A Very Worthwhile Grocery Shopping Trip

It was pouring rain all day and the weather was really gross, completely uninviting. But I got a message that a local store was having an unbelievably good sale for that day only, and I was so torn. Do I get up and out of my comfortable house and go out into the miserable downpour and risk getting soaked, just to save some money?

And then I got another message about the sale, and got reminded of just how awesome of a sale it was, and decided to put the effort in. 

Just my luck, it stopped raining while I was walking to the store. And it stayed dry until I got home. So it was worth it, after all. No rain and amazing deals.

I got so many things that I couldn't easily put them all into one picture, so divided them up into a few different pictures.

So first, protein. I'm not sure what drew me to the store more, the proteins or the produce. They both were awesomely priced.

Everything had a limit of 3. Either 3 kilos or 3 packages when each item weighed more than a kilo.

Growing up, I hated white meat chicken, because I only ever had overcooked dried out gross white meat. What I enjoyed was dark meat, specifically thighs and legs. When I became an adult, they were stuff I bought semi regularly, because I felt like that they made something feel like a nice and presentable meal. 

That all stopped, however, when I did my calculations about how much meat actually costs per pound, once you factor in the bones, and realized that chicken thighs and legs are pretty much half bone, so you really are paying twice as much for them as you think you actually are. I decided that they would no longer be on my regular rotation of groceries that I bought. I instead bought white meat, which is pure meat, and I learned to cook properly so it isn't gross, dried out, and overcooked, but rather, quite delicious.

I still like thighs, though, but because of how much is thrown out, I only buy them when they're extremely on sale. I do buy wings, which also have a large percent of bone, because they are generally only a third as expensive as thighs, or less, so even factoring in the bones it's a worthwhile buy. 

So, of course I was excited when I saw that thighs were on sale. Typically they go for $3.25 a pound, but they were on sale for $2.20. Still not extremely cheap, but worth it. So I got 3 packages.

Then there was beef tongue. Tongue is a delicacy in my culture and it is one I haven't had in years because it is ridiculously expensive usually (over $8 per pound). This store had tongue on sale as cheap as I buy chicken breast on sale- $2.60 per pound! I bought 3 and currently have some cooking up for guests.

Beef chuck is another favorite here, even the tougher and cheaper cuts of meat. I figured out a hack that has saved me money with this. I take the cheapest cuts of meat and pressure cook it until soft, then I slice it and use it as I would minute steak or stew meat, like in stir fries or goulash. Because of the pressure cooking it gets soft enough to be much more versatile. But even the cheaper cuts of beef often cost $3.90-$4.50 a pound, so when I see at $3.25 it is stock up time (as it is pure meat, and even slightly more expensive than chicken breast at that price, it is still a relatively cheap protein). This store had beef chuck for $2.60 a pound so I bought 3 to add to my collection in my freezer.

I like making tilapia/St. Peter's fish, and I appreciate that locally the fillets come individually packaged, so I can defrost just one or two at a time, or as many as I need, and don't need to open an entire large package if I just need a few servings. They usually cost $3.75 a pound (and I do buy them at that price because even then its decent since it is pure protein) but were on sale at $3.10 a pound, so I bought 3 kilos worth.

Then there was the milk, cottage cheese, and quark cheese. Usually packages of milk cost $1.47 per liter bag, cottage cheese is $1.60 per package, and $1.35 for quark. The sale was $1.11 for each of them, so I bought 3 each.

Then there were the veggies. Nearly all the veggies were $0.37 per pound, when they've been $0.65 a pound or more lately, so I bought 6.6 lbs/3 kilos of each. The one exception was butternut squash and tomatoes which were still decently priced, so I got some of them as well.

Fruit are more expensive than produce lately. You never find any fruit, other than oranges or melon, below $1, but usually they are $1.30 per pound or more. The store was selling all their fruit for $0.50 per pound which is unbelievably cheap, including kiwi, but unfortunately they were all out of kiwi, but I bought 6.6 lbs/3 kilos of each.

And that's it.

If I had done this shop at a normal store not on sale, this shop would have likely cost twice as much. I'm so glad I pushed myself to shop even though the weather was yucky and I was tired. This wasn't something I would have wanted to miss.

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