Extreme Couponing

Last night I watched some of the TLC Extreme Couponing show. It is obviously like all reality shows meant for entertainment purposes. So hopefully no one thinks I go and buy 300 toothbrushes or 200 deodorants on a shopping trip. And I think it is no coincidence they aired this episode before the Hoarders show. I also didn't think some of it was that great of deals. The one lady was paying 39 cents each for French's mustard...so she bought 62 of them I think. I have never spent any money, besides tax, on mustard. And since Audrey is the only one in our house who uses mustard, besides for making deviled eggs, the 1 bottle in the frig and the 2 downstairs will probably last us for at least 2 years.

On that note, I did go to Publix yesterday. And included in my order was 6 bags of Banquet chicken nuggets...crazy huh?? Well I am splitting it with a friend so only 3 bags are staying at our house. The total this week was $50 ($90 something before coupons), which is higher than usual for me. But I did earn a $10 gift card to Publix and I can never get the Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper for less than $3 a case...and at our house it is a necessity.

Victoria Bryant State Park

We spent an absolutely beautiful day hiking and having a picnic at Victoria Bryant State Park in Royton. I would do this every weekend if schedules allowed.

This is at the observation deck at the beaver dam. A tree had fallen on the deck and the men were throwing the tree parts back to the beavers.

Our junior hikers. We walked for around 4 hours...they did a great job.

Playing around on the rocks and in the water was probably our favorite part.

Budgets

At the end of last year I wanted to make my couponing more exciting. I had couponed for more than a year at that point and while there were some deals that made me feel great, it had lost some of the excitement. So I decided to set myself up a budget for 2011. I gave myself $250 a month to spend on groceries and drugstore items (paper products, medicines, cleaning products, and stuff like that). I found a nice excel spreadsheet that someone had created and put in my goal. The way the spreadsheet works is you enter each receipt on a monthly tab and then it rolls up into a nice summary. Below is my completed table for the first quarter of 2011. It is great to see where you are spending and saving the most. After January, it became obvious to me that I was spending too much at Walgreens for what I was getting, so I stopped going there unless they had a really good deal on something I really wanted.

It is hard to see (I think you can click on the picture and see it better). The great news is I have been under budget each month (in February $82 under) and that my savings rate is around 81%.

I am usually not a fan of budgets. I consider myself a saver but usually when I set myself up on a budget I immediately think of something I “really” need. But this budget has been a lot of fun. It is a game for me. How to get everything we need, and the most, with the smallest amount. And then using those items to create meals. Of course I still have some trips where I just walk into Publix and grab what I want. But those trips get logged in the table as well, so it helps me to try my best to plan ahead. I am still thinking of new ways to throw some excitement into all of this. But for this week 8 cents jars of peanut butter and 50 cent milk has me pretty excited! Happy shopping!

Skyrocketing food prices

Yesterday the AP published a news article about the skyrocketing price of food. This is due to several factors including the increase in oil prices and vegetable crops not being as plentiful. Food prices rose 3.9% in February, the steepest single month climb since 1974. I am sure you noticed foods that you buy seem to be increasing in price each time you shop. But you can do something about it. While there may not be a coupon for everything you need on your list...it still makes a difference. Yesterday at Publix my total was $128.37 before they started taking off my coupons. I ended up paying $80.14, which included $50 in gas cards...so I paid around $30 for the food pictured here. This weeks sales will make the kids very happy...lots of things the kids always want and that make packing lunches very easy. I will go back to the store this weekend and get milk, produce and a couple of meats and expect to spent around $20. That will be right on target for spending $50 a week on groceries.





So what is on your list at Publix this week?

Props

I am always surprised how things work out when I request "special" customer service from a store. Somehow this weekend I lost a small wallet that I carry my drugstore "fake" money in. It was quite a bummer because I had $11 in CVS money and $10 in Rite Aid money...which can go a long way at a drugstore. I figured CVS would be able to reissue my money...they are always so accomodating. I had heard Rite Aid does not reissue rewards. So this morning I called...and the outcome:


CVS: even though my "money" shows up on the website when I log in under my account the lady on the phone says she can only reissue my $1 reward, not my $10 one. I am shocked and really bummed.


Rite Aid: based on everything I read online I wasn't even going to try. But they have an instant chat where you can talk to a customer service person. I told her I lost my $10 heart healthy reward and wanted to know if it could be reprinted. Without hesitation she said she could mail it to me (but they generally do not reissue them).


So I only lost $10 now instead of $21 and my loyalty has slightly shifted towards Rite Aid. Now if I can only find a way to get back some of that "losing my mind" feeling from losing the wallet in the first place.


And since I have no picture to go along with that story...

The Drugstore Game

There are huge benefits in shopping the drugstores (CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens).

At the beginning of 2011 I put myself on a budget for grocery and drugstore shopping. My goal was to spend no more than $250 a month. I found an excel spreadsheet which keeps track of my trips calculating the amount saved and allows me to see which stores are actually saving me the most.

CVS is my long time favorite, but lately Rite Aid has been having awesome deals. Walgreens, well, every once in a while they have a deal I take advantage of but for the most part I stay away. As for grocery stores there is no question, Publix is definitely the way to go.

So I thought I would show some of the benefits of drug store shopping. I decided to go to Walgreens this week because they had a great deal on liquid acetaminophen, and we our on our last little bit. Kelsey is the only one in our house who still takes liquid, but since she takes 10 ml a dose, a bottle doesn’t last that long.

All the drugstores have “store money” that is basically like cash that you can use on your items at that store. Walgreens calls their money Register Rewards (RR) and they print on a Catalina machine after your purchase. I had a $3 RR I wanted to use at Walgreens, so this was my plan.

Buy:
4 Pediacare acetaminophen liquid (6.99 each) = $27.96
1 Nice and Easy hair foam (7.99 each) = $7.99 (generates a $1 RR)
3 cans of mandarin orances (1.29 each) = $3.87
TOTAL: $39.82

Use:
Walgreens Pediacare in ad coupon ($5 off each one) = -$20
Facebook coupon for a free nice and easy foam = -$7.99
Walgreens mandarin oranges in ad coupon (0.79 each) = -$2.37
Manufactures Pediacare printable coupon ($3 off 2) x 2 = -$6.00
And my $3 RR from last week = -$3.00

So my total was 0.46 plus $1.17 tax (so $1.63) and I had a $1 RR print that I can use on my next Walgreens trip. So basically I bought the oranges just so I could use my $3 RR from last week.

Rite Aid has two money-back programs. They have UP rewards (which are Rite Aid play money) and SCR (which are rebates). You enter your receipt online and if your qualify for a rebate (these are advertised) you get that amount entered into your account. At the end of the month you can request your check and you get a check in the mail for all your SCRs that you can cash at the bank. Rite Aid also has an online advertising program where if you watch these 30 second or so videos you get ride aid coupons for that product (or some are just $1 off any product). These are called video values (VV).

I went to Rite Aid with a $10 and $20 UP rewards (their form or Rite Aid money) that I wanted to spend. So basically my goal is to have my pretax total be slightly over $30 after coupons.

So I bought:
3 packs of dixie paper plates (3.59 each): 10.77
1 themacare: 3.59
2 Lysol disinfectant sprays (3.99 each) = 7.98
1 Keri lotion = 6.99
1 Tavist allergy tablets = 6.99
1 comtrex cold and sinus med = 4.99
1 bufferin 130 ct aspirin = 6.99
1 snickers bar = 0.88
1 cottenelle 12 pk toilet paper = 6.99
2 sambucol (herbal flu relief tabs) = 2.00
2 reese king size peanut butter cups = 1.59

TOTAL = $59.76

And then I used:
A $3/$15 coupon for completing a survey (printed on my receipt) = -$3.00
2 x $1 printable sambucol coupons = -$2.00
A video values reese printable coupon = -0.50
The in ad $5 off 3 dixie plates coupon = -$5.00
The video value $5 off 3 dixie plates coupon = -$5.00
2 mfr coupons ($1.50 each) for the Lysol disinfectant = -$3.00
A video values coupon for cottenelle = -$1.00
A mfr coupon for cottenelle = -$0.50
An in ad thermacare coupon = -$3.99
A printable keri lotion coupon = -$3.00
A mfr coupon for Comtrex = -$1.50
2 printable $1 Video values coupons (off anything) = -$2.00

Then my $10 and $20 rite aid UP bucks

It ended up being -0.82 before tax…normally you can’t go negative because UP rewards can’t be used to pay for tax…not sure why it worked but fine by me! After tax I paid $1.55 real cash.

But it gets even better. I had $1.88 print in new UP rewards print (from buying the snickers and the cottenelle). Then when I go online and enter my receipt I will get the SCR rebates for the Lysol, Keri lotion, Tavist, Comtrex, and Bufferin. These rebates will total $23 that I will receive as a check in the mail.

I don’t match up the coupons with the sales myself. Websites such as www.southernsavers.com and www.hip2save.com do most of the work for you. You just have to figure out which coupons you have and make up a scenario that works for you.

The way to make the drugstores really pay is to “roll” the play money these drugstores give you into the next week’s deals. You buy the items next week with your rewards that will generate new rewards. Most of the time you are not buying items that are on your shopping list for that week but eventually you will end up with a drugstore in your bathroom and when you need something you will never have to pay full price. Or you can just think Rite Aid paid me $23 to shop at their store today and go and give away all your items and make your friends or shelters happy!

My Great Idea

I had one of the greatest ideas ever this weekend. Randy and I were working on assembling Kelsey’s old bunk bed down in the basement play room. Once that was finished, we were cleaning up and moving things around. I saw a DVD shelf we no longer are using against the wall and it hit me…the idea not the shelf.

For a few weeks I have been looking online for a food rotation system for canned foods. These shelves allow you to easily rotate your canned foods so that you are using the oldest cans first. Currently I have my extra cans in our basement “food closet” on a shelf, so when I would buy more I would have to put the older cans in the back and slide them all forward…this was not one of my favorite things to do.

I found some really nice shelves online, but they were more expensive than I was willing to pay. Then I found some cardboard ones that were reasonably priced but when I went to order them the shipping was outrageous, so I reconsidered that. Then I found instructions on how to make your own out of scrap cardboard boxes, and thought maybe one day I will do that.

Then came the DVD shelf. I works PERFECTLY to hold cans. I stacked the cans from with the oldest cans on the right and the newest on the left, and they easily slide left to right. For normal sized cans each shelf holds 18 cans. For the small cans tomato sauce or paste cans it probably holds at least 32. I now have the fanciest canned food holder ever!





This freed up tons of space on my shelf so I reorganized the rest of the food closet too. The canned food shelf is on the facing wall to this shelf.



And here are some pictures of the cleaned up play room. I am sure in a few days it will look again like the Lego store exploded in here, but for now it is nicely organized and cleaned up.





Of course I have a running list of things I want to organize in the house. Audrey suggested I figure out which room can be her "trophy room" as her trophies keep getting bigger. This weekend she won first place in her karate sparring tournament. She thinks this is the best looking trophy ever.

We love Publix!

Here is a summary of my very exciting Publix trip.

Reese king size cups (2) 2.00
Reese mini king cups (2) 0.00 Used 2 B1G1 coupons for king size cups above
Thomas bagels (1) 2.10
Doritos (2) 3.99
Reach floss (4) -0.04 Used 4 x $1 coupons
Pillsbury Grands biscuits (4) 2.80 Used 2 x 0.30 off 2 (doubles to be $1.20 off total)
Hunt tomato sauce (4) 1.34
Mueller pasta (4) -1.22 Used 4 x $1 coupons
Idahoan potatoes (3) 2.00 Used 1.00 off 3
Bayer aspirin (2) -1.26 Used 2 x $2 publix coupons and 2 x $1 mfr coupons
Ground chuck 3.04
Strawberries (1) 0.67 Used $1 off produce wyb 2 frito lay chips (Doritos counted)
Hot mama garlic knots (1) 1.40
Classico alfredo sauce (5) 1.73 Used 5 x $1 coupons
Bread (1) 1.25
Green giant canned vegs (8) 3.16 Used 2 x $1/4 publix coupons
Hunts tomatoes (4) 2.54 Used 1 x 0.45/3 (doubled to 90 cents off)
Publix choc crème cookies (1) 0.01 Penny item for this week
-5.00 1 x $5 off 30 purchase publix coupon (was in last weeks paper)
-10.00 2 x $5 off wyb 20 participating Italian items (hunts, pillsbury, green giant)

Total from above ends up being $10.50 before tax, but my receipt says $9.61 before tax. It's not worth the time to figure out where my error is. I did get "lucky" on this trip and got an extra $4 off. There is a publix coupon for $1 off 4 hunts tomatoes that I didn't have and asked if the cashier had the code (publix coupons are a 4 digit code they enter). She didn't have it but asked the bagger to ask customer service for it. They ended up giving her the code for the $5 off 2o items (which i had already used). But she rang it up too fast because it was the last coupon. So I went to customer service and the lady said to not worry about it and that they weren't going to let me pay back the $4 difference.

I use http://www.iheartpublix/ and http://www.southernsavers.com/ to find these deals. Now I am off to find some deals on gas! :)