Savings Update

I haven't done a savings update post in a while, but I'm still shopping and saving like crazy! Since January 14th we've spent $809 in groceries and household items and we've saved $1,227. I have gotten multiple items for free as well as made money on them. I had some great ones today!

I saw on broke207 about a Vaseline Sheer Infusion money maker at Shaw's. Side note...'broke207' cracks me up because aren't we all broke in the 207? For those of you that don't know, 207 is the area code for Maine. All of Maine.

Anyway, back to the money maker. For some reason, Shaw's had Sheer Infusion on sale for $2.49. When I saw that in the blog I was shocked because I had just seen it at Walgreens for $5.99. Anyway, I had SIX coupons for $3.75 off that were expiring today. With the prospect of making $1.25 on each of these I had to make a trip to Shaw's. Luckily there's one about a mile from my house.

I wasn't disappointed! In order not to have overage I bought a couple other sale items and got all the stuff below for $2.05. Savings of $45.50!


I also had a coupon for $1 off the Red Baron by the Slice so I ended up getting those for only $1.99. I've never had them before, but it was cheap enough to try once.

I also got some great deals at Walgreens. I had a lot of Register Rewards to spend ($15) so the total below is a little skewed by that. I spent $5.63 and saved $31.22.





I love when I find things on clearance that I have coupons for. The Dial soap was on clearance for $0.50 and I had a coupon for $0.35 off. I'd say $0.15 for two bars of soap is pretty good. The Infusium leave in treatment and Bic razors were free after coupons and the EOS shaving cream was free after Register Rewards.

I was also out of face cream and I love love love the Neutrogena cream so even though I didn't have any coupons, I didn't want to buy anything else since I always end up hating it. I also bought some mixed nuts because I plan on attempting to make baklava soon.

So all of that for $5.63 out of pocket was pretty good. I also got a $3 Register Reward so that's net $2.63 for all that. The face cream alone is $9.99...gotta love having a lot of Register Rewards!

We have a closet in our house that is all stuff I've gotten free or super cheap. I was even able to put together a pretty good "grab bag" full of stuff for Mom for Mother's Day today. (Yes, she knows it was all free...she was glad!)

This couponing and sale shopping has really changed the way I see sales and shopping. I am really happy with all the savings and having a 'stocked' house.

I love free stuff!

I really stockpiled on toothpaste this week as I just can't resist free stuff (even better when I 'make' money off it). Then I read over at Common Sense with Money about a money-maker on Sudafed Nasal Mist. So today after picking up the coupons my Mom and Aunt save for me I headed back to Walgreens.

Since Pat was with me (and I had 4 coupons) we were able to really score. Oh, and I also picked up better than free Reeses Dark Chocolate peanut butter cups too.

Since I started this on January 14th I've spent $521.78 on grocery and household items and I've saved $524.44. That's not including rewards of $83 I have to spend in the next few weeks ($26 Shaw's, $19 CVS & $38 Walgreens). It also helps that I have all three of those stores within one mile of our house as well.

Great deal at Walgreens

Walgreens has this Colgate on sale for $3.99 with a register reward of $3.99 making it free. The awesome part? I have 7 coupons for $1.00 off this toothpaste making this a dollar money-maker for me. Thanks to my Mom and my Aunt for saving their Sunday papers for me I am bursting at the seams with coupons and poised for all the free deals I can handle!

A blog-worthy shopping day

CVS:

So here's what I got at CVS today and below is the breakdown of what I paid:

• 4 boxes of Kellogg's cereal - 4/$10, but I had two coupons...ended up being 4/$7.50. THEN there was a "extra bucks" reward on them of $5.00 so it was like getting 4/$2.50. That's insane and we both love Raisin Bran and Corn Pops!
• Bounce dryer bars (we LOVE these!) - sale for $3.99, plus a coupon for $1.50. Net total of $2.49.
• Secret deodorant (2) - sale for $3.99 each, plus a coupon for $1.00/2. Total before "extra bucks" of $6.98. Extra bucks of $2.00 so a per item cost of $2.49. Not the best deal ever, but not bad.
• Dawn Hand Renewal Dish Soap - sale for $0.97, plus a coupon for $1.00. FREE!
• Gillette Fusion Razor - sale for $8.99, plus a coupon for $5.00. Extra bucks of $4.00. FREE (after extra bucks)!
• Nivea lip balm - sale for $2.99, extra care bucks of $2.99. FREE (after extra bucks)!
• Oral B Cross action toothbrushes - sale for $4.00 each, plus a coupon of $1.00 so two for $7.00. Extra care bucks of $8.00 - better than FREE (after extra bucks). I got paid $1.00 to buy two toothbrushes!
• Clairol hair dye - sale for $4.97 each, plus a coupon for $5 off 2. Net out of pocket of $4.94. Extra care bucks of $2.00 so a per item cost of $1.47. I'm quite proud of this deal and my roots thank me.
• Always pantyliners - sale for $2.99, plus a coupon for $1.00. Net out of pocket of $1.99.
• Always pads - sale for $2.99, plus a coupon for $1.00. Net out of pocket of $1.99.

My total before coupons and sales was $87.69. CVS sale prices dropped it down to $61.29. Coupons dropped it further down to $42.29. Then I had extra bucks from a prior shopping trip bringing my total down even further to $34.29.

The best part is that I have $23.99 in extra bucks to use before 4/6 which brings the net cost of all that down to $10.30. Now that's just cool.

I am SO loving all this sale/coupon shopping. I'm nowhere near as good as some of the people out there, but I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made so far!

Walgreens money maker!

Walgreens has a Register Reward on Excedrin Menstrual relief for $2.

It's also on sale this week for $2.50 (2/$5, but you only have to buy one). Print out this $2 off 1 coupon and you're only paying $0.50 + tax out of pocket. Then you get the $2 register reward for use on a future purchase.

Maine has 5% sales tax so I spent $0.63 out of pocket a few minutes ago and I have the register reward for use on other great bargains coming up!

Excellent deals

The purchases above were made at Walgreens today. The Pert Plus was on sale for 2/$5 plus a $2 Register Reward to be used on a future purchase. I also had a coupon for $1 off so it was like getting them for $1 each. The Sure was on sale for 2/$5 also. Then there was a Walgreens coupon bringing it down to 2/$3 and I had two coupons totaling $2.50 so I got both of those for $0.50.

My total before coupons was $13.98 and after coupons I spent $4.90. Plus the $2 Register Rewards I got all that for $2.90!!

CVS wasn't quite as good, but still not bad. I had a BOGO coupon for the Always (buy the larger one, get the smaller for free) and the Safeguard soap was on clearance and I had a coupon. My total before coupons was $14.80 then I saved $3.89 on the Always and $2.64 on the soap. I ended up spending $8.27 and the soap was only $0.64!

It looks like Walgreens has some great deals coming up this week. I follow the blog Common Sense With Money and it is so helpful in planning shopping trips. In my opinion to make it work, you need to know prices and you need to be willing to use brands on certain things that you might not normally. For instance, we've never used the Pert, Sure or Safeguard that I bought today...but we're willing to try for the price!

Since I started doing this (January 14th) I have saved $169.30 (shopping at Walgreens, CVS and Shaw's) by matching sales fliers to coupons. Awesome.

(You may notice (as I just did) that my math doesn't add up perfectly. That's a lovely thing called sales tax - 5% here in Maine).

Awesome savings!

Last night at Walgreens my total was $73.00 before I handed over my coupons. After the coupons my total was $39.20, plus $5 in register rewards and a $15 rebate. Net total of $19.20, or a savings of $53.80! That is insane and it is all stuff we'll use (toothpaste, dishwasher detergent, cereal etc).

I did just find out that the rebate on the facial cleanser is not valid in Maine (what the heck?), so I'll be returning those items.

Then we went grocery shopping at Shaw's and had a ton of savings as well. Our pre-sale total was $131.22 (which WAS a normal shopping trip for us). After the sales and coupons the total was down to $83.28. That's a savings of $47.94!

I am really, really, really getting in to all this shopping and saving. We even used a coupon at dinner last night!

Grocery Shopping

As a fairly budget/money conscious person I have been frustrated at the amount of money we waste spend on food each month. I get especially mad when it seems like we never have any food in the house.

As I do when any problems face me, I turn to the brilliant people of the web. Do you know how much money people are saving (and blogging about) at the grocery stores just by clipping coupons and shopping sales? It's insane.

So I took our last two Sunday papers that were still sitting around and clipped all the coupons. Then I matched it up with the sales fliers. Last night, Pat and I tackled the store.

I realized a few things. First, I need a system to organize the coupons. Second, it's best to do this type of shopping when the store is empty (we were there around 8:30). Third, we have been wasting SO MUCH MONEY!!!

Last night we shopped smart. We did not buy one thing that wasn't on sale. In addition, I had coupons for a lot of those items. Score!

We walked out of there spending $62.90. We SAVED $51.39 between sales and coupons. Awesome.

In addition, we shop at Shaw's which gives us a gas reward of $0.10 of per gallon on our next fill up and we use our Discover card for the 5% cash back.

So, being the anal accountant that I am, I set up a spreadsheet to track all this saving I plan to do this year. I can't wait to see what I'm able to do once I set my mind to it!