Okay, it’s early in the morning and the creative juices just aren’t flowing when it comes to titles today. Juices…citrus…hmmm….okay, enough of that.
One of the ways to keep grocery costs down is to buy food items when they are in season. If the items are in season AND locally grown - even better.
Well, I live in Wisconsin, it’s February - not much in the way of local produce growing here, that’s for sure. Normally, my frugal seasonal shopping plan includes lots of citrus fruit in the winter months. Unfortunately, the weather has been very wild all over, and a recent freeze killed off a lot of citrus fruit. As a result, the prices are not low - certainly not what they have been in past years. The availability is iffy as well. I may see a good sale advertised in a grocery sale flyer, but when I get to the store, all I find is an empty bin and a note. Something along the lines of “due to weather problems, we did not get a shipment”. This year, about the only decent deals I’ve found on citrus fruits have been on Clementines - those little, easy-peel, seedless tangerines. I’ve still been able to get 5 pound boxes for $4.99, the same as in years past. And there are a lot of Clementines in a 5 pound box.
There have been some OK deals on apples. Unfortunately, my husband likes apples to be very crisp and juicy, and the ones in the 3 pound bags usually aren’t. His preference is usually “on sale” for $1.29 a pound. Not a great price, because they’re big, and there are not a lot of apples in a pound.
This winter, I’ve had to be more creative when it comes to fruit. I’ve been using a lot more canned fruit (well, canned pineapple - that seems to be the only canned fruit we really like) and dried fruit. Along with a change in type of fruit comes a change in source for fruit. Walgreens has suddenly become my store of choice. I can get small (2 serving) cans of pineapple for 39¢ or the larger, 4 serving size for 69¢, with coupons. (It just occurs to me that I should be checking Aldi as well). And recently, I’ve gotten boxes of dried apricots and containers of raisins for $1 each, by combining sales and Sunmaid coupons. All of these choices come out to less the 20¢ a serving, making them the most economical way to strive for that “5 to 9 servings” of fruit and veggies per day.
We haven’t gone over to all dried and canned fruit, though. We still eat a lot of fresh fruit, too. I’m watching for sales and planning another trip to the high-end grocery store, where the markdown produce deals can be phenomenal (hey, there’s another future blog idea.) And, I’m thinking SPRING. Summer. Or at least, an end to the wild and wacky weather we’ve seen lately.