Grocery shopping

I do not grocery shop according to the traditional, frugal method. I don't shop with a list except for things I need and don't want to forget. When you get to a certain age... not everything sticks.
There isn't usually more than ten things or so on my grocery list.

I look at the flyers and see if anything is an especially good sale, but it usually isn't. I am always on the look out for a really good deal, though. For example- one week this summer cauliflower was on for a really good price. I bought about 10 heads. We had cauliflower in soup, stir fry, aloo gobi, boiled, mashed and mixed with mashed potato and under cheese sauce. The family didn't really realize that they were eating cauliflower every day, but they were.

Whatever is avaialable and affordable- that is what we eat. Sometimes it is a little challenging to come up with meals from the ingreadients that I have in the house, but that is when I stretch myself and try some new recipes- like aloo gobi.

If fruit is on sale we try to get a case per month. I hate those thin plastic bags that rip when they are full and when you are buying fruit for 6 people the bag better be full! Today we got a 40 lb. case of apples for $35. Sometimes when you buy a case you get a little better price on it, but it depends on their mark up.

When I'm done with the flyer sale items (always at the front of the store,) fruits and veg I go through the bulk whole grains. We are buying a lot more whole grains now that Sunshine can't eat gluten. She cried two big tears when we had chicken balls for lunch today! :-(

After the whole grains we go up and down every aisle and get the few things on my list, but we mostly look for unadvertised sales, marked down items and discontinued products. Some examples of things from todays shopping trip:

Unadvertised sales: Cheemo perogies- $2.40 off, Stash tea - Save $2.58 on two boxes, mouthwash- save $1, tapioca 50 cents off.

The only thing we were' shopping for' was mouthwash and bought the one that was on sale. We all like perogies, but don't usually buy them because they aren't gluten free and the large bags are expensive. Since they are on sale we will eat them when Sunshine girl is working! :-) Stash tea is my favourite and I never buy it (or any herbal tea) unless it is on sale. Today the stash tea was the same sale price as all the other tea. Tapioca... it was on sale and it is gluten free ... and I hope Sunshine likes it...

Discontinued and marked down items. At my store marked down items are about 70-75 % off and discontinued items are 90% off. Some of the things I got today include whole grain crackers $1.44/ box, box of yogurt $2.75, and dark chocolate mousse $.68. The pudding is gluten free and we are all pretty happy about that!

Things might be marked down or discontinued because they are close to the expiration date, they weren't a good seller or they are getting rid of them so they can change the packaging. The cashiers tell me that a lot of people won't buy them, though, because they think something is wrong with the products.

We have bought some things that weren't absolute favourites, but nothing that was inedible. Fortunately Schmidt has no sense of taste or smell and he will happily eat pretty much anything.

We try for a good balance of the food groups and it isn't all about the money. We have a budget that we stay under, but we are definitely not going to eat the cheapest food there is just to save a few dollars. For example, if the crackers I bought today had been anything but whole grain I wouldn't have bought them.