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Grocery Prices have been creeping up pretty high here on LI. I was starting to spend about 25% more a week until I decided to shop very carefully this week...
For $18 at stop and shop, I got
2lbs chicken and apple sausages
2 grilling steaks
1.5lbs boneless pork chops
4lbs Boneless skinless CHX Breast
3.5lbs ground beef
Usually this would cost me around $40. Just by waiting for things to go on sale! My new plan is to compare all the circulars for the local groceries each week to stock up on good meat sales and things that I can freeze.
What is everyone else trying to do to avoid the high grocery prices? Tips? What is killing me right now is the price of paper towels, toilet paper, detergent. Is it really worth a costco membership for those items?
it's a shame to think that if I wanted to try to save some money food shopping that I would have to sacrifice a LOT of quality to do so. I have no idea how you got all that meat for $18, I figure you bought all store brand, no name stuff and the ground beef probably wasn't the leanest cut either, am I right?
We go to BJ's...the milk, OJ and ground beef is SO much cheaper. It's worth going just for those items. They say the beef is the lean kind, but when I use it to make a meatloaf it hs a lot of grease that you wouldn't get from Stop and Shop. BUt when you're cooking for a family of five and choosing to live on LI, you have to budget.
No, Gigi, it isn't at these prices. Heck, I don't even drive in to Nassau anymore to see my mother with the way my minivan eats gas! It costs me $35 to do that trip. Aww, poor mom.
it's a shame to think that if I wanted to try to save some money food shopping that I would have to sacrifice a LOT of quality to do so. I have no idea how you got all that meat for $18, I figure you bought all store brand, no name stuff and the ground beef probably wasn't the leanest cut either, am I right?
Nope! 85% Ground Beef, not the leanest but not the worst. Stop and Shop has a habit of sticking on $2 off coupons on the larger packs of meat. There were $2 off coupons AND a sale price on this pack. Perdue chicken breasts 1/2 off! I might head back to see if they have more of those packs so I can freeze. They were running specials on everything in the meat dept. It was actually all the same stuff I normally buy. I usually get a better cut of steak, but these are decent for steak night.
But is it worth it to "drive around" to find cheaper prices when gas is $4.09 a gallon?
I'm lucky I guess, I have 3 different supermarkets within 5 min so I can comparison shop. If Trader Joes was closer, I'd be doing a lot more of my shopping there.
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Is it really worth a costco membership for those items?
I just recently had to renew my membership with Costco, it was a $50 fee. It won't pay for itself, or save me a dime, until i achieve $50 worth of savings compared to regular store prices. My guesstimate is that it took me a month (4 trips - @ 1x a week) to get to that number. Now, i can start saving for myself instead of offsetting the dues. If you're not going to be shopping there on a fairly regular basis i'd say no, it doesn't pay. You really have to watch the prices there too, a decent sale price/coupon in a regular supermarket/retailer can often be a better bargain than the avg. prices in the discount big-box stores. Its not a given that Costco or BJ's has the lowest price.
Well this is part of my weekly shopping plan. Every Thurs. I get out the 3 major ads, PathMark, Stop & Shop, & King Kullen. I look and see what Im low on then look for it to be on sale. Keep in mind that I buy NOTHING thats not on sale that week. If chicken breasts are 1.88 a pound I buy like 8 packages. And the same as anything else. I then store everything ,in smaller portions, in my deep freezer and thaw it out as needed. It saves me a considerable amount of money monthly. Just my 2 cents.
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