FTC deals 6/20 through 6/26

Thrift has been a good place to stop lately! They are obviously promoting their store brand stuff right now, so check out the in-ad coupon for $3 off any 5 Our Family products. You can't combine this with any of their other coupons, but this will make for some great deals. When I see coupons of this sort of odd value, it helps me to think of it in terms of .60 off/item, must buy 5. Does that make sense?

So based on the ad, here are a few suggestions with this coupon, assuming that you buy 5 items;

• 1lb butter; 1.29 (!!!!!), limit 2
• White or wheat bread; .73 (not sure if this is 100% whole wheat, if so, that would be a great price)
• Chunk light tuna, 5oz; .06/ea
• Mushrooms, 4oz can; better than free, make sure you buy something to eat up the .10 overage per can!
• Sauerkraut, 14oz can; .09/ea
• Graham crackers; .90/box
Don’t let it confuse you that there are several items that show coupon savings at the website. Do the math, and you’ll see that most of them are not valued at .60 off per item or more, so the in-ad coupon is better.
I’m sure there are a bunch more store brand items that will be just about free with this coupon. I don’t usually do “scouting” trips, but I’ll try and spend a little time looking around so I can give you suggestions. One thing I’m not sure about is using more than one per transaction; I don’t see anything that suggests that you can’t use 2 coupons on 10 items, but you could be questioned if you try. I plan to give it a shot tomorrow, I’ll let you know! Regardless, you can certainly do multiple transactions if it’s an issue, but I prefer to just do one and be done.
Just like the dairy coupon, this one is good for 2 weeks, through 7/3, so grab some extras!
Here’s a potential transaction;
2 lbs butter, 2.58
8 jars mushrooms, -.80
Total out of pocket for 10 items, 1.78 +tax! That’s .89/lb butter, and 8 jars mushrooms for free!

Some things I’ll check out; drink mixes (like generic Kool-aid), paper products, and single serve type items.

There are some other good deals there too;
• Kool-aid is 10 for $1, and there is a coupon in today’s paper for $2 off C&H sugar, which I would guess is around 3.50/5lb. I also picked up a peelie coupon in the store a couple of days ago for 2 free packets of Kool-aid if you buy 10, not sure those would work together though.
• Grapes are .99/lb

Happy Father's Day!

Check out this adorable clip. I think you should just take the sweet baby to bed with you dad!

Have a great Father's day everyone!

Top 10 6/16-6/22

I thought I would try to post my favorite sales for the week at local stores, no coupons, or only coupons that you can find really easily. I know not everyone collects coupons like I do, but you don't have to in order to save money on groceries. So this list will include only in-ad coupons, or those currently available to print. Here we go!

Haggar's
• 10lbs potatoes for $2

Safeway
• 1 gallon milk for 1.98, no minimum required purchase!
• Red grapes, .99/lb
• Fiber One yogurt, $2, plus load e-coupon here and use paper coupon here to get it free! This is a perfect way to try e-coupons for the first time.
• Frozen Safeway brand veg, 1.25/bag with in-ad coupon. Usually for corn, peas, etc. I will only pay $1/lb at most, but this should include other things, like the bell pepper strips, which is waaay cheaper than buying fresh peppers.
• Starkist tuna, 5oz/.44 each, 6/19 and 6/20 only.

Don’s
• Peaches, 1.39/lb (I know it’s too early for them to be good, and that’s not a great price, but I need a peach tart in my life!)
• Deli American cheese, 2.99/lb

FTC (I already mentioned these, but their silly ad schedule puts them off kilter from everyone else; these prices end 6/19)
• Eggs are .49/dozen, must buy 2 dozen, with coupon here, that's only 4 cents/egg!
• White vinegar is .99/gallon with coupon here

Safeway trip 6/15,

I forced myself to hit Safeway today for the sales that are set to end today, and as usual when I just don't feel like it, I still ended up glad that I went. My son would rather be in the garden, but he was a good sport! I don't plan to start listing all the sales and where I get the coupons from, because I'm sorry my dears, but that would take a LONG time! So instead, I thought I should share a few of my techniques, and show you what kind of savings you can accomplish with these techniques. So I bought;

Cheerios
Lucky Charms (don't tell anyone, these are better than candy to me. Well, really they are candy...)
BBQ sauce
Kraft Mayo (the new flavored stuff)
2 bags Cheetos
3 bags Rold Gold pretzels
2 bags snyders pretzels
2 boxes Ritz Crackerfuls (I've been wanting to try these, they ended up tasting just okay in my opinion)
7 packages of Sargento cheese slices
1 head of Romaine
3lbs Granny Smith apples
2lbs strawberries

My total out of pocket cost was $13.94, a savings of 85% according to Safeway. I used 32.50 in coupons, including paper coupons and e-coupons. So here are my suggestions on how to start saving money like this.

1. Be flexible; you'll notice the only vegetable I bought was lettuce. We eat a lot of fruit and veg, so this is not going to be enough to get us through the week by any means, but it was the only sale price I was willing to pay. I will pick up some cauliflower at FTC on Thursday, and hope for some good prices on produce at Haggar's, but otherwise, we'll be using canned and frozen veg this week. As far as fruit, I have also bought grapes at Haggar's (1.49/lb through today only), apples at Sam's ($1/lb, which is the most I'm willing to pay), and I have some kiwis that are ripening too. If there are absolutely no good produce prices, we stick with bananas and apples.
2. Stockpile; you can't stock up on fresh produce, but you definitely can buy meat at it's cheapest, and freeze it. I don't need any meat now, nor for the next 6 months probably, so I didn't buy any.
3. Keep stockpiling; My son loves pretzels, and they are better for him than other snacks, but I have been waiting and waiting for a good sale on them. And here it came, so yes, I bought 5 bags, even though it will last him several weeks. The goal is to buy enough to last until the next good sale comes along!
4. Know what you use; it's rare that I buy cereal, basically my rule is that I absolutely only buy it when it's free. We don't eat much cereal, and I have more than enough in my stock. The cereals that I purchased today actually resulted in overage of 2.27 for me, because I had e-coupons loaded on my Safeway card, and I used paper coupons too. Overage is when your coupons take off more than the price of the items, and you need to make sure you have other items in your order to apply the overage to. Overage is the gold standard of couponing, and it helps you cut the price of things that you rarely see coupons for, like produce.
5. Look for coupons everywhere; you know all the junk that prints out from the register along with your receipt? This can be a really good source for unique coupons. For example, one of the coupons I used today was for $1 off bagged Safeway produce (the apples). I can only hope I get that one again!
6. Be willing to change your habits; the one thing I used to watch really closely for sales on was soda. When I got pregnant with my son, I stopped drinking my one Mt. Dew/day. Recently, my husband realized that his several Pepsi's a day were really tearing his stomach up. Not having to buy those items has definitely made staying within budget easier. You have to decide what works for you, but think about cutting back even if you're not willing to give it up completely. I can tell you that when the only beverage you have to buy is milk, you'll save money!
7. Last tip for today is rain checks; when something is on a really good sale, make sure you get a rain check for it if they are out of stock. The Sargento cheese slices were on sale for 2.99/package, which is not going to happen, but I had a rain check from when they were on sale for 1.49/package. I combined that with coupons from the Dairy recipe book that you can find in the store, as well as the coupon here for one of them, and I bought 7 packs for 6.38 (I think). That's more like it. I left with a rain check too, for raspberries at 2.49/pint.

So what do you think? This is a very different approach to shopping for me, compared to how I used to shop. Used to be, I wrote a list and bought anything and everything we needed, regardless of how much it was. I would try to buy whatever was on sale, but really when you shop that way, you're at the mercy of the sales cycle, and it's rare that you hit it just right without some effort. I have plenty of staples right now, so while the items I bought today do not represent a well balanced diet, I can assure you that we eat much healthier than we used to, because I cook almost all of our meals.

6-14-10; $23.00

I added the $1 that I won from the FTC millionaire game, because part of this challenge is to be assertive, right? Well I asked for a game piece, the girl gave me a wad of them, and I came out $1 richer. You gotta start somewhere....

Strange but true

I often wonder why I have a microwave. I don't think I'm a microwave snob, I just have no desire to use it. Here are the purposes it does serve;

1. Rarely used to boil water.
2. Occasionally used to melt butter.
3. Constantly used to hog counter space in my small kitchen.

But this week, it's seeing some action due to my lack of oven. And my sister, being the kind of girl that she is, sent me a recipe to make bread (yes, really) in the microwave. Let me explain that a bit; my sister is ridiculously creative, experimental, always trying new things or dreaming up new things. I don't know where she gets it, but she has a knack. So, I thought I'd give her crazy microwave bread recipe a try.

English Muffin Microwave Bread

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl;
1 TBSP yeast
2 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp sugar

Add wet ingredients;
1 cup warm milk (I warmed it in the MICROWAVE, hah, for 45 seconds)
1/4 cup hot water

Mix well, resist the urge to knead it. Dump it into a loaf pan that you've buttered and floured. Attempt to spread evenly. Sprinkle the top with cornmeal (I'm sure you could omit this step if you want). Microwave for 6 1/2 minutes, let cool for 5 minutes before handling.

Slice, and toast, serve with whatever english muffin fixings you like, we kept it simple with butter, peanut butter would be yummy too. I would recommend that you dump it out on the counter after you've cooled it, I found the bottom of the loaf to be very moist. Be prepared for the bread to be very blond, it's not going to change color at all in the microwave so I had trouble believing it was cooked.

Thanks sis!

Printer Friendly Recipe

FTC deals 6/13 through 6/19

As usual, there are a couple of good deals at FTC. I actually don't do much of my shopping there, but there are always one or two things that I stop in for. Our routine is to stop there after story time at the RCPL on Thursdays, while I usually do my weekly shopping trip to Safeway on Sundays. I have no desire to shop at multiple different stores all in one go!

The following are for the store brand;
Eggs are .49/dozen, must buy 2 dozen, with coupon here, that's only 4 cents/egg!
White vinegar is .99/gallon with coupon here, we use a fair amount of this for our dishwasher, which is not aging well. Just pour about 2 cups of it into some container that will stay upright, and then run the machine, empty, no soap. It definitely helps. What is it with my appliances anyway?

There are a couple of manufacturer's coupons in the front flap for canning supplies, and those can be used anywhere, so if you need canning jars, make sure you grab the ad. Cauliflower is 2.50/head, which isn't bad, I hate it when they price it by the pound!