And the winning number for this week’s giveaway is….
Comment number 103 was:
Congrats to Bison, lucky winner and Pert aficionado! I have sent an email notifying you.
Archive for October, 2008
Stockpile Giveaway, Week Three: WINNER!
Thursday, October 9th, 2008Shopping Trip – October 8th
Thursday, October 9th, 2008Today, I used some of those Glade catalinas that I earned to pay for a few things that I needed:
Total Spent: .17 cents
Total before coupons: $32.67
View receipt
I got:
Half a pound of organic, fair trade coffee
1 can of black olives
1 bag of chow mein noodles
3 bags of Wacky Mac – on sale for .99 cents, used three .50/1 coupons from the 6/22 newspaper inserts, free after doubles
1 bag of organic tortilla chips
4 8 ounce packages of cream cheese – on sale for $2 each, and Safeway is running a promotion where you instantly save $4 off your transaction for purchasing 4 Philadelphia Cream Cheeses. I then used a coupon for $1 off 4 Philadelphia Cream Cheese packages to sweeten the deal further. I got this coupon in a trade a few months ago, looks like it came from an in-store tearpad.
1 8 ounce bag of shredded cheese
1 bottle of International Delight coffee creamer
1 pound of roma tomatoes
1 pound of onion
A 10 pound bag of potatoes
Shopping Trip – October 7th
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
Total spent: $9.45. But before you fall off your chair – I walked out of the store with $36 in catalinas!
Total before coupons: $128.88
View receipt #1
View receipt #2 (I cut the bottom of this receipt off, because it had my debit card info on it)
View receipt #3
View receipt #4
For some reason, my name didn’t show up on any of my receipts – I am now “Valued Customer”! It also didn’t register my Power Pump accumulation, my GroceryMiles, and so forth, so I’ll have to call customer service tomorrow and find out what’s up.
I got:
1 gallon of milk
2 1-pound bags of Healthful Life catfood – on sale for $1.50, used a $1 coupon from the 8/3 newspaper inserts. Free after doubles!
A 4-pack of TP – Came to $4.99 after $1 SuperCoupon from this weekend’s Safeway sales circular
2 South Beach pizzas – on sale for $2.50, used two $2/1 printables (link seems to be down at the moment), free after doubles. The tag in store said this price was only through 10/7 – I lucked out, since I didn’t know what the sale price was until I got to the store.
2 bottles of Coke – used two “Free Coke” coupons that I got in a promo from My Coke Rewards a while ago.
4 bags of Wacky Mac – on sale for .99 cents, used four .50/1 coupons from the 6/22 inserts. Free after doubles!
16 Glade plug-ins – used eight “Buy One, Get One Free” coupons from the 9/28 inserts.
1 3 pound package of Bar-S sausages – used $5/1 coupon that I received in the mail from the company.
1 pound of butter
Over a pound of bananas
A pound of Zucchini
So regular readers may remember that I set my grocery budget for October at $20 or less. So why, then, did I spend almost half of it at the beginning of the month? I chose to invest part of my budget in a new catalina deal, and I was able to leave the store with $36 in catalinas in my purse. My plan is to keep rolling this catalina deal throughout the month, and use the proceeds towards groceries during the rest of the month. This is the latest catalina deal at Safeway:
The Glade gel warmer deal is over, but has been replaced by a different Glade deal – this time, it’s the scented oil warmers! They are $5.79, and produce a $4 catalina. Used in conjunction with a “BOGO” (Buy One, Get One Free) coupon, this quickly becomes a moneymaker. The previous Glade deals seemed to be running throughout different grocery chains nationwide, so watch for this one.
I started off my shopping trip by using the last two $2 catalinas that I had left from the prior Glade deal, and bought 2 warmers utilizing the “BOGO” coupon. I also got 4 free bags of Wacky Mac, spending a total of $1.72 and receiving $8 in coupons back.
For the second transaction, I used a “$10 off a $50 purchase at Safeway” coupon that was in the Oregonian last week. The nice thing about this coupon is that it can be used in conjunction with manufacturer coupons. So essentially, you can buy $40 worth of products that you have $40 worth of coupons for, and then buy an additional $10 worth of merchandise for which you have no coupons, and use the $10/50 to pay for it. If this is confusing, just think of your $40 worth of coupons as cash – the store is reimbursed by the manufacturer for them, so it doesn’t really matter whether you’re paying for your $40 subtotal in cash or coupons.
So to get my pre-coupon total up to $40, I bought four more Glade warmers, using two “BOGO” coupons and the $8 in catalinas that I had just received to pay for all but $3.58 of it; I also used a lot of the “Free” product coupons that I had on hand. Altogether, my total ended up being $4.88 – and I got $16 in catalinas back.
The third time, I just got 2 Glade warmers, using yet another “BOGO” and one of the $4 catalinas, paying $1.79 altogether. I thought I might need this extra catalina for my next transaction, but I actually didn’t have to use it.
Finally, I made use of one more $10/50 coupon. This time, I got 8 warmers, which brought my pre-coupon total to $46.32. I then bought the butter and bananas to get me up to $50. I used the $10 off coupon, four “BOGO” coupons, and $16 in catalinas, bringing me to $1.06. I then got $32 in catalinas back!
Free Ensure Shake Coupon
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008Shopping Trip – October 5th
Monday, October 6th, 2008
Total spent: .27 cents
Total before coupons: $14.77
View receipt #1 View receipt #2 View receipt #3
Got:
6 Glade plug-ins
1 Sunday newspaper
1 package of hamburger buns (3 guesses what we had for dinner tonight!)
1 head of garlic
Over a pound of apples
As I took advantage of the Glade catalina deal once again, I noticed that the tags marking the deal in the store stated that today was the last day of the promotion. In other locations, it’s marked as ending on the 7th, so if any of you still plan on doing this deal – BEWARE! Check the tags in your store and see what the end date is marked as!
As you can see, I broke this down into three transactions. For the first, I bought 2 plug-ins and utilized the “Buy One, Get One Free” coupon I had. The plug-ins are $1.50, so I bought a head of garlic at .50 cents and used the $2 catalina that I still had left from Friday to pay for the purchase. I subsequently got two $2 catalinas back.
For the second transaction, I bought 4 plug-ins and used 2 “Buy One, Get One Free” coupons. Since this brought the plug-ins to a grand total of $3.00, I bought the buns I needed for $1 and used $4 worth of catalinas to pay for the purchase. I then received $8 in catalinas back.
I still needed a Sunday newspaper, so I spent two of my catalinas on that and the apples. And I still have $4 in catalinas left for next time!
Later in the evening, I realized that today was the last day of the free Ronzoni pasta deal at Safeway. I had two $1/1 coupons left, so I headed back to the store! I live very close to Safeway, in case you’re wondering why I would bother making another trip.
Total spent: Zero. I didn’t even bring my purse with me – just my coupon binder!
Total before coupons: $3.00
View receipt
Got:
2 packages of spaghetti
The cashier who rang me up was very nice, and enthusiastic about my coupons. The customer in front of me was inquiring about a coupon for $10 off a $50 purchase at Safeway that appeared in the Oregonian recently, and the cashier looked at me and said, “She knows all about coupons!” I ended up talking to the customer about when this coupon expires and when it came out (Last Tuesday’s FoodDay, for my local readers – I’ll be sure to give you a heads-up when the next one comes out, they seem to appear once every few weeks or so). The cashier raved about how well I do with coupons. Then when the total came to nothing, she dashed away from the checkstand, chasing after the customer in front of me who was starting to leave. She waved my coupons at her and said, “Hey! Look at this! She just got those for free!!” It was hilarious! She then came back to the checkstand and finished the transaction. As I was leaving, she yelled that I need to teach a seminar, and tell her as soon as I do!
Let’s Try This Again: Stockpile Giveaway, Week Two: Winner!
Monday, October 6th, 2008Earlier in the week, I announced the winners in week two’s Stockpile Giveaway. Unfortunately, the grand prize winner left no contact info. I gave them 4 days to contact me and collect their prize, but since I have not heard anything, I was forced to choose a new winner. Drum roll please!
Comment #47 was:
Congratulations, Sara!! I have sent an email notifying you. Your twins are adorable!
Shopping Trip – October 4th
Sunday, October 5th, 2008Yesterday I realized that I was almost out of coffee, so I made a quick run into Safeway:
Total spent: .10 cents
Total before coupons: $4.10
View receipt (looks like the register was running out of ink, but you can read most of it)
Got:
A little under half a pound of my favorite fair trade & organic Millstone coffee.
I used 2 of my catalinas from Friday’s Glade deal to pay for all but ten cents of it.
Rite Aid is right next door to Safeway, so I popped in to get a rebate freebie:
Total spent: $5.00 – but I’m getting $5.00 back in rebates, making it free!
Total before coupons: $9.00
View receipt
Got:
1 Gillette Fusion razor – used a $4/1 coupon from the 9/28 Proctor & Gamble newspaper insert
Then I came home and ate a coupon-funded dinner:
Baked Eggplant Parmesan – I used this recipe, which I liked a lot!
As you can see, I’m still trying to find a good setting on the camera for food pictures…
Shopping Trip – October 3rd
Saturday, October 4th, 2008Here’s Friday’s haul:
Total spent: -.75 cents!
Total before coupons: $7.26
View receipt
Got:
4 Glade plug ins
Over 2 pounds of bananas
So for this transaction, I used 2 of the $2 Glade catalina coupons from my last Safeway visit, and 2 “Buy One, Get One Free” plug-in coupons. The plug-ins are on sale for $1.50, so after buying some bananas at .59 cents a pound, I figured my total would be roughly .20 cents, depending on the actual weight of the bananas. But when the cashier scanned the “Get One Free” coupons, they both took off $1.99. “Oh, look, it’s taking off too much,” I pointed out. “The plug-ins are only $1.50, and it’s taking off $1.99.” To which the cashier replied, “Well, if that’s what it’s taking off, then that’s what it is. I can’t argue with what my computer says.” And since I’d handed over $4 worth of catalinas, it put my total at minus .75 cents. “And you get change back!” she said. So the cashier pretty much insisted on giving me money back! Not to mention that I got $8 in catalinas from the plug-in purchase. Crazy!
Total spent: .05 cents
Total before coupons: $2.05
View receipt
I went through the line one more time to get another pound of bananas and one more plug-in. And I got the same $2 catalina coupon back, so I left the store with $8 in catalinas and an extra .70 cents in my pocket.
Then, I headed to Walgreens:
Total spent: $3.94 – but I’ll get $7.49 back in rebates
Total before coupons: $28.44
View receipt
Got:
4 bottles of Pert Plus – on sale for $3.49, and I used 4 $1.50 coupons from the 9/7 newspaper inserts, combined with the $2.50/1 EasySaver Pert coupon, to produce .51 cents of overage for each bottle.
1 bottle of Rimmel foundation – on sale for $7.49, free after rebate
1 box of Zantac – on sale for $4.99, used this coupon for $5.50 off.
2 packages of TP
This transaction was just a mess. Originally, I had planned to get 3 trial size packets of Airborne, on sale for .99 cents, and use the $2/1 coupon from the 9/7 inserts to produce $1.01 overage each. To soak up this overage, I picked up a package of Quilted Northern TP, which would have been $3 after using a $1 Quilted Northern coupon. The remaining 3 cents would be absorbed by the rebate item.
The first Airborne coupon scanned just fine, but then the register refused to take the other 2, or my Zantac coupon (which came from the Walgreens website!). The manager came over and had to push the Zantac coupon through manually. Then he looked at the Airborne coupon for a long time and said, “Oh, it won’t take it because it says limit one per purchase.” I mentioned that each item is considered a purchase, and that I had 3 items. He said that in this instance, “purchase” refers to the whole transaction. I knew this was not accurate information, because if that were the case it would say “limit one per transaction” – for an explanation of this, I recommend this great coupon basics tutorial on Hot Coupon World. But it’s not worth arguing over – if they don’t want to take my coupons, I will just politely put the item back. Anyway, since I had bought the TP as an overage eater for the Airborne, I asked the cashier to just void the TP and all three Airbornes from my transaction. In retrospect, I could have kept 1 Airborne on there and let the rebate item suck up the $1.01 overage, but I was getting so confused and was trying to keep the math simple so that I didn’t end up paying more than I wanted to.
At any rate, the total came to $3.94, which didn’t seem right at all – I had figured that it would come to over $6. So after I paid, I sat in my car with my calculator for a good 5 minutes or so, just staring at the receipt trying to make heads or tails of it. If you take a look at the receipt you’ll probably see why I was having trouble making sense of it! Finally, I realized that the clerk had voided off the Quilted Northern and handed me my coupon back, but the $1 coupon for it had not been voided off. $4.94 was still way lower than I was expecting, but I thought I must have done the math wrong on the Pert.
I headed back into the store, explained what had happened and showed the manager my receipt. “So I owe you a dollar!” I said. He looked a little stunned that I would want to fix an error that was in my favor. “Oh, don’t worry about it,” he said. “It was our mistake. But thank you for coming back in!” So he appreciated my honesty, anyway.
And when I was scanning the receipt in today, I studied it further and added everything up several times, and it finally dawned on me – the $2 coupon for the Airborne hadn’t been voided off, either!! So that’s why it was so low. What a confusing mess that transaction was!
After all that, I headed over to Fred Meyer:
Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $7.97 on a gift card that I got as a birthday present. And I got $16 back in catalina coupons!
Total before coupons: $37.95
View receipt
Got:
1 Dove deodorant – on sale for $1.99, and there was a tearpad of coupons for $2/1 sitting right next to it. So watch for these if you shop at Fred Meyer!
4 Glade Flameless Candles – On sale for $8.99, and I used 2 $5/1 coupons from the 9/7 inserts, and 2 “Buy One, Get One Free” coupons that I printed here. And I got a $4 catalina back for each candle that I bought! This promo is running at other Kroger stores, Safeway, and probably a few other chains as well.
These candles are great, especially with power outage season fast approaching!
So essentially, I was able to double the amount I had to spend by turning $7.97 on a gift card into $16 in coupons. My cashier was super nice, and couldn’t believe the deal. As I was leaving, I heard her say to the next customers in line, “Did you SEE that?! She got all those $4 coupons back!!”
I then used those coupons to pay for the following items:
Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $1.54 on my gift card
Total before coupons: $19.54
View receipt
Got:
1 head of organic red leaf lettuce
Just under 2 pounds of organic apples
1 Eggplant
A pound of organic oranges
A pound of broccoli
1 gallon of milk
1 8oz bag of cheese
2 ears of corn
1 canister of bread crumbs
Another free Dove deodorant
Then I made one last stop at Safeway on my way home:
Total spent: .04 cents
Total before coupons: $2.04
View receipt
I used one of my $2 Glade catalinas to buy:
1 package of TP – my favorite overage item! After all, you can never have too much of it, and there’s rarely good sales on it in my area.
1 bag of Cheetos – I was hungry for a snack. The bag was empty by the time I snapped this picture!
New Walgreens $5 Off Coupon
Friday, October 3rd, 2008Walgreens has put out yet another coupon for $5 off a $20 purchase, good this Friday and Saturday. I love all these great deals that Walgreens have been offering lately!
First Shopping Trip of the Month – October 1st
Friday, October 3rd, 2008Got a few deals tonight:
Total spent: .10 cents – .06 cents on the actual groceries, .04 cents for breast cancer research
Total before coupons: $31.56
View Receipt #1
View Receipt #2
And I got $4 back in catalinas to use on my next trip!
Also, I earned my first 125 miles in the United Airlines GroceryMiles program. I have to earn about 50,000 before I can get a plane ticket anywhere, but it’s worth noting that you can cash in 1,000 miles for Restaurant.com gift certificates. It’s free to sign up for the program – just fill in a form and it will add the promotion to your club card, and your grocery purchases will start to count towards miles.
I got:
1 can of corn
1 4-pack of TP
8 trial size boxes of Tide – used $1/1 coupons from the recent P&G newspaper insert
6 Glade plug-ins – used “Buy One, Get One Free” coupons from another recent newspaper insert. There’s also a printable here.
1 package of pasta – used $1/1 coupon from 8/24 SS insert
1 pint of milk
2 bottles of Coffee-Mate – used $1/1 printables, found here.
2 packages of Stayfree – used $2/2 coupon from 9/28 insert
For my first transaction, I used overage from the Tide to pay for my other items. The trial sizes are .89 cents at my store, and the coupon is good for $1 off any size Tide – resulting in .11 cents of overage (And the store is reimbursed for the full amount of the coupon by the manufacturer, just as a side note). And I was also able to double these coupons, giving me an extra .50 cents of overage each. At my store, any coupon can be doubled up to .50 cents; and there is no restriction on the amount, so your coupon doesn’t have to be .50 cents or less.
So, as an example, a .35 cent coupon becomes .70 cents, a .50 cent coupon becomes $1, a .75 cent coupon becomes $1.25, a $1 coupon becomes $1.50, and so forth. In addition, a coupon can be doubled beyond the item’s face value. So if an item is on sale for $1 and you have a $1 off coupon, it will still double – hence the .50 cent overage on the Tide. This was confirmed by several managers at my store, who said that yes, it’s perfectly legitimate and accepted to get overage this way. I’ve gotten some great questions from readers about my store’s doubling policy, so I wanted to explain it in a little more detail so that it makes more sense. Also, bear in mind that it is up to the discretion of each store to set their own coupon policies – some Safeways don’t double coupons at all.
At any rate, the first transaction was .10 cents, and I got $8 back in catalina coupons towards my next order. I subsequently made my next purchase, and used the catalinas to pay for all of it. And I got $4 back in more catalinas!
Then, I made a quick stop at Rite Aid:
Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $2.69 on a gift card that I earned for free from a promotion
Total before coupons: $2.69
View Receipt
So this was a pretty good start to October’s budget!
