Giant store butter was just 3 pounds for $5. Salted and unsalted. And it's very good.

Butterballs were 98 cents# at Aldi's & Wal-Mart & butter was $1.59 a # at Aldi's just before T-Day. Central Wisconsin.

I bought a Jennie-O turkey for 68 cents a # at another store; you had to spend $25 on other stuff to get that price.

I can't quote exact prices, but I get a good price for brown basmati rice at an Indian market in Culver City, and I shop at a Lebanese store near there for good prices on olive oil, tahini, and sesame oil. I don't spend a lot of time looking at prices - I'm more concerned with expiration dates. I get great sashimi at the Japanese market for $24.95 a pound, which I think is cheap.

Lars

There are great buys this week....and my freezers are full....and I am only one person. But bone in chicken breasts from the "Good meat" store are $.99 a pound and boneless pork loin $1.49....and lots of other good buys on lettuce, flour, butter and Philadelphia cream cheese.
Linda C

Here in the Salad Bowl of the World, the farmers are putting their Salinas fields to bed for a few months and moving operations down to Imperial County or Yuma, Arizona. So the lettuce I got for today's salad was $1.99 a head for both iceberg and red-leaf. Normally, it's under a buck. Yikes!

I get unsalted butter at Costco, 4# for $5.99 and I keep in the freezer.

Cloudychristine, I bought the Giant butter for the same price you did and froze it for cookie-making. Turkeys at Wegmans were .49/lb. for Thanksgiving and after and whole live lobsters were $6.99/lb. there this morning.

Good buys at the farmers' market today were a 4+ lb. cauliflower for $2.00, while one half the size (not organic) was $2.99 at Wegmans this morning.

Although I buy most of my meat, poultry, seafood and produce from non-chain stores and markets, I check the weekly sale circulars on-line for the three main grocery stores in my area for prices on staples.

I have noticed more weekly fluctuations in prices this fall than in the past so I can't effectively plan a menu and make a shopping list before I go to the store. I have to see the prices to determine what would be the best values and then plan meals around those ingredients.

My local Italian market has whole beef tenderloins for $3/lb. They are ungraded, but generally at least select. I haven't had a bad one yet and they have been that price on and off for since last Christmas. I got a prime grade one for $10/lb!

They have butter for the last month or so for $1.50, salted and unsalted.

Also, are Butterball turkeys worth the extra price?

Of all thing, blueberries and blackberries! 2 baskets for $$4. They ween't that low during the summer. And oranges, of course, .50 a pound. Sonya apples for .99 a pound -- all others are anywhere from $1.49-$2.99 a pound. And one store had King Arthur Flour for the same price as Gold Medal. Uusally it's $5.95 a bag, so I never buy it. I stocked up on it for $2.99, though.

What's with cucumbers at $1.19 EACH though?

The cheapest I've seen butter was just before T-giving when I went to WalMart to pick up an RX. (Yeah, I know, I know, I hate WM, but it's is the only pharmacy my insurance acknowledges...or WAS before last week when they told me I can only use CVS now.) I bought some to do some baking. Never again. I think there is more water than dairy in it.

One of my friends helped me do this last week. Our local grocery had General Mills products on sale: certain cereals, icecream, a bunch of other stuff but definitely some I regularly buy. If you bought $30 at non sale prices you got a $15.00 store certificate.

So we put $30 through the self checkout, then ran our preferred buyer card. The first cart came to $17 which we paid and then got the $15 credit. The second cart came to $16 at sale price, then with the Store credit was $1!! We ran through 20 carts like this and even checked with the monitoring cashier who said it was fine.

I ended up with just over $600 of groceries for just under $50.

There's a website dedicated to this called the Grocery Game where they give you deals like this for your area all the time.

In the meantime I have 12 tubs of icecream, 30 boxes of cereal, 30 boxes of Granola bars LOL. We'll use most if not all within 6 months and fortunately I have storage so that's fine

This week's prices here...

Butterball Turkey Hen (Frozen) $1.29/lb 10-14 lbs.

Nature's Promise Butter $4.49/lb. (was up over $5/lb.)

Nature's Promise Natural Split Chicken Breast (antibiotic free) $3.69/lb.

King Arthur AP Flour (5 lbs.) $3.99 We had the $2.99 special also but they limited 2 bags/person. Today's price is still about a dollar cheaper than summer's prices.

Nature's Promise Brown Extra Large Omega 3 Cage Free Eggs $3.99/dozen.

Philly Cream Cheese (8 oz. brick) $4.00

Store Brand White Sugar (5 lbs.) $3.79

Cauliflower (1 head) $2.99

We do not have Aldi's, Costco, Super Walmart, etc. close enough we'd go there to shop. We try to shop locally. Dairy prices here are always outrageous. Our store's own brand of butter is gross (even looks bad). Wouldn't use it if it was free!

I didn't see anything in the flyers that looked like a "great buy" this week...maybe, as we get closer to Christmas there will be better sales.

/tricia

My hens are still laying a few eggs, so that's pretty good, LOL.

I shop at my local independent grocery and that's where the turkey and the butter was on sale. The butter was from Country Dairy, a local hormone free dairy that markets to local grocery stores.

I also got a half bushel of "utility" apples for $2 at the local farmer's market, they're trying to get rid of them so they don't have to put the less than perfect ones in cold storage.

Gold Medal Flour was $1.50 here for 5 lbs so I bought it although I prefer King Arthur, which is $3.99 at Walmart. Can't get it at my local store. Oh, and milk is $1.78 a gallon, pork loin is $1.19 a pound and New York Strip is $3.99 a pound. Local potatoes are 89 cents for 10 pounds, celery is 69 cents a bunch and winter squashes are 19 cents a pound.

Annie

Sales this week in my area; east central Kansas.

boneless skinless chicken breast $1.18 lb.
boneless center cut butterfly pork chops are $1.69 lb.
pork cutlets $2.19 lb.
russet potatoes 10 lbs. $1.99
yellow onions 59¢ lb.
Pillsbury flour 5 lbs. $1.38
butter $1.48 lb.
8 lbs. California navel oranges or 8 lbs Texas red grapefruit $2.98
boneless beef arm roast $1.98 lb.
Red Gold tomatoes 15 oz. can $1.00
iceberg lettuce 99¢ head
avocados 2@ $1.00
brown sugar 2 lbs. 98¢
large eggs 98¢ a dozen
Kraft mayo or Miracle Whip 32 oz. $2.99, with store coupon $1.49
Stove Top stuffing $1.24, with store coupon 49¢(must buy 2 boxes)
Oscar Meyer thick cut bacon 12-16 oz. $3.49, with store coupon $1.49

I am not sure what is going on the past 2-3 weeks here, but lettuce is through the roof. A head of romaine is $2, iceberg is 1.79....But:

Norbest turkeys are now .59/#
Boneless pork loin , whole is $1.79/#
Beef tenderloins are $3.99/#
Butter is $1.25 at Aldi's
Fresh green beans are .49/#
avacodos are 3 for a $1
Whole fryers are .79/#
Milk is $1.79/gall.
Birdseye veggies are .89/bag of 16 ounces

I was prepared to spend the advertised $0.32/lb for a turkey for thanksgiving, but when I checked out I noticed that it was actually $0.22/lb! I got a 24lb turkey for a little over $5, I was blown away. If I didn't already have a turkey breast in the freezer I would have bought another one.

This might sound weird, but looking at the prices here (yes, even the lettucs), it suddenly struck me -- food is so cheap and accessible in this country. It sometimes doesn't feel that way when I'm looking at the total of my grocery receipt and wondering what the heck I bought to get that total, but just looking at these lists...I don't know, it just blew my mind a little. We really are so blessed.

yes, Renee, we ARE blessed.

I grow so much of my own food and preserve it, that my grocery bills should be quite small. It's the stuff like laundry soap and dish washer detergent and paper products that drive my bill up.

Annie

beanthere_dunthat...

Water in the butter?!? That would make it almost useless. It was marked butter, not "spread", right? Took me while to train husband not to buy "spread". I guess I will not be buying any butter there. I thought it was illegal to have any additive but salt in butter and not list it.

It went in sale in the ethnic market for $1.50 a pound and I must have bought 8 pounds. I didnÂt know you can freeze it.

No, it was butter. Big ol' 2-inch bright blue letters on the box. :) I never buy spread.

I happen to have a couple different brands right now because I stocked up for baking. In a side-by-side taste test, the Evil Empire's butter was far saltier and had a different texture than either the Cabot or Tillamook. The recipe I made was a cookie recipe I've been making for 25 years or more. They spred out and were very flat. That's never happened before. Made another batch usng Tillamook butter, and they were fine. Everything else was the same.

We just had a new 99 Ranch Market open up down the street.
Best bargain? A 3.78 pound lobster for $5.99/pound!

Sugar store brand 5lb/$2.08
Philly Cream Cheese 8oz $1.79 to $2
10lbs chicken legs/thighs $4.88
Top Sirloin $2.99
Beef Shoulder Roast $1.88
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast $3.99/2lbs but these are often
Split Chicken Breast .99/lb
Top Round $4.99/2 lbs

Thanksgiving turkey was .67 cents/lb I think the Butterball was .99/lb