My Really Awesome Scratch and Dent Store Haul

Hi everyone, I know it's been a while. Been a bit down lately, low energy and not feeling so great, so I apologize for not posting as often as I should. I have a bunch of good posts planned, and hope to get them written and posted very soon. But in the meantime, I wanted to share this haul from the scratch and dent store last week. 

I haven't been to a scratch and dent store in some time because it isn't convenient with a car, since there's no parking on the street where the store is, and it is just a two lane street. Last week my daughter was with me and we shopped together, and then she waited in the store while I went to get the car and drove there, and quickly so as to not bug the people in the street behind me, she and one of the store workers there threw the groceries into the car and then she hopped in so we could stop disrupting the flow of traffic.

But that, while a ridiculous way to shop, was still a worthwhile shopping trip, since I was able to get so  many goodies for a fraction of their regular price, and many times quite cheaper than the alternative I generally would buy. For example, most of the products were from an organic grocery line, which is much pricier than usual. These products were generally much cheaper than the non organic versions. Best of all, much of these are items I usually buy anyhow, so it wasn't just "ooh, that's a good price for that item, let's buy a bunch of things that I don't usually buy, because they're cheaper than they usually are" when they aren't cheap products even when discounted, and/or since they aren't items you generally use they'll just sit in your house unused. There were three exceptions to this, which I'll mention below.

So first off, they had boxes of cereal for $2.14 each. My girls are very picky when it comes to cereal and pretty much only want to eat one of two types (and only that brand- fortunately a grocery store brand), and they had those for $2.15 instead of the usual $2.85- $3.80. Additionally, they had gluten free cereal at the same price, which is wonderful, because it always is quite expensive, usually $5.70 or more per box. So I basically bought as many as I could carry in the small store shopping cart.

One of the things I bought that isn't generally on my shopping list is guar gum. However, as someone gluten free, xanthan gum is regularly on my shopping list since it acts as a binder in gluten free baking. But I've read that you can use guar gum instead of xanthan gum. It was being sold 1 for $2.85, 3 for $7.14, making it or $2.40 each instead of $8 a package for guar gum or $9 for xanthan gum. I bought 3. I can't wait to experiment with it and see if it lives up to the hype, but at that price, it is worth a try, for sure.

Nutritional yeast is a favorite in our house to use to make non dairy cheese sauce. Usually it costs $7.14 per package, but these were being sold 1 for $3.57, 3 for $8.57 making them $2.44. Unfortunately they only had 4, so I got 3 for the deal price and one for the "expensive" price that is half the regular price.

Another item I bought that I'd never purchased before is this gluten free pseudograin called fonio.  I had never heard of it before, let alone purchased it, but they were selling packages at a decently low price, 1 for $1.71, 3 for $4.29 or $1.43 each. (Upon writing this post, I did some googling and found that it is usually sold for $5.14 for that package when you can even find it). I decided to experiment and buy two packages (that was all they had... but fortunately the sale worked even if you didn't have 3 of the same item as long as it was things with the same deal). I was very pleasantly surprised by it, and I plan on posting about it, and definitely plan on buying it again, even at full price if need be.

I decided to try getting tapioca pearls being sold 1 for $1.71, 3 for $4.29 or $1.43 each (they usually cost $3.43) as part of the same sale on sets of three instead of the third fonio package. My daughters like boba tea and want to try making it at home, so I figured why not try.

Sorghum flour, a gluten free flour that is usually quite expensive, but is a good flour for baking was 1 for $1.71, 3 for $4.29 or $1.43 each, instead of its usual $4.29, so I bought 3 packages.

Coconut extract is something I've never purchased before. But I've been trying to make healthier drinks for me (more on that in a future post) and figured coconut extract might be a good flavoring for that. Not sure. This was the biggest gamble of everything I purchased. But it was 1 for $1.71, 3 for $4.29 or $1.43 each (my online searching tells me bottles are usually $4.86), so I decided to try it out. Worst comes to worst (not quite worst), we'll just have coconut cakes and cookies.

I love onion powder, but it is really hard to find locally, and it always clumps up. They had them 1 for $1.71, 3 for $4.29 or $1.43 each. When and if you can find it locally, you can get it for $1.71 sometimes, but this organic package usually goes for $4.29. So basically a drop cheaper than usual... but so far not clumping, so that is wonderful.

Rice oh rice. I remember when I was excited to see it for $0.95 per package, because $1.42 was the regular price for a package.... but now the cheapest rice is between $2-$2.57, so seeing it 1 for $1.71, 3 for $4.29 or $1.43 each that was a good enough price to buy 3.  

They had these cute little jars of pitted black olives for $0.95 each. I don't know how they compare to the regular olive prices exactly, but definitely cheaper. I bought 3 for my olive loving son.

Apple juice isn't something I regularly buy, but only if it is a good price. They were $1.14 for one, $2.86 for 3, or $0.95 each instead of $4.86 per bottle. I bought 6. (I'll write in another post what I did with them.)

Last but not least, we go through lemon juice really quickly in our house, and it is something I usually can count on finding at the scratch and dent store, so I was loathe to fork over $2.82 per bottle when we ran out recently. So when I saw them $1.14 for one, $2.86 for 3, or $0.95 each I bought 3.

Anyhow, so that was my shop, and I've already been enjoying the heck out of these purchases. It was really exciting to get these goodies and not pay so much for them. Now I just need to figure out a better parking situation so I can go back to this store soon.