Best prices for all the rest of your Christmas cooking

We already over-analyzed Colorado Springs ham prices here, but I also did some checking on a few other essentials and wanted to share.

Butter: Everyone uses real butter at Christmas, right?  Best price is $1.99 for Kroger brand at King Soopers (Great Value brand at WalMart is $2.68).  If you can splurge a little, you can get Challenge butter for $2.50 at Albertson’s.

Cream Cheese: Cannot get enough of this stuff, whether it’s for Oreo Truffles or creamed corn.  One dollar for store brand at King Soopers, eight cents more for store brand at WalMart.  Loyal to Philadelphia cream cheese?  It’s $1.25 at King Soopers and $1.18 at WalMart.

Chocolate Chips:  Stop at Albertson’s, where Nestle chocolate chips are $2 each.  At WalMart, Nestle brand chocolate chips are $2.20 a bag and $2.50 at King Soopers.

Flour:  Gold Medal all-purpose flour is two bucks at both WalMart and King Soopers.  King Soopers also has “High Altitude Hungarian Flour” for $2, and that includes stone ground whole wheat flour in that brand.

Potatoes:  Albertson’s has the best price here: 10 lbs for $1.99.  Russets were $4 for 10 lbs at WalMart, $3.77 for 5 lbs.  (Please tell me you’re going to buy the 10 lb bag, even if 1/4 of it might go to waste.)

Green Beans: Fresh green beans are $1/lb at King Soopers.  Save that penny and get them for $.99/lb at Albertson’s. ;)

I know that’s not nearly everything you’ve got on your list this week, but hopefully it’s at least a wee bit helpful!  By the way, these are not what I’d consider to be “rock-bottom” or stock up prices at the store.  I try to pay $1 for 5 lbs of flour, $1.50 or less for chocolate chips and butter, and I wouldn’t go crazy for cream cheese unless it was under $1.  (That is a great, probably as-low-as-you’ll-see price on potatoes and green beans, though.)  I’ll try to keep sharing more of my strategy as time goes on.

Happy cooking, everybody!