Coupon high!!

I am on a coupon high right now and wanted to post my grocery victory. Maybe nobody cares but me, but I am pretty excited about it!! I have been trying to use coupons in conjuction w/ sales at Publix now for 2 weeks, and today I spent $101.66, and saved $125.80!! Saved more than I spent!! How fun is that?? And all stuff I'll use...not random weird stuff! The deal of the day: free Tylenol! Actually I made a penny on the Tylenol, to be exact. It was on sale for $3.99, there was a $3 off Publix coupon, and I had a $1 off manufacturer's coupon. Nice! I've been using www.southernsavers.com to map my shopping plan, if any of you want to try it. It's kind of addicting!

Need a Stocking Stuffer?

Here's a good deal I ran across on one of the feeds I subscribe to...a Veggietales DVD delivered to your door for $2.99!! There are 3 different DVD's to choose from. Just subscribe to their email newsletter, and and they'll send you a free DVD. You just pay for shipping and handling. The link below is to the al.com feed I subscribe to. I used that link b/c if you live in my area, it's full of great deals. Happy Shopping!
http://blog.al.com/bargain-mom/2009/11/veggie_tales_by_big_idea_get_a.html

Zoo Trip

Aww! The Bean holding hands w/ her new friend, Micaiah. (Hope I spelled that right, Jessica K.!)
Lauren and the Bean

Micaiah, the Bean, Molly and Annie

We went to the zoo yesterday with some friends and had a great time! Oh, and half of Birmingham was also there. It was crazy crowded. Sorry there are no pics of Bubs, but he was chillin' in the stroller and wasn't as good of a "subject." Also, as a little money-saving tip, I recently found out you can join the Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ) and get free admission to the B'ham Zoo...and it's about $40 cheaper than a B'ham Zoo membership! Plus you can visit over 100 other nationwide zoos for free or discounted admission. Just check w/ your local zoo to make sure they honor the FONZ membership.

Do you mind if I vent? :)

I have noticed lately how the prices of things keep going up and places are taking away "perks" that used to be free. For instance, the other day at McDonald's there was a sign that said there would be an extra charge for condiments. Really?!?! They are going to charge me for ketchup? It's bad enough that they make me ask for it and don't just put some in the bag. And did you know that airlines charge for your checked baggage now? What!?! Yes, it's true. We are flying to visit R's family soon, and it's $15 for the first bag and $25 for the second. That's per passenger, of course. And don't get me started on the price of jeans. I had $100 gift certificate to Belk, and so I went shopping for a few things to get me through this Fall, jeans being the primary item, of course. Umm, I can't even buy ONE pair of jeans for $100! The designer jeans that are all the rage (did I just sound like my grandma?) are at least $100 each. Ralph Lauren was one of the cheapest brands I could find, and they were $70 or so. Good grief! I have no plans to buy jeans to "get me through" that cost that much! I have what I call the "$30 threshold"...if it's more than $30, I have to think long and hard about whether I should get it. And here's the worst one: the other day we were out of milk so I went to a gas station to get more. I got two gallons of milk and paid $12.06. FOR TWO GALLONS OF MILK!!! Anywho, I'm done w/ my rant. If y'all know any good deals on jeans, milk, or free condiments, let me know. :)

Grocery deals of the week

I think I may start posting my grocery deals and steals, and maybe you can copy me if you use comp ads and coupons. Maybe this will save some people a little bit of time. Or maybe I will inspire you to start using them yourself! :) Anyway, here are today's deals:

1) Piggly Wiggly ad - strawberries for $1.99/pk ($3.99 at Wal-mart), Ronco pasta 2/88 cents (89 cents/pk at Wal-mart)

2) Bruno's - french baugettes for 99 cents ($1.33 at Wal-mart)

3) Target - All liquid laundry detergent (32 load or Small & Mighty) for $4 ($8.22 at Wal-mart) - got 2 of these!

4) Western - 93% lean ground beef for $2.49/lb ($3.68 at Wal-mart), Simply Orange juice for 2/$6 ($3.38 at Wal-mart) - got 4 lbs!

5) Winn Dixie - Gwaltney 40% less fat bacon for 2/$4 ($2 something at Wal-mart)

I also used $3.50 in coupons, so my total coupon/comp ad savings for this week was approx. $20.80. Not bad!!

Bargain Bonanza

In the spirit of my friend Lauren, I wanted to let you know that Target is having a 75% off winter clearance on select items, and I got the Bean two turtlenecks for 94 cents each!

I love a good bargain!

I thought I'd share w/ y'all my latest grocery bargains. Today the Bean and I went shopping to Wal-mart for our big trip (yes, I am still shopping there and will do my final analysis soon on which place is cheapest), and I got some great deals using comp (comparison) ads. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, you can use other grocery stores ads and Wal-mart will match their price. You have to bring the actual ad in w/ you, and they don't honor buy-one-get-one-free ads or percentage ads. I don't always find good deals in the comp ads, but this time I ran across some super deals. In the Bruno's ad, they had Digiorno Frozen Pizzas on sale for $3.99 (regularly $5 at Wal-mart), so I got two. Bruno's also had Sara Lee white bread (usually we buy wheat, but I made an exception for the bargain this week - regularly $2.50 per loaf, I think) and Crest toothpaste (regularly $1.97) on sale for 99 cents each. They also had Simply Orange juice on sale for $3 (regularly $3.38) and bakery French baguettes for 99 cents (regularly $1.33). Food World had Pringles chips on sale for 69 cents (regularly $1). But the deal of the day was Food World's sale of 40 oz bag of boneless, skinless frozen chicken breasts for $3.99 each (regularly $9.68 for the Tyson brand...the only 40 oz size Wal-mart carries - I bought two). If you add it all up, I saved about $17 or so, roughly. Not bad!

The Grocery Experiment I: Coupons

So, for those of you who don't know, I am trying out a new grocery shopping regimen. My neighbor Erin spends about $200 less per month than what we do, so I am copying everything she does for a couple of months to see if her system works for us. They have a little boy about 3 months younger than the Bean, so we should be spending about the same amount. (Disclaimer: she is still nursing and therefore does not have the $40/month formula cost that we do.) So here's her routine: she does her "big" grocery trip at Publix and uses coupons from the Sunday paper. She takes advantage of their buy one get one free sales and plans her menus around that and their sale items. She also shops at Costco for several items. Lastly she uses Super Suppers, or at least she has for the past 2-3 months. I have been shopping at Costco for just a couple of items, and using Wal-mart for my "big" grocery trip with no coupons. I grocery shop every two weeks. I'll post on coupons, Costco, Super Suppers, and at the end, whether or not my new routine saves me money.

So, onto the topic at hand: are grocery coupons worth it? Well, I decided to get an 8 week subscription to the Sunday paper to find out. The subscription cost me $10, or $1.25 per week. The first trip to Publix I saved $7.55 in coupons, and another $22.57 in BOGO sales for a total savings of $31.12. The second trip to Publix I saved $13.23 in coupons and another $9.32 in BOGO sales for a total savings of $22.55. The biggest bargain so far has been using a 75 cent coupon on a BOGO Nature Valley granola bars, so I got two boxes of granola bars for only 67 cents. (Publix doubles your coupons every day up to $1. I.e. if you have a 50 cent coupon, they'll double it to $1, but if you have a 55 cent coupon you only get 55 cents off.) Obviously, the paper easily pays for itself. So no matter where I shop, I am now a believer in coupons. Even at Wal-mart it would've saved a few dollars.

So far, so good. Next I am going to try out Super Suppers. Erin and I are signed up for next week. I'll keep ya posted.