Shopping Today

I went to Kroger and did some shopping today because we will be out of town for a week. I really debated about shopping because there was nothing really pressing on my list that I needed but decided to go anyway. Everything I bought was on sale except the soda. I either bought it on sale or bought it on sale with a coupon. Here is how I did.

My Total before coupons was $33.14 after coupons it was $26.04

Remember every coupon .50 or under automatically doubles at Kroger

2-2 pack of disposable roasting pans. I use these for church meals for people $1.00each

2 Gortons fish packs on sale for 2/$5 and had .35 coupons for each.

2 Oscar Meyer turkey packs $1 each

4 Hillshire Farm honey ham $1 each

2 packs of latex gloves $1 each

4 packs Betty Crocker mashed potatoes on sale for $1 ea. had .40 coupon for each final price .20 each. I have never eaten these before but for .20 I will try them.

2 bottles Old English furniture polish on sale for $2.99 had .75 coupon for each.

1 bag pretzels $1 for our trip tomorrow

4-2 liter of Diet Coke $1.29each had a $1 coupon off of 4. I should have bought these a couple of weeks ago but I was out of soda so I needed to buy it.

See my tips list

Note To Self

I need to remember to take my glasses with me to the store. I am starting to look down each isle when I shop for the coupon boxes. You know those little boxes that hang off of the shelves that give out coupons? Well these things blink on the side which is great! You dont have to go down each isle, if you stand at one end and watch a minute you can see the blink and head straight for the box. My problem is I cant see down the isle without my glasses.

Krogering

last week I did'nt need to go to Kroger at all, I am so happy! I did go yesterday and spent $5.40 on things I needed for dinner. Unfortunately the things I bought were not on sale and even sadder is the fact that I had no coupons to use.

I am finding that my grocery list has gone way down. We don't "need" hardly anything. It's not as fun using the grocery game. I think I am having withdraw. I want the big "tah dah" whipping out $18 in coupons every week. It is still good, I am not spending money. This past two weeks I spent a total of about $140 and have everything that we need and more. My hubby is complaining that the freezer is to full.

A friend asked me what I did with my savings. I thought, "My savings? What extra money?" But after thinking about it, what I did do this week was pay extra bills that don't normally get paid until next week. I also put more money on a couple of the bills we had. At this rate we should be able to be out of debt. YEAH!!

CVS Diapers

Let me say that doing the CVS ECB makes my head spin but I am set on trying to figure it all out.

I went there today because they had Huggies on sale and I had coupons. They have a deal going that if you spend $30 you get $15 in ECB back.

Here is what I did. I got 3 packs of Huggies at $8.99 each and had 3 coupons for $1.50 off ea. when I got to the cash register my total was under $30 by about $2 so I was not going to get the ECB's so I added 4 Palmolive dish soaps that were .74 each after coupons. Adding these got me to $30. Then I got a $4 off of $20 purchase when I went to CVS website yesterday and updated my info. I used that which brought my total down.

After I did that transaction my $15 ECB printed out. I took those and bought 2 more packs of Huggies that came up to $14.98 after coupons.

My total out of pocket was right around $23 and I got 150 diapers or 5 packs of 30.

1st transaction here is how it worked:
Huggies $8.99 x 3
Palmolive dishsoap .99 x 4
subtract coupons $1.50 x 3 and .25 x 4
then subtract store coupon $4

2nd transaction was
8.99 x 2
subtract $1.50 x 2
used my $15ECB

I beat Sams Club pricing for diapers. I get 156 diapers for 29.88 or something like that.

Food Lion this week

First I will apologize for no pics but my camera ran out of batteries and then I set it down and have forgotten where I put it. I will find it by next week.

I usually do not go to Food Lion because I usually do not find very good deals there. I went today because I got some good coupons from their website and heard from moneysavingmom.com that there was some free stuff to be had. Here is my deals:

6 boxes of Kleenex anti-viral tissues
6 boxes of Eggos
1 12 pack of Diet Coke
Total after coupons $3.43

I acutally had coupons for everything but the Diet Coke I added the soda for the overage. The soda by itself costs $3.79

Sams Club

I have to start this post by apologizing to everyone. This week I have been off schedule do to sickness. My normal Sams day is Friday so if you checked in and saw nothing I am sorry. I ended up making the trip today, which is Sunday. It is very different there on the weekends it's busier and the normal faces are not there. Those of you that know me know that I have been going to Sams Club every other Friday for a very very long time. I have gotten to know some of the workers and they recognize me and my kids. Sometimes they talk about when I was pregnant for the kiddies. A couple of times the workers have even asked me if I had the day off, they assumed that I had worked there since they saw me so much.

Anyway back to the point of the post. I have been grocery gaming since December and trying to cut back on items that I needed at Sams and get it when the game has it to stockpile. I now buy mostly milk, eggs, fruit and veggies at Sams. Last shopping trip I was under $200 which was good. I felt this trip I would be able to be right around $100 (see post from Thursday). To my surprise when all was said and done I spent $79.04, this was shocking to me. My cart was not nearly as full as usual, I kept feeling like I had forgotten something and even stood in the middle of the store looking around. I am still in shock and I keep racking my brain thinking that I have forgotten something but nothing seems to be missing.

ANOTHER GOOD TRIP!

2-13 Trip

I went to Kroger this evening for the weekly shop and here is how I did. I did not get pictures this time because I am coming down with something and it was enough to try and get myself to the store.

My Total before coupons was $47.06 and after coupons it was $33.15. I had $13.91 in coupons. I did not have coupons for everything but some items were needed and everything was on sale except the Old Fashion ice cream. Here gos:

1 Breyers Ice Cream $2.67
5 boxes of Nature Valley granola bar sale was 2/$4 had a .50 coupon final was $1.50 per box
4 Hillsire Farm Deli Select lunch meat on sale for 4/$5
2 Thomas English muffins $1.50 each
6 bags of Flat Earth crisps FREE
3 12 packs of Diet-Coke
3 packages of Lenders Bagels on sale for $1.19each
1 gallon of Old Fashion Kroger ice cream $4.19 it was not on sale but I like to keep ice cream in freezer.

Since I have been shopping at Kroger I am starting to get more coupons printed out at check out. Today I got a Smart Balance butter coupon.

I also found that if you go to http://www.pgesaver.com/Sites/PG_eSAVER/Page/HomePage/ you can sign up with your Kroger card and they have coupons that you can download onto your card. Then when your in the store you just scan your card and the coupon comes up. I have not used it yet but they sent me an email today to download more coupons. I will be checking the site tonight.

Buying Less Each Week

I have noticed over the last couple of weeks that I am spending less money weekly at Kroger and less money b-weekly at Sams Club. This is great! This Friday I go to Sams Club and hope to spend even less than I did 2 weeks ago. Two weeks ago I spend $194.00 which is less that what I was normally spending. I used to go and spend $250 to $275. I am hoping to get out this week around $100. Two weeks ago I had to buy diapers which is $30 right off the top but now I am set with diapers for awhile and I will try to buy them next time through the grocery game, which I have yet to do.

Another good Kroger trip

I went to Kroger today with my list and coupons in hand. I did gooood! My total before coupons was $43.22. How much do you think I spent? Can't guess? I spent $25.81



Kroger is running a Nascar special, if you buy 10 products of certain brands they give you an additional $2 off at register I will mark these with double starts(**)


Some things were on sale but I did not have a coupon for. Here is the low-down:

3 Betty Crocker cake mix .77each

3 Duncan Hines brownie mix $1 each

2 V8 46oz sale 2/$5 had a .50/2 coupon final price= $2.00each

**4-2liter Coke products .75each

3-6pks Yoplait kids yogurt sale was 2/$4 I had .35 coupon final price= $1.30

3 Stayfree pads 16-24ct sale 2/$5 I had $2 offea coupons final price=.50each

**4 Wishbone salad dressings sale was 3/$5 had coupons for $1/2 final=.97each

**1 Hellmans Mayo 30 oz sale is $2.49 had a .50 coupon final=1.49

**7 boxes of 15 Tortinos pizza rolls this was brought to my attention today and was not on my list but I had 7 coupons. final price was FREE

Stayfree Ultra Thin pads

Stayfree Ultra thin pads are on sale at CVS this week. If you go to this link you can print a $2 coupon and get them for free. The link is
http://printable-coupons.blogspot.com/2006/02/stayfree-coupons.html

Original price is $3.99
sale price $3.29
coupon off 1 $2.00
ECB back is $3.29

Ballerina in Disguise

When I am shopping with coupons I feel like this ballerina doing Swan Lake or something.

I feel like I am gracefully fluttering on tip toe through the store. I slightly bend forward to check a price on something not on sale. I do a flying leap past all the full priced items to land every so gently in front of the canned soup (which is on sale this week). I turn two full circles with hands over head celebrating my great find. I fill my cart with 12 cans of soup and push my cart with one hand while the other is extended out flowing gracefully to the side, all the way to check out. As I get to check out, I greet the cashier will a smile while removing my find from the cart. It takes another full circle to retrieve my coupons and hand them to the cashier. "Here comes the big finish" I think to myself. The cashier looks at the total and says, "Wow!" with great surpise. I give another quick spin, perfect performance! I take an oncore bow and work myself out the door.

I think all of the coupon people should have a tutu that we wear when grocery shopping.

Here is the break down. The soup is on sale at Kroger this week.
12 cans of soup 4 were chicken noodle 8 were tomato. sale 10/$5 I had .40/4 coupons (used 3 coupons) final= .30ea