We started off the week with our first real snow of the winter.  It wasn’t too much, but it was followed by a full inch of sleet and then freezing (-20+ wind chill) cold so removing it was a priority.  And, even when things did return to normal on Tuesday the roads were still pretty terrible.

On that Tuesday, though, since I had to go out anyway for preschool drop off I made a small trip to Star Market.  I spent $17.85.  Like I said, small trip.  The eggs were free, the OJ was almost 50% off, and I should have saved a bit more but for their terribly implemented reward program.  More on that in a moment.

Currently, there are a small number of things that I can only buy at Star Market/Shaw’s (same company/different names/I’m equally close to both).  Currently there is one – their store brand oatmeal.  They also more reliably stock pizza dough than Stop & Shop so I buy that.  And, until very recently it was the only place I could get the cheese we prefer for pizza; now Stop & Shop has the cheese more readily.

This was not always the case.  I used to to almost all my shopping at Star Market/Shaw’s.  It was the closest and best store to our house.  After we moved we had more choices so over the years I moved towards the options with lower prices, better selection, and nicer staff.  A number of years back Star Market/Shaw’s discontinued their relatively standard rewards card.  After a year or so they introduced a new program: U Grocery Rewards.  For a long while this was a real pain to sign up for.  And, I wasn’t shopping there enough to make that effort worthwhile.

I think they’ve improved it recently though, at least the signup part as I was able to get that done fairly easily a few months back.  That being said, it is still very poorly implemented in the programming department.  First, if the cashier totals the transaction before you’ve had a chance to enter your phone number, there’s no recourse except to void the entire transaction and start again.  Second, apparently the cashier has to select the item for $1 off anything in X department coupons.  That failed me on this visit as the cashier selected the $0.44 jalapeno instead of the $1.41 bananas to use my $1 off produce coupon.  So, I had to get the extra $0.54 sorted out.  Arguably that’s a training issue, but at other stores the computer just chooses correctly.  I’m trying to use their program – hence the free eggs – but they’re making it unnecessarily difficult.

Ok, I’m done with that rant.  On to other shopping.

I was very happy with my $103.69 trip to Stop & Shop on Thursday.  Yes, it was big.  But, I saved $57.32 on sale items and scored triple gas points.  I had to hit $100 spending after coupons to use all the deals so I think I did pretty well.  Below are the perishables; apparently I forgot to take a picture of the non-perishables.

On Thursday, I also picked up my Farmer’s to You box for $57.65.  That included a block of herbed cheddar cheese, a pint of cranberry apple cider, one pound of beef stew meat, on pound of pork chops, and a three and a half pound turkey thigh.

Finally, on Saturday we took a trip to Wegman’s.  We spent $116.78, including using a few coupons which I don’t always have there.

That brought the total for the week to $295.97.  We’re pretty good for this week.  I’ll make a trip to Stop & Shop before Thursday to grab their sale items.  And, I expect a trip to Wegman’s sometime around next weekend.

Monday:
Tacos, corn

Tuesday:
It was just the kids and I and we only had a limited amount of leftover Sunday Sauce, so we finished that off.

Wednesday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, green beans
Late: Homemade pizza

Thursday:
Pork chops in apple cider, pan fried potatoes, spinach salad

Friday:
Early: Macaroni & cheese, broccoli
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Roast beef sandwiches, tater tots, cut veggies

Sunday:
Beef bourguignon, mashed potatoes, roasted carrots