Tracking household grocery expenses - what do you spend?

Culture, Media, General
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One of our small, local independent grocery stores has their meat marked down each morning.

There’s are 5 or 6 customers waiting for the doors to open each morning, who are keen to purchase all the marked down meat. Some seem be be buying for their community, buying up full shopping carts of marked down meat, as well as marked down produce.

The Quick Sale produce area is stocked intermittently all day, by the produce staff, as they stock the fresh produce.

I admit, I have stopped buying meat that has been marked down.

I used to stock up on duck legs and lamb when they was marked down, and freeze them immediately.

Once with the duck legs, and another time with lamb shanks, I’ve defrosted it to find out that the meat has gone bad before I froze it.

I’m not great at keeping track of receipts for groceries I might have purchased months ago.

I still buy meat that is on special, but no meat that’s marked down because it’s getting closer to the sell by date.

Sometimes, it’s hard to tell if something is on special because it’s a loss leader or some in store deal, or when it’s on special because it’s getting a little old.

I’m wary of fish that’s on special.

Most fish gets delivered on Thursdays in Ontario, so I try to buy it Thu to Sun.

My indie butcher shop in Toronto gets its chicken delivery on Mondays, and the chicken goes on sale on Sundays and on Mondays, with a warning to use it or freeze it by Tuesday.

I have a pretty sensitive palate. I have picked up occasionally that some of the on-sale chicken purchased on a Sunday has already started to go off, when I roasted it Sunday or Monday. I now buy my chicken from that shop after the new delivery has arrived on Monday, or I buy it by Saturday and put it in the freezer.

The good news is, now I know that taste when chicken is slightly off. I have detected that taste in chicken at restaurants before, but I didn’t know why it tasted a little weird or funky.

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646

There’s are 5 or 6 customers waiting for the doors to open each morning, who are keen to purchase all the marked down meat. Some seem be be buying for their community, buying up full shopping carts of marked down meat, as well as marked down produce.“

My first thought would be small restaurant owners.

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647

I see the small restaurant owners at Costco!

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648

I found this tenderloin on clearance. I guess this is an OK price. I’ll try to get four (4 ounce) servings out of it. I’m glad to have something different to serve for dinner tonight.

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649

I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday afternoon and there is a superstore down the street from the doctor’s office. I stopped in to pick up some toiletries since their prices are a little cheaper than the stores in my neighbourhood. I checked the flyer before I went and discovered they had clementines from Spain on sale - a 5 lb box was $4 so I bought a box. They also had the chow mein noodles I like - 2 x 1 lb packages were on sale for $2.50. I also came across a 1 lb box of cardamom tea for $3.84. The sign on the bin said it was 68% off, so according to my terrible math, the regular price would have been in the $12 range. I had a cup last night and it was okay although I’m not sure I’d get it again.

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I’ve cooked a couple of those pre-marinated pork tenderloins (different brand) but you take it out of the plastic first. Online instructions for Kroger Cook in Bag pork tenderloin say to just throw the whole thing on a baking sheet and roast away. Interesting..

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651

Seems like a bargain!
You could stretch a portion further in a stir-fry with mixed veg, or cubed and sauteed with potatoes, or as an accent in fried rice / noodles, and so on.

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Assuming this is where information about US tariffs goes:

Trump rolls back tariffs on dozens of food products

The list includes:

Coffee

Cocoa

Black tea

Green tea

Vanilla beans

Beef products, including high-quality cuts, bone-in and boneless cuts, corned beef, some frozen items, as well as salted, brined, dried or smoked meat

Fruits, including acai, avocadoes, bananas, coconuts, guavas, limes, oranges, mangoes, plantains, pineapples, various peppers and tomatoes

Spices, including allspice, bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, curry, dill fennel seeds, ginger, mace, nutmeg, oregano, paprika, saffron and turmeric

Nuts, grains, roots and seeds, such as barley, Brazil nuts, capers, cashews, chestnuts, macadamia nuts, miso, palm hearts, pine nuts, poppy seeds, tapioca, taro and water chestnuts

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How was it?

654

Not great… It tasted a little like bologna. I won’t be buying that again.

I did cut it into 3 pieces, Sunshine can have the last piece; I’ll have Oodles of Noodles (instant ramen).

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655

In that case, @saregama’s suggestion of fried rice may be a good way to use it!

I have not had good luck with premarinated tenderloins. Too salty and rubbery.

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Yes… fried rice would have been the better idea for that premarinated tenderloin.

And yes the texture was like rubber – rubbery bologna.

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Did you cook it in the bag? Tenderloin can be so tricky, and marinated even more so.

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658

Yes… The directions on the bag said to leave it in the bag and cook it flat side up (which I did).

Yuck!! I wished I had taken your suggestion, cooked it, shredded it and added it to some egg fried rice.

Lesson learned.

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659

Not your fault.
I get the whole “no mess” marketing, but given how fast tenderloin cooks plus the effect of a long marinade, their instructions resulted in it getting very overcooked.

Maybe if you chop up the rest and fry it for a bit of texture, it would be good in fried rice (or hash, if you have plenty of potatoes and want a change).

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660

Pork tenderloin is a tricky cut to cook. The only way I’ve found to cook tenderloin is medallions buried in sauce, and treat it like a chicken breast. Also could do Char siu.

There’s also something called ball cut loin (?) similarly very little fat. I bought one on sale and very little fat. I treated it like pork with fat…major mistake.

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Chopped up and thrown into Tiroler Grôstl! (Austrian hash, any chopped up meat can be added )

i always use a meat thermometer with pork tenderloin. It is so easy to overcook.

I usually roast it quickly at 375 or 400.

could chop it up and bind with mayo for a German or Swiss meat salad, @Desert-Dan .

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I got up early to hit this morning’s sales. One store had Jimmy Dean sausage (1 pound roll) on sale, I can use that to make Sunshine’s favorite meatloaf recipe.

Any who, the weatherman stated the rain should hold off until later this morning. Guess what – he was wrong, I got drenched on my bike ride home.

In my head, I heard that song my mother used to sing to me (as a child)…
“Into each life a little rain must fall” - The Ink spots.

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Short rib is 14/lb and i bought three pounds to make a new-to-me recipe. It called for low-and-slow in a bunch of liquid, but uncovered. I thought that was unexpected, but I followed the recipe and squashed my well-founded concerns.

Guess who made $42 worth of dried-out short ribs last night?

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Fortunately, the sauce I made from the pan liquid was good.

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