A Cheepster reports that the HEB at Slaughter/Manchaca has organic raspberries for $1.50 and CONVENTIONAL (sorry for the caps, it’s an edit!) blackberries for $1.25.
Head over before she buys them all!
Month: May 2015
Grocery Items I Have Seen Recently
I find weird things in grocery stores. I know a place where you can buy a whole chicken in a can. Think about that. Why do I know that? Because I’m always looking on the shelves, and at the ads.
My cooking style is pretty much ‘I’ll try anything once if it isn’t too expensive’, so I look at top and bottom shelves, and I look at every page of the ad.
So I find stuff like this:
That’s creepy right? Or am I just being influenced by a husband binge-watching Dexter for a week now?
Here’s this, which I find odd, because I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with them:
Do I fill them with salmon? I don’t know what else to do with these. What goes with cottage cheese and dill? That seems like a done thing. Tortillas aren’t supposed to be demanding, they’re supposed to be supple help to maneuver yummy stuff to my face!
And lest you think I’m kidding, here’s that chicken:
Which is at my local store and available to anyone via Amazon!
Doesn’t this give you the willies?
Happy Ad Wednesday!
This week has some new produce sales spreading. Cherries are in many stores, but Sprouts has them cheapest. Peaches, are all over as well, those are cheapest at HEB. Grapes are under $2/lb at all the chains, but Randalls wins at $1.49.
Avocados are 25c at Fiesta, so maybe I’ll finally get around to the Avocado Math problem I’ve been wanting to solve. Randalls has large avocados for 99c, and while I do usually avoid their produce, for the sake of science I can give them a pass.
In the meat sections, pork butt and split chicken breasts are $1.27/lb at HEB,
Oh, Fiesta. Why do you have made-up food on sale?
Sprouts
cherries $1.98/lb
organic grapes $2.98/lb (DD)
organic peaches or nectarines $2.98/lb (DD)
boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs $1.99/lb
HEB
peaches 77c/lb (DD)
red bell peppers 48c/ea (DD)
organic kale 78c/ea (DD)
boston butt pork roast, bone in $1.27/ea
HCF split breasts $1.27/lb
Fiesta
cucumbers 33c/ea (DD)
Hass avocados 25c/ea (C15)
pineapples $1.49/ea (C15)
tomatoes 49c/lb
large Anjou pears 99c/ea
pork blade steak, family pack $1.29/lb (Fiesta limit)
Eddy brand rope smoked sausage, 2.5lbs $5.99/ea
bscb, family pack $1.99/lb
chicken drums or thighs 99c/lb
Randalls
red seedless grapes $1.49/lb (DD)
Safeway brand chicken drums or thighs 99c/lb
Wheatsville
organic green grapes $2.49/lb (DD)
organic sugar plum tomatoes $1.49/ea (DD)
Flyers this week:
- Sprouts
- HEB: less grackle more grackle
- Fiesta
- Randalls: weekly ad $5 Friday
- Wheatsville: meat/produce other stuff
- Central Market
- Trader Joe’s
That’s it for this week, Cheepsters! Try to stay dry, turn around don’t drown, and remember the liquor stores close at 9pm.
$5 Friday at Randalls
Wondering what to do for dinner? The $5 Friday cheese pizza in the deli case at Randalls will get 4 kids through a movie. It’s not the best pizza in town, but it’s a good deal.
Add popcorn, possibly a board game, and that’s quality family time on the cheep!
Trader Joe’s Silly Thing This Week
This week’s silly thing is more along the lines of silly-surprising than silly-goofy. The many grocery options we’ve got are the reason I started this project. There are a lot of things people consider when shopping–organic, free-range, local, cheapest, dye-free, wheat-free, fair-trade, responsibly farmed…it’s a statistics project of its own for every family.
Today, I present affordable organic meat, courtesy of Trader Joe’s. Yes, I post about cheaper chicken legs all the time. Legs or thighs are half this cost at HEB every other week. But if this is an issue that you care about, and your budget can swing it, Trader Joe’s has certified organic chicken legs for $1.99/lb.
My general meat price is $2/lb. If you’re a meat product, and cost less than that, I’m considering buying you. This is sometimes good (yay freezer full of pork loin!) and sometimes doesn’t work out (pig ears, what should I do with you? and sweetbreads: you scare me), but it’s the point I feel good about stocking up on meat.
Trader Joe’s has organic chicken legs, not on special, but always available at what I think of as my ‘stock up’ meat price. It’s true, my stock up price for chicken legs is the Fiesta 49c/lb sacks. I have to process those though, by removing the back bits and portioning out, which takes a fair amount of work. I do get stock out of the deal, but I know damn well those chickens aren’t living well. So this price interests me. It’s my meat price, but it’s 4x what I pay for that cut.
I’ve started buying more organic fruits and vegetables when they’re on sale based on the Dirty Dozen, and maybe my budget can take this cheap organic into account, also. I’m glad TJ’s is offering it.
Are you an organic meat buyer? I’d love to hear about what your price points are.
Cheep Cheep!
Happy Ad Wednesday!
Memorial Day–Holiday of meat, at least in Grocery Land. Growing up, Memorial Day always meant a parade through the neighborhood, and a walk to the ball field where there was a service, and then we all trooped over to the firehouse and ate hot dogs and went for rides on the fire truck.
In Grocery Land, it’s weekend-o-grilling, and all the chains have several meats on deep discounts. Because meat sales this week are all over the place. I’m including a couple of things this week that I wouldn’t normally (tri-tip, pork tenderloin, T-bones) because they’re exceptionally good deals, and we all like to splurge sometimes if we can.
Watermelons are under $4 at three places, and both HEB and Randalls have 6/$1 corn. Buy blueberries at Randalls this week –HEB is nearly 2x that, Fiesta is nearly 3x. Fiesta has sacks of Key limes for 97c, which is enough for two pies (pick up some meat while you’re there–they have a wide variety on sale).
And finally, Randalls fixed the broken cheese ad–this week it’s at $5.99/20oz. So hopefully some of you managed to stock up for a week of grilled cheese sandwiches at $2.50!
Randalls
blueberries, 6 oz. 88c/ea
seedless watermelon $3.67/ea (limit 2)
corn 6/$1
Safeway brand hot dog or hamburger buns 99c/ea
Safeway brand bacon, 3lb pack $8.97/ea
Lucerne brick or shredded cheese, 2lb $5.99/ea
whole pork tenderloin $3.99/lb
Sprouts
cherries $2.48/lb
Fuji or Gala apples 98c/lb (DD)
drumsticks, thighs 99c/lb
seedless watermelons $3.98/ea
organic Red Delicious apples 98c/lb (DD)
raw almonds $4.99/lb
Antolina pasta, 16oz $1/ea
HEB
corn 6/$1 (C15)
peaches $1.27/lb (DD)
green beans 88c/lb
organic Fuji apples $1.77/lb (DD)
HEB Organics mini carrots, 1lb $1.48/ea
HCF drumsticks or thighs $1/lb
EZ peel xl raw white shrimp, frozen, 2lb bag $11.94/ea
baby back ribs, full or half rack, prev. frozen $2.97/lb
Fiesta
NY strip steak, bone in,family pack $4.99/lb (Fiesta limit)
tri tip beef roast $4.99/lb
beef back finger ribs, family pack $1.99/lb (finger??)
pork spare ribs, family pack $1.79/lb
pork sirloin chops, bone in, family pack $1.39/lb
chicken leg quarters, large sack 49c/lb
bscb, family pack $1.99/lb (Fiesta limit)
chicken drumsticks, family pack 89c/lb
seedless watermelon $3.99/ea
large avocados 97c/ea (C15)
Key limes, 2lb sack 97c/ea
red seedless grapes $1.99/lb (DD)
Ranch Style beans, 15oz can 50c/ea
Wheatsville
Knudsen’s pineapple coconut juice, 32oz. $2.50/ea
organic red grapes $2.49/lb (DD)
organic peeled baby carrots $1.49/lb
organic peaches and nectarines $2.99/lb (DD)
Weekly Ad Links:
- Randalls $5 Friday
- HEB: less grackle more grackle
- Sprouts: this week last week
- Fiesta
- Wheatsville: meat/produce other stuff
- Central Market
- Trader Joe’s
Trader Joe’s Silly Thing This Week
Hybrids are all around us. Cars? Hybrids, spelled right out on the bumper. Plants? Hybrids, saving us all from the horrors of having to spit orange seeds out. Zonkeys are clearly going to take over the world with cuteness soon.
This one, though, I could have lived without.
Science Has Gone Too Far
I like bagels. I like pretzels. I’m pretty easygoing on most things.
Picturing this, though, I’m getting an image of fluffy white insides with leathery salty crust that ordinary tooth maneuvers don’t exactly get a bite through, leaving me with sandwich innards everywhere, or butter dripping down my shirt to pair with the grease stains from some pizza I once ate (I’m a mess, it’s true).
It’s possible there is some taste benefit, but that would be due entirely to salt, which I can apply to a bagel already. We have the technology. It looks like this.
Yes, I know, that one is nearly empty. It is nearly empty because it’s useful. Which is more than I feel I can say about the Pretzel Bagel ($2.49 for an 18 oz bag of 6 at a TJ’s near you).
Great Customer Service at…Randalls?!?!
I know. This is a confusing time for all of us. We can get through this.
If you’ve followed for a while, you know that because Randalls is the most convenient to me, and I know it like I know where to find my favorite books at the library, I’m in there from time to time for things like bread, milk, and toilet paper. I never do a huge shop there, but I certainly do head in to hit the loss leaders and the clearance rack.
Today I went in for a deal that I’d listed in the sale post this week, specifically the 20oz Lucerne brand sliced cheese that was on sale for $2.50. That’s a really good price, so when I got to the dairy case and saw this:
That’s not the same at all! I stood there for a minute, wondering if I’d misremembered.
Then I started to freak out, because I’d kicked off the ad post joking about chumps who don’t do math, and had I somehow calculated the price per pound wrong? This was $3, the same as the 2lb bricks on sale, not different! Frickity!
Up to the front of the store to get the weekly ad, and sure enough, I’m not crazy, and there in the center of the fourth page is my deal. Which is a crazy good deal, and the way it’s hidden there I figured I was being awesome telling everyone about it.
Two packages go in the cart and I head up with that and the bread and milk to sort this out so I can report back to the Cheepsters.
I put them at the front of the belt, and when the cashier picked it up I showed him the ad.
The ad does say ‘selected varieties’ and the photo shows one that this store had on hand. I’d chosen cheddar, since kids don’t like food that has two colors (no? just my kids? moving on then…). The cashier looked at the ad, at the cheese, and told me to hang on while he went to look. He got back, called a manager, and rang the rest of my order up while the manager repeated this process.
The manager and cashier agreed that the ad certainly said that I should get the packages for $5, and that’s what they charged me.
No claiming I needed the other kind, no telling me it was a misprint and meant the 8oz size (which was what I’d expected). Just, “We’ll just be charging you the $5, Ma’am.”
There might be a meeting happening tonight about putting signs up correcting the ad, but I’m glad with the way this was handled. It writes up slowly, but the whole thing was done before I’d even gotten the bags in my cart and everyone was nice.
Randalls has its problems, but today they were a good store to be shopping.
Happy Ad Wednesday!
If you didn’t stock up on cheese during the Sprouts sales, Randalls has got 20oz packages of sliced cheese for $2.50, which is equal to $2/lb, and already helpfully sliced! They also have 2 lb bricks and bags, but those are $3/lb, and thus for chumps that don’t do math.
Dryer’s ice cream is on sale at both Sprouts and Fiesta. I’m such a Blue Bell purist that I don’t even know if they are good sale prices, so I don’t have them on the list. If you’re looking for some ice cream, you could start there.
Berries are $1.50 at Sprouts for today only, and all week you can get them for a penny less at Randall (but not strawberries, if you need those hit Sprouts today).
I’ll be stocking up on chicken legs and rice from Fiesta, bacon and apples from HEB, and cereal from Randalls.
Here’s the round-up–
Fiesta
beef brisket, whole $2.99/lb (Fiesta limit)
chicken drumsticks, jumbo bag 49c/lb (Fiesta limit)
country style pork ribs, family back $1.99/lb
pineapple $1.49/ea (C15)
mangoes 25c/ea (C15)
Gala apples, small 25c/ea (DD)
Fiesta brand vegetable oil, gallon $4.99/ea
Mahatma Jasmine rice, 2lbs $1.99/ea
Blue Ribbon brand long grain rice, 2lbs 99c/ea
Randalls
blackberries or raspberries, 6oz $1.49/ea
organic celery $1.50/ea (DD)
organic bell peppers, orange/red/yellow $2/ea (DD)
organic strawberries, 16oz $3.99/ea (DD)
bscb $1.99/lb
Quaker Life or Crunchberries cereal, 13oz $1.99/ea
Lucerne sliced cheeses, 20oz. $2.50/ea
HEB
cantaloupe 87c/ea (C15)
Pink Lady apples 88c/lb (DD)
organic Red Delicious apples, 2lb sack $2.47/ea (DD)
HCF drums or thighs $1/lb
HCF bacon 12oz. $2/ea
Sprouts
blueberries, 6oz 98c/ea
jumbo navel oranges 48c/lb
avocados 77c/ea (C15)
red or green seedless grapes $1.88/lb (DD)
kale 88c/ea (DD)
walnuts, halves and pieces $4.99/lb
bscb or thighs $1.99/lb
boneless pork sirloin chops $1.99/lb
bulk butter toffee peanuts $1.99/lb
Sprouts gingersnaps, 14oz $1.50/ea
Wheatsville
organic strawberries $3.99/ea (DD)
Links to weekly flyers:
- Sprouts: this week last week
- HEB: grackle less grackle
- Randalls
- Fiesta
- Wheatsville
- Central Market
- Trader Joe’s
Fiesta Now!
Just heard on the radio–pineapples are 99c now until 7pm at Fiesta. Limit 2, with a $10 purchase.
I wonder if this I a new thing that will be happening, or if they just ordered way too many pineapples.
cheepieaustin 