Recent Frugal Shopping Deals

Yesterday my kids pointed out that we were missing a lot of necessary foods in my house, so I went to the store and did a big shopping trip. I had thought at first to share all my grocery shop and what I bought and why (like I used to do in the past) but my shop was so big that it was pretty much impossible to get it all in one picture and it would take me ages to write it up, so I decided to stick to sharing just the stuff I got for frugal reasons, that were a good deal.

My kids asked me to please get snacks at the store, something to eat between meals, and while I usually have some of these types of things in stock from scratch and dent stores, I have only been to one recently and the only thing he had were these delicious freeze pop smoothies, which aren't really filling. So when I walked into the grocery store and saw store brand pretzels on sale, 2 200 gram packages for $2.85, or $1.43 for each one, so I grabbed a few of them. Of course, this is just one of the standard store tricks... because when I was in the aisle where they have most of the pretzels, I saw that the normal price for 400 gram packages of name brand pretzels were being sold for $2.54, which is cheaper than the store brand pretzels... and even those were on sale, 3 for $5.70, or $1.90 per 800 grams... which makes it $0.95 for 200 grams... so the name brand pretzels were actually approximately 50 cents cheaper per 200 grams than the store brand pretzels on sale. I'm glad I caught that! I would have felt pretty silly had I fallen for that.

Speaking of pretzels, I also got a good deal on gluten free pretzels. Usually they cost $2.82 for a 250 gram package, but this time they were on sale for $1.40 per package, so I bought a bunch, because they're a great snack to have on hand and at half the usual price...

And while we're on the topic of gluten free snacks, the same tea biscuits that I went back to the store for last time for $1.97 per package because that was already a great price for them, this time were being sold for $1.40. Of course, I bought a lot! Smores, here we come! (We don't have graham crackers locally, so tea biscuits are what are used for smores.)

I'm not quite sure why, but the store seemed to be having a large sale specifically on gluten free items. Gluten free buns, both hot dogs and hamburgers. This store has them cheaper than other stores (about half price), usually for $2.82 per package, but they were on sale for $1.40 per package, with a limit of 3 per type, so I got 6 packages total.

Gluten free spaghetti also was on sale. The general price is $3.97 per package for this brand, other less tasty brands are generally $2.82, and these were on sale for $2.25 per package. I bought 2 since I already had gluten free pasta at home.

I almost always use egg replacements in my cooking, both because I'm sensitive to eggs, and because egg replacements are cheaper. I use ground flax seeds, 1 tablespoon ground with 3 tablespoons water for every large egg in baking, and it works out beautifully. This grocery store only had organic flax seeds, and organic is more expensive. But even so, for $2.82 per 500 gram package, it still works out significantly cheaper than using eggs, not to mention being allergy and vegan friendly.

My kids love tuna, but as I've written before, it ain't so cheap locally. Usually the best price I can find for tuna is $5.70 for a 4 pack, or $1.42 a can. When I find it for $5.40 for a 4 pack, or $1.35 a can or less it is stock up time. While this wasn't as good a price as the previous time I stocked up, (then it was $0.94 a can), this time it was $8.57 for 2 packs of 4, or $4.28 per 5 pack, which works out to be $1.07 per can, also a terrific price. I bought 6 4 packs.

My boys had asked me to buy ingredients for our favorite sandwiches- artichoke spread and smoked cheese. 

Artichoke spread usually is $2.82 per jar. They were selling it for $2.25 per jar, so I bought 4.

We love cheese in our house, especially because it is a quick and easy protein, great for sandwiches, and just, ya know, its cheese. My kids' favorite cheese for eating as is is smoked cheese and we also like eating a plain old yellow cheese (there's no real American equivalent as far as I know, its a local cheese literally called yellow cheese) and the kids like mozerella on pizza, etc... Cheese isn't so cheap in general, which is one of the down sides. But when I buy it from the cheese counter at least it is much cheaper than usual. The store sells their own store brand cheeses for cheapest, so I got those three. But not just a little bit. I don't get back to this store so much, and when I don't go there and I need cheese I buy locally, where it is much more. Instead of, for example, $3.63 a pound at the cheese counter, it ends up costing $9.41 per pound for yellow cheese. Smoked cheese costs $12.92 per pound packaged instead of the $4.15 it costs at the cheese counter. I buy grated mozerella at the cheese counter for $4.55 a pound instead of the $7.07 it costs packaged. So I bought... over a kilogram of each. I had them divide it into smaller packages so I can freeze it, since I find these cheeses work just as fine after freezing, because I don't want to run out and pay full price for cheese when I can get it so cheaply at the cheese counter.

Ground beef is also something that gets eaten a lot in my house, and it's one of the proteins that all my kids will eat (nearly always), and it is easy to stretch. Locally it can cost upwards of $5.85 a pound, generally already stretched with TVP, but I can get meat freshly ground for $4.00 so I try to buy there when I can. I bought 4 pounds this time and it goes into my freezer.

They also sell minute steaks for $7.11 per package (and it is what I use to make restaurant style Asian food at home) so when I saw it on sale for $4.54 I bought 2 packages (because it still is expensive, and I don't need to make restaurant food for my home that often). 

I make homemade tomato sauce always, and try to buy the most concentrated tomato paste possible so I can water it down a lot and still get a nice thick sauce, so I found the cheapest tomato paste for $1.68 (whose price was unmarked) instead of $2.22 and bought a few cans.

My kids had asked me to buy yogurt. They wanted flavored yogurt, so I had considered buying a big jug of plain yogurt and blending it with frozen fruit, but I saw the jug was $4.71 for 1.5 liters, or $9.43 for 3 liters. Milk, on the other hand, costs $1.40 per liter, or $4.2 for 3 liters, and I knew just how simple it was to make yogurt, so I just bought extra milk, and a small thing of yogurt to use as a starter for 97 cents, and made 3 liters of yogurt for $5.17. This morning I blended it up with some frozen strawberries and we had a whole lot of yum.

We are big peanut butter fans in our house and when I saw peanut butter on sale for $2.82 per half kilo- it can usually go for up to $4.20 for the same amount, I decided to buy a few jars.

My kids are obsessed with a certain type of cereal but it's generally quite expensive. The store brand also has the equivalent of these, but also for not so cheaply. But they had these on sale, 60 cents off their usual price so I bought a few boxes as well as a treat for my kids.

Last but certainly not least, I like enjoying a glass of wine some evenings. I am not so picky regarding brands, and am willing to use some cheaper wines (other than a few brands I nixed because they taste vinegary) and saw that one of the tasty but still cheaper brands was being sold for $4.17 instead of their typically already low price of $5.03, so I bought a few bottles.

Yes, my shop was expensive, but it was well worth it, with all these sales adding good quality low priced foods to my stores.

Have you gotten any great grocery deals lately? What were they?