Well, actually, yes, I am a little crazy, but that has nothing to do with my shopping habits. ;)
As I posted earlier in the week, King Sooper, the Kroger affiliate store in Denver, is holding their Kroger Buy-10-Get-$5 (B10G5) sale. One of the items included in the sale is a 1-liter bottle of Perrier, normally priced at $1.99, now on sale for $1.59. Perrier is one of my grocery-watch-items and it rarely goes on sale. I bought ten bottles. Why? Since all items included in the B10G5 sale are reduced by $0.50 when you buy ten of them, the cost dropped to $1.09 each, or $10.90 total, which is an excellent price for Perrier. I also had two $1/3 Perrier coupons that I printed from coupons.com, reducing the total down to $8.90, or $0.89 per bottle, which is an unheard of price on a 1-liter Perrier, at least not in Denver.
Perrier is kosher for Passover year-round, and we usually pick up a case of 12 for Passover, which I consider a splurge. Even at a 10% case discount price, I've never paid less than $1.50 per 1-liter bottle, or $18 total for the 12 bottles. So you can see why a bottle priced at $0.89 (40% off) would appeal to me. If I have the time to print out more coupons on my spare laptop, I'll probably stop at King Soopers again tomorrow to pick up another ten.
As I talked about back here on my series on Pesach on a Budget, the best time to shop for a holiday is all year long. Happily, closed bottles of Perrier don't spoil or turn. If I manage to stockpile twenty of these bottles of Perrier for $0.89 each, I will have spent $17.80 on Perrier (sticking to my budget), and I was able to get 20 bottles instead of 12. I'll put all this info into my master list of Pesach supplies so that I'll remember, come April. That's one less thing to buy in six months.
So, maybe it's not so crazy to shop for Pesach six months in advance? Frankly, this applies to almost any area of spending, not just holiday purchasing. If you see a frugal opportunity that makes sense, grab it, no matter where you are on the calendar.
I just shopped for Purim -- see http://kosheronabudget.com/2011/09/amazon-cracker-jacks-just-28-per-box-shipped/ -- so I'd say you have to do what makes sense!
ReplyDeleteWhat else would you get now and where would you get it? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Yona,
ReplyDeleteHave you read my series on Pesach on a Budget? Every year, I make a master list (with notes) on what to get and where. Right now, you can get toothbrushes on sale with a coupon for $0.20 at King Soopers. There is a BOGO Klondike potatoes coupon that I set aside for Pesach (our Target sells Klondike). You can get all of your paper goods and extra cleaning supplies (Family Dollar allows stacking of store coupons and manufacturer's coupons). You can buy sugar, extra virgin olive oil (no KLP hechsher needed for the oil...cheapest place is Costco). You can buy raw nuts and put them in the freezer. You must, must buy all of your meat, poultry and cheese now because those prices will zoom up in three weeks...fill up your spare freezer. Costco kosher cheese is KLP and cheap. In about two weeks, you'll be able to get the King Sooper KLP cream cheese ($1 per brick) and Tropicana will come out with their KLP version of OJ. You can pick up the King Sooper brand seltzer (as long as it's just "Ingredients: water" no special KLP hechsher needed, according to the Denver Va'ad). You can buy the Kirkland bag of frozen salmon or trout with the OU that for the past four years has been KLP and probably will be this year. Is that enough to get you started? Check out my master list, copy it, make it your own, and start your engine!
Sorry I just saw this. It's a lot. I actually made my own master list 2 years ago when I first made peach. I marked off how much I got, paid, and actually used so hopefully that will help. Where do you get your meat and chicken? Thanks Susie!
ReplyDeleteChicken breasts at King Soopers ($3.99/lb.). I had ordered grass-fed London broil from a food co-op but it didn't come in, so I got my regular London broil from King Soopers too ($7.99/lb). Case of chicken from Rabbi Crystal ($2.49/lb.). Also chicken necks for soup from Rabbi Crystal. Chopped meat we still have from Omaha, where it was $4.89/lb. I have a turkey in the freezer from a King Sooper Thanksgiving sale that I might or might not use, and since Joshua is going to Omaha right before Pesach, I'm going to ask him to bring home a few turkey breasts from Trader Joes (grass-fed Empire....you never had turkey like this). I will probably ask him to bring home two roasts as well (kosher meat is much cheaper in Omaha). Cheese I got from Costco. For cream cheese, the Va'ad does a KLP run at either KS or Safeway every year of the generic store brand and it is always a dollar a brick. We buy a dozen, put them into deep freeze and have for the year.
ReplyDelete