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Monday, November 17, 2014

If you have to make a minimum purchase to buy a turkey at the best price . . .

. . . this is what I do.

Our grocery store's deal this year is spend $35, then buy 1 turkey at $1.19 per pound, and get a second turkey for free. If I find 2 turkeys that weigh about the same, then my price per pound is about 59 cents per pound.

But I have to make that minimum purchase of $35, to get that deal. For someone who only buys groceries at rock-bottom prices, this can be a challenge to spend $35 at a regular grocery store.

But I have a system/plan that works for us. The bath tissue that I regularly buy is this store's own house brand of Scott's 1000. It's not comfy tp, but I did some figuring several years ago, and this bath tissue, store brand, at the current price, is the best bargain for our family. (Here's the post I wrote on making that calculation.)

So, I let our household run very low on bath tissue in the weeks leading up to my turkey purchases each November. It got so low this month that I was redistributing tp from one bathroom to the next, so no one in the house would have one of those emergencies. Yes, it was dangerously low, in fact! I didn't mean for it to get this low, but it did.

And to make my $35 minimum spend at the grocery store, I do a major stock-up of bath tissue for the bulk of that dollar amount, buying the economical tp, as I have already calculated. 

Anyway, on Friday, I made the first of our turkey purchases, buying two 19-lb turkeys, plus 40 rolls of bath tissue, 4 dozen eggs, and 1 tiny treat for myself. I was 2 cents short of the $35 minimum purchase, so I checked out the clearance racks at the grocery store and found a marked down Hallowe'en treat for myself. It was a Russell Stover's candy, very yummy, and 39 cents.

If you need to make a minimum spend in your grocery store to get the deal, look around for what else the store might carry, that is well-priced for your area. Some stores allow the purchase of alcohol or gift cards to go towards the minimum spend. I had thought of buying another bottle of vodka for making more vanilla extract. Or, if you know you would like to give a gift card to someone at some point, you could pick that up now, and have that go towards your minimum purchase. Or, perhaps a major stock-up of bath tissue would work for your household, as well.

Happy bargain shopping!

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12 comments:

  1. In my area, we don't have to make a minimum purchase to qualify for the cheaper turkey prices. As usual, you have thought this through so well.

    I was super excited to buy butter at $2.29/pound today! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kris,
      Will that be a regular price for butter, for you, or did you stock up?
      Lucky that you don't need to do a minimum spend to get a good deal on turkey!

      Delete
  2. Several years ago, my husband traveled to Russia a couple of times for business. He brought back toilet paper as a souvenir. Even our worst cheap toilet paper was better than he brought back. So once again, we were reminded how good we have it here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi live and learn,
      That cracks me up, and from what I've heard, doesn't surprise me in the least!!
      We do have it good here!

      Delete
  3. Another tip is to find out your store's price matching policy. I recently approached a customer service desk to confirm the price matching procedure, only to be politely told, "Oh we don't do that anymore." Luckily, I had the latest store ad in hand (from 2 days previous) and while their promo was for a fzn store brand turkey at 59/lb, I price matched from a competitor and paid 39/lb! I bought the biggest one I could find for that price! : ) Now to find 3 more "deals" on turkeys.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Carol,
      Great job on getting your turkey at that price! And good for you for using the ad/info on their policy. If they advertise it, well then, it's within our rights to make them back up what's in the ad. Good job!
      And good luck getting deals on your other 3 turkeys.

      I'm hoping to buy 2 more turkeys, for a total of 4, as well. It's what we go through in a year, here, and the most affordable meat I find in our stores, even at 59 cents/lb.

      Delete
  4. I have never thought of buying toilet paper to bring the purchase total to the required amount. Brilliant ! I need a few dollars more to up my amount at a store tomorrow. Now I know what to get

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Anne,
      If I buy 2 more turkeys, with that deal, I think we will have enough tp to last a loooooong while! And what I like about stocking up on tp is because of what it is, it's not like we'll suddenly plow through it all, simply because we have it, as we do with "treat" items. And, it's definitely non-perishable! Won't spoil, and doesn't need to be stored in the kitchen (or even the bathroom -- I've got most of it in a closet in the guest bedroom).
      Hope it went well getting your turkey!

      Delete
    2. We have a jacuzzi tub in our master bathroom that we never use (takes too much water plus we are just plain old shower people). I use it to store toilet paper and now I have a tub full! Thanks for the heads up.

      Great deal on your turkey buys. There have not been any like that around here. The cheapest I can find is .79 a pound with a limit of 2. I did find 20-22 lb birds though so I feel I got a lot of bang out of my dollars. And they actually had the tp brand we use on sale plus I had coupons. Huge savings there!

      Delete
    3. Anne, that sounds like a perfect use for your jacuzzi tub! And good job on getting your tp on sale and with coupons, to boot!

      Delete
  5. I like to use potatoes as my minimum purchase. I just paid $1.99 a bag for 10 pound bags of potatoes (twice what I paid two years ago) to make the minimum.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Brandy,
      It sounds like you figured a way to get the deal at your local store! Good job!
      Potatoes are 99cents/10-lb bag this week at Albertson's, here. But there's a limit of 1 bag. I'll be stopping in as often as I pass the store, and taking my family with me this weekend.

      Delete

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