I'm hooked. It's partly due to the fact that I recently lowered my grocery budget by $100 per month. It's really mostly due to the inspiration at Money Saving Mom. I *love* this blog. She's got all the sweet deals already worked out for you, every week, broken down by store, complete with links to online printable coupons. Could saving money get any easier??
This month concludes my first month shopping the deals at CVS. Now that I am fully stocked up on toothpaste and deodorant, I have started a give-away box for those who need it, whether that be friends who are too busy to shop the deals {need some goodies? email me privately!} or someplace local that accepts donations. I have slowly whittled my ECBs down to $3, but thanks to a friendly CVS cashier, have a raincheck for some Listerine Smart Rinse for Kids, that when combined with $1/1 coupons will give my ECBs a little boost. Hooray for rainchecks!
This week I got some great deals at Meijer, thanks to their 10/$10 deal. According to my receipt, I got $75.92 worth of groceries for $39.33. Not too bad for just starting to work the deals! It's a shame that my local Meijer doesn't double coupons or I could've gotten many goodies for free. My favorite part of the deal was for I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. It was part of the 10/$10 deal and there is online printable for $.75/1 making them $.25 each! You could either get a 15 oz tub or two smaller 7.5 oz tubs. I picked up several for myself and my grandma as well, who is on a fixed income. I also got some Life cereal for $1/box by combining their deal for 5/$10 on Quaker brand items with a $1/1 coupon. These deals run through Wednesday, in case you were hitting your local Meijer soon and hadn't gotten these goodies!
I've called many a grocery store in the suburbs east of me, in the area that I am most familiar, looking for coupon-doubling stores, but to no avail. Why don't any of those stores double??? Lo and behold, after consulting with a dear friend that I consider my local area resource {whom I will be buying Starbucks for tomorrow as a thank you}, I was turned on to not one, but TWO, grocery stores in the major city near me that double. One is Hilander {Kroger} and the other is Logli {Schnuck's}. I am planning a trip tomorrow to one of them that is running 10/$10 deals as well & will be getting some {nearly} free Green Giant frozen veggies and free Totino's pizza rolls. Once I confirm another money saving strategy at Kroger, I will post about it here.
Another great addition to my bookmarks has been the Sunday Saver circular. {This is the link for Illinois, but there is a drop down box where you can select your state.} It has links to all the stores divided by category. Then you can just look up each store to compare the deals. This has been invaluable to me in planning my shopping trips.
I also can't stop reading the forums over at Hot Coupon World, especially the ones about CVS. I like the CVS forum because you can also see previews of the upcoming weeks sales {Huggies diapers, ya'll} so you can plan your purchases accordingly. Check out the forum for your local grocery store to save yourself some moola.
We went to dinner at the home of a church family last Friday and the wife started mentioning how her and her husband were discussing how to lower their grocery budget. WELL, let's just say she got an earful ;>)
Let me know if you find something I've mentioned interesting. Any other online sources of inspiration for getting good deals?
Sunday, March 30, 2008
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8 comments:
Good for you! Saving $$ is always good! And I'm so glad you finally gave CVS a try!
For me, I *HATE* shopping multiple stores. I find it kinda defeating the purpose of running out several days a week to several different stores and burning so much gas. I just prefer shopping 2, at MOST 3, and enjoying the leisure time the rest of the week at home with my kiddos.
I guess everybody has their own methods that work for them. ;-)
And I also LOVE MoneySavingMom!
I shop once a month now maybe twice but on average because I do shop the ads, finding out which is best for meat and all that stuff I have cut my grocery bill down to almost nothing. I have no printer here in my home so printing online coupons isn't an option for me not to say that I wouldn't want to do that just don't have the means, last month was my best month yet and I was three dollars lower than February. I think it is neat how every one has there own ways of working things out. What works for me may not work for you. For me I am a multiple store shopper and actually really like it, sort of my stress reliever. Weird I know.
Jori
Steph: I was going to leave a comment about your comment, but I think it will just turn into a post, so I'll wait...
Jori: If you only shop once or twice a month, do you get a lot of fresh fruits & veggies? Do you buy enough milk for the whole month? I would love to shop less, but we buy a lot of produce & are always needing milk or OJ......
Well I should probably clarify my answer a bit. I do buy alot of fruits and veggies however veggies I buy are frozen I will occassionally buy fresh beans in the winter but only if it is a good deal. In the summer I just go right out to the corner of Alicias yard and pick away haha. Milk I don't buy just once a month I do have to buy that weekly as I don't have enough room to store 16gallons of milk. Yes I go through about 4 gallons a week. I am also on WIC so that helps with my budget a little but not much as that only gives me about 2 gallons a week anyway. Juice I do get frozen also but occasionally I do buy it from the cooler. All my big stuff, like meats, and snacks and pasta I buy once a month, sauces anything. Even with the fresh produce stuff I still only shop for that twice a month. I am a huge ALDI fan and that has helped my budget alot. I don't know if that helped at all to answer your question. I have a list of everything I need for my house, where I can get it the cheapest etc. Jori
You are now oficially my hero...thanks for all the great ideas today...and the Starbucks
You mean I wasn't your hero when I let you drive my car without your license while I was talking to Durin on the front step?
I guess it only took about.....13 years??
Wow you seem to be saving a lot of money..you know a way to shop less and save money is by using online coupons from a site like www.smartsource.com
Nice work very professional about money saving!! thanks for sharing!!!
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