This week was a challenge.

There are a lot of close prices, and not just in the ongoing Apple Wars arena–blackberries (99c/Sprouts, 97c/HEB and 5.6 oz v 6 oz), and potatoes (do we care about 33c vs. 25.8c/lb?) were both places I had to stop and think.  I’d initially planned on a straight-up cheapest wins, in Cheepie world.

But if it’s just a cent or two, I feel like you need to know that the other low price is there. If you’re only going to one store this week, I want you to know that the blackberries are on sale at HEB and Sprouts.  In other areas, I’m making a call. I waffled on the loin chops at Fiesta–that’s an okay price. Normally, I stock up on pork loin when it’s $1.99/lb. But I haven’t seen it at that price in a while, and while I’m happy to slice a whole loin into chops not everyone is, so I went ahead and listed it.

Then there was the pricing nonsense that is HEB/CM this week. They need to just make a call on kale and own it. This week HEB has organic kale for 97c/bunch, and non-organic for 98c/bunch. CM has organic kale for 88c/bunch. ‘Bunch’ is a terrible unit of measurement, and I am unhappy to have to deal with it at all.  It’s possible the organic bunches are very stemmy, or smaller than others, it’s possible they’re all the same. I don’t know! And the point of this is for me to steer you right! And I don’t like kale! But tomorrow I’ll go check on this situation, and likely crab at some produce staffers and report back. ALL FOR YOU.

AppleWars continue to be won by HEB with the Best Week Yet–organic Gala 88c/lb, and organic Honeycrisp, $1.48. This is a good bit cheaper than last week, and you can be certain I’m tracking this for next year, so I know when the real ‘lows’ are!

Here are my good buys for this week:

Sprouts

blackberries, 5.6oz                                                          99c/ea

green and red bell peppers, cucumbers (DD)                50c/ea

conventional apples, many varieties (DD)                                99c/lb

Sprouts brand organic apple juice, 1 gal                     $7.99/ea

rolled oats                                                                        69c/lb

mussels                                                                         $2.99/lb

drumsticks or whole chicken legs                                   99c/lb

ending this week:

jumbo pomegranates                                                       2 ea/ $4 (these are better at Fiesta now)

1lb strawberries (DD)                                                         $1.67/ea

Campari tomatoes, 1lb package                                         98c/ea

Honeycrisp apples (DD)                                                     $1.48/lb

organic Gala or Granny Smith apples                              $1.48/lb   (DD) These are cheaper at HEB now!)

organic celery                                                                     98c/ea  (DD)

organic carrots, 5lb sack                                                  $2.98/ea

Fiesta

chicken drumsticks and thighs (together in a pack)           99c/lb (Fiesta limit)

Swift Premium pork loin chops, boneless                          $2.29/lb (Fiesta limit)

Honeycrisp apples (DD)                                                          99c/lb

large pomegranates                                                          $1.49/ea

5lb sacks of russet potatoes (DD)                                       $1.29/ea

Randalls

Safeway brand bacon, 3 lb package                              $11.97/ea ($3.99/lb)

red and green bell peppers   (DD)                                        50c/ea (stock up on reds!)

Ritz crackers                                                                     $1.99/lb

Quaker Life Cereal, 13oz.                                                 3/$5 (Friday only)

Safeway brand 12-packs of soda and mixers                    3/$5 (Friday only)

large avocados (C15)                                                        $1/ea (but check! they have consistently terrible stock of avocados at my location)

HEB

blackberries, 6oz.                                                                 97c/ea

organic Gala apples  (DD)                                                  88c/lb

organic Bartlett pears                                                            88c/lb

organic Honeycrisp apples (DD)                                         $1.47/lb

Country Post brand drumsticks                                             $1/lb

CM

organic bunched kale     (DD)                                             87c/ea

This week, I thought about putting some of the Randalls ‘Just For U’ deals up, because the mailman brought my fliers today (thanks, you crazy pith-helmeted man!) and there were some good ones. Basically, you can fetch them online, or clip them out of your circular from the mail. Having to do that is contrary to my goal, which is just tell you which good food is on sale this week. I don’t want you to have to start clipping or signing up.

If you’re in Randalls on a usual basis, I suggest you sign up for the J4U, and pay attention to the mailer–there’s cheese for $3.25/lb, and pasta sauce for $1.25. If you’re not, well, you and I both know there aren’t enough deals there for you to sign up double extra nonsense.

But do get the club card and use that for the deals you can, or ask me for my number, and I’ll get gas points when you shop there. That has the added benefit of confusing their data, and I’m always a fan of chaos.

Check in tomorrow for a stocking-up post, and don’t forget Saturday’s dinner score post!  I’m very optimistic I’ll up last week’s score.