If you stick to chicken breast for most of your meat, even at mid-price stores such as Giant, you can sometimes get that for $2/pound boneless - and you can do all kinds of things with chicken breast, including chicken chili. You can make tasty posole with thighs. We have two chains in the Philly area, Bottom Dollar and Food Basics, that have very good prices and I shop at both for different items. Food Basics will put high-fiber pasta on sale for 88 cents a box for a 12-ounce box. They have large cans of passable coffee for $6.50 a can, both caf and decaf, and that lasts me for a couple of months. Both stores have decent quality produce. Local Jersey bell peppers for 99 cents a pound at Food Basics. Onions on sale this week at Bottom Dollar - a three pound bag for 99 cents. It is worth looking for similar stores in your area, learn which ones are best for various goods and then watch the circulars like a hawk. I really don’t like Aldi or Save-A-Lot much.
Aldi is the only one in my area, I think. (I’m in central Jersey.) I’m stuck with the terrible A&P and high end stores like Whole Foods, Trader Joes and Wegmans. My total downfall is “organic.” I don’t necessarily believe that it is, lol, but I do tend to go for it. But as someone else said, you are a total inspiration and I’m enjoying your posts.