Finding the deals at a Scratch N Dent
While reading The Complete Tightwad Gazette, there is one article that talks about buying groceries at your local scratch n dent/salvage goods food store. Prior to living in California, I had never heard of stores like that. Out there we had a store called Grocery Outlet, with really good prices, and things I didn't appreciate at the time. I was a young newlywed, far from home and family, and while I tried to spend as little as possible, I didn't really GET IT. Well, now I do. I'm older and wiser, and while still a newlywed (again lol), stretching the pennies makes more sense.
When we lived in Southern Indiana, there was a store we drove by occasionally that said something about Discount Merchandise outside. We always said we needed to check it out sometime and kept forgetting. It was a very low profile building, looked kind of like a small warehouse of some sort. One day we finally stopped by. I was in grocery geek heaven! LOL! We found Capri Suns for .10 a piece (which we hardly ever buy because they're so expensive and not that healthy), packages of yeast for .10 a piece, whole wheat/self rising/cornmeal flour for .25 a bag, spices for .50 a jar, salad dressings for .25 each. Seriously was amazing. Deals on cereal are not so good, i can do better with coupons, same with canned goods. Although if we can find tuna there it is .33 a can, as opposed to the .50 a can which is my best price at the regular grocery store. This store is 30 minutes south of us now, but I still try and plan a trip down that way once or twice a month, to see what they have since things are rather hit and miss. I combine those trips with trips to Walgreens, Kmart, Target, etc. which we don't have real close to the house.
When we first moved into this house, it had no appliances. Not really a problem since we had a brand new refrigerator from our previous house, plus the washer and dryer and freezer. The only problem was the stove. Our old house was gas, this one is electric (BLAH but that's a whole different issue lol). So we decided to forgo the stove until we found one cheaply enough to buy, the kids were on vacation with my parents at the time so we relied on the microwave alot. Well, through the beauty of freecycle we were offered a very nice electric stove, all we had to do was go pick it up. The location was VERY out of the way, located out in the sticks, but it was a gorgeous drive. On the way there, I spotted a sign for another discount grocery store in Amish country and made note to check it out sometime.
A few weeks ago Bobby was out of town on military duty for a few days, so I decided to pack up the munchkins and check that place out. It is Amish run, and is about 30 minutes away. It is quite a bit smaller than the previously mentioned store, and overall their prices are higher than the one we visited before. Their prices on cereal are better (they had 10 boxes of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios for $10), and we also purchased bags of Nilla wafers (out of the boxes 2/$1) and Townhouse crackers (also out of the boxes, 4/$1). Overall, not worth the gas it takes to drive that out of the way, but if we are passing by again we will definitely stop!
The point of this rambling post...check out your local options. Many areas have stores of this type, with great prices. Know your prices before you go, so you can spot a good deal when there is one. And if anyone else knows of more in the southern Indiana area, I'm always up to check them out!!!
When we lived in Southern Indiana, there was a store we drove by occasionally that said something about Discount Merchandise outside. We always said we needed to check it out sometime and kept forgetting. It was a very low profile building, looked kind of like a small warehouse of some sort. One day we finally stopped by. I was in grocery geek heaven! LOL! We found Capri Suns for .10 a piece (which we hardly ever buy because they're so expensive and not that healthy), packages of yeast for .10 a piece, whole wheat/self rising/cornmeal flour for .25 a bag, spices for .50 a jar, salad dressings for .25 each. Seriously was amazing. Deals on cereal are not so good, i can do better with coupons, same with canned goods. Although if we can find tuna there it is .33 a can, as opposed to the .50 a can which is my best price at the regular grocery store. This store is 30 minutes south of us now, but I still try and plan a trip down that way once or twice a month, to see what they have since things are rather hit and miss. I combine those trips with trips to Walgreens, Kmart, Target, etc. which we don't have real close to the house.
When we first moved into this house, it had no appliances. Not really a problem since we had a brand new refrigerator from our previous house, plus the washer and dryer and freezer. The only problem was the stove. Our old house was gas, this one is electric (BLAH but that's a whole different issue lol). So we decided to forgo the stove until we found one cheaply enough to buy, the kids were on vacation with my parents at the time so we relied on the microwave alot. Well, through the beauty of freecycle we were offered a very nice electric stove, all we had to do was go pick it up. The location was VERY out of the way, located out in the sticks, but it was a gorgeous drive. On the way there, I spotted a sign for another discount grocery store in Amish country and made note to check it out sometime.
A few weeks ago Bobby was out of town on military duty for a few days, so I decided to pack up the munchkins and check that place out. It is Amish run, and is about 30 minutes away. It is quite a bit smaller than the previously mentioned store, and overall their prices are higher than the one we visited before. Their prices on cereal are better (they had 10 boxes of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios for $10), and we also purchased bags of Nilla wafers (out of the boxes 2/$1) and Townhouse crackers (also out of the boxes, 4/$1). Overall, not worth the gas it takes to drive that out of the way, but if we are passing by again we will definitely stop!
The point of this rambling post...check out your local options. Many areas have stores of this type, with great prices. Know your prices before you go, so you can spot a good deal when there is one. And if anyone else knows of more in the southern Indiana area, I'm always up to check them out!!!
posted by Happy Homemaker @ 7:28 PM
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