Going Back to the Super Cheap Grocery Store

2 months ago I wrote about being in an area that I usually am not, and going to a branch of the cheaper grocery store that I usually shop in, and being shocked about how cheaper everything was there, especially produce, despite it being the same company. If you haven't seen that post, it would have cost me $57 more than my $65 dollar shop. I was astounded, to the extent that I debated whether it was worth the gas and time to drive down to that store to do a produce shop.

Well, as luck would have it, I missed a physical therapy appointment that I needed, so I ended up making the journey to that area again, since that is where my physical therapist's other clinic is, and of course, I did a grocery shop, with a focus on produce, since that is where the biggest price difference is. Not everything there was significantly cheaper than my local store, some things were the same price, but that's cool with me.

So, what did I get?

First off, wings. Locally they've been around $1.29 per pound. They were selling them for $0.84 a pound, the lowest I've seen then in a while. I bought 2.84 lb for a total of $2.39.

Ground beef, when buying straight ground beef, is often $6.48 a pound. Sometimes I can buy it cheaper for $5.20. They had it on sale for $4.92 per pound, so I bought 6.86 lbs for $33.75.

Cream cheese has been a staple in our house locally. You can buy it packaged in packages of 250 grams (that's about 9 ounces for you Americans) that when on sale work out to be about $5.58 a pound. I try to buy it instead of at the cheese counter of my local grocery store for $5.04. They were selling it on sale for $3.88 a pound, so I bought 2.4 lbs for $9.38.

I was out of oil and would have price compared and bought the lowest price one, but luckily it was on sale, being $1.90 per bottle instead of the usual $2.54 per bottle, as long as you bought 3. So I did.

Yes, my kids eat instant ramen sometimes. Regular packages of Ramen, in a cup, cost $1.42 per cup, but I buy them in packages that come without the cup, usually for $0.71 per package. They didn't have those there, but they did have some for $0.95 each, so I bought a few.  

Lemon juice was $2.25 instead of $2.82.

I bought pasta, generic brand, for $0.95 per package. Not as cheap as I've gotten it on sale since I did this shop (yes, its taken me a bit to write this up), but definitely cheaper than the more popular brand to buy, and I was completely out. 

Granola was on sale for $2.25 instead of $2.97 so I bought a package.

Now for produce, since this is where there is the most significant difference. So many for only $0.25 per pound, prices that I hadn't seen elsewhere in years.

• Clementines were on sale for $0.25/lb instead of $0.50/lb; I bought 5.25 lb for $1.31.
• Pears were $0.75/lb instead of $0.90/lb; I bought 6.4 lbs for $4.80
• Bananas were $0.38/lb instead of their non-sale price of $0.62/lb for the first 4.4 lb, but since even the non-sale price there was cheaper than I've seen it locally recently, I bought 14.6 lbs even though only the first 4.4 were at the cheaper price. The first 4.4 lbs were $1.67 and the rest 10.2 lbs were $6.32 for a total of $7.99 for those 14.6 lbs.

• Eggplant was $0.25/lb instead of the usual $0.75, so I bought 3.04 lbs for a total of $0.76.
• Beets were $0.25/lb instead of $0.50/lb, so I bought 2.6 lb for $0.65. 
• Potatoes were $0.25/lb instead of $0.38/lb so I bought 8.43 lb for $2.10.
• Cabbage was $0.25/b instead of $0.38/lb so I bought 3.23 lbs for a total of $0.81. 
• Tomatoes were $0.25/lb instead of $0.51/lb. I bought 6.23 lb for $1.56. 
• Cucumbers were $0.25/lb instead of $0.77/lb so I bought 6.3 lbs for $1.58.
• Onions were $0.25/lb instead of $0.51/lb so I bought 6.56 lbs for $1.64.
• Sweet potatoes were $0.44/lb not on sale, but since locally they are $0.65/lb at the least, I bought 6.66 lb for a total of $2.93.

Greens (scallions, celery, celeriac, and swiss chard) were 4 for $3.40, so $0.85 each 4 instead of the usual of $0.91 each at the cheaper store (other stores are $1.95 per package). Not so much cheaper, but still cool with me. 

The total cost of my produce was only $29.53! My shop total was $86.20.  

I hope you are as impressed as I am with these stupendous prices. Totally worth the trip there, even better that I was in the area anyhow.

Have you gotten any great deals on produce or other groceries lately? How much do you generally pay per pound for produce? What is considered a good price per pound?