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Archive for December, 2008
Friday, December 5th, 2008
I thought it would be fun to do a quick comparison of what my grocery trips used to cost, versus what I’m spending now. I save most of my receipts, so I looked in my paperwork archive and pulled out a receipt from January 21st of this year – click here to view it. I started using coupons in February, after I discovered Hot Coupon World. So what did my grocery budget look like, pre-coupons?
For this one trip, the total was $68.01. And if you look at what I bought, you’ll see that this isn’t even enough to get us through the week, because I didn’t buy any milk or veggies, just for starters. In comparison, my budget for the entire month of November was $63.30 – and that’s the highest my monthly total has been since I started this blog. Just 11 months later, and the savings are dramatic.
It’s amazing to look at how much money I spent on certain items during that trip, and compare it with what I pay now. For example, on January 21st I paid $4 for 2 boxes of Quaker oatmeal. Last month I paid .84 cents for 12 boxes. During that January trip, I also spent $13.78 purchasing four 12-packs of Sierra Mist and Canada Dry soda. After discovering coupons, I got 42 bottles of Sprite for free. In January, I spent $5.50 on yoghurt. Since then, I’ve gotten lots of yoghurt free or dirt cheap. But the most surprising comparison for me is the cost of fruit. Since discovering coupons, I’ve been astonished to find that you can save big on produce with coupon strategies, too. During January’s trip I spent $4.81 purchasing a Papaya and 1.67 pounds of bananas. In September, I paid $2.06 for $55 worth of groceries, which included bananas, 2 pounds of grapes, 1 head of broccoli, 1 carrot, plus all my other groceries. What a difference a year makes!
To those of you reading this that are just starting out, I hope that this gives you some inspiration and encouragement as to how much money can be saved using coupons. I know that reading about other people’s savings on Hot Coupon World really motivated me to use coupons, and illustrated how worthwhile it was.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, December 5th, 2008
I recently wrote a guest post for My Precious Pennies about entertaining on a budget. Now that we’re in the thick of the holiday season, many of us will be throwing parties and welcoming visitors. This can be a strain on your grocery budget, so I put together some tips and tricks on how to cut costs while still being a fabulous hostess. Click here to read the article!
Posted in Articles, Entertaining | No Comments »
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
Click here to sign up for a printable coupon good for one free package of Chiquita Bites Single! You are allowed to print two – what a great deal! ETA: It printed two free coupons for me, but other bloggers are reporting one free coupon and one .75/1 coupon printing. Either way, it’s a fantastic promo!
Thank you to The Freebie Blogger for the tip!
Posted in Free coupons, Produce Deals | 2 Comments »
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
Total spent: $26.34. But I will get back $27.47 in rebates, making it all free plus $1.13 in profit!
Total before coupons: $35.34
View receipt
Got:
1 gallon of milk
1 tube of Bald Guyz moisturizer – free after rebate
1 bottle of L’Oreal moisturizer – free after rebate, for the second time – more details on this below. I used a $1/1 coupon from the 9/21 Red Plum newspaper inserts, netting me $1 in profit.
1 package of first aid gauze
1 first aid kit – used one $3/2 J&J Red Cross first aid products printable – thanks again to the SCG reader who mentioned this coupon!
1 package of coffee filters – I was all out!
So I had read on My Shopping Addiction that the L’Oreal moisturizer was free after rebate during December, even though it was already a free rebate item in November. Sometimes Walgreens will carryover a popular rebate item to the next month, as a sort of rain check. I looked on the EasySaver website but didn’t see it, so I called the customer service hotline. I told the rep that I had heard that this item was free again this month, but couldn’t see it on the rebate list. She confirmed that yes, it is indeed free after rebate during December, as well! I mentioned that I had already gotten this for free during last month’s rebate, and asked if I would be eligible to claim it this month or not. She said absolutely, if I got it free in November I can get it free again this month! How awesome is that?!
So, I got another bottle of the moisturizer, and also picked up the Bald Guyz product, which put my total over $20. This way, I was able to use the Walgreens $5 off a $25 purchase coupon that was valid on the 1st and 2nd, and get another $5 worth of stuff for free! The other items that I picked up came to more than $5, but because I used a coupon on the L’Oreal and will get a 10% bonus for having my rebates loaded onto a gift card, I still made a profit!
And since no one in my house is bald, I’ll put this freebie in a box with the Just For Men and donate it!
Posted in Walgreens | No Comments »
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
After adding up my grocery expenditures for November, here is the grand total for the month:
$63.30
Woah! This is the most I’ve spent in ages!! The sales weren’t all that this month. However, to put this in perspective, this time last year I spent way more than that each week – so I’m still satisfied! Let’s break down the biggest expenses:
$12.29 of this budget went to beer and wine purchases.
$8.60 went to first aid supplies.
$6.01 went to coffee!
So the remaining $36.40 bought all the other food and household supplies for the month, for both myself and Jai. And since we’re in the thick of the holiday season, I had lots of visitors staying with me, as well as dinner party guests. So this budget also took care of various meals for about 4 people in addition to the both of us, not to mention things like the dessert for 13 people on Thanksgiving.
For the full breakdown of what I bought, as well as receipt scans, check out the November 2008 archive. To get an idea of what we were eating – and what I served these guests – check out the Coupon Funded Menu Corner.
Posted in Budget | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
I had big shopping plans last week, but they were quickly abandoned during the holiday chaos!
Thanksgiving
Total spent: $9.67. NO COUPONS!!!
View receipt
Got:
1 gallon of milk
1 tub of whipped topping
1 dozen cage free eggs
3 foil pie pans
Wow. This one trip cost almost as much as my whole month’s budget for September! My original plan had been to hit up Walgreens, because they had some good overage deals going on that week. But with everything that was going on that day, I realized that there was no way that I’d have enough time to make the 30 minute drive to Walgreens, and still get back in time to make enough Pumpkin Pie for 13 people. So I axed that plan and just went to Safeway, since it’s so close to me, even though the sales there have been pretty nonexistent this past month. I needed the cool whip, eggs, and foil plates in order to make my pies – I only have one pie plate, and I was making three pies. I had originally planned to go to another store and buy a real pie plate, but the stores were so crammed that I ended up just grabbing some foil plates at Safeway so that I could go home! Also, we were out of milk, so I picked that up while I was there.
Grandma always hosts Thanksgiving at her house, so she cooked the main course and I brought the Pumpkin Pies for dessert:
I made my oil crust and used this recipe for homemade pumpkin pie filling. I still have a bunch of homemade pumpkin puree in my freezer from Halloween, so this worked out well.
Black Friday
I thought I’d have time for Walgreens on Friday, but it just wasn’t happening. However, I still wanted to pick up some things for dinner, so I just made this quick trip to Safeway:
Total spent: $10.16
Total before coupons: $13.66
View receipt
Got:
1 can of mushrooms – I wanted fresh mushrooms, but Safeway’s produce department was completely sold out of them. Weird!
2 Ragu pouches – on sale for $1, used two .50/1 coupons that I received in the mail. Free after doubles!
1 tub of Parmesan cheese
1 bottle of Coffee Mate – on sale for $3.79, used a $1/1 printable coupon, which doubled. (I was able to get another copy of this coupon by printing it from my laptop, in case you’re wondering how I got it.)
.81 pounds of bananas
.85 pounds of apples
1 head of red leaf lettuce
1 bag of sun dried tomatoes
If you look closely at my receipts for Thursday and Friday, you may notice that my gas rewards suddenly jumped up to 5. That’s because on Friday, there was a person standing in front of me in line who couldn’t find his club card. He tried to bring it up by punching in his phone number, but it didn’t work, so he just shrugged and said, “Oh well.” I asked if he wanted to use my card, so he did – he was very happy for the savings (you have to have a club card to get any of the sale prices, so you’d pay a lot more without one), and I got the credit towards my fuel discount, so everybody wins!
I had a houseful of guests all week, and I always have a blast making big meals – if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve probably noticed that I love to cook! So here’s Friday’s dinner:
Spaghetti, salad, and homemade garlic bread. I made good use of my free pasta and pasta sauce, and added mushrooms, artichokes, green olives, onion, and garlic. For the salad, I used the red leaf lettuce, crispy onion toppings, sun dried tomatoes, and homemade croutons that I made using this recipe – these are SO good, you have to try them!
Posted in Black Friday, Coupon Menu Corner, Entertaining, Safeway | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
Check out this cool promotion from Restaurant.com. Every day through December 25th, you can send three friends a $10 restaurant gift certificate, free of charge. What a cool promotion! Click here to sign up.
If you’re unfamiliar with Restaurant.com, they basically sell good coupons for restaurants all throughout the country. You can buy a gift certificate for a fairly small amount, and then use it to save money on your next meal at the restaurant of your choice. For example, most of the $10 gift certificates require a minimum purchase of $20 to redeem, so you get your meal for half price. This is a great way to cut costs if you’re going to eat out anyway! Just punch in your zip code, and it will show participating eateries in your area and their terms of redemption.
Posted in Online deals | No Comments »
Monday, December 1st, 2008
So do any of you have big plans for online shopping today? I’m going to be checking the deals throughout the day, but I haven’t yet seen any amazing sales on the kind of things I would buy. If you’re going to be cyber-bargain hunting today, I recommend checking out SlickDeals and My Shopping Addiction – these are my two favorite sites for online deals.
Posted in Cyber Monday | No Comments »
Monday, December 1st, 2008
Total spent: $2.21
Total before coupons: $6.81
View receipt
Got:
1 trial sized packet of Airborne – on sale for $2.19, used one $2/1 coupon from the 9/7 Smart Source newspaper inserts, making it free plus .31 cents of overage after doubles.
1 bag of Fresh Gourmet crispy onion salad toppings – on sale for $1.50, used a .55/1 printable – bringing the final cost down to .45 cents after doubles.
.31 pounds of green beans – free plus .12 cents of overage after using a peelie coupon found on the Fresh Gourmet – more details on this below.
1 head of red leaf lettuce
1 head of garlic
I just needed a few salad supplies for dinner, and I found a bonus deal on the green beans while I was there. I love the crispy onions on salad – they’re sooo yummy! And even better, there was a peelie coupon attached to the bag that said, “Save .55 cents on fresh green beans with your purchase of Fresh Gourmet salad toppings”. So I weighed out a small amount of green beans, which came to .93 cents. The coupon doubled, so I ended up getting them for free plus .12 cents of overage! What a deal! Keep an eye out for these peelie coupons if you see Fresh Gourmet products at your store.
Posted in Produce Deals, Safeway | No Comments »
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