The Bakery Discount Store

I'm not really sure where this sort of store comes from or how you can search for one near you, but if you can find one, they are really amazing. My experience is only based on going to 2 different stores in 2 different states, so your mileage my vary.

On to the tale!

I have never been one to pass up a deal. When I lived in Rochester, Minnesota I was lured into the local Bakery Discount store by huge signs that proclaimed half price baked goods. Sounds too good to be true? Not really. I just had a similar experience here. There is a bakery discount store about half a mile from my apartment. I had been meaning to visit there for a few months (even more since it is close to my job as well), but they seem to only be open very short hours and never when I was thinking about stopping in.

Not so today. Although the place looks a little shady and is set back from the road more than the other stores around, once I had parked and entered, the store was clean and non-shady on the inside. The best part? Tons of signs that said "$1 each" or "50% off marked price" These words are beautiful to me.

I ended up getting bags of tortilla chips - a local brand that I trust - for $1 each. I can go through a bag of these a week when I eat them with a taco salad, so this is definitely a good thing.

I also got salsa (2/$5) which was on my shopping list for this week. The price was comparable to what I pay in the grocery store when salsa is on sale - and the jars were larger.

I managed to get through the cookie aisles with only a few things - all trusted brands (safeway and a few local brands) and all items that I was thinking about buying at the grocery store this week.

The last thing that I bought was actually an investment in my career - donuts to bring in to the office. They are seconds from a local bakery that is pretty well known in the area for very good donuts. The price was less than $3 for a baker's dozen. And my co-workers are extra happy with me today, which will make my life easier during the rest of the week.

You can look forward to a post about my Roomba and one about my couch in the coming days...

The 3 foot receipt

Last night after work, I went to one of the local grocery stores. I had seen the circular and there were a lot of buy-one-get-one-free deals and I wanted to check it out. The problem with buy-one-get-one-free deals is that if the item's price is way too high to begin with, you aren't really getting much of a deal. I grew up in a family where we didn't buy anything unless it was on sale AND we had a coupon AND it was double coupon day. So, this trip to the grocery store involved lots of calculations on my cell phone.

Even though I have no pantry space and no place to put dry goods in my kitchen, I filled my cart. FILLED. I got 12 boxes of pasta ($0.50 each), but I won't be able to cook any of it since I still do not have any pots and pans. I got 4 packages of hot dogs (brand name, $1.50 each), but no hot dog buns (they were not on sale). I got 8 2-liter bottles of Vanilla Coke Zero ($0.79 each - yum). And that's just a cross section of my purchases.

What really got me was when I was paying at the cashier. The woman ringing me up said to me, "You saved 35 dollars! ................. your total is $89.30" I felt bad after I laughed at her. I had to spend 90 bucks to save 35? How did they rope me into that deal?

I guess I'm just a sucker for a sale. On the plus side, I won't need to buy pasta for a good 6-months and I certainly got a good work-out carrying all of it up to my 2nd story apartment in the 90 degree weather.

The Frozen Food Aisle

First, a bit of advice, if you go grocery shopping around midnight and you plan on lingering in the frozen food aisle, consider bringing a jacket.

I'm almost convinced that my local store turns off the heating (as well as most of the lights) in the frozen food aisles at night. Makes sense since there are way less customers and it is a good way to conserve energy, but freezing customers are not happy customers.

But I digress.

I like to cook. I also like to think I'm pretty good at it. So, when I was thinking about my first week of meals in my apartment, I was thinking of fun things like casseroles, roasts, pastas, and fish fillets. However, now that the move has been completed, I'm realizing that this is more of a dream to be fulfilled at a much later date. I still don't have any pots and pans (well, I have a 1 quart pot without a lid). I have a toaster oven and a George Foreman grill. Oh, and no space in the kitchen to put dry groceries. Oops.

Last night in the bowels of the frozen food aisle, I went a little crazy. It was fortunate that I had taken the smaller size of shopping cart when I entered the store, because I fear I would have bought way more than 8 boxes of hot pockets, 7 banquet meals, 4 boxes of chicken fingers, and 4 frozen pizzas. They were all on sale, what can I say?

The dream of a gourmet meal was spotted fleeing the scene.