(Happy Throwback Thursday! Given how expensive food has gotten lately, I thought a little shopping reminder would be in order. This piece, which originally ran on Feb. 7, 2021, is one in an occasional series of articles focusing on saving serious dough. A little background can be read here.)
The “locavore” movement is based on the idea of eating only foods grown within a 100-mile radius of where you live. I’ve got my own version, which I call being a “frugalvore.” It’s pretty simple: You shop mostly (or completely) based on what’s on sale that week.
This isn’t exactly a new idea. Plenty of people shop that way their whole lives. But it might be new to you if you grew up in a home where no one read the supermarket ads, created menus and then worked to get the most bang for each grocery buck.
Frugalvorism both simplifies and complicates your approach to eating. On the one hand, it’s easier to shop because you plan menus around that week’s most affordable foodstuffs.
However, if you’re the kind of person who always shopped by grabbing whatever looked good, then you’ll need to rethink your supermarket habits.
Fortunately, it’s fairly simple. Not always easy, but simple.
Read the ads
Again, the point of being a frugalvore is to buy what’s on sale whenever possible. The concept of a “loss leader” is an irresistible price that gets you through the door, at which point you’re likely to buy other stuff. Simple, and effective, unless:
- You’re frugal, and
- You have enough time to cherry-pick deals in more than one place.
We shop mostly at one chain because of its overall best prices. But we keep an eye on the other store’s ads and if there’s a truly skookum deal on chicken thighs or bananas, we might head over. The two retailers are fairly close together so it’s not exactly out of our way.
Maybe you’ve got more than two options. Lucky you! If you don’t have time to read and cross-reference four or five (or more) stores, then obviously you’d go with the one(s) with consistently good prices.
Speaking of which….
Make a price book
Some people can keep average prices in their heads. When they see a “sale” price on cold cereal or canned tomatoes that they know is actually only a few cents off the normal price, it’s not the time to stock up.
If that’s you, then skip this section.
But if you find it hard to remember what Rice Krispies or green beans should cost, create a spreadsheet or loose-leaf binder of the general cost of the foods you eat most often. Or download an app. (Don’t use one so I can’t recommend any, but do a search for “price book app” and read the user reviews.)
Create a menu
Don’t just read the ads. Ask yourself: What’s on sale that we like to eat?
Here’s where the Internet comes in handy. Look up recipes and/or Googlewhack each week’s loss leaders (plus the contents of your larder) to come up with affordable, delicious menus.
The good news is that shopping and cooking can actually be fun, and you needn’t spend countless hours doing either one (especially if you Googlewhack “meals under 20 minutes”). Even if you never become a superb cook, the typical person can feed himself (and anyone else who lives there) quite well with a relatively small outlay.
Use the sales
Keep in mind that some items are discounted seasonally, such as frozen foods in March, eggs in April, dairy items in June, canned goods in September and turkeys in November. Non-seasonal deals are what make up most of a frugalvore’s cart.
Note: Not all sales are advertised. Look for “manager’s special” or “closeout” stickers on shelves. For example, in late December I saw a bin full of ramen for 10 cents a pack. While ramen isn’t the healthiest food on Earth, it makes an okay lunch now and then (especially if I add some vegetables and leftover chicken, if we have any). I bought more packages than I care to recall, but dropped lots of them off at my niece’s house and donated a bunch more to the food bank.
I have no idea why the ramen was that cheap. But I wasn’t going to turn my back on a 10-cent lunch.
Once we saw mango-flavored Jello being remaindered at a price I now can’t remember but which at the time struck us as pretty startling. We bought six or seven boxes of the stuff.
(Later a relative gave us a gallon of apple juice, which we dutifully drank as a tonic – until I got the idea of substituting it for the cold water when making that Jello. The result, which we called “mangle” Jello, amused us greatly.)
Some other places to look for unadvertised specials:
Dairy. Half-price milk means my homemade yogurt is even cheaper. We’ve also learned to look for “hand-picked eggs”: When some dozens are damaged, the employees make up new (and much cheaper) collections from the un-cracked cackleberries.
Baked goods. If there’s an in-store bakery, chances are you’ll be able to get day-old discounts on rolls, breads, cookies and the like.
Clearance/dented/discontinued bin. Sometimes this means seriously dented cans, which I judge via the USDA standard: Pass on any cans with dents so deep you can lay a finger in them. But some of the cans are only slightly affected. Other items found there are seasonal items at fire-sale prices, or a package that was slightly damaged. This is even more fun for us every first Tuesday of the month at Fred Meyer, when as over-55s we get 10 percent off Kroger brands. In other words, not only is that crushed-corner box of aluminum foil or slightly dinged can of tomatoes priced at half-off or better, we also get another 10 percent off. #FrugalNirvana
Meat. It’s perishable, so it’s frequently discounted. A while back DF stopped at Safeway for a special price on milk and bananas, through the JustForU program. To his shock, he found one-pound chubs of ground beef for 99 cents apiece. This was the 93 percent lean beef, too – not the fattier kind. More recently he was in Safeway and saw shank-end hams for 49 cents a pound; for a moment he thought a number had dropped off the sign, but that was the price and so he bought three. We’ve gotten ground turkey, bratwurst and other meats at fire-sale prices, too. Always plan to use or freeze discounted meat right away.
Use the sales, part 2
The true grocery cognoscenti know how to follow the “sales cycles.” Many popular items/brands go on sale about every 12 weeks (or sooner). If you know that your household goes through a box of cornflakes per week, then buy enough to get you through until the next sales cycle.
Obviously you wouldn’t refuse to buy a needed staple, especially if it’s one that goes on sale relatively rarely. If I’m out of pepper jack cheese, it’s unlikely that I’ll wait until the next sale cycle or loss-leader price. Of course, it’s also likely that I stocked up during the last big sale.
The accidental frugalvore
You might be a frugalvore and not know it. For example, maybe you’d written “whole fryers” on your shopping list – but once in the store you saw 99-cent-a-pound pork loin and changed gears.
You can get the chicken anyway if the price is good. But you could also rewrite some of that week’s menu and load up on pork loin (as much as will fit in your freezer). We found that 99-cent pork a couple of months ago – big ones, with very little fat – and DF cooked up the last one the other night. It was a delicious supper, with enough leftovers to make tacos for the next day’s lunch and then a pot of soup with boiling bag broth. We relished the price as much as the pork, because meat* is very expensive up here.
Miscellaneous frugalvore hacks
Obviously one article can’t list every possible frugal tip, but this handful should help.
Store loyalty cards. Get discounts with it. Download coupons to it. Earn points with it. DF uses the Just4U program through Safeway to get us decent prices on staples like milk and bananas, and when he earns enough Just4U points he can trade them in for certain grocery items.
Member discounts. I mentioned Senior Tuesday above, but there’s also Military Tuesday. Maybe other special days (first responders? teachers?) are offered in your stores.
Watch for promos. A free gallon of milk if you buy four boxes of cereal. A bottle of barbecue sauce with the purchase of certain meats. Buy one/get one free on whatever.
Branch out. CouponMom includes deals at dollar stores and supermarkets – so shop there. I’ve found discounted/last-chance bins in both types of emporia, which led to deals like a roll of plastic wrap for 50 cents and four-packs of toilet paper for a quarter. Groceries aren’t always about food, after all. But both emporia also put food items out as loss leaders, and in the case of dollar stores always have some pretty good deals, such as a pound and a half of macaroni for a buck.
Look for coupons. Fewer physical coupons exist but sometimes are available in tiny machines with blinking lights (aka “blinkies”), or are attached to products. You’re much more likely to be able to download them directly to your store card from the store’s website or from a site like CouponMom.com. Note: CouponMom.com does coupon/sales matchups for supermarkets, drugstores and dollar stores in every state. Let her do the work for you!
Earn rebates. CouponMom also matches Ibotta rebates to those coupon/sales deals. I’d also suggest downloading the Fetch Rewards and Shopkick apps, and earning points that way as well. Some of the deals are for free items, which I use either for holiday stockings/Easter baskets or donations to the food bank. You can trade the points for gift cards or cash.
(If you join, I’d be delighted if you used my referral links: For Shopkick, go to https://www.shopkick.com/ and fill in the referral code WIN358965; for Ibotta, visit https://ibotta.onelink.me/iUfE/1005cd3f? and use the referral code gtotprb; for Fetch Rewards, head over to https://www.FetchRewards.com and use the referral code E6CK1.)
Gradual changes
Is it easy to become (and remain) a frugalvore? Not always – and it definitely won’t be as easy as grabbing a precooked chicken or ordering takeout.
But keep in mind that until fairly recently people generally cooked most or all of their meals at home. Yes, we’re a busy nation. Sure, that rotisserie bird looks delicious – and, more to the point, it’s ready to eat.
However, those on tight budgets generally don’t have the luxury of spending the majority of their food dollars on prefab grub. And even those with some disposable income should consider frugalvorism at least some of the time. What we choose to buy and eat has consequences. Dollars spent on the priciest beef or the out-of-season tomatoes flown in from Israel are dollars that can’t support our long-term goals.
So try this mantra: If it’s not on sale, it’s not in my cart. Say it as often as you need to until frugalvorism becomes automatic. This isn’t penury. It’s prudence.
Readers: Who among you are frugalvores, even occasionally?
*We could get meat even cheaper if we went moose hunting. DF is old enough to qualify for a free hunting license. But he’s done his share of this in the past, and it’s bloody hard work (pun absolutely intended). We’ll buy our meat, thanks.
Related reading:
- Goal-oriented groceries
- 12 ways to save money on groceries
- Quarantine soup
- Looking back at the garden
I became (mostly) vegetarian a number of years ago) for reasons other than cost, but I find that eating grains, lentils, beans and rice (complete proteins, at least in combination) and other plant based foods is usually less expensive than most meats. Even using the Chinese approach of making meat a condiment in most meals, rather than the staple will help save on the cost of groceries. Living in an icebox likely does require more calorie dense foods than living in the desert, but still…
Always enjoy your articles and the thoughts and ideas behind them. Thanks.
Beans (mostly black and pinto, with the occasional dried limas or Great Northerns) are very popular here at Casa Frugal. DF is waiting for his rebate check from Costco to stock up on another 50 pounds or so, plus more flour. Now that he’s baking that wonderful, super-simple bread* four or five times a week, we gallop through those 50-pound bags. (Each loaf of bread takes almost one pound of flour.)
We also enjoy lentils and split peas. Meat is more of a flavoring for these meals, but sometimes we just have black or pinto beans cooked with olive oil and spices. We don’t always need a neck bone or a chunk of ham.
*For newcomers, here’s an explanation of that bread:
https://donnafreedman.com/our-daily-bread/
I’m late to this party, but you do know the trick is to cash that Costco rebate check and then pay for your purchases as you normally would? If you pay with the rebate check, you don’t get the CC rebates on that purchase. It’s 100% okay to do. Last week, I cashed all three of our checks, right at the checkstand, putting nearly 600 cold ones into my wallet. Then I charged my new purchases on my Costco Credit Card, starting the cycle anew.
Thanks for suggesting that. We’ll keep it in mind for the next check.
Thank you for sharing these tips. As you noted, these habits are ingrained in a lot of us “frugalvores”, but it’s a helpful tool for any newbie that is trying to embrace the frugal life. I plan on passing this on to my younger coworkers who are new to the lifestyle, as a few are just getting to the point where they’re moving out of their parent’s houses and into their own. Thank you!
Some of them may be surprised how much farther a dollar will go once you show them the ropes. This is especially true of toiletries, which can take a huge bite out of the budget (especially if you’re a woman).
Once they get into the habit, I expect they’ll come back and thank you for helping them stay solvent.
I spent years being a frugalore when our son had embarked on his long college career. In retirement I am still going for the bargains and marked down meats, but I still buy what I need when I want.
Your strategy certainly works. I am fortunate in that I can make purchases at our military commissary, but my mental price book is always in play as done prices are higher.
I have kept up with my drug store loss leader coupon shopping, and take advantage of store and mfg coupons when possible.
Thank you for this article. It’s a pleasure to read your frugal adventures.
Should have read “some prices are higher” at the military commissary…
Another friend from back in the MSN Money days, Sonya Ann, works those CVS deals like nobody’s bidness. She’ll buy 11 needed items for a few bucks. Sonya is also good at working extra points out of Swagbucks offers.
The only chain drugstore we have here is Walgreens. But a gal can dream.
Thanks for being such a consistent reader and commenter.
I usually shop the sales and download the Kroger coupons to my card. If I’m feeling extra frugal, I only shop at the Latino grocery store. They have great sales, but they carry pretty much just produce, meat and a few other items so I have to be able to cook more that week. Lately I have been having most of my groceries delivered. I use Imperfect Foods. They have off sizes, scarred produce and excess inventory. I like their staples, and I can’t get impulse items. I don’t need my chicken breasts to be shaped perfectly or my zucchini to be unblemished, so it’s a good fit for me.
Imperfect Foods sounds like my kind of store. Doesn’t exist here, sadly. The closest I can get is the dented-foods bin. While I lived in Seattle I went to the Grocery Outlet, which had a lot of remaindered/end-of-season stuff and the prices were very good. (And of course people called it “the Gross-Out.” You would do the same.)
I love the “ranch markets,” as they call them in Phoenix. Sometimes when their ads arrive while I’m visiting my daughter, I’ll do a dramatic recitation of the prices over the phone to DF. He makes equally dramatic moans of unhappiness on the other end of the line.
Thanks for reading, and for leaving a comment.
I use almost all of these frugalvore techniques/strategies/battle plans, but have not figured out how to download the apps. Great article.
Do not state where anyone can here you: “I’m going to rob (insert name of grocery store here).” It ends to upset people.
My husband will often laugh at my strategies and ask “How do you expect those people to make any money?” Not my business plan; not my problem, as long as I am following their rules and mine.
They make money because most people are not like you, Nancy. You know that and I know that. They wouldn’t offer these options if it kept them from making any money.
Good luck with the apps. Go to the app store and search them by name (make sure you use “Fetch Rewards” with the search because there’s a “Fetch” app as well).
I’m definitely a “frugalvore” and will always be one!
I’ve been in the food industry for years, calling on and selling to grocery stores. They spend lots of money on ads and merchandising to try to get more of our hard earned dollars, so having a shopping strategy is key.
Always check for loss leaders and in store markdowns!
My coworkers at a gourmet food company used to scoff at my love for shopping at Grocery Outlet but who really gets the last laugh if I’m paying 40% less for the same items?? Lol
I just find it amazing that you can get .99 lb. pork loins there in Alaska and here in Nebraska I’ve never seen them lower than 1.69 or 1.79. There’s just something wrong with this picture! LOL I see other really good deals in other parts of the country too, but here in the middle everything seems a little higher…where a lot of it is produced. SMH
Maybe the local manager bought too many? We’re just happy to have occasional great deals.
I am surprised there is no mention of wild game or fish. Even if your DF does not do either, you can always barter for some. I live Mid-Atlantic coastal and my hubby does not hunt, but friends do give us Venison. He makes a killer stew from it. Also, he does fish quite a lot.
We’ve gotten moose, duck, salmon and other items from friends. Probably should have included that.
Our niece was feeding her kids with ‘school lunches:’ she drove by the school once weekly, and they loaded her trunk up with meals they normally would have served. It kept the lunchroom people employed, and EVERYONE in our niece’s family fed. I noticed a similar tip from one of your readers on your wonderful “quarantine soup” post. Not sure if schools in general still have this program — some have reopened — but I read about a blogger in Las Vegas doing the same thing. I’d check with the local school system…if I had kids still in school! (Our daughters are in their 30s.)
I try not to waste a bit, and always stop by the clearance bins for meat, bread, other goodies. (For some reason, our local groceries in Colorado don’t feature dented cans much.) Our local thrift store will often put out shelves of bread a few days a week; the trick is being there on the right day. (Volunteers get free reign to these and other goodies.) Last trip, I found naan and lavash — what we don’t use gets put in the freezer.
We also have a ‘dented’ store — the Friday/Saturday store in Wheat Ridge, CO — but only open on you-know-when. It’s 45 min. drive away, but we stop by on our way to visit the Daughters, who live nearby. I get a lot of fresh veggies and dairy stuff there, as well as specialty Chinese/Thai sauces and dishes, plus #10 cans for a STEAL: $1 each.
We live in Fairbanks so I hear you on meat prices…we grow a huge garden and often trade vegetables for meat with a guy we know who hunts but hates gardening.
That sounds like a good trade to me.
I used to shop the various stores’ loss leaders, but no more. There is usually a minimum amount to spend requirement. I pretty much just shop Aldi, Lidl and WalMart. I find everything I need there. However, I do shop at a farmers’ market in the summer, which is usually pricier but I like the freshness of the products and I like to support local farmers. I have friends that belong to CSAs but since it is just me, that is more food than I require.
Any chance you could split a CSA with friends? Say, pay for one-eighth and take one-eighth of the goods?
Sharing is a great idea, but not for me. I don’t know anyone to split it with. My friends that split it, are two couples. Cooking for one can be a blessing and a curse.
Yes. Yes, it can.
I am trying to be a frugalvore, but everything is so expensive here it’s hard. I keep working on it! Thanks for a great post.
I think most people’s budgets/spending are works in progress.
In what part of the country do you live?
Northern Wisconsin, somewhat rural. Probably not nearly as expensive as Alaska tho!
Also, part of my issue is I have a very restricted diet. After years of gastric misery, I’ve finally got a Crohn’s diagnosis. It’s not a big deal, I control it now very well with diet, but some cheaper eats (eg. pulses/beans, most anything high fiber) are no-nos.
Yikes. Glad you’re not pushing it — some people think they’re above following doctor’s orders.
Loss leaders all the way! I don’t even peek at the rest of the grocery circular until I plan meals using the loss leaders that week. I also “invest” in grocery gift card deals around the holidays. Both Target and Sprouts had 10 per cent off their gift cards around the holidays, so I have been using them to do my shopping. We also did a major cleanout of our upstairs and downstairs freezers-easier to meal plan now that I know what frozen assets we have.
Hope that you are starting to get more daylight up there.
The light is starting to come back. February was always the month when things turned around for me. Even though months of winter remained, February felt more bearable somehow.
We took everything outdoors during a below-zero spell and defrosted/wiped out the freezer, then did an inventory as we put everything back in. Found some UFOs (unidentified frozen objects) that we’d forgotten we had. Now we, too, have plans to use what we found.
I hate February because I see the sunlight and it tricks me into thinking it is warm. Then I go out and it is zero or below! March is a more honest month.
And as we all know, April is the cruelest month.
After reading the comments on February and March, my immediate thought was “April is the cruelest month”-then I scrolled down and saw that you had written it. My late mother would have said that “great minds run on the same track.”
My friend Linda B. puts it differently: “Great minds run in similar sewers.”
She’s not wrong.
I love “March is a more honest month”. Yes it is. I live in New England and when I used to grumble about Winter hanging on too long, a friend would gently remind me that if I can make it to March 1st the Winter would be mostly behind me. The eaves drip and the Red Winged Blackbirds return in March. While I would never wish time away, especially this year there is a longing for Spring.
I also live in New England, and while we got off pretty easy in January, this constant snow and frigid temps this February are certainly brutal. I always feel that Spring is here when the sap begins to flow and the “sugaring” starts.
A friend up north used to say that March didn’t march, it crept along so it should be called Creep.
I’ve been thinking about downloading Ibotta & other grocery apps, but what do they do with your information? That’s the only thing stopping me.
Great post. Thanks!!
I haven’t received any unwanted spate of e-mail come-ons since joining. Not sure what else they do with the e-mail info.
And thanks for your kind words.
My technique is to focus on groceries that tend to be affordable and are versatile for the way I cook. Onions and green peppers work in chili and stir fry and can be diced and frozen for later. Carrots and sweet potatoes work in any soup or stew and are yummy roasted on their own. Beans and lentils are likewise super flexible. A lot of the loss leaders here tend to be highly processed foods which don’t work with my diet; my method fits my budget and health goals pretty well.
I’d just finished putting away some diced-and-frozen yellow peppers when I read your note. We found them in the ugly-produce section and paid an astonishing 25 cents apiece; normally these things are $4.99 a pound.
I love roasted vegetables, too. My usual mix is broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and onions, roasted with olive oil and sea salt and served over rice. Or eaten from the pan as they cool. Dang, they’re good.
The loss leaders we go for aren’t the processed ones, though. No reason for us to buy cheese popcorn even if it is on sale; we make our own popcorn from a jug of kernels bought at Costco. We watch for good deals on vegetables, meats, fruits and certain canned goods, although I will cop to buying cold cereal to eat as a snack or potato chips because, dammit, potato chips.
Thanks for reading, and for leaving a comment.
Roasted vegetable recipe? Temperature? Time? Sliced or chunked or baby carrots? Just got two heads of spotty cauliflower for 99 cents each instead of $3 or $4 each.
Thanks!
I slice the carrots somewhat thinly, and on the diagonal because it looks cool. Add some sliced onions along with the cut-up cauliflower. Toss them with olive oil and kosher or sea salt if you have it; if not, use regular salt I guess.
Roast them at 425 or 450 degrees until tender. The hotter temperature will cook faster, obviously, and will likely give you more of a char if you like that sort of thing.
Serve on rice with more oil, or eat as a snack hot or at room temperature. It works well with broccoli and other veggies, too.
Learned this from Tamar Adler’s book “An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace,” which is a series of lovely essays disguised as a cookbook. Highly recommended if you want to think differently about food.
https://amzn.to/3aWW6mc
Thanks! Got onions, carrots, and cauliflower! Got oil and salt! Got a working oven!
Go for it!
Worked out great! Cut baby carrots in thirds, on the diagonal. Used one head of cauliflower. Used two onions. Used Himalayan pink rock salt, which was a mistake since the grinder portion was broken and the salt was in rocks which did not dissolve. It was delicious, especially after I place the planned overs in a Rubbermaid container with a lid and the salt dissolved. A little too much olive oil, since I used a pour bottle instead of a spray can, but I ate almost every bite. Thanks!
Okay, now I’m hungry. 😉
They’re very good at room temperature if you don’t feel like heating them up. Makes a great snack, or dinner if you eat it over rice. Usually I get cranky two-thirds of the way through the cutting and chopping. But when I eat them, I remember why I take the trouble.
In that book “An Everlasting Meal: Cooking With Economy and Grace,” author Tamar Adler suggests saving the leaves, cores and tough parts of the vegetables to make a kind of pesto. Chop them to about the same size, cook with a small amount of water and some olive oil until tender, and season as you like. You don’t blend them; just smash them with a fork or potato masher until they’re chunky, and eat them with pita chips or crackers. It’s a fun way to use everything about the pig — including the squeal.
My favorite? Ring bologna/potatoes/cabbage boiled for around 1/2 hour. Seasoned with salt and pepper. So when ring bologna went on sale last week, I bought 3 packages. I froze 2 1/2 of them, as 1/2 gives me 2 meals.
I’ve found that eating less has helped me. I do not need the calories I used to, so I eat 2 meals a day. Breakfast is eggs/bacon/oatmeal/homemade toast/pancakes, not all at once of course. I usually eat around 10 am. Dinner at 4 pm is a salad/protein, casserole, stew or pasta dish. I know I do not get all the required fruits/veggies I need, but I do get in 5 servings. Again, I do not eat the quantity I used to. Dessert is infrequent, usually meeting friends for ice cream or pie at a local diner.
I know this streamlines my time in the kitchen. When I cook, I make around 4 servings and freeze the rest. Usually I cook maybe once or twice a week. Works for me!
I saw a recipe for sauteed bacon, cabbage and onion, done in a skillet on top of the stove. That sounds good, too.
For part of the past year I too had gone down to eating twice a day. Something to do with winter, something to do with depression, something to do with “I don’t wanna cook right now so I’ll just have some more tea.”
That doesn’t mean I didn’t snack, mind you. But the main meals were twice-daily.
I became a frugalvore back in the Amy D. days. I actually saw her on Donahue while I was in the hospital after having my son via c-section. I shopped the grocery sales, stocked up and didn’t give into a chest freezer – fear of high electric bills. I did a good job shopping and feeding my 2 kids 3 meals a day.
Nowadays, I’m handicapped by the fact that I can’t walk far. Hubby does the grocery shopping but hates it and just wants to get out of the store, especially with the virus. So the sales are hit or miss with him and I’d go with him and ride on a scooter but I’m not going out in this virus.
I do love to watch the coupon queens as I call them on youtube. I’ve gotten great deals at Walgreens on Tide, and other things.
When I bought my little freezer back in 2008 or so, I checked the tag to see how much it would cost, electricity-wise. Surprised by how affordable the newer ones were — and once I had it, the appliance paid for itself time and again because of the deals I could get. Also because I picked tons of blackberries around the corner (seriously, probably 20 quarts) and froze them for winter.
Wish we had more than one drugstore here, but Walgreens is all we get. My daughter plays the CVS game pretty profitably.
I’m hoping that we can all shop more comfortably soon. Although at the rate things are going, I might not have both vaccinations until summer.
Hi Donna, is that your oatmeal tip in the March 2021 Consumer Reports?
I don’t think so…Although I have in the past been cranky about teeny-tiny cups of oats selling for a very high price.
After reading the article and seeing that some of these little cups of overnight or single-serve oats have as much as four and one-half teaspoons of sugar and up to 310 mg of sodium…I’m even crankier.
Making my own food is the only way I can control sodium, as I’m on a low-sodium diet. A pan of homemade blueberry and coconut baked oatmeal can be divided up into servings and frozen. It heats up great in the microwave for breakfast.
Oh gosh, what fun reading all the comments tonight! I’ve gotten some super deals over the years and I’m still always watching for deals and cash in on the CVS cheap needed items when I can. Years ago like 1995 maybe, I got 4 packs of Ivory bar soap for 10 cents a pack. Guess who had Ivory soap for over 6 years? ( I unwrapped them and covered with a towel for them to harden up so they lasted longer, another frugal tip on Ivory) I still do this with Ivory bar soap. Then around 2004 I got rolls of toilet paper for less that 9 cents a roll, guess who had to toilet paper for many years? I had plenty to stock my kids living off college campus for years too. However I have been banned from buying crappy (pun intended) toilet paper ever again. It wasn’t the nicest stuff but got the job done. Ahhh memories…….
I miss the days of multiple freebies as the Big Three drugstore chains competed for customers. Of course, we have only one chain here — Walgreens — so it wouldn’t make much difference now that I’ve moved back to Alaska.
Thanks for reading, and for leaving a comment.
We have a supermarket chain LIDL that has the best use it or lose it deals. Each morning they package soon to be overripe fruits and veggies 30 cents a pound. It doesn’t matter if they are apples, pears, asparagus, everything in the “To Good to Waste” section is 30 cents a pound.
The meat is $1.50 per package. The $14 roast that expires that day? $1.50. The $12 turkey, $1.50….,
It is so much fun! The store is in route to my parent’s house so I stop nearly every day. My freezer is full of meat that I cook. I feel rich. Tomorrow I will make chicken chili with chicken that I froze last week (about $.50 worth.)
I a lot of time I will throw a list of ingredients into google to see what recipes pop up. Did you know you could make meatloaf with ground beef and stuffing mix?
Wish we had a LIDL up here. We don’t even have an Aldi, though. The sight of $1.50 meat would fill our frugal little hearts with joy.
OK. this might be a weird question for frugalores, but do any of you “doctor” frozen meals? I just bought a couple $2 low cal frozen entrees. I think if I add some of my $1.50 package of chicken and a $.30 a pound red pepper, I can have a fantastic meal for less than $2.50. Yes, cooking completely from scratch would be cheaper, but it is still half the price of fast food and a fourth of the price of restaurant take out.
I add vegetables and leftover cooked meat (if I have any) to ramen, so no reason you couldn’t add things to a frozen meal. And I agree: Still cheaper than takeout!
Report on the enhanced $2 meal – I added the frozen chicken at the start. When it was time to unwrap and stir, I added the fresh veggies. It wasn’t a dish I would pay $10 for at a restaurant but it was better than fast food. Will try again with different frozen dinner.
Good to hear. Are you also adding sauces/spices?
The sauce that came with the meal was enough.
You know watching Texas makes me think there may be a good time to run your “stock your pantry, without raiding your bank account” post. If I had power and water I could live for a three months in my house (maybe six if I had a chance to garden.) The lack of eggs would be tough, but we could eat.
Whoo hoo! Three pounds of pork chops for $1.50. Just loaded my instapot with pork chops and potatoes. Will take to my parents for a couple of meals. I will reuse the “juice” to do a batch of pork chops and green beans for us.
Today’s frugal breakfast was steel cut oats with a spoon full of mincemeat. I buy it when it is 90% off after Christmas then use it like jelly on sweat potatoes or oatmill.
I envy you your shopping options.
It’s not available everywhere, but the Flashfood app can let you purchase marked down produce, meat, bakery, and other items at participating grocery stores through the app. If I am picking up my curbside orders from Aldi or other stores, I can check and see if there are any items that will make good meals without having to step into the store. Keeps me focused and no worry about getting there at the right time!
With meat prices dizzingly high lately, the stuff is just not selling until it gets marked down. I saw a pork roast approximately the size of my torso marked down to eight dollars a few weeks ago and was stopped dead in my tracks by the sight. There was no room left in our freezer or I would have brought it home and done some carving to make it into easier to cook portions.
I am for sure a Frugalvore, and a “cherry picker” when it comes to groceries.
Any bread items come from Dollar Tree that day the breadman drops off the Pepperidge Farm/Sara Lee/ Entenmanns goodies!
I shop Publix for the BOGO deals (which they are known for) – and you can add coupons to EACH item, the “buy one” AND the “get one” – this is when I stock up on cereal, oatmeal and a few other items. They also have digital coupons in their app. Sometimes I do so well on these deals I share with the local food pantry.
I get frozen veggies at Aldi , 89 cents for a bag of steamable broccoli florets? Yes, please! (And I think they are better than the name brand), also get some meat, canned beans, Milk, eggs, yogurt at Aldi- you cannot beat their prices and the DOUBLE you money back guarantee. If you don’t like something, Just return an item (with receipt) no question asked, you get your money back and get to choose a free comparable item!
Laundry soaps usually come from drugstore – with sales and coupons I get a good size bottle or Purex for $1.99 or less.
Coupons, store app coupons, Ibotta and Fetch are all in my Frugal Arsenal! I never shop without them!
I am a Frugalvore and a cherry picker. I’m not as frugal as I’d like to be at the moment because I’m changing my eating habits and am restocking my pantry with food that are better choices for me, so I can’t really wait for those rock-bottom sales. But, I’m comparison shopping and gradually restocking my pantry and feeling grateful that I can afford to buy what I need to, even if it pains my frugal little heart. lol! Today, however, I bought 2 pounds of grain-fed beef that had been sharply discounted. I paid $6.78 for the two of them instead of the $6.12 for one pound of regular lean ground beef I originally picked up. The difference in price helped ease the sting of paying full price for a few other items.
Frugalvore from PA here. I’m definitely a “cherry picker” like Cheryl and Kim and thankfully my two local grocery stores are super close to each other. It pays to look at their flyers and scout out the deals and shop accordingly. I throw a cooler with ice packs in the trunk if there are perishables to be purchased when heading to the store as the weather is getting warmer. Today I nabbed 3 jugs of laundry detergent for 4 dollars and two 5 pound bags of red potatoes for 3 dollars, I felt that was a pretty good deal, I try to always keep ahead on the laundry soap and think I’d cry if I had to pay full price for it. Recently we had an opportunity to purchase 40 pounds of jumbo chicken drumsticks for 39 cents a pound. They are huge and delicious. Thankfully we have the freezer space to keep them after packaging them up. Eating at home saves a lot of money and generally way healthier. We can’t wait for gardening season here and have out tomato and pepper seeds started inside. Happy Spring to all!
A freezer — even a small one — is a critical tool in the frugal arsenal.
https://donnafreedman.com/why-you-need-a-freezer/
I started making “bowls”. I might bake a half dozen sweet potatoes while the oven is warm. I put the cooked swe’a-tors (get it sweet tators) in the fridge. I will dice a swe’a-tor sprinkle with coconut and date syrup. The next day I add a spoon of orange marmalade. And yes you can do pumpkin spice and raisins. I can do breakfast for less than a dollar when sweet potatoes are on sale.
For lunch I cook down a bag of kale or mustard greens. I add wilted produce from the fridge such as peppers and onions. Open a can of garbanzo beans, season and sprinkle with malt vinegar. Lunch for four days! EZPZ.