Ramblings-n-Writings

Posts Tagged ‘coupons’

I love it when the Farmer suggests a trip to Krogers. Of course, he usually has an ulterior motive like buying a tray of sushi or some Diet Cokes for $1. This week, it was the Diet Coke that motivated him. (For those who don’t live near a Krogers, affiliate stores with similar sales are Kroger, Ralphs, Dillons, Smith’s, King Soopers, Fry’s, QFC, City Market, Hilander, Owen’s, Jay C, Pay Less, Baker’s, Gerbes, Scott’s Food & Pharmacy.)

When we got up this morning and the Farmer suggested a trip, I threw together a quick list, scrambled to cut yesterday’s coupons, and headed out the door. Even with a lack of pre-planning, we did pretty good.

Before coupons, our total came to $100.75.

After coupons, our total was $68.31 or a savings of 43%.

We bought 61 items for an average of $1.11 per item. However, quite a few items when combined with coupons were almost free.

Here’s some of the deals… (By the way, I don’t keep track of what newspaper inserts the coupons came from, but all of my coupons are newspaper, not printables, except for a couple of Krogers’ coupons.)

Diet Coke 2 liter – 5/$5
Since the Farmer drinks this by the gallon, we purchased 10 and used a Kroger coupon for $1.50 off 10 soft drinks.
Final price – 85 cents each (definitely beats the Wal-Mart price of $1.38 each!)

Ritz crackers – $2.50
Buy 1 Ritz cracker, get 1 Wheat Thins free (up to $3.49 value – even though Wheat Thins were on sale for $2, the full value was taken at the register giving me some overage)
Final price – $1.25 Ritz, $1.25 Wheat Thins

Wheat Thins Family Size box – $4.69
Free box of Wheat Thins up to 15 oz.
Final price – Free!

Hillshire Farm Keilbasa links – B1G1 free (store sale)
Final price – $2.24/each (regular price $4.49)

Kraft Salad Dressing – $1.67
$1.50 off coupon
Final price – 17 cents

Kraft BBQ sauce – $1.00
75 cents off coupon (some areas rec’d a $1 coupon making the BBQ sauce free)
Final price – 25 cents

California Pizza – $5
$1 off coupon
Final price – $4 (Purchasing a California pizza also prompts a catalina coupon (a deal that prints out with your receipt))

Hot Pockets – $2.50
50 cents off coupon, doubles
Final price – $1.50

A1 Steak Marinade – $2.50
$2 off coupon
Final price – 50 cents

French’s Honey Mustard – $1.49
50 cents off coupon, doubles
Final price – 49 cents

Dove candy bar – 75 cents
B1G1 free coupon
Final price – 37 cents

Gatorade 32 oz – $1
$1 off 5 coupon
Final price for 5 – 80 cents each

Pringles (large canister) – $1.65
50 cents off 1 coupon (doubles), $1 off 2 coupon
50 cents off e-saver coupon (I totally forgot this was on my Krogers card!)
Final price for 3 – 82 cents each

DiGiorno Flatbread Pizza – $5
50 cents off coupon (doubles)
Final price -$4

Jell-O refrigerated snacks – $2.75
50 cents off coupon (doubles)
Final price – $1.75

Now that the weather is nicer, I purchase convenience foods for those days when we’re outside most of the day or when I’m inside writing and hubby comes in wanting a snack. Lest you think we buy all snack foods, we also got cucumbers (61 cents each), slicing tomatoes (98 cents/lb), cantaloupe ($1.50), Wonder white bread ($1/loaf), cool whip ($1), Campbell’s chicken broth ($1), Starkist Tuna (94 cents), Van Camp baked beans ($1.39), and Quaker Granola Bars ($2).

What deals did you score this week at the grocery store?

Being computer-less for a couple of days last week opened up hours and hours of time that I had to fill. (For those who don’t know, my work – editing, writing and design – requires a computer, so I tend to spend large portions of my day in front of the screen.) Without the computer, I accomplished quite a few tasks on my to-do list, including scrubbing all of the floors and walls, prepping the flowerbeds for spring, and organizing my coupons.

So, today’s Frugal Friday post is about coupon organization. I liked my old system of organization (expandable accordion file) for a couple of reasons – the file was small enough to fit in my purse so it went everywhere with me and the categories were simple. However, I also found the system frustrating because if I spotted a “deal” in the store, I had to stand there shuffling through a stack of coupons (by stack I mean the accumulation of deodorant coupons or shampoo coupons – they are divided by categories but each category seems to have 10-15 or more coupons). My brain always shouted, “Wasting time! Wasting time!” to which I responded, “Saving money!” But sometimes the frustration of knowing I had a coupon and not being able to quickly find it got, well, frustrating.

On various blogs I read about people using a notebook system. Suddenly having overwhelming amounts of time on my hands last week prompted me to invest in the baseball card holders, find an old notebook and start organizing. My new system is about halfway finished because I ran out of holder things (I originally bought 2 packs, and definitely needed 3, maybe even 4 packs which I purchased today). I divided my coupons into pages (cereal, snacks, sauces/spices/dressings, deodorant, toothpaste, shampoo, Dove, paper products, cleaning products, detergents etc.)

The hour or so that I invested in organizing the coupons has already paid off. When I browsed the circulars this week, it was soooo much easier! I didn’t have to shuffle through my accordion sections looking for a coupon. I turned to the page in the notebook for ____ and almost instantly knew if I had a coupon that would work on the sale item! Amazing! (Saving time = frugal!)

The only downfall that I see to the notebook system is having to lug it around with me. I loved having the accordion in my purse at all times no matter what store I was in. For example, tonight we were in Wal-Mart with my in-laws and I hadn’t even considered taking my coupon notebook with me, but had the accordion with a handful of coupons. We ventured down the dog food aisle, and I spotted a dog food that I hadn’t been able to find anywhere for the last 3 months but I had coupons for. Thankfully, the cat food/dog food coupons weren’t organized yet and were still in the accordion. I managed a free bag of dog food and 75 cents off another one – something I couldn’t have done with my notebook sitting in the house 60 miles away.

For those of you who use the notebook system, do you leave the notebook in your car at all times except when you are adding coupons? What do you do when you spot that unexpected deal (or, in my case, the elusive product) in a store?

Update: I used the notebook for the first time today (3/28). It worked great in the store! I spotted some Ragu spaghetti sauce that was on sale and I turned to the page in my notebook where the sauce coupon was. I didn’t see the coupon, so I quickly flipped through the other food pages and realized it must have been a coupon I discarded earlier in the day since it expired. With the accordion system, I probably would’ve wasted another minute flipping back through the categories to make sure I didn’t miss the coupon. Another benefit is the notebook allowed my husband to be more involved with the shopping too. We ventured down the cat/dog aisle because I spotted some sale signs. I opened the notebook to the cat page and discovered that my husband is about 10x faster than I am at spotting an item on the shelves! Seriously! He would look at the coupons and say “what about this one” and within a few seconds found the product and its price and decided if it was good or bad with the coupon! I didn’t time our trip through Krogers, but I’m pretty sure it was shorter than usual.

For more Frugal Friday ideas, visit Biblical Womanhood.