Notes on Grocery Prices for the 4th of July

Key: WB = Western Beef, KF = Key Food, CT = CTown, FB = Food Bazaar, J = Jesus, A = Associated

Hot Dog Buns: 12 = $1.5 WB, 8 = $1 or $1.39 CT, 12=$1.5 KF
Hot Dogs: 8 chicken $1.79 CT, 8 beef $2.5 WB, chicken $1.25 WB, beef $3 KF, beef $3 A
Cheez Whiz:
Bacon Bits: $1.79 KF
Sour Cream: $2 WB, $2 A, $2 KF
Carrots:
Daikon:
Vinegar:
Oil: 96 oz $5 WB
Eggs:
Celery: $1.5 WB
Beets:
Chick Peas: $1/can KF,
Parsley:
Basil:
Penne: $1/lb A
Mozzarella: $3.49/lb WB, $5/lb KF
Tomatoes: $0.88/lb WB,
Cucumbers: $0.66/A, $.66 KF
Avocados: $2 KF
Bread: $0.66/loaf WB
Water melon: $0.49/lb at WB, $0.49/lb A
Corn: $0.4/ear WB, $0.4/ear A
Charcoal: 18lbs $5 WB
Aluminum pans: $0.33 WB
Ice: $3 16lbs WB
Apple Juice: $1.88 WB, $2 KF
Orangeade:

A sad postscript to the Fresca tale + Party Plans

The last two times I've gone to C-Town looking for Fresca, they've been out :(

But I'll move on. I'm having a 4th of July party in 6 days and making a lot of food. It's going to require all my grocery skills to minimize costs. I'm going to make hot dogs 3 ways, plus hot dog salad, beet salad, chick pea/orzo salad, pesto pasta salad, and probably some other things. Probably pimento cheese. I don't know what the three ways of hot dogs will be yet. Definitely baked potato dogs. Maybe taco dogs? Banh mi dogs?

Expansion of Grocery Capacity in Williamsburg Heights*

Two of my local grocery stores are expanding a bunch. C-Town added a back room that has all its beer and snacks and pop. That's why I told them to start getting Fresca. Where the pop used to be, they now have bread. Where the bread and snacks used to be, they now have freezer and coolers and some cheese. I haven't eyed that stuff that much yet.

Associated is also expanding. Who knew the building next to them was unused? They moved into that. I can't even tell how it will all be laid out, but yesterday I got a bit lost trying to discover where they put the eggs. The medium eggs were $1.69, which is hardly better than Key Food now. I bought medium eggs to keep uncooked and large eggs to have a dozen hard boiled ones on hand. I also bought 1.25 lbs of jalapeno peppers ($1.49/lb) to pickle, but my jar only holds about 0.75 lbs so now I have to use up all these hot peppers and don't know what to do.

*Williamsburg Heights is what I've taken to calling the areas around the Graham and Grand stops of the L. When I moved here, I wondered if this was East Williamsburg or Bushwick. As more people moved to the Montrose, Morgan, Jefferson, and Dekalb stops, meaning actual Bushwick, it became clear that if I said East Williamsburg I would not convey my location. So I went back to saying Williamsburg (my zip code is Williamsburg's). One of the good things these hurricanes we get has done is give me flood zone maps. So Williamsburg Heights is the area that is not in any sort of flood zone around the Graham and Grand stops of the L. It hasn't caught on yet, but it might as well.

A Fresca tale

C-Town added a new room (which I'll write about later) and has room for Fresca now. So I asked them to carry it. Then I went to the beach and drunktweeted them a picture of the Waist Watchers fake Fresca we were drinking. So they got it and tweeted me back that it was in and on sale until Thursday.

When I went to buy it, the price rang up without a sale. So I tweeted my receipt and said they forgot to tell the cash registers about the sale. C-Town said "I owe you a Fresca" and asked for my address to have it delivered. That was funny, so I allowed it. I also said I'd be home all day because I tried using my key as a bottle opener and I broke it. Later that day when they delivered Fresca, there was a surprise bottle opener/corkscrew thrown in! Wow.

Friday is new grocery circular day.

I got my tabs open. Now let's see what's good this week.

Key Food:
Diet Coke etc is $4/4. They include Fresca in the list, but every time Key Food puts Fresca on sale, they clear the shelves of it and only have Coke and Sprite. I actually haven't seen Fresca there for ages. I have a good Fresca story for another post.

Hunts BBQ sauce for a dollar. I go through phases of loving bbq sauce. I might as well get some.

Only two things at Key Food worth getting.

C-Town:
Beef is $2.69/lb. Maybe I'll eat raw meat this week. Tomatoes are $0.99/lb! I just bought some yesterday for more than that. I'll eat all the tomatoes. I like them. Hunt's BBQ sauce is $1 here too. Actually, $0.99. I'll save a penny. Diet Mug Root Beer is $1 again! I went in yesterday to get $1 Diet Mug and they were clean out, so I got cream soda. I like that too.

Food Bazaar (I really only care about the seafood department here):
Lobster's $6/lb. I never made or ate a lobster. I probably won't now either. I also never made or ate a whole fish. I should just eat smelts.

Western Beef:
I can get a bag of chicken legs for $0.69/lb. It's a 10-15 lb bag though. I'd need to have a lot of people over. I can't inflict 10 lbs of chicken on my roommates. Wait, I can. One just left the country or 2 weeks. I can throw away all her stuff!

I'm sick of this. Nothing else was good at Western Beef. Nothing was good at Associated.

Tahini

I never bought tahini before because I think it's probably expensive. Yesterday I bought 16 oz of Krinos tahini for $4.99 at Western Beef. That was cheaper than I expected. But I don't know. How much do other people pay for tahini? My siblings were no help.

R.I.P. to my Gorgonzola

Yesterday I went to Trader Joe's and bought a lot of stuff and nothing to really cook. I also spent more money than I ever do at regular stores.

When I got home, I quit unpacking my groceries halfway through. Then my new roommate's dog stole my gorgonzola and ran all around with it! He's good at smelling things. I threw it away :(

Greek Yogurt

I went back to Key Food to buy more cottage cheese because at $2 for 16 oz, it's the cheapest I can find. And because since my first post, I've found that I like it a lot and eat it a lot. Even though I haven't figured out anything to do with it.

Key Food at Fage Greek yogurt on sale for $2.5 for 17 oz, so I figured I'd try that. I've never eaten it before. The price seemed good.

It didn't impress me. I don't need it anymore. Unless I change my mind soon.

Reminder: Quit Buying Pasta Sauce

You're getting ripped off and it's worst for you and it tastes worse.  Buy crushed tomatoes (with 2 ingredients) instead. I like Colavita and Dei Fratelli, depending where I'm shopping.

1. Jarred sauce is a rip-off. Crushed tomatoes cost $1.67 or $1 for a 28 oz can. Pasta sauce costs $2 or $3. And for what? For the extra ingredients.

2. It's worse for you. My Colavita crushed tomatoes have about 6% of my daily sodium allowance per serving. A jar of pasta sauce has a lot more. Newman's Own Sockarooni has 19% of your sodium.  Cabernet Marinara has 25%. Roasted Tomato & Garlic has 21%. You can always add salt and salty grated cheese, but there's no way you're going to add this much!

3. Crushed tomatoes taste better. And you can doctor them up however you want. I know some people who doctor up jarred sauce. WHY?! You can doctor crushed tomatoes and not start from expensive sodium juice! Colavita crushed tomatoes are so good you can eat them plain. You can spread them on toast. I once made pizza and my pizza sauce was undoctored crushed tomatoes and everyone asked how I made the sauce taste so fresh.

Key Food Sucks on Thursdays

I was going to go to Key Food, but it sucks on Thursday evenings because they take down all their sale signs. Last week I heard an old lady sassing the manager. He said they have 3,000 items and need to take them down early. The other stores somehow manage. Especially since Key Food has them down about 4 hours before the store closes.

Grocery Transport by Bike

One of my bikes, Bike Cherepko, has a basket. So when I buy groceries with him, that's what I use.

When I take the other bike, I have always looped my bag over my wrist. It works pretty well. I finally bought a backpack though because I have a shopping problem, especially with Asos. In the past 2 days, I have tried shopping with the backpack twice. Yesterday I went to Trader Joe's to buy dried dill and dried oregano. Today I went to Western Beef to buy a big Tapatio, some dill mustard, a tomato, and a can of mushrooms.

Now that I've tried both ways, I think I like the bag on my wrist. Things on your back poke you. I think I can carry about as much, though I haven't tested that yet. The wrist way doesn't make you sweaty all over your back.

Malt Vinegar

I asked C-Town to carry malt vinegar, preferably Heinz. They got some weird brand and told me it would be in yesterday. So I'm going to go look for it today. I like malt vinegar, but I'm not sure what I should eat it on. I will probably start by putting it on everything. Maybe I can put it on cottage cheese? (I've been eating cottage cheese plain so far. It's good).

Malt vinegar can be good for salads. Marinades. Maybe it can finish a dish? I will figure it out.