An Update

Its been a while since I posted, not because I haven't been couponing, but because I haven't found a lot of great deals. We have been doing pretty good with our budget, but have slipped a little and are getting back on track. Here is some of our most recent trips.

This is from Kroger from about a week ago. That is a 10 pound bag of potatoes that was $4 and we are still making meals off of that. The bell peppers were only 50 cents each so we chopped those up and added them to our nice stockpile of peppers in the freezer. Probably our best find was those Kroger tortilla chips. Chips and salsa is a favorite snack here, but tortilla chips are super expensive. However, we found these cheap generic ones that are only $1/bag, instead of $3 a bag.

This is Publix from maybe a week or so ago. The velveeta cheesy skillets were bogo $2.50 and I had 75 cents off of each coupons, making these about 50 cents each. You only need 1 box and some meat to make a dinner, so that is a great deal on dinner. Pita bread was also bogo and we got that for about 60 cents. The pringles were about $1/can after coupons and those work well for lunches. The publix brand yogurt was on sale for about 40 cents each. The croutons were about 20 cents and $1 for the cookies. The meat is beef stew meat- meat + potatoes + carrots + onions + gravy + crock pot = beef stew:)

This is Publix from today and I feel like we got our money's worth here. Probably the best deal was the potatoes- they are basically little cut up chunks of potato. They were bogo and with my awesome $1 off coupons I got them for 80 cents a bag! I probably didn't need any more gravy, but it was also bogo for $1.25 and I had one 50 cents two cans that doubled (made it 25 cents for 2 cans) and two $1 off 4 cans (made it about 35 cents a can). The cheese was also a pretty good deal, it is $3, but I had a $1 off manufacturer's coupon and $1 off Publix coupon, making it $1 for the pack. The kraft salad dressing was free with coupons. The chocolate milk was a total impulse buy, and as you can see only about half of it made it home. We paid a little over $20 for this trip.

Good Day at Kroger

We went out shopping for a while this morning. We went a little further out than usual because we were getting a great deal on batteries. That meant we could go to the good Kroger. We have two in our town, the one closest to us is smaller and a bit funkier. The other Kroger is huge and much nicer. I think I have convinced husband that if we only go once a week it wouldn't be too bad to drive the extra few minutes out to the other one.

This trip was close to $50, but husband's job gave him a $25 gift card to Kroger for Thanksgiving, so we only paid about $23. The bulk of our trip was that ground beef. We had just used our last pack last night for tacos and needed some more. These are manager's special, so it was about $2 for each pack, a little over a pound. They are on discount because they are close to the expiration date, but they are perfectly fine if you put them in the freezer and just pull it out the day you are going to cook it. We also found some discounted lunch meat that I will use for work lunches this week and I got husband some $1 bologna. We also got a good bit of produce- cilantro, lime, and avocados to make some guacamole salad to go with our chicken enchiladas tonight. We also got some tomato, bananas, and bell peppers. We have been buying bell peppers, chopping them up and freezing them so that we just grab what we need when we need it. It has been working really well and tastes just as good as when they are fresh. We got a 5lb bag of potatoes for $1.99, we are going to use that to make chicken skillet this week as well as the beef stew we currently have going in the crock pot. The digiorno pizza was $5.99 and I had a $2 off coupon, so that was a decent deal. My coco krispies were also on sale for $1.99, I'm very picky about cereal and have been wanting some of this!

While we were out by the nice Kroger we stopped by Lowe's to get this great battery deal. This is a 30 pack of AA batteries, on sale for $4!!! That is a great deal on batteries so we got 2 packs. Batteries are also on sale this week at Home Depot, but we realized before we went that it was a combo AA and AAA pack and we really don't need AAA.

Next we stopped at the first of two Winn Dixie's. Guess how much I paid for this? 44 cents!!! Who says you can't save on healthy food! The shredded lettuce is on sale for 99 cents this week, and this bag is getting close to an expiration date, so they had a $1 off coupon on it, making it free. This romaine lettuce is on sale bogo this week for $3.79, there were 75 cent off coupons by the lettuce and since these are also close to date they also each had a $1 off Winn Dixie coupon on them. So about 15 cents per bag after coupons! We are going to be eating a lot of salads this week!

We made a super quick trip to Publix while we were out. The old el paso kits are bogo $3.19 this week. We have plenty of taco kits, but I have been wanting to make some more of these chicken enchiladas. Husband has this deep love for fig newtons, which are outrageously expensive for a cookie! But they are also bogo this week for $3.99, yes regularly $4 for a pack of cookies!

Lastly we stopped at one more Winn Dixie since the first one did not have this kind of lettuce. This is the classic iceberg and this was the last day it was on sale for 99 cents each. These will make great lunches for work this week. We also got a pack of beef stew meat for a little less than $5, it looked really good raw and it looks even better cooking in our new crock pot! They also had hummus on sale bogo for $3.99, and we love us some hummus! This was about $22 and definitely put us over budget this week, but I think I can include the overage into this week's grocery budget and make it come out ok.

Black Friday... at the Grocery Store?

So I decided to go out Black Friday shopping since husband had to work today and I figured I would just get bored at home. Bad idea, terrible idea! The crowds actually weren't as bad as I thought they would be, and I actually spent less than $20, but it was so painful! My old shopaholic tendencies were definitely coming out. So many times I had to say, "I don't need this, I don't need this". Fortunately for me I only had my card with very little money on it, thank goodness I did not take husbands offer of using his card! I finally came to my senses and ran away from the mall as quickly as I could! However, it was Black Friday, so I had to get some good deals right? Fortunately I found somewhere to get a great deal... the grocery store! Winn Dixie to ge more exact, look at what I got for just a little less than $25:

The best deal was this toilet paper. They are 12 double rolls and they are a bonus pack, so a little bigger than a regular double roll. I can tell you from lugging them around that they are heavy! Usually I get these at Publix for $5.50 and use a coupon to get them for $4.50. Well today they are part of the 3 day sale at Winn Dixie for $4.50 each and I had $1 off coupons. I actually went to two stores to get this because supposedly there was a limit on the toilet paper. I should have just stayed at the first store because the people at the second store were rude. The woman tried telling me that they no longer accept coupons printed online. Hmmm, that is interesting because I just used the same coupons at the other store and oh by the way, these are printed from a site promoted by your store! I finally got the manager to come put them in for me. The lettuce was on sale for 99 cents, which is insane, that is the cheapest I have ever seen bagged lettuce. Lastly, the pork chops are buy one get one this week. I bought a pack for $5.50 and I got the other pack, that was $4.63, for free. Now I bought those at the second store and it actually didn't take off the price of my pork chops. I couldn't figure out why it seemed so much more expensive than I thought it would be and they make the stupid receipt so hard to read! I finally figured it out when I got out to the car, so I had to wheel all of my stuff bak in and get a $5 refund, but whatever, not like I had anything else to do today!

Happy Thanksgiving! (Courtesy of CVS)

So, CVS put out their Black Friday ad a couple of weeks ago. It is pretty amazing, lots of free and money-making items. I figured I was going to have to drag poor husband out of the house at midnight tonight. He has to work tomorrow, so he really wasn't looking forward to it. Then this morning I realized that CVS is open for Thanksgiving (sorry CVS employees, that sucks for you) and sales had already started, woohoo! We hit two CVS stores this morning and here is all of the stuff we got!!! We paid out of pocket a little over $27 for all of this, we still have $10 in extra bucks, and yes that price includes that big crock pot! Everything here was on sale except for the salsa (sorry, impulse buy!) and the popcorn, which was only $1 and will go excellent with our movie marathon lined up for today! Here is what we got:

5 quart crock pot (regular $40!) on sale for $18.88, get back $10 ECB

Mars candy bars 75 cents, get 75 cent ECB (Free!)

12 count breathe right strips $5.99, get $5.99 ECB, used $1.50 coupon = moneymaker!

Listerine packs $2.99, get $2.99 ECB (Free!)

CVS batteries $3.99, get $3.99 ECB (Free!)

Advil trial size $2.99, get $2.99 ECB (Free!)

Bayer 20 count aspirin, on sale for 99 cents, used $2 off coupon = moneymaker!

Colgate toothpaste $2.87, get $2.87 ECB, used $1 off coupon = moneymaker!

Cinnamon toast crunch $2.87, get $2 EBC

Pepto bismol $2.99, get $2.99 ECB (Free!)

Cool touch kleenex $1.50, get $1.50 ECB (Free!)

Excedrin 8 count, with free bonus 8 count 99 cents, get 99 cents ECB (Free!)

Finish dish detergent tablets $2.99, get $2.99 ECB, used $1 off coupon = moneymaker!

Carmex $1.39, get $1.39 ECB (Free!)

Planter's peanuts 2/$6, buy 2 get $3 ECB

Wow, that was a lot of free stuff, plus this crock pot is pretty awesome. It is not quite as cool as the one we already have, but will definitely come in handy. After our shopping escapades we stopped at the redbox, two of them actually, to grab 3 movies to watch today. We only had to pay for one, gotta loves those free dvd codes. Now we just have to wait for our beautiful roast, here is a sneak peak:

This is it getting a little sear before...

heading into the crock pot with all the yummy veggies. He has about 3 hours left to cook, but he already looks and smells fabulous!

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

I normally head home the moment that we close the residence halls for Thanksgiving; however, I am the person on-call this week so I will be staying here! I was a little sad at first to not be able to spend the holiday with my parents, but I went home a couple of weeks ago and I will be heading back in about a month. Husband and I aren't big traditional Thanksgiving people, so we decided to make a roast for Thanksgiving. It is pretty expensive, but totally worth it and I think it is ok to splurge a little for the holiday!

We were going to make a quick trip at Publix today to pick up a couple of things they were out of the other day and then head to Walmart to pick up our roast, but this morning I got a great coupon from Earthfare and that changed plans! I haven't been thrilled with the Earthfare coupons lately, but this morning they sent out a $10/$50 coupon. We weren't planning to spend $50 at Publix, but we decided to get our roast there to make that total happen. That is our beautiful roast right there in the front, it was $20, but looks amazing! Even with our very expensive roast this whole trip was only 35!

We had a couple of cheese coupons left over because earlier in the week they didn't have enough of the kinds we wanted. The cheese is bogo $3.99 and I had 50 cents off of two coupons that doubled, making the cheese $1.50 each. Today that deal was even better because they had a new coupon book in the store for buy two Sargento cheeses and get a free dozen eggs, so both of those dozens were free! The veggies were also a good deal. They are both stir fry mixes and are a pound of veggies. They were $2.59, but on a half off sale and I got 55 cent coupons out of the new coupon book, making them 75 cents each. We grabbed some more lettuce that is bogo this week and also some onions for our roast. I also got some mashed potatoes to try. I really like the Bob Evans kind, they are amazing, but also very expensive! I have some in the freezer for us to have with our roast, but these mashed potatoes were bogo and that made them $2, plus they are 12 more ounces than the bob evans kind. I'm going to give them a try during the week and see how they compare. We rounded off our trip with that pie, another little splurge for the holiday, but it was on 50% sale, making it $4, plus there is a coupon for pie singles inside the box that will come in handy next time they go bogo! Happy Thanksgiving!

First Week with the New Budget

This was our first week working with our new budget we made for ourselves and we did really good. We went a little over our eating out budget, by maybe $4. But we made a good decision and decided not to go out for fancy dinner for our anniversary, which would have put us way over our budget for the week, and got two meals out this week. We also did good on our grocery budget and came in a little under, so the two evened out for the week. We also did awesome for the first week of operation take lunch to work and did not eat out at all for lunch this week! Our new containers that I showed you last week are awesome and have been so good for putting together a quick lunch. We also had an amazing day yesterday in terms of cleaning. I started watching a marathon of Hoarders yesterday and it inspired me to start cleaning. Husband was nice enough to pitch in when he got home from work yesterday. We got rid of a bunch of stuff and our apartment looks so nice and much less cluttered! Ok, on to shopping!

This was our publix trip this week. We were starting to run low on cheese so I was getting a little worried and have been looking for a good cheese sale. This wasn't quite as awesome as the 50 cent cheese I got last time, but still way better than full price. They were bogo for $3.99 and I had 55 cent coupons, making them $1.45 a bag. I got a couple more of the free Dr. Pepper 10 coupons from my mom when I went home last week, so those were free. The chef boyardee was on sale for 89 cents each and I had a $2/10 coupon, so those were 69 cents each. Some of our lunch containers were got are glass, so we can take these for work lunch. The frozen veggies worked out to about 30 cents to 50 cents each. The carrots were bogo and they will go in the roast we are making for Thanksgiving. Salad mix was also bogo. The sausage was 2/$5 and I had a 75 cents off two coupon. One of them was hot sausage, which we put in our jambalaya Friday, so good, but so spicy:) Finally, we bought something we never buy, turkey! I'm not a huge fan, notice how I said we are making roast for Thanksgiving. But, while we were at the store we tried the sample the lady was making, which was turkey chili. It was so good, we had to get some! She used pre-cooked turkey, which was super expensive, but we decided to cook our own, and here is how it came out:

It is turkey, poblano peppers, red bell pepper, navy beans, onions, chicken broth, milk, cheese and some spices. It was soooo good!

We also made a stop at the Kroger this morning. I was shocked that they were still running the buy 4 items get a free gallon of milk promotion. We bought the cheerios, sweet moments desserts, and frozen breakfast items for that promotion. All of the items were 4/$10 and I had $1 off coupons for all of them, so for $6 I got 4 items plus a gallon of milk, that is pretty good considering the milk would be over $3 and because husband drinks it like crazy we would have to buy it anyway. The poblano peppers (which were cheaper since our cashier mistakenly rang them up as jalapenos!) and whole milk were for our chili. Eggs were $1, salad was on clearance, and I was seriously craving some chips and salsa, which were on sale 2/$5.

Operation Bring Lunch to Work, Plus a Shopping Update

Last week I told you how husband and I were absolutely horrified when we sat down to figure out exactly where our money goes each month and we saw the outrageous amount we spend on fast food and eating out. The majority of that is spent for our lunches. So, we have a new plan! Starting this week a $25/week eating out budget and a plan to bring lunches to work. We went to Walmart to get some containers to take our lunches in. I know you aren't supposed to warm plastic containers in the microwave, but I do it all the time because I thought buying glass ones would be too expensive. But today we found these Ziploc Versa glass containers. They were $5.97 each, which I think is expensive. However, there was a tear pad near by with a $1.50 off of two, that wouldn't have been too bad. But then, we looked inside the containers and they had $3 off each coupons inside. Maybe super strict couponers would chastise me for taking them out and using them, but to me I am still buying their product, so why not? So we got them for $3 each! I was also really surprised to see these Rubermaid to go containers for $1.98 each pack. That is a really good deal on food storage containers. We got some bigger round ones for salads, small rounds for dressing, medium rounds for snacks, and some divided ones. While at Walmart we also picked up some essentials and took advantage of a great coupon deal. There was a $3 off hormel party trays coupon available last week. The large party trays are about $10, so that isn't that great. However, they have a smaller snack size that is $5.50 and the coupon works on it. I heard rumblings on the coupon sites that using this is controversial because they are meant for the larger trays. However, when I went on their website they listed the snack trays under party trays, so that is good enough for me! That made them about $2.50 each. They are meat and crackers and cheese, so just like lunchables!

Ok, time for a quick update on some of my recent deals. While I was out of town Kroger had as part of their mega sale the beef gravy for 50 cents when you buy 10. I asked husband to get me some while I was gone and the deal was made even better because with a great coupon I had they wound up being 25 cents each. While I was at home a store by my mom also had the gravy on sale for 58 cents each. Now, this gravy never goes on sale! Usually the cans are between $1.40-$1.70 each, so it was definitely stock up time! My mom also wound up with about 60 cans of gravy:)

Kroger also has a really good deal this week for buy 4 participating products for $10 and get a free gallon of milk. With coupons for $1 off each participating item we bought, we were able to get all of this for $12 plus tax!

Finally we made a really quick stop at CVS yesterday because I had an ECB that was about to expire. The gillette fusion gel was $2.38 and I had a $1 coupon, plus there was a $2 ECB, making it free. Husband printed a coupon for $2/2 combos from the magic coupon machine. So we paid about $1 out of pocket and got back the $2 ECB.

Last One for a Week

I'm getting ready to head out of town for about a week, so no couponing for me! Don't worry, husband has a small list of great deals to pick up while I am gone:) This was our quick trip to Kroger yesterday, where they are having another mega sale. My absolute favorite item is that beef gravy. It is usually pretty expensive, but during the mega sale it is only 50 cents a can! Sadly by the time I got to the store all but one can was gone! That is high on husband's list to get this week. I also have great coupons, which once I can buy in groups of 4 will make them 25 cents a can! The mac and cheese was free and the rest of this stuff, other than lunch meat and milk, was under $1.

Can You Really Save Money Using Coupons? or How I Save $150 a Month on Groceries!

One thing that I hear a lot from people when they find out that I use coupons goes something like this: "I think that is just a lot of work and I don't think you really save that much doing it". My response to this is two-fold:

1. Couponing does not take a great deal of time

2. You really can save a lot of money

Now keep in mind when I talk about the time that you spend couponing I mean couponing like a normal person. The people that you see on Extreme Couponing are insane, say that with me "insane". They talk about spending 50 hours per week couponing. There is no need for that. I would estimate that I spend about 15 minutes a day just checking my usual couponing sites for updates and for each shopping trip (generally one to Publix and one to Kroger per week) I probably spend 30-45 minutes doing that, 5 hours per week would be pretty much a maximum for me. I find that in general I spend less time actually at the store shopping because I go in with a plan and know exactly what I am looking for as opposed to wandering around aimlessly thinking, "hmm...what did I come here for again?".

I can also tell you that YES you really can save so much money! I think when people who don't coupon look at coupons they see, "oh, well that coupon is for 50 cents, why would I waste my time clipping for 50 cents". What they don't see is that coupon doubling or using that coupon for an item that is on a great sale. Plus, little amounts add up! If you buy 20 items and save 50 cents on each item you have just saved $10!
Now, let's talk about saving $150 per month. Husband and I sat down tonight and went through our online bank account statements to see what we actually spend each month. We did this as a part of making a budget for ourselves. We have had something that we called a budget, but really it was just a list of all of the bills we have to pay each month. So we decided to do a real budget. We looked at our expenses for food other than groceries (ie. fast food or eating out), bills, groceries, gas, and entertainment. What we found was shocking and really made us think about what we spend each month. But while we spent more than either of us would have liked on the other categories, our grocery expenses were actually really good. We compared our grocery expenses for this past October ($270) and last October before we had started using coupons ($420), that is a $150/month difference! In addition to saving money we also get more for our money. Before coupons we would go to the store and buy things as needed, never really being able to get things on sale because I had to buy it at whatever price it was because I needed it. We have also been able to try a lot of different foods that we would not have before because they were too expensive. So, if you haven't tried couponing yet, just give it a shot. Even a saving of $20 a week is still savings that you can put toward something else:)

This Week at Publix

We just got back from our weekly stop at Publix. Everything here was $20 and half of that was the chicken. The little tubs of butter are bogo and then with a 40 cent coupon that doubled these were each about 50 cents each. The cereal was also bogo and I had some coupons making them $1.50 each. That is pretty good for a box of cereal, especially because these are larger boxes. The hefty bags are not on sale this week, but I had a rain check from last week, making them about 75 cents a box. The broth was also bogo and about 75 cents each. Lastly, my chocolate chip cookies were on sale and I had a publix coupon for them, so they should have been about $1, but then I noticed later that the cashier rang up the coupon code twice making them free:) I also had a great $3/$30 Publix coupon that I was able to print out last night.

Frozen Food Fun at Publix

So I've decided that I don't really care for Walgreens and their Register Rewards program. I have gotten a couple of good deals, but their RR expire about 2 weeks from when you get them, as opposed to CVS' Extra Care Bucks, which you can use for up to a month most of the time. This gives you more time to shop sales and wait for a good deal to come along. All that to say that I had a $4.50RR that was expiring today. We each got an ice cream and some gum, paid about $2 out of pocket for this. We also took a short trip to the Kroger where they are having a mega sale, but obviously the appeal of buying free things has been lost on me. When I couldn't find the things I wanted for the mega sale I left my 4 things of free toothpaste there rather than wait in line to check out. I have become a lazy couponer:(

No couponing trip would be complete without a stop at the Publix, where frozen food was on our list! French fries are b2g1 free right now and I had a $1.50/3 coupon, making them about $1.67 each, which is a great price. I have not tried the tai pei frozen food yet, but they were also b2g1 free and I had $1/1 coupons, making them 86 cents each. The toaster studel is for husband, it was bogo and I had coupons they were about a dollar each. We also bought some of these egg scramble things. It looks like frozen scrambled eggs, potatoes, peppers, and cheese sauce. I'm pretty wary of scrambled egss, but they were bogo and I had good coupons. They were 44 cents each, so I will try it for that price. The pam was $1.50 and the taco bell kits were bogo. The chicken is leg quarters and they are 99 cents/lb this week. Total for this was a little less than $30. 

I Love Sunday Shopping

We started the morning at the drugstores. I normally do not shop at Walgreens, but I had a Register Reward from last week's toliet paper purchase and a really good coupon to make this razor free. The candy is for husband, I let him pick out a filler item (you need as many items as you have coupons and unlike CVS they count their Register Reward as a manufacturer's coupon) and of course he had to pick out expensive candy, whatever. Then we went to CVS. They had the almay products for $5.99 with $4 ECB. I had a $1 coupon, which makes it only 99 cents. I planned to get some mascara, and when I got there they had this bonus pack that included eyeshadow, for the same price. I used a $5 ECB to pay, got a $4 ECB back and paid 54 cents out of pocket. CVS is awesome.

We also hit Winn Dixie today. Not one of our usual stops, but these little roasts were bogo and I had $1 off of each coupons. That made them about $2.50 each. This expensive shampoo is actually for my mom. They put out bogo coupons the other week that are going to expire before the next time I go home. They were on sale for $3.49 and the cashier actually put down the full price $4.49, which made them an even better deal!

Of course there had to be a trip to the Publix because it is the best store ever. Great deals, friendly people, and samples of sirloin steak, what more could you want from a grocery store? Now, as I have said before, I do not have a dog, but my mommy has several, so I bought her some dog food. These are 4 pound bags and they were bogo $4.99, which made the $2.50 each and I had $1.50 off coupons. I would say $1 for 4 lbs is pretty good. Our jambalaya was on sale and with coupons we got those for 50 cents each. The pillsbury stuff was good deal. This is the pizza crust and a french loaf. They are normally pretty expensive. They were on sale this week for $2 each and I used a $1/2 store coupon and a 50 cents/2 coupon that doubled, making them $1 each. That yogurt I got for free. Then there was the impulse buy of this roast. It is some kind of pork roast, it looked yummy and it was only $1.99lb, and a little over $6 for the whole thing. We decided to give it a try.

Wanchai Ferry=Amazing!

So earlier this week we went to Publix and got some Wanchai Ferry meals. We hadn't tried them before, but last night we needed something for dinner and gave this a try. They were so good, like way, way better than I thought they would be. We went back and got some more- only $2.75 each! I also had some good coupons for the shampoo that made them about 60 cents each. The frozen veggies (risotto actually) was only 30 cents. We also got some light bulbs that were bogo, which was great because our 3 way light bulb in the living room just blew out yesterday (there were sparks, it was pretty epic). A little less than $20 for this, not bad considering this will make 4 dinners:)
Today we also made a stop at the Kroger and got all of this stuff for only $11! The newspaper had coupons for free Dr. Pepper 10, so both of those were free (actually they paid us like 34 cents for each bottle because the cashier rang us up weird). The mashed potatoes were also free because of a coupon that printed last time we were at Kroger. The schick razors were almost free. They were on sale bogo this week and I had an awesome $6/2 coupon, so it was 23 cents for both. Rice was also pretty much free and the buns were like 60 cents each.

I sent husband to Walgreens yesterday to get this toilet paper deal. It is a 12 count and they are $5 each, I had $1 off store coupons and 75 cent off manufacturer coupons, so it was about $6 for both plus I got back a $3 Register Reward (what they call the money back coupons at Walgreens). Husband also got some free gum!

Who Loves Publix? Me!

I have this thing for marine life, so when I walked in and saw this octopus themed reusable shopping bag I had to have it, big plus it was only $1! This week at Publix they have some great deals. Pasta is bogo $1.50 and of course I had some coupons! Last week I found a blinkie (a coupon dispenser near the product, usually it blinks) for $1/2 and I grabbed some since I knew sooner or later it would go bogo. I was completely shocked to see that they still had the blinkie there this week, thus my 24 boxes of pasta. With my coupon it made each box 25 cents! The macaroni grill and wanchai ferry are also bogo $8.49. I had $1.50 off wanchai ferry and $1 off macaroni grill, plus Winn Dixie put out a store coupon for $2/2 macaroni grill and my Publix accepts as a competitor, so that made them $2.25 (macaroni grill) - $2.75 (wanchai). Cough drops were 25 cents each after bogo and $1/2 coupon. My butter was a good deal too. I usually try to just buy a bunch of the small containers when they go bogo, but this big container was on sale for $3, and then there was a $1 Publix coupon and I had a 40 cent coupon that doubled, making it $1.20, so not too bad.

CVS Success

Great trip to CVS today! Starbucks frappuccino was on sale for $5, buy $15 worth of pepsi products (this counts) and get $5 ECBs. I had 3 $1/1 coupons, which made each pack about $2.33 after ECB. They also had cover girl make up on sale buy one get one 50% off, plus there was an $8/2 coupon in the paper this morning, making it about $5 for both of these powders. I also had some great coupons and ECBs to use. CVS put out a $4/$20 coupon, I had a $2 ECB that I got online for pledging not to throw away ECBs (CVS is doing a campaign for this right now), the coupon machine printed out a $1 ECB for me, and I had close to $10 ECBs, so we paid $2.06 out of pocket for this and walked out of the store with $5 ECB in hand. If you haven't tried CVS yet, you really should. It is a little more complicated than just regular couponing, takes some extra strategizing and some quick thinking sometimes, but it is totally worth it. According to my receipt today I have saved over $400 this year at CVS and I doubt I have spent even a quarter of that out of pocket so far.

Do You Like Mashed Potatoes?

If so hurry up and get over to Publix! Bob Evans mashed potatoes, ever heard of them? They are amazing, I am really picky about mashed potatoes and I promise these taste exactly like homemade. You can find them in the refrigerated section. Right now they are $3 each at Publix. But, when you sign up for their email you can get a "buy one get one free" coupon, you can still use one other coupon and right now they have a $1 off coupon available now. So that means you can get each container for only $1 right now, which is a great price. They are refrigerated products, so they expire in about a month from when you buy, but they also freeze very well as long as you reheat on the stove.

Ok, enough about mashed potatoes! This trip was about $20, making everything a little less than $1 each. I had a raincheck on those bugles, they were about 30 to 80 cents depending on the coupon I used. They are a pretty big bag, so good deal. Taco dinner kits are always a great deal at Publix! Right now they are bogo $3.19, making them $1.60 each. Old El Paso put out some great printable coupons last week for 50 cents off, which doubles to $1, making each kit 60 cents, talk about cheap dinner! More in the mood for cheap breakfast? Aunt Jemima frozen breakfast items are bogo right now, which made them $1.35 a box. I had a $1 off coupon which made the box 35 cents, so that box will make 3 breakfasts, I think 12 cents per breakfast is pretty great! I also got some more of the toaster strudel for husband while they are still on sale for about $1.40 a box. Finally, the pie is on sale at 50% off this week, which made the pie $1.80 and then I had a $1 off coupon. It was a pretty great day at the Publix (even though I did have 3 separate people who got in line behind me leave for another line because it took my cashier a little while to ring them all up, I'm used to it now!).

Most Recent Deals

In case you haven't noticed I have been away for a while. Husband and I ventured out of town for a week in the middle of September and I have been playing catch up since we got back. There haven't been an awful lot of amazing deals lately, but it has been ok. Here are some of my latest bargains.

Let's start with these, they were a great deal! They are a new product called Velveeta Cheesy Skillets. When they first introduced them there were $1/1 coupons in the paper for them. Winn Dixie, which I very rarely shop at because I find them too expensive, had them on sale bogo for around $3, which basically made these about 50 cents each after coupons. We were also able to get some at Walmart for about 70 cents each. It is a whole meal minus the meat (chicken or beef). I'm not sure what better price you could ask for to make dinner. So far we have tried the broccoli chicken flavor and it was good. Using it, plus some $1/lb Earthfare chicken we made dinner for 2 for under $2, that is excellent!

We made a quick stop at Publix before we left to go home. There were manufacturer's and Publix coupons for the TGI Fridays thing and it was basically just about free. However, when I ate it for lunch yesterday I wasn't totally thrilled. It is supposed to be a cheesy chicken with potato, broccoli and red pepper. While it was easy to make and pretty good, probably half the pack was cheese. Obviously from some of the groceries I buy I'm not the most healthy eater, but there were seriously 3 pieces of broccoli in the bag (really, I counted them!). I don't think I will be getting that again. The homestyle mac and taco kits were bogo. I had coupons for the taco kits that made them less than $1, another super cheap easy dinner option. The trash bags weren't super cheap, but they were on sale and we had a coupon. They are the febreeze kind and they actually do smell pretty good.

This was CVS the day that we left to go out of town. I always have problems with calculating my CVS deals and deciding if they were a good bargain. I think this was pretty good. I used a $10 ECB on this, got $12 in ECB back and spent about $11. One thing you have to be careful of at CVS is the limits on the ECBs, I forgot that lesson and wound up over spending a little. The soft soap body wash was about $3 and you got $2 ECB, I had a 75 cent coupon, making it about 25 cents. However, I forgot that the deal was limit 1 ECB, and wound up paying over $2 for a body wash, which is ridiculous because I have a ton of them. I went back and returned it today. Probably the best deal we got was that pack of newton thins, which husband really likes. The awesome CVS coupon machine (make sure you scan your card every time you go and you scan it until it tells you that you have no coupons left!) printed out a coupon for a free pack. We thought it would be small, but when we checked the coupon size it was for this full sized product, awesome! The dawn dish soap was about 25 cents each and there was a deal for buy so much in lysol products and get $10 ECB back, I can't remember how much I had to buy, but I had great coupons that made it almost free.

When we got back home we made a stop at Publix. There were manufacturer and Publix coupons for the toaster strudel, and it made each box about 50 cents. That sale is still going on, so I plan to go back and get some more for husband. The eggs were $1 and the yogurt was 75 cents. The rest of the stuff was an ok price. That large yellow thing there- that is a spaghetti squash. I had heard that you cook it, scrape out the insides and it is like spaghetti, but squash. Sounded great, well not so much. It certainly looked like spaghetti, but that was about where the similarity ended. Oh well, at least we tried.

We also stopped by the Kroger mega sale that was going on for the last 2 weeks. The easy mac/velveeta was 50 cents, the red peppers were $1 each. We have been buying our peppers when they are cheap, chopping them up and freezing them, which has been working well. They had the Carolina Pride products on sale bogo, $4 for the sausage, and I had a 50 cent coupon that doubled, so $1 for sausage. We used the grilling beans to make a side dish where we mixed it with rice and cheese, and baked. It actually turned out well. We went back to Kroger Friday and grabbed a few more mega items, including bags of steam fresh veggies for 49 cents each.

Finally, here are today's deals from CVS. Schick put out some really high value coupons this week, including one for $5 off Schick Quatro razors. They are on sale this week for $8.99 and you got $4ECB, making it free. The thermacare wrap was $3.79 and then you got $3.79ECB, so again free. I had a $10 ECB I wanted to use and I wanted to get the excedrin that was advertised (8 count for 99cents, get 99cents back), but they didn't have any, actually the store employees said they had never seen an 8 count before. Apparently the employees are a little coupon shy, this other lady I was talking to was also looking for the excedrin and asked the guy at the counter and he was like all panicked, like "I've never seen that before, I don't know anything about it". Ok dude, it was just a question! So, I needed something else to make my $10. They had milk for $3.89 with $1 ECB, which is cheaper than the regular store this week. I paid $3 cash for this and got back $4 ECB, $3.79 ECB, and $1 ECB, not bad. On a funny note, this old guy who was checking us out told us that he was really happy his replacement had gotten there so he could leave because he has a customer with "the coupon binder from hades", where she has all of the store policies printed out ("I don't know what website she got that from", uh duh, your store website where they list all of the coupon policies) and that she buys several Sunday papers and prints coupons online. Um, hi guy, did you notice I came and asked you about the stuff that was on sale this week, used a printable coupon, paid in ECBs and then got a whole bunch of ECBs back? What do you think I am?

My Extreme Couponing Moment

I had my very own extreme couponing moment today when I checked out at Publix. I was afraid the guy behind me was getting annoyed with all of my coupons, but towards the end he came up and got all excited about my savings. This was a good week at the Publix for snacks. Obviously the chex mix was a good deal! We got them for about 30 cents a bag. The jello temptations- if you haven't tried you are really missing out- were about $1.25 each. The think I am most excited about is something I never thought I would be excited about- Lloyd's barbeque. It is bogo this week and with a coupon we got it for $1.75 each. I'm not a huge bbq fan and I generally don't do refrigerated meat, but I decided that I would try this for the price. While we were at Publix they had sample bbq sandwiches, and they were delicious. I'm going to print some more coupons and go back. I paid a little over $25 for all of this and saved about $70!

Time to catch up a little bit! This was last week at Publix. The Bob Evans mashed potatoes were $2 each. We haven't tried them yet, but they will go great with chicken tomorrow night. The tissues were just about free.

My all time favorite- free, free, free! Actually, a couple of my coupons were for 50 cents, so I paid about $1 for these. They are the trial size, but we have gotten so many of them for free. There is a great big pile of them under our sink.

This was a great deal! This is planter's peanut butter, which is a new product. Generally for new stuff they will put out high value coupons. I had a $2 online coupon and a 75 cent coupon from the paper. Walgreens had them on sale 2/$3 last week. That made both of the 25 cents!

Meet our new fish- Phineas! We got a new tank a couple of weeks ago and decided to get a few freshwater fish. After we killed 5 fish (thank Petco for not bothering to tell us that you aren't supposed to put fish in a brand new tank!) we decided we would just go back to the beta- they seem hardier. We have had him for about a week and so far he is still alive!

Earthfare is Awesome

There really haven't been a lot of good deals lately. But that changed Wednesday when Earthfare sent out their new coupon, chicken breast for $1/lb, up to 2lb. Husband and I have been there every day since then stocking up on chicken. Today they put out another coupon for $5 for a boneless ribeye steak. Now granted, I have been back to stock up on chicken, I will probably go again tomorrow and get some more chicken and steak, but the people I saw there today were disgusting. Grown men piling baskets full of steak, what a bunch of idiots. The best part is that they have to ring up each one separately to get the price. I really wish they would have thrown these guys out of the store.

We also stopped by CVS to get an ok deal. Buy $25 of these products and get $10 ECB. I had $6 in ECB that were about to expire. So, I wound up spending about $26, plus $10 back, so about $16 for the toilet paper and paper towels, or about $5.50 a pack, which is a decent deal.

Finally a Moment to Relax!

Oh my goodness, three weeks of training is finally over! I feel like I have been working for a month straight. Definitely haven't had time to do any couponing. Husband has been nice enough to make a couple of quick trips to the store for essentials (some highlights- $1/ half gallon milk and $1 red peppers at Kroger). Sales haven't been particularly amazing lately anyway. However, this weekend I have finally had some time to relax, organize some coupons and shop some sales. Nothing too terrific, but a couple of decent deals.

First a stop at Publix. The chunky soup is never really an amazing deal, but with coupons they were around $1 to $1.20 each. Barbeque sauce, herbal essences shampoo and pantene shampoo were all free with coupons. The sausage was 75 cents. This was a little over $30.

We stopped at Kroger, mainly for the $5/10 mega sale for the lunch meat and pie singles. We probably would have had a really good deal if we would have stuck to that. But this big pie called out to me- it was on sale for $4.99 and some wonderful person left a $1 off coupon right there buy it, like it was meant to be! Plus it has a coupon for $1 off the pie singles inside, I couldn't resist. We also got some bacon- bogo sale so about $2 a pack. The Sunny D was only 50 cents with coupon and the rice was about 10 cents a bag. I got those stack chips to make the rest of our 10 participating items, not bad for 79 cents each. This was about $20.

Sometimes Even Couponing Doesn't Help

It has been a good week. Like I said I work for Residence Life, so we are gearing up to start moving in residents in a week. Part of that is training our staff and this week we started with our Hall Directors, training went really good, so that has made me very happy. But it has been a very long week, and now it is getting even longer because I am sick. My normally happy trips to the store were miserable, like, "if I have to take 5 more steps I may pass out miserable", but what are you going to do? Shopping has to get done and tomorrow starts another two weeks of training, so not much spare time coming up soon:)

Despite my misery I was able to get some good deals this weekend. CVS had the suave 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner on sale for $1.33, which was already an ok deal, and then you got $3 ECB when you spent $10 on suave products, so these were about 95 cents each with no coupons. Husband likes this kind, so now I won't have to buy it for a really long time! There were coupons and ECBs for both of the razors, I got the Bic one for free and the gillette one for 99 cents. I always get a little confused on how I am doing on these deals, but I left the house today with $10 ECB, came back with $6 ECB and spent $6 in the process, I am going to go ahead and call that even.

In one of my many trips to Walmart (please don't ask, between work trips and personal trips it is just way too many to count) I scored these for free. They are the trial pack of the cascade gel packs and they sell for 97 cents, I had $1 off coupons, hooray!

This was our trip to Publix. Husband loves pop tarts, I'm not so much a fan, but they were bogo this week and I had $1/3 coupons. That made them about 75 cents a box, which is crazy cheap for these. Lettuce was also bogo, my coupon should have doubled, but didn't, oh well I was not in the mood to fight over a dollar and $1.50 a bag is still a good deal.

We also made a very quick stop at Kroger. I've never really done the hamburger helper before, but we bought a lot of ground meat last week and I'm not so sure what to do with it all. Between sales, coupon, and a catalina these were about 50 cents a box, and I'm willing to try almost anything for that price. Pudding is on sale for 88 cents each and bell peppers were 59 cents each, the cheapest I have seen them in forever.

And then there was this deal from Earthfare. They sent us coupons for a quart of organic ice cream for $1, already a great deal. We get there today and they have sold out of that and are instead substituting this 1.75 quart container of natural ice cream or a rain check for the organic. Yeah, I'll go with the natural! Both husband and I had a coupon and we spent a whopping $2.16 cents including tax for both of these.