Target

Kashi cereal/granola bars are on sale at Target this week for $2.75. If you are a vocal point member, like me, you have several $2/1 coupons, making them $.75 a box. Not bad, although I was hoping to get them for free at Kmart but my Kmart didn't carry them.

Anyway, I purchased:

$8.25 3 boxes Kashi cereal bars
$5.64 3 boxes of fruit roll ups (on sale $1.88 a box)

I also bought a dress and top on clearance ($13.72 together but clothes aren't a part of the grocery budget)

- $2/1
- $2/1
- $2/1

Total came to $22.43, but I used my Target gift card, so I paid nothing out of pocket. I have $61.20 left on this gift card and will soon have enough points from my credit card saved up for another Target $50 gift card. Not too shabby.

My Favorite Sites To Earn Money

I often come across sites that will pay you for taking surveys, looking through e-mails, etc and of course, there are the regular old standby's like Ebay and Etsy (if you're crafty).

Some of my favorites:

• www.surveyspot.com - I generally only take the surveys that offer money incentives, otherwise all are you can do is try to win one of the grand prizes they offer (generally money) but I've never been lucky with sweepstakes sort of things, so I generally pass on surveys that only let you enter the sweepstakes. This gets sent in check form or you can donate to a charity.
  
• www.youdata.com - I actually just signed up for this one after reading about it over at Tiara Saves and I've already made $3.41 - though it won't be deposited into my paypal account for a week or a few days, I believe. Not sure how it works exactly, but I'm willing to give it a chance.
• Ebates. Now you do have to buy stuff to get the percent back (and they only pay once a quarter, but so far it's been worth it. No fees and free cash back on things that I was going to buy anyway. The options for payment includes paypal or a check.
• Blingo is another search engine that randomly gives out prizes. I only use Blingo and even the money/gifts are randomly selected, I've won 8 times in the past few years.
• Swag Bucks. This is similar to Blingo but has other options to earn enough points for the prizes and you are almost guarenteed something unlike Blingo where you have to get lucky. I usually alternate.
  

Transfer Rx = get $

Nothing fills me with more glee than getting gift certificates from transferring prescriptions from one pharmacy to another (or dropping off new ones). The fiance and I have amassed a collection of around $300 worth of gift certificates in the past 6 months. Due to the economy and my current lack of employment, this fills our minds at ease. If need be, even if both of us were unemployed (which thankfully isn't the case) we could eat and have enough basics for 3 months without worry). I usually keep one or two gift cards in my purse for low balances, especially for drugstore purchases.

However, there are some rules for doing this. Some states don't even allow gift cards to be given with prescriptions, thankfully, Maryland isn't one of them. But some of the other general rules are:

1. Limits for using them:

• Rite Aid used to only let you use 1 coupon every 6 months - to my knowledge they have since changed their policy.
• Safeway only allows you to use 1 coupon every 3 months - though I think maybe our pharmacy just made this up since it isn't on the coupons - check your local pharmacy.
• Giant won't let you use a coupon if they recognize you from another time. Basically, there's no policy but the Giants I've frequented don't like giving you free money. Thankfully, there are several Giants close to our apartment so we just alternate.

2. What they can be used for:

• Most drugstores won't let you use their giftcards to pay for more medication (although I've seen some people go into Giant and use giftcards at the pharmacy - double check before you go).
• Most drugstore and supermarkets will not let you use their gift cards to purchase more gift cards (especially ones for other stores).
  
• There may be other stipulations, when in doubt, check the coupon or ask customer service.

3. Limit on transfers: In this situation I only know of 1 stipulation - though I'm not sure if it's only with this one particular pharmacy or not. The last time I was at Rite Aid, the pharmacist said that controlled substances could only be transferred 1 time. I haven't done the necessary research to conclude whether this was true or not but just wanted to forewarn others.

Otherwise, transferring or filling something you are definitely going to use to get you some free grocery money is certainly helpful and frugal!

CVS

I wanted to get to CVS before the Sunday/Monday deals ended today and we need tissues. The fiance has so willingly complied to try the CVS brand but isn't sure he'll like them (he is particular about paper products as you can tell).

Anyway, I got:

$1.25 Gatorade
$.50 CVS tissues (on sale yesterday/today only)
$.50 CVS tissues
$1.99 Pert Plus (on sale this week)
$6.99 Maxwell House coffee (large size, on sale from $12.49 - basically 1/2 off)
$8.99 Schick Intuition razor

- $1/1 Pert Plus
- $2/1 Schick razor
- $10.00 Extrabucks

= $7.42 Oop

Received $4.00 back from the Schick. Just an FYI, those that did the Pepsi deal last week, it has... respawned this week so you can do the deal again! Not sure we need the Pepsi, but I might stock up on Gatorade.

Also, the Gilette razor that's on sale doesn't get to stores till the 30th! That's this Friday and a day before the sale ends. Silly CVS.

Budget Summary (January 18th- January 24th)

Summary for this week (excluding Hickory Farms orders):
Sunday, January 18th CVS: $1.18
Sunday, January 18th Kmart: $4.00
Friday, January 23rd Shoppers: $34.72
Saturday, January 24th CVS: $9.77
Saturday, January 24th Kmart: $6.17

Total: $55.84 OOP just slightly over budget by $5.84

DAYS	MONEY 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	$?

Shoppers, CVS & Kmart

Well, the deals were so numerous this week that I had to hit several stores. While I'm still unsure of how we'll factor in the Hickory Farms orders, I'll figure it out somehow, I'm sure.

Anyway, first stop was Shoppers (Friday, January 23rd):

$2.59 Cream of Wheat Cream of Rice ($.75 that tripled = cost $.34)
$2.59 Cream of Wheat Cream of Rice ($.75 that tripled = cost $.34)
$3.00 Pepperidge Farms crackers ($.75 that tripled = cost $.75)
$3.00 Pepperidge Farms crackers ($.75 that tripled = cost $.75)
$2.99 Fiber One granola bar ($.50 that tripled = cost $1.49)
$2.99 Fiber One granola bar ($.50 that tripled = cost $1.49)
$2.99 Fiber One granola bar ($.50 that tripled = cost $1.49)
$2.33 Fruit roll ups
$2.33 Fruit roll ups
$2.33 Fruit roll ups
$2.34 Fruit roll ups (used 2 - $.50/2 that tripled, final cost $1.58 each)
$4.00 Fiber One shredded wheat ($.75 that tripled = cost $1.75)
$2.19 Minute rice premium (had $.50 that tripled = cost $.69)
$2.19 Minute rice brown (had $.50 that tripled = cost $.69)
$2.50 Quaker Oats (had $.60 that tripled = cost $.70)
$2.69 Quaker Fiber chocolate bar (had $.75 that tripled = cost $.44)
$2.69 Quaker Fiber chocolate bar (had $.75 that tripled = cost $.44)
$2.69 Kikkoman soy sauce
$.99 Orange Soda (had $.40 that tripled = cost FREE)
$.88 box frozen spinach
$.88 box frozen spinach
$1.33 bag frozen corn
$1.34 bag frozen corn
$3.75 gallon skim milk
$2.79 18-ct large eggs
$4.08 6 cups of Yoplait yogurt (had $.40 that tripled = cost $2.88, $.48 per cup)

Was charged $36.97 but the cashier forgot to ring through one of the coupons, so the manager told me to come back after 3:00pm today and get $2.25 back, making the trip $34.72 Oop.

Bought 32 items, paid about $1 per item.

CVS (Saturday January 24th):

$2.50 2 bottles of Gatorade
$12.00 4 cases of Pepsi soda
$6.00 2 bags Stacy's Pita Chips
$2.50 Hefty one-zip bags
$2.49 Ziploc sandwich bags
$7.99 Maybelline mineral lipstick
$7.99 Maybelline mineral lipstick
$1.19 CVS brand throat lozenges

- $.55/1 Hefty
- $.55/1 Ziploc
- $1.50/1 Stacy's
- $1.50/1 Stacy's
- $1.19/1 CVS brand (free throat lozenges came from red machine)
- $29.57 Extrabucks

= $9.77 Oop
Received $10 for the Pepsi products and $10 for the Maybelline = $20 Extrabucks back!

Then Kmart (Saturday, January 24th):

Most of the things that I wanted to get were long gone, but I was able to pick up some odds and ends:

$5.49 Therafu
$4.49 Tylenol rapid release
$2.50 Special K chocolate cereal
$2.50 Special K bars
$3.00 Ritz reduced fat crackers
$1.69 Ritz holiday crackers

- $13.50 worth of coupons
= $6.17 Oop

I also have a rebate for the Theraflu, which says up to $5.99 back but will deduct the $2 off coupon (that doubled at Kmart) that attached to it. Hoping I get $3.49 back, but even if I just get what I wound up paying, it will still be free.

And I'm spent... although I do have to stop at Shopper's to get my $2.25... but that was exhausting! I think I'll grab some lunch and then go over. The fiance and I are going to see a string quartet tonight thanks to my parents having other plans and donating their tickets to us. We're big classical music dorks.

Target Raises Prices

I remember when I was so excited to go to Target to get fruit roll ups since normal price they were $1.97. Unfortunately, they are no longer under $2, the last Target I went to had them for $2.19. While the 22 cent increase doesn't seem severe, that's still 11% (I'm not sure if this is just locally or by store - I will check another Target to be sure). I don't know how many other items are affected but I'd personally keep an eye out for rising shelf prices at places that are your "go to" for when items aren't on sale and in fact, I recommend to always check the price, especially for items you buy weekly.

I wound up buying more fruit roll ups today at Shoppers. I will post the whole trip shortly.

At Shopper's they are 3/$7 = $2.33 a piece. I bought 4 ($9.32) and used 2 $.50/2 coupons that tripled (-$3.00), after coupons cost me $6.32/4 = $1.58 a box.