UGO SAVINGS

My UGO deals today. Broken down each item cost me $1.25 each. Pretty sweet! I bought: 9 boxes of gluten free Honey Nut Chex cereal, 4 boxes Cascadian Farms cereal, 3 boxes Mom's Toasted Cinnamon Squares cereal, 4 big family size cans of... Campbell's tomato soup, 2 bottles of Hunt's ketchup with NO high fructose corn syrup, 3 bags of Thomas' English Muffins (2 are cinnamon raisin), 12 containers of Pillsbury Gluten Free cookie dough, 2 cans of green beans, 2 - pkgs. of raisins, 2 packages of celery, 1- 3lb. bag of apples, 2 rolls of wrapping paper, bananas, a package of whole wheat corn syrup free hot dog buns & a big package of Twizzlers.  I'm trying to make some changes little by little and UGO is really helping with their fabulous prices.  I think I may have to make this a weekly stop.  =)

Score at Kroger!

We are in a very tight spot right now financially. We always have a tight budget but we are squeezing every penny for it's worth right now. We had several unexpected costs come up. For those of you who live tight like we do you understand how that throws things off. Because of this our grocery budget is smaller than normal. I went into Kroger today to get essentials only & with cash in hand. I was holding my breath that my $100 would make it! Normally I shop about twice a month and have about $225. This time I was going in with less than half that.

This is what I came home with. I was extremely pleased! At one point I looked up & the register said $199. Ack! It was still climbing & didn't even add in TN's 9.75% tax yet. I about fell on the floor! How could that have happened? Then all at once the Mega Event savings clicked in on the register & the numbers started rolling downward. I almost cheered! Now we were down to $117 & that wasn't counting my coupons. As our friend punched in each coupon Sweet Pea & I watched the numbers fall. Finally we got to $97.22! I grinned at Sweet Pea & she grinned back. We made it UNDER $100! I proudly brought home our groceries & the change to Dave. =0)
Here is what we got with our $:

1 - 21 lbs. turkey
1- 20 lbs. turkey
2 boxes of tissues ($1/each - I had to get a bit softer b/c of our colds)
8 cans Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup (38cents/can)
4 cans Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup (38cents/can)
12 cans Carnation evaporated milk (15 cents/can)
2 boxes Stove Top Stuffing (75cents/each)
9 cans Kroger peaches in light syrup (49cents/each)
4 - 28oz. cans whole peeled tomatoes (99 cents/each)
2 - 24ct. Stayfree pads (99 cents/each)
8 rolls of Bounty paper towels (sale & coupon)
1 - 10lbs. bag of potatoes ($3.99)
10 boxes Annie's Organic Mac & Cheese (49 cents/each)
2 boxes Life cereal ($1.49/each)
3 - 4pk Danimals yogurt ($1/each)
4 - 4pk Activia yogurt ($1/each)
4 - 4pk Dannon Light & Fit yogurt ($1/each)
2 tubs Best Life buttery spread (49cents/each)
1 jar Chi-Chi's salsa
24 ct. Advil (50 cents)
2.5 lbs. red seedless grapes
4 on the vine tomatoes
1lb. asparagus
1 container Organic Honest Fruit Punch ( free)
2 bags Pepperidge Farm chocolate brownie cookies (99cents/bag ~my splurge for Dave & I)
1 box Pepperidge Farm natural crackers (99 cents)

I'm especially thrilled with the turkeys. They were on sale from $1.49/lb. to 69 cents/lb. That's more than 50% savings! We will use them for soups, casseroles, sandwiches & other meals. The bones will be great for broth. These will go a long way in feeding my family of 7.

I'm feeling happy & blessed with our savings today. My greatest reward was my husband's compliments & praise. That was worth more than the $130 we saved. Much more! =0)

Cha-Ching!

Here is an entry I forgot to post. Whoops!
This is from my June 15th shopping trip.


Boy, this week has been busy! I didn't plan to take a break from blogging but obviously it happened. I have been occupied with catching up on cutting & organizing my coupons, driving the kids back and forth to VBS, house chores, shopping trips, baby care & trying to finish up school. Whew! I have a lot to catch up on with blogging and quite a few pics to share.



I have been enjoying grocery shopping lately. Though it is a lot of work to prepare for these trips the savings make me eager to shop. I see it as a challenge to get as much as possible for less. I am thrilled when I can cut our grocery bill in half and elated when it is cut even more!

This was one of my latest big shopping successes.

The Highlights
Ronzoni Pasta = $.69 cents a box (reg. $1.39)
Fudge Brownie Mix = $.60 cents a box (reg. $1.89)
Playtex Tampons = $1.14 a box (reg. $4.27)
All Cheerios cereal = $1.00 a box (reg. $3.99)
Bounty large roll = $.50 cents a roll (reg. $1.25)
Keebler Simply Sandies cookies = $.99 cents box (reg. $3.99)
Starkist white tuna = $.69 cents a can (reg. $.89 cents)
Knorr Pasta = $.45 cents a box (reg. $1.59)
Bananas = FREE
Chex Mix = $.85 cents a bag (reg. $2.79)
Lysol Wipes = $1.50 a container (reg. $4.99)
Lender's Bagels = $.89 cents bag (reg. $1.79)
4-pack Publix toilet paper = FREE
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter = $.65 cents a tub (reg. $2.29)
Dial Body Wash = $1.24 (reg. $4.49)


Celebrating

Feeling Victorious!

I saved $149.46!!!!!!!

Here you can see all my coupon savings. The original total was $258.83. I saved $149.46 & spent only $109.37. That's less than half of the original cost! If you don't count the tax the total was $98.47 for my groceries. I was very happy with this trip! And the look on the cashiers face was great. She was so amazed!

Receipts

As I mentioned before this couponing deal is really working for us. I've been able to match up many coupons with fantastic sales and saving money. Dave has been amazed that we are now eating name brands for less than store brand cost! Often for pennies on the dollar! We've never cared about whether it is a name brand or not and shopped mostly store brands. It is more that he is surprised that we can actually afford the name brands AND are paying far less for them than what we normally purchase! Wow!
I couldn't resist sharing a few of our recent receipts. It's funny, we've almost been dancing our way out of the stores lately. Lol! I do admit it does take a lot of work but it is definitely paying off. And that makes me feel like I'm doing my job well. =)

Publix Trip

Here I saved more than I spent! $95.28 spent & $99.89 saved!

Kroger Trip

This trip I spent $92.78 & saved $79.57! This trip included a fantastic deal on Huggies diapers.

I just HAD to show this long list of coupons used. I think it took up at least 1/2 the receipt. =)

Another Publix Trip

This one I spent $71.76 & saved $110.85!!!!!!!

We took a trip to Kroger's week before last because we were tipped that they were tripling up to 20 coupons per transaction. I took my wad of coupons & we all went shopping. It was a long trip b/c I had to match up the best deals there in the store as most of my coupons were for regular priced items. Some things didn't come out to be worth the price even with the tripled coupons but many did. Dave & I split up our groceries into 2 carts and matched our coupons accordingly. This way we were able to save even more $$ and still keep to the rules of 20 triple coupons per transaction. Pretty smart, eh? We saved $40 with the bonus alone. That doesn't even count the original coupon savings (without it being tripled) or the sale savings. It was well worth the trip & time!

BTW, in case you are wondering I don't buy anything that we don't normally use or isn't a terrific buy. I have in mind the amount I will pay for an item and if it goes higher than that I will not pay it. It doesn't matter if its on sale or I have a coupon I still won't buy it if it isn't in my "price zone". I feel like we are not really saving money if I buy it just b/c it's a sale or has a matching coupon.

Meal Planning

I finally finished my meal planning & shopping lists for the next 2 weeks. After talking with my friend Kristi I thought I'd share in case anyone would like to see. =) I usually appoint a specific day of the week to each meal but this time I decided not to do that. I'll choose more according to time & taste what sounds good for that night choosing from the list. A side effect of pregnancy? Lol. =)



I made my shopping lists according to the ingredients I'd need for these meals plus a few snacks & breakfasts. I find we definitely save $$ this way. This is much needed as our budget is tighter than ever lately. Dave & Sweet Pea took a quick inventory before the shopping trip. This prevents us from buying more than we need. Dave has been taking some or all the kids and doing the grocery shopping these past couple of months. Though in some ways I miss it, (I know I'm a strange duck. Hee, hee), I am deeply thankful he is taking this large task over. I don't have the stamina for it at this time as it involves a few hours and sometimes 3-4 different stores.



I made up a menu for both lunches & suppers for 2 weeks but I'll just share the suppers for now. Here they are!


1. Chili & Cornbread

2. Spaghetti, Sauce, Bread & Salad (Salad has been on sale here lately. If it wasn't we'd have a green veggie instead.)

3. Quesadillas, Refried Beans, Cornbread & Salad

4. Chicken Divan & Bread or Muffins

5. Potato Soup, Muffins or Bread, & Salad

6. Lasagna, Green Veggie, Bread or Muffins

7. Lentil, Turkey (or Chicken), Veggie Soup & Muffins

8. Pizza Night ~ English Muffin Pizzas & Carrot sticks

9. Taco Night

10. Pot Roast w/carrots, onions & potatoes and peas or broccoli

11. BBQ Pork, Buns, Raw carrots, Baked beans

12. Layer Dinner, Muffins or Bread

13. Mexican Hamburger Rice Bake & Broccoli Parmesan

14. Chicken Green Bean Casserole, Muffins or Bread, Extra Veggie?

A few of these are new recipes I have never tried before. I will have some PB&J standing by just in case. =)


This time I threw a few extras in just in case. What can I say, I like variety! Lol.

Maybe?
Honey Baked Chicken pg. 130
Chicken Pot Pie pg. 130
Pancakes

More Frugal Finds

Yesterday I took the kids out for a treat. They had all worked very hard on the house Monday getting it ready for another showing. I had a coupon for Old Country Buffet & since Elvis has been begging to go there I chose this for lunch. The rest of the kids love it there too & I like that the price is all inclusive. My coupon was for either an adult lunch for $5.99 ($2 savings) or 2 kids eating free with the purchase of a full priced adult. I chose Door #2. I thought that it would be Elvis & Boo that would receive the discount. I was happy with that as they price by the year (53 cents per year of age) and Elvis is 6 & Boo 9. I also thought I would be paying the full adult price for Sweet Pea as she is now 12. Well, to my surprise the lady charged me for one adult meal (me), one 6 year old (Elvis) & one 2 year old ( Bugs). It came to $12.69! That's cheaper than it would cost for us all to eat at McDonald's! In fact, it came out to $2.54 per person and that included a an all-you-can-eat full meal, several drinks, salad & dessert. Wow! I wanted to happy dance right there in the front of the restaurant. Even with the tip it was cheaper than McD's. Hooray!

After the treat out we went to our local Price Chopper to shop some of the sales. I used to do the majority of my shopping there but since Price Rite came to town I do my main shopping there. I was flabbergasted to find out last month that most of my staples cost twice as much at PC than they do at PR!!!!!! That is why I know only shop the sales there. And they have to be great sales too. Even with those higher every day prices PC is still the lowest priced full service chain grocery store in our area. That says something about the rising cost of groceries, doesn't it? =P I left the store with a savings of $83! A 76% savings! Another happy dance. =)

Today I'm going to try out the rebate program at Rite Aid. I have heard great things about the CVS ECB program (a rebate program for $ you can spend only in CVS). I'm going to try that in the near future but Rite Aid has much better deals this week. I may even be able to get some items for free! I'll let you know how it goes.