Awesome Use of My Time

This week at Publix was a gooood week! I spent $45.26 and saved $104.66!  That's 70% savings!
Some of the good buys I got were:

(4) Uncle Ben Rice - .25  each
(4) Taco Bell kits- $1.35 each
(2) Aunt Jemima syrup-$1.45 each
(8) Dole Fruit cups-.97  each
(2) boxes Quaker Instant Oatmeal - .99 each
(2) Morning Star veggie pattie boxes- $1 each
(2) Soft Scrub- .75 each
(2) Aleve 24 ct- .05 each!
(6) Hunts diced tomatoes- .21 each!
(5) boxes of cereal - $1.66 each
(4) Birds Eye Steamfresh veggies- .49

My extra closet is beginning to get full! But, that's okay because we will eat all that food! :)  After leaving Publix, my sis then  picked up some meat on sale at Sweetbays.  She got three london broils and four packs of skinless chicken breasts and 2 packs of Purdue ground chicken  for $45.83.  That's enough meat for about 1 1/2 weeks in my house.  I still have ground beef and some chicken breast and a roast in my deep freezer.  Don't you just love those?  If you don't have one...it's a good way to save money.  Can you believe my sister managed to get all this done and back home in ONE HOUR?? She rocks! Thank you, Angel!

So, my sister just got around to making the Walgreens trip for me.  Since I have been feeling extra bad this week...she has done most of my trips.  Unfortunately, since we waited so long...they are out of the Sure deodorant that we planned to get for free.  I haven't called to ask if they offer rain checks and how that would work with store coupons. But, we still did pretty good.  Here's our loot:

We got all of this for **drum roll please** $16.16!  And that's including tax! We managed to get six of the Bic razors, which have 7 cartridges in each package! (they were free!)  So, what do you think? Am I crazy?  :)

Here's the rundown:
(2) Dijorno Pizzas  $5 with free sprite
(6) Bic Hybrid razors  **All free**
(4) Chex Mix  .50 each
(1) 2 liter Sprite  FREE
(4) cans Manwich  .44 each
(4) liquid CoffeMate .25 each
(2) Velveeta Mac n'Cheese   $1 each
(3) Pert Plus for Men 3 in 1 $1 each (plus $2 register reward for next trip)
(2)Arizona tea drinks  one we made a penny and the other we made $1.01 yes they paid us for buying it

And last but not least...Wal-Mart.  Four packages of Tuna free.

Just how long does it take to find all these deals and cut the coupons?  It takes me about 3 hours at most a week.  I do most of it while I am watching t.v.  That's pretty good use of my time. What do you think?  Would you be willing to take that much time out of your week to save this much money? It's a no brainer for me!

Lesson Learned

I had planned on this spectacular deal of a rebate. I was supposed to spend $30 of Unilever product and I would get a $10 Publix giftcard back.  I figured it up to be  $30.22( but in actuality I would have only spent $10 because of BOGO sales and coupons).  Well, I purchased my items and got home to fill out my rebate when I realized my items only totaled $28.32!!  What happened? I had it all figured out at home before I went to the store. This is what happened: I made the mistake of looking at a blogger's prices at a Publix in another state! Dangit! I am so totally bummed.  It was still a good deal regardless, but dang...I wanted it all free. :)

(click to enlarge picture)

As you can see it would have been an EXCELLENT deal. Part of me wanted to go do it all over again. But, I realized I would be spending $10 dollars just to get $10 dollars back.  And do I really need  four more butters, two more jars of mayo, and two more cartons of icecream??  LOL  So, anyways....this is my lesson learned.  I will be sure to check the figures with my store before I make my plan next time.  It is just a bummer that all of the items have to be on the same receipt per rebate instructions. What about you? Would you go on another shopping trip? Here is the link to the rebate:

do the rebate here and show them who is boss :)


So, even though I didn't get my rebate, I did get some really awesome deals at Publix.  I was able to get:

10 Healthy Choice Entrees for 50 cents each
6 Betty Crocker fruit snacks for 86 cents each
4 boxes of 13 gallon, 45 count Hefty trash bags for $2.50 each
2 Scotties Tissues 75 count for FREE
12 Dannon Light yougurts for 21 cents each
3 Chobani Greek Yogurts for FREE
4 boxes Quaker Granola bars for 97 cents each
4 boxes of Can't believe it's not butter for 25 cents each
2 bottles of Hellman's Mayo for $1.57 each
2 Ocean Spray 64 ounce bottles Grapefruit juice and 5lb bag of  Ocean Spray Grapefruits for  $4

Vendor coupons:  $29.10
Store coupons:     $  9.50
Advertised savings $ 43.31
Advantage buy savings  $2.21

Total savings: $84.12
Total spent:    $63.47


I am also REALLY excited about my trip to Walgreens. :) I got all this for $5.21!

  Wet Ones and the Hershey bars were FREE! WOOT!!

I paid $1 each for 32 ounce Grape Jelly and the Mitchum deodorant.  Oh, and the best part is...I got $3 register rewards to use for my next visit. YAY. I think I'm in love with Walgreens now too. :)

 

Three Free Things I Got At Wal-Mart

I was able to get all of these items FREE with $1 coupons (thanks to Angel for doing the shopping).  They had all gone on sale at Wal-Mart for less than a buck.  Since I don't have any toddlers, I'm going to pass the Johnson & Johnson Buddies soap along to my neighbor who gives me the free veggies/fruit. The First Aid kits are going into our vehicles...and the floss is going into my cabinet. :) I actually got 5 flosses but, we already broke 2 of them open to use. So, this week I was able to score 5 free flosses, and 4 ten cent toothbrushes (got the toothbrushes at Walgreens).  Oh, and I got one more thing free this week.. at Publix, I was able to get those Cottage Cheese Doubles.

Another great deal we were able to get at Wal-Mart was broth.  We paid .78 each for the carton's and .26 each per can with coupons.

Since my sis, Angel, had gone back out to CVS to get make-up on sale, she was able to pick me up two more All Laundry Soaps for $1.99.  YAY! So, I ended up with four of those.

This week, I can  get two free 6 ounce Lubriderm Daily Moisture Body Lotions at Walgreens,  free trial size bandaids, trial size All soap, and trial size Tide Stain Release at Target. Hopefully my sister will be planning a Target trip this week.  Walgreens is  around the corner from me, right across from Publix. How convenient for me! ;)

E Coupons

I like the Upromise program.  If you get a card from your local grocery store and register it, it's like getting free money.  It's for your child's college savings...but it says you can take money out for anything. You don't have to save for college(I'm not saying it's not a good idea, but when your kids are almost grown, like mine, there's not much time to save a whole lot for them).  Anyways, companies donate money per each item you buy.Some are there all the time and give you a percentage.  But, something new they are doing now is called E Coupons.  The items change every month. You click on the coupon and it gets registered with your card.  If you buy Huggies you get $2 for your college savings. You can get $2 for buying a 6 pack of Bounty towels. There are a bunch of others on the list too.

Upromise E Coupons

It just takes a little planning is all.  But, it saves you in the end. Most of the coupon blogs will let you know when there is an item on sale, has a coupon, AND if it has an E Coupon.  Which helps with the planning A LOT! Just don't forget to hand over the U Promise card when you shop! :)

Oh No Baby

I pushed my full cart up to the check out line and started unpiling my items onto the belt.  I handed the cashier, LaTonia, my coupons. She said, "Oh, no...baby, what are you trying to do to me?"  I laughed. I noticed right away that she was handling the transaction differently than the cashier I had been using previously.  She painstakingly eyeballed each and every coupon and each item to be sure they all matched up.  She was very careful, but she laughed the whole way saying, "I AM NOT BELIEVING THIS".  She was joking that the next time she sees me coming to her line, she was going to turn her light off! I laughed.  At the end of the transaction she looked at my receipt and said, "WOW,you made a killing! I will remember your face".

Well, the next day I came back in because I had found those Breakstones Cottage Cheese Double coupons that would make them free.  So, as I was on my way to the bathroom, I seen last night's cashier, LaTonia, walking towards me. She asked, "What's the name of that site you go to? I was telling my friends that you taught me something last night. I want to shop like that too."  So, I gave her the name of the site and a couple others that I really like.

www.frugalcouponliving.com 
www.iheartpublix.com
www.hotcouponworld.com

So, my best buys at Publix this week were:

Teddy Grahams - (4)50 cents a box
Special K cereal- (2) free boxes    (2) 50 cent boxes
Cascadian Farms granola bars- (2) boxes for $1 each
Lender's Bagels- (2) .50 each
Peter Pan Peanut butter -(4) .66 each
Breakstones Cottage Cheese Doubles- (5) free
64 ounce Juicy Juice-(4) .25 each
Egg Beaters/chive- (2) .40 each
Thermacare heat pad 2 ct- (1) .99

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to enlarge)

Of course this is quite a bit of food, but I have 2 growing teenage boys! It is a lot of boxes to have in my pantry so I have assigned another closet for some of the extra food that I have multiples. 

Organizing the coupons are pretty simple now that I have a system in place.  I don't cut out the coupon until I am ready to shop.  They all stay in this crate my sister picked up for me at Walmart for $5.  I label each folder by the date of the coupon insert. I buy multiple newspapers ( have been buying 4 each weekend), to make good use of my coupons.

 

Uhh...that brings me to the Walmart trip.  We found some really good stuff there too, (because not all things are cheaper at Publix ), as well as Walgreens and CVS.  I will post those later.  :) It really isn't as difficult as most people think.  Before I got my crate, I basically had all my coupons in a stack with post it notes on them so I could remember what date they came in the paper. I also save the weekly grocery fliers that come in the mail in the middle of the week.  They always have coupons in them too.  I especially love the $5 coupon in the Albertson's paper because Publix takes competitor coupons. :)  

We are all crazy

This coupon thing has become an addiction of mine. Yes, sister...you can stop saying it. I've gone crazy. Coupon crazy.  It's gotten to the point that I don't want to shut down my computer because I know I can find just ONE more deal. The sneak peeks for the grocery store sales start on Tuesday/Wednesday.  By the time Thursday has rolled around I have my coupons printed and ready to go. And then I have to wait another 5 days for my next fix! I have begun sending texts, emails and msg's to most of my friends spouting off about the money they can save! I haven't been getting any replies. I think maybe I have gone overboard.  Someone may need to rescue me. BUT, one thing I have learned from watching many hours of Internvention is that you can't rescue someone who doesn't want to be saved.  :)

The other day I paid $5.99 for a bag of Ore Ida french fries. It almost killed me.  It reminded me of the time my best, long time friend, Cathy, became pale after buying an expensive pair of jeans. Well, they weren't really expensive, they just weren't Wal-Mart el cheapo jeans. :) I didn't understand it then. But, I do now.

I have become a walking coupon commercial. When I see a coupon, I see $$$$$. Couponing isn't like it use to be, where you stand in the store with your box of coupons desperately attempting to match up coupons with items to save a few dollars.  Now, someone figures it all out for you and posts all the deals online.  AND there are extra coupons that you can print online.  This week, I have over $80 worth of coupon savings.  Can I help it that I want all my friends to benefit from saving this kind of money? These companies are handing it over, freely. Why not take it?  Why do my friends keep shrugging me off?  Oh yah, I forgot, I can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved........ It's crazy. Just plain crazy, I tell ya.

FREE Ziploc bags

Ziploc bags are on sale at Publix, two for $4.00. I bought three for $6.00 and used a $1 coupon in December 6th's Sunday's paper, which made them $5.00.


Then fill out the rebate form for $5.00 back and get them FREE!! You can do the rebate 3 times per household.

Tomorrow, Jan. 6, is the last day for the sale.