Smith's Trip

My trip to Smith's, there was a GM/PEPSI promo going on so you'd buy 10 items and get $5 off your order, which I stacked with coupons (of course) and got boxes of GM Cereal for like .50 to $1.00 each
Quaker Granola bars for .75 each
ETC....
So I did this promo and bought 50 items and saved $25 with the promo, I'm all stocked up on fruit snacks, Granola Bars, Cereal (As If I didn't have enough of that!) and Hamburger Helper.

Here's the evidence.....



Here's some of the 50 or so coupons; check out the price on water!



I had a cart full to overflowing this time; I was literally holding items onto the cart as I walked so they wouldn't fall to the floor by the time I was done! I got TONS of stuff; including BOGO on feminine products plus coupons ontop of those, so a 28 ct pack of Always pads was like .82 each for me....so I'm overstocked with those. It's kind of embarrassing when they fall to the floor and bounce and roll all over the place....(WHY didn't I get them first! WHY!?)
I had like 12 packages....
Here's the damage, I spent $98 and saved $155.84 this trip: I saved 62%! The photo of my receipt totally flipped on it's side and now you must just trust me folks.

I post this to show you that can do one GIANT cart load of stuff like 80 items or more versus the wimpy 5-20 items some couponer bloggers do at a time. Ack, that would drive me nuts! 20 tiny transactions per month instead of 3 or 4 big ones....I don't have time for that; I'm trying to save my sanity here!

Like I said, I only like to go shopping two or three times a month. SO,

1. I do take the time to prepare
2. I have over 50-75 coupons to bring with me to use most times
3. I spend a couple of hours shopping - usually my hubby helps
4. And Voila!

I am stocked up on TONS of essentials and have loads of regular food items to last us a good two weeks - or a month if needed.

Remember I use Roshill Dairy delivery service for the dairy/bread/eggs

to avoid going shopping so often..... (and their stuff is AWESOME!)

I do this because I am a closet impulse buyer

(well, not anymore now that my secret is out)

And if I have to go to the store twice a week for a few items,

I used to buy out with WAY more than I planned on.

Especially when I go there hungry.

So, now I don't go shopping unless I take the time to prep to shop.

In fact; I can't go to a store WITHOUT a plan

or I feel uncomfortable and weird without my coupons.

I know, I'm a nut.

I won!

http://krazycouponsisters.blogspot.com/2009/08/winner-of-redplum-inserts.html

Check it out, these gals are just starting up (like me!) and their blog is great! Cute header huh?

They've held a contest that I won! Yea!

Since RedPlum's coupons are sent to our mailbox instead of in the Sunday paper I've only gotten ONE a week, that's tough (I cant bother my neighbors for coupons) but I won some more from these gals!


Thanks ladies!

Target lesson

I decided to try out couponing at Target, I had a lot of fun with the deals below...

But on a side note; I haven't been grocery shopping since my last post, minus a quick trip to the park city grocery store for some cabin essentials....which were free with my $30 catilina's! (see earlier post)

But the point is that I've been stocked up so well that I haven't had to go grocery shopping for 2 and 1/2 weeks. And I needed a coupon break! (Remember I get my milk and eggs and bread home deliver style.) But Kevin and I got our coupon clipping skills re-energized and spent 4 hours or so organizing, clipping, sorting, comparing, preparing and now we're ready to hit 3 stores this week with our lists and coupons at the ready!

And technically I didn't HAVE to go last night, my mom had an errand for me to run at Target so I decided to try the coupon "stacking" there for the first time! Back to business....

Remember Target has their own coupons available online and other places and you can stack manufacturer coupons with those for the same item for double coupon savings.

Here's some deals I found across the blogosphere.....

I think this is going to be a great week at Target.

Target just released their new store coupons.

Here’s the list:

50¢ off Purchase of two Hamburger Helper boxed dinners
Use with $0.75/3 printable coupon

50¢ off Hellmann’s mustard
75¢ off Breyers ice cream
75¢ off Frozen popsicle product
$1 off Purchase of two 10-oz. or larger General Mills cereals
Use with $1/2 printable coupons here and here or from 8/23 inserts

$1 off With purchase of two Market Pantry® cheese products

(In the past this has made single string cheese sticks free)

50¢ off I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter
Use with $0.75/1 printable coupon

75¢ off With purchase of two 14-oz. or larger RAGU sauces
Use with $1/2 coupon from 8/2 RP insert

1.50 off Bertolli frozen pasta meal
Use with $1/1 printable coupon
75¢ off With purchase of two Wishbone salad dressings

$1 off Slim Fast weight-loss product
Use with $1.25/1 coupon from 6/28 RP Insert

Get a $5 Target Gift Card when you buy 5 of the Following:

Get a $5 Target Gift card when you buy 4 Special K items listed below

(11.4 to 13.4 oz cereal, 6ct bars and selected others) $2.39/each

Deal Idea for Cereal

$9.56 when you buy four boxes of special K Blueberry-

$4 Use four $1/1 printable coupons

(you will need two computers to be able to print four coupons)

Pay $5.56 out of pocket and get a $5 Target Gift Card back.

That’s like paying $0.14 per box

Deal Idea for Granola Bars$9.56 when you buy four boxes of Special K Bars (8ct)- $2 when you use two $1/2 printable coupons on Coupons.com or from 8/2 RP inserts and-$2 when you use four $0.50/1 Target Kelloggs Grain Snack printable coupons= $5.56 out of pocket and get a $5 Target Gift Card back. That’s like paying $0.14 per box

Another Deal Idea for Granola Bars

$9.56 when you buy four boxes of Special K Bars Chocolatey Pretzel (8ct)-

$3 when you use four $0.75/1 printable coupons on Coupons.com-

$2 when you use four $0.50/1 Target

Kelloggs Grain Snack printable coupons=

$4.56 out of pocket and get a $5 Target Gift Card back.

That’s FREE!!

14-oz. Häagen-Dazs or 1.5-quart Edy’s ice cream,

4-ct. Nestlé Drumstick treats and selected others.

$12.50 when you buy five Edy’s Ice Cream (1.5 qt) – $2.50/ea

Use five$1/1 coupons in 8/23 Red Plum insert

PLUS Use $1/1 Target printable coupon

Pay $2.50 out of pocket and get a $5 Target GC back!
You can also grab Nestle Drumsticks for fairly cheap with this $1/1 printable coupon.

What’s Very Cheap

Aveeno Baby products $3.50Use $2/1 manufacturer printable coupon

Use $$1/1 Target printable couponPay $0.50 each after coupons

Bananas – $0.56/lb

Use $0.50/1 lb Target printable couponPay $0.06/lb

International Delight $1.15

Use $1/1 printable coupon

Pay $0.15 each after coupon

Hungry Hippos Travel Game $4.99

Use $4/1 printable coupon

Pay $0.99 after coupon (great stocking stuffer!)

Kellogg’s Cinnabon Bars–$1.75-$2 (price varies at some Target stores)

Use $0.50/1 Kellogg’s Grain Snacks Target coupon

Stack with $1/1 printable coupon

Pay $0.25-$0.50 after coupons

Kellogg’s Yogos–$1.75

Use $0.50/1 Target Kellogg’s Fruit Snacks printable coupon

Stack with $0.50/1 manufacturer printable coupon

Pay $0.75 after coupons

A-1 Steak Sauce $2.09

Use $2/1 coupon from the 8/16 SS insert

Pay $0.09 after coupon

Dove Visibly Smooth Deodorant $3.29.

Use $2/1 manufacturer’s printable coupon

Use $1/1 Target coupon here

Pay $0.29 each.

Skittles Crazy Cores--$0.52 (in the checkout lanes)

Use $1/1 Target coupon here

Free plus possible overage

Starkist Tuna Pouches-$1.33

Use $0.50/1 Target coupon here (the pouches are over 11 oz.)

Stack with $0.50/1 manufacturer's coupon here

(You can go to play every day so you should be able to print one coupon per day.)

$0.33 after coupons

Baked Lays Chips--$2.33Use $0.50/1 Target coupon here

Stack with $1/1 manufacturer's coupon here

(Click on the floating dollar sign.)

$0.83 after coupons

Thanks to Discount Queens and Common Sense with Money

for putting together this list of great deals above.

But I definatly spent way more than I wanted to when I went.... and the receipts there are weird for sure. It doesn't seem to minus the target coupons from the original prices to give me my actual saved total so I will re-add some things to be sure it's right/ and update the savings total when I have more time....

Here's some examples of the confusing receipt items....

Here, for Starkist Tuna Packages, I had a mfr coupon for .50 each and a Target coupon for $1 off wyb 3 tuna packs.....

According to my calculations when stacking the .50 coupon and 1/3 of the $1 off (.33) that's .73 off each package....so the tuna should've been .50 each, for a total of $1.50 for three, but here it says it's 2.99 package total??? I don't know what's going on here...

Another example?

Purina Dog food $29.89 original; target coupon $2.00 off, MFR coupon 3.00 off, that looks okay here but see how the original price LOOKS like it was 27.89? When the receipt calculates the total savings, I'm not sure it's including the target $2.00 off coupon.

I actually had 3 $3.50 coupons so the item should have been free! (well, .50 cent overage actually stacked with my $1.50 coupon....but It's only showing one here, so I don't know what happened!

Here's some Dove deodorant, you can see I got these for .29 each.... cool!

Here's the total shopping order; $118.82, with a savings of 82.00. or 41% off; not bad! But my goal is 50-75% off total, but sometimes you have to be okay with mediocre :)

Here's my receipt.....

As I was shopping and mentally calculating I only thought I'd spend about $50 with coupons, so I'm not sure how excited I am about going back to Target again....I'm not the type to go spend another 1/2 hour fighting with the customer service desk over incorrect coupons that the cashier has already put in his coupon drawer.... I really don't like dealing with "Mr Fabulous" at their cs desk, anyone who goes to the Layton target and has dealt with him knows what I mean! :)

So in conclusion..... if coupons and deals don't work like they "should", or if some don't get added in and I have to fight for my rights; I just go to places that DO work for like they should without too much effort on my part. I will give Target another chance, and go when I only need a couple of items; and go without my 4 year old....maybe you have to hand them all the mfgr coupons first, then the Target ones for the deals to work? Hmmmm.....

Have any of you had better luck at Target?

CRAZY Moneymaker!

Alright peeps; I had to keep checking Albies for my Ragu deal and they had some tonight so I ran down at 930: I did the Unilever/General Mills promotion - Vaseline lotion, Dove shampoo, and Q-Tips were the three items that printed out BOTH promo Catilina's at the end of the order so the deal was:
For Participating Unilever products- Spend $30 get $12 OYNO
For Participating General Mills products - Spend $30 get $15 OYNO

Since Vaseline overlapped in both offers I got $30 of lotion here; (the Shampoo and Q-Tips were gone from the shelves!)


These cost $31.95 with tax I saved $17.94 on store sale but geez! Who spends $31.95 on lotion?? Well, I guess I DO!.... because I know I can get $27 of Catilina's to print to spend OYNO. So really I only spent $3 on $50 worth of of lotion :)

OR you can think of it this way:

After this purchase I now have $27 to spend OYNO so I moved on to my Ragu transaction:

Got 18 Jars reg price $3.39 or $61.02 for all
Store sale $1.66 each or $30 for all
I had 9 $1/2 coupons
Bringing price down to $1.16 each or $21 for all
I used $17 in Catilina's (CATS) to bring the price for all to $4.00 or .22 each!
(I couldn't use another $5 cat to make it free because I would have an overage and would have "lost" $1. I should have gotten 19 jars of sauce and spent .16 total, but ah well)
Anyhoo; That's a 94% savings people!



But that's not all folks. The Sauce qualified for the GM Promo AGAIN so I got ANOTHER $15 OYNO!!

Or we could think of it as they paid me $30 to take all this stuff home! Either way you slice it it was an awesome trip.

Count em' folks $30 to spend at ALBIES on my next order!

Technically I could have gone back and done this a few more times and gotten cartloads of free goodies each day of this promotion; (limit 2 per day) but I'm tired and I have a life and there's a pont where I start feeling guilty about getting so much free stuff; so I feel like I got my fair share, went home to blog about it and now I'm going to bed......

I get all these hints and tips from Krazy Coupon Lady and the others listed in my couponing blog roll; so check them out!

Deal Example

Albertson's promo Spend $30 on participating items get $15 OYNO through today only!


So I did! Here's 2 transactions from today:










These items were in the promo that weren't GONE yet!
I wanted 18 jars of Ragu but it was not to be so I am stuck with junk food again:


All items here came to $31 with store savings
Used
6 -.60/1 Chex Bars coupons
Doubled 2 with Doublers
4 - .50/1 Cookie Crisp coupons
2 - .50/2 Gusher's Coupons




$24.09 total Saved 57%
Got a $15 Catalina I rolled over here:



Next Transaction used two doublers, the $15 ONYO Catilina and had $1/1 for each item
except syrup and 3 sauces - Store sale only



Saved 70% on this order. The nice thing here was all of the items were on a store sale. I son't buy Rhodes or Tyson or Barber items unless they're at least reduced $2 off each. They all were, so I added my $1/1 coupons to that and got these items at $3 off the original prices or better with my 2 doublers. Yeah!

Deal Example

I got roped in. I must really have a problem.
I told myself and you all that I wasn't going shopping for awhile.
Well that lasted a day. Maybe two. Okay so I didn't shop since the 29th which is technically 6 days from the last time I went so I'm okay right?
Argh. My mom NEEDED some stuff then I asked her to check in my coupon stash to see if I had one for it. ( I did) I told her about the double coupon days then she kinda went nuts and got out all these coupons out for stuff she needed and I just HAD to go last night didn't I or the double coupons at Smiths would be over the next day.
So off I went. Let me tell you it was kind of a nightmare. There were this gaggle of KCL's had to be a family of 3 women, but they were being WAY too loud and obnixious about how REDICULOUS it was that SO MUCH stuff was OUT OF STOCK. Blah Blah Blah..... They kind of ruined my great attitude. Yeah, a LOT of stuff was out of stock but that's what you get for crazy sales like that. 'Till supplies last you know :) So I tried to ignore the ranting and raving and gobbling from the group of chickenwomen on one end of the store and began my treck at the other......

I played a little game with myself; besides the stuff my mom needed;

I was going to get only the items I had a COUPON for,

and after doubling that coupon the item had to be .99 each

- average per item----- Which meant some items could be free too;

which would average my totals to .99 each item. (hopefully!)

So I went down EVERY isle, compared prices, with coupons. grabbed all my coupons from each section of my file as I went down the corresponding isle, so not much pre-planning here -

I used the .50 or better off an item which REALLY meant $1.00 up to $2.00 off an item or better for the sale. I was there for 3 hours - yes folks this is my new form of entertainment!
I had a cart FULL to overloading.
I called my cute husband in for back-up.... Literally my back was KILLING me, he rushed over in his car to my rescue and helped me for the last 45 minutes and did all the cart pushing, which freed my hands up for more coupon flipping and sorting.
Little Holla out to the Hubbies-----Yea Hubbies!

As I grabbed items I grabbed the coupon for it and put it in a blank file slot and I had 3/4 of an inch thick of coupons to hand the sweet cashier.

The items all rang up to $402.75 before coupons (GASP!)

I began to panic but told myself

"Breathe; if you did this right; all items should be less than $1 or better....."

Hubbie was "A little nervous but really curious to see how much we'd Really be paying"

So "David" starting to scan my coupons....

and down,

down,

down

the total went to $157.04!!!

I had 164 items total.

Yup! all less than .99! Some Free!

Here's some Items I got:

Duracell batteries 4 packs of AA's $3.00 Store sale
Doubled the 11 $1/1 coupons
Final price - $1 each - got 11 packages!

Jello .99 each Store Sale
5 - .50/2 coupons doubled
10 boxes @ .50 each

Hunts Pudding Cups Store Sale .99 each
4 pk coupon $1/4 4-packs Doubled
.50 each 4 pack - .12 each pudding cup

Herbal Essences - Store promo $2 each after $4 transaction Rebate
4 Shampoo/Conditioners:
4 coupons for B1G1 free - got 4 mousse products free!
Final price $1 each

6 Ocean Spray single packs (to flavor 16 0z water)
Store Sale $2.50 each
3 -$1/2 store coupons doubled
$1.50 each6 $.75/1 mfgr coupon doubled
Final Price - Free!

Speedstick Deodorant - .33 each after coupons

Excedrin 40 count -.50 per bottle after coupons

Butoni Refrigerated pasta - Reg $6.50 -$2.50 after coupons -
freezable meal for 4 for $2.50 plus pasta sauce - I got that for free too!

Clean and Clear products - $2.60 after coupons

6 Yoplait 4packs and 4 dannon 4 packs of yogurt
a .22 each moneymaker after coupon Whoot!
Made $2.20 on those!!

Nesquick moneymaker of .50 each - only 2 left - Darn!
I could only make a buck of those babies.
Well you get the idea...... Here's the receipt!




Look at this bad boy....it's as tall as me! - The checker told me it's the longest one he's seen that day - Ha! (swelling with pride here)





Notice the lovely Savings? I saved $281! That's 65% off! OR I only paid for 35% of my items :)

Ignore the man behind the curtain folks the 59% is wrong. It forgot to take into account my mom's regular priced items I minus-ed from this total





Here's more of the receipt FULL of coupons More coupons/promo's
Lots of Lovely lovely coupons being doubled....isn't it a lovely site? Did I say that already?

Just Lovely.

Thoughts on Not

"Frugality is...not too much, not too little, but just right. Nothing is wasted. Or left unused. It's a clean machine. Sleek. Perfect. Simple yet elegant. It's that magic word – enough”
Your Money or Your Life - Joe Dominguez

This comment I found posted on another blog today and it caught me by surprise. I was touched by it's simplicity. It's logic. And it was just what I needed.

I was actually looking for an excuse to no go shopping this week. I feel pressure to do all the "deals" sometimes; and this week probably has the BEST deals going on with Kraft and Kellogg's rebates at Albertson's and unlimited double coupons at Smiths etc etc.....just check the blogs to the left side here and you'll see.

But sometimes; and this is one of those times, I just don't wanna. I'm tired. I'm a little stressed about money; and as I look around my house, I don't have much room for much else right now when it comes to foodstuffs anyway. My freezers are full. My fridge is full, my pantry and closet and basement food storage is FULL. I could literally not go shopping for anything but fruits and veggie's for 3 weeks or more and be fine.
As you may or may not know I use Rosehill Dairy for my bread and dairy needs usually. They're great! About 1/2 as expensive as Winder and just as good. I know I could find better deals on milk and such at the grocery store, but if I stick to my "one shopping trip a week" mantra I wouldn't be able to do it without Rosehill. My boys go through a gallon of milk a day! And these guys deliver twice a week. It's easy and convenient. If I didn't work full time maybe I wouldn't go this route but it's EASY and it saves my Sanity.
And that was the point wasn't it?!? All of this couponing was to get me to a place where I wouldn't panic if I didn't have money to spend? So why not save a bit this week instead of spend it on things I REALLY don't need?

I came to this conclusion today after feeling SO guilty about a Kohl's purchase I made the other day. I hate buyers remorse. SURE I got a GREAT deal on some things, half-off most things; so much so that I thought about posting the deals here..... and yet it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I got so excited to finally have some "extra" cash that I went and spent it on clothes for everyone and I really wanted some new clothes for work. We all got two items of clothing each and a couple of things for the kitchen..... they had this 15% off everything sale so I got clearance items all 15% off AND got $30 Kohls cash to spend at another time; but I didn't get ALL clearance items...UGH. The point is that I didn't need it. Could've used the money somewhere else....and I don't feel very responsible right now. I will not be doing that again anytime soon.

SO! I will try to forgive that mistake and move forward from here. I think I will try this instead. No need to go shopping when I HAVE everything I need. Sure there are some things I COULD stock up on but this week I don't NEED too. So I will be frugal this week, not too much, not to little. Just right.

Smith's is catching up!

SMITH'S IS DOUBLING COUPONS!!

1 COUPON PER ITEM, UP TO $1 VALUE COUPONS DOUBLED. NO LIMITS!! Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday of this week......Lets see what I can do with this......

Stay Tuned!