[hennie pennie]

Almost every single food item that enters our door was purchased on sale from local grocery stores, and I have read in the past that one should be very careful about the PRICE per pound or PRICE per serving of the big bags of items available at the big box clubs like Sam's.

Frequently those huge containers are not a real deal; however, I've read comments online that many parents of large families appreciate being able to buy ONE large container of a specific item, rather than a dozen small ones at the local grocery store.

I would NOT buy all that meat at one time in one store; were I planning to go on a high protein meat based diet, I would scour the local grocery ads every weekend, and learn which store had the best deals on meat -- and THEN I would buy at least three times what I needed of the best sale meat available that week.

We purchase all our baking needs for the rest of the year, between November and April --- stores have some great deals starting in early November - for Thanksgiving and extending through Easter/Passover in March/April. Typically, there are lots of coupons in the Sunday paper inserts for such items, at the same time period.

I was going to buy a ten pound package of sugar last week -- but after I examined the price per pound, I realized it was cheaper to purchase granulated sugar in a small 4 pound sack.

So you must keep an eye on TRUE prices; make no assumptions....

[PJ-Comix]

Winn Dixie is a great place for meat discounts. Often they are BOGO. On top of that, you can always ask the meat manager for a Manager's Discount. They have the authority to mark down the meat on their own even if it is already on sale. The reason is if the meat will expire soon but one manager gave me a discount on a 3 lb pack of thick cut Hormel Black Label smoked bacon which normally sells for $9.99 but on sale for $5.99. He knocked another $3.00 off that even though it didn't expire for another 3 weeks so I ended up buying it for just $2.99.

However, some manager's are jerks. I wanted a mark down on some BOGO meat because it was expiring the very next day but the manager told me I should be satisfied with the BOGO deal. Soooo... I did buy some BOGO meat expriring a week away. And who the hell would buy the original BOGO meat when they could buy with later expiration dates for the same price?