Thursday, January 11, 2007

Bargain shopping

I live right across the street from Albertson's. We are so close the parking lot lights illuminate our bedroom. But do I shop there? Not very often. I don't like there prices (on non-sale items and sometimes sale items), there produce is crap (whenever I have gone there for produce it's hard to find stuff, not that there isn't, just that I don't think it's good quality, I'd even go as far as to say horrible quality). Now this isn't to say all Albertson's are this way, because I have been to other and haven't had problems, just the one by my house I don't like. I have another store that I favor that is close by that has better prices and produce. So when do I shop there? Last minute, "Oh I forgot to get that when I was at the store" items, when someone gets sick spur of the moment and I need medicine quickly, or when they have good deals. The things I tend to wait for to go on sale are fruit snacks and granola bars for the kid when they are a dollar. So yesterday was the start of their 10 for $15 sale of Quaker breakfast products. But when you bought ten you got $5 off, so it was 10 for $10. Another problem with this Alberstons they never prepare well for a sale, especially 10 for $10 sales. They run our of items (or at least the good stuff) usually the first day. And with so many people getting rainchecks (which they now put an experation date on) if you don't time it right you can never use them because the products are always gone (I don't know if that is their way of saving money or what, but as a shopper I don't like it). So I headed over at 6:30 AM!!!! to get my stuff, so I could stock up and have things to choose from. I got 50 items, granola bars, cereal, instant oatmeal, oatmeal bars and cookies. So you can do the math, I spent about $52 after tax. But the amount I saw on the bottom of what I saved was even better. I saved $135!!!!!