I follow the grocery circulars each week by necessity. Check this:

[Paper Roses]

Talk about a sows ear to a silk purse:

My local large chain market is posting stuff with new names. Same old etc....
This one caught me eye today.

What the heck are "Honey Stung Chicken Wings"? "Honey Stung"?

I don't buy chicken wings but as I scanned the flier, this one caught my eye. What?

Prices have gone crazy but I suppose if you put a new name to the product, someone will buy it.

BTW, when was the last time you could use a coupon for -1- item. Last week, big sale, buy 10 cans of tomato soup, get a dollar off.
Maybe to some of these multi-item coupons are a help but when you are single buyer, 10 cans is a lifetime. Most of the flier coupons I get require 3 or more items to get 50 cents off an item. Foolish to buy. What if it tasted like heck? I am stuck with the rest.

I don't like these grocery and manufacturer games. I might buy a product at X cents off to try it. Maybe I like it, maybe not. I sure as heck will not buy more than I need on a product I have never used before or that I might use one can a year.

OK, I'm a grouchy old timer but I now feel coupons are a waste of time for me.

Back to my point:

Honey Stung?

[FSogol]

1. Honey Stung Chicken are crappy fried chicken pieces sweetened with honey.

It is some type of cruise ship concoction that is making waves (heh) with the "Applebees is fine dining crowd."

I gave up on grocery store coupons years ago. They seldom have coupons for products I buy. My local Safeway gives us coupons that are a promise that if we buy something next time, they give us an actual coupon. I leave that crap at the counter. Waste of paper, imo.

[SheilaT]

12. I gave up on grocery store coupons several decades ago.

I just cannot understand the stories that tell me about people who get groceries for free by using coupons. The few times I tried using coupons, I actually spent MORE money, because I was now buying name brand things instead of non-name brand, which were lower in cost in the first place.

Here's another story. My wonderful son (who had Asperger's, although I didn't know it at the time) told me I should shop at Supermarket X instead of Supermarket Y, my usual supermarket, because it would be less expensive. So I decided to indulge him. The wonderful thing about this experiment was that my weekly supermarket basket was pretty much identical each week. Anyway, I went to the suggested Supermarket X, and the final cost was about 20% more than at my usual Supermarket Y.

What was interesting about this experiment, and the reason my son was pushing Y over X, was because of ads run on TV.

These days my sons are grown, I live on my own because of divorce. I find that it's not too hard to live on a tight food budget because I pay attention to what things cost, I plan ahead, I freeze excess, and I'm okay living on that tight budget.

It's possible my specific X is your specific Y. What I consider a bargain may not work for your food budget, and vice versa. I just hope we are all making rational decisions.

[pscot]

21. If we all made rational decisions

the last 15 years would have been vastly different.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

2. A friend of mine took me to the grocery section of Sams Club.

One of the first things I saw was a quart bottle of Tabasco. This would be a lifetime supply for me. Flour in 40 pound bags -- good if I'm running a bakery, useless for a family of four. Whole beef tenderloins. And so on. There were some things I bought -- a three-pack of DiGiorno Pizza, a package with two whole chickens for example -- but much of it was simply too great a quantity to be useful to me.

[csziggy]

5. Costco and Sams are mostly for people who buy lots of stuff

But you can get deals if you are discriminating. At Costco I get cereal that comes with two bags to the box for about the same price as the local supermarket sells them when they have "buy one get one" deals - but Costco has some house brands the supermarket doesn't that I like a lot. I also get my generic Zyrtec - 360 tablets for $15 while the cheapest I have found the generic for elsewhere is 60 tablets for $18. I also get pain relievers and supplements. They have the best price in town for the replacement heads for my Sonicare toothbrush.

The Costco house brand of seasoning and spices is pretty good but I only buy some of their items since they come in such large containers. The one I use the most is their salt free seasoning blend - it's a nice all purpose blend to throw in lots of different dishes. I buy bags of frozen vegetables there since I like their Normandy blend (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, zucchini), their stir fry blend, their organic green beans, and organic broccoli. They come in much larger bags than from the local grocery and I can pour out what I need and use the bags over a couple of months.

And I splurge on some of their main dish items - their chicken ravioli and lobster ravioli are great and come in two packs. I freeze one, and cook the other right away. They each are two meals for the two of us so the $12 price is not too bad. I'll buy a whole pork loin and cut it up into boneless chops, roasts, and bits for stir fry - freeze what I don't need immediately and have pork for months.

I don't go to Costco often - but the savings on the Zytec generic is enough to pay for a membership so I visit once or twice a year. oh - and if I'm on that side of town I buy my gas there since it is the lowest price in town.

[SheilaT]

13. You've made an important point.

I have read that many people who shop at the warehouse stores wind up spending as much money as those who shop conventional stores because of the waste.

I have, in the somewhat distant past, either belonged to or looked through the warehouse stores. And rarely have I seen anything that makes sense buying.

Some of you who read this will honestly be able to say that a warehouse store works for you. And that is truly wonderful. But for most of us, we should be buying what we need, when we need it.

Oh, and for what it's worth: I try to limit my per meal costs at home to $2-3/ meal. I do eat out about once a week, not included in the former calculation. For me it's possible to achieve that limit, but I'm willing to eat peanut butter sandwiches three times a week, make my breakfast a hard-boiled egg on a slice of toast.

[csziggy]

17. You are completely right - unless you plan very carefully it is easy to waste food

Because of the mass quantities at the warehouse clubs. That's why I am very careful about what I buy - either stuff that has a long shelf life or stuff I will use almost immediately.

If the savings on the Zyrtec generic weren't enough to pay for my membership, I probably wouldn't bother with a membership, though. The time to plan what we'll buy and the hassle of storing it would not be worth it.

I might be able to save on my prescriptions too, but the location of Costco is not convenient so for my regular prescriptions I'd rather go to Publix - the savings at Costco are not all that much to have to drive miles out of my way while Publix is very convenient for most of our trips into town.

[Warpy]

3. I stopped looking at the grocery circulars ages ago

because most of them were for processed food that I just don't or can't eat. It's just not worth my time to comb through them any more.

As for chicken wings, at least you can find them. I'm on the last pack I froze over the fall. They disappear between November and August because all the processors want them first for football food and then for backyard party food. What used to be cheap stuff you'd buy with backs and necks for soup is now premium stuff you have to fight the junk food industry for. Most of what's left is now butchered down and skinless and I hate it.

And "honey stung?" WTF does that mean? Bees got attracted to it while it was on the conveyor belt and added a little formic acid to the coating?

Stupid admen.

[pscot]

6. Our Payless market hasn't had backs & necks

in 10 years. They made a great chicken stock and we'd get a chicken salad out of the pickings.

[Warpy]

7. Now they're pet food and Mc Nuggets and the bones are bone meal for the garden

Chicken processing plants have ruined things for real cooks. It's getting to the point where we have to buy 10 whole chickens to cut into parts so we can have chicken soup once in a while.

[Retrograde]

19. And that's where Costco comes in

It's the only place around here I can reliably find whole chickens. They come 2 per pack; when I get them home I divide them into meal packets - breasts, leg/thighs, wings (I save them up until I get a whole ziploc bag full), livers (ditto) - and the rest go into the stock pot.

[SheilaT]

15. I'm fairly certain I see chicken wings all the time

at the grocery store, but I could be wrong because I don't generally buy them. I do find that the selection of chicken pieces is weird, and I'll go weeks without being able to find regular bone in chicken breasts when I'm wanting them for chicken stew. Or the chicken leg & thigh combo, when I'm wanting to make Chicken of Muchness, which is a chicken soup based on a middle eastern recipe, in which a couple of sticks of cinnamon are an important ingredient.

Oh, and the other cut of meat they don't often seem to carry here in Santa Fe is eye of round beef. The day before Christmas they actually had them at my nearby Albertson's, buy one get one free so I bought two and froze them. One's already been baked, the other one still in the freezer. I'll probably fix that one this coming week.

[Warpy]

16. I make friends with the "back room" guys at all the markets

and they always grumble about how hard it is to get chicken wings. It's impossible to get the third section, those are now going for McNuggets along with other cuts with little meat on them.

I did find chicken wings at the health food store this afternoon, so it'll be Brunswick stew later this week.

[Phentex]

4. Never heard of honey stung but

I hate the coupon games too. Now I only use the store's money off coupons like $5 off $30 total bill.

[freshwest]

8. Paper Roses, I can't afford the coupon goods, they still cost more than the house brand or bulk.

As to the chicken, I'd avoid those processed things if I was you. They are unknown ground meat, costly, high-sodium, oily, sugary, starchy.

IMO. And did I mention they also cost too much?

Good luck shopping!

[Sentath]

9. It was probably a Tyson 'Foods' product, but here is the Royal Caribbean cruise lines recipe

Honey Stung Chicken Recipe
3- 4 boneless chicken breasts
1/2 cup honey
2 Tbs raspberry or cider vinegar
2/3 cup flour
2 Tbs fine dry bread crumbs
2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
2 eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 cup vegetable oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Vegetable oil for frying
Preparation
Cut the tenders from the breast, and pound the breasts to flattens slightly. Stir the honey and vinegar together and pour over the chicken. Marinate for 2 hour to 4 hours in refrigerator, stirring occasionally.
In a bowl, combine flour, bread crumbs, and cayenne pepper; set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and buttermilk.
In a large heavy skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat to 300°, (higher temperatures could burn honey). Turn oven on to 200.
Remove the chicken from the marinade and drain on paper towels. Dip the chicken in beaten egg mixture, season with salt and pepper, and dredge in the flour mixture, coating thoroughly. .
Add the chicken pieces two or three at a time. Don't overcrowd the pan. Fry on each side until golden brown. Remove to a rack on a sheet pan, lined with paper towels. Hold in the oven, while you fry the rest of the pieces.

From: http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2013/07/30/royal-caribbean-classic-honey-stung-chicken

[Paper Roses]

10. Your posted recipe sounds great. The one I posted about was for "chicken wings".

When I was a kid, back in the dark ages, Mom used chicken wings and drumsticks for stock or to boil up for chicken soup.
To make a big deal out of chicken wings, is something I don't understand.

Back to the grocery flier, check this :

Here how the ad reads, wish my scanner worked but...

Honey Stung Chicken Wings $4.99 lb. (Save $1.00)

Whoopee

PS, I may try your posted recipe, think I could make it in half quantity? I cook for myself and would rather do half than reheat. As an added bonus, I have all the ingredients.

[Sentath]

11. Then it was definitely Tyson

Likely precooked with a similar seasoning mix.

As for the recipe I don't see why it wouldn't scale infinitely. ( :

[PennyK]

14. Around here, there's just on supermarket chain

Publix...which is pretty good (but no one store can carry anything).
Their big thing is BOGO. When it's one of my staples, like coffee, mayo, cranberry juice, etc., I do stock up.
I consider the BOGOs to be a sneaky way of raising the price, because that's when they seem to sneak it in. If you buy it then it's a great deal, but you'll be screwed afterward.

[pinto]

18. I make a list every week off the market flyer. Look for the best buys I can find and use.

*Use* is a key. Staples are always in the mix. I stock up on the basics. Other promotions, I'll take a look and see. But shopping the sale items is a great way to stretch food dollars.

[blackcrow]

20. Also single, two annoyances

Stop and Shop thinks everyone wants giant packages. To buy toilet paper, I'd wind up with months worth. Or a giant jug of laundry detergent that, at my age, I literally get wobbly lifting.

Meanwhile, try ordering a single unit of something like deodorant from amazon, even when you're going to add it to a big order. Because, like the old kind you use is no longer made and you're trying new ones. Well, you can buy twelve at once or maybe six, don't like that? You're out of luck.

I ignore coupons in the newspaper. 98% of them are for crap.