grocery shopping

Happy Ad Wednesday!

We’re ramping up to the time of year when there is a lot of meat on sale.  If you follow the sales you’ll be able to stock your freezer well in advance of summertime bbq parties.  This week there are spareribs, chicken parts and sausages all at stock-up prices.

NOTE: chicken leg quarters at Fiesta–don’t forget, these are in a big sack of about 10-12lbs.  You’ll need to portion these out, don’t just toss the whole bag in the freezer. Unless you’ve got an ice pick and a kid you don’t like much, then go ahead.  These also generally have a portion of backbone attached, which I like to remove to make tidier portions.

Sprouts

(don’t forget to check last week’s post for the sales that end today)

Halos mandarins, 2lb sack                                 $1.98

Hass avocados                                                   48c/ea  (C15)

cucumbers, red or green bell peppers              48c/ea (DD)

organic Gala or Red Delicious apples               $1.49/lb (DD)

(organic oranges and grapefruit are on sale also, these are C15 items, so I buy conventional)

ground chicken or turkey breast                          $3.99/lb

house-made sausages, many varieties                    $3/lb   (Fri/Sat/Sun ONLY)

blanched peanuts, in bulk section                     $1.99/lb

organic baby carrots, 1 lb.                                 $1.50/ea

Fiesta

pork spareribs                                                     $1.99/lb   (Fiesta limit)

chicken leg quarters, jumbo bag                          69c/lb   (Fiesta limit)

organic celery                                                   $1.49/ea (DD)

green bell peppers                                              33c/ea  (DD)

HEB

extra-large Hass avocados                               99c/ea (C15)

Jonagold or Braeburn apples                           48c/lb (DD)

Rio Grande Valley grapefruit                               6/$1

HCF split chicken breasts                              $1.47/lb

HCF BBQ chicken leg quarters                          $1/lb

Randalls

large Hass avocados                                           $1/ea  (C15)

All-natural country style pork ribs                         $1.99/ea (these aren’t really ribs, and I never know what to do with them. if you do know, this is the price to buy them at)

$5 Friday, goes through Sunday

family size cheese pizza

Safeway Farms veggie tray

Precious Blooms Bouquet

Wheatsville

Late July organic chips, 5.5-6oz.                   $1.67/ea

Kettle potato chips, 5 oz.                                 $2/ea

Food Should Be Good chips                           $2/ea

Pirate Snacks, 4-6oz.                                  $1.67/ea  Snacks? No. It’s Booty!

Mail Report

My postman is totally winning this battle.  Last week, not only did the flyers not arrive on Tuesday, or Wednesday, they didn’t arrive at all. Zip, nada, null set on the number of ads arriving in my mailbox. I think he’s on to me, and is enjoying delivering each and every effort from Time Warner to keep us as customers (oh HELL no, hell-O Google Fiber!), while rerouting my circulars.  I think it’s time to get DH back on board with writing me a webscraper.  Or getting a kid properly motivated to do so.  Where did I put all the leftover Halloween and Christmas candy…

Cheep cheep!

Choices

everymealisachoiceThis mural was outside Sprouts when I went the other day.  They’re trying to tap into the New Year’s juice cleanse/dieting/this-year-I’m-getting-healthy-dammit crowd, based on the huge display of ‘things you might juice if you like to do that’ just inside the door. 

It reminded me of the pregnant lady book ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting‘, with its terrible quote:  “Before you close your mouth on a forkful of food, consider: ‘Is this the best bite I can give my baby?’ If it will benefit your baby, chew away. If it’ll only benefit your sweet tooth or appease your appetite, put your fork down.'” That is just a ridiculous thing to tell anyone, and saying this out loud is certainly asking to get slapped by a pregnant woman. 

That quote has a lot in common with this mural.  Yes, there are choices in what we eat, but prioritizing these decisions has become difficult.  Eat this tomato, harvested by workers paid a living wage, or this one that was grown nearby?  Buy these cage-free eggs, or those organic ones?  Are there really any happy chickens? Does this can of beans have BPA? Didn’t they make BPA illegal? Should I eat fish for the omega-3s, or do the toxins make the benefit not worth it? 

If you try to take it all into account, you’ll be standing there with your cart, unable to even decide which part of the store to start shopping for things.  And then you’ll make me mad, because when you do this you’ll be in the middle of the aisle. For Pete’s sake, get to the right! It’s like a road, people.

I’ve gone through several ways of dealing with Grocery Information Overload.  First, ignore it all and buy what I want. Then there was a serious coupon phase, followed by an all-natural phase.  The CSA/Farmer’s Market/Raw Milk period was fun, if pricey.  The Whatever the Kids Will Eat period was brief. 

Which brings us to now:  the Best I Can Do phase.

The best I can do is use the information I have to make the best choice at  the time.  It’s an ongoing thing, and changes when I get new information. 

I evaluate based on budget, health, organic/not, source and a few other things.  My decisions might not look like your decisions.  I buy 2-3 bags of potato chips a week. They aren’t healthy, organic, or, in the case of Funyuns, even food-based.  They are purchased entirely to save my household budget the dent of DH heading out to eat because he feels like eating salty fried things. 

You might be in a place where the Best You Can Do is solely focused on budget.  You might be eating a diet for any number of reasons, so the Best You Can Do prioritizes getting those foods into your cart first.  You might be one of those folks using the New Year as a new start and getting yourself over to Sprouts to visit that juicing produce display.

It doesn’t matter what kind of shopper you are, spending some time considering what is important when you buy the food to cook meals for your family is. That way, when you’re in the store, confronted with the many questions that come with spending a grocery dollar, you’ve prioritized the things that are important.  Pre-running these decisions gives your brain a path to follow.

My hope is that CheepieAustin will help you do the Best You Can Do for your family and the meals you cook for them!  Cheep Cheep!

Happy Ad Wednesday

Got freezer space? This week stock up on pork chops. They’re $1.99 all over, and freeze well.  I don’t buy them, because I buy pork loins when they go on sale and portion that out, but if you’re not a meat freak like me, this is your week to stock up!

It’s also 5lb sack of carrots week. This is the third time since CheepieAustin started, and I still haven’t made that carrot soup. I really need to get on that. Anyone else given it a go?

Sprouts

kiwis                                                        5/$1  (C15)

large Braeburn apples                          48c/lb (DD)

Hass avocados                                     48c/ea  (C15)

organic kale                                          98c/ea (a few different kinds, but really, are we sure there are ‘kinds’ of kale?) (DD)

Vitamin and body care: 25% off everything!

chicken breast tenders                          $1.99/lb

assorted bone-in pork chops                 $1.99/lb

French Vanilla almond granola               $1.99/lb

whole cashews                                       $5.99/lb

organic carrots, 5lb bag                         $2.98/lb

organic Gala or Fuji apples                    $1.48/lb (DD)

colby jack cheese                                   $3.99/lb

ending today:

Texas Red Grapefruit                               8/88c (C15)

pineapples                                               $1.98/ea

bscb, no enhancers or solutions              $1.99/lb

HEB

blackberries, 6oz.                                                                   67c/ea

russet potatoes, 10lb sack                                                  $2.97/ea  (DD)

Boston butt pork roast, bone-in, sold whole in the bag      $1.97/lb

fresh whole chicken                                                               97c/lb

Fiesta

family pack mixed pork chops                   $1.69/lb (Fiesta limit:2)

chicken drumsticks,jumbo bag                    69c/lb (Fiesta limit:2)

Fiesta shredded cheese, 8 oz.                    $1.69/ea

jasmine rice, 5lbs                                         $5.99/lb

Randalls

assorted pork loin chops                                                  $1.99/lb

Barilla Pasta, 12-16oz.                                                      $1/ea     (this is only a good deal for the 16oz.)

Thomas’ English muffins                                                     2/$4

Progresso Classics Vegetable soup, Chef BoyArDee     $1/ea (certain varieties only)

Oscar Meyer thick cut bacon                                           $5/24oz.   (Friday only)

Safeway broth, 32oz                                                         $1.25/es    (Friday only)

Central Market has all vitamins and supplements at 25% off.

Whole Foods

organic kale bunch                           98c/ea (again with the kinds. it’s leaves.)(DD)

Sprouts also has blackberries, but 5.6oz for 88c, not as good. So if you’re stocking the freezer for smoothies and cobbler, definitely head to HEB.

Grapefruit are on sale all over, but I’ve listed the cheapest which is the 11c ones for TODAY at Sprouts if you didn’t get there earlier this week. If you need them and can’t get there today, HEB has 20c grapefruit this ad week.

For $5 Friday at Randalls, there are also Gerbera daisies are $5 for a 10-stem bunch. If anyone wants to get on my good side, that’s a start!

Mail Report:

No ads this week, just the usual mail. But all of it was addressed to us, so that’s a step up from lately. I think the holiday had our mail carrier a bit overworked, so I had the kids running mis-delivered mail up and down our street.  The lack of ads this week was not surprising at all.

Happy Ad Wednesday New Year!

You might have noticed the scheduling here at Cheepie HQ hasn’t been the best.  I’ll admit there’s been a non-zero amount of holiday wreckage, holiday beverages, and post-mall listlessness. This is more distraction than one hopes for in writing a snarky blog about shopping for groceries. 

I did get that one tweet out about buying pregnancy tests at the dollar store out there, which was immediately favorited by some kind of #frugal twitter bot, so the week wasn’t without any success at all, if we’re sticking to (and by gum you know we are!) a very loose definition of success.

Helpfully, flaking out on things is one way to make New Year’s Resolutions a quick piece of work!  I apologize for not letting you guys know about this simple method for sorting out what needs doing in your life–letting your inner sloth go for a couple weeks usually makes it clear where your problem areas are, and the resolutions then just write themselves.  I’ll be having a long talk with my circadian rhythm, the people in this house that think elves pick up their clothes and dishes when they’re not buying bicycles for Santa, and the people that invented the Bota Box!

In Happy Ad Wednesday news, there are ads starting today running until next Tuesday. Randalls is of course out there boxing it up by starting their prices tomorrow,and for that I am not going to bother with them unless they are having some kind of fantabulous thing I need to let you know about.

We all know how likely that is.

So here we go with this weeks Cheepie Deals:

HEB:

extra large hass avocados                           $1.50/ea

H-E-B aged cheddar cheese, 10oz.            $2.47/ea  (this works to less than $4/lb, a stock-up price)

H-E-B ground turkey chub, 80/20, 16oz.      $1.99/ea

Fiesta:

Swift Premium bone-in pork shoulder                                   $1.69 (Fiesta limit)

Earl Campbell’s Hot Links, hot, mild or red  hot, 36 oz        $3.99/ea (Fiesta limit)

red seedless grapes                                                                  $1.99/lb

Sprouts:

Texas Red Grapefruit                              8/88c

avocados                                            48c/ea

organic blackberries, 5.6oz                $1.50/ea

organic kale                                        98c/ea

pineapples                                     $1.98/ea

apples, many varieties                         98c/lb

bscb, no enhancers or solutions         $1.99/lb

organic red delicious or gala apples    $1.50/lb

colby jack cheese      $3.99/lb

Sprouts has also got some juicing/raw food deals going on if you’re interested in those–their 25% off a certain section of products. $9.99 for 3lbs of honey seems pretty great.  Some people I know use honey in battling allergies, so this is a good chance to stock up for that reason as well.

HEB also has strip steaks, select grade, for $4.97. If you do normally purchase steaks from HEB, this is a good price for a cut that has very minimal waste.

If your holiday has somehow found you deficient in candy, Sprouts has gummi bears on sale in bulk for $1.99/lb. Or maybe your resolution is a new photo blog recording the many interesting situations our gummi friends can get into, and you need a pretty big stockpile.  This is your week!

Mail Report:

I couldn’t believe it, but the ads were in my box today, and then I realized the mailman had thrown me a juke and only delivered the HEB ad.  Well played, postal worker.  You got me back for that package of anvils I delivered to myself. This isn’t the end, my friend.