Saturday, October 17, 2009

Well... Hello!

I haven't been posting for a few weeks. Reason being, I have mono (for the 2nd time in my adult life) and have had a hard enough time getting through my work day (and grad school at night) to blog about deals. Today I went full-on food shopping for the first time in weeks mainly because my husband is about to start a low-iodine diet which means we are going to be eating a lot more fresh home-made foods and he won't be able to eat some of the major things he usually does. I literally used 3 coupons total and spent way more than I usually do ($60!). But that's ok. I'm letting myself not worry too much about saving money/blogging because I deserve the break. I'll probably start up again closer to the holidays. And because we've been dramatically under-budget probably for 4 or 5 months now, I know in the end it'll all even out.

Hope everyone is well in the money-saving blog world.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Various Shopping Trips

(9/22) As predicted I went to Giant for some bread and milk:

$2.99 gallon skim
$1.79 loaf of bread

= $4.78 OOP

And then on Sunday (9/27) I hit CVS to do the only real attractive deal this week and then Safeway for some items

CVS:
$7.99 1 bottle Vaseline Sheer (Infusion?) lotion

- $5.00 EB (received for doing a survey on CVS.com - just did one today that rewarded me with $15 EB!)
- $1.50/1 Vaseline
- $1 EB

= $.67 and received $7.99 back for the lotion (ps, it's tiny for the price)

And then Safeway:
10 bottles of Gatorade
5 bottles of Propel (free with the purchase of the 10 Gatorade)
2.23 lbs gala apples ($1/lb)
18 ct eggs (super coupon .99!)

= $16.50 OOP

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Target, Safeway & Harris Teeter

Ok, so I've been going a little crazy ever since we moved, got settled and I realized I had a bit more storage space (well all but our freezer, of course it's smaller than the one at the apartment, guh!). That coupled with the great deals lately, I couldn't really pass up stocking up our pantry.

Today I hit 3 places: Target, Safeway & Harris Teeter. I'll probably be a bit over budget this week because we will ultimately need milk, I am fresh out of Extrabucks (in fact I used expired ones today to buy some fun stuff for myself - thankfully the cashier pushed them through) and I haven't been to CVS in awhile - it's not across the street anymore. Annnyway.

Safeway:
2 boxes of Capri Sun sunrise
8 boxes of Kleenex tissues

- $1/4 kleenex
- $1/4 kleenex
- $2.50 free capri sun
- $2.50 free capri sun

= $10.72 OOP (saved 65%)

Target:
2 boxes of Swisher wet wipes (on sale for $3.50 each - less than Target brand!)
2 boxes of target brand dry wipes $3.84 each
8 boxes of 12 count Pop Tarts (at $2 a box I could not pass this up, this is the cheapest I have ever seen them!)

- $1/2 pop tarts
- $1/2 pop tarts
- $1/2 pop tarts

= $28.56 OOP (since I haven't been grocery shopping nearly as much, I still have a bit till I redeem points for a target gift card, thanks to Capital One)

And finally, Harris Teeter (2 more days of triple coupons!). They wound up restocking quite a bit of what wasn't on the shelves on Friday, although even their distributing center is completely out of the Breyers yogurt.

2 boxes of instant cream of wheat maple brown sugar (Mmmm)
2 box of Fiber One apple cinnamon muffins
2 boxes of Archway farms homestyle cookies (raspberry and sugar)
4 Reeses crunch bars
3 single serve Yakisoba japanese noodles (all free after coupons)
2 bottles of Spray 'n Wash
1 box of Barilla piccolini pasta
2 bags of Poppycock snacks
1 box Luigi italian ice
2 boxes of Green Giant frozen veggies (on sale $.99 a box - great deal!)
1 yocrunch yogurt
4 tubs of Hillshire Farms hearty turkey breast (if you buy 2 you save $4 which makes it $2 a tub!)

= $24.63 OOP (total was a bit over $65 pre-coupons)

Budget Summaries

Wow, I have been really bad keeping track of this stuff and of course it's a big pain to go back and get all the information for nearly 2 months rather than update it weekly. Oops.

August
AUG 2 - AUG 8 $31.76
AUG 9 - AUG 15 $16.66
AUG 16 - AUG 22 $36.60
AUG 23 - AUG 29 $57.30
= $142.22/$200 = $57.78 under budget

August 4th Safeway $31.76
August 9th Giant $10.98
August 9th CVS $5.68
August 16th Giant $2.39
August 17th Safeway $34.21
August 23rd Safeway $33.92
August 23rd Giant
August 23rd Rite Aid $3.50
August 23rd Rite Aid $10.50
August 29th Giant $2.99
August 30th Safeway $27.50

September 4th Giant $3.49
September 8th CVS $1
September 15 Target $13
September 18th Harris Teeter $18.99
Safeway 18th Safeway $15.51

DAYSMONEY SPENT
FEB 1 - FEB 7$82.26
FEB 8 - FEB 14$42.24
FEB 15 - FEB 21$0.00
FEB 22 - FEB 28$79.45
MAR 1 - MAR 7$53.20
MAR 8 - MAR 14$5.88
MAR 15 - MAR 21$44.35
MAR 22 - MAR 28$17.81
MAR 23 - APR 4$39.96
APR 5 - APR 11$50.94
APR 12 - APR 18$1.09
APR 19 - APR 25$64.17
APR 26 - MAY 2$16.74
MAY 3 - MAY 9$13.01
MAY 10 - MAY 16$8.50
MAY 17 - MAY 23$37.94
MAY 24 - MAY 30$19.34
MAY 31 - JUNE 6$64.06
JUNE 7 - JUNE 13$26.82
JUNE 14 - JUNE 20$27.33
JUNE 21 - JUNE 27$30.69
JUNE 28 - JULY 4$40.41
JULY 5 - JULY 11$68.54
JULY 12 - JULY 18$60.88
JULY 19 - JULY 25$30.99
JULY 26 - AUG 1$10.11
AUG 2 - AUG 8$31.76
AUG 9 - AUG 15$16.66
AUG 16 - AUG 22$36.60
AUG 23 - AUG 29$57.30
AUG 30 - SEP 5$30.99
SEP 6 - SEP 12$14.60
SEP 13 - SEP 19$47.50
SEP 20 - SEP 26$?
SEP 27 - OCT 3$?

Harris Teeter & Safeway

Friday night (the 18th) I had the grand idea of going food shopping after I got home from work so I wouldn't have to deal with Saturday crowds. It wasn't the best idea I ever had - mostly because they were doing work on one of the major roads around here so it took a bit longer than expected.

Harris Teeter (till the 22nd) is running their triple coupon promotion (up to 99 cents). And Safeway has an excellent deal on Nature Valley granola bars and various other breakfast stuff. If you buy 4 boxes, you get $4 off (so instead of 4/$10, they are 4/$6)... and if that weren't enough, you get a free box of Capri Sun coupon for use on your next grocery order! With coupons, this deal is awesome and as far as I can see, there's no limit! Usually Safeway makes this deal into a limit 1 coupon, so I was thrilled to see it wasn't. And of course DH needed fruit rolls ups/fruit snacks and he never says no to the sweet 'n salty nature valley peanut bars.

Safeway:
4 boxes of Nature Valley granola bars (peanut)
4 boxes of fruit roll ups
2 boxes of Nature Valley dark chocolate nut bars (for moi)
2 bags of Nature Valley nut clusters
4 boxes of Kleenex expression (on sale buy 4 get each for $1.50 plus had a $1/4 coupon)
1 12-pack roll of Charmin' Ultra Soft (super coupon)

= $21.51 OOP

Well one of the coupons didn't spit out so I went to customer service. Today I'm going back to get my 2 boxes of Capri Sun and do the Kleenex deal again since a coupon spit out for $1/4. I didn't realize it till after I left that the CS person accidentally gave me cash for 2 more rounds of the 4/4 - she mentioned that since the coupon says value up to $2.99, she would just give me $3. Fine by me. But she actually gave me $6. I was a good 20 minutes away before I realized this or else I would have gone back to give her the $3 dollars. Anyway, so that means my out of pocket was technically $21.51-$6.00 = $15.51 OOP

Harris Teeter was pretty successful although they had already sold out of the new Breyers yogurt, can someone say mint chocolate chip yogurt Mmmmm Mmmm Mmmm? I really want to try that stuff!!!!! But not full price. Maybe they will have restocked Monday.

I got a large amount of stuff:

2 boxes of Betty Crocker warm delights
2 boxes of Chex Mix bars
2 bags of Cheerios snack mix
2 boxes of Betty Crocker fruit snacks
2 bottles of Newmans Own salad dressing
1 bottle of Newmans Own tomato sauce
1 bag of Alexia snacks (free after the buy 1 get 1 free coupon promo I had sent in)
2 packs of Yo Plus yogurt
1 pack of Yo Crunch yogurt
1 bottle of Kikkoman teryaki
2 packs Reeses peanut butter cups

Total? $18.99 OOP!

total before coupons was $47.23!

We need lunch meat and pop tarts (Target has the big box for $2 each!!!) so I'll be going out today for some things. I am happy to report that our kitchen is almost unpacked and at least from one side of the room looks decent... though there are still several boxes sitting on the other side.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

CVS for Newbies

I'm a member of a board called "poor skills". I wouldn't call myself poor but I'm not rich either (hahah Fiddler on the Roof). Anyway, someone posted about whether you could actually save money shopping at CVS. After reading a bunch of comments saying no and it wasn't worth it (gosh, no wonder they are poor!). I posted this and thought it was helpful for those that don't know about the program.

Wow, reading these responses kind of makes me understand why there are so many people scrimping these days.

Yes, you can actually make money from CVS using their Extrabucks program, BUT it takes a bit of work and you can't be picky about the products that you use. Here's what you have to do.

a) Buy products that are "free" after extrabucks (not every week btw).
This means that you do pay for the product first. And then they gave you a coupon for the price that you paid. Combine this with coupons and remember to use the extrabucks and you walk away spending very little or with CVS paying you for the products that you bought. Once you have this coupon, you 'roll' it into another purchase. So for example:

Assume you start off with no Extrabucks:
buy 1 Revlon foundation for $9.99
use $1 off Revlon product
pay $8.99 plus tax
get $9.99 bucks back in Extrabucks

then the next week, there's a sale on... say tampons - Buy 1 at $4.99 get $4.99 in Extrabucks

buy tampons for $4.99
(ok, so here's a problem - they don't give you money if you spend less than the amount of the Extrabucks so you either need to buy something else, or pay cash)... What I generally do, is buy other things that we need, say milk which doesn't go on sale around here to eat up the other Extrabucks
And let's say there's also another on Halloween candy - coming soon! Where if you pay a bag of candy corn for .99 you get $.99 in Extrabucks, limit 2

So...
buy tampons for $4.99
buy milk for $3.50 (yeah, I hate Maryland too)
buy candy corn for $.99
buy candy corn for $.99

Let's say you also have a $.50 cent coupon for the tampons (and I've seen $1 too)

you total comes out to $9.47 excluding tax

Oh no! Still less than $9.99! You must buy something low value - generally the stores will have a 75% off bin, or 50% off bin or other "specials" going on with low values. Last week it was 15 cent CVS band aids. Hey! I need bandaids! So you pick up 5 packages of bandiads: $.75

Now your total is $10.22 excluding tax
you 'pay' with $9.99 in Extrabucks
you total is now around 50 cents

You get $1.98 in Extrabucks from the candy corn and $4.99 Extrabucks for the tampons

You now have $6.97 to roll for the next week.

In essence, that $9.99 foundation has also bought milk, tampons, bandaids and candy corn and whatever you buy next week.

It takes a bit of planning, you can't be picky, and until you get the hang of it, you may have to bring a calculator on shopping trips, but it is well worth it. I have not paid for feminine items in over a year. I have not paid for shampoo, conditioner, or deodorant, toothpaste, mouthwash, you name it.


Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Target

We are all moved into our new house! Well, all of our stuff is there. I wouldn't exactly called us "moved in".

There are boxes all over the place and we've had to buy a lot of things (like a microwave, a desk for me) and of course eventually furniture for our living room.

Yesterday after work, I drove to Target to buy said microwave, some milk, bread and lunch meat... without coupons. I know! My coupon organizer is still packed.

I bought:
2 packages shaved turky breast
1 loaf of bread
1 gallon of milk
and a little pack of frog gummies for DH

= $13.00 OOP (had a $50 giftcard from capital one of course and some leftover on another one so I paid very little for the $59.99 microwave)

I'm hoping we get some important things unpacked tonight so we can start eating more than cereal for dinner and I can stop buying lunch at work everyday.

Friday, September 11, 2009

CVS & AHHHH!

No, there is no store in the DC/Metro area called AHHHH! - that just shows how stressed out I've been lately**. We move into our new house tomorrow so our life has been a bit hectic to say the least.

I did go to CVS on Tuesday to buy some milk (had some Extrabucks that were expiring). I spent under $1 - but I'll just leave it as $1 for budgeting purposes. I bought milk, a pack of starbursts for DH, gatorade (for move) and some band aids. They had boxes of CVS bandaids marked down to 15 cents! I bought 2 because this would be things we would need to move so I couldn't really stock up per say.

I few weeks ago, one of the websites that I frequent for deals had a special in which you could order $10 worth of food from Schwann's for free. I jumped at the opportunity to get some easy pre-prepped food for tonight's and tomorrow's meal (no fancy plates or cooking-related gear required). I wound up getting some turkey pot pies. DH is very very excited about the pot pies and even wanted to eat them earlier in the week but I reminded him that it was for the nights that we didn't have pots or pans available. I'm hoping they are tasty (they sure are big!).

Since we'll shortly own our own home (in fact, DH is at closing right now!), Stubber Budgeting will include more budget-friendly home improvement posts. I'm hoping my background in Architecture and my love for painting and power tools will come to good use and my skills aren't too rusty. I did survive unfurnished apartments in college by making things for a few years. I can't wait to make our house ours.

**(I am also dealing with a super awful head cold)

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Yard Sale Day!

The yard sale went surprisingly well. We were able to unload most of the free after coupon items (or made money after coupons) that I had accumulated from different drugstore, namely CVS and Rite Aid. The things that went the fastest, the $1 a tube toothpaste! I have made it a point recently after acquiring quite the stockpile to only stock up if I could make money off the item. So, most of the items were things that I had bought where the store paid me to take it home and then some random yard-sale goer bought it to take it away from me!

Anyway, the clothing that didn't sell is on it's way to Goodwill. My husband and I were so exhausted and hungry that we stopped at a local restaurant on the way back (since the servings are huge it will serve as dinner as well).

We set up shop at approximately 8:30am though we advertised the yard sale starting at 9am we got a few early birds around 9:45am. We would up closing up shop about an hour early since we had mostly run out of things and we were exhausted.

We started the day with $30 in singles, $20 in quarters and $10 in five dollar bills...

We didn't even crack open the second roll of quarters:
$10

We ended the day with the following amounts:
$140 in 20s
$35 in 5s
$19 in 1s
$12.75 in quarters

= $216.75 - $60 = $156.75

My husband and I have decided to use this money towards our movers since they usually require cash anyway. He'll go cash in the small bills towards larger ones.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Milk & Yardsale Prep

My husbad and I drove a mere 6 miles away where my parents have agreed to host our yard sale to hang up signs and post fliers in the local Giant. We don't have a yard... yet. =)

While we were there, we decided to stop for milk since we were running low. Holy !#$%^! Milk at my parent's Giant was $3.49 a gallon! That's 50 cents more than we pay, as I mentioned, 6 miles west of them!

I also posted on Craiglist yesterday evening, which I plan to do again today and tomorrow morning.

I hope we get a good turn out!

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Random Budget Tracking Stuff & Safeway Trip

I haven't blogged about some shopping trips since I've been a bit MIA.

Giant August 23rd, 2009: $6.39
Rite Aid August 23rd, 2009: $3.50
Rite Aid August 25th, 2009: $10.00
Giant August 29th, 2009: $2.99

The Rite Aid trips were for Frosted Mini Wheats. They ran a promotion if you spent $15 in select Kelloggs products, you get a $5 coupon towards those products in the mail and since we eat lots of Frosted Mini Wheats around here, it was worth it even at the $2.50 a box price.

Anyway, today I went to Safeway and did the currently running, buy 5 save $5 promotion. There are a ton more products included than in the ads. The ads only show maybe 6 different cereals. It's more like 30. So don't be put off if your family doesn't like the few cereals that look like they are on sale, there are others.

I bought 15 cereals. I know you are asking yourself why would I do such a crazy thing knowing we are moving in 2 weeks? My husband said the same thing when I came in the apartment after unloading the car. He was not happy to say the least.

Well, I needed to buy cereals in quantities of 5. If I was going to buy 5, I might as well buy 10 and do the Kelloggs rebate that was in the Sunday paper a couple weeks ago. And then of course, when I was in the aisle, I realized that to buy the cereal I wanted, it would be 12 and I might as well make it to 15. So there you go. Yes, it was a bit excessive and yes, my husband and I will be moving cereal into our new home after closing, but for the price I saved, it was worth it. Plus, I had a $5 off $50 coupon (which I didn't even get to - thankfully my cashier was super nice and passed it through even though my total before coupons was only $48.55).

So, I bought:
15 boxes of cereal (various brands, mostly Kelloggs though)
2 packs of Hunt pudding fat free (a staple in my lunch bag!)
1 box Special K bliss bars
1 box aluminum foil
3 bottles of Gatorade
1 loaf of wheat bread
5 lb sack of white potatoes
3.32 lbs of braeburn apples
2.52 lbs of nectarines
1 tube Burts Bees lip balm (free after coupon expires 8/31)

Spent: $27.50 OOP

Total Savings: $66.29 or 71%!

Milk

On my way home I was struck by the distinct change in milk prices over the last year or so and especially how different stores have been changing their price of milk significantly recently. For instance, when we first moved to the area, I almost solely bought my milk at CVS which generally ranged from $2.99 - $3.39 mostly because I had more Extrabucks than I knew what to do with and it was a convenient stop.

Along the way, I realized that milk was cheaper at places like Giant and significantly so, and they ran a milk promotion (no longer btw). Milk at Giant a week or so ago was $2.39 (worth the extra trip considering both stores were less than a mile away). Now I see that milk at Safeway and Giant are both the same price ($2.99) and Giant is no longer running the promotion so no longer worth the extra trip!

Now there are other reasons to buy CVS or Giant milk. Giant and CVS milk both come with a twist off cap and a sturdier bottle while the Safeway milk has a suction like top which seems more prone to leaking and what seems like a thinner bottle (to me anyway). But is this worth the extra trip? Maybe. Maybe not.

I think in the future I'll be keeping tabs on this. Of course, I am in the DC/Metro area so milk may be more or less (I'm guessing less) where you are - few people that actually read this blog. =)

Next up, my Safeway trip and how my husband seriously accosted me when I came home with 15 more boxes of cereal when we are moving in 2 weeks, stay tuned!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Um... Hello!

I have been really bad with updating this thing. I started a new job recently that has taken most of the energy out of me and if that weren't enough, my back has started bothering me again (and here I thought my herniated disc had repaired itself). So, just my day to day activities have left me pretty exhausted. I'm not going to do a full account of each shopping trip, but I'm just going to note the trips and the money I spent.

August 16, 2009 Giant: $2.39
August 17, 2009 Safeway: $34.21 (saved 48%)
August 23, 2009 Safeway: $33.92 (saved 63%)

So far have been under budget each week. We're trying to eat from the pantry as much as we can given our up-coming move.

We are also having a yard sale September 5th. I will posting tips and if you have any suggestions, please advise! We are trying to get rid of some stuff and make some extra cash before our big move to our new house! So excited about that but a little stressed over moving.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Giant & CVS

We needed bread, milk and turkey breast (DH takes this for lunch nearly everyday) and CVS has a 3-day sale again which includes a Revlon mousse foundation FREE after Extrabucks (I actually made $1 from it because of the $1 off Revlon coupon in the 7/19 Smart Source). Milk these days seems to always be cheaper at Giant (especially including the special buy 4 get 1 gallon free promotion). My Giant has gallons for $2.39.

Anyway, CVS:
$9.99 Revlon mousse foundation
$.50 pack of skittles (for DH)
$.50 pack of skittles (for DH)

I wasn't able to complete the candy promotion from a week or so ago, but they've rolled over my balance from the last time to this weeks promotion. I bought the skittles as a test but DH can think it was just me being my sweet self. =)

- $1/1 Revlon
- $1.00 Extrabucks
- $1.98 Extrabucks
- $2.00 Extrabucks

= $5.68 OOP
Received $9.99 Extra Bucks back and a free coupon for CVS brand 4pack AA batteries.

And Giant:
$2.39 gallon skim milk
$3.59 Stroehmann wheat bread
$0.00 Stroehmann wheat bread (BOGO free)
$2.50 Healthy Ones turkey breast
$2.50 Healthy Ones turkey breast

= $10.98 OOP

I probably have coupons for the turkey breast somewhere but I didn't really plan this trip and only remembered that we were nearly out of turkey breast when I got to the store. Either way, I wanted to grab it while I was out since we have evening plans (and knowing DH, he'll probably tell me we're out of turkey breast after he finishes the very last pack -- ahh men).

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Safeway

I went to Safeway August 4th according to my receipt. Things have been a tiny crazy in the Stubber household. For one I have a new job, and two, we just got approved for a mortgage, put an offer in a house and were accepted. Assuming things go well with the inspection in just a short month or so we'll be first time home buyers! Thanks to our low grocery budget, we have plenty for a down-payment/closing costs and the house is nearly perfect and is something that we will be able to grow into (4 bedrooms, 2 full, 2 half baths).

I'm not going to go into the details of my Safeway trip, but I spent $31.76 OOP and received a $2 CAT.

We'll be eating from the pantry/freezer as much as possible over the next month or so. And for the first week in awhile I never made a CVS run! Imagine that.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Weekly & Month Summary (July 26th- August 1st)

Monday, July 27, 2009 CVS: $1.93
Monday, July 27, 2009 Harris Teeter: $5.05
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 CVS: $1.27
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 Harris Teeter: $.48
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 CVS: .38
Saturday, August 1, 2009 Giant: $1.00

I also stopped by Target and bought a bunch of stuff, but I used yet another gift card thanks to capital one so it was nothing out of pocket. I also stopped by Giant for bread and pretzels yesterday, but since I had a $4 CAT, I only spent $1.

Weekly total? $10.11! And lots of food was bought.

JULY 5 - JULY 11: $68.54
JULY 12 - JULY 18: $60.88
JULY 19 - JULY 25: $30.99
JULY 26 - AUG 1: $10.11

And monthly? $170.52 $29.48 under budget

DAYSMONEY SPENT
NOV 30 - DEC 6$25.49
DEC 7 - DEC 13$24.32
DEC 14 - DEC 20$117.75
DEC 21 - DEC 27$2.26
DEC 28 - JAN 3$36.81
JAN 4 - JAN 10$42.83
JAN 11 - JAN 17$14.60
JAN 18 - JAN 24$55.84
JAN 25 - JAN 31$8.29
FEB 1 - FEB 7$82.26
FEB 8 - FEB 14$42.24
FEB 15 - FEB 21$0.00
FEB 22 - FEB 28$79.45
MAR 1 - MAR 7$53.20
MAR 8 - MAR 14$5.88
MAR 15 - MAR 21$44.35
MAR 22 - MAR 28$17.81
MAR 23 - APR 4$39.96
APR 5 - APR 11$50.94
APR 12 - APR 18$1.09
APR 19 - APR 25$64.17
APR 26 - MAY 2$16.74
MAY 3 - MAY 9$13.01
MAY 10 - MAY 16$8.50
MAY 17 - MAY 23$37.94
MAY 24 - MAY 30$19.34
MAY 31 - JUNE 6$64.06
JUNE 7 - JUNE 13$26.82
JUNE 14 - JUNE 20$27.33
JUNE 21 - JUNE 27$30.69
JUNE 28 - JULY 4$40.41
JULY 5 - JULY 11$68.54
JULY 12 - JULY 18$60.88
JULY 19 - JULY 25$30.99
JULY 26 - AUG 1$10.11

Decluttering

Well, it looks like we'll be moving soon, so we've been trying to declutter, and I'm going to be trying to eat from our pantry as well.

Today we took 2 big boxes full of clothing, shoes, old silverware and books to Goodwill. Not only do my husband and I feel good about ourselves, but we got a receipt which we'll include when we do our taxes in 2010. We've also been intending to do this since we moved in a year ago - oops! At least this push to move has abated our procrastination, at least a little.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

More Harris Teeter & More CVS

Before a doctor's appt, I went over to the other side of town to hit the swanky Harris Teeter (it's kind of inside an apartment complex and it has an upstairs with a sandwich shop and a Starbucks). Well, as I predicted, they still had many of the items free after coupon in stock!

I also was able to print some Kashi coupons and do the CVS deal (and get milk).

at Harris Teeter:
$2.99 Dawn dish detergent
$6.90 2 boxes of Kashi waffles
$2.59 Fiber 1 strawberry yogurt

- $3/1 Kashi
- $3/1 Kashi ($1.50 that doubled - my last 2!)
- $2/1 Fiber 1
- $2.99/1 Dawn

= $.48 OOP!

CVS #1

$.67 Starbursts
$3.34 Kashi Go Lean crunch
$3.33 Kashi Autumn thingies
$1.00 Nivea lipbalm (75% off)

- $.67 free Starbursts
- $1.50/1 Kashi
- $1.98 Extrabucks
- $2.97 Extrabucks

= $1.27 OOP

CVS #2

$3.34 Kashi Autumn thingies
$3.39 gallon skim milk

- $1.50/1 Kashi
- $.89 Extrabucks
- $1.98 Extrabucks
- $1.98 Extrabucks

= .38 OOP
And received $5 back in Extrabucks. Hooray more cheap cereal!

Monday, July 27, 2009

CVS & Harris Teeter

One day left for the Harris Teeter doubled coupon promotion! It ends tomorrow. I was able to get there today to do a few of the deals I missed the last time although they were still sold out of some of the things I was intending to get. I have a feeling they will restock after tomorrow.

I also hit CVS for some of the Extra Buck deals this week. I will return for the candy deal (buy $15 and get $5 EB) and the Kashi deal (buy $10 and get $5 EB) once I print out and clip some more coupons.

Anyway, not super exciting but my trips:

CVS:
$1.89 CVS brand tampons
$.99 Pilot pens
$.99 Pilot pens
$.99 composition book
$.99 composition book
$.99 stapler (we actually needed one!)
$.99 stapler
$.99 binder clips
$.99 binder clips

- $.99 Extrabucks
- $1.98 Extrabucks
- $5.00 Extrabucks

= $1.93 OOP

Received $9.81 in Extrabucks (everything was free after extrabucks excluding tax).

Harris Teeter:
$2.89 Alexia snacks
$2.89 Alexia snacks
$2.89 Alexia snacks
$3.19 Noni Biscotti
$3.19 Noni Biscotti

- $2/1 Alexia
- $2/1 Alexia
- $2/1 Alexia
- $2/1 Noni
- $2/1 Noni
= $5.05 OOP!

I'll also be submitting one of my Harris Teeter receipts to get a free Alexia snack that came attached to a couple of the manu coupons.

PS: Currently our "chip and other salty snacks" pile has doubled in height thanks to Harris Teeter and Safeway! I'm sure my husband will manage to eat them all, but for now, it's a bit impressive given that we have continued to stay within our budget.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Harris Teeter

Two posts in 1 day, woohoo! First of all, the pot roast I made turned out fantastic! I highly recommend the recipe. The Crock Pot Lady knows her stuff (but who ever rejected that idea?).

Anyway, after my trip to Safeway, I went to Harris Teeter.

They are currently running a double coupon promotion up to $1.98! Amazing. Unfortunately, lots of things were already picked clean but I'm going to try to hit another one tomorrow possibly. The good thing for me was that you can only use 20 coupons a day anyway so I wouldn't have been able to snag every deal I wanted even if there were items on the shelf.

What I got:
1 vanilla frappacino
2 bottles fruit 2-0
2 boxes hershey 100 calorie packs
1 bag Alexia onion sticks
1 Hormel Complete meal
1 can of Lysol Neutra Air
1 bag of Grande tortilla chips
2 bags of Terra chips
3 boxes of Kashi waffles
1 Old Spice deodorant
1 4-pack Activia light
1 4-pack Yoplus
1 bag of chicken jerky

Grand total?

**
***
**

$8.72 OOP!!!!!!!!

How amazing is that? After the $1.50 that doubled, the Kashi waffles were $.09 each!

Safeway

So I had a pretty successful shopping trip today, except for the fact that I completely forgot about the $5 off $50 coupon I had. Oh well, still saved 57% and I used a gift card for the majority of it since I still plan on heading to Harris Teeter for their double coupon promotion in a bit.

Since our freezer is absolutely full of what DH calls "the freezer chicken" (chicken that I've bought on sale and then boiled and chopped into meal sized little baggies) and shredded cheese, I decided to do a roast (it's in the crockpot now) from back when chuck roast was $1.99/lb. I still have another one in the freezer but they take up so much space so I'm trying to free up some space so I can buy some Kashi waffles (the $1.50/1 coupons from Vocal Point will double and we'll be getting ourselves some free waffles among other things - kind of glad I waited to use them too).

Anyway, I needed a bit of produce for the recipe (and I had a $3 off $10 produce coupon) so this shopping trip consisted of lots of fresh stuff, and tons of fruit. Yay for fresh cherries - even though they are so pricey!

Anyway, on to the bargains?

$.59 Sierra Mist
$.59 Dt Sierra Mist
$.59 Dt Mountain Dew (on sale limit 4)
$.99 Motts apple juice (with super coupon)
$3.00 2 packages of fruit roll ups
$3.00 2 boxes of Nature Valey granola bars (super coupon 4/$6)
$4.50 3 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios (sale 2/$3 limit 6)
$3.00 2 boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch
$2.29 Worchester sauce
$3.98 2 packs of Dole pinneaple cups (1 was $1.49 with super coupon)
$1.88 Ritz crackers
$2.69 red wine vinegar
$.99 Francesco tomato sauce (with super coupon)
$.99 18-ct eggs (w/super coupon)
$1.49 Lucerne cream cheese
$1.49 Lucerne butter (w/super coupon)
$0.00 Greek yogurt (had free coupon)
$1.49 Thomas English muffins (w/super coupon)
$4.68 2.34 lbs of cherries (at $1.99 lb)
$1.24 1 red bell pepper
$1.49 cantaloupe
$1.73 1.73lb yellow onions
$1.99 5 lbs of potatoes
$2.00 8 oz sliced mushrooms
$2.00 2 bags of Fresh Express lettuce mixes
$1.49 1lb strawberries

- bunch of coupons

= $58.89
- $30 GC
= $14.57 OOP

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Target, CVS & Shoppers

Went to Target and CVS today (in fact I'm about to go back out since I forgot the freaking milk, ugh!).

Target:
$1.50 x3 Fruit Snacks

= $0.00 OOP (paid with GC)

CVS:
$1.62 Aleve Cold and Sinus (75% off!)
$1.62 Aleve Cold and Sinus (75% off!)
$1.62 Aleve Cold and Sinus (75% off!)
$2.47 Clorox Anywhere (25% off)
$.99 CVS Reinventing beauty magazine

- $5.00 Extrabucks

= $3.32 OOP

Shoppers:
$2.39 gallon skim milk
$1.99 Nature's Own bread

= $4.38 OOP

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Shopping This Week (CVS, Safeway & Giant)

Things have been getting a little crazy around here recently. 1, I'm now unemployed and looking for work again which is not so great - thankfully hubbie is still gainfully employed. The good news is that we have plenty of gift cards so hopefully one of my 2 leads will pull through. Not that anyone reads this, but anyone looking for a smart and driven HR person getting her Master's (who knows how to budget, too!)?

Anyhow, usually what happens is that I shop on Sunday and that's it for the week, well with our milk intake increasing, this has now increased to a couple times a week which means I am bad and spend more money. Now granted, I would have spent the money anyway at some other point, but starting tomorrow I'm going to be penny pinching a lot more. Of course, I'll also have more time to cook food and we won't be eating nearly as much prepackaged stuff (thankfully, we have quite a bit of cereal and hopefully I'll be picking up some Kashi waffles whenever they go on sale with my $1.50/1 coupons from Vocal Point).

Ok, that was long-winded.

Here's what I bought at CVS this past Sunday, the 12th:

$3.34 Special K red berries
$3.33 Special K red berries
$5.00 Special K protein bars
$5.00 Special K protein bars (DH eats these like regular granola bars - wish I had his metabolism!)
$.99 pens
$.99 pens
$.99 pens
$.99 glue
$.99 glue
$.99 ruler
$.99 ruler
$.99 college notebook
$.99 college notebook (these are for me for school but I'm going to donate the other school supplies to a local charity once I find one!)

- $2/2 Special K
- $2/2 Special K
-$5.00 Extrabucks

= $17.02 OOP
Received $13.82 in Extrabucks

Earlier this week, I tried making these. They were a complete flop. Don't make them! They didn't stick together even though I added an extra egg after the batter seemed crumbly but they all fell apart in the pan, so I just dumped the rest of the batter in the pan and sauteed it all. I can't imagine it was particularly healthy but DH liked it. Anyway, the next day, I had the brilliant idea of adding a package of spinach to it to make it at least semi-healthy so I had DH go to Safeway and get 2 packages of frozen spinach, $2.78 OOP. I wound up baking it all with the spinach mixed in and that lasted us till last night when I finally had the rest of the leftovers for dinner (I made DH something new cause he was sick of it!).

Then today I went to Giant because we needed milk desparately and I had several coupons for Giant ($5 off $40 and $7 off). Here's what I got:

$2.39 gallon skim milk
$4.50 6 yoplaits
$3.00 Edys strawberry fruit bars
$3.00 Edys strawberry fruit bars
$3.00 Hagaan Daz ice cream bars
$3.00 Hagaan Daz ice cream bars
$.99 marshmallows
$.99 marshmallows
$5.00 Angel Soft 12 pack
$5.00 Angel Soft 12 pack
$3.00 3 bottles Gatorade
$2.00 Ocean Spray juice
$1.00 apple sauce on reduced
$2.50 canola oil spray
$4.00 4 1-serve easy mac
$.89 liter seltzer
$.89 liter seltzer
$2.50 pound Utz pretzals
$5.00 2 packages Giant turkey breast
$8.47 several pounds of boneless skinless turkey breast
$1.65 3.51 lbs of bananas

-$.80/6 yoplait
-$1/2 Edys
- $1/2 Haagan Daz
- $1/1 Angel Soft
- $1/1 Angel Soft
- $1/1 Ocean Spray
- $1/1 Easy MAC (b1g1)
- $1/1 Easy MAC (b1g1)
- $5/$40
-$7.00

= $43.86 OOP
And I received $4.00 off my next shopping trip for buying the Edys.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Weekly Summary (July 5th - July 11th)

Since I've actually been food shopping more often than not recently, I'm starting this up again (though I've always been keeping track).

Monday, July 6, 2009 CVS: $2.14
Monday, July 6, 2009 Safeway: $24.34
Saturday, July 11, 2009 Giant: $17.80
Saturday, July 11, 2009 Safeway: $24.26

Total: $68.54

DAYSMONEY SPENT
SEP 28 - OCT 4$49.18
OCT 5 - OCT 11$13.88
OCT 12 - OCT 18$75.08
OCT 19 - OCT 25$10.04
OCT 26 - NOV 1$43.58
NOV 2 - NOV 8$42.00
NOV 9 - NOV 15$20.94
NOV 16 - NOV 22$80.16
NOV 23 - NOV 29$16.39
NOV 30 - DEC 6$25.49
DEC 7 - DEC 13$24.32
DEC 14 - DEC 20$117.75
DEC 21 - DEC 27$2.26
DEC 28 - JAN 3$36.81
JAN 4 - JAN 10$42.83
JAN 11 - JAN 17$14.60
JAN 18 - JAN 24$55.84
JAN 25 - JAN 31$8.29
FEB 1 - FEB 7$82.26
FEB 8 - FEB 14$42.24
FEB 15 - FEB 21$0.00
FEB 22 - FEB 28$79.45
MAR 1 - MAR 7$53.20
MAR 8 - MAR 14$5.88
MAR 15 - MAR 21$44.35
MAR 22 - MAR 28$17.81
MAR 23 - APR 4$39.96
APR 5 - APR 11$50.94
APR 12 - APR 18$1.09
APR 19 - APR 25$64.17
APR 26 - MAY 2$16.74
MAY 3 - MAY 9$13.01
MAY 10 - MAY 16$8.50
MAY 17 - MAY 23$37.94
MAY 24 - MAY 30$19.34
MAY 31 - JUNE 6$64.06
JUNE 7 - JUNE 13$26.82
JUNE 14 - JUNE 20$27.33
JUNE 21 - JUNE 27$30.69
JUNE 28 - JULY 4$40.41
JULY 5 - JULY 11$68.54
JULY 12 - JULY 18$60.88
JULY 19 - JULY 25$30.99
JULY 26 - AUG 1$

Giant & Safeway

I hit Giant and Safeway yesterday since it was the first Saturday in quite awhile that I was not working or was otherwise occupied.

First was Giant:

They are running a special in which you spend $20 worth of certain Coke (and possibly Pepsi) products and you receive a CAT for $7 off your next shopping purchase. I had collected quite a few $1 off coupons for Nestea products so that's mainly what I bought (and some ginger ale for my husband)

$4.99 Nestea 12-pack (16.9 oz bottles)
$4.99 Nestea 12-pack (")
$4.99 Nestea 12-pack (")
$2.75 Ginger Ale 6-pack (16 oz bottles)
$2.75 Gingle Ale 6-pack (")
$2.99 Kashi Go Lean waffles

- $2.99 Kashi Go Lean waffle freebie
- $1/1 Nestea
- $1/1 Nestea
- $1/1 Nestea

= $17.80 OOP (and received $7 for my next shopping trip)

And then Safeway. I was trying to hit $50 total pre-coupons (had a $5 off $50), which for me meant buying some staple items, brown sugar, mozzarella, apples, feminine products etc. However, even with that, I was shy about $10! My husband commented that I must be the only person alive who purposefully goes in trying to spend more money and still comes out under. He volunteered to come with me next time so I could buy him some candy. Dork.

Eitherway, here's what I bought:

$1.99 2lb Domino brown sugar
$.88 Powerade Zero
$.88 Powerade Zero
$.99 Cocoa Krispies (on special limit 1 boo!)
$2.89 Fritos
$2.89 Fritos
$0.00 Fritos
$0.00 Fritos (buy 2 get 2 free)
$1.15 liter Seltzer water
$.79 Bettie Crocker brownie mix (after super coupon limit 1)
$.88 Velveeta shells (after super coupon limit 1)
$.99 18-ct eggs (after super coupon)
$4.99 3 pounds of mozzerella (reg $7.49) in block (I just shredded this and put it in the freezer)
$3.49 1 gallon skim milk
$.99 Little Debbie nutty bars (after super coupon limit 1)
$1.09 loaf wheat bread
$3.00 Hormel natural turkey breast
$3.26 3.29lb of braeburn apples ($.99 a lb)
$5.69 Always infinity pads

- $.55/1 Hormel
- $4.50 milk deal CAT
- $.75/2 Powerade
- $6.49 Free Always coupon

= $24.25 OOP

In retrospect, I should have held off on the Kashi and Always coupon (though I have another Always) till I went and used my $5 off $40 Giant coupon. Ah well though. Still got lots of stuff and I saved 60% at Safeway, not too bad!

Monday, July 6, 2009

CVS & Safeway

Yesterday, my husband and I had a "date day" which meant on my first day off in quite some time, I didn't do chores. We went to see a movie in the afternoon and then headed to a restaurant that I had a restaurant.com GC/coupon for. We had a really lovely meal for just around $25 including tax and tip (would have been $43 w/o tip with no coupon - $10 of the $25 was the tip). I wouldn't say it was a most frugal date... to date, but it was fun.

Anyway, today I've been doing laundry and went to CVS and Safeway to do some of the deals (and redeem my raincheck from the 2/$3 Lays deal that ended the 4th.

at CVS (slightly dissapointing since I was hoping to grab the Post granola cereal but they were all out):

$6.67 2 boxes of Cocoa Pebbles
$3.33 1 box of Honey Bunches of Oats
$.99 Dentburst
$1.29 Tums
$.89 CVS pantyliners

- $11 in Extrabucks

= $2.14 OOP
Received $5 from the Post deal and $.89 from the pantyliners.

Then Safeway:
$2.99 Nabisco 12-pack 100 calories packs (w/super coupon)
$1.99 Quaker Life cereal (w/super coupon)
$1.49 Dole pineapple bits (w/super coupon)
$1.99 Dole pineapple bits
$3.99 Tostitos multi-grain
$0.00 Tostitos snack size
$1.15 seltzer water
$2.00 box cheerios
$4.00 2 boxes cocoa puffs
$1.69 Diet Sierra Mist
$2.49 gallon skim milk (w/super coupon)
$3.00 2 bags of Lays potato chips

- $.75/2 Dole
- $1/3 GM cereal

= $24.34 OOP
I had used a coupon for free bottle of Pepsi with the purchase of 3 Lays or Tostitos products, but because my rain check was entered manually, the system didn't recognize the Lays... had to go to customer service to get the $1.69 back in cash, so really $22.65 OOP.

I received a coupon for a free gallon of milk up to $4.50 - thinking of going back tomorrow to do that deal again (buy 3 GM cereals get a coupon for free milk). Guess we don't have to worry about buying milk for the next few weeks.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Shoppers & Safeway

I went back to Shoppers to redeem my rain check from when Kelloggs cereal (and specifically Frosted Mini Wheats - my husband's favorite) were on sale. Well when I went through the checkout line, my cashier didn't even look at my raincheck so she charged me the wrong amount and I had to go to customer service.

The guy at the counter did not want to hear my explanation and told me he knew what he was doing and to let him do it without explaining. Well I think he messed up, cause looking at my receipts here's what happened:

Original transaction:
$12.00 3 boxes of Frosted Mini Wheats (should have been $9)
- $3/1 coupon
- $1/1 coupon

= $8.00

Then he proceeded to credit me $12.00 (he objected when I tried explaining it was incorrect).

And then he charged me the correct $6.00.

So.... 8 - 12 + 6 = $2.00

Yeah, I definitely accidentally paid $2.00 OOP for all 3 boxes of Frosted Mini Wheats. At least I tried to explain what actually happened to the CS cashier, but he heard nothing of it so I don't feel as guilty.

Anyway, then Safeway:
1 box Ritz crackers
1 box Wheat Thins
1 jar Hellmans mayo
5 boxes 12-pack Coke sodas
1 package Kraft american cheese 2%
10 jars of Yoplait
1 loaf of wheat bread
3 packages Hillshire Farms turkey breast

- a bunch of coupons (sorry lazy and tired here!)

= $28.52 OOP
(saved $45.26 or 62%!)

July 1st trip

Went to Giant on Wednesday. I've had a crazy week. My boss went on vacation so that means I got to work pretty much every day this past week. I'm surprised I was even able to do the Giant run on Wednesday after a full day. Didn't get much and in a bit I'll post about my lovely barely any people in the store 4th of July trips!

$2.39 gallon skim milk
$2.50 wheat bread
$5.00 2 bags of Snyders pretzals

= $9.89 OOP

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Somewhat Successful Shopping

The plan was to go to Safeway to do the cereal deal (buy 5 save $5) and then Shoppers to get eggs and the Frosted Mini Wheats that are on sale through today. Well, I managed to get stuff I wanted at Safeway but I had to get a rain check at Shoppers. Ah well, they will still honor the $3 off coupon and my coupons don't expire till July so I should be fine. And of course I went to Giant yesterday for the $5 off $15 fresh meat sale, though I had to get help from the cashier. Either way, here's the bounty that I've picked up the last 2 days.

Giant:

$7.43 several pounds of boneless chicken breast (post sale price - scanned coupon prior to bonus card)
$1.99 loaf of wheat bread
$2.39 gallon skim milk
$3.00 6 bottles of Sobe (on sale for buy 1 get 1 free so $.50 each)
$4.29 Sabra hummus
$0.00 Sabra hummus (on buy 1 get 1 free)

- $5.00
= $14.29 OOP
Total savings? $22.66

Then Safeway:
$2.49 Kashi crackers
$9.95 5 boxes of Pop Tarts
$5.98 2 boxes of Special K chocolate
$2.49 Cocoa Krispies
$2.79 Special K Bliss bars
$6.99 Quilted Northern 12 pack ($5.99 after super coupon)

- $5/5
- $5/5
- $1/2 Pop Tarts
- $2/2 special k cereal and bliss bars
- $1/1 Cocoa Krispies
- $1/1 Special K
- $1/1 Kashi crackers

= $14.05 OOP
total savings $25.16 or 65%!

And then very little at Shoppers (other than my raincheck)

$1.60 2 powerades
$2.19 18 ct large eggs

- $1.50/2 powerade ($.75 that doubled final cost 5 cents each!)
= $2.35 OOP

It is super hot outside so hopefully these will be the last shopping trips for a little bit.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Just Milk

As I predicted in my post a few days ago, this week has been the week of no grocery shopping, well other than milk. I went to CVS on Wednesday to get a gallon at $3.29. Very exciting, I know. I'm hoping to get to Shoppers for their latest cereal deal before it's over but between work, grad school and allergies, I haven't been up to much more than the above.

Going to update the chart and hopefully will have more to talk about this coming week.

DAYSMONEY SPENT
SEP 28 - OCT 4$49.18
OCT 5 - OCT 11$13.88
OCT 12 - OCT 18$75.08
OCT 19 - OCT 25$10.04
OCT 26 - NOV 1$43.58
NOV 2 - NOV 8$42.00
NOV 9 - NOV 15$20.94
NOV 16 - NOV 22$80.16
NOV 23 - NOV 29$16.39
NOV 30 - DEC 6$25.49
DEC 7 - DEC 13$24.32
DEC 14 - DEC 20$117.75
DEC 21 - DEC 27$2.26
DEC 28 - JAN 3$36.81
JAN 4 - JAN 10$42.83
JAN 11 - JAN 17$14.60
JAN 18 - JAN 24$55.84
JAN 25 - JAN 31$8.29
FEB 1 - FEB 7$82.26
FEB 8 - FEB 14$42.24
FEB 15 - FEB 21$0.00
FEB 22 - FEB 28$79.45
MAR 1 - MAR 7$53.20
MAR 8 - MAR 14$5.88
MAR 15 - MAR 21$44.35
MAR 22 - MAR 28$17.81
MAR 23 - APR 4$39.96
APR 5 - APR 11$50.94
APR 12 - APR 18$1.09
APR 19 - APR 25$64.17
APR 26 - MAY 2$16.74
MAY 3 - MAY 9$13.01
MAY 10 - MAY 16$8.50
MAY 17 - MAY 23$37.94
MAY 24 - MAY 30$19.34
MAY 31 - JUNE 6$64.06
JUNE 7 - JUNE 13$26.82
JUNE 14 - JUNE 20$27.33
JUNE 21 - JUNE 27$30.69
JUNE 28 - JULY 4$40.41
JULY 5 - JULY 11$
JULY 12 - JULY 18$
JULY 19 - JULY 25$
JULY 26 - AUG 1$

Sunday, June 14, 2009

CVS

I stopped by CVS today to do some of the weekly deals.

I bought:

$3.00 2 bottles of Xtra Clothing Detergent
$10.50 3 packages of Bliss Milk Chocolate
$2.49 L'oreal Bare Mineral Eye Shadow (clearance)
$2.37 L'oreal Glam Shine lipgloss (clearance)
$3.99 Revlon Beyond Natural lipgloss (clearance)
$2.64 3 bags of Gold Emblem soft peppermints
$3.00 large bag Twix minis
$4.40 5 boxes of Puffs tissues (on sale $.88 each)
$3.79 Excedrin tension headache
$2.99 Crest Pro-Health mouthwash
$6.99 Purex 3in1 dryer sheets

- $2/1 L'oreal
- $2/1 L'oreal
- $2/1 Revlon CRT
- $1/1 Revlon
- $.75 Crest
- $2/1 Purex
- $1/1 Excedrin
- $1/1 Bliss
- $1/1 Bliss
- $1/1 Bliss

- $3.99 Extrabucks
- $4.00 Extrabucks
- $2.00 Extrabucks

= $24.04 OOP

Received $5 EB from the candy, $2 EB from the Purex, $2 EB from the Excedrin, $2 EB for the Crest = $11 EB

Friday, June 12, 2009

Shopping This Week

So behind in the blogging world. Thanks to something resembling a sinus infection and a general thought that grass pollen is evil (my grad school class also started and my husband recently got me addicted to Harry Potter). It appears I am super allergic.

Anyway, Sunday my husband and I went to Shoppers for the coke + Hillshire Farm deal (buy 4 12-packs for $12 get 2 packages of Hillshire Farms deli meat free).

We also got milk and eggs (and a couple other items) and paid $17.03.

Then on Wednesday (the 10th) I stumbled across 50% off Glad trash bags at Giant and we needed bread too. I bought 80 trash bags and a loaf of bread and paid $6.79.

And then yesterday my husband (bless his heart - I was near passed out on the couch) bought milk for $3.00 at Safeway.

Tomorrow there is a Hot Dog Event at work and the husband is going to a conference (thankfully in state) from Sunday-Wednesday so we won't be needing lots of groceries this coming week.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Safeway & Old Navy

Usually I don't mention clothes shopping on here because it's not part of our $200/month grocery budget, but I thought this was too good not to mention. I had a gift card for Old Navy so I went there today for their $15 skirt and dress deal. I only recommend this if you need dresses or skirts, of course many of the dresses usually go for $29.50 so $15 is 50% off. Plus, check www.oldnavyweekly.com for coupons (this only works on regular or sale price items, not clearance). So today, I bought 3 dresses for $12.50 each because I had a 15% off your entire purchase coupon! The pickings were pretty slim and it's only Tuesday so I'd get over there before the sale ends on the 6th. I also think this is a good deal if you buy the dresses that go for $29.50 or so. It's not that great of a deal if the dress was originally $17.

Then I went to Safeway for more bread and various other things. We are nearly almost out of bread because I made egg salad over the weekend and my husband has been eating it for dinner almost every night (you'd think he'd get tired of it, but no - if only I could convince him to put some tomatoes or other vegetable on his sandwhich...). Either way, there were a bunch of Super Coupons in the paper which I took advantage of.

I bought:

1 bottle Motts apple juice (this and the Keebler cookies are $2.99 together, no coupon required till... today)
1 box Cocoa Puffs cereal
2 boxes Lucky Charms cereal
1 box Honey Nut Cheerios cereal
4 boxes Nature Valley granola bars
5 boxes Kraft MAC n Cheese
2 bottles Safeway orange creme seltzer
1 bag Keebler cookies
1 box Cheezits crackers
2 cans of tomato paste
1 loaf of wheat bread

= $21.19 OOP

"You saved $28.50 or 58%"
Besides the Super Coupons, I only used 2 regular coupons, $.75/2 Nature Valley that doubled and $1/3 General Mills cereal. Both were 4/$6 with Super Coupons. Not too shabby.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Shoppers Trip

My husband has been wonderful due to my back issues. As I've mentioned, he hates grocery shopping, especially when there's lots of people which is very usual on Sundays. Either way, we devised a plan where he would be able to help me but not set foot in the store. He dropped me off, I called when I got to the line, and he picked me up and helped me carry all the heavy stuff from cart to car and from car to apartment. He's wonderful.

Anyway, as I mentioned previously, usually I get a much high percent off for my shopping trips, today I was at 50%. This was primarily due to buying some things that I didn't have coupons for but that we needed. Still not bad considering I bought quite a few items.

I bought:

$2.79 Juicy Juice apple juice (the new kind in the green cardboard boxes) ($.79 after doubled coupon)
$2.79 Juicy Juice apple juice (the new kind in the green cardboard boxes) ($.79 after doubled coupon)
$4.00 2 packages of 8-box Juicy Juice apple juice ($1 each after $1/2 that doubled)
$1.00 applesauce (no coupon)
$8.00 4 boxes of Kleenex tissues ($6.00 after $1/4 that doubled)
$7.50 3 boxes of Kelloggs 12ct pop tarts (no coupon but went towards the $5/$20 Kelloggs in store coupon)
$2.50 18oz Frosted Mini Wheats ($.50 after $1/2 that doubled)
$2.50 18oz Frosted Mini Wheats ($.50 after $1/2 that doubled)
$2.50 18oz Frosted Mini Wheats ($.50 after $1/2 that doubled)
$2.50 18oz Frosted Mini Wheats ($.50 after $1/2 that doubled)
$2.50 18oz Frosted Mini Wheats ($.50 after $1/2 that doubled)
$1.58 2 packages of Ortega taco mix (FREE plus $.42 overage after $1/2 that doubled)
$1.89 loaf wheat bread (no coupon)
$3.59 V-8 Fusion Light ($1.59 after $1/1 that doubled)
$3.59 V-8 Fusion Light ($1.59 after $1/1 that doubled)
$3.50 Puffins cereal ($1.50 after $1/1 that doubled)
$4.00 2 bags of 1lb Snyders pretzals (no coupon)
$10.00 3 packages of Hillshire Farms hearty (no coupon)
$2.69 gallon skim milk (no coupon)
$3.50 Trop50 orange juice ($1.50 after $1/1 that doubled)
$2.09 No Nonsense pantyhose ($.09 after $1/1 that doubled)
$3.00 Turkey Hill ice cream ($1.00 after $1/1 that doubled)
$2.29 Kraft Bagelfuls ($.29 after $1/1 that doubled)
$2.29 Kraft Bagelfuls ($.29 after $1/1 that doubled)
$2.29 Kelloggs waffles ($.79 after $.75 that doubled)

- $5/$20

= $42.87 OOP

I saved $42.50 or 50%
Bought 36 items so paid approx $1.20 per item, not too shabby.

Weekly & Month Summary (May 24th - May 30th)

How I did this past week.

Sunday, May 24, 2009 CVS: $2.54
Sunday, May 24, 2009 Safeway: $16.30
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 CVS: $.50 (didn't post but it was under $.50 for milk after EB)

Weekly amount spent: $19.34

And for the month of May (which went by very very quickly btw):
MAY 3 - MAY 9 $13.01
MAY 10 - MAY 16 $8.50
MAY 17 - MAY 23 $37.94
MAY 24 - MAY 30 $19.34

= $78.79 (way way way under budget)

I decided not to go to Target this week to do the pop tart deal since I had no coupons and Target is not exactly around the corner, but I did go to Shoppers today which I will write about shortly. Although, I didn't get the greatest percent off (usually for double coupon promotions I manage to get 60-80% off - today it was 50%), I did buy a lot of needed items without coupons so we are well stocked for the things we need and use. Heading to Giant sometime this week for eggs, but otherwise, we won't need anything.


DAYSMONEY SPENT
SEP 28 - OCT 4$49.18
OCT 5 - OCT 11$13.88
OCT 12 - OCT 18$75.08
OCT 19 - OCT 25$10.04
OCT 26 - NOV 1$43.58
NOV 2 - NOV 8$42.00
NOV 9 - NOV 15$20.94
NOV 16 - NOV 22$80.16
NOV 23 - NOV 29$16.39
NOV 30 - DEC 6$25.49
DEC 7 - DEC 13$24.32
DEC 14 - DEC 20$117.75
DEC 21 - DEC 27$2.26
DEC 28 - JAN 3$36.81
JAN 4 - JAN 10$42.83
JAN 11 - JAN 17$14.60
JAN 18 - JAN 24$55.84
JAN 25 - JAN 31$8.29
FEB 1 - FEB 7$82.26
FEB 8 - FEB 14$42.24
FEB 15 - FEB 21$0.00
FEB 22 - FEB 28$79.45
MAR 1 - MAR 7$53.20
MAR 8 - MAR 14$5.88
MAR 15 - MAR 21
$44.35
MAR 22 - MAR 28$17.81
MAR 23 - APR 4$39.96
APR 5 - APR 11$50.94
APR 12 - APR 18$1.09
APR 19 - APR 25$64.17
APR 26 - MAY 2$16.74
MAY 3 - MAY 9$13.01
MAY 10 - MAY 16$8.50
MAY 17 - MAY 23$37.94
MAY 24 - MAY 30$19.34
MAY 31 - JUNE 6$64.06
JUNE 7 - JUNE 13$26.82
JUNE 14 - JUNE 20$27.33
JUNE 21 - JUNE 27$?

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Memorial Day Shopping CVS & Safeway

Tomorrow my husband and I are going to a friend's house for a barbecue and I am making pasta salad. Thanks to stocking up at various sales, the only things I needed to buy were some fresh veggies, but of course I wound up doing the CVS deals and well as picked up some more things we needed at Safeway. On Tuesday I'll be heading to Target to do the new Pop Tart (and other products) deal (buy 5 get a $5 GC).

Anyway, first stop was CVS. I bought:

I'm likely going back sometime in the next 2 days because they have a bunch of makeup and skincare 50-75% off, including my favorite lipgloss (I hope they aren't discontinuing that - I hate that!) but I was able to hold off till I had my coupons with me, so I'm hoping they aren't all gone!

Anyway...

$2.99 Colgate Advanced
$3.99 18 ct Playtex tampons
$2.29 Hello Kitty Band Aids
$2.29 BandAid band aids
$3.99 Clearasil facewash
$1.99 2 bottles of Gatorade (buy 1 get 1 free)

- $1/1 Band Aid
- $1/1 Band Aid
- $1/1 Band Aid CRT
- $2/1 any Clearasil
- $1/1 Playtex
- $1/1 Colgate
- $3 Extrabucks
- $5 Extrabucks

= $2.54 OOP

And I received: $3 Playtex, $4 Band Aid, $2 Colgate and $3.99 Clearasil = $12.99 in Extrabucks!

Then stopped at Safeway where I bought:

$2.50 box of Pop Tarts
$1.99 Capri Sun Sunrise ($.99 after $1/1 coupon)
$1.99 Capri Sun Sunrise ($.99 after $1/1 coupon)
$1.99 Capri Sun Sunrise ($.99 after $1/1 coupon)
$.88 1 bottle Vitamin Water 10 (FREE plus $.22 overage after $1/1 coupon)
$.88 1 bottle Vitamin Water 10 (FREE plus $.22 overage after $1/1 coupon)
$.88 1 bottle Vitamin Water 10 (FREE plus $.22 overage after $1/1 coupon)
$5.00 10 jars of Yoplait yogurt (had 2 $.40 that doubled, paid $3.40 for 10)
$1.61 1 large orange pepper
$.99 1 cucumber
$5.03 a little over 2 lbs of on vine tomatoes

= $16.30 OOP
(saved $16.07 or 50%)

Weekly Summary (May 17 - May 23rd)

How I did this past week.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 Giant: $3.78
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 CVS: $4.72
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 Safeway: $29.44

Weekly amount spent: $37.94

DAYSMONEY SPENT
SEP 28 - OCT 4$49.18
OCT 5 - OCT 11$13.88
OCT 12 - OCT 18$75.08
OCT 19 - OCT 25$10.04
OCT 26 - NOV 1$43.58
NOV 2 - NOV 8$42.00
NOV 9 - NOV 15$20.94
NOV 16 - NOV 22$80.16
NOV 23 - NOV 29$16.39
NOV 30 - DEC 6$25.49
DEC 7 - DEC 13$24.32
DEC 14 - DEC 20$117.75
DEC 21 - DEC 27$2.26
DEC 28 - JAN 3$36.81
JAN 4 - JAN 10$42.83
JAN 11 - JAN 17$14.60
JAN 18 - JAN 24$55.84
JAN 25 - JAN 31$8.29
FEB 1 - FEB 7$82.26
FEB 8 - FEB 14$42.24
FEB 15 - FEB 21$0.00
FEB 22 - FEB 28$79.45
MAR 1 - MAR 7$53.20
MAR 8 - MAR 14$5.88
MAR 15 - MAR 21
$44.35
MAR 22 - MAR 28$17.81
MAR 23 - APR 4$39.96
APR 5 - APR 11$50.94
APR 12 - APR 18$1.09
APR 19 - APR 25$64.17
APR 26 - MAY 2$16.74
MAY 3 - MAY 9$13.01
MAY 10 - MAY 16$8.50
MAY 17 - MAY 23$37.94
MAY 24 - MAY 30$?

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Safeway

Well, I added the $8.50 I spent in "groceries" to my Weekly Summary from last week, because well, when you spend under $10 I don't think a weekly summary would be all that interesting and due to my general lack of posting, it's still on the main page!

Either way, I finally got to Safeway today because we were out of bread, milk and lunch meat. This household really doesn't function all too well with at least some bread and some turkey breast. Even though I wasn't fully completely up to it, I went to Safeway, only armed with 2 coupons, which is very unusual for me. The resulted transaction was a lot better than it could have been. There are decent sales this week (there is currently a buy 5 save $5 sale going on for many cereal and other related items).

Anyway, I bought:

10 boxes of fruit roll ups (after the buy 5 save $5 these were only $1 each which is very good)
1 bottle of vitamin water 10 (free plus, I got $.22 overage after my $1 coupon got taken off - though it beeped)
2 12-ct boxes of pop tarts (not a very good deal at $2.99 a piece but we were running low)
1 package Kraft cheese ($.99 after super coupon)
1 gallon of skim milk (reg. price of $3.49)
1 loaf of Peppridge Farms cinnamon raisin bread (on sale for $1.99)
1 loaf of wheat bread (on sale for $1.09)
3 packages (3 lbs) of Butchers turkey breast (on sale for $1.99 each!)

= $29.44 OOP
I saved $34.32 or 54% even without coupons.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Giant & CVS

Today I had to go to Giant anyway to fill a few prescriptions but we also needed milk and bread, hence the trips.

I bought:

at Giant-
$2.50 Peppridge Farms bread
$1.20 2 bottles of seltzer

= $3.78 OOP

And CVS-
$7.99 Neutrogena moisture shine lipstick
$6.99 Nivea body wash
$9.99 Nivea bronzer
$3.39 1 gallon skim milk
$2.79 Suave body wash
$1.75 12 pack Tums

- $9.99 free bronzer (the SA took off the wrong product, the coupon was for the free body wash)
- $1.75 free Tums 12 pack CRT
- $3/2 body washes CRT
- $3/1 Neutrogena lip CRT
- $10.99 in Extrabucks

= $4.72 OOP
Received $5 for the Nivea and $3 for the Neutrogena = $8 Extrabucks - the Nivea deal is still active so it's clearly not limit 1 - I may go back to use the 2nd coupon that gives you a free body wash with purchase of one of the new products.

Weekly Summary

How I did this past week.

Thursday, May 7, 2009 CVS: $.42
Thursday, May 7, 2009 Walgreens: $7.21
Thursday, May 7, 2009 Walmart: $3.39
Friday, May 8, 2009 Safeway: $1.99

Weekly amount spent: $13.01

In other news, I finally got to my doctor today and he's recommended a chiropractor to help with my back. Hopefully that will fix things, which has recently been the main reason for my lack of grocery shopping. It's hard to carry heavy items, it's hard to get out in and out of my car.

DAYSMONEY SPENT
SEP 28 - OCT 4$49.18
OCT 5 - OCT 11$13.88
OCT 12 - OCT 18$75.08
OCT 19 - OCT 25$10.04
OCT 26 - NOV 1$43.58
NOV 2 - NOV 8$42.00
NOV 9 - NOV 15$20.94
NOV 16 - NOV 22$80.16
NOV 23 - NOV 29$16.39
NOV 30 - DEC 6$25.49
DEC 7 - DEC 13$24.32
DEC 14 - DEC 20$117.75
DEC 21 - DEC 27$2.26
DEC 28 - JAN 3$36.81
JAN 4 - JAN 10$42.83
JAN 11 - JAN 17$14.60
JAN 18 - JAN 24$55.84
JAN 25 - JAN 31$8.29
FEB 1 - FEB 7$82.26
FEB 8 - FEB 14$42.24
FEB 15 - FEB 21$0.00
FEB 22 - FEB 28$79.45
MAR 1 - MAR 7$53.20
MAR 8 - MAR 14$5.88
MAR 15 - MAR 21
$44.35
MAR 22 - MAR 28$17.81
MAR 23 - APR 4$39.96
APR 5 - APR 11$50.94
APR 12 - APR 18$1.09
APR 19 - APR 25$64.17
APR 26 - MAY 2$16.74
MAY 3 - MAY 9$13.01
MAY 10 - MAY 16$8.50
MAY 17 - MAY 23$?
MAY 24 - MAY 30$?

Friday, May 8, 2009

Milk How Very Exciting!

Of course, the minute I get home from my expedition, the husband e-mails me to tell me we need milk. So I stopped by Safeway, redeemed 2 CATS to bring my gallon milk down to $1.99. Not too bad and I was not in the mood to drive any farther distance to get a better deal.

Safeway Thursday May 7th

1 gallon skim milk
- $.75 CAT
- $.75 CAT
= $1.99 OOP

Thursday, May 7, 2009

CVS Walgreens and Walmart

Lucky me? I have been pretty sick this week. Sleeping or otherwise not up for shopping, but I was starting to get cabin fever and went out today to do some of the deals.

I started at CVS:

$.89 Powerade (for me since I was dehydrated)
$5.88 9 pack Charmin' Ultra
$2.99 Colgate Max Fresh toothpaste
$.62 pack of gum (the extrabucks put me in the negative so I had to grab something quick)

- $1/1 Colgate
- $4.00 Extrabucks
- $4.99 Extrabucks

= $.42 OOP
Received $2 back from Colgate and $1 back from the Charmin' = $3 EB

Then Walgreens:
$1.39 Propel water
$5.00 2 bottles of Pert Plus Medium
$1.82 huge box of tampons 75% off

- $1.39 Propel
= $7.21 OOP
(received $2 back in Register Rewards for the Pert Plus)

And then Walmart:

$6.00 2 24oz boxes of Frosted Mini Wheats
$6.47 1 Rimmel mascara

- $6.47 free Rimmel Sexy Curves Mascara from All You Magazine
- $3.00 (from buy 1 get 1 free Frosted Mini Wheats Vocal Point Coupon)

= $3.39 OOP

Weekly & Month Summary (April 26th - May 2nd)

How I did this past week.

Friday, May 1, 2009 Shoppers: $6.17
Saturday, May 2, 2009 Safeway: $10.57

Weekly amount spent: $16.74

Monthly amount:

APR 5 - APR 11: $50.94
APR 12 - APR 18: $1.09
APR 19 - APR 25: $64.17
APR 26 - MAY 2: $16.74

$132.94 $67.06 under budget! Mostly due to wedding craziness and my back issues, but we've had plenty of food and have been eating fairly well so no worries (I am now thanking myself for stocking up during the Safeway Chill Out at home promotion)

DAYSMONEY SPENT
SEP 28 - OCT 4$49.18
OCT 5 - OCT 11$13.88
OCT 12 - OCT 18$75.08
OCT 19 - OCT 25$10.04
OCT 26 - NOV 1$43.58
NOV 2 - NOV 8$42.00
NOV 9 - NOV 15$20.94
NOV 16 - NOV 22$80.16
NOV 23 - NOV 29$16.39
NOV 30 - DEC 6$25.49
DEC 7 - DEC 13$24.32
DEC 14 - DEC 20$117.75
DEC 21 - DEC 27$2.26
DEC 28 - JAN 3$36.81
JAN 4 - JAN 10$42.83
JAN 11 - JAN 17$14.60
JAN 18 - JAN 24$55.84
JAN 25 - JAN 31$8.29
FEB 1 - FEB 7$82.26
FEB 8 - FEB 14$42.24
FEB 15 - FEB 21$0.00
FEB 22 - FEB 28$79.45
MAR 1 - MAR 7$53.20
MAR 8 - MAR 14$5.88
MAR 15 - MAR 21$44.35
MAR 22 - MAR 28$17.81
MAR 23 - APR 4$39.96
APR 5 - APR 11$50.94
APR 12 - APR 18$1.09
APR 19 - APR 25$64.17
APR 26 - MAY 2$16.74

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Safeway

The plan this weekend was to do the promotion again over at Safeway. Unfortunately, I've been feeling less than spectacular. Thanks to an accident in October 08 I have been left with a herniated disc that has not repaired itself like every single doctor I spoke to said it would. Thankfully, I have the best husband ever and he carted me over to Safeway, carried all the heavy stuff and has basically been treating me like a princess for the past, oh month. Don't worry, dear reader(?) I am heading to the doctor post-haste to get this sorted out, hopefully.

Anyway, my husband does not enjoy grocery shopping. He generally dislikes every type of shopping other than one that involves books and/or video games (both is a bonus). But he was very patient with me this trip and to thank him for taking the time to basically be my assistant/maid, I made it quick. So no promotion of adding calculating $3o worth of feel good items and matching coupons. We did a rather quick trip to just get some of what we consider essentials that we were running low on:

We bought:
$6.98 2 boxes of Post trail mix cereal (had 2- $1 off coupons and received $1.50 of CATS for the purchase)
$5.99 Diet Coke 12 pack
$5.99 Fresca 12 pack
$0.00 Fanta 12 pack
$0.00 Ginger Ale 12 pack
$0.00 Dasani water 12 pack
(promotion is buy 2 Coke 12 packs get 2 free and a free Dasani 12 pack free - good deal!)
$4.00 4 bags of various Snyder pretzals (on sale $1 a piece - these are the small ones but still over 50% off - usual retail is $2.49)

- $10 Feel Good Promotion CAT
- $.75 Post trail mix CAT
- $1/1 Post
- $1/1 Post

= $10.57 OOP
Not too shabby (saved 78% or $37.18).

Shoppers

I stopped by Shoppers yesterday to grab bread and milk (don't forget milk is $1.99 - 2 per transaction - they say per shopper but since there's no bonus card unless you get the same checkout person twice no one will know).

I got (5/1):
$1.99 1 gallon skim milk
$3.69 1 loaf Peppridge Farms (used $.40 coupon that tripled - final cost $2.49)
$1.69 1 loaf wheat bread

total cost? $6.17 OOP

I'll probably be stopping by Safeway today since they have the pretzals my husband takes for work for $1 a bag but otherwise we don't need anything really.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Weekly Summary Weekly Summary (April 19th - April 25th)

How I did last week. Oops.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Safeway: $34.62
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Shoppers: $2.00
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Shoppers: $27.55

Weekly amount spent: $64.17

Not too shabby. Someone remind me to go to Shoppers/Safeway again this week. Safeway I still need to deal with customer service (can you tell I'm putting this off??) to get my 2nd $10 CAT and we definitely need milk at Shoppers. CVS "deals" didn't seem to great this week so I'm hoping May brings better ones.

DAYSMONEY SPENT
SEP 28 - OCT 4$49.18
OCT 5 - OCT 11$13.88
OCT 12 - OCT 18$75.08
OCT 19 - OCT 25$10.04
OCT 26 - NOV 1$43.58
NOV 2 - NOV 8$42.00
NOV 9 - NOV 15$20.94
NOV 16 - NOV 22$80.16
NOV 23 - NOV 29$16.39
NOV 30 - DEC 6$25.49
DEC 7 - DEC 13$24.32
DEC 14 - DEC 20$117.75
DEC 21 - DEC 27$2.26
DEC 28 - JAN 3$36.81
JAN 4 - JAN 10$42.83
JAN 11 - JAN 17$14.60
JAN 18 - JAN 24$55.84
JAN 25 - JAN 31$8.29
FEB 1 - FEB 7$82.26
FEB 8 - FEB 14$42.24
FEB 15 - FEB 21$0.00
FEB 22 - FEB 28$79.45
MAR 1 - MAR 7$53.20
MAR 8 - MAR 14$5.88
MAR 15 - MAR 21$44.35
MAR 22 - MAR 28$17.81
MAR 23 - APR 4$39.96
APR 5 - APR 11$50.94
APR 12 - APR 18$1.09
APR 19 - APR 25$64.17
APR 26 - MAY 2$?

Shoppers... is it Ground Hog day?

Shoppers is once again this week running a triple up to $.50 and double up to and including $1.00 coupon promotion!

Hooray! Sorry for my lack of posting. I have been quite busy with work (until yesterday I hadn't had a day off since my wedding reception which we all know isn't quite the vacation one gets on a true day off) so look for a weekly summary for last week hopefully before the week is out!

And milk this week at Shoppers is.... $1.99 per gallon! Kind of glad I didn't buy milk last week like I was planning to. Definitely heading there to get milk nearly 1/2 priced! Yay!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Shoppers

Shoppers is running its double $1 and triple $.50 coupon promotion for a 2nd week in a row for select MD/DC/VA stores! Yes! Not that I actually need anymore groceries at this point, but I'll probably go back again just for fun. They also have milk on sale for $2.39 so I'll be visiting them again at the very least for the milk.

I suppose this is all because of the economy, and quite frankly, I'm not complaining! I feel very blessed that both of us are as of now gainfully employed and can afford to stock up our kitchen and not have to worry about such important things like being able to eat well if one of us were to lose a job (let's hope that doesn't happen!).

And of course, Safeway is still running its' promotion till May 5th. Plenty of time for all of us to stock up on mostly healthy food (did anyone else notice that there was plenty of junk food on the list as well?!) for April and May.

And it's finally starting to feel like spring outside too!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Safeway & Shoppers

**edit I just realized after reading another post, that you can do multiple promotions in one transaction so I should have gotten another $10 CAT. I'm going to head back to Safeway sometime this week to go to the CS and try to get the extra $10 I should have gotten**

After I left work yesterday, I went to both Safeway and Shoppers in one trip! When I came home with my several bags of groceries, the husband said that I overdid it, of course when I told him how much the groceries cost and that we wouldn't need to buy anything other than skim milk, bread and other perishables for the next few weeks, he was pretty impressed. I spent $64.17 total and got lots of stuff, including cleaning supplies!

My first stop was Safeway. I bought (items in green are part of the Living Well Feeling Great promotion):

1-12 pack Lipton Diet bottled green tea
1 18oz box Cheerios
1 box Kashi Heart Cereal
1 bag Kraft 2% singles
1 bottle Kraft free dressing
1 box Smart Balance 50/50 butter
1 jar Smart Balance peanut butter
1 bag Bertolli dinner for 2
1 package jello sugar free pudding
1 box Reynolds earth wrap foil (will mail in for free rebate)
1 bottle Dove body wash
2 bottles Green works cleanser
1 box 100 calorie packs

1 box Post Cereal trail mix (also a $.75 CAT will print when you buy 1)
2 jars Skippy peanut butter
2 bags Ronzoni Bistro (BOGO plus had BOGO coupon so free)
1 can Muer Glen tomatoes
1 bottle Clorox 2 33oz
1 box Kashi frozen entrees

- many coupons
- $5/$50 I was mailed
- $10 off frozen foods from chill out promotion
- $1.50 CAT from buying Starbucks

= $34.62 OOP
Received $10 CAT from the promotion and $.75 CAT from Post cereal promotion.
Total Savings, $69.44 or 67%!

And then Shoppers. I was so busy with reception related stuff that I wasn't able to get to Shoppers for the triple/double promotion until yesterday but it will be my only stop since we have plenty of food.

First I redeemed my rain check for the Post Raisin Bran.
I bought 4 boxes and paid $2 OOP!

Then I actually went shopping, I bought:
2 boxes of Betty Crocker warm delights minis
1 jar Betty Crocker frosting
1 box Success brown rice
1 bottle Newman's Own balsamic vinaigrette
1 container Lawsons' seasoned salt
4 boxes of Pop Tarts
6 cans of Dole diced fruit
2 boxes Oreo Fun Stixx
1 bottle Natural Source cleanser
1 bag Thomas English muffins
1 jar McCormick curry powder
1 box Puffins cereal
2 packages Mission tortillas
1 package Snyder pretzal sandwhich single serve packs
1 package Snyder multigrain chip single serve packs
2 small boxes Equal
1 bag Snyder tortilla chips
1 bag Tuna Creations
2 bags Snyder veggie chips
1 box Cascadian Farm cereal

= $27.55 OOP

33 items so about $.83 an item! Saved 65% or $50.79!

There was an older couple in front of me that spent $225 on their groceries. I can't even imagine. They used no coupons and I got a very "soccer mom" vibe from the mom - not that it's a bad thing but I imagine they probably do that every week. Even if they are feeding a family of say, 4 or 5 (the average family size in this area), that's nearly 4x what my husband and I spend. It's pretty amazing how much you can save with couponing and no matter how rich I were to ever get (knock on wood!), I don't think I would ever stop. The less you spend on groceries, cleaning supplies and simple things like toilet paper, the more you can spend on fun things and the more you can save. It's not only for people scrimping for money, it can really be beneficial for everyone with minimal costs and time once you get the hang of it.

Is anyone else simply amazed at what others spend on groceries?

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Is It Really Over?

It's amazing what a wedding reception can do to a week of blogging, or rather the lack of blogging! I was able to get to CVS this week and the husband picked up some bread, but otherwise, I was either making something, making lists of things yet to be done or worrying about last minute stuff. Thankfully, we have plenty of food in the house and didn't need to worry about things other than bread or milk, but I figured that a shopping trip would help calm me down so I hit CVS on Friday morning and the husband went and bought bread Friday evening since I was in no state to do so. I think between reception nerves and the weird weather fluctuations, my body said "No!" and I spent the entire day (except for the super short CVS trip) on the couch.

Anyway, mostly fun stuff was bought (except for the milk/paper towels):
$2.50 Nivea lipbalm
$7.99 Venus Embrace razor
$3.99 Colgate toothpaste
$4.99 Softsoap body wash/scrub
$7.79 Neutrogena mineral sheers blush
$7.79 Neutrogena mineral sheers blush
$3.39 gallon skim milk
$6.99 Skin Effect foaming cleanser
$7.49 Viva paper towels

- $1/1 Nivea
- $1/1 Colgate
- $1/1 Softsoap
- $3/$15 Neutrogena CRT
- $3/2 Neutrogena
- $3/1 Venus CRT
- $4/$20 CVS Beauty Coupon (was e-mailed)
- $5.00 Skin Effect CRT
- $10.00 Extra Bucks

= $23.40 OOP but really nothing thanks to a gift card!
And I received $2 for the Viva, $3.99 for the Colgate, $4.99 for the Softsoap, $4.00 for the Venus or $14.98 in Extrabucks. Not too shabby.

I also used a gift card so it wasn't really anything out of pocket. =)

Then the husband went to Safeway and bought (drum roll please):
$1.09 1 loaf bread

$1.09 OOP

We went out to dinner Friday, had a "dress rehearsal" dinner Saturday and of course the wedding reception meal earlier today. Plenty of food and plenty of leftover cake! Tiramisu, lemon curd and cream and chocolate mint cake for the win!

As far as blogging goes, I am not going to be posting a weekly summary since it would be so boring. Oh gee, $1.09! How exciting! But I've of course put it in my table for tracking purchases. Just think, I could spend $98 this week (not that I would, we have so much food) and still be under budget!

However, I am going to Safeway tomorrow to do a round of the new promotion out. I am slowly working through coupon matching set ups, plus I need to remember to roll the $10 from the Chill Out promotion. I also want to hit Shoppers to redeem my rain check. And I have to go to the MVA to get my license changed to my new name!