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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Reduced Prices Today

half price, I think
 
I went to a certain grocery store to cash a postal money order. That is a story for tomorrow. When I go to this store, I always check the reduced meat freezer. There was only beef and sky high! So, I wandered down to the other reduced cooler and found a few things. I always pass up the produce reduced cart because it is gross.

The Greek yogurt was $0.50 each. The 16 oz. cottage cheese was $1.35, and the breadsticks $1.39.
The total without tax was $3.74.With tax I paid $4.08. I can save the milk and have this as my dairy. The bread needs something on it.

 I like plain yogurt so I can add my own unsweetened fruit. Or, I put it in a smoothie. It has been ages since I bought cottage cheese, but I like a can of peaches and cottage cheese. The juice, while tasty,  gets tossed because of the sugar. Breadsticks are new to me in the can. However, the spaghetti I am making for exbf and me on Friday will be great with breadsticks.

Everything above has a sell-by date of September 17, so it is still fresh. If I were going to use the produce the same day, it might be okay. It certainly is cheap. One day, I bought two half gallons of milk on the sell by date. It was okay until the last two glasses, so I put chocolate in it to mask the off taste.

My friend who worked for an attorney and died about three years ago would come into town with a cooler in her car and several 2 L bottles of frozen water. She would go to this grocery store before work, buy meat and dairy and sometimes produce--all reduced. In the summer, she carried the cooler in her office. In the bitter cold winter she could leave it in the car. She said she never bought most things full price.

My mother would be eating cottage cheese and applesauce some days when I went to the kitchen. I love both cottage cheese and applesauce, but together the thought made me gag. Finally, to appease her I tasted it. Yummy! She was sooo happy. You know how mothers like to be right about getting a child to eat something different...lol. "I knew you would like it if you ever tasted it." Well, she kept trying to get me to eat cantaloupe, too, and I knew that was gross, even with cottage cheese. So, I was wary.

This store is not a chain, so prices are higher except when they reduce things.

Your turn
Do you have a store that puts out meat and dairy daily that is going out of date? Did or does your mother press you to try something new or a new combination? Do you resist sometimes? What bargains have you found so far this week?

17 comments:

  1. Hi Linda...you got some good deals, particularly the cottage cheese. I have not bought it in ages because it is so high here. I have always eaten cottage with fruit but know some people who put salt and pepper on it. To each his own I guess. I do have a small town grocery that reduces fruit and vegetables, bakery bread and dairy. But I have to use control not to buy too much.

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  2. carol,
    Oh my. No, not salt and pepper! Price is probably the reason I have not bought any. Besides, I eat enough dairy as it is. I take spells of wanting it. I know how it is to see good deals and want it all. I try to have a plan to keep it, like freezing it.

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  3. I am waiting for cottage cheese to go on sale so I can make lasagna, since I prefer it with cottage cheese to ricotta.
    Funny thing is here ricotta is usually cheaper than cottage cheese but when I lived in the South it was the reverse(if you could even FIND ricotta in the stores down there). lolz

    I have no hesitation in buying perishables close to the sell by date. Rule of thumb for me is it will last about another week(except for ground beef)before you have to cook/eat/freeze it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. slugmama,
      The first time I made lasagna, I used cottage cheese. Other people tell me that is gross...??? We do have ricotta, but it is much more expensive last time I checked. I have the same rule of thumb. And, meat is so easy to freeze for later.

      Delete
  4. I like cottage cheese with pepper. And don't add salt to anything.
    Great buys.
    We look at the specials too. Himself often buys his meat on special. The vegies often look too tired for me though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. EC,
      OK, that is one cottage cheese with pepper. Thanks. Vegetables that have been the cooler shelves just go bad/sad too fast.

      Delete
  5. I also like cottage cheese with pepper. I don't add fruit.

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    Replies
    1. tlc,
      That makes two cottage cheese with pepper. Never had that.

      Delete
  6. Cottage cheese with applesauce is one of my favorite snack right now :)

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    Replies
    1. Lena,
      Yummy. That is what I am going to have right now while I cook the ground beef for spaghetti.

      Delete
  7. The Pig near me has reduced meats every Monday and Tuesday morning. I try and get there before 10 am. By then they have it all marked and I always look through it. Usually it has to be cooked or processed in some way, but I know that before I buy it. I can usually find stuff at least $1 per pound cheaper, sometimes more. It is always worth a look

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  8. Oh and for something really good with cottage cheese, add pineapple chunks, bell pepper and green onions. I know it sounds gross but it is delicious.

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    Replies
    1. Anne,
      I was just thinking about opening a can of pineapple instead of applesauce. I could not handle the other two with pineapple. I do not eat crunchy bell pepper or onion, but I just cooked both for addition to spaghetti. Thanks for educating to that combination people eat in the cottage cheese.

      Delete
  9. You can freeze your extra milk. Just let it thaw in the frig and shake it up before using it. My mother shopped once a month on base and bought our whole month's worth of milk and then froze it. It was fine. My daughter gets milk on her WIC and freezes it also.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jane,
      I tried freezing milk, but it takes days to thaw. I ended up pouring it off as it thawed and the last was watery. The watery part was not the problem. The problem was it took a week to thaw. If I were to freeze milk, I would pour it into sterilized pint canning jars, the straight-sided ones, and freeze those since they would be easier to thaw.

      I just want to know how long it takes anyone else to thaw a gallon of milk.

      Thanks.

      Delete
  10. My husband likes to pack a can of soup (like Progresso or Chunky) in his lunch. Our Kroger had a "10 for 10" deal on Chunky soups, so we loaded up. Lately, the price on those has been over $2 each.

    I don't buy much cottage cheese, but when I do, I get the Kroger brand low fat on sale and add pineapple (something I learned from my mom!).

    BTW, always check the price per ounce at Kroger when all their cottage cheese is on sale. Two smaller containers are frequently a much better deal than one large container.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cherdo,
      Somehow, I just cannot get myself to even taste those soups. However, exbf loves them. I was going to have pineapple in my cottage cheese, but I just had the applesauce in my hand first and went with that. Tomorrow, I will have the pineapple. That tastes like ice cream when the pineapple is cold.

      Often, prices are better in smaller sizes, contrary to what it seems should be. I really wish I lived near a Kroger.

      Delete

Okay, hoping the annoyances have gone away.