Saturday, August 15, 2009

Weekly Savings - 8/8 thru 8/15

While there weren't any especially amazing deals this week, I did find a few good buys. Of course, they were all at different stores so I actually went to five different stores this week. I don't usually do that, but Avery was gracious and the stores are all within a 5-minute drive so it's not too much extra gas (that's one of the great things about living in a big city).

I always do the bulk of my grocery shopping at the H.E.B. a few minutes from my house. Their deals run Wednesday-Tuesday though so I usually wait until mid-way through the week to do any shopping. With Avery's days off being Wed/Thurs this works out quite well for me...I usually go during the kids' nap time or take one kid with me and Avery watches the other. (I can take both babies with me, but it's exhausting and takes twice as long...especially when I'm trying to sort through coupons.) Anyway, since I had stocked up on meat last week, my HEB run was mostly made up of coffee, fruit, toilet paper, orange juice, and a few other essentials. My total was $30.73 and I saved $5.86 with coupons/sales. (Sorry, no picture.)

I actually took Kirk with me on that run (wore him in my Mei Tai) but brought him home before heading to Wal-Mart because he was getting too hot (that boy sweats like a little pig and hates being hot). I went to Wal-Mart for just two items: charcoal (we were out and I had a coupon) and Flintstones gummy vitamins (on sale for $5). The charcoal was $7.50 and I had a $4/1 coupon and I had three $1/1 coupons for the vitamins.

Total before coupons/sales: $22.50
Total OOP: $15.60
Total saved: $6.90

Those two trips were on Wednesday. Thursday we packed up the kids and headed out for shopping and lunch as a family. We went to Lowe's first where Avery picked up some sandpaper inserts for his sander (boat project) and then to Target. At Target I got a Jumbo pack of Pampers Sensitive diapers for $6.89 with a $2/1 Target coupon and a $1/1 manufacturer's coupon (it was supposed to be $2/1, but apparently it was coded wrong because it only rang up $1 off), ten boxes of PopTarts for $1.02 each with five $1/2 coupons (and I have submitted my receipt for the $10 Kellogg's Fuel for School rebate), two bottles of Coffeemate creamer for $2.29 each with two $0.50/1 coupons, and two bags of Kraft shredded cheddar cheese for 89 cents each with a Target $1/2 coupon and manufacturer's $1/2 coupon. We also picked up a loaf of bread, a bottle of 7-UP (for the punch for my sister's wedding shower), and a 12-pack of razor refills (I'm not including those though because my husband is picky and buys very expensive products...separate budget category anyway).

Total before coupons/sales: $43.33
Total OOP: $23.24
Total saved: $20.09

After lunch at Chili's, the kids went down for their naps and I headed out to CVS and Walgreens. I had a $5/$25 coupon for CVS that I wanted to use but other than their Huggies ECBs deal (buy 2 packs at 2/$18 get $4 ECBs), I wasn't sure what else I was going to buy to meet the $25 mark. No fear, CVS to the rescue again! I think Bounty is doing away with their Basic 8-packs of paper towels because everyone has them on sale this week. CVS blew away the competition though by pricing them at $1.99 each!!! (That's 25 cents a roll, y'all!) So I picked up four and that easily pushed me past the $25 for the coupon. I used two $1.50/1 Huggies coupons, $1 ECB, and the $5/$25 CVS coupon.

Total before coupons/sales: $57.32
Total OOP: $18.34
Total savings: $38.98
(ECBs received: $4)
[YTD CVS Savings: $195.18]

Finally, I headed over to Walgreens. I could have done without this trip, but we have a brand new store that opened a few minutes away and they mailed us a $3/$10 coupon that I wanted to use. Plus I had heard of a pretty great Huggies wipes deal that I wanted to try. This was my first couponing experience with Walgreens and I was a bit skeptical because I have heard of so many bad experiences with cashiers and such. Well, those fears were well-founded. Although I did score some pretty great deals, I had to convince the cashier to push through several coupons. She couldn't understand the whole free-after-coupon concept and the need to override the price UP so that the coupon would match (another cashier ended up doing it for me) and she was downright grumpy about the whole thing. They were also out of stock of a lot of the items I was looking for, and I hear this is pretty typical of Walgreens in general. (They were stocking when I got there though so at least now I know their stocking day is Thursday.) Anyway, the Campbell's soups were 29 cents each after a 1 @ 79 cents Walgreens coupon and $1/2 manufacturer's coupon, I bought 2 boxes of Bandaids at $1.99 each after a $1/1 manufacturer's coupon ($4 Register Rewards with purchase), one bottle of Women's One A Day for $3.49 and Flintstones vitamins for $2.89 after two $2/1 Walgreens coupons and a $3/2 manufacturer's coupon, and one package of Sharpie Accent highlighters for free after $1/1 manufacturer's coupon. They were all out of the 64-count of Huggies wipes, but I went ahead and got a refill pack because it was still a decent deal. (I say that, but now that I'm looking at the receipt, I think they left off the $2/1 Walgreens coupon, so nevermind, the wipes were $6.24 after a $0.75/1 manufacturer's coupon.)
Total before coupons/sales: $27.61
Total OOP: $15.44
Total saved: $12.17
(Register Rewards received: $4)

Taking out the non-grocery items like the vitamins and diaper products, that brings my total grocery spending for the week to $58.95, just under our $60 weekly budget amount.

And with that, both babies are being very fussy tonight so I think I'm going to put them (and myself!) to bed early tonight.

1 comment:

  1. That's great your hubby is available to watch the kids on one of your shopping days. That helps a ton for me, especially trying to stay focused and organized. Looks like you definitely made your rounds this week. I feel like I've been doing that too, stocking up for school.

    ReplyDelete