Austin

Happy Ad Wednesday!

Cheepie is happy to announce yet another week of sales!  Cheese continues to be a bargain at Sprouts, with this week featuring pepper jack as the $1.99/lb winner.  Strawberries aren’t as cheap as last week, but you can still get a pound for less than a buck at HEB, so that’s nice.  

Corn is still not in at the prices I like to see (10/$1) and I’m also waiting for watermelons to be cheap after that one weird week about a month ago where they were on sale.  

HEB

strawberries, 1lb.     97c/ea (DD)

red bell peppers      50c/ea (DD)

organic Gala apples     $1.77/lb (DD)

Fuji apples     88c/lb (DD)

Ataulfo mangos     33c/ea (C15)

HCF chicken drums or thighs     $1/lbScreen shot 2015-04-21 at 9.36.35 PM

assorted bone-in pork chops     $1.97/lb

shrimp, large, farm-raised, 2lb sack     $6.47/ea

Randalls

split chicken breasts      99c/lb

assorted bone in pork chops   $1.99/lb

many Annie’s products     B1G1

Sprouts

red seedless grapes     88clb (DD)

tomatoes on the vine     88c/lb

hot pepper jack cheese  $1.99/lb

walnuts     $4.99/lb

organic kale      $1.50/bunch (DD)

and don’t forget last week’s ad is still in effect for Wednesday only.

Fiesta

crawfish                 $1.79/lb ($1.59/lb for a full sack)

pork country style ribs      $1.29/lb (Fiesta limit)

Jonagold or Cameo apples    59c/lb (DD)

russet potatoes, 5lb sack     $1.29/lb (DD)

Wheatsville

Annie’s Pasta and Cheese dinner     $1.50/ea

Luna Bars    $1/ea

Central Market

pineapples     $1.99/ea (C15)

organic kale     $1.50/bunch (DD)

Whole Foods, as ever, is holding their ad until the last possible moment for reasons that elude me. No sale before its time!  I’ll post tomorrow if there’s anything great. They have started their big media push about re-thinking prices (much like Goodwill, which is amusing to ponder) and I’m going to have a Grocery Theory post about Whole Foods soon.

This week’s got some fun things. There’s the cheese, but also pineapple (which can be frozen for smoothies). If you’ve never been, this is a good week to visit Fiesta. The store is just a lot of fun to wander through. The international aisle is stunning, and I really enjoy the whole place.  This week they’ve got potatoes, apples and pork all on loss-leader sale prices, and I can think of four dinners I could make based on those ingredients. Give it a go. If you then don’t know what to make, let me know, and we’ll talk.

Cheepie will be buying strawberries, peppers, mangoes, pepper jack and walnuts.  What will you be buying?

Dinner Score, Week 23

Jumping right in–

  • Mon: navy beans and escarole with sausage
  • Tues:  grilled chicken thighs on sticks, rice, carrots & bell peppers, garden salad, oranges, corn on the cob
  • many food groups represented!

    many food groups represented!

    Wed:  mac and cheese, cucumbers, blackberries

  • Thurs:  Chinese Take-out!
  • Fri: Date Night and Leftover Buffet!
photo 4

light is odd, it was NOT that orangey!

I’m not even putting the scores up there. It’s nearly six months into the Internet Accountability Project. You know what the score here is–two good days, one half-assed day and two days completely off the rails.  That’s an 8 point week, and we all know it.

Here’s the original plan:

  • Mon: sandwiches, and white beans with escarole & sausage
  • Tues: chicken pot pie, fruit and garden salad
  • Wed: bbq chicken mac and cheese, fruit & veg
  • Thurs: baked deviled eggs, garden salad, grits
  • Fri: Taco Tuesday on Freedom Friday. 

I did start amazingly well.  That’s what happens when your neighbor shows up with a huge sack of escarole.  You have to eat things your neighbors give you. It’s a rule.  DH has a rule that if a toddler offers him food he has to eat it, in order to reinforce the idea that sharing and being thoughtful of others is a good thing (also that food is good. the man is a fan of food).  I have a rule that if a neighbor shows up with something they grew, it’s getting eaten.

Unless it’s that weird death fruit. I’m not eating that. Even Andrew Zimmern spit out durian, and he is the grown-up globetrotting Mikey of the Food Channel.  He’ll eat anything.

Truth be told, I was the only one that ate the beans/escarole/sausage for dinner on Monday. Everyone else opted for a sandwich. But they gave it a try first, and that’s fine with me.

this was really good

this was really good

I think the end of the week derailed due to a combination of me making a plan that I knew might not be received well (the baked deviled eggs thing is something only I like, for some mysterious reason) and us hitting another stretch of weeks that have a lot of socializing/sports/activities.  Opening my fridge right now would show a lot of takeout containers and leftover Chinese food.  But we all got to see friends and get our activities done, so that’s the upside.

Also a fun point? WordPress doesn’t think ‘escarole’ is a thing, so it keeps trying to suggest other things.  Mostly ‘estragole’ which looks like this:

Screen shot 2015-04-20 at 1.13.17 AM

and not really like the leafy stuff in the bowl over there. Though it is in some leafy things. Looking at you bay and tarragon!

See you tomorrow for the meal plan! Cheep Cheep!

Trader Joe’s Silly Thing This Week

This looks innocuous, right?  Cheepie, why are you picking on oatmeal, right?  Oatmeal is nutritious, cheap, and while not meant for Texas summers, is an excellent all-round foodstuff. Why, Cheepie?Screen shot 2015-04-16 at 11.56.00 PM

Because this oatmeal is frozen.

I’m not sure I need to explain further, but I will. Because this is a blog, and I’m supposed to write the amusing words to make my bar graphs happy when I check them.  Not that I’m doing that. Hourly. Much.

Frozen oatmeal. Oatmeal, which is already available processed in a variety of ways to accommodate your cooking needs, is now pre-cooked and frozen. So you can pay for the water and time they boiled into it.

Here’s where it gets brilliant: the “perfect porridge” is flash-frozen into individual, bowl-sized servings. Just three minutes in the microwave, and you can be sitting pretty with a “just right” bowl of our Steelcut Oatmeal. The price is right at $1.69 for each 16 ounce (2 serving) box.

For all I know frozen oatmeal has always been there next to the frozen biscuits and frozen waffles. But I don’t think so. I think this is new, and we all know new is weird.  Well, I know that, and as Queen of This Blog I’m calling it weird.

Steel cut oats are a thing that you’ve got to plan ahead for, but we’re Cheepsters, and thinking ahead to put oats in a crockpot if steel cut oats is what we must do, then we’ve got the skills needed.  Especially since Bob’s Red Mill, a place that has a great product but is not usually the cheapest, will sell you 24oz of oats for $2.99.  That’s 15 servings, making the frozen TJ’s option of 85c/serving seem deserving of this week’s post.

Even if you don’t plan ahead, in 20 min you can have your 20c serving ready–and at this point you might be thinking, come on, it’s difference of 65c! That’s nothing.  But, if you’re serving three people this meal just once a week? That’s over $100 in a year, and you know that $100 can get you 50lbs of meat if you shop the sales.  

Frozen foods can be convenient, and they can be cheap. Frozen vegetables have actually gotten my kids eating more vegetables than they used to.  This item is the former, but isn’t the latter, especially given the many varieties of oatmeal out there. 

Time is money.  But just 20 minutes on oatmeal days to save enough money for months of meat is the kind of grocery math I do.  

Cheep Cheep!

Happy Ad Wednesday!

It's April in Texas!

It’s April in Texas!

Again already with the ads! I nearly didn’t write this post because it just wasn’t on my radar. It didn’t seem like it could have been a week.  Spring is like that.  Every year I swear I’m going to get everyone in jeans and t-shirts and get ourselves a real family blue bonnet photo, and every year somehow they come and go before I’ve done it.  Thunderstorms roll in, the AC is on and off again, windows open and shut, one night is crockpot and the next is grill–April is just a little bit nutty!  You never know though, all our photos might have ended up like this:  

http://poopingonbluebonnets.tumblr.com/

No, Cheepie doesn’t tumblr (I can barely tweet, but I do it with old lady style!), but this is a pretty funny one.

So here we are–is Sprouts continuing with the crazy cheese sales? Is corn super-cheap yet? Come and see!

Fiesta

crawfish                                                                 $1.79/lb ($1.59/lb in 50lb sack)

Southern chicken hen wings, 5lb sack           $5.29/ea

pork blade steaks                                                   $1.49/lb  (Fiesta Limit)

Braeburn apples                                                  69c/lb (DD)

Parade frozen vegetables, 28-32oz                   $1.99/ea

HEB

raspberries, 6oz                                         $1.47/ea

large Hass avocados                            $1.50/ea (C15)

red seedless grapes                             $1.97/lb  (DD)

pineapple or cantaloupe                       $1.50/ea  (C15)

Pink Lady apples                                    88c/lb  (DD)

HCF drumsticks or thighs                       $1/lb

assorted bone-in pork chops                  $1.97/lb

Randalls 

pork loin half                                                              $1.99/lb

Chicken of the Sea chunk light tuna, 5oz           79c/ea

Bertolli and Classico pasta sauce jars                $2/ea

32oz cheese bricks or shredded bags               $6.99/ea     (note: the Sprouts deal is better, at $1.99/lb, but the normal price for these is now about $8-9 here and at HEB, so if this is your usual product this is a stock-up price)

Sprouts

colby jack cheese, bulk cut                  $1.99/lb (yay!!)

avocados                                                 48c/ea  (C15)

cucumbers                                               48c/ea  (DD) 

green bell peppers                                   48c/ea (DD)

Fuji, Gala,Jonagold apples                      98c/lb (DD)

bulk peanuts                                              $1.99/lb

organic baby carrots,1lb                          98c/ea

organic Red Delicious apples                   98c/lb  (DD)

Wheatsville didn’t have anything that looked especially great, and Whole Foods won’t have their ad up until tomorrow. I’ll check it then and let you Cheepsters know if there’s a deal you shouldn’t miss.

My can’t-miss items this week are the pork loin at $1.99/lb, the peanuts at $1.99/lb, Fiesta’s frozen vegetables at $1.99, and the sack of wings.  Of course, I’ll also be buying the colby jack at Sprouts!  If you’re stocking up, let me know in the comments–if I know what people look for I can let you know personally!

Sprouts is having a sale on many organic items, from maple syrup to canned vegetables to Annie’s Mac and Cheese. If you’d like to give a product a try, now might be a good time to stop by and try a new brand.

And if you’re going to hit Fiesta for the 50 lb sacks of crawfish, Cheepie wants an invite!

Get out there and get the good deals! Cheep Cheep!

Dinner Score, Week 22

 I hear you. I know. Where’s Week 21? How can I just leave it back there, unscored and unloved?  What kind of cruel mayhem is being wrought?

In the interest of looking forward I’m just abandoning it. The Internet Accountability Project has survived larger hits than this, and I know we’ll muddle through somehow.  We’ll just put it down to Spring Fever and get on with our bad selves.  The Complaint Department looks forward to your letters.

Here’s the goal, as a reminder:

  • Mon:  baked chicken leg quarters, grapes, broccoli, spinach salad with strawberries, potato salad
  • Tues: fried rice, egg drop soup, apples, frozen veg.photo 1
  • Wed: fresh pasta with sausage, onions and peppers, Caesar salad, fruit, 
  • Thurs: BBQ chicken wings, rice, peas, fruit
  • Fri:  pizza, fruit, salad

The actual:

  • Mon: see above (benefits of writing after eating. 3 points.

    photo 2

    Look how pretty!

  • Tues: pork fried rice, carrots, apples, cooked spinach. 3 points.
  • Wed: ziti with peppers and sausage, Caesar salad, grapes. 3 points.
  • Thurs:  P Terry’s. 0 points.
  • Fri: Leftover Buffet! 1 point.

The end of the week was a bit of a mistake, but I rocked the beginning of the week.  

Everyone ate the pasta dish on Wednesday, even though there were vegetables touching meat touching noodles!  Tiny wasn’t thrilled about it, and separated everything, but I was a happy camper.  One pot dishes are my favorites. Along with crockpot dishes. And things grilled in foil packets. And casseroles.  I may have a problem in this area, so we’ll just agree I like a lot of things and move on to the scoring.

10 points is a good week. A solid B- or so. I was happy with the meals, and even Friday was a plus to me because we’d stacked up a lot of leftovers and it’s nice to not cook for a night.  It was also a frugal week because nearly everything was either in my house already or was a sale item. Cheepie is a fan of weeks where that happens!

I’ve slipped a good bit on the goal of having Boy and Tiny each take a night to cook dinner.  The effort required to walk them through it at the end of the day was a drain at the end of the day that had me losing my patience, which wasn’t helping them learn how to put a meal together but more learning how to get out of my way.  While that is an important skill, it’s not the one I was hoping they’d learn. So we’ll keep trying, and I’ll note when they are involved and how it worked out.

Cheep Cheep!

Happy Ad Wednesday!

Are you still in an Easter Candy Coma? Snap out of it–it’s a new ad week and there’s shopping to be done!

moonstruck-snap-out-of-it-o

I’ve got cheese and Blue Bell in my freezer, and this week I’m hoping to make a start on getting fruit frozen for the smoothies and fruit pops my kids will eat all summer long. There are strawberries and blackberries for a good price at HEB this week, so those’ll be first in the freezer. Given Austin is eight months of summer, keeping the freezer full of fruit is key to avoiding daily trips to the sno-cone stand!

Also great this week is another cheese sale at Sprouts. Fiesta has potatoes for just under 20c/lb, and chicken legs on their deep discount.

Sprouts (last week’s good through today)

Halo mandarins, 2lb sack                    $1.98/ea

red or green leaf lettuce                       48c/lb

D’Anjou pears                                         48c/lb

organic Red Delicious apples             $1.50/lb (DD)

organic kale bunches                           88c/ea (DD)

bulk cut Monterey Jack cheese          $1.99/lb

bscb                                                         $1.79/lb

Sprouts thick-sliced bacon                 $2.99/lb

Beyond Meat Chicken-free Strips       B1G1

Fri-Sun ONLY:

corn                                                                                       25c/ea (C15)

boneless skinless chicken thighs                                    $1.49/lb

reduced-sodium turkey breast cold cuts, pre-pack    $3.99/lb

Fiesta

drumsticks, jumbo bag                             69c/lb (Fiesta Limit)

russet potatoes, 10lb sack                     $1.97/ea (DD)

Red Delicious apples                                49c/lb (DD)

Fiesta brand vegetable oil, gallon          $4.99/ea

Anatina brand pasta, 32oz                       99c/ea

HEB

mangoes                                                                          33c/ea (C15)

strawberries, 1lb                                                           87c/ea (DD)

Golden Delicious or Granny Smith apples               77c/lb (DD)

blackberries, 6oz                                                            87c/ea

County Post drums or thighs                                     $1/lb

Screen shot 2015-04-07 at 11.23.57 PM

Randalls

Skinner pasta, 12oz.                        79c/ea

Kellogs cereals, various                 $1.99/ea (when you buy 4)

Wheatsville

Field Day organic broth, 32oz. box      $1.99/ea

Nutiva organic coconut manna            $7.99/ea

MORE CHEESE! It used to be that Sprouts had a different cheese each week at $1.99/lb. They stopped that ages ago (3 years by the flyer blurb). This is the second week in a row they’ve gone back to it, and I hope it is a resurrection of a regular pattern.  I’ve got about 10 lbs of cheddar in the freezer, and I’ll likely add at least 5 of jack to that. Quesadillas for YOU! and YOU! and YOU!

If you’re in the mood for a party, Fiesta’s got live crawfish for $1.59/lb by the sack. Sacks are usually big, about 50 lbs, so make sure you have a lot of hungry friends, or go smaller for $1.79/lb. This is much cheaper than HEB’s $2.79/lb. 

There we go, Cheepsters. Another week, more grocery sales. I hope you find things you want to stock up on–and if you do let me know what you decided was the deal you had to have!

Cheep cheep!

Happy Ad Wednesday!

There are a lot of pork chops out there this week. I think the Sprouts deal, with roasts and loin chops is the best deal–they’re the most versatile and freeze very well.  The other specials are bone in or sirloin. There is also pork butt for $1/lb Screen shot 2015-03-25 at 12.32.12 AMat HEB. That‘s the lowest I’ve seen in a while, and if you’ve got freezer space it’s worth stocking up.  Here at Chez Cheepie we smoke them, but they’re also super simple to do in a crock pot or oven, just don’t let your bbq fanatic friends know.

Fiesta has the big sacks of chicken legs on sale again, with the Fiesta Limit in place.  Remember these aren’t quite as pretty or as large as ones not bought in giant sacks, and may need some knife skills to be presentable. Given they’re 69c/lb, you’ll have room to practice.  Don’t know what to do with all that chicken? Try this post from a while back.

Buy strawberries at Sprouts this week, the other places are more than twice as much.If you want organic, Wheatsville has them.

Apples are insanely cheap–conventional at 50c/lb at HEB, and organic for 48c/lb at Sprouts.

HEB’s got a product I haven’t noticed before that they’re calling Stoplight Peppers. It’s three colors of peppers in a package (get it, like a stop light? except in HEBland stoplights don’t have green. which pretty much fits with Austin traffic) for about 77c/pepper. Check them, though, since this is a classic produce manager way to try to get rid of stuff that might be bruised/dented/otherwise not perfect.

CORN! Yay! I know, I may be irrationally happy about this, but I love corn. Corn pudding, creamed corn, corn right off the cob–it’s all good.  And this week from Fri-Sun they’re 8/$1 at Sprouts.  So belly up to the big cardboard box and wedge yourself in between the other picky corn people and start peeling some husks back to make sure you don’t get a buggy one, then take ’em home to enjoy.

Here’s the specials. Happy Shopping!

HEB

cantaloupe                                                             87c/ea (C15)

Cameo or Braeburn apples                                 50c/lb (DD)

Stoplight bell peppers, 3/pkg                             $2.27/ea   (DD)

Boston butt pork roast, whole, bone-in              $1/lb

HCF drumsticks or thighs                                    $1/lb

Randalls

pork loin chops, bone-in                                     $1.69/lb

Hillshire Farm smoked sausage, 32oz               $5   Friday ONLY

Sprouts

strawberries, 1lb.                                                           88c/ea  (DD)

apple pears                                                                    33c/ea

mangos                                                                           25c/ea (C15)Screen shot 2015-03-25 at 12.36.55 AM

red bell peppers                                                            50c/ea (DD)

organic red, orange or yellow bell peppers              $1.50/ea (DD)

Hass avocados                                                                50c/ea (C15)

organic red delicious apples                                        48c/lb (DD)

organic kale                                                                    $1.50/bunch (DD)

bscb                                                                                $1.69/lb

pork loin roast or chops                                               $1.99/lb

bulk roasted cashew pieces                                        $4.99/lb

Monterey Jack cheese                                                  $3.99/lb

Fri-Sun only

corn                                                                                  8/$1

Halo mandarins, 2lb sack                                         $1.98/ea

cage free eggs, dozen                                                $2.50/ea

Sprouts frozen vegetables, 16oz.                             99c/ea

walnuts, bulk                                                              $4.99/lb

Fiesta

live Louisiana crawfish                                             $1.89/lb

pork sirloin chops, bone-in                                     $1.49/lb

red or green seedless grapes                                $1.88/lb (DD)

chicken leg quarters, large bag                             69c/lb (Fiesta Limit)

large avocados                                                         97c/ea (C15)

Fiesta shredded cheese, 8oz.                                $1.50/ea

Wheatsville

organic strawberries, 1lb.                                       $2.99/ea (DD)

organic mini peppers                                             $2.49/pk   (usually $3.79) (DD)

Happy Ad Wednesday!

Another week, another dollar!  Soon we’ll be seeing corn at 6/$1, then 12/$1! I love those days.  For now, we make do with…

Blue Bell for $4.50 at Fiesta! Grapes cheap as heck at Sprouts!

Don’t forget Sprouts still has last week’s ad active for Wednesday ONLY.

Randalls

Not a damn thing. Even the $5 Friday doesn’t have anything I’d stop for.

Sprouts

blackberries, 5.6 oz                                                          88c/ea

mangos                                                                             50c/ea (C15)

avocados                                                                           50c/ea (C15)Image result for free green grapes stock photo

green seedless grapes                                                     88c/lb (DD)

pineapples                                                                       $1.98/ea (C15)

organic Braeburn or Red Delicious apples                     $1.50/lb (DD)

organic kale, various bunches                                         $1.50/ea (DD)

Fiesta

Bluebell                                                                        $4.50/ea

chicken drumsticks, jumbo bag                                   69c/lb  (FL)

porkcountry style ribs                                                    $1.49/lb (FL)

2lb blocks of cheese                                                     $7.39/ea

HEB

plums                                                                               97c/lb

organic Fuji apples                                                         $1.77/lb (DD)

white seedless grapes                                                     $1.97/lb (DD)

organic strawberries, 1lb.                                                $2.98/ea (DD)

County Post drumsticks or thighs                                    $1/lb

seasoned chicken leg quarters                                          77c/lb

Normally I cover the ‘Other’ -Whole Foods, Central Market, Trader Joe’s and Wheatsville.  I’m skipping that this week, in an editorial decision that I expect is a one-time thing.  Given Whole Foods is all in the news for lowering prices on staples, I really think they’ll be in the usual rotation soon, but this week’s list is what it is.

Go forth and stock up on those deals, Cheepsters!

Happy Ad Wednesday!

I’d expected to have more corned beef, potatoes and ham deals to report.  The cheapest corned beef is at Randalls, of all things, at $2.99/lb, cabbage is 20c/lb at Sprouts, and Wheatsvile’s got organic potatoes for under a buck a pound. If you’ve got a traditional dinner plan for St. Patrick’s Day that’s the cheap way to get it done with low pesticides–cabbage is a C15 and potatoes are a DD. If you’re not worried about that, HEB and Fiesta both have low prices for conventional potatoes. 

It is a bit early for ham, but it’ll start popping up in ads next week, so start thinking where you might stow one in the freezer if it’s a family favorite.

This is a slow ad week, and I’m not going to be stocking up on much.  The organic apples and the pork butt at HEB are on my list, as are the organic potatoes. I’ll also be picking up the organic celery, because that’s a price as low as conventional.

HEB

strawberries, 1lb.                                                         $1.25/ea (DD)

organic Braeburn apples                                              98c/lb (DD)

Boston Butt pork roast OR country style pork ribs       $1.47/lb

HCF split chicken breasts                                             $1.47/lb

Randalls

bscb                                                                          $1.99/lbDaffodils In A Vase Stock Image - 39749401

corned beef                                                               $2.99/lb

daffodils, 10 stem bunch                                          $1.99/ea

$5 Friday

family size cheese pizza                                           $5/ea (in the deli case)

Simply Orange juice, 89oz                                        $5/ea

Sprouts 

organic celery                                                     98c/ea (DD)

all the berries! the usual sizes                          $1.67/ea (strawberries: DD)

organic blackberries, 5.6oz                                  $2/eaKale Royalty Free Stock Photos - 31274258

organic kale                                                        $1.50/ea (DD)

green cabbage                                                   20c/lb (C15)

bulk roasted almonds                                       $5.99/lb

bscb                                                                 $1.99/lb

Fiesta

Tropicana Pure Premium oj, 89oz.                    $4.99/ea

Central Market

extra large avocados                                            97c/ea (C15)

Go Picnic Meals                                                $5.49/ea  B1G1 (these are shelf stable                                                                                                 Lunchables with tastier food)

Wheatsville

organic Yukon Gold potatoes                              99c/lb (DD)

Avocado Math is back! CM: extra large 97c.  HEB: large $1.50. Sprouts: no adjective, 88c.   Randalls: no adjective, $1.50.  Fiesta, no adjective, 88c.  This week I’m going to get out the scale and decide what the differences in sizes are, so I’ll know what the absolute best prices are.

This week it’s pretty clear that CM will win with a low price for the extra-large, but I’d like to sort out what the different sizes are, so that next time things are closer I can sort it out. 

Also, a nice bowl of guacamole seems like a fitting reward for this very busy week.

Let me know what deals you find while you’re out there in the aisles, Cheepsters!

Trader Joe’s Silly Thing of the Week

Trader Joe’s, I love you.  Seriously. Who else would have these silly drawings? Who else would sell me a $2 chocolate bar with hot pepper pop rocks inside?

53913-fireworks-chocolate-barIt’s so supercute that I”m clearly buying one if they’re still in the store when I get there.

I mean, look at those adoring eyes!  And they’re wrapping up 2.8 oz of chocolate. Chocolate that has fireworks inside.  

It doesn’t get much better than that.