2016 Grocery Challenge Thread

[rubyslippers]

Murpath, do you like the Rite Aid LED lightbulb?  I got a raincheck for two of them.  I'm up to $62.00 and it has been fun shopping there this year with their new promotions.

I got garden seeds for $.10 this week. 

I am under budget for groceries this month and I want it to continue.  I told DH we're having 3 meals a week of freezer meals until we get most of it used up to make room for our beef next month.

[murphath]

Murpath, do you like the Rite Aid LED lightbulb?


Yes, I do.  They look like a regular light bulb and get to their full brightness right away.  I'd been waiting for the price to go down to buy some.  The 60W are the ones that usually go on sale.  I need atleast 75W so was happy when RA included those.  I bought the only 2 they had.

[rubyslippers]

After using my fuel points, we got our vehicles filled up for $.35 a gallon, saving 75%.  I've been driving a long time and I don't ever remember getting gas that cheap.

I price matched a 4 lb. bag of oranges for $1.49 and bananas for $.29 lb.  No other groceries for us until the weekend.

[marvholly]

Glad I got out yesterday to hit a couple stores because:

the ads are TERRIBLE this week

my fav fruit/veg market had an unadvertised special on asparagus at 0.99/lb

Stores around here are still advertising asparagus at $1.99/lb for this ad week (2/17-2/23).

[marvholly]

Good grief. It has been a month since anyone has posted.

Hit it just right at one of my regional grocery chain stores on Tue. I always shop for deli meat ends at this store. They are well priced (mostly $2.29/lb, sausage & cheese more) and the pkg generally contain only 1 type meat- ham or turkey or roast beef or whatever.

They had JUST refilled the shelf and I got a ¾ lb pkg of fully cooked corn beef just in time for St. Pats day. This store also had cabbage on sale for 0.19/lb. In my other stops I also bough day old rye and some rolls.. Dinner is planned for Thur + some leftovers (Rueben sandwich ? as I do have kraut on hand).

The store just 1 mi up the road (that I went to for the rye bread) had one of my acceptable brands of pizza on unadvertised special - $1 each but sausage only. These are usually $2 each.

I am very disappointed in the ads starting today. It is only 10 days until Easter. Where are the cheap eggs? Baking supplies? Veggies? W\Even the ham prices seem high.

[rubyslippers]

Marvholly, Meijer has eggs this week for $.99.  That is about as low as I've seen them for quite awhile.

I price matched a shank ham for $.79 lb., cabbage for $.29 lb. and 5 lbs. red potatoes for $.99.

Rite Aid has been slow the past couple of weeks but was great the first week of March.  I've been able to get a few things free every week.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

[marvholly]

Ruby

0.99 for eggs is NOT cheap. Many of my stores have had that price for the past several weeks - a month or more.

[Opti]

Mar 16, 2016 6:23:27 GMT -5 marvholly said:

Good grief. It has been a month since anyone has posted.

Hit it just right at one of my regional grocery chain stores on Tue. I always shop for deli meat ends at this store. They are well priced (mostly $2.29/lb, sausage & cheese more) and the pkg generally contain only 1 type meat- ham or turkey or roast beef or whatever.

They had JUST refilled the shelf and I got a ¾ lb pkg of fully cooked corn beef just in time for St. Pats day. This store also had cabbage on sale for 0.19/lb. In my other stops I also bough day old rye and some rolls.. Dinner is planned for Thur + some leftovers (Rueben sandwich ? as I do have kraut on hand).

The store just 1 mi up the road (that I went to for the rye bread) had one of my acceptable brands of pizza on unadvertised special - $1 each but sausage only. These are usually $2 each.

I am very disappointed in the ads starting today. It is only 10 days until Easter. Where are the cheap eggs? Baking supplies? Veggies? W\Even the ham prices seem high.

Here there are some cheap eggs finally. One grocery store had a dozen for $1.77 last week which is amazing given regular low prices were in the $2 to $3 range for a dozen. Walgreens will do a dozen for $.99

in its latest flyer, but only for 5 days! Walgreens eggs have been above $2/dz. for months, so I guess they decided the full week was too long for the promo?

I did get cabbage for $.17/lb. last week which was probably my good buy of the week.

[marvholly]

Iwas happy w/cabbage at 0.19/lb this past week. Since most lettuce is still pretty $$ I see a batchof slaw in my future.

[marvholly]

Guess I am going to have an Easter dinner even though I am Jewish. For several months I had turkey breast on my shopping list. Then I just gave up as they were $$. This week my natl grocery chain has them for 0.99/lb on 2 day special. It should defrost by Sun if bought today. I even checked for a coupon but no luck. Hey-a gal can try.

[murphath]

Yea!  I finally have a deal to post--and only because CVS sent me a $5/$15 coupon via email.  Guess they miss me.  This is what I bought

2 boxes Kelloggs Special K w/berries:  1.88 x 2= $3.76
  Minus 2/$1 off Kelloggs cereal (from Kelloggs Rewards)
2 500ML Colgate Total Moughwash:  3.99 x 2 = $7.98
  Minus 2/$1 coupons
4 cans Pringles potato chips: $1.25 X 4 = $5.00
  Minus 1/$1 coupon

Total:  $16.74
- $5.00 in coupons
- $5.00 CVS coupon
=$6.74.  
With tax it came to $7.22; and I got $4 EBs back for the mouthwash.  I also got a raincheck for the Skippy Peanut butter priced at $2 because they were out.  I'll use the $4 EBs to purchase the peanut butter so my total of $7.22 will eventually include all the above as well as the two Skippys.  Not bad at all.

[marvholly]

My shopping plan went south.  The turkey breasts were WAAAY too large for a single person household - >7 lb. Then the pkg of leg quarters at the fruit veg mkt were also too big- 3 quarters being about 4 lb.  Guess I am not doing too much cooking this week.

[Blonde Granny]

Last fall when I was prepping for another lousy winter, I had The Fresh Market cut a whole chicken in half for me. My plan was to have chicken & dumplings. You know what they say about best laid plans......those 2 halves are still in the freezer so I'm thinking this upcoming week I will thaw one of them and make the chicken & dumplings. Something easier would be to roast 1/2.

That chicken cost me $9 and I'm not about to give up on it and just toss it out because I'm too lazy to deal with it.

[rubyslippers]

We got our beef last week and it had come down in price from last year. We paid $2.25 lb. or $3.08 lb. including processing.

Yesterday I transferred a prescription at Kroger and used a few coupons to get over $30.00 in groceries for $3.90. I got 2 bags chicken breasts, 2 bacon, 1 breakfast sausage, 4 cheese shreds, 1 pineapple, 1 asparagus, 1 bag carrots, 1 box pasta, 1 can artichoke hearts and 2 bars of soap. I plan to dehydrate the pineapple as we still have a lot of pineapple to eat from Easter.  

I froze several containers of ham from the past weeks' sales to use in the coming months.  

I got a free 8x10 photo at Walgreens yesterday.

This week's sales are lackluster. 

I've been doing pretty good keeping our pantry and freezer filled and still coming under budget with my groceries lately, but last weekend we had to replace a kitchen faucet and the ice maker in our freezer.   That cost us $200.00, but DH saved $20.00 with his military discount at Lowes.  I'm glad he can fix most of the things that go wrong in our house.

[hopetoberich]

The local paper has been dropping of the weekend flyer again. About 15 of them in the building.  That means lots of coupons.  It last a few weeks and i clipped and roak a envie to someone.
Nothing free, perogies for 99c a box. Food is not cheap anymore but 3 boxes filled a gallon freezer bag and they are not bad.

[marvholly]

This is likely to be an $$ grocery week. I need both ground coffee and parmesan cheese. Those 2 alone will be about $11-12. Good thing I have leftover grocery budget money not spent over the last couple weeks.

[murphath]

Holly,
If you are close to a Target, they have Starbucks ground coffee for $5.99 each wyb 3.  There is also a $3/2 IQ which would make it an even better deal.  In addition, if you go to totallytarget.com and find the above deal, there's a link to a $5 Starbucks e-gift card wyb 3 Starbucks coffees.

[saveinla]

CVS is sending surveys - Be on the lookout - answer a few questions and get 5ECB. It's just 5 - 6 questions

[marvholly]

Apr 12, 2016 16:42:20 GMT -5 murphath said:

Holly,
If you are close to a Target, they have Starbucks ground coffee for $5.99 each wyb 3.  There is also a $3/2 IQ which would make it an even better deal.  In addition, if you go to totallytarget.com and find the above deal, there's a link to a $5 Starbucks e-gift card wyb 3 Starbucks coffees.

Starbuck's coffee is a 12 oz pkg. Aldi coffee is $5.49 for 33 oz. I have used it and like it better than
Starbuck's which I find to be MUCH too bitter.

[hopetoberich]

I haven't been grocery shopping recently. We need bread, i could go to the outlet store but i really want to try and use what we have instead of being on the buy buy buy merry go round.

[rubyslippers]

Does anybody do Ibotta or the other cash back apps?

[saveinla]

Apr 15, 2016 14:02:16 GMT -5 rubyslippers said:

Does anybody do Ibotta or the other cash back apps?

I use ibotta, checkout51, & Savingstar mostly with the RA deals. Let me know if you need a referral.

I also did Topcashback, SHopmium and a few more at one time, since there was a lot of free stuff to be had.

[FreeSalsa]

Feb 15, 2016 19:03:32 GMT -5 rubyslippers said:

After using my fuel points, we got our vehicles filled up for $.35 a gallon, saving 75%.  I've been driving a long time and I don't ever remember getting gas that cheap.

I price matched a 4 lb. bag of oranges for $1.49 and bananas for $.29 lb.  No other groceries for us until the weekend.

Holy cow!  I don't think anyone has gotten gas for that price since the 1960s!  Great deal.

[FreeSalsa]

Mar 18, 2016 5:54:44 GMT -5 marvholly said:

Ruby

0.99 for eggs is NOT cheap. Many of my stores have had that price for the past several weeks - a month or more.

It is for me. That's the price this week, limit two, at two stores. Dh and i have to get there by tomorrow to get some.  I havent had that low price in more than a year.
(Vons and Albertsons)

[FreeSalsa]

Apr 12, 2016 16:42:20 GMT -5 murphath said:

Holly,
If you are close to a Target, they have Starbucks ground coffee for $5.99 each wyb 3.  There is also a $3/2 IQ which would make it an even better deal.  In addition, if you go to totallytarget.com and find the above deal, there's a link to a $5 Starbucks e-gift card wyb 3 Starbucks coffees.

Is this Starbucks deal still on or is it over?  DH likes this coffee.

[FreeSalsa]

In the apartment buildings near me there is usually a basket in the lobby by the mailboxes where people can toss their unwanted mail or sections of the newspaper.  I have been thinking about you ladies and when I dreamt I was digging through one of those baskets to get the coupons out last night, I figured it was time to stop by and say hello.  Hello!

I'm glad to see the deals are still coming.  I did stop in and write something here several weeks ago but it got eaten and didn't post properly.  I've mostly been buying mark downs, eating from the freezer, and getting the free/cheap special offer items at the newly re-opened Albertsons.

[rubyslippers]

I did sign up for ibotta over a week ago and have earned $23.00 already. I also signed up for mobisave and cash back 51. I just wondered if anyone uses them on a regular basis. I did get eggs last week for $.49 after price matching and the cash back. I'm going to let my accounts accumulate until Christmas and cash out for gift cards.

I, too, have been using a lot from my freezer and pantry and filling in at the grocery stores. Yesterday I got a free 12 pk. of Nestea at Meijer and free Power Bars at Kroger. I got a catalina at Meijer for a free head of lettuce when you spend $10.00 and $1.00 off produce when you spend $10.00 in produce.

[skubikky]

I got that $5/$15 from CVS also

Puffs                    $1.99
Puffs                    $1.99
Daisy razor 2ct.      $1.59
Paper Towel           $1.49
Got2B spiking glue   $2.67
Got2B spiking glue   FREE  BOGO
Almay eye shadow   $5.29

-$0.50 CRT paper towel
-$4 Got2B styler
-$4 Almay
-$0.25 Puffs
-$0.25 Puffs
-$5/$15

 Balance =   $0.02

NOTE:  For some reason, as the cashier had to enter some of the Q's by hand, they seemed to have bypassed charging tax?!

[marvholly]

I hope the grocery & produce stores near me have good sales this week. I will need gas & do need a haircut which are also in the same direction. I really like to bunch my travel in a single direction-saves time & $ (less gas).

[rubyslippers]

I got a loaf of bread for $.38, a gallon of milk for $.79 and a dozen eggs for $.27 after price matching and using Ibotta.    I will be going to Aldi this weekend to get peppers and pineapple. I am hoping Lowes will be sending out coupons like they have done in the past few years. I want to get my garden and lawn supplies there.