Kroger Fun!

I sometimes see other bloggers talk about the amazing deals they get while shopping, usually using lots of coupons and a serious strategy while shopping at CVS, Walgreens, Kroger, and other places.

Well, I hate to shop and don't live close to many stores. When I do my "big shopping" which is usually for two weeks, I go to Walmart where I can get everything and the prices are low.

Yesterday, however, I had several errands to do and then had to stop by the store to get at least some essentials to get us through the rest of the week. I was near a Kroger and would have had to go several miles out of my way and farther from home in order to go to Walmart. So, Kroger it was.

I figured that I could get the essentials and avoid buying the stuff that is much more expensive than I usually pay for it at WM. Basically, sacrificing price for convenience and speed.

Well, was I in for a surprise!

In the produce department I wanted to get some salad stuff. I really wanted organic spinach and lettuce, but was not too excited about the price. Then I found big one pound containers of each (and organic!) that were marked down to $3.99 because they were close to the expiration date. They looked like they were still in good condition, so I bought those. Then I found broccoli slaw marked down to 99 cents. And cherry tomatoes marked down to $1.29. And celery. And a bunch of other stuff. Yes, I'll be eating a lot of salad in the next few days, but my weight loss efforts can use that motivation. (hey--I've lost three pounds recently!)

When I walked past the organic dairy I wondered how much the gallons of Horizon milk would be. My friend Sooz told me that she pays over $6 for this in the Cinci area. Well, the regular price here was $5.49 or something like that, but two gallons were marked down to $2.49--and you can't even get regular milk for that price any more! I got both gallons, planning to freeze the extra.

I used to only buy dry milk and use it in baking and cooking, because we haven't really been milk drinkers for over 9 years now. But recently the price of the dry milk jumped up to double what I had been paying, so I decided to see how it works for me to get regular milk again. So far, so good!

I found bags of marked down grapes for only 68 cents a pound. My kids eat grapes so fast that I figured that even if they were getting close to the end of their best-used-by stage, they would be ok. I was right. One bag was for a snack yesterday, and one is for today. There were probably less than 5 grapes total that were yukky and got thrown away.

Cheese was also on a good sale, so I took advantage of that as well.

I found organic yogurt marked down to cheaper than regular too.

Overall, I was very excited about my bargain finds, and am thinking that I will need to at least cruise the produce and dairy areas of Kroger whenever I get a chance. For the size of my family and the speed that we can eat stuff, there is a whole lot of stuff that we could enjoy buying at the marked down level.

On the way home I called my mom and told her about my bargain finds. We talked about how funny it is to get to the stage of life where good prices on milk and salad makes your day. :) It's some kind of glamorous, the life I live. Yessirree......