Walgreens

The thing I wanted from Walgreens this week was some of the trash bags for $2.99 w/in-ad coupon.
I used to buy Glad handle-tie trash bags from Walmart, costing $6 - $7 for 45 bags. To me, these Wags bags are as good as the Glads.
I got 30ct of the 13 gal tall kitchen bags, and 20ct of the 30 gal outdoor bags.
I would have liked to got more of the kitchen bags but they were all out, so I plan to try back again later in the week and hopefully be able to get somemore.

Sunday afternoon me and John had ran up to the Dollar General looking for something he needed (?) and we were looking around and he was looking at Arizona teas. I said Walgreens has those 2 for $1.00 this week if you're wanting some. Of course, he did.

So, while I was going to buy trash bags and Arizonas anyway, they had these razors $4.99, free after RR.
I bought a razor, paid $4.99 + tax, and got $5.00 RR back. Think it ended up costing me .34 tax or something.

Then I bought a box of trash bags and (4) Arizonas....because - even though I *know* better - I estimated the cost of those at $5.00.  Noooooo.....$4.99.
And of course you can't use a $5 RR to pay for $4.99 worth of merch at Wags.
So I grabbed another Arizona to cover the freakin penny.

Paid with $5RR and .78 oop.

Total cost $12.24 incl. tax

CVS

Almost didn't make it to CVS this week. Had a couple rough days, and forgot my coupon envvie this morning when I was out.
Since it was that late already, I decided to wait until this evening. The new sale ad starts at 6:00pm at the nearest CVS so I figured if I was going anyway, might as well get some freebies, make it worth the trip.

From This Past week, I got the Zyrtec
$18.99
-10.00 CVS red box CRT
- 7.00 IP
= $1.99 + tax

From This Coming week sale:
$6.00/2 ($3.00 each) Softsoap (Get $4 ECB wyb 2)
- 1.00 mq from Walgreens Summer Beauty booklet x 2
Paid $4.00, got $4.00

$3.79 Thermacare lower hip & back 1 count
pay $3.79, get $3.79 ECB

(They didn't carry the 8ct Excedrin, .99 FAECB)

Cost .69 tax

Walgreens

Soo, I ventured into the brand new Walgreens they opened over the summer down the highway a piece, but a little closer to me than the others.

Mainly I was going for the Brach's candy.  I looooove the mellowcreme candys with the Black Cats and Witches. I think this used to be called the Harvest assortment, because it also has Yellow Corn Cobs and Quarter Moons, Brown Haystacks and some sort of Jug, and Orange Pumpkins and (I forget what else might be Orange).
Last year I couldn't find this kind anymore, so I wasn't really expecting to today, and wasn't surprised when I didn't see any on the pegs.

As a backup plan, I was going to buy some Mushrooms, on sale for .50 with the in-ad coupon. I like these on my homemade pizza or in spagetti sauce.
I had thought about stocking up on a couple more things of Morton Salt while it was .50 cents.

I was not particularly interested in buying the Blistex or Hyland's, converting cash into an RR when there wasn't any profit to be made, and then having to figure out a way to roll it later. Or, probably letting it expire and go to waste again.
But on the way there it finally occured to my slow-arse brain, if I'm going to spend a couple bucks on the Candy or Mushrooms and/or salt anyway, why not buy the Blistex and use the RR to pay for the other stuff. Pretty much the same amount out of pocket (other than .14 tax), and I get (practically) free Blistex.

So, I didn't see the candy I wanted, so I went and looked for the Blistex. Found one, and went for Mushrooms and Salt. On my way to the register I passed the photo counter, and there was a whole spread of the candy, including mine!
I grabbed 5 bags.
It did NOT occur to my slow-arse brain to go look for the Hyland's and get it (practically) free, and use the RR on the candy I was buying anyway.

.79 is still a pretty ridiculous price for this candy, considering how little there is in the bag anymore, maybe 20 pieces, if that many.  But still better than the regular, even more ridiculous price. I justify it because I only buy it once a year.

Later I wondered why in the heck I had bought Salt at .50, when I had just seen the Kroger brand for .39 cents.  Brand names don't matter to me; the only reason I had any Morton's before was because I'd had a mq last time I bought them, bringing them down to about .15 cents.  Shoulda bought more Mushrooms instead.

Transaction #1
$2.00 Blistex + .14 tax = $2.14 oop
Earned $2.00 RR

Transaction #2
$3.95 (5) Brach's candy
$1.00 (2) Geisha Mushrooms
$1.00 (2) Morton Salts
    .18 tax
-2.00 RR
= $4.13 oop

Total oop = $6.27

Publix

Went back to Publix to try to find some more of the $1.79lb pork spare ribs, but this store had one package, marked $1.99lb, and they didn't look anywhere as good as the ones I bought at the other store.

I did the Texas Pete Wing/Chipotle sauce 5 times because that's how many mq's I had.
The Wing sauce by itself is $2.99.
The deal with the PQ from the yellow flyer is you get the Chipotle sauce free wyb the Wing Sauce.
- .40 (doubled to .80) Texas Pete Hot Sauce SS 5/01
- .40 (doubled to .80) Texas Pete Wing Sauce SS 5/08
= $1.39 final total for both, or .69 each.

$3.69 BOGO Kettle Chips ($1.84 each) (OOS at the other store)
-1.00 RP 8.07
= .84

$2.09 BOGO Heluva Good Jalapeno & Cheddar dip (Still no sign of new Buffalo Wing dip, boooo)
- .50 (doubled to $1.00) IP
= .09 each

$1.00 Trident
-2.00/3 SS 7/24
= $1.00, or about .33 each

$3.59 B6 vitamins
-3.00 PQ green flyer
-1.00 peelie q
= +.41 overage

Total 8.53 + 1.33 tax = $9.86 oop
Saved $36.48

Food Lion

Transaction #1:
.40 x 40 cans 360 cat food
= $16.00 + 1.12 tax = $17.12
Earned $10.00 OYNO coupon
Final cost $6.00/40 cans, about .15 each (+ tax)

Transaction #2:
$5.00/3 Velveeta Shells dinners (1.67/1.66 each)
-1.00 tearpad q found at Walmart awhile back
= .67/.66/.66

$3.00/2 Swanson canned chicken ($1.50 each)
-   .50/2 (doubled to 1.00/2) SS 9/11
= 1.00 each

$3.99 BOGO 5lb. Potatoes
$3.99 BOGO 5lb. Potatoes

$1.99 3lb. yellow onions

Markdown Meat:
$3.45 Beef chuck ey
$2.04 Cube steak
$1.87 Cube steak

$2.30 sausage (regular price)
$2.59 Milk x 4 (reg price)

- 10.00 OYNO
= 23.86 + .78 tax = $24.64

Final total $31.76 oop

Publix

omg, can you believe it, I actually spent money at Publix. Sometimes I'm a total sucker for those "Under $1.00" deals.

First off, I was carrying around a RC for 10 colas I didn't want to waste if I forgot to go to Publix in the next few weeks, so I wanted to get that cashed in, and bought 10 colas at .50 each.
$5.00/10

I had some .35 off the Margaret Holmes veggies, which doubled to .70, and brought the cost of the Hoppin' John my husband likes down to .49 each (from $1.19).
I priced MH veggies at Kroger and they were $1.59, and didn't even have the Hoppin' John, so I thought this made for a good deal.
Until he told me his partner found these for .50 without coupon at Dollar General.  Had I known that, I could have used the . 35 q at DG and even without doubling I would have only paid .15 each. Grrr!
$2.50/5

$2.49 BOGO Country Crock Spread
-  .40 Facebook IP (doubled to .80)
= .45 each

$2.09 BOGO Heluva Good Dip
-  .50 IP q (doubled to $1.00)
= .09 each

There's also this facebook $1.00  coupon for Limited Edition Buffalo Wing Dip, but I didn't see any of that at the store I visited.
I would love to find it and be able to stock up on that for so cheap. My husband makes some yummy hot wings.

$4.19 BOGO Honey Made Graham Crackers
- 1.00 IP (no prints remaining)
= $1.09 each

$3.69 BOGO Pepperidge Farms Milano Cookies
- .50 SS 6/26 (doubled to $1.00)
= .85 each  (this was one of those "Under $1.00" deals I fell sucker for. Hopefully somebody around here will eat these. We're not much into fancy cookies. Give us good 'ol Oreos, Chip Ahoys, and Graham crackers.)

$.45 Whiskas kitty food
- BOGO RP 7/24
= .23 each  (another "Under $1.00" deal. I can get cat food for .15 at Food Lion currently. But oh well, it wasn't that much, and Kitty will scarf it down like a meth addict.)

$3.49 BOGO Carolina Pride Smoked Sausage
- .50 SS 9/11 (doubled to $1.00)
= .74 each
(I think this was an unadvertised deal, I only saw it posted by someone in a comments section or message post.  I had another .50 coupon from a paper awhile back, I had torn out to use at Ingles or somewhere, but that deal didn't work out, and now I can't find that coupon again, dang it. .74 is a great price for this sausage.)

$3.59 Vitamin B6
-3.00/1 PQ Green Flyer
-1.00 RP or SS 9/11 (I think)
= +..41 overage

$3.00/4 Jiffy Pizza Crust Mix = .75 each
*These were only .69 a month ago. My math-itis kicked in and instead of checking it with my calculator, I came up in my head with some crazy number like 3.00 divided by 4 boxes is .49 cents or something crazy like that.  Imagine my surprise when I got to the register and they rang up .75 each.
Then I was like, oh heck! Did I not remember pizza crusts were cheaper at Food Lion anyway???
(No, I just checked back, they are/were .89 at FL, so I still got a better deal.) But I wonder what these are going to cost after this sale is over???

$1.99 lb. Boston Butt pork roast
*Kroger had it on sale for $1.77 lb this week, but it's packaged like at a warehouse, looked like it was shot full of goop or fat or something. Anyway, I like to be able to get my roasts cut up into smaller sizes to be able to throw right into the freezer when I get home, and I'm just lazy enough to pay .20 extra to be able to get that done and not have to try to saw in the thing myself.  Anyway, the Kroger one just didn't look as fresh or good  as the Publix ones, so I think it was worth it.
$8.69/ 4+ lbs.

$1.77 lb. Pork Spare ribs
*Didn't know these were on sale, but I saw them and it was a big 'ol tray of them for like $6.87 and they looked fresh and good.  My husband will smoke us some delish bbq ribs.  He said I should have gotten more.  I told him to go when he gets off work at the fire station Monday morning, he'll already be halfway there.

Final Total $31.20 + 1.47 tax = $32.67 oop
Saved $39.61
Saved a little more than 50%, so I guess that's pretty good.

CVS

After seeing the free-after-ECB stuff during my Special K shop, I came home and looked up the Rephresh Tampons and saw there was a $1.00 coupon for them.
I was hoping to find them OOS and be able to collect up some RC's, but I guess even with making $1.00 profit the $6.79 price tag was still too steep for shoppers, because every store I went in had plenty in stock.

The first shop I did, I made a big rookie mistake. It was on the Colgate toothpaste, I had a $1.50 mq from the paper, then, per comments I read at some blog or board, printed a $1.00 coupon from the CVS site, thinking it was a CVS coupon.  I didn't even check the barcode?? Duh!

My mistake, so I just paid for the toothpaste. Ouch! Kills me to pay a cent for toothpaste, when I already have a lifetime supply of the stuff.

The Softsoap I got free-after-ECB using the $1.00 mq from the Walgreens Summer Beauty booklet.
The Dawn cost .49 cents after .50 mq from 8/28 P&G (I think?)

The CVS allergy tabs were $3.69, free-after-ECB. We go through allergy tabs, so I was willing to turn cash into ECBs for those even without any profit.  Only one store had any in stock, and I was able to get RCs for a couple more boxes.

Sale week is over so not much use in recounting the deals.
I am going to check this/next week's sales and hopefully go earlier, if I go at all.

Walmart

While digging through a bag of coupons (at one point, while cleaning up some stuff, I just tossed them all in a bag, promising myself to sort them later) I found a whole lot of $1.00 off Reach Floss coupons, coming up for expiration 9/30.
Walmart has Reach floss for .88 each, allowing .12 overage.
Some other stores have floss around .99, but in that case I actually have to pay a few cents tax for them, which I don't want to do. I just want to be able to use and not waste the coupons, and it not cost me anything since I'll be giving them away (I already have a lifetime supply of floss for us).

In order to not clear shelves or cause dissension, I shop different Walmart stores, or the same store on different days, only buying 10 assorted flavors at a time.
My husband had to go to the doctor in a different town yesterday morning and we were running a little early and stopped into the WM up there.  I picked up 10 there, and also the .97 pack of Cascade, using the $1.00 Cascade from the 8/28 P&G.
I bought the Zebra Cakes for my kid using the overage from the floss, but after tax, I ended up spending $1.23 anyway.
Which I paid with a Gift Card I had gotten from doing a newspaper deal on the AJC awhile back.

On the way back home we stopped in the local Walmart for his prescription and I got 10 more.
At the same time, he bought a Sight for his Bow, so I let my overage count against that and save him a dollar.

While digging through the same bag of coupons, I had also found a stack of Free Redbox Rental codes I had gotten from buying Orville popcorn at Kroger some time back.  At the same time I had also gotten a lot of catalina coupons with free codes and used those first, and, I guess, kinda forgot about these.
I have/had 48 of them, expiring 9/30.  We've been renting 2 a day, but even so I'm still going to end up with 20 or so I probably won't be able to use, so I'm probably going to have to start giving them away.

Last night my husband pulled an all-night shift on the ambulance, so when he came home today he was pretty tired.  We worked a little bit in the garden, getting it ready to plant the cabbage and collards, but then he needed a nap, so I decided to go for a drive, do a little shopping.

On the way out of town to the shopping places, I stopped in at WM to return yesterday's movies and rent two more, and while I was there, picked up 10 more floss and nothing else.
They paid me .58 cents.

CVS

I was interested in the Special K cereal sale at CVS today; 3/$9, get $3.00 ECB.
There was a $1/3 coupon in the 9/11 RP, for a final total of 3/$5 after ECB, or $1.66 each.
(Thanks, Melissa Loves Coupons)

Which is maybe a pretty good price for Special K cereal, the way things have been going lately, although I can't say for sure, since I haven't really been following the sales too much.

Anyhoo, back when the Zyrtec 5 ct was on sale for $5.99, free after EBC, I ended up with a (some) raincheck(s) for them. I also found some booklets with $3.00 off ANY Zyrtec coupons, so voila', $3.00 profit each time.

So I used one today, to be able to use the profit against the cost of the cereal.

$5.99 Zyrtec
-3.00 booklet coupon
= 2.99 oop (+ tax)
6.00 ECB earned

$9.00/3 Special K
-1.00/3 RP 9/11
-6.00 ECB
= 2.00 oop (+tax)
3.00 ECB earned

Final total for cereal $1.99 (+ tax), or .66 each.

Now thaaaat's a pret-ty good price for Special K cereal. Plus, we actually use Zyrtec, so Bonus!

I didn't really check out the sale ad before I went, so I didn't know about the free after ECB CVS allergy meds or Rephresh tampons until I got there.  The allergy meds were all out, o'course, so I got a RC. For the tampons, I know there used to be a coupon, so I wanted to come home and check before I bought them.

Food Lion & Fall Gardening

Sorry for no picture of Food Lion shop...just imagine 4 jugs of milk.

I didn't need/want anything else from last week's sale, so I just had my husband stop in on his way back from visiting his Mom yesterday morning and pick up the milk.

Saved $2.22 not buying at our local Wally World.

So I decided I wanted to try some Fall Gardening this year. We've pretty well got regular gardening down, I think, time to try something new.
I went through the seed packets I already had, and apparently the only colder-weather seeds I had were Cabbage (yum) and Collards (yuck).

I had been trying to get to Walmart to get some of the Peat Pods I usually start my seeds in, but when we finally remembered about it, they were all out. So I put some Miracle Gro potting soil in the trays and sowed the seeds like that. I covered the trays with Saran Wrap (to create a greenhouse effect) and sat them on the kitchen window sill so they'd get morning sun.

Just a few days later, I had sprouts! Usually it's a couple weeks until sprouts.

Cabbage and Collards

Can you tell which is cabbage, and which is collards? I can't!

I moved them outside today to start hardying them for outdoor temps before planting them in the garden.

Food Lion

My big deal at Food Lion today was .99 cent Breyer's ice cream.
Some markets had it on sale for BOGO, but in the Atlanta area it was on sale for $1.99.
Used .50/1 Breyers Blasts IP , doubled to $1.00, making it .99 each.

Ground beef this week is on sale for $1.99 lb, but I found a couple packages marked about 30% off, so I paid $1.69 lb. (9.75 lbs)
Also found some Food Lion Sliced Turkey sandwich meat marked down to $1.95.
Oscar Meyer Beef hot dogs were on sale BOGO $4.29, or $2.15/$2.14 each.

Mt, Olive pickles are BOGO $2.99 ($1.50 each) this week
Use .50/1 SS 8/28, doubled to $1.00
= .50
(My store had the little cups of mini dills on mark down for $1.49, so I got those instead.)

Van Camp's Pork & Beans sale 2/$1.00, or .50 each.

Marcal toilet paper $1.25
- 1.00/1 RP 7/31
 = .25

Eggs were $1.49 each.
I still had one of the .55/2 Incredible egg IPS, doubled to $1.10
= .94 each

$ .69 Food Lion Pinto Beans (maybe a little cheaper at Walmart, not sure, but I was already there)
$2.59 Milk (cheaper than our Walmart)

Total $44.43 including tax

Publix

Not much exciting at Publix for me, just stocking up on .50 cokes while I can.

The Lay's chips were BOGO $4.29, or $2.15/$2.14 each.
I didn't plan on buying chips, so I didn't look for any coupons, but then when I was there I decided I needed some, and $2.15 was better than the usual about $4.00 price.

Total cost $9.57 incl. tax.

Non-Coupon Shopping

Even without coupons you can save on your grocery bill by following the sales, and stockpiling at extra good prices.

Our local IGA grocery store was having a Buy 10, Get $5 Mega sale this week. One of the items was Hunt's Manwich sauce, which usually costs about $1.29 a can.  For this sale, they were on sale for $0.99, and buy 10, get $5, so a final price of .49 a can. 

The last times I bought/stocked up on Manwich was back in June 2010, when Food Lion had it for $1.00 a can, and there was a $1.50/2 FLip coupon, making them .25 a can.
I haven't seen a FLip in so long, I'm not sure they even have them anymore.
Anyway, I don't believe I'll beat a .49 price at this point. So I stocked up with 20 cans. That'll last us five to six months at our rate of usage.

They also had VC's Pork & Beans for .50 a can which is a Buy price, and 10lb bag of Potatoes for $3.99.
Extra lean ground beef was $1.99lb.

Milk wasn't on sale, but was only about a dime more than at Walmart, and I probably saved the dime not driving up the road to Walmart and having to get out again.

Final total $24.and change including tax.
Savings (TBA)

Meat Loaf Muffins Recipe
In addition to Manwich-sandwiches, I use Manwich sauce in my meat loaf recipe.
Baking meat loaf in a muffin tin, for some reason, makes them come out alot less greasy than when I used a glass or loaf pan.
These are delicious and so frickin' easy to cook.

1 pound ground beef
2/3 cup oatmeal
1 egg
1 can Manwich sauce

Saving some of the Manwich sauce to spoon over the tops of the muffins, mix the remaining ingrediants together.  Spoon Manwich sauce over the tops of the muffins, and bake at 350* for 25 - 30 minutes.