How I got $80 of groceries for $40 (WITHOUT coupons!)...plus how to freeze avocado and how to cut avocados and mangoes

Happy Wednesday!

In lieu of my TV segment on Studio 5 yesterday (see here) I thought I'd post about some great price-matching deals this week. 

In case you missed it, my segment talked about the 3 trends of frugality and how to make them work for you. Couponing was one of them. I have decided, personally, that couponing isn't a good fit for my interests and lifestyle. 

So I have an alternative method! See complete details on Price-matching and Deal-shopping HERE.

I picked up some groceries using the printout I brought to the segment.

(here's a partial image of that print-out)

I went to Dealstomeals.com (have you entered our giveaway from D2M yet??), 

looked through the deals, 

chose the best ones (she flags them in red), 

added them to my shopping list, 

printed it out, 

took it to Walmart, 

did my shopping,

read the price-matching prices to the cashier as the items came up 

(she actually asked "Do you have any ad-matching today?" before she even rang me up. Price-matching is super common now)

and walked away with this haul for so cheap!

(Not pictured: 3 gallons of milk, 2 cartons of 16oz light sour cream, and 10.09 lb of boneless/skinless chicken breasts)

I only spent $41.69 on all of this by price-matching. 

That's right...didn't clip a single coupon!

Want to know what it should have cost?

$80.38

I would've spent $20.48 on mangoes alone if I had paid full-price. Yikes.

Here's the breakdown.

 Mangoes: price-matched for $.25 ea, regularly $1.28 ea

 Avocados: Price-matched at $0.16 ea, regularly $0.74 ea

 Yellow onions (yes, the pic is of white onions): $0.12/lb, regularly $0.68/lb

 Green peppers: $0.33 ea, regularly $0.62 ea

Iceberg lettuce: $0.33 ea, regularly $0.87 ea 

 Cucumbers: $0.33 ea, regularly $0.72 ea

 16oz sour cream: $0.99 ea, regularly $1.58 ea

 Milk: $1.99 ea, regularly $2.48 ea

Chicken: $1.69/lb, regularly $1.97/lb

 French bread: $0.60 ea, regularly $1.50 ea

Spaghetti sauce: $0.99ea, regularly $1.33 ea

Pretty crazy, huh? And guess what? There are deals like this every single week! This is NOT a special week in any way. See how easy it is to save HALF by taking 5 minutes and printing out the best deals?

Now I have loads of great groceries for meals this week. 

I'm going to cut up the peppers and freeze them for later (like I did HERE)

I use the avocados in our morning smoothies, and going to freeze them for later. Did you know you can freeze avocado? It's true! 

You'll want to puree it first, if you just dice it up it doesn't freeze very well. You can then use the pureed avo in smoothies, guacamole, dips, or to spread on sandwiches.  

I found lots of great avocado tips HERE. 

The mangoes we also use in smoothies, and just to eat as a good snack. Oh man mangoes are SO GOOD once they are ripe. 

Do you know the super easy way to cut a mango? 

Check out the method HERE for avocados, and see how to get around the pit with mangoes HERE. 

NOTE:
With the french bread, there was no brand. She almost didn't let me match it with the Walmart brand of french bread, but I smiled and said please, so she let me.

With the milk, sour cream, and spaghetti sauce, on deals to meals it said "WF" which I believe is Western Family brand. I mentioned this to the lady at the register because she said the brands need to match up. Here's our conversation went:

Me: "With these it says WF. I assume that to mean Western Family. Does that still work?"

Cashier: "Yup, that's us, so Great Value is fine to match."

I don't know if that's actually true, but she said it and I didn't question her!

See how easy that is?
Once again, check out my "how I grocery shop" page HERE for more FAQ's on price-matching. Happy shopping!

P.S...a Pinterest follower left me this comment. See my reply below:

This is great if you have a walmart.. if you live in a small town with no walmart, you pay double the price OR you can spend a ton in gas to go 70 some odd miles to a walmart for half off your food price matching. I guess it pays to live close to walmart ( what an awful thought that is) lol

X

Jordan Page  - that's so true! I grew up 85 miles from the nearest mall and Costco, 40 miles from the nearest Walmart (not even a super Walmart). It's rough. However, the good thing about this method is that you can still use the same methods, but just shop that week at the store with the best deals. Even if you can't price match EVERY store's deals at Walmart, you can still be more selective and mindful of what deals are out there each week. By looking at the ads, seeing who has the best "loss leader" items for the week, planning your meals around those items, and stocking up on them, you can still save a ton. Maybe not as much as price-matching, but it's better than paying full-price!

So just be mindful of prices and you'll save tons...I promise :)