Basically, I got really caught up in the wide world of major grocery stores. Costco! Aldi! Kroger! Whole Foods! (Side note: I had a terrible awful no good cashier experience at a local WF, and the team responded by offering me a $25 gift card, but I'm rarely at that store so I haven't picked it up yet. When I do, perhaps THAT will be a video....)
Yesterday my husband said he wanted to run to YDFM (which longtime blog readers know is actually our number one grocery store of choice - for a long time it was our ONLY store, with short trips to Kroger for fill-in items) and I hadn't been in a few weeks so I went along - and I fell in love all over again, which happens EVERY TIME I skip going for a few weeks and then return.
I made a haul video because I thought that since the store's policy of no video inside was so strict, I'd be one of the few who did so. I was wrong - there are various videos on YouTube if you dig around, including videos inside the store. I don't know how they got away with it, but they did. I didn't do that - my video is after we got home, showing what I bought.
In brief, when I shop at YDFM I buy almost NO processed items (not zero but not much). I buy largely organic items. The produce prices are, as I say in my commercial-sounding header, basically unbeatable. Organic apples are, at least right now (prices fluctuate with the market), about $1/pound less than what I have been paying at Costco (which I never should've even done but I swear the first time I bought Costco organic apples the price WAS less than YDFM that week) and also I can pick and choose my own fruit vs. buying a big plastic container. The dried mango (I show this in the video) is half the price of what I paid at Aldi and tastes better and fresher.
Stop here and watch the video - the rest of this post is just my random thoughts and you can totally skip that. (If you do watch the video, hop over to YouTube and give it a Like would ya? Or even SUBSCRIBE OOOOOOH.)
Rambling thoughts about my recent grocery travels vs. YDFM
The tempeh? With a coupon and sale, that's cheaper at Kroger, but it's one of those "we're here already, just grab it" foods.
YDFM doesn't sell certain food my family likes to eat that I have to get elsewhere.
YDFM also only has food and sometimes it's easier to go to Kroger/Costco/Target and get not only food but also household items.
Right now Aldi has an unbeatable price on almond milk, for example (even with coupon, sale combo). Aldi also is likely the winner in snack food (though YDFM has some higher end items). But YDFM seemed to beat Aldi on fancy stuffed olives (in the video I show plain kalamata olives - unbeatable price for those for sure).
Costco's giant-ass blocks of cheese beat everyone else - but they're nothing special and certainly aren't organic. Both YDFM and our local Kroger (which has an entire special fancy cheese section) can probably beat Costco if I want something different....at least in a more reasonable size.
It takes time, energy, and gas to go to 5 different stores to save money. I could drive myself crazy trying to catch all the sales. I've started ignoring the Target sales. I've been also skipping some of the buy-X-things-save-$Y sales at Kroger even though they often include freebies or super-cheap things because I just don't have the brain space for that right now.
Also we don't go to Publix at all anymore and that used to be our main store - but there's a rumor I'm getting a Publix in WALKING DISTANCE of my house (right now I can walk to a tiny Kroger that has recently upped its game in the organic/healthy aisles). A Sprouts is opening in about 2 months that's around the corner, and soon after that we're getting a nearby Whole Foods 365 (supposedly a competitor to Trader Joe's). Oh speaking of TJs, as I'd hoped, most of these other stores have finally taken over my desire to go there. I simply cannot be good in TJs - but we do need a few specific things there soon (like the cereal bars my kid loves - no other store has an option that is both tasty and priced well).
This is all stream of consciousness rambling and if you made it this far, I congratulate you. I hope you liked my vlog and grocery haul!
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