Overspending on Groceries

I just have to say it - how is it possible to spend $400 or more a month on groceries and toiletries for a family of 2??!! I really don't understand how and why someone would spend that much! I have never in my life come even close to spending that much! I know it's possible to spend that much if you shop at Harris Teeter with no coupons or a specialty store like, Whole Foods. Since we started couponing heavily in January 2011, we have been spending $230 or under on groceries and toiletries for the month. Our average monthly spending on groceries and toiletries for 2011 was $193.42. Some months we spent less, around $85-$130. Before we started using coupons heavily and shopping sales, we were spending $300 a month on groceries. It breaks my heart and makes me sick when I see someone, especially someone with kids, check out in front of me with a total of $100 or more and not hand over a single coupon! And then to look at what's in their cart and it's only enough food for the week and it's snack food, not even meats or produce - not saying that because I think they should eat healthy, I'm saying that because of costs - snack foods are not as expensive as meats or produce are. I can understand spending $100 on several packs of meat, some produce, and maybe toiletries when you're shopping at Harris Teeter, but not on just snacks and frozen food, that's spending too much! Even if you don't have the time or resources to cut out coupons, at least load your loyalty card with digital coupons to save some money. It takes 10 seconds to click on "save" to add coupons to your VIC card! And at Food Lion and CVS you can scan your loyalty card right when you walk in and coupons will print out for you! No clipping, no using your printer, it's way easy! If you buy your toiletries and/or groceries at Wal-mart, you're overpaying! Yes, you read that right. I've tried multiple times to shop at Wal-mart with coupons and their prices are too high! From week-to-week Wal-mart will go up on their prices and down on some items. Wherever they go down in price, they make up for it by going up a few cents on other items. For example, let's say they go down on the price of diapers from $10 last week to now it's $8.99, but the price of wipes goes up by $1. I have seen their prices go up each week on their Great Value brand. People think that they're saving money by buying the store brand at places, but for me, by using coupons I've found that name brand is always cheaper! With stacking coupons I'm able to get Huggies and Pampers for less than the price of store brand. With coupons I'm able to get Colgate or Crest toothpaste for 50 cents or free - I never buy toothpaste if it's over 50 cents! For ground beef, I won't buy it unless it's $2.75/lb or less for 80/20 pack. After seeing how little I can pay for items by using coupons, I'm not willing to pay more.

I get the most for my money at CVS, Target, and Harris Teeter. I get the most savings on diapers, toothpaste, soap, deodorant, and candy by stacking coupons at CVS. I typically get meat, diapers, wipes, and food at Target, by stacking coupons. With manufacture coupons, digital coupons, and eVic offers I primarily do my grocery shopping at Harris Teeter. Typically at HT I spend $1 or less per item. Last night I spent, with tax $11.16 and got 13 things. Over the weekend I got their meal deal - Perdue fully cooked chicken, Steamfresh vegetables, 2 liter of Coke Zero, and Alexia garlic bread for $2.06 with tax! We'll eat this meal one night and still have left overs and only spent $2.06 on dinner!

As a stated above, our average monthly spending on groceries and toiletries for 2011 was $193.42.My goal for 2012 is to average $175 a month. For this month we've already spent $114 on groceries so with 14 days left in this month, I only have $61 left that I can spend. I'll probably be under $175 for this month because our pantry is full and there's only 2 weeks left for sales to be going!

I'd really like to know where people are shopping to spend $400 a month on groceries, what they're buying, and if they're using any coupons and if not, why not! So if you fall into that category, I'd love to hear your answers!

Time is Passing by Quickly!

It's been a while since I blogged. What can I say, we have been busy because of the holidays and preparing for our baby boy's arrival! Christmas was great! We did things a little different this year. We spent Christmas Eve with my in-laws - opened presents with them and then went to N's aunt and uncle's house to eat dinner and have our first baby shower! We got a lot of fun things for baby that day! Grandma and Grandpa gave us 2 blankets, 2 airplane toys, 2 books, a crib sheet, baby's first stuffed animal - a polar bear, and some other neat things! We loaded up on clothes and blankets at the baby shower! Then we spent Christmas Day with my mom's side of the family. We got lots of candy, some cute baby ornaments, scrapbooking stickers, and some necessities - kitchen soap and car wash goodies. Then we spent the day after Christmas with my parents, Nana and Pap Pap and my brother. We loaded up on goodies for the baby - toys, clothes, and bibs.

Since the holidays have been over, we have painted the baby's room and organized his closet. We have a ton of clothes! We will probably have to change his clothes twice a day in order for him to wear everything once! We are very fortunate to have been given a lot of used baby clothes. We will likely not have to buy any clothes for him until he's 18 months old or older. We also have a lot of diapers and wipes already, thanks to my couponing. We are anxious to meet our son! Hard to believe I have less than 14 weeks to go until his due date! We still need a few items before he gets here, mainly his crib, changing pad, changing cover, and car seat - all necessities. So far I have 2 baby showers planned for me - 1 on February 19th which is books and toys themed and 1 on February 25th. I'm really looking forward to time with friends and hearing everyone's excitement and love for the baby will be fun!

I have been busy saving money! Super doubles ended today at HT. There were not as many cheap items as there have been during other super double weeks so I only went 3 times this week. The result of my 3 shopping trips was $321.43 worth of groceries for a grand total of $85.95 for 83 things!!!! That's 73% savings! I'm really pleased with my savings because our pantry and fridge are now filled with lots of goodies that will last us at least 4 weeks. Here are a few of the deals I scored this week with super doubles - 3 free milks, free pasta sauce, free cereal, 25 cents for batteries, 49 cents for toothpaste, 34 cents for paper plates, 50 cents for shampoo, 87 cents for 8 pack of crackers, 99 cents for baby oil, and many other great deals!

Here are pictures of each shopping trip -



My savings tip for this post - Know when to pass up an opportunity to use a coupon. By this I mean, just because you have a coupon to use and the item is on sale doesn't mean you should buy it. First you need to make sure it's something you need and will use. If it is then the next step is to determine if you believe you'd get the best price by buying it right then. One thing I have learned with couponing is there will always be sales so it's ok to pass up an opportunity to use a coupon. For example, today I could have bought Pepperidge Farm cracker crisps for $1.50 each after my coupon doubled. Well I decided not to buy them because 1. the bag is small so it would not be much food, 2. I didn't need it at that price, and 3. my coupon doesn't expire until the end of January so chances are there will be another, cheaper opportunity to use my coupon.

Excited about Our Son

We're having a BOY!!!! We had an anatomy scan done at 18 weeks and 6 days. Everything looked really good! We got to see his brain, his heart, his waist, and we got to see that's he's a boy!!!! He's modest like his mommy though, but we still got to see enough to determine we're having a boy! It's so neat to see a live image of what's in my belly. I could have an ultrasound done everyday and I would still be amazed by the live movement and the ability of technology to capture the sound of his heart and the movement of his legs and arms. Since finding out the gender we have been super uber excited! We were excited before but there's something special about knowing we're expecting a son that makes it real. Our families are thrilled to know the gender! Everyone would have been happy if we were having a girl, I think the excitement comes in when we think about having airplanes everywhere! We already have 2 dressers, a bookshelf, and his crib set, we just need his crib! I've been tempted to buy his crib just so I can go ahead and decorate and finish his room, but then my savings mindset kicks in and I tell myself to wait until after all the showers are done then buy what's left that we need. Speaking of savings, I got a great deal on diapers last week! Harris Teeter had Huggies on sale for eVic members at $5.99 each. So with manufacture coupons and digital coupons, I managed to take home 2 packs of Huggies diapers and 2 packs of Pull Ups for $7.23!!!!! With 26 diapers in 3 packs, 1 pack that had 36 that's a total of 114 diapers which means I paid 6 cents a diaper!!!!! Today I got a pack of Huggies Little Snugglers for $2.13 from CVS, also just 6 cents per diaper! Diapers are so expensive without coupons! Now that I've gotten packs for cheap, I can't bring myself to pay $10 for a 26-40 pack of diapers. With couponing I'm doing well on stocking up on diapers in hopes that I'll never have to pay full price!

I'm 21 weeks and 2 days prego! Time is flying by, but I'm sure I won't feel that way towards the end when I'm ready to see our little guy! I have been busy with washing and putting away used clothes that my mom gave us. It's fun seeing all the cute clothes and thinking about him wearing them one day! And the great thing is we didn't have to buy any of them ourselves! We managed to score a white bookshelf at Wal-mart on Black Friday for $15.87 for his room. We put it together and put his books on it along with airplane bookends! Having the bookshelf in his room has made us realize that we're soon going to have a little one in our home! We put up our Christmas tree this weekend and it dawned on us that next year we'll have a baby crawling around and exploring things so we will have to remove some of the lower branches on the tree to avoid a disaster from happening! We also found ourselves making comments like, "oh he'll love this ornament!" and "we'll have to save this wrapping paper to wrap his presents in next year!" Then yesterday we got Subway for lunch and on the ride home I was making comments about how nasty N's sub was - he likes pickles, mustard, black olives, and yellow peppers on his subs. Then I realized that N hates Cheerios and Cheez-Its, 2 of my favorite snack foods! So for about 10 minutes we joked around about how I'm going to teach our son to always offer Cheerios and Cheez-Its to daddy! Oh I can't wait! It's probably silly of us to be thinking so far ahead, but I think it just speaks to how excited we are about his anticipated arrival!

FREE Cereal + FREE Milk = FREE Breakfast

Super doubles is going on this week at Harris Teeter! I went to 2 times yesterday, 1 with my Vic card and 1 with my mom's Vic card. I used a total of 25 coupons, took home $104.76 worth of groceries for $21.01.

Here's the breakdown of what I got -

• Post Pebbles Cereal $2.79 - $1.50 manufacture coupon in ALL You magazine doubled to $3 off = FREE
• Smart Balance Milk $3 - $1.50 manufacture coupon, doubled to $3 off = FREE
• Chex Cereal Buy 2, Get 1 Free store promo - (2) .50/1 manufacture coupons doubled to $1 off = $2 for 3 boxes
• Sara Lee Honey Wheat bread B1G1 $1.39 - (2) .55/1 manufacture coupons doubled to $1.10 off = .58 for 2 loaves of bread! 
• Country Crock butter $2.79 - $1 manufacture coupon in ALL You magazine doubled to $2 off = .79
• Sara Lee Pound Cake $2.83 - (3) $1 manufacture coupons doubled to $2 off  = .83 each
• Duracell batteries AAA $2.99 - .75/1 coupon doubled to $1.50 off - .75/1 ZVR HT digital coupon = .74 each
• Domino Sugar 5lb $2.79 - .65/1 coupon  doubled to $1.30 off = $1.49
• Riceworks chips $2.99 - $1 printable coupon doubled to $2 off =.99
• Kettle Chips $3.69 - $1 printable coupon doubled to $2 off = $1.69 
• Carnation Evaporated Milk $1 - .50/2 manufacture coupon doubled to $1 off 2 - .55/1 ZVR HT digital coupon = .45 for 2 
• PictSweet Family Size frozen vegetables B1G1 $3.68 for 2 - $1/2 manufacture coupon doubled to $2 off = $1.68 for 2 
• Nestle Cookie dough 2 for $5 - .75/1 manufacture coupon doubled to $1.50 off - .55/1 ZVR HT digital coupon = .45 for and $1 for the 2nd pack 
• Always Infinity pads $3.99 - $2 catalina - $1/1 ZVR HT digital coupon = .99 

Altogether I took home 28 things for only $21.01, an average of 75 cents per item! 

Planner

We have names picked out for Baby Turner, 1 first & middle name for each gender. We are ready to find out what we're having so we can put a name to our first child. We actually had the names picked out before I got pregnant! We are not going to tell the name right away maybe not until the baby is born. I have a strong feeling that our families will like the name we've picked! We were very mindful of possible nicknames, initials, and weird spellings. The names we've picked are not super popular, but they're not strange or unique either. We don't want our son or daughter to be 1 of 3 Ashleys or 1 of 4 Michaels in their class, but we also didn't want an extremely hard name to spell or pronounce because they would get annoying for them and for us. I'm so ready to find out what this little one is!

Everyone knows that having a baby is expensive! Adding another person to our family is exciting though! With a baby comes the cost of diapers, wipes, formula, clothes, shoes, shampoo, soap, and all the other necessities to make baby healthy and happy! I have already been asked if we are going to do reusable, cloth diapers. My answer is no, because we are on well water our concern would be having to flush more often and wash clothes and diaper inserts could be problematic if we were in a drought and I also don't see a need to do cloth diapers since I'm able to use coupons and score major deals! If N were to lose his job again, God forbid, then we might consider it. Since I knew we would one day start a family, back in January I started picking up diapers along the way with coupons. I'm not sure how much I've spent in total, but I can tell you that I have never paid over $5 for a pack of diapers. I typically buy diapers at 8-11 cents per diaper. You might be wondering where I get diaper coupons and how I'm able to get them so cheap. Well I get my diaper coupons from - 1) the back of Cheerios boxes $1.50 off Pampers, 2) coupon blinkie machines on the shelf at grocery stores, 3) my coupon swap group, and 4) Sunday's paper. I have found the best deals at Target, CVS, and Harris Teeter. With Target I've been able to stack a store coupon with a manufacture coupon to save the most money. At CVS, same kinda thing - I've used Extra Care Bucks with a store coupon $5 off $25, plus a manufacture coupon. At Harris Teeter twice now they have had select Pampers diapers for $5.99 each for eVic members and then I've used a digital coupon with a manufacture coupon to get diapers for cheap - $2.99! Coupons may seem overwhelming at first but once you get your system down and you see the savings, it's so worth it! For the first month we have Baby Turner we won't have to worry about buying diapers and we haven't even had any baby showers yet!!

Can you tell that I'm a planner??!!

Never Underestimate the Value of Rain checks or Gift Cards

You can really save money by getting a rain check! Whenever there's an awesome sale price on an item we use all the time I get a rain check on the last day of the sale so I can come back later and buy more.

Here are 2 examples of how I've used rain checks to score some major savings!

1. I got a rain check for Lays 20 Variety pack on sale for $3.97. These normally retail for $6.99-$8.99 each. My rain check was for limit 2. I waited until we were out of chips and I had a coupon for $1 off 2 Lays chips. I was able to get 2 packs of 20 chips for $6.94 so basically the cost of 1.
2. I got a rain check for Huggies Slip On diapers at CVS. The rain check sale price was for $8.99 each, limit 4 and get a $10 gas gift card when you buy 4. I got the rain check because every CVS I went to was sold out the week they were on sale. It was such a great deal I got a rain check. I waited until I had 4 coupons to get 4 packs. With 4, $3 off manufacture coupons and $5 in CVS coupons, I was able to get 4 packs of diapers for $21.25 and I got back $10 in Extra Care Bucks since they were no longer doing the gas gift cards. So with getting $10 back in basically store credit, you can look at it as paying $11.25 for 4 packs of diapers! I saved $14.71 by using coupons!

The point of me sharing these examples is to encourage you to get a rain check the next time you see an item at an awesome price. That way you can buy it again when you need it.

Now here's an example of how gift cards can pay off -

Target is running a special where you get a $5 Target gift card when you buy 5 Glade Christmas fragrance items - candles or sprays. So I bought 4 candles and 1 spray - all of which smell really good! Each item is on sale for $2.50 each, but I used coupons for each item to save even more money. With my coupons I spent $9.40 and I got back a $5 gift card. I used my $5 gift card to buy Huggies Little Mover diapers for only 96 cents!!! The diapers are on sale this week for $9.49, I used a $2 off manufacture coupon and a $2 off Target Huggies coupon, and then my $5 gift card, making it 49 cents with another 47 cents in tax. Gotta love sales tax! So basically I got 6 things for $10.36 which averages out to be $1.73 per item. Not bad considering the Glade items were $2.50 each and the diapers alone were $9.49! 

Waiting Game

I am 15 weeks pregnant! Last night I tried sleeping on my belly and as soon as I laid still I felt the strangest movement, it was definitely the baby moving inside me! It was so weird! I don't know if it was a kick, a punch, or just a spin around, but it felt cool. I told hubby when it happened (he was awake too) and he joked that baby must be trying to say, "mommy don't squish me!" Sometimes I wonder what it's like living and growing inside my belly! Like what does the baby feel when I roll over in bed or what does he or she feel when I laugh really hard? I bet it feels like an earthquake! Last night hubby asked me over dinner, "when are you going to get really big and round?" my answer to him was, "I don't know, my guess is around 18 weeks, but definitely around 25 weeks I'll be huge!" Having a baby bump has been interesting, I thought I would be bigger than I am now, but I'm glad I'm not. When most people think about being pregnant they think about having a cute baby bump and the reality is most women don't have that cute, round bump until 18-22 weeks, which is way later than I thought it would happen. I cannot wait until we found out if baby is a boy or a girl!! It's driving me crazy not knowing if there's a boy or a girl growing inside me! We really want to start calling the baby by their name! Starting this week the baby can hear so we're going to start reading books to him or her! My husband is a great storybook reader!!! I love listening to him read children's book! I'm sure the baby will love his voice and the way he changes voices for different characters in the story. Maybe hearing him read to him or her will make me feel more kicks or punches in the coming weeks!

We are still saving money as much as we can. We went to the State Fair on can day! We only spent $13.50 on food at the fair and only about $3 on 8 canned foods to get in. I was really proud of myself for not overindulging in junk food at the fair! Everything smelled so good though! Every corner we turned I would say, "oh that smells good! I want _____." I really practiced self-control. I wanted funnel cake, ribbon fries, and kettle corn, but I didn't get any of that. I only had a foot long hot dog, some fries, and some ice cream. Last night we went out to dinner for our date night. We had a delicious, filling dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. Believe it or not we only spent $17.07 and that included tip! How did we do it? Ruby Tuesday's has an email club called So Connected. I joined several months ago and it seems like every month they email me buy 1 entree get 1 free coupon. We don't go every time we get that coupon, but we've always enjoyed eating there when we've used that coupon! We could eat out more often or spend more money on date nights, but we would rather think about our future and make smart choices now rather than live it up now and regret it later when we have no money. In less than a year we could go down to 1 paycheck, depending on what I decide to do after the baby gets here so we're trying to prepare for that change.

Confessions

I really want Baby Turner to be a BOY!! I know that I have no control over whether baby is a boy or girl, but my heart really wants it to be a boy! If Baby Turner is a girl then God is going to have to change my heart and change it quick because we only have 5-6 more weeks before we find out the gender! So since I really want a boy first, my 2nd confession is that yesterday I bought Baby Turner an airplane crib set. In my defense I was not looking to buy a crib set. Since N flies remote controlled airplanes I periodically type in "airplane" in the search bar on Craiglist so when I typed in "airplane" on Tuesday night I saw this post for an airplane crib set. Of course I was curious so I clicked on it. I was pleasantly surprised to see an airplane crib set I had never seen before. We had already picked out an airplane crib set we liked at Wal-mart but this one was cuter and more adolescent looking and not baby-ish like the one we had picked out. And to make it even better, I could not beat the price! Here's what I got - 1 bumper, 1 bed skirt, 1 fitted sheet, 1 blanket, 1 mobile, 3 extra fitted sheets, waterproof mattress cover, and 3 receiving blankets are for $25! There's 1 sheet that I don't like because it doesn't match the set and another sheet is girly looking so I will have find a purpose for those, but I still have 2 fitted sheets to use. Everything was in great shape! The lady said she never used the bumper or blanket because she was afraid of SIDS and I can tell they weren't used, they look brand new! So if Baby Turner is not a boy then we'll still save this set in hopes of baby 2 being a boy. Now that you've heard my thinking and rational behind getting this set, tell me what you think of it!

Our Life is Changing!

We are expecting our first child in April! Back in March during our 1 year anniversary trip we talked about when we would want to start trying to have a baby. We decided that getting pregnant in August, September, October time frame would be perfect so I could avoid being pregnant in the summer months. Well God's timing is perfect and He's in charge - we were only in our 2nd month, SECOND month of trying when I took an at-home pregnancy test and it was positive! I took the test at home on August 6th and then the week that followed I had a positive test at my OB's office. Every since then life has not been the same! We feel truly blessed to have gotten pregnant so quickly and when we wanted. The first few weeks we were in shock, it's still unbelievable at times to think it took less than 2 months to get pregnant!

We made it to 12 weeks!!! As of yesterday I am 12 weeks pregnant! 2nd trimester here we come! I have not had any morning sickness, no nausea, no cramps, and no spotting! I feel normal aside from having to pee more often, sleeping more, and eating more at times. At 10 weeks I think I felt the baby move. It's hard to tell since I've never been pregnant, but it was around 9:30 and I was laying in bed and just felt a flutter. It was a feeling I have never experienced before. Since then I feel flutters a lot mostly in the morning or late a night. Our next appointment is this Thursday, but it's only with the nurse so I'm going into it not expecting to find out much like the heartbeat, measurements, etc. Then the following week we get to the see the doctor and I'll have a full body exam done, which will be fun - NOT! I'm hoping we'll get to know the heartbeat or better yet have an ultrasound done which would make the exam worth all the pain.

Preparing for Baby Turner - we already have a TON of stuff! We have several packs of diapers that I've bought along the way with couponing. We have quite a collection of books - Dr. Seuss, Golden Books, and Disney stories. We also have some kid movies - Veggie Tales, Baby Einstein, and Disney. Our plan is not to buy anything until after all the showers. We realize that we may have to buy some of the expensive items but we're hoping to get some gift cards that we help with the cost.

Before Baby Turner gets here - We just had our fireplace cleaned and capped. We plan on getting estimates for tree removal and getting 3 trees removed which will be expensive! We put vent flow directors on all the vents downstairs in hopes of keeping our house warmer this winter. We are enjoying time together and continue to make our marriage top priority. We know that once Baby Turner is here we will focus all of time and energy on him or her and spend less time on each other. We will still go out and spend time together we just realize it won't be the same. Right now we can be selfish and go out whenever we want, stay out as long as we want, and do whatever we want without having to think about finding a sitter, when baby will wake up, and how often baby will cry while we're gone. Yesterday we went out on a date. We saw Courageous and we went out to dinner. We only spent $18.50 on dinner and a movie!!! Yes, I still use coupons! Going out doesn't have to expensive. We had a lot of fun. The movie was really good! We both cried! And dinner was fun, we flirted with each other from across the table. I spun an unwrapped straw on the table acting like it was spin the bottle, it was fun!

Less Than $1 per item

Didn't do too bad at super doubles this week. I managed to take home $211.42 worth of groceries for only $60.14. This was not accomplished in 1 trip that would be impossible since you can only just 20 coupons per day. I feel like I've done better during other super double weeks. I did manage to spend less than $1 per item so knowing that makes it better. The best deal I got was 4 boxes of Fiber Plus cereal for $2.78, that's 69 cents a box! I also managed to score 2 cans of shave gel for free, Soft Scrub bathroom cleaner for free, Fiber Plus bars for free, 4 packs of Taco seasoning for free, and several things for 50 cents each.  Since I'm not the breadwinner, never will be, every time I save lots of money on groceries I feel I make a huge contribution to our family. We have a fully stocked pantry now that should last us at least 3 weeks so fingers crossed, this month our grocery spending should be under $130 for the month.

Here are pictures of my goodies from super doubles at Harris Teeter -

There are 2 things not in these pictures - 1 pack of chicken leg quarters and 1 bag of frozen potatoes. Altogether I took home 61 things for only $60.14 of my own money and used $151.28 worth of coupons! How did you save on groceries this week?

My tip for the week - You're not really saving money if you're using coupons to get things that your family doesn't like or won't eat. Everything you see in the 2 pictures above will be gone in the next 3-4 weeks! I skip over deals and even freebies if I know it's something we won't eat or use. Many new couponers make the mistake of using coupons just to use coupons. Instead save money by only buying items you know you'll use. It may sound like common sense, but you'd be surprised by the # of times I've read or seen someone post their deals and outright say, just wanted to grab this deal to say that I did it, no plans on using it.

Knowing Where Your $ Goes

Great news - my husband is not getting laid off again!!!! He received an email on Thursday morning letting him know that no one on his team will be affected by the lay offs. I was home that day and he was working from home so it was very neat to see each others' reaction to the news! Talk about a huge relief!!! Now we're just waiting to hear about my job, whether we received another 3 years of grant funding. I think we will receive funding, it's just a matter of when we'll hear the news.

Now on to other things, every month at the end of the month we put all of our expenses in a spreadsheet and then compare it to last month's numbers. We started this spreadsheet routine when we were engaged and wanting to keep track of wedding expenses. It's a great way to see where all our money goes! And we use it to set our financial goals and sometimes it has caused us to reevaluate our spending on certain items. The exciting thing about July is for the entire month, we only spent $136 and some change on groceries for the entire month!!! Isn't that crazy??!!! We use to spend $300-$315 a month so $136 makes me very happy!!! I couldn't have done it if it wasn't for super doubles! I have learned to stock up on things we eat during super doubles and doing that has made us not have to buy as many groceries during non-super double weeks. Super doubles for this month will start on Wednesday!!! So excited! We are almost out of tacos, Silk soy milk, and vegetables so I hope to stock up on those.

To give you an idea of the deals I get, here's what I bought yesterday -

2 cans of Skinimate shave gel for 89 cents each, 1 pack of Pampers Easy Ups for $1.99, 3 boxes of Lance Creations $1 each, box of pasta for 15 cents, 3 bags of Bugels 66 cents each, 42 pack of Poise pads for $1.75, FREE Tic Tacs, and FREE Crystal Light mix. Bought everything for $11.16, with 13 items that's an average of 85 cents per item!!! I try to hit at least 50% savings everywhere I go. Typically I'm able to hit 60-65% savings. I have my "buy" prices and my "not for that price" prices and I try to stick to those prices unless we absolutely have to have it.

My tip for the week - Know where your money goes. For us we work hard for our money so it's important for us to know exactly where our money goes every month. If you're not keeping track of all your expenses then you may not know that you spend $300 a month on groceries or $250 a month on gas. Maybe you're wondering how your electric bill could be so high. Well if you're able to compare it to last summer's bills then you can tell the difference to determine if your AC unit needs to be serviced. Maybe you think you're saving as much as you can. If you have a spreadsheet with a % break down every month like we do then you can tell how much of your pay check goes toward gas, electricity, groceries, cell phone, etc. At first it might be depressing to look at, but you set a goal and reach it, like we have done then it's fun! I really enjoy seeing our progress from month to month.

Use Coupons Even on Your Birthday!

Ok as I promised, this post is all about what you can get for FREE during your birthday month!

• Baskin Robbins - sign up for their birthday club and get 1 FREE 2.5 oz scoop on your birthday! 
• Burger King - join their Club BK and you'll receive a FREE Kids Meal on your child's birthday! 
• Champps -  join their Fan Club and you'll receive a coupon via your email address for a FREE dessert with the purchase of 1 entree. Just for signing up you'll also receive a coupon for a FREE burger!
• Chili's - sign up for their email club and you'll get a coupon every week, plus on your birthday you'll get a FREE dessert with the purchase of 1 entree. 
• Firehouse Subs - this is probably the most convenient one - simply go to any participating Firehouse subs, show your driver's license ON your birthday and you'll get a FREE medium sub of your choice! You can also subscribe to their newsletter and you'll instantly receive an email for a FREE Large Coke or Lime Aid with the purchase of a sub. 
• IHOP - join their Pancake Revolution and you'll receive a coupon for a FREE Fruity Rooty Fresh n Fruity just for joining and then you get the same coupon during your birthday month! You can also add your spouse's birthday so they can receive the sweet deal too!
• Moe's Southwest Grill - join Moe's E-World and you'll receive exclusive offers and coupons throughout the year. For your birthday you'll receive a coupon through your email for a FREE entree, excluding fajitas, no other purchase necessary.
• Red Robin - click on JOIN and they'll mail you a Red Loyalty card. Once you receive the card in the mail, go to their website and register the card. After you have registered the card you have 2 weeks to redeem your FREE burger of your choice and fries for your birthday! No other purchase necessary, you can get it to go and save on drinks and tipping. 
• Ruby Tuesday's - Sign up for So Connected and you'll receive a B1G1 coupon just for signing up and then on your birthday, they will email you a coupon for a FREE hand crafted burger of your choice, which also includes your choice of sides! No other purchase necessary, you can even order it to go! 
• Zaxby's - join their Zax Mail Club and they will mail you a coupon for a FREE Meal Deal. During your birthday month you'll receive a coupon through the mail for a FREE nibbler!

These are all the free deals I know about for your birthday!  Sign up now and if your birthday is months away, and if you're like me, you'll forget you signed up and you'll be in for a lot of free surprises!

Shopping at Pharmacies - Outlined by store

So I thought I would take a few minutes to give all of you a brief overview of basic coupon rules and tricks listed by store. Here are just the pharmacies, later on I will do grocery stores -

CVS

• Takes Manufacture coupons. 
• Extra Care Bucks or ECBs are CVS rewards that will give you money back to spend in the store on your next purchase. Always remember to have the cashier scan your Extra Care card first so you never miss out on the Extra Care Bucks! Every week, there will be ECB deals advertised in the weekly ad. Basically you will have to purchase a select product, and then, after purchasing the item, you will get a certain amount of Extra Care Bucks back. The Extra Care Bucks will come in the form of a coupon at the end of your receipt. These Extra Care Buck items will come with different limits. Some items will give you one ECB per card… other items may give you five ECBs. Sometimes there will even be FREE after Extra Care Buck items advertised! This means that you will buy an item for a certain amount and then get that same amount back after purchasing the item in the form of Extra Care Bucks! And even sweeter, if you have a manufacturer coupon to use on the free after Extra Care Buck item, then you’ll turn this deal into a moneymaker!
• CVS store coupons from the red kiosk machine - If you've ever been in CVS then you might have noticed a red kiosk machine. If you scan your CVS card then it will magically print out store coupons that have your name on them! You can pair a store coupon with a manufacture coupon and with ECBs.   
• When a product is on sale Buy One, Get One Free (BOGO), you are only allowed to use one manufacturer’s BOGO coupon.This means that you get 2 items for free! CVS allows this because they will get money back from the manufacture coupon for the free item.
• Once you’re ready to checkout, put your coupons in this order: $4 off $20 store coupon (or any other money-off store coupon), CVS store product coupons, manufacturer coupons and finally Extra Care Bucks.

Rite Aid

• Takes Manufacture coupons.
• Store coupons for products can be found in their weekly ad, check for limits though. Store coupons can be paired with Manufacture coupons. 
• Video Values Program - You spend a few seconds or minutes watching various video advertisements and for doing so, you earn video credits that allow you to print off coupons that are redeemable only at Rite Aid. Once you earn 20 video credits, you’ll get a bonus $5 off $20 purchase. Note:This offer is not available every month. And the best part, Video Values coupons can be stacked with manufacturer coupons for even more savings!
• One of the biggest perks of having a Rite Aid card is the fact that you can take advantage of their UP Rewards Program. The UP Reward program is an incentive program that allows manufacturers to provide a UP Reward to consumers for buying a specific product and/or specific number of products. Each week, different items, which generate a UP Reward, are advertised in their weekly ad. Note: This program is very similar to the Walgreens Register Reward program.  An UP Reward is a coupon or a number of coupons that print at the bottom of your receipt and can be used on your next purchase. Each advertised +UP Reward is limited to one per Wellness card (unless otherwise stated). Keep in mind that you must give the cashier your Wellness card or the phone number, associated with your Wellness card, prior to the items being scanned in order to be eligible for the UP Reward(s). And here’s the best part: There is no limit to the number of +Up Rewards redeemed in a single transaction as long as the pre-tax total is greater than the combined value of the UP Rewards. 

Walgreens 

• Takes Manufacture coupons. 
• No loyalty card needed.
• Store coupons for products can be found in their weekly ad, check for limits though. Store coupons can be paired with Manufacture coupons.
• Register Reward Program - manufacturer coupons that print out from a Catalina machine at the register after you have completed your transaction. The Register Rewards print out after you buy a participating product, which may be advertised in their weekly ad. There are also Register Reward deals that are not advertised in the weekly ads but are posted inside the store. When you have a RR in hand to use, you can only use ONE RR per item purchased. For example: If you are purchasing five items, you can use up to a combination of five manufacturer coupons and/or RRs. If you attempt to use more than five, the register will beep. If you run into a situation where you have more manufacturer coupons/RRs to use than products, look for “filler” items to add to your purchase. "Fillers" are inexpensive items, and they allow you to apply more coupons at checkout. Great options for filler items include clearance merchandise, small candies, and pencils. Note: Walgreens store coupons do NOT count towards your coupon-to-item ratio. In other words, the register will not beep if you are using more Walgreens coupons than items. Have I confused you yet??! Another important thing to note about RRs is if you purchase more than one of the same Register Reward participating item per transaction, you will only receive 1 Register Reward, NOT 2! For example, if Walgreens has Fusion Pro Glide Razors on sale for $9.89, get $5 RR when you buy 1. If you buy 2 razors, you will only receive 1 RR.Another important thing to note is that Register Reward deals do NOT roll! This means that if your receive a $5RR for purchasing 1 ProGlide Razor, you cannot use this same RR to purchase another ProGlide Razor and expect another $2RR to be generated, it will not happen!
• If there is a Buy One, Get One free or a Buy Get One 50% Off promotion, you can use two coupons for the items. You can also use a Buy One, Get One free coupon for items that are currently part of a Buy One, Get One free promotion–this essentially makes both items FREE! If you have any issues using two coupons on a Buy One Get, One free sale, refer to their coupon policy, which specifically states "When items are featured in a Buy One, Get One free promotion, up to two coupons can be used against the items being purchased, as long as the net price does not go below zero for the items being purchased."

I'd like to end by sharing a recent trip I took to Walgreens -

Dove Men + Care 6 pack on sale 2 for $12, get $4 in RR
 - 2, $4 off Manufacture coupons = $4
+ filler item: Crossword puzzle book on clearance for 49 cents
used $4 RR from previous week to make it a grand total of $1.33

Now I have $4 RR to use for next week or to use at Harris Teeter or Walmart - both stores take manufacture coupons from competitors.

8 Razors for 27 cents!

I recently wrote about how to save money at pharmacies, well you don't always need Register Rewards, Extra Care Bucks, or UP Rewards to get the best deals. This week I got 8 razors for 27 cents! How'd I do it? Rite Aid had Noxzema razors on sale for $2 and I just so happen to have $2 off coupons for them. So I hit the sale early in the week and got 2 packs for 27 cents!

As if the razors weren't exciting enough, I found some great deals at Target this week as well. Target had Dove Men + Care body washes and Dove + Men Care deodorants both on clearance for $3.38. I managed to get 4 body washes for $6.76 and 2 deodorants for 76 cents! I used a buy 1, get  $3.75 off for the body washes and I used $2 off coupons + $2 off 2 Target coupon for the deodorants. I found some more great deals in the food section. I managed to get a 12 pack of Sierra Mist for $1.50 by using a $1 off Target coupon. I also got 2 bottles of Kraft BBQ sauce and Country Time lemonade mix all for $1.64 by using a $2 off Manufacture coupon. Fresh Express salad was on sale for $2 and then I had a 75 cents off Manufacture coupon so it was $1.25! I also got Chips Ahoy for 99 cents each after $1 off Manufacture coupon. I discovered that Kroger has them on sale for $1.68 so I have to go back and do price matching, which means I'll be refunded 62 cents for the 2 packs I bought. Always check out the meat section for meat that's on clearance because it's close to expiring. The day I went I managed to score to packs of ground beef for $1.79 each! So it's possible to save on meat too, just check for packs that are marked down. Now before I get a ton of questions about why there's a pregnancy test in this picture, no we are not expecting. I got it because it costs me $3.99 after coupons which is an amazing price! And it doesn't expire until 2013 and I'm pretty sure it will be used before then. Now is the time to check for deals on school supplies and if you're like me and not in school or a teacher, stock up on office supplies! I got 10 pens for 2 cents by using $1 off Papermate item off Target's website.

My tip for the week - Every time you go into a store, pick up their weekly ad and carry it with you. Even if you're not a couponer, I cannot tell you the # of times something has rung up wrong! If you have the ad with you then you'll know the prices and will have the ad ready to show the cashier if items ring up wrong. If you don't have the ad in front of you then it's likely that you'll overlook a great deal or pay more than you should. I always grab the ad when I walk in even when I have made a list and then when I'm done shopping, I put the ad back so I don't take it home with me thus avoiding stacking up papers!

Stay tuned, my next post will be about FREE meals during my birthday month!!! You won't want to miss what restaurants deals to sign up for before your birthday!!!

Saving Money on Projects in our Yard

So not only can you save money by using coupons, you can do your own yard work! Mowing the grass is 1 thing you can do yourself, but what about cutting down trees? Well we have a lot of trees to cut down in our yard. We have cut down 6 trees in our yard by ourselves and we still have at least 3 more to cut down.  We have also have ripped out Juniper brushes. We have even replaced our mailbox. All of these tasks have really improved the look and feel of our yard and it only costs us a few days of time and lots of sweat! We have saved at least $500 by doing all those projects ourselves.

Here are a few pictures of our latest adventures in the yard -

Learning to Save Big at Pharmacies

Shopping at pharmacies with coupons can be overwhelming and intimating. When I first heard about Register Rewards, Extra Care Bucks, and UP Rewards, I thought it was a crazy idea to spend money to get a store credit to buy more stuff. Why would you spend money to get back just a small portion of it in store credit? At first I didn't bother trying to learn because it seemed like a waste of time and coupons. If you've ever tried to buy food or health and beauty items at a pharmacy without coupons, you know how expensive things can be there! Well hopefully after reading this post you will know that there are major savings to be had if you learn all the tricks and tips to shopping with coupons at pharmacies.

Last week I looked online at the deals to be had and I made my list of sale prices and the coupons I had to go along with them. I always calculate the final prices and write them down before I go to the store. The reason I do this is because what may be a great deal to someone, may not be considered a great deal to me so rather than waste my time at going to the store, I calculate everything to determine if it's worth my time and energy.

Here are the deals I got last week -

At Rite Aid

Transaction #1:
Crest Scope Outlast toothpaste $2.69
- $1 off Manufacture coupon
$1.69 + get back $2.69 in UP Rewards

Transaction #2:
Ritz Crackers on sale for $1
Diet Coke 1.25 liters $1.59
- $1 off Manufacture coupon for Ritz crackers + Coke

Excedrin 20 - 24 count on sale for $1.99, get $1 in UP Rewards for 1
- 75 cents off Manufacture coupon
Used $2.69 UP Reward from 1st Transaction, paid 44 cents after tax! Got back $1 in UP Rewards

Transaction #3:
Stayfree Maxi Pads 16 - 24 count on sale 2 for $5, plus get $2 in UP Rewards when you buy 2
- $1 off Manufacture coupon
- B1G1 Manufacture coupon
- $1 UP Rewards from previous transaction
89 cents with tax! Got back $2 in UP Rewards

Transaction #4:
Pringles on sale 3 for $3.99
- $1 off 3 Manufacture coupon
- $2 UP Reward from previous transaction
$1.07 with tax!

Altogether I spent $4.30 for 1 tube of toothpaste, 1 box Ritz crackers, 1 Diet Coke, 24 count of Excedrin, 2 packs of Stayfree pads, and 3 cans of Pringles. Not bad for food, medicine, and toothpaste! And it only took me 3 minutes to check out and 30 minutes to put find everything in the store.

At CVS

Transaction #1:
Pantene Pro-V Shampoo or Conditioner 12.6 oz on sale 2 for $6.97
- $2 off 2 from Red Magic Coupon Kiosk
- $3 off 2 Manufacture Coupon
- $1 in Extra Care Bucks from previous week
$.97 + get back $2 in Extra Care Bucks
Total cost after $2 in ECB, FREE

Transaction #2:
Scott single roll of toilet paper on sale for $1
- $1 off Manufacture coupon = FREE

Finish Gel Pacs Dish washing detergent on sale for $2.99
- 75 cents off Manufacture coupon = $2.24
Total cost after using $2 ECB from 1st Transaction = 55 cents with tax! 

Altogether I spent a grand total of $2.06 for 2 bottles of shampoo, 1 roll of toilet paper, and 20 gels packs of dish washing detergent. Not too bad for 30 minutes of shopping!

I hope reading the details of these 2 shopping trips has taught you that couponing at pharmacies is possible. If you're new to couponing or just want to start shopping at pharmacies, check out each store's coupon policy on their website so you know the rules.

My tip for the week - At most stores you can use a B1G1 coupon with a cents off or dollars off coupon. The reason is you are allowed 1 Manufacture coupon per item. So for example, 1 of the deals above was for Stayfree pads, I used a B1G1 Manufacture coupon and a $1 off Manufacture coupon. Most people are surprised to learn this, but it's really awesome!

Super Doubles Adventure + Target Frustration

Super Double coupons is going on this week at Harris Teeter! I have not been super pleased with my 2 shopping trips so far mainly because I don't have any Register Rewards or Food Lion coupons to take off my bill like I did during the last super doubles. Anywho, the first trip I saved $78.30 and on my second trip I saved $55.49. So that means I took home $177.36 but I only paid $43.57! Wow now that I see the figures myself, I didn't do as bad as I thought I did.

Here is a list of a few things I got so if you have a HT in your area, maybe you can take advantages of some these deals this week -

Hefty Slider Storage Bags B1G1, ring up $1.45 each - $2 off 2 = 89 cents for 2
Shout Wipes to Go $2.69 - $2 off any Shout product = 69 cents
Cologate Advanced toothpaste $2.50 - $2 = 50 cents
Reach Floss $1.65 - $2 = FREE
Duncan Hines Chocolate Glaze $2.69 - $2 = 69 cents
Dove deodorant $2.50 - $1.50 = $1
Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs B1G1, ring up $1.99 each - $2 off 2 = $1.99 for 2
Smuckers Jelly $2.99 - $2 =99 cents
Hormel Kids Compleat $2 - $2 = FREE
Welch's Grape Jelly $1.79 - $1.50 = 29 cents
Hungry Jack syrup $1.99 - $2 = FREE

Here is a picture of my 2nd trip so you can see what great items you can get if you do super doubles this week -

All this for $15.71! A total of 23 items making it an average of 68 cents per item!








Now my Target trip, the shorter version of my adventure is I saved $34.55 and I spent $33.78 so just over 50% savings.

Here are some the great deals I got -

Johnson & Johnson travel first aid kit (love these) $.97 each - $1 off 2 Manufacture coupon = 94 cents for 2
Icy Hot Patch (in the travel section) $1.89 - $1 off any product Manufacture coupon = 89 cents
Benadryl Itch Relief Pen (much needed item for my allergies) $2.29 - $2 = 29 cents!
Newtons Cookies $3.29 - $1 off Manufacture coupon - $1 off store coupon = $1.29
Magnum Ice Cream Bars (so delicious!) $3.29 - $1 off Manufacture coupon - $1 store coupon = $1.29
Dove Shampoo $4.99 x 4 - $1.50 off 2 Manufacture coupon - $2 off 2 store coupon = $12.96 for 4 huge shampoo bottles + FREE $5 gift card when you buy 4 so it's really like getting 4 for $7.96!
Playtex Mealtime utensils $4.19 - $1 off Manufacture coupon - $1 off store coupon = $2.19
I also got some pretty sweet deals on meat! I got ground beef for $1.99 each because they are close to expiring and they want to sell them!

Here is a picture of my trip to Target -

I'm not going to go into all the drama and headaches I went through at Target, but I will say that I called customer service and I talked with a very friendly and helpful supervisor. They are mailing me 2, $3 off store coupons for anything in the store in lieu of all my troubles and not getting a $5 gift card like I was suppose to. I'll just say, word of advice - check your receipt before you the store and read up on their coupon policy and it would even be helpful to have their coupon policy with you because employees do not always know their own coupon policy.

Ending on a happy note - check this out, I went to Wal-Mart and I found several clearance aisles! I managed to find candy for $1 each! Well I had coupons to pair with these candies. Guess what??! I got 4 bags of candy for $1.31 after tax!

Tips for the week -

1. When you save money whether it's at the grocery store, at a restaurant, online shopping, etc. think of how you can use your savings. Can you treat yourself to dinner? Can you use it to pay off debt? Think of a creative way or fun way to put your savings to use! For us we use our coupon savings to pay off debt so just in this week alone, we can pay $168.34 MORE on 1 bill instead of spending it on groceries!

2. Savings money for yourself or your family is great, but think of others. Since I started couponing really heavily, I have been able to pick up some items for free after coupons so with those items I plan on putting them in our Operation Christmas Child boxes this year. I already have 6 bars of soap, 6 tissue packs, 1 toothbrush, and floss that I plan on putting in our boxes. You can find your own charity or organization you feel passionate about to donate items to. I know there have been some great pet food coupons in the paper lately and pet shelters would love donations!

This Past Weekend

Hey Friends! I have heard from several of you that you love our blog and enjoy reading about our savings, but yet I see no comments on our blog! I really want to hear from you - what do you like about our blog?, what ways have you found to save money?, what coupon questions do you have for me?, and anything else exciting you want to share!

This weekend we saved $59.90, 36 cents of that was refunded to us a day later because we got home and realized we were overcharged! It pays to pay attention to your receipt!

So here's a little bit of what we saved this weekend -

IHOP
I went to IHOP's website and I joined their Pancake Revolution. After joining I received an email with a coupon for a FREE Rooty Tooty Fresh N Fruity meal, a $6.99 value! So we went to IHOP for lunch and we saved $6.99 simply for joining their club. On my birthday and on N's birthday we'll receive the same coupon to go again!
*Total savings $6.99

Staples
I had printed out a $3 off your purchase coupon so I went in to buy paper towels, but quickly changed my plan when I saw they were $5.99 for 6 rolls. We have plenty of paper towels at the moment so I searched the aisles and sale paper to see what I could find for free! I scored some major free stuff! Here's what I got - Scotch Tape on sale for $1 - $1 Manufacture coupon = FREE, Scotch 2 pack stick glue $2 - $1 Manufacture coupon = $1, Wet Wipes $1 each - $1 off 2 Manufacture coupon = .50 each, and 8 pack of travel tissue for $1. Altogether I got 5 items for .22 cents, including tax!
*Total savings $6 

Kroger Gas 
Now until June 19th Kroger is doing a promotion where you get 4 times the points when you buy gift cards. So we bought 3 gift cards and earned 300 points which meant we were able to get .30 per gallon at the pump! We just bought gift cards for Father's Day and the third one was for us, a place we planned on shopping at anyway. You can get up to 35 gallons at the discounted price with your points so we filled up both cars and .30 per gallon saved us $6 in gas!
*Total savings $6


Target
I didn't do too well at Target this weekend. I managed to get 2 packs of Always for $3.50, they were on sale for $2.75 each - 2, .50 off coupons - $1 off 2 store coupon. I also got 2 packs of Kraft Shredded Cheese for $2.98, they were on sale for $2.49 - $1 off - $1 off 2 store coupon. Hershey's Bliss was on clearance for $1.98 - $1 off Manufacture coupon = .98 and they're so yummy!
*Total savings $13.50

I went to Target again yesterday to relieve some stress! I wasn't really planning on buying anything, but then I realized that saving money makes me happy so I pulled out my coupons and I had a great time! I spent $13.05 for 2 jars of hot fudge, a pack of bandages, Crystal Light drink mix, 3 cans of Pringles, 2 packs of paper towels, and a 6 pack of dress shorts. I saved a total of $21.80, over 50% savings! 

Lowe's Foods
I found Nightquil on clearance for $2.46 and I had $1 off Manufacture coupon so it was $1.46 for Nightquil that doesn't expire until 2013! I also found Hormel Compleats for $2 on sale - $1.50 (.75 coupon doubled) = .50 each! We also bought some meat that was on sale - Sanderson Farm Chicken .99 lb, Pot Roast $1.49 lb, Chicken Patties $3, and Chicken Nuggets $3. I used a Food Lion coupon for $3 off $25 or more so basically we got a pack of chicken for free!
*Total savings $25.50 

My tips for the week -
1) Don't be too proud to shop at garage sales or thrift stores! I've been able to buy Golden Books for 25 cents each and VHS tapes for 50 cents each at a thrift store near our house. I have even found brand new stuff at garage sales for really great prices!
2) Pay attention to your receipt before you leave the store! Unfortunately this weekend at Target, N had put the receipt in his wallet so I didn't look at it in detail until we got home. I realized they overcharged us so N went back to the store on his way home the next day and got the difference refunded to us. Yesterday I checked my receipt at Target and I realized my 2 jars of hot fudge rang up wrong so I went to customer service and got back $1.50. Stores and computers are not perfect so don't be shy about checking to make sure everything rung up right and the total is correct.

Thanks for reading! Post your thoughts in the comment section!

On Sale Trap

This past week I exercised a lot of self-control. I'm proud to say that I only bought a few things and most of them were a few cents or free! I think I am on my way to our savings plan this month of not buying as many groceries as last month.

Here the deals I got this past week -

Wal-Mart
Carefree pantyliners  .94 - $1 off coupon = .06 credit
Ivory Bar Soap 3 pack  .97 - $1 off coupon = .03 credit
* Coupons at Wal-Mart do not automatically adjust to the retail price so you can make money by buying items that are on sale, clearance, close-outs, or great buys with coupons and walk away with cash or with money off the rest of your order. 

Harris Teeter
Ragu Pasta Sauce $2.79 B1G1 - $1.25 off 3 = 97 cents each
HT 18 Large Eggs $1.57 eVic member price

Lowe's Foods
Steamfresh Vegetables .97 with in-store ad coupon - .35 coupon doubled to .70 off = .28 after tax!

Target
Pringles $2.51 - $1 off 3 - $1 off 3 Target coupon = $2.58 for 3 after tax!

Kerr Drug
2 liter Pepsi products on sale for .99 - $1 off 2 = .50 cents each!

CVS
M&Ms on sale for .50 each - .75 off 2 =  .25 for 2 bags! Plus I got $1 in Extra Care bucks!
Used my $1 ECB to get a bag of Hershey's Bliss, on sale for $3 - $1 off coupon - $1 ECB = $1. 

I spent very little money and time finding these deals. Since we have a stockpile of groceries at the moment, it feels really good to know that I can take a week off from buying lots of food and not go hungry! We still have plenty of spaghetti noddles and taco shells to have for dinner!

My tip for this week is know your prices. What is marked as "on sale" is not always a great buy. For instance, Harris Teeter had Hillshire Farm lunch meat "on sale" for 3 for $7 during triple coupons. Well since that's a lunch meat we buy on a regular basis, I know that it's $3-$3.12 at Wal-Mart everyday before a coupon. So I took 1 look at my $1 off coupon and realized that even getting it on sale and with my coupon, I would still pay $2.50 while I could get the same lunch meat at Wal-Mart with my coupon for $2 or $2.12. Another thing to watch out for candy is typically way overpriced at pharmacies so even if you have a coupon, you could potentially be paying more than the regular, everyday price that other stores offer.

This is How We Do

We had a great Memorial Day weekend! On Monday we washed both of our vehicles and we even vacuumed and cleaned out the inside! It's amazing how much dirt and random things you can find if you only clean out your car once a year like us! After being productive, we decided to go on a date! We went to see Hang Over Part 2, it was not a good movie, thankfully we used 2 of our $3 off coupons from M&Ms so it was $9 for the 2 of us to see it. I'm not hard to please when it comes to movies, especially funny, stupid movies, but man it was not worth spending even $9 to see it. After the movie we walked around, spending most of our time at Home Goods! We walked to all the stores and with the 90 degree weather we were hot! I let N pick the restaurant for dinner and he picked TGI Fridays. We don't eat there often so I was a little hesitant, but it was the best decision of the day! They have a deal where you get a 3 course meal for $12.99! I did the 3 course meal and N got a chicken sandwich with fries. I had a $5 off coupon when you spend $15 so altogether our bill was $17 before tip. Not bad for a huge, delicious dinner! By far the best part was dessert, vanilla bean cheesecake! Yeah I wasn't going to let my dairy allergy stop me from delighting in that goodness! After eating 3,457 calories a piece at dinner, we drove across the street to Target and Lowe's! I managed to score some decent deals at Target. I got 6 bottles of deodorant for $3.07 (including tax) an average of 51 cents each. I also got a pack of 100 multivitamins for $3.

The moral of the story is - I don't take a break from saving, even on holidays. And save your money by not seeing Hangover Part 2.

In other news, I scored some great deals at Food Lion today! I got 6 stocks of corn, 2 cartons of ice cream, a bottle of All unscented laundry detergent, and a bag of Tostitos all for $6.35, including tax! Here's the breakdown: Corn on sale 6 for $1, Breyers Blast ice cream on sale for $1.99 each - $1.50 off 2 = $2.48 for 2, All laundry detergent on sale for $2.99 - $1 off coupon = $1.99, Tostitos on sale for $2.50 - $1 off manufacture coupon - $1 off Food Lion coupon = 50 cents!

Goal for June is to save money by only having to buy meat, fruit, breakfast foods, and perishable items. We'll see if I'm able to stay away from the temptation of using coupons for items we already have plenty of.