bargain gloating

[bixaorellana]

Sometimes I shop in a supermarket that's owned by Walmart.

(I know: , but it's the closest to my house.)

Anyway, sometimes when they discontinue stuff, they practically give it away. Today it was Emmenthaler cheese imported from France. It was pre-cut packets for 5 pesos (34 cents US) apiece. I got the lady at the check-out to weigh the packs. Four of them were over a kilo, which means I paid less than $1.35 a kilo. It's pretty decent cheese, too.

And before anyone asks, the expiration date is July 2009.

[Deleted]

You're going to have cheese coming out of your ears.

[bixaorellana]

I've read your posts about bargains & frugality -- you would have been right there, flinging it into your cart.

[mockchoc]

I think if you are worried about using it all before it gets mouldy should freeze grated rather well.

I do sometimes with cheeses.

Good deal there!

[Deleted]

Yes, you can freeze it. I am waiting for HT to show up and tell us that French emmenthal is no good compared to the Swiss version.

[mockchoc]

I wouldn't know, I haven't tried both but yes I guess she may have.

[bixaorellana]

Well, I've always thought of emmenthaler or good ole swiss cheese as the bad-breath cheese, but it's okay. This one lacks the underlying nuttiness of a good emmethaler, but the price! the price!

[auntieannie]

well, Emmenthal can be translated into "Valley of the river Emme". The river Emme runs in Switzerland, Canton Bern.
So French Emmenthal is a vile copy. They stole the name before people from Emmenthal thought of protecting it.

[bixaorellana]

They are entirely evil and should be invaded.

[auntieannie]

obviously, Bixa! I wasn't criticizing your choice... I just feel very passionate about cheese.

[bixaorellana]

You would shrivel up and die here. The choices are pretty limited. I was in the cheese case going for my standard Chihuahua cheese, which is similar to plain old cheddar, when I saw the bargain beauty.

[gringalais]

Sounds like a good deal. Here our cheese selection is pretty limited too unless you want to spend and arm and a leg.

Wal-Mart just bought a majority stake in the largest supermarket chain here, Líder. I don't go there too much. I prefer Jumbo the other main chain, but I will probably break down and go there sometimes since it ends up being the most convenient when I am out doing certain errands.

[auntieannie]

I wouldn't have settled here in the UK if I had not had easy access to plenty decent cheese.

[bazfaz]

The biggest bargain we had in Egypt was the felafel sandwiches in Aswan. Enough for the two of us for a picnic lunch cost 2 Egyptian pounds - about 25 British pence. The felafel stall man knew us by the second day and included a paper cone of freshly fried potato crisps.

[bixaorellana]

When I stocked up on the cheapo cheese, I also remembered to buy some canned pimento and some mayonnaise. I made the pimento cheese sandwich spread a little while ago, & it's perfect. I always add some fresh hot chile, garlic, and a little mustard.

[Deleted]

[bixaorellana]

My god, you're a pill! How can anyone not like homemade pimento cheese? You must be a laugh a minute at picnics -- prodding the deviled eggs, making sure you get all the fried chicken legs, cutting the crusts off your sandwich, etc.

[spindrift]

My latest bargain was a non-stick frying pan (medium size) in IKEA bought for £1.87.

[bixaorellana]

*impolitely turns up nose at >>shudder<< teflon*

[Don Cuevas]

¡Naranjas dulces! Cinco kilos por 15 pesos (Mexicanos). ¡Aproveche!
Juice oranges, 5 kilos for 15 pesos.
The truck that roams about comes to within 50 meters of our gate, once a week.

In our favorite mercado, in Pátzcuaro, we can get 3 kilos of fat, overly mature cucumbers. But, who can use so many? I tend to buy too many from the pretty cucumber vendor.

Another time, a señora selling her farm produce had a bunch of 8 smaller beets (the kind we like, rather than the cannon ball monstrosities usually offered there.) and she wanted only 10 pesos. (About 66¢ U.S.)

[Deleted]

Anything to gloat about lately?

[traveler63]

Yes!!!! but it isn't food. It was the ticket price for our trip to Paris!!!! One large snafu by the airlines, late afternoon in early June. Delta $514.00/per person roundtrip, Tucson/Paris. !!!! and points from American Express equalled one ticket free. We jumped on offer!!! Got it and in 3 hours the price was back to $777.00 which then went to over $800.

[Deleted]

Wow, that is an incredible deal.

[bixaorellana]

Oh my gosh ~~ congratulations on that one, T63! You can justifiably gloat over it for years to come. And, as a skilled practitioner of The Blondie School of Finance, you should know that you have made an extra $1,040 to spend.

[Deleted]

That's great t63. I love it when I hear about nice people getting good deals from corporations etc.
I just got some beautiful redfish filets from a neighbor who caught them yesterday. Now what to do with them.

[hwinpp]

I'm not gloating but I am surprised:

I had a flat a couple of days ago so of course took the flat tire to a workshop to get it patched and put back on the car. Cost was 2.50USD!

[spindrift]

Yesterday, in a sale, I bought a pair of sexy black leggings I've had my eye on, for £13.50. They'd been reduced from £35.

[lagatta]

gringalais, can't you get Argentine cheeses in Chile? I've found many worthy Italian-style cheeses from Argentina, and the sardo (a hard cheese for grating) is quite fine. Yeah, Chilean cheeses are pretty bland.

I used to get dirt-cheap tickets to Paris, but those days are over. Once I got a return ticket for 199$ Cdn. (There is, of course, a lot of traffic between Mtl and Paris). The best deal though was when I bought a somewhat more expensive, but still cheap, open ticket for university students, and Air France bumped me into First Class as they were "surbooké" (a horrible franglais translation of "overbooked"). The decent food and champagné à volonté were nothing to the seats that actually became horizontal beds. Heaven.

bixa, at a sale by Volver, a lovely Argentine café nearby that was closing (snif, snif) I bought a tiny one-egg frying pan coated in a new ceramic material that doesn't contain the harmful stuff in Teflon. It is really handy, though I also have a tiny cast-iron frying pan that I paid only $2 for at a so-called "garage sale" (few people here actually have garages - these things are just at the front of their houses). I wondered why on earth they were selling it, it was shiny, black and perfectly seasoned. The little ceramic-coated pan, much lighter, is going travelling with me.

[bixaorellana]

That is interesting, LaGatta. What is the material called, do you know? Many people with arthritis are forced to give up their cast iron because it's simply too heavy, which makes it not very portable either, as you point out.

[tillystar]

British Gas came last night and did a survey and recommended a particular new boiler (ours won't last the winter) and quoted us £3,200 to buy and install it.

I found the recommended boiler online for £600 and my plumber friend is going to fit it for us for £400 to fit the boiler, including paying an electrician to come and do his stuff.

We might need to buy a few bits of pipe and other plumbing guff but I am sure it won't total £2,200. Wooop Wooop.