Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Tales from the Grocery Aisle and a Kashi Happy Sunshine Review

Hello bloggies!

I seem to have fallen behind on food blogging in the last couple of days. So I say we wipe the slate clean! How about some Tales from the Grocery Aisle to start off a Tuesday morning?

This weekend, Tales of Expansion posted a picture of her grocery purchases and how much they cost. She managed to get a really good number of items all four about $25!!! Colour me impressed! She lives in the New York area, eats healthfully but still managed not to over-spend. Tales of Expansion and I had a bit of an email back and forth and she said she would be looking forward to what I could get with my money, here in the Canadian Rockies.

With that in mind I spent a good amount of time on Sunday scoping out all the coupons and online sites of all three of the local supermarkets. I made a list. Checked it twice and headed out. Here's what I ended up with:


TOTAL: $42.08!! I would say that's not bad at all! What did I get for my money? Oatmeal bread, lots of bananas, mushrooms, a good bunch of apples, a huge box of dates (for snacking and for homemade Larabars), wholewheat baked pita chips, FOUR Almond Breeze containers, kale, and parsley.

Biggest get? The Almond Breeze!! It usually costs quite a bit here but I managed to find a sale of 2 for $5 so I stocked up and bought four. :oP

All in all I would say that I'm quite pleased with the outcome of my well-planned out shopping expedition. I think I'm going to stick to doing it this way. Checking coupons, making a list, and heading to the store for that specific purchase. I'll likely spend less money that way.

I would say, however, that I was somewhat disappointed in one of the three grocery stores. They had some AWESOME sales but nothing in stock. Boo! :o( I inquired about re-stocking and one of the sales girls told me that they re-stock daily but items are usually gone by 5pm in the afternoon. With that in mind I left work dead on time (usually I stay a bit longer) and ran to the grocery store. I got a pile of seedless grapes (at 87 cents per pound!!!) and five avocados ($2.50 in total!!). The grapes in particular have turned out to be firm, juicy, and not overly sweet. Quite proud of that get!


And what about that Kashi Honey Sunshine Review? I have one word for you. YUMMERS!!!!
We don't have access to this cereal in my corner of Canada so I picked it up this weekend in Montana. In fact I was so excited I bought two boxes.

I had seen similar cereals in a lot of bloggies posts so I figure it had to be good. For starters the little puffs are smaller than they look on the box. They're very small but quite dense. Not really airy like I imagined they would be. But that probably means you get more bang for your money in the box. This is what my breakfast looked like on the Sunday morning of my taste test:


Positives: the texture is awesome, they hold up really well in the milk, they're sweet but still good for you, they don't taste healthy, they have loads of whole grains

Negatives: probably a bit too sweet to have on a daily basis

All in all would I buy them again? Definitely! But like I said they are really sweet for my taste so I would probably not eat them on a daily basis. Cost? I think they were just slightly over $3 at Target.

That's in for now bloggies - I have to get ready and head off to work. But look for me later tonight with the return of food blogging! Happy Tuesday!

7 comments:

Sarah said...

Wooohooo, great job!! I'm so proud of your coupon-clipping and multi-store shopping fest. I HATE when i have coupons/sales for a specific product that is not in stock, grrr -- excellent dedication to go back to the store the next day! 87 cents is AMAZING for grapes (plus, aren't you talking in canadian dollars? and doesn't that mean your groceries cost even less in US $? :-))

http://talesofexpansion.wordpress.com/

Krista said...

Great haul from the grocery store! I snagged some Almond Breeze 2 for $4 last week! BONUS!!

I bought some of the Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal on my last trip to buffalo and loved it, too!!

Anonymous said...

i haven't tried this cereal before but i've heard it tastes like captain crunch! so yummmyy!! :) thanks for the great review

www.dailygoods.wordpress.com

Aron said...

great job on the grocery store!!! its really hard sometimes, but you can totally find good deals! i will have to check out the coupons, etc before i go this weekend :)

Kristie said...

Ahh savvy grocery shopping. I need to try to do that more often. Or rather encourage my mother I guess, since I don't buy the groceries haha. I love coupons and saving money though so honestly I think it would be kind of fun to tackle trying to get the biggest bang for your buck. You managed to do quite well. I always stock up on Almond Breeze when it's one sale, I love it!

Tyler said...

oh i've seen that cereal before, but never tried it! i like to mix sweet cereals like that in with less sweet cereals for balance. also, i like a lot of tastes in one bowl :)

A Toronto girl out West said...

Sarah,

Yeah when I told my mom the price of the grapes she reacted by saying "That's like giving them away!!!" I'm so glad I went back to the store and scored my stash. And yup it means our groceries cost less in US$! :oP

Krista,

$4 for 2!??! You have me beat! lol And you have to love how Canadians are all about stocking up when we go South.

ashley,

My pleasure! :o)

aron,

Searching for deals took some time but I think it was worth it. It forced me to be more organized too!

Kristie,

You can show your mom my blog post! lol I didn't know what I was missing in terms of deals!

Tyler,

This is definitely a cereal for mixing. Mostly because I find it too sweet but I don't really eat that much sweet stuff to begin with.