Are You Ready for the Holiday Season? Some Deals to Get You Started

LJWorld.com weblogs Shop Talk with Jenn and Julie

Posted by Jenn Hethcoat November 15, 2009 at 1:34 a.m.

turkey It has only just now occurred to me that Thanksgiving is only two weeks away. I guess we should start deciding where our family will be celebrating this year. Normally I'm all up for the fun and games of preparing a big meal...but I'm going to pull out the "new baby" card again this year and claim exempt.

If you are planning on cooking for your family...and want to do so on a budget...WalMart has a great option available. They are promoting the $20 Thanksgiving Dinner. The $20 Dinner includes:

One 12-pound Grade A turkey
Three 11 to 15.5-ounce cans Green Giant vegetables
Two 14-ounce cans Ocean Spray cranberry sauce
Three 6-ounce boxes of Stove Top stuffing
One 5-pound bag of red potatoes
One 12-count package of Sara Lee dinner rolls
One 22-ounce pumpkin roll cake

There is a limit of 2 on the turkeys ...and this works out to $0.40/lb. You can read the press release HERE. You should be able to print it out and take it to WalMart with you and they will honor the pricing. I'm unclear as to whether or not you will be able to use coupons on the included items...making this dinner for eight even cheaper.

Top it all off by printing out this coupon for $2/1 Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice. These are $2.50 at WalMart...so you can score one for $0.50.

Aldi has a similar deal where you can get all of the makings of a Thanksgiving dinner for just under $30. You can view that meal lay out in the Aldi ad found in today's Journal World.

With Thanksgiving I have the idea of decorating for Christmas in the back of my mind...I like to pull out all of the decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving (mind you...that doesn't always mean I'll get them UP that weekend). This year I found a great deal on a Fisher Price Little People Nativity Scene. It is adorable and can be purchased for about half price right now. I blogged about it this week on SuperJenn. You can find the post HERE.

It seems to me that while sales are abundant....true deals are a little sparse this week. I've even seen a few places where the "sale price" is actually higher than the normal everyday price that has been running all year....which makes me plenty disgruntled. Here are a few deals I've found:

Dillon's

General Mills and Quaker cereals are $1.50 when you buy 4. Use any variety of $.50/1 coupons from recent inserts or print them HERE. Doubled this will get you cereal for $0.50.

Philadelphia Cream Cheese $1/ea Buy 3, use $1/3 from recent insert and they are $0.67/ea. You can freeze these for later use.

Bananas are $0.39/lb. Not as good as the Tue/Thurs deal at Checker's where bananas are $0.19/lb ... but if you can't manage to get there for that sale...this is a good second.

You can find Gold Medal Flour on sale at Dillon's for $2.49. Eat Better America has a $0.50/1 printable that would double and bring your price to $1.49...or you could use the coupon at Target where the price is $2 and have the same result. Kroger's brand of flour usually runs for $1.38/bag so if you don't mind plain label...this is the best buy.

Hy Vee

4lb bag of Midwest Country Fare sugar is $0.99. Not bad for sugar...especially with all of the baking that is headed our way for the Holiday Season.

Farmland sliced bacon is $1.88 ...much better than the $3 at Dillon's. I believe there were coupons in a recent insert as well.

I came across a website this week: Gluten Free Choices. If you sign up for their newsletter you can print a coupon for $1/1 of a variety of different products. If you refresh your browser this coupon will print a large number of times which is great since it can be used on such a wide variety of foods. Personally, my daughter and I drink Rice Dream Rice Milk....and this is on the list!! It is less than $2 at WalMart in the non-refrigerated containers which makes it super easy to stock up on....it will be less than $1 per box!!

Target

This week two particular items caught my eye in the ad... both fresh produce:

Asparagus $1.99/lb

Green Beans $2.99/lb

On my family's menu this week is Tilapia in a Mustard Cream Sauce ... which I like to serve with either of these two veggies....they add a nice balance to the meal.

Target is also still offering the chance to pre-order several new release DVDs for $10/ea with free shipping. My favorite in particular is Harry Potter! I'm terribly thrilled to be getting it for this price. I posted a list of the movies HERE. You can visit Target.com to pre-order.

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Katara 4 years, 5 months ago

thadrosen (Anonymous) says… Katara, you wanna have some fun? Visit Checkers this weekend (Saturday afternoon's the best) to see just how many people shop there. The weekend before Thanksgiving is crazy! It's like Black Friday. I've been in there when the lines are backed up all the way to the back of the store— and that's with all ten registers open.

Can't beat their deal on turkeys! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I think you have an odd idea of what is fun. I've never done the whole Black Friday deal because I hate hate hate shopping in crowds.

If that is supposed to be encouragement to shop at Checkers, well, then I guess I'll have to pass. Thanks for posting all the deals you've found there though.

Kelly Cline 4 years, 5 months ago

Deals on books, movies, CD's...Half Price Books (23rd Street) is an AWESOME store for deals.They have a huge selection of new and used merchandise, all at half or less prices. They are having a big Black Friday sale, 20% off everything in the store unitl 10 am and have $5 gift cards for the first 100 people in the store. You can become addicted to this store!!

thadrosen 4 years, 5 months ago

Katara, you wanna have some fun? Visit Checkers this weekend (Saturday afternoon's the best) to see just how many people shop there. The weekend before Thanksgiving is crazy! It's like Black Friday. I've been in there when the lines are backed up all the way to the back of the store-- and that's with all ten registers open.

Can't beat their deal on turkeys!

Katara 4 years, 5 months ago

thadrosen (Anonymous) says… See, Katara, that's what I'm talking about. A little Checkers-lovin' every once in a while. Never hurt anyone, eh? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I asked you to share the love from the get-go. I even offered to find the coupons for you if you posted the sales since you are a Checkers regular.

Glad to see that you aren't keeping the deals all to yourself anymore. ;)

thadrosen 4 years, 5 months ago

See, Katara, that's what I'm talking about. A little Checkers-lovin' every once in a while. Never hurt anyone, eh?

SuperJenn 4 years, 5 months ago

Good to know about the cream cheese, I had been advised elsewhere that this would work.... General concensus seems to be it was bad advice!!

Thadrosen: Thank you for putting up the Checkers deals.. Also thanks to Katara and cozy as well. I LOVE puppy chow!!

thrifter 4 years, 5 months ago

i'm totally in for the $20 deal from Walmart. My husband and I will be spending Thanksgiving with each other and we'd spend more going to a nice restaurant on Thanksgiving than this $20 meal deal. Plus, with a 10lb turkey we'll have plenty as leftovers for shepherd's pie and turkey sandwiches.

bearded_gnome 4 years, 5 months ago

what? did Checkers not pony-up for this article/blog/ad?

indeed, do not freeze cream cheese! bad, and as stated above, you never get the original texture back, no matter whether you're baking or not.

*farmland bacon=bleck! too greasy/fatty/gristly...yuck! worth paying higher price for real bacon even if you're making greens or a soup or potato dish.

and, she mentioned the eeeeeeevil Wal-mart. she'll bring the wrath of the granolas/socialists down on her and her column! in the past, some have posted they wished the new Wal-mart would burn down, and lots of other loving and tolerant statements. so, obviously $20 meal from Wal-mart is just a conspiracy to rape, ravage, pillage, steal, cheat, abuse, etc. ...

thrifter 4 years, 5 months ago

Great deals!

One thing I've learned from experience, though, is NOT to freeze cream cheese. After you thaw it, even if you do so in the refrigerator, it's unsuitable for baking. It ends up crumbly and no matter how much you whip it.

It has quite a lengthy expiration date and will usually last (from Thanksgiving and Christmas sales) to Easter, when it will be on sale again.

I've actually noticed that things that are a 'new low price' are more expensive than they were a month ago, Philadelphia Cream Cheese being one of them. At Dillon's it used to be roughly $1.75 and now its new low price is $1.99.

Because of brand loyalty (and product quality, when it comes down to it) I always try to buy Philadelphia. HOWEVER, I bought the Aldi store brand the last time I purchased it for 79CENTS!! And I wasn't disappointed. I was actually quite surprised at the quality.

Just my 2 cents.

cozy 4 years, 5 months ago

I have decided to make puppy chow-people chow for xmas festivities. Checkers has Rice Chex for 1.99 and on each box is a coupon to peel off for $3 off 3. So a box ends up costing .99 and you have 2 more coupons for $3 off 3.

fishstix 4 years, 5 months ago

I work at Hy-Vee and we also have a deal where you can buy a ham and get a 10-12lb turkey for free....pretty sweet deal i think

Katara 4 years, 5 months ago

Dillons has Honeysuckle turkeys for $.59/lb & the Smart Source website has $1/1 coupons to print out to use on that.

Katara 4 years, 5 months ago

Plus the 20lb bag of russet potatoes Checkers has on sale @ $2.88 is a good price. It actually beats Target's 10lbs for $1.88 if you need a lot of potatoes.

The Pringeles @ $.99/ea matched with the $1/4 coupon in today's Red Plum makes them $.74/ea.

AngelSoft toilet paper is on sale there too @ $4.98 is a good price but there is a coupon in the Red Plum from 9/13 for $.50/1 that makes it better - $4.48.

Of course, none of this matters to our avid coupon clippers who value quantity at any cost.

mae 4 years, 5 months ago

Question...

Who doubles coupons and is it only on certain days?

thadrosen 4 years, 5 months ago

Checkers weekly ad has Freschetta Pizzas on sale for $3.88. You can get a $1.00 off coupon at the Freshetta website ( http://www.freschetta.com/pizza-coupons/default.aspx ) making these normally $6+ pizzas only $2.88.

Also, Post Honey Bunches of Oats cereals are $1.88 at Checkers; I found a $2.00 off coupon from a few weeks back for Honey Bunched of Oats w/Pecans making this item free.

Plus, you can't beat the KC Strip or Tbone Steak deal at $3.98 a lb. Even without a coupon.

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