FOF for July 11th, plus some other grocery things.

I went grocery shopping this morning, wanted to pick a couple of things up, and of course popped into A & P and this is what I got there. I wanted to show you my whole shop, as there were a couple of things I wanted to tell you about.



The juice, milk, and the two chocolate bars (they still haven't taken them off the shelf) were what I got FOF, the rest were what I paid for. Well except the cereal, as that rang in at wrong price, so due to fact we have SCOP which is Scanning Code of Practice in Canada if an item scans in at a price higher than the shelf price the customer gets it for free (or $10 off if the item is more than $10) This is something every consumer should know. The cashiers are not going to tell you about this, you have to tell them. There is generally a sign by the door telling you they do this, its generally a pretty small sign...LOL I also think that in some of the States they do this as well. So I ended up getting the cereal for free.

I told you about the Glad Cling Wrap being on sale and there being $1 coupons out there. The cashier was only going to put one through, as he said he could only use one at a time, so I said fine do 7 transactions, he then changed his mind and put them all through on the one order, so I ended up paying 90 cents in tax for all seven rolls. The key to this coupon using is to know the rules, and be firm but kind with cashiers.

The pork kebabs were on sale for 99 cents each, so picked up four of those as I haven't tried them before and figured they would be an easy meal on a rushed day. The lean ground beef was on sale for $1.79 per pound. So I picked up a couple of packages as I have a really good meatball/meatloaf recipe. Here is the link to the recipe. That is a great site with a lot of good recipes on it, I only use the free recipes I don't pay for anything. Look in the archived newsletter sections for the free recipes. I think I have nearly 7 pounds of ground beef, so will be making a few meatballs with that!!!

So all in all I ended up paying a total of $15.49 for all that shopping. If I had, had to have paid for it all it would have cost me $42.84

Now as you can see that is not a balanced shop, there is no fruit and veggies and other general things in there. I went to Fortino's (a Loblaws store) and picked up strawberries that were on sale there and a lovely cauliflower that is also on sale there for $1.49, plus some more fruit and veggies. As I stock up when I shop I already have most other things I need in the house, like meat, bread etc. I also picked up another 7 Glad Cling Wraps in Fortino's as they were on sale there as well, so now I won't have to buy Cling wrap for the next year.

This stocking up thing when things go on sale takes a while to get into. I have been doing this type of shopping now since 2002, and I am still learning. I am also still trying to get my grocery budget down, but its hard as things keep going up and up in price. I got another case of sticker shock today when I went to pick up vegetable oil, that is something I haven't bought in a long while. It used to be around $2.99 for 3 litres, I paid $6.49 today and that was a no name brand, that is crazy.

So if I can help you all to save just a little money I will be happy, as to my mind why give these big grocery chains more money than they deserve? I'd rather that money was in my pocket not theirs right?