Sunday ad picks, 9/26-10/2

Okay, really quick, no frills, here's what I spotted.

Target

• Orowheat bread is $1.50/loaf, I usually try to pay $1 or less per loaf of whole wheat bread, but this is definitely not a bad price for this brand.
• A dozen eggs are $1, over my target price, but egg deals have been lacking lately.
• If you have little kids, the infants and toddlers Hanes fleece is $3.50/item, so pants and a sweatshirt for $7. This is my favorite way to dress little kids when it's cold, absolutely no fuss!
• If you're in the market, they have some Playtex bras on sale for $12, and mind blowingly, a handful of them have $2 coupons right on the label. I was in the market since I recently retired my nursing bras. Even this one.

Walgreens

• Here's a Register Rewards deal for you, Vaseline Sheer Infusion lotion is $5.99, and you'll get a $5 RR back, plus you can use the coupon here (must register) to save a buck. They will have a couple of good deals next week that you can use the RR on if you want to give it a try, and I really like this lotion so I think you might too!
• One other thing that just cropped up, they have a FREEEEE collage print if you use the code FBCOLL at checkout, and pick it up in store. This is good 9/30 and 10/1 only, and it's a Facebook promotion, just so you know where it came from. If you don't have a local Walgreens (that would be you Bubbles!), you can have it shipped to you for only .99, I think, so still a good deal. These are so nice, I always get recent pictures and just keep it on the fridge until the next free one comes along.

Family Thrift Center

• I'm irritated with them, they haven't had good deals on anything that isn't processed crap and I'm sick of it! Meat and produce please? This week, the American Beauty pasta is a decent price, .60/lb. There are some in-ad coupons for cheese, lunch meat, etc. but the prices are nothing great. I'm not going!

If you shop at Safeway, consider this fair warning...

Okay, so I didn't get any recipes up today, I'll really try hard tomorrow! I also need to post Sunday ad picks, I'll really try hard tomorrow! I swear!

In the meantime, I had to share this with you; finding other people's shopping lists is one of my favorite grocery store games! Seriously, I love this peek into other people's lives. In the above example, I'm assuming the list writer is female, because the handwriting is super neat. I was excited to think maybe it was left by a Spiffy Biscuits reader (slim chance but you never know), because the first item is raspberries, which of course I've had things to say about. But then I saw "entrees", which I can only assume means packaged, frozen, whatever. So that's probably not someone looking to be super frugal with the grocery budget. Be forewarned, if I find your grocery list, I will conduct a highly unqualified psychoanalysis of whatever is on it! God help me if anyone ever finds my grocery list, complete with highly complicated annotations about coupons, e-coupon, catalinas, etc. Scary.

Check out this book on Amazon, someone is even more into this topic than me? I actually bought this book as a gift for someone, and regretted not reading it before I gave it to them.

Menu Plan, 9/26-10/2

I am really ready for fall and cooler weather, but it's supposed to be in the 80's most of the week, so I'm trying to minimize my use of the oven still. Also, my menu plan fell apart completely last week, I didn't feel well and really didn't want to cook (or eat), so I made this week's menu really super easy so that I will have better luck following it (this is a promoting success kind of menu in other words!)

• Sunday we had white chili.
• Monday; grilled cheese with apple and mustard, and green salad (these sandwiches are the bomb, just slice the apples really thin)
• Tuesday; taco salads (homemade taco salad bowls are really easy, just shape flour tortillas on an upside down muffin tin and bake for a few minutes, and then fill as desired)
• Wednesday; asparagus quiche that I was supposed to make last week.
• Thursday; crock pot pot roast.
• Friday; BBQ chicken drumsticks, potato salad.
• Saturday; meatball calzones

I haven't decided what sweets I'm going to make, maybe just some no-bake cookies.

Shopping trip, 9/27

I had a really fun shopping trip this morning, not sure why but I just enjoyed myself! Thanks to my mom-in-law for watching junior, and to my awesome Safeway cashier Kimmey, who I adore! Here's what I did;

Safeway: I had a $5 catalina from my last trip, so I was ahead before I even started! I also had a few free item coupons that were set to expire on 9/30, so I burned those babies up. I'm going to try and write a feature on where to get free coupons soon, cause they are the funnest coupons of all! So here's what I bought;

• The $2 Chex Mix was better than free after e-coupons from Cellfire and Shortcuts, plus a paper coupon from here.


• The Pace queso was better than free after coupons from a contest that's over now, sorry guys.


• The Coke was free after a coupon from mycokerewards.com


• The Always pads were free thanks to a coupon that was included in a sample I requested a long time ago. Always request samples for things you use, they usually include good coupons.


• The Campbells soup was free.


• The eggs were $1.99.


• The yogurt was .79/4 pack thanks to a rain check and coupons from here. The YoPlus is only $2/4 pack right now anyway, so $1 after coupon here if you need some.


• The raspberries were 2.99


• The Babybel cheese was 3.99 for 2 packs, thanks to a BOGO coupon from a while back.

So my total out of pocket at Safeway was 6.84, which is a 91% savings. I mentioned that the sales were pretty weak, so I picked up only things that I needed (eggs, yogurt) a couple of splurges (raspberries and the cheese), and of course the free things.

Next I stopped at Haggar's as usual for produce. I spent $7.92 on bananas, apples and squash, so we are set for the week! So, my total for groceries this week was less than $15, which is right in line for me; I mentioned last week that we usually spend $40/week, but when the sales are less than great, I cook from my stash and spend very little for the week.

Okay, so my plan is to write a menu plan and get that posted, and then I promised a couple of you my recipe for Key Lime cheesecake, so I will try to get that up today too! Here I go...

Wednesday Ad Picks, holy late edition, 9/22-9/28

I just realized I hadn't posted this, sorry guys! I'm going to blame my oversight on the total lack of exciting sales!

Safeway

• 12oz Raspberries are $2.99, I got super excited for a second because there's an e-coupon for raspberries here, but it's only for the smaller sized containers. Boo. Still that's not a bad price, especially since they're out of season.
• Fresh Express bagged salads are still $1, when I was in the store last I thought the pickings were pretty slim.
• Lucerne cheese is $4.99/2 lb, block or shredded, this is an okay price if you need it, but I wouldn't buy it just to throw in the freezer.
• Campbells Select Harvest Soup is $1 per can, so free after coupon here or here.
• 18 eggs are $1.99 with the in-ad coupon, not a great price, but better than $1.59/dozen.
• Jif peanut butter is still $1.49/18oz with in-ad coupon.
• Silk Soy Milk is $1.99 with in-ad coupon, so only .99 after .75 off coupon here (must register), which will "double" to $1 off. You know how I've harped on you to try almond milk? Well, I've never tried soy milk, does anybody have anything to say about it?

Haggar's

• Bananas are .33/lb.
• Celery is .59/bunch.
• Jonathan or McIntosh apples are 3lb bags for $2.
• Squash is .59/lb.
• Green peppers are .60/ea.
• They're having a Mega Meat Sale, which sounds pretty rad, right? I didn't see any mind blowing prices though. Chicken quarters are .59/lb, which is okay. Chicken tenderloins are 1.99/lb, again just okay.

Don's

• Onions are .69/lb.
• Oranges are .69/lb.
• I haven't mentioned the store coupons that they update every week for a while, you can always find them here. They haven't had anything good for a while though!

Groupon, 101 (WADE, DO NOT READ THIS ENTRY UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH)

Okay, this is just one of those things that sound so strange but are truly awesome. For those of you completely unfamiliar with Groupon, it's an online retailer that focuses on providing local deals for local businesses, like restaurants, spas, retailers, etc. By being featured on Groupon, these businesses can pick up some customers who might otherwise have overlooked them, and to entice us into buying, they offer a deeply discounted voucher for a limited time period. Unfortunately, Rapid City is not one of the locations where Groupon is available, BUT the featured deals for any given city may be an online store of some sort. And in that case, ANYONE from ANYWHERE can pick up the item. So, for example, today's Sioux Falls deal is a 16X20 canvas on which they will print your picture, and ship it to you for the price of $39. The site lists the value of this as $125, which of course I would never pay. But $39 for a BIG canvas is a nice deal, especially considering it includes shipping and tax (you gotta watch for the details of that with these kinds of deals, every one of them is different).

If you are interested in taking advantage of this, or any Groupon sale, be aware that it's only available for a little while. This deal will expire in about 12 hours, so get on it!

So I picked one of these up as a Christmas present, and I'll have a picture from our recent trip to Pittsburgh, featuring my adorable husband and kiddo hamming it up in front of Heinz Field, the home of the Steelers. This will go great in our shrine to all things Steelers corner of the office (not my idea of decorating, but I really like the guy so I indulge him).

Shopping trip, 9/21

So here is my Safeway stop today. I also ran in to Wags for the milk, and then on my way home stopped at Haggar's again for the chicken. My total cost was 16.25 at Safeway, and I got another Catalina for $5 off my next purchase, thanks to the garbage bag deal I described in the video here. At Walgreens I spent $3.25 on the milk, and then at Haggar's I spent about $6 on the chicken (I realized how low I'm getting on chicken, so I picked up the drumsticks that are on sale through today only at .99/lb). So my week's worth of groceries was around $40, which is about right for us. I could probably have a tighter budget, but I like to have plenty of produce and milk around, and those things don't come free!

One thing people mention is that they don't want to make a lot of trips to various stores just to save a few bucks, and I completely agree. Usually, I have a 1 store limit, especially if I have baby cuteness with me. Today I was lucky enough to shop while he was at Grandma's, so I took advantage and made a few stops. But if I do have him, I just consolidate grocery stops in with other outings; when we go to story time on Thursday, I stop at FTC if they have anything, or maybe Target. After work on Wednesday, I might go into Wags since I drive past there. My point is, spending an entire day shopping is not my idea of fun, so I split it up to make it much easier. The other part of this is that I am a big planner. Seriously, I plan my entire shopping week at home with the ads, write out my lists in order of how the store is laid out, and consider whether I am going to additional stores and when to do so. I cannot tell you how much time this saves me in the store, it is sooooo worth it!