my trip to Food Bazaar yesterday

 I wanted to make chicken paprikash and I wanted mashed potatoes to go with that. So I went to Food Bazaar because they were supposed to have 10 lbs on sale for $4. I didn't see that, but 10 lbs is heavy anyway. I got 5 lbs for $2.50.

It was too crowded and everyone was pushing around empty carts and leaving carts everywhere. I survived.

I bought so much stuff I usually wouldn't. Like korean rice cakes, genoa salami, provolone, leeks. The leeks had a price on their sign that didn't make sense and then they were expensive. I spent over $5 on leeks. I got buttermilk for my mashed potatoes.

They had a lot of Mexican stuff I didn't notice before like cueritos (pickled pig skin) and huitlacoche. 

There are no deals

 I don't update that much because there's nothing to talk about. And the Wall Street Journal covered why. There just aren't any deals out there anymore.

I am going to go buy 5 lbs of potatoes today for $2.

"Ohh, that saved you a lot!" -the cashier at Brooklyn Harvest Market

 I went today before the blizzard. I got 4 2-liter bottles of Coke products, 4 10-oz bricks of Cafe Bustelo, 2 jars of Skippy peanut butter, 2 bags of McCain frozen french fries, and 1 lb of Galbani mozzarella. That would have been just over $50, but I paid $21.

The pop was 4/$5 instead of $1.5 each. The coffee was $1.98 each instead of $4.99. The french fries were $1.50 instead of $5.19. The cheese was $2 instead of $6.49. The peanut butter was supposed to be $3.79 but was $2 and then I had a coupon.

I ate some of the beer-coated french fries for lunch and they were the best frozen french fries I ever had.

I forgot to get eggs or milk, just like I did when I went to Ozzie's yesterday. I can never make eggnog.

Grocery Sales for the First Friday of Lent!

I hope I see some fish! I have been stocking up on canned fishes. Which will also be good if coronavirus wipes out food supply chains. I will already have lots of canned food.

Green Corner: They didn't update their circular, but they are celebrating. This is the top of last week's circular.

Food Bazaar: Instant mashed potatoes are on sale. I am going to make gnocchi tomorrow, so maybe I'll go get them. I don't really know what a good price is for them, but they're on sale so it must be better than normal. I was hoping for a good sale on fish sticks but there is only a bad sale. Potatoes are $1.5 for 5 lbs, so maybe I'll go today and get whole potatoes and instant mashed potatoes.

Western Beef: Barilla pasta is $1/box. Barilla has more of the interesting shapes so it might be worth it to go for orzo or ditalini. The mashed potatoes are on sale here too but I don't even know if they are cheaper than Food Bazaar because I forgot how much they were there. $2 for 13.5 ounces here. Grapefruit is 3/$2. It's not on sale, but they have big jars of pickled hot cherry peppers and regular red peppers that are $4 for 2 lbs or so, which is a great price and I will get those if I go.

Bravo: I haven't shopped here in quite a while. It got gentrified like C-Town, but is always worse than C-Town. There's not really anything on sale there this week.

C-Town: I went there yesterday and the cashier tried to ring up my romaine ($0.99/lb) as green leaf lettuce ($2.49/lb) and then I spent more money than I expected so I thought it was still on my receipt. It wasn't, but it was still stressful so I'm unhappy. Anyway, the sales:

Asparagus is $2/lb. Galbani mozzarella is $4/lb. A fennel is $2.

Key Food: Polly-o mozzarella is $4 here. A pound of mushrooms is $3. I still have a pound of mushrooms from a week ago, but maybe I'll eat them so I can buy more. Here, 26.7 oz of mashed potatoes are $3, which seems better than Food Bazaar and Western Beef.

Pre-Thanksgiving Sales

This week of grocery sales is the last full week before Thanksgiving, so they will be gearing up. (The next batch will end on Thanksgiving.) I'm going to start with the Associated in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens because I am going to go live there for the weekend.

Associated: Five pounds of potatoes for $1.50. Cabbage is 39¢/lb. 2-liter Coke products are $1.25. This speaks for itself.

A one pound bag of black or kidney beans is 79¢.

Green Corner: nothing good

Ozzie's didn't update again.

Bravo: $2.50 for mozzarella or ricotta. Cracker barrel cheeses too. I need asiago.

Key Food: Their circulars are in pdfs these days, which I prefer.

A turkey is 29¢/lb if you spend $50. I want one even though I do not have Midnight Thanksgiving anymore. A ham is 99¢/lb. Broccoli rabe is $1.99/lb. Avocados are 3/$2 which is the lowest price I think I've ever seen. Pecorino romano is $5/lb. Frozen vegetables are $1.50. Eighteen packs of certain beers would be $9 but Key Food is always a scam about that.

C-Town: Broccoli rabe is also $1.99/lb here. Canned clams are $1.69. I'm not interested in anything else because I'm still thinking about that turkey.

The sales for the next couple days

I was in Pittsburgh this weekend so I haven't looked at grocery circulars yet. I came back with hatch chiles and a loaf of bread I like for sandwiches.

C-Town: Ajax dish soap is 69¢. Nice. Scalfani crushed tomatoes are $1.50. I can't remember if I like that brand.

Bravo: nothing

Key Food: Five pound bags of apples are 48¢/lb. 16 oz mushrooms are $2.98.

Ozzie's: they didn't even update it

Green Corner: They updated, but have nothing good.

Food Bazaar: 10 pounds of potatoes are $2.99. Nothing else is good, but if you are carrying 10 pounds it would be hard to buy much else anyway.

I'm done with Gala Foods.

I bought 7 items. Four of them rang up wrong. I caught 2 of them. That sucks.

The pork butts and sour cream rang up correctly ($0.99/lb, $1.69).

Red potatoes rang up as $3.69 (supposed to be $2.99) and red onions as $1.99 for a 2 lb bag (supposed to be $0.99). I caught those.

Cabbage rang up as $0.59/lb (supposed to be $0.39) and mushrooms as $1.99 (supposed to be $1.79). I noticed that when I got home.

I need to go to Trade Fair

Since my last post, I talked about Heinz BBQ sauces in an interview to get into grad school, then I got in. Good ol' groceries. And then I packed a sandwich of peanut butter, pickles, and barbecue sauce every day.

And I made a friend who moved to Astoria who told me about Trade Fair and now I need to go there. They have 10 pounds of onions on sale for $2. They sell a 32 pound BOX of oil.

I hope I don't end up biking over the Pulaski Bridge with 42 pounds of food I don't need. Heaven and my roommates know that I do not need more oil.

A Pittsburgh price for pop

It's not often I can get 2 liters of pop in New York for under $1. But Associated was selling it for $0.89 if I spent $25. And I did because I wanted beef stew and fish tacos.

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.