Fred Meyer $11.76
Fred Meyer had pineapples on sale for a buck a piece this past week. How could I pass that one up? I also grabbed a few bananas for Monkey boy and some carrots for snacking and soups.
I am beginning to think our shopping habits are weird. After looking at this weeks photos of the food I purchased four our family, from the outside looking in, we look like a bunch of vegetarian health nuts.
Am I the only one who thinks this? Well, in case you missed it, we do eat other things besides pineapples and carrot sticks. I posted a show and tell of what we’ve been eating lately. While it wasn’t super exciting, it just goes to show that if you are patient and stock up when things go on sale, and make a lot of things from scratch, you can still feed your family really well on a budget.
Safeway $5
Red peppers. Safeway had those on sale for $0.50 each. They sale is good through tomorrow so I think I’ll go back and grab a few more and freeze them to use later in the summer in some stir-fry dishes.
Target $5.58
I ran in for sharpies and grabbed 2 gallons of milk while I was in there.
There was also quite a bit of free fruits and veggies we got for free from Mr. Produce Guy.
And of course, lot’s of fresh eggs and produce from our backyard garden.
How did you do with your grocery budget this past week? Did you stock up on pineapples or anything else this week?
Mavis wants to know. 🙂
Total Spent This Week $22.34
Total Spent This Year $1,025.57
Total Spent This Year on Garden Seeds/Supplies $893.99 {I bought a Meyer Lemon Tree, Rhubarb crowns, 6 Fruit Trees , 16 yards of soil}, Walla Walla Onions and 90 pounds of seed potatoes. Plus, supplies to make my own potting soil. I also picked up a boatload of heirloom tomato plants at the Seattle Tilth sale.
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tawnya says
do you freeze your peppers whole, roast them, or blanch them? I didn’t know they could be frozen
Madam Chow says
My mom (and now I) would dice/slice them and then freeze them, preferably using something like a Foodsaver. You can also cook/roast them and freeze them after that, but I add a bit of olive oil to this method.
Kim L says
why wouldn’t you use your dehydrator?
ROBIN says
I ditto Madam Chow. When peppers are on a great sale, I chop or slice and freeze a bag of each kind (red, green, or yellow) for use through the winter, soups, stir fry, fajitas. I’m not a fan of dehydrated veggies, although peppers do dry, store and reconstitute very well.
Jennifer Jo says
I passed a pineapple truck in town yesterday: 50 – 80 cents a pineapple. I bought two. It must be pineapple season!
Susan says
We have a place called “Chuck’s Produce” that has really awesome sales every week.
I went yesterday and got:
5 – Green Bell peppers- 5/$1 – .20 each – Cut them in strips and froze them for fajitas, spaghetti sauce, etc.
Golden Delicious Apples- .68 lb.
Red, seedless Grapes- $1.37 lb.
Organic Blueberries- 1 pint (2 cups) = $1 !!!!
Apricots – .67 lb.
Rhubarb- .88 lb. – I know!! Buying rhubarb!! The voles did a number on my plants , so NO rhubarb this year. I did manage to salvage a couple pieces- so hopefully next year! I made a Rhubarb/Strawberry Pie
Also got a flat of strawberries for $15. Not terribly bad. They are fresh, local – picked daily – and I made Strawberry Jam – 12 pints
The best buy there was 1 lb. bags of cut up, washed Kale- perfect to try making Kale Chips. It is a LARGE bag!!
Every week for the last few weeks I”ve noticed they have some jumbo bag of whatever CHEAP! Looks like restaurant type quantities.
One week they had 5 lb. of carrots- cut into circles with the crinkle edges for $1.50 and another the huge bags of leaf lettuce for $1. I think you have to be there at the right time, b/c I’m sure they sell out fast. I go once a week.
D'Anna says
I love Chuck’s and I just saw they are building one in Salmon Creek. I got 100lbs of potatoes last fall at .09 lb 🙂
Lisa says
I got five pineapples from Freddy’s this week;my girls love to eat it fresh and I put it in smoothies too! I get so many peppers in my reclaimed food boxes;red, yellow, green & orange…I slice them up and freeze them. Mavis, since you’re more into gardening now than clipping coupons, I think it’s time you renamed your blog!
Susan says
I really envy all of the bargains you find.. We have one grocery store in town and have to drive 50 miles one way to reach a city of 25,000..needless to say we do without a lot. We do have a garden and grow many of the common vegetables but we only have a growing season of 4 months at the most so we are also limited there. And no don’t feel sorry for me because we CHOOSE to live here..My garden plot is only 10 ft x 30 ft.but you can grow a lot in containers. I freeze and dehydrate all the extra vegetables
I raise so I can have them in the winter. Everyone shares their extra so we always have plenty.
Jennifer says
I bought pineapples this week, they were on sale for $1.88 each, which is as low as they ever go in New England. But hey, I’m on the coast of Maine so I guess I should be lucky we can buy pineapples at all.
One question for you Mavis, I’d love to keep track of everything I’m spending on groceries and gardening supplies and chicken feed and so on and so forth. I’ve tried saving receipts and I’ve tried writing things down in a little notebook. I’ve thought about using mint.com but I really like to pay for things with cash. So I’m curious if you have a good method for tracking your spending?
Jessica Nagel says
Oh man, I got a BOGO on pineapples about a month ago and canned one. I love getting deals like that! I can’t wait until I can get some carrots on sale!
My friends parents have a asparagus patch and they give me a huge box of asaparagus as trade for a few of cans of asparagus. They can never go through all the asparagus that they grow!
The farm that I buy most of my produce from has gotten to know me and they save the majority of their seconds for me and I get smoking deals from those throughout the year.
Kathy in Chicago says
Mavis – I don’t think you are a crazy vegetarian. You did buy that HUGE amount of chicken breasts, and bacon, and ground beef. I just wish I could get the same “chicken scraps” from somewhere by me. All the grocery stores said “no”, so I’m still spending $50-75/week of fresh fruits & veggies. Still trying to figure out a way to save more $$ on this one….
Heidi C says
What do you feed your poultry? We aren’t in a location that we can feed them year round on the grass/bugs/scraps. We ended up for awhile having to buy feed–for 45 birds–at about $160 per month! We did have layers, and we were able to can them–so we at least didn’t need to go out and buy chicken. However, we could in no way feed them as cheaply as we could buy them at Sam’s Club, or even the grocery store. We just figured that we knew what foods they ate, they had no antibiotics, and they got tons of scraps from our family of 9. 🙂
Heidi C says
I meant, “…we canNOT feed them year round…”. Oops.
Magic and Mayhem says
Heidi, can you grow their food? What do you typically feed them in the winter? I’m thinking you could plant some rows of corn and other good feeds and do that pretty cheaply???? Otherwise, maybe the fruit/veggie scraps that time of year? It’s a shame you can’t freeze or can bugs. 😉
Linda says
I’d still like to know how you get free produce! Just today I spent $100 for groceries, most of which is produce. I am vegan, hubby isn’t
Random Person named Melissa says
Do you cut the tops of the pineapples off and try to grow them? I did this a few years ago and I had a plant growing in my yard. (I did it for the plant sake… I’m deathly allergic to the fruit) I even produced a pineapple till my sister’s boyfriend mowed the plant while the fruit was still developing. (I was livid and sitll haven’t let him live it down) I’m in a subtropical area so it might not work for you. It would be intresting to see if they can survive in big pots that you can move in and out depending on the weather.
Incase you’re not sure, to get it to root just stick the bottom of the top in a inch or so of water and wait for roots to develop. Easy as pie.
Anyways I thought you might be intrested in the idea since you have 10 pineapples there. (You won’t get anything for the first year or two at least)
ElainieMay says
Where I live the grocers toss food that you collect from Mr. Produce guy. When I question why, I am always told it is because of Board of Health rules. A terrible waste when people are hungry and/or struggling.
What a weird consciousness!!!