This Week’s Shopping Trips – Fruity Pebbles and Fruits and Veggies for Cheap!!

This week’s shopping trip was quite an interesting one! Thrifty Al ran to Smiths for 12 boxes of Fruits Pebbles and 3 Betty Crocker potatoes!

Then we were actually heading to Salt Lake for an event, and so we stopped by WinCo to pick up produce and breads! The closest WinCo is about 45 minutes from us (although some are being built close to us!) and we shopped and loved WinCo when we lived in Idaho! This was the primary store of choice many years ago, so it was fun to shop there again! They have decent prices, and the name brand products are decently priced.  When you add coupons, you can get some pretty good deals, however, most items will still be cheaper at stores like Smiths, Kroger and Albertsons (to name a few ;)) when you combine the coupons with their sale prices.  Also WinCo changes their prices multiple times a day based on competition and what is/is not selling, etc. We will be putting more information out regarding WinCo in the future, but wanted to give a brief summary before we shared our trips!

So, we went to WinCo mostly to buy the produce and breads as the name brand items are typically cheaper elsewhere (again with sales and coupons!).  This is where most of our budget lies – the fruits, veggies and other perishables.  Also, we try to eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies AND GUESS WHAT!!! We can afford them and they fit into our budget!!!

Here is a picture of our shopping trip!

Thrifty Al’s Trip to Smiths/Kroger:

• 12 Boxes of Fruity Pebbles at .25 after all discounts (see previous post for details) = final is $3.00
• 3 Boxes of Betty Crocker Potatoes .31 overage for each (see previous post for details) = final is .93 OVERAGE

Total at Smiths: final is $2.07 for 15 items = about .14 each! Used $4.20 in coupons!

Our Trip to WinCo for breads and produce – no coupons used for this trip!:

• 4 lbs. of strawberries .97 each = $3.88
• 1.5 lbs. Roma Tomatoes at .76 lb. = $1.28
• Sliced Mushrooms = $1.88
• 10 lbs. Potatoes = .68
• 1 lb. baby carrots = $1.48
• 1 lb. Carrot Chips = $1.48
• 1 bunch radishes = .58
• 2 bunches green onions = $1.16
• 1 club size container of Spring Salad Mix = $4.98
• 2.16 lbs. Apples at .98 lb = $2.12
• .65 lbs. Red Onions at $1.28 lb = .83
• 2 Cucumbers at .48 each= .96 each
• 2.35 lbs. oranges at .48 lb. = $1.13
• 1.44 lbs. celery at .78 lb. = $1.12
• 1.14 lbs. Pears at .78 lb. = .89
• 1.66 lbs. Yellow Onions at .98 lb. = $1.63
• 2.69 lbs. Bananas at .49 lb. = $1.32
• 1.11 lbs. Broccoli at .78 lb = .87
• 1 bag Tortilla chips = $1.08
• 1 loaf white bread = .88
• 1 box Hostess Crumb donuts (these are my fav and I could NOT resist. In fact, the picture shows them mostly gone – we got into them on the drive home ;)) = $1.98
• 1 package of Onion Bagels = $1.48
• 1 package sourdough english muffins = $1.04
• 1 Loaf of Earth Grains bread = $2.08

Total from WinCo: $36.81 for ALL of that wonderful produce and bakery items!

Summary: We spent a total of $38.88!!! And we are WELL within our budget! PLUS yummy fruits and veggies – I was very pleased with how much produce and bread items we were able to get for cheap! It can be really hard shopping without coupons – but WinCo eased the pain! This was probably our first time going into a grocery store and not using one coupon in “who knows how long.” Looking forward to WinCo coming to our area, because driving 45 minutes does not end up saving us money, but if I happen to have to go down to Salt Lake for any reason, I will be making pit-stops there until ours is completed 🙂