Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Shopping Trip 11/11/09

I got stuff for both ends this week. Food and diapers. I still plan to use cloth diapers, but I'm not too good for disposables when I can get them for this kind of deal!!

Walgreens has Huggies on sale this week, and when combined with the perfect combination of coupons, well, it's just a steal. I was sad that their sale doesn't produce RR's (Register Rewards - $ off your next purchase), but it was still a very good deal!
(4) pks. Huggies Diapers (2 of the pks were higher count than any of the shelf tags were for, but they still rang up at the sale price! I'll take 'em!) - $8.99
(1) Huggies Wipes - $3.29 (to bring the after-coupon total to over $25)
(2) Christmas Tumblers (filler) $.29
(1) Walgreen's Children's Activity Book (not pictured - got it for the diaper coupon inside) - $.99
~~~~~~
Used:
(4) $2 Huggies Diapers IPQ's
(1) $.50 Wipes Q
(4x) $1 Huggies Q from Activity Book (scans once for each item so it scanned at $4)
In-Ad Q that made the Tumblers $.13 ea.
$5/$25 In-Ad Q

Shelf Price - $45.40
Total OOP - $24.58
Saved - $20.82 or 46%
(Diapers came out to $4.87 with tax, per pkg)

Kroger has a nice cereal sale going on this week, and I had even nicer coupons to match!
(8) boxes Cereal - $6.84 / $.86ea.
Newman's Salsa - $.50
Crushed Pineapple - $1.00
Gal. Milk - $2.50
Utz Chips - $1.89
Kroger Chips - $2.99
(2) Kroger FF Sour Cream - $.99 ea. (Markdown)
Kroger Corn - $.79
Great Value Honey - $7.72 (from WalMart)
2+ lbs. Ground Round - $7.37
2lb. Carrots - $.99
Celery - $1.63
2lbs. Cheese - $2.99/lb.
Tomatoes - $1.85/lb ($2.29)
Apples - $1.00/lb ($1.61)
Oranges - FREE (they kept ringing up the wrong price so the cashier gave them to me)
2lbs. Walnuts - $4.49/lb (on sale plus a nice Q!)
1lb. Lunchmeat - $3.50

Shelf Price - $100.25
Total OOP - $62.30
Saved - $37.95 / 38%

Part of this week's expenses are for next week's menu plan. I've decided to plan a week ahead so that if I need something before Wed. of the next week, I can go ahead and pick it up this week. We're out of ground beef, and it's on the menu for next week, so I picked some up. I couldn't believe it, for the first time they didn't have any marked down. There were some hefty roasts in the Markdowns, but no ground beef. I also opted for a leaner grind - more meat for my money is what I say, esp. if I'm gonna pay full price for it, I don't want to have to pour my money down the drain.

The Walnuts and Honey are stockup items. We've been out of honey for a while, and out of walnuts for even longer. Some things (Banana Nut Muffins for one) just aren't the same without walnuts. I was happy to see the sale and coupon this week - they were even cheaper than store brand, and 2 lbs. should hopefully last a while - if I don't get too walnut happy - and I love walnuts :)

Again, I just have to give a shout out to my Kroger store. Their Customer Service is a-ma-zing. I really need to sit down and write a letter to corporate and let them know how great this particular branch's CS is. Everyone is friendly and always incredibly helpful. I've not had that nice of service at any of their others stores that I've been to.

5 comments:

Sally said... [Reply to comment]

Those Huggies and that cereal is SOME DEAL! I see you even got the good Winnie the Pooh (aka, Supreme) variety. Good going!

Kudos to you for your advancing organization with menu planning and shopping ahead. I am cooking sporadically, but it's not last-minute. It's just that the people who will be eating the meals, meals I will be cooking for other families, etc., changes nearly daily. I just adapt my menu to fit the needs of the day, and usually figure it out about a day in advance. That's an excuse for my laziness in not planning menus.

Cate said... [Reply to comment]

The Huggies were a great deal! We're cloth diapering and we love it, so I hope you do, too! We had to use disposables once when our washer was out, and they gave our daughter terrible diaper rash--so hopefully you have better luck than us!

Also, I'm jealous you have Utz chips in your Kroger...we can't get them here in Kentucky, and I miss them! (I grew up in Maryland).

Cate said... [Reply to comment]

We actually just use the basic Gerber prefolds with Bumkins diaper covers. The prefolds have held up great so far, and while they may stain temporarily, the stains always come out within a few wash cycles. They're cheap enough, also, that if some of them do start falling apart, it won't be a big deal to pick up another package (of 12) to fill in the gaps. I like the Bumkins diaper covers pretty well, though I think they're a little overpriced. If I had to purchase cloth diapers all over again, I think I might go with Fuzzi Bunz all-in-one diapers. I've heard great things about them and they seem more cost-effective in the long run (prefolds work for any size, but covers need to be purchased in varying sizes like with disposable diapers--or at least, our Bumkins covers do.)

Overall, though, we love cloth diapering! Since I'm at home all day, I find it pretty easy to just toss a load of diapers in the wash whenever. The only thing about them is that you need to use special detergent without soap or fabric softeners, or it'll start to kill the absorbency of the diapers.

Have you gotten any strange looks yet when you've told people you're planning on cloth diapering? We got some of the funniest reactions, like "...you mean, you're going to wash those in the same washing machine you wash your CLOTHES in?!" Lol!

Miriam said... [Reply to comment]

@ Cate: A lot of people in our church use cloth, so no funny looks. I'm the one that gives funny looks when some of them tell me that until their baby starts on solids, they don't rinse out the poopy diapers before washing. I dunno, I don't think I could NOT rinse them. I'm debating between the pre-folds and the all-in-ones. My thing is: I do not want to use diaper pins or the ancient rubber pants. To me they = too much hassle.

Cate said... [Reply to comment]

I don't rinse the diapers themselves (I did it a couple times and it didn't seem to make much of a difference) but I do rinse the diaper covers. With them, it really helps.

Since we're using prefolds, we started out with diaper pins. We didn't like them AT ALL. I kept sticking myself with the pins and they were just too big of a pain. Instead, we realized that our diaper covers have this handy "pocket" in the front that you tuck the folded diaper into, and then all you have to do is put the diaper/cover on the baby. It has velcro snaps, so the diaper cover ends up holding the diaper on by itself. It's pretty handy. I don't think you need the rubber pants with all-in-ones, though, so that might be the way to go. I'm pretty tempted by them myself!