Saturday Savings

Last week I never got around to doing any grocery shopping, which meant I was in trouble by the time the middle of this week rolled around. Some "staples" I just can't stock up on due to space limitations here, so I almost always have to shop once a week, but sometimes can stretch it a week and a half like I did this past week.

Wednesday evening I made a quick run to Price Chopper for some eggs, bananas, carrots and some of the snack type stuff they had on sale (crackers). Thursday morning the boys and I hit up Target for some cheap taco shells (thanks to a sale and a coupon you can print on the Ortega website right now) and grapes as well as a few other household things we needed. We also swung by Hen House for some free-range, locally raised chicken, local milk (nothing like "voting" for local food by spending your money on it!), granola bars, and something else but I'm blanking on what right now. Between those three mini-trips I spent about $35.

Yesterday I headed to HyVee where I was thrilled with the amount of stuff on sale! Even better is that most of this stuff will be on sale next week too (just pick up an extra coupon book at the customer service desk). Everything you see below came from HyVee and was $48.31.

The Loot:
Lemonade
Eggs - 2 dozen
Yoplait Simply Yogurt Go-Gurt - 2 boxes
Fuel Injector Cleaner (random, I know)
Iceberg lettuce
Earthgrains 100% Whole Wheat Bread - 2 loaves
Total Cereal - 2 boxes
HyVee Pudding - 2 boxes
HyVee Jello - 2 boxes
HyVee Tortillas
HyVee Hamburger Buns
Sparkling, Flavored Water - 2 bottles
HyVee Taco Seasoning - 2 packages
White Bread
HyVee Tortilla Chips
Sunbelt Granola - 1 box
Era Laundry Detergent
Yukon Gold Potatoes - 4.64 pounds
Blueberries - 1 pint
Broccoli bunch
Green Peppers - 2
Pink Lady Apples - 3 pounds
Vine Ripened Tomatoes - 1.45 pounds
Smart Chicken (all natural chicken) - 4 pounds

The Deals: So obviously a lot of the best deals this week are for store brand items. It's not often my cart is so full of store brand things! The tortillas were $1, the taco seasoning packets were .34 each, the tortilla chips were .78, the hamburger buns were .69 and the pudding and jello mixes were .25 each. Produce also had a lot of really nice bargains! Iceberg lettuce was .49, tomatoes were .98 a pound, green peppers were 2/$1, broccoli bunches were .99 each, the potatoes were .77 a pound and the blueberries were .88 after my coupon. The Total Cereal ended up being between .92 and .67 a box thanks to a coupon I had with me and a coupon that was on some of the boxes. The granola was $1.45 a box.

Some of my purchases (apples, eggs, Earthgrains bread to name a few) weren't rock-bottom prices, but they were low enough that I felt I could "splurge" a bit on them.

Total Before Sales, Tax and Coupons: $92.96
Total After Sales and Coupons: $45.69

Saturday Savings - Buying Grass Fed Beef

Yesterday I took a blogging break. My parents are here visiting and I had a busy morning planned. Due to my parents being here I also haven't done any normal grocery shopping. However, I still have a fun deal to share with you all!

A few months ago, after watching the movie Food, Inc, Nick and I felt compelled to buy only grass fed, locally raised beef and hormone free chicken (we prefer free-range but that's been harder to find). I made myself a little spreadsheet of organic and all natural food prices at area stores in order to keep track of various prices and was shocked at how much this meat was going to cost us.

Every once in a while I would find some (at Hen House usually) for around $3.50 a pound and I would buy several pounds. I know the cheapest way to go is to buy part of a cow (whole, half, quarter), but we don't have a chest freezer so don't have the space for all of that beef.

A couple of weeks ago I started searching online for farms near Kansas City that raise and sell their own grass fed beef by the pound. I actually found quite a few! Most of the sites listed prices and the difference between the various farms was staggering. I finally found one farm though (North KC) that had fantastic prices! I contacted them early this week to confirm their prices and that they had meat on hand and arranged to pick up 14 pounds of beef on Thursday morning when I was up north at the airport anyway.

The price of ground beef is only $3.10 a pound and the rest of his meat prices are quite good too! I highly recommend checking out Long Livestock Company. Mike, the owner, was great to work with! He did warn me that business is picking up and I'll need to place orders further in advance probably next time because he's been selling out quickly. Hope this little tip is helpful to you and your family!

(Oh, and the tenderloin we grilled up last night was really good!)

Saturday Savings

Happy 4th of July weekend everyone! I hope you have lots of family fun planned for the weekend. Yesterday was the last time for a while that I'll have to grocery shop with all three boys! Wooohoo! It's not that I dread it, it's just so much easier and faster without the constant buckling and unbuckling of the car seats and the fighting over who gets to ride where in the cart. Yesterday the four of us managed to score some nice deals! Everything you see below cost me just $35.42!

HyVee:
Eggo Waffles - 2 boxes
Miracle Whip
Kraft Light Mayo
Frosted Mini Wheats - 4 boxes
Ritz Crackerfuls - 2 boxes
HyVee Pickles
HyVee Hot Dog Buns
Grape Jelly
Red seedless grapes - 4 pounds
Cantaloupe

Price Chopper:
Breyers Ice Cream - 2 cartons
Hefty Plates - 2 packages of 50 each
Hillshire Farms Smoked Brats - 2 packages
Hillshire Farms Smoked Sausage - 2 packages
Oscar Meyer Premium Hot Dogs - 2 packages
Seedless Watermelon

The Deals: At HyVee I picked up lots of great deals and was even able to double up on the deals because I had bought two newspapers back at the beginning of June! The Mini-Wheats were $2 a box with my coupons (50% off), the Ritz Crackerfuls were $1 a box with my coupons (71% off), the Eggo Waffles were .30 a box with my coupon, the Miracle Whip and Mayo were .74 each after I stacked the HyVee coupon with my Manufacturers coupon and the cantaloupe was .99 (67% off).

I also used a slew of coupons at Price Chopper, and again I was able to double up on some deals thanks to having double the coupons! The Hefty Plates, which will come in handy when birthday time rolls around here next month, were .44 each after coupon (82% off), the Hillshire Farm Brats and Sausages were $1.50 each after my coupons (62% off), the Oscar Meyer Hot Dogs were .44 each after my coupon (86% off) and the Breyers Ice Cream were $1.44 each after using the coupon found in the flier at the store (71% off). The huge seedless watermelon was $2.94 and the boys (Nick included) can't wait to cut into that thing this weekend!

Total before Sales, Tax and Coupons: $91.61

Total after Sales and Coupons: $33.74 - 63% savings!

It just dawned on me that I haven't selected a winner yet for my Consignment Sale cash giveaway. My deepest apologies! In light of that, I'm going to extend entries until 9pm Sunday night and will announce the winner on Monday morning.

Saturday Savings

It was a good day for deal hunting yesterday! Check out all  the loot below that I only paid $44.37 for...

HyVee:
Eggs - 2 dozen
Apple Juice
Dole Crushed Pineapple
HyVee Cereal - 2 boxes
Little Debbie Snacks - 3 boxes
Saltine Crackers
Sugar
Sara Lee Bread - 5 loaves
Skippy Peanut Butter - 2 jars
Aluminum Foil
HyVee Shredded Cheese - 5
Dole Iceburg Salad - 2 bags
Dole Coleslaw mix - 1 bag
Cantaloupe

Price Chopper:
Sunkist Soda (not pictured)
Blue Bell Ice Cream - 2 pints
Blue Bunny Malt Cups - 3
Planter's Nut-rition Bars - 2 boxes
French's Honey Mustard Dip
Bar S Hot Dogs - 2 packages
Lunchables - 6
Green Grapes - 2.36 pounds

The Deals: HyVee was a fun place to shop with their $1 sale going on (ended yesterday)! The bread, apple juie, cereal, skippy pb, Little Debbie snacks and shredded cheese were all just $1 each (some had limits on how many you could buy). The salad and eggs were 2/$1!

Price Chopper also had some nice deals to go with my coupons. The French's Honey Mustard was only .50 with my coupon (73% off) and the Planters Nut-rition bars (which are really good by the way!) were $1.25 a box with my two coupons (61% off). The hot dogs were only .28 each after my coupon (81% off) and the Lunchables were $1 each (52% off). I picked a bunch of those up for our upcoming zoo trips! The Blue Bunny Malt Cups were free, thanks to the Price Chopper Kids Club!

Total Before Sales, Tax and Coupons: $92.97
Total After Sales and Coupons: $42.23 - 55% savings 

Attention KC area readers! Check back on Tuesday for your chance to win a great prize!

Summer Savings

It's been an odd week of shopping for me. I don't know why, but I felt the need to space it out this week and I'm not even done yet. Rather than dig everything out of cupboards and take a picture, or find all my receipts and make a list I've decided to focus instead on the awesome ways you can save money during the summer!

Summer Savings #1: Find a farmer's market! We have lots of little farmer's markets to choose from around here (within a 20 minute driving radius) and a very large city market about 20 minutes away. I've visited a couple of the smaller markets already this year and last Saturday we took the boys to the big city market. I love the bargains I find there! Last weekend we bought some gorgeous tomatoes and strawberries from a vendor who claims his foods are spray free (I know, anyone could say that but I choose to trust them). I also bought some lemons from a vendor. No, lemons aren't grown here and they had grocery store stickers on them, but these lemons were cheaper than what I find in the grocery store - 4/$1! So I bought a bunch and made homemade lemonade. Mmmm, mmmm good!

Summer Savings #2: Grow Your Own! Don't have a garden started yet or don't have the room in your yard to add one? Try sticking some plants in containers on your porch! My garden is doing fantastic this year. I can see the starts of lots of cucumbers, zucchini and cantaloupe and I've already harvested a lot of lettuce and spinach! It was awesome looking at the sale fliers this week and knowing I didn't need to buy a lot of the produce that was on sale because I already have the same stuff growing here and about to be ready to eat.

Summer Savings #3: Pick Your Own! Yesterday we took the boys blueberry picking! The boys had a ball and we got some locally grown blueberries for cheaper than we could buy berries in the store (that had probably traveled several hundred miles at least to get to us). Find a U-pick berry farm now and an apple picking orchard in the fall! http://www.localharvest.org/ is a great resource for finding farmer's markets and U-pick farms.

What are your favorite ways to save in the summer?

Saturday Savings - What $20 Can Buy You

Let it be known that I hate shopping at the very end of the month. I usually have hardly any money left in the budget by then! Thankfully, with a lot of planning I was able to buy enough to stuff to at the very least get us until Tuesday (the start of June), but likely enough to help get us all the way to next weekend. Everything you see below cost me $23.38. Some of that (almost $5) will come out of a different line item (charitable giving) because I was buying supplies to make a dinner for a family whose son just had surgery. Also, earlier this week the boys and I hit a farmer's market and picked up cucumbers, zucchini and strawberries for $7.

Aldi:
Tortillas
Shredded Cheese (12oz bag)
Canned Diced Tomatoes
Canned Corn
Taco Seasoning
Cream Cheese
Hot Dog Buns

HyVee:
Dozen Eggs
Cheetos - 2 bags
Dutch Country Bread
Ritz Munchables
Artisan Wheat Thins
Oscar Meyer Hot Dogs - 2
1% Milk - 1 gallon
Kraft Melt Downs Cheese
Seedless Watermelon

Price Chopper:
6 ears of corn
cucumbers - 2
Hunt's Ketchup
NorthStar Lotta Fruit Popsicles

The Deals: Let me start of by telling you how much I spent out of pocket at Price Chopper. $1.86. Sweet, huh? I had a $3 off my next shopping trip coupon from when I bought some Kellogg's Cereal a few weeks ago! The popsicles were a bit of a splurge for the boys (Tyler shopped with me and I let him pick a frozen treat out), but they were at least more than 50% off.

At HyVee I was able to buy some snack type items, which Nick has been asking for. Also got some hot dogs for .49 each and the watermelon for $3.49 - perfect items for Memorial Day weekend! The bread ("good bread" I call it) was only .99 and I paid .79 for the Kraft Cheese Melt Downs.

Aldi had the best prices for all of the ingredients I needed to make chicken enchiladas (my gift meal) and the cheapest hot dog buns at .79 a bag.

Total Before Sales, Tax and Coupons: $55.66
Total After Sales, Tax and Coupons: $22.22 - 60% savings

Saturday Savings

You know you've come across a good deal when the cashier tries to tell you you can't walk out of the store without paying for 2 bottles of dressing, and then gives you a dirty look when a more experienced cashier says "yes, she can". Love it! More about that in a a minute. First, take a look at what $41.67 can buy you. (2 bottles of Ken's Dressing not pictured.)

(Note, the kitty was not purchased yesterday - Nick just thought it would be funny to have it in the picture)

Hen House:

Cottonelle Toilet Paper

Bananas - 1.77 lbs

HyVee:

Dannon Yogurt - 10 cups

Yoplait Go-Gurt - 2 boxes

Hidden Valley Salad Dressing

Whole Wheat Bread

Egg Noodles - 2 bags

Arm & Hammer Laundry Gel

Eat Smart Veggie Crisps

Dubuque All Beef Hot Dogs

Price Chopper:

1% Milk - 2 gallons

Tony's Crispy Crust Pizzas - 2

Kellogg's Cereals - 4 boxes

Peanut Butter

Miracle Whip

Carmel Bugles

Fruit Snacks - 2 boxes

Pineapple

Ken's Salad Dressing - 2 bottles

The Doubtful Cashier: Yesterday when I was shopping in Price Chopper I noticed they were a Cosentino's Price Chopper (which is having anniversary specials) and that Ken's Salad Dressings were on sale there. Darn! I hadn't yet added my coupons from last Sunday's paper to my organizer, so didn't have the 2 $1 off coupons with me. I made a mental note to make sure to bring those coupons with me next time I was near that Price Chopper, and that happened later that day. The dressings were on sale for .99 each. I had two coupons good for $1 off one bottle. I grabbed the two bottles I wanted and walked up to the check out. The cashier scanned both and then I proudly handed her my two coupons. Here's what happened....

Cashier: "You can't use two of the same coupons in one transaction."

Me: "Since when? I know some stores have an internet coupon rule like that, but I've never had problems before using more than one regular coupon at a time."

Cashier to other cashier: "She can't use more than one of these in a trip, right?"

Other cashier: "Did she buy two items?"

Cashier: "Yes."

Other cashier: "Then it's fine."

Cashier looks at her screen, then back at other cashier: "Even if it will make it free?"

Other cashier: "Yep."

Cashier shoots me a dirty look, then looks back at her screen. She enters the coupons, sighs loudly and hollers back to the other cashier "I don't know how to cash this out! Her total due is zero. This just doesn't seem right."

The other cashier told her just to enter that I gave her zero and it would be fine. When my cashier handed me my receipt she gave me a dirty look. You'd think I was stealing from her paycheck or something!

The Deals: You already heard about my free salad dressing, but here are the other deals I snagged at Price Chopper. I paid .38 for the two Tony's Pizzas, which are the perfect size for the boys to split for lunch. The Kellogg's cereals ranged between $1.75 and $1.15 with sales and coupons. I had some nice coupons ($1 off one or $1 off 2) that I got in a couple of boxes of cereal a month or two ago. When I bought cereal yesterday I noticed some of the boxes include more coupons, so I made sure to buy those. The fresh pineapple was $1.89 and the Miracle Whip and Bugles were clearance cart finds!

At HyVee I did some serious yogurt stocking up. The boys love yogurt, so it can be tough to keep it in the house for long! I paid .20 each for the Dannon cups thanks to a coupon and sale and I paid $1.50 for the boxes of go-gurt (which I now buy the "simply go-gurt" that contains none of that artificial flavoring or HFCS junk) which is 50% off. The Hidden Valley dressing was .77 and the Arm & Hammer Gel was $1.99 (75% off).

At Hen House I wasn't able to take advantage of all the deals I wanted to, due to their being out of stock of one of the sale items. I got a rain check for the 14oz box of Cheerios they have on sale and will go back next week with my coupons and snag 2 boxes for .68 each. I did pick up the Cottonelle for $4.88 though, which is a nice deal. And the bananas were .38 a pound.

It should also be noted that at Price Chopper I received a coupon for $3 off my next shopping trip because of all the boxes of cereal I bought. Sadly yesterday was the last day to earn those.
 

Total Before Sales, Tax and Coupons: $95.06

Total After Sales and Coupons: $39.56 - 58% off!

Saturday Savings - A Day Late

Yesterday's garage sale was a total bust. In the 6 hours I sat out front with my stuff only 4 people stopped and I made a whopping $3. Ouch! Good thing I did so well on Friday ($117)! I have no idea where people were yesterday; even the amount of traffic on our street was lighter than usual.

As I sat out front, Nick was brave and took the boys to their final swimming lesson and then to do my HyVee shopping! What a guy :) I didn't take a picture of what he bought at HyVee, but below is what I bought today at Hen House and Price Chopper. Everything below and what Nick bought at HyVee ran us $69.26.

HyVee:

Baking Powder

Baking Soda

HyVee Honey Wheat Pretzels

Bread - 2 loaves

Grape Jelly

Old Orchard Juices - 2 bottles

Quaker Granola Bars

Ronzoni Pasta - 3 boxes

Rold Gold Pretzels

1% Milk - 2 gallons

Diet Coke 

Dasani Water

Organic Carrots - 2 bags (1 pound each)

Hen House:

McCormick's Grill Mates Seasonings - 2 bottles

KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce - 3 bottles

AlphaBits Cereal

Honeycomb Cereal

Belfonte Yogurt - 6 cups

American Cheese Singles - 2 packages

Sargento Cheese Sticks - 1 package of 12

Grass Fed Natural Ground Sirlion (90% lean) - 3.10 pounds

Bananas - 3.10 pounds

Price Chopper:

Crystal Farms Shredded Cheese - 3 bags

Eggs - 4 dozen

Minute Maid OJ - 3 cartons

Palermo's Pizza - 1

Kellogg's Pop Tarts - 3 boxes

Vitamin Water

A Word About Meat: I'm shifting my organic/all natural focus to meat. Last week Nick and I sat down and watched the movie Food Inc. If you haven't seen it yet, please do! I still believe organic dairy and produce is important, but with my limited budget I have to pick and choose what to buy. Food Inc had some eye opening stuff about meat, so Nick and I agreed to just buy organic or locally raised natural meat. It may mean we don't have meat as often, but I think the sacrifice is worth it for us. That being said, last week Whole Food's One Day Sale item was boneless skinless chicken thighs for $1.99 a pound. I went and bought almost 5 pounds worth. Have you ever tried natural or organic chicken? I don't know why exactly, but it tastes so much different! The texture is different and the flavor is different. Even Nick notices the difference.

The Deals: Ok, on to the deals. Now Nick bought a couple of items at HyVee that were not on my list, but that was to be expected, and he wasn't able to find a couple of items on my list. At HyVee he did pick up the Organic Carrots for .79 a bag (53% off), the Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Pasta for $1.25 (29% off) and the Old Orchard Juice for .99 each (50% off). 

At Hen House today I cleaned up on some freebies and near freebies! The McCormick's Grill Mates were .28 each after my two coupons and the KC Masterpiece BBQ sauces were all free thanks to 3 coupons I had (actually, they paid me .01 for each of them)! The Grande Tortilla chips were .49 after my coupon and the Belfonte yogurts were .29 each. The Honeycomb was on sale but not a super deal and the AlphaBits weren't on sale at all. The boys wanted some cereal though (and we're out *gasp*) so I sprung the extra cash for them. The All Natural Ground Sirlion (90% lean) was $3.49 a pound so I bought 3 pounds to have on hand. 

The Price Chopper I visited today was a Cosentino's Price Chopper and all Cosentino's PCs are celebrating their anniversary this week, so they have some extra special deals! One of the deals is Crystal Farm's shredded cheese for .99 a bag (limit 3). Pair that with the .55 off coupon in today's paper and you can get some cheap cheese! (I bought a second paper for that coupon as well as a few other high value ones I knew I would use.) Eggs are on sale for .68 a dozen, with no limit so I bought what my fridge could hold (another 4 dozen on top of what I already had here at home). Minute Maid OJ is $1.68 a carton and I had a $1 off coupon I got in a box of cereal. The Pop Tarts were .99 a box with a limit of 3 and I used my $1.25 off 3 coupon on that. Finally I snagged the Palermo's Pizza for .49 with my $1 off coupon.

Total Before Sales, Tax and Coupons: $119.45

Total After Sales and Coupons: $64.07 - 47% savings

Too Busy Making Money

Saturday Savings is being postponed again! I'm too busy making money at my garage sale to bother with grocery shopping. Yesterday I made $117 and today I'm hoping to add at least another $50 to that (I have a couple of "big ticket" items left still). I will either send Nick and the boys grocery shopping this morning or I'll do it tomorrow with the boys. Either way, expect to see Saturday Savings up by tomorrow afternoon!

Saturday Savings, On A Sunday

Yesterday morning was the Kansas City March for Babies. It was an awesome time! More about that tomorrow though. For now I wanted to share with you all the deals I got yesterday afternoon on my weekly shopping trip! Sorry for the messy state of the table - I was in a hurry. Everything you see below cost me $60.60

HyVee:

Eggs - 3 cartons of 18

1% Milk - 3 gallons

Green Giant Frozen Veggies - 2 bags

Disposable foil pans

Bread - 2 loaves

Canned Pasta (ravioli) - 5

Canned Tomatoes

Evaporated Milk

Pure Vanilla Extract - 2 oz bottle

Kellogg's Smart Start Cereal - 2 boxes

Sonora Flour Tortillas

Small Steps TP - 4 pack

Small Steps Napkins - 250 pack

Snuggle Fabric Softener - 2 bottles

Cheddar Cheese - 2 blocks

Lettuce bunches - 2

Strawberries - 3 cartons @ 1 pound each

Chicken Leg Quarters - 6.5 pounds

UpBeat Milk Beverage

Price Chopper:

Kraft Shredded Cheese - 2 bags

Kraft Dressings - 2 bottles

Vitamin Water - 2 bottles (only 1 pictured)

Yoplait Yogurt - 8 cups

Bertolli Pasta Sauce

Red Grapes - 3.24 pounds

Mission Tortillas - 2 packs

The Deals: Oh the deals this week! We'll start with HyVee seeing as they had the most. I got the following items for free or almost free: UpBeat Milk (free with coupon), 1 loaf of bread (free with coupon), Small Steps TP (free with coupon and sale), Snuggle Fabric Softener only .67 each thanks to 2 high value coupons. Other great deals were the eggs for $1.48 for 18 eggs. At the rate we go through eggs I'm hoping the 3 cartons I bought will last us a couple of weeks. The strawberries were. 97 each (58% off), lettuce bunches were .99 each (41% off), the Smart Start cereals were $1.69 (I had two $1 off coupons), canned pastas were .80 each (32% off), the Small Steps napkins were .98 after sale and coupon (I never buy napkins unless it's a great deal - we just don't use them that often) and the Green Giant veggies were .60 each after sale and my two coupons (70% off). Did I mention that because my total was over $50 before my coupons that I had another 10% knocked off ($4.90 when all was said and done)?

Price Chopper also had a few good deals this week. They had some coupons in their fliers that were store coupons. It didn't say anywhere on the flier that it was limit one, so I risked it and grabbed two fliers at the store and cut out twice the coupons. It worked! I got bags of Kraft cheese for .99 each and salad dressings for .99 each! I may head back to PC today or tomorrow and grab a couple of more of each. I also had a high value coupon for the Yoplait Yogurt (it was $1 off 8 and I received it in the mail) which brought the yogurt cups down to .18 each. The Vitamin Water worked out to .50 each after sale and coupon and the flour tortillas were .99 each.

Total Before Sales, Tax and Coupons: $114.33

Total After Sales & Coupons: $57.06 - 50% off! 

Saturday Savings - A Pictureless Post

No picture today, because when I got home with the groceries Jackson started melting down so I figured that wasn't the time to carefully lay out all my treasures on the table and snap a picture. Today you'll have to read the list of my finds :)

Aldi:
Baby Carrots - 2 bags @ 1 pound each
Sweet Potatoes - 3 pounds
Bread
Cheese Curls
Eggs - 2 dozen
Ice Cream Cones
Peanut Butter - 2 jars
Saltines
Tomatoes - 4 pack
Honey Mustard
Mustard
Cinnamon Graham Crackers
Butter - 2 boxes

HyVee:
Frosted Mini Wheats Minis - 2 boxes
Johnsonville Bratwurst - 2 packages
1% Milk - 2 gallons
Bananas - 4.75 pounds
Strawberries - 4 pounds
Pork Chops - 6 pounds

Price Chopper:
Beef Rump Roast - 3.11 pounds
Blue Bunny Ice Cream - 2 boxes
Potatoes - 5 pounds

The Deals: Aldi had some nice produce deals this week, with the bags of baby carrots ringing up at just .49 each and the 3 pound bag of sweet potatoes was only $1.59 (.53 a pound). If you're looking at buying little ice cream cones to have at home this summer too, Aldi is the place to pick them up! A box of 12 cones (cake cones or sugar cones) is only .89, versus $1.50 I saw at Price Chopper and HyVee.

At HyVee I snagged the Frosted Mini Wheats boxes for $1.50 each after sale and coupon. The bananas were .38 a pound and the flat of strawberries was $3.99 ($1 per pound). The packages of Johnsonville Brats were $2.50 after coupon and the Pork Chops were a great deal at $1.79 per pound (55% off).

Price Chopper has a good deal on Beef Rump Roast at $1.99 a pound (50% off) and an excellent deal on Blue Bunny Ice Cream for only $1.49 a box! (limit 2) The 5 pound bag of potatoes was only .99.

Price Before Sales, Tax and Coupons: $116.92
Price After Sales and Coupons: $61.37- 48% off

It should be noted that yesterday I only used 2 coupons in my trip and still managed to save 48% and get lots of great stuff! Don't let the fact that you don't have many coupons yet deter you from trying to save lots of money at the grocery store!

Multiples and More Question of the Week - How to Grocery Shop on a Budget

When I saw today's question over at Multiples and More I just knew I had to take part today. The question? How to grocery shop on a budget.

If you aren't regular reader here at Three Times the Giggles you probably aren't familiar with my weekly Saturday Savings posts. If not, just check out my post from yesterday for a little sampling in what I can do with my grocery budget ($310 a month including all food, cleaning supplies, paper supplies and health and beauty products)! Here is a brief run down of my hottest grocery saving tips:

• Be wary of club warehouses (Sam's Club, Costco, etc) Quite often you can get the items they sell there for less money just by carefully shopping the sales and using coupons at the local grocery stores. We only buy a few select items at Sam's Club once a month - Apple Juice (which the price has gone up on actually and it is now the same price as rock bottom sale prices at one of the nearby grocery stores), french toast sticks and either Goldfish or Animal Crackers. Watch the prices of the items you do buy - we used to always buy a 5 pound block of cheese once a month but their prices went up and up and up and it's no longer smart to buy cheese there.

• Watch the fliers and buy only the rock bottom priced stuff Sure, you can just buy stuff that's on sale and do ok for yourself, but to really maximize that budget you need to buy when the price is rock bottom. Whether you keep track of the prices yourself (I have a spreadsheet where I track Organic stuff) or you subscribe to a web service (like The Grocery Game) you'll want to know when that box of Rice Krispies is at the lowest sale price you'll see for a while and when to pair it with the coupon you've been hanging on to. That's how you get big boxes of cereal for .90 each instead of the $3 or $4 they would charge you at full price. Free sites like Coupon Mom do publish the sale prices and coupon match ups for products. It's a good tool but be aware that they simply publish everything that's on sale that has a coupon, so you'll need to watch the numbers for yourself to see if it's a rock bottom price and the time to buy.
• Stock Up! When you see an awesome price on something and there's no limit to how many you can buy, stock up! This weekend a store was selling Bird's Eye Frozen Veggies for only .66 a bag with no limit, so I snagged 10! Sure, I don't need 10 right now but now hopefully those 10 will last until the next great sale. If I had a deep freezer I'd of likely bought twice that.

• Subscribe to the paper Here in Kansas City it'll cost you $2 to buy the Sunday paper in the store. If you subscribe on a deal though you can get it delivered right to your house (along with the Friday and Saturday papers too) for only $1. When they try to raise your price after the introductory rate runs out (usually a 6 months period), tell them you want the lower rate still and they'll usually extend it.

• Stack, Stack, Stack If you have a store nearby that produces their own coupons then take advantage. If a coupon says "store coupon" then you can "stack it" with a manufacturer's coupon. Example: I was in Target this weekend with a Target coupon good for $1 off Windex and a manufacturer's coupon good for .55 off Windex. I used both coupons on one bottle of Windex and got it for .95!

• Generic is not always cheapest So often I hear people say "just buy generic, it's cheaper" but the reality is you can usually buy the name brand for cheaper if you're shopping with coupons and rock bottom pricing! It's rare to see generic items in my Saturday Savings posts and that's because they often are not cheaper.

• CVS Extra Care Bucks If you have a CVS nearby and you aren't taking advantage of their Extra Care Bucks you're missing out! By earning ECB's and then rolling them into your next purchase (where you hopefully are earning more ECB's) you can get stuff super cheap. My most exciting one was when I purchased $65 worth of stuff and paid just $8 out of pocket and earned another $10 in ECBs. 

Those are just a few of my favorite tips. Hope they help you save some money!

Saturday Savings - Veggies and Cereal Anyone?

Even though my shopping lists were relatively short yesterday, I managed to do some serious stocking up when it came to cereal and frozen veggies! The pile below ran me $67.15 but was worth more than twice that.

HyVee:

1% Milk - 3 gallons

Eggs - 2 dozen

Bread - 2 loaves

Deli Ham - 1 pound

Flat Out Wraps - 2 packages

Kellogg's Special K

Kellogg's Rice Krispies - 2 boxes

Kellogg's Crispix - 2 boxes

Braeburn Apples - 3.16 pounds

Chicken Breast - 3.6 pounds

Hen House:

American Beauty Pasta - 4 bags

Danimals Yogurt - 2 boxes

Birds Eye Frozen Veggies - 10 bags

Price Chopper:

Frozen Salmon - 6 fillets

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast - 3.85 pounds

Post Alpha-Bits Cereal - 2 boxes

Orbits Gum

Black Berries - 2 containers @ 6oz each

Grapefruit - 3

Crayola Washable Poster Paints - 3 tubes

The Deals: I'm going to declare the biggest steal of the day being the frozen veggies at Hen House. Bags of frozen veggies that are normally $1.82 are currently marked down to .66 each (64% off) and there's no limit! I snagged 10 bags because I was pretty sure that was all I could fit in my freezer. Also at Hen House I got the pasta for .88 each and yogurt for .98 each.

HyVee has a great cereal stock up deal, especially if you have two coupons like I did! I scored 5 boxes of cereal for only .90 each (76% off)! I also picked up some split chicken breast for .88 a pound (62% off) and the Flat Out wraps were BOGO. If you haven't had those Flat Out wraps, now is the time to try them! They're low cal, but high fiber and make awesome wraps or even pizzas in the oven.

At Price Chopper I picked up some boneless skinless chicken breast for $1.19 a pound (64% off) and the salmon fillets were $1 each (33% off). The blackberries were a bit of a splurge considering I think even .99 is outrageous for a tiny container of blackberries (the boys easily polished one off at lunch yesterday and we had to keep them from grabbing the second), but considering the price is normally a whopping $3.99 I figured I'd take advantage and give the boys something a little different. I also picked up some Alpha-Bits for .99 a box (73% off). In the clearance cart I found the Crayola Washable Poster Paints for only .69 each! 

Total Before Sales, Tax and Coupons: $133.96

Total After Sales and Coupons: $61.88 - 54% off

Saturday Savings - Shall I Continue?

I know it's been a while since I posted a Saturday Savings grocery run-down, but March was brutal health-wise here (stomach flu, surgery for Chase, nasty colds and ear infections, etc) so I barely had the time to shop let alone blog about it.

Here's the thing - when I first started Saturday Savings it was really just for fun. I thought it would be a fun way to see over  the year how much money I had saved on groceries (and the number is staggering), but I figure it might also inspire a few of you to start clipping coupons, shopping the sales and taking advantage of freebies. I've now been doing Saturday Savings for over a year and I'm considering stopping it. I'll continue my rabid shopping ways and maybe, just maybe when I have an insanely good week I'll blog about it. What do you all think? I know I have readers on Saturdays but I rarely get comments so I'm not really sure if it's people just catching up on my other posts from the week or if they're here to read SS.

Bottom line: If you enjoy reading Saturday Savings each week and get some sort of inspiration or help from it then I'll continue, but you need to speak up!

Alright, onto the deals I found yesterday! I stopped at 4 stores (all within a couple of miles of each other on the same road) yesterday: CVS, Aldi, Hy-Vee and Price Chopper. Everything you see below cost me $77.16, that includes the $16 I spent for the two packages of Pull Ups (we have a separate line item in our budget for pull ups), AND I walked out of CVS with $6 in Extra Care Bucks.

CVS:

Pull Ups - 2 Jumbo Packs
Bumble Bee Tuna - 10 cans
Orbitz Gum
Scott 12 Pack of Toilet Paper

Aldi:
Bananas - 2.9 pounds
Gala Apples - 2 bags @ 3 pounds each
Peanut Butter
Elbow Macaroni - 2 pound box
Egg Noodles - 12oz bg
Bread - 3 loaves
Eggs - 1 dozen

HyVee:
Nestles Crunch Bar - 2
Red Baron French Bread Pizza - 2
Kellogg's Special K Low Fat Granola - 2 boxes
Rold Gold Pretzels - 1 pound bag
1% Milk - 2 gallons

Price Chopper:
1% Milk - 1 gallon
Butter - 2 boxes
Frozen Veggies - 3 bags
Quaker Squares Cereal
Quaker Mini Rice Cakes
French Fried Onions - large can
Ritz Crackers - 2 boxes @ 4oz each
Quaker Granola Bars - 2 boxes
Jergen's Lotion
Strawberries - 2 pounds
The following were all found in the clearance carts
Kraft Ranch Dressing
Wishbone Bountiful's Italian Dressing
Disney Dried Fruit Boxes for kids - 3 packages of 6 boxes each
Raisin Bran Plus Cereal - 2 boxes

The Deals: At CVS I cashed in a rain check to get the tuna for .49 a can (normally $1.87 at CVS). They ran a smoking special on it about a month ago, but because it was such a great deal and didn't have a purchase limit they sold out quickly. Always ask for a rain check! I also cashed in $10 in Extra Care Bucks to help cut down on the price of the tuna and the two packages of Pull Ups that I bought - which earned me another $5 in ECBs! Love rolling those over!

At Price Chopper I cleaned up in the clearance carts! The Raisin Bran must have been moved there because of a change in packaging because the design on the box did not match the picture on the coupon from last Sunday's paper. The boxes were marked down to $2.50 and with the coupon from the paper (either $1 on one or $2 on 2) it brought the cost down to $1.50 for cereal that is regularly priced at $4.46. The Kraft Dressing was $1 and the Wishbone Dressing was only .50. The dried fruit packages were only $1 each. I also bought the Quaker Squares Cereal for only $1 after sale and coupon (78% off). Butter is only $1.48 a box but a limit of 2. With the amount of baking I've been doing lately I'll be stopping by PC a few more times between now and Tuesday to buy butter a few more times. The milk I bought at PC was also Free thanks to a coupon that printed out last week after I bought a bunch of Kellogg's cereal.

Later today I'll also send Nick to Hen House to buy some Eggland's Best Eggs - they're on sale this week for $1.49 each and if you have a couple of coupons that will double (which I do) it'll make for some cheap eggs!

Total Before Sales, Tax & Coupons: $156.78
Total After Sales & Coupons: $72.59 - 54% savings

Saturday Savings

Ahhh, it feels good to be back! The last several weekends have been so nutty, I haven't really been able to sit back and check out my savings. This week there are some killer deals on snack type foods and cheese. Considering Nick's favorite time of the year is upon us (March Madness!), it's important to have plenty of things on hand for him to munch while he watches his bracket either fall apart or remain awesome. Everything you see below cost me $67.54.

You'll notice there's no milk, bread, bananas, etc on the table. That's because I made a quick run to Aldi Thursday night (I needed baking supplies ASAP) so bought some produce, bread, rice, etc. then as well. Later today I'll pick up flour and eggs at Hen House as both are on sale for .99 this week. I'm holding off on buying more milk as the boys still aren't drinking it right now (don't want to upset their tummy's again) so why buy it just to let it go bad? Here's what's on the table...

HyVee:
Chex Mix - 3 bags
Pompeian Pure Olive Oil - 2 bottles at 16oz each
Town House Crackers - 4 boxes
Wheatables Nut Crisp Crackers - 1 box
Hyland's Homeopathic Kid's Cold Medicine
Dawn Plus Handcare Soap - 1 bottle
Dawn Dish Soap - 1 bottle

Price Chopper:
Kraft Shredded Cheese - 6 bags
Honeysuckle Turkey Breast - 6.26 pounds
Special K Fruit Crisp Bars - 1 box
Best Choice Macaroni and Cheese - 6 boxes
Handi Wipes
Lay's Chips - 3 bags
Alpha Bits Cereal
Honeycomb Cereal
Tide Laundry Detergent - 2 bottles
Guacamole Mix
Avocados - 4
Clementines - 5 pound box

The Deals: Price Chopper has a fantastic deal on Kraft Cheese through tomorrow! Shredded and chunk cheese is on sale for $1.49 each and most Price Chopper's currently have a coupon dispenser in the cheese section that's spitting out save $1 on two Kraft Cheese's coupons! If you're lucky enough to snag a few coupons from the machine you can get Kraft Cheese for .99 each (70% off). Other Price Chopper deals I really liked - Tide detergent for $3.99 each after my two coupons (58% off), turkey breast for .99 a pound, Clementines for $3.99 (60% off), Mac 'n Cheese for .33 each (47% off), Lay's chips for $1.69 (58% off) and avocados for .68 each (55% off).

HyVee also had some fantastic snack-type stuff sales. The Chex Mix was between $1 and $1.25 each (60% off) and the Town House Crackers were $1.49 each (63% off). I snagged the Dawn Hand Renewal soap for $1.28 (thanks to a $1 off coupon I got in the mail), the Wheatables Crackers were .85 and the Olive Oil for only $1.99 (67% off). Buying the Hyland's Homeopathic cold medicine for the boys at $5.88 definitely shot my total up a bit, but I need those kids healthy so I'm willing to try anything right now!

I'm sure the items I bought look a little funny to some of you, but this just demonstrates the beauty of stock-pile shopping. Because I "stocked up" (meaning I bought more than I needed at the time) in previous weeks when pasta, meat, fish, etc. was on a great sale, I still have plenty of food in my cupboards and freezer to make lots of healthy meals.

One last thing - someone commented on my post last week about The Grocery Game and wondered how it's any different then the free sites out there (like couponmom.com). Sites like Coupon Mom do match up sales and coupons and it's a great free resource, however they post every single deal whether it's the "right" time to buy or not. The Grocery Game only tells you to buy when the price is rock bottom, which maximizes your savings. It's worth it to me to just pay the $7.50 a month to have the list ready for me to glance at, select what I want and print.

Total Before Sales, Coupons & Tax: $139.03
Total After Sales & Coupons: $63.64 - 55% off

Saturday Savings

I usually do my grocery shopping on Friday, that way I can get my Saturday Savings post all typed up and ready to publish Saturday morning. Yesterday I still was feeling kind of blah after the loveliness of Thursday night, so Nick insisted on making the grocery store run. We didn't have much in the way of nutritious foods in the house, let alone anything that sounded good to those of us who had just been sick.

This is when my subscription to The Grocery Game comes in super handy. In about 10 minutes I was able to make and print off lists for two stores, pull all the coupons and show Nick how the list works. He opted to shop just one of the stores and leave the second for me (to be done later today) and I was fine with that. He went to Price Chopper, got all the items on my list, used my coupons and picked up some "extras" that weren't on the list but were needed (bread, milk, more ginger ale, gatorade, saltines, etc) and still saved 50%!

Sure The Grocery Game costs money ($15 every 2 months for the stores I "buy" lists for), but it's been a huge money saver for me. I'm perfectly capable of going over the fliers and various websites that post deals, but it takes way longer than The Grocery Game does. I do still do things the "old fashioned" way for Hen House and Whole Foods, but that's time consuming enough for me. My time is limited with all that I try to do, so if I can pay a small fee to be able to just pull down my grocery list and be off to the store, or send my husband to do it for me, then sign me up!

If not for my Grocery Game subscription yesterday, I would have ended up just glancing at the flier (maybe), making a hurried list, not cross checking all of my coupons and sending Nick off to the store. Sure, he would have still saved some, but not 50%! And he probably would have spent far more than the $42 he spent (which included some great produce and meat).

If your time is limited or you're just overwhelmed by trying to figure out how to match up your coupons, when a price is at rock bottom or when it's just a mediocre sale, then I highly recommend you check out the Grocery Game. You can try it for a month for free! If you do give it a shot, I'd appreciate it if you said I referred you... I can earn free months that way, and so can you if you refer others. The e-mail address to put for my referral is discjockyehelen at yahoo dot com.

Seriously. Try it. You'll love the convenience and the savings. The Grocery Game.

Oh and one more thing for my coupon loving friends! The Grocery Game just came out with a fun new coupon center and you do not need to be a member to use it. On the coupon center you can run searches for certain brands, grocery items, etc. Included on the list are both internet coupons you can print and lists telling you if there have been coupons in the newspaper recently for those products. It's come in quite handy!

Saturday Savings - Coupon Free Shopping

I know, I know. Today is Sunday. Yesterday I had very important business to take care of though, so didn't have a chance to blog. The important business? Scrapbooking! I'll share a few of my favorite layouts from yesterday later this week. For now, lets discuss how much food I bought this weekend for only $18.70 out of pocket cost. (Holy blurry picture! Sorry 'bout that. I was in a hurry and didn't double check to make sure it was ok. Lately, I've been using a lens that doesn't auto-focus.)

HyVee:
Ice Burg Lettuce
Jennie O Deli Turkey - 1 pound
Banquet Pot Pies - 5
Whole Wheat Pasta - 2 boxes

Price Chopper:
Ground Beef - 2.7 pounds
Bread
Grapes - 2.5 pounds
Shredded Cheese - 3 bags
Eggs - 2 dozen

Target:
1% Milk - 3 gallons

The Deals: So how did I get all that for $18.70 out of pocket? Well, the deals I picked up at HyVee and Price Chopper were pretty good as it was, but then to buy the milk at Target I cashed in one of the $10 Gift Cards I earned by filling a prescription there. I like to save those cards for times just like these: the end of the month is here and so is the end of my monthly grocery budget, but I'd really like to pick up enough stuff to get us through to the next weekend.

At HyVee the lettuce was .59 (65% off), the pasta was .77 a box (51% off), the Jennie O Deli Turkey was $1.49 a pound and the pot pies were .39 each (60% off). At Price Chopper I picked up the ground beef for $1.49 a pound, grapes were .97 a pound (72% off), eggs were .88 a dozen (41% off) and shredded cheese was .98 a bag (48% off).

The below figures takes into account that I got my milk for free. Those gift cards are almost like a giant coupon, but technically speaking, I shopped yesterday and didn't use one coupon. That's the first time in a looooong time that's happened!

Price before sales, tax and gift card: $48.78
Price after sales and gift card: $17.29 - 71% savings

Not Really A Saturday Savings Post

I know my Saturday morning post is generally all about grocery shopping, but I also know I usually post on Friday mornings too and that just didn't happen yesterday! So today, I bring you a potpourri of stuff...

Baking Fool: I'm a baking fool this week! In fact, as I write this post I have the first part of two batches of Whoopie Pies in the oven. Business has been good for Valentine's Day, for which I am so thankful!

Chase's Hernia: Yesterday afternoon I took Chase to the Children's Hospital for a consult appointment about his hernia. We have a surgery date set for about a month from now. The biggest challenge will be keeping him totally healthy in the days leading up to surgery!

A Borrowed Lens: A triplet mom friend is letting me borrow a lens for my Nikon! I've had fun messing with it the last 24 hours or so and will post some pictures next week here and this weekend on my 365 Blog (probably later today)!

Grocery Shopping: I did half of my grocery shopping yesterday and will do the second half on Monday, which is why I decided to not bother with a full Saturday Savings post today. Price Chopper is having a nice President's Day Sale on Monday, so I'll be heading there to get some good deals on cereal, potatoes, laundry detergent and frozen veggies (among other items on sale). Yesterday I picked up Dole Salad Blends for .99 each, chicken nuggets for $1 and frozen blueberries for $1.88. I also picked up some more Organic Milk at Whole Foods. Holy moly, I wonder when the sticker shock of that will wear off.

Oh and I must share this fun grocery trip I took last weekend! HyVee was having another one of their 2 day sales, so I made a special trip to the HyVee closer to home in order to take advantage and to look for the Organic Pears that were on sale but not carried at the HyVee I had visited on Friday. Get this: I walked out of HyVee with 20 containers of Danon yogurt and a 3 pound bag of Organic Pears and paid only $2! How? The pears rang up incorrectly so I got them for free and with my two coupons and the great sale on yogurts my total was $2! Sweet! You know what? Those pears rang up incorrectly again yesterday (they're on sale all month) so I again got a bag of free organic pears! Woot! Woot!

Don't Forget: You only have two more days to enter the giveaway of the week! I'm giving away a whole set of organic insect killer! It's safe to use around your pets and kids and it does the trick! There aren't many entries yet, so your odds are good right now... enter HERE! Monday morning we'll announce the winner and a new giveaway!

Saturday Savings

This week the sales at my usual stores didn't impress me much. I figured I would only spend about $30-$35 on stuff there so decided to take advantage and do a little shopping at Whole Foods too. Holy expensive milk Batman! Needless to say, buying Organic Milk, some chicken, whole wheat flour and rolled oats added quite a bit to my grocery bill and killed my overall saving percentage. Everything you see below cost me $79.80. Ouch. I'm used to seeing a lot more food for that amount of money! Anyway, here's what it included:

 

Target: 

Clementines - 5 pound box

Whole Foods: 

Whole Wheat Flour - 3.42 pounds

Rolled Oats - 2.62 pounds

Organic FF Milk - half gallon

Organic 1% milk - 3 gallons

Chicken legs - 3 pounds (free range, antibiotic free, etc.)

HyVee:

HyVee Apple Dapples Cereal

Mrs. Grimes canned beans - 6 cans

Wheat Thins

Stacy's Baked Pita Chips - 1 bag

Reynolds Slow Cooker Bags - 1 box

Aldi:

Avocados - 2

Guacamole dip mix

Light Sour Cream

Baking Cocoa (forgot to separate that one out to my "business" purchase! Whoops!)

Bread - 2 loaves

Bananas - 2 pounds

Saltines

Brown Sugar

Eggs - 2 dozen

Peanut Butter

Price Chopper:

Miracle Whip

Celo scouring pad

Bounce Dryer Sheets - 40 ct

Baby Carrots - 2 pounds

Aspargus - .94 pound

Roma Tomatoes - 1.84 pounds

Red Barron Pizzas - 2

Ground Beef - 2.25 pounds

Johnsonville Turkey Brats - 2 packages

The Deals: First a gripe. I hate how prices can vary so much between Aldi stores! The Aldi I went to yesterday has their eggs priced .70 a dozen higher than the Aldi I normally shop! When you buy 2-3 dozen eggs each week that extra .70 adds up in a hurry. Ok, gripe over. I will mention though that I picked up avocados at Aldi for .49 each which was .19 cheaper than the sale at Price Chopper and .51 cheaper than HyVee.

At HyVee I stocked up on some canned beans at .50 a can. I promptly used two of them last night when I made chili! I also got Wheat Thins for .88 and the Stacy's Pita Chips for $1.50 (wow are those things good!). I let my inner laziness come out with the purchase of the crock pot bags for .99.

Price Chopper had some good produce deals this week: 2 pound baby carrot bags for $1.49, asparagus for $1.69 a pound and roma tomatoes for .69 a pound. I also picked up a couple of frozen pizzas for $2 each after sale and coupon and the smoked brats were $1.54 per package thanks to the 2 coupons I had. I also had a couple of clearance cart finds - the Miracle Whip was .99 and the scouring pad was .50.

Today and tomorrow HyVee has some good deals and I'll be heading back there later today to take advantage. With my coupon I'll be able to get Danon yogurts for .09 each. I also will hope to pick up the 3 pound bag of Organic Pears they have on sale that the HyVee I visited yesterday doesn't carry.

Considering how skewed my "savings" are with the $18.50 in organic milk ($5.29 per gallon and $2.89 for the half) as well as the other Whole Foods purchases added in, I'm not going to bother with the before and after prices this week.

Today is your last chance to take part in Cans for Comments! As of this morning we're up to 54 comments for the week, which is great! Get your comments in by 10pm tonight and tomorrow I'll donate one non-perishable item for each comment left on my blog this week. Thanks for your participation!

Saturday Savings

Last weekend I had the privilege of going to Baltimore, MD for the wedding of a college friend and roommate, which is why there was no Saturday Savings post. This did not mean I didn't shop at all last weekend though. I actually scored big time at HyVee on Sunday afternoon when I bought $75 worth of stuff for $35! This week was another high dollar week for not a lot of money out of my own pocket. Everything you see below cost $43.

 

Price Chopper:

Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Crest Toothpaste

Dawn Dishsoap

Musselman's Apple Sauce - 2 jars

Old Orchard 100% Apple Juice - 3 bottles

Cheese Nips Crackers - 2 boxes

Diet Coke

HyVee:

Frozen Veggies - 4 bags

V-8 Fusion Juice - 2 bottles

Grimmway Farms Baby Carrots - 4 bags

Bagged Lettuce - 2 bags

Kiwi - 5

Red Seedless Grapes - 2.07 pounds

Aldi:

2% Milk - 2 gallons (The hormone free signs have finally appeared in the MO Aldi's!)

Bananas - 3 pounds

Hen House:

Lysol Toilet Cleaner - 2 bottles

Lysol All Purpose cleaner - 2 bottles

Skim Milk 1/2 gallon

Land O'Lakes Omega 3 Eggs - 1 dozen

Cucumber - 2

Nature's Source Shout Spray

The Deals: I stocked up on some cleaners at Hen House thanks to some coupons and sales. The Lysol was all .98 each and the "Natural" Shout was $1. At HyVee I snagged frozen veggies for .77 each, the baby carrots for .75 each and the V-8 Fusion Juice for $1.75 each. At Price Chopper I picked up a damaged box of Cinnamon Toast crunch in the clearance section. I also bought the Crest toothpaste for .25, the dish soap for .75, the Cheese Nips for .50 each, the apple juice for .99 each and the apple sauce for $1 each. 

Total Before Sales, Tax and Coupons: $83.47

Total After Sales and Coupons: $39.70 - 52% savings