Safeway Haul

I am pooped! I hit Safeway hard today. I made 2 trips and did 3 transactions.


My out of pocket was higher than I liked but overall, I am pretty satisfied. It would have been much lower if Hubbs hadn't decided he wanted to make Chinese Food tomorrow as I was walking out the door.


First, this is what I got
18 Bertolli Pasta Sauces
1 Oreo Fun Stix
6 6-packs of Arrowhead waters
1 Gallon of Milk
1 big bottle of French Vanilla Creamer
3 black Safeway totes
3 18-packs of Coors Light
1 BBQ Sauce
1 Tartar Sauce
2 Quaker Rice Cakes
2 cans of Ortega Green Chilies
2 packages of Fish Fry Batter
1 package of Egg Drop Soup mix
1 package of Hot and Sour Soup mix
2 Sweet and Sour Sauce
17 Capri Sun Sunrise
2 Ziploc Gallon freezer bags
2 All Small and Mighty
2 Daisy Cottage Cheese
1 Round Steak
and 1 Ham


Total before coupons: $387.32
Total out of pocket: $107.95
Total saved with coupons and club card: $279.37


My Safeway has refused to take my IP (printed from online) coupons in the past but I took them with me today to try my luck yet again. On my first trip, I managed to get in at the register the Assistant Manager was at and he took the IPs without bating an eye. So the other cashiers that have refused them and their bullshit excuse of "Safeway doesn't take printed coupons" has been proven wrong.


On my second trip, I divided my stuff into 2 transactions to save a trip. I felt kind of bad for holding up the line for that long but the dude behind me was cool with it, plus the kids were at my Mom's house so I HAD to maximise my trip. When the cashier saw me unloading my cart she got really pissy but when she saw my total drop, so did her jaw. She was super nice from then on.

I ended up giving away a bit of my haul and some of my stockpile today too. My dad hurt his shoulder a few months ago and hasn't worked in a while. Plus they watch Bobblehead most days during the week so I gave them a bag of Bertolli sauce and a stack of Capri Suns. My neighbors (the big bad biker dude, his girlfriend and her son) are struggling too. She drives a school bus and he has been laid off for as long as Hubbs has but without unemployment so I gave them some Capri Suns when I was unloading the car and I have a bag of stuff (more Bertolli sauce, some pasta, salad dressing, and some of my left over coupons) sitting by my door that I need to take over tonight. I also took some Bertolli sauce, salad dressing and Arrowhead water over to my grandma.

I know it isn't much but it is something. We are lucky that I am working full time again, that unemployment is still going strong, that I know how to coupon and meal plan, that I started my stockpile when times were good, and we had the foresight to sock every extra penny into our savings account. Stupid economy. Our friends and family are a close knit group and I know that they would give me and my family ANYTHING if we asked for it and we would give them ANYTHING as well. I also 100% believe in what goes around, comes around. A few bucks here gives back a whole lot of good karma. Ok, that's enough of my rambling about karma.

Next weeks flier looks pretty tame and the next promo doesn't interest me too much so I probably won't go grocery shopping for a while except for milk and some veggies.

I love Safeway

Nothing exciting has been happening lately so I will post about my super trip to Safeway.

I don't have any really great stores anywhere near me except Safeway.

I have been planning my shopping trip for 2 days. Usually I can plan and plan and something always goes wrong but not this time.

Here are a few of the great deals:
Quaker Granola Chewy Bars- Buy 2 get 3 free. According to my receipt each box is $2.99. Somehow I ended up getting $11.97 off.

Colgate Toothpaste- On sale for 1.29. Use the $1 coupon from a recent insert (or the .75 coupon if your store doubles) for .29 toothpaste.

Vitamin Water10- On sale for 10/$10. There was a coupon for $1 off in last weekends inserts. Free Vitamin Water10. I found them on the shelf below the regular Vitamin Water.

My total before coupons, club card and 10% discount: $235.23
My total after coupons, club card and 10% discount: $99.49
Total savings: $135.74 (60%) I have NEVER done this well.

One last thing to mention:
Check the beer/wine section for a rebate. I found a tearpad for a Coors Light rebate. It was on a display on top of a bunch of stacked 30 packs. It says: Offer begins March 28,2009 and expires May 3,2009.

The deal is buy 1 12 pk or 2 6 pks of 12 oz cans for $5 refund, 1 18 pk for $7 of 12 oz cans for $7 refund, 1 24 pk of 12 oz cans for $8 refund or 1 30 pk of 12 oz cans for $9 refund. Collect the receipt with the purchase circled, the UPC from the box and complete the back of the rebate form and mail in.

Offer is good only for AK, AZ, CA, CO, DC, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, KS, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MT, ND, NE, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, WA, WI and WY. 1 rebate per household.

This week Coors Light 30 pks are on sale for $16.99. This is the best price I have seen since the Super Bowl.

Red Bull Friday Update

I made a little progress on my laundry piles. I lost count of how many loads I did but it is all washed and all dried except for 1 load.

AND instead of taking the clothes out of the dryer and tossing them on the floor next to the bed, I actually sorted them into laundry baskets. And the towels got folded.

I am getting better about this laundry thing.

On top of getting the laundry done, I got the grocery shopping out of the way and I wrapped the rest of my Christmas presents.

Hooray!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My shopping totals:

~~Walmart: $111.97 0 Coupons
I picked up the last of the Christmas presents for Hubb's grandpa and Bobblehead. Plus Monk Man needed a bigger pair of shoes and I found a pair of adorable Sponge Bob PJs for him and Cars PJs for Bobblehead. And they both needed new socks. The washer and dryer eat Monk Man's socks and Bobblehead just loses his. For some reason, Walmart didn't have my el-cheapo creamer that I love and they only had the Coffee Mate super expensive not as tasty creamer.

~~Bashas: Total before coupons= $40.41 Total after coupons= $26.61 Savings of $13.80
I bought 20 Yogurts, 1 bag of Meow Mix and 2 containers of Frozen Rolls. All on sale and had coupons for the cat food and rolls. I had to get a rain check (cheque?) for Kibbles and Chunks though. Monk Man managed to sneak in a bag of M&Ms (no coupons and not on sale). Bashas is still doing double coupons up to a dollar so I might have to hit it again, without the kids, and walk up and down the aisles to see if there are any smokin deals since I was in such a rush on Saturday.

~~Safeway: Total before coupons= $220.44 Total after coupons=$143.58 Savings of $76.86
Safeway is my grocery store preference. I usually do the bulk of my shopping there because they always double my coupons. Either I missed a bunch of deals from the flier or the stuff was just unadvertised. I got 4 12-packs of Pepsi, 2 for free, 2 brown sugars, 2 cake frostings, 2 salad dressings, 2 diced tomatoes, 2 bags of chocolate chips, 2 Martinelli apple ciders, a french fried onion, a mayo, 2 brownie mixes, 2 Pam sprays, 2 Christmas Pez and refills, 24 cans of Fancy Feast, 2 gallons of milk, a tub of sour cream, 2 tubs of ice cream, 4 chocolate milks, 2 Kotex pads, 2 4-packs of o-celo sponges, a London Broil, a bunch of bananas, 2 bags of salads, and a 30 pack of Budwiser.

So, all 3 stores totals before coupons=$372.82 Totals after coupons=$282.16 Total savings=$90.66

Not too bad for a day that involved the dreaded Walmart. I can't wait to see how well I do next week.

Grocery Shopping

We went grocery shopping this morning. Hubbs went early in the morning to buy stuff for his yummy green chili.

Poor guy. I think he is intimidated by the pantry because he bought things we already had. Oh well. At least he is trying to save us money and I don't have to cook.

He went to Safeway. Total spent: 71.58 Total saved by club card: 11.97

The bill was so high because he bought meat--Roasts and deli pastrami.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I went to Walmart for Halloween costumes. I hate that place. Monk Man decided that he wanted to be an "Army Guy" again and that Bobblehead HAD to match him.

Total spent: 66.99 Total saved: 0
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I went to Bashas. I usually do pretty well there. I actually didn't buy a single thing that wasn't on "the list".

Total spent: 64.14 Total saved with coupons and club card: 52.69
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The last stop for the day was Safeway. Again. I HAD to hit the buy one get one free cleaners and get soups.

Total spent: 133.47 Total saved with coupons and club card: 57.76
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not too bad right?

I HAVE to tell you about my score at the OshKosh outlet in Gretna, Nebraska. I spent 179.13 but saved 196.61!!!! That was the first time ever that I saved more than I spent.

Things you can/can not freeze

I *just* discovered the Hot Coupon World forums this weekend. If you want to join and want a referral, use peachykornkitten!

I have learned sooo much about couponing and stockpiling. Yes, this has become a little of an obsession.

I didn't know you can freeze
-Flavored Coffee Creamer
-Tortillas
-Eggs
-Canned biscuits
-Lunch meat
-Go-gurt
-Plain Yogurt

And and I didn't know you shouldn't freeze
-Anything with mayonnaise in it
-Sour Cream
-Flavored Yogurt
-Block cheese you plan to slice

Yesterday's Bargain

So I posted earlier that my Safeway is remodeling and has tons of stuff on clearance.

Well, I went yesterday to pick up the stuff for last night's dinner (which was delicious btw) and happened to wander back down the clearance aisle.

They had a table full of McCormick spices. For $.049 each! I got 2 of everything I use.

They were VERY close to the expiration date (expires next month) but as soon as I got home from shopping, I threw them all into the freezer.

I remember reading somewhere that its ok to use spices after the expiration date. I would just have to use a little more than what the recipe calls for since they lose their potency. I am totally fine with that. Its not like I am a gourmet cook or anything.