It’s apple war season. In summer it’s corn, now it’s apples. I’d been all set to call Sprouts the winner with their price for Galas, but as often happens, HEB wins by 22 cents! That’s in part how they win the loyalty they’ve got, they’ve got better spies seeing what the others will put on sale and then they do their 11 cent or 22 cent under cut. So smart!  HEB has the cheapest apples this week.

In round two, though, we’ve got Sprouts winning, with the 28 cent undercut on Honeycrisp. It’s basically a matter of what kind of apple you like. Which lately is a tough call. I recently bought a Diva apple. Because if I’m any kind of diva, it’s a grocery diva, so it seemed like destiny. The kids ate it, naturally, but they assured me it was good.

HEB

Gala apples or Bartlett pears    77c/lb

blackberries, 6oz.    $1.25

vine tomatoes      47c/lb

hot house (english) cucumbers    77c/ea

split chicken breasts    $1.47/lb  (this means bone-in, to be clear)

candy corn, 6.5oz     98c/ea

Randalls

corn   8/$1

pears     99c/lb

Barilla pasta, 12-16oz.     79c/ea

Lucerne yogurt, 32oz.   $1.99/ea

Sprouts

beginning this week:

honeycrisp apples  $1.49/lb

black seedless grapes  99c/lb

green cabbage  33c/lb

yellow onions  3lbs/$1

Stonyfeld Organic Yogurt, 32oz.   2/$5

lamb shoulder chops, grass fed   $2.99lb              

Rosie Organic whole chicken    $2.99/lb

bulk raisins    $1.99/lb

vanilla macaroon granola      $1.99/lb

ending tomorrow:

whole seedless watermelon                 $1.99 ea

peaches and pears                                  99c/lb

gala and granny smith apples                  99c/lb

boneless skinless chicken thighs          $1.99/lb

bulk oats (quick, steel cut, or rolled)        69c/lb

Fiesta

boneless skinless chicken breasts     $1.99/lb (2 packages with additional $10 purchase. $3.79/lb further purchases)

pineapples    $1.99/ea

pomegranates      $1.49/ea

red or gold potatoes, 5lb sack      $1.88/ea

celery    88c/ea

A couple of notes:

I included a few things I don’t usually, namely the grass-fed lamb chops and  the organic chicken at Sprouts. They’re on the list because lamb is rarely that cheap, even shanks go for $4.99 these days. So take a look–they aren’t rib chops, and are not pretty, but they are lamb and you might feel like you could make them work in a recipe your family likes. For certified organic antibiotic and hormone free chicken, $2.99/lb is as cheap as it gets.

Sprouts also has Honduran Organic coffee for buy one at $9.99, get one free for 12oz packages. Depending on how you get your caffeine, you might be interested in that. CM generally has at least a few types regularly available for $9.99/lb, but I’m not sure that price extends to organics, and I’ve never seen them do a BOGO. Cheepie will check!

HEB  has candy corn for 98c/6.5oz sack. I only post this because I know some crazy people have a thing about candy corn. Which is inexplicable, because candy corn is like anti-candy, just the worst. But if you want some, there you go, it’s all piled up at HEB in front of all  the real candy, just for you. You nutter.

This week all the flyers are all about Halloween candy, which I refuse to recap until it’s at least more than two hours into October.  Do you have a secret cheap candy source? In the past, I’m a mess, in the store at the last minute wondering if it’s wrong to ONLY have Smarties (answer: technically no, but I feel guilty not offering a choice).  If you’ve got a great source, please share.

Until the next time, Cheep Cheep!

The stunner in the list below is watermelon–I haven’t seen them for that price in a long time.  They might not be as sweet as a watermelon in July or August, but that’s no reason not to grab a couple for these early fall warm days.  Kids will always eat watermelon, and if you don’t have kids you can make agua frescas (and then you can pour some vodka in there and relax in your calm, whiny-free space).  You can even freeze chunks for making agua fresca later, when maybe a random 90 degree day in November is making you angry and has you wondering why, exactly you live at this precise point in the world.

I apologize to anyone  that bought watermelons last week at $3.99. There must have been some kind of watermelon panic to cause Sprouts to decide to shed watermelon at the cheapest price in years. The opposite of the lime panic, where gangs were somehow using limes to launder money and thus scared the entire state into thinking we were in for a summer of $20 margaritas.  It’s possible the dip into the 70s at night has them thinking we’re all in pumpkin-latte mode, and they’ve got to ditch these giant green vessels of summer.

They lose, we win!

Randalls

red or green bell peppers          50c/ea

HEB

russet potatoes, 10lbs.                            $3.27/ea

cucumbers                                                 47c/ea

butternut, acorn, or spaghetti squash         77c/lb

Dole pineapple                                        $1.99/ea

drumsticks                                                     $1/lb

HEB premium bacon, 12oz.                    $3.50/ea

Sprouts

new this week:

whole seedless watermelon                 $1.99 ea

peaches and pears                                  99c/lb

gala and granny smith apples                  99c/lb

boneless skinless chicken thighs          $1.99/lb

bulk oats (quick, steel cut, or rolled)        69c/lb

ending tomorrow:

blackberries, 5.6oz                            $1.25 ea

asparagus                                          $1.99/lb

peaches                                                 99c/lb

green bell peppers                               50c/ea

chicken drumsticks or whole legs         99c/lb

Fiesta

center cut bone-in loin chops         $1.99/lb  (limit 2 w/$10 additional purchase)

cabbage                                            33c/lb

fresh green beans                              79c/lb

I feel like Randalls and Fiesta aren’t even trying this week.

A note about Fiesta: They have their large sacks of leg quarters on sale this week for 69c/lb. Which is obviously a lot of cheap chicken. The reason I’m not including it is that in addition to the usual Fiesta ‘limit 2, additional purchase of $10 required, additional bags at 85c/lb’, I find this particular product to be work.

I’m trying to stick to the types of groceries that are fairly universal, and are easily incorporated into meals. These quarters are…not straightforward. They’ve got an extra segment on them, that I remove before freezing (sharpish bits can rip bags) or cooking to serve in a meal (sometimes organ meat is attached to the extra. kidney? gizzard? who’s to know? enough that it isn’t a fight I want to have at the dinner table).  In addition, the portions are smaller than those you’re used to buying when you get a package of legs or thighs, so if you’re trying to portion out servings, you’re can be caught short if you’re not paying attention.

In short, this product has both a high work to value quotient, and a bit of cost loss in the part I cut away.  The combination of butchering necessary and time invested to just get it stored makes me leave it off the list.  While it is a deal, you can’t throw a 10lb sack of chicken leg quarters to become a brick-o-chick, you’ve got to put some time into getting it cooked and/or stored properly. If you are very budget conscious, though, it can be a good resource to have socked away.

Go forth and shop. Cheep Cheep!

After last week’s mishap, I’d intended on posting last night after making sure the ads I was looking at were the right ones.  Sadly, the internet gods were not on board with this plan. Having never made a concerted effort to collect all this information as soon as it was available so I could tell all my Cheeps, I was unaware that grocery store flyers are apparently only posted on the store websites when the prices take effect.

Midnight postings of grocery sales, people! How have I missed this late night fun all these years? It kind of makes me want to walk into Randalls at midnight and start checking to see if they’ve got all the signs switched over yet, and people watch. Randalls at midnight is a great slice of life.

So, last night I decided I would post on Wednesday mornings. Because of an ongoing conflict I maintain with the sun, this means 11am. Since Wednesday is the shopping day for a lot of folks, that means the Happy Ad post would be too late! This is a Sitcom Level 3 Dilemma, and I’m still trying to sort it out.

In the meantime, here are the sales this week, with my fun color coding and commentary. I’ll be shopping later this week, and will tweet any new deals I find! So go ahead and click that little ‘follow’ link off to the right, and if I find a deal, you’ll know about it when I do.

Cheep Cheep!

HEB

green pears, jonagold apples                    88c/lb

boneless skinless chicken breasts           $1.99/lb

large navel oranges                                  98c/lb

Fiesta

large avocados                                   79c/ea

chicken drumsticks and thighs           88c/lb  (limit 2, w/$10 additional purchase)

Sarita brand long grain rice                79c/2lb sack

large navel oranges                            97c/lb

key limes                                             99c/2lb sack

Randalls

large navel oranges                                     97c/lb

green grapes                                               99c/lb

boneless skinless chicken breasts           $1.99/lb                                                            (note: thighs are also this price, but that is not their low. wait for another day to buy those, or go buy drumsticks/thighs/legs at Sprouts or Fiesta!)

Sprouts

blackberries, 5.6oz                            $1.25 ea

asparagus                                          $1.99/lb

peaches                                                99c/lb

whole seedless watermelons             $3.99 ea

green bell peppers                              50c/ea

chicken drumsticks or whole legs       99c/lb

But wait! Aren’t chicken legs cheaper over at Fiesta? Yes, yes they are. But Fiesta has the limit, and the also-buy requirement, and my personal rule is 99c/lb is a stock-up price for chicken leg parts. So it gets listed twice this week.

That’s the round-up for this week! Tomorrow I’ll be posting ideas for storing and using one of these items that you might stock up on.  If you notice a deal I’ve missed, post in the comments, so we can all share the deal!

Cheep Cheep!