Harris Teeter 3-30-10 Last night of Triples! March 31, 2010

Spent: $ 24.49

Saved:  $87.29

Total Value:  $111.78

78% savings

FREE ITEMS:

*mentos gum

*6 tortillas

*2 coffemate creamer

*2 packs popcorn

*2 travel packs tide detergent

*sour cream

NOT FREE, BUT CHEAP

* 6 boxes cereal (free if you consider 2 milk Qn’s printed out!)

*No yolk egg noodles $.04

*International coffee creamer $.3*

*warm delights $.12

*snickers $.24 or so

*lifesaver gummy candy $.65 or so

*pie crust $.75 each

*snyder pretzel sandwiches $1.24

*roll gold pretzels $1. or so don’t remember

*Alexia sweet potato fries $1.34

(thank you coupon fairy…whoever you are who left that Qn!

Tonight’s trip was very slow going…I was running out of my best Qn’s and things were getting VERY picked over!  If the item had been in the last few newspaper inserts it was probably gone or almost gone.  The items that I had intenet coupons didn’t seem to be as popular.  That is very nice for me.  I find  a nice mix of coupons for weekly inserts and internet.  Often the internet ones are better, so that works out well for triples and super doubles.      I sure am tired of shopping!  I hope next weeks add is slow!

I haven’t update my totals on the right, but here is how my totals went for CVS, Food Lion & Harris Teeter.

spent:  $309.71

saved:  $866.65

total value $1176.36

74% value

+6 Qn’s for FREE milk & $10  to send off in rebates for toilet paper

I went over on  my “monthly budget goal”  but I actually get grocery money every week so I really didn’t go over my weekly money amount.

Brad was looking over out stash last night (he keeps everything well organized) and said, ” honey, I think we could winter in on what we have here!”   My goal is over time we can get back to our  spending $600 on everything.  In order to do that I need our stockpile to be full and have lots of variety.  This will make it possible to wait on prices to be better.  I am getting a good idea of what the best prices are on many things we buy.  Now I just need to figure how often those items go on sale while coupons are available.  I am making progress of mastering my new hobby!!!

Food Lion 3-30-10

Spent: $7.64

Saved:  $23.96

Total Value:  $31.60

76% savings

Yes, I went out shopping again.  Last night when I got all that toilet paper I only went in with Ethan and my envelope.   I was digging around for a few more of the lance cracker coupons…of course I found them yesterday, but not Monday night!  Anyway, I also saw that Food Lion sold the Muellers whole wheat pasta and it was on sale for $1. a box, I had $.55 off coupons.  Well coupons were in car and Ethan was very tired!

So last night I went back and got the missing items and found  a few others:

*Lance crackers $1.00 x 2

*Pasta $.45 x 4

*Cereal on clearance $.80 after Qn

*Veet on clearance $1.10 after Qn

I have mixed opinions about Food Lion.  Certain stores are nicer, cleaner & safer then others.  I am sure I would shop there more if they doubled Qn’s, but that aside I have had significant savings by only buying from their BEST sales & using my Qn’s.

I might find myself at Food Lion more.  The location on Groomtown & Wayne/Vandalia is very clean and is on my way to Harris Teeter @ Adam’s Farm.  I will keep my eyes peeled!

Harris Teeter 3-29-10

Spent: $20.36

Saved:  $101.67

Total Value:  $122.03

83% savings

Free items:

*lysol cleaners

*tortillas

*wishbone salad dressing

NOT FREE, BUT CHEAP

*Betty Crocker Potato pouches… $.02 each

*Betty Crocker Cake mix& frosting…$.16 each I think

(that makes for some cheap cake decorating!)

*Smart balance PB less than $1.

* Hebrew Nataional were a Raincheck BOGO, so $1.50 each I think

*  Snuggle fabric softener $.49

*Mrs. Smith’s cobbler $1.24

* Pislbury crescent rolls that I had a RC for, $.50 each x 4

& 2 rolls breadstick for around $1.

Then got back $4. Qn on next order so almost free for everything!

It has been a great and crazy week shopping almost every day.  I am almost out of good coupons!

Food Lion 3-29-10

spent: $72.18

saved:  $86.90

total value:  $159.08

55% savings

+ $10 in rebates to make the Toilet paper even cheaper 🙂

Yes, I can home with 18x 6 double roll of Quilted Northern TP

& 2x 3 roll Brawny paper towels

The deal was buy 5 @ $3.99 save 50%, limit 1 per transaction…I did it 4 times!

– $2.50 in Qn’s= $8.86 after tax per transaction

*2 whole chickens @ $.57 a lb

– $4. Qn’s from buying Hamburger helper last week= $2. or so for both chickens

*$5. or so worth of bananas & apples

-apples $.99 a pound (cheapest I have paid in some time

Had FL store Qn, save $1. off of $5 of produce

*lance crackers $1 after Qn

*16 cans delmonte fruit BOGO & 2x $1. off 8 cans,

not the best price, but we are out of canned fruit!

*Spam…by Brad’s request

$2.50 each x 6, had 2 $1.50 off 3 cans, so came out to $2.00 each

*Eggs well it is Easter, I was surprised they weren’t on sale…maybe this week!

Now back to all that toilet paper, I know that seems very strange to buy that much at a time, but is it really any different than someone walking out of Sam’s with a big pack of toilet paper & paper towels.  I don’t think so!  I have the space to store it all and after rebates they will have cost around $1.50 PER PACK.  The only difference is that I spent the same as I would have at Sam’s but I walked out with A LOT MORE!

FYI…it took two carts to carry it all 🙂

CVS 3-28-10 March 29, 2010

Spent: $ 7.36

Saved:  $ 68.60

Total Value:  $75.96

90% savings!  Left with 10 ECB for next week!

*************************************************************************************************

We both bought 2 packs diapers @$8.99 & 1 pack wipes @ $2.99

(had to buy the wipes to use one of the CVS Qn’s!)

& some Easter Candy, CVS body wash, 2 vitamin water

I walked in with a combined 27.98 ECB from previous weeks,

had 4 x $3.  off Huggies Qn

had 2x $4. off Huggies Wipes & diaper CVS Qn,

(these CVS Qn’s expired 3-24, but I asked the nice cashier if they would still accept them…YEAH they did!  Never hurts to ask!)

Qn scanner spit out 2x save $2 off $10 baby items

(how cool is that…i went in only to buy diapers 🙂 )

*CVS emailed Qn for free bodywash up to $1.99

(we each got the email, but I couldn’t find mine…so I lost out on another freebie 😦  )

*had 2 Qn for free vitamin water …signed up as fan on FB

Harris Teeter 3-28-10

Spent: $25.94

Saved:  $ 117.49

Total Value:  $  143.43

82% savings

+ Qn 2 free gallons milk & $ 4. off next order

Most of the above items were free or less than $1.  the only exceptions were the 4 jars of Peanut Butter @$1.15

Free items:

2 gallons milk

4 x lipton tea

6 wishbone salad dressing

4 x tortillas

2x barilla pasta

Country Crock sticks

Pilsbury refrigerated cinnamon rolls

Not Free, but cheap

6 x small jars french’s mustard $.09 (they were out of the free ones & my Qn’s expire 3/31 so I am content to pay $.09 🙂  )

Beechnut crackers $.39

Hellman’s Mayo $.68 each

Cereal $.75 each + bought 6 got 2 Qn for free milk

Alezia sweet potato fries $1.34 each

Pilsbury bread $1.07 each, bought 6 got $4. Qn for next order, so almost free

Only 2 days of triple coupons left and I still have lots of good Qns left!  My stash is really building up which is great b/c it means I will be able to hold off and wait until they are on sale again!  I can see how after doing this a little longer my monthly grocery bill could be reduced or I can keep spending the same and focus on building our long-term stockpile and emergency preparedness stash.

Harris Teeter 3-27-10 March 27, 2010

Drum Roll Please

Spent:  $20.50

Saved:  $105.70

Total Value:  $ 126.20

84% SAVINGS

+got back $4.  Qn for next order 🙂

Alright so here are the details, I used $6.50 in catalina Qn’s that printed out from earlier purchases, so my cash OOP would have $27.00 , with a savings of 80%, so still not to shabby if I hadn’t had that store credit!

My goal this morning was to get in and out.  I had Noah and Davis with me and we worked quickly to fill our carts with CHEAP items!

*6x French’s mustard FREE

*French’s spicy mustard FREE

* Mission Tortillas FREE

*Lysol toilet bowl cleaner FREE

*Contry Crock sticks FREE

*6 Barilla Pasta FREE

*6x  Smart Balance PB $.89

*JFG coffee $.04

*Gold Medal bread flour $.24

*Muffin mixes $1.25 or so…sorry forgot!

*6 Pilsbury items, sorry don’t remember exact deal except it printed out a $4. OnYourNextOrder (ONYO) coupon

5 pizza dough @ $.62 each

1 cinnamon roll FREE

= So I paid $3.10 for the above items and got back $4. Qn for buying the promo items!

I have another $.95 off cinnamon roll Qn and plenty for other refrigerated items, The deal won’t all be free, but should be pretty good after $4. off

*Hefty plates $.99

*2 Lysol sanitizing wipes BOGO, had $1. off Qn for 1

I was only going to buy 1, b/c my qn only required me to buy one, but I was informed that they are changing how the register deals with BOGO items, so that I must now buy both items to get the BOGO price and can only use 1 Qn per BOGO set.  I point this out b/c often I get items for free b/c the Qn might double or triple up to the 50% off price.  But in the instance of the Lysol wipes, I would have only paid $.60 or so for one, but b/c I had to buy two it only took $1. off of $3.29= $2.29 for two or $1.15 each.  That is nearly double per item as opposed to only buying what the Qn says.  I am not sure if this was just for triples or what.

I will have to see how this plays out.  I am becoming very loyal to Harris Teeter and often buy things that I know are cheaper at Walmart or Aldi, b/c I am already there and don’t want to take everyone to another store.  That is the goal of HT and many other stores doubling Qn’s they are willing to lose some money on a few items in the hopes that you will  buy other higher priced items there.  I do that almost every week when it comes to produce and milk.  I know Sam’s is cheaper and so is Aldi; but that takes time and gas to go to another store.    So for now I keep over paying on a few items.  So basically I use my “coupon savings” to cover the cost of the higher priced items.  My goal is to stay around 60% savings for everything.    Most weeks we are hitting that goal.  I am sure the more I do this I can cut back and only purchase the lowest priced items.  Right now we are averaging $700-750 a month for all SIX of us and that does include diapers and formula.  I am also building a HUGE stockpile of grocery and I am sure over time I will be able to drop that price down.  My goal would be to spend $600 a month for everything.  I know that is very doable.   That was our budget b/4 Ethan was born and we weren’t stocking up on food like we are now.    My overarching goal is to not spend more than $8,000 on food, paper products, pet food, health & beauty items this year.  I am feeling confident we will be able to do that.    I have been willing to go over my budget some weeks when I see there is a GREAT deal on an item that I can stockpile.  Some weeks it has been huggies wipes or pamper’s diapers this week I think I might go over b/c of triple coupons at harris teeter and then heading over to Food Lion to get some REALLY cheap toilet paper.  (I am waiting for my extra coupons to come in the mail!)

Harris Teeter 3-26-10

Harris Teeter 3-26-10

Spent:  $93.88

Saved:  $166.38

value:  $260.26

64% saved

All of the above items were FREE or less than $1.00!

*4 FREE ballpark hotdogs (evic)

*2 Gold Medal bread flour $.24 each

*2 loaves sara lee bread FREE

*6 boxes barrilla pasta FREE

*4 packs mission tortillas FREE

*hamburger helper clearance $.69 each

(no coupons b/c I used them all week at FL!)

*Smart Balance PB $.89 each

*Cheeze Nips $.99 each

*2x tetley tea $.49 (I think!)

*4 Mccormick gravy mix

*2 packs Hefty plates $.99 each

*12 cans mandarain oranges $.75 each

(would have been cheaper, but I only had coupons to cover 4 of the cans.

We were almost out, so I bought up to what I would have paid per can at Sam’s.

I have several RC so I think I will Qn’s off of ebay so I can get more.  When we serve oranges with

our meals it takes 2 cans for everyone to get a serving!)

Overall I have done well with triple week and I still have LOTS of good Qn’s left, so I see many visits

in my future 🙂

BEST BOGO EVER March 24, 2010

the greatest b1g1 free offer ever made:
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Harris Teeter Tripples 3-24-10

spent: $37.36

saved: $ 108.66

value: $146.02

🙂 74% SAVINGS  🙂

2 coupons for FREE milk up to $4.19 gallon

EVERYTHING ABOVE WAS FREE OR LESS THAN $1.00!

6FREE boxes barilla pasta

3x stoneyfield yogurt FREE

French’s honey mustard FREE

French’s spicy mustard FREE

1 french’s yellow mustard FREE

(had2 different Qn’s w/ different amount off…the rest were $.60 each)

KC master piece BBQ FREE

Lysol 4in 1 cleaner FREE

Lysol toilet bowl cleaner FREE

Not pictured 3 Oscar Myer lunchable subs FREE (my help already ate them!)

Carnation Evaporated milk $.04 each!

coffee creamer FREE

JFG coffee $.75

Beechnut baby crackers $.39 each

I think everything I bought rang around $1.50 or less after sale + coupons.  It was a great first day.  I am sure it will go downhill from here as more people make it out to go shopping.