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Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Grocery and household shopping plans for January



For the most part, we are well-supplied with food items, right now.

I am running low on brown rice and vinegar. I have a constant need for heavy whipping cream (though maybe not as much as previously), whole milk, instant powdered milk (as a protein and calorie boost for one daughter, mixes in to many things)and nuts for snacking (sunflower seeds are our most affordable nut/seed, with peanuts not far behind, but almonds are definitely a preference for snacking). I've also just used the last of the onion powder, which is nice for quick soups, sauces and gravies, and the last of the solid shortening for making pie crusts.

With regards to produce, we have some fresh oranges and a handful of apples and pears remaining. January is a good month for finding oranges on sale, so I'll be looking for those, priced below 40 cents/lb. In addition, I usually find avocados at a reasonable price in January and February. At Cash & Carry last February, I found medium avocados in a 16-ct bag, for 44 cents per avocado. I'll be looking for similar pricing on avocados again. As well, we are back to buying bananas from Trader Joe's twice per month. At 19 cents each, Trader Joe's has the best deal going on bananas in my area.

I'll be watching the ads, online, for Cash & Carry and Fred Meyer for the best deals, and quickly peruse the front page of the mailed ads from Albertson's and QFC. Interesting, Albertson's ads have been looking strikingly similar to Safeway's ads this past year. I did a bit of research and discovered the two companies merged early in 2015. And now their sales duplicate each other. This is great when an item is a loss leader, if I need it immediately and one store is out of stock. But it's lousy for variety in weekly sale items (and potentially for competitive prices). For me, this does save me time looking over the ads, as I can just skim one store's ads, and ignore the other's. For non-traditional grocery stores, I'll also make a late-in-the-month pass by Imran's, the nearby ethnic market that carries a small, but well-priced selection of produce. I'll be looking for fresh apples (last spring they had apples, still crisp, for 39 cents per lb).

And that's about it for January grocery shopping plans.

In addition to food items, I have a few household items that I'm looking for. For the last year, I've been taking one household item at a time to find a less expensive version or way to buy/make it.

I'll be looking for bathroom tissue, again. Last May, I bought a case of 96 rolls online, from Staples. We are now running low, and I'll need to buy a new supply soon.

I am also looking for laundry detergent. Mid-summer, I found an institutional-size package of laundry detergent at Cash & Carry, priced competitively to my homemade soap. The commercial stuff really does a better job on "man smell". But my skin (eczema) prefers melted, sensitive-skin bar soap. So, I've been alternating between the two. I'm about out of the institutional-size package of laundry detergent, but have plenty of melted soap, to use until I find a deal on commercial stuff.

I also opened the last box of automatic dish detergent, yesterday, so I will be pricing the various brands, looking closely at institutional sizes. I've been pretty satisfied with Sun brand, sold at Dollar Tree for 20 oz. I'll compare that one to what I find at Cash & Carry.

Other household items on my list include low watt lightbulbs, plastic wrap and window/glass cleaner. The window and glass cleaner is on my list for trying a homemade version. One of my daughters cleans the inside of the downstairs windows, as well as all mirrors, each week. She prefers to use a spray bottle of solution. And we just finished off our supply of bottled glass cleaner.

Commercial window/glass cleaner costs $1 at Dollar Tree, in the refill jug (64 oz). This is the recipe I'll be trying for this Saturday. This homemade version cost me just under 48 cents for 64 oz, with far less plastic waste. The majority of the window cleaning solution is water. No sense paying for the water, or the larger plastic jug to hold the water. I'll make it up 16 oz at a time, so I don't have to store extra, and this amount will work well in our spray bottle. Plus, if I don't like how it works on glass, the individual ingredients are still available for other uses.

Homemade window/glass cleaner

2 oz. 70% rubbing alcohol
12 oz water

pour alcohol and water into spray bottle and shake up. Add the following ingredients, and shake to combine:

1 tablespoon ammonia
1/8 teaspoon liquid hand-washing dish detergent
more water to fill to 16 oz

Dollar Tree sells ammonia in 64 oz bottles. That should last about 2 years, at 1 tablespoon per recipe. I picked up 1 bottle of rubbing alcohol at Fred Meyer on Senior Day, yesterday.


And, although I am all shopped out, I will be making one more pass by Penney's and Macy's at the mall, later this week, checking out their clearance in the men's sections. There are a couple of winter men's accessories that I realized after I was done shopping that both my husband and son could use. So, I'll be looking for those items on deep discount, and save them for next year.


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