Year-Long Ham and Turkey Buffet

I decided to take advantage of the 59c/lb turkeys (limit 2) available at Fresh and Easy that I mentioned in my last post. The shopping trip yielded unexpected savings. Since I was going anyway, I decided to find out something about the Friends Program Fresh and Easy recently launched. Basically, buy stuff at Fresh and Easy and get points. The basic reward is 1 point for every dollar spent. Spend 50 bucks, get 50 points. Every hundred points is worth $1. So every 100 bucks spent equals a reward of $1.

Yes, I understand if you’re not hopping up and down for joy. Let me make it happier for you.

1)      The points accumulate.

2)      Fresh and Easy is offering double reward points now through Thanksgiving

3)      Every turkey you buy is worth 500 points. (Yes, that equals $5)

Here’s how to do it:

1)      You join online and get 250 points just for signing up ($2.50).

2)      Go to Fresh and Easy and get a Friends Card.

3)      Make your purchases.

4)      When you get home, sign in with your email address and attach the card to your account.

5)      Check out your new rewards balance.

6)      You can convert the reward points to cash whenever you want. The site says something about the conversion being ‘rounded down’ to the nearest 100 points. I don’t know if that means you forfeit points when you cash out. Call customer service (1-877-338-6546) to find out.

Here’s what I purchased:

1)      Two turkeys, approx. 17 lbs each for 20.39 total.

2)      Two Farmer John Hams approx. 12 lbs each for $23.75

3)      2 lbs of Whole Bean Fair Trade Coffee for $13.98

I found an online coupon for $10 off $50. I looked for the biggest turkeys and hams I could find, but still needed $7 worth of stuff to get to $50. The coffee was a good price for whole bean Fair Trade. If I’d had more time, I’d have gotten smaller turkeys and hams to get as close to just over $50 as possible, but I was in a hurry, so I spent about $59, used the $10 off coupon and paid $49.08 for the above. I also received 1116 points for the transaction, or a little over $11 BACK. With the 250 points I received for signing up, I now have almost $14 in cash rewards I can use for my next trip.

I wish I had more freezer room, I truly do, but we had to do some major rearranging to find space for the two turkeys and a single ham. Good part of having to do that is my freezers and my fridge are all cleaned out and organized. Second good part is I had an excuse to cook the second ham for dinner and use some of it to make a homemade split pea soup with split peas from my pantry. The family is happy. The ham will provide the makings for a ham casserole, ham croquettes, more soup, pasta salad  and ham sandwiches all week. I’m lucky in that my family will eat food for days in a row, so long as it tastes good and they don’t actually have to cook anything themselves!

If you’ve some extra cash, stocking up on turkeys and hams and using the coupon, plus accumulating cash rewards would be worthwhile. Go for twelve turkeys and twelve hams. Figure cooking one turkey and one ham per month to provide two weeks of meal fixings per month. It’s plenty for even the biggest meat eaters.

The above should cost $240 total and will include other items you may need to get the grocery bill to $50 so you can use the $10 off coupon. That will be six shopping trips over the next couple of days (6 times $40). You’ll also get other items you need (the fill out items to get to $50) and will accumulate a lot of points for a future shopping trip.

Have fun!