Shopping and Gas This Week -- Last of May/Beginning of June

I grocery shopped in person at Fred Meyer (Kroger affiliate) this week. It had been 2 weeks since I last bought milk and we were, as I predicted, completely out of drinking milk at this point. I still had some slightly sour milk in the freezer, which I used. I made a small batch of biscuits one evening and some waffles over the weekend with this sour milk. My family still had plenty of homemade yogurt and cheese to get their dairy fix, though. I do have some powdered milk in the pantry. But I consider this to be true emergency milk. Running out of milk for two or three days doesn't constitute an emergency, IMO. 

So, I needed milk. I bought 1 gallon of whole milk for making another batch of yogurt and 3 gallons of 2% milk for my milk-lovers. The last time I shopped, I bought 2 gallons of 2%. This is my compromise while the price of milk feels high -- one shopping I'll buy 2 gallons and the next I'll buy 3 gallons. Milk, by the way, was $3.09 per gallon last week. I went online just now and milk has been marked up to $3.39/gallon. Thank goodness we don't drink organic milk. Name brand organic milk was $8/gallon at a store near me.

I found the "new" clearance section in Fred Meyer. Very little food items in that section. But I did find a deal on tissues (89 cents/box of 144 ct -- I bought 6 boxes, next winter's supply) and a box of foil that had been damaged for 99 cents. I slowly perused every aisle that I thought might have clearance items. In the packaged deli section I found 4 1-lb chubs of pork sausage marked down to 99 cents each. I bought all four. So, I'll tell you something about the sausage. When we were traveling to and from Arizona, one of the items that wee all really enjoyed from the included breakfasts was the sausage. In the car, we had talked about me buying some sausage for occasional breakfasts. Once home, I priced out the least expensive pork sausage. Cash & Carry Chef'Store had 6-lb rolls for $2.71/lb. Walmart carries the same brand in 1-lb rolls for $2.88/lb. I didn't get top buying the sausage, so I was very pleasantly surprised to find four 1-lb rolls on clearance at Fred Meyer for 99 cents/lb! 

In the meat department I found some 24 oz marinated pork tenderloins for $3.99. I only bought one of those, even though there were several. I'm not a huge pork fan (unless it's ham, bacon, or sausage), so this one will be enough for us. I'll may use it on Father's Day. As just a regular sale item, I bought 1 large family pack of bone-in chicken thighs at 99 cents/lb. Once I got the package home I divided it into 3 meal packets. And I also bought 2 bunches of bananas at 49 cents/lb. In total I spent $27.03. I had other non-food items on my list. One daughter needed some disposable cups for a sub teaching project and I needed another bag of potting soil for starting more radish seeds under lights indoors. My indoor radishes seem to grow better than outdoor ones. Even though I have a garden growing outdoors, I'll be growing the radishes indoors this summer.

It looked like there was still plenty of food in the store, but it did look like there was less of everything, fewer packages, items moved to the front of the shelf with no back-up stock behind those items, fewer choices in brand and style of many items. The produce department does not look bountiful, although there is still produce there. The tofu section was still down to just a couple of cartons. It's been almost a year now that tofu seems to be in short supply. Such an odd item to have low inventory. They were pretty low in inventory of infant formula, as well. On their website, you can still order most formula brands, but there are limits. On Walmart's website, they have more formula in stock in the store than Fred Meyer, it appears. But again there are low limits to how much one can buy.

In addition to shopping at Fred Meyer, I placed another online order for chocolate chips and cocoa powder through Walmart.com. (Yes, I did a little panic shopping.) I was pleased with how well the chocolate chips shipped the last time. They packed them in a foam-lined box with ice packs. The ice packs were completely melted by the time I received the box, but they still felt a little cool. More importantly, the bags of chocolate chips felt like the chips maintained their shapes and didn't melt into a large blob. So I bought another 6-package lot of chocolate chips and a few more cans of cocoa powder. I believe we have about how much chocolate and cocoa powder that I'd normally have going into the fall and holiday baking and candy-making season.

The least expensive unleaded gas is hovering between $5.30 and $5.50/gallon in my little town. One town over I can find gas for $5.09/gallon at a couple of stations. 

Inflation, inflation, inflation. I do feel we're being squeezed from every direction. Our homeowners' insurance comes due in July. It too went up quite a bit. But, we have our garden. I know we will be provided for, and abundantly so.

How was the shopping in your area this past week?

Does It Really Save Money to Wash Those Flimsy Plastic Bags

As I was washing out the plastic bags on Monday (yep, that's how I spent my Memorial Day, doing housework), I was calculating the cost of washing those thin grocery store, produce, and bread bags as compared to the cost of a roll of plastic wrap. We have several food items for which we prefer the flexibility/conformity of thin plastic wrap or bags as opposed to rigid food storage containers. When bags were free with grocery purchases, it seemed like we had an endless supply of them. Now that those bags are no longer available (most of our stores have switched to non-complimentary paper sacks), I've turned to washing most of our bags. (If a bag is torn or has held meat, I throw it out.)

If I didn't wash the bags to reuse, I'd use thin plastic wrap, the kind that sells for $1.97/200-foot roll at Walmart. I estimate I'd use a sheet about 12 X 20 inches on average. A sheet this size costs me about 1.6 cents. I washed 16 bags the other day, or the replacement for 26 cents of plastic wrap.

Water and soap isn't free, however. I washed all of the bags together in a large sink of water (with a squirt of soap in the wash water, clear water for 2 rinses). I used about 3 gallons of water in each sink-full, or 9 gallons of water total. A gallon of water (with wastewater disposal) costs me about 1.1 cents per gallon. I used about 10 cents of water and about 1 cent of dish soap. My water had to be heated, so I'll add 2 cents to the wash calculation. Washing my 16 bags cost me about 13 cents. I hung them to dry on the laundry rack afterward, no cost there. I saved myself about 26 cents on the plastic wrap. So, I netted 13 cents by washing the bags.

There's an extra factor to consider. If I had something more lucrative to do in those 10 minutes, I could have earned more money than I saved. However, I didn't have anything better to do Monday morning. I'll take the savings.

I wash bags every other week, about 15-16 bags per time. I wait until I have enough bags to make the work worthwhile. In one year, I'll save $3.38. I certainly won't get rich on that savings. But as is often quoted, pay attention to the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves. Another way I look at it when finances are tight -- it's better to save some money than to spend some money.