Wednesday, February 10, 2010 by Hodding.

I forgot to sign out of my website yesterday afternoon and lo-and-behold, I was still active this morning!  Wonder what that will do?  Make my site appear more popular? Cost me more money?  Nothing?

I bring that up because I was just laughing with Lisa (see past posts; she’s my wife–the sane one in the family) about how a year ago, several readers asked me if they could follow me on Facebook and what my twitter account was.  “Uh, well, I guess you could be one of my friends,” I stumbled.  And then I mumbled that I was about to become a twitter member too–even though I had no earthly idea what twitter was. Or better yet, that you didn’t become a twitter member–or do you?  I’m still going to do that one of these days–that is, when I know I’ll be able t0 come up with something pithy and pertinent about being frugal every single day.

Ok, I’m writing in a panic today (I tend to do that) but I wanted to relate a shopping experience I had last year that could prove helpful for all of us.  I wrote about it in the “Comments” section of my column for gourmet.com: a post-Saint-Patrick’s-Day potatoes, carrots and corned-beef sale. That day I was rifling through the reduced-for-quick-sale rack at the end of our grocery store’s produce section when I spied a coupon for a great deal: a few days before St. Patrick’s Day, the store was selling 5 pounds of potatoes, 1 pound of carrots and 2.5 pounds of corned beef for $7.99.  Since corned-beef often costs that much all on its own, I was elated.  Until I remembered it was the day after St. Patrick’s.  Bummer.

Later, as I morosely worked my way through the rest of the store, I came upon the meat section.  Thank God. Yes, the sale was over but to my and my family’s stomachs’ delight, it’d been replaced by something better.  A half-off sale.  Since the heady rush of celebrating this dubious Irish holiday had already passed, the store had a lot of salty meat to unload.

We could get all three items for $3.99.

As far as I am concerned, the grocery-shopping Golden Produce Rule–numero uno, in other words–is to shop based on coupons and what’s on sale, not what you think you need.  That said, remembering the yearly potatoes, carrots and corned-beef sale that I happened upon last March has got me wondering:  Can the Golden Produce Rule be universally applied the day after every holiday?  Are there similar sales after every holiday that we can draw each other’s attention toward? Most importantly–and finally to the point–is there a post-Valentine’s-Day sale that is about to be dropped in our laps this coming Monday (and I’m talking about something beyond half-price for a 5-pound box of heart-shaped chocolates that are filled with some unnatural cream or jell that invariably end up back in the box, half-eaten because of their in-edibility factor)?

Well, is there?  Please write in.  If there is, I want to make the appropriate shopping plan.

For instance, having learned from last year’s St. Patrick’s surprise, I already have this year’s March 18th shopping plans in place. Since the half-price deal is only 1 per customer, our entire family will shop that day and each family member will buy his/her own St.-P-Day combo. Pretty good, huh? The only difficulty I foresee is coming up with enough different recipes using those same 3 ingredients. So far, I’ve only come up with a pie and a stew.  Pretty dull.

Maybe there’s some kind of dessert?

PS–I think I have a photo of the corned beef, carrots and potatoes around here somewhere that I took in the store, I was so excited.  I’ll post it if/when I find it.

Posted in frugal tips, Frugal Grocery Shopping, Frugal Cooking, Frugal dish, Frugal Meals | 19 Comments »