We went to Country Corners, an Amish bulk foods store, this morning. They have your usual bulk foods and also a discounted section of scratch and dent foods. Here's what we came home with:



I don't have a detailed receipt but I do remember Campbell's condensed soups were 59 cents, black beans and enchilada sauce were 39 cents a can, hamburger helpers were 79 cents, salad dressings were 69 cents, just because of dented boxes and cans. Pickles were $1.39, dijon honey 49 cents, lime juice 29 cents, karo 99 cents, good prices in my book. :) We bought some candy too as you can see.

From the bulk foods section, honey was $6, dried kiwi $1.72 (good stuff!) muenster cheese $3.25, chocolate drink mix $1.79, and dried onion 65 cents. It's a great place to buy seasonings and spices.

I probably missed some prices, but altogether we spent $31.37. We forgot milk, so we stopped at a gas station near home for that, which was over $3.

We also went to an Amish general store, which was neat. I got various kitchen supplies I've been living without like a cheese slicer, a basic funnel, and an Amish cookbook like the one Mom has!

The weather was beautiful yesterday so we decided to go to Big Bear Lake and have a cookout! We went to Glen's, where I got a $25 gift card for transferring a prescription, and used that to buy our picnic supplies. Here's what we got:



Ripe bananas are always $0.29 a pound, wrapped in red tape as you can see. Strawberries were $1.69. We're spoiled on Ball Park Angus Beef Franks, which I used to get cheap at Giant Eagle, but they cost $4.49 full price here. I talked Dan into trying some Oscar Mayer Beef Natural franks that were a manager's special at $1.99, but we bought the Ball Parks too just in case the Oscar Mayers turned out to be a bad choice. (They were great, by the way, and I wish I would have gotten more!) The pretzels were $2.99, and hot dog buns were $0.99. Of course, we had to get two packs of hot dog buns since we got two packs of hot dogs! Value Time marshmallows were $1.29 for a pound bag, and Hersheys chocolate was $3 for 6 bars. There was a coupon attached to the chocolate for 75 cents off. Cherry Coke was $1.34 with a 10 cent bottle deposit. I also noticed some Hot Apple Pie coffee on clearance for 75 cents so I got that to try sometime. The total came to $20.36, which we paid for with the gift card. So actually all that stuff was FREE! And we still have $5.39 on the card to spend next time!

While we were in town, we went to Walgreens to pick up a few things too. First we paid $4 for the Dove shampoo (plus $0.24 tax), and got a $4 Register Rewards coupon. Next transaction was Tums on sale for $3.99 and two cans of mushrooms on sale with an in-ad coupon for $.50 each. Total with tax came to $5.23, used the $4 RR coupon and paid $1.23. I got another $1 RR for buying the Tums, so I bought two more cans of mushrooms for FREE. This is what I bought for $5.47.



Not bad, I think, considering I'm not even using coupons. I probably could have made money if I had some Dove and Tums coupons, in which case I would have stocked up! But one of each is fine for now.

My Grocery Shopping Habits

I've decided to keep a log of my grocery shopping. I tend to sale shop and stock up when there's a good deal. I used to use manufacturer's coupons quite a bit, when I could go to a store that doubled them. In Pittsburgh I would "dumpster dive" at the recycling center and collect coupons from the newspaper bin, then double them at Giant Eagle and got lots of cheap or free stuff. Since we moved to northern Michigan, though, I don't have any doubling stores, and I don't really have a good source for coupons either. So I'm stuck with just sale shopping.

I try to keep my spending to about $50 per week, for my husband, baby and me. We have a pretty well stocked pantry right now, so what I bought today should be good for two weeks. It came to a total of $98.24.



Split chicken breasts were $0.99 per pound, ham was $0.88 per pound, and bacon was $1.99. Eggs were $0.88 a dozen.

There is a box of Ramen noodles in the back right, which was $4 for 24 packs, which is pretty much the only thing my husband can cook so it's good to have on hand in a pinch! This will last us quite a while obviously.

Frozen vegetables were $1 a bag, and I got 7. The avocadoes ($1 each), sweet potatoes ($1.90 for 2), and cottage cheese ($1.99) are for the baby.

I bought the pasta ($1.59), olives ($1), tomatoes ($2.59) and cheese (1-1/2 pounds for $4.99) for a pasta salad to serve after a funeral on Saturday. Hellman's mayo was $2.50, not a great price by my standards, but I needed some for potato salad. I had to get celery, too, which was $2.79.

I picked the Cheez-its up because they were on sale, 2 for $4, and there was a coupon for $1 off 2, but I forgot to give the checkout girl the coupon! The Mt. Dew was another $1. Ice cream was $3.34 (a staple for my husband!)

Butter was $1.69 and there was a limit of 3. Otherwise I would have stocked up on more of that. Milk was $3.19.

Ranch dip mix was on sale for $.92. In retrospect, I shouldn't have picked it up because I don't use it for anything, and I can imagine it hanging around for years. That's one down side to sale shopping. You buy things just because they're on sale. Soy sauce was $2.14 (25% off), and we were completely out of sugar, which was $5.49 for 10 pounds. Honey was $2.99.

Borax is for washing the baby's diapers. It was $4.69 and will last a couple of months. I also needed a scrub brush for the kitchen, so I went ahead and picked one up for $2.19, though I'm sure I could have gotten it cheaper at a dollar store.

I think that's everything. I was pleasantly surprised at checkout to find that I earned a bonus 2000 "yes" points, which will get me free food at Glen's on another trip. They have a program where certain items have a point value and you can redeem them different weeks. I haven't used it yet, just storing up points for now. The program is usually 50 points for every $50 you spend in a week, and if you sign up with your email address, they'll double that (so of course I signed up). Problem with requiring $50 per week is, I usually spend just under that. Since the beginning of the year, I had only accumulated 400 points. Today with the 2000 bonus and the 100 for spending over $50, my total is up to 2500, equal to about $25 worth of free groceries.

They're also offering a $25 gift card for transferring prescriptions. The store I went to today didn't have a pharmacy, but on Monday I will go to another one and get my iron refilled, which was prescribed when I was pregnant last year and is good for one more refill. That will be nice for next month's budget!