Update on my Olympic grocery shopping...

Hello all!  I've been gettin the sales and stocking up.  I wanted to share a few of the deals I've found. So far I've found butter for $1.99 or $2 a lb at Kroger or Publix.  Publix had huge turkeys for .59lb.  I bought the biggest one I could find and will cook it up, de-bone, and freeze in 2-3 cup containers to use in recipes calling for cooked chicken.  Publix also had domino sugar 4 lb bag for $1.50.  Kroger has their brand of cooking oil, 48 oz bottle, for $1.49 with one of their digital coupons.  They also had 4 lb bags of  their brand of sugar for $1.49 with a digital coupon, and sour cream!  Sour cream for .79 for a 16 oz container.  Aldi has, and will have, Brown and powdered sugar 2 lb bag for $1.09 each, Milk is $1.99 a gallon, Chocolate Chips, 12 oz bag, for $1.49.  Sams has their 2 lb bag of shelled walnuts for $12.

I'm hopeful these are not the last of the great deals.

During this holiday season, I needed to have ready cash for sales when they come.  I knew they would be different each week and wanted to have cash on hand for the deals.  For that reason I altered how I was budgeting grocery money during the holiday season.  Dh gets paid every 2 weeks.  I budget $172 every 2 weeks for groceries.  This is equal to $400 a month.  I have 3 paychecks in between now and Jan.  I went ahead and gave myself all that budgeted money which totals $516.  My priority before deals is making sure things we use regularly and that won't go on sale were taken care of for the next 6 weeks.  These are things like pet food, Chicken feed, laundry soap, etc.  Once those things were in place I knew how much I would have for the good buys, and I have been getting the good buys.

Now before everyone thinks "How will you store all of that stuff?".  Well I'll tell ya.  I bout 10 sour cream at that .79 price.  In my defense I use sour cream for more than just topping.  I use it in home made ranch dressing, and cooking.  It still takes me a bit to go thru 10, but I will, and before it goes bad.   When I buy, I will get the latest expiration date and then store them upside down in my fridge.  You can do this same thing with cottage cheese and yogurt.  Milk, butter and hard cheese can be frozen.  Don't freeze cream cheese unless you just plan to cook with it.  Most cream cheese has a long expiration date.  I will freeze flour and other grains for a few days before putting them in an airtight container.  This takes care of any buggies that might be hiding in the package.  I know.  Gross.  Most of the time it's probably fine, but better to be safe than sorry.

So I will reiterate that now is a great time to stock up on all of those staple items we use every day.  I promise you, the price will go up once Christmas is tucked away.