getting paid to shop?!

Wait, is that really true? I'm here to tell you, yes it is. I just returned from Target $2.75 richer. (Okay, it will be 4-6 weeks before my wallet actually sees the money) Here's how I did it. I bought 2 Venus Embrace razors ($7 ea), and 3 Olay total effects 7-1 body wash ($5.50 ea). One of the Proctor and Gamble (P&G) inserts (sorry I don't know which one, the coupon was already clipped for me) had a $2 off Venus razors as wells as a b1g1 (buy a Venus get an Olay body wash). Unfortunately, I only had 2 of each coupon, or I would have done a little better. So, Target has a promotion, though it isn't advertised, where you can buy 3 Olay body washes and get a $5 gift card. I don't know if any of the other body washes than the one I got were included, I scanned what I could find, but this was the only one for me. So, so far, here is where I'm at. $15.50 out of pocket for 5 items, making it $3.10 a piece. Not bad right there, but I also get that $5 gift card... $10.50 for 5 items, $2.10 each. However, Olay is doing a rebate when you buy any 3 lotions or body washes. $15 back, though it is a mail in rebate, so it will take time to get here. So, after tax, I ended up paying $17.25 OOP (out of pocket), but I got $5 immediately, and will get another $15 in 4-6 weeks. I seriously think couponing is one of the best things that has ever happened to my budget. I never would have found this deal before. Olay and Venus were always "too expensive" I think getting paid isn't too expensive anymore.

V8 on sale!

Okay, for all of you who love V8, there is a super deal going on right now! Or even if you don't know if you love it, want to try it, but always found it too expensive. Big Lots has 46 oz V8 on sale for $1.50! That's great by itself, but you can also get coupons for it here or here. You can also generally print them twice. So that is 4 V8 you could get for $2 total! Now, Big Lots doesn't accept manufacturer coupons, so just swing by there and pick up an ad (if you don't already have one) and then head to Target or Walmart to price match! 

They also have Sunny D on sale for $1, and we recently had a $0.25 coupon in the Sunday paper, or you could print one from here.  Again, just take their ad into Target or Walmart to get the deal with a coupon.Thanks Vanessa for finding this one!

Unfortunate News

Well, I have some unfortunate news that I came across the other day. Family Fresh Foods is changing their policy. A manager was talking to me while I was there yesterday, and while they will still double coupons, and will still price match, you will need to pick one or the other. Now, I don't know if this is on each individual item, (which I'm hoping, because if I'm going to make the trip up there, I would rather not have to go to more stores as well) at which point it would be just like getting the deal at the store whose ad it is, but getting double coupons on anything that is cheapest at Family Fresh Foods. However, it may be on the whole order, in which case I will definitely be picking double coupons. What you choose is obviously up to you though. SO, I will be calling them in the next few days, and I will see what I can find out about this change, and I will keep you all posted.

$5.98 ink refills at Walgreens!

So, I know its a little late in the day, so sorry about that, but today Walgreen's is having a sale on their ink refills! You can get them for $5.98! As ink is one of the more expensive things I buy, and as I need it to be able to do the couponing, this is a fantastic deal. Now, you do need to print a coupon (firefox link) for it, so if you're looking from IE, go to Walgreen's website, click on photo, click on 7 days of deals, there is an orange bar across the middle of the page. On the right-hand side of it, it says 54% off ink cartridge refills. Click there and then print the coupon. Yay! for deals like these, and thank you couponing to disney for bringing this one to my attention.

WOW!!!!

That's what I have to say right now. WOW! I did my shopping at Family Fresh Foods (in Ogden) this week. It went fabulously. Now, yes it is a long drive up and back (1hr 20 min one way). So that did make it a little harder to deal with. But overall, it was great. I spent $37.07 which was $44.09  off the shelf price. That is a savings of 56.4%!!! Holy cow! It was awesome. There were again some things that HAD to be bought, because I don't have a big enough stockpile yet. So it possibly could have been better, but I was way excited. I think my favorite deal was one I just stumbled upon as I walked through the store. The packages of Gold 'N' Plump chicken were on sale 3/$6, and I had 4 $0.75 mfr cpns. With the fact that Family Fresh Foods doubles coupons... I got 5.5 pounds of chicken for $2! It was awesome.So, here is what I got.

2 dozen extra large eggs
6 Nissan Top Ramen
1 Western Family 26 oz ketchup
2 Ragu Spaghetti Sauce
1 Puffs facial tissue
1 pound Land O' Frost ham
1 pound rice
4 V8 Fusion 64 oz drinks
1 Welch's juice
2 Garnier shampoo
2 Garnier conditioner
2 Purex 72 oz laundry detergent
3 Kellogg's Fiber Plus granola bars
2 Western Family Cream of Mushroom Soup
2 Western Family Chicken Noodle Soup
3 Western Family tomato sauce
2 bags Goldfish
1 10ct pkg tortillas
4 1.25-1.5lb pkgs Gold 'N' Plump All Natural chicken

All of that for under $35!!!! I know I had said that I wanted to limit myself to $25, but I think this was acceptable.WOW!

limiting myself

So, this past week, I decided that I am going to try to limit the amount of money I spend each week to about $25. Seeing as my grocery budget is $100 every 2 weeks, that gives me an extra $50 to pay for newspapers, ink, and to help pay for things like Christmas and vacations. This is how I did this time.

2 gallons milk
2 jumbo packs, Huggies diapers
2 Gillette fusion razors
5 10pks quaker instant oatmeal
1 Complete contact solution
not shown: 1 Tony's single-serve pizza
I ended up spending $29.50. So it was about $4 more than I had hoped to spend. However, I saved about 46%! That is pretty good in my book. That, and when I was looking through the ads for this week, I found no good deals. So I really probably won't be doing any shopping this week. So really, that means that it ends up being $15 per week for these 2 weeks! I can deal with that.

Survey checks!

Yay! I told you that I would let you know when my check came from Opinion Outpost (an online survey company). Well, It's here! I did not expect it to come this soon, because it said 4 to 6 weeks, so I wasn't expecting anything until mid-March. That was a pleasant surprise. So here ya go, check for taking surveys. $6 more toward our Seattle fund. (I'm hoping that we don't have to take any extra out of our budget to pay for it)

Too Rushed!

So, I did get to Family Fresh Foods today, but it did not go quite as well as I would have liked. My friend and I went while her son was at preschool, but it took us a lot longer to get there than we had thought it would, so we had about 10-15 minutes that we should have been in the store. So we were basically rushing around trying to find things when we'd never been in there before, and they didn't have some of the brands I needed, and I got confused with some of my coupons, and if the things they were for were covered in the ad that I was price matching with (they were) but I didn't have time to check in the store. I didn't do too horribly, and I did save enough to more than cover the gas, but I will still probably only go once or twice a month because of the time it takes to get up there and back.
Here is what I got.

4 Dreyer's ice cream
1 16 oz, 1 8 oz cool whip,
1can pineapple tidbits
2 10 oz boxes Wheat Thins
3 boxes Club crackers
6 8 oz bags shredded cheese
2 Fiber One 4pks
toothpicks
bacon bits
jello
2 8 oz boxes cream cheese
ranch dip mix
5 1/2 pound ham steak

I spent $24.21, and I saved $29.40. I saved 55%! So really, not bad at all. As far as making up for the gas, I spend about $7 in gas to get there and back, but just from the doubling of the coupons, I saved $14 MORE than I would have by shopping in Utah Valley where I live. So including the gas I saved $7 more than I would have. Next time I go up there, I'm going to give myself a lot more time to price check, and to wander the store. But I didn't do too bad for only having 15 minutes, and for a first time.

Here's hopin'

Okay, well, I'm going to go shopping tomorrow, and hopefully I'll get all the deals that I'm trying for. I will be going up to Ogden to Family Fresh Foods, as it is the only store in Utah (that I know of) that consistently doubles coupons. Unfortunately, that is an hour and 15 minute drive for me, so I will also be spending the day with a friend to make the drive more worth it. We'll see how much extra I save based on the double coupons, and it may be worth it in and of itself, but I don't know yet. We'll see how much the double coupon part saves me. I do also have to buy some things that I wouldn't have, and that won't be on sale, or with a coupon, because I'm hostessing a party on Sunday, and need some food stuffs for that. I am only going to post the deals here, but we'll see what the total is tomorrow or Friday when I post.

- General Mills Cereal (retail 6/$12) (price match Harmon’s)

            $3 afs cpn (on 6)         

            2 $0.75 mfr cpns

2 $1 mfr cpns

            2 $0.55 mfr cpns (1 doubles)                                                                    $0.64 ea (6)

-Dreyer’s Ice cream (retail 2/$5) (price match Harmon’s)

            4 $1/1 mfr cpn (doubles)                                                                          $0.50 ea (4)

-Kraft 8oz Cheese (retail $1.88) (price match Walmart) at least 1 white, 1 yellow brick

           3 $1/2 mfr cpn (double)              

            $1 mfr cpn (doubles)                                                                                $0.74 ea (7)

-Herseys Pieces Pouches (retail 2/$5) (price match Kmart)

            4 $1 mfr cpns (double)                                                                 $0.50 ea (4)

-Club Crackers (retail $1.94) (price match Walmart)

            3 $1 mfr cpn (doubles)                                                                 $0.00 ea (3)

-Nabisco crackers (retail $1.58) (price match Maceys)

            2 $1 mfr cpns (double)                                                                 $0.00 ea (2)

money making sites

So, there are a few sites that I use to make money (which I add to my vacation or Christmas fund), and I cash out on the first of the month. This month there was only one website that I cashed out at, though I could have at 2. I cashed out from Opinion Outpost, and should get a check in 4-6 weeks for $6. I could have gotten a $5 amazon.com gift card from swagbucks, but I decided against it, because I would rather wait and get the $20 target gift card, and therefore be able to use it for my grocery shopping. I'll keep you informed for when I actually get the money.