mar 20, 2015 6:12:09 GMT -5 marvholly said:

WTF! The news everywhere is filled w/articles on the consistently falling price of crude oil. Can someone tell me why gasoline has gone from about 2.46 on 3/16 to 2.79 today? I still have half a tank so I can wait at least another 7-10 days.

I sent an email to the big fruit/veg market complaining about only 4 items on their ‘ad’ and saying I was NOT about to waste my time & gas shopping there this week. Like they will miss my $3-$5. Be interesting to see if they bother to respond.  I will be passing them today so will check the parking lot to see how many others feel as I do.

Here in CA at least, the price hike is due to the switching to summer blend. The prices went down very slowly when crude oil prices plummeted, but went they went back up, it changed from 2.59 to 3.59 within a week. Now it's coming back down again - it's 3.31 here this week.

We have summer blend here too.  However, while it 'used' to be only 0.05/gal more it has been about 0.10 more these days.  AND I was wrong about the current price locally - it was 2.89 when I was out on Fri.  Interestingly enough the 2 adjacent towns I passed thru were 0.20/gal LOWER!

[marvholly]

i am not in or near CA so their new rules do NOT affect me.

I am SHOCKED at the price of eggs 10 days before Easter.  Cheapest I can find on this week's ads is 1.25/dz.  That is nearly DOUBLE what they were last year. 

[murphath]

Not really a grocery related post. Well, sort of.... DD's U.S. party for her wedding is tomorrow in our house so we have been cleaning the yard from winter, the windows, the house, etc. You know the drill. We're expecting @ 80 people so I have rented tables, umbrellas, and linens. We'll be having three people (besides the caterer) working: bartender and 2 wait staff. They all know DH from his catering gigs. I've been trying to be as frugal as possible. In that vein, I made the centerpieces and various décor. I got the flowers for free with $5 off flowers q's wyb Piper Sonoma champagne. And I used a ton of 40% q's for Michael's for the vases (large Ball jars with a chalkboard heart tied with ropey looking jute stuff--their initials are written in chalk). I bought balls, jump ropes, hula hoops, etc. at the Dollar Store so the little ones can play in the backyard. I used MyCoke Rewards for the soft drinks and EB's for 2 cases of water. DH was able to get the glasses (including champagne) and cutlery from one of his catering bosses for free.  I also had some q's and Just4u prices for the red wine. Still have to get the plates (apparently there are paper plates that look like china that DD wants), beer and ice. My budget for everything was $1200 and I'll probably go over as I've spent $1162 so far--most of that was for the rentals/labor. DD is paying the caterer. This stuff adds up quickly!

Next up: niece's wedding May 2, DS's wedding in July (San Diego), and our almost daughter/DD1's bff's wedding in September. Yep, this is the year of the wedding!

Almost forgot: we're also going on a mini road trip to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone in May!

[rubyslippers]

Since Rite Aid will be ending their current program with UP rewards, I have been busy spending them down the last few weeks. I bought a mop, several cleaning products, lotions, Dove soaps and shampoos, Dawn and garbage bags.  I still have $3.00 to spend and then I'll be done unless I hear really positive things about their new program that launches in May.  This year I spent $57.61 and saved $462.09, or 88%.  I'll miss the deals but there are some decent deals at both grocery stores, Kroger and Meijer, for household and beauty items.

My best grocery deals were 4 lb. bag of oranges $1.49, Land O Lakes butter $1.39 lb., sour cream $.37 lb. and canned tomatoes @ $.27 each.  All but the oranges were after coupons and senior discount.

At Penny's, I paid $4.20 for a sweater, a wool scarf, a bath towel and a baby shirt after coupons.

At Staples I spent nothing and got a box of 90 Glad garbage bags and 2 travel mouthwash after coupons and rewards.

Our beef came in yesterday and came to $3.08 lb. and will last us close to a year.

[dancinmama]

Mar 28, 2015 13:30:20 GMT -5 rubyslippers said:

Since Rite Aid will be ending their current program with UP rewards, I have been busy spending them down the last few weeks. I bought a mop, several cleaning products, lotions, Dove soaps and shampoos, Dawn and garbage bags.  I still have $3.00 to spend and then I'll be done unless I hear really positive things about their new program that launches in May.  This year I spent $57.61 and saved $462.09, or 88%.  I'll miss the deals but there are some decent deals at both grocery stores, Kroger and Meijer, for household and beauty items.

Well, that's a bummer.  In the past couple of years, I've only purchased the Home Depot gift cards for UPs, but a little bit free here and there never hurts.

So is CVS the last holdout with the EBs?  I think they were the first to offer these type of coupons so maybe they will continue. 

I don't do EBs much anymore either, but this year I did get some of the Black Friday stuff (using a gift card) and I am still holding a $10 EB from rolling since then.

My non-perishable stockpiles are still plentiful.  By the time they're gone maybe we'll see a resurgence of the "glory days of couponing".  One can only hope. 

[saveinla]

RA is switching to a new program called Plenti - here is a write up about this
- viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2015/03/17/american-express-launching-new-coalition-points-currency-plenti/


I have AT&T for my phones and internet and shop Macys, so I am hoping that I will be able to fill any gaps in my stockpile (shopping at RA) just by paying these bills.

[rubyslippers]

Dancin, you must have a HUGE stockpile. I'm glad it's lasting you this long especially since you haven't been couponing for awhile.  Most of my stockpile lasts a year, except for dental floss.  I have several years worth.  How long have you been using coupons?

Saveinla, you will probably do fine with Rite Aid's new program.  I will check it out once it launches and decide if it will be worth my time and if it will save me money.

[FreeSalsa]

HOUND ALERT!!!!

When was the last time anyone said that? ? ?  I'm looking for the Think Thin bar Qs that were in the 2/15 RP insert (50c off individual bars, not $1 off a box.)  Ralphs has the bars marked down from $1.79 a piece (huh?!) to 40c each so with the Q they would be free with possible overage.  If you just have one or two then never mind but if you have a bunch to make it worth the stamp then I'd love to have them.  There are tons so even if you are on the East Coast I can wait a few days for them to arrive.  Let me know and I'll send you my address.  TIA!

[FreeSalsa]

Today I went to get some things at Albertsons and to my shock, it was gone!  I think this is the same thing that happened to Marvholly, but I guess Safeway bought out the CA Albertsons and the FTC decided that some of the stores were too close to each other so they kept the Vons and sold the Albertsons to Haggen.  They closed Tuesday and reopened Thursday as a new store.  No warning, no grand opening, no nothing.  People are quite upset I guess, especially about the Monopoly game still in progress.  There are two other stores but they are probably ten miles from here.  One is near my work, though a bit out of my way, so I will go there tomorrow but it will soon be converted too.  What a surprise.  I did get a store ad for them this week (along with an Albies) but it didn't say it was taking over Albertsons or where it was located so I didn't pay attention.

[marvholly]

Free Salsa

Not quite the same thing. In my case it was Safeway closing ALL Dominick's stores in my region. They had tried to break the union (reduce all forms of compensation both hourly pay & benefits) and LOST.  So they just closed everything down.  Safeway stores still exist in other regions.

I have noticed that the 'better' (more recently built or remodeled) stores have been grabbed up by local & regional chains.  Old stores are still, after 15 months, empty.  Old stores include several i pass either regularly or erratically.

[marvholly]

Aldi - Possible heads up:

I happened to hit Aldi on Mon. NOT my usual day. Found quite a bit of meat w/$2 off stickers. Noticed whole 5 lb chickens and 3 lb pkg of ground beef.  I will need to follow up on a couple more Mon on NOT SNAP weekends to see if holds true.

[Blonde Granny]

MH, Walmart does this on a daily basis. If we shop before 9 AM they have all sorts of meat and poultry marked down. A couple of weeks ago I found 2 packages of Angus beef filet mignon, each under $5. We had the steaks a couple of days ago and they were so tender you could almost cut it with your fork.

[chiver78]

I found the same over hte weekend at the expensive store I shop at. I was there about 9AM Saturday, and I had planned to have to make a second stop at S&S for the chicken I'd need for the batch of soup I was making that day (I didn't have the forethought to thaw out meat from the freezer, after being sick for a couple days)

lo and behold - a package of bone-in split chicken breasts was $1.92, and I found a 2lb package of b/s chicken thighs in the sale bulk bin for $4. the bulk packages are supposed to be 3+lbs, and I already have a ton in the freezer. I used half, froze the rest. the split breasts were dated Sunday, so marked down for quick sale.
and the soup came out awesome.

[skubikky]

Mar 30, 2015 10:19:22 GMT -5 dancinmama said:

Mar 28, 2015 13:30:20 GMT -5 rubyslippers said:

Since Rite Aid will be ending their current program with UP rewards, I have been busy spending them down the last few weeks. I bought a mop, several cleaning products, lotions, Dove soaps and shampoos, Dawn and garbage bags.  I still have $3.00 to spend and then I'll be done unless I hear really positive things about their new program that launches in May.  This year I spent $57.61 and saved $462.09, or 88%.  I'll miss the deals but there are some decent deals at both grocery stores, Kroger and Meijer, for household and beauty items.

Well, that's a bummer.  In the past couple of years, I've only purchased the Home Depot gift cards for UPs, but a little bit free here and there never hurts.

So is CVS the last holdout with the EBs?  I think they were the first to offer these type of coupons so maybe they will continue. 

I don't do EBs much anymore either, but this year I did get some of the Black Friday stuff (using a gift card) and I am still holding a $10 EB from rolling since then.

I got a $10 EB this morning for doing a survey.
Dancin.....do you still have any GCs left?

[marvholly]

BG
The meat at ANY of my local WalMarts………..leaves a LOT to be desired.

Chiver
I pretty much did the SAME thing on Tue. I have a BUNCH of frozen chicken leg quarters. However, one of my local chains had them for 0.44/lb. Bought the smallest pkg I could find. It is 5 or 6 quarters. I plan to roast half plain and ½ with BBQ sauce.

[murphath]

FreeSalsa:

I thought I might have a few of the Think Thin q's but I only had 2 Red Plums for 2/15 and only 1 had that q. Sorry. Sometimes my DD2 sends me her Red Plums because they are just thrown on the floor of her apt bldg. mailbox area. She is still getting some of my mail (Post Office still hasn't got that straightened out) so she includes the RPs when sending my mail back to me.

[dancinmama]

Grocery Outlet

Found 15 oz. Country Crock spreadable butter for $.99 again.  My DBIL is visiting so I gave him a quick call to see if he wanted me to pick some up for him.  I got (10) for us and (10) for him!!

I spent $53 at Safeway yesterday.  I am having (16) people for Easter dinner.  The ham alone was almost $30. 

Tonight I am making Bistro Chicken for our guests for dinner and I needed fresh basil, fresh Italian parsley, and capers.  Who knew that capers are soooo expensive?

I also got strawberries and whipped cream to make fresh strawberry pie for tonight's dessert.  YUMMY!!

[chiver78]

what is Bistro Chicken? please and thank you. always looking for new ideas.

sent from my electronic distraction

[murphath]

dancinmama:

When should I arrive for din-din

[dancinmama]

Apr 1, 2015 17:30:18 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

what is Bistro Chicken? please and thank you. always looking for new ideas.

sent from my electronic distraction

It's an Italian chicken recipe. You brown the chicken in olive oil and finish cooking it in a sauce of onions, garlic, celery, green olives, capers, Italian tomatoes, red wine vinegar, crushed red pepper, sugar, fresh basil and fresh flat leaf parsley.  You serve it over penne pasta.  It tastes like something you'd get in an Italian restaurant....or I think it does.

[dancinmama]

Apr 2, 2015 10:35:59 GMT -5 murphath said:

dancinmama:

When should I arrive for din-din

I had enough left over for both you and your hubby!!

[murphath]

Leftover Italian is the best!

[FreeSalsa]

Apr 1, 2015 10:33:18 GMT -5 murphath said:

FreeSalsa:

I thought I might have a few of the Think Thin q's but I only had 2 Red Plums for 2/15 and only 1 had that q. Sorry. Sometimes my DD2 sends me her Red Plums because they are just thrown on the floor of her apt bldg. mailbox area. She is still getting some of my mail (Post Office still hasn't got that straightened out) so she includes the RPs when sending my mail back to me.

Thanks for checking!