A Great Deal...An Understatement!!

you can barely see Rose in the back ground, she was really excited about the cheese and the cheerios too!

This is certainly the best I've ever done bargain shopping. This is the kind of deal coupon shoppers and frugalites dream of. And to think, I wasn't even going to buy any cheese at Kroger this week. The original sale price was ok at $.99 cents per 8 ounce bag, but I can do better at Sam's Club normally. A friend of mine alerted me that a $4 catalina printed for 5 bags of Kraft cheese purchased in one transaction. But, it got even better because this promo overlapped with Sunday's Mega event that gives a $5 bonus for buying 10 participating items which included Kraft cheese! So follow the math with me....

Buy 4 Kraft cheeses, get the 5th one free for a total of $5.08. On my first transaction I had a $1 off coupon and paid $4.08 out of pocket and a $4 off catalina printed out. So, I continued the process using the $4 off coupon each transaction and for every 10 cheeses I bought an additional $5 was deducted from my order allowing me to buy all the cheerios, OJ, milk, eggs, ice cream, and baby wipes! I paid a total of $22 and change. And I have a $4 catalina off my next trip to Kroger. Thankfully cheese freezes well :) It really pays to keep your eyes open to great deals as you go through your local stores. And if you find a great deal don't be afraid to stock up while you can.
I also came across a grocery cart of Pampers at my Kroger this week. There was an employee cleaning off the shelves. They weren't priced yet, so I asked her to scan them for me and tell me what they were to be clearanced at. I ended up with 10 large packs of pampers for $35.00. Getting these kinds of deals leaves a lot more room in the grocery budget week to week!
~~Thank you Heather for the great tip on the cheese sale :)!!

A Birthday AND Free Food...

It doesn't get much better than that. We all enjoyed some delicious combo meals from Chick Fil A today. That's a big treat for a family our size. AND it's Jacob's 16th birthday. It is sooo hard to believe I have a kid that age. We've had a great family day and lots of fun dressing up like cows. You might think I made my older kids dress up. Nope, they were very willing for good free food! I asked Jacob last night if he would mind dressing up to go and he laughed and said he would even dance for food. Like most teenage boys he LIKES to eat and eat he does.

Samuel, as usual had a really unique style for his cow costume. That's a black trash bag and a spot on the rump, just like any good cow :)

Lily may have been the cutest cow we have. She could hardly wait to go to Chick-Uh-Lay as she called it. The afternoon could not come soon enough for her so we could go. The location we went to had an indoor play area which made it even better for the little ones. We will look forward to Cow Appreciation Day 2010.

~~Happy 16th Birthday Jacob~~

We love you very much!!

Super Saving Saturday

I built up a great stock pile of necessities from couponing and rolling extra care bucks at CVS before Rose was born. After a year of concentrated couponing I experienced a little burn out and thus disorganization. I've only bought a couple of newspapers this year and haven't felt the need to get more. I am still using my extra care bucks every few weeks to replace things we need and have great success using printable coupons.

Another way my shopping has changed is a shift from coupons to shopping at Sam's Club. It is quite the extreme from what I had been doing. Sam's doesn't even accept coupons! I mostly buy basic staple type whole foods at a great price and cook up big batches of things we love! I have been pleased the last couple of months with this method. I find that we are eating well consistently and I think I am actually saving more and getting more food by not going in the stores as much. This seems to be working well for my family and frankly it's a relief to have a break from so many coupons. I am glad that I learned that way of shopping so that if I ever need to go back to it I know how. Abby has learned a lot as well. CVS-ing is great for basic math skills!

Purchased at CVS and Walmart:

• 40 trash bags
• 7 pounds pet food
• 2 boxes organic granola cereal
• 1 pack of huggies diapers
• 1 huggies baby wipes
• 1 Suave hairspray
• 1 cvs D vitamins
• 3 coffeemate creamers
• 2 Palmolive dish soaps
• 1 dozen eggs
• 2 loaves of bread
• 2 Vaseline lotions

Total Spent:

$8.87 in cash

$5.68 on my CVS gift card (I had a coupon printed on my last receipt for a $25 gift card for a new or transferred prescription, which we needed. The same coupon printed again after I paid for the prescription today!)

Used 14 Extra Care Bucks

Earned 9 Extra Care Bucks

There a many great deals to be found with printable coupons. I found mine today from the following sites:

Money Saving Mom

Southern Savers

The Centsible Sawyer

Who Needs IHOP...?

I'm always looking for ways to treat my family without breaking the budget! A meal out for nine people is just not practical when I could buy four or five bags of groceries for the price of one meal that only satisfies for a couple of hours. And frankly a meal out with a 1, 3, and 4 year old is not relaxing;) I do like a bit of a break from cooking once in a while though.

I have and answer to all of this with brunch on Saturdays. We hold off eating much until closer to lunch and whip up pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. YUM! It doesn't take much effort to make pancakes from a mix that you only need to add water. EASY! The strawberries come frozen, clean and already sliced. I just sprinkle with a tablespoon or so of sugar and let them thaw into their wonderful topping goodness. YAY! And I don't even "whip" the cream. WOOHOO!
We eat 'til our hearts content and I don't even think about cooking again until dinner. Homerun for Mama!!
Here's the math:
All the ingredients for a month of Saturday Brunches....
From Sam's Club(rounding up prices)

• Pancake Mix(just add water)-$6
• Frozen Strawberries-$9
• 3 large cans of whipped cream-$7
• total of $22.00
• $5.50 per meal for all of us (if I could think of another word to cap and ! I'd throw it in here, wink, smile)

This post is a part of Frugal Friday and Weekend Fun Food.

This Weeks Savings

CVS

started with $19 Extra Care Bucks

spent $0.69

ended with $12 Extra Care Bucks

Food Lion

8 pounds of oranges

(2) 5lb. bags of potatoes

1 bunch of bananas

1 pack of hot dog buns

1 pack of hamburger buns

1 loaf bread

1 pork roast

1 package deli turkey

3 pounds black forest ham

1 pound chicken patties

1 1/4 lbs. ground turkey

total after sales and food lion printable coupons $27.58

Kroger

6 boxes of Kellogg's cereal

4 packs of toilet paper

2 gallons of milk (free with cereal purchase)

1 Sunday paper

total...$15.23

Grand Totals

Total before coupons....$119.05

Total out of pocket.........$42.81

Saved..............................$76.24 or 64%

Go to Money Saving Mom and Southern Savers for the links to great coupons at all these stores!

Food Lion and CVS

Our Food Lion only marks down meats but ,I am finding that it is worth a trip in to get these deals. They mark down well before the sell by dates too! I purchased the following:

• 6 pounds of frozen vegetables
• 2 loaves whole grain bread
• 2 pounds deli turkey
• 13 one pound packs of beef hot dogs
• 2 1/3 pounds sliced honey ham
• 4 pound whole tyson chicken
• 11 pound Smithfield ham
• 3 pound boneless pork loin
• 4 1/3 pound pork roast

Total spent $55.89 ($1.16/lb.) for meats and veggies

It was a pretty good week at CVS too. I spent more cash than usual because I started with only 5 extra care bucks. I did four transactions rolling extra care bucks and had one 5 off 30 that came by email. I spent about $10 cash and ended with a 7.99 ECB and 3.00 ECB. Next week is looking really good! Be sure to check out Southern Savers for all the details!

CVS-Black Friday

The details...

• three transactions
• began with 23 extra care bucks
• bought-5 quart crock pot, 3 G2 gatorades, 2 tubes of colgate, 1 Johnson's soft lotion, 1 aussie shampoo, 1 aussie conditioner, 1 king size kit kat, 4 hershey's dark chocolate, one colgate spin brush, 1 pair of Phillip's ear buds, 1 Magnavox universal remote.
• after rolling extra bucks for three transactions spent $0.61 out of pocket
• ended with 14.47 extra care bucks

If you have some extra bucks to spare, the sale on appliances is pretty nice. The choices include a waffle maker, coffee maker, popcorn popper, griddle, or 3 in 1 grill. They are on sale for 19.99, and you earn 10 ECB's, making the appliance 9.99 after ECB's. There are many items free after extra care bucks. Read all of them with coupon matches here. It would be worth the effort to get there! Read other savings stories at Money Saving Mom!

Food Lion Mark Downs and K-Mart Super Double Q's

We did not do any CVS shopping this week, but our efforts to collect coupons for Food Lion and K mart really paid off! First at Food Lion, I bought 8 pounds of lean ground turkey, a 4 pound beef roast, and 3 five pound chickens that had been marked down. I bought ten pounds of frozen vegetables, 2 boxes of cheerios, 2 packs of wipes, two jars of whipped cream (very important), and two boxes of saltine crackers. I paid $39 and change for a lot of meat and vegetables! I came across a new site this week that gives great details on shopping at Kroger and Food Lion. Check out Southern Savers for all the details!

Next up was K-mart. I found K-mart to be overpriced much like CVS tends to be. I collected a lot of coupons that could have potentially been good after doubling up to $2. However, I set a goal of not using any coupon that did not make the item free or less than a dollar. I also wanted to try to get a total of $50 before coupons because I had a $5 off $50 K mart coupon. My purchases totaled $55 before coupons. After coupons my total was $12.77. A lot of items were free after coupons, some were more than a dollar, but it averaged to .57 per item. A good result considering these were all item we need or will use.

Read more savings stories at Money Saving Mom!

CVS Deals

It was a good week at CVS! The end of the month is always a squeeze on the grocery/household budget. The baby items in particular will be very helpful this final week of October. The Just For Men hair color was free after extra care bucks and I had a $2.00 off coupon and I will receive a 7.99 rebate. This item will be donated, but will end up a $9.99 profit for us. We don't celebrate Halloween, but the little girls are dragging around their dolly stuff in their "punkin' heads". When they tire of them we will donate them as well.

In summary: 12 ECB's to start, three transactions, $5.83 in cash out of pocket, end with 10 ECB's for next week. Abby uploaded pictures and threw in one of Rose;) since she always tags along to CVS with us.

Check out Money Saving Mom for other great deals!

CVS

We shopped CVS for the first time in several weeks because all of our ECB's were to expire on Tuesday. I decided to try a store in town that I had only been in once before. I checked with the manager first to make sure he accepted internet printable coupons and he did! I had several coupons I had printed for the post it note deal. Also an FYI for fellow shoppers, I called customer service last week to ask about store policy concerning expired ECB's. It is CVS policy to accept expired ECB's up to two weeks past expiration; however the final decision is up to the individual store managers. I had a customer reward ECB that had expired and I had thrown away. Customer service renewed it for me and it printed at this last trip! Thanks CVS!
In summary, I went in with a non-detailed list and a fist full of manufacurers coupons and did four transactions to roll my ECB's. I spent around $5 out of pocket!

I got these groceris at Wal-mart this week for $1.96! You can use links for Kashi and vlassic pickles and tons of great coupon matches for Wal-mart at The Centsible Sawyer.

The Centsible Sawyer and Money Saving Mom have all the details you'll need to shop CVS and Wal-mart every week!

CVS and The Grumpy Manager

Once upon a time, there was a CVS with a manager who loved customers with coupons. The more, the better. He would even point out good "free after extra care buck" items and give me the next weeks sale fliers to plan deals from.

But one day, I went to CVS and the manager was no where to be found. He had disappeared, I was told, "He no longer works for CVS". NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, how can this be, I thought, fighting back tears.(almost)

Ok, we can do this , I thought, everything will be fine, but alas the new manager commenced to hand me my precious coupons back saying "You can't use this one...., You can't use this internet printable more than once...." I introduced myself and Abby as "regular shoppers" and said it was nice to meet her. No response, not even a polite hello.

Abby and I combined our previously planned three separate transactions into one, spent over half of our extra care bucks, and told the other sweet cashiers that were printing photos good bye and thank you to the NEW MANAGER and promptly left. The END.

Well, not quite the end, hopefully. How do all you CVS shoppers deal with a grumpy store manager? She would only let me use one of the most recent 2 off 10 coupons on one order. Shouldn't she have at least let us use one each, meaning one from me and one from Abby? The coupon reads one per customer. It does not read one per CVS card or one per visit.

I am happy to say that we ended up with a lot of great products in spite of our new manager. I will seriously miss the old manager. He was nice and was liked by his customers and employees.

Read more (hopefully happily ever after) CVS stories at The Centsible Sawyer.

Abby's At It Again!

Abigail, our 11 year old "Coupon Queen" did it again! We got this at Wal-mart this week. She only spent $9.76 for $27.35 worth of groceries. She found most of the coupons that we used here. Thanks Denise! Great job Abby!

CVS

Another fun week at CVS. This was all purchased in one order! I had a $10 off $50 coupon to use before it expired. We had fun making up this big order! I was relieved to find everything there that we planned to buy. That makes shopping fun and easy! some highlights...

• Two more bottles or laundry detergent, the kind with no perfumes or dyes, we are well stocked on laundry supplies now!


• snacks to share after a ball game


• lots of tea and drinks for all


• peanut butter for pbj's before we run out to a ball game!


• some pretty polish for toe nails this summer!

Total out of pocket...$0.99

Total ECB's for next visit...$37.96 !! Looking forward to the June monthly book!!

***Update*** Our Saturday trip....Two trasactions, totaling $43, spent $19 extra care bucks, $1.12 cash, earned $13 ecb's for a total of $33 ecb's for next visit!

Read more great deals at The Centsible Sawyer and Money Saving Mom.

CVS

This was definitely a "lighter" week for us at CVS. The sales weren't great and there were a few things I wanted to get were out. I was pleased to get 6 toothbrushes, 10 more free prints (with the coupon that prints with the $3 off $15 coupon) and drinks for sharing after Samuel's Wednesday night game. I may make another trip today to get some sort of snack for sharing too. This is another reason I love shopping CVS. It really helps the general grocery budget in so many ways! My CVS managers are SUPER. Their policy is to take any coupon the customer brings in. I have been able to stack multiple coupons and keep my out of pocket totals very low. Not all stores allow this. The manager at my store said his rule came from his boss:0) Thank you CVS!
Transaction one:
4 colgate 360 toothbrushes $3.99 each
$15.96
-2 $1 off manufacturers coupons
-$5 off $15 cvs printable
-5 ecb's
-2 ecb's
-1 ecb's
-1 ecb's
- $.10 out of pocket
earned $15.96 in extra care bucks

Trasaction two:
4- 12 packs of coke $12
1 garnier conditioner 2.99
2 oral b toothbrushes 1.99 each
1 gallon milk 4.19
10 kodak prints 2.90
total 24.07
-2 $1 off oral b
-1 off garnier
- 2.90 for photos
-4 off 20 cvs printable
-5 off 15 cvs printable
4 ecb's
-4.69 ecb's
-$1.87 on gift card
Earned 6 extra care bucks for a total of 35.96 for next time!
Read about more great drug store savings and get links for tons of coupons from Denise, The "Cent"sible Sawyer.

CVS

Highlight from this week:

We spent $3.98 for two Hawaiian tropics lip balms and made $10 ECB's!

CVS supreme diapers ($8.99) ARE included in the buy 2 cvs brand products get one free sale, combined with whatever coupons you may have this is a pretty good deal.

30 more free kodak prints (the coupon for 10 free prints comes with the 3 off 15 coupon!

total out of pocket...$2.01

ECB's for next week $27.69

Visit Denise and Crystal to see what others bought and get great shopping scenerios and coupon links galore!!

Free Chicken At McD's Tomorrow!

Here's What Denise had to say! We may go for breakfast and lunch! McDonald's is only a mile and a half from my house with a park in the middle! Sounds like a fun outing to me! Here's a direct link for details! I've tried the chicken biscuit and it's very good!

Thanks Marie for the head's up:0)

Super Savings Saturday

Highlights from CVS:

at least six months worth of trash bags

baby wipes for at least 6 weeks

bubbles and gum to entertain at ball games

Allergy meds for Anna (cvs brand is working very well for her)

brownies for a cook out at a friend's house

milk for the week

M&M'S for my husband who doesn't like chocolate?!?but is addicted to any variety of M&M's with nuts!

dog food for our pooch who will love me and cvs for some brand name chow! free with coupon here

50 FREE photos, if your not taking advantage of the 10 free photo coupon that prints out with the $3/15 coupon you really should!

coffee for me:0)

Total out of pocket $1.91

Extra Care Bucks for next week $31.94

Read about more at Money Saving Mom and The "Cent"sible Sawyer!!

CVS!

The first two pictures are Abby's deals. Abby (aka the coupon queen) is my eleven year old. Happy Birthday Abby:0) She planned her two transactions using the weekly flyer, our list of what we had left to buy of the April deals, and a list of needs I had made to work into this weeks shopping. She did a great job as you can see. In the second picture you can see a small bag of Hershey's Bliss candy (good stuff). She had to throw one of these on the counter when her total after coupons came to -.02. The candy was on clearance for .25! She really understands how to make CVS work for us and is a huge help to me in many ways. With her help we are able to get in and out of CVS in under 30 minutes, which is about the limit for our little Rose.

Here are the totals...

Total before coupons...around $81, each transaction was just over $20

total out of pocket... 95cents!!

Extra care buck's for next week...$27

Go here to see how to get a $3 off $15 coupon!

Read more deals here... Super Savings Saturday and CVS Superstars!!

5 Budget Busters!

I've been tagged by Sarah at Fiddledeedee! She shared her top 5 budget busters last week and "tagged" me to do the same! So here goes in no set order...

1. These first two are totally dependant on planning and organization. We spend less in these areas when I plan and organize. I would say this is true in all areas of spending! Food! Food is a biggie here. With so many mouths to feed and two growing boys , there is a lot of food coming in and quickly being eaten. "What's to eat, Mom?", "What's for ......breakfast, lunch, dinner?" echoed over and over! It's nice when I actually have an answer, and I usually do, because I have a menu plan and shop accordingly. But when things don't go as planned food is a huge budget buster! Feeding so many with take-out, even the dollar menu is expensive. I always think in terms of how many groceries I could buy when we have to spend extra. I need to do a better job in planning for times when I need a quick meal and we could save more in this area. I have said, it's a shame we can't eat toothpaste and shampoo, hee-hee! Fellow CVS'ers will know what I mean!
2. The second is clothing. When we aren't organized, it is so hard to know what we have and what we need. It is so nice to pull out a well labeled tote of size 2 summer clothes when you need it for the next in line, but it doesn't always work out that way! Having five girls in a row, organization of shoes and clothes can and has saved a tremendous amount of money as they "hand down". I am a "sucker" when it comes to dresses. It is so hard not to add to our dress collection. We have been blessed over the years with a huge collection of dresses. I love having them and try to resist the urge to buy more....I just remind myself..."Tommy's gonna kill me if I buy another dress...OH, this would be so cute on...But, Tommy's gonna...." You get the idea?!
3. Heating and cooling a 4000 square foot house....enough said!
4. Hobbies can be a budget buster. Photo supplies and scrapbooking, I love it! I have a small fortune in supplies and little to show for it! Someday I will get it done, I love scrapbooking and if someone can tell me how to get it done with so many littles, please share! Oh, one more thing, babies, sweet babies, another "hobby" of mine:0) I love all the stuff that comes with babies. I have learned to keep it simple in this area, but I have to resist the urge to buy baby things. It helps that I am a home-body and don't shop much!
5. Lastly, having three babies and moving twice in the last four years has been expensive. I'm not complaining...I love my babies and the moves were job related and God is good to us. We have everything we need and a lot more! I have been blessed with a very hard working husband and I have never had to worry about money.

Now I'm tagging Monica and Tisha!

Super Saving Saturday

This week the big "score" at CVS was the Alavert Allergy money maker! I have two suffering with Spring allergies, so this was also a helpful deal. I was also excited to work in the Dunkin' Donuts coffee for me and the mac', as Samuel calls it, and a coke for the kids. This only cost me $1.68 after ECB's and I earned them all back plus some! I have $31 in ECB's for next week!
Kroger had another good sale on cereal and granola bars. I loved getting this for the kids because we are really busy with three in sports right now! Total at Kroger after coupons...$44 and change. (Some fruit not pictured, we had already put it away!)
I'm not a huge fan of Walgreen's yet, but last week a deal there on Aveeno products caught my eye and my coupons! I earned $10 in register rewards. This was a big help for the end of the month budget and I got four dozen eggs and milk for $.44 with that coupon!

Check out lots of other deals and great shopping scenerios at The "Cent"sible Sawyer and Money Saving Mom!