Has February been as crazy for you guys as it has been for us? It’s been one of those months where everything breaks down at once. We kicked off February 1st with a broken furnace, which had me wringing my hands envisioning what it would cost to replace. Luckily for me, Jai figured out what was wrong and how to change out the part himself – and the best part? It only cost $44. How’s that for frugal? Almost as soon as that emergency was dealt with, my desktop PC got hammered by a nasty rootkit virus that resulted in having to reload everything, leaving it down for the count for almost a week. Luckily, we haven’t had any disasters occur so far this week! 😉

But despite all this, I’ve actually managed to do several coupon shopping trips – hooray for healing kneecaps! Since I have many to report, I’m just going to give you a quick overview of each one. I don’t have all the receipts in front of me since my work area is torn up (Jai has also been working on additions to a custom desk he built for me amidst all this chaos!) so I’ll just give you a summary.

Safeway, January 27th:

I used a $1/1 Activia coupon from the 1/15 SmartSource insert to get the yogurt for .38 cents after doubles, and a .50/1 Carefree coupon from SheSpeaks to get the pantiliners for free.

Our Safeway did not have one of the items I needed in stock, so we headed up to Astoria and bought milk, half and half, and Bertolli Meal Soup, which was free after coupons provided by the company for the purposes of writing an article on Contest Corner.

Dollar Tree, January 27th:

We stopped by Dollar Tree on the way home from Astoria to pick up a variety of supplies for $1 each. I liked to stock up on rice, beans, and canned tomatoes whenever I’m there in order to make chili. It’s actually cheaper to buy canned tomatoes than fresh at the moment!

Safeway, February 2nd:

Jai went to the store on my behalf and picked up milk, half and half, 4 boxes of Barilla pasta, and 2 packages of Stayfree. The pasta was free plus .20 cents overage after using four .55/1 coupons which doubled; one of the Stayfree packages was also free using a “Buy One, Get One Free” coupon. I received these coupons through trading (More on that below).

Safeway, February 6th:

This was another trip that Jai did on my behalf because I wasn’t feeling well. I gave him a detailed list with many coupons, and he did great! He got a paper, a gallon of milk, 4 quarts of half & half, 4 boxes of pasta, 1 bag of 6 turkey burger patties, and one Fresh Express Salad Kit. The turkey burgers were $3.99 after a printable coupon paired with an in-store coupon (More on that here), and the pasta was free plus .20 cents overage after using four .55/1 coupons which doubled. The salad kit should have been free, because it was on sale for $2 and he had a $2 off coupon. However, when he was assembling his coupons at the checkout, the salad coupon accidentally got sucked under the conveyor belt!! Oh, the crazy mishaps that can occur when you use coupons! Oh well, I was still super happy with the deals he got. The instructions I have him were somewhat complicated and he did a fab job following it to a T!

Safeway, February 14th:

I bought 4 packages of Stayfree and used two “Buy One, Get One Free” coupons and two $1/1 printable coupons, which I got while signing up for a free sample. My final cost for all four was $3.98.

Safeway, February 16th:

Finally, we have yesterday’s shopping trip. This was for a project I am working on over at Contest Corner to assemble a cold & flu kit. I will be reimbursed for what I bought and compensated for the project. All told, my total was $36.03. I got Florida’s Natural orange juice, Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, AirChews, Caltrate chews ($8.99 after using a $1/1 printable coupon – that’s my referral link, FYI.), the new issue of Rolling Stone, a tub of yogurt that was on 50% markdown, a gallon of milk that was on 50% markdown, two boxes of Kleenex which were .99 cents each after using a coupon from the store circular, and three bottles of International Delight, which were $1.44 each after using three .75/1 coupons, which doubled. These coupons also came through a trade.

Part of this project was to create a Google+ photo album documenting my shopping trip. If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like when I go shopping and how I organize it, it might be of interest to you to check out. You can view the photo album here.

Phew! That was a lot of trips to cover! As you can see, I’m getting back into the swing of things little by little. It’s hard dealing with limited mobility, but when I stop and look at all those shopping trips it’s a reminder of how far I’ve come from even a few months ago. As I mentioned earlier in the post, I’ve even had a chance to start coupon trading again – if you don’t know what that is, click here to read my article about it. I got the Stayfree BOGO coupons, .55/1 Barilla coupons, .75/1 International Delight coupons, and a few others in exchange for three Forever stamps. Normally, I factor in the cost of the stamps when figuring out how much I’ll save through trading, but this time the stamps were actually free. You see, I recently began participating in a program where I report on mail that I receive. They send me catalogs and other periodicals, and I call an automated hotline to report what date I received them on, to help them track their promotions, work out their mailing schedule, that sort of thing. It only takes a few moments to do when the mail comes in, and to thank me for participating, I receive 10 Forever stamps each month. Occasionally, the periodicals I receive include manufacturer’s coupons, which is an added bonus! For the time it takes me to do, I consider it a good investment since these stamps can in turn can be traded for coupons that get me great deals. The program which I participate in is invite-only and has specifically asked for its info not to be posted online, which is why I’m not linking to them.

Oh, and if you’d like to get an idea of what we’ve been eating, you can click here to check out my crockpot chili recipe. I’ve been chopping the turkey burgers into pieces to stretch them and bulk out the chili. It’s such a frugal, easy, and tasty dish – in fact, I have some of this chili in the slow cooker as we speak! 😀

What deals have you gotten this month?