My weekly big stock-up trip

September 19, 2009 by

Here’s a summer of my Saturday morning shopping trips. I spent a total of $49.17 for 70 items, which is about .70/item.

Here’s the breakdown:

Randalls: Randalls has a GM promotion right now where select cereal (Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cheerios, Trix, Honey Grahams, and Chex), Nature Valley Granola bars, and Betty Crocker fruit snacks are 4/$6 (after the instant $4 savings when you buy 4). There are a lot of great printable, loadable (Cellfire/Shortcuts), and insert coupons that match up nicely with this. If you need cereal, granola bars, or fruit snacks, it’s a great time to stock up! You also get a catalina for a free box of Capri Sun on your next purchase for every 4 items you buy. (There is a limit of 20 items per household)

5 boxes Nature Valley granola bars
(used 4 $1/1 coupons – thanks Martha! and 1 .50/1 coupon that doubled along with a .40/1 Shortcuts coupon and a .40/1 Cellfire coupon)
3 boxes Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal
(used 3 .55/1 IP coupons)
1 box Trix
(used 1 .55/1 IP coupon and one .55 Shortcuts coupon)
2 boxes Cheerios
(used one .75/1 coupon from a Pampers mailer and one $1/1 IP coupon from e-mail)
2 boxes Chex cereal
(used one $1/2 coupon)
3 boxes Betty Crocker fruit snacks
(used on .50/2 coupon which doubled and one .40/1 coupon that doubled along with 2 .40/1 loadable coupons and three .50/1 loadable coupons from Shortcuts and Cellfire)
2 cans Safeway green beans
(used free coupon from hurricane flier in store)
4 boxes Capri Sun
(used 4 “free” catalinas from the cereal/fruit snacks/granola bars and a .55/1 loadable coupon which almost covered the tax)

Total OOP = $8.85, total savings = $50.52

Kroger: Kroger is having a Mega sale right now that mainly applies to Nabisco and Kraft products. You get an instant $5 off for every 10 participating items you buy. There are some great manufacturers and insert coupons that match up well with this promotion! (There does not appear to be a limit to the # of times you can do the promotion in one visit)

3 DiGiorno pizzas
(used 3 $1/1 coupons)
2 Velveeta Shells & Cheese
(used .75/1 catalina coupon)
2 Ritz Crackers
2 Nabisco Crackerfuls
(used 2 FREE when you buy Ritz crackers coupons)
1 Capri Sun
(used .50/1 coupon from Kraft Magazine which doubled)
2 Oscar Mayer wieners
(used $1/2 coupon)
3 Wheat Thins
(used 3 $1/1 IPs)
4 Kraft cheese slices
(used $1/2 coupon from Kroger mailer, .75/2 coupon from Kraft magazine, and $1/2 Shortcuts coupon)
2 Oreo cookies
(used $1/2 coupon)
1 Nabisco Teddy Grahams
(used .50/1 coupon from Kraft magazine which doubled)
1 Dreyer’s fruit bars
(used $1/1 coupon)
2 Hot Pockets pizzeria
(used .75/1 coupon)
5 Philadelphia cream cheese
(used $1/2 coupon from home mailer)
3 Buitoni pasta
(used 3 $1/1 IPs)
10 Kraft Easy Mac
(used 5 .55/2 tear pad coupons)
2 Campbell’s 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
(used $1/2 IP)
3 Old El Paso taco seasoning
(used .60/2 IP, .60/2 loadable, and FREE WYB 2 peelie) – earned a $1 OYNO catalina

*Received an instant $20 off as a part of the Mega Sale promotion

Total spent = $40.32, Total savings = $73.56 (and I earned a .10/gallon fuel reward)

I went over budget by $9.17, but I only spent $25 of my $40 last week and I will get back $20 from a Nabisco mail in rebate I qualify for based on my purchases today.

I also thought I’d answer a few “frequently asked questions” that often come up when I post this type of a post:

*Do you really need that many boxes of cereal, granola bars, crackers, and fruit snacks? What are you going to do with all of that stuff?

I don’t need that many boxes of any of that stuff right now, but stockpiling changes your way of thinking. You don’t shop based on what you need right away (unless it’s the basics). You shop based on what is on sale so that you don’t have to buy those items until they go on sale again. For example, I last stockpiled Capri Suns almost a year ago. We have gone through two seasons of soccer (fall and spring), several school parties where I volunteered to bring drinks, and my daughter’s birthday party and we are just now finishing off our last box. Since I had a stockpile of Capri Suns that I got for super cheap, I didn’t have to bust my budget when it was my turn to supply them for soccer games or school parties.

*Are you really going to use that much stuff? Doesn’t some of it go to waste?

I make sure that none of my stockpile goes to waste. If I have more than we will use, it means I can trade items with other people for things I need or that I can donate generously to our local food bank or other agencies. We have a local youth group that does a scavenger hunt for donations about twice a year and I always love the look on their faces when I am able to fill a couple of bags with donations for them.

*I don’t see any meat, fruit, or veggies. What about that stuff?

I stockpile meat when it goes on sale, too, so I have a freezer full to get me through on weeks when I want to spend money on other things. Last week, Randalls had a great deal on chicken breasts, so I chose to stock up then. I also have a bunch of canned and frozen fruit and veggies to help get us through on weeks when I can’t do a major stock up on fresh items.

What about milk?

I got my milk for free at CVS this week using ECBs and earned ECBs in return.

Filed Under: Savings Saturday Tagged With:

CVS deals for the week of 9/20

September 19, 2009 by

If you are new to shopping at CVS and would like some tips, check out this article here.

The “deals” this week are pretty slim in my opinion. Here’s what they’ve got:

FREEBIES:

Crest or Oral B Pro-Health toothpaste (4.2 oz), rinse (250 ml) or Oral B floss (27-55 yds) – $2.99, get a $2 ECB (limit 1 per household)
$1/1 Crest Premium Paste: Crest Multicare, Extra Whitening, Whitening Expressions, Any Whitening Plus Scope, Any Vivid White, Sensitivity, Any Pro-Health, Or Weekly Clean, Any 4.2 Oz. + – 08-30-09 PG
$1/1 Crest Rinse, Any 440 mL. + – 08-30-09 PG

Dry Idea, Right Guard sport, or Xtreme – $2.99, get a $1 ECB (limit 3 per household)
**There were $2/1 printable Dry Idea coupons that don’t expire until 11/30/09 – if you have these coupons, the Dry Idea will be free after ECBs!
$1/2 Right Guard, Dry Idea or Soft & Dri Products, Any – 08-16-09 SS or 7-12-09 SS

OTHER ECB DEALS:

*Buy AquaFresh Iso-active whitening foaming tooth gel – $3.99, get a $2 ECB (limit 1 per household) – get it for $.99 after ECBs and coupons!
$1/1 printable here

*Buy Clairol Perfect10 hair color – $11.99, get a $2 ECB (limit 2 per household)
$2/1 Clairol Hair Color, any except Balsam PG 8-30-09

*Buy CoverGirl Simply Ageless foundation AND Olay Regenerist facial care product, get a $10 ECB (limit 1 per household)
Covergirl Face Product, Any (1) Free WYB (1) Covergirl Foundation, Any – 08-30-09 PG
$1/1 Covergirl Products, Any – 08-30-09 PG
$1/1 Olay Facial Moisturizer Or Facial Cleanser, Any – 08-23-09 RP

*Buy Colgate 1 pk toothbrush for adults or children, get a $1 ECB (limit 1 per household)
$1/2 Colgate Adult Or Kids Manual Toothbrush, Any – 08-30-09 SS

**Prices start at $1.99 at my store, so you can get two for $1.99 after coupons and ECBs

*Buy Crest, Fixodent, or Oral B multi-packs, get a $2 ECB (limit 1 per household)
$1/1 Fixodent Adhesive, Any 1. Oz. + – 08-30-09 PG
$1/1 Oral-B Crossaction Power or Crossaction Whitening Brush, Any – 08-30-09 PG

*Spend $15 on assorted candy, get a $5 ECB: Child’s Play Double Bubble or Tootsie Midgee – $5, Sour Patch or Swedish Fish – 2/$3, Mars minis – $5, M&Ms 27 oz – $6, Theater box candy – 2/$2, Mars fun size mixes (31.5-34.5 oz) – $8, Orbit or Eclipze Bip Pak gum – 2/$5, Extra/Wrigley’s/Orbit gum – 2/$4, Hershey’s Milk Duds or Whoppers (9-12 oz) – 2/$4 (limit 1 per household)
$1/2 Dove, M&M, M&M Premium, Milky Way, 3 Musketeers, Snickers, Twix Or Twixels Products, Any 4.4 Oz. + – 09-13-09 RP

*Buy Gillette cartridges (4-12 ct), get a $3 ECB (limit 1 per household)
Gillette Fusion Shave Gel Free WYB any Fusion Cartridge 8-16-09 RP
Gillette Deodorant Free WYB any Fusion Cartridge 8-16-09 RP

*Buy Kiss or Broadway Artificial nails, get a $3 ECB (limit 1 per household, PSA $4.99) – look for $1 peelie coupons on the boxes

*Spend $15 on Neutrogena cosmetics, skin, hair, or men’s care, get a $5 ECB (limit 1 per household)
$1/1 Neutrogena Haircare item, Any – 09-20-09 RP

*Buy 4 Pepsi products (12 pk, 12 oz cans) or Aquafina pure water (12 pk, 16.9 oz bottles) – 4/$12, get a $3 ECB (limit 1 per household)

*Buy Propel or Gatorade 6 pk, 16.9-20 oz bottles – 2/$9, get a $1 ECB (limit 1 per household)

*Spend $30 on ROC skin care, get a $10 ECB (limit 1 per household)
$3 and $10 printables here

*Buy 2 Salon Wish gift cards, get a $10 ECB (limit 2 per household, minimum purchase of $25 per card)

*Buy Scope Outlast mouthwash twin pk – $6.99, get a $1 ECB (limit 1 per household)

*Buy Sensodyne Iso-active – $4.99, get a $2 ECB (limit 1 per household)
$1/1 printable here

*Buy Zantac 150 (24 ct) or Zantac 75 (30 ct) – $9.99, get a $3 ECB (limit 2 per household) – it’s like getting it for $1.99 after coupons and ECBs!
$5/1 printable here
$1.50/1 Zantac 75 Product, Any – 05-17-09 SS
$1/1 Zantac Product, Any – 05-17-09 SS

BOGO FREE DEALS:
*Kodak Power Flash camera
*Post cereals (Honey Bunches of Oats, Shredded Wheat, Fruity Pebbles)
*Sally Hansen nail color (through Tuesday only)
$1/2 Sally Hansen Nail Color, Any – 09-13-09 RP

OTHER DEALS:
*Kleenex facial tissues (110 ct) – $.96 (limit 4)
$1/4 Kleenex Facial Tissues, Any (4) Single Boxes Or (1) Bundle Pack, Any Excluding Individual Kleenex Pocket Packs Or Juniors Tissue -08-02-09 SS
*Nabisco cookies – 5/$5 – .50/each after coupons!
$1/2 Nabisco Cookies Or Crackers, Any 4-28 Oz. Boxes – 08-23-09 SS

CVS $/$ COUPONS
**Get a booklet with 2 $4/20 coupons from the pharmacy when you ask about their ReadyFill program

**Register your card with your e-mail address at CVS.com and get a $4/20 plus other valuable e-mail coupons

Click here to find out how to get a $25 gift card with a transferred prescription.

The following scenarios are for people who are new to shopping at CVS and have few (or no) ECBs to start with. (These are just ideas….you do not have to follow this exact order and you can skip some items if you do not want/need them):

Transaction #1:
Buy 1 Crest Pro-Health toothpaste – $2.99

Use $1 manufacturer’s coupon

Spend $1.99 OOP, get a $2 ECB

Transaction #2:
Buy Zantac – $9.99

Use $5 IP
Use $2 ECB from Crest

Spend $2.99 OOP, get a $3 ECB

or…

Buy Aquafresh – $3.99

Use $1 IP
Use $2 Crest ECB

Spend $.99 OOP, get a $2 ECB

If you have a $4/20:
Buy 1 Zantac – $9.99
Buy 1 Crest Pro Health – $2.99
Buy 1 Aquafresh – $3.99
Buy 2 Colgate toothbrushes – $1.99/each

Use $5 Zantac IP
Use $1 Crest coupon
Use $1 Aquafresh IP
Use $1/2 Colgate coupon
Use $4/20

Total before coupons = $20.95
Total after coupons = $8.95, earn $8 ECB ($3 for Zantac, $2 for Crest, $2 for Aquafresh, $1 for Colgate)

My scenario:
Buy Crest Pro-Health toothpaste – $2.99
Buy 3 Dry Idea deodorants – $2.99/each

Use $1 Crest coupon
Use 3 $2 Dry Idea IPs

Total before coupons = $11.95
Total after coupons = $4.96, pay w/ ECBs ($5 adjusted down), earn $5 ECB ($2 for Crest and $3 for Dry Idea)

Frequently asked questions:

Do you really do multiple transactions at your stores?

I usually have $20-30 ECB on hand, so I don’t have to break up my transactions as much as I did when I first started, but when I was getting started, I would do multiple small transactions and even now sometimes if I am doing several deals, I have to break things up. If you are doing multiple transactions, I recommend that you let the cashier know up front that is what you are planning to do. If there are several people in line, let them go in between your transactions. This gives you time to clip your ECBs and get prepared for your next transaction.

My store was out of all the freebie items first thing this morning. Can I get a raincheck?

This all depends on your store. I have contacted corporate about this before because some stores in my area give rainchecks and others won’t. According to corporate, this is up to the individual stores.

I bought the wrong item or I bought the RIGHT item and my ECB didn’t print. What can I do?

If you bought the right item, show the store clerk your ad and your receipt. They should be able to manually print your ECB at the store. If they don’t know how, you can call customer service and they can add one to your account that will print within 48 hours (you have to wait 48 hours from your purchase time to do this so they can “see” your transaction in their computer).

If you bought the wrong item and didn’t receive ECBs, you can do a return and purchase the correct item. If you paid using ECBs, they will have to give you money on a gift card.

Filed Under: Scenario Sunday Tagged With:

Stockpiling on a budget: dog food and cheese sticks!

September 19, 2009 by

I know that a lot of people think that Target is an “expensive” place to shop, but I save SO much money there and it is one of my favorite places to shop! Here’s what I got at Target today for $2.32 out of pocket: 7 bags of Chef Michael’s dog food, 14 cans of Chef Michael’s dog food, 21 cheese sticks, and 2 packages of Bounty paper towels (2 rolls in each package).

Target has the small bags of Chef Michael’s dog food on sale for $4.26/each. There are $1.50/1 Target printable coupons and there is a manufacturer’s coupon for $3 off. So, I got .24 in “overage” for each bag of dog food.

Target also has BOGO free Chef Michael’s canned dog food coupons. There is also a BOGO free manufacturer’s coupon. So, you get two for free using both coupons.

There is a $1/2 Market Pantry cheese items Target coupon. The single cheese sticks are .40/each at my store.

The packages of paper towels were on clearance for $1.98. I had two $1 off Bounty paper towel coupons making them .98/each!

My Target only allows one “like” Target coupon per transaction, so I did these in single transactions at two different stores. I basically bought one bag, two cans, and three cheese sticks in each transaction. On the last two transactions, I bought the paper towels also.

In the past week, I bought a total of 18 bags of dog food and 36 cans. With what we already had on hand (six big bags of Iams from another Target deal), we have at least six months worth of dog food! If you don’t have the $3 manufacturer’s coupon from the inserts, there is a $2.50 printable here, so you can get it for $.26/bag with the Target IP.

Here’s what I got last Saturday for FREE (using coupons and the overage from the Chef Michaels):

(Thanks Martha for all of the extra dog food coupons!!!!!!!!!!!)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Building your stockpile on a budget: cheap items to stockpile this week

September 17, 2009 by

One of the reasons that I am able to spend so little on my weekly grocery budget is because I have a good stockpile of the “basics” that we use frequently. My stockpile has been accumulated over time and I plan my weekly meals around what is on sale in the stores that week and what is in my stockpile.

If money is tight one week, I can always cut back on grocery expenses and we can prepare meals using what we have on hand. My stockpile also comes in handy in times of emergency (when a hurricane hits around here or there is a threat of a hurricane, stores clear out quickly and when Ike hit, some stores were closed for a few days, and it was nice to have everything we needed on hand) and has come in handy when money has been tight.

If you’re looking to start your stockpile on a budget, here’s a hot deal:

*Ragu Pasta sauce – Target has a .75/2 printable coupon. There were $1/2 coupons that came out in last week’s inserts. My Target stores have these on price cut for $1.52, so they are $.64/each after coupons! There are also tear pad coupons for free pasta when you buy two Ragu, so if you have these, you can get two jars of Ragu and a package of pasta for $1.29. You can get TWENTY jars and 10 packages of pasta for $12.90.

When there are “hot” deals like this, I usually stock up on multiple coupons. I don’t typically buy multiple copies of the newspaper. I just buy multiples of what I need either through a coupon clipping service like The Coupon Clippers or through eBay.

There are still coupons available for both of the coupons I mentioned on ebay. You can check out what’s available here. When buying coupons on eBay, make sure you check the seller’s feedback and also that you check the shipping rates!

A few other coupons that may be worth “investing” in for your stockpile:

*.50/1 Barilla Piccolino or whole wheat pasta – if your stores double coupons and these go 10/$10 (which they have in the past when these coupons come out), they will be free. Otherwise, you get them for $.40-.50/each which is still a good deal

*.35/1 or .50/1 Steamfresh vegetables – these also traditionally go 10/$10, so if your stores double or triple coupons, they will be FREE!

I’ll keep you posted on other stockpile deals!

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Another one of my favorite things: Vocalpoint

September 16, 2009 by

I have posted about Vocalpoint in the past. When you register with them, they will send you P&G (Procter & Gamble) products to sample, great coupons, and all they ask is that you review the products or share your experiences with your family and friends! It’s a great way to get the heads up on new products and a lot of the coupons they send match up well with “deals” in the stores.

The latest offer that I received was for a free sample of Secret Clinical Strength. I also recently received a free sample of a Bounce dryer bar and great coupons. To register for Vocalpoint, click here.

Check out this post to see more of my “favorite” things.

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