SSS: Fabulous Deals

Welcome to another addition of Super Savings Saturday. Today's Fabulous Savings are brought to you by...Kroger. Yes, my dear favorite Kroger was so kind to me this week. Here is my stash! I paid $44.35

For a total savings of 62%

My favorite deal of the day: The yogurt. The YoBaby yogurt was reduced to $.99, I think because it was expiring. Then I had a $1/1 coupon. The funny thing is, Princess doesn't eat yogurt yet. I wanted to introduce it this week, but couldn't find organic whole fat plain yogurt! The YoBaby is mixed with berries and cereal, and we just aren't there yet. So I have been eating the YoBaby. It's good. Probably the full fat isn't that great for me, but... The other thing is, it was reduced because of the expiration I believe. But I bought it Wednesday, and it doesn't expire until Monday. I can eat one yogurt each day, and it still won't be bad! And I eat one yogurt everyday anyway!

I also had some great CVS deals, although my trip there was stressful. I went on Monday to use up my 5/15 coupons, and nothing was working for me. I found some clearanced items that I thought would work for ECB deals, but they wouldn't ring up that way. So I ended up returning things. Then other ECB deals that should have gone through, didn't. So I went away frustrated, but it will not deter me from going again. I did have a picture of my stash from CVS, but I deleted it before uploading to my computer! How silly!

Also, as I was going through CVS, the nice manager there asked my how I was doing and if I needed help. Then a few minutes later, he came up to me and handed me a handful of samples and coupons! Just because I was there! It was fabulous!! And the coupons were for things that were on ECB deals this week! Yay! One more reason I love CVS!

Now go to Money Saving Mom and see all the other fabulous deals this week.

Meijer Super Savings

Generally I am a Kroger shopper. There are three basic reasons for this. 1. It is closest to my house, and closest to CVS. I do my shopping in one day, and I'm not a fan of driving all over the city. 2. I am familiar with Kroger. It's not too big, but has all the things I need, and I know where they are in the store. 3. I think it is pretty well priced. It can be more expensive than, say, Walmart. But with sales and coupons, I have learned to shop Kroger fairly well. I have actually eliminated my Walmart shopping, which is good, because I always bought way too many things that I didn't need there.

With that being said, I decided to branch out a little this week. To see if I could work my coupon magic elsewhere. Kroger's sales weren't that great, at least not on anything that I needed or had coupons for. And Meijer had this fabulous 10/10$ sale going on. And when you bought 10 items for 10$ you got an 11th item free. A lot of the items on sale, I either needed or had great coupons for. I bought all this: And this:
for only $48.22. With a total savings of 52%. It was an incredibly long trip. And I ended up circling the store about 4 times. I also found myself feeding the Princess in the cereal isle (not many places to nurse in a grocery store), but I guess it was worth the adventure. I was irritated because they were out of the 10/10$ crest, and I had coupons that would have made 4 free for me and added an additional free item to my purchase, but life can't be perfect! Ha!

I am particularly excited about the bread and the ground turkey. No, they weren't free, but $1 for 100% whole wheat bread and ground turkey is great! These are things I buy every week at twice the price. I would have bought more, but I wanted to keep my total under $50.

The cereal wasn't in the 10/10$ deal, but Meijer had 2/4$ and 2/5$ deals on cereal that I combined with coupons making the cereal $1 or $1.50 per box.

My Meijer trip was pretty good, but I am hoping for some great Kroger sales this week. I would prefer to shop there.

I hope you go check out Money Saving Mom. There are always fabulous links to many bloggers and their Super Savings.

WFMW: Resale Shops!

I love a bargain. I think most of you know that. Most everyone who knows me, knows that. And one of the greatest places to find a bargain is at a resale shop. Now I like your usual thrift stores, but a resale shop has some better quality stuff (generally). Because they "buy" your old things, they can pick and choose their merchandise. The cost may be a bit higher, but the resale shops I frequent often have sales and incentives.

Some examples: My favorite resale shop (a children's resale shop) often has an additional 25% off of certain items. Like shoes and toys. They will also "clearance" out seasonal items and when their racks are too full. Just yesterday I bought a few dresses for the Princess for 4$ each. And they were an additional 25% off, making them 3$ each!! And since they were in very good condition and name brands, I thought that was a great deal.

The incentives at my favorite resale shop are fun for me too. They have punch cards. They punch a business sized card every time you spend 10$. When you get 10 punches, you receive 10$ off your purchase. Even if your purchase is only 10$! I love it.

Plus you can sell your old clothing, toys, and big items (strollers, high chairs, etc). Yesterday I got 45$ for some of the Princess's clothes. She will never wear them again (babies grow so fast), and I don't have the room to store them for a possible Princess #2. So my storage wins, my pocketbook wins, and I win.

That's why resale shops really Work for Me! For more great ideas, head to Rocks in My Dryer!

CVS Loves Me

At least I love CVS! This is my haul from this week. I spent an hour and a half in the store (including a feeding of the Princess in a massage chair in the waiting area of the pharmacy), ended up with a total of seven transactions (8 if you count my pharmacy purchase-with a $30 gift card coupon!)

Total: $203.43
In Seven Transactions paid a total of:
$38.14 in ECBs
$4.34 oop (with a gift card though!)
I have $32.94 in ECBs for next time!!
And CVS sent me a new 4/20 coupon in my e-mail!

My Kroger savings this week: 47%

For more Super Savings go to Money Saving Mom. You will love it! I promise!

Super Savings!

No fanfare this week, just the facts:
CVS
Transaction #1
2 Dove (yum!) @ 2/6
2 Fructis products
2 bags MMs (mmmmmm)
2 colgate toothpastes
total: $31.12
-5/15
-B1G1 dove q
-1 off fructis x2
-1/2 colgate
-1 mms
paid $5 in ECBs
2.48 and 1.74 on giftcards
got back
11.98 in ECBs
Transaction #2
2 colgate
Irish Spring 3 pack
Irish Spring Deoderant
Irish Spring BodyWash
Total: 17.75
-5/15
-50/1 colgate
-75/1 colgate
-30/1 Irish Spring
-50/1 Irish Spring
Paid
9.70 in ECBS
.13 on gift card
got back
9.98 in ECBs
Transaction #3
5 Life Fitness Patches
2 Nivea Shave Gels
Total: 15.93
-5/15
-2/1 Nivea x2
-3 off Life Fitness Product CRT (just found it while searching for my ECBs!!!)
Paid
$7 in ECBs
2.31 on giftcard
Got back
12.00 ECBs

Walgreens!!!!

Go Jane Makeup!!!!

All this for 1.96

and I forgot one coupon, so it could have been less!

Kroger was pretty good this week too. I didn't get too much, because we didn't need much. But I stocked up on great coupon items like the general mills cereal deal.

Plus I got some freebies (no picture!)

6 more boxes of Chocolate Honey Bunches of Oats

Excedrin Migraine

2 bottles of Franks Red Hot

10 Pria 110 bars

My savings at Kroger was 70%

That, my friends is fabulous!!!!!

More great deals at Money Saving Mom!

Lots of Super Savings!

Ah, my favorite day of the week. The one where I get to show off all my Super Savings! And there are a lot today.

First off, I started at CVS. (Jenny at Mommin' It Up calls it FREE VS! I love that!)


My first transaction was on Saturday, the first of the month. It was a little wacky because it was March's new monthly deals, but still last weeks sales. I just wanted to get the monthly deals because my CVS runs out of things VERY quickly. I ended up getting:


4 CVS Vitamin Cs (these were B1G1 and I thought I might get ECBs for all 4)

4 Lypsyls (one is not pictured because it immediately went into my diaper bag. I love chapstick or lipgloss of any kind.)

Total was $17.92
I had that exactly in ECBs.
I paid nothing opp.
I got back $11.94 ECBs

Wait, you say, that's not enough. And you would be correct. The Vit. C ECBs didn't print because of the wacky day. The manager gave me a gift card for the ECB amount on 2. So I evened out, plus I now have a gift card to work with instead of 24 or 67 cents on my debit every time I go.


I went again on Sunday.
First transaction:
5 Excedrins @4.49
1 Colgate
1 Crest Pro Health

Coupons used:
5$/15$
4 -2$ off Excedrin
-$3 off Excedrin
(I had a colgate coupon and forgot it!)
Total: 13.70
paid 11.96 in ECBs
and 1.72 from my gift card
got back:
2.99 ECBs
10$ gift card because my Excedrin ECBs didn't print
3.71 refund for Crest Pro Health (apparently if you bought your 2 in February, you can't get them in March)


Second transaction:
4 bags Hershey's Eggs @ 2/3$
4 bags Kisses @$.99
Divine cookies @1.99 (not pictured because I bought them for a church fellowship that night)
Rees's Egg (filler) @ $.69
3 Johnson's Buddies @ $.99


Coupons:
5/15
3 -$1.50/3 Hersheys (although, I just realized I only bought 8. I wonder if it scanned.)
3 -$1 off Buddies
paid 2.99 in ECBs
$.15 oop from Crest refund
got back $5 ECBs


Third transaction
3 candy bags @ $.77
2 Nutritioniste products @ 5.99


Coupons
5/15
-$3/2 Garnier products
Paid:
$5 ECBs
$1.42 on gift card


I also transfered a prescription and got a $30 gift card!


Total at CVS (-prescription): 100.97!!!!!
I started with 17.92 in ECBs
I paid NOTHING oop, and ended up with $5 ECBs and a $10 gift card, $2 something left on another gift card, and $3 cash. Plus I have the $30 gift card from the scrip. Yay! Great CVS week for me.


Kroger was okay this week too. Overall, I spend more than I had planned, BUT I had to get a few things that weren't really great sales. And we needed meat. I used a lot of coupons on many items that I bought. I also found some great deals that I will share with you.Cookie dough was 2/4. I had 2 1$/2 coupons making them $1.50 each. I thought this was decent to put in my freezer to make when I forget about church fellowship dinners (which I often do).
Gold Star Chili Seasoning on sale for $.80 -$.50q=$.30
Frozen items $1.67 each -(2)1$ off= $.67 each


Cheetos (the King was WAY excited) 3/5$ Plus B3G1= 4/5$ -1.50q=4/$3.50

Hot dog buns (on my list anyway) clearance to $.59 -$.50q=$.09 (it was a store coupon so they didn't double it)
The picture above is what I call my FREE picture. Why? Because everything in it was FREE!!!!
Choc. Honey Bunches of oats 3 @ 1.99 -(3)2$ off q=FREE
Flat Earth Chips $2.99-freeq=FREE
Diet Pepsi Max (I'll use for church fellowship) 1 @ 10/10 -freeq=FREE
Franks Hot Sauce 2 @ $.99 -(2)$.50 offq doubled=FREE
Sour Cream 1 @ 10/10 -$.50 offq doubled =FREE
Suave Deoderant 1 @ 10/10 -.50 off q doubled=FREE
Peter Pan 1 @ 10/10 -$.50 q doubled =FREE
Campbell's Soup at Hand 3 @ 10/10 -$2 offq -$.50/2 doubled=FREE


My total at Kroger was $117.95
My total sale savings was 39.00
My total coupon savings was 22.29 +3.68 doubled coupons
I paid 52.98
For a total saving of 55%


When I was checking out, the cashier and I were talking about all my coupons. She asked me how long it took me to shop with the coupons. When I told her two hours (I go slow, take my time, and enjoy myself), she was shocked and a little disgusted, I think. When I showed her my receipt at the end, she understood. With saving over $60, I feel like I made $30 an hour. I truly think that is worth my time!

Later in the week I went to DEALs, a dollar store in town. They had some stuff clearanced.
Cereal
Pancake Mix
4 bags of Hershey Kisses

All for 3.50!

Then I went to my local children't resale shop and found cloth diaper inserts for $.49 each. I know the owner, and she ended up giving me an additional discount. I got 9 inserts for $3.75!

Well, it was a great week for me.

Check out the great deals everyone else got at Money Saving Mom!

Random Deals

As always, I like to join in the fun at Money Saving Mom for Super Savings Saturday. Sadly I do not have great pictures, but you can get the idea.

I killed at Walgreens with the Jane Makeup. In fact, I probably went a little overboard. But I am thinking with all my sisters and sisters-in-law, I can probably pass on the wealth. I love giving gifts.

CVS was kind of a bust for me this week. I did work a few deals. They had a deal of buy 30$ in certain products, get 15$ ECBs. This would have been great for diapers (Huggies were in the deal, and I have tons of Huggies coupons (I am passing them on to some friends.).), but I cloth diaper. I did use the deal to stock up on toilet paper (Cottonelle), but my coupons weren't that great. Also the monthly ECB items are out of stock at my CVS, and they have been for a while. I am hoping they will restock this week!

I did go back another time and get FREE Sunsilk conditioner and a hair serum. I also got the Move Free vitamins. They were B1G1 free, and I had 2 coupons for $5 off. The vitamins are normally 31.99 each, but I got them both for just over $20! This might seem frivolous, but the King has arthritis, and it might help him out.

Speaking of arthritis...I have great coupons for Joint Juice, but I can't find it anywhere. Does anyone know where I can find it? It was supposed to be on sale at Target this week, but I went to two different Targets and...nope! Maybe they are just at Super Target? Anyone?

Kroger sent me some coupons this week! They were supposed to be targeted for my shopping needs, but there were a lot of coupons for things I never buy. However, they did send me a coupon for produce, which I do buy. A lot! So my Kroger trip was just produce and some dairy this week. I am pretty stocked up on everything!

I am hoping next week will be a good sale week. I love the challenge of couponing. I have heard a little about the Coupon Game or the Grocery Game. I am interested in seeing if that is worth the investment. Does anyone use this (these?) site(s)?

Check out Money Saving Mom for more great deals!

CVS and Kroger Deals

My CVS trip this week was pretty good considering the deals weren't that great. I got all of this and only had to "pay" $2 in ECBs (meaning I paid a certain amount of ECBs (can't remember how much exactly) and got back $2 less than what I gave them.) and $.94 oop! I think that is pretty good!My Kroger trip was amazing this week. Remember my goal was to save as much as I have to pay, at least a 50% savings. My savings this week was...

*Drumroll Please!*

58%

58% with coupons and store savings. I won't bore you with all the details (mostly because I can't remember everthing and I can't find my receipt (it's burried in my coupon box!)), but I will tell you the best part...

Free Chicken!!!

Oh, yes you read that right!

Tyson Chicken was on sale this week for $1.88 per pound, and I had 2 coupons for $3 off of 2 packages (thanks mom). I got 4 packages of the chicken that is cut really skinny (I think they call them tenders) and were priced at about $1.50 each (a little less than a pound each.). So I got almost 4 pounds of chicken for FREE! I also bought a Pur Water Filter. We have been wanting one of those, especially since the Princess is eating foods now. I had a $5 off coupon (not a super great deal, but...), and I got a free water bottle! Something else I have been wanting (not a fan of the plastics, you know!). The water bottle is of this variety.


Not exactly, but you get the idea!

Oh, my new Pur Water Bottle, how I love thee. Let me count the ways!

For more Super Savings Saturday deals you gotta go to Money Saving Mom!

CVS Deals & WalMart Clearance

I am getting better at this CVS Shopping. This week I did pretty well if I do say so myself.
I broke up my shopping into two transactions. The first transaction I got:
Softsoap Body Wash
Palmolive Dish Soap
Triaminic
Theraflu
SpeedStick Deoderant
Colgate Toothpaste
2 Bags of Peanut Butter M&Ms YUMMY!!!!


total before sales $33.12

Coupons I used:
4$/20$ from an e-mail sign-up (glad I saved it!)
1$/2 M&Ms
$2 off Theraflu
$1.50 off Triaminic
$.25 off Palmolive
$.75 off Colgate
$1 off SpeedStick
$1 off SoftSoap


I used $17 in ECBs (had to throw in a candy bar to use them all. I would have owed $.81 oop beforethe candy bar and ended up owing $.44 after. Go figure!)
Paid $.44 oop!

Got $22 ECBs back!!

Second Transaction:

2 Excedrins

2 Nature's Bounty Vitamin C (BOGO)

3 Eyeshadows

$44.93 before sales

Coupons I used:

4$/20$ from e-mail sign-up

$3 off Excedrin

$2 off Excedrin

2 $2 off Natures Bounty

I paid $22 in ECBs

And $1.19 oop! (had to throw in a candy bar again!)

Got $26.47 ECBs back!!

Then I went back a few days later (When I went to first time, they were out of the Fructis Shampoo for the ECB deal.).

I got:

Fructis Shampoo

2 Boost Smoothies

I used a $1 off coupon for the Shampoo

Paid $5.00 in ECBs (It came to 4.99 so I took the 1 penny loss) and paid NOTHING out of pocket.

Then I got $5.99 back in ECBs!!!

A couple days later I got on Money Saving Mom and saw the Dove deal, so I went back AGAIN. I got 2 bags of Dove chocolates and one more Boost (so I didn't waste ECBs). After the two internet Dove coupons (I didn't have the paper insert one), I paid $3.99 in ECBs, nothing oop, and got $3 in ECBs back. I'll pay a dollar for chocolates! Gladly!!

I think I am starting to get a hang of this CVS thing! Maybe next week I'll try to go just once!

To make a great week even better, I went to WalMart to fill a prescription, walked around while I was waiting, and came across a GREAT baby clearance sale. $1.00 for each item!! I ended up spending $9.50 and got all this for Princess for next year!

Head over to Money Saving Mom for more Super Savings!

I Love Couponing!

Well it's Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom, and I thought I would join in on the fun.

To be honest, this is a bitter sweet post for me. I am a CVS newbie, and CVS was a bust for me again this week. I need to learn to be better at this. I probably would have done okay with stacking coupons, but after reading Crystal's take on this, I realized it's probably not the best thing to do. So I got three things at CVS, paid 5$ in ECB's, $1.43 oop, and got a measley 1$ ECB back. I may try again tonight at a different CVS, or maybe I'll just wait until next week.

That was the bitter part. The sweet part: My Kroger trip today. I got $118.07 worth of groceries and only paid $67.04. Now this may not seem great, but when I started couponing, I said my goal was to be saving more than I spent, and at 43% today, I am getting closer. I saved $16.40 in coupons and $32.23 in store savings for a total savings of $51.03. I'm pretty proud of myself!

I won't bore you with the details, but I will share some highlights!

These were probably the best. The Dove Conditioner was clearanced to $2.21, and I had a $2 off coupon: $.21!!!!

The Kids L'Oreal shampoo was clearanced to $1.61, I had a $1 off coupon: $.61!!!!

Clorox Green Works was 2/5$. I had 2 $1 off coupons making them 2/3$ or $1.50 each!Post and Quaker cereals were $1.99. I had a $1 off 2 Post cereals making them $1.50 each, and I had a $1 off Cinamon Life, $1!!!! So 3 boxes of cereal for $4. Not too terrible.The Simple Harvest were on sale 2/5$. I had 3 $1 off coupons. Making them $1.50 each!The Oregon Chai I had no coupons for, but they were clearanced to $2, and I loooooove them. Treat for me!!

The Dole Parfaits were on sale 3/5$ or $1.67 each. I had two $.50 coupons which Kroger doubles to $1. $.67 each!!

The Rice a Roni were on sale for $1.07. I had 2 $.50 off coupons, again, Kroger doubles to $1. $.07 per box.

I think I am begining to get a hang of this couponing thing!

A Loooooong CVS Story

I have been very excited to shop at CVS this week. I did not get to go last week (few deals, no time), and this week I had a plan!
On Sunday I clipped my coupons as usual, and through the week I have been looking through the add and formulating my plan. I had it to where I would buy 75$ worth of stuff and spend about 13$ and get roughly 45$ in ECBs back.
CVS apparently did not like my plan!
Last night I headed out, stopped at Walgreens first (more about that later), and then hit my local CVS. My deal plan involved buying 20 SoyJoys, but my CVS was OUT! I even asked, which is not something I usually do.
So I started racking my brain. My thought process went something like this, "No SoyJoys! Where is another CVS? They have to have them at another store. There's one over on...nope that's a Walgreens. Wait, there's one in...nope! Walgreens." I could not think of a single CVS! I ended up calling the King, who got out the phone book and directed me to a couple other CVSs.
The second CVS I hit, OUT! The third? OUT! Buy this time I was irritated. I had the Princess with me, so I had been lugging her in and out of CVSs, and I was tired. So I stood in that last CVS and formulated a new plan with the stuff they had. But when I went looking for the stuff I needed (read wanted) to buy, it wasn't on sale like at the other CVS. So I gave up.
I went home and told the King that I needed to go this morning. And I did. I took my new plan and went to my local CVS, again. Guess what?
Yep! They had the SoyJoys. So it was back to my origional plan. It still didn't work out right, but here's what I ended up getting. 7 bags of Doritos (the King looooooves these, I have to hide them!)
I origionally only had 4 but they rang up lower than I thought, and I had to buy more to make
the 20$ worth of stuff for the Pepsi offer
6 Gatorades (have to hide these too!)
7 packages of Duracell batteries (which I needed badly)
I searched for coupons for these but couldn't find them, but then there were some for 50 cents
off on the package. Yay!
1 Benefiber
1 Purell
I bought this because my total wasn't at 75$ like I needed it to be, but then I didn't get the
ECB for it, so I'm not to excited about that!
20 SoyJoys

This came out to $111.33 before sale prices.
It rang up at 79 something.
I used
15/75
10/50
5/30
4/20
3/15
2/10 coupons
also Soy Joy coupons and the Duracell coupons
I used 11$ in ECBs (all I had)
And I paid 17$ out of pocket (more than I had wanted, but after all the trouble I went to...)
Then I got 32$ in ECBs back!!!

But I am way excited about the makeup I bought at Walgreens. They were buy one get one free. And I got 2$ off coupons from the internet. I made two trips. The first, I bought 4 things of makeup and paid about $1.50!

Then today I went in and bought 8 things. The lady who checked me out said, "You know its buy one get one?" Yep!!! It rang up at -$.32!! I thought I would have to throw in a candy bar or something, but nope!!! They gave me the change!!

Go to Money Saving Mom and check out more Super Savings Saturday deals!

The Queen Goes to CVS

I have been visiting this blog, Money Saving Mom. This woman is brilliant. She must spend all day looking for deals. She has this amazing way of shopping. Her budget for the week is 35$!!!! She shops alot at CVS for free and even gets them to pay her in CVS money. Incredible if you ask me.

For a while I have been reading Money Saving Mom for motivation, and finally I plunged in. We don't get the paper delivered, so I went out and bought a paper. And I clipped coupons.

And clipped

And clipped

And clipped

And it was totally worth it!

Since it was my first time, I had to pay some money. But let me tell you what I did.

I got all this, over $40 worth of stuff, for only $9.23. That right there is over 75% off the original price (and the $40 was after the sale prices too). Then I got $11 back in Extra Care Bucks, which is basically CVS money. I am super excited about this! Now next time I go, I can use my Extra Care Bucks and not spend money out of pocket. How about that?!

You should go. Check out Money Saving Mom, she'll tell you how to do it. But be careful. It's addicting!

If you do go, let me know about your deals!