Month: June 2015

Happy Ad Thursday!

I know, it’s late. Sometimes that’ll happen. Summer is hectic and my second job (third? fourth?) requires I drive the next Cheepie generation all over town, and the city frowns on my writing posts while I drive. So for this week, a Thursday ad post.

Corn is at 6/$1, so if you didn’t try some of these last time you’ve got another week to find your favorite.  Boneless chicken is cheap, yogurts are 50c, bacon is under $3 a pound again and Fiesta’s got rice and pinto beans on sale.  You can throw a lot of meals together on the cheap this week!

 Sprouts 

Hass avocados                                     48c/ea (C15)

Georgia yellow peaches                       48c/lb (DD)

organic Red Delicious apples               48c/lb (DD)

seedless watermelon                          $1.99/ea

Cento tomatoes, selected, 28oz         $1.50/ea

bscb                                                        $1.88/lb

Fri-Sun

Tillamook yogurt, 6oz                               50c/ea

mild cheddar cheese                               $2.99/lb

blueberries, 6oz                                        98c/ea

boneless skinless chicken thighs         $1.59/lb

HEB 

corn                                                                           6/$1 (C15)

Dole spinach or Romaine lettuce, 8-9oz          $1.50/ea (DD)

organic Gala apples, 2lbs                                   $2.98/ea (DD)

St. Louis style pork spareribs                              $2.49/lb

kale greens, bunch                                               98c/ea (DD)

Fiesta

pineapples                                                       $1.49/ea (C15)

tomatoes                                                           49c/lb

Yoplait yogurt, all varieties                                50c/ea

Fiesta brand mayonnaise, 16oz                       $1.29/ea

Fiesta mac and cheese box                             33c/ea

Fiesta brand vegetable or corn oil, 24oz.         $1/ea

Fiesta brand long grain rice, 2lb bag               99c/ea

Fiesta bulk pinto beans                                    33c/lb

Randalls

cherries                                                              $1.88/lb

bulk thick sliced bacon, service case          $2.49/lb

sugar, 4lb bag                                                   $1.99/lb

Tony Chachere’s Seasoning mix                    99c/ea (what? you don’t put this on everything from fish to popcorn? just us? ok, then)

$5 Friday

Earl Campbell hot links, 36 oz.                                       $5/ea

AquaStar Salmon portions, 1lb, wild caught, frozen       $5/ea

Yes, I’ve got two kinds of organic apples listed. That’s because Red Delicious is like the weird uncle of apples. It looks okay, but when you take its effect as a whole you’re not sure what’s up.  So I put Gala down also because those are the ones that my kids will eat every day and not ask me things like, “Why does this apple have such a weird peel and want to watch Bigfoot Hunters all day long?”

Also, I don’t have any chicken legs/thighs listed, though they are 49c/lb at Fiesta, because we just had them on sale for 39c/lb there a week or two back.  If you need chicken, you can go there. If you don’t want to deal with the 10lb sack, HEB has their $1/lb drumstick value pack this week.

Weekly Ads:

$10 Dinner, Mostly Happy & Very Healthy

This meal is from a while back, but the sales it’s based on roll around pretty regularly. My basic formula of meat/fruit/cooked veg/raw veg/starch is still how I tend to think about pulling a meal together, since 2/5ths of the family would very much prefer foods not touch.

(I Daydream of Casseroles.  That’ll be the name of my parenting book.  Chapter titles include: Shoes: How to Keep Track of the Suckers, Snot and the Removal Thereof, What’s that Smell?, and How to Poop Alone. )

IMG_2857

Kid Meal

IMG_2858

Normal Person Meal

  • peaches                   $1.55
  • pasta, 16oz.             $0.99
  • blueberries               $0.88
  • 2 cloves garlic          $0.12       (~70c/bulb, 12 cloves/bulb)
  • tomatoes                  garden!
  • basil                         garden!
  • butter, 2 T                $0.22        ($3.49/lb for 32T)
  • half an onion            $0.11        (8 onions, 3lbs, for $1.79 = 22c/onion)
  • chicken, 1 lb.           $1.99
  • spinach                    $2.50     (half of a 1lb box for $5)

Grand Total:                  $8.36

Clearly, not everyone has a garden, so the extra spent there would but you right about $10.  This meal had everyone happy with the pasta, chicken and fruit, the kids not excited about sliced tomatoes with salt or the steamed spinach, and me glad to have a healthy meal in about 30 minutes.

Stay tuned for the next $10 dinner! Cheep cheep!

Happy Ad Wednesday!

Corn! 8/$1! I love 25c corn, and what’s even better is when it’s half that!! I’ll freeze some, and make corn pudding, and have ears of corn at both Saturday and Sunday supper. Yay corn!

Organic grapes are $1.98/lb (Sprouts)–a great price for a Dirty Dozen item. Conventional are 99c (Fiesta), though, so it’s a budget item for a lot of us.

Fiesta’s got the bone-in ribeye that I love at $6.99/lb. Yes, a splurge they’re advertising for Father’s Day (Dads like steak!), and there’s a Fiesta Limit in effect, so only two with a $10 purchase. Given the normal price is $10.29/lb, I feel it’s worth mentioning here, even though it’s not cheep.

Randalls has the big cheese pizza that feeds my three kids and one extra kid for $5 on Friday.  Yes there is tons of better pizza out there, and if your kids deserve it you might buy it for them.  At $5 this is the pizza my kids will be eating while we argue about what to rent on Amazon and how they might more effectively earn my love.

Don’t Forget: Double Ad Wednesday at Sprouts–last week’s and this week’s specials in effect!

Randalls

corn                                                                       8/$1 (C15)

Pantry Essentials milk, gallon                             $1.99/ea

sourdough bread                                                 99c/ea

$5 Friday

Safeway bacon, 12 oz.                                                 $2.50 ($3.33/lb–not bad for bacon!)

Breyer’s ice cream, 1.5 qt.                                           $2.50/ea

Bush’s baked beans, 16oz                                           $1/ea

Nature Valley crunchy or chewy granola bars, 8 ct.       $1.67/ea

Quaker Life or Captain Crunch Crunchberries               $1.67/ea

Sprouts

cherries                                                                          $1.98/lb

blueberries, 6 oz.                                                             98c/ea

organic red or green seedless grapes                          $1.98/lb (DD)

organic grape tomatoes, pint                                         $1.98/ea (DD)

organic green curly kale                                                   98c/ea (DD)

organic tortilla chips, 10oz                                                 $2/ea

baby back ribs                                                                    $2.99/lb (limit 3 pkgs)

thick cut bacon                                                                   $2.99/lb

HEB

large pineapple                                                               $1.47/ea (C15)

Gala apples                                                                      88c/lb (DD)

organic Fuji apples                                                          $2.48/lb (DD)

green pears                                                                       88c/lb

baby back ribs, half rack, in bag                                     $2.97/lb

HCF split chicken breasts                                                $1.27/lb

Fiesta

red or green seedless grapes                                            99c/lb

peaches                                                                              99c/lb

pork spare ribs                                                                   $1.99/lb (Fiesta limit)

whole cry-o-vac brisket                                                      $2.69/lb (Fiesta limit)

beef tri-tip                                                                            $3.99/lb (Fiesta limit)

long grain or parboiled canilla rice, 3 lb sack                     $1.49/ea

Tree Top apple juice, 64 oz                                                    99c/ea (limit 2)

Wheatsville

organic pluots                                                                         $1.49/lb

Weekly Ads:

Tomato, Tomahtoe

I’m giving in to the stink bugs and calling an end to tomato season. They have proven super-resilient and are giving me tomatoes that aren’t so great, so the plants will be sacrificed to make way for more pepper plants. 

This last haul is everything-plum, sun gold, early girl, and those cute bitty yellow pear shaped ones. 

  

 I’ll be roasting them and packing away I the freezer for sauces later. Love it when I stock the freezer for cheep!

Regrets? I Have a Few

This isn’t one of them though. 

Remember yesterday, when I bought chicken legs for 39 cents a pound?  Look what I didn’t buy for more than 12 times as much–

  
For my mom, who is wondering what this is, exactly: it’s the part they remove to create a steer from a young bull. So, testicles. $4.99 a pound for bull testicles. 

Which I have tried, because they are served at fairs and I, like anyone, am succeptible  to the grease-hazed air at a fair that lulls you into thinking anything that is fried is good and anything good is fried. 

It was not unlike a fried clam, but larger and chewier and with a much larger number of older gentlemen watching me with amusement. 

Chicken legs for Cheepie, no regrets! Cheep cheep!

$18.63 at Fiesta

This is what $18.63 will get you at Fiesta today and tomorrow.  

 

That’s 5 lbs of potatoes back there, along with over 10lbs of chicken legs and 2.63 lbs of keilbasa. Not a bad hauls for less than $20. 

I know, you’re thinking, “Cheepie, what is with the Wonder Bread?” My answer is: I saw a clown on the way in and the rack of Wonder Bread on sale was right there, like a colorful childhood comfort.  

You would have bought it, too. 

Math is Hard

I know math isn’t everyone’s thing. But if you’re a store, and you’ve got a box on the price tag for ‘unit price’, you should know what it means. At least make an effort at some type of calculation. Just putting the price of the item over there again makes it seem like you aren’t even trying. 


I know I’ve ranted on this topic before, but it’s a pervasive, persistent problem. I find examples of this every time I’m in a grocery store. 

Part of stretching a grocery budget is comparison shopping, and without unit prices (or with deceptive unit prices, or changes in ‘unit’ choices) that becomes more difficult. I have no problem pulling a calculator out to figure out what I need to know, but not everyone has my brand of commitment to knowing the answer to this particular problem. 

Maybe I should start writing the correct unit prices on tags? Guerrilla Grocery Correction–coming to a store near you! 

Happy Ad Wednesday!

This week is thin on the ground.  I’m not sure if stores are saving their deals for a big July 4th bbq push, or if we’re in a spring turning summer lull, but there aren’t a lot of deals to report. I’m not gonna sneeze at 25c avocados, though!

A few readers that pointed out that 3.99/lb for pork tenderloin wasn’t really a great price when I listed it a few weeks back have been proven correct.– This week it’s at $2.97/lb at HEB.  I’ll adjust the goalposts for this one.

Grapes hit a new low for the year at 77c/lb.  I can’t remember them getting this cheap last year.  This is the price point where I buy some to let the kids put them on trays out in the yard to become raisins. It’s nutritious! It’s science! It’s cooking! It’s seriously cheap snacks!

Fiesta is the big leader this week, with potatoes (17.6c/lb) and chicken drums (39c/lb) on Friday and Saturday, watermelon for $1.99, and a decent set of sales for the week.

Fiesta

avocados                                                                                     25c/ea

pineapples                                                                                   $1.49/ea

yellow onions, 3lb sack                                                                 99c/ea

Skinner pasta, 12oz                                                                      50c/ea

Challenge butter, 1lb                                                                   $2.49/ea

Sat/Sun ONLY:

seedless watermelons                                                 $1.99/ea  

Come on! You know this is summer in a green package!

Come on! You know this is summer in a green package!

Gala apples, 3lb sack                                                  $1.50/ea

russet potatoes, 5lb sack                                               88c/ea

Key limes, 2lb sack                                                          99c/ea

Fiesta brand canola oil, gallon                                       $4.99/ea

jumbo bag chicken drums                                                 39c/lb  (Fiesta limit)

Eckrich brand smoked sausage, 39.5-42oz                  $3.99/ea (Fiesta limit)

Randalls

red seedless grapes                                                               77c/lb

$5 Friday:

Cinnamon Toast Crunch/Cheerios/Cocoa Puffs              $1.67/ea

raspberries, 6 oz.                                                                      $1.67/ea

Pop Tarts or Nature Valley chewy granola bars                $1.67/ea

Sprouts

whole seedless watermelon                                          $1.98/ea

bscb or boneless thighs                                               $1.88/ea

organic nectarines, peaches and green grapes         $2.50/lb

HEB

cherries                                                                               $1.87/lb

County Post bscb                                                            $1.99/lb

pork tenderloin                                                                $2.97/lb

Happy Shopping!  And as always, let me know if you spot a deal, and follow me on twitter and Facebook to keep up with on-the-spot deals that I find.

Cheep Cheep!

Weekly Ads:

Cheep Happy Hour Date!

A great happy hour deal, except it’s all dang day on Monday! $5 Smoked Chicken Nachos. Plenty of food to make a meal out of, and tasty!  

DH already ate half of that one before I could even snap a photo!  Granted, he didn’t know I was going to take a photo. 

He didn’t know because I didn’t know. Based on a suggestion from a reader, though, I think I’ll start collecting the best accessible happy hour deals and posting them. DH and I often use Happy Hour dinner as an inexpensive date night, and my guess is we aren’t the only ones. So if you have a cheap date night happy hour, let me know!

Blue Bell, How We Love You

This has finally come to pass.


The loss of three Southern Blackberry Cobbler was the hardest hit, felt by DH who thought he had laid in a six month supply. His reasoning here is much like the Kettle Thai chip logic: he’s the only one that likes it, so he knows he won’t have to worry about sharing.

I’d held off tossing them because at first it wasn’t clear that I needed to. Then, we went with, ‘it’s half eaten, so this one is fine’. After that I tried to rationalize keeping it all:

  • Only members of the immediate family would eat it, just in case.
  • We aren’t infants, elderly, or immunocomprimised, so we’ll be fine.
  • The risk is really low of anything happening.
  • The factory was a mess for a long time and we hadn’t gotten sick.
  • It is a horrible waste to throw this much food away.

Eventually possible death overcame all of the objections and we tossed it. I think it was the right choice, but there is a small part of me that thinks I threw out a bunch of perfectly good ice cream.

On the upside, it made room for the pork loin on sale this week.