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.

Thanksgiving shopping

Other than a free turkey if you spend $150 (how you do that without a car, I don't know), Associated doesn't seem to even realize it's Thanksgiving in this week's circular.

Western Beef hasn't updated their circular page of the website. C-Town's is broken.

I bought a turkey yesterday at Key Food. Key Food takes Thanksgiving seriously. I end up getting most of my stuff there every year. This year I didn't buy the smallest turkey. First time I did that I think. I got one that's 15.65 lbs. I'm going to supplement it with some more turkey legs. I think about thirty people are coming to Midnight Thanksgiving.

In non-Thanksgiving news, Associated has my olive oil for $18 if you spend $15. Too late, I got it at Key Food last week. Bravo has cans of pineapple juice for $1.69. I'm going to stock up on that.

At long last! Olive Oil!

On July 10 I wrote about needing a big can of olive oil and waiting for one to go on sale. And on November 15, I will FINALLY get one. Key Food has Filippo Berio extra virgin on sale for $20.

I've been using Trader Joe's olive oil in the mean time. That's good too. And I did find a big can of pure olive oil which is useful for a lot of things.

Peanut Butter

I was worried I'd have to remember to go to C-Town today to get some Jif peanut butter while it's on sale 2/$5, but I just read the Key Food circular for next week and they have that same sale. I'm safe.

I eat a lot of peanut butter and bacon bit sandwiches lately. The dog is very envious.