This was at Fred Meyer last week. In summer, we tend to live from our pantry, freezer and garden. We supplement with purchases of milk, eggs, some produce, and any special deals that I could stock up with. Otherwise, my weekly shopping can be quite small, this time of year. Come fall, I'll make up for it, with some big shops, on a regular basis.
Last Friday, I made a once-every-other-week stop at Fred Meyer. This is how much I got for about $10.
I take advantage of whatever weekly freebies I have coming my way. Fred Meyer (and other Kroger affiliates) allow just over 2 weeks to use the freebie coupon. So, if I go shopping on a Friday, just after downloading that week's freebie, I can pick up 3 week's of the free item.
Those freebies are usually squirreled away for particular needs in the future. They're often junk/convenience items, so in my book, they're treats and saved as such.
Freebies, this week.
I picked up a 2-liter of cola, which will be saved for the Christmas holidays. (Family tradition for us, to have cola wile decorating the Christmas tree.) The PACt juice flavor that I chose was the cranberry-cherry-blueberry. My cranberry crop this year will be dismal. (I'm rejuvenating the bed, and it will take a year or two of good care to get my cranberries back to producing 3 or 4 quarts of cranberries again.) So, with this juice, I'll make a fruit juice jello salad, adding chunks of apples to the cranberry juice gelatin, for our Thanksgiving dinner. And in place of cranberry sauce, made with fresh berries, I'll make a dried cranberry relish, for Thanksgiving, as well. The Gatorade Fuel Bar was set aside for a long drive my son and his girlfriend made over the weekend.
What I paid for.
I also bought 5 half-gallons of whole milk, 1 half-gallon of orange juice, 1 8-count package of hot dogs, 1 pound of organic, whole mushrooms, on markdown, and 5 bananas, on markdown.
Total spent, $10.11. The cash register receipt reflects the savings of the freebies, and store coupons on the milk and orange juice. It doesn't include the savings on the marked down mushrooms or the bananas. If I include those savings, then my actual total savings would be closer to $12.50.
Obviously, one couldn't make a week's worth of meals on what I bought. But perhaps this gives you an idea of how my grocery spending can be so low in summer months.
