Cooking Cheap

I’ve got a Winco not that far from me. That’s a NW food chain with slightly more charm than a WalMart. They cater to the thirfty and our hispanic population so they have cuts of meat you don’t find in the big chains and of course low low prices and mostly second brands you recognize. I went looking for some boneless pork butts. They didn’t have them (I probably could have asked). I’ve shopped there before but just occasionally and usually for things I know they have or had once.

No butts but some nice lucking chuck roasts but that would be outside the plan (might go back). So I browsed. I don’t browse, usually. I should learn. I compare prices, I know the prices of my favorite go-to’s. Holy Crap, there’s serious savings on staples and my kind of food depends on staples. I have my favorite brand of hot dogs, Falls Brand 1/4lb per dog. It’s a local company but it fits my habits and tastes well. A pound of them was $1.58 and if the mega mart still carried them it was $3 or $4.

I previously beleived Frito Lay controlled the price of Doritos (the perfect food) and I buy when the bag costs $2.50. I know they will sell it for that at the mega mart if I wait. How about $1.98? Percentage wise, my head is spinning in grinchiness and those are the obvious. Dried pasta? Maybe half the price of the mega marts “sale” price.

It’s got all the warm feeling of a Walmart or Costco. The parking lot is “fun”, the customers don’t smile as much and everybody is inbetween you and what to you want to look at, and you between them. That means nothing to serious browsers. 25% off? I may have to suffer that more often.

I don’t buy veggies and fruit there. Yes, prices are better but they don’t keep well which is a big deal for a single person who counts pennies properly. I’m very sensitive to price and self life of green onions and bell peppers, both red and green and half priced price produce isn’t always what a single person needs if the other half rots.

Most pleasing, Winco doesn’t require a “card” or membership fee or hide behind two for one promotions and jack up the price for one. Or 6 for $2.50 games mental arithmetic games. If I was feeding a crowd every day, I’d get my veggies there too, but I’m not. I stopped at the mega mart on the way home to get some Italian Sausage for tonight’s dinner. $3.98 at Winco, $3 at the mega mart.

You gotta know and care about the prices to find a bargain and what you’re going to do with the bargain after you browse across it.