COMPETITION IS A GOOD THING

I personally think we have too many grocery stores in our area. From where we live to "town" I pass by 5 grocery stores, not counting the "super" Wal-Mart. So that is 6 stores that sell groceries in less than a drive of seven miles. And these are just the ones I shop at on a sorta regular basis. I have loyalty cards for all of he local stores but I am not "loyal" to any one store. Price and quality are important, not the store.

We all need groceries. I have to have my fix of chocolate milk and they don't sell it in that shadowy back alley down on the bad side of town. I try to get by with just the basics. I prefer to make my own cakes, cookies, breads, convenience mixes (HamburgerHelper etc...), soap, lotion and much more. Now that I am working semi-full time I find I have to plan a bit more but it is still something I can do.

I love when a new grocery store opens. All of the already established stores want to keep their business so they start sending out coupons that give you a discount on your total bill and not just for specific items.

A new Harris-Teeter recently opened in our area and they sent out the "loyalty" coupons. Four coupons good for four consecutive weeks for $10 off of a total purchase of $40. Great for me since I tend to shop in quick spurts and try to keep a constant supply of stuff and don't wait until run out of everything to go to the store. So that caused the Food Lion and Lowes to do the same thing. We happened to be in the Lowes shopping center today and just needed a few things so we stopped there. They have recently posted a hand printed sign proudly stating that they accept competitors coupons, complete with cut-out examples from Food Lion and Harris-Teeter.

This is what I purchased today:

Five packages of meat, all marked down because they have a sell by date of today. My drug of choice, chocolate milk, 10 ears of corn that were on sale and brown sugar. (I know I can make brown sugar, but it is a pain and I don't use molasses for anything else so I just buy brown sugar, store brand is usually the best buy). Those packages of sausage will be divided into seven packages for breakfast or dinner-for-breakfast. The pork chops will be divided into four dinner size packages. The sirloin steak(under the sugar) will be sliced for fajitas, probably enough for at least two meals, maybe three. The corn will be for 3 different meals. I used a loyalty coupon from H-T for $10 off total purchase for a grand total of $23.53.

I love me some competition, especially when I am the winner.

Oh, and I used my cloth bags and they give me a rewards credit for taking my own bags.
Win Win