Local in Evansville: Chocolate Deals

Happy Day Evansvillians!

Today when I went to Schnucks for a quick run, I um, accidentally found myself in the chocolate aisle. It was a happy "accident" since they had a ton of really good chocolate on clearance. 

Naturally I sold my soul and stocked up. I don't know if it's on clearance at all locations, but at the Schnucks on Green River, south of Lynch, it's a steal. This is especially fantastic nine days before Valentine's Day when chocolate tends to skyrocket. Here's what I got (only, um, I got more than one of each item). 

-6 full sized Heath bars (8.4 oz): $1.00 
-Butterfinger (huge bar thing 4.4 oz): $.8, 
-Godiva minis (4.4 oz bag): $2.00 
-Green and Blacks (organic 3.5 oz): 2.00 
-Chocolove (3.2 oz): $1.00 
-Culinaria (2.15 oz) (which I've never tried before, but figured what the heck) $1.00 except the Butter Cake one, which was $.50 (whaaat?), 
-Dagoba (2 oz): 1.00 

They also had Godiva bars on sale 2 for $5 and the bags of Godiva squares (I think; or maybe Lindt) 2 for $7 (?). But I didn't buy any of those because the other things were such a fantastic deal. 

I got about a jillion of them, which I plan to freeze (not eat right away; pinky promise) and make into a little Valentine's baggy for Kip. These bars are usually $3-4 each.

Love you guys! Happy Valentine's Day from me. 

Locals: Nabisco Chocolate Wafers

Local readers--If you're in need of Nabisco Chocolate Wafers (and trust me, you need them even if you don't know you need them yet), they are on sale right now at Schnucks. (And by on sale I do mean 'being sold' not 'selling for a fabulously low price'). So sorry that they're not super cheap. But they are super awesome. And in some cases they are the only cookie that can be used to perfect effect in certain recipes. And here I'm thinking of this one. Which is my favorite dessert recipe of all time and will probably be yours too if you buy the darn cookies already. Stock up.

Aldi--When Will a Sale Price End?

You guys know I love Aldi. One of the reasons I'm a not-great food couponer and don't have a Sam's membership is that I find that--for me--the prices at Aldi just usually can't be beat.

Here's a way to love Aldi more. Now you can know how long their sale items will be on sale. 

Note: Related, but unnecessary story you can skip if you want to move on to the next paragraph: A few weeks ago when I was at Aldi, I had limited funds. I needed to get what I needed and nothing else. However, the cream cheese was on sale for $.99 and my freezer stash is low and I was tempted to overspend a wee bit and stock up. However, I knew that if I could wait, it would be less tight for us financially (I know--my life is pretty exciting with very important and weighty decisions that must be made every day--"To save $.30/block of cream cheese or not to; that is the question.") So I asked my friendly neighborhood Aldi guy if it would be on sale next week or if was seasonal item (several of Aldi's items will be a lower price throughout the holiday season). And then he gave me a little piece of insider information that I thought would be helpful to you.

Often when Aldi has an item on sale, they'll put this white/red/yellow tag with red and white lettering on it. This is to draw attention to the item. You'll notice just left of the price, there are two smaller numbers. The bottom number is actually a date. The product will be on sale until that date.

See that 1118 to the left of the price on the bottom. That means these chocolate chips will be on sale until 11/18. 

But say you don't want or need chocolate chips before then (what--don't you want and need chocolate chips always?). Should you stock up anyway? Well, sometimes their stuff will stay on sale even longer--usually because it's some kind of seasonal buy. But how do you know. Underneath the white tag is a yellow tag. This is so that as soon as the sale ends, the employees can just whip off that white tag. Underneath is the normal old yellow tag. Sometimes that tag will go back up to the normal price. Other times, however--as with those seasonally cheap items--the yellow tag underneath also has the cheaper price so you know it will be at that price for a long time. The great thing is that the yellow tag is already there under the white tag, so you can take a peek.

Looks like this is a seasonal item. It's going to stay cheap for a while--probably through December and into January. 

So now we don't have to guess. If something is on sale, but we don't have the money this week, but will next week or next month, we'll know if we can still stock up or not.

Happy shopping and stocking!

Local Deals: Colonial Thrift Bread Store

I've decided to start highlighting some awesome local deals that I find. I realize that many of you are not local--don't worry--this site will still mainly contain recipes. But sometimes I just find deals in the nooks and crannies of Evansville that are just too good not to tell about.

And speaking of nooks and crannies, let's talk about today's highlight:
Colonial Thrift Bread Store 
5922 Vogel Rd.
Evansville, IN 47715
(This is on Vogel between Green River and Burkhardt.)

Why do I love this store?
1. They have good quality bread for very cheap. (my favorite is the Brownberry--known in other parts of the country as Orowheat; Colonial also carries Sara Lee.) A loaf of Brownberry that will run $2.78 at Walmart is only $1.59 at Colonial. I should note that they also have plain old white bread (if that's your thing) for very very cheap.
2. They run promotional deals or promotional games as well. Right now, they have a roulette wheel. When you spend $10, you get a roll on the roulette wheel. It lands on a number and you get that many more products for FREE. Even if you already bought all the bread you can use or store, you can get a ticket to use the next time. For example, today I let Emma roll and she rolled a 6 (good girl; I've never rolled higher than a 2, but Emma's a high roller). That meant that in addition to the fabulous deals on bread we got today, we can get 6 products (bread, donuts, whatever they have that you want) for free. I had bought all I needed today, so I got a little ticket. Now, next time I go in, I won't have to pay at all to get 6 loaves of bread (or any other products I want).
3. Often if they have too much, they give things away for free. Last time I went there I got two packages of Hawaiian rolls. About a month ago, I got 2 packages of  Hawaiian rolls and 2 packages of donuts (yeah, my kids were loving that--I never buy donuts, but for free--yup I'll take them).
4. They often run other promotions. Today when I went they had pumpkin English muffins for $.75/package and bagels for $.99.

Today, this is what I got. I paid $10.53 for it. Plus, I got my ticket for 6 more free items. That means that each item averaged (or will have averaged) $.65. If you had bought these things at Walmart, you would have spent approximately $25.00 for only 10 things ($2.50/item). Even at Walmart, the 4 loaves of bread alone would have exceeded the cost of the price I paid today for 16 items.

(One bagel rolled out of the shot. I got four loaves of bread, four packages of bagels, and two packages of English muffins for $10.53. All were name brands. Most were whole wheat and healthy.)