Rite Aid (Success!) and Superfresh (less success)

I made two stops (though they are in the same shopping center) after work today, Rite Aid and Superfresh.

This particular Rite Aid actually had the L'Oreal cleanser that turns out free (actually, makes me $1 after rebate/coupon)

Rite Aid transaction:

$5.99 L'oreal Cleanser
$.88 M&Ms

-$1/1 L'oreal
= $6.29 which I put on the giftcard I'm still going through so $0 Oop

Superfresh:

Now, this was unknown to me, but Superfresh does not take internet coupons which completely destroyed the Cheerios deal I was trying to do. I even was basically forced to argue with the front-line supervisor saying that General Mills sent me the coupons and I did not copy them, but they would not budge. They gave me a number for corporate and said they would probably send me a giftcard... reasonable, I suppose. Anyway...

2 (small) boxes regular Cheerios
2 boxes fruity Cheerios (select GM cereals half price - Cheerios were about $1.59 a box)
3 boxes hamburger helper (on sale $1 each)
3 bottles Pepsi products (on sale $.79 each)
3 bottles seltzer water (3/$1)
3 pretty bowls for the counter (75% off, came to $1.76 each)
1 box sweet n low (50% off)
1 large package pork chops ($2.79 lb plus -$2 MGR special coupon - came to $6)

- $.75 (doubled)/3 hamburger helper
- $.75 (doubled)/1 fruity cheerios
- $.75 (doubled)/1 fruity cheerios
- $1.00/2 cheerios (wanted to use 2 of the $1/1 from the challenge, grrr!)

= $21.30 Oop

Running tally for this week: $26.86/$50

The good thing about stocking up is that the length and items in any other grocery runs are quite minimal (and of course, the dollars are too).

Friday evening, I actually had my boyfriend go to the store to pick up some hot dog buns ($3.19) and sauerkraut ($1.19) for our dinner.

Then today I decided to make something special and really not worry about budgeting so much. I went to Shoppers Food Warehouse after work and picked up:

1 bag frozen mixed vegetables $1.00
about 12 large shrimp $7.52
= $8.52

I'm going to start keeping a running tally at the bottom of each entry exactly how much we spend in a given week and how above and below budget we are.

Week August 10th-16th:
10th CVS $7.41
10th Safeway $52.72
13th CVS $0.00
13th Giant $47.73
14th Superfresh $6.00
15th Safeway 4.38
= $118.24 -$68.24

Woah. My only defense is that a lot of my purchases involved stockpiling cheap food for future weeks, which so far is reflected in the mere $8.52 I've spent on groceries this week. Tomorrow, I should have a similarly small bill grabbing some ingredient for the Mexican casserole I plan to make.

We'll see how I do in future weeks!

Since I was unable to get the $1.49/12 poptarts at the Superfresh near the apartment, I went to one closer to work. Well, it was much nicer looking and was bigger - plus they had every pop tart ever made, including the frosted brown sugar ones. So, I was able to redeem my rain check before it expired in a week or so.

Superfresh:

4 12-pack pop tarts $6
= total $6 =)

Then I went to Walmart, since we needed more Canola oil, some Swiffer products and I needed hangers.

I bought 30 plastic hangers and 12 skirt hangers
1 Swiffer wet
1 Swiffer dry
Canola Oil

I spent $27, but I used a gift card, so technically it was $0.00 out of pocket.

I have to say that I am really proud of myself because during a trip to CVS today, I paid $0.00 out of pocket! And then I made $8 in Extra Bucks! I was so proud of myself that when I came home, I exclaimed my excitement to my boyfriend and although he isn't really into this sort of thing, he was even impressed.

Here's what my transaction looked like:

2 bags Dove chocolate $6/2
5 boxes of theater candy $5/5*
1 12-count 12hr Alavert D

-$2/$10 CVS coupon
-$2 off Alavert CVS coupon
-$3 off Alavert manuf. coupon
-$9.95 Extrabucks

=$0.00
And I got $8 in Extrabucks back ($3 for the Alavert/$5 for the candy)

* I first ran into some problems, because even though the theater candy was advertised as a dollar each, they range up as $.99 cents each, which put me 4 cents under the $10s required for the candy deal. Thankfully I caught it before I walked out of the store, or else I would have been very annoyed.

I did have a bit of an upset this shopping trip, as I was tired from work and really wanted to get it over as quickly as possible, though I was looking forward to it this morning. My plan was to stop at Superfresh to do the Kelloggs deal and also redeem my Rain Check (I had gotten one a few weeks ago for 12-pack pop tarts for $1.49 which is a great price - and my boyfriend goes through a box of the frosted brown sugar ones a week) so I was going to stock up with the $1/2 Kelloggs coupons. However, when I got to Superfresh, they had no brown sugar pop tarts in a 12-pack, so I had to go to another grocery store.

I finally got to Giant (only 5 or so miles away, but this is the DC Metro area we are talking about!). Anyway, I finally got there and stocked up on quite a bit of good stuff. Although, I'll have to go back to return a can of soup that was marked down but didn't ring correctly.

My purchases include:

18 cups of Yoplait yogurt $10/20
6 packages of low-fat turkey breast lunchmeat $3/2
4 boxes of Kelloggs 12-pack pop tarts $5/2
2 boxes of Kelloggs Nutrigrain bars $6/2
2 boxes of Kelloggs rice kripy treats $5/2
2 enormous boxes of Kelloggs (apple jacks and frosted flakes) reduced to $1.80 each (!)
2 Vidalia onions $1.30
3 lb bag of white potatoes $2.99
1.5 lbs peaches $2
1 gallon skim milk $3.99
1 can of Healthy Choice chicken soup (clearance 50% off) $1.25

then my coupons
-$1.20/18 Yoplait
-$1/2 poptarts
-$1/2 poptarts
-$1/2 cereal
-$1/2 Nutrigrain
-$1/2 Rice Krispies

=$50.23 (although I'll be returning a $2.50 item rung up incorrectly so that will really be $47.73)

After I redeem the rebate it will come down to $37.73 - not bad for 40 items!