$5 Food Storage: Week 16

This week's item is

5 lbs Honey (for 2 people)

The best prices I found:

4 lbs Western Family $8.32 (Sherms)
6 lbs Costco $13.99

The price of honey has also gone up in the past few years. One other alternative for finding a cheaper price is to search your area for independent bee keepers and honey makers.

$5 Food Storage Week 10

I think we can actually stay on budget this week! It even coincides with a couple of sales! This week's items are:

• 4 cans tuna


• 4 boxes mac & cheese (per 2 people)

The best prices for tuna

• 3 cans for $1 (Chicken of the Sea) with in ad coupon from Fred Meyer. This is by FAR the lowest price I have seen in awhile.

The best price for mac & cheese

• Fred Meyer and Albertsons both have store brand on sale for 50 cents/box


• Costco store brand, 15 boxes for $7.99 (53 cents each)


• Costco Kraft brand 15 boxes for $11.49 (77 cents each, cheapest if you like Kraft best


• Sherms Mac & Cheese store brand 44 cents


• Walmart store brand 36 cents


• Thru Tuesday, Albertsons also has Kraft 5 box pack on sale for $4.49

$5 Food Storage Week 9

I am returning to the series $5 Food Storage, sorry for the weeks off. This week's item is

• 5 lbs Honey (for 2 people)

The best prices I found:

• 4 lbs Western Family $8.32 (Sherms)


• 6 lbs Costco $13.99

The price of honey has also gone up in the past few years. One other alternative for finding a cheaper price is to search your area for independent bee keepers and honey makers.

$5 Food Storage: week 3

The items for week 3 are:

• 3 cans of mushroom soup
• 2.5 lbs peanut butter

Best price for Mushroom Soup are:

• Fred Meyer, store brand 50 cents, limit 4
• Sherm's, Western Family Brand, 88 cents
• Costco, Campbells 8 cans (4 mushroom/4 chicken) $6.65, 83 cents each

Best price for peanut butter:

• Through today only, Albertsons has 1 lb Peter Pan on sale for $1.49 (must be 10 items in participating promo to get price)
• Fred Meyer has store brand 4 lbs for $5.99
• Sherms has Jiff 2 lb 8 oz for $4.58 or 4 lbs Jiff $8.89
• Costco 2 jar combo pack, 6 lbs total of Jiff for $7.99

For 2 people 3 cans of FM soup (3 @ 50 cents)=$1.50 and Jiff at Sherms $4.58=$6.08 ($1.08 over)

Kitty Total: $4.06-$1.08=$2.98 left over

A few notes:

1. I am pleasantly surprised at how cheap Fred Meyer store brand products are :)
2. I hit a few stores each week and try and compare prices, I will update previous posts with the comparison prices
3. I think the $5 might be hard to stay under as I see the items in the week to come...this list must have been written in the 1980s, but we will try. I will find the lowest prices anyway.
   

$5 Food Storage: week 2

The items for week 2 are:

1. 5 Boxes of Macaroni and Cheese
2. 4 cans tomato soup

Best price for Mac & Cheese:

• Fred Meyer and Albertsons both have store brand on sale for 50 cents/box
• Costco store brand, 15 boxes for $7.99 (53 cents each)
• Costco Kraft brand 15 boxes for $11.49 (77 cents each, cheapest if you like Kraft best)
• Update: Sherms Mac & Cheese store brand 44 cents
  

Best price for tomato soup

• Fred Meyer store brand, 50 cents each
• Costco, Campbells 12 cans for $9.99, 83 cents each
• Update: Sherms store brand 50 cents
  

For two people, 5 boxes @ 50 cents=$2.50, and 4 cans of soup @ 50=$2 making the total for this week $4.50.

Kitty total: $3.56+0.50=$4.06 left over.

Costco Comparison

I did a little comparison shopping at Costco this week, here is what I found. We were OUT of toilet paper, usually our family prefers Cottonelle, so I looked for a coupon (only found 0.50/1) an headed to the store. I bought a 12 pack for $11.99 minus coupon (highway robbery!!). Later at Costco I saw an 30 roll pack of Charmin for $18.99. Score one for Costco!

Baby Wipes(for you Nicole): last week at Albertsons after coupons and catalinas I was able to get 1080 Pampers wipes for $14.95. Costco had 1000 Huggies wipes for $23.99 and 900 Kirkland brand wipes for $18.99. I have yet to try Kirkland brand, but I have heard they are superior, however if you are not brand specific I still have to give this one to Albertsons.

Pop Tarts: Albertsons has this deal were you buy 10 packs of 12 count Pop Tarts, get 2 movie tickets and $10 in concessions cash. They are priced at $2.50 and you can use the $1/3 coupon from kelloggs.com. Plus they have a catalina for buy 5 get $4 catalina. So, you would spend after coupons and catalinas $14 for 120 Pop Tarts (not including the movie items) at Costco 48 Pop Tarts are $7.89. Always assuming you need 120 Pop Tarts...I would be sick of them for sure by then.

Final Score: Costco: 1, Albertsons: 2!

Costco Comparison

I went to Costco and I was extremely overwhelmed to say the least. (Sidenote: I have not been in a Costco for like 15 years and I haven't been in a Sam's Club for 8!) My kids thought this was "the best store ever" because of the large amounts of samples they inhaled! All in all, it is a good store and one I think I can find deals at. I am going to do some comparisons every week or so, just to get a ball park on where things sit. I am going to ignore the membership fee (which I thought was reasonable at $100/yr because I am sure I spend at least $100 a year on coupons from the paper...I live in a "rural" area and the paper deals just aren't there. I am working on something though, I will share with you soon!) Three items that I caught the prices of and remembered recent sale prices for.

24 pack $6.99, the lowest I have seen these lately is $3 a box, plus catalina $4 when you spend $12, so it averages out to $2 for a box of 6 or $8 for 24. Costco is the better deal here.
Canned veggies, $9.59 for 12 or 80 cents each (S&W brand). Right now canned veggies are 39 cents at Albertsons for Green Giant, which I think is considered a more "expensive brand". I regularly see canned veggies go on sale for around 50 cents anyway. I would have to give this to the grocery store. (By the way, you can still get a rain check through today, if your store is out of the fabulous veggie deal!)

Milk, this one is tricky. Costco $3.96 for 2 gallons. I like the taste of Kirkland milk, but the jug is horrible. I am constantly dribbling down the side. Is there a trick I don't know? Last week Rite Aid had Umpqua milk on sale for $1.99/gallon and this week Fred Meyer had Mountain Dairy milk on sale for $1.99/gallon. So, I think this deal is basically a wash. However, I don't know if I will be buying the milk again just because of the jug?

I will compare more each week as I explore. I still didn't find the "diapers" and I really curious about that price!

Costco is here

Well, ever since I moved to Roseburg in 2002, I have been hearing how "Costco is coming." The day is finally here. Tomorrow at 8:00 am the doors of the Roseburg Costco will be officially open. I am sure it will be crazy! I myself am going to wait a few days/weeks to check it out. I just wanted to let you know a few rules and things to think about while shopping at the warehouse stores.

1) They don't except manufacturer's coupons. Only there own Costco coupons.
2) Quantity of item you are getting, be sure to compare unit prices or price per ounce to make sure you are still getting a good deal. Check expiration dates, a lot of time you may not use the whole thing before it expires. You will probably be able to find better deals using coupons at grocery stores on many items.
3) You have to factor in the cost of membership, although I am sure there will be lots of promos and maybe even trial memberships, remember to factor in the cost of the membership in your budget to make sure it is still a good deal for you.
4) Costco is a danger zone for spending...you will never leave with one item, and since the items are higher priced since they are so large, it becomes very easy to spend hundreds of dollars quickly!
*And remember I have read more than once on other coupon blogs that coupon divas have "let their membership lapse"....

Do you use Costco? What do you think?