Not So Super Savings

I know that I will not get any blue ribbon for the most savings and/or least cash spent out of pocket(oop) for the week, however, I still saved $70 on groceries!!! (Sorry no pics this week, cause I put it all away before I realized that I didn’t take pics!) I needed to get meats for meals for the next couple of weeks and I need to do some restock of fresh fruits and veggies.

Instead of listing everything that I purchased this week I am just going to give some highlights of my deals.

I took advantage of Meijer 10 for $10 with 11th item free Mix and Match Sale and purchased some stock up items…
5 Gatorade $5.00
3 Ragu Pasta Sauce $3.00
6 Totino’s Pizzas $6.00 minus $1.00 for Free item

I also purchased 4 Pillsbury Crescent Rolls--$6.00 which yielded one Catalina coupon for a Free Pillsbury Ready to Bake cookies. Actually my Meijer trip yielded me lots of Catalina coupons that is about the only big highlight of my trip!! LOL!

I found that my Meijer had a trial size of Gold Bond Ultimate Healing Lotion so I got that for FREE after $1 coupon.

I restocked my yogurt supply with the Yoplait Yogurt that was on sale 10/$5 and used coupons to sweeten the deal even more. :)

I checked the discounted meats and purchased a couple of steaks for a dinner for hubby and me. I purchased 3 family packs of the boneless skinless chicken that was on sale for $1.99/lb. I also got 3lbs of the ground chuck that was on sale for $1.79/lb.

Savings Today at Meijer
Total Meijer Promotions: $11.78
Total Non-Coupon Savings: $31.73
Total Coupon Savings: $7.90
TOTAL Savings overall:$51.41
TOTAL spent oop $108.99
See not a very good savings this week!!

I also made a quick run into Family Fare again this week. I like their selection of fresh fruit and veggies better than Meijer.

They also had all Keebler Cookies 50% off plus I had 2 coupons(55 cents/2 and $1/1) so I got three packages for $3.38 or $1.13/pkg.

I also purchased 3 pkgs. of Spartan(store brand) bacon for $5. This will make some cheap 44 cents breakfast sandwiches or homemade bacon cheeseburgers or homemade chicken club sandwiches!!!

All total I spent oop $36.67 and saved $18.65(best I can figure because they don’t put the savings total on the receipt like Meijer).

To see other's savings this week head over to BeCentsAble's Centsable Shopper Show N Tell or MoneySavingMom's Super Savings Saturday!!!

**side note, just in case you are wondering after my questioning stockpiling post, I have decided for the health of my budget and my marriage that I am going to refrain from CVSing or Walgreens shopping til my pantry needs stocked again! Which best I can figure will be at least a couple of months! :)

Frugal Friday

This week for Frugal Friday, Crystal talked about some frugal decorating that she has done in her home. It looks gorgous!

Despite the fact, that home decorating can be a budget buster for me. I thought I would follow her example and post about some of the frugal decorating that I have done in my home.

I have taken puzzles and framed them. The 1000 piece flag puzzle I found at Value City Furniture for $3. I put it together and then used puzzle glue(only used a 1/3 of the bottle-$1.66) to preserve it. Then I put it in a poster frame($6) and hung it. All total this piece of artwork cost me $10.66 to go into my red, white, and blue kitchen/eating area.


I also did two Thomas Kinkade painting puzzles. I got the puzzles as gifts from my parents so I am not sure how much they cost(I googled they run about $12-$20 depending on the puzzle). I used the rest of the bottle of puzzle glue. These were a bit trickier to frame as they were circular puzzles. My hubby decided to take it to Michael's and have their custom framing department frame it. He used their 60% off sale as well. He got one of the them just matted so that we could interchange them in the frame. So to get 2 puzzles matted and one framed. It cost $230. Now one would think that is a little bit much for thinking frugal but I don't think you are going to find two framed Thomas Kinkade paintings for $250.

For other ideas, resources, and tips; head over to Biblical Womanhood.

3 Random Things about Me

I was tagged by my friend, Jasmine to blog about 3 randon things about me!

The rules for ‘3 Random Things’:
1. Post 3 random things about yourself.
2. Link to the person who tagged you in your post.
3. Tag at least 5 other bloggers.
4. Let them know you’ve tagged them by commenting on their blog with an invite to participate.


So here I go:

1. I am the oldest out of 8 children in my family.

2. I met my hubby online back when message boards were DOS based bulletin boards. He was in the Navy and I was going to college. We met in person a year after we met online.

3. I worked with my dad at General Motors/Delphi Automotive during three different summer breaks to pay my way thru college debt free.

There you have it! Three random things about me. :)

Now to tag others....

I am not sure who to tag....sooooo if you read this post considered yourself tagged!! Let me know via comments that you participated. :)

Finding Coupons

I have been asked by a reader...

Do u have any suggestions as to where to get coupons? Sunday paper dont put only about 5 of them out and usually it is all for cat/dog food...and none of the stores around here take printable ones! Its horrible! I've looked into all those great websites everyone talks about where I can look up sales ahead of time and save...but the problem is where I live there arent any stores that they list. We dont even have a CVS! :(

My answer:

Start by writing or calling companies asking for coupons. Look at the labels of things that you buy to find the addresses or phone numbers of the companies. To make things a little easier for you, Wendy-Its More Than Enough has posted many companies' 800 numbers along with updates as to what the companies have sent in the way of coupons. I also found Tom--$39 dollar experiment, who took a roll of stamps (back when stamps were 39 cents) and wrote to 100 different companies looking for samples or coupons. He posted his letters and his results. I found it very fascinating. I wonder though if he would have gotten better results from the companies that didn't send him anything if he had asked for just a certain product or had given feedback about their products.

I have also taken the time to write or call companies, however I haven't just asked for coupons but I gave them feedback on the quality of their product. Just to name a few.... I wrote the local Wendy's franchise telling them about the service and quality of food in one of their restaurauts. Their response was a letter along with coupons for free frostys and french fries. Another was Pillsbury that I wrote via letter using their online comment form/email telling them about the quality of a tube of cinnamon rolls. Their response was a snail mail letter filled with coupons for free tubes of cinnamon rolls. Another was Spartan Stores that I called their 800 number telling them that I purchased some milk with a sell by date 2 weeks away and it already tasted sour. The results they sent me coupons for free milk to use at the store that I purchased the milk.

I have found that companies are anxious to hear from the consumer about their products.

I find it very interesting that stores will not take the printable coupons. I would think as long as there is scanable upc codes on the coupons the stores should not have any problems accepting them. If your stores allows for internet printable coupons. Here is a list of websites to find coupons also head over to this SlickDeals forum thread for a listing of other websites for regional stores....

Betty Crocker free sign up required

boodle.com

boxtops4education free sign up required along with school choice.

CoolSavings.com free sign up required

Coupon Bar

Coupons,inc

Eat Better America

Mambo Sprouts free sign up required using email address

Red Plum

Smart Source

Special Offers.com

Target/SuperTarget Coupons


Also a couple of favorite sites of mine....

Coupon Mom --free sign-up required....grocery deals by state, printable coupons, free offers, free samples and more!

Freebies4Mom a "hot spot" to find all the current freebies/offers/coupons available! :)

Coupons Galore!

Over the last couple of weeks, I have had some great success in getting coupons outside of the inserts in my Sunday paper!


I got a set of coupons and a sample for filling out the mail in survey from Shoppers Voice. It had:

• Children's Claritin--$3 off one 4oz liquid or 10ct tabs.
• Visine Products--$2.50 off any 1/2oz size
• Glade Scented Oil Refills and Warmer---$1 off each
• Afrin Nasal Spray--Free with coupon
• Off Products Powerpad Lamp or Lantern--$3 off one
• Off Products Insect Repellant--$1 off one (on the back of the Powerpad coupon)
• Free sample of Gold Bond Ultimate Healing Lotion.

Also in the picture above is my coupon for Free Yoplait Kids Yogurt or Yogurt drink. Go to their website(follow link) and you can get your free coupon as well(not available in all states). Thanks to Freebie Fridays at MomAdvice for posting this freebie!

Then yesterday, I did my weekly shopping trip to Meijers to get the weekly deals and when I checked out I got LOTS of Catalina coupons to use on subsequent visits. Here is what I got:

• Ziploc Containers---$1 off one
• Dove Go Fresh Deodorant---$1 off one
• Pillsbury Ready to bake cookies---FREE (I bought 4 Pillsbury Crescent rolls to get this coupon---Thanks to NeedANap2 for leaving me a comment about this deal!)
• Yoplait GoGurt Fizzz---FREE
• $5 off next $75 purchase
• $7 off next $110 purchase
• Advertisement telling me of a deal where if I buy 5 Colgate Palmolive Products in one transaction between 4/27-5/3, I will get $5 off my next shopping trip. Makes me wonder what kind of deals they are going to have next week on those products!!