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Thursday, April 18, 2013

Working It For The Best Deal



How many people look at the ads for just one paper, if they look at all, and buy from their favorite store? My usual Wednesday parsimonious activity is looking over the sale ads for food, ads that come out new on Wednesday. Of course, the ads are good for one week, but one grocery store has 5% off on Wednesday for Seniors. I shop that one if the price after the percentage off is a good deal.

The first ad offered Vidalia onions for $0.99, a good price. Of course, I look to see what everyone is offering this week. All five papers had sales on Vidalias, first harvest of the year. I proceeded to browse ads. I found Vidalias for $0.99, $0.89,  $0.79, $0.69, and finally $0.59! You know where I will be shopping for my Vidalias.

Last year, I dehydrated about 8 lbs, obviously not enough for me. I plan to dehydrate at least 20 lbs of onions this year. I use onions in many things, so paying full price hurts. Working the ads works for me.

This week, milk will be my only purchase other than onions. And strawberries!

My ad-searching ritual saves my money right now and all through the year. I will be dehydrating these. Hopefully, I will not run out of onions and have to buy onions like I have had to do since Christmas.

Thursday note: I did get my milk and strawberries last night AND a 5% discount. Today will be onion day.

Your turn
Do you go over the weekly ads and compare prices? Or, do you go to your favorite store and buy only from their sales? Or, do you live in a place with no sales or few stores?

7 comments:

  1. Hi Linda! I do as you do, but usually I end up at Aldi, Wal-Mart, and sometimes Johnson's. I don't have the sale papers since the free times hasn't come in. They may stop the free times since they stopped letting you read online unless you pay! Guess I'll have to call Mom! Winn-Dixie and Food World are usually too high even on sale! Plus these other stores are much closer to me. Blessings from Bama!

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  2. Bama Girl,
    Food World has been having better deals, but still high. You have to pay to read online??? That is horrid. Hopefully, that is not a future trend. I am lucky that all these stores are in a line that is anywhere from less than one mile to 4 miles. Comparing ads is certainy the best way to get the best deals.

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  3. I'm lucky enough to grow lots of my own stuff...but I always watch ads anyway. (It's the thrifty bitch in me)). lol I usually buiy at Aldi's. since around here it's the best place for quality produce until the farmers markets show up, and even then, the price is always better. last year I got red onions for .59 for a 3 lb. bag !! Last week I paid the same for yellow onions. Last year, I dehydrated almost 40 pounds of red and yellow onions total. I use them in everything. I also got 20 pounds of beautiful button mushrooms for .49 an 8 0z package. Same deal--dehydrated them for soups and stews.

    Since I live about half an hour from everywhere, it pays to watch the ads for me. If I'm going anywhere I'm going everywhere. lol

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  4. Our food ads are delivered in the mail. The ads for the chain markets arrive on Monday and the neighborhood markets ads arrive in Tuesday's mail. The ads change, as yours do, on Wednesdays. I keep each week's ads on my desk and check them out before I run out to the store.

    My favorite neighborhood marked is a crazy mix of Mexican and Mediterranean items. Our town has a large Chaldean population and little Mediterranean markets are popping up all over town. When I stopped in last evening I found that they still had 1 lb containers of strawberries priced at 2/$1.00!!!I had bought 6 boxes earlier in the week and bought another 6 last evening. I cut them add a LITTLE sugar and freeze them. My husband has them along with a banana on his morning bowl of cereal.

    We can nearly always get yellow onions 5 or 6 lbs for a dollar. I have never dehydrated onions. How do you use them? I may have to give dehydrating a try.

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  5. Janet,
    If I found onions or strawberries at those prices, they would be half rotten!

    I put dehydrated onions in anything I would use fresh onions--soup, beans, meatloaf, baked poultry, etc. When I saute dehydrated onions with a hamburger, it is awful because I have all these little dried pieces. This year, I will dehydrated some onions as half circles. I can determine no difference in their taste or texture, otherwise. Good question.

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  6. Linda,

    The strawberries were practically perfect! ONE bad berry in 12 boxes! They were tasty too....although not anywhere near as tasty as home grown. The strawberries that we get here have been hybridized for shipping and storage. They are pretty but have very little taste and they often have a little, almost hollow, "core".

    When my sister and I were girls our family always took vacation in the heat of summer. Our relatives lived in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. One of the joys of summer was all the delicious strawberries. They were small and intensely sweet and flavorful. My mouth waters at the thought! My grandfather once said that he had had all the strawberries that he could eat but had never had all the strawberries that he wanted.

    Most of the tomatoes in the stores out here suffer the same as the strawberries. For the most part they are pink and wet but not very flavorful. We plant a few tomatoes each year. I ate the first 3 grape tomatoes from a volunteer bush yesterday!
    re-hydrate the onions before use? I have a lot to learn about dehydration!

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    Replies
    1. I found this question a year later. I just throw onions into soup and the liquid in the soup rehydrates the onions. When I sauté onions for a hamburger, I wait until the meat has released some fat, then I put the onions in. Most of the time, I never have fatty hamburger meat because I buy the lowest fat ground beef I can find. Then, I put a little olive or other oil in the skillet before the meat burns. You could cook the onions first in oil and then add the hamburgers.

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Okay, hoping the annoyances have gone away.