Kroger brag & HT & Target News!

First to the HT news- they will be having triples or super doubles this coming week (7/28) so get those high value q's ready!

Kroger is having the second and last week of a Mega event this week and there are a lot of great deals to be had. Click here for SouthernSavers' match-ups. I fared very well yesterday night and bought all of the following for $1.71. Not too shabby if I do say so myself...

20 VitaminWater Zero bottles (used .50/1 tearpad q's I won in an auction on hcw)
2 two liter bottles of Sunkist
3 cartons of Breyers Ice Cream (used .50/1 tearpad q's)
5 Kraft Easy Mac single serve containers

That's $48.07 worth of stuff for less than two bucks. How did I do that without using any q's for the Sunkist and the Easy Mac? Because I earned overage on the VitaminWater zero q's. They ring in at $1.25 (allowing the q's to fully double) but after the $5 deduction per 10 items and coupons, it's as if I made a quarter on each bottle.

There's a Kraft catalina deal going on right now that makes the Mega Event an even better deal- read all about here.

Target has its annual July toy clearance going on right now. I'm going to check it out today but last I checked last week my nearby store had items at 50% off. I hold out for the 75% and 90% clearance items to stockpile as birthday and Christmas gifts.

An Open Letter to Manufacturers...& Triples News!

Dear food and household item manufacturers:

Yes, you've discovered coupons as a marketing tool. And for that, us savvy shoppers thank you wholeheartedly. But, please please please enough with the coupons that require a purchase of multiple items. We've become quite good at math and those of us fortunate enough to live in areas with stores that double (and sometimes even triple!) coupons, well these types of coupons don't make for much of a bargain at all.

I'm talking to you Kellogg's with your new penchant for $1.25 off 3 of your popular cereal items! These coupons sit in my filing cabinet gathering dust- no one wants to trade for these and seldom smart shoppers actually use these coupons. Where I once would buy dozens of boxes of PopTarts to stockpile over the course of a month or so, I now only only buy one or two during that same time frame. Why oh why did you decide to switch from your 55 cents off one to these and why do you think I would buy three at a time to save roughly 41 cents on each when I used to be able to save $1.10 off each thanks to coupon doubling ($1.65 during a triples event)???

On to a brighter topic, and since we've mentioned triples in this last sentence...Harris Teeter will be having triples again this coming week! Break out those binders and get ready! I'll post a link to match-ups as we get closer.

Spicy Savings!

We are about to be overcome by all things spice in our home thanks to a great catalina deal going on now that is perfectly synergized with Harris Teeter triples week and a Lowe's Food special on McCormick grinders! This will only work as a moneymaker if you're one of the lucky folks who live in regions that received a .75/1 coupon in your Sunday inserts- and you purchased multiple copies.

The way I've worked it is to buy 3 spices at a time priced $2.25 and under at Harris Teeter or the sale grinders ringing up at $1.50 each at Lowe's Foods. Use a .75/1 insert coupon for each spice purchased. When you do so, you'll wind up just paying tax on your items AND getting a $2.50 off your next order Catalina printed out at the register.

One helpful tip before checking out: Always make sure the Catalina machine at your register is working! Don't be embarrassed to ask the cashier and/or lean over to see if there's any blinking or red lights up- this is a clear sign that things are amiss.

Harris Teeter Triples - Day 1

Alright, braved HT first thing in the morning and here's the rundown. I split my purchase into 3 separate transactions to make the most of the McCormick Catalina deal that's going on right now.

Transaction #1:

3 McCormick parsley flakes - FREE after .75/1 insert q's
2 boxes of Barilla Piccolini pasta - FREE after .50/1 insert q's

Total spent: .07
Total saved $7.77
Received $2.50 OYNO Catalina

Transaction #2:

2 bottles of Newman's Own Organic Low Fat Asian Dressing - FREE after .75/1 tearpad q's
1 bottle of Coke Zero (20 oz) - FREE after tearpad q
3 McCormick chili powders - FREE after .75/1 insert q's
2 boxes of Barilla Piccolini pasta - FREE after .50/1 insert q's

Total spent: .14
Total saved: $18.14
Received $2.50 OYNO Catalina

Transaction #3:

2 bottles of Newman's Own Organic Low Fat Asian Dressing - FREE after .75/1 tearpad q's
3 McCormick Cinnamons - FREE after .75/1 insert q's
2 boxes of Barilla Piccolini pasta - FREE after .50/1 insert q's

Total spent: .10
Total saved: $16.65
Received $2.50 OYNO Catalina

In total, I spent 31 cents on $42.69 worth of groceries AND have $7.50 to spend during my next go rounds at Harris Teeter. Sweet!

Have you made a trip to the HT yet for triples? What were your finds?

Harris Teeter Triples week of 3/24- confirmed!

Get those binders ready folks because Harris Teeter will be having a triples event next week! Details on sales fliers aren't typically posted to couponers boards until Tuesday morning of each week but you can still get prepared. My two favorite couponers boards have already started discussion threads on your best bets for freebies and cheapies. You can check out A Full Cup's discussion here or Hot Coupon World's thread here.

So far, I'm most excited about the free Shamrock Farms Rockin Refuel milk drinks. I've kept these coupons handy in the hopes for triples.

I'm sure more helpful match-ups will be posted throughout the weekend!

Free Kellogg's Cereals at Harris Teeter- TODAY 3/10 ONLY

Two great deals are going on right now for Kellogg's cereals and they will only work today (one started today, the other ends today). You'll need .70/1 Kellogg's blinkies that you can find at Food Lion and Kroger (these will begin with 5 so they'll double). These blinkies are for Corn Pops, Apple Jacks and Froot Loops only. Buy 5 boxes (mix and match) of the 12.5 ounce versions of these and you'll end up with a 5 cent moneymaker!

How it works:

You buy 5 boxes at $3.19 each ($15.95 total for all 5)
Use 5 .70/1 blinkies to get $7 off your order
Get $5.00 off your total order for buying 5 boxes

You'll then pay $3.95 out of pocket (not including tax) and get a $4 Off Your Next Order Catalina!

HT Day 6

Super Doubles excitement is winding down but still managing to find some great deals to pair with coupons. Thank heavens for coupon trading and RAOK's to extend the bliss. Here's today's haul:

4 boxes of 9 ct Bagel Bites - $1/1 IPs (split order into 2 transactions so I could use all 4 q's)
4 boxes of Oreo Cakesters - $1/1 IPs
1 box of Ziploc quart bags - $1/1 tearpad
3 small pouches of salmon - $1/1 wt's
1 bottle of Deer Park Spring Water - no q
Turkey Fillets - $1 off meat wt
Tropicana 50 - $1 off HT catalina (started with 9 so no double!)
1 4 pk Breyers Inspirations yogurt - FREE HT Catalina

Used my last $1 off $5 grocery purchase winetag. *Sigh* The turkey fillets wound up being free- they were marked down from nearly $6 to $1.79 for quick sale and my $1 off meat winetag doubled!

Total OOP: 70 cents
Total VIC & Q Savings: $42.87 or 98% savings

The teenaged boy cashier was quite impressed.

Update on Yesterday's HT Post

Thanks to the recommendations of some HCW posters, I returned to the same HT I shopped at yesterday morning last night and received a $4.22 refund for the two missed coupons. Manager scanned two $1 coupons which doubled when processing refund and I somehow got tax added to that to bring total of refund to $4.22! This meant I actually spent $1.41 for yesterday's haul of $55.75 worth of groceries- much better!

Manager was very nice. I did not get any attitude or questioning at all which was quite refreshing.

This was after I had made another yummy dinner on the cheap so it was a great end to a busy day. We love Qdoba burritos so I tried my hand at making burritos for the first time with some ingredients bought for next to nothing...

Mission Burrito sized flour tortillas - free at HT after coupon 2 weeks ago

Can of HT black beans - I can't even remember what I paid for these they've been sitting in our cupboard so long but I'm guessing it was a buck or less

Wholly Salsa - free at HT after coupons during a super doubles event a while back (I froze these to stay fresh)

Sargento Mexican Cheese - 49 cents at HT after coupon 2 weeks ago - used half a bag so I'm tabbing this at 25 cents

Maruchan long grain white rice - Free at HT after coupon

Smart Balance Reduced Fat Sour Cream - Free at HT after coupon

1.5 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast - $1.25 or so after coupon at Kroger during a chicken sale using a winetag

Old El Paso reduced sodium taco seasoning - Free after coupon at Kroger mega event

Assuming the black beans were $1, the total cost of this meal for 6 was $2.50. That's less than 42 cents a person! And the kids loved it so that was a big plus. I warmed the tortillas by placing them on a plate separated by damp paper towels and microwaving for a minute - they weren't quite as soft & warm as Qdoba's but they still were pretty yummy.

Super Doubles Day 2

Today I dared to brave the store with all 4 kids in tow- which made it hard to keep an eye on the register while cashing out...which translated into 2 missed q's as I learned when taking a close look at the receipt after we got home. Ugh!

Here's what I bought:

1 Hershey Dark chocolate bar - $1/1 insert q
9 cans of Dole pineapple -$1/3 insert q's
1 box of Double Stuff Oreo cakester - $1/1 IP
2 Lance cheese cracker packs -$1/1 IPs
1 2liter of Sunkist Grape soda - no q for this
1 lb of Perdue ground chicken - $1/1 insert q
1 pack of bakery take & bake rolls - $1/1 WT
1 El Monterey beef & bean burrito - $1/1 tp
2 Bagel Bites 9 ct - $1/1 IPs
2 Pillsbury Orange Sweet Rolls - 95 cent/1 IPs
2 Buitoni Angel Hair pastas - $1/1 IP
1 qt 8th Continent Vanilla Soymilk - $1.50/1 IP

I also used another $1 off $5 purchase winetag this go round.

Total OOP: $5.63 (should have been $1.63 if all q's had been scanned)
Total VIC & Q Savings: $50.12

I suspect some of my IPs may have stuck together which led to missed q's. Oh well- life happens, right?

HT Super Doubles Day 1

I had to literally roll out of the bed at the crack of dawn to get my HT first stop done. All our kiddos are tracked out from school so I decided to make the trip before hubby left for work. This way I wouldn't subject them to my pacing the aisles trying to figure out what to buy out of my list of potential freebies and cheapies. Here's what I wound up with:

4 boxes of Keebler Wheatables Nut Crisps
6 Sure for Men deodorants
2 Glade Apple Cinnamon warmers
2 Soft Scrub Cleansers
1 box of Oreo Cakesters
2 rolls of Seventh Generation paper towels (my eco-friendly mom friend Daisy will be proud!)
1 box of Kellogg's Smart Start cereal
1 bar of Hershey's Extra Dark (yummmmmmmmmmmm)
1 box off Kleenex

Coupons used:
$1 off minimum $5 purchase winetag (surprisingly this went through & DOUBLED without need for mgr override)
4 - $1.50/1 Wheatables tearpads
6 - $1.50/1 Sure for Men insert q's
2- $1.50/1 Glade insert q's
2- $1.50/1 Softscrub IP's
1- $1/1 Oreo Cakester IP
2- $1/1 Seventh Generation IP's
1- $1/1 Kellogg's IP
1- $1/1 Hershey's insert q
1- $1/1 Kimberly Clark product homemailer q (rec'd after emailing compliment)

Total before coupons & VIC Savings: $62.90
Total after coupons & VIC Savings: $0.89 - yes, that's right...89 cents!
That's nearly 99% savings.

This was a great trip and all but I'm not sure if I'll be making many more this week...unless of course the Wheatables are a hit in our house. Most of the blockbuster deals for items we'll actually use are those requiring an IP for highest savings- and we can only print 2 of each.

Have you stopped at HT yet to take advantage of Super Doubles? If so, what did you buy?

HT Super Doubles start tomorrow!

Another fun-filled week of super doubles is coming- so get those high value q's ready!

Jenny at SouthernSavers has a great match-up lists posted here. She'll likely have another list posted with ad specific match-ups. Keep in mind prices vary by region so what shows up as a freebie on the list may turn out to be a cheapie in your area.

I'm gearing up for this and will post my daily brags. Happy shopping everyone!

Free Keebler 100 Calorie Right Bites cookies @ Lowe's Foods

This deal has only 3 more days left and supplies may be limited at your store, but it was too good not to share. Use your Lowe's 3 week coupon to get each box for $1.49- this came in Lowe's fliers a few weeks back or you can ask cashier if they have one you can use on hand. Then use .75/1 manufacturer's insert coupon and voila- free cookies! I am always on the lookout for free or dirt cheap lunchbox snacks for our school-aged children. Stella loves the Pecan Sandies and chewy chocolate chippers too!

We've also continued to stock up on free G2's at Kroger. You should see our garage! I need to start taking and posting pics of our stockpile.

Speaking of Kroger, they have another mega event starting tomorrow - one of the deals is a small moneymaker after coupon. Quaker Quakes will be 49 cents each after the Mega promo $5.00 off when you buy 10- use .75/1 manufacturer's q's and make 25 cents each bag. I stocked up on these when they were free after coupon at Harris Teeter last week and they are yummy. My personal favorite is the Vanilla Creme Brulee flavor. Delish!

More Grocery Store Freebies!

I had a kid-free shopping experience earlier this morning and found some great finds to use with some new coupons from this morning's inserts...

Harris Teeter:

FREE Hershey's Extra Dark bars w/ $1/1 q from today's inserts
FREE Wolfgang Puck's Organic Soup w/ $1/1 q from today's inserts
FREE Mission Tortillas w/ .75/1 q from today's inserts

Kroger:

FREE Gatorade G2 bottles with .50/1 q from today's inserts

We go through sports drinks like crazy in our home so this was a welcome surprise! If you can find any of these q's on a coupon clipping site, grab them quick! They are going fast.

Day 3 - Super Doubles

I didn't have as great a third day as I thought I would but still did pretty well! I received an E-Vic Alert this morning indicating that Special K bars were .99 each- which would make the Special K deal a potential $5 moneymaker when you buy 4. E-VICs typically indicate a limit (usually one!) but since the E-VIC alert did not say "limit 1," I hoped it would work on all 4 during a transaction. Unfortunately, it was a no go and only 1 of the 4 bars I picked up this morning totaled .99- the rest were the normal $2 each. Oh well!

Here's what I got:

4 boxes of Special K bars (pickings were slim this morning so I was left w/ Vanilla flavor)
3 boxes of Kahiki Chicken Tempura
3 boxes of Gorton's Popcorn Shrimp
1 box of Bagel Bites, 9 ct.
2 pouches of Bumblebee Salmon (used two $1/1 seafood WTs)
1 box of Bayer Children's Aspirin
1 Campbell's V8 Sweet Red Bell Pepper Soup
1 jar of Nutella Spread

Total spent: $3.25
Total saved: $52.17 or 94%

Day 2 of Super Doubles - NOTHING out of pocket!

Sometimes things work out strangely well at HT and today was one of those days where the stars (and the register) aligned in just the right way to allow for me to spend absolute no money whatsoever on this haul (yes, you read that way...no $$ at all- not even a penny!):

1 box of Kahiki Egg Rolls
1 small pack of Chinet Napkins
12 boxes of Special K bars
8 Oikos single serve greek yogurts
2 boxes of Kahiki Chicken Tempura
1 small box of Wholly Guacamole

I split my order into three separate transactions - each one showed an overage of .33 but the cashier zeroed it out and I walked out of the store with about $72 worth of stuff without paying a cent. It's not every day you wind up with 100% savings at a grocery store!

I mistakenly thought the Kahiki products were $1 AC- therefore enough to eat up the overage from the Special K deal and leave me with just paying tax.

This is NOT a typical situation at HT- I've had an actual overage happen only once before at another HT and was told I'd need to pick something else out in the store to make up for it. So this is a YMMV.

Super Doubles Brag - Day 1

I did my first Super Doubles trip this week braving the cold in the wee small hours of the morning. Here's what I got:

3 boxes of Campbell's V8 Sweet Red Pepper Soup (this stuff is super yummy!)
3 boxes of Finish Electrasol Tabs
2 boxes of Special K Original Cereal
10 boxes of Special K cereal bars
3 Marie Callendar's Homestyle Creations Meals
2 bars of Toblerone dark chocolate
2 boxes of OreIda Easy Fries
1 Endust Free furniture polish
1 Dawn Direct Foaming Detergent
3 Oikos Single Serve Greek Yogurts

Total before coupons & VIC savings: $102.22
Total after coupons & VIC savings: $5.49
Savings of $96.73 or nearly 95% savings

I split this up into three separate transactions to maximize savings thanks to the Special K promotion. In this promo, you get $5 off your order when you buy 4 Special K products. I used a total of 20 coupons that doubled per Harris Teeter's rules and 3 coupons that did not double (the Electrasol $2.50/1).

Have you stopped by HT yet? How did you fare?

Super Doubles @ HT starting tomorrow...

It's been a loooooooong time since a special couponing event has happened at HT and finally one will be rolling our way again beginning tomorrow. Super Doubles Week kicks the New Year off with a bang- and the big stash of q's in this past week's inserts provide a welcome boost to the potential freebies to be had. You should see how skinny my binder became at the end of 2009 thanks to all the expired coupons- it looked positively pitiful!

Jenny at Southern Savers has an excellent match-up list posted already - click here for all the delightful match-ups.

My personal faves are the Special K bars and Oikos greek yogurts. I plan on breaking up my visits into several small transactions to take the most advantage of the Special K deal (get $5 off your order when you purchase 4 Special K items in your transaction- with the $1/2 q that came out in this past week's insert, that makes for $1 moneymaker). I picked up 22 copies of the Sunday paper this weekend- all for a little under $6 thanks to saved up Register Rewards and Walgreen's low price on the paper.

P&G deal at Harris Teeter this week

Harris Teeter has a good P&G deal going on this week that you may want to take advantage of by tomorrow (12/31/09) as all 11/29 P&G insert q's will expire on that date. When you buy $25 worth of qualifying items, you'll get a mail-in-certificate for a $10 prepaid VISA card. This $25 total is blissfully BEFORE coupons. You can work out many scenarios where you'll only be out of pocket about $15 or so. Here's the deal I worked out:

1 Gillette Body Wash
2 Herbal Essences Shampoos
1 Oral-B toothbrush
3 Crest with Scope 6 oz. toothpastes
1 Pantene Shampoo
1 Olay Body Wash
1 Olay Body Lotion

I used P&G insert q's for all but the Pantene- I used a $2/1 Vocalpoint Mailer I had received a while ago for the Pantene. I also used a $5 Walgreens Register Reward as my HT accepts these as competitor coupons (yay!).

Total before coupons & VIC discounts: $46.04
Total after coupons & VIC discounts : $11.21
Savings: $34.83 or 75%

Figuring in the $10 prepaid VISA card I'll later receive, it's like I paid $1.21 for these items. Can I get a holla???

Brags...

Lucked into a very good deal at SuperTarget recently- they put their 93% lean ground beef patties on temporary price cut for a day this past week. One pound (4 patties) were marked down to $2.19 to get them off the shelves. With the $2 off beef Yellowtail wt's, I ended up getting several packs for 19 cents each!

Last night, I made cheeseburgers, brown & wild rice, sweet peas and steamed asparagus for dinner feeding four for a total cost of about $2.25- the brown & wild rice was a freebie at Kroger after coupon, the sweet peas were a freebie after coupon from HT, the ground beef was 19 cents and the asparagus was $1.99 this week at Super Target. It's amazing what you can make with so little if you time your purchases right with sales & coupons and STOCKPILE.

Some good deals to be found this week- you can get all the match-ups from www.southernsavers.com and see Lowe's Foods list on www.hotcouponworld.com. My personal favorites are FREE Sobe Lifewaters at HT if you have any .50/1 tearpad/hangtag q's, cheap Breyer's Ice Cream with an insert q at Harris Teeter, All Laundry Detergent for 99 cents after insert coupon at Food Lion and a great potential moneymaker with McCormick spices at Lowe's. There's not much going on at Kroger this week unfortunately..hopefull they're be another great mega event after the holidays.

You can find prime rib roast on sale just about everywhere this week for $6.99/lb. I picked up a 4 lb roast at Harris Teeter for just over $11 after using a $3 off winetag coupon, a $5 Walgreen's Register Reward, a $5/40 store coupon (I did buy other items in this transaction to qualify) and submission of a $4 Mail-in-Rebate for prime rib that I've been holding on to for just the right time. Considering this roast would normally cost over $40, this is a bargain. I'm just hoping I can cook it right!

Tales from Black Friday & Weekly Round-up!

I didn't do a drugstore deals this past week because in my humble opinion there really wasn't much to write about unfortunately.

Our family had a wonderful Thanksgiving together and both Jon & I experienced the horror/wonder/craziness of a Black Friday morning spent shopping! We went to bed around 11 on Thanksgiving night after I combed through deals to find those worth waking up early for- I wound up tossing & turning & strategizing til before I knew it our alarm was sounding off at 2:30 am. Why so early? Because I thought I could get our kiddos a free Lego Rock Band game if I made it to Old Navy by their opening time of 3 AM.

Of course, when I got there I discovered they only had 20 of these available and you had to be the first 20 in line (identified by a wristband they gave out). I still wound up spending $20 on some cute shirts for the girls and then off I went to SuperTarget for the TV hubby and I had been eyeing - a nifty 32" HDTV number and a Casio keyboard for the kiddos. When I got there, there were about 20 or so folks ahead of me in line. It was chilly so I was thanking my lucky stars Jon handed me a knit cap before leaving. I chatted up with the woman in front of me and the woman behind me who had come with her Dad. Both were there primarily for the TV- the woman ahead of me had been told by a cashier the day before Thanksgiving that they would have 44 of these in stock. Given the number of folks ahead of us, we felt confident we would all get what we came for!

This was before the line ahead of us grew from about 20 to what seemed like 50...even though there were grocery carts strategically placed in front of the store, people came ahead of us joining other folks they knew in line. Suddenly, odds weren't looking so good. When a security guard handed out maps at 4:30, we huddled together and strategized about the best route to take to get to the TVs which were located, oddly enough, in the menswear section. As the clock ticked ever closer to 5 am opening, I began jumping up and down to keep warm, another woman pretended to be warming up boxer style while another man in line started loudly humming the theme to Chariots of Fire. It was all quite comical.

Throwing all shame to the wind, I went in a full-out sprint as soon as I got inside the store. I left very happy - successfully getting all 5 items I came in for. While I was waiting in line in the wee small hours of the morning, Jon was buying a few other items off our wishlist online. When I got back home, he then went out to do shopping at Office Max, Lowe's, Home Depot and Ace. He was particularly thrilled with a cute playtent he found for Stella and quickly assembled it and began playing with her in it that morning.

My proudest find of Black Friday: a Garmin Nuvi GPS for $37 after a $25 off $75 discount card and using my $27 worth of Office Max rewards. How'd you do on Black Friday? Did you brave the crowds?

And now on to Weekly grocery deals...

Food Lion

Food Lion is having a three day sale on Huggies that will be a great deal after coupons. You can also score a 3 lb. box of Clementines (yum!) for $2.49 after store coupon. Read all about it here on southernsavers' match-ups page.

Harris Teeter

Alas, no super doubles or triples yet again! But still some good finds on boneless/skinless chicken, berries, water and bread (Nature's Pride is 24 cents a loaf after internet q!). If you're an E-Vic member, you may also score a free box of brown rice (check your registered VIC email for details). Read all about the deals here on southernsavers' match-ups page.

Kroger

Big deal this week is a one day sale TOMORROW that means 50% off on Kellogg's cereal, bars, Keebler or Sunshine cookies or crackers and Kashi cereal. With coupons this can mean BIG savings on these items. If you still have any $2/1 Healthy Choice printables from their website, you can get these frozen meals for free or 20 cents each depending on your region. Other freebies include Tony's Pizza, Annie's pasta & cheese and Pillsbury crescent rolls. Click here for all the juicy details on southernsavers' match-ups page.

Lowe's Foods

More cheap boneless/skinless chicken breast to be had here- $1.49/lb! You can also get 80% ground beef for this price - not lean enough for our taste, but still a great deal if you're not picky about the fat percentages of your beef. Various other deals to be had- including dirt cheap Kellogg's Rice Krispies if you have the internet coupon from there site. Click here for HCW's match-ups thread. I haven't yet figured out who has the truly better deal on chicken between HT and Lowe's- HT is offering B1G2 free on the chicken. I'll try to determine this and post later.

On another couponing note, there are PLENTY of us hardcore couponers out there as I was reminded this morning when trying to print a B1G1 egg coupon from www.thegoodeggproject.org. These ran out QUICK.

Hope you all had a fantastic holiday! I'm already thinking New Years resolutions- one of mine will be to strictly track spending and saving throughout all of 2010!