WELCOME

I am a stay at home mom who is fed up with spending a large portion of income on grocery bills. It is my job, according to God, to be a good help mate for my husband. I am trying to live up to my job description. I am starting a journey into the grocery coupon world and invite you to come with me. I have never used coupons for grocery shopping and as of January 1st 2008 I am diving in. I will be using http://www.thegrocerygame/ , http://www.moneysavingmom.com and the http://www.couponmom.com/ website to guide me on how to save money. I am going to treat this adventure as a part time job and put in the hours necessary to make it work. I am excited and nervous to get started.

Monday, January 26, 2009

My Mentos came


My Mentos came!

I was so happy when I saw this in my mailbox.

They sent me 6 packs of Mentos and a free loader with them!

I don't have to buy any Mentos for my project!!!!

Kraft Cheese Deal

Run don't walk to Kroger and get the Kraft cheese deal. %2 Kraft cheese is on sale for $1.50 when you buy 10 and get the $5 off at the register. Well yesterday my friend Lori found coupons for .75 off each bag of cheese. The coupons are located right at the cheese section in a blinkie machine. I went last night and bought 15 bags of cheese. Sherri and I went and did 10 bags each and then we split a 10 deal to give us each an additional 5 bags. Neither one of us could do another 10 deal by ourselves because, unfortunately, we have run out of freezer space.

Oh my! I have spent to much at Kroger this week

I have been doing the 10 items get $5 off deals this week. I have spent to much money. Sorry I did not get a picture of my load but the amount of stuff I had was just to over whelming to arrange and then turn around and put away.
Instead
I have given you my list with a total price:
15 bags of Kraft .75 each
16 boxes of Kleenex tissue
2 jars of Miracle Whip
1 pack of Jumbo Pamper diapers
1 Jumbo pack of Huggies
3 gallons of milk
1 box of Vans waffles (FREE-coupon from my scavenger hunt)
1-4 pack of Yoplait Plus yogurt (FREE-coupon from my scavenger hunt)
1 pack of Ball Park all beef franks
2 Kroger ice creams
3-4 packs of Dannon yogurt
6 cans of Rotel tomatoes (FREE + OVERAGE .23each)
3 bottles of heinz ketchup
7 cans of Hormel turkey chili (FREE with coupons)
7 French's mustard (FREE with coupons)
7 Franks hot sauce (FREE with coupons)
1 pack of Kroger hot dog buns
1 pack of hamburger buns
1 celery
2-6 packs of Dove soap

I was over charged by $3. They charged me for 9 French's instead of 7. But I got overage from the Rotel so it all good.

My total before coupons and discounts was $266.43
Total OOP $85.47
My total in coupons including doubling was $90.98

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Swag Bucks

I wanted to send out a big THANK YOU! to all of the people who joined swagbucks from my link on my web page. I have not received anything yet but my points are adding up. I have 38 so far, Woo Hoo!
To get my bucks up I have dedicated myself to using swagbucks for all of my online searching. I added the link to my toolbar so that when I go to search its right there and then I remember to click there first.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Unexpected delight


If you remember, I posted about teaching a Magic Tree House class in February. One of the things we are going to do is make a volcano with Mentos and diet soda. A couple of weeks ago we got Mentos gum coupons in our inserts. I ran to Kroger and bought 7 packs of Mentos gum. Well I use the word "bought" loosely because all of the gum was FREE. Anyway, I got the gum thinking I could use this for my experiment. As with any experiment that you are doing with a group, I did my own experiment first to make sure the gum would work. Unfortunately it did not. I was bummed because I had gotten all of this gum for no reason.

Here was my next step. I need you to recall one of my famous phrases, "If you dont ask" what? "You dont even have a chance for a discount."

So I asked.

I emailed Mentos to see if they could send me some coupons and I explained in the email that I was teaching a class and what I wanted the Mentos for.

Today I checked my email and Mentos replied back to me. Here is the reply

Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding Mentos. We appreciate hearing from our consumers. We do not have any coupons to mail out however from time to time they are available in your local newspaper.

I was a little bummed and then I read the last line. Here comes the last line. I am so excited, I am sitting here my heart is racing and I'm chuckling.

The last line reads

I will send some Mentos to the address in your email to help with your project.

Are you kidding me? They are going to send me some free Mentos!!
WOOO HOOO!

When they come I will take a picture and post. I dont know how much I will get or when it will come.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

SOBE water



SOBE water is on sale at Kroger this week for 10 for $10. There is a deal going when you buy 10 items you get an additional $5 off at the register. With this Kroger deal the SOBE water is .5o each. This is a good deal but the deal gets even sweeter. Some of the SOBE waters have coupons on the bottles if you can get the water with the coupons the SOBE is free and its giving overage. The only trouble with this deal is the bottles with the coupons are hard to find. My Kroger didn't have them. Here was my deal I was trying to do:

30 bottles of SOBE and it would have given me $9 in overage.

WHAT A DEAL

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Anonymous

I posted a while back about starting to use swagbucks to make some money by searching online. If you get a chance read the post.
I wanted to share a comment that came on my blog yesterday. I love, love this comment someone left on my blog. Warning: This comment came as is I did not change it at all I just added the quotation marks and the color.

"Looks like you believe in getting something without contributing anything. This is pathetic. When you're grown up you can become a banker."

Why do I think this is funny? First off I think its funny because anyone who has something to say but chooses to leave their comment anonymously and doesn't have the guts to leave their name can not be taken seriously. Secondly I love this comment because it shows a different mind set than myself. I believe if I am trying to save money and companies are going to allow me to get something for free, I am going to use it. These companies set up their rules and they understand what they are giving away. If they choose to do it then Yay! better for me.

This person is obviously not a couponer so I have no idea why they were even on my site.

By the way is couponer even a word?

Have you heard? I LOVE COUPONS AND FREE STUFF!

Furnace Issues

We were having some furnace issues yesterday. We have radiator heat heated by gas. I went to the basement yesterday and stepped in puddles of water all over our basement. We called the plumbers thinking the overflow tank need draining or that the pressure valve needed replacing. Of course, it wasn't the easy fix it ended up being the valve. Now, to replace this valve we had to have our system totally drained. All of the radiators in the house had to be drained and turned off. Yes we were without heat for about 3 hours yesterday evening. It was 14 degrees outside and we were paying our plumbers overtime rate which was $90 an hour. Great! I know.
Here is our dilemma. Our boiler is over 30 years old and is about %40 efficient. Every %100 of energy we use we are losing %60 up the chimney. The aquastat is not working properly (just about boiling our radiator water) and the heat gauge is off about 20 degrees. We are thinking of replacing the boiler, which costs about $4000.00 or $5000.00.
Here are my questions, If we replace the furnace will we see a big drop in our monthly gas bill? Will we see a drop in our electric bills?

Thursday, January 15, 2009

New Kroger cards

My hubby and I really need new Kroger cards. First of all we have two different cards with two different numbers. Secondly our cards are very old and in pretty rough shape. We should have two cards but with the same number. This way when we fill up we both can use our fuel points no matter what card we have. I wasn't sure if it was possible to get new cards and to carry our fuel points with us. I took the logical step and called Kroger corporate customer service. The lady told me to go into the store and get new cards and then call the corporate customer service back and they can link our old cards with our new cards and everything will transfer. Hmm who knew? I really like Kroger.

God Is Good

I wanted to share a story of what God did this week.
I am teaching a magic tree house book club which will start in February. The first book we are studying is Pompeii, Romans and Mount Vesuvius. Cool right? I really wanted to make togas for all of my students, 11 in all. I was struggling with how I could make them and be cost effective. I decided I would go to one of my most favorite places in the world Good Will. Before I went I was talking to a friend and said I was praying that God would provide a bunch of white sheets cheap so that I could do these togas. I was really doubting I would find them but I was hopeful that God had it worked out for me. I went into the Good Will and headed to the back. To my surprise there was a whole bin of white sheets. They had been donated to the Good Will by one of the local hospitals. As I was rejoicing and laughing a worker walked up to me and said they had gotten 6 big boxes of sheets and that there was even more in the backroom. She said it was very rare to have white sheets and the hospital donates their sheets every couple of years or so.
I know some people would say, "yeah but they're only white sheets. God provides white sheets?" I say to them, "God provides all things. He will provide and provide more than what we need and bless us more than we thought possible." I went in looking for 7 or 8 white sheets and God provided about 8 dozen.
I went to a friends house yesterday and cut out 14 togas and have one for myself as well. All for the great cost of $16.
Can I get an Amen?

More Kroger store coupons

First off I want to thank Sherri for pointing out my dirty picture in my last post. I have taken it down and cleaned it. Well not really but I am going to take it down and clean it real soon. This is not the point of this post however. I am posting to tell you that I got more Kroger store coupons a couple of days ago. I don't know how I get these but they come every so often. Here is what came:
$1 off 1 Kroger bar or shredded cheese
$1 off 1 Kroger 16 oz butter
$1 off 1 Kroger orange juice
$1 off 1 Kroger refrigerated biscuits
1 FREE Kroger yogurt
$1 off 1 Kroger sour cream

I also get the Kroger My Magazine which comes with manufacturer coupons.

Between the scavenger coupons I picked up from the registers, remember when I scavenged the self check out the other night? And the Kroger mailer, I will get 1-4 pack of yogurt and 1 individual cup of yogurt FREE.

Free is always good.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Last weeks Kroger picture


I went to Kroger on Wednesday night last week. I love shopping at the grocery store after 8 p.m. The store is quiet, usually, and there is not many people. I say usually because this trip was a little different. I went to check out and all the lanes were closed except the do it yourself line and the 15 items or less checkout. I went to the 15 items or less, obviously. When I got there I made sure that I was the last one in line, I knew my coupons would take awhile, since I had $59.00 worth. Well after a few minutes people started lining up behind me. What could I do? I held firm and everyone behind me would have to wait or go to the self check out. It was all good until the Mentos. I grabbed the regular Mentos because I didn't see any of the gum Mentos. Well the coupons wouldn't work. By the way, I asked the cashier to scan one to make sure it worked before I put anything on the counter and she assured me that they would work or that she would make them work. I am sure people were glad to see me leave. I even got a Wow! from the cashier when she saw my receipt.
I had coupons for everything I bought except the milk, tomatoes and Diet Coke.
Here is load:
Prices are what I paid after coupons

7 boxes of Quaker oatmeal squares cereal $1 each
6 boxes of Special K cereal bars .75 each I think
7-6 packs of Yoplait yogurt $8.90 for all yogurt
1 pack of Kroger grape tomatoes
4-20ct boxes of Aleve .99 after coupons
2 bars of Dove soap (FREE) had a Kroger $2 off 2 Dove products
1 Crest Pro Health toothpaste (FREE)$1.50 shortcuts and $1 manuf. coupon
1 Crest whitening toothpaste (FREE) had a coupon for a free one up to $3.99
2 cans of Rosarito refried beans had .40 coupon from Kroger
2 gallons of Kroger %1 milk (FREE) when I bought 3 Special K bars I got a free milk
1 bottle of Diet Coke
6 bottles of Soft Soap .30 each after coupon .35 off coupon
7 bottles of Franks extra hot sauce (FREE) .50 off coupon
7 packs of Mentos Gum (FREE) $1 off coupon
1 Kroger ice cream I had a coupon for .55 off Kroger coupon

Total before coupons was $105.00

After coupons and Special K deal I paid $26.75
My savings was 82%

I had $59.90 in coupons after doubling and everything. I also had 2 shortcuts Yoplait yogurts on my card.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!


I am celebrating! I have been blogging for just over a year now. My first post was December 20, 2007. Man how time flies. Its funny now that I look back. I can remember how nervous I was when I started using coupons. Heck I was nervous just thinking about using coupons. Now I get nervous shopping if I don't have a coupon.

Another great tip

This tip I just thought of yesterday. I went to the store with my Mom and we went through the "do it yourself" checkout. I was standing in line and realized how many coupons people were just leaving behind. You know those catalinas that print out with your receipt? I was shocked and appalled. Most I was just shocked that people would leave money behind. Can you guess what I did? "Well uh" she shyly says. I walked around and picked up every coupon. Here is what I got just by picking up other peoples trash.

1-$1 off Listerine mouthwash
3-$1 off Danactive yogurt
1-$1 off .75 Bumblebee tuna
1-$1 off 1 package of Oscar Meyer deli meat
1-$1 off 3 IAM dog food
1-$1.50 off Trail Mix Crunch cereal
1-$3.00 off Kraft snackables cheese
1-$2.00 Cottonelle fresh wipes
1-.75 off any Cottonelle toilet paper
1- FREE 4 pack of Yo-Plus yogurt
1- FREE box of Vans waffles


Yes, this is the mother load.