If It's Thursday It Must be Hershey-Part 2

So after escaping from the medical complex Hubs needed to get gas for the car ride home and use the bathroom so we hit a Sheetz so he could do both.

Next door was Mickey D's so we drove through for a coffee(him)and an iced tea(me).
And we proceeded to Sharp Shopper.

I didn't take any photos again but here is one from the internet of the front of the building........

And now is when you cue the heavenly angelic music, as I enter the store.........

The store was HUGE, very well organized and CLEAN!  The aisles were wide too and not too many people in the store(we hit there at a good time evidently).

They had just about anything you might want in food, not as much in paper goods and HBA/OTC meds but still there was a nice variety.

There was a bulk goods aisle, fresh produce, dairy and meats and a frozen food section too.

With a surplus or discount grocery outlet though you need to know your prices because everything is NOT a great deal. Some great deals, some good deals and some "eh" deals depending on what you are use to paying at your big grocery store/big box store.
As I don't have much freezer space at the moment I concentrated on pantry items mostly.

Here's most of my haul.......first the little bit of frozen stuff.

The Fish Pie(?)and Squash Ravioli tv dinners are for Hubs and I, respectively for when I don't want to cook(those were each $1.99). There are 2 Country Fried Steak dinners for Hubs and Ex-CB for 99¢ ea.(I don't eat that stuff).  The freezer meal Alfredo/Chicken/Pasta/Veggie casserole thing should feed all 3 of us($2.99)and the pasta in that is made with veggies too.  The apple/cheese snacking packs were 2/$1 and are for me.  The two hunks of Teriyaki Pork loin were $6.85 total, it was a two pack.   That was $2.99 lb. and 2.25 lbs. enough for at least 3 stir-fry meals with lots of leftovers.
I stuck Hubs/Ex-CB's hot sauce(3 for $1)in this photo because I forgot to put it in the next photo. lol

The 4 blue boxes on the left are facial tissue at .59¢ a piece(100 sheets each)
The bag on top of those is a bulk buy-cherry almond granola for $1.29 lb.
The 3 bottles are iced coffee(mocha)drinks for Ex-CB(3/$1).
There are 2 bottles of creamy Greek salad dressing for Hubs next to that(2/$1).
In the middle back(and in front of that too)are 7 bags of coffee-5 Starbucks Caramel for $2.99 ea.(any brand caramel is Ex-CB's fav)and 2 bags(1 Ugandan, 1 Nicaraguan)packed by a local importer and those are full 1 lb. bags for $2.99 ea.!
(I don't drink it and hate paying for it so if I can get decent coffee cheap, I am there. lol)
There are 5 cans of tomato soup(the Rite-Aid organic brand line)that cost $1 for all 5.
Next to that is a bottle of Olive Oil for $4.99(sounds high but a good buy for the brand/type/size bottle). 
In front of that is a .89¢ jar of celery seed(it's making pickles season!) ;-)
On the left front, those are 2 bags of Bob's Red Mill Semolina flour which were 4/$1.  I am going to actually pull out that pasta machine I got years ago and try my hand at handmade pasta finally!
The light blue box is BC key lime mousse packets for .99¢(a Summer treat for me).
To it's right is a 3 pack of baby aspirin for $2.99(I can get this for a similar price at Dollar Tree but I am wary of those China imported meds there.).
Right behind the baby aspirin is a grinder of Violet or Grape flavored sea salt from France at .99¢.  The salt was just something different to try. ;-)

I got these flats of coffee energy drinks and juice bottles for Ex-CB in hopes of his work reopening soon.  $2.99 and $3.75 from left to right and this will keep him from going to Starbucks or the gas station near work and spending $$ on drinks.  Please say a pray his store can open up sooner rather than later. 8-)

I also bought 4 loaves of bread(still not as cheap as my Bread Outlet at home but they are still closed down), some Kool-Aid(for Ex-CB since they didn't have any Gatorade or Power-ade at a cheap price), and a flavor of Utz potato chip we enjoy now and again but they only make that flavor sporadically(those were BOGO), but the best deal was this........

1 lb. clam shells of fresh local strawberries for .99¢ each.  I don't make jam, by frozen bags of them out of season and only eat them fresh so I limited myself to 3 lbs.-what we could eat this week before they went bad.
I love me some fresh strawberries and if I lived close to this store I'd just go buy a lb. every day until they were gone. lol

I spent just over $100 total(and that was with the cashier charging me an extra $1.99 for a frozen item I didn't buy(didn't check my receipt before leaving the store as Hubs was starving so that's on me).

So we packed the cooler and loaded the rest into the backseat and went looking for somewhere to eat.  This part of this country had a couple restaurants open with outdoor service(Hubs refuses to eat while driving)so we stopped here..........

The Udder Choice  Mostly they are known for ice cream(duh!)and their breakfast menu but they do serve sandwiches and such for lunch.  Nothing fancy....no fancy pesto, aioli, guacamole dressed type foods, just soup, sandwiches and the like.

The restaurant had erected a huge tent on the lawn beside the building and put out picnic tables very well socially distanced.
You had to use their app or call to order but cell phone reception was spotty and when I finally got through the line was always busy(1 line, they aren't set up for those amount of calling in orders).  So we just flagged down the waitress as she flew by and gave her our order(they had a menu posted by the front door)and waited for our food.  The weather was beautiful-hot but a nice breeze too.

Ephrata PA is in the middle of Amish and Mennonite enclaves(it's between Lebanon to the North and touristy Lancaster to the South).  We passed two Mennonite churches along the way to Sharp Shopper, as well as a few Amish homes displaying/selling quilts from their front porches, a Mennonite family was sitting at the table nearest to us and as we talked and ate lunch at least 3 of these passed in traffic on the road outside the restaurant(though I didn't stop eating to take any photos-this is off the internet).........

Tummies full we pointed the car Northward and headed home where I took pictures of the Sharp Shopper haul and put everything away, did my Humira injection, took a short lay down afterwards and Hubs got Chinese take-out dinners for him and Ex-CB and Hot and Sour soup for me.

Hitting a new-to-me grocery outlet, having a good doctor's visit(outside of the Foil Hat Lady encounter), and a nice lunch outside with Hubs turned this into a good Thursday.

How was your week?  Did anything good happen for you?
Have a great Sunday!

Sluggy

March Food Spending Week 3, Meal Plan March Week 4 + More!

Onward to the Meals and Food Spending. 8-)

Last week's meal plan is in the books. Here is what actually happened....

SUNDAY--Chicken Fajitas

 MONDAY--Taco Bell
TUESDAY--Burritos, Corn
WEDNESDAY--Leftovers Fajitas
THURSDAY--Chinese Take-Out
FRIDAY--Fish, Stuffed Clams, Mixed Veggies, Kraft Mac&Cheese(aka crack)
SATURDAY--homemade Pizza

Things I used last week that I had bought the previous week.....colored bell peppers, onions, stuffed clams, Kraft mac&cheese(got for free at Rite-Aid).  This is to show you that I do use all those things I buy each week that I don't use the week I necessarily buy them. ;-)

The weekly food spending was $55.01 this past week.

I again, went to Weis "PoundYouInTheAss" Markets for groceries as I had another week of Grand Re-Opening Qs.  I got free 2ltr. soda(#2 son is happy), free bag of potato chips(hub's is happy), 1/2 price muffins(#2 son ditto), and $5 off when I spent $50(Momma is happy!lol).

There was an Instant Catalina Deal on certain Heinz products-5 off instantly WYB $20 in products(which was based on the reg. shelf price, not the sale price).  I bought 6 bottle of Log Cabin syrup-the NO HFCS kind.  On sale for $2.99 a bottle but after Instant Cat, each bottle cost me $2.16.
I also bought produce(cabbage, celery), 2 bags of cheese, rolled pie crust, whipped cream in a can, 3 boxes of pasta($1 per) and a 12-pack of soda--all store brand.  Then a big pack of ground beef with a $3 store sticker on it and a key lime pie, well, just because it was on sale and it looked good and we wanted crap.
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Not-So Brief  Deal Hunting Interlude
 
And from the Annals of "PAY ATTENTION TO STUFF WHEN YOU SHOP".......here is my deal of last week--

6 boxes of Angus Burgers.
We were perusing the frozen chicken/meats case and I spied these babies in the top corner of the case with $3 Instant Discount Qs stuck to them.
They are 2 lbs. of Angus Beef Burgers from Hormone-free, vegetarian-fed steer.
Reg. price at Weis?
$9.99 per box, each box has 6 burgers.
So $3 off makes then $6.99, which is a much better price.
I had Hubs get me 2 down to stick in my cart.
Not the sort of thing I buy(per-formed burgers), but at that price this would be a good thing to have in my freezer for #2 son, for those nights he doesn't want what I am fixing for dinner or for a weekend meal or after school snack.  It is something he can/will make for himself and I am ALL ABOUT getting teens to cook for themselves one way or another.  This would be the one way.  ;-)

So we get to the register and I notice that the 2nd box of burgers rings up as a BOGO....yes!
I paid $9.99 for 2 boxes instead of 1.
Evidently there was also a BOGO on this product but there was NO SHELF TAG.
Either that or it HAD BEEN a BOGO but whoever programs the computer, didn't change the price back after the sale.   Either way, as a customer at Weis PMITA Markets, I am entitled to the price it rings up for per their own policy.

So with 2 x $3 instant Q deducted, I got 4 lbs. of burgers for the wonderful price of $3.99.
That's $1 a pound for hoity-toity meat!!!
KA-ching Baby!!

So you KNOW what I did, don't you?
I sent Hubs back to the frozen meat case to buy 4 more boxes of this stuff.
So that's why I have 12 lbs. of pre-made burgers sitting in my freezer.

Moral of Story....you never know WHERE you will find a Deal and you won't find them unless you keep open to what is around you.
Burgers were not something I went into the store to buy, but by paying attention to what was in the store & what I was charged at the register(and a little luck) I found something I can use and that was practically free.

It's the 26th day of the month and I've already spent $400.64  my food budget for the month!   I do have $476.80 in the kitty with the $300 for this month and the leftover from Jan. and Feb.'s kitties.

I had to feed some leftover turkey to the dogs this past week, as nobody here would finish it and I'll be damned if I'll throw perfectly good food away!

So that is the end of me roasting turkeys.....well, except for 1 at Thanksgiving.  The rest of the year?....the people here are shitoutofluck. ;-)

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Going into March Week 4+ I have leftovers--a little bit of corned beef, a little more cabbage from the week before.  As of Monday, everything that was cooked this past week is gone.

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Leftovers
MONDAY--Rigatoni w/meat sauce, Salad

TUESDAY--Breakfast for Dinner
WEDNESDAY--Tuna Noodle Casserole
THURSDAY--Shrimp, Cornbread, Coleslaw
FRIDAY--Leftovers
SATURDAY--?

This menu gives us 4 new meals, 2 nights of leftovers and 1 ? meal.  "? meal"= might go out to Bob Evans, might get take-out, who knows!lol

 Items needed to buy for this menu are....nothing.  I've got everything here already in the freezer or the pantry, except for the unknown meal, if we don't go out to eat that night.
We'll be buying milk as usual.

So far I don't see any stocking up opportunities, but then again, I haven't looked yet.  I do have another set of Grand Re-Opening Qs for "you know where".  Don't know yet if I'll use them.

So what is everyone else eating this week?

Sluggy