Store or Market?

I was wondering that the other day, what do most people call it when they go grocery shopping?  

"I'm going to the store"  or "I'm going to the market?"  

I say store, but I'm changing over to market.  I like the sound of it better.  It sounds quaint and more homey.  Silly, but true.

In any case, I haven't done this in awhile but here is my morning haul from Smith's "market."  

I made a trip after dropping LuLu off to preschool to pick up some eggs and bread.  Then I realized I had a few coupons in my wallet and there was a sale or two that looked decent.

Pasta was $1 each, Smores ingredients had $1 off tear off by the display if you bought all items (kids have been wanting to make these for the past 3 weekends...) eggs were free, lemonade was $1 (perfect for summer family BBQ's) etc etc. 

Total came to $79.37

After coupons and sales, I paid $32.08 for 33 items

I used to have a KILLER food storage room filled to the brim.  But I don't carry around my huge coupon binder anymore - it was just too much work for this mom.  

Add that to I suddenly have two boys that are hungry morning, noon and night, and the supply has diminished.  So I've been trying to add a few extra things to my shopping trips to build it back up slowly without breaking the budget.

Just another way I'm trying to stay frugal around here!

Got Milk?

This coupon is HOT HOT HOT! (or ice cold?)

For UT and ID residents, Coupons.com has .75 cents off of ANY brand of milk!  

Expires 6/30 so use it quickly!

Be sure to use your zip code to see it!

Print it out (twice!) before it disappears!

Spic N Span

There is a great coupon HERE for $1/2 Spic n Span spray cleaners.  

Wal-Mart has it for 97 cents per bottle, making it 47 cents each!  

Great way to stock up on cleaning supplies for cheap. 

Don't forget to hit the back space and print the coupon twice!

Smith's/Kroger Trip

Do you all get sick of my weirdo grocery store shopping trip pictures?

No? 

Ok, good...here's the one from today!

 Before sale and coupons - $303.46

 Yummy Sweet Baby Ray;s BBQ Sauce for $1.00 

I stocked up for some outdoor grilling this summer.

Why would I want to go back and pay $2.99 for this later?

Stock UP friends!

You don't have to be weird about it and buy the store out to get a little pantry of savings going!

Also, powered drink mixes were .99 cents - perfect for thirsty little ones at Bear Lake and Cub Scouts!

 Cheap mommy lunches because I don't like mac n cheese and hot dogs.

Enough soap for 140 loads of laundry - that should last about a month around here.  Seems like it anyhow!

I PAID - $157.03!!
 A savings of almost 50%.  Good, not great, but I'm happy with it!

Another Smith's Kroger Trip

I made a very big mistake by going to the store late last Saturday night - uh, duh Kristen, it's the night before Mother's Day and every procrastinating male in a 20 mile radius was there picking things up.

But...I was already there - without KIDS!  

So I decided to brave the crowds and get my coupon shop on!

 How embarrassing...I had 4 or 5 guys standing around watching me at the register asking me questions about the coupons.  

I've never had an audience before!  Yikes.

Before sales and coupons the total was $254.16

I spent $104.52!

These are a few of the deals I used...

Ronzoni Healthy Harvest pasta, .49 {promo price- must buy 10 participating items}
Use $1/2 coupon here
Final price: Two for FREE

Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta, .49
Use $1/2 coupon here
Final price: Two for FREE!

Propel Fitness water, .49
Use $1/2 coupon from 2/13 SS
Final price: Two for FREE 


Quakers Quakes Rice Snacks, .79
Use .55/2 from 5/1 SS-Pepsi
Final price: .52 each

Old Spice & Gillette Body wash, $2.99
Use BOGO Old Spice body wash coupon, 5/1 PG or
Use FREE Gillette deodorant wyb Gillette body wash, 5/1 PG
Final price: $1.50 each

My guess is most of these deals will be on for another week - but I am not 100% certain.  You still have till tomorrow midnight to get these great stock up deals!

Kroger Smith's Shopping Trip

 I stopped by Smith's for their hot cereal sale - buy 4 GM cereals and receive a $5.00 Smith's gift card to use on a future shopping trip.

The only tricky part is you have to divide your transactions up into boxes of four.  It was not a big deal at all, the cashiers were really friendly about it and it hardly took any time at all.

So I used coupons for .50 cents off each box with the sale price.  Bringing my total per 4 boxes to $8.92 (or a savings of 55%) 

In total, I paid $35.68 for 20 boxes of cereal and I now have $20.00 cash to use tomorrow morning to stock up on eggs, milk and produce. 

Forget the Vacation Fund....

I spent it all and bought a treadmill!

Vacation Fund is now down to zero and starting over...plenty o' time for that...

I wasn't hasty though!  I really spent a lot of time reading, researching and testing out what I wanted to buy after my local gym closed down.  I decided on the Nordic Track C900 model.

Which was $1299.00

Um...NO. 

(And I only had $950 in the vacation fund...so, that put a limit on things...)

I waited until it went on sale for $979.00 with free shipping.

Then I did what comes naturally to me anymore, I Googled "Nordic Track Promo Codes" and I found two that I could stack on TOP of the sale price!

Final price?

$848.00

Ohhhh yeah! Under budget baby!

Now I just need for it to get here. 

Kroger Smith's Shopping Trip

It seems like my store is always cleaned out pretty fast on these big sales so I hit another store this morning while I was out doing my shopping.

 Total came to $73.52 before sale prices and coupons.

I paid $18.13

I used two of my free Freschetta Pizza coupons (for a savings of $13.38)

I used one of my $3.00 catalinas from my last Kroger shopping trip

The sausage was .58 cents each when buying 10 for the Daytona Event

I used (4) $1.00 off coupons for the pasta that was on sale for $1.29 - making them .29 cents each

As well as various cereal coupons I had!

I also recieved another $3.00 catalina for my next trip to use - I'm going to my store later to stock up on peanut butter, so I should get 10 jars of peanut butter for $7.00  - not bad!

Kroger Smith's Shopping Trip

My total for today $196.51

After Smith's sale and coupons:

I PAID $86.79!!!
 
I was happy to get several freezer meals that Dan can grab for his lunch on busy days at work.   We were also getting low on cereal and it felt good to stock up my shelves again.  

 

I really need to start keeping a written budget.  I know *about* how much I spend and how my spending has been drastically reduced using coupons, but it would be fun to see some more concrete numbers.

I think I might shoot for trying that in the New Year.

Smith's/Kroger Trip

Proof that my life is getting pathetic - I was excited to go to the gym and grocery store last night.  It meant TWO WHOLE HOURS without children. 

Since Smith's is rounding their coupons up to $1.00 until tomorrow, I picked up a few things we needed.  

Total amount before Smith's card and coupons

$138.92

I paid:

$67.23

Dan was laughing at me - I usually call him a computer nerd and then here I am taking pictures of groceries.  What does that make me? I have to admit that I always feel a tad silly showing off what I bought. But it's fun too so I'll just go with that!

Target Trip

So this is why I love using coupons.  I went into Target today hoping to catch the 75% off of children's clothing (it was still at 30% - bummer.)

But LuLu was in a good mood so I decided to wander around.  I haven't done that in a looooong time!

As I passed the back end caps I saw a ton of household items on clearance.  I knew I had coupons for a few of them so I decided to see what I could stack. 

Total for above items before clearance 

$45.98

Total after sale price and coupons...

$12.60!!

So much for not stockpiling for awhile!

Kroger Shopping Trip

 

I wanted to post a picture from my Kroger/Smith's trip today!  They are doubling coupons up to a dollar for three days and I was thinking of skipping out at first.  

I realized I had a lot of the coupons for the P&G promo that were expiring and now would be a good time to stockpile on some things we use. 

Total after sale and coupons...$101. 67

For a savings of 62 percent!

My Score at Smith's

 Cost before sale, tax and coupons...$161.82

After sale and coupons...

$63.84

For a savings of 66%!!

I love that by combining the sale and coupons I got the croutons for .29 cents, the cheese was 69 cents a bag (it freezes great!) the pasta, toothpaste and toothbrushes were all free. I love that! 

I was pretty unorganized on this trip and I had both Greg and Lauren with me.  All in all, I was pretty pleased with this shopping trip!

There is still time...sale is still on through today and all coupons are rounded up to $1.00!

Chicken Baby!!

You might consider heading over to Fresh Market to pick up some chicken!

They have #10 boxes of chicken breasts for $1.48 per pound (so $14.something a box!)

I saw it lower for $1.38 a pound at BuyLow in Provo. Last year.  And I paid the extra 10 cents in gas going to get it!  Ha!

If you want to know what to do with so much chicken or how to prepare it to freeze...check THIS out. 

(Scroll to the bottom half of the post!)

Smith's Trip

Ohhh...yeah.  I took advantage of the great sale at Smith's where they rounded up all manufacturers coupons to $1.00

Sweet.

 All this for $48.85

Savings: 63%!

And I did this with two kids, one screaming since she hates shopping carts. 

Exhibit A

The other one with one of those horrible, horrible mini shopping carts.  

That fact alone should give me another 10% off. 

Wal-Mart Shopping Trip and Price Match-Ups!

Since I like torturing myself a good challenge, I took LuLu and Greg with me on a couponing shopping trip to Wal-Mart this morning.  

I bought this:

Total Price:  $123.71

I PAID: $76.12

For a total savings of $47.59 or 57%!!!

Not pictured here are the 12 cans of dog food that I was able to get for free with coupons for my mom and dad's dog. 

Some coupon scenarios that I used:

Mighty Dog 5.5oz cans — 57c ea
Coupon: $3/5 from 3/28 SS (exp 5/17)
Total: 5 for free!

Schick slim twins 12 pk disposable razors — $1.97
Coupon: $3 from 3/21 SS (exp 5/2)
Total: Free!

Suave 24 Hour Protection Deodorant (2.6 oz.) $1.72
Use the $3/2 coupon from here
Final cost $0.22 each!

Halls Cough Drops $1.18
Use the $1/1 coupon from the 3/28 SS
Final cost FREE!

Snuggle Fabric Softener $3.97
Use the $3/1 coupon from the 3/28 RP
Final cost $0.97!

Stouffers Family Size Meals $6.00

Go here, become a fan and get $2.50 off meal coupon (print twice)

Diaper Wipes $1.97

Price match to Macey's - .78 cents per package

$1 off Jamba Juice

This coupon is good from now until April 10th...so plenty of time to print some of these out and enjoy a yummy smoothie.  I LOVE their Caribbean Passion smoothie, my boys love anything with strawberries and minimal seeds!  I printed out a few to use in the next few weeks - go here to get yours!

Thanks Hip2Save!

NEW $1/1 McCormick Spices

Coupons.com has a new $1/1 coupon for McCormick spices out - hurry and print this before it disappears!  If you have trouble finding it, try zip code 62946.

These are great to use at Wal-Mart on the smaller spices and might come in handy towards food coloring for dying Easter Eggs.  (Am I the only one who ends up with bottles and bottles of yellow food coloring somehow?  So random....)

Thanks Hip2Save!

Pantene Deal

8 Pantene Products

Regularly priced at $3.89 each

Total not on sale = $31.12

On sale right now at Target for $3.33 each = $26.64

I used $3 off 2 products coupon from the 3/7 P&G flyer (Lucky me had 4 of them!)

My total = $14.64 or $1.83 each!

Go me!!

New Movie Coupons!

There are a few really great new movie coupons available on Coupons.com right now! 

I have seen these movies often in the $5.00 discount bins at Wal-Mart and at Target.    

Go here to print the following:

$2.00 off Aquamarine on DVD
$2.00 off Flicka on DVD
$2.00 off T Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts on DVD
$2.00 off Legally Blonde on DVD
$2.00 off Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on DVD (This movie scared the daylights out of me when I was little, just sayin'.)
$2.00 off the Black Stallion on DVD
$2.00 off The Pebble And The Penguin on DVD
$5.00 off Big on Blu-ray 
$5.00 off Cheaper By The Dozen 2 on Blu-ray
$5.00 off Igor on Blu-ray