What does $40 buy?

I went shopping today with my money-maker coupons. (KY) For each one I get about $1 in overage to spend on groceries. I try to use this overage mostly on items I don't have coupons for, so meat is the item I tend to stock up on with these.

I had $40 in coupon overage to use, so I got just about $40 worth of groceries. I used no other coupons save for one $.50 coupon that was on the package of chicken. I have to say, I was amazed at how little $4o buys when you are not using coupons or at least shopping only the sales items. Though some of this meat was priced competitively, I could have gotten it somewhere else for less if I shopped the sales. However, since it would be essentially free here, I was willing to "spend" more per pound. I ended up with 18.55 lbs of meat including a beef roast, thin sliced pork chops, sausage, hot dogs, chicken breasts, and one whole chicken. I also got 2.5 lbs of cheese and 18 cans of cat food. Since this store charges 5% surcharge on everything, I ended up paying $3.37. (The overage actually took off some of the surcharge too- it was $5.90)

In light of how little I got with my "free" $40, I can't imagine how high my food bill would be if I just shopped "normally".

Found some great deals!

I went in search of a couple of deals today and found some extra deals along the way. I hit the commissary to look for coupons and get some crackers. They have cheese-nips for $1, Wheat thins for $1.99, and Ritz for $2. They also have displays with booklets in them with coupons for $1/2 Nabisco crackers and $1/2 Ritz. I had a few tearpad coupons I had found before New years that were for $2 off Ritz too which made them free. My dad had wanted some wheat thins, so I got him 2 of those with the $1/2 coupon for $1.49 each and the cheese-nips for $.50 each.

Then I found this awesome coupon on the shelf in front of the Kool-aid and Country-time canisters.

It is $3 off 2 Kraft beverage products (excluding single kool-aid packets) and 1 Kraft food product. I grabbed one, but the canisters were all $2-$3 and up. I walked down the aisle to check capri-sun and found the kool-aid bottles were $1. So I grabbed 2 of those and went off to look for a kraft food product. The mac and cheese was $.99 and the stove top was $1. So I got all three for free! I went back and grabbed more coupons and loaded up my cart with 20 kool-aid packs and 10 food items and checked out again paying $.35 for them all! I have more coupons, so I will go back this weekend and do it again.

Then I went to Walgreens for the boost deal. I got 4 for $5 after my coupons and RR from last week and got $5 back. I picked up some Christmas m&m's for $.23 each and found half gallons of milk for $.50 each! It was a pretty good deal hunting day.

Triple dipping at Safeway!

Safeway has a pretty good deal right now for Kellogg's cereals. At first, it doesn't seem like a great deal, but combine a few different deals to make it GREAT!

First, the cereals are $2.49 on sale and if you buy 5, you will get a free movie ticket instantly for any movie up to $12. Now, use some coupons:
$1.50/2 6/5 RP
$1.00/2 6/12 RP
or several $1.00/2 or $.70/1 at www2.kelloggs.com
Now, your cereal is either $1.49 each (with $.70/1 corn pops or Raisin bran printable coupons), $1.74 each, or $1.99 each with $ off 2 coupons. Not a super price for cereal yet.

But, look for the boxes that have the cars promo on it. For every 4 codes you put in online (1 code per box), you can get a $5 gas card (visa pre-paid card). So, you have now paid from $7.45-$9.95 for 5 boxes of cereal and you will get $5 back in a visa/gas card and a free movie ticket. Good Deal!!

Some, a very few, types of cereal that are included in the cars promotion are also good for a different $10 rebate when you buy 10 boxes. You can find details here: http://www2.kelloggs.com/AARP/rewards/

Buy some of the cereals that cross over and you can now send for a rebate with 10 upcs. GREAT DEAL!!!!!!!

Triple dipping: free movie ticket, $5 gas card, $10 rebate

What feeding 10 people looks like

This is our produce buy for the week. I shop on wednedays at the hispanic markets for produce as they have the best prices and wednesdays they have produce specials. I am almost exclusively buying my produce here now or price matching at walmart.

We got 43 lbs of produce tonight including apples, cantaloupe, grapes, strawberries, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, mangos, and peaches.

We also got 7 lbs of rice and 15 lbs of meat(pork chops and whole chickens).

We paid @ $38 for all of this with $20 of that being the meat. We will have to get more meat and still have oranges to get, but with 10 people in the house, this will last us about a week, maybe a few days longer, but we will be buying more next Wednesday.

Though this is a coupon blog, it is rarer these days for me to get free produce with coupons, so this is the way to go. And since my huge stockpile of free boxes of rice is gone now, I will also be buying rice here until I can get it free again. I am paying $1 for 3-4 pounds of rice when it is on sale instead of $1.50 for one pound at Fry's.

Crisis Averted

No matter how hard I try I can't seem to keep a good stock of toilet paper around here. I did have a stockpile for TP at one time, but now it just goes so fast. Tonight, we were down to one roll, between three bathrooms. I panicked. I didn't want to run out and just pay for toilet paper. Then I remembered that CVS had these 1000 sheet rolls this week for $.50 each. I also remembered that the sale ended in about 30 minutes when the store closed. Oh, and I had a $5 ECB in my purse.

So I jumped in the car, got to the store and grabbed 10 rolls. I handed over my ECB and $.47 tax and walked out relieved. The TP crisis was averted for another week.

45 pounds of produce for under $15

This is part of my shopping trip tonight. I did not use any coupons, but still got some good deals. Wednesday is produce day at the Mexican Markets here-Food City, Pro's Ranch Market, El Super. On Wednesday's they have specials on fruits and vegetables.

Tonight I got a watermelon, a cantaloupe, bananas, Granny Smith apples, mangoes, kiwi, oranges, cucumbers, strawberries, bell peppers, and a head of lettuce. In all, about 45 pounds of fruits and vegetables and I paid less than $15 (about $14.58) for it all. (In my small picture it doesn't look like that much, but it is @ 45 lbs)

While there are coupons on produce sometimes, this is one of my favorite ways to get deals on fruits and vegetables. If you can't get it free, you look for the lowest price you can get.

Get a $25 Target gift card with AZ Republic subscription

If you are not a subscriber to the AZ republic already, here's a good deal for you. You can get the Sunday and the Wednesday paper for $9.28 for the first 3 months and get a $25 Target gift card when you sign up! That's about $2.14/week, so it's about the same as what you'd pay in the store for a Sunday paper (with tax), but you also get the wednesday paper too. If you count in the value of the Gift card, you're only paying $2.84 for 3 months worth of Sunday/Wednesday papers. A great way to get some free coupons!

You can sign up here through April 15: AZ Republic Free Target Gift card deal.

Use Reference Number: 3351467 to get the deal.

Movie tickets for $6 each

Their are many sites like groupon now. Buy with me is one of those sites and right now, they have a deal for AMC movie tickets. You can get 4 tickets for $6 each or $24 total. These are silver tickets, so are not good for the movies when they first come out. You can see a movie at AMC any weekday before 6pm for $5 and on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday before noon. But if you want to see a movie outside of those time-frames and it's not a new movie, this is a decent deal on movie tickets.
These can be used at any AMC, Loews, Cineplex, or other affiliated THeater, but shipping is only available to RI, NH, NJ, NY, CT, MA, DC, VA, TX, WA, CA, AZ, IL, WI, PA, MD, GA.

You can sign up here: Buywithme and then look in the Phoenix deals for the AMC tickets.

$7 for a $15 ebay gift card!

Groupon is offering a $15 gift card for ebay for just $7! If you don't know what groupon is, they send you a daily email with deals for stuff around town. I have gotten some good deals for restaurants, redbox, and kid's activities from them. You can sign up here: Groupon

If you are already signed up, here's where you can find the ebay deal: Ebay Groupon.

$22 for $298 of groceries!

I finally hit the mega sale at Fry's today. I also stopped at Basha's and walgreens. There's actually more groceries that didn't make it into these photos, but for all my shopping trips today, I spent $22.72 out of pocket and I saved $275.54 or 92%.

I ran into quite a few problems with my fry's order. An electronic free coupon did not come off, 2 coupons did not double correctly, one coupon got missed, I was charged for an extra bag of dog food I did not get, I miscounted and got 2 extra items for my sets of 10 for the mega deal, and I grabbed two of the wrong items that rang up $1 more than the item I was supposed to get. That receipt was fun to figure out all the errors! I did go back, though and got almost all of them fixed with no problems. The electronic coupon I will just have to use next time.

All in all, it was worth it, and it's nice to have such a great staff at my Fry's when I have to get something fixed on my receipt!

Free appetizer at Chilis

Sign up for chili's email newsletter and you can print a coupon for a free order of chips and Queso immediately.You will also get free stuff for your birthday sent to your email. Sign up is quick and easy- just your name, birthday, and email. Click here to signup.

Free Movie- in Peoria

Anyone want to go see a free movie tomorrow night- I got this in my email.
There are still passes available for the Harkins Arrowhead in Peoria for 3/16 @ 7:00.
Just follow the link and reserve and print your passes.
Click here for free movie passes.

If you have never done a free preview before, you will want to get there early. It is first come, first served and they do sometimes run out of seats. You also want to be able to get seats together if you are going with someone. Concessions are at your own expense of course, but you can use your Harkins cup and t-shirt if you have those for cheap and free drinks or popcorn. Free or cheap date night! :)

Free stuff at JcPenney!

Got this in the mail today!
It's $10 off a $10 or more purchase at JCPenney. Which equates to free stuff!
It can only be used in store, so next time I am by the store, I will have to go see what I can get for $10.

This came because I was signed up for their rewards program. If you sign up for the rewards program, you will get these occasionally throughout the year. You can sign up for the rewards program for free here: www.jcprewards.com


Yay for free stuff!

Milk deal for the new year!

My husband found a great deal on milk this morning. Since these were close to the expiration, they were marked $.99 a gallon. We go through a lot of milk and this is a great stock up price! Milk freezes just fine, so I told him to get as many as he could.
He brought home 24 gallons of milk and said there was still a lot left.
We opened each one and poured off about an inch (into a pitcher to put in the fridge) so they won't expand and explode in the freezer.
We won't have to pay full price on milk for 2-3 months now!

Free desserts and cheap lunches

I visited Fry's today for a prescription for my daughter. She had one of her wisdom teeth pulled! :( I had a $10 KMart coupon for a new RX that I used. The script was only $3, so I made $7 on it! Then I went shopping.

I got some cinnamon toast crunch for @ $.75 a box. I used 2 $.55/1 coupons that doubled to $1 each and 1 coupon for $1/2. Both coupons were printables.
Ramen noodles were 6/$1 and DD requested these since she can't eat hard foods right now.
I grabbed some bread for $1 and some store brand vanilla wafers for $1.27. (These are my midnight snack cookies.) The cheese was kroger brand and I got 2 blocks for $1.50 each.
The banquet fruit pies were on sale for $.79 each and were free with my $.35 coupons that tripled up to the price.
Campbell's chicken noodle and tomato soups were $.50 and were $.25 each after my $.25/4 coupons that quadrupled up to $1.

The frozen meals will be great for lunches. I got 3 kid cuisine for $.39 each after $.50 coupons, 3 Healthy choice and 1 Marie Callendar's steamer meals for $.47 each after $.50 coupons, and 3 Banquet family meals for $.78 each after $.50 coupons. The family meals will make enough for lunch for everyone with one box. So that was a great deal for us!

After coupons and my $10 RX credit, I paid $6.72. Before sales and coupons, my total would have been $65.02, so that's a savings of 90%.

Junk Food Extravaganza!

It's been a very long time since I posted, but I'm going to try to start posting again.
Starting today, Fry's has a lot of good deals and some freebies. Almost all of this is part of the buy 10 items get $3 off promo. You can do as many multiples of 10 in one order as you want. Here's what I got:
Totinos pizza rolls $.69 each with sale-used $.40/2 coupons doubled to $1-Final price $.19 each

Banquet breakfast sausage $.69 each with sale-used $.35/1 coupons (from meal boxes) doubled to $.99-Final price $.30 moneymaker each

Banquet meals $.69 with sale- used $.60/6 coupons (from meal boxes) doubled to $1-Final price $.52 each

Totinos pizza $.69 with sale-used $50/3 coupons doubled to $1-Final price $.35 each

Hot dog buns $.88 each

Oscar Mayer hot dogs $.88 with sale- used $1.00/2 coupons-Final price $.38 each

Koolaid Funfizz packets $1.99- used free with purchase of 2 Oscar Mayer hot dogs coupons (found on OM packs)- Final price FREE

Chef Boyardee cans $.59 with sale- used $1.00/2 coupons (from banquet meal boxes)- Final price $.09 each

Orville Redenbacher popcorn $1.69 with sale- used $.40/1 coupons doubled to $1-Final price $.69 each. Also received a catalina for a free redbox rental with the purchase of these.

I paid $12.50 total and saved $72.93 or 86%. I got 45 items total, so I paid an average of $.28 per item.

Walgreens 15% discount today and tomorrow!

If you don't already know, Walgreens has a coupon out good for today only for 15% off. You can print it out here. You have to check out in cosmetics or photo to use this coupon and give it to them before they start ringing you up.
I hadn't done any of my Walgreens shopping this week, so I headed out today to get some of the deals.
Here's what I got:
Dove men's body wash $5.99 or $5.09 after 15% off and used $1.25 coupon, get back $6 RR
3 Musketeer bars (reg. ones only) buy 4, use $.49 in ad coupon and with 15% off they come to @ $.42 each or $1.69 for 4 and you get back $1.50 RR
Nabisco oreos $.99 or $.84 after 15%, used $1/2 coupons for $.34 each
Kotex pads $3 or $2.55 after 15%, used $2/2 coupon to pay $3.10 for 2 and get back $3 RR when you buy 2
Super Poligrip-small size $2 or $1.70 after 15%, used $1 coupon to pay $.70 and got back $2 RR
Covergirl makeup is b1g1 50% after 15%, one was $10.19, the other was $5.09. I used a B1G1 free coupon for $10.19 off and a $1 coupon to pay $4.09 for 2
Gillette Venus embrace $7.64 after 15%, used $2 coupon to pay $5.64 and got back $4 RR
Olay body wash $8.49 and $7.47 after 15%-got two different kinds at two different stores. Used free coupon when you buy Venus razor-both free
And I stocked up on the big roll TP for $.59 each after 15% off

I used RR from the last two weeks and paid @ $10 oop for both orders. I could have spent less, but I had limited time today, so instead of breaking the orders down, I just did everything all at once. I got $31 in RR back to use later.

Some fry's deals this week

I did a lot of shopping last week, but not a lot of posting. This week is not as good for deals, but there are a couple of deals that are worth looking at.

I went to Fry's this morning and they have a $3 off when you buy 10 items event going on. I bought 20 of the specific items and got $6 taken off.

Here is what I got:
6 Banquet meals- These are $.69 each after deal and I had a $1/6 coupon from on the package (from when we bought them before.) I specifically looked for more that had the coupons on them and got that kind. After the coupon, they were about $.52 each.

2 Banquet sausage- these are $.89 after the deal and I used the $.35/1 coupon (doubled) from the packages to get them for $.19 each.

4 Gatorade G2- $.69 after deal and used $1/2 coupons, so $.19 each

6 Pillsbury grands- $.89 after deal, used $.30/2 coupons (doubled), so $.54 each. When you buy 6 of these, though, you get a $4 catalina. So you pay $3.24 and get $4 back! These types of catalinas will roll, so after the first purchase, you can keep going without spending money until you run out of coupons.

2 Purex- $2.19 after deal- used $.35/1 coupons (doubled) to pay $1.49 each. When you buy 2 of these, you get a $4 catalina. So pay $2.98 for 2 and get $4 back!

There are a few other good deals, but these are the ones I'm doing this week at fry's.

Back in the Saddle again!

I have shopped very little for the month of January, partly because of the lack of good sales and partly because I have been super busy. And really, there has been very little that I have gotten excited about this month in the sales. (Maybe the Walgreens Bayer deal!)

Starting today, Fry's has another one of their Mega sales and it's pretty good! When you buy 10 participating items you get $5 off. That's $.50 each item and you can do multiples of 10 in one order and get $5 off for every 10. There's a lot of free and cheap stuff with this sale and a couple of money makers!

In the photo above these items are part of the buy 10 get $5 off sale and their prices after coupons I used and sale:
Finish dish tabs $.49 each after coupons
Armour meatballs $.99 each after coupons
Kleenex $.43 each after $.40/1, $.50/3, and b4g1 free coupons
Quaker rice snacks $.50 money makers each after coupons!
Pillsbury Toaster Strudels $.79 each after coupons
Frank's Red hot $.49 after coupon
La Victoria salsa $.51 money maker each after coupon (from points rewards)
Rotel tomatoes $.11 money maker each after coupons
Hormel Chili masters $.21 money makers each after coupons
Land O lakes butter free after coupons (printables from last month)

I also got 2 Tony's pizzas for $1.50 each using some $1/2 printables I had from last month, 4 Wholly guac/salsa products-free with coupons! (first 4 only), and 1 Kroger orange juice that was marked down $.99.

I paid $6.03 oop and saved $105.43 or 95% savings!



I also went to Bashas and got the 10lb bag of chicken for $3.90 ($.39/lb is a great stock up price for me.) There is a limit of 1, so that's all I got this trip, but will be going back for me. The S&W beans are on sale for $.48 and with the $.50/3 coupons doubled, I paid $.44 for 3 cans or @ $.14 a can. I got 9 cans total and used 3 coupons.


I paid $5.22 oop for this whole order and saved $18.99 or 78%!

This was just what I needed to get back into the swing of things!

What happened to all my Toilet paper?

This was the scene last year as I stocked up on free and almost free toilet paper. My littlest one had fun building a fort with just the latest packs I had just brought in. I had way more in my closet already! As I look back at my posts, I realize I was stockpiling these in April and May of last year.

And now they are gone. As I mentioned before, I have 5 girls! 3 of those are teenagers who, when I started rationing the TP, would ask me for a new roll every day! (And I usually gave them two at a time-so they were going through two rolls a day!) So now we have no more toilet paper.



I had some RR's to use up at Walgreens yesterday since they were expiring. I had a $2.50 and a $2 RR. I got two pert shampoos- one was the men's kind. I used a $1.50 on men's coupon and a $1 on the other one, so my total for these two was $2.50 and I got a $2 RR back. I also got a men's sure deodorant that was $1.50 with the in-ad coupon and I used a $1.50 coupon from Sunday's inserts to get that free. (I had only cut out one coupon so far.) And then I got toilet paper! These big rolls are $.50 this week. This is what I'll be stocking up on for now using RR's until more free TP comes along. I got 4 rolls (Only 2 are pictured) for a total of $2. I used the $2.50 and the $2 RR which made my total $0 before taxes. I paid $.75 tax and used a Walgreens gift card, so $0 oop and got the $2 RR back for the pert deal. I will be shopping more this week and adding the TP as a filler as often as I can!