Albertsons and Target

Albertsons

I HAD to immediately have diapers today so I ran to Albertsons and used my catalina from a few days ago.

To use the catalina my total had to be more than $10 and with the coupon I used, I needed to up my total so I grabbed some air fresheners that we really needed for our car.

Retails: $13.75

Total Spent: $2.25

Percent Off: 84%

How did I do it?

• coupons: $1.50
• catalina: $10

Target

Retails: $66.38

Total Spent: $19.70

Percent Off: 70%

How did I do it?

• compiled list from hip2save
• only bought what I had coupons for, except for the contact solution which was on sale and I needed and the soy sauce that I thought I had but went bad when the fridge went out.
• I paired store coupons with manufacturer's coupons
• The great thing is that my total is less than what the 2 packs of diapers would have cost.
• I actually made money by buying the bounce dryer bar and the toothpaste.
• free items: paper towels, toilet paper, dog food, some of the bananas.

Money Left for the Month: -$17.59

not a bad total for not shopping for over a month.

buy low and albertsons

Buy Low

I have chicken! Happy day! Chicken Breast, I have missed you and your delicious ways. Thank you for coming to my house.

I also picked up some things for my newly married sister who will be dragging back here Saturday and will NOT feel like grocery shopping. I'm excited to also be able to pass on some stuff from my stockpile that I was able to get at my price points. How dorky am I? It's just so fun!

I got 4 things of oats, a gallon of milk, 30 pounds of chicken (they come in 40 lb boxes but my sister-in-law's taking 10 lbs), a gallon of milk, 2 packages of tortillas, a thing of margarine, a dozen eggs, 2 lbs grapes, 2 artichokes, a pound of turkey, and 3 1/2 lbs of red potatoes

Retails: $153.92

Total Spent: $58.21

Percent Off: 62%

How did I do it?

• compiled my list from savvyshopperdeals
• only bought what was on sale
• got the chicken on their Friday only deal
• coupons: $4.00

Albertsons

Retails: $51.69

Total Spent: $20.21

Percent Off: 61%

plus I have $10 in catalinas to spend on anything in the store in the next 2 weeks.

How did I do it?

• compiled list from pinchingyourpennies
• sales: $22.92
• coupons: $1.05
• past catalina: $5.00
• albertsons has a promotion where you buy $25 worth of select items (before coupons- coupons count as payment) you get a $10 catalina to use in the next 2 weeks on anything in the store. Catalinas are like a gift card.

Money Left for the Month: $4.36

remember how at the beginning of me posting again this month how I said that I may have to go over budget as I make up the difference for not grocery shopping last month? Well, I'm afraid that's going to have to happen, darn it. I have 6 diapers left and that's a problem. I'll be heading to Target later today...

smiths

Have any of you tried these Quaker Quakes rice cakes? They are so good. And they're rice cakes, so they don't count as junk food, right? Even when you eat a whole bag in one sitting? Right?!!

Retails: $ 36.20

Total Spent: $11.68

Percent Off: 68%

How did I do it?

• compiled my list from pinchingyourpennies
• only bought what was on sale
• sales: $20.05
• coupons: $2.75
• Smiths has a promotion of buy 10 select items, get $5 instantly off. (the milk, eggs, and cheese aren't on it) By carefully choosing which items were the best deal and I actually wanted I went in with a great list. Unfortunately they were sold out of the True Delights and the delicious cheddar flavor of the rice cakes (I did get the last one of each of these today) so I may be back tomorrow after they restock to do another batch of 10.

Money Left for the Month: $82.78

buy low

Oh, fresh produce. How I love thee. And apparently tortillas too. The tortillas were only 50 cents each! I have been known to make my own tortillas. Question: how delicious are fresh tortillas? Answer: very. But they are, unfortunately, a lot of work to make and as is extremely obvious to the world right now I am still not high functioning. Not that I ever really am. That is why I bought 8 packages of tortillas.

I got 2 things of oats, 8 packages of tortillas, 2 pounds of ham, a can of olives, lettuce, 8 kiwi, 3 avocado, 2 lbs of potatoes, 1 1/2 lbs of grapes, 2 pounds of strawberries, a bag of chips, and a gallon of milk.

Retails: $50.33

Total Spent: $18.49

Percent Off: 63%

How did I do it?

• compiled list from savvyshopperdeals
• only bought what was on sale
• coupons: $3.50

Money Left for the Month: $94.46

weekly menu (gasp)

It has finally arrived: the return of the weekly menu. I am extremely excited about this, as it means that I will not have to frantically throw something together. Not that I've been doing that or anything.

Menu:

• sloppy joes with homemade rolls
• chicken parmesan over pasta
• taco salad with homemade hard shells (real fancy here: just spray tortillas with Pam, shape them over a ball of foil, and pop em in the oven until they're crunchy. I'm a gourmet.)
• sweet and sour chicken over rice
• bbq hamburgers with homemade buns (here's a little hint: make a double batch of buns, let them rise the first rise like normal, roll them out and then freeze the extras you don't need right away. Then the next time you need buns, just throw them on the cookie sheet a few hours beforehand to let them thaw and rise and bake them then. Aren't you glad you're spending your precious time reading this dumb blog? Sorry for all the "help.")
• bbq chicken breast

Sides:

• fresh fruit/veggies (from garden/store)
• homemade fries
• crash hot potatoes (ummmm Fay. These are de-li-cious)
• salad
• wild rice

Need from store:

• chicken breast (I've been out of this for SO long. I won't know what to do with myself when I have it.) buy low friday deals $1.49/lb
• tortillas buy low $.50
• ketchup albertsons $.60
• fresh fruits and veggies buy low wed deals

Sorry there's nothing super exciting on the menu. I just lazily compiled this list from my old menus. But hey! I have a menu. Hooray!!!

Smiths

I'm bringing over dinner to a friend tomorrow and needed some cottage cheese for a killer lasagna I'm making (thank you Pioneer Woman) so I ran out to Smiths tonight. I cannot believe how many things are on the shelves at both Albertsons and Smiths on the last day of great sales.

Oh, and by the way, I know I've bought a load of junk food lately, but I swear it's not all for us. I'm using the cookies to give as gifts to teachers I supervise tomorrow, I've bringing a thing of ice cream to the family I'm bringing dinner to, and you get the picture. Plus, Fruit Loops are DELICIOUS. Have you had those things lately? Man, they are good eats.

Speaking of what we eat, I know I need to get a menu up again, both so I know what to make for dinner before it's an emergency and to prove to you we don't live off of fruit snacks and frozen pizza (which, incidentally will be dinners for Matt while I'm in Seattle for my little sister's wedding this weekend.)

Enough with the rambling. Here's the deals:

Retails: $43.64

Total Spent: $6.38

Percent Off: 85%

How did I do it?

• compiled list from pinching your pennies
• did 2 sets of 4 (buy 4 select items, get $4 off)
• had a free coupons for the toothpaste, the cheerios, and rice krispies
• used $4 in coupons for the sale items

Money Left for the Month: $112.95

Albertsons x 2

I am so proud of myself. I went to Albertsons. Twice! Look at me, little Mrs. Shopper. It was slow, took 2 packages of fruit snacks, 1/2 a tortilla, and a container of pudding a nice old man gave us while we were waiting for some meds in Rite Aid, but we did it. Sam was so good, bless that child.

Albertsons 1

Retails: $62.30

Total Spent: $23.60

Total Spent After Rebate: $3.60

Percent Off: 94%

Plus, I also have a $5 catalina to use on anything in the store in the next 2 weeks.

How did I do it?

• compiled list from pinching your pennies
• If you buy $25 worth in certain products, a $5 catalina and a $20 rebate form print. You can only do one rebate per household. The $25 is BEFORE coupons, so you can really bring down your total and make money on this one. I bought cilantro, milk, and tortillas that were not on the sale so my total was higher then it would have been.
• sales: $26.14
• manufacturer's coupons: $6.50
• double coupons: $3.00

Albertsons 2

Retails: $15.33

Total Spent: $2.75

Percent Off: 82%

How did I do it?

• sales: $6.02
• manufacturer's coupons: $2.75
• double coupons: $3 (the cashier made a boo-boo here. I went back in and customer service told me to enjoy my quarter)

The double coupons were in a one page ad in the Sunday paper. I get 3 papers so since I can only use one set per store per day and I didn't shop yesterday, I gave away my last set to someone in the store.

Money Left for the Month: $119.33

smiths

I had a fun trip to Smiths today. Junk food, here we come!

Retails: $46.23

Total Spent: $14.76

Total Spent Minus the Rebate: $4.76

Percent Off: 90%

How did I do it?

• compiled list from pinching your pennies
• when you buy certain products on sale for $2 in groups of 4, Smiths takes $4 off, making each item only $1. In addition, there was a rebate form in the newspaper from 8/2 where if you buy 10 of certain items you get a $10 check. These items are the same! I bought 10 of the items on that sale that were $2 each, $8 came off (2 $4 instantly off), meaning it cost $12. I used $4 in coupons, meaning it cost me $8. I will be getting a $10 rebate check, meaning I made $2 by buying those items. Aren't we lucky little ducks? This deals ends tomorrow night, so if you want to stock up on a bunch of junk food, hustle along! (no, the ice cream isn't in the promotion but it is only $2 and there is a coupon linked on pinchingyourpennies for $1/2, making them only $1.50 each!)

Money Left for the Month: $145.68

confession

My coupon binder is a mess. Most of the coupons are expired. I couldn't give you a percentage of how many because that would require me actually opening it. I have a huge pile of coupons to cut and then file. It is extremely overwhelming. As a result, I have done very little to fix this situation (translation: done nothing). I am, therefore, avoiding Albertsons, darn it all. I LOVE Albertsons, but to get my 85% off there I have to be organized. I'm baby-stepping this, so be patient with me and I'll get there. Eventually.

I do have an idea that is making me feel better. I have so much health/beauty stuff and those are a huge percentage of the coupons that come in the paper. I am not going to cut out those coupons. I'll just leave them how they are and file them in a file box by date. (thanks astealofadeal) The databases I use tell me which inserts the coupons are from so if I really want the item I will still be able to.

maceys

I went to Maceys yesterday but

1. didn't take a picture
2. have no idea what this would have been regularly priced.

Basically, this is a pointless post except to explain where that magical withdraw is coming out of my total.

I got 2 boxes of stove top, pancake syrup, 2 loaves of bread, 4 orange juice frozen concentrate, a dozen eggs, 10 things of yoplait yogurt, a 1 lb of strawberries.

Total Spent: $15.60

How did I do it?

• compiled list from pinchingyourpennies
• only bought what was on sale

Money Left for the Month: $160.44

buy low

I am so craving fresh fruit. That, and we're having a family BBQ here tomorrow night.

I got 3 artichokes, 8 kiwi, 6 1/2 lbs apples, 4 lbs grapes, a pound carrots, a dozen eggs, 2 lbs bananas, 22 1/2 lbs watermelon, 2 cans pineapple.

Retails: $44.08

Total Spent: $15.01

Percent Off: 66%

How did I do it?

• compiled my list from savvyshopperdeals
• only bought what was on sale. (but man, did I ever want that package of tator tots. mmmm.) Wednesdays are Buy Low's produce days- they have extra sales on produce

Money Left for the Month: $176.04

Smiths

I wanted to get to a few stores today but alas, Smiths it was. I really needed that gorgonzola for the BBQ steaks we had for dinner. Fancy, eh? And we had mashed potatoes that I planted and then dug up myself (notice there was no talk of weeding. there's a reason for that... yikes.)

Retails: $16.65

Total Spent: $8.95

Percent Off: 46%

How did I do it?

• only bought stuff on sale
• used coupons for the soap on top of the sale
• rolls were 1/2 off because poll date was today

Money Left for the Month: $191.05

Ok, I'm a loser

No, I am not dead, nor was I in a tragic automobile accident. I am just pregnant. Pregnant, sick, and tired. Can anyone relate?

I am actually doing a bit better but better or not, we have NOTHING TO EAT!!! so I must grocery shop again. And actually cook too, darn it all. (Matt is doing a very happy jig right now, poor man)

We also just came back from vacation to shortly find our less-than-3-year-old-refrigerator decided to pass on. We were very lucky that it went out the day after we got home so we were able to save all the freezer stuff and some of the fridge stuff. And the fridge was almost empty anyways since I haven't been shopping in FOREVER. (have I mentioned that?) I have never appreciated having a fridge so much though, I'll tell you. Trucking downstairs to my chest freezer (thank heaven's we have that!) 30 times a day to pull out baggies of milk to thaw under hot water for my little one's bottle was not my idea of a fun time. Let's just say a pioneer woman, I am not.

So I have a few things to say about my stockpile:

• It is amazing to me how much stuff I have. Bathroom stuff will last us through WW III, wheat and cleaning supplies are great, salad dressing will last longer then the bathroom stuff.
• HOWEVER, it is also amazing how much stuff I need. The frozen/canned fruits and veggies were gone so quick and these are necessities. Really, these are the things you want to munch on when you don't want to cook. I'm running low on flour and some other cooking basics, like yeast and some seasonings.

So basically, what this is all saying is, I'm back! However, since I have been out of commission for so long, I will have to be spending more on many things since they are currently needs and not just stocking up for the future. This might be a good thing for some of you just starting out.

I will keep my budget to $200 this month (I may need to make that a little bigger this month...) and we'll see how I do.