Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Groceries and Deals

Special thanks to Andrea, Stephanie and ConsumerQueen for helping me each week in my grocery shopping! Andrea and Stephanie both post the deals for Kroger & CVS (and other stores) each week, and it makes my grocery list planning a breeze! ConsumerQueen is full of tips and tricks for "wheelin' and dealin'" the deals each week, and they are always helpful! Thanks ladies!!

Kroger:~ 4 boxes GM Cereal (2 Corn Chex, 1 Rice Chex, 1 Cinn. Crunch Total) - $14.18
$1/2 Shortcuts Q for Chex
$3/3 Peelie for Chex
$.75 Q for Cinn. Crunch Total
$4 off at checkout if you buy 4
$5.43 or $1.35ea. (at least 2 of the Chex will be used for family Christmas and will be reimbursed)

~ Colgate MaxFresh Toothpaste - $2.75
$.25 Kroger Plus sale
$1.50 Cellfire Q
$.75 Q
$.25

~ 4 Roll Cottonelle - $.99
$.50 Cellfire Q
$.25 Q doubles to $.50
FREE

~ Betty Crocker Walnut Choc. Chip Cookie Mix - $2.39
$.40 Kroger Plus sale
$.55 Shortcuts Q
$.40 Q doubles to $.80
$.64 (you can't MAKE 'em for that!)

~ (2) Betty Crocker Frosting - $3.98
$.98 Kroger Plus sale
$.55 Shortcuts Q (there were 2 DIFFERENT Q's, it only took 1)
(2) $.50 Q's, doubles to $2.00 total
$.45, or $.22ea. (still a great deal!)

~ PAM Cooking Spray (needed more) - $2.99
$.49 Kroger Plus sale
$.35 Q doubles to $.70
$1.80 (cheaper than store brand)

~ (2) Daisy Sour Cream - $3.10
$1.10 Kroger Plus sale
(2) $.50 Q doubles to $2.00 total
FREE

~ Chuck Steak - $2.24
Manager's Special markdown, a treat for us

~ Tangerines - $4.99
$1.49 Kroger Plus sale
$3.50 (for 12 tangerines, cheaper per serving than buying navel oranges 2/$1)

~ Yeast - $2.09
$1.09 Kroger Plus sale
$.40 Q doubles to $.80
$.20

Total Before Savings: $39.70
Total OOP: $15.34
Saved: $24.36 or 61%
Earned a $.50 Catalina (coupon)!! Yippee, my first Catalina!!


Food Lion:
~ (2) 16. oz. Armour Italian Meatballs - $6.20
$1.20 FL MVP sale
(2) $.55 coupons
$3.90, or $1.95/lb. (a decent deal and a treat for us)

~ (3) small FL Pineapple Chunks - $1.98 ($.66/ea)
$1/3 FLIP (FL Internet Printable)
$.98, or $.32/ea (these are also for family Christmas and will be reimbursed)

~ FL Butter - $3.59
$1 FLIP
$2.59 (not a great deal, but I don't have much butter and the coupon expires this week)

~ Soleil 4 pack refill cartridges - $6.43
$3.22 for BOGO sale
$3 Q
$.21 (these will go with my prev. Soleil Deal)

Total Before Savings: $18.20
Total OOP: $8.05
Saved: $10.15 or 56%


CVS:
Transaction 1:
~ Quattro Razor - $8.99
$1.00 CVS sale
$2 Q
$5.99

~(2) Maybelline Lipstick - $13.38
$6.69 CVS BOGO sale
(2) $4.00 Q ($8)
$1.31 moneymaker

Total Before Savings: $22.37
Used $2 ECB
Total OOP: $4.36
Saved: $18.01 or 81%
Earned $4 ECB on razor

Transaction 2:
~ 5 Planters Mixed Nuts - $32.95 (some are for family Christmas and will be reimbursed)
$17.95 CVS sale
$15.00, or $3ea.

Total Before Savings: $32.95
Used $4 ECB from Tran. 1
Total OOP: $11.27
Earned $5 ECB for spending $15

CVS Total Before Savings: $55.32
Used $6 ECB's
Total OOP: $15.63
Saved: $39.69 or 72%


Whole Trip:
Total Before Savings: $113.22
Total OOP: $39.02
Total Saved: $74.20 or 66%

About $9 of this will be reimbursed since it's food for my family's get together. I don't know that I would have done CVS this week except I had the $2 ECB that expired this week and I couldn't just throw that $2 away! So I tried to make it grow. It did cost some OOP to "grow" it, but I think it was well worth it. These were all pretty expensive items, but some of it will be reimbursed, and some will be gifts :) So while it's all "OOP", once I get it all figured out, the amount coming out of the grocery budget won't be ALL of the "whole trip OOP". I think I will wind up close to or even under my $25 grocery budget :)

Question for ya - I've only been able to get "women's" razors for good deals. Do you think that I can convince Daniel to use a "woman's" razor?? :P We shall see! I was going to try and do the deal on men's razors, but they were HORRIBLY, HORRIBLY expensive!! Even with ECB's and coupons, it was going to cost me an arm, leg and my firstborn. I didn't think it was worth it.

7 comments:

Liz said... [Reply to comment]

Good job with the coupons. I wish we had a CVS and Kroger around here. We don't have any stores that have specials like that or double (except Kmart last week - but that was the first time ever!). My husband used one of my shavers (& my deodarant) when he ran out once and now he's hooked! He said they work better than his and the razors didn't seem to give him razor burn as bad as the mens.

Miriam said... [Reply to comment]

Liz, I guess I am pretty greatful for having Kroger here, but sometimes when I read of people that have a Kroger that doubles coupons up to $.99, I get jealous :) I will pass along the razor info to Daniel and see what he says ;) He started on his last disposable Sunday (he only shaves on Sundays)... we'll see :)

Phoebe @ GettingFreedom said... [Reply to comment]

I am oh so envious that you have a Kroger and a CVS!



It is funny that you said you haven't been able to find deals on men's razors...I have them coming out of my ears!! It wasn't until the last week or so that I've seen good deals on women's razors. I was beginning to think I was going to have to use some of Willie's stash! :)

Sally said... [Reply to comment]

Wow! Are you able to save money, or what! Over $100 of products for $30-some. Good job! What else can I say.

I got my shopping done today. Groan. There was no fantastic savings. I used some of the Huggies coupons you gave me. I very humbly and ashamedly admit that as hard as I tried, I never could get things to work out for me to get to Kmart last week. I made an honest effort, but I couldn't get it to work out with the kids' and my schedules. If they do that again, please let me know. Maybe I can hit it the next time. I have some Huggies coupons from Gail that don't expire until Feb. Even though we hope to start Hannah potty-training soon, I 'spect she'll still use diapers for a while.

Latte said... [Reply to comment]

My husband and I go to bulk discount stores (where they get stuff from drug stores that go out of business or dent and damage stuff) and we usually find razors at those places for next to nothing! So if you have one of those you could try there?

Latte

Elizabeth said... [Reply to comment]

You're awesome! Great job :) Talk to your DH about it --- women's razors work so much better than men's. Just buy the orange color when available so he won't feel weird using pink ;)

Cookies~ dark chocolate chip cookies, some with coconut, some with walnuts... chocolate cookies with white chips, some with coconut, some with walnuts... oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, some with white chips and walnuts... holiday colored m&m cookies... and I still have candy cane sugar cookies and peanut butter blossoms. Oh, and snickerdoodles... yum! :) Are you baking this year?

Miriam said... [Reply to comment]

Latte - I SOOOO wish we had a discount store around here, but there aren't any. I've been asking different people ever since I moved here when we got married, searching online, etc, and there just isn't one. I would be there if there was one, though!!

Elizabeth - I don't know... I will probably do some, but not like you're doing! Those all sound really good! I bet you'll have one busy oven this weekend baking them all :) How I wish I could "come over" to your house and we could bake together!