Best Store Deals 10/24/10

Walgreens

• Colgate Sensitive Toothpaste--$3.49, with a $3.49 Register Reward.  =Free!
• Contac Cold & Flu--$6, with a $6 Register Reward.  =Free!

Pay for your items that have Register Rewards first, then use the Register Rewards to buy whatever else you need!  Just remember you can't have more coupons/catalinas than the number of items you have, so you may have to add a cheap little item or two to your order, but you'll still be saving big bucks! :)

Other good Walgreens deals this week:
Trident Layers gum--$.99 with in-ad coupon.  Print this twice and get 2 packs for $.24 each!
Royal gelatin--5/$1 with in-ad coupon (think upcoming holiday recipes!)
Various carpet cleaning products--buy one get one free!
Rolls of Scotch tape--$.49 with in-store coupon (stock up for Christmas!)

Many other deals--look online for the ad if you didn't get a Sunday paper.

Meijer

• Wheat Thins or Triscuits--2/$5.  Go here for a $1/2 coupon = 2/$4.  This isn't the best deal ever, but we were in need of some healthy-ish crackers, and I think it's a savings of over $1/box.
• Tyson boneless, skinless chicken breast--$1.99/lb
• Kraft cheeses--$1.88. Get a $5/5 coupon here, and get them for $.88 each (if you buy 5).
• Nestle cookie dough--$2.  Print of two of these and get two for $1 each!
• Meijer milk--$2
• Quaker cereals and granola bars--$1.99.  Buy 5 and get a gallon of Meijer milk free!
• Apple cider--$2.99/gallon

Check out their online ad or check your Sunday paper for more deals!

Kroger (Wednesday is the last day to take advantage of these savings!)

Many items are $1!
Kroger bagels, cream cheese, tortilla chips, sour cream, bread, hot dog and hamburger buns, Del Monte fruit, Manwich, Betty Crocker cake mixes, 2 liter Pepsi products, avocados, Bumble Bee tuna and Dawn dish detergent, to name a few!

Plus, they're having a frozen food Mega Event where, if you buy 10 of the included items, already at sale prices, you save an extra $5.00.  Check out their ad, but you can get 2 Hungry Man "TV dinner" type things for free if you print this coupon twice.  Tombstone pizzas are $1.99.  Print this coupon and get Jose Ole appetizers for $1.49.  Eggo waffles--$1.49.  10-28 oz Birds Eye or Freshlike veggies are $1.49.

Other good Kroger deals:
Idahoan potatoes are $1.  Print this $1/1 coupon and get them free!
Post cereals $1.88
Gala apples (our fave!)  $3.99 for a 5-lb bag.
Fresh raspberries $2/6 oz

A Few Good Deals for You! :)

I got some great deals today!  It's not my normal shopping week, but I couldn't resist stocking up on some of these things for future use.  I went by myself, was finished quickly and, as usual, met up unexpectedly with a couple friends to visit with for awhile.  I can't go to Meijer without seeing people I know.  It's a great time to catch up with people! :)

Walmart (they took my coupons lickity-split this time--yea!!!)

I spent less than $1.50 total on 2 boxes Quaker instant oatmeal and 2 Post-it super sticky note pads.  Here's how:

Quaker instant oatmeal is $2.66 each.  Click here for $2/1 coupon and print it twice. Buy two at $.66 each!
Post-it super sticky notes--$1 each.  Click here for $1/1 coupon, and get them free!

Walgreens

Blistex is $2.59, with a $2.60 Register Reward.  I paid for that first by itself and used the RR on my next transaction. Free!
Scotch padded mailers are on sale (with a coupon from their ad), 3/$1.  You can't beat that, when the smallest size is regularly $.99 and you can get the bigger sizes with this deal, too--see coupon for the range of sizes. Limit 6.  I bought six--will have things to mail at Christmas time! $.33-.34 each!
Ricola throat drops are on sale for $1.  There is a $.50/1 coupon  in Walgreens' October book of coupons at the front of the store.  If you clip coupons from the paper, I've heard there was also a Ricola coupon you could stack with the Walgreens one, but I did not get that coupon in my paper.  $.50 or free!

Meijer: 

Here are some of the highlights of deals you can get at Meijer right now:

• Free Ronzoni pasta!  They're on sale for $.99.  Click here for a $.50/1 coupon, which will double at my Meijer.  Print it twice and get 2 for free!
• Free Jello! I was thinking about holiday recipes when I scored this free Jello. :)  It's on sale for $.50 per box.  If you clipped coupons from the paper yesterday, there was a $.50/2 coupon, which will double at some Meijer stores, giving you 2 free!
• Del Monte canned veggies--on sale for $.79.  Click here for a Meijer coupon for $1/5, making each $.59!
• Del Monte canned fruit--$1.  Click here for a Meijer coupon for $1/5, making them $.80 each!
• Classico pasta sauce--$1.67.  Click here for a Meijer coupon for $1/2, making them $1.17 each. Click here for $1/1 and get them for $.17!!!
• Peppridge Farm Milano cookies--BOGO Free!.  Click here for $1/1--print it twice and pay $.70 for a treat that regularly costs $3.39!
• Nestle chocolate chips--stock up for holiday baking!  On sale--$2.  Click here for $.50/2 coupon.  If your Meijer doubles, that will be $1.50 each!  (I was disappointed b/c I thought I'd be paying $1 each. I thought I could stack a catalina coupon I had received with the manufacturer coupon, but it turned out the catalina was actually a manufacturer coupon with the Meijer name on it and, of course, you can't stack 2 manufacturer coupons!)

There are many other deals at all three of these stores!  Check out their ads online and other money-saving blogs for more details!

Blissful (Walmart-less) Shopping, Great Deals! :)

So, yeah, I drove my coupons right past Walmart yesterday and went directly to Walgreens and then Meijer.  I can't say I particularly missed all the hassle over coupons at Walmart.  I did write to them to let them know why I was taking my coupon business elsewhere.  I was polite, but firm.  I haven't yet heard back.  Not even a "We've received your e-mail and we'll get back to you asap" form letter.  Hmmm . . . we'll see what happens.  I wrote to the local store and to corporate.  I know many people have something to say to Walmart.  I hear about it all the time.  If you're one of those people, go here and click on "e-mail customer service."  Then you're given some options.  If you click on the one about store policies, you have the option of sending it to corporate. 

Now, let's get down to business!  Great deals this week.  I L-O-V-E when I save more than I spend!  I saved a total of $76.86 at Meijer, over $30 of which was in coupons alone.  You should have SEEN my stack of coupons!  lol  It was great!  The guy behind me in line just kept watching the cashier scan coupon after coupon, his eyes widening with each one.  It was comical.  Except that I think he was a little annoyed because he had only one little frilly dress ???? he was waiting to pay for.  But, hey, he didn't get in line until well after my order was underway. ;)

Oh, and I also received $12.50 in catalinas to use on future purchases!!  Love it, love it.

Anyway, it was great because I was able to use a bunch of coupons, that were ready to expire, on products that were on sale.  A perfect scenario.  And I took full advantage of it. ;)

I'll share with you some of the best deals!

Chex Mix, normally $2.69/bag
Sale Price:  2/$3
Coupon:  $.50/1 Chex Mix
Our Meijer doubles coupons up to $.50
Final Price:  $.50 each!

Meijer has a deal right now where you buy $15 of Kraft products and receive a catalina for $5 off your next shopping trip.  You can do two of these in one transaction.  Plus, their cheeses, snack crackers, OM hot dogs, etc. are on sale.  I bought a little over $30 of Kraft products, so I got $10 back, though the catalina didn't spit out my 2nd one and I had to go to customer service to get it.  Anyway, not only did I get that $10 returned to me, but I also didn't pay $30 for those products because of all the coupons I had.  I probably paid $10 or less on that stuff.  Not bad!

Yogurt:
They have DanActive 4-packs on sale, 2/$4.  If you buy four 4-packs, you get an instant $2 off.  Use coupons here and here, plus these from Meijer Mealbox (to stack), and pay well under $1 per 4-pack.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of Hamburger Helper and things of that nature, but they have these new brands, like Macaroni Grill, Wanchai Ferry and Good Earth Meals, where you add chicken and a few staple ingredients you likely have (like oil).   I thought I'd give them a try, to have them on hand for extra busy days, especially since I was able to get them for $.99 each (regularly $4.49 each)!  If you've been clipping coupons, you probably have various ones you can stack with these $1/1 Meijer Mealbox coupons, to get them for $.99, plus the cost of chicken.

Coffeemate creamers:
2/$3
$.75/1 coupon here
Pay $.75

There are soooo many more deals.  Check out the Meijer ad for your area (available online), clip coupons, look up online coupon sites and print them off.  Then make sure to check Meijer Mealbox to see if there are some coupons you can stack with manufacturer coupons.  Remember one manufacturer coupon and one Meijer coupon per item (or however many items are indicated on coupon). 

WALGREENS

Check out the Walgreens ad for items you can receive FREE this week, when they give you back Register Rewards for the same amount you paid.  Then use those register rewards for other things you need (and don't forget to use coupons!).  That's how I spent $13.27 on $40.71 worth of products!  I spent waaay under half of what I saved.  You can do it, too! :)

A Few Good Deals Today--But Not So Much at Walmart! :)

Made a quick stop at Meijer today to stock up on a few things they had on sale.  I spent $6.68 and SAVED $11.92.  Gotta love that!  Here are a few of the deals you can get if you live near a Meijer (there are more deals than this, but these are the ones I used today):

Hunts ketchup (our new ketchup of choice--pretty much as tasty as Heinz, but none of that nasty high fructose corn syrup):

They are on sale for $1.
Go here for a $1/5 coupon.  $.80 each, and you don't have to buy ketchup again for a long, long time! 

Skippy peanut butter (including the natural):

They are on sale for $1.67
Go here for $.50/1 Skippy natural pb (print 2--the limit--while you're at it!)
Our Meijer doubles $.50 coupons, so I got 2 jars for $.67 each.
PLUS, if you buy 2 jars of any Skippy pb, you get a free 18 oz grape jelly or jam.  Not my fave, but I think Little Mister will like it. :)

Yo-plus yogurt:

The 4-packs are on sale for $1.67.
Go here for a $.50/1 4-pack.
With the double coupons, I got 2 packs for $.67 each.

You can do the above deal with the Fiber One yogurt as well. 

Now, for those of you on Facebook, you may have seen my status about boycotting Walmart.  I'm not sure how I feel about that now that I've had time to clear my head.  I really don't want to deal with them anymore when it comes to coupons.  But if I just stop going there without letting them know why, it's not going to do any good.  So, if I can figure out who to address it to, I plan to write to the company.  I'm not sure I can make a difference on my own, but if any of you who have had the same troubles would be willing to say something, too, maybe we can make a difference together.  I have this gut feeling that they really don't care, but I don't like to be pessimistic and assume the worst either.  We'll see how it plays out. :)

Happy saving!! :)

Great Deals Today! :)

Little Mister and I "braved" the rainy day and went grocery shopping this morning.  Besides the fact that we looked like drowned rats (LM makes a very cute drowned rat, though, I must say!), we had a good time together.  He was a big help and it was a great opportunity to take all those math facts he's been learning in the books and put them to use in real life.  Not to mention he's just great company! :)

I bought Kraft cheeses for 17 cents each, Wheat Thins and Triscuits for 62 cents each, Manwich for 50 cents each and got Old El Paso fajita seasoning for free!  Just to name a few of my best bargains. ;)  I shopped at Meijer, and here's how I got those deals.

First of all, let me explain that Meijer is having a Catalina deal where, when you buy $15 worth of certain Kraft products (including cheese, Wheat Thins, Triscuits, 100 Calorie snacks, mayo, Miracle Whip and several others), you receive a $5 catalina to use on your next purchase.  You can do two of these deals in one transaction.

The Kraft 8oz bricks of cheese are on sale for $1.67 (3/$5).  To make this work, you have to buy 10.  But then you don't have to buy cheese again for a long time!  The date on it was December something, and it can always be frozen.  So . . . .
10 Kraft cheese at $1.67  =  $16.70
Print a $5/5 coupon here (actually, print 2, which is the limit).
So, when you take off the $10 from the coupons, you're down to $6.70 for 10 bricks of cheese.
Then you'll get a $5 catalina to use on your next shopping trip, which brings your grand total down to $1.70, or $.17 each, for 10 bricks of cheese!

Wheat Thins and Triscuits are on sale for $1.99 and are also part of the Kraft deal.
I bought 8 boxes--4 of each.  $15.92
If you "like" Wheat Thins on Facebook, you can print up to two $1/1 coupons for Wheat Thins.  Even if you "liked" them a long time ago and printed out coupons, try again.  They seem to have reset the coupon.
With my two coupons, the total came down to $13.92. 
I got the $5 catalina from Kraft, since the items totaled more than $15.  Down to $8.92 for 8 boxes.
THEN, the catalina machine spit out an extra $4 off coupon for my next shopping trip!  Fun surprise!  That brought the cost down to $.62 per box of crackers!

I paid for my groceries in two separate transactions.  I did all the Kraft products--the cheese and crackers--first, then used the catalinas from that when I paid for the remainder of my groceries.  The one thing I didn't know, though, was that you can only use one of the Kraft $5 catalinas per transaction.  If I had known that, I may have divided my remaining groceries into 2 transactions.  Or maybe not!  I have it to use for next time, which is just as good to me.

A couple other deals I can think of are the Manwich I got for $.50 a can (I totally forgot to look at the label until I got home and, unfortunately, it is sweetened with High Fructose Corn Syrup--yuck!).  But that doesn't bother everyone, so if you want a good deal on Manwich, go to the Meijer Mealbox, to "specials" and there you will find all kinds of coupons, including one for $1 off 2 Manwich.  They are on sale for $1 so, with the coupon, they are $.50 each, if you buy two.  And I think you can print off as many Meijer coupons as you wish.

I went here for a $.50/1 Old El Paso coupon.  I needed fajita mix, which was $.89.  My Meijer doubles coupons up to $.50, so they took off the extra $.39 and I got it for free!

Lots of beautiful produce at great prices and other deals that might work well for your household.  Worth a look! :)

My Best Deal Yet--97% Savings!!!

Today at CVS I spent $.95 (yes, that's ninety-five cents!), and saved $32.96!  Not to mention the $2 Extra Bucks I have for next time, plus a $5 off a $15 purchase coupon that I may be able to use to my advantage before it expires on Friday.

Today I had the blessing of the company of my mom and two of my sisters--Amy from Arizona and Mary from Ohio! :)  Amy wanted to go to Walgreens anyway, so we started out there.  Mom even had some coupons to try out the Walgreens thang. :)  Before I tell you about my CVS deal, here's what I did at Walgreens today:

I spent $2.37 and saved $10.50 on these items.  I was getting low on face powder and Cover Girl had their products at Buy One Get One 50% off.  They were $6 each or, with the sale, $9 for both.  Plus I had a $1/1 coupon for each one and my $5 Register Reward from yesterday, so I paid $1 per item.  The only problem was that, since I had 3 coupons, I needed to have at least 3 items in my order--thus the spearmint leaves, which were on sale for $.39.

Now, here's the CVS deal for today:

$33.95 worth of merchandise for $.95!

The olives are normally $2.50.  Awhile back they were on sale for $1 but I had to get a raincheck by the time I made it to the store.  I used that today, along with two $1/2 coupons, making them 50 cents each.  The Gillette deodorants were $3.99, with a $1 Extra Buck reward each, and the body washes were $3 each.  I used two "Buy 1 Gillette deodorant, get 1 body wash free" coupons, plus a $2 off deodorant coupon.  The hairspray was on sale for $2.97 and I used a $2 off coupon.  All those coupons with my $8 Extra Bucks from last week brought my total to $.95 plus tax!

Clip coupons!   Clip coupons!  Clip coupons!  Clip coupons!  Clip coupons!  Clip coupons!  Clip Coupons!

All This--For Less Than the Price of a Razor!! :)

See the razor on the far left side of this photo?  It's a Gillette Fusion ProGlide I bought for my hubby.  The sale price is $9.89. Guess what?  I bought everything in this photo for LESS than the sale price of that razor, AND walked away with $5 to spend next time, plus another $7.50 in various Catalina coupons I wasn't expecting.  Not bad!

Now, two things went wrong from the get-go, which lessened my savings and my fun, but I made a choice to try not to let them get me down (for very long) and did just fine!  First of all, my sister from Arizona, Amy, who got me into all this money-saving stuff in the first place, and is visiting this week, was maybe going to accompany me today for some money-saving merriment, but that didn't work out after all.  It's always fun to have someone else to banter with, jokingly insulting each other about how "cool" you look with your coupon binder open in the cart.  Oh, well!  Wasn't meant to be.  I'm used to going to Walgreens alone . . . even my own loyal husband and son prefer to do almost anything other than endure a lengthy trip to Walgreens!

So, with a smile and hugs and kisses all around, I said goodbye to my "boys" and headed out alone, armed with a very well-planned-out list and my coupon binder.  Alas, the very first thing on my list was something they didn't have!  Can you imagine?  It was pictured in the ad, too!  Anyway, I was disappointed because, as impossible as it may sound, if I had purchased those items, I would have have received them for free, plus made a little profit.  Another strike against me!

Plan B worked out pretty well, though!  Here's how it worked.

This is Transaction #1, which is all but 2 of the items in the photo at the top of this entry.  For these items I paid $2.91 and saved $33.06, saving about 92%.

If you're not clipping coupons, you're missing out!

• Pampers baby wipes (these are useful for so many things, long after diaper days!):  2/$5.  I bought 2 and had two $2 off coupons, making them $.50 each!
• Kashi cereals:  2/$5, with a $2 Register Reward
• Dawn dish washing liquid:  $.99 with coupon from ad.  I had a $1 off coupon, making it free! (Make sure to give manufacturer coupons before ad coupons to avoid the register beeping at you and not accepting the manufacturer coupon).
• Bayer aspirin:  $.99 each.  I bought 3, and had three $1 off coupons, making them free! We don't normally use aspirin, but it was free and I'm sure someone I know can use it!
• Heath bars:  I think they were 2/$1.59. I needed them for the dessert recipe I'm making for a family gathering tonight and they made good "fillers."  (You can't have more coupons than items, so sometimes you have to get a cheap clearance item or piece of candy or something to make up the difference--still saving soooo much money!)
• Johnson&Johnson cotton swabs (500 ct.):  $1.99 with coupon in ad.  I had a $1 off coupon, making it $.99.
• Canned fruit:  $.79 each, with coupon from ad.

Besides the coupons mentioned above, I had $8 Register Rewards from 2 weeks ago, so this transaction came to a total of $2.91, plus tax.   I received the $2 RR from the Kashi cereal to use toward my next transaction.

This is Transaction #2.  I spent $5.88 and saved $7.10, saving about 55%

• Fusion ProGlide razor:  on sale for $9.89, with a $5 Register Reward.  I had a $4 off coupon.  If you include the RR in the price, it's like getting it for $.89!  But I paid, out of pocket, $5.88 and will use the $5 RR next time.
• The scissors were $1.99, but I had the $2 RR from Transaction #1, so I got them for free.  I bought them to replaced the huge honkin' pair of scissors I've had in my coupon binder.  Ha ha--speaking of scissors--ask my sister Amy what happens when you pack your coupon binder, complete with a pair of scissors you forgot were in there, in your carry-on bag and go through security. lol :)

Anyway, to sum it up, I got $48.95 worth of merchandise for $8.79, a total savings of 82%.  Plus I have my $5 RR and $7.50 in other Catalina coupons for next time.

And I'll see Amy tonight, when I can rub it in a little! lol :)  Just kidding--she wouldn't have wanted to pack up all that loot to get it back to AZ anyway. :)