Weekly Savings

I skipped last week because I didn't feel like blogging. I'm back this week! Here are some totals from my coupon only trip to Target and our trip to Dominick's. At Target I had a coupon for each item making my subtotal $0.00!!! We also went to Aldi to buy a few essentials (milk, fruit, bread, etc) but I don't have the receipt or a pic from that trip.

Target

Spent: $0.14 (just tax!!)

Saved: $12.02

Dominick's

Spent: $16ish
Saved: $25ish (I lost the receipt)

Running out of stuff

I'm kind of depressed. (Okay, not really). Remember this crazy trip? Where I got $57 worth of peanut butter for $25? Well, we're finally out. We've been out for a couple weeks, and honestly since that sale I've not seen even close to that good of a deal on peanut butter. We're also out of some other things that I got for free at Publix. Rice. Hot sauce. Bread crumbs (almost). These things are so cheap, so with a coupon and a sale I should be able to get a good deal on them, but free is so much better ;) I miss Publix and the land of double coupons!!!

Weekly Savings: Dominicks

I've strongly resisted the urge to go to Target and CVS today, because we're kind of over budget for the week. I puchased an unexpected Groupon a few weeks ago (very good deal though) and instead of just taking money that would have gone to Savings and paying for the groupon, I'm trying to shuffle things up and take a little bit from the grocery budget each week....which is causing more stress than if I had just use some money earmarked for savings. Oh well. Anyways here is what I got at Dominick's this week
Spent $22.77
Saved $30.33 Bought:
Broccoli
Sweet onions
Zucchini & Squash
3 lbs of Strawberries
2 Del Monte fruit cups
2 bottles of hot sauce (Tom was out of his favorite condiment)
Wheat bread
Hickory smoked ham (there was a $10 off coupon, so this was under $5)
2 bags of spinach
Daffodils (these make me happy)

Oddly enough we spent more at Aldi than we did at Dominick's. Perhaps it had something to do with the 4 gallons of milk???

How rolling store rewards saves you A TON of money

Ever wonder why I am able to get so much stuff from CVS for dirt cheap? I always have anywhere from $5-$10 in ECB's (their store reward coupons) that I use to purchase products that yield me more ECB's. Walgreens has a similar thing (called "Register Rewards), except Walgreen's registers suck and usually beep and the cashiers don't know how to override them to get legitamate coupons to work. Anyways.

Another great example of this is Target. They frequently have deals where you buy a certain item (or number of items), and you receive a $5 Target gift card in return. The beauty of all of these transactions is that you can use manufacturer coupons on the items as well. Remember when I got A TON of frozen food for super cheap at Target last month? Well, every transaction I did, I would use two $5 Gift cards to pay for my purchase, and each transaction would yield me two more $5 gift cards (when I purchased the required number of items).

So far with my $10 in Target gift cards, I have "rolled" them twice, meaning I took advantage of two other deals which produced $10 in gift cards, while allowing me to use coupons and pay with my gift cards. I bought 10 Glade candles for $8 out of pocket (making them $0.80 each) and I received $10 in gift cards back. More recently I bought 2 bottles of Olay lotion and 2 bottles of Olay face wash for $1.40 OOP!!! And then I received $10 in Target gift cards!! Crazy! I used the gift cards in another transaction to buy 2 bottles of Olay moisturizer...and didn't get quite as awesome of a deal (the moisturizer was more expensive than the other items, but I needed it and after coupons and gift cards it was still more than 50% off!)

So for everything above I spent $8.78 (plus tax) and saved $26 and received $10 in Target gift cards!

Weekly Savings

Went to Dominicks and CVS this week and did okay. I went to Jewel too, which I swore I wasn't going to do but 1) I had to get my free milk with my coupons from last week and then 2) they had milk (and a few other things) on sale today so we ran in real quick.

CVS

Spent $7.45
Saved $34.03
Received $10 in ECB's

Dominicks

Spent $26.48

Saved $40.35

Jewel

Spent $21.50

Saved $27.33

Recieved $2 coupon to use at my next visit

Weekly Savings: I'm a hero!

I knew it was going to be a good shopping trip when I got in the car to go to CVS and "The Final Countdown" was playing. This song reminds me of my friend Kelly who was a CVS expert long before I was.

Today was a little crazy. I went to CVS, Jewel, and Dom's. I normally wouldn't have gone to Jewel but they had a good cereal and free milk deal going and guess what? Tom goes through AT LEAST 3 gallons of milk a week and eats cereal like it's going out of style. Don't get all excited about the diapers in the CVS picture. 21. That's how many people I know who are currently pregnant or have given birth in the past month. Diapers make great gifts. Enough said. And finally, when the cashier at Dominicks told me my total, the girl in line behind me said "Wow, you're like, my hero!" Without further adieu...

Jewel

Spent $14.19
Saved $20.86
Received 2 coupons for a "Free Gallon of Milk" (on your next visit)

CVS

Spent $26.98
Saved $82.21
Received $10 in ECB's

Dominicks

Spent $16.43
Saved $72.84

Everything combined!

Spent $57.60
Saved $175.38
Received $10 in ECB's from CVS and 2 "Free Gallon of Milk" coupons from Jewel

Jewel & CVS Trips

Stopped in for a few things at CVS and Jewel this week because there were a few super cheap items after coupons.

CVS

Spent $5.12
Saved $27.36

Bought:

4 Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice (clearance to $0.99 each)
4 boxes Stovetop stuffing mix
6 M&M eggs

Jewel

Spent $6.30
Saved $13.50
Received $1.50 OYNO* coupon from McCormick Grinders

Bought:

2 McCormick Grinders
2 Hartz Crunch & Clean treats
2 Pedigree treats

*OYNO stands for "On Your Next Offer"