Fred Meyer $6.49
Mrs, HB and I got together last week and went on a {grocery} shopping trip as well as made a few meals together. It wasn’t a major stock up trip for either of us but while we were at Fred Meyer we found some sweet deals on canned corn $0.34 {closeout price} and bread. I had been trying to hold out for a decent price on butter but so far everywhere I check butter is going for $2.99 a pound {even at Costco!}. How much is it selling for in YOUR neck of the woods?
Fred Meyer $35.37 $27.42
Sunday morning I checked the online ad for Fred Meyer and was super excited when I saw their mix and match buy 5 get each item for $0.99 deal. All I had to do was buy in multiples of 5. Cool, I can do that I thought. {{{{Is it supposed to be I thought, or I thought to myself? I never understood that one. Because seriously, who else are you going to think to? – Will one of you grammar pros please answer that for me?}}}}
I also snagged Gala apples for $0.88 a pound, Pears for $0.99, 3 pounds of mandarin oranges for $3.77 and a few things to make enchiladas later in the week.
And then the cashier rang up my groceries.
The total came to $35.37 and I knew that something was wrong. I knew I had 15 of the sale items, and that they should have all rung up at $0.99 cents each. But for some reason they didn’t. I told the cashier something didn’t ring up right but we couldn’t figure it out quickly and so because she had a line of peeps, I just paid and then wheeled my cart over to the customer service desk.
Look at this ad. Wouldn’t you think you could buy ANY of the items listed above in multiples of 5 and get them for $0.99 each? Well, apparently not. The customer service lady told me I had to buy 5 from each little section {like a combo of milk, eggs and bread items} to get the $0.99 price.
Maybe it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these mix and match sales, but it seemed pretty misleading to me.
So anyway, she told me that’s why I was charged the regular prices.
But then I showed her my receipt and pointed out that I had bought 4 bags of sugar and I received the discount. And that I had also bought 6 jugs of milk buy the discount was not given.
Kind of weird huh?
Anywho, to make a long story short, the lady at the customer service desk said the price of milk wasn’t coded properly in the computer system and that’s why the discount did not come off. She didn’t have an answer as to why the sugar did though.
Blah blah blah… Because of the confusion, and the error in the computer system, the lady at customer service ended up giving me all the mix and match items for $0.99 each. Which was nice, I guess.
But it also sort of bothered me and made me wonder how many jugs of milk they had sold to people at the non discounted price. And that after all this, I still thought the ad was misleading.
I will say this about Fred Meyer though, they do have excellent customer service. In the 20+ years I have been grocery shopping with them, whenever I’ve had a problem they are quick to fix it. They listen to the customers and really do try and solve the problem.
The HH brought home some free salmon from a co-worker. Yee-Haw!
Costco $10.97
It’s pumpkin pie season people. And I will happily throw down $5.99 for a giant Costco pumpkin pie. Bananas were $1.39 and I only bought the tortilla chips {$3.59} because of the long weekend {meaning the boys would have snack food} and because I already had a jar of salsa in the pantry.
I love it when Costco is in full on sample food mode. But sometimes, their offerings stop me in my tracks and make me wonder… What is this? Why do I feel the need to try it? Who is buying this stuff? What a waste of resources.
I think it was some sort of bacon cheese crisp. Which in my opinion, is just another reminder that snack foods are sucking more money out of our pockets than we think they are.
But hey now, have you seen this?
A full on chicken dinner for $15.99! Why would anyone go to KFC for a chicken dinner when you can get one at Costco for less than half the price?
Seriously. I need butter prices to come down before baking season!
Trash bags are kind of funny when you stop and think about it. You are literally buying a product to put trash in that you know you will be throwing away. Why not just toss $0.50 in the garbage can each week instead?
$1.25 for an apple. Remind me to start an apple orchard when I move. Tell me, would you rather pay $1.25 for an organic apple or $0.40 for a regular apple on sale from the grocery store?
And, last but not least, if you are in the market for some 10 foot arborvitae trees, Costco has them in stock! Or at least mine did. $24.99 for a 10 foot arborvitae tree. You can’t beat that!
How about YOU? Did you find any sweet deals this week?
~Mavis
Total Spent This Week $44.88
Total Spent in January on Groceries $202.99
Total Spent in February on Groceries $143.94
Total Spent in March on Groceries $183.35
Total Spent in April on Groceries $205.67
Total Spent on Groceries in May $248.60
Total Spent on Groceries in June $147.47
Total Spent on Groceries in July $293.63
Total Spent on Groceries in August $117.29
Total Spent on Groceries in September $44.88
************
Total Spent in January on Take Out, Date Nights, and Bakery Treats $42.19
Total Spent in February on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $118.45
Total Spent in March on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $25.29
Total Spent in April on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $62.50
Total Spent in May on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $54.52
Total Spent in June on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $119.15
Total Spent in July on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $12.45
Total Spent in July on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $0
Total Spent in August on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $114.85
Shari says
That’s definitely NOT the way my store (Kroger – same family) does it. When they run those specials you can mix and match any of the items. I’d send an email to corporate to confirm that one for future sales.
HEIDI says
Yup, I would and do pay more for organic. Especially apples as they are one of the “dirty dozen” fruits and veggies that have the highest rates of pesticides. Peeling probably helps get rid of a lot of it. I also never buy anything but organic berries. They can’t be peeled or scrubbed. That said, I’m not a fanatic. If the store does not have something I need in organic, (other than berries) I go ahead and get it.
Of note to fellow hummingbird fanatics, make sure you buy cane sugar for your nectar. The cheap sugar made from beets is harmful to them, or so I have read.
Mavis Butterfield says
That’s a good point about the berries! Sometimes we buy fresh blueberries but we are so lucky to grow our own strawberries, raspberries and a few blueberries that it’s not something I ever thought about. I LOVE the comment section. I learn so much from everyone and it’s my favorite part about the blog. 🙂
Angela D. says
The comment section of your blog is like a whole ‘nuther blog! Your readers that don’t read through the comment section are missing half of the conversations!
Mavis Butterfield says
I totally agree.
Leslie says
I was thinking the same thing when I saw there were 28 comments.
R says
Butter in Wyoming is $3.35-3.99 a pound! I stocked up last time Kroger had it for $1.88/pound and just ran out. Saw ho much butter prices are and about died. What the heck is happening!?
Amy Schmelzer says
The crazy thing here in Ohio is how cheap milk ($1.49/gallon) and cheese ($2.99/pound) are while butter hasn’t gone down at all. I have one pound left of my $2-$2.50 Easter butter and have to pay full price this week. Name brand was $5.xx last I looked and I think store brand was $3.xx. I use way too much butter.
R says
WHAT?! Go Ohio! (except for that butter) Our milk went from $1.99/gallon on sale to $2.99/gallon but will run sales at Kroger for $2.29. And our cheese is always around $5 for a 2 pound block, so I guess that’s $2.50/pound but that is me grating it and not buying it already grated. I kind of fear for the holiday baking days if these things don’t go down a little bit.
Heidi P says
I had the exact same issue yesterday AM when I shopped at Freddies. Luckily my checker notice as I was buying the milk that the sale symbol on the register readout wasn’t next to the milk price of the milk and adjusted it manually before I paid. I mixed and matched items for the buy 5 sale. Strange they told you not to mix and match.
Nina says
Since Fred Meyer has recently started doing the buy 5 save 5, they have been having some issues of not everything coming off. 2 weeks ago it was gold fish. However, you should be able to mix and match the items.
Marcia says
I don’t know if I found sweet deals. Grocery bill was lower than normal, but prob because I skipped a stop.
Organic vs. Regular Apple. That’s a tough one because apples are part of the dirty dozen and have a lot of pesticides. If I ate a lot of apples, I’d prob go organic. In reality, I mix and match as they don’t grow well here.
I’m really starting to think more about plastics that end up in landfills though. So I’d avoid the clamshell apples for that reason.
Melissa says
I had this problem last week at Fred’s for the “Buy 5” sale. I went to the customer service counter & she said that they had had problems with the ad all week. Certain items weren’t ringing up correctly. It was a problem in their computer system. She redid the whole transaction (I had purchased 10 items from the sale) & I received and $11 refund. It was worth my time to get that money back.
I believe your customer service person was in error. My customer service gal said that any items could be bought from the ad, as long as they were in multiples of 5. It’s just that some of the items weren’t coded correctly in their computer system. I’m sure they’ll be working on ironing out the glitches in this new approach.
Thanks for the heads up that I need to watch carefully when I shop this week.
Mavis Butterfield says
Maybe I’ll try it again then later in the week and see if they have fixed the issues then.
Cheryl says
Butter at our local Aldi in W. PA is $2.99 lb right now. At Easter it was $1.99 and I stocked up. The price should go down again before the holidays. We eat very little strawberries and my dh eats just one to two apples a week. Blueberries are picked at a local place so no pesticides there. Cheryl
Kris Zerby says
Mavis,
Here in central PA, I haven’t seen butter under $2.99 for years. One of our local chains, Weis Markets, sells their store brand for $3.79/lb; sale price is usually 2/$6. I used to buy butter from Sam’s Club, and could get a four-lb pack for under $10…now it’s almost $13. Frustrating! I’m cooking for 7 now, so we use a few pounds a week. When I find an unusually good price, I buy 40-50 lbs and freeze it. I’m on the lookout now to restock. Regarding apples…when Honeycrisp apples hit the market here, they were almost $4/lb. Because they were such a large apple, it was not uncommon to only get 3 in a pound. I wondered how many apple halves got tossed in the garbage because they were just too big to eat at one sitting! Funny how frugality affects your thinking…
Love your site, Mavis!
Kris in PA
Amy Schmelzer says
I’m sitting here looking at my Kroger ads deciding whether to go Tuesday (last day of current sale) or Wednesday (first day of upcoming sale). My Kroger doesn’t start the weird 99-cent sale until Wednesday and sugar is not shown in the ad. Thanks for the headsup about how it works. I thought it looked confusing with the mix and match part. I will definitely be on the lookout for unadverised items like sugar. I blew through my stash canning and have been paying full price.
Lisa Smith says
I went to Kroger yesterday to stock up on soup. Sadly the deal I saw online was not on sale at my location. Butter is 4.00 lb in our area. I ran across a higher price brand for sale on a bogo. I got a raincheck for 10 and will stick up later in the month at 2.75. I am hoping to stock up on butter and sugar for the holidays although I am reading in several places that these prices are going to continue to rise.
livingrichonthecheap says
I am sure you already use some sort of shopping app but in Canada (they have it in the USA too) I use an app called Flipp (https://us.flipp.com). When I am creating my shopping list I see what stores have what on sale. So I can punch in butter and it reads from my Postal code (or your zip code) what stores in my area show that in the flyer. That way, if I have missed something in the flyer’s I instantly know what store has that on. I rarely go to one store for just one item but that way if I am in the neighborhood I can stop in and stock up.
Valerie says
You would have a heartattack because butter in my neighbourhood is $6.99!
The drugstore often has it for $3.79, the best deal I get is $2.99….
Mavis Butterfield says
Are you in a remote area??
Mel says
I also pay between $5 and $7 a pound for butter because we buy organic dairy. Sometimes it goes on sale for a bit less, but it’s usually not significant. We don’t use a ton of butter or dairy, so it works out, but it’s definitely not a low cost item.
Sharon@MLT says
I too think that the customer service person was confused. Last week was Fred Meyer’s very first mega sale. I think that they are having some glitches.
But items on the mega sale show a little symbol on the check out screen and receipt. It’s this: <+.
My receipt also showed participating items <+= 15
I'm not sure if this will be the case for this mix & match sale But it is worth looking for . A good reminder to always check your receipt.
Kimmy says
I’m not a grammar pro, but I’ve never understood the phrase “thought to myself.” As you pointed out, you can’t think to anyone else! Unless they are telepathic, or the two of you have a supernatural psychic link…
Angela D. says
I was really wishing more readers would comment on your sentence, as it’s really bugging me now! I’m thinking something along the lines of adding quotation marks: “Cool! I can do that!” I thought. As in, a dialogue in your mind, sort of like if you were quoting someone else, except you’re quoting your own thought process. Or, maybe the way you had it, saying: Cool! I can do that, I thought to myself. No quotes necessary with the words: to myself. And is that getting into dissecting a sentence (object of the preposition kind of stuff!?)
Please, oh, please would someone more knowledgable chime in on this grammar issue so I can rest easy tonight!
Jennifer Meyer says
Whenever my Kroger in VA does the 5 for 5 or 5 off 5 deals I always lose count of how many items I have for the promotion. But I have noticed as long as I have bought at least 5 I always get all the items for the sale prices whether I buy 5, 7, 16 any random count over 5.
Michelle says
We have finally gotten our budget down to $400 including food/toiletries a month for 2 adults . Used to be about $900-$1000 for 4 people! Your budget would be my dream
Mavis Butterfield says
You have cut your budget by more than half. That’s reason to celebrate!
Michelle says
I think it only went down because we’re now empty nesters
Tammy says
I just bought butter at $2.08 a pound. I thought that was a really good price!
In Michigan there is a law that protects consumers – called the Michigan Scanner Law. http://www.bargainstobounty.com/2015/07/michigan-scanner-law/ If you catch something during the transaction then they just correct it but if you don’t catch it and go through customer service, then you get your money back plus a bonus. One time I bought a canning apron on clearance at Meijer – it was clearly marked as such – but it rang up full price. I didn’t see the error till I got home. I took it back and ended up almost getting it free by the time they gave me the balance between full price and clearance, plus the bonus. It certainly is an incentive for the stores to have their prices scan correctly!
Heather says
These prices are amazing to me! Butter is almost the same at $2.99 a pound (Costco), but milk and eggs are much higher here… we pay $7.39/gallon for milk and $3.69 for eggs.
Apples, I buy whatever I can afford… they are generally $2.99/pound loose, but bags at Costco are similar prices to your organic (for non-organic). We have a few apple trees on our farm and I’m looking forward to them ripening!
I’m in Canada so our prices are generally higher, but I still love reading about the budget groceries 🙂
Coleen says
I’ve been holding out for a sale on butter also…..around here it’s $3.99 a pound…..
mary says
Butter was 8.99 a 4 pack at my Costco in Colorado Springs about a week ago.
Leslie says
Winco in Portland has the best butter prices I have seen. $2.50/lb or so. I get Kerrygold for $2.69/8oz.
Earlene says
Last week at Aldi’s butter was $1.89, so I got 4. Eggs were $.49 a dozen large, I got 4. I like Aldi’s
Alice says
Yesterday I bought 2 milks, 2 eggs, and 1 sugar for $4.95 at Covington.
Today I bought 1 milk, 1 carton eggs, and 3 sugars for $4.95 at Maple Valley.
No issues with them wanting me to buy from each section.
Chris M says
Cool, I thought! I can do that! or Cool, I thought — I can do that! However, if you’re writing in first person, then it can simply be … Cool! I can do that.
I’ve been back to Fred Meyer two weeks in a row for errors on my receipt. Each time, they do take care of it, but I hate having to go back.
AC says
Thanks for your post, Mavis! I’m confused though… What do you actually eat when spending so little on groceries?! Like what types of meals are you eating? If not too personal, how many people are you able to feed on such a low budget? (Mind you, I’m not in a position to grow anything on site — I can’t even water trees right!)
Susan says
I was just reading about a global dairy shortage, causing butter and milk prices to rise! Hopefully they’ll get it under control before too long…
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/25/europe-faces-christmas-butter-crisis-dairy-producer-warns.html
pamela says
I just double checked my sales flier (that started yesterday) and a name brand butter was ON SALE for $3.99 per pound, Ridiculous! I can’t afford to eat organic produce unless it is a very good sale. And yes I know some of you might say I can’t afford not to! But it just isn’t in the budget,
Candice says
Walmart sold a dozen eggs for 42cents a dozen and a gallon of milk was $1.25 when I stopped Sunday after church. They said they have been selling it for that price for quite awhile. AHHH! I have been shelling out almost $2.00 a doz for eggs and 1.99 for milk all summer at local grocery. No more, now I make grocery shopping in two trips. Should’ve checked their butter prices. They are 2.99 here or more a pound in this area of Ohio.
Gigi says
My mom makes pumpkin pie from scratch and it’s good. But even better is when she makes it using squash! She also cuts the sugar amount and you really get amazing flavor, not overly sweet like some store bought pies do. Next recipe?
Jamie says
I just got off the plane a couple hours ago. Belfast – to London – to Seattle. It’s been a long 22 hours for my family! We packed candy in our luggage like many tourists, but we packed butter too!
We bought butter to cook eggs for breakfast yesterday and ended up eating almost half a 250g package slathered on fresh French bread! There is no comparison between American and Irish butter. My husband even walked to the store late at night so we could pack some in our luggage. At the convenience grocery store by Queen’s University in Belfast I paid £2.39 for 250g (converts to 8.82oz.) and it was worth every penny!
22 hours in a grocery bag and suitcase between clothes and 3 blocks were in great shape. Not melted or squashed at all.
We had a single old man with one leg who was a friend of the family when i was a teenager. We loved to have him over for family dinner. His only stipulation was that we didn’t give him margarine to eat. He lived on a farm almost his entire life. He was a kid during WWII and it was his job to mix yellow coloring into huge containers of margarine.
Mavis Butterfield says
AWESOME! And, welcome to Seattle!
Lissa says
Organic apples are worth the price if one’s budget allows. They are sweet and you can absolutely tell the difference. But, there is a difference in organic apples too. My local co-op organic fujis beat the pants off organic fujis at chain stores. Yes, I’m super selective when I’m paying that much.
Lorelei says
In Canada, if an item priced at $10 or less scans through at the cash register for more than the advertised price, consumer law dictates that you get it for free. If it’s an item of greater value them you get $10 off. All that milk would have been free.
Cecile says
I live in the dairy capital of Ontario, Canada and we pay on average $3.99-6.00 for a lb of butter! So, when I see it dip to $2.99 I grab as much as my budget that week will allow-and sometimes omit other items so I can grab more, specially this time of year!
Helen in Meridian says
I won against sis spotting the first Costco Pumpkin Pie Thursday, a week ago. We even ate it for breakfast. In June I spotted that chicken dinner deal and bought it for a 4 day camping extravaganza. I didn’t fit in my mini mansion fridge, but I put it all in zip bags and it fit.
Mavis Butterfield says
Pumpkin pie is the best breakfast ever!
Denise says
I love shopping at Fred Meyers but I do have to watch the prices as they ring my groceries up. I have caught lots of errors which they always correct but sometimes I wonder if it is one way they make more money. How many people aren’t checking their receipts? I have seen organic cauliflower at Freddies for .99 a lb, it rings up at 1.99 a lb., which they adjusted. I stopped by the produce dept on my way out and told the produce guy but he didn’t seem to care, so I have a feeling that they just let the wrong prices go unless someone catches it.