Target Toy Clearance

Target clearance is a fabulous thing, and when I stopped today I was thrilled to find they've marked down lots of toys to 75% off. If you are interested, you need to go ASAP, it will go quick!

I scooped up a bunch of stuff for Christmas, birthdays and got some Angel Tree gifts as well! This is a great way to be able to afford charitable giving.

New Cellfire coupons today

Don't forget to save the new ecoupons at Cellfire today, every other Tuesday they release new ones!

While you're at it, make sure you have loaded all the available ones at Shortcuts too. I try to hit both sites every other Tuesday to make sure I have loaded them all. Nothing new for me today, but I bet there will be some coming soon!

Sunday ad picks, 7/25-7/31

Safeway Sunday ad, these prices good through Tuesday the 27th only!

• I already mentioned the pineapples for .99/ea with coupon from coupons.com a few weeks ago, but the coupon is also still available on the Del Monte website here, yeah!
• Top Sirloin is 3.99/lb, and you can load an ecoupon to your Safeway card here. I would count on it probably not working, so print out a list of the coupons you have loaded and be prepared to go to customer service if you try it. If you find a package that is just slightly over 2.5lbs in size, that would bring your per lb price down to $3.20. If you can stop at Haggar's today or tomorrow, you'll pay 2.99/lb, without any hassle!

Family Thrift Center: wow, slim pickings. Another week I won't be stopping at FTC.

• 1 dozen eggs are .49 with coupon here. FTC has had some great deals on eggs lately, here's another one.
• Limes are 3 for $1.
• Taco Bell products are on sale, combine with coupon here for .75 off 2 items. The queso would be 2 jars for 4.25, that stuff is usually so expensive, so that's probably not a bad deal.

Walgreens

• Not a single Register Reward deal worth checking out in my not very humble opinion!
• But, they do have something that always makes me happy! Milk is 1.99/gallon, and just in time, we were completely out yesterday.

Target

• Pedigree dog food is 18.99 for 40lb, I can't find any coupons available to print right now. This isn't a great price, but the best I see right now.
  

I'm changing the name of this section to the Sunday and Wednesday ad picks, since I never find exactly 10! Is this helpful to you guys? I only see the deals for things that I am interested, so I know it's not always well rounded, but I hope it helps you develop your skills for recognizing deals on the items you buy.

Pineapples!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was beyond excited about the Sunday Safeway ad, and had to force myself not to post this at 11:30pm last night, cause I needed to go to bed! Pineapples are 1.99 each, so if you have the .50 cent coupon that I posted about a few weeks ago, it will double and you can get them for .99! I think this is only good through Tuesday, I didn't look too close. If I spot anything else worth getting excited about, I'll let you know.

I was up last night at 11:30 because we had our monthly date night, and holy mother is that too late to be up! We went to Jonah Hex, which is playing at the Elks right now, and I thought it was a pretty good movie, not too gory which was a pleasant surprise. Someone at work had told me that on Tuesdays, you can have a buy one get one free date, as in tickets are 2 for the price of 1, as is popcorn and soda, so I checked it out while I was there, and was happy to see that it's every Tuesday, no special rules. Tickets are $4 each, so that could make for a really cheap date! I love the Elks, especially the upstairs theatre, it's such a neat atmosphere.

Walmart, seriously

I made a rare trip to Walmart today and if you have reason to go there yourself, pick up cherries at .93/lb! That's an awesome price, though I can't tell you how long they will be that low, you never know with Walmart prices.

I also stopped at Don's for some cabbage, and it's always the little things that make me smile; some of the heads of cabbage are so cute and tiny, the 2 that I picked out only weighed 3 pounds total. Not only are they cute, but I won't end up with half a head of cabbage slowly turning brown in the fridge.

Happy shopping!

Wednesday Top 10, 7/21-7/27

Safeway has some nice produce sales again this week;

• Green grapes are .88/lb!
• Green beans are .99/lb
• Green peppers are .50/ea
• Green broccoli is .99/lb
• Green plums are .88/lb. Not really, they're really red or black plums but I had to keep the theme going.
• Bumble Bee light tuna is .44/can SAT and SUN only.
• There is an in-ad coupon for Yoplait yogurts, 1.79 for the 4 packs of YoPlus, Fiber One, or Delights. Combine this with the manufacturer's coupons here for YoPlus or Fiber One, or here for any of the 3, and they will cost you .79/ea after coupon doubles. Check for e-coupons too! Note that there is a limit of 3 and a minimum purchase of $10 is required to use the in-ad coupons. I would like to get at least 6 of these, so I will do 2 transactions, and the minimum purchase is BEFORE manufacturers coupons. SO, make sure you have at least $10 in items before MF coupons, and then give the store coupon first. Make sense?

Don's Valley Market, I haven't been out to Don's for weeks, but I have been hoping for cheap cabbage so I can work on a chicken chow mein recipe to satisfy my cravings, I will be headed out there this week!

• Green cabbage is .39/lb (here we go with the green again)
• Broccoli is .99/lb
• Cauliflower is 1.89/head.
• Cantaloupe is .49/lb

Haggar's

• Top Sirloin is 2.99/lb, that's the best I've seen in a long time.
• Kiwis are 5 for $1, that's a really good price too.
• 10lbs of Russet are $2.

Holy Hannah, I came up with more than 10 items this week! Amazing. Seriously, I know that this list is heavy on produce, and woman cannot live by this alone, but it's all I'm interested in right now, so I have tunnel vision! If you need to stock up on protein, this probably isn't the week to do it anyway, with the exception of the tuna at Safeway, and the steak at Haggar's.

Remember the best way to save on groceries is to quit thinking about what you "need" and focus on what's in season and on sale. That said, if bread doesn't go on sale soon, I'm in trouble!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owcLoxQUMPs
Here is my promised shopping trip, thanks for checking it out! I tried and tried to embed the video into the blog, but I struck out this time, so you'll have to follow the link.

There are some good produce deals at Safeway, I'll get them posted soon, or in my own good time, whichever comes first!!

Sunday Top 10, 7/18-7/24

Sorry I haven't posted for the past week, I've been more into outdoors stuff and I'm still bored with shopping. That said, there are a handful of good deals at Safeway through 7/20, and I'm going to run in tomorrow to pick up a few items, so I thought I would try my hand at a video clip to give you a better visual of what I buy. Look for it tomorrow! In the meantime, if you're going to be in Safeway today or tomorrow, make sure to pick up strawberries at .99/lb!

FTC, total bummer of a week!

• Nash Brothers frozen veg, 12oz bags, 6 for $6 with coupon here. Seems pretty good for organic.
• Peaches or Nectarines are $1/lb, that seems to be the price at most stores right now.
• There are lots of 10 items for $10 sales listed, I almost never find this to be a good deal. One example is the Crystal Farms butter, I almost had a coronary when I saw it in this sale, but it's 8oz packs, not 16oz, so not a deal at all! Of course you don't actually have to buy 10 items to get these prices, so if you do shop at FTC this week, don't let them trick you!

Walgreens

• There's an in-ad coupon for printer paper, 1.99/400 sheets, limit 2. That's a pretty good price if you prefer not to buy the ginormous boxes of it!
• Colgate Total Advanced toothpaste is $3.49 with a 3.49 register reward. There are lots of coupons floating around for this product too, but even without one, this is still a good way to introduce yourself to register rewards without spending a lot out of pocket.

Target

• The Hanes bonus packs are on sale, for example 7 pairs of socks are $5, so print the Target store coupon here, and they're only $4!

Safeway's Sunday ad

• Corn on the cob is 5/$1.
• Fruit 2 Day is $1/bottle, and since it's a new product I was hoping to find some coupons for it, but the only one I have seen is for the 2 packs. Bummer!
• Whole Roasted chicken is 3.99 with coupon here, I would print it rather than load it to your card. Seems like a decent price if the heat has gotten to your brain and you are not cooking!

Haggar's (these are good THROUGH 7/20 ONLY, sorry I was lazy!)

• Lots of nice fruit offerings at Haggar's right now, peaches are $1/lb, pluots are 1.49/lb, Rainier cherries are $2.99/lb (not cheap, but they never are, and they are yummy), red and green grapes are $1/lb. Definitely worth a stop if it's on your route.

By the way, I was on smartsource.com checking out the coupon offerings, and they have one for Land O' Lakes light butter. What kind of horrible oxymoron is "light butter" supposed to be?

Where to find coupons?

This could turn into War and Peace, but I'll give it a shot! Obviously, this site is geared towards new couponers, or those who aren't interested in spending a ton of time couponing. There are many, many places to find coupons, and I want to help you find the ones that will save your family the most money! Here are my favorite sources, and of course I can't share facts without sharing my opinion too!

Truly free coupons (the best ones!)

• In-store coupons, like blinkies (the little widgets hanging off the shelves that spit out coupons), peelies (attached to packages), tear pads (again hanging on the shelves), and the occasional pamphlet that you see on display in the store. ALWAYS check these out, and if you are likely to use, take a couple! Be a considerate coupon user, and don't take all of them, please!
• Mailers that come to your home. I can't think of the names of any of these, but chances are you get some! This is a good place to look for unique coupons, like restaurants, hair cuts, more service related than product related. Don't just chuck them!
• The newspaper. These are only free if you would be getting the paper anyway, and frankly in our area, it's debatable whether they are worth it. Don't get me wrong, there are good coupons to be had in the Smart Source and Red Plum inserts, and I really like the Proctor and Gamble ones, but we don't get the same inserts that bigger markets get, and I'm jealous!
• In magazines that you already subscribe to. I have at least 6 coupons for $1 off Smart Taste pasta, most are from parenting related magazine. I make sure to clip and save these before I pass the mags on.
• Coupons that come directly from the company. On the occasion that I have been dissatisfied with a product, I have always gotten some sort of coupon from customer service. I have also received coupons when complimenting a product, which I try to do in equal measure!
• Look for truly free coupons wherever you go, they pop up in all sorts of places when you are mindful of them. On the rare occasion that my husband goes to the grocery store with me, he is awesome at spotting them. Get your kids in on it too!

Coupons that you pay for in some way.

• Internet printables (IP) are great. But keep in mind that you are paying for paper, ink, and ultimately your print and computer (and internet service, and electricity, and your nice computer desk, okay I'll stop there) when you hit print. Honestly, I've never taken the time to figure out how much it costs me to print an IP, but I have mentally assigned a price of 10 cents per sheet (which is probably high, but that's okay with me). So try not to go crazy with these, but do print the ones for products that you use, or high values that will make items free. Most IPs expire 30 days after you print them, that can vary a bit. Typically you can print 2 copies of any of these coupons. The first time you use any of these sites, you will have to install their coupon printing devices.
• coupons.com, usually the best selection
• smartsource.com, another good selection
• redplum.com, can be hard to print sometimes
• target.com, look for the coupon link towards the bottom of the page if you are on the homepage
• safeway.com, can be printed or loaded to your Safeway card, though there are currently a lot of issues with them not being credited if you do load them. This is powered by coupons.com, so there is some overlap in what coupons they list, but they also have Safeway specific coupons, so I always keep an eye on it.
• ourfamilycoupons.com for FTC store brand items
• There are so many others, seriously you could spend hours looking through all of the IPs that are out there. Lots of brands will also allow you to access a coupon from their homepage, you may have to register to do that. If you have a favorite brand, check out their website!
• Coupon clipping services. I'm no expert on these, because I almost never order from them. But if there are a few coupons or inserts that you want multiple copies of, there are lots of services that will package them up and send them to you. Coupons by DeDe is the only one I have ever used, and I found them to be very prompt, though there may be a cheaper service out there. You can also find coupons on e-bay, typically those are in lots of 20, but that would probably be the way to go if there is only one coupon you are looking for.

I'm sure I've missed some things, but that should give you plenty to get started! Questions?

Sunday Top 10, 7/11-7/17

Not a bad week at FTC, and there are some Target deals to be had on apparel that I was happy about. Some of the FTC deals I've already mentioned, but here's my complete list.

FTC

• Our Family cheese, 8oz, 4 for $4 with coupon here. That hits my target price of $2/lb.
• Nash Brothers frozen waffles, .67 each with coupon here.
• Our Family frozen veg blends, 12-16oz, 4 for $4 with coupon here (I wonder if they have my beloved pepper strips!)
• Nash Brothers organic sandwich cookies, 1.49/pack with coupon here.
• Bing cherries are 1.99/lb, which isn't bad. Otherwise I didn't like any of the produce prices. They also have a daily meat special this week, again I wasn't impressed!

Walgreens

• Penway crayons or colored pencils, .49/pack. They actually have the same item at Target, Rose Art brand maybe? But Walgreens shows the 8pack of jumbo crayons at this price, and that's right up our alley!
• Legal pads are .29/each with in-ad coupon, I love these to plan my shopping trips!
• Obviously the theme here is school supplies, this is the time to start loading up so you don't have to pay full price. I also think about Christmas with these sales, markers and crayons are fun little gifts or stocking stuffers.

Target

• Target.com has some good coupons for apparel right now. These will go fast, so don't hesitate to print them. I used the $2 off Merona women's tops on a shirt that was on sale for $6, so only $4. I also used the Hanes apparel coupons for $1 off on socks, which are on sale for 6.04, so 5.04 after coupon for 7 pairs, and I'm thrilled because hubs badly needed socks. The C9 apparel coupon scored me an even better deal on socks, 1.99 for 3 pair after coupon. It could be argued that socks are not apparel, but I didn't have any trouble using the coupons.

A new place to find Thrift Center coupons!

This is new to me. FTC features a store brand of organic/natural items, called Nash Brothers. I noticed in the ad today that you can get organic sandwich cookies for 1.49/package with coupon. So I went to the usual site to print out that one, among others, and it's not there. Upon closer inspection, the listed site is nashbrotherstrading.com, and I did find this high value coupon there, along with some others!

This is really cool to me, not only is FTC the only store locally that features Internet printable coupons for their store brand, they also have printables for their store brand of organics! Currently, they have some coupons for the Italian soda and the granola, both of which are on sale in the ad. The only other one I did print was for the frozen waffles, there is a $1 off coupon that will make these .67 cents! There is some overlap, as some of these coupons are on the usual site too. Just to confuse you.

I was able to print 2 of these coupons for the cookies, and hopefully I can keep them stashed away for baby bribing purposes on the plane next month...

Using up fruit, for those of us less virtuous.

So my last post was about making healthy smoothies with excess fruit. This post is a bit different. I had the fam over tonight, and made pineapple margaritas. They are super simple, and really I would encourage you to try whatever fruit you like for margs. Watermelon is nice too, and of course strawberry. Anyway, here's what I threw in the cocktail shaker tonight.

Pineapple Margaritas

Peel, core and chop 1 pineapple. Put it all in the blender, or half at a time if you're worried about capacity, and add about 1 1/2 cups water. Process until very smooth, about 2 minutes. Strain off the juice, reserve the pulp for another use. Chill until ready to prepare drinks.

For each margarita, combine 2oz Tequila, 1oz Triple Sec, 2oz simple syrup, about 1 TBSP lime juice, and 4oz pineapple juice, in cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake well. Strain into a glass that you've rimmed with sugar, add ice. If you prefer you could easily make this a blended drink.

Simple syrup is equal parts sugar and water, combined in a saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves. To rim a glass, set up 2 small plates. Pour a small amount of juice or water (I used lime juice) in one, and sugar in the next. Dip the rim of the glass in the liquid, then in the sugar to coat. Once you've done this, carefully pour in your drink of choice and people will think you're a pro! The usual choice for margs is salt of course, but the sugar was nice with the pineapple. If using salt, use kosher salt rather than table salt.

We also had fajitas, refried beans, rice, and flan for dessert! Yum. Now I'm going to bed!

What to do with fruit excess?

Here is a thought on an over abundance of fruit, something I am often guilty of during the summer. It's so good and so cheap, I just go crazy! And then a few days later, I'm trying to figure out what to do with it before it goes bad. There is an easy fix for me that ensures none of it goes to waste, and equally important, it doesn't require a whole lot of time or effort. I just wash it, cut it up, and freeze it for smoothies.

Me and junior love to have fruit smoothies for breakfast or lunch. I'm not a big fan of fruit juice, I really want my kiddo to drink plenty of water, with sweet drinks only occasionally. But I feel a little better about smoothies, they actually have fiber and good stuff in them, not just sugar. Usually, I just keep a bag of frozen mixed berries on hand, but when the opportunity arises, making up your own blend is great! So a couple of days ago, I cut up a pineapple, a cantaloupe, and washed about half a pint of blueberries and the same amount of raspberries. I divided them equally into hard plastic ziploc containers (I don't like bags, I'm too lazy to wash them so they only get used once), and stacked them in the freezer. If you do it this way, the fruit will freeze into a solid mass, so if you have a problem with that, spread them on cookie sheets to freeze through, and then package. The fruit I used yielded 12 portions, I would guess about 1 1/2 cups each. As far as cost, I would say it was about $6 worth, so .50 per portion, not bad.

I can't really be prescriptive about how to make a smoothie, it's pretty much fool proof. I let the fruit sit on the counter top while I make a cup of coffee, so it softens just a bit. Put it in the blender with some form of liquid, usually milk, and a serving of yogurt, blend, add more liquid if it's too thick to drink, and you're on your way to a healthy breakfast. The blend we had this morning used some OJ that needed to get used up, and I also like to add some powdered milk, which is a nice source of calcium, and lends some creaminess. The OJ was perfect with the cantaloupe, it had a really nice flavor. If you have fresh spinach on hand, throw some in. You won't taste it, I promise.

It's kind of funny, I love cantaloupe, but the taste of it in anything other than its original form doesn't appeal. So tonight I was checking out Merissa's blog, Little House on the Prairie Living, and she made cantaloupe butter! I might have to give it a shot and get over my bias. Check her out! She's a Piedmont girl too!

E-Coupons

I was hoping to import my excel spreadsheet into a post, so that you all could see how I track e-coupons. But I'm not smart enough. Basically, all the e-coupons that I load from Cellfire and Shortcuts are added into my spreadsheet, so that I have a super easy visual for products that I have multiple e-coupons for. For example, I currently have 4 coupons loaded for Betty Crocker Supreme brownie mix;

• Cellfire, .75/2, exp. 7/12/10
• Cellfire, .75/2, exp 7/26/10
• Shortcuts, .75/2, exp 7/27/10
• Shortcuts, .75/2, exp 8/27/10

There are also paper coupons for this product, so considering all e-coupons and a doubled paper coupon, I can get $4 off 2 of these brownie mixes at Safeway, through 7/12. The supreme brownie mix is pricey if not on sale, so I'll check and see when I shop this weekend, and maybe I'll get lucky! My point is that e-coupons rock (have I mentioned that before?), and if you spend a few minutes studying them, you can get lots of free products! Yeah!

LeBron James is going to Miami?!?!

Just kidding, like I care. That said, hubs watched ESPN for what felt like an eternity last night in anticipation. Seriously, who cares?

Hmm, so what am I really going to talk about....

I better update you on how I'm doing with the no shopping challenge I set this month to try and clean out some stockpile groceries before they completely take over my house. Frankly, not worth a crap. It's not that I haven't avoided shopping, really I totally have. I've purchased only the few fresh things that I needed, including some things for the 4th of July. The trouble is that we have had so many leftovers that we haven't made any kind of a dent in what we already have, we're too busy eating leftovers. I'm going to keep at it though! This weekend at Safeway I'll pick up the following;

1. About a pound of green grapes.
2. International delight creamer with in-ad coupon and MF coupon here, so I'll pay a dollar for a big old bottle.
3. Lettuce, probably some romaine and green leaf, it's $1/bunch.
4. Since I have such a short list, I'm going to check out my current batch of e-coupons, and see if there is anything to be had for free. Seriously, if you haven't done e-coupons yet, get on it! Ask if you have questions!

Milk is on sale through Saturday at Walgreens, $1.99/gallon, and I have coupons for .55 off/gallon (I think that's what they were anyway), so I'll load up with a few. Next time I spot Land O Lakes coupons in the Sunday paper I'll make sure and tell you so you have them too!

Wednesday Top 10, 7/7-7/14

Oh dear, the deals continue to be weak. Here's what we've got;

Safeway

• Whole roasting chickens are .79/lb
• Welch's juice cocktails will be .99 with in-ad coupon and manufacturer's coupon here.
• Green grapes are .99/lb
• Green onions and radishes are 3 for $1

Family Thrift

• FTC always has a Wednesday ad in the paper, even though their sales cycle runs Sunday to Saturday. Sometimes the prices are from their big Sunday ad, but sometimes they have some new sales too. This week they were advertising a "truckload produce sale", which I will not be attending. I didn't see anything worth stopping for!

Don's

• Eggs are .79/doz, not bad if you need them.
• Gronions are 3 for $1 here too.

Haggar's

• I don't have a copy of their ad yet, if there's anything good I'll let you know.

This should make you laugh...

So while I was writing the post below, my son was happily playing upstairs. He can see me down in the office when I am on the computer, and he periodically came to the gate at the top of the stairs to say hi. While I was finishing the post, I noticed that he was sneezing quite a bit, and then giggling about it. Children are so easily amused.

So I went upstairs, and it looked like there was a cocaine milling operation set up in my living room. EVERYTHING was covered in white powder, including the rug, couch, recliner, and of course the child. In the kitchen? Same story. My son got into the spice drawer and with his newly improved fine motor skills, opened the cream of tartar bottle and spread darn near every bit of it throughout the house.

So, I proceeded to strip him naked, and he danced around the living room to Blondie on the ipod while I cleaned up. And yes, it was so ridiculously cute that I was not one bit mad at him. If you come over for supper though, I will not be serving lemon meringue. The point of this story is that you should feel free to ignore everything I have to say about organization. My toddler reminded me that I don't have a chance!

Organizational ramblings

My big sis suggested that I post some tips about how I organize my grocery stockpile to make sure that items get used before their expiration. This is one of those things that I really don't give much thought to; there are many, many things I am not good at (scrubbing the toilet, balancing the checkbook, styling my hair). But organization is something that just comes naturally, without much thought. Here are the tips I can give you (you'll see that I am pretty left brained, if you are right brained I can't help you!)

• Everything should have a place. If you open my fridge, the yogurt is on the top shelf in the center, leftovers are on the 2rd shelf right in front, and the ketchup is in the top shelf of the door, all the way to the left. When everything has a place, you have a very quick visual of what you have and what you need. When your items are overflowing from their assigned place, stop buying more!
• In my pantry I am meticulous about sorting according to use by date. Whatever needs to be used first is in front, easiest to grab. As I add things, they go in the back. Obviously, it's a bit annoying to pull out 10 cans of tomatoes in order to put 2 more in, but it's quicker than having to look for a date on each can to see which one of the 12 needs to be used first, and it's definitely better than throwing things away.
• I also sort by theme, so the top shelf of my pantry is baking, the second shelf is canned, the 3rd shelf is more canned and pasta, the 4th shelf is snack food like crackers, as well as rice and beans, the 5th shelf is condiments and spices, and the bottom is cereal.
• About monthly, I spend 10 or 15 minutes sorting and organizing my pantry, and I pull everything that needs to be used soon. It goes on the counter of my kitchen, where I have a "sudden death" policy. It has to be used in a week, period.
• When I meal plan, I look quickly through my fridge to see which items need to be used first.
• I limit the amount of different items that I keep a stock supply of. I used to have all sorts of random canned tomatoes for example, diced, petite diced, sauce, paste, peeled whole, ground, etc. etc. They were always in different sized cans which made it hard to rotate them through the pantry, and it annoyed the heck out of me! Now I buy only diced and sauce, and never once have I wished that I had some other variety.
• I'll be totally honest, I don't religiously follow the suggested best by dates that are printed on items. And I've yet to poison anyone. That said, you gotta do what you gotta do, but keep in mind that those dates may be when the manufacturer thinks the quality of their product will start to deteriorate, it may not have anything to do with food safety. If you have a system to rotate your items, you shouldn't have to worry about it either way!

So, what do you guys think? Is my advice in any way helpful? Do you want me to come over and organize your fridge? Cause I will...

Price Book

I haven't made a specific entry about price books for quite a while, though I do mention my target prices quite a bit. If that term is new to you, hear me out. If you want to save money on groceries, you NEED to figure out a "buy" price for every item you routinely purchase. Manufacturers and stores are pretty tricky when it comes to packaging and setting prices on items, so your book needs to include information about the brand and size, not just how much it cost.

I'd really like to figure out how to make a price book that is neatly packaged and easy to find, printer friendly and convenient. I definitely intend this to be very locally relevant information, so if you stumbled across this blog from somewhere other than western South Dakota, you'll need to figure out pricing in your area, it will vary. If you find a better price at a local store, please share! If we share information about deals, we'll all benefit. So anyhow, look on the right hand side of the home page, and you'll see a fixed entry called "Price Book". I will try very hard not to ramble there, but just give you the facts, ma'am.

Sunday Top 10, 7/4-7/10

I'm concerned that this might end up being less than 10 again, by Wednesday the ads might be so bad that I insist you don't buy any groceries until the sales get better! Let's see what we've got for now;

Target

• Buy 2 Jif peanut butter (18oz) or Smucker's Jam (selected varieties), and get a free loaf of Orowheat bread. Can mix and match PB and Jam. This works out to $1.33/item, which isn't bad. I usually pay .99 for the same quantity of generic PB at Safeway, and $1 per loaf of bread, so for a bit more, you get the brand names.
• Store brand frozen veggies are .99/lb. This is an example of when an advertised price is not a sale, that is the regular price for them. That said, it's still a decent price, and nice to know you can always get the item their if you can't get it cheaper elsewhere.
• If you do go to Target, make sure you pay attention to any cash register tape coupons (CRTs) that you get, I got a good one for $1 off a $3 up&up brand product (their store brand). These are great for things that don't necessarily go on good sales, maybe sunblock, paper goods, prenatal vitamins (if you need that sort of thing!).

Walgreens

• Milk is 1.99/gallon again, God bless them!

FTC

• Butter is 1.49/lb with coupon here.
• 24oz Sour Cream is .99 with coupon here. That's a good one.
• 128oz OJ is 3.49 with coupon here. I almost never buy juice but that seems like a good price?

Anyone spot any other deals? Hope you all had a fabulous 4th of July, I have to go figure out how to use up a TON of leftovers!

Wednesday Top 10, 6/30-7/6

I'm not sure I'm going to find 10 good prices this week, I'll give it a try!

Safeway

• Corn on the cob, 5 ears for $1
• Cherries, 1.48/lb!!
• Top Sirloin, 3.99/lb (I don't usually cover meat prices, but top sirloin is my fave steak, and that's not a bad price)

Don's Valley Market

• 10lb potatoes at 1.99
• Graham crackers are 1.99/box (I hope you picked some up at FTC for .90/box last week, but if not you need them for smores this weekend!)

Prairie Market

• Store brand butter is 1.49/lb with coupon here

Haggar's

• Ground beef is 1.79/lb

I think that's all I've got, sorry guys! A good week to skip shopping and hang with your fam.