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.

Kroger Mega Madness!

Kroger Mega sales can be quite the godsend when it comes to stockpiling and this March Madness event has been no exception! I've lucked into some great .50/1 Coke Zero coupons which have made for moneymaking 2 liters and I made a smart trade for a bunch of B10G5 Powerade coupons so looks like our garage will be filled up with our favorite beverages!

In a trip last night, I filled my cart with the following items:

15 bottles of Powerade Zero - used B10G5 to take $4.95 off the order
9 two liter bottles of Coke Zero - used .50/1 tearpad q's to make them each 30 cent mm's!
8 bottles of Shamrock Farms Rockin Refuel protein drinks - used .50/1 to make them freebies
12 Snickers bars - used .50/2 insert q's to make them freebies

The Mega Event takes $4 off your order for every 8 qualifying event items (the powerades and cokes were qualifying items).

Total spent: 43 cents!
Total saved: $57.67

With a triples event looming on the horizon from Harris Teeter, can we get any more spoiled here???

Great day at Kroger!

Kroger is having a Daytona 500 mega-type event this week and next in which you get $3.00 off your order when you buy 10 participating items. I made my first stop today and made out like the proverbial bandit. I got all the items pictured for $2.34...and I'll be submitting this receipt for a $5.00 Smirnoff No Beer Purchase Required Pizza Rebate- meaning it's as if I got paid $2.66 to take these out of the store!

Here's a run-down of the items I purchased and coupons used...

22 Gatorade G2 sports drink - .50/1 insert q's
15 cans of Chef Boyardee - .35/3 insert q's
6 Healthy Choice Frozen Meals - $1/2 ConAgra home mailer q's
1 Smuckers Uncrustable - FREE home mailer q
2 packages of Golden Oreo Double Stuff - FREE facebook q's
2 packages of Golden Oreo Cakesters - FREE wyb Oreo tearpad q's
3 Kroger Frozen Pizzas - $2/1 pizza tearpad q's courtesy of Coors
1 large jar of Kroger Peanut Butter
1 multipack of Jello Dulce De Leche pudding - .50/1 insert q
1 pint of fresh blueberries - $2 off produce winetag coupon
2 1/2 lbs of red grapes - $2 off produce winetag coupon
1 bunch of bananas - $1 off produce Kroger coupon

I also used a $15 rewards certificate I earned for shopping last quarter.

Total spent: $2.34
Coupon savings: $41.60
Kroger Plus Savings: $47.46
Total Savings: $99.67 or 98%

I think this was my best Kroger trip ever! Have you stopped at Kroger for the Daytona event? What did you buy?

Dinner on the Cheap...

We've been snowed in here in Central Carolina but found it safe enough to make a trip to Kroger today. There's a great mega event going on now through this coming Saturday that makes multiple trips worthwhile- check out www.southernsavers.com for some great match-ups!

I'm fixing dinner right now for all 6 of us...

Baked chicken with wild rice & steamed asparagus

I used a $1 off produce winetag for some split chicken breast on sale @ Kroger today bringing total cost for 3 breasts down to $1.24

The wild rice is some Uncle Ben's we got for free AC during a previous Kroger mega event

The asparagus was on sale for $2.99/lb at Kroger this week also.

Total cost for a yummy chicken dinner: $4.23 - that's just 70 cents per person!

We went out to celebrate my husband's birthday at Rudino's earlier today with his folks. One of our girls ordered pasta for lunch and this meal itself cost $4.00! I joked that I probably could have bought 25 boxes of pasta for that price!

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.

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!

Great day at Kroger!

Haven't posted a trip report in a while, but this one was definitely post (and brag) worthy...

Bought:
3 dozen Egglands Best eggs
5 bottles of Powerade Zero
3 1.75 qts of Breyer's Ice Cream
2 packs of chicken nuggets for the kiddos
6 Healthy Choice Frozen meals

Used:
$3 off $15 frozen foods Kroger Catalina
B1G1 eggs printable
3- .75/1 Breyer's insert qs
6- $2/1 Healthy choice ip's
5 FREE powerades earned from Coke Rewards program

Paid a grand total of $2.95- a savings of 95%!

Made other stops to Lowe's & Harris Teeter today that are less brag-worthy but good for our family - stocked up on gallons of water & apple sauce at HT and boneless/skinless chicken at Lowe's.

Be on the lookout for winetags at all grocers this weekend- particularly those from Yellowtail wines. They currently have $2 off beef and $2 off cheese winetags out.

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!

Grocery Store Deals - Week of 10/28

Harris Teeter is messing with us couponers minds! They were running a super doubles or triples event once a month and now nothing in a month. Oh well...Kroger is taking up the slack with this week with some incredible deals during the Mega 10 event. The normally silent weekly deals sticky on www.southernsavers.com (I swear I hear the sound of cricket everytime I click on it) has become abuzz. Here are links to deal lists/match-ups (click on the store name to pull up match-ups):

Kroger

Great finds to be had- find a coupon friendly Kroger and go nuts! There's some good coupon deals and Catalinas. My personal faves this week are Propels (moneymaker with .50/1 hangtag q's), Betty Crocker fruit snacks (get a $3.50 OYNO catalina when you buy 5 or more), Krusteaz pancake mix (17 cents after .50/1 insert q and get a $1 OYNO catalina for each 2 you buy) and free Uncle Ben's rice pouches after .50/1 insert q (plus you'll get a $1 OYNO catalina for each 6 you buy).

Harris Teeter

Not too much to report at HT this week. Good E-Vic special on Capri Suns and electronic coupon offer for Blue Bunny frozen novelty can be turned into a $1 moneymaker if you have the $2/1 coupon that appeared in some 8/02 Smart Source inserts.

Lowe's Foods

One word: blah.

Food Lion

Two words: double blah.

Burnout...

Alright coupon shoppers. I know I haven't posted grocery store deals or drugstore deals this past week and there's a good reason why- I'm suffering from coupon shopping burnout. Does this mean I've put a temporary stop on coupon/sale shopping? With our big family and their voracious appetite for all things fresh? Heck no. It just means I haven't had the energy to post deal match-ups or even little links to deal match-ups.

In my defense, there's not too much to post out there this week. Drugstore deals are rather blah and there's not too many loss leaders at the grocers this week. The one bright spot has been Kroger's Mega Event that began yesterday. I shopped there this morning and did very well. For local readers, I've decided to forego shopping at the Hwy 64 store altogether. They are just not very coupon friendly and it's difficult to really make the most of a buy 10 event when you're limited to using only 2 coupons per like item. Even more so, when they spend far too many minutes scrutinizing the few coupons you're able to use.

At the more coupon friendly High House location, I purchased the following items:

2 boxes of Betty Crocker Fruit Shapes
3 boxes of Betty Crocker Fruit by the Foot
Large bunch of bananas
2 -1/2 gallons of skim milk (this worked out to be slightly cheaper than buying a gallon)
2 Lean Cuisine meals
5 bottles of Propel
2 bags of Chex Mix (one chocolate, one cheddar)
1 four pack of Activia yogurt
4 six packs of Dannon Danimals yogurt smoothies
9 pouches of Uncle Ben's wild rice
1 Febreze Noticeables Starter Pack
1 four pack of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Cooking & Baking sticks

Total Value of Items Purchased: $87.52
Less Coupon & Sale Savings: -$77.51
Total Out of Pocket: $10.01

That's nearly a 90% savings! I also received a $3.50 OYNO Catalina for buying 5 or more BC Fruit Snacks and a $1.00 OYNO Catalina from Uncle Ben's.

Our kids go through fruit snacks for school lunches like crazy so I plan on rolling the $3.50 Catalinas to buy more boxes to stockpile.

Grocery Store deals - week of 10/14/09

Altogether a pretty ho-hum week at the grocery stores. Here's a store-by-store breakdown for y'all...

Food Lion

If it weren't for their wonderful blinkies and tearpads, I don't think I'd set foot in Food Lion much at all. I'm not spotting any super deals...though someone did find Huggies on clearance for $3.49 at their neighborhood Food Lion (using a $3 Q, the pack was 49 cents!). Click here for Southern Savers match-ups.

Harris Teeter

A few great deals at HT this week...including FREE Birds Eye Steamfresh frozen veggies after doubled 50 cent insert coupon. If you have any Snuggies $3/1 coupons and $2/1 All couponsleft, you could also get free Blue Sparkle or Free & Clear fabric softener sheets and All 50 oz. for $1.20 after coupon- great deals on laundry essentials! Eggs are 97 cents a dozen too. Normally, I post a link to Southern Savers match-ups but since I worked so hard on a list at the Hot Coupon World forum I'm going to include a link to that - click here for my match-ups.

Kroger

Frozen mega deals continue through this week. There's also some good deals to be had on Pillsbury products. You can also score some free Tabasco sauce and Bumblebee tuna. Click here for Southern Saver's matchups.

Lowe's Foods

Some good deals to be had with McCormick products. Other than that, I'm not seeing much else at Lowe's this week. Click here for HCW match-ups.

That's all folks! Have a great week.

Grocery Deals - week of 9/23

Phew! I am wiped out from HT's Triples. Not sure how much shopping I'll get out to do this coming week as we're pretty well stocked on just about everything...excepting Lean Ground beef which hasn't been on sale for what seems like forever! Having said that, if I do venture out it will likely be due to one of the following deals...

Food Lion

Not much going on at FL this week. There is a really great deal on Smart Balance butter blends sticks. They're B1G1 and paired up with the $1.50 coupon from 9/13's Red Plum, you can get these for 14 cents each. For all the details on FL's deals this week, click here for SouthernSaver's match-ups.

Harris Teeter

Great E-Vic special this week on 5 lb. bags of White Potatoes (limit 1 per customer)- pair this up with their B1G1 London Broil or Top Round Roast and you've got the makings of a great Crock Pot dinner. Sorrento String Cheeses are also B1G1 and with the $1.00/1 insert coupon or peelies, you can get these for $1.50 a pack (note: I don't see these listed on SouthernSavers, but they were on my weekly specials email from HT). For all the details on HT's deals this week, click here for SouthernSaver's match-ups.

The big news from HT this week is that they'll be hosting a Super Doubles week this coming week!! So get those $1 and $1.50 coupons ready...I already know of a great deal involving Catalinas on McCormick spices so keep your $1 q's handy!

Kroger

Mega Event continues through this week. This would be a good time and place to buy items for the Nabisco Rebate if you have the form and are looking to make the most of it! Also, a great week to buy some cheap Lysol cleaners if you need to stock up as they are on sale for 1/2 off. Combine sale prices with .50/1 coupons from 8/23 and 9/13's SmartSource inserts and you can get toilet bowl cleaner for 29 cents and household cleaner for 59 cents each. Gala apples are also on sale for 99 cents/lb. Get all the details on Kroger's sale by clicking here for Southern Savers match-ups.

Lowe's Foods

Lowe's is running a Special K deal this week where you'll get $5 off at register when you buy 5 Special K products. Combine this with any coupons you have on Special K and a $10 jeans rebate offer and you have the makings of a potential moneymaker. Gala apples are also on sale at Lowe's for 99 cents/lb. Milk is $1.99/gallon and I think you can get some free Sun Crystals Sweetener after sale price and coupon. Lowe's is also running a McCormick Catalina deal, but you may be better off holding onto these for HT's upcoming Super Doubles. For all the deals on Lowe's Foods weekly specials, click here for HCW's list.

Happy Shopping everyone!

Weekly Grocery Deals

I've been too wrapped up in keeping a very close eye on my walking toddler...and taking advantage of Harris Teeter Triples so I'm quite late for a weekly grocery deals post but here it is...

Not too terribly much going on at other local grocers. Food Lion has some really good deals on meat right now. For all the details, click here.

Lowe's has cheap bacon eggs and some decent Buy 2, get 3 Free deals. For an hcw round-up, click here.

Kroger has the mega deal going on through Saturday. I'm going to make a stop to take advantage of the Juicy Juice deal with some soon-to-expire coupons I traded for on Hot Coupon World. For all the details on this mega event, click here.

And, as posted earlier this week, HT is the queen bee for my shopping this week thanks to some amazing Triples deals. Keep scrolling down on the blog for my big Harris Teeter entry.

I stopped by this morning and did quite well- though I'm scratching my head a bit over it as something must have caused overage somewhere. I expected to be two to three dollars out of pocket and wound up paying less than a buck. Here's what I got:

1 Del Monte can of Apricot Halves (FREE after home mailer coupon)
1 Del Monte can of Mixed Fruit (FREE after home mailer coupon)
1 Powerade 32 oz (FREE thanks to EVic special)
4 Campbell's Chunky soups (.14 each after peelie coupon)
3 boxes of Barilla Mini Penne (FREE after insert coupon)
5 boxes of Green Giant frozen veggies (.45 for all after insert & IPs)
3 bottles of Shamrock milk rocket refuel (FREE after insert coupons)
3 Blue Bunny personals ice cream (FREE after home mailer coupon)
1 bunch of bananas

Total spent: 66 cents
Total saved: $37.24 and received a $3 catalina off my next order

I loooove this Green Giant deal!

Grocery Deals - week of 9/09

No huge standouts this week with the exception of some very good produce deals @ Harris Teeter.

Here's a store by store Triangle lineup:

Food Lion

Food Lion is running a special where you'll earn a $20 NFLShop.com gift certificate when you buy $25 worth of Proctor & Gamble products. Your best bet is to stick with sale items on their line-up- these are the Bounty Basic paper towels, Charmin, Dawn and Prilosec.

Red grapes are on sale for 99 cents/lb. And you can also get Edy's ice cream for a cool $1.69 when you use the $1 off coupon from 8/23 Red Plum insert.

You can read all SouthernSaver's details and match-ups here.

Kroger

Same as last week with notable addition of a hot $2/1 printable Healthy Choice frozen meal coupon you can get at http://www.healthychoice.com/. With this coupon and sale price, you'll be paying 20 cents for a decent lunch. Jon loves these for work and I am currently trying to trade up a storm for these on HCW...so if you're able to print these out and don't plan on using these, please please please send me an email at petrinak72@yahoo.com. Let's make a trade!

I also noticed that Gala apples are on sale for 99 cents/lb. Sweet deal for some crisp yummy apples!

Click here for all SouthernSaver match-ups.

Lowe's Foods

No standouts. But a poster on HCW did note TWO great finds for coupon booklets at her NC Lowe's- a Tailgate Like a Pro booklet and an SC Johnson booklet. Be on the lookout for these as they have some GREAT coupons (especially for super doubles and triples!!).

For the HCW match-up thread, click here.

Harris Teeter

No super doubles or triples this week, but some great whole foods deals- most impressively, a gallon of milk for $1.97!

Broccoli crowns are on sale for 1.79/lb, bell peppers are $1.50/each and raspberry and blueberry boxes are 4 for $6.

E-Vic of the week is a 99 cent box of HT cereal. You can also get Martha White muffin mixes (these are really scrumptious and easy to make) for only 4 cents a box when you use the .55/2 coupon in 8/09 RedPlum insert. Spray N Wash and Glass Plus will both be free after coupons and UPromise savings.

You can find all SouthernSaver's match-ups here.

Grocery Deals - week of 9/02

I meant to post this yesterday and make this a weekly Wednesday feature, but Stella's been a bit of a fuss-budget as of late. My apologies! Lots of Labor Day themed specials on meat, paper plates & plastic cups can be found at practically every store. Here are my picks for this week's best deals at Triangle area grocery stores.

Food Lion

Sadly, FL has discontinued their Guiding Stars FLIP (a store specific internet printable) that would allow you to get free or nearly free produce, eggs and other healthy stuff. This was a $1.00 coupon that could be used on any "healthy" item in the store- paired with specials and carefully measured produce, you could get some really wonderful deals on whole foods. I'm hoping they'll bring it back.

I'm not a big FL shopper since they don't double q's but I do stop by on occasion for really good deals.

This week, they'll have free or nearly free Mt. Olive Sweet Relish if you have 50 cent coupons handy from 7/19 or 8/16 insert. If you haven't exhausted your supply of Glade Fragrance collection coupons you can get free or cheap candles since they're on sale B1G1. With the $3 printable or the $3 All You coupon, you can get these for free. If you have $2 insert coupons, you'll pay $1 for each.

Harris Teeter

There's a rumor swirling on HCW right now that HT will alternate between super doubles and triples every other week until the end of year. I don't know about you, but I find this prospect both exciting and exhausting. Guess we'll find out soon. In the interim, they have some good freebies and cheapies this week with their typical doubling of q's.

My personal faves? Sorrento string cheese can be bought for a mere 33 cents each pack when you use the $1 coupon from 8/23 Smart Source. Coke 12 packs are also on sale for a rock bottom 4/$10 ($2.50 each). There's a limit of 8. I've traded for a bunch of $1/2 q's so I'll be stocking up on our beloved Coke Zero for $2 each 12 pack.

You can also get Reynolds Recycled 35 ft aluminum foil for 14 cents with the 75 cent coupon found in 8/16 Smart Source insert.

Both Smithfield Bacon and French's worcestershire sauce will be free with printables (click on each item to find and print!).

Kroger

No big deals going on at Kroger this week- will buy a couple more packs of the Kroger Comforts diapers for our little munchkin but nothing else really stood out for me this week.

Lowe's

Lowe's has an instasave special (sign up on their website) where you can get a 4 lb. bag of sugar for 99 cents (limit 2).

Other standouts this week include Lawry's marinades for 54 cents with 50 cent insert coupon, Kellogg's cereals (selected kids flavors) for 65 cents a box with $2/2 insert coupon, A1 Marinade for FREE with $2/1 insert coupon.

Please feel free to post comments if you spot other good deals at any of these stores, Super Walmart or Super Target!

Why I Coupon Shop...

The answer is right in this picture! I coupon shop to help us save $$$ so I can continue to stay home and care for this adorable munchkin. Yes, it takes time & energy to find the best deals but it's totally worth the effort. I've cut our grocery and household items charges in half (at least!) and we actually have more stuff we considered luxuries than we did when I started coupon shopping (free candles & lotions & cleansers!).

I'll be back out to take advantage of Walgreens deals shortly but wanted to write a quick blog about my post-library Kroger trip. I did pretty well- bought a gallon of milk, 7 Healthy Choice meals, six Kroger 30 minute Sesame Ginger marinades (these are yummy with chicken and on sale for $1 each this week), 2 Shamrock Farms rocket refuels milk, a jumbo pack of Kroger comforts diapers, chicken bouillon, a 2 liter of Sunkist for the girlies, 2 Purex Naturals laundry detergents (75 cents each thanks to sale price coupled with $1.50/$5 Kroger bonus coupon and 2 doubled 50 cent manufacturer IPs) and a pack of Kroger Reduced Sugar Maple & Brown Sugar oatmeal (super yummy brekkie) for a little over $30.

The diapers in particular were a very good deal. The pack was on sale for $6.99 and there's a $3 internet coupon out there bringing the cost down to a very cool $3.99 - you can print the internt coupon from here, just click on Kroger in the itemized selections to find it. Since you can print this twice, I was going to get two packs while there, but could only use one. So I had them put back the other back and will get it during another trip. We'll need to go back for the Coke deal that's going on once I get all my $1 Coke coupons that I recently traded for in my mailbox.

Friday Deal Round-up: Christmas in July!

I don't want to post a pic to spoil any birthday/holiday surprises, but I made some GREAT finds at the Target toy clearance. All told, I spent $97 on nearly $442 worth of toys. Stella is all set for Christmas and we should have a nice stockpile for kid's birthday parties this coming year. I'm planning on making this an annual event thanks to the savings. I even used coupons on 4 items! You may be able to still find some great deals there thanks to mismarkings and misplacement of clearance items. Use the price check scanners on the endcap to find out what each item will total- you may be very pleasantly surprised! And always be sure to watch the register carefully- I had three clearance items ring up at full price this morning. If I hadn't been paying attention, I would have paid way too much for these!

Also wanted to give local shoppers a tip about Kroger- they have paper school buses with great coupon pamphlets and the Kellogg's $10 Fuel for School rebate form. Be sure to pick up a few copies next time you're in there! I also snagged a good pile of 55 cents off Propel hanging off the Propels at Kroger- these are on sale at Harris Teeter right now for 4/$5 so you can get these for a measly 15 cents each after coupon.

Thanks to some $1/off produce winetags I recently spotted, I bought $20 worth of groceries (including bananas, plums and blueberries, 6 Propels and a small bottle of Trop50 oj) for $3.90- an 80% savings for an order consisting mainly of produce.

Heads up too that CVS will be having more free school supplies after ECBs from Sunday through Tuesday. I'll be there bright and early Sunday morning! There are also other great deals on Electrasol, Blink & Visine (the Blink is a moneymaker with mfg coupons). You can find all the details on http://www.southernsavers.com/ under the CVS tab- be sure to check out comments section for the post because readers often post additional tips & deals.

Friday Deal Roundup

I've decided to add a new feature to the blog - a weekly round-up of great deals I've found this week. Those of you with the same stores nearby can try to take advantage before these deals end- in most cases, this will be the following Tuesday. I've already posted some good finds during the Kroger Mega 10 event- I hear this will continue through next week.

It was a great week for healthy/whole foods deals! Kroger has organic cherries on sale for $2.99/lb (their regular cherries are on sale for the same price!) and organic cameo apples on sale for 99 cents/lb. I don't typically buy organic due to the higher cost, but I couldn't resist on these deals...and the cameo apples are super yummy! Very crisp and sweet. Kroger also has split chicken breast on sale for 99 cents/lb. You can make this an even better deal by using the Tyson $1/off coupon that's been in Sunday circulars TWICE over the past few months.

Target has lean ground beef on sale for $2.99/lb- another great price for 93% lean beef. We're running low in our freezer from the last Food Lion batch, so I restocked 12 lbs of this at Target. It's not everyday you find such a great deal on meats at Target.

I believe these deals (Kroger produce/meat and Target) end tomorrow so you'll need to act fast.

And since split chicken is on sale, I figured I'd include a quick and easy recipe for baked chicken (one of Jon's favorites). As in my turkey cutlet recipe, no need to measure. Just put your chicken in a baking dish sprayed with Pam, season it with salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, lemon pepper seasoning and parsley flakes and depending on your diet, either top it with little slivers/slices of butter or liberally spray with a butter substitute, put it in a preheated oven at 425 degrees and bake for about 45 minutes. We usually serve this with steamed broccoli and some wild & brown rice. Easy peasy and delicious!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Summer of Fun..and Savings!

Summer is off to a sizzling start- with the beginning of the new school year, the tail end of a smashing spring season with Spencer's flag football team (GO UNTOUCHABLES!) and gearing up for Kaila's fall soccer season. Spence will be playing in the championship game on Saturday so wish him luck. He took a really rough hit during a game this past weekend. He got right back up and playing immediately after - he's a tough kid!

We've volunteered as team managers for Kaila's team so that's kept us busy these past few weeks getting all the uniform orders together and organizing a team meet & greet for this coming weekend.

And I've been dashing about taking advantage of some great deals this week. CVS is running a 3 day sale in which you score some free school supplies...unfortunately too late for this school year thanks to the year-round schedule, but I'll be storing these away for next year. You can get free pens, rulers, glue, 1 subj notebooks, 3 subject notebooks and scissors thanks to the wonders of rolling ECBs.

For those not in the know, ECBs are Extra Care Bucks that you earn for certain purchases by using a CVS ExtraCare card. You can use these as a form of payment for future CVS purchases. I had $6.50 in these when I went shopping early yesterday morning and by breaking my entire purchase into 5 separate transactions, I ended up spending just a few actual dollars on these school supplies and a Gillette Fusion Razor. It's basically a math game but if you go in with a plan & some ECBs already on hand, you can come out with a few bags of goodies spending little to no money at all. I love my ECBs!

They're also running a deal on 6 x 8 photo books. These are on sale for $7.99 and you get $7.99 in ECBs back when you buy one. Although the circulars and the store signs indicate a 1 per household limit, I've found that you can actually buy 5 and get the $7.99 ECB back for each of the 5. Great Christmas gift idea or, if you're a Mom to a baby/toddler, you could also take pictures of your baby's favorite things and enter in text for each and make a cute little reading book for baby. Organize your pics, save them on a CD, USB/flash drive or what have you, take them into CVS and make a nifty book gratis!

Kroger is also running another one of their Mega 10 sales- this is where you get $5.00 deducted from your overall order when you buy any 10 of the items within the sale. Pair this deal up with coupons and get even better savings. I spent a little over $25 on an order consisting of 4 Sobe Lifewaters, 4 Healthy Choice frozen meals (Jon's lunch of choice for work), 6 Deer Park 3L bottles, 2 big containers of fat free cottage cheese, bananas, blueberries, a box of Kroger oatmeal, box of 200 Kroger sandwich bags, 6 bags of Cheerios and Chex snack mixes and a box of Kroger active bars (these are a knock-off of Fiber One bars)- thanks to mfg coupons, internet coupons and the 10 item event savings, I knocked $37.13 off the order.

The Deer Park and the Sobe's were the best deals in the mix. With the 10 item mega event, each was only 49 cents. I bought ten total for $4.90 then knocked another $3.38 off this by using an internet Buy One Get One Free coupon for the 4 Sobe Lifewaters (the coupons rang up at $1.69 each- the non-sale price of the Sobes). So, I actually paid $1.52 for 6 three-liter Deer Park bottles and 4 20 oz Sobe Lifewaters. Sweet! Here's a link to the coupon for my fellow Kroger shoppers:

http://bricks.coupons.com/Start.asp?tqnm=qdcnfeh65041990&bt=wg&o=56053&c=SL&p=dP7JSciC

I am officially addicted to coupon shopping!