Four Fortuitous Things Boosting My Buying Power for June

Don't you just love it when the things that you had wanted to buy anyway go on sale? Or when you think that you're all out of a particular needed ingredient, but then you find a stash of it tucked away? In one week, my grocery buying power got a big enough boost to allow me to buy more than double of one item for June. Here's what happened to make this possible:

• I had put marshmallows on my list for June, and then this weekend I found a whole bag tucked away in the garage freezer. When we thought we might have a mouse in the house, everything that was in a bag or other soft packaging in the pantry went into the fridge or the freezer. Apparently, a bag of marshmallows was amongst those items. We can use these for s'mores in June. Savings -- 96 cents
• My daughter made sugar cookies for the Sunday school class that she teaches a couple of weeks ago. After baking a bunch of them, she decided to freeze the rest of the dough. This weekend, she suggested that we use homemade sugar cookies (using this frozen dough) in place of graham crackers for June's s'mores. That'll work! Savings -- $1.68
• I had budgeted 49 cents per pound for a watermelon for June, with a maximum of $4.90. Over the weekend, Albertson's had watermelons on sale for 29 cents per pound. Even though it isn't June yet, I went ahead and bought 1 large watermelon. I spent $4.14 for that one. We won't cut into the melon until June begins. According to eatbydate.com, whole, uncut watermelons will keep for 7 to 10 days on the counter or 2 to 3 weeks in the refrigerator. At 29 cents per pound, our watermelon will be one of our primary fruits for the first half of June. Bonus -- I'll save the rind to make more pickles, following the recipe in this post. Savings on the melon -- 76 cents.
• When I first made my June shopping list, the 10-lb bag of yellow onions was selling for $4.84 at Cash & Carry and the 25-lb bag was about $7.50. I checked their website again this week, and the 10-lb bag is now $4.19 and the 25-lb bag is now $7.00. The previous 3 money-saving events/choices saved me $3.40. That savings will allow me to buy the 25-lb bag of yellow onions, spending $2.16 more than the budgeted $4.84 for onions. Plus, I will still have $1.24 leftover! I'll try not to spend it all in one place.

The 10-lb bag of onions would have lasted about 2 months in our house. Buying the 25-lb bag means that I can delay buying more onions until sometime in the fall, freeing up a couple of dollars of grocery money for other foods this summer. And my price for onions dropped from 40 cents per pound to 28 cents per pound. Now that's a bargain!