Shopping Warriors

Well, aside from my trip to Dominick's HERE and having my hubby pick up a few "basics," I didn't do any major grocery store shopping this week. I did make a trip to Target to get the disposable camera deal HERE and to Walgreens to grab 2 Toblerones from the deal HERE! :)

I also made a trip to TJ Maxx/Marshall's but I'll share that with you later.

So, how was your week? Were you able to find any great deals? Please feel free to leave a linky to your posting and not your homepage to make it easier to find. Thanks!

Shopping Warriors

We were completely out of produce and I decided I was going to go to Aldi this week. I think they have amazing prices and their produce is really great at ours. While on the way in, I was blessed with the Spirit of Giving by an older woman so my shopping trip was just a delight this week. (I'm not a big fan of grocery shopping, normally. Too much food to drool over!) Anyway, I'm not sure why I don't shop there more. Yes, I am "Coupon Geek" but I love that their prices are so low, that even though you can't use coupons, you still can get a lot for a little. My total ended up being $64.65 but I had some extra to spend since last week was a little lighter.

Here's what I got for my money:

Rib Pork Patties, Sweet Potatoe Patties, Andes Baking Chips, Pie Crusts, Sour Cream, Fresh Mushrooms, American & Swiss Cheese Slices, Grape Tomatoes, Butter, Baby Carrots, Turkey Bacon, English Muffins, Yogurt Kids Cups 6-pack, 2 Grapefruits, Baby Dill Pickles, Teriyaki Sauce, Powdered Sugar, Flour, Radishes, 5 Lunch Meat Packets, Larger Lunch Meat Packet, Eggs, Loaf of Bread, Case of Ramen Noodles, 2 Gallons of Milk, Hamburger Buns, Cheese Curls (like Cheetos), Beef Buillon Cubes, Lettuce, Pretzel Sticks, Bananas, Chicken Nuggets, Avocado, 2 Cans of Corned Beef Hash, Instant Rice, Granny Smith Apples, Pkg of Hot Dogs, and Chips.

Whew! I probably have enough to last us two weeks using some stockpiled items. And I got some ingredients I needed for Nathan and I have a big baking day.

I also picked up two packages of baby wipes at Target while I was shopping for Christmas presents. They were $1.97 and I used a Target Printable making them $.97 each.

How did your week go? Were you able to find any good deals? Please feel free to share a linky that's to your posting and not your homepage. Don't have a blog? Share your stories in the comments field under this posting. I love to hear how you did!

Shopping Warriors

Typically, I post this on Saturday but I have been in Iowa! Could you tell? :) We went to visit my parents for Thanksgiving. It was so nice to get to spend some quality time with them and the kids just love them to pieces! But I have to say, traveling long distances with a 1 year old and a 3 year old is not much fun! But, overall, they actually did fairly well and I am thankful for the technology of portable DVD players and a Nintendo DS! :)

Anyway, I didn't get much shopping in this week since I knew we were going to be gone. I just picked up enough "basics" for us to survive until Wednesday and used up some of our stockpile for our meals. The joys of having a stockpile!

So, I don't have any fabulous deal-finds to share. But I'm hoping you have some you can share with my readers to show them how deal-finding and couponing can really help stretch your budget farther.

Did any of you hit/find any great Black Friday deals? I did venture out with my Mom around 9:30AM to Wal-Mart and most of the deals were still there. I picked up a Tinkerbell Table for $18 and some PJs for $3. Since they were so cute, I even grabbed a pair for each of them for next year. That was the extent of my shopping. Oh, and let me tell you, my hubby and I were so excited to stumble upon One Tree Hill: The Complete Sixth Season for $12.99 on Friday. I was adding it to our Christmas list and found it on Amazon, down from about $44. We jumped at the chance to use our gift cards we earned through SwagBucks to get it for FREE!

Leave a linky to your posting (and not your homepage) with the deals that you have found this week. Don't have a blog? Please, share your deals in the comment section below this posting. I love to hear the great deals everyone found! It's always very inspiring and keeps me motivated to continue to deal-find.

Shopping Warriors

So this week, I didn't buy any groceries. Nope, not even a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread! We had my daughter's 1st birthday party and I did something a little different and I had our local grocery store cater it. For once, I just wanted to enjoy a party and not be exhausted from cooking and baking and they had really reasonable prices. Cooking for almost 40 people can be sooo exhausting!

Well, not only were their prices reasonable but the quantity of food they gave us was so generous that even after having several people take some home, we had food left for the week! Bonus--more days without cooking! :) I am usually a little bit more frugal with my parties, cooking myself and finding lots of the food items ahead of time for a good price. But with having to host four major parties in under three months, I decided to take a break before the next two parties hit!

So if you have "wiggle room" in your budget, allow yourself a break every now and again. It will just inspire you, all the more, to hit the deals again later. And get ready to see more of my pictures of really good deals and cheapies soon!

So, how did your week go? Did you get anything good? Leave a linky that's to your posting and not your homepage, please. Thanks!

Shopping Warriors

So it's been a little crazy at our house for the last 24 hours. We've been getting ready for my daughter's birthday party and time just slipped away. It may have had something to do with painting. Painting...when I have a huge house full of people coming over soon. But....it does look very pretty! :)

So, my apologies for this getting up so late, but better late than never?

Here's how my week looked:

Since I didn't spend anything on groceries last week, I let myself pick up a lot more than usual. I think it was around $70 for everything pictured? I picked up a lot of produce again. And I've got something planned coming up for the Pork Tenderloin. I can't wait to try it and blog about it! Anyway, It kind of freaks me out when my total is that high since I normally try to stick to $50 or under. But I'm still on target for this month's budget.

I also made two trips to Target. One to pick up the Monsters Inc/UP Blu-Ray Deal I posted about HERE. And One to see if it was finally in! (they were out of Monsters Inc.--no dice the second time either.) The first trip, I picked up Up...just in case. It wasn't as good of a deal but I wanted a copy. I think I may hold it for us to watch Christmas Day. I rarely buy DVDs anymore but we do watch the kids movies a lot so I find that those are worth it when I get them for a reasonable price. The second trip, I picked up some Wipes that I posted about HERE. I believe they ended up being $.47 for the little packs and $.89 for the medium ones.

So those are the deals I grabbed and my regular groceries for the week. How did you do? Leave a linky to your posting (and not your homepage.) Thanks!

Shopping Warriors

Can you believe I didn't buy any groceries or shop at CVS/Wags this week? I did pick up a few things at Toys R Us and Target but they were all Christmas presents. So since my family comes to the blog, I can't show you those! We had so much food left over from our Halloween gathering that we just ate leftovers most of the week and treated ourselves to one night of carryout! Yum!

Well, I didn't get to put up my picture from last week, so here it is. I used the money I had left over from my Dominick's gift card. There are *lots* of items not shown as those are for my brother's care package. I wanted to spoil him a lot since he won't be home for Thanksgiving. But I didn't want to spoil his surprise of what's arriving so I left them out. It felt good to get the box mailed off today. I had to keep re-packing the box to get everything to fit but after removing some extra packaging, I got it to work. Amazing what you can fit in those APO Flat Rate Boxes!! I can't wait to hear what he liked from it. (Hopefully everything!)

Everything, including care package items, ended up costing $30.19 after gift card. Nice and budget friendly for that week, especially since we had a fairly large family gathering on Halloween! :) I'm loving that so far for November, my expenses on groceries has been $0!

So, how did your week go? Did you pick up any good deals? Leave us a linky to share. Please be sure that it's to the posting and not your homepage. Thanks!

Shopping Warriors

Just remembered I didn't get this posted yesterday! See what happens when you let your mind take a day off! :) I'll have to update my "story" this evening. But I wanted to be sure to get the link up for the rest of you.

Were you able to find some great deals this week? Please make sure your linky is to your posting and not your homepage. Thanks!

Shopping Warriors

It's been kind of nice taking a little time off from this month from my usual amount of couponing and extensive shopping trip planning. I haven't been running as many big deals and have just been using most of our money on fresh produce and other things I run out of. The time I've been saving I've been using to focus on getting my house organized, which will save me tons of money in the long-run. So I've been using my $250 Dominick's gift card I was given for most of my purchases. And this last week, I've been using what I had budgeted for the month.

This week, I went to Jewel for my groceries. It was conveniently on the way home from my shopping trip and they had some good sale items. Again this week, I focused a lot of my money on fresh produce. Here's what I ended up with:

20 Yoplait Yogurts
4 Hillshire Farm Lunchmeats
1 Fresh Broccoli
3lbs of Granny Smith Apples
Fresh Sliced Mushrooms
5lbs of Potatoes
1 pkg of Celery
1 Gallon of Milk
4 Avocados
2lbs of Bananas
2lbs of Grapes
2lbs of Honey Crisp Apples
1 Spaghetti Squash
Jewel Oatmeal
2 Burritos/Chimichangas
Jewel Sauerkraut
2 Dean's Cottage Cheese
3 Daisy Sour Creams
1 pkg of Thomas English Muffins
1 French Onion Dip

Total = $67.39. I earned 2 FREE Yoplait Yogurts plus I filled up with gas afterwards and saved $.90 off my total just from this trip alone. While it's a little more than I usually spend, I had extra in my budget and I'm OK with spending a little more when it means getting some great fruit and veggies. (Especially during flu season!!)

I still have more money on my Dominick's gift card, which I'll use up next week. I have family in town for Halloween so it will help with our extra meal costs.

Since I rarely show you anything except grocery/household items, I thought I'd share my little personal shopping trip this week. I made a trip to Kohl's to get a pair of Converse Chuck Taylor Low-Cut Shoes. I'd been wanting these for quite awhile and decided to take the plunge and get some since they were on sale this week. While I was there, I picked up a book and kitty for Nathan for $10, along with a pair of gloves for me that were on sale. While I could have earned $10 in Kohl's Cash if I had waited an extra two days, I probably wouldn't have gotten my shoes since they were the last pair in my size. Here's what our trip looked like:



So how did your week go? Were you able to snag any great deals? Share a linky to your direct posting and not your homepage. Thanks!

Shopping Warriors

I didn't think I was even going to get in a shopping trip this week. From Sunday - Friday afternoon, I didn't leave the house. I finally decided it was time to call a Dr. It's a good thing I did as I have a pretty bad case of bronchitis. So while I was waiting for my prescriptions to be filled, I picked up some items. I got two prescriptions so I split them between Target and CVS so I could earn some gift cards. May as well make the most of it, right?

I was so exhausted when I got back that I didn't snap a picture but here's how my trip looked:

Target
2 Jars of Market Pantry No-sugar Added Applesauce
2 Loaves of Bread

I checked out after I picked up my prescription so I used my $10 gift card to pay for it.

CVS

2 Packs of 60ct Pampers
12 Bags of Snickers/M&Ms Halloween Candy
1 Bag of Animal Crackers

Total Out-of-Pocket = $23.42. I used some ECBs and Pampers Q. Earned $5 ECBs.

The Pampers were marked down to $4.37 a pack for the 60cts and that's before coupon! Talk about luck. I didn't use the $25 gift card that I earned so I'll save that for another day. The candy was Spend $20, Get $5ECBs and the Snickers/M&Ms were BOGO. Since I'm not sure I'll make it out much before Halloween, I picked up the deal.

How did your week go? Did you find any good deals? Leave a linky but please be sure it's to the posting and not your homepage.

Shopping Warriors

So a few weeks back, Dominick's not only gave me gift cards to giveaway to my readers, but also a $250 gift card for myself. Well, this is the second week that I used it. I can't say that I "splurged" on anything expensive or new to try but I did buy *a lot* of produce! And what a perfect week to do it. I think the fresh fruit is the only thing that kept us all out of the Dr's office!

I also was lucky to find some amazing boneless porkchops for $1.99lb. I then had to debate if I was also going to pick up the roast that was $1.99lb,too. I have a decent amount in my freezer but with the chance of a possible rough winter ahead, I picked up some of those, too. In our area, meat almost never goes below $2 so it's my price-point of when I consider stocking up. Just for comparison, these were $4.49lb originally! Ouch!!! So I bought quite a few of these!

In the end, my total was $118.54. I had used the gift card so it was $0 out-of-pocket. I think my savings were over $80! This is far beyond what I even come close to spending but normally, I wouldn't have gotten as much as I did in one trip. I was just glad to be able to snag soo much in one trip and not alter my budget. I'm definitely getting ready for my winter quick trips of just basics of milk, bread, dairy and produce items. I can't wait to see the small $$ amounts of those weeks!

Since I didn't spend anything out-of-pocket, I allowed myself to snag the Spend $30, Get $10 GC and Cookware deal at Toys R Us for the Dreft/Tide. I've tried a few other detergents but I can't seem to find one that works as well on stains and the sensitive skin of the kids like Dreft. I also had the hubby pick up a gallon of milk. So my out-of-pocket expense for the week was $40.24.

I'm thinking about using the remainder of my Dominick's gift card this week and using my budgeted cash on stocking up on more diapers. We'll see how it goes.

How did your week go? Did you find any great deals? What are your plans for this upcoming week? Please leave a linky that's directly to your shopping trip posting and not your homepage. Don't have a blog? Please leave a comment. We love to hear everyone's great savings findings and weekly deal plans!

Shopping Warriors: My No-Coupon Week

So this week, my big shopping trip was at Dominick's. Not only were they generous in offering me gift cards for my readers to giveaway, but they also gave me one for myself for $250! When I got the email, I figured it was a typo. Talk about joy when I realized it wasn't an error!

This week, I really only needed some basics. I let myself "splurge" on some Sushi, as I've been wanting to try it. I also did something I haven't done in a long, long time--I didn't use any coupons! I really didn't buy anything that I had one for and I wanted to see what I could snag with just buying sale items. Here's what I ended up getting:

2 Gallons of Milk
2 Loaves of Bread
1 Eggplant
2 Zucchinis
2 Lunchables
1 Sushi
Bananas
Oranges
1 box of Poptarts
2 John Morrell Lunchmeats
1 Celery
8 Lucerne Yogurts

Final Price = $38.29
Out-of-Pocket = $0 as I used my giftcard.

I'm always amazed at how much bread, milk and produce can add up to! It doesn't take long to eat up a grocery budget with them!

I also made a trip to Target but didn't buy any items that fell within my grocery/household items budget. I just needed some organizing things, which we had a budget for this last month. I was able to pick up a storage ottoman for $17 and a $70 lamp for $17.

How did your week go? Were you able to find any great deals? Leave us a linky or comment and share!

Shopping Warriors

I didn't get a chance to get my pics up for the week. I'm hoping you all have some inspiring shopping trips that you can share with my readers.

Please make sure your linky is to your posting and not your homepage, to make it easier on my readers to find. Thanks for sharing!

Shopping Warriors

So this was my "big trip" this week. I stopped by Jewel and a local grocery store. I mostly picked up things for Tacos (Yum!) and picked up quite a bit of produce. My big savings came from getting hamburger for $1.99lb, which was amazing since I had literally just run out! I love when that happens! The register shut down and needed to be rebooted so everyone in line got a $1 off coupon! :)

Here's what I picked up:
~10 lbs of Hamburger
~2 Fruit Sense Juices (Used $1/2 coupon)
~Wonder Bread ($.55 off printable)
~3 lbs of grapes
~Avocado
~10 lbs of potatoes (not pictured)
~Tomatoes
~Lettuce
~Nectarines
~Arnold Sandwich Thins (Used $1 off from All You Mag)
~Sargento Cheese
~Cascade Rinse Agent (Used FREE coupon)
~1 can of Lindsey Olives
~2 lbs of Driscoll's Strawberries
~3 La Victoria Salsas (1 free coupon, 1 $4/2 coupon)
~2 Ball Park Hot Dogs (Didn't have coupon! Could use $1/2)
~5 Old El Paso Seasonings & 2 Taco Shells (Used 2-$.60/2 printables and 1 Free Seasoning coupon. Earned $3 OYNO coupon)

Total OOP = $62.01. Earned a $3 OYNO for chicken/beef coupon. Also got a catalina for a FREE Yo Crunch 100 Calorie Pack ($3.29 value!)

It was a little over my budget, but considering the meat I was able to stock-up on, I am OK with that. :) And I don't mind spending more money on great produce!

How did your week go? Leave us a linky or comment to share your shopping fun! Please be sure your links are to your posting and not your homepage. Thanks!

Shopping Warriors

This week, I did one big trip to Target, Walgreens and Jewel--and I took both kids with me. What can I say, I was in the mood for a little adventure! :) They actually did pretty well. I think they were both just excited to get out of the house (and honestly, so was I!)

I am completely frustrated right now because all of my receipts are missing. They are hiding somewhere together, wrapped around my free Redbox code card! :) So I am going to have to guestimate on the actuals, but they will be really close.

Walgreens

Transaction #1

Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaning Kit
5 Starbucks Ice Creams
Total OOP = $12.18
Earned $8 in Register Rewards

Transaction #2

Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaning Kit (For my Mom)
Brownie (For me! :) Needed it so I could use my RR--and it looked good!)
Total OOP = $1.80--Used Coupon and $5 RR from above
Earned $3 in Register Rewards

Jewel
Tyson Skillet Meal
Grapes
Carrots
Celery
2 Carmex
5 Banquet Meals (coupons inside boxes-and Nathan loves the chicken/brownie ones!)
2 Kashi Cereals
2 Kashi Bars
Gardein Product
Wonder Bread
Jewel Apple Juice
Jewel M&M Cookies from the Bakery (a splurge but so good!)

Total: Around $30.12. I donated $1 at the register and got a redbox code rental. I was upset later to find out I forgot to use my 2- $1/1 Carmex coupons. So I'll either return them or get my $2 back.

Target
Dinosaur Book
Chef Michael's Dry, Wet and Canned Dog Food (to donate)
4 Transformers (for Christmas gifts)
Glade Tin Candle
Glade Refills
4 Renu Contact Solutions (to donate)
Tide Travel Size
All Travel Size
Lucky Charms Cereal Cup
Mail Sorter
Hungry Hippos Game

Total= Around $28

Grand Total= Around $72.10. I still have $6 in RRs to spend and a $7.99 rebate and free Redbox Rental to collect. This is more than I normally spend but I didn't plan for the mail sorter but needed one.

How did your week go? Did you get any good deals? Leave us a linky or comment to share!

Shopping Warriors

So I didn't get my shopping trip detailed...yet!! But I plan on telling you about my week soon. I just know some of you look for this link on Saturdays and I didn't want to let ya down. :)

I have a Kmart trip all ready to share.

Did you find any good deals this week? Want to share some inspiration with my reader friends? Leave a linky to your posting and show us how you saved this week!

Don't have a blog? It's OK! You can leave a comment sharing your story. We love to hear them!

Shopping Warriors

We spent most of yesterday with the kids and my in-laws at a minor-league baseball game. We froze, but it was still a lot of fun. (50 degrees in August?! Where did summer go!) I meant to get this up before we left, but amidst the packing up everything, I completely forgot! My apologies!!

So this last week, I didn't get my shopping trips detailed for ya. My "exciting" moment of the week was checking out at Dominick's with Smithfield Bacon and 2 Yoplait Delights and only paying $2.61! And once again, Nathan has been devouring the yogurt! :)

At CVS, I rolled some of my ECBs on the deals of the week, including the Composition Notebooks for Nathan. I even finally stopped to hear about Ready-Fill to get that extra coupon booklet!

At Jewel, I mostly picked up the basics, along with some Gerber Puffs and Crunchies for Kaydi. I may make the rest of her food but she loves these! I also found some great Chicago Light-up footballs on clearance that I picked up for Nathan and our nephews for the game last night. Every now and again, you just have to spoil. :)

So that basically sums up my week. I should have totals for you next week. How did your week go? Please leave a linky or comment to share in your fun shopping adventures! Don't worry, you don't need a blog! Just give us a shout-out as to what you were able to snag! :)

Shopping Warriors: Mini-Shopping Spree Week

I had quite a bit of fun on Sunday shopping with a $30 gift card to Kroger that My Blog Spark sent me. It was fun getting lots of things we needed but also being able to get some items I'd been wanting to try. It was like a mini-shopping spree! My end total was $39.41. So I only had to spend $9.41 out-of-pocket.

Right before our Kroger trip, we went to my in-laws and Nathan picked us lots of veggies from Papa's garden. We've been enjoying fresh garden veggies all week!

Since my sister and niece are staying with us this weekend, I went back out Friday evening to get us some "goodies" for our little "party." I didn't snag a picture of that trip but I spent $24.15 on some things to make dips and more "basics." I always have a fresh batch of chocolate covered strawberries ready for my niece every time she visits. It's our own little thing. :) My favorite chocolate to use is called Dolci frutta chocolate, which is located in the produce area right by the strawberries.

My end total out-of-pocket for the week was $33.56. I should be able to just grab some produce/dairy basics for next week and I have lots of CVS ECBs to roll. So I'm projecting a fairly inexpensive week next week!

How did your week go? Feel free to leave a linky or comment and share your shopping fun and savings with us!

Shopping Warriors: Meat Stock Up

Sunday, I told my husband I wasn't shopping this week....that he'd have to pick up milk and bread on the way home one day. He laughed. Yes, he knows me better than I know myself. Tuesday, the local grocery store ads came out. Absolutely evil---boneless/skinless chicken breasts for $1.69lb. I was completely out and said I'd buy some when they dropped below $2. I can never refuse a good price on meats.

So I only made one trip out and picked up quite a few pounds of chicken breasts, ribs, milk, grapes and Ore-Ida ABC Tater Tots--who says you can't learn while you eat? In the end, it cost $31.24 for groceries this week.

How did your week go? Leave us a linky or comment and share in your shopping fun!

Shopping Warriors: Lovin' Target!

After making a long trip Sunday early morning to Wags/CVS/Jewel, I also hit Target on Thursday and Friday for some clearance sales and freebies. I am completely shopped out!! I usually just make one trip a week so this was quite a switch for me.

Well, to list out everything and total everything would take probably a good hour but I didn't want to leave the posting pictureless this week. So I put together a few of my favorite Target findings!

~Leap Frog Tag Reader Systems for $14.98 after coupon.
~Kashi Cereal cups for FREE after Target coupon
~Pepperidge Farm Cookies for FREE after coupon
~Mars Candy FREE after coupons, including my FREE chocolate Fridays coupon!
~Walkie Talkies for $2.54 on clearance. These are going to make a fun activity!
~Word World Cat w/ DVD for $2.48

I did snag the Electrasol, Stayfree and Blink Tears deal at CVS (I try not to pass up money-makers that I can donate!) and was glad to see they had the $.99 (after ECB) milk deal again here!! At Walgreens (Wags) I snagged some Ragu and Skippy Peanut Butter and I stuck to mostly produce at Jewel. I did get a few new items to try, which I'll share with you later in the week.

I did go over my usual $50 a week budget by picking up the clearance items, but it was worth it as we now have Christmas gifts for most of the kids on our list!

So, I'm anxious to hear how you did this week? What cool things did you find? Did anyone else find any great clearanced items? Leave us a linky or comment and share your fun! :)

Shopping Warriors: Wk of 7/26

I'm hoping you will forgive me for not putting up detailed pricing info on my trips this week but I am still fighting a losing battle with this cold/flu bug. But I think it's on the downward slide so I should be good to go soon.

Anyway, I did get a few deals worth mentioning. I picked up the BOGO Jennie-O turkeys I mentioned HERE and the Special K/Pop Tarts deal HERE. Those were the highlights of my week, as they got me great breakfasts for us and Nathan, premium turkey for all of us, a free movie ticket and an exercise DVD.

I also made a trip to Target to snag the Scrubbing Bubbles deal. Since my Mom doesn't have a Target, I used my coupons and got her one, too. I also picked up the movies Stuart Little 2 (Christmas gift for Nathan) and Steel Magnolias for me, as the clerk said it was part of the promotion. (I haven't seen that movie forever and wanted it for my collection! I am such a huge Julia Roberts fan!)

Well, those were the core of my shopping for the week. What did you snag? Share your great savings with us via linky or comment. Please, make sure your linkys go to directly to the posting and not to your homepage. Thanks! :)