Back in the Game!

I have been out of the "game" for a while.  I have dabbled here and there since my last post, but I have learned that stretching my dollar as far as it will go it ALWAYS as good idea because I had some bad luck at the end of 2013.

My usual shopping day is Saturday, so I am usually too late to benefit from some of the deals, but it's the only day I have to shop (and sometimes I don't even get Saturdays.)  I am still trying to figure out how I am going to organize myself to maximize my savings.  I still use Money Saving Mom and Southern Savers to track deals and find coupons.  I only shop a few stores so that limits the research, but it still takes a couple of hours to organize everything before I can do the actual shopping.

Today I shopped at Dollar General and Target.

Dollar General

I used Dollar General's digital coupons to take advantage of $5 off $25 today and looked for stuff I needed and could stock up on.

 
I took advantage of the buy 2 get 1 free Kellogg's savings and purchased:
2 Frosted Flakes
1 Mini Wheats
2 NutriGrain

The Poptarts are regularly priced at $2.00 and they had a peelie coupon for $1.00 off 2 boxes.

Also, they had Quilted Northern toilet paper (12 double rolls) for $5.75 and used a $.45 coupon.
The slippers were $6.00 and the Head and Shoulders were $5 each and I used a $1.00 digital coupon.

My total spent was $30.99 after taxes with a savings of $14.38.  I'm still learning how to get the best savings at Dollar General.  I know that the digital coupon apply after everything has been rung up, and that the $5 off of $25 is after everything else, but all the minuses seem to confuse me.


Target

I did MUCH better at Target.  I planned it out and took advantage of some of the $5.00 gift card deals, used Cartwheel savings and did 3 different transactions.  I also use Shopkick (I earned 30 kicks for walking into Target).  I was able to redeem a $5.00 gift card to us on one of the transactions.  (I tried to use another $5.00 on the last transaction, but it gave me an error.  I didn't realize until later that I was putting in $10.00 and didn't have enough points.)

Transaction 1

Selected Kellogg's cereal and snack bars were $2.50 each and if you purchase 5 items you earn a $5.00 gift card.

I bought 2 each of the snack/pastry bars and a box of Special K cereal and used the $5.00 gift card from Shopkicks.  I spent $5.76 and earned a $5.00 gift card.

Transaction 2

Money Saving Mom clued me in on a deal to earn another $5.00 gift card from purchasing 10 Barilla pasta, Ragu pasta sauce and Old El Paso items.  See her post here.

My purchases were a little different than what she posted because I had different coupons.  I bought:

3 Barilla Whole Grain pastas ($1/3 coupon)

2 Barilla Plus ($1/2 coupon)

2 Ragu ($.75/2 coupon)

Old El Paso shells and 2 avocados ($1.00 coupon)

2 refried beans

1 chopped green chilis ($1/3 coupon)

1 mild Enchilada sauce (to get me to the 10 items - the Barilla Plus was not part of the deal)

Total out of pocket: $9.03 after taxes and $5.00 gift card from previous transaction.  Total savings $11.52 and earned another $5.00 gift card.

Transaction 3

I needed some miscellaneous groceries and looked at what was available on Cartwheel and bought:

Chobani yogurt was on sale 10 for $10 and there was a Cartwheel of 20% off Chobani 100.  They only had blueberry in the 100 variety so I only got 4 of those.

The frozen fruit was 2/$3 with a 5% Cartwheel.

The Ponds lotions are travel size and it takes me a while to use one jar, but they only had a few so I bought 2.

Finish was on sale Buy 2 get 1 free

I used the last of my creamer this morning so I decided to just get more and it was on sale.

My total out of pocket was $27.57 after using the $5.00 gift card from the previous transaction and taxes.  Total saved: $8.47.  Not as good as the other ones, but I got stuff I needed and would use.

Total spending for the day:  $73.35.  My goal was to stay under $100.00 which I did.  Now I only have to get a couple of things from Winn Dixie for the week and I will do that shopping tomorrow.  Winn Dixie usually has a 3 Day Sale starting on Sundays.  Hopefully I can keep that cost down to around $25.00.

Wish me luck!

Let's Not Waste!

It's been a while since I blogged.

I'm still trying to coupon more/better and shop smarter.  I don't know if it's working but I think I have found (at least a little bit) a way to save some money shopping.

I have started shopping at Sam's Club more, at least once a month.  I found that I can get three 1/2 gallons of Silk for $7.48 when the cheapest I can get it at Winn-Dixie (on sale) is $2.99 per 1/2 gallon.  That's a savings of $1.49 off three from the store and the coupons I can usually get don't save me that much.

I also pack a lunch for both my husband and I every day.  We are both trying to eat better so I have been making salads.  I buy the big pack of romaine lettuce, grape/cherry tomatoes, avocados, mushrooms, carrots and snap peas all from Sam's and that will last us two weeks for lunch, with leftovers.  I find that buying this stuff in the larger packages is cheaper since it's like getting it at a BOGO sale (which you very rarely find for produce).

I've posted in the past that I was making chicken salad for lunches, then using the chicken carcass to make chicken stock.  I haven't make chicken salad in a while, but we do have a bunch of chicken stock in the freezer that we will use to make soup when the weather gets colder.

This week the mushrooms started turning slimy buy then end of the week so I decided to make cream of mushroom soup to use to cook with later on.  I used this recipe but modified it a little because I didn't have 3 cups of mushrooms left so I only used 2 cups.  I increased the amount of onion (I used a small onion) and instead of half-and-half, I used heavy cream because I had it to use in another recipe.  It came out pretty well and I froze it to use later.

I'm trying to organize myself so I can get my coupons and weekly ads put together in shopping lists to do my weekly shopping on Saturdays.  It hasn't worked out yet, and I don't know what I'll be able to come up with time wise.

Shopping Trip 1/16 - CVS & Winn-Dixie

I didn't do any shopping last week since I had a busy week with other commitments.

I only did two stores this week (so far, I may do more on Saturday). I think my goal is going to be to try to stay under $10.00 a week at CVS.

CVS:

I took a survey for 10 ECBs and had 5 ECBs left over from my last trip.

Transaction No. 1:

2 packs of Huggies Goodnights: 2/$19 (- 2/$2 MFQ)
Total: $15.00
used 15 ECBs for a total OOP: $.36
received 1 ECB

Transaction No. 2:
Arm & Hammer Spinbrush: $5.99 (- $2 MFQ)
Total: $3.99
used 1 ECB from previous transaction for a total OOP: $3.53
received 2 ECBs

Transaction No. 3:
Arm & Hammer Spinbrush: $5.99 (- $2 MFQ)
Total: $3.99
used 2 ECBs from previous transaction for a total OOP: $2.53
received 2 ECBs

TOTAL OOP: $6.42 and 2 ECBs for next trip

WINN-DIXIE:

I am going to try to budget my weekly trips to Winn-Dixie at $50.00.

I didn't have any really good deals this week, but I did save:
$21.73 in rewards card purchases
$4.10 in manufacturer coupons
Earned $.20 Fuelperks.

Total spent: $46.30

Winn-Dixie Trip - 1/8/12

I did not stay within my $40.00 budget. My total with tax was $97.67.

The "good" bargains I got included Campbell's soups being on sale 10/$10 and I had several coupons totallying $1.00 so I got 11 cans of "cooking" soup for $10.

My mistakes were buying the wrong variety of a product.

I did earn $.65 in fuelperks though, so I did save me money on gas this week.

Walgreens - razor, tomato sauce, Advil & bonus candy bars

My trip to Walgreens was not that eventful, except learning that they now lock up the razors! I didn't realize that they were such a hot comodity that they needed to be under lock and key.


The trip went as planned, mostly. Apparently I miscalculated the cost for my second transaction and had to throw in some fillers.


Transaction No. 1:
Gillette Fuson Razor: $9.99 (- $5.00 MQ) = $4.99 + tax ($.86) and earn 4 RR
TOTAL: $5.86 and earned 4 RR


Transaction No. 2:
3 Hunts Tomato Sauce: in ad sale for $.39 each
Advil (24 ct): $3.00 (- $1.00 printable MQ)
TOTAL: $3.17 + tax (this is where my miscalculation came in, I don't think I took into account the $1 coupon for the Advil)


add:

2 Snickers bars: $.69 each
TOTAL: $4.55 + $.35 tax
Used 4 RR from prior transaction for $.90 OOP

Grand total OOP: $6.76

DAILY TOTAL: $9.23

The only other store I plan on shopping at this weekend is Winn-Dixie. I haven't done my homework for this one yet, but I hope to keep the total under $40.00.

New Year, New Shopping Habits

I am making a New Year's Resoluation/lifestyle change this year.

I've been couponing for a long time, but never really made it a priority. When I got good deals with very little out of pocket I was excited, but it never had much of an impact on my shopping habits.

I also decided that paying off bills is a priority this year. I'm tired of living paycheck to paycheck with little or no left over each week/month. I did manage to pay off my car last year, but there has been a lot of extras that have popped up to keep us from getting ahead. I want to get ahead!

I talked to my husband about it and told him what my plan was for this year. Of course, he is in total agreement with paying off our debt. I even told him that I was not going to be making unexpected/last minute trips to the grocery store to get anything. We were going to have to make due with what we have in the house and what I buy, which means we will have to be creative with our meals.

I will be shopping mostly at CVS, Walgreens, Target, Winn-Dixie and Dollar General. I have found that I can get a lot of grocery items at a really good price at Dollar General AND they take coupons. They also offer a $5 off $25 coupon for shopping on Saturday. I will also look at the Wal-Mart ad to see if they have anything really worth the trip, but I don't have one in close proximity to my house or work so if I don't have to spend the gas to go, I won't.

I'll post when (not if!) we pay off bills and my shopping trips (as you can see from the CVS trip posted already).

Here's to saving money!

CVS Shopping Trip

I have started my new year, new shopping habits. I'm trying to get things we need/use for as little money out of pocket as possible. I know I'm not always going to be able to, but I have decided to dedicate a few hours a week to organizing my coupons (I'm still working on the best strategy for this), looking through the sale ads and researching on the internet to find the best "bang" for my buck.


I'm going to treat my couponing like a part-time job by dedicating time in the evenings a couple days a week to do the work that needs to be done to minimize my spending.


That being said, I did my first trip to CVS this morning...


My plan was as follows:


Transaction 1:
Oral B spinbrush: $5.99 (-$3.00 coupon from P&G) = $2.99 (earn 2 ECB)
2 Dawn dish soap: $.99 each (-$.50 for Hand Renewal & -$.25 for regular) = $.49 & $.74
Eggs: $1.49
TOTAL: $5.71 + tax (approx $.50)*
use 5.99 ECB from previous purchase for approx $.22 OOP + earn 9 ECB for quarterly earnings + 2 ECB for toothbrush


Transaction 2:
Huggies Overnights: $9.49 (earn 1 ECB)
3 Hunt's Snack Pack (10/$10): $3.00 (-$.45/3 manu coupon) = 2.55
TOTAL: $12.04 + tax (approx $1.05)
use 9 ECB + 2 ECB for approx $2.09 OOP + earn 1 ECB


Transaction 3:
CVS Ibuprofen 500 ct: $9.99
TOTAL: $9.99 plus tax (approx $.88)
use 6 ECB from previous purchase + 1 ECB for approx $3.86 OOP


Of course they were totally out of the toothbrushes so I had to regroup my transactions.


Here's what I actually did:


Transaction 1:
Huggies Overnights: $9.49 (earn 1 ECB)
3 Hunt's Snack Pack (10/$10): $3.00 (-$.45/3 manu coupon) = 2.55
TOTAL: $12.04 + tax ($.94)
used 5.99 ECB + 6 ECB for $.99 OOP + earn 1 ECB and quarterly ECBs (9 ECB) + bonus 5 ECB for Beauty Club Rewards which I was not expecting.


Transaction 2:
2 Dawn dish soap: $.99 each (-$.50 for Hand Renewal & -$.25 for regular) = $.49 & $.74
CVS Ibuprofen 500 ct: $9.99
TOTAL: $11.22 + tax ($.26)
used 9 ECB + 1 ECB for $1.48 OOP


and I still have 5 ECBs for next week.


TRIP TOTAL: $2.47


Not bad in my opinion. It's all stuff we use and/or need. I plan on a trip to Walgreens later today and will post after I finish to see how I did.

*We have a weird sales tax system that taxes food items at a different rate from everything else so I'll estimate the taxes for the transactions.

Bath & Body Works Semi-Annual Sale

It's that time again. Bath and Body Works has pretty good discounts on their body wash, lotion, wall flowers, candles, hand sanitizer and hand soap.

I'm starting my New Year's Resolution early! I'm going to TRY to focus on getting the most for my money (meaning spending less) in 2012. With that in mind, I did order some body wash and lotion in matching sets to give as gifts. The next Semi Annual sale will be in July so I will get some more stuff then for friends, teachers, etc.

If you order the Ebates.com you can also get 3.0% cash back from your purchase.

If you don't already shop through Ebates.com it's a good way to get cash back on your purchases. They have a lot of merchants and the cash back for each merchant varies.

They have a referral program. You get $5.00 for each friend you refer. Here is the link for me.
http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=i%2FYPnC15PNVZYl0803Zkmw%3D%3D

Juggling

I have been doing a LOT of juggling over the last few months. Since school is back in session, I have been trying to fit in all of the things I need to do and failing miserably!

Between working a full-time job and doing homework with my kids at night, it feels like anything and everything else is not getting done. I haven't been diligently couponing because I don't have the time to dedicate to searching for all the coupons I need, and have been unsuccessful in finding a lot of the ones posted on blogs because my weekly paper just simply does not have them which is depressing!

I'm keeping my chin up, but only barely.

I have been trying to stretch my grocery budget as far as possible so I have been doing a couple of things to get multiple uses out of my grocery items. Some of these things I have read about on other blogs, but here are a few things that I do to save a SMALL amount of money:

1. When I buy a bunch of bananas and we don't eat them all, I stick the over ripe ones in the freezer to use for baking.

2. I have been buying a roasted chicken to make chicken salad for lunches. After I pick the chicken and cut up all of the vegetables, I throw the bones and skin from the chicken along with all of the discards from the veggies and make chicken stock.

3. When we finish a loaf of bread, I stick the ends in the freezer until I have several, then I put then in the oven to dry them out and put then in the food processor for bread crumbs.

4. This weekend I took the pumpkins from Halloween and roasted the pumpkin and the seeds. I use the pumpkin to make pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving (and other baking) and the seeds make a delicious snack.

Good Shopping Day

I had a pretty good shopping day today. I found these flip flops at Academy Sports + Outdoors priced $2.99, but they rang up at $.88. They had them in this hot pink color and a bright blue. TARGET I was also able to get cheap Zyrtec on the 5 pack package. I had a $4.00 Targe Coupon and stacked it with a $2.00 printable. I can't really tell if they were free (it looks like I was charged $.76 for each) because the receipt is really confusing.

I also got 2 of the Purex Crystal Softeners for free (I think!). I had a $2.00 manufacturer coupon and stacked it with a $1.00 Target coupon. My total savings at Target for my entire trip was $30.99.

1/25/11 CVS Trip

I was able to get 5 cases of Coke products for $6.00 + tax and CVS sleep pants for $5.49 + tax. Here's how.

This week CVS has Coke 12-packs 5/$15.
I had 2 coupons for a free 12-pack from MyCokeRewards and 3 ECBs.
$15 - $6 for the MyCokeRewards coupons - $3 ECBs = $6.00
Earned 5 ECBs

Bought CVS sleep pants (I know Huggies are on sale this week w/ECBs but I need a bigger size) for $10.49 - 5 ECBs from Coke purchase = $5.49

Total spent: $11.49 plus tax (less than the original price of the Cokes!)

Not a bad trip!

Back on Track

Wow! I didn't realize how long it's been since I posted, but it's almost 2 years. 2010 was a tough year and I pretty much gave up on using coupons except on the rare occasion when I had easy access to them.

It took me a while to figure out what I was going to have as my New Year's Resolution for 2011, but I finally figured it out over this past weekend.... I'm going to start couponing again! I have depleted my stockpile so I need to rebuild it and the best way to do that is by doing the research, pulling those coupons together and planning BEFORE I go shopping.

I had pretty good trips this weekend to both CVS and Winn-Dixie. I have been utilizing Winn-Dixie's new Fuel Perks program to get cheaper gas while still checking their sale ad to make the most of my shopping trips, but I just didn't use coupons as much.

Saturday is my usual shopping day and I'm going to designate time on Sunday to do all the research needed to compile the list and coupons I need for my shopping each week.

I'll keep you posted, and wish me luck!

Finally, a store that doubles!

Last Sunday I received a flyer for a store that had some really good deals in it, but I wasn't sure that there was one in my area. It did have a website listed so I checked it out. Fred's is a family discount store that doubles coupons (up to $.70 on Saturdays only). Go here to link to their website to see if you have one in your area. The best way I can describe their store is that it reminds me of Big Lots. It has a little bit of everything, clothes, shoes, groceries, home interiors, drug items and it even had a pharmacy.

I did a test run yesterday and here's what I got:

Pedigree Complete dog food (4 lb bag) - $4.59
Used: $1.50 MQ (did not double)
= $3.09

Angel Soft 4 roll toilet paper - $2.00
Used: $.50 MQ (doubled)
= 1.00

2 Domino sugar (4 lb bag) - $1.99 each
Used: $.50 on two MQ (doubled)
= 1.49 each

Oral B Cross Actions toothbrush - $3.99
Used: $1.00 MQ (did not double)
= 2.99

2 Old Spice deodorant - $1.89 each
Used: $1.00 on two MQ (did not double)
= 1.39 each

2 Zantac 75MG 4 count - $1.99 each
Used: 2 $1.50 MQ (did not double)
= .49 each

2 Revlon Color Silk - $2.50 each
Used: $1.00 on two MQ (did not double)
= 2.00 each

There was a bunch of other stuff that was marked down and on clearance but I had one of my kids with me, and this was a trial run so I didn't do too much digging to see what coupons I had to match their reduced items.

Cheap Deodorant from Target

Target has select varieties of Secret deodorant on sale this week for $4.00.
There is a $2.00 MQ off Secret Flawless or Flawless Touch.
I bought 2 for $4.00. It's like buy one-get one free.

$2.99 Chicken

This week (again) Winn-Dixie has rotisserie chickens for $4.99. If you go in the evening - around 6:00 p.m. or so, they should have a "coupon sticker" on them for $2.00 off, making it $2.99. Not bad for a whole chicken.

I have done this a few times in the past few weeks and again last night.

If we don't eat it for dinner, I will pull it apart and make chicken salad.

Cheap Pizza Rolls at Winn-Dixie

This week Winn-Dixie has the 15 count Totino's pizza rolls 10 for $10. If you have any $.35 coupons, you can get them for $.65 a piece. It's not free, but it's cheap.

Also, they have Ronzoni pasta BOGO. There was a blinky for $.50 off right on the shelf.

CVS Trip - 2/20/09

Being that it's Mardi Gras season around here, I got to leave work early yesterday so I took the opportunity to get in some CVS shopping.

I did 3 transactions in 2 different stores. Here's what I got.

Transaction No. 1:

2 Neutrogena soaps

$2.99 each = $5.98

- 2 ECB

Total: $3.98 + tax

Earned 10 ECBs

Transaction No. 2:

4 Diet Coke 12-packs

1 Tylenol

4/$14.00

$6.00

- 4 $1.00 MyCokeRewards coupons

- 10 ECB

Total: $6.00 + tax

Earned 10 ECBs

***I had a small accident bringing the 12-packs to the register as you can tell by the picture.

Transaction No. 3:

2 Wheat Thins

6 Suave Body Washes

1 Suave Kids Shampoo

2 Herbal Essences Conditioners

2 Herbal Essences Stylers

2/$5.00

$1.99 x 6

$2.00

$2.99 x 2

$2.99 x 2

- $2.00 MQ

- $1.50 MQ

- $1.00 MQ

- $1.00 MQ

- $3.00 MQ

- $3.00 MQ

- $1.00 CVS coupon off Shampoo or Conditioner

1 $10 ECBs

Total: $8.40 + tax

Earned: 8 ECBs

Resolutions?

It's official, one of my resolutions for this year is already busted. I wanted to blog more, I had every intention of blogging more, I even gather all my receipts after my shopping trips to blog about them, but alas, it's not working. One reason, I'm not shopping as much. The second reason, as the title of my blog implies, I'm a Working Hard Mom.

Between being a dedicated employee, attentive mom and dutiful housekeeper, blogging has not been a priority (or even on the list of priorities). I'm trying to find my groove so I can do more of the things that I WANT to do in addition to the things I HAVE to do.

I can tell you that the last couple of times I have gone to CVS, I've gotten compliments from the cashiers on the little bit of money I'm spending for the items that I'm purchasing, so I think I'm following the right path with being frugal - at least so far this year.

Valentine's Day

I wanted to share with you an easy treat that I made last year and plan on making again this year for Valentine's Day. I saw this recipe for Santa Hats and modified it. Instead of shaping the meringue into hats, I shaped them into hearts. They came out perfect.

I just made some home made ice cream which called for 8 egg yokes, so now I can use the whites for this.

Quick trip to CVS

I got an e-mail from CVS for $5/$30 and wanted to put it to good use.

I went through their ad and my coupons to see what I had, since I have a lot of coupons expiring today and came up with a quick trip.

My plan was to get:

2 Gillette Shampoos (4.99 each, earn 3 ECBs) - $2 MQ

1 Gillette Fusion Gamer razor (7.99 each, earn 4 ECBs) - $4 MQ

2 Centrum Cardio (BOGO 50% off, $9.99 & $4.99) - $3 MQ

1 Clairol Nice & Easy (5.99) - $2 MQ

1 Sudafed (6.49) - $1.50 MQ

This would have given me the Gillette shampoos and razor free after coupons and ECBs. However, my CVS didn't have any of the razors so I just left that off of my order, since I still was spending the $30 before coupons. So here's what I got:

I had $5 in ECBs and a $10 gift card to help bring down my OOP.

Total after coupons, ECBs and gift card + tax: $6.41.

I really like the part of the receipt that states:

"Today You Saved 32.50"

The cashier was impressed and said she wants to go shopping with me!

I earned $6 ECBs for my next trip.