CashCrash

Our food budget could not have been healthier. I had just bought my groceries for next week’s meal plan, the fourth week of January. Our tally for the month was $400 for our family of four (see earlier posts at http://www.cashcrashblog for grocery lists and and recipes).

For the most part, we had been buying a week at a time, but the Winn Dixie flyer that was in my email box, caught my eye.  They were advertising bone-in rib-eye for $4.99 a pound for Saturday and Sunday only.  While last month’s menu was filled with delicious chicken, pork, and ground beef recipes, the idea of a juicy, ribeye steak — especially at that price — could not be taken lightly.  I clicked over to the digital coupons and, to my delight, there was a $5.00 coupon for purchases of $40.00 or more.  Hmmm….what else did I need?

I was planning to have turkey the first week of February.  I did a quick check of prices by calling Costco and looking at the Walmart App.  Costco was selling turkey at $1.99 pound and Walmart didn’t have it listed.  If Winn-Dixie had it for a lower price, I reasoned, I would go ahead and buy one. If not, I could always stock up on some generic soda to get the extra $5.00 off. After all,  the price ran about the same as the cases of flavored soda we had been purchasing through the Walmart App.

When I walked into Winn-Dixie, I made a bee-line for the meat department.  Good thing I did! There were only four packages left of the ribeyes.  Two packages had 3 steaks, one package was a single steak, and the fourth package had two steaks. The butcher confirmed that those were the last of them, so I grabbed the two with 3 steaks each. The cost about $21.00!  I then asked him if they had any turkeys and he pointed in the right direction.  There I found several large birds – one at $1.29 a pound.  SCORE! Or so, I thought…It seemed a bit small, so I figured I better check it out – I’m new to this whole domestic thing, and for years my husband has done the lion’s share of the cooking.  With a sheepish smile on my face, I got the butcher’s attention and asked, “Is this a chicken or a turkey.”  The gracious man said, with a straight face, I might add, “No, Ma’am. That’s a chicken.”  He patiently showed me where the turkeys were and how much they were a pound.  As it turns out, the Honeywell Brand was $1.69 a pound! Far below the Costco turkeys!  Ok, still a SCORE! I knew I could get three meals out of that turkey (roasted turkey and sweet potatos, turkey and barley soup, and turkey sandwiches), so for $26.69 for three meals for four, that came to under $10 a meal – even giving myself a buffer for the other ingredients I’d need. Feeling triumphant, I marched to the check out line, put in my phone number, and claimed my $5.00 discount, to boot!  Not a bad, little shop, especially with the free tuition for a lesson in how to tell the difference between a roaster and a turkey! (I’m serious, people, it was a BIG FRICKIN’ CHICKEN!)

For more tips, ideas, and weekly meal plans (complete with grocery lists), follow me at http://www.cashcrashblog.com.

Happy Savings!