I have made the decision to ban Walgreens from my weekly shopping trips. They had some great deals but have just become to restrictive and accusatory with their coupons policy that I am going to save myself the hassle and focus my couponing and spending my money elsewhere.
This week I plan on shopping at CVS, Kroger, Meijer, and Target. Kroger is my most extensive shopping trip of the week. The deals are pretty light in some of the stores. I do need to get out and find school supplies.
At Kroger this week I have the following items on my list: Sobe water, Progresso Soup, Welch's jelly, Ziploc bags, Sunny D, Quaker rice cakes, Gardettos snacks, and CoCo Puffs.
I am only getting All detergent, a Schick razor and Huggies wipes at CVS this week. I don't think the Vitamin Water is 10 for $10 again, if it is and I can repeat the ECB deal I will likely pick more up.
Meijer has a fantastic deal on Smart Balance milk this week. I have never purchased this before but I don't think my family will notice the difference and with coupons the 1/2 gallons are free so there better not be any complaining! I will be picking up 2 1/2 gallons of milk, Campbell's Healthy Request (also free), Campbell's tomato soup (Liam's go to for lunch), Lipton tea, Ragu spaghetti sauce, Revlon products, and Skippy peanut butter.
Lastly, I will be stopping at Target to pick up just a few items. My hubby needs a 1 gallon cooler/jug for iced tea at work so I will be picking one of those up - without a coupon!! Oh the shame! It isn't that bad since I should be getting the other two items for free and like to purchase something for possible overage and less suspicion of thievery. I will be picking up Scotch Tape, the rolls are advertised at $0.50 each and I have coupons for $1.50 off of 3 so they should be free. I bought tape the other week and kept thinking, why am I getting this? I then realized if it is cheap now is the time to stock up for the upcoming holiday season and with 3 kids we have lots of Christmas wrapping along with other gifting events throughout the year. I am also going to pick up Post It Notes. They are supposed to be $1 and I have coupons for $1 off so that should make them free!
Here is the $1 off 1 Post it Notes coupon $1/1 Post it Note and here is the Scotch tape $1.50 off 3 coupon $1.50/3 Scotch Tape. Both of these are pdf documents so there shouldn't be a limit on how many you can print.
Happy Shopping!
UPDATE: I went to Target yesterday and was unable to find $1 super sticky post it notes or the $0.50 scotch tape. I did end up getting Crystal Light drink packets for free - they were $1.97 each and I had 3 $2 off coupons.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Giant Eagle Savings This Week
The Giant Eagle ads running Thursday to Wednesday always mess up my postings because I never know which week of savings to categorize them in. I do like that I don't feel obligated to hit Giant Eagle in my usual Saturday shopping trip as I can easily go there during lunch one day and pick up what I need when they aren't as busy.
This week I was able to score some decent deals on yogurt, applesauce and trash bags.
Here is the breakdown:
Giant Eagle
Spent: $12.28
Saved: $19.41
Earned: $0.20 fuelperks
Items Purchased:
2 boxes Hefty garbage bags
2 packs Musselmanns applesauce
1 Danimal crush cups 4 pack
1 Danimal 6 pack smoothies
2 4 packs YoCrunch 100 calorie (so yummy)
1 pack Breyers kids yogurt
1 pack Dannon kids yogurt
1 fresh salad from the salad bar ($1.48)
This week I was able to score some decent deals on yogurt, applesauce and trash bags.
Here is the breakdown:
Giant Eagle
Spent: $12.28
Saved: $19.41
Earned: $0.20 fuelperks
Items Purchased:
2 boxes Hefty garbage bags
2 packs Musselmanns applesauce
1 Danimal crush cups 4 pack
1 Danimal 6 pack smoothies
2 4 packs YoCrunch 100 calorie (so yummy)
1 pack Breyers kids yogurt
1 pack Dannon kids yogurt
1 fresh salad from the salad bar ($1.48)
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Coupon Savings Week of 8/1 - My Second Week Back in the Game
This week can be easily summed up as cereal week for me. I was able to get some great deals on cereal and replenish our supply that has diminished since March. I ended up with 19 boxes of cereal! To some of you this may seem excessive, however my family goes through cereal rather quickly. The boys usually have it for breakfast and a before bed snack (sometimes I join them). Daphne loves trying out her new teeth by eating dry cereal.
This week again reminded me how much I enjoy couponing and being able to save my family money. Our basement storage area is getting so full that we will need to add another set of shelves. I realize how fortunate we are to need more space for food storage, there are families out there that can barely get anything to eat. The food pantry at our church needed donations. It felt wonderful to be able to go into my basement and fill bags of food and personal items to donate. I am trying to be very mindful of when the amount of an item is getting out of control and then donate some of what I have purchased. Most of the items I donate were free or less than $1 so it is very little out of pocket for me but can make a huge difference for someone else.
This month I mostly donated meal kits, cereal, pasta, and deodorant. When I first started couponing I was able to get at least 20 bars of deodorant in the first few weeks. There is no way we would use all of that. I also accumulated a nice stockpile of cereal and pasta. All of the pasta was free and the cereal was fairly inexpensive. After shopping this week the storage area is looking full and in a few weeks will be ready for another round of donations. I am going to try to donate to the food pantry once a month.
Liam and Evan love to help me bring all my purchases down to the basement for storage. Liam is old enough now that he can go down to the "store" and pick what he wants. He always goes down and asks if anyone else wants something.
The only difficult part of having such a great supply of food is that I seem to be the only one that knows what is down there. I think if everyone in the family knew what we had, we would be enjoying the fruits of my labor much more. Anyone have tips for how to spread the word?
I made it to Meijer, Walgreens, Kroger, CVS and Target this week. Giant Eagle always throws me off since their ads run Thursday to Wednesday. It did make it nice since I didn't have to stop by there yesterday. I can easily run to Giant Eagle during lunch next week to pick up the few things that I need.
This week I spent $126.93 on all of our home, grocery and personal care needs. I saved $204.20. Summaries, spending breakdown by store, and what I purchased can by found below in my earlier posts.
This week again reminded me how much I enjoy couponing and being able to save my family money. Our basement storage area is getting so full that we will need to add another set of shelves. I realize how fortunate we are to need more space for food storage, there are families out there that can barely get anything to eat. The food pantry at our church needed donations. It felt wonderful to be able to go into my basement and fill bags of food and personal items to donate. I am trying to be very mindful of when the amount of an item is getting out of control and then donate some of what I have purchased. Most of the items I donate were free or less than $1 so it is very little out of pocket for me but can make a huge difference for someone else.
This month I mostly donated meal kits, cereal, pasta, and deodorant. When I first started couponing I was able to get at least 20 bars of deodorant in the first few weeks. There is no way we would use all of that. I also accumulated a nice stockpile of cereal and pasta. All of the pasta was free and the cereal was fairly inexpensive. After shopping this week the storage area is looking full and in a few weeks will be ready for another round of donations. I am going to try to donate to the food pantry once a month.
Liam and Evan love to help me bring all my purchases down to the basement for storage. Liam is old enough now that he can go down to the "store" and pick what he wants. He always goes down and asks if anyone else wants something.
The only difficult part of having such a great supply of food is that I seem to be the only one that knows what is down there. I think if everyone in the family knew what we had, we would be enjoying the fruits of my labor much more. Anyone have tips for how to spread the word?
I made it to Meijer, Walgreens, Kroger, CVS and Target this week. Giant Eagle always throws me off since their ads run Thursday to Wednesday. It did make it nice since I didn't have to stop by there yesterday. I can easily run to Giant Eagle during lunch next week to pick up the few things that I need.
This week I spent $126.93 on all of our home, grocery and personal care needs. I saved $204.20. Summaries, spending breakdown by store, and what I purchased can by found below in my earlier posts.
Kroger Week of 8/1 - A sale combined with coupon match ups = great deals!
Kroger:
Spent: $36.05
Saved: $82.60
Purchased:
2 bottles of All Free & Clear detergent
1 box Nature Valley Granola bars
2 boxes Cinnamon Toast Crunch
3 boxes Cherrios
4 boxes Fiber One bars
1 box CoCo Puffs
1 box Quaker Oat Squares cereal
1 box Life cereal
1 box Crunch Berries
1 bottle Tide detergent
2 boxes Quaker instant oatmeal
1 pack fresh strawberries
3 Cover Girl eye shadows
4 boxes Betty Crocker fruit snacks
2 boxes Golden Grahams snack bars
1 bag Nature Valley granola
Kroger had two deals running this weekend. They are continuing with the P&G $4.00 off if you by 4 of the listed items. I bought the Tide detergent and 3 eye shadows to qualify for the extra $4.00. The Tide was originally $10.99 the P&G deal made the price $8.99. I had a $1 coupon and a Cellfire coupon that gave me an additional $3.00 off. This made the bottle of Tide $5.99.
I keep getting an offer on the bottom of my receipt to sign up for the Rewards Mastercard. If you apply and are approved you get a $25 Kroger gift card. I am not really interested in using the card as we don't do that anymore, but would like the $25. What are your thoughts on doing this?
Spent: $36.05
Saved: $82.60
Purchased:
2 bottles of All Free & Clear detergent
1 box Nature Valley Granola bars
2 boxes Cinnamon Toast Crunch
3 boxes Cherrios
4 boxes Fiber One bars
1 box CoCo Puffs
1 box Quaker Oat Squares cereal
1 box Life cereal
1 box Crunch Berries
1 bottle Tide detergent
2 boxes Quaker instant oatmeal
1 pack fresh strawberries
3 Cover Girl eye shadows
4 boxes Betty Crocker fruit snacks
2 boxes Golden Grahams snack bars
1 bag Nature Valley granola
Kroger had two deals running this weekend. They are continuing with the P&G $4.00 off if you by 4 of the listed items. I bought the Tide detergent and 3 eye shadows to qualify for the extra $4.00. The Tide was originally $10.99 the P&G deal made the price $8.99. I had a $1 coupon and a Cellfire coupon that gave me an additional $3.00 off. This made the bottle of Tide $5.99.
I keep getting an offer on the bottom of my receipt to sign up for the Rewards Mastercard. If you apply and are approved you get a $25 Kroger gift card. I am not really interested in using the card as we don't do that anymore, but would like the $25. What are your thoughts on doing this?
Meijer Week of 8/1 - How did I spend $50 out of pocket?!
Meijer:
Spent: $57.55
Saved: $46.55
Purchased:
2 boxes of Huggies diapers ($19.77 each!)
2 tubs of Huggies wipes
1 1/2 gallon of Silk Vanilla Soymilk
10 bottles of Sobe lifewater
4 boxes of Post Raisin Bran
4 boxes of Cinnabon cereal
2 gallons milk
1 bottle of Soy cooking oil
1 box of Glad garbage bags
WOW! My trip to Meijer was expensive this week. Usually with a bill over $50, I am going to have a receipt that is as tall as me and a cart full of groceries. I kept looking at the total and then looking in the cart, until I realized the death of any mom's budget is the dreaded diaper! They are so expensive, I use coupons whenever I can but with 2 kids in diapers there isn't much I can do.
Daphne wears Gro Baby Diapers on the weekends and whenever I am home so that helps a little. I am also not a snob about which brand of diapers I use. In the past I purchased the store brands on occasion and didn't really have issues with them. I have found that I don't really like Luvs
because they aren't very absorbent. Using coupons and sales, I have been pretty good with getting Jumbos packs of Huggies
and Pampers
for around $4-$7 a pack. This week at Meijer if you purchased a box of Huggies diapers you received a free pack of wipes. I had $3off Huggies diapers and with my coupons I got $1.00 off the wipes. This made the price for two boxes of diapers and two tubs of wipes $31.54.
When I subtract the $31.54 for diapers and wipes the bill from Meijer seems a bit more reasonable for what I purchased. The 8 boxes of cereal, milk, etc...only cost me $26.01.
Spent: $57.55
Saved: $46.55
Purchased:
2 boxes of Huggies diapers ($19.77 each!)
2 tubs of Huggies wipes
1 1/2 gallon of Silk Vanilla Soymilk
10 bottles of Sobe lifewater
4 boxes of Post Raisin Bran
4 boxes of Cinnabon cereal
2 gallons milk
1 bottle of Soy cooking oil
1 box of Glad garbage bags
WOW! My trip to Meijer was expensive this week. Usually with a bill over $50, I am going to have a receipt that is as tall as me and a cart full of groceries. I kept looking at the total and then looking in the cart, until I realized the death of any mom's budget is the dreaded diaper! They are so expensive, I use coupons whenever I can but with 2 kids in diapers there isn't much I can do.
Daphne wears Gro Baby Diapers on the weekends and whenever I am home so that helps a little. I am also not a snob about which brand of diapers I use. In the past I purchased the store brands on occasion and didn't really have issues with them. I have found that I don't really like Luvs
because they aren't very absorbent. Using coupons and sales, I have been pretty good with getting Jumbos packs of Huggies and Pampers for around $4-$7 a pack. This week at Meijer if you purchased a box of Huggies diapers you received a free pack of wipes. I had $3off Huggies diapers and with my coupons I got $1.00 off the wipes. This made the price for two boxes of diapers and two tubs of wipes $31.54.When I subtract the $31.54 for diapers and wipes the bill from Meijer seems a bit more reasonable for what I purchased. The 8 boxes of cereal, milk, etc...only cost me $26.01.
Target Savings Week of 8/1 - Lots of freebies!
Target
Spent: $5.66
Saved: $20.52
Items Purchased:
1 fashion scarf ($1.98)
1 pair of shorts for Daphne ($1.98)
2 Lunchables
4 Clean & Clear face wash (trial size)
2 Reach Floss
6 Johnson & Johnson To-Go First Aid kits
4 packs of Bic pens (10 per pack)
2 packs of Papermate pens (10 per pack)
The big question on this trip is what items did I actually pay for? I paid for the scarf, shorts, and lunchables. Everything else was FREE!
The Lunchables were $1.25 each and I had $0.50 off so they were $0.75 each.
I had $1.00 off coupons for Clean & Clear and for Floss. The trial size Clean & Clear was $0.99 each and the floss was $0.97 each. It took a little convincing to get the cashier to accept the Clean & Clear coupons but once she and another cashier read them they saw that it did not specify a size and did not exclude trial sizes.
The first aid kits were also in the trial size section of the store. They are $0.99 each. I had coupons for $3.00 off 3. Which meant 6 kits for free!
The pens were also free after a combination of coupons. Target had the Papermate pens for $0.50 a pack and there was a Target coupon for $0.50 off any Papermate product. The Bic pens were $0.99 each. I had a manufacturer coupon for $1.00 off two packs, plus a Target coupon for $1.00 off two packs. You can stack a manufacturer coupon with a Target coupon. This meant I had $2.00 in coupons for two packs of pens. The pens were $0.99 each which means they were free!
Spent: $5.66
Saved: $20.52
Items Purchased:
1 fashion scarf ($1.98)
1 pair of shorts for Daphne ($1.98)
2 Lunchables
4 Clean & Clear face wash (trial size)
2 Reach Floss
6 Johnson & Johnson To-Go First Aid kits
4 packs of Bic pens (10 per pack)
2 packs of Papermate pens (10 per pack)
The big question on this trip is what items did I actually pay for? I paid for the scarf, shorts, and lunchables. Everything else was FREE!
The Lunchables were $1.25 each and I had $0.50 off so they were $0.75 each.
I had $1.00 off coupons for Clean & Clear and for Floss. The trial size Clean & Clear was $0.99 each and the floss was $0.97 each. It took a little convincing to get the cashier to accept the Clean & Clear coupons but once she and another cashier read them they saw that it did not specify a size and did not exclude trial sizes.
The first aid kits were also in the trial size section of the store. They are $0.99 each. I had coupons for $3.00 off 3. Which meant 6 kits for free!
The pens were also free after a combination of coupons. Target had the Papermate pens for $0.50 a pack and there was a Target coupon for $0.50 off any Papermate product. The Bic pens were $0.99 each. I had a manufacturer coupon for $1.00 off two packs, plus a Target coupon for $1.00 off two packs. You can stack a manufacturer coupon with a Target coupon. This meant I had $2.00 in coupons for two packs of pens. The pens were $0.99 each which means they were free!
CVS Week of 8/1 - Found a few surprises!
CVS
Spent: $15.82
Saved: $18.40
Earned: $11 ECBs
Received: coupon for $5 off $25 or more and offer for $4 off $20 for updating my email addres
Items Purchased:
10 bottles of Vitamin Water Zero
2 Thermacare Back wraps
3 packs Dentyne Gum
I went to CVS planning to buy just the back wraps because I need them but don't like to purchase them because they are so expensive. This week they were 2 for $12.98 + you received $5 in ECBs. I had one $3 off coupon, in hindsight I should have printed a second coupon to save even more but it slipped my mind.
As I was going through my coupons before shopping I found 2 $1.00 off Dentyne gum that were expiring on 8/7. I figured I could use those to get a pretty good deal on gum. Since CVS was my first stop, I checked the prices there first. I bought on pack of Dentyne Pure for $1.29. With my coupon it was only $0.29. Dentyne had the other gum B1G1 free so I was able to get a 2 pack for $0.29 with my coupon. This is only $0.15 per pack!
The surprise for me this week was Vitamin Water being 10 for $10. I usually wouldn't pay $1 for a bottle of water but if you bought 10 you received $5 ECBs. Jason and I both like the water so I know we will drink it and at $0.50 per bottle it is easier for me to buy them.
Lastly, I received the $1 ECB for using my Green Bag Tag. If you shop at CVS and aren't using this, you are missing out. You purchase the tag and have it scanned every time you make a purchase, including picking up prescriptions in the drive through. For every 4 scans you receive $1 ECB.
Spent: $15.82
Saved: $18.40
Earned: $11 ECBs
Received: coupon for $5 off $25 or more and offer for $4 off $20 for updating my email addres
Items Purchased:
10 bottles of Vitamin Water Zero
2 Thermacare Back wraps
3 packs Dentyne Gum
I went to CVS planning to buy just the back wraps because I need them but don't like to purchase them because they are so expensive. This week they were 2 for $12.98 + you received $5 in ECBs. I had one $3 off coupon, in hindsight I should have printed a second coupon to save even more but it slipped my mind.
As I was going through my coupons before shopping I found 2 $1.00 off Dentyne gum that were expiring on 8/7. I figured I could use those to get a pretty good deal on gum. Since CVS was my first stop, I checked the prices there first. I bought on pack of Dentyne Pure for $1.29. With my coupon it was only $0.29. Dentyne had the other gum B1G1 free so I was able to get a 2 pack for $0.29 with my coupon. This is only $0.15 per pack!
The surprise for me this week was Vitamin Water being 10 for $10. I usually wouldn't pay $1 for a bottle of water but if you bought 10 you received $5 ECBs. Jason and I both like the water so I know we will drink it and at $0.50 per bottle it is easier for me to buy them.
Lastly, I received the $1 ECB for using my Green Bag Tag. If you shop at CVS and aren't using this, you are missing out. You purchase the tag and have it scanned every time you make a purchase, including picking up prescriptions in the drive through. For every 4 scans you receive $1 ECB.
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