Thrifty Thursday!

I'm one happy camper on this Thursday thanks to Target's annual toy clearance (or as some folks put it, Christmas in July). My closest store has its toys already very picked over- people started buying them at a measly 30% off and there's not much left over. So I headed over to the Southpoint location in Durham and made some great finds. They were running behind on the markdowns. Myself and another savvy shopper had inquired on when they would be marking stuff down to 75%. The associate told us tomorrow and to come back in the afternoon...and then kindly offered to markdown the items in our carts. It was a pleasant and unexpected act of kindness!

I found a Little People toy set for a little under $6 and some other great little presents for the kiddos. I think we'll give the Little People set to Stella for her upcoming birthday. I wound up spending about $40 or so for three big bags of toys...and I picked up 10 bags of Chex Mix for .40 each after some $1.10/1 tearpad q's I recently traded for.

I also stopped by Cheesecake Factory to pick up my $1.50 slice of cheesecake thanks to a Facebook promotion and got another unexpected surprise- the receipt included a phone number to call to take a short survey and get a $10 giftcard! Score!

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.

1 lb of Strawberries for $1 @ Target

I'm not sure if this is nationwide or not, but at my nearby Super Target they have 1 lb of strawberries for $1- which is a ridiculously great deal! Call before making the trip. My store was out when I made a morning trip. I called in the early afternoon and they had just gotten another truck in an hour before I made the call. I ran back out and there were only about a dozen left so they are going fast!

Super Glade scented oil candle deal @ Target!

I just had to share this fabulous deal going on right now at Target:

Glade Holiday scented oil candles are on sale for $2.50 each. When you buy 5, you will also get a $5 Target Gift Card. There are some coupons out there that make this a spectacular moneymaker- even more so when you separate your purchases to qualify for the SC Johnson rebate that's out here (buy 3 SC Johnson products, get a $5 rebate- you can do this 3 times per household). NOTE: You cannot use the gift card issued during your transaction on that particular transaction. You'll have to hold it for your next transaction.

There are a few coupons out there for the scented oil candle holders. There are $1.50/1 that were found within candle tins earlier in the year. There's also a $1.50/1 coupon that appeared in the latest Good Housekeeping issue (Paula Deen is on the cover). There's also a $2/2 coupon within the Holiday tins themselves (please only remove these from candles you are buying!!!). I lucked into several $2/1 coupons I found in an SC Johnson product booklet that was in Lowe's Foods a month or so ago.

There's also a couple of FREE coupons out there for refills wyb the scented oil candle holders. You can find these right now as blinkies at Kroger, Publix, Food Lion. The SC Johnson booklet I found at Lowe's also included a coupon for a free refill wyb 2 refill packs. This is how I broke down the deal to get the absolute most bang for the buck...

Bought:

2 Scented Oil Candle Holders @ $2.50 each
3 Refill packs @ $2.50 each
Subtotal: $12.50

Used:
2- $2/1 candle holder coupons from SC Johnson Booklet (-$4)
2- B1G1 blinkies found at Kroger (-$5)
1- B2G1 coupon from SC Johnson booklet (-$2.50)
Total OOP (not including tax): $1.00
Received a $5 Target Gift Card
Can file for an additional $5 SC Johnson Rebate

This made this transaction a $9 moneymaker. I repeated it twice and will have made a total of $27 in Target gift cards and manufacturer rebates when all is said and done...and I have a whole lot of Apple Cinnamon candles to show for it!

Another perk on this deal... you'll qualify for a free holiday music download from Glade with any Holiday item purchased (credit goes to petergabrielfan of HCW for finding this add'l freebie!). Click here to get your download!

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!