Shopping week of 10/9

So far I'm liking this week. =)
We are still using stockpiled items...I think most of these things were bought in August or Sept (which looking back at the grocery bill for those months was a weee bit higher than budgeted, but it's paying off now!)

"Sort of local" grocery store: I found a gift card that I was pretty sure was both used up and had expired, but it still had $8 on it and wasn't expired! I used $3 of it up. That was my first exciting thing this week, the other was I had bought a bedspread quilt at Target about a week before, and noticed it was on sale this week, and they credited the difference back...guess it does pay to "browse" the store sometimes. Oh and by the way, these were exciting things as far as money/food/budgeting goes...I do have a life and there were other fun exciting things this week like 2 field trips with the kids...back to back. Lots of fun on those buses when it's warm and 50+ noisy kids! (and we found out what it sounds like to squeal in a cave too)

KT: $9.47 on food

Local grocery store: spent $7.86 on food, and saved $14.88!!! I got carrots .99/1 lb (cut, washed, baby carrots), 5 lbs of potatoes for .99 (which by the way I forgot I still have about 7 lbs of potatoes at home...so I guess we'll be having every possible way to fix potatoes for the next 2 weeks), 5 items of breakfast sausage and pork sausage rolls for $5, and sour cream for .99 (12 oz tho).

Total for food this week approx $17 so far....the weekend is still yet ahead and could easily be blown. But, let's think positive thoughts!

I have not even stepped a pinky toe into Target this week. I'm having withdrawals...wonder if I picked up vitamins for that yet?! haha. Other than my 2 local grocery store trips and KT, I haven't done any other shopping...at this point in the week, I'll probably look through the lists on PYD and see if there's anything we NEED to get that won't be a good deal next week still.

Happy shopping/budgeting to the rest of you!

Oh...I did forget something...we went to the apple orchard and spent $25 on apples. We made a huge (quadruple) batch of applesauce that's already gone and froze about 4 large bags of apples for future pies/pannekoeken's (a breakfast meal we make for supper sometimes. Still...just $42 spent on food (and some of it is stockpiled now)

Shopping week of 10/2

For this week...

It's probably a little late for anyone to get any of the same good deals, but maybe just to help others keep motivated I'll post it anyway.

KT: $13 on food/saved $1

Aldi's: $32.48 for 22 items.

Target:
Wet wipes, (2 different purchases so I could legally use 2 of the same TQ's) $4.99 each and used 2 online TQ's for $1 off a $3+ Up and Up item, so $7.98 for 2 wipes (the larger package of 3 packages) .

Food total for both purchases was $8 (just bought bread, vitamins (w/ 2 Q's) bagels (w/TQ), gum (1 free after Q), Tazo tea (.79 after 2 Q's)

Total spent for Target: $16, Total saved $10

$53 total for food this week. This doesn't include lunch $ for the kids...they take hot lunch 1/2 the time. Not too shabby...we were cleaning out cupboards again this week.

Shopping week of 9/25

Hmm....this is a problem when you don't update very often...I have to pull out my receipts to see how I did way back then (3 weeks ago?!)
The week of 9/25, we spent a total of $30 on food, and $20 of that was eating out. My notes say that we bought food at Target and Kwik Trip, so that was only $10 spent on milk, bread and fruit that week. Everything else we ate was stockpile stuff we already had. Oh, and my mom was here for 3 evenings that week and she was practicing wedding reception soups on us. That would have helped the budget and our tummies a little! Tiffany-both soups were EXCELLENT!!!

My shopping this week

First, there are some good deals at H-Vee this week. Most of these you'll need a coupon from their ad.
Grapes .99/lb
Flour .99 5lbs
Applesauce 1.49
Farmland Jumbo Franks 16oz  .79cents, and I found a .55/1 printable Q, making them .24cents
Dole lettuce head .59
Brownie mix .99, + a coupon insert, making them .60cents
1 lb Butter 1.99
Frozen vegetables, 16 oz .97

There are a few other good deals, if you check out pennypinchinmom, she has them. This was my list. Spent $10.57 and saved $5.91

CUB
Here's my list
Big pack of full size mushrooms .88 (found some printable Q online that was good only at Cub, it looked weird, but it worked.) What should I do with these mushrooms? I don't buy them very often.
S&W Beans. .34c each. Bought a bunch of Kidney ones for chili this winter
Kemps Sour Cream $1 each
Essential Everyday Oatmeal .58
Essential Everyday Poptarts .33
After Q's and a couple Wags RR's, I spent 1.58 and saved $13.89

Aldi's, my total was 28.60 and had 20 items. I didn't do so good here.

Walmart $5.92/saved $3.50 (Stonyfield yogurt -had .50c off Q, white cloud wipes .50/pack, and a school erasor for peyton, )

Target 5.25 saved 1.25 (this was Tyler and I eating out)
Target 37.23/ saved 26.66
At target, I bought lots of Gum (I can't remember the price, but it wouldn't have been more than .50c a pack, lots of Campbells soup(tomato and cream of mushroom), free Simply OJ,  2 free Aquafresh toothpaste (travel size), a kids scissors for a whopping .18c, Scrabble card game for 1.24, 2 bags of chicken breasts MP for 1.97/lb (MP= Market Pantry), MP shredded cheese for $2 ea (same as Aldi's everyday price), TQ for $1 off WYB both MP pasta and pasta sauce, and Nature Valley granola bars for$1.60 each

Local small town grocery store 7.58 saved 2.77 (but we have enough potatoes to last us forever!)
Gas station sandwiches $0/ saved $12 (we ran a race in August and got free sandwich coupons). So I used them tonight and someone will probably eat them for lunches.

I went over my budget this week, but we could be holed up here for about 3 weeks and not have to buy anything except maybe some milk....and fruit during the 3rd week.

New for Walmart...not in MN yet...but maybe?

I just read this on PocketYourDollars under this weeks' Walmart list.

I have some great news to share with you regarding a new double coupon pilot program Walmart is currently testing in select areas. Over a dozen Walmart stores are currently doubling the face value of manufacturer’s coupons (meaning, for example, a $0.50 off manufacturer’s coupon becomes $1 off) in the following locations:

• Charleston, SC
• Charleston, WV
• Boise, ID
• Huntington, WV
• Madison, OH
• Provo, UT
• Tucson, AZ
• Utah County, UT (7 Walmart stores are participating)
• Wayne, WV

The specific details regarding this pilot program vary by location, including at what maximum face value manufacturer’s coupons will double, on what days coupons can be doubled, and how many coupons can be doubled in a single transaction, so if you live in one of the participating areas, I recommend calling your local Walmart ahead of time to get more specifics.
Also, do know that you will have to present each coupon you would like doubled with the item you are buying as the cashier has to manually adjust the price of the item.
I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you this, but this would be a fantastic policy change for us couponers if Walmart decides to expand it nationwide.

Cub shopping trip

Success!!! Earlier this week I had emailed a friend (I copied and pasted) a General Mills cereal deal that was from PYD's list (the 8/7 list, but our deals run from Wed-Tues so it was good for us until last night) for her to check out to see if it was a good deal. She went and it was even better! So I scrounged up my Q's and went last night.
I bought 12 Progesso soups (perfect for just T and I this fall when the kids go back to school)
10 Hamburger Helpers, or as someone else calls them "Betty Crocker Helpers" (I'm not a big fan of them, but the rest of the family doesn't mind them...any unused can go to the food shelf I guess).
18 boxes of cereal (we're set for life! actually we'll be good if that lasts us a month)

Other deals thrown in here that I purchased: 2 lbs of bacon and 3 V-8 juice bottles

After all my Q's and $ off my next order/purchase, each item came out to be less than .63cents a piece!

Hy-Vee weekly match up

Pennypinchinmom has the list here

There's a few good deals to be had on Thurs/Fri.

Also, when I was in the store last night (tuesday) they had a little display stand with flyers by the main entrance that had deals/coupons that were going to be good for today (wednesday) only and at that specific store. You might want to call your local Hy-Vee and see if they have something similar going on. There were a couple really good deals I would have gotten if I was going to that store today.

My shopping this week

Target:
Household and Personal care items: Did the Toilet bowl cleaner and ziplock bag deal (the ziplock baggies are part of the school supplies requested), and Puff's Kleenex deal (which turns out NOT to be that great of a deal compared to PYD's Walgreens rock bottom price on kleenex, now I know!) Spent $20

Food: Gum 3 packs for Free
Bought fish (not on sale tho and no Q), PB, Condiments in the clearance section for T's bday party, Cake/frosting deal, Juice (welches grape was about .80 each on sale), pasta, and a few extra's that weren't part of any deals. Spent $28  (BTW, I tried doing the Rice Krispie treats deal and was going to hide them away for a school lunch treat or something and it turns out I bought the wrong packages, so instead of spending 1.98, I spent 5.98...will be returning them since it's not worth that much to me, I'll lose the Q's tho.)

School supplies, spent .81c

Receipt says I saved $28.53

Walmart deals
Free dishWASHER soap (my hubby found out this week about using the wrong stuff, oops!), Free tide, cheap wet wipes, Allegra (was 5.94, used $2 off Q and will submit the rest for a full refund. So essentially, I spent $1.18 and saved $12

Peyton and Jonna both got free books from the Barnes and Noble summer reading program, valued at about $16 total free!

Walgreens:
Personal care: wipes, TP, lotion  spent $1.95!!!! total for these 3 items. I used Q's plus a $7 catalina from the previous weeks deal on personal care items. And I have a $5 RR to use towards the next purchase. 
School supplies: .29
Food: 4.52
Total spent out of pocket over $6, saved $25.03!!! and have a $5 RR to use. 

Aldi's
I cannot find my receipt anywhere!!! But I think I spent about $13 there, got all the $1/lb fruit deals, strawberries, grapes (2 lbs for 1.98), blueberries (1.29), OJ, lemonade, 100% whole wheat bread was on sale for .99

Total on Food so far for this week: $45
Total spent $69, total saved $81

Pier 1 Imports Today only $10 off purchase of $10 Coupon to use by 7/27/11

http://www.pier1.com/DailyDealy/tabid/953/Default.aspx?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=FanAppreciation

Staples paper this week-CHEAP!

Staples 8.5×11 Multi-Purpose Paper (500 sheets) $5.99 (Limit 2)
Spend $5.99, then submit for $5.49 Easy Rebate
Final price: $0.50 after Easy Rebate

thanks www.pocketyourdollars.com

Starbucks Treat Receipt!

Buy any drink before 2 pm, and bring back your stamped receipt after 2 pm for a $2 grande drink.

Weekly spending for the week of 7/17

Ace hardware:
 Spent $14.95, saved nothing so far. Hopefully over time, I'll have saved my garden tho. This year, my Strawberry plants finally had berries on them...and this year is also the first year rabbits have been a problem in my garden. They have eaten the tops off all my bean plants, have eaten the very few berries that have turned out, and have now started on my carrots.

Target:
Food: spent $8.42, saved $5.54
Personal care (wet wipes, free tums) $4.74, saved 2.25 cents
Clothing: $3.72, got a free t-shirt for me, a pair of leggings for girl, and a pair of size 8 boy jeans came to a whopping $1.24. Saved: $4 with coupons. I'd say I saved more tho, since brand new boy jeans are usually more than $3.24.
School supplies: $3.98, saved $2.50
                                                total spent $20.86        total saved $14.29

Walgreens
Food .91cents/saved$2.10
Personal care items: 2 things for Free, saved $3.50
School supplies: .50cents, saved $2.40
                                               total spent $1.41          total saved $8.00

Local grocery store
Spent $2.00 saved $1.50

Got $10 gas rebate from Kellogg's cereal deal in the mail...didn't take long before I needed to use it!

Lunch on Monday with 3 kids,
Free pizza and pop from Pizza Hut
Free small combo + $1 large drink from Hardees (one of the kids won the freebie from something)
Free taco (another win somewhere) and $2 taco value meal (taco, drink and chips)
I had a $5 rebate that came in the mail, so we cashed it and used it for the $3.33 paid out of pocket. 
                                       total spent $0, saved $15.83

Supper on Tues eve-the kids and I eating out
Supper at Fazolli's on Tues evenings is kids eat for .99 with the purchase of an adult entree. You only have to buy 1 entree so it seems. So we spent $9 and had plenty of food! And saved $7.50. And then there was ice cream later when we met grandma to switch kids around. Now we're gonna be good the rest of the week. =)

Walmart
Food: $4.23 saved $2.90
Household: Free dishwasher detergent, saved $3
School Supplies: .97
                                       total spent $5.20 saved $5.90

So far this week:
Food: $32 saved $35
School supplies: $5.45 saved $4.90 (total for school supplies this summer: $16.00)
Personal care items: $4.74, saved $5.75
                                     

Seattle's Best coffee, Free with Coupon

If you got a coupon for a Free single can of Seattle's best coffee in your inserts a few weeks back (it expires 8/7), you can redeem them at 3 Border's locations -Woodbury, Eau Clair and Rosedale Center.

Deals this week

Back to school deals:
Staples: $8.61 (bought a few of the penny deals with a $5 purchase) Last year I spent $11 on just school supplies...looks like this year will be more than that since 3rd graders need "older" stuff.

Target:
Target brand bread on sale for $1 (it's not the healthiest, but when you're feeding 6 kids a day it works) x4
Salmon $8.00 (on sale from 10.59)
Frozen Juice x 4 $4.41
Yogurt (stonyfield...anyone have luck printing off the .50c/1 32 oz container Q on their website? I understand you can only do it once a month but I always get the message that I've printed it already)
Cheese $2.44
Benadryl itch stick $2.29 used $2/1 Q = .29cents
School supplies: $2.14
**I wish I had the coupon for the free bread w/ purchase of eggs, but was too slow printing it off Targets website, and wish I had Q's for the yogurt and cheese. bummer.
Spent $23.60, saved $7.63  (food = 21.02, school = 2.14)

Cub
5 boxes Kelloggs cereal (we eat only the healthiest of sugar cereals around here, haha). 5 for 1.99 each, used 2 $1/1 Q's + $7 in OYNP catalina's...spent a whopping .95cents on 5 boxes of cereal. Saved $11.55

Kwik Trip (2 trips so far this week)
$5.01 (milk, apple -free with kids club/purchase of milk, and bananas) saved .50 cents.
$7.39 (milk, banana's eggs)

Local grocery store:
$6.59, saved $7.16

Menards
$0, saved $6.00 (had rewards to rebate $ to use)

Total spent
Food $40.96/saved $23.56  **this is about all I plan to spend this week on groceries.**
Personal care items .29cents, saved $2.00 ***we pretty much don't need to buy any personal care items for about the next 6 months to a year unless they're free, because of past deals I've gotten.
School supplies $10.75/ saved $4.31.

It's a new week!

PYD has the shopping lists up! If you are going to do any back to school shopping...you can follow along on her blog (or if you are a granny and need art supplies for the grandkids...haha)

Some stores have "deals" on the 24 pk crayola crayons this week.....but Toys R Us has the best deal this week, 4 packs for $1, or .25cents each!

PYD is supposed to have a price chart up for school supplies and where the good deals are that week pretty soon. I did keep track of items from last year, so I'll put my price list here.

Pencils .19 (for a multi pack-I didn't write down how many were in there...probably 10 or 20?)
Crayons 24 pk .25cents each
Glue sticks .15 each
Glue bottles .99 each
 Notebooks .15 each (plus some at Target had coupons in them)
 Markers (crayola 10 ct) .99 each
Large erasors .29 each
Erasor caps (pkg) .39 each
Folders .15 each
Fine line markers 1.00 each

I think I spent about $11 total on school supplies last year. Pretty nice because then there was more left over for shoes, July summer clearance clothes, or sock away for school expenses.

Anything else my kids needed were either left over from the year before (pencil boxes/scissors/backpacks) or items that we had to bring from around the house (old t-shirt for painting, etc)

2 for 1 drinks at Dunn Bro's today!!

photo from Dunn Bro's website

You do need a coupon, so sign up to be on their email list!