frugal living

Happy Ad Wednesday!

Turns out Sprouts, and HEB and CM just went ahead and made an ad that went from last Wednesday to Thanksgiving! So, this week is the same for them. But not Randalls or Fiesta, they’ve got their own nonsense going on.

I’m noting Fiesta below, but as usual, Randalls is loitering around the front of the store, muttering as you go by, saying things like, “Think you got a turkey yet? That’s not a turkey,” and ” You don’t think you’re getting past this weekend with a few more boxes of crackers, do you?”

Every other store has an ad that started last Wednesday and goes until Thursday. Randalls has that. Of course they have that, they’re not going to not follow along! But they  supplemented it by also having an ad that’s just for the 23rd to the 27th.  So two days ago there was surprise ad, and I didn’t know. It’s nearly entirely the same, but next year, I’ll be ready for this weird calendar situation, in the meantime, I’ll list what I’ve got and anything new I noticed.

CM: get those apples! HEB: get sweet potatoes and green beans.

Sprouts:

Granny Smith apples                               48c/lb (DD)

yellow onions                                            48c/lb (C15)

celery, cucumbers, green bell peppers    48c/lb  (DD)

organic celery                                          98c/ea (DD)

Imagine organic broth, 32oz box             $1.50/ea

french vanilla almond granola                   $1.99/lb

BSCB                                                         $1.88/lb

pineapples                                                $1.98/ea (C15)

Fiesta:

What the hell, Fiesta??? I don’t even know what this means. Maybe it’s traditional for them? Maybe there’s a fiesta at Fiesta, and they don’t have time for fussy things like listing ads on a weekly basis?  I do think the kicky font they chose is indicative of a less than fully dedicated weekly ad staff, and I worry they raided the jewelry counter, ordered a bunch of corn cups at the truck outside and made for the hills.

I may read too much into fonts, for someone using the font that was the default that went with this blog template.

Randalls:

russet potatoes                                                      $5/15 lbs (DD)

Blue Bell half gallons, selected varieties            $3.99/ea

Central Market:

organic gala or fuji apples                                            99c/lb  (DD)

HEB:

boston butt pork roast, bone-in                             $1.47/lb (whole in bag, limit 2)

Smithfield Premium shank portion ham                 $1.57/lb

sweet potatoes                                                         20c/lb  (C15)

green beans                                                              67c/lb.

All the ads being the same means the same turkey deals from last week hold. Also worth noting:

Central Market has fresh free-range turkey for $2.69/lb, non-gmo natural fresh turkey for $2.99/lb, and free range organic turkey for $3.99/lb.

Cranberries freeze well just as they are in the bag. They’re the indestructible fruit. They don’t have to just be cranberry sauce with turkey, they’re also good with pork loin, and cooked down and put on cream cheese for a simple spread, so having a few in the freezer is a handy thing.

Happy Thanksgiving, be well, and Cheep Cheep!

Clearance Racks, How Do They Work?

I love checking the clearance racks. Such an assortment of old holiday items, discontinued things, and things that simply should not have been for sale in the first place.

The trick is knowing where to look for them. I’ve often been standing at one, and someone walking by sees me looking, and then stops to look themselves. It’s like when you see someone looking up, you check to see what they’re looking at, too, just in case they’re watching a big rock fall on you and aren’t the kind of person to shove you out of the way and then take you out for a drink.  Instead of a rock, though, it’s grocery deals!

Clearance shelves are often in places you don’t look, because they’re right along employee entrances, or tucked in a back corner that isn’t your usual shopping area. The Randalls on Ben White has theirs in a little hallway behind the ice cream cake case. What? You didn’t know that Randalls has an ice cream cake case? I rest my case.

So, here’s a list of clearance racks I know the location of, and a couple harvested from the Cheepie facebook page. If you have some to share, please comment. I’m hoping to make a whole page devoted to the locations of clearance racks.

And again, if you’re not following me on twitter you miss things like when I found all the Nyquill on 50% off on a clearance rack. So follow–I am no good at twitter, but still manage to amuse enough for eight bots to follow, along with about six real people!

Randalls (Ben White): racks in right rear corner. meat clearance, right side of meat case. dairy clearance, at the end of the cheese/juice/yogurt aisle.

Sprouts (S. Lamar): rack in middle of back wall, near an employee entrance door. Day old bread cart is usually in front of deli case.

Sprouts (Manchaca): racks in left rear corner.

HEB (Oltorf/Congress): cart toward the front near the magazines at one end of the checkers

HEB (Slaughter/Manchaca): corner between diapers and yogurt. This one cracked me up just to type, and I might swing by to check it out tomorrow, just to take a photo.

HEB (Slaughter/Escarpment): look for carts in the frozen section.

Thanks to the Facebook readers Janet, Janell and Debbie for the tips on locations I didn’t know about!  If you know one, add it in the comments, and I’m going to make a page for us all to check on if we’re looking for some interesting deals.

Popcorn, Peanuts, Pumpkin Pie*

Snacks can kill a grocery budget.

I’ve often had a great week of frugal living, only to see my husband go out and buy three kinds of chips, two kinds of beef jerky, and Funyuns. FUNYUNS. Having a good frugal week derailed by Funyuns is a sad thing, indeed. To combat this, I started a new campaign, which is ‘I will have snacks and desserts available at home.’

This might seem odd, but I’m a person that eats all the salty snacks, if salty snacks are available, so I do not buy them. Thus, my husband’s frustration. Happily, he does like popcorn.

Popcorn is the best frugal snack, but only if you’re paying attention.  It’s baffling to me, but if you’re shopping for popcorn, prices vary wildly depending on where you are, and what kind you’re buying.

When I type ‘wildly’ I mean the ordinary flux of grocery prices, the come and go of things like ‘turkey is cheap in November’ and ‘eggs are cheap at Easter’ don’t apply, and more that HEB will have a pound of popcorn for sale at 99c for a 1lb bag, Randalls will have that bag for $3.99 and Sprouts will have popcorn in bulk for 69c/lb.  If you want a container of Orville Redenbacher? That’s likely to start at $4.99.  I’m not sure if I should start following commodities markets or what, but popcorn is one of  the strangest things, pricewise, that I regularly purchase.

In order to make sense of this single purchase, long ago I decided I only buy popcorn as bagged kernels.  I don’t buy microwave popcorn, popped corn, jiffy-pop, or anything else that comes down the pike (It’s only a matter of time before I can point my iphone at a bag of popcorn and make it pop, and I won’t buy that either) just kernels. It used to be normal for me to pick up a 2lb sack for about $1.50, and now if I see anything that’s about 99 cents a pound I buy it because I don’t know when I’ll see it again! And then there’s something like last month, where the HEB I was in had it super-cheap, 50 cents for a pound. If you find cheap prices. let Cheepie know!

For ages, I popped corn on the stove. Then I was at a friend’s house and met the Stir Crazy. I love this thing. The 6 year old can work it, and it’s entertainment, then food! Yes, it’s a single-use appliance that takes up space. But we use it a few times a week, and that’s more than the fireplace, and you don’t see people crabbing at me to get rid of that sucker.  I’ve popped on the stove, I’ve had an air popper, I’ve popped in brown paper bags in the microwave, and I’m here to say that the Stir Crazy is the way to go. Feel free to tell me I’m popping corn all wrong in the comments. Or share your topping ideas–I usually go with parmesan and ground mustard. How do you pop?

My other favorite snack is peanuts. We all love cashews, almonds, and those crazy smoked almonds that must be loaded with chemicals to make them taste like that. But peanuts are the nut that goes on sale on a regular basis at Sprouts for $1.99/lb. That’s the cheapest nut I’ve found, and I stock up when it happens. Someday, I’ll stock up enough to make peanut brittle, but we always just end up eating them before I get ready to melt sugar into lava while the kids run through the kitchen.

Then, there’s dessert. After twenty years, I’ve finally sorted out that sometimes my husband will take us all out to dinner, just because he wants dessert and knows there’s not anything like dessert in the house.  To combat this, I’ve started making dessert once a week, and trying to have ice cream in the freezer (stocking up on Bluebell on sale is fun!).  The kids love making dessert, and this way we save by having pie, bread pudding, or cookies at home, and not out.

*Apologies to Jay &the Techniques. For my mom, here’s the ‘video‘.