Grocery Bonanza!

We have some grocery budget left this month (and still some, even after all this shopping! Why yes, my grocery budget IS huge!) (but not spending it all as we had some other odd expenses this month we need the cash for) and so I went shopping for things we need, great deals, unexpected finds and superbowl snackers.

• At Target, Yoplait is regular $.52 each, which is still good considering prices on yogurt have been going up. Using a $1 manq and a $1 store coupon, I got 8/$2.16, or $.27 each! They had some fun new flavors in the Light Thick and Creamy like Cinnamon Roll and Cherry Cobbler.


• I had a coupon for a free Grapefuit bowl, which cost me $.10 after the coupon max.


• Buy a Digiorno Pizza for $3.99 (excellent price!) and get a free 2L of Coke, which I needed for superbowl party. So Matt got the pizza he wanted.


• Starkist Tuna Pouch on sale for $1.49, used $1 coupon.


• Hormel Chili $1.24 for superbowl dip


• Onion Soup Mix (a pantry staple) $.85


• Egg Noodles for tonight's dinner $.53!


• RiceWorks Chips FREE with coupon


• Stacy's Pita Chips 2/$5, used two $1.50 coupons, 2/$2!

All that for a grand total of $11.77 for party food! Great deal.




Today I hit up Joe Caputo's, which is a family run 'mini-chain' of three stores in the area. Ours is tiny, but always well stocked with high-quality, good-priced produce.

• 1lb carrots (our fave veggie) $.49


• large spanish onions $.49/lb


• Orange Peppers $1.29/lb


• Red Peppers $.98/lb


• Strawberries $1.50


• White Mushrooms $2.19/lb


• Blueberries $1


• Crimini Mushrooms $2.69/lb


• Baby Carrots $.79


• Dutch Farms Shredded Cheese $1.50! Great deal. One for dip, rest for freezer


• Avocados 2/$1 for guac


• tiny onions $.19/lb. I hate chopping tiny onions. Waste of time, no matter how cheap. Will quarter and shove up the chicken's butt ;)


• Garlic $.89/lb


• Jalapenos $.89/lb


• limes $.10


• Yellow Peppers $1.29/lb


• Plum Tomatoes $.69/lb for pico de gallo

All that produce for $24.58. Great deals considering $6 of that is cheese and going to make myself guac and salsa. Peppers are for dipping at SuperBowl

Last stop, Jewel. I normally don't shop at Jewel unless they have an amazing deal to pull me in the door, but it is basically across the street from home so I do stop once in a while and today I wanted a chicken.

• Fryers were $.77/lb, so I'm going to try this recipe tomorrow. I love crock pot cooking!


• Milk was $2.28, decent...


• Thomas' English Muffins $1.99. My new breakfast fave!


• Sabra Hummus $3.99 BOGO, used two $1.50 coupons from Sunday's paper, so 2/$.99!! Can't beat that for munchies


• Fisher trail mix $1 on clearance, used $1 coupons = 4 FREE


• Fisher BBQ Peanuts $1 on clearance, used $1 coupon = FREE


• Diamond Vanilla Bean Almonds $2 on clearance, used $1 coupon = $1

All that for $11.05 ($2.28 was milk, $4.35 was chicken.) Plus I got a coupon for a free box of South Beach bars, some new "Fiber Fit." It is worded funny though, it says "FREE when you buy a box of FIber FIt or High Protein Cereal Bars" I think it means BOGO but doesn't sound right as either BOGO or totally free so I will try and just get one free box and see if it works...

That's the deals! Next stop is Super WalMart on Sunday (it's not at all convenient to home, but will actually be out near one on the way to a Super Bowl party) but that is next month's budget ;)

Happy Birthday to me!

Haha, I know some of you are like "You had your birthday?" I didn't (it's in two weeks) but I spent all my money!!

I took the check from my MIL and went to KnitPicks. I wanted sizes 1 and 2 dpns in the mm I don't have, and broke a size 3 of my CPY ones. Plus I'd always wanted to try the Harmony needles as they are SO nice looking! I went crazy =)










I bought: Size 1 (2.5mm), size 2 (3mm), size 3 (3.25mm), size 7 (4.5mm) in the dpns, and then the tips in size 4 (3.5mm) and 5 (3.75mm).

The tips are the most common size I use for lace knitting, and never seem to have a needle free (maybe I should finish one project before moving on to the next, eh?), I love tiny needles (although I don't knit socks...) and the largest dpn I own is 6, so need to expand.

Then I got 9 hanks of Gloss in Burgundy to make Thermal as I have been eyeing it since it came out. I think I recall people saying it was short if you knit as written, and I had a few extra bucks so added a skein more than my size called for. I love this yarn and can't wait to wear this!!

And THEN!! I got a Wii Fit!!! YAY!!!!!!!! One of my coworkers saw me in the hall yesterday and asked if I was still looking for it. He was in a GameStop on Tuesday and they actually had some in stock. So I dashed back to my desk and called the store. He told me they had a few and of course he can't hold it. So I call my mom since home is closer to the store than my work, and she shuts off the oven and runs over there to get the LAST one. I am so stoked to have this!!

So yes, I spent all of my birthday money two weeks before my birthday LOL

Target Run 1/21

Yeah, yeah. no photo. But hey, still good deals.

Kashi TLC Soft Baked Cereal Bars: $2.75 each, $2 IP coupon = 4/$3
Ocean Spray Light Juice: $1.99, $1 store coupon, $1 manq = -$.02 for 2
Right Guard Deodorant: $3.64

I now have (with my mom's $9 in receipts) the $50 for the P&G coupon rebate, which should be some good coupons we will split.

$3 for four boxes of healthy granola bars and 2 bottles of juice? SOLD!

CVS Trip 1/20

Well, I had $36 in ECBs expiring yesterday, and while some stores accept them once they expire, not all do and I don't want to play with it.

(I'm going to add a post about how rainchecks work at CVS, which will be in the sidebar. I will hopefully remember to come back to this post and link to it as well)

CVS Claritin, 5 pack: $3.79 each, $3.79 ECB back
Gas-X: ($5.69x2) - $1 manq x2, $5/2 CRT, = $4.38 for both
Ragu: $1.67 each
L'Oreal: free with raincheck, plus they are BOGO so they paid me $7 to take them.
Benefiber: free with raincheck, plus used $2 manq
Complete Contact Solution: Free with raincheck
Rubbermaid water bottles: BOGO50% $4.49 for both, and I needed a water bottle for the gym
Listerine Smart Rinse: $5.29, earn $3 ECB
Excedrin Express Gels: $1.99, used $1 manq, $1 CRT
Old Spice Shower Gel: $4.49, $1 manq
Old Spice Deodorant: $3.29
Herbal Essences: $6.99
Pantene: $4.99x2, used $3/2 manq

Basically this store rings the items up at full price, then deducts a store coupon for them. So I could still use manq's on them. However, I didn't know this until he was ringing me up, so I couldn't use all my bucks in the first transaction, plus I didn't use any coupons as I was so flustered. Otherwise I could have bought $9 more of stuff. But I look at it this way: I spent under $3 on my gift card for things we need (hubby needs more deodorant, we need the meds and ragu and water bottles). I did spend $36 ECB and only get $11 for next time, but it is still money not spent from the grocery bill!! If they ever get a corporate policy all shoppers will be thrilled!

Walgreens for Candy!

Yum! I'm really trying hard to watch what I eat. So yeah, Reese's candy bars, not so good. But Hershey's 100 Calorie Snack bars = great!

Quaker Oatmeal: $1.99 w/in-ad coupon, $1 manq, = $1.98 for 2
Reese's Whipps bars: 2/$1.00 w/in-ad coupon, $1/2 manq, = 8 FREE!
Hershey's 100 Calorie Bars: 2/$4 after IVC, $.75 manq x4, = 4/$5
The Hershey's IVC does NOT scan, even though it is pictured on there. They just did a price adjust for me.
Spent $7.26, using up my prescription GC.

I'm debating going to the same Wag's this week that I was at last week. The pharmacist really wanted my business and was even going to give me my coupon back to use again. Maybe he'd just give me a GC to keep my business for another month? hmmmm

New Blog Button

New Year, New Me!

haha. Or so I hope. Definitely some things I need to change, and while I don't always make 'resolutions,' I do need to work on a few aspects of my life.

So I needed a blog button for the name change (which I never really announced!) but I am now known as "Helen Knits and Saves" rather than "AngelKnits." I figured Elizabeth could either do it or would know who could, and she suggested her son, Owen. He made me one in no time flat. I appreciate the simpleness of it; goes with my theme of paring down and saving money and all that jazz ;) I'd recommend him!



I'll drop it in the sidebar and feel free to save it and use it as a link!

Walgreens 1/4

Not everything is pictured as we gave some items to my mother-in-law =)

Quaker Oatmeal: $1.99 with in-ad coupon, used $1 manq: $1.98 for both
Electrasol: $3.49, used $2.50 manq, earn $1.50 rebate: -$.51
Reynolds Foil: $.99 with in-ad q, used $1 manq: -$.02 for both
Revlon Matte collection eyeshadow: $5.99 FAR
Glade candle refills: $2.50 each, $2.50 on two manq, $2 rebate
Glade Carpet Fresh: $2.50, $1 coupon, $1 rebate
Glade Candle: $2.50, $1 coupon, $1 rebate
=4 Glade items for $1.10 after rebate with bonus =)
Used $10 RR from hair dryer deal
Spent $4.99 on GC but earned $11.54 with bonus.

Yay!

CVS 1/4

Today Matt and I went just to blow some bucks (some expiring this week, and I also had over $60 so decided we should just buy items he needs that I rarely see on sale).

The Fusion blades weren't on sale, but you got a free shave gel automatically, and then I used my coupon for a free body wash with purchase. That's $13.99 for all three items.

Cashews are $.79 each, but buy one get one 50% off, and I had a CRT for $1/2.
Gatorade just to use ECBs: $1.25
Curel lotions: $5.99 each.

I didn't realize the nuts were part of the BOGO50% sale, and the razor blades rang up $1 less than the shelf said, so I wasn't able to use my $1 coupons on the Curel. We used $22.57 in ECBs, including my $1 quarterly rewards (2 scripts) and a $5/$25 coupon expiring today. Didn't earn any, but items that made Matt happy ;) Spent $.11 on GC.

Year-end Savings Review

Here are my totals for the year for Walgreens and CVS.

As for Walgreens, I didn't keep track of the value of the items until a couple months ago, but have actually been doing their rebates actively since February. I can't totally calculate my savings due to that, but will just give an overview:

Cash outlay: $105.61
Gift cards redeemed: $257.20
Register Rewards earned: $125.50
Total coupons redeemed: $490.87
Rebate earned: $263.21

CVS I was better able to keep track of things from the beginning. I began in May and haven't stopped since. However, I have learned to not buy things just because they are free, and to really try and get the items we like at a good price. We are also able to try new things because of the deals. I have donated a TON of items and also used a lot for gifts.

Cash outlay: $0!!
Gift cards redeemed: $107.92
ECB's redeemed: $578.72

CVS coupons used: $131.49
Manufacturer's coupons used: $298.20

ECB's earned: $639.57
Items purchased: 393
Value of items: $1,310.71

To sum that up, I got $1,310.71 worth of items for $107.92 'cash' (gift cards that I earned from transferring prescriptions). That is a savings of $1202.79 or 92%!! This is $.27 per item. I can't wait to see what this year brings!

Happy savings! =)