Tips for Buying Produce

I meant to write this post earlier in the summer, but just never got around to it. I have a few suggestions/guidelines for buying produce:

1. I almost never pay more than 0.99/lb for any produce (except blueberries!)


2. When I do buy my blueberries I buy in major bulk from a provider so they are a little less (and fresher) than ones you would buy at a store.


3. For apples, pears and other produce that can be grown locally, ask around to see who doesn't use all of the "fruit" from their own tree -- you will be amazed at how willing people are to share their extra bounty. For example, Nathan & I love to press our own cider each fall, but we do not own even one apple tree (something I hope to change). But for now we decided to see what we could acquire from other people's extras. One year Nathan called an orchard and asked to pick up their drops - they said yes, so he did. They apples weren't the greatest (quite bruised), but it was a place to start. So then he took a drive around Secor spotting some nice-looking apple trees, went up to the door and asked the owners about their apples. 3 trees were owned by an older couple who use all of one tree themselves for canning & sauce, but usually had the other 2 trees go to waste. They said they didn't like having all the apples fall to the ground making a job for them to pick up so they were very happy to let us pick them. We provide them with some of the cider we press as a "thank-you" and have developed a nice relationship with them now. Same goes with a local pear tree. Nathan spotted it during harvest, waited until one day someone was outside the house so he stopped and asked. They said they never-ever picked them & we could take what we wanted. They might say "no" and that's fine!! but you don't know until you ask - and often you will find them very willing to share. Nathan also has an uncle with a small apple orchard who has been amazingly gracious letting us pick apples for sauce-making (takes a nicer apple than cider does). So I have never had to buy apples for sauce either.


4. Take advantage of the season!! Each season has its own produce so obviously those items will be cheaper at that time of year. Strawberries in the spring, blueberries in mid-summer, grapes usually in summer (varies), pears in late summer, apples throughout the summer & fall, melon in summer & fall, citrus in the winter.

I try to keep all of those things in mind when shopping for produce. I do occasionally spend more than $1 per pound at the store, but not very often. My kids love clementines, but they are always cheapest in November-December so that's when we get them. For a special treat in the summer I might buy a 3-lb bag for $5, but not on a regular basis. Why would I spend $5 for clementines when I have 2 fridge drawers full of FREE sugar pears and 2 bushels of FREE apples in the garage that they can eat to their little hearts content?? Variety eventually comes, it just has to wait its turn when you're on a tight budget.

Coupon Database Turtorial

Wow, I am excited about this one. My favorite coupon blogger, Moneysavingmom.com, just introduced a coupon database on her website yesterday. If you look at the top of my blog where I remind you to check out online coupon sources, you will see a new link to this database.

It is exactly what it sounds like -- a place where EVERY coupon out there is kept track of and then tells you when/where/how to get it.

The "default" view shows the 10 coupons most recently added onto the database. But there is also a search box where you can type in any product you want and it will tell you if there are any coupons available.

Now since this includes all coupons, you will not be able to print a lot of them as they were published in a newspaper insert, magazine or a retailer. But at least you will know exactly where the coupon surfaced if you want to try and track it down. The printable ones will usually have a blue highlight and you can click straight to the link from the database to print it.

Smartsource and Red Plum are both coupon inserts found in Sunday papers.

Once a coupon expires or is no longer available to print, it will be taken off the database to avoid confusion and frustration. That's the plan anyway, and I imagine these ladies will do a great job with it. They are adding new coupons daily right now as this is so new.

Feel free to ask if you have any Q's or have trouble using the database because when a new, good coupon surfaces I will likely direct you there instead of always posting the link, it will depend how much time I have.

WATCH YOUR RECEIPT !

I know I said I would not be posting anything else until next week, but Nathan is sleeping & we had a grocery store experience I wanted to share with you.

First of all, I ALWAYS watch my cashier ring up my items or at the very least I check every item on the receipt before I drive home -- and here is why:

We wanted to buy some bread, ham, cheese & eggs for a few breakfasts & lunch while here. Publix is the local grocery store near my parents place so we went there. They had some deli ham on sale BOGO (buy 1 get 1) priced at $5.39 so we grabbed two, the rest of our stuff and checked out. I was busy talking to the cashier and paid the total of $25 and grabbed our bags. Nathan stood there looking at the receipt and asked if the ham wasn't supposed to be BOGO because they both rang up at $5.39. Since we already paid we had to go to Customer Service, but the policy at Publix is if they ring something up wrong, you get it free. AND since the item was a BOGO, we got them BOTH FREE. She handed me $10.78 back so all of our groceries only ended up costing $15. just because Nathan was paying attention.

In our area, Kroger has the "scan right guarantee" meaning they will give the first item to you free and any identical items rung up wrong will be adjusted to the correct price -- still a fantastic deal and worth watching. Because of this, Kroger almost always rings up right, which is nice.

IGA almost ALWAYS rings up something wrong for me. Scandalous since it is always in their favor too. BUT, I do shop there since it is close-by, the cashiers are friendly enough and they will fix the incorrect item. You don't get it free with them, but they will give you the difference back. It saves time to catch it at the register before you pay, especially since it is usually less than $1, & my time is worth something too.

So, my lesson for this week is WATCH YOUR RECEIPTS! Sometimes you will be overpaying by a lot more than you think.

Terms to know

I started to write a post on my shopping trip today and thought I better clarify a few terms I will be using quite often here:

catalina (CAT) - this is a "coupon" that prints at the register along with your receipt, they are usually a certain dollar amount off your next shopping order. You have to buy certain products to get one of these to print out.

BOGO - buy one get one

OYNO - on your next order

OOP - out of pocket

Register Reward (RR) - Catalinas specific to Walgreens

Extra Care Bucks (ECBs) - Catalinas specific to CVS

I will add more if I think of them later.