Last week, I attempted to order my groceries online and was foiled by my own lack of planning. If you place your order at 11PM, it's expecting too much to have the order delivered the following afternoon. Since the first available day for delivery would have had my mom putting away my groceries while I was at work, I put the experiment on hold. (Although, now that I think about it, having them delivered on a day when I'm not here would pretty much take me out of the grocery shopping equation altogether. Except for the menu planning part, of course, but that part isn't too bad.)
Anyway, I ended up hauling both kids to the actual store, and was interested to see if I made it out with a bill similar to the one I created online.
My bill online came to a total of about 67 dollars, and I left with 77 dollars worth of groceries. That's partly because the store was out of the smaller package of cheese I put in my macaroni, so I bought the larger package and gave the rest to my mom. I had to buy name brand oatmeal, which was $1.50 more, and I also bought two cantaloupe because they were on sale and looked really good. The single largest reason that my bill was more though, was because it was right after Easter and the store was marking down turkeys and I was reminded of something.
The best time to stock up on meat to freeze is after a holiday. The stores stock up on seasonal favorites, then price them to move when said holiday is over. Turkey after Thanksgiving and Christmas. Ham after Easter. Corned beef after St. Patrick's Day. Ribs, steaks, pork chops and preformed hamburgers after the Fourth of July.
By far, the most expensive items on my grocery list from week to week are the meat and the dairy products. We do eat meatless meals two to three times a week, but I'm not willing to give up meat entirely. And my husband would probably move out if I tried it. We don't have room for a chest freezer, but if you do, stocking up on cheap meat after certain holidays is a great way to save yourself a buck.
I came home with an enormous turkey that has been marked down to 7 dollars. It was originally almost 30. I couldn't pass it up, even though it's entirely too large to feed my family of four (five, if you count the cat) and I'm not even sure if I have a roasting pan large enough to cook it in.
So I guess we'll have to have a party.
I'll make the turkey.
Can I borrow your roasting pan?
Anyway, I ended up hauling both kids to the actual store, and was interested to see if I made it out with a bill similar to the one I created online.
My bill online came to a total of about 67 dollars, and I left with 77 dollars worth of groceries. That's partly because the store was out of the smaller package of cheese I put in my macaroni, so I bought the larger package and gave the rest to my mom. I had to buy name brand oatmeal, which was $1.50 more, and I also bought two cantaloupe because they were on sale and looked really good. The single largest reason that my bill was more though, was because it was right after Easter and the store was marking down turkeys and I was reminded of something.
The best time to stock up on meat to freeze is after a holiday. The stores stock up on seasonal favorites, then price them to move when said holiday is over. Turkey after Thanksgiving and Christmas. Ham after Easter. Corned beef after St. Patrick's Day. Ribs, steaks, pork chops and preformed hamburgers after the Fourth of July.
By far, the most expensive items on my grocery list from week to week are the meat and the dairy products. We do eat meatless meals two to three times a week, but I'm not willing to give up meat entirely. And my husband would probably move out if I tried it. We don't have room for a chest freezer, but if you do, stocking up on cheap meat after certain holidays is a great way to save yourself a buck.
I came home with an enormous turkey that has been marked down to 7 dollars. It was originally almost 30. I couldn't pass it up, even though it's entirely too large to feed my family of four (five, if you count the cat) and I'm not even sure if I have a roasting pan large enough to cook it in.
So I guess we'll have to have a party.
I'll make the turkey.
Can I borrow your roasting pan?
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3 comments:
I have never bought my groceries online but when I lived in Owings Mills, I used to shop at Safeway a lot- who has a delivery service. A clerk was helping another person package an outbound delivery and they were going crazy inspecting every package. The customer they were preparing for apparently calls and complains if they smallest thing is bent or torn. Anyway- he then mentioned that if you complain, you get the entire order for FREE- and the guy had gotten all of his groceries for the entire year for free. I don't know that I could do that to be honest- but I was impressed that someone could find a way to do it!
We do our shopping on Peapod for every grocery order. It's super convenient (they bring the groceries right into my kitchen) and if I do have a problem with anything I call and they take it off the bill. If there's been a problem with the dlevery time, I call and they refund the delivery charge. We get coupons all the time for money off our orders too. I don't think it's the best deal, but getting my groceries first thing in the morning without having to step into the store with my son is a huge help. And we've also started to not order our meats with them, I think there are better deals with Safeway, which is just a quick run to the store (and I pick up what I might not be able to get with peapod). Hope you get to try ordering your groceries online soon!
Turkey refreezes after cooking well, and can be used instead of pre-cooked chicken in most recipes. It does tend need some sort of moisture, but a low-sodium jarred gravy or soup or broth does the job well.
We do this a lot when I'm working more nights and Kevin has to "throw together" supper when he gets home from work.
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