If last week was about cheese, then all this week is all about sausage.
Ya’ll, sausage has been making me work for it. In a normal pricing cycle, one pound of sausage used to run me $2.50. But in September, I guess all the sausage artisans went on strike, because prices shot up. We’re talking $3.99 per pound of sausage. This was flummoxing, since other pork products remained in their usual pricing range. And the thing about shopping smart, is that one you pay $2.50 for a pound, it’s almost impossible to start paying $3.99. I seriously could not do it.
For the past four months, I avoided sausage mostly, with an occasional purchase when it was on sale at Target and I had a Cartwheel. That usually ended up being $2.70 a pound, which wasn’t my ideal, but it would do.
After many long sausage free months, fortune smiled on me. Maybe it was the savings fairies apologizing for the Snowpocolypse last weekend. Maybe a large class of sausage chefs graduated from Sausage Academy. I don’t know. All I do know is that sausage was $2 a pound this week at my Kroger.
If you think I didn’t buy $20 worth of sausage, then you never really knew me at all.
A nifty tip I picked up from the Saving to Disney course is that operating with a little wiggle room in your grocery budget allows you to stock up on things when there is an unbelievable-can’t-miss-it-where-have-you-been-all-my-life-sausage sale. Think of it like this. Even at the best sale price, I was paying .70 cents more than the current price of sausage. I bought ten pounds for $2 each, saving myself .70 a pound. That adds up to $7. That, my friends, is an additional three pounds of sausage. Or, to put it in more inspiring terms: that is the cost of a Mickey Bar, with $2 in change…for your next Mickey Bar.
We tend to think in terms of “bigger is better.” We see a savings like $7 and think, “Meh, that’s not that big of a deal.” Saving to Disney trains you to see every potential financial earn as a small piece of a greater picture. When you apply that training to each aspect of your spending life, you really start to see how it adds up. Think about things you buy every week. For me, there are maybe ten things I buy every single week. If I saved $7 for each of them, that’s a $70 saving. $70 buys a lot of Mickey Bars. It buys my entire family a table service meal. That’s nothing to sneeze at.
- Bananas, 2.23 lb-$1.23.
- Blackberries, ½ pint (4)-$5.
- Blueberries, pint-$2.99.
- Heritage Farm Chicken Breasts, 10.23 lbs -$20.36.
- Kroger Canned Tomatoes (2)-.98.
- Kroger Green Chile-$1.19.
- Kroger Heavy Cream-$3.77.
- Kroger Sausage, 10 lbs-$19.90. Just typing this gave me the warm fuzzies all over again.
- Mangoes (2)-$1.98.
- Romaine Lettuce, .95 lb-$1.23.
- Sweet Baby Rays’s Buffalo Sauce-$3.29. It wasn’t on sale, but I needed it. I NEEDED it, you guys.
- Vlasic Kosher Pure Pickles-$3.37. My entire family is now obsessed with these pickles.
- Apps I’ll Submit to-Fetch Rewards, Ibotta ( Any Item Chance to Win)
Total Budget:$67.55
Total Spent: $65.29
Total Saved: $28.28
Rolled Over to the Disney Fund: $2.26
Would you look at that? I got all the sausage in the world and I still managed to eke out under budget! Every little bit helps for that Disney Fund!
Do you have something you load up on when it goes on sale? Any new food obsessions (like my pickles)? Tell me all about in the comments!
Kristen B. is wife to the best Prince around, mama to the spunkiest little princesses, and lover of all things Disney. She started her savings journey three years ago and is now dedicated to making her family’s wishes come true one coupon at a time. She is so excited to take her love of saving to the next level and share her journey with you! Click here to catch up on Kristen’s Savings and join in on your own savings adventure!