This weeks grocery deals.

I'm back! Christmas has kept me really busy these past couple of weeks. Here's the shopping tip of the week: Plan your meals around what you find on sale, instead of planning your meals then seeing what's on sale.

Here are the best deals this week: Dec. 30- Jan. 5

Viva Supermarket
Ground Beef: $.99 lb
Best Yet Apple Juice: 2 for $3
Ground Turkey: $1.59
Jumbo yams: 3lbs for $.99

Safeway
Naval oranges: $.39 lb
Hillshire Farms Lil' smokies: 2 for $5
Thomas English muffins: BOGO free

Raleys and Bel Air
Boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breast/thigh combo pack: $1.97lb
7-up brand sodas: Buy 2 get 3 free

Foods Co
Avocados: 4 for $1
cucumbers: 3 for $.99
Beef back ribs: $.97 lb
Boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs: $1.77

Savemart
Fresh cooked crab: $2.99 lb
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts: $1.77lb
Russet potatoes: $.97 for 10lbs
Avocados: $.47 each

Crawling

How do you decide the difference between crawling and scattered movement with lunging? Well, anyway Oliver has started crawling last week. It's hard to pinpoint an exact moment because he had to practice a lot over the last week, but on Saturday he definitely got the hang of it more than he had all week. I would post videos, but I've tried and have not figured it out yet. So I'll have to wait until my genius husband has some time to help me. It's scary having a baby that is mobile, but also a lot of fun. It should make Christmas a lot more interesting. Oliver also has 3 teeth now. He has his bottom 2, front and center, and then one on top to the left side. My mom discovered the third tooth on Thursday while she was babysitting him. Luckily Oliver is really good when he's teething, the only difference I noticed was that he was more drooly this week than usual.

New Ads

Attention shoppers! Shopping tip of the week: if you feel overwhelmed by too many sales and coupons, then don't try to do it all. I focus on only 2-3 stores. I choose a main one where I get most of my items, a second that does the best with coupons and another store that has really good sales that week. I use Winco for all my main shopping, Safeway for coupons and then look through the ads to see who has the best price on meat. I completely ignore the drugstores, because I felt overwhelmed trying to include those too.

So here are the best deals this week:

Viva supermarket: prices good Dec. 16-Dec. 29 (2 weeks this time)
Russet potatoes: 10lbs for $.99
Jumbo Yams: 6lbs for $.99
Cool Whip: 8oz $.99
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts: $1.99 lb.

Safeway: Prices good Dec. 16-Dec.25
Coca-cola, pepsi, or 7-up brand sodas: $2.48 each when you buy 3. (limit 3)
Yams and Potatoes: $.49 lb.
Cuties clementines: 5lb box, $4.49 ($1 off coupon from Sunday paper)
final price: $3.49
Nestle Tollhouse morsels: $1.89
Betty Crocker Frosting: $1.69 (download coupon onto Safeway card and print out coupon online for total savings of $1 for final price of $.69)

prices good Dec. 13-Dec. 19
Chex cereal: $1.99 each when you buy three or more. (Download two coupons onto your safeway card then print out two coupons online $1 off of two. Total savings: $4 Total price: $4 for 4 of them).

Safeway also has free item coupons when you spend $20 in one transaction. You can find these coupons in their Sunday ad, or you can even print them online at safeway.com Only one of these coupons per transaction and the coupons are good for one day only. I went shopping on Tuesday and got a free carton of eggs. There is one coupon everyday until Christmas.

Happy Shopping!

It's Wednesday!

It's Wednesday! And that means that the new grocery ads have come out. Remember, these prices are good starting today Dec. 9 and are good through Dec. 15. But first, here is my next grocery tip: Safeway's bakery department offers fresh hot french bread everyday at 5pm. And if the bread is not ready and out by 5pm then it's free! So next time you are at safeway around 5pm remember the bread, and check it out. At the checkstand just tell them that the french bread was not out by 5. The tricky part is resisting the smell of fresh baked bread even if it is out by 5.

FoodsCo
Kroger Value Sliced Bacon: 12oz 4 for $5, which makes them only $1.25 each
Fritos or Cheetos: 8.25-9.25 oz, 3 for $5, which makes them $1.67 each
Crest Toothpaste: 6.4oz, 10 for $10
Fresh Pork country style ribs: family pack, $.87 lb.
Skippy peanut butter: 15-16.3oz, 2 for $3 ($1.50 each) Sunday paper coupon (12-6) $.75 off two Skippy jars: Final Price: 2 for $2.25. Plus, buy 2 Skippy jars and receive a free 32oz jar of Tropical Strawberry Preserves.
Final Price: 2 jars peanut butter, 1 jar strawberry preserves all for $2.25

Raleys and BelAir
Coca-cola brand sodas: buy 2 get 2 free 12 pack. Single price $5.49
Haagen Daz ice cream: 2 for $5

Safeway
Fresh Eating Right boneless skinless chicken breasts and thighs: $1.97 lb. (this is a great price and I stock up at this price. I take the chicken and put one breast in a sandwich bag or two thighs in a sandwich bag and then put them in the freezer)

12 pack Pepsi brand sodas: $2.49 each but you must buy 4.

Pillsbury Cookie Dough: $1.99 with coupon from Safeway ad. Download coupon onto your card for $.75 off two. Final price: $3.25 for two.

Viva Supermarket
Tyson Whole Chicken Fryers: $.79 lb. (Great for cooking whole, then shredding the meat for pizza, chicken salad, etc.)

Ground beef: $.99 lb. 30%lean

Ground Turkey: $1.49 lb.

Fresh Jumbo yams: 4 lbs for $.99

Oliver is 7 months old

My little man is already 7 months old, and if you talk to Nolan, Oliver has said his first word. Last night, as I was brushing my teeth, I heard Oliver start to cry very loudly. He was already in bed. So Nolan and I went in his room to comfort him. I picked him up and rocked him, but he was not calming down. He looked at Nolan and started to calm down a bit, so I turned Oliver to me, looked him in the eye, and asked him if he wanted to go to Daddy. Nolan and I both heard what sounded like "uh-huh", so I handed him over. I know, I know, He was probably just making noises, but it sounded so much like "uh-huh" that Nolan and I just looked at each other, and said, "Well, I guess he really wants Daddy." Now, if you disagree with us, that's fine, but Nolan really wants to believe that he really meant to say this so I'm not going to burst his bubble.

Now here's some pictures of us putting up the tree!

Break time with Daddy

Oliver got an early Christmas present from Grandma Jensen!

why Grocery Storz?

I chose this name because well my last name is Storz, and I love to find food bargains, and coupon shop, and I will be sharing my finds on this blog. Starting now!

Really basic info: Grocery stores place ads in the Wednesday paper and the prices are good from that Wednesday to the next Tuesday unless otherwise stated. Other stores, such as Walmart and Target, place ads in the Sunday paper and are good from that Sunday to the next Saturday. Sunday papers also have lots of coupons to use. You can also find ads in the websites of the individual stores if you do not get the paper, and they are updated with the corresponding days.

Coupons: I love to use coupons. You are allowed to use one store coupon and one manufacturers per item. Some stores are not coupon friendly (Winco mainly, but Winco has such great prices that I forgive them for this). A great store for coupons is Safeway because you can download coupons straight onto your Safeway card, and then use paper coupons for the same item, thereby using double coupons. Safeway also has great coupons in their ads, but you must purchase $20 worth of groceries to use them. You can also print coupons at home from coupons.com which is also linked at the Safeway website. Winco will not take coupons printed at home, but they will take coupons from the Sunday paper. Partner these with coupons you download onto your Safeway card and get double savings. Just be careful to watch for when coupons say you have to buy 2 for them to work.

This weeks deals: Dec. 2- Dec. 8

Viva Supermarket: located 4211 Norwood Ave.
I was wary of this place at first too, but it's actually pretty nice.

Ground Beef: $.99 (these come in about 10lb packages, but I take them home and divide them into 1lb portions, wrap them up, then put them in the freezer)

Red Delicious Apples: $1.99 for a 5lb bag

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese: 3 for $.99 (Great Deal!)

Raleys and Bel Air:

Ground beef: 80% lean $1.67 lb

Colgate Toothpaste: bogo free (buy one get one free) $2.79 for one. (There is also a coupon in the Sunday paper (11-29) for $1 off Colgate. So you get two for $1.79!

7-up brand sodas: 12 pack Buy 2 get 3 free. $5.89 for one. Pay $11.78 for all 5 which comes out to $2.36 per case!

I know this is a lot of info, but hopefully this helps someone's grocery budget.

First Blog

So I've decided to join the blogging world. We'll see how it goes.