Shopping Day

It was a pretty busy shopping day.  I hit some stores I wasn't expecting to shop at but they were on my route today. 

First stop was the Oroweat Outlet Store and I really scored there.  They were having a special where you buy their reusable shopping bag for 99 cents and you can buy up to 10 loaves of bread for $1.59 each.  That's a great deal because the retail is $4.69 to $4.99 per loaf.  You had to buy a minimum of 6 loaves however.  This is fine with me because bread freezes beautifully and anyway, I usually buy at least 3 loaves and put some in the freezer.

And, because I ended up spending just over $10 for the 6 loaves and the bag, I get 2 free items.  I picked the cinnamon rolls and the English muffins.  And on top of that, it was double stamp day, so my stamp card was filled and I can get another loaf of bread free.  I decided to save that for another day. 

I can only afford one loaf for my June challenge, so I chose the Milton's Squaw bread.  It has a lot of good stuff in it and a lot of protein too. 

Next, I headed to my brother's house to pick up the avocados and oranges.  But first, I drove by the 99 cent store just to see what they had there.  I picked up 30 corn tortillas for $1. 

My brother has some young apple trees and I noticed the birds were picking at some of the apples and some were on the ground, so I helped myself to a few.  Hope he doesn't mind. 

After that I decided to go to Trader Joes to shop for the bulk of my items.  Von's was on the way, so I stopped there and found 42 oz oatmeal for $2.50. 

At TJ's, I bought my fav peanut butter for $2.79, 2 dozen extra large eggs for $2.98, 64 oz vanilla soy milk for $2.99, 1 pound spaghetti for 99 cents and 2 of the largest bananas I could find for 19 cents each.

On the way home, I stopped by Smart and Final across the street and found a can of tuna for 73 cents, 1 pound of red beans for $1.09 and 1 pound of pinto beans for $1.24.

Last week at Fresh and Easy Market, I found a great buy on whole chicken at 79 cents a pound, so I got a 5 pound chicken for $4.01.  I put it in the freezer.  I also found a bag of chocolate peanut bars marked way down to $1.00.  I'm able to include that in my monthly budget. 

I'm allocating $1 to olive oil and $1 for seasonings (salt, pepper, sugar, vinegar, mustard and a little mayo).

At Costco, I picked up brown rice in bulk (10 pounds for $4.99) so my brown rice cost is 4 cents a serving.

And lastly, at Marukai, I picked up an 18 oz tub of tofu for $1.29.

Okay, I know what you are thinking.  But, I agree, I had no intention of shopping in so many places.  But I have been looking for things to stock up on over the past few weeks and I happened to be running errands and was able to hit some extra stores.

Since I saved some money on a few items, I'm able to throw in some Vadalia onions for an extra 70 cents.   It brings my total up to $29.24.

Weekly Food Ads

It's Tuesday, and that's the day all the food ads from the local supermarkets come in the mail.  I used to check this carefully every week and use them with clipped manufacturer coupons to find the best deals.  Most manufacturer coupons are for items you don't really need though.  But sometimes, you can save a lot of money on things like household cleaners and paper products. 

For my challenge, manufacturer coupons are not going to be beneficial, however, I'm still looking for sales on staple items, like dairy, bread, peanut butter and chicken.  In fact, it is essential that I find some of the items on my shopping list on sale.  If they don't come on sale during this period, I will have to make some modifications to my shopping list.

Right now, I'm especially looking for peanut butter on sale.  I know that if I wait for the right time, I can find it for $2 for 16 oz, but in the past few weeks I haven't been able to find it.  Even at Costco and Smart and Final, peanut butter was more expensive than that.

I might have to get the Trader Joe's peanut butter at $2.79, but one of the benefits is that theirs does not have hydrogenated oils.  It's just peanuts and salt.

I'm looking over the ads of the markets close by :  Fresh and Easy, Ralph's, Von's, Sprouts and Smart and Final.  I'm only looking for things on my shopping list, especially chicken, peanut butter, eggs, beans, tuna and bread.

 
The only thing I see is Skippy peanut butter on sale for $2.49 and refried beans at .89 cents a can.  Also, they have a buy one get one free sale on tortillas. 

Now that I know what's on sale I can start purchasing items on my list.  Tomorrow I'm making a stop at Trader Joe's.

This afternoon, after harvesting from the garden, I decided to freeze some of the zucchini and broccoli.  The zucchini you just chop up and stick in freezer bags.  The broccoli needs to be blanched and quick cooled in ice water before freezing.  I should have enough fresh vegetables to eat during June, but just in case something happens to the garden, I'll have some veggies in the freezer to fall back on.

My mom called today to ask if I'm ready to pick up the oranges and avocados from her tree.  I'll pick those up tomorrow too...

A Visit to the Farmer's Market

The farmer's market is in a local park and only a 15 minute walk from my house but I don't go down as often as I could.  It's there twice a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays and is always busy.  Today I decided to go down and take a look at what's available. 

It's a pretty good sized market and there are a lot of produce and gourmet items to choose from.  But unfortunately, none of it is affordable for my dollar a day challenge.  Look at the beautiful berries!

I mentioned that in a pinch, I can come here and glean free samples of fruit but I didn't have that in mind today.  However, many vendors insisted I taste their gourmet food samples.  So, I had a delectable taste of smooth chocolate and some cactus tortillas and salsa.  Here's a kiosk of fruit samples with people buzzing around it.  I tried the peaches and a plum/apricot hybrid fruit.

The seedling guy was there today.  I usually grow my own seedlings, but since some of them got eaten and destroyed, I bought a few.  These won't be harvestable in the  month of June, so will not be part of my challenge.  I bought a Japanese eggplant, Japanese cucumber, Diva cucumber, and honeydew melon.  They were 4 for $5.  That's not a bad price and there were more than 1 seedling in each little pot. 

Tonight, I'm experimenting baking some bread, so I'll talk about that tomorrow.

Where to buy food?

It's still a few weeks away to my challenge start date and I'm in the process of researching prices at food sources around me.

The price of gasoline is at an all time high where I live.  It's up to $4.35 a gallon and I'm not driving a hybrid.  Because of this, I think it's only fair to shop at places in the vicinity that I can walk or bike to.  Luckily, I have a lot of sources to choose from:

Torrance Farmer's Market - Within walking distance.  Open Tuesdays and Saturdays.  Prices are actually not that cheap, but worth checking out for a possible deal and snack on some samples while there.

Randy's Produce - Across the street.  A family owned produce store.  Good prices on vegetables.  Not organic though.  They have bags of marked down items too.

Marukai Market - About a mile away.  Easy bike ride.  My Asian food source. This is where I'll buy tofu and rice.

Target - About a mile away.  Target now has a full grocery section.  Good prices on cat food and gourmet coffee.

Ralph's - About a mile away.  I usually just buy junk food here...

Pacific Supermarket - About a mile away. This is a large Korean market.  I don't usually shop here, but they have great prices on produce.

Fresh and Easy Market - About 2 miles away.  This has become one of my favorite grocery markets.  Good selection of groceries to get a healthy dinner on the table fast.  They have a marked down section where you can get up to 50% off meat and produce with the current days pull date.  Worth checking out anytime I go there.  Also, they have a weekly coupon of $3 to $5 off your total purchase.  Their private label products are tasty and an excellent value.

Von's - about 2 miles away.  But like Ralph's, I usually just buy junk food here.

Oroweat Bread Store - About 3 miles away.  Good selection of bread at discount prices.  Sometimes they have overstock items marked down to $1. 

Trader Joe's - About 3 miles away.  Everyone loves TJ's!  Best prices on eggs and orange juice.  A gold mine for gourmet snack food.  Also, can grab a sample cup of joe and maybe a snack.

Whole Foods - About 3 miles away, but too expensive for this challenge.

Smart and Final - About 3 miles away.  Good place to buy in bulk and no membership fee.  I have to check out the prices there for my challenge.

Costco - About 3 miles away.  I don't have a membership there anymore.  I do have the option to have a family member with a membership pick something up for me though.

So as you can see, I have a lot of places to choose from.  Most of these places I drive by regularly when I'm coming home from other destinations.

For my challenge, I'm sure I'll only be shopping at Fresh and Easy, Trader Joe's, and Marukai.  Of course, I'll be looking at the weekly food ads for the best prices.  Although I can use coupons for this challenge, I doubt I will because coupons are usually for things that you don't need.

As an FYI, I used to work in a grocery store in my college days.  I used to be the person updating prices in the "new" scanning system and also made price changes of products on the shelf.  Back then, everything was hand marked with a price tag.  When I got married 30 years ago, I was a master coupon shopper.  The key is to use coupons on items already on sale and stock up on them.  I guess what I'm saying is, I'm a good food shopper.