Today I had to take my Mom to her doctor's appointment in town, so I decided to stop at Bi-Lo while I was there and do some Cherry Picking. I don't normally go to just Cherry Pick, but I did today since grocery funds are low at this time of the month.
Remember when I said I was going to wait for a sale on Hellman’s mayonnaise? I had to replace the Hellman's mayonnaise that was lost during the power outage in July, and rather than paying $3.98 to replace it, I ended up replacing it with Kraft mayonnaise, which cost $2.98. Well, Bi-Lo has Hellman's on sale this week for $2.49 with a limit of two. I only had to wait three weeks for a sale, which is a perfect example of another tool, which frugal shoppers can use to save money.
Grocery store sales run on a twelve week pricing cycle. Approximately every 12 weeks, the majority of grocery store items will hit a high and low point during that time frame. So, shoppers who wait for the low point on their favorite grocery items will save money as a result.When you shop the cycles, you're buying when grocery item prices are at
their lowest point. This is how frugal shoppers are able to realize such big savings.
You can see I also Cherry Picked sugar, which was $1.88, and both Jimmy Dean and Tennessee Pride sausage, which were both priced at $1.99. With the sausage I'll be making some sausage biscuits for back to school time and possible a sausage quiche for dinner one night this month.
Have you been doing any Cherry Picking this month?
Belinda
© Belinda Richardson and Frugal Workshop, 2012 and beyond.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”
Hi Belinda,
ReplyDeleteGood deals you got. And good info on the 12-week cycle for sales. We also were holding out to buy mayo. We were down to the last scrapings in the jar for about 1 month. I substituted plain yogurt a coupe of times for the mayo. I also just didn't make things that would call for mayo. So, on salads we had oil/vinegar dressings instead of mayo based dressings. I considered making my own mayo, but never got to that. (BTW, we bought mayo yesterday too, coincidence!)
What did you do to get by without mayo?
We also bought 40 lbs of sugar for $20 which is a fairly good price for here (and got a raincheck for another 40 pounds). And I found coffee on sale at two places, something else we'd been stretching and stretching.
Hi Lili, II ended up buying a cheaper brand of mayo until I could find a sale on my favorite brand, which worked out pretty well. I found out that I like the cheaper brand, so in the future whichever brand is cheaper is the one I will purchase. Going the oil/vinegar route is an great tip on what to do when you are without mayo. :)
Delete$20 for 40 pounds of sugar is similar to what I paid and is a good price nowadays. Like Amy D. said in her last interview grocery prices have doubled since she wrote the Tightwad Gazette.
We're hanging out at the back fence today, Belinda!
DeleteOur family is not all that particular about brands of mayo. Heinz mayo was $1.99 for 30 oz., so that's what we bought. Best Foods was $3.50.
I'm glad to hear that our sugar prices are not out of the norm. When I can't find a sale I buy sugar in a 50 lb. sack at a restaurant/institutional supply, for between $27-$28, which is not horrible, but what I got yesterday was better.
One other FYI, This sale was a one-day only sale. I had put off buying sugar this week, and just stretching the little we had left. When we got to the store it looked like they were all out of that sugar. But often, if you look around, you can find the sale item stocked elsewhere in the store, often on end-caps. But to our dismay, no end caps set up with sugar.
However, and this is the FYI, look up. On top of the shelving unit they store additional supply in many stores. This supply is usually still in it's manufacturer's block packaging. So it may be in a case, or several shrink wrapped together in plastic, or in this case, the sugar was in brown paper, 4 10 lb. bags together in brown paper. I had to call for store assistance to get it down for me, but it was the last of their supply until sometime next week. And I got a raincheck for 4 more bags, to use up to 90 days from now.
Wow, you did good, Lili. :) I've noticed that too abuot looking around for other displays of the same product. When Cherries were $1.99 a pound a few weeks back, I looked at some that were on the verge of spoiling, so I looked around and found some in two other sections that were very fresh. So, it does pay to look around when you think there isn't anymore, as oftentimes there is more. :)
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