Super Savings Saturday

I wasn't going to post a SSS post this week, but I finally made it to CVS a little while ago, and it was a pretty good trip. So I decided to go ahead and post it along with my Kroger savings this week.

I made two trips to Kroger. Actually, the first trip was Saturday of last week, but I didn't post last Saturday, so I'm combining it with this weeks.

Here are the pictures of the two trips:


The total before sales and coupons - $173.12
I paid - $90.49
I saved - $82.63

Not too bad. The stuff I bought in the Big Event sale was stuff I buy anyway, but some of it I don't buy as often. So this was a nice way to stock up. My total could have been a little less, but there were a few things I needed that I didn't have coupons for, and a couple things I bought for a new recipe that I don't typically buy.

Oh - and I bought three of the reusable bags today. I really like them - they came in handy carrying all that Gatorade and the canned goods today. They are nice and sturdy and I was able to fit all of the stuff in the second picture (Except the paper towels and the milk) in three of those bags! It would have taken many more plastic bags to hold all of that heavy stuff! I will be getting a few more next time. They hold so much more, and they will be great for my trips to Aldi!

My CVS trip was my big savings. Here's what I got:

Total before sales and coupons - $65.62
I paid - $10.14
I made $9.50 Extra Bucks and $10 cash*!

The bad part? It would have only cost me $2.14. I had $8.00 in EB's that expired! That stunk big time. This would have been my greatest CVS trip to date, had those not expired. I can't believe I let that happen, and I can assure myself it won't happen again!

*The $10 cash was because of the Cover Girl deal. The sale for next week was already activated which is buy one get one. The computer read that being the better deal, but it actually wasn't since I had two buy one get one free coupons and wanted the $10 EB's for purchasing $20. The manager that was there is so great, and he didn't bat an eye about it not working right. He told me the computer was not going to cooperate and print the EB's so he just re-rang it and handed me $10. He was actually laughing at that darn register (and the fact that it wasn't cooperating) and was incredibly nice. Apparently the same thing happened earlier today with someone else, so he was totally prepared to handle it. No complaints here!

I am very thankful that the couple of times the system didn't cooperate just right that the manager was awesome and was willing to make it work. I think it pays to keep a smile on your face and be extra friendly, and I plan to keep doing that! I certainly wouldn't want them to see me as a 'problem' customer!

I'm finally getting a hang of the CVS shopping, and making it work better. It also helped that the things I went in to get were actually in stock! Now to make the EB's I earned today work for me and NOT let them expire!

If you want to see how much others are saving, be sure to visit Money Saving Mom!

Super Savings Saturday

It's Super Savings Saturday!! Hosted by Crystal at Money Saving Mom.

Edited to add: I'm also linking up at BeCentsAble for Shopper Show & Tell, in hopes to win a $15 gift card!

It's been a while since I participated in SSS because I haven't been very diligent in seeking out the good deals and clipping/using my coupons. But I'm back on track and I'm actually having fun doing it!

I have a goal to cut my grocery budget as much as I possibly can. I've been reading several awesome blogs about how to do it best. I'm still not getting deals as awesome as some of these ladies are who have been doing this for a while, but I plan to be "one of them" as soon as possible! I'm taking the tips from all these great women and at the moment I'm working on stocking my kitchen. All the "experts" say that if you have a well stocked kitchen, you can get by with a much smaller grocery budget because you aren't forced to buy things at full price because you ran out. You can watch the sales and combine then with the coupons to get excellent deals. You get the best deals on the things you use this way. And I'm on my way to being a Super Smart Shopper!

Anyway, I'm participating in SSS today and sharing my shopping trips (with pictures) from this week and last week as well since I didn't get it done in time to have a post up last Saturday. This is going to be kind of long, so if you aren't interested in my groceries, go ahead and click away now! Don't say you haven't been warned!

First up - I am just a bit excited that I have an Aldi not too terribly far from me! I've read over and over again how people are saving so much money by shopping there, and I was just a bit jealous! So I was happy to make this discovery. It is 20 miles from me, so I won't be running there every week. I had to go to the chiropractor the other day, and it is right on the way home, so I decided to run in and check it out. And I'm glad I did. I was very pleased and I think a trip every 2-3 weeks to stock up will work great. And if I can plan it so this is a stop when I go to the chiropractor, it works out perfectly, and I haven't spent any extra in gas!

I only got a few things, but I was definitely pleased. Here is what I purchased:

That's an almost 7lb. ham, 2 gallons of milk, orange juice, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, onion soup mix, 2+ lbs. of bananas, peanut butter/cheese crackers, animal crackers, hot dog buns and tortilla chips for a grand total of $21.23.
Now, I don't know exactly how much I saved, but my guess is at least $15.00 had I bought the same items elsewhere. And you know what? EVERYTHING I've tasted is just as good as the name brands or store brands I usually buy. Even my husband commented today that the tortilla chips were good!

Next is Kroger. First I'll share what I got last week. I ended up taking a second trip when I realized I had forgotten to buy hubby's Diet Coke with Lime and also realized I could print more cereal coupons. Gotta take advantage of FREE cereal!
Sorry the picture isn't better, but here's what I got:


Total of merchandise pictured (both pictures combined): $238.60
I spent: $139.60
That's a savings of $99.00! Not amazing, but I think that's pretty good!
That included (I'm not listing everything):
10 boxes of cereal
5 boxes of Hot/Lean Pockets
4 lbs. of ground turkey
3 lbs. of ground chuck
Approx. 10 lbs. of chicken thighs + a whole chicken
2 lbs of bacon
...and obviously much more.
I think I did pretty good!

Today I went to Kroger again and Ingles. Ingles is about 3 miles from me, and Kroger is just around the corner, so it makes it pretty easy to take advantage of sales at both stores. I only bought the toilet paper (had coupons!) and the Vienna sausages there. (There sale price beat Sam's price which I have found to be the cheapest so far. And my kids LOVE these things!) The rest is from Kroger:

Yes...that is another 8 boxes of cereal. We LIKE cereal! (It happens to be one of my favorite late night snacks!) And with the deal they were offering plus my coupons (had them for every box), how could I NOT take advantage? After the sale and my coupons, I paid 81 cents a box!!!
The Loreal Kids shampoo and de-tangle spray cost me a total of $1.48 because the were B1G1 and I had a coupon for each! Also had a coupon for the B1G1 Vive shampoo/conditioner.
The Diet Cokes/Pibb Zeros were 4/$12 which isn't bad, but I love when I can get them cheaper than that - that's when I really stock up!
The only thing in this photo that was not on sale was the creamer (I have to have my creamer) and the pepperonis.
Everything pictured here was a total of $94.93 before sales/coupons.
I paid $42.72
Savings of $52.21
Yeah, I'm having just a little bit of fun with this.

I really can't wait to be saving MORE!

OK now on to CVS. I'm still not saving as much as I'd like on these trips. Usually, after I've figured out my plan, I have to re figure everything when I get there because my store is out of everything. But I found out when they restock and now I'm planning my trips accordingly to have a better chance of catching everything.

I was really hoping to take advantage of the vitamin c, toothpaste and toothbrush deals this week, but they still had not restocked those. Oh well. It's an all-month deal, so there's still hope!

Anyway, here are pics from 2 shopping trips (one last week, one this week):


Total of merchandise before sales/coupons: $79.50
My cost out of pocket (oop)- $10.32 PLUS I earned another $8 in extra bucks that I can use later, AND I made $10 CASH! (I'll explain in a minute.) I did have a little extra help in the form of a gift card. I filled a new prescription there and got a $25 gc for doing so. That really helped keep my oop cost down.
As for the $10 cash - I was doing the Excedrin deal which should have generated $10 in ECB's. I picked up the two that would give me the correct total for this deal. When they scanned, one of them scanned a dollar less than it was marked, so I was 52 cents under the mark to earn the ECB's. I asked the manager if I could possibly exchange one of them to get the deal to work and he said since I was that close that he'd just take care of it. I guess I thought he was going to somehow give me an IOU ECB or something, but he opened the register and handed me $10!
Now if I had been really smart, I would have gone and bought another bottle of Excedrin and still would have gotten my $10 in ECBs on top of that. But I didn't. Oh well.
Anyway, I think the combination of these two trips has been my best deal yet! Yay!

And if that brings this to a close. And if you are still reading, you deserve some kind of award!

Slowly but Surely...

I'm getting the hang of the CVS deals. I'm not a pro yet - I still haven't come out with $100+ worth of stuff for less than $5 out of pocket...but I will eventually.

But I think I did pretty good today. Not great by the "pros'" standards, but I'm pleased. I know I could have done a little better if I'd split my last order up and rolled some more of the ECB's. But that's ok - I'll have some for next time.

Anyway, this is what I got:


Total before coupons and ECB's - $96.39
I paid - $32.59 (The drinks and razors alone would have cost just over that amount!)
I saved - $63.77

AND I have $20.99 in ECB's to use later. Actually, I may have $10 more if the Johnson & Johnson deal worked correctly. The manager said it should update in 48 hrs and I should have the extra $10 then. We'll see!

I've got to get quicker at this though. It seems to take me forever to go through and figure it all out. I spend quite a bit of time at home working on it. I make my list and group my coupons according to the list and the separate transactions I will make. But if I get in there and they don't have something, I have to re-figure some of the deals.

The employees & managers I've encountered at my store have been great. If something doesn't print the ecb like it should, they just add it in manually to my next order with no problem. That happened today and one other time. And then I got home tonight and discovered that another ecb didn't print, so I called up there. The manager answered and he said no problem, just bring the receipt next time I come in and they will adjust it. He was so nice. I told him I was sorry if I was being a pain, and he said, "Oh not at all - your are just a good shopper!" I'm so glad everyone there so far has been so nice! (Because I've heard of some less than pleasant experiences from other CVS'ers at other stores!)

I was even extra happy today when the cashier started scanning my coupons, one had expired and it accepted it anyway! I didn't realize it had expired - I thought I had checked them all - but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it worked!

I will get the hang of this soon, so that I can shop like the pros do! I think I want to start going when Chip is home to watch Ruthi though, so I can concentrate better!

Funny - I ended up with a headache in the store so bad, (I think I was getting pretty hungry which could have contributed!) that I had to open the Excedrin as soon as I got in the car! Thankfully between taking it and eating, the headache is almost gone now.

Now I'm going to rest my brain. (Saving money can be tiring! LOL!) So I'm not going to get the Thanksgiving pictures up tonight. I'll work on those tomorrow.

Good night!

Super Savings Saturday

I don't have much this week. No great grocery or drugstore deals this week.

But - I've been trying to decorate my daughter's room without blowing the budget. I've been looking for some stuff for her walls that I like but that aren't outrageous in price.

A week or so ago, I made this for her wall. The letters were less than $2 each, and the cost of everything to decorate was around $5. So about $15 for the whole project.

I wanted a couple of small shelves for her wall, and have had my eye on some at Michael's for a while now. Well, this week they had 2 50% off coupons in the ad. They were for different days, so I had to make 2 trips. But it is close by, and worth the extra trip.

So I got these:

They were regular $12.99, but I got them both for that price total! I knew waiting patiently would pay off!

And I'm pretty sure I have plenty of paint left over from painting her room to finish these off with. Her room is now even closer to being finished - finally!

I Saved Some Money Today!

It's Super Savings Saturday! Hosted by Money Saving Mom.

OK, so I'm new to the awesome deals to be had at CVS and I'm easing myself into it. I go with a plan, but more often than not, it has to get changed because they don't have certain items in stock. Or, in some cases (when the price isn't listed in the ad) I get there and find the price on an item is higher even with a coupon than it is somewhere else. And unless it's an item generating some generous ECB's, it's not really worth it.

So I went today. I actually went earlier in the week to take advantage of the 12-pk coke price (4/$11). However, they didn't have any diet drinks in stock, so I passed. I ended up getting them for the same price at WalMart since they match prices. Granted, I didn't get to save the additional $2 with the CVS coupon, it was still a good price.

Ok, back to today. I didn't have any carryover ECB's and wanted to spend very little out of pocket. There weren't many deals I was interested in, but I did get this:

My grand total? $6.04

I had a 2/10 CVS coupon. I had B1G1 coupons for the makeup and the Altoids, and 50 cent coupons for the Dawn and Goody's.
My total actually came to $8.36, but the register malfunctioned before it accepted my card. (She said they had been acting up all day.) So she had to re-ring everything. However, the receipt had printed and it printed the $1.49 ECB and she applied it when she re-rang my order. So I got a bonus ECB! It may be a small one, but I was still happy!

Hopefully I'll get the hang of rolling over the ECB's soon and start getting the awesome deals I read everyone else getting!

And, at the Grocery store today, I did pretty good too. I had quite a few coupons and between them and the sales I took advantage of, I saved $58.14 on my total! (Half of that was coupons, and the rest was savings from sales.)

I really hope to get better at this and save lots more money on future trips!

Super Savings Saturday

Sorry Dad, this is not kids pictures. But if I'm going to pull off blogging everyday for the entire month, I've gotta get some new content on here! LOL! Kid pictures will be here tomorrow!

I just found a new blog that I've been stalking reading for about a week and a half now. I found it while searching for frugal blogs for money saving tips in our now diligent effort to get completely out of debt!

The blog is called Money Saving Mom, and I've enjoying the information I've found there.

On Saturdays, she hosts 'Super Savings Saturday' in which you can post about great deals or savings you've come across that week.

I don't know that I'll participate every week, but when I have something to share, I will.

And today I have something to share. Technically, it wasn't from this week, but since this is my first time participating, I figured it really doesn't matter that much.

A couple weeks ago, I had a yard sale. (And I never got around to writing about the outcome.) It wasn't nearly as successful as I had hoped. I had some sign trouble so the traffic wasn't that great. I ended up doing it 2 days instead of 1, since it was all set up anyway. And I'm glad I did, because I made a little more the 2nd day than I did the 1st. However, I still only made about $70-$75. But that's still better than nothing, and I got rid of a bunch of stuff. I donated the rest to my neighbor's church that was having a sale with the proceeds going to missions.

ANYWAY, back to the point of this post. What was the deal I got? Well, I've been wanting a bread machine for as long as I can remember. (Well, as long as they've been around anyway.) But it just wasn't something I could justify purchasing for myself.

My neighbor brought some of her stuff up to sale, and guess what she had? Yep, a bread machine!

The thing was practically brand new, and she had $2 marked on it! I told her I'd buy it, and she just gave it to me! $2 for a bread machine is a awesome price, but free is even better!! I'd say that was a super savings for sure!


Here it is! And I've already made a loaf of banana bread and a loaf of sourdough bread. Yum!