Weekend Shopping

Here is a picture of my weekend shopping - I also bought garlic, tuna, cheese, and two cans of tomatoes at Fred Meyer that aren't pictured.

I found some unexpected great deals at TOP this week. I stopped in just for:

• oranges at $0.38/lb
• 5# bag of carrots for $2
• cucumbers were $0.69
• 3# bag of clementines for $3 since Joanna loves them

I normally don't find any markdowns at top, but decided to check for meat markdowns and found bone-in chicken breast on sale for only $0.99/lb. I decided to buy the smallest package I could find (over 3#) and use the chicken in a couple of meals. Then I noticed the organic milk (near the meat) was on sale for only $4.11/gallon. How did I miss this? Top's Full Circle organic line is all on sale for 25% off this week.

Additionally I saw many markdown stickers on products nearing their pull date. I have seen this very rarely at Top, so I was surprised and delighted. Normally Top will put up a shelf tag with a slightly lower price to clear out products close to their date, but not often with the neon stickers. And they were all over the place at the Redmond Top, including my organic milk. It had a $1 off sticker with a 'sell by' date 4 days out. Usually milk is good for about a week past the pulled date so I was really excited to get a gallon of organic milk for only $3.11. Markdown deals included:

• Gallon organic milk on sale for $4.11 (1.00 sticker markdown) = $3.11
• 1 lb lunchmeat ham usually 4.99, but shelf markdown to 2.49 (.55) = $1.96
• 2 Go-gurt usually $2.99, but shelf markdown to $1.99 (1.00 sticker markdown) ($.75/2) = $.62 each
• Oscar Meyer Chicken/Mozzarella Lunchable Sandwich sale price $1.25 ($.50 sticker markdown) ($1.00/1) = FREE + $.25 overage

There were also sticker markdowns on orange juice, biscuits, yoplait delights, Fiber One yogurt and other items, too. I am hoping this trend continues and I'll be sure to check out Top on a Saturday morning again to see if that's the best time to go. Fred Meyer does a ton of sticker markdowns on Saturday morning - I usually go around 9 so the bread guy has time to finish.

Speaking of Fred Meyer, the Seventh Generation and Mrs. Meyers cleaning products are still 30% and 40% off, respecively for another week. I bought a 32 oz bottle of Mrs. Meyers all purpose concentrated cleaner in lemon scent for $5.39. The directions indicate 1/4 cup to a gallon of water which works out to only 1 Tablespoon per quart/32 oz. I think this concentrated cleaner will last a long time and be well worth the $5.

Katie