Shopping cart

I got my niece a buggy for Christmas. She likes it. Now she can like groceries as much as all her relatives.

I'm hungry. What's on sale?

I'm going to look through this week's grocery circulars and then maybe go buy food and eat it. I started by eating the rest of my cantaloupe from my last post. It was the best cantaloupe I can ever remember eating.

Key Food: $2 cantaloupe. I might buy more. Peaches are $0.99/lb. I like peaches too. Those are the only good prices in the store though, so I'll probably just go somewhere else.

C-Town: Eggplant is $0.79/lb! That's the cheapest I've seen it. I'll make more of that. Vine tomatoes for $1.29/lb looked good too. I haven't eaten many tomato sandwiches this summer.

Associated: They have $2 cantaloupes too. Their tomatoes are $1.49, so maybe I have to make the special trip to C-Town. And Starkist tuna is $0.69/can.

Western Beef:  $0.99/lb tomatoes. Spoke too soon. And avocados (both kinds) for $0.88 each. They have eggplant for $0.79/lb too, but it's so far away.

Well, the only thing I can think of eating is tomatoes this week.

Food Bazaar was so cheap!

Mussels are $1/lb! Cantaloupe is $1 each! Pints of cherry tomatoes are $1 each! Limes are a dime! Peaches are $0.99/lb!

I went to two stores today.

C-Town started carrying Muir Glen tomatoes, which I've been wanting to try. I got a 28 oz can of diced ones for $2 and ate some for lunch. They're pretty good.

Associated is selling Polly-O ricotta for $2.89 for 32 oz. That's a very good price, so I got it even though I don't know what to do with it really.

Let's see what's on sale for the week of the Kentucky Derby and Cinco de Mayo

Not just Cinco de Mayo, but Cinco de Fry-o and Cinco de Pie-o too.

Key Food changed its website! Cottage cheese is $2.  Sour cream is $1.69. Cantaloupe is 3/$5. Old El Paso flour tortillas are $1.50.

Food Bazaar: Avocados are $1. Cantaloupe is $1.50. Clams are $4/dozen. Tomatillos and jalapenos are $0.79/lb. That's half off a typical good price.

C-Town: Avocados are 4/$5. Sour cream is $1.50. Bananas are $0.49/lb.

Associated: Website won't work.

Western Beef: They want me to download a new version of Flash or something, and I'm not.

Grocery Round Up

Food Bazaar - last week they ran out of mussels when I tried to buy them the second time so I bought clams. They were $5/doz. This week they're on sale for $4. I don't go to Food Bazaar for anything but sea creatures because their line situation is a fiasco.

Western Beef - Don't bother

C-Town - bananas are $0.59/lb. Bumble Bee tuna is $0.88. Anything under $1 is good for tuna. Diet Mug Root Beer is $1.25. So are other Pepsi products. A 1 lb bag of sweet potato fries is $1.69. That's not much more than a sweet potato and you don't have to do the work.

Key Food: Gatorade is a dollar. That will be useful if I drink as much this weekend as I did last weekend. 32 oz of yogurt for $2 isn't bad. A sponge mop if $6. I need a mop.

Associated: Diet Mug root beer is on sale here too. Deli ham is $4/lb. I like that.

Lime Shortage

Uh oh.

A sudden and unprecedented shortage of limes has sent nationwide wholesale prices soaring from around $25 for a 40-pound carton in early February to more than $100 today, panicking lovers of Mexican food and drinks — and the restaurant and bar owners who cater to them. The culprits are weather, disease and even Mexican criminals.

Mussels!

They're on sale again. THIS time I will make them. I better make some friends.

$2.49 for 2 lbs. Can't beat that with a stick.

Grocery Circular Round Up

C-Town: Diet Mug Root Beer is 3/$4. Greek yogurt is $3 for 17 oz.

Associated: Starkist Tuna is $0.89/can. Pizza rolls are $3. Powerade is $0.79. Bread crumbs are $1.69. I'm all out of those.

Western Beef: Chicken legs are $0.49/lb. I still have some in my freezer though from when they were $0.39.

Key Food: Nothing worth noting.

Here is the story of why I didn't make mussels last week when they were on sale again.

I don't have any friends.

Grocery Circular Round Up 3/14

I can't even really go shopping. I'm getting a new roommate so I have to eat all my accumulated groceries so he will have room. For the first time, I think I'm going to have 2 roommates who like to cook and use the kitchen. I hope I survive.

On the other hand, both the Ides of March and St. Patrick's Day are upon us. I might have to cook appropriate foods.

Key Food: Cabbage is $0.29/lb. I still have cabbage though. It doesn't go bad very quickly. Potatoes are $0.30/lb if you buy a 5lb bag.  Oh no! Key Food raised the price of its store brand cottage cheese from $2 to $2.19! I live on cottage cheese. I had some with dill in it for breakfast. Axelrod cottage cheese is still $2 though so I won't starve.

C-Town: I walked into C-Town last night, but they didn't have the diced tomatoes I wanted to buy to try before I buy a case of them from Amazon. Nevermind--I cannot own a case of diced tomatoes once I have to share a kitchen with another person. C-Town wants way more for potatoes than Key Food does. You can get Jif peanut butter for $2, which is a pretty good deal. I bought a ton of peanut butter at Key Food on February 23 when I was drunk though, so that won't do me any good. They have Hunt's diced tomatoes for $1. I guess I could eat those. Buttermilk is only $2 here. That's the best price I've seen since Trader Joe's. Key Food wants $2.50. But C-Town wants $2.5 for Axelrod cottage cheese.

Associated: I don't really make special trips to Associated anymore. It has become my default store. I lived here for years without having a default store. And there's nothing worth going out of my way for this week.

Western Beef: They want $4/lb for mussels! Ha! I'll go to Food Bazaar and get them for $1.25/lb. There's nothing worth traveling here for this week.

Food Bazaar: As discussed previously, mussels. I only make a trip here for seafood.

Mussels!

I'm really going to do it this time. Mussels are back on sale at Food Bazaar for $2.49 for 2 lbs. Mussel season is in the winter, I think. That's when they're cheap and things are usually cheap when they are in season and expensive when they're not. That's why you can get peaches and tomatoes for $0.79/lb in the summer. It's a good way to shop.

If I make mussels on Friday, I will make moules frites because it is Lent and that is good. But if I make them another day while they are on sale, I might make dumb paella. Dumb paella is mussels and kielbasa and a grain or couscous. I'll probably use couscous. You can chop up peppers and onions and stuff to season the couscous. You don't want it too plain, though the mussel juice and kielbasa fat do a good job of flavoring it.

Key Food won the most grocery dollars from me last year

American Express sent me my year end summary.

I thought I went to Associated more and more, which is true. But it seems to be mostly at the expense of C-Town.

I spent about $130 each at Food Bazaar, Western Beef, and Stop 'n Shop, which is the grocery store at the beach.

The only place I spent more at than Key Food was Time Warner Cable.

I got 3% back on my these grocery purchases. I like my credit card.

Grocery Circular Round Up

Mussels are back on sale at Food Bazaar! I'm going to get them this time. $2.49 for 2 lbs. Eggplant is $1/lb, so maybe I'll make eggplant parmesan too.

Western Beef: Eggplant is $1/lb here too. And I need a new shopping bag because my current one got a hole.

Associated: Salt is cheap. I need that. $0.59 for a container. Lasagna is $1.50. The other day I cut all the lasagna noodles in half lengthwise to see what it would be like to eat big pasta. I liked it. Jumbo shells are on sale too. I've never made them. Spikes Salsa is buy one get one free. I wonder how much it costs. I never heard of that brand, but I like salsa.

C-Town: They don't have anything to tempt me this week.

Key Food: Tomato juice is $1.50 a can. That's good to have around. Ricotta Salata is $7/lb. I've had that on my shopping list for 6 months at least.

Grocery Circular Round Up

I never got mussels last week :(

C-Town: London Broil is $3/lb. Nothing else worth getting.

Key Food: 8 oz of mushrooms for $1. Cottage cheese is $2.

Associated: London Broil is $3/lb here too. C-Town's meat might look a bit better. But Associated is closer and has other things I want more. Like some table salt for $0.33! When was the last time you got anything for $0.33?

Western Beef: Skippy peanut butter is $2. Hormel ham is $3/lb! I love Hormel ham!

Shrimp is more expensive than lobster these days

$8.99/lb vs. $6.99

Grocery circular round up

Food Bazaar - I wanted shrimp to be on sale, but they're not. Mussels are 2 lbs for $2.49 though. Wow. Clams are $4 for a dozen. And you can get a pound of bacon for $3.

Western Beef - You can get a 7-10 lb bag of chicken drumsticks for $0.69/lb, but I got the chicken quarters last week for $0.39/lb so I'm stocked. Maybe I'll get a bag of cooked shrimp for $6. That's probably cheaper than I'll find elsewhere.

Key Food: London broil is $3/lb. Maybe I'll try making steak again. Key Food wants $6 for 2 lbs of mussels. And they make fun of you for buying them there.

Associated doesn't have anything particularly worth going for.

At C-Town I'll get some Ronzoni pasta for $1. And diet mug root beer. And Luigi Vitelli whole wheat pasta for $1.50.

Grocery Circular Day

I ate all my food before going to Pittsburgh for Christmas, so now I have to replenish. This is my first grocery circular day (i.e. Friday) since I got back. Food Bazaar is on a Th-We schedule and Key Food will show you next week's a day early, but I don't look at them all til Friday.

So what should I buy? I'm going to look at all the circulars. Key Food has quartered chicken legs for $0.69/lb. They're good for an excuse to keep the oven on a long time. Good in squash soup too. Cottage cheese for $2 sounds good. Wasa crackers would be good, even if they're not on sale. Diet Mug root beer (and other pepsi products) are 4 for $5. That's pretty good.

C-Town's chicken legs are $1/lb, so I won't get them there. C-Town had nothing else I want.

I didn't see anything good in Associated's circular, but I'll probably go there when I don't have anywhere in mind because it generally is the cheapest.

Wow! Western Beef has chicken legs for $0.39/lb. You have to buy at least 10 lbs though. The add even says "Wow!" which is how I feel.