Hitting The Jackpot When Grocery Shopping

Sometimes you have grocery shops that are so so, and then some shops, like my last one, things just go so beautifully that you almost feel like you hit the jackpot.

I went out with specific items in mind that I needed- I had large quantities of limited varieties of produce in my house, and my house was mostly stocked, so my list of absolute needs on my shopping trip was not much. My husband didn't see why I'd want to go out shopping for such limited amounts of things- why not just go to the neighborhood (expensive) grocery store for those few things, but I didn't mind going out of my way to hopefully save money. The biggest thing though was that I didn't want to spend so much, and I know I do get tempted when I'm at the grocery store, to buy more than what I'd entered the shop intending to buy...


When I got there, I saw that the clothing store right next door to the grocery store was having their "end of season sale" and they were trying to convince me to come in. I didn't need to go clothing shopping, but I figured I'd just take a chance- I told the boys that I'd buy them socks- maybe I'd be able to find them cheaply?
Well, just my luck- socks were half price! I bought 4 packs of three for a total of $11.42, working out to only 95 cents a pair, with the added bonus of having 4 pairs of each type, making it easier to find a match and have usable socks, even after the sock monster inevitably devours some lone socks.

After that, I went in to the grocery store and gave them some bottles for recycling- they are supposed to give me money for those- but they were busy then, so told me to come back later to pick up my store credit receipt.

I made my way to the meat counter- I was trying to buy some cheap easy to make proteins. Ike has been off dairy again since his diagnosis of autism, to see if it would help with his meltdowns- and it has tremendously- but it makes it hard to find what to feed him that doesn't take so much work, since he hates beans and doesn't eat fish, so I was hoping I could find chickens cheaply. As I was looking at the whole chickens, I noticed a discrepancy in pricing- the sign said that whole chickens were $2.14 per pound, but the chickens themselves were marked $1.93 per pound, so I asked the worker there what price I'd be charged at the register, and he confirmed that I'd be charged the lower price. So I picked out three of the smaller whole chickens, because I think people eat visually, and  people tend to be satisfied the same with a chicken thigh from a smaller chicken or a larger one, so might as well go with the smaller one. For the three chickens I paid $18.49 for about 9.5 lbs.
The worker at the meat counter wanted to know when I'd be finished with my grocery shop. I didn't understand why he cared, and why it was his business (it was a really weird question to be asked), but he clarified- chicken breast was on sale- instead of its usual $4.53 per pound, for the next 7 minutes, they'd be on sale for only $1.93!!! so if I'd get to the register by then, I'd get that lower price. I could have practically kissed that worker for that tip, because it would be saving me a lot of money! Chicken breast is my favorite type of chicken to buy, it's easy to make and is all meat, no bone, but its usually so expensive... but at $1.93 per pound of pure raw meat, it works to only $2.12 per pound of cooked meat. Chicken wings, the other cheap meat I buy, typically at $1.28 per pound, work out to be $2.61 per pound of cooked meat! This was absolutely a steal, so I scooped up as many packs of chicken breast as I thought reasonable- I took about 19 lbs of chicken breast for $36.35- when it's usual price would have been $86 for the lot- so that was almost $50 saved there! But that was only if I could make it to the register within 7 minutes!

I tried to do the rest of my shopping as quickly as possible- best way to make sure you don't impulse buy and buy things you don't need- give yourself only 7 minutes to do your shop, or risk being charged an extra 50 dollars.
Because I knew there was that much money on the line, I didn't price compare so much- I just grabbed things and hoped they wouldn't be too overpriced.
I took 3 extra large packs of rice cakes, 3 packages of disposable cups, a package of toilet paper, and a few packs of corn meal.

I made it to the register in time- and got a nice surprise at the register! Most of the things I bought were on sale, and lower than they had been marked!
Rice cakes, instead of being $3.42 per package were only $3.05. I bought 3 packs.
Disposable cups, instead of being $1.11 per package, were on sale for 95 cents each. I bought three.
And the toilet paper, instead of being the $9.68 that had been listed on the package were only $7.97!
Corn meal, which I usually only saw sold in pound packages for $1.57- I discovered also being sold in 2 pound packages for $2.82, or $1.41 per pound.

I really felt so blessed at the register! The entire shop cost $83.33!

And then I realized that I'd never picked up my receipt giving me store credit for my recycling, which was annoying, because I already did my shop and I didn't want to have to shop just for the sake of shopping when there was nothing I needed... so I was trying to figure out what I should buy, but then when I got there, I discovered that I could get cash for my recycling, not just store credit- so I opted for that, and left the store with some cash, which is a much nicer feeling than store credit!

And because I was rushing so much during my shop- I managed to finish in time to be able to use a transfer on my bus ride home instead of needing to pay another fare!

What a wonderful feeling!

Have you gotten amazing deals lately at the grocery store? Ever been surprised at the register, discovering things were on sale that you hadn't known about? Ever rushed through a shop to be able to pay before a great sale ended?