Weekly Savings #8

Since I've been so good at stocking up the freezer and pantry lately, this week's grocery list was pretty minimal. And since the drugstore deals weren't phenomenal, I opted to just hit HEB. I hadn't bought baking supplies in a while though, so I used the extra money on that, plus a Brita filter (ours was at least 5 months old).

My total savings at HEB is never very high because they don't have coupon match-ups (most of their in-store yellow coupons are just a scam to get you to pay more, except the meal deals and combo locos) and many of the items I purchase there are store-brand goods (bread, paper plates) or non-coupon items (potatoes, fresh produce, meat). However, this week I had my highest savings to date there so that was pretty exciting. :) Here's a breakdown of the deals I got (not including regularly priced, non-coupon items):
- 2.07 lbs. red seedless grapes: $2.01 (on sale for $0.97/lb.)
- 2.91 lbs. Dole bananas: $1.34 (on sale for $0.46/lb.)
- Borden whole milk: $2.68 (after $1/1 mf coupon)
- 5 lbs. russet potatoes: $1.99 (sale)
- two 4.75 oz. Glade soy candles: $0.99 each (after two $2/1 mf coupons)
- 6 Beachnut Homestyle Stage 3 fruit baby food jars: FREE (after 6 Get-1-Free mf coupons)
- 2 French's mustard: $0.77 each (after two $0.50/1 mf coupons)
- beef shoulder roast: $6.53 (on sale for $1.99/lb.)
- Brita replacement filter: $5.98 (after $2/1 HEB mf coupon)
- Best Mail dill relish: $0.44 (after $0.55/1 mf coupon)
- Jif peanut butter & Smuckers jam: $3.35 and $2.09 (after $1/PB&J mf coupon)
- Meow Mix cat food: $2.99 (after $1/1 mf coupon)

Total OOP: $54.75
Total savings: $24.86

Once I found out about the great baby coupons Target has HERE, I also made a special trip there to stock up on some diapers and such. As I checked out, I was excited to notice the sign that said they are now price-matching other stores' ads! That should make for some really good deals after coupons pretty soon (even if it does mean more prep work for me). Anyway, here's the breakdown of what I got:
- Jumbo pack of Target UP diapers: $6.34 (these weren't on sale, but I've never tried them and have heard great things about them...we'll see if they can beat the pee-machine that is Shiphrah at night)
- Jumbo pack of Huggies: $6.74 (after $1.50/1 store coupon & $1.50/1 mf coupon)
- Jumbo pack of Pampers & small pack of Pampers wipes: $6.49 and $0.72 (after $2/1 mf coupon & $2.50/diapers & wipes store coupon)
- Jumbo pack of Luvs: $6.49 (after $1/1 store coupon)
- Purina One cat food: $2.99 (after $2/1 store coupon & $1/1 mf coupon)
- 2 10-packs of BIC pens: FREE (after $1/2 store coupon & $1/2 mf coupon)
- Huggies wipes refill: $3.99 (after $1.50/1 store coupon & $0.50/1 mf coupon)

Total OOP: $36

Total savings: $16.50

Total Weekly Grocery Spending: $54.75
($5.25 under budget)

(Disclaimer: diapers are not included in weekly grocery budget.)

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.

Late nights, diapers, and sewing a dress

Both kids are napping, Avery is off to work, and here I sit sipping an ice cold Code Red Mountain Dew. Ahhh, life is good. :) Of course, I'd rather all the above be true minus my husband being gone, but you take what you can get, right?

I'm rather surprised I'm feeling as upbeat as I am. Last night was a late night...so Avery finally made it home a little before 2 am (his shift ends at 10 pm). I stayed up waiting for him...I hate going to bed without him because he ends up waking me up when he gets home anyway. (I had taken a nap earlier in the afternoon anyway so I wasn't exhausted.) So we got to bed around 2:30 and then slept in until about 10:30. I felt really achy and groggy this morning though...Kirk is still waking up about every 3 to 4 hours so I feel like I never really sleep very well (although my body has adjusted to it so it's not bad anymore).

But despite the late night, I'm surprisingly perky today. :) I'm even contemplating taking both kids grocery shopping after their naps. Speaking of shopping, Target is running a great deal this week: one of their "buy 3 products, get a $5 gift card" deals. And Huggies are on sale for $8.99 and included in that deal! Plus I have two $2/1 coupons and a $1.50/1 coupon and a $5 Target gift card from the last time I was there. So I figure it'll cost me about $16.50 + tax and I'll end up with another $5 gift card. Which isn't bad at all for three Jumbo packs of diapers!

Uh oh, the boy is already awake. Excuse me for a minute while I go get him.

Kirk is funny: I can usually get him to take his three naps a day, but at least two of them are usually only about 30 minutes long. Sometimes that middle or last nap will be an hour or two, but oftentimes not. It's frustrating just because he gets so grumpy and tired by 6-o-clock in the evening, but I don't want to put him down then because if I do he's wide awake around midnight or 2 am.

Anyway, where was I? I finally pulled out my sewing machine again after several months (more like a year) of non-use. I cut out all the pieces to make a dress (which personally I think is the hardest and most time-consuming step out of the whole process) the other night and then last night I sewed about 2/3 of the dress while waiting for Avery to get home. Of course, because I can't sew anything without screwing up somewhere, I goofed and then didn't realize it until five or so steps later. But, being the stubborn person that I am, I refuse to take the whole thing apart and start over, so instead I created my own fix. :) Hopefully it'll still look okay. Unfortunately, I discovered that ironing the fabric makes it change colors permanently (it gives it a yellowish hue) so I'm going to have to iron the whole thing just to make it look okay. Bah, problems like these make me want to give up sewing completely...I'm just not an understanding or patient enough person. :)

Well, that's enough rambling for now. Kirk is being a grouch and wants to be fed already, so I'd better go. Happy Monday, everyone!

It's the weekend!!

I could just sit and watch Kirk for hours. Right now he's laying on his playmat watching the light-up musical star, babbling at it, and trying his darndest to grab it. (Of course, he doesn't really know exactly what his hands/arms are doing, so he's really just flailing around.) So CUTE! :) Like I mentioned in my post before, Shiphrah was a pretty quiet baby, at least until she was older, so all this cute newborn babbling and giggling is new to me. I LOVE it!!

Shiphrah is napping and Avery is out mowing the lawn, so I should be washing dishes and folding laundry. Kirk is going to be hungry any minute now though so I'm using this time to blog. I hate getting interrupted from a chore, so I'd rather waste this time than be productive. :)

By the way, if any of you need to buy gifts anytime soon, Restaurant.com is running a deal where if you use the code "SPECIAL" you can get $25 gift certificates for only $2! Most of the restaurants have restrictions like "only for use on purchases of $35 or more, alcohol excluded" but it's still a pretty good deal if you want to try out a nice restaurant that you wouldn't otherwise be able to afford. Avery and I are going to try Canyon Cafe here in San Antonio sometime soon with one of the gift certificates.

Speaking of good deals, there are some really good coupons for Kraft shredded cheese ($1/1) and Huggies diapers($2/1) circulating right now. Click HERE to see Money Saving Mom's post with the links to print out the coupons. I think you can print four of of the cheese coupons (two from each site) and six of the diaper coupons (four from the Huggies site and two from the other). These make for some pretty good deals since usually the best coupons on Huggies are for $1.50/1 and the cheese coupons will make the Kraft bagged cheese even cheaper than store brand (I think) especially if you combine them with the $1/2 Target coupons.

I know it's a Friday, but I keep thinking today is Saturday. Our weekend starts today because Avery is off Fridays and Saturdays, so I keep getting so thrown off. We've had a nice relaxing start to the weekend so far. Avery got off early this morning (4ish) so he came home and went straight to bed so he could wake up around 9 with me and the kids. Then I cooked him an omelet and Shiphrah whined for 2 hours before we finally put her to bed for a nap. (I don't know what is up with that girl! She's had some nasty poops the last few days so maybe she's getting some more teeth.)

Anyway, I guess that's about it for today. Tomorrow we're headed up to Dripping Springs for the day to visit my family. I'm not too excited about the drive, but it'll be better than the 7 hours we spent in the car last Saturday going to the beach.

Have a GREAT weekend, all!

Weekly Savings - Target - 5/13

If you haven't spent all of your grocery budget for the month, go HERE and then click on the links to print some super-duper coupons and then run to Target to stock up on some goodies! (For a list of the best deals, click HERE.) Target has a bunch of store coupons that you can match with manufacturer's coupons for some really great steals. (You can find all of the current Target coupons HERE.)

I headed out this afternoon with Kirk after Shiphrah went down for her afternoon nap. The shopping itself took me about 45 minutes, but it took the poor cashier 20 minutes to finish ringing me up. (I had at least one coupon per item.) In my defense, the cashier was extremely particular about checking and rechecking every single coupon. She'd look at each coupon carefully, check to make sure I had the correct items, scroll back up on the computer to make sure the coupons weren't worth more than the items, and then scan each coupon. So I had to tell about half a dozen people or so that they might want to try another line because I was going to be slow. Still, it was worth it to get the great deals!

Total spent = $36.75
Total saved = $80.53

I won't break down each item and price, but to sum it up I purchased a total of 42 items which comes out to about 87 cents a piece. That's INCREDIBLE considering the high value of a lot of the items (four 12-packs of soda, a family pack of chicken thighs, etc.). I did have two $5 gift cards from last week's deals, so that helped bring down the total too. (And I know I promised Avery I wouldn't buy any more cereal, but after a coupon the Rice Krispies were only 99 cents a box! So I told him I'd make Rice Krispie treats with them. )

And now my pantry...

...and my freezer...

...are completely STUFFED. So for the next two weeks or so I'm going to do my best to avoid buying things that must fit in either of those two places. It's become addicting though...saving money is so much fun!!! (Avery asked me the other night if I was actually saving money by doing all this coupon-shopping. I checked our budget and I'm still staying well under the allotted amount. Yay!)

Oh, and Shiphrah wanted to help me sort my coupons today. I think we have another couponer in the making!

Weekly Savings - Target & HEB - 5/9

Target:

Total spent = $14.10
Total saved = $29.11
Gift cards received = $10

Chocolates = $0.99 after $1/1 Target & $1/1 manufacturer coupons; Glade soy candles = $5.99 each, $4/1 coupons plus $5 gift card making them FREE plus $1 overage; Purell (for Avery) = $4 for two after $2/2 coupon, Fiber One products = three $0.50/1 coupons, one $1.35/1 coupon making them $0.09 each after the $5 gift card; Banana Boat sunscreen (trial size) = FREE.

H.E.B.:
This was my monthly "fridge/freezer stocking" trip, so I spent a bit more than my weekly grocery budget ($60) but that's okay considering the last two weeks I spent $30 and $20 respectively. For roughly $70 I got two packages of T-bone steaks (on sale for $3.99/lb), a package of pork tenderloin (on sale for $2.99/lb), a package of boneless-skinless chicken breasts (on sale for $1.99/lb), plus all the regular essentials (milk, beans, rice, bread, pasta, potatoes, orange juice, etc.), and a few extras (ice cream, dinner rolls, chips). All together I saved $14.98 with coupons.

Weekly Savings - Target & HEB - 5/1

I skipped CVS this week because none of their deals seemed worth the extra trip. But I did score some awesome deals at Target and some cheap groceries at HEB.

Target:

Spent = $8.98
Saved = $22.53

Like I mentioned before, Target is running an awesome deal this week where you get a $5 gift card for purchasing five Special K products. There are tons of $1/1 Special K coupons circulating on the internet, so combined with the gift card they came out to 69 cents a box. The waffles were about 85 cents a box after $1.50/1 coupons, the deodorant was free, the apples were a little over $1 for two pounds after a Target $1/1 coupon, and the Nabisco products were about $1.50 each after $1/1 Target coupons. I also got a 12-pack of Dr. Pepper for $3 with a Target $1/1 coupon (not included in the total). Hubby was excited that I brought home so many things he can munch on when he's waiting for dinner (the man is SO impatient).

H.E.B.:
I didn't take advantage of any meal deals or "combo locos" at HEB this week, but I did use several coupons and ended up saving nearly $8. Our weekly grocery budget is $65 and I spent $55.01. This is really good considering I only spent $20 last week at HEB and next week I should be able to skip the grocery store all together (unless they're running any deals on pork tenderloin or beef steaks).