How I Grocery Shop - Put it all Together

Now that the "How I Grocery Shop" series is concluded I wanted to show you an example of all the pieces together including my random, organization thoughts.

I usually grocery shop in the wee hours on Saturday morning, but I was hosting a baby shower this particular Saturday and knew the shopping would be delayed until Sunday sometime. I did, however, need to pick up some balloons for the shower so I dashed down to Fred Meyer and of course, did quick run by the clearance bins. Here's what I found:


Nice 'n Soft TP - clearance $2.49
MD TP - clearance $2.49
Hamburger buns - clearance $.79 (note to self - eat pulled pork from freezer)
Bread - clearance $.79

On Saturday my priority was eating stuff out of the freezer (as ever) so I'd have room to freeze berries before I made jam mid-July. My aunt found me a used canner at a garage sale but I won't see her until the weekend of July 10th so I planned to save berries until then.
So Saturday night DH and I watched a movie and I made my menu plan and grocery list.

Menu Plan Dinners:
Sunday -Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Monday - Beef Fajitas (need to use an old bell pepper)
Tuesday - Ham/Potato soup (freezer meal) & garden salad
Wednesday - Spanish Rice w/Ground Beef (freezer meal) & garden salad
Thursday - Garlic Chicken in White Wine Sauce (freezer meal), macaronda, & salad
Friday - Pork Chops, Cheesy Broccoli Rice, Salad
Saturday - Beefy Enchilada Casserole, spanish rice (leftover?), & salad
Sunday - July 4th BBQ
Monday - Russian Chicken, rice, salad
Tuesday - Beef Stir Fry

Grocery List

Must Buy: Whipping Cream for promised Strawberry Shortcake

Should Buy/Getting Low:
Cooking spray
Vegetable oil
Potatoes
Milk - both whole & nonfat
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
Bananas
Other fruit -whatever's on sale
Cream cheese
Toilet paper - Got this one!!!
AA Batteries
Olives - both green and black
Pork loin

It's always nice when there is so little on the "must buy" list as I'm planning so many freezer meals and we have been getting such great lettuce from the garden. Basically I get to just shop the good deals! So I made a list for each of the ads (including Fred Meyer's new ad) and had short lists (4-7 items each) for Fred Meyer, QFC, Top, and Safeway. I prioritized like this: QFC (whipping cream on sale), Safeway (waiting for cream cheese at $1 for 3 weeks!), Top (great 77Cent sale this week), and Fred Meyer. Albertson's just wasn't anything spectacular and unless they had double coupons I didn't plan to go.
Sunday I had sick kiddo and didn't make it to church. DH picked up some bread for us. Usually we select one or two items. I don't know how DH ended up with all this, but here's a picture and the list: A double pack of ciabatta long loaves, 2 loaves of wheat bread, a package of bagels, a dozen croissants and 36, yes 36, white dinner rolls. Hmm.



I saw all of this bread in the car as I was getting ready to leave for grocery shopping. I did a quick evaluation and figured we'd be eating bagels, croissants, and french toast for breakfast. Thank goodness cream cheese was on sale! We'd also have lots of sandwiches for lunch on the rolls. Again, yay for lunch meat in the freezer! The loaves of bread would keep in the freezer - good bye berry freezing plans.
Now it was time to shop! I decided to go to Albertson's after all when I saw their double coupon in the Sunday paper. I can always a good deal with those. I also went to Safeway, QFC, and even stopped at Walgreen's for a couple items. I was exhausted by the time I got home and didn't even want to think about Top or Fred Meyer. That's what usually happens and why I prioritize where I need to go. Overall I shopped about 2 hours and spent $42.52. $21.33 of that was on gift cards so I only spent $21.19 out of pocket. And I also have a mail-in rebate to send for $3 and a $3 Walgreen's Reward to spend in the next couple of weeks.


Here are the details - grocery sales are still on through Tuesday night.

Albertson's:
2 boxes Cinnamon Toast Crunch -sale $2.49 ($4.00/4 store deal)($1.00/2 MC doubled) = $.49 each
2 boxes of Cheerios - sale $2.49 ($4.00/4 store deal)($1.00/2 MC doubled) = $.49 each
S'Mores Deal - Hershey's, marshmallows & graham crackers on sale totalling $6.49 ($2.00/all store deal) ($1.00/all 3 MC in-store) = $3.49 for all 3
Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce - sale $1.00 ($1.00/2 MC doubled) = FREE
Vegetable Oil 1 gallon - sale $6.79 (much cheaper than the $10 at cash'n'carry!)
Turkey & Ham lunchmeat - clearance $0.99 each
Bananas $.59/lb
Gillette Hairspray - clearance $1.00 ($1.00 MC) = FREE
I have a gift card for Albertson's so I decided to get the bananas here as well as go ahead and splurge on the bulk purchase of vegetable oil. I bought the last gallon sometime last summer so I figure this jug will last another year or so. Also the clearance lunch meat and free hairspray made me really glad I came.

Safeway:
Caesar dressing - sale price $1.49 (1.00 MC) = $.49
Cream Cheese - sale price $.99
Grapes - $.99/lb
Cucumbers - $0.50 each
Coffeemate powder tubes - $1.29 (50% off clearance)($.50 MC) = $.14
Walgreens:
Finesse conditioner - $3.99 (BOGO Sale)($1.00 MC)($3.00 MIR) = Both for price of stamp $.44
Blistex 3 pack - $2.99 ($3.00 coupon for next Walgreen's trip) = FREE
2 pears - $.50 each (weird to find pears at Walgreens, but pears haven't been on sale for awhile and I thought $.50 would be close to $1/lb.)

QFC:
Cottage Cheese - sale price $1.00
Whipping Cream - sale price $1.00
Dozen Eggs - sale price $1.00
Fresh Mozarella - clearance price $2.69 ($1.00 MC) = $1.69 (this is a total yummy treat for me)
Tomatoes - sale price $1.00/lb (cheaper at Top, but I wanted a couple to go with the mozzarella)

Top:
Top is really having an excellent sale this week, especially with the $1.00 off deparment coupons inside the ad. I will probably try to make it over there still for the $.77/lb tomatoes and 3/$1 kiwi with the $1 produce coupon. I will also try to use the $1 grocery coupon with the $3.77 block of cheese and possibly Zararin's rice.

Fred Meyer:
I will probably skip FM entirely. They have a great deal on Ben & Jerry's and I have an MC, but it's an extra and pregnancy + ice cream is not good for me. I seriously ate two whole 1.5 quart cartons by myself in about 5 days last week. So we can skip the Ben & Jerry's. I got BBQ sauce at Albertson's and enough other fruit that I don't need the $.88 peaches.

So that's about it - my week in shopping. Oh - it turns out DD's won't eat mini-sandwiches on the white dinner rolls so I'm thinking I'll give them a try as french toast next (thanks for the idea, Ruth!).

Katie