Being Frugal: At the Grocery Store

Up until recently, I didn't think my grocery store philosophy was anything special. Not that it's necessarily "special" but it seems to be a bit different than what most other people do. 

This may shock you, but outside of the "essentials" (like milk...yep, pretty much only milk) I shop the sales ad. If I deviate from the sales ad, my general rule of thumb is that something needs to be $1.99 or less, and it'd be even better if it was $0.99 or less. 

Let's look at my shopping receipt from last week (Jan. 28, specifically). It was during HyVee's $1 week, so my take-home haul was especially good. I'd bought 2 gallons of milk the week before when it was on sale for $2.99/gallon, so that's why you won't see it on this list. I'll add a little note so you can see why I bought what I did and what I plan to use it for.

Dozen large eggs - $1

Always keep eggs on hand. They're cheap, healthy and filling. You can make a super-affordable lunch of egg salad sandwich with a piece of fruit. We also eat eggs and toast every Sunday for lunch/brunch. It's also a great quick breakfast.

6 8x8 tin square pans - $2

I bought these in anticipation of making more freezer meals - normally I wouldn't buy these b/c I have re-usable pans for a reason, lol.

3 jars of HyVee Pasta Sauce - $3

Another must-have in the pantry for a quick, affordable meal (plus leftovers for lunch). Just add pasta and a veggie and you're set.

1 Jiffy Corn Muffin mix - $0.50

I make 12 muffins out of this and it rounds out quite a few meals of soup really well.

2 Jiffy Pizza Crust Mixes - $1

Another easy meal (plus leftovers for lunch). I stock up on shredded cheese when it's $0.99 and freeze it for later. I also generally have fresh peppers (if they're on sale) or frozen peppers available, along with onions (always in my kitchen), plus sausage that I stock up on when it's $1/lb. The only thing that I splurge for is the pizza sauce - and a lot of the time we just get the little $0.50 can of tomato paste and add italian seasoning.

Midwest Country Fare Crunchy Peanut Butter - $1.98

My husband loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. He generally piles it about 1/2 an inch thick (no joke) and if I'm not home to feed him, this is his go-to meal. I'm not loyal to any one brand of peanut butter (and luckily my fabulous hubby doesn't demand his fave, but rather eats what I buy) so whenever I see a sale, I buy some. He goes through it fast.

1 lb carrots - $1

Healthy. Easy. Great for lunches. Great for soups. Hubby loves it as a snack with...peanut butter.

1 bunch green onions - $0.50

I have a lot of potatoes (from when I bought a 5-lb bag for a $1) and want to make Loaded Baked Potato Chowder this coming week. The only things I don't generally have on-hand for this recipe are the green onions and the cream cheese (which I forgot when I was at the store and bought today for $1.50 when I picked up milk). A month or so ago, I bought 5 packs of bacon when they were on sale for $2.99 (that's cheap for bacon) and froze them, and I buy bags of fresh, frozen broccoli when they're on sale for $1.

3.82lbs of oranges - $5.65

Fresh fruit is so important. I buy it every week. I always look at everything and buy whatever's the cheapest per pound. I'm really happy if I find something for $0.99/lb. This past week, oranges were $1.48/lb. (And now you're thinking that bananas are always the cheapest...they get smooshed in hubby's lunch and they're not exactly my fave for eating week in and week out with my lunches. So, yeah, I splurge on fruit.)

8 chicken thighs - $3.31

I don't normally buy chicken like this, but it was $1/lb and I'm going to use it for freezer meals later on. It's frozen now, and I just need to decide what recipe I'm going to use it for.

2 lbs Farmland Ground Sausage - $2

The aforementioned pizza. I also occasionally make sausage patties with our every-week Sunday brunch. This is great in a variety of other recipes that call for ground sausage, too.

2 boxes of Farmland sausage links - $2

Each box contains 12 links and these are great for hubby's Sunday brunch...the man likes his meat. That's a little over $0.08/link, people. That's cheap. 

2 pork loin butterfly cut - $4

I'm going to cut these in half for 4 servings of meat. I might make my mom's super-easy pork and rice recipe with this. Or a stir fry. Or something else. The possibilities are endless. 

3 Chapsticks - $3

This is cheap for chapstick. And we both use chapstick. 

I spent $32.94 on this weekly shopping trip. Granted, this is one of my best ones, thanks for the $1 sale at HyVee. But still. Look at all the staples I got, and a lot of great bases to meals. 

How do you save money at the grocery store?