My main problem is that the big promotions - the buy $30 get $15 (or $5 for $25, etc.) in coupons for your next shopping trip - have a lot of stuff that I don't need or don't want to buy. And these items, like boxed mixes, frostings, sweet cereals, and canned soups, are the ones with the great coupons.
I had a list all made up with the things I would use like flour, Kleenex, Cheerios, and tea (with a few granola bars thrown in) for the Albertson's deal but I ended up not doing it, mainly because I stocked up on unbleached flour a few weeks ago and what I need now is whole wheat and it's not included.
I'm not writing it off totally because I probably will use most of my flour with the holiday baking coming up. But I decided that I'll just do one transaction after Sunday to see if any doubles come out, and then use the $15 in catalina coupons for some whole wheat flour.
At Safeway, I went mainly for the Foster Farms chicken at .69/lb and also decided to get some cereal with their, "buy 4, save $4" promotion.
I was all prepared to buy baking items (more flour, chocolate chips, walnuts, and C&H brown sugar) using the "buy $25, get a $5 catalina coupon" (see? even just typing this I'm getting dizzy with all the promotions!), but the prices just weren't that good, even with the coupons ($2 for the chocolate chips with the coupon - I can get Belgian ones at Freds right now for $1.67 with no coupon) and a little $5 catalina (basically 20% off) wasn't enough to tempt me.
So in the end, here's what I did:
3 Kashi Go Lean, $2.50 wyb 4 - (3)$1.50/1 mfc + 3 store doubles (.50 each) = $1.50/3 (.50 ea.)
1 Honey Nut Cheerios, $1.50 wyb 4 - .55/1 IP + 1 store dbl = .45
3 FF whole chickens @ .69/lb = $10.77
=$12.72
There were a couple of good deals at Fred Meyers this week (ends today) and I had a raincheck for the Ricola drops to pair with a coupon that was going to expire, so it was my next stop.
Satsuma mandarins (love them!), $4.77
2 Biokleen dish soap, on sale for $3.44 - (2) $1/1 IPs = $4.88/2
2 FM powdered sugar, .99 w/in-ad coupon = $1.98
Lunchmeat, marked down = $1.99
2 2-lb. Kroger cheese, $3.99 ea. w/in-ad coupon = $7.98
2 1-lb. pkgs. organic carrots, $1 ea. = $2
2 Mom's Best cereal, on sale for $1.89 ea. - (2) .75/1 IPs = $2.28/2
6 bags Ricola throat drops, $1 each w/rain check - (3) BOGO (mixed berry only) mfc = $3
= $28.88
*Note: I pay a little more for some things here because I think they're worth it. We live with a septic system so I don't buy any regular detergents or things with phosphates or harsh chemicals. I went a few cents over my $1/box goal for cereal because this brand doesn't have things in it we are trying to avoid, and Freds had the same price for organic carrots as Safeway had for conventional, which got me in the store. We all have to make these decisions for our families and how we want to live, even though my out-of-pocket might have been less buying less quality things over at Albertsons.
But I've found that using coupons on other things allows me to buy things that are normally more high-priced that I want for our family.
And it's working - see here.
I did attempt two drugstore deals, but Walgreens was all out of the Lubriderm lotion, which was the bulk of the deal, so I didn't do it at all.
The most surprising thing I found was at Rite Aid, though. A blog had mentioned a deal with Planters nuts - buy 10 with the BOGO sale at $3.99, submit for a $5 Rite Aid rebate and a $10 Nabisco rebate making $1.45 for 10 cans of nuts. Sweet huh?
Except when I got there I found that where I live the nuts are priced at $5.99 - almost twice the price!! What's going on here - where are they only $3.99? Ugg...not such a good deal anymore.
I even tried to work it with a $5/$25 coupon, but it still would've been $10 for all ten cans. Now, I know that $1 a can is a great price, but I wasn't prepared to spend $10 on nuts right now, so it was a no-go.
It was sort of an "off" week for me!
See lots more deals at Money Saving Mom's Super Saving Saturday.
-Jami
2 comments:
I agree with you completely, I was totally overwhelmed with all the promos this week. There were way too many. I ended up doing the same as you and taking advantage of one and ignoring the rest, but the one I did was the albertsons buy $30 get $15. My husband was with me this morning and it took him about an hour to get over the fact we just got $80 of groceries for $30. Like you I don't buy any of those cake mixes frostings and other processes foods for the most part. But luckily we were completely out of cereal, so I got 8 boxes of cheerios, and stocked up on flour and kleenex. I did buy 2 boxes of brownie mix though. The Betty crocker brownie supreme is my absolute favorite. I know I shouldn't buy it but I have tried making brownies from scratch and have not found a recipe that measures up. Do you have one you like?
I also got some pretty good deals at Wallgreens. They had Nyquil for 2/$9 + $3RR, and I had two $1/1 coupons and Theraflu was $5 and $3 RR when you buy 2 and I had 2 $2/1 coupons. I used the RRs to get some Alive that was not as good of a deal, but we really needed it!
Jenelle-
I'm not one to ask about brownies because I think any recipe is better than boxed! For some reason, I can taste something weird in brownie mixes - I've been disappointed many times thinking I'm biting into a "homemade brownie" somewhere and I can taste that mix taste. :-) I just use a basic Betty Crocker cookbook recipe, but I use the fudgy variation. I do have a couple of special brownie recipes I make at the holidays or to take somewhere. They usually have a lot of extras in them!
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