Super Safeway Score!

I haven't posted much about my couponing on this blog in awhile but I thought that today's second trip to Safeway deserved a post because I made $4.79 by buying $49.92 worth of groceries. Read that again if you didn't get it the first time because it just might blow your mind. I came home with $49.92 worth of groceries for $3.21 out of pocket and catalinas for $8 off my next Safeway purchase (which will be tomorrow for more cereal!) so I actually earned money by shopping. I love it when couponing makes me money!

What did I buy? I bought 4 boxes of Kashi cereal, 2 Scrubbing Bubbles Cleaners, 2 Scrubbing Bubbles Cleaners Refills, and 5 pieces of candy. The candy was a treat for my kids because we made a zillion stops at stores today and I needed a bribe to get them to not scream like banshees because I made them go to Safeway twice today. That was money well spent. It's also why only two candy bars are pictured...the other three were consumed on the way home!

Here's how it broke down:

(4) boxes of Kashi Cereal $2 each when you buy 4 or $8
(3) $1.50/1 Vocal Point coupons (you should definitely look into signing up with Vocal Point for their awesome coupons!)
(1) FREE box of Kashi Vocal Point Coupon (this cashier gave me the full price amount $4.49 back...YMMV!)
(3) Safeway doublers for $1.50
Total: $I made $2.49!

(2) Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-a-Clean Starter Sprayers $6.99 or $13.98
(2) $5/1 Coupon found HERE
(1) Safeway doubler for $.50
Total OOP: $3.48
Earned $3 catalina for buying each one which means I really made $2.52!

(2) Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-a-Clean Refills $3.50 or $7
(2) FREE refill when you buy a starter Coupon found HERE
Total OOP: FREE
Earned $1 catalina for buying each one which means I made $2!

The candy wasn't a super fantastic deal nor did I use a coupon, but it did make the kids happy. The candy cost $2.22 for four candy bars and a box of Nerds (ick).

I started a new blog

I decided to start a new blog focusing on couponing/shopping so that this one doesn't get so cluttered. I'd prefer to keep this one about our family and the stuff we're up to. I have a lot of people ask me about how I shop so I hope this new blog helps!

You can find the new blog HERE

Super Safeway Deals 9/30-10/6

I'm sure you're all going to happy when I pick up my camera tomorrow and you come to my blog and see pretty pictures instead of long shopping lists, but I still have one more day so bear with me! There's a couple good deals at Safeway this week that I thought I'd share with you.

Yoplait Yogurt is on sale for $.50 each when you buy 10
$1/8 coupon HERE
$.50 off 6 loaded on my Safeway card at Shortcuts
$.50 off 6 loaded on my Safeway card at Cellfire
Total: $3.00 for 10 or $.30 apiece

4 Chinet 36ct Paper Plates $2 each (using Safeway coupon found in this week's ad)
(2) $1/1 HERE
(2) Buy One Get One Free (coupon found on the dinner size packages, took off $3.49 each from total)
Total: $3 Money Maker
(I have a couple more BOGO coupons that I will probably use to stock up on more free plates for MOPS!)

I hit up the Kellogg's sale again, though I didn't get as good of a deal as I did with the Rice Krispies, I did have a coupon for a free gallon of milk with the purchase of 2 Kelloggs cereals which was a nice bonus! I bought 2 boxes of Frosted Flakes (David's favorite), 2 boxes of Raisin Bran, 1 box of Pop Tarts, and my free gallon of milk.
$1.50/2 Raisin Bran found HERE
$1/2 Kellogg's cereal (found in store aisle next to cereal)
$.55/1 Pop Tarts (from the newspaper, but there are some IP coupons floating around as well)
Total: $4.40 for all 6 items (including the gallon of milk!) using two Safeway Doublers (the store aisle coupon won't double)

1.25lbs Ground Turkey 2/$5

Buy 1 2lb baby carrots Get One Free $2.99
($1/1 Safeway carrots coupon HERE)
Total: $1.99 for 4lbs

Glad Force Flex Trash Bags $4.99 with Safeway coupon
($1/1 HERE)
Total: $3.99

I could only find 1 Kleenex box so I couldn't do this deal, but I'll check back later to see if they get more in:
(3) Kleenex 110 ct boxes $.99 each
$.50/3 (found next to Kleenex in the store aisle)
Total Out of Pocket: $2.47
$3 off your next purchase which makes this a $.53 Money Maker

Walgreens Deals 9/28-10/3

This morning I carted both kids into Salem with me to run a few errands including Walgreens. Neither child was especially excited about shopping today and so I used the carousal as a bribe. The bribe worked because we got through Walgreens, Costco, and the bank without too many tears shed. All we got at Costco was string cheese because we've been out for over a week and it's a popular snack at our house. Costco is the cheapest place I've found to buy it, plus the package is large enough that we only have to buy more every 3-4 weeks.

Walgreens was my "big" shopping trip today, and was my third attempt at shopping their sales and I think I'm getting the hang of it. Walgreens has a Register Rewards program that prints out a coupon for $X off your next purchase when you buy certain items. From what I can tell, once you start the ball rolling on the Register Rewards (RR from here on out) you can use them each week and get a ton of stuff for free. That's the theory anyways.

Today tomorrow (9/30) there's a coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase that you can print HERE, but remember the $25 has to be the total after coupons and RR. It's possible to make money this week so it's a good week to start the RR ball rolling!

Here's what I bought:

1 Herbal Essences Shampoo $2.99
$1/1 coupon (8/23 or 9/13 Red Plum insert)
$2 RR
Total: FREE

1 Chapstick Fresh Effects .15oz $2.99
$3 RR
Total: FREE

1 Dentek Floss 55yd $2
$2 RR
Total: FREE

1 Gillette Fusion Razer $8.99
$4/1 coupon (9/27 P&G insert)
$6 RR
Total: $1.01 Money Maker

1 Vaseline Sheer Infusion Lotion $6.99
$7 RR
Total: FREE

1 Oral B Advantage 123 Toothbrush $2.99
$.75/1 (9/27 P&G insert)
$3 RR
Total: $.75 Money Maker

3 Theraflu $12
$2/1 Internet Printable (no longer available)
$2/1 Walgreens Season of Health Coupon Book (find it on the pharmacy counter, takes $2 off each one!)
$8 RR (make sure you buy 3 to get the $8 RR, if you buy 2 you only get $4 RR)
Total: $4 Money Maker

2 Walgreens Brand Children's Ibuprofin $9.98
$4.99 Buy One Get One Free
Total: $4.99

For some reason the $5 off $25 coupon I had didn't want to work and after 5 minutes of the cashier stalling she finally rerung the Gilette razer taking off $5 which I think screwed up my $6 RR I should have got. Since I still made money on the transaction I didn't say anything. My total out of pocket after the coupons and a $5 RR I had from last week was $20.20. I got $31 in RR back to use before 10/13. So basically I got everything for free and made $10.80 for shopping this morning.

Rite Aid Diaper Deal Alert

This post is for all the Moms of Children in Diapers that I know. That's a lot of you! Rite Aid has a great deal on Huggies right now and it's definitely worth your time to check it out. Rather then retype out all the details on how to get the awesome coupons just check out the Frugal Living NW blog post. I used three $3/1 and 2 $2/1 Rite Aid Video coupons in addition to the $5 off $20 Rite Aid coupon and paid $14.98 for 3 packages of Huggies Natural Choice diapers. I submitted my receipt online for the $10 rebate so the total for 3 packages of diapers comes to $4.98. That's $.07 a diaper for Ethan's size 4's. Not too shabby! Oh, and I'd already done the Video Coupon thing before but used a different email address and borrowed my Mom's street address and it let me do it again. You can print all the coupons out twice so don't forget to do that!

I also picked up two small boxes of Wheat Thins for free. They're on sale for $.99 apiece and I had two internet coupons for $1 off one box so I guess I actually made $.02 on the deal. If you do the Video coupon make sure to watch the Clean & Clear video to get two $3/1 coupons. This week Clean & Clear products are 2 for $9 and you can use two $3/1 video coupons and a $2/1 internet coupon to get two for $1.

More Safeway Deals

The alternate title for this post would be "Oh no, this is going to be trouble" which is kind of how my husband feels about the whole couponing thing thus far. I don't think he's seeing how cool this is! Thus far my grocery budget is the same if not slightly higher as I work on stocking up on the things we use a lot. Hopefully within a month or two I'll get to the point where I have a good supply of things we go through constantly (hello cold cereal and mac n cheese!). Then I'll be spending less because I won't have to pay full price for things.

I know most of you have heard about the super good cereal and snack sale at Safeway this week but there's some other good deals there this week as well. Here's some I took advantage of today:

Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs $.99 (max. 4) This price is only good Friday-Sunday.
I had a $1 off one package internet coupon and a $1 off 2 packages internet coupon.
Total: $.97 for 3 packages or $.32 a package

Safeway Artisan French Bread $1.59
$1 off 1 Artisan Bread coupon can be found here
Total: $.59

Campbells Chicken Noodle or Tomato Soup 2 for $1
(2) $.40 off 2 cans from last Sunday's newspaper
Used 2 doublers
Total: $.40 or $.10 a can

Prego $1.67
If you buy 5 Campbells items (Prego and Pepperidge Farms goodies also count) you earn 100 extra Box Tops for Education!

And of course I had to do another Nature Valley deal. This time I only got 4 packages of the Nut Clusers. No free Capri Sun but I made money on the deal!

Nature Valley Nut Clusters $10 for 4 boxes
$3.20 in eCoupons from Cellfire and Shortcuts
1 $1 off 1 and 1 $1.60 off 1 internet coupon
(2) $1 off 1 coupons from the newspaper
2 doublers
$4 off 4 promotion
Total: I made $2.60

Alright, I'm done grocery shopping for the week. Excited to see what next week brings, hoping for a Mac n Cheese sale soon!

Super Safeway Deal!

If you live near a Safeway and have access to internet coupons then you are in luck! This week Safeway is running a promotion where you save $4 when you buy any 4 participating General Mills cereals, Nature Valley granola bars, or Betty Crocker fruit snacks. Plus you get a coupon for a free package of Capri Sun. Totally time to stock up on cereal and snacks and get some free juice while you're at it!

Today was the first time I attempted to do two transactions back to back and it went pretty well. I was a little nervous since I'd never done it before, but it really wasn't a big deal. A tip I've read online is to "profile" checkers and whenever possible find a young male checker since they're the least likely to question coupons or raise a stink about doing multiple transactions etc. So I found the young guy at the end and he rang me up without one problem. I think I'll be back in his line in the future!

Here's how I did it. For this one you don't need any Sunday paper coupons and you can print all the coupons online. Don't forget to sign up for Cellfire to get extra savings!

Transaction 1:
2 boxes of Cocoa Puffs (hey, they make for a good snack!) $2.50 each
$1/1 internet coupon found here
$.75/1 internet coupon found here (I had to use this one because I already used one of my $1 off coupons at Target last week but obviously it would be better to print out two $1 off coupons if you can!)
(2) $.75/1 Cellfire coupon found here

2 boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch $2.50 each
(2) $.55/1 internet coupon found here

Total for Transaction 1: $1.65

Transaction 2:

2 boxes of Trix cereal (another good snack!) $2.50 each
(2) $.55/1 coupon found here
$.55/2 Cellfire coupon found here
Total: $1.35

2 boxes of Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks $2.50 each
$1/2 internet coupon found here
(2) $.40/1 Cellfire coupon found here
Total: $1.20

10 pack of Capri Sun $2.50
FREE with coupon from Transaction 1

Total for Transaction 2: $2.55

Grand Total: $4.20 which is $.42 an item

The max. is 20 items for this deal and so I'll be back for another 12 once I finish rounding up my coupons!

Coupon Crazy

Last week I discovered that I can print coupons off the internet after a looooong hiatus and now you can accurately call me the Crazy Coupon Lady. About a year ago I started getting into coupons and then David downloaded the Windows 7 beta and none of the coupon programs would work. Frustrated me beyond belief so I gave up. Last week I read Kelleigh's blog post about coupons and thought I'd give it another try...and guess what? The newest version of the Windows 7 beta that David downloaded last month now supports the coupon program and I can print! Good thing my husband works for an ink company because I'm keeping them in business with all the coupons I've printed out :) Right now it's a lot of fun but I'm hoping I can eventually settle into a system so that it doesn't consume all of my free time like it does now. I'm sure that at some point I won't find it as fun to spend 6 hours a week figuring out how to save $.50 off toilet paper but for now I'm enjoying it.

Now that Grace is starting preschool (she's currently at her first class...will blog about that tonight!) I am able to go shopping for 2.5 hours by myself which is going to make this process much easier. I think it would be easy to go crazy and run around to 10 different stores to get the best possible deals at each one of them, but since I live in a small town with only one grocery store I'm going to have to scale my ambitions down a bit. I think it will be easier if I focus only on 2-4 stores to shop at a week so I think I'm going to focus on Safeway and Rite Aid as they're in Dallas, and I think Walgreens and Fred Meyers in Salem. Of course there's also Target and Albertsons which I might visit periodically when they have an especially good sale going on. Like this week at Albertsons where they are taking double coupons for the coupon amount, NOT just up to $.50 like Safeway. Kind of excited about that one!

Today I hit up Rite Aid and Safeway and here's my deals:

Rite Aid

1 canister of Wet Ones $1.99
use $1 off 1 coupon from here
$1 Single Check Rebate
Final Price: FREE

Airwick Ultra Freshmatic Kit $6.49
use $6 off 1 coupon from 9/13 paper
Final Price: $.49 (I bought two because I had two coupons)

Suave Body Wash $1.99
$.50 off coupon from 9/13 paper
$1 Single Check Rebate
Final Price: $.49 (I bought two because I had two coupons)

Johnson & Johnsons Baby Products $2.99 apiece
$1 coupons from 8/13 paper and here
$5 rebate off 3, $10 rebate off 5, $15 rebate off 10
Final Price: FREE (I bought 5 because they didn't have enough product for me to get to 10, will check back Friday when they get new stock)

Stayfree 16ct Pads $3.99 buy one get one free
$2 off 2 coupon
Final Price: $1.99 for two packages

I also used a $5 off $25 coupon from coupons.com which is good through this week. So I spent $18.39 out of pocket and will get $13 back in rebates. That means I got it all for $5.39! Rite Aid deals are good through next Sunday.

Safeway

Coffee Mate Creamer $1.99 with Safeway coupon
$1.50 off 2 coupon from here
Use a double coupon (only doubles up to $.50)
Final Price: 1.98 for two

Tyson Chicken Nuggets $3.99 with Safeway coupon

Grapes $.88 a pound

I also got bananas but they weren't on sale. Are they ever? Safeway deals/sales start on Wednesday so be sure to stock up on creamer and chicken nuggets before then!