Market Monday

When last week's sales ads came out I had determined not to even look at them because we were already out of money. But then I got the feed about free blueberries, and I just couldn't help looking over then entire ad. Over the last several days we have been nabbing free blueberries! Along with those we got a few other things that we just could not resist. I have been wanting to try Seventh Generation products as they are more environmentally friendly, safer for my home and family, and much nicer on my septic tank. (Clean up one backed-up septic mess, and you'll do everything possible to avoid doing it again!) Publix had them BOGO this week, and I had already ordered coupons for their products in anticipation of trying them. We were in need of dish soap anyway, so I nabbed some. Here are some pictures of our last few shopping trips.


and...
and...
...and three more things of blueberries that are not pictured.

So, all things considered, we have for this weeks spending:

11 pints of blueberries - 2/$3 on sale - $1.50/1 coupon = FREE
6 Almond breeze - $2.99 on sale - $1/1 MQ - $1/1 Publix Q = $.99/ea
4 Seventh Generation dish soap - $2.99 - BOGO - $1/1 MQ = $.99/ea
2 cantaloupe (because I got some last week and it was so good I couldn't resist!) = $1.99/ea
2 potatoes (to satisfy a craving [splurged]) - $1.09/lb = $2.26
*not pictured* (birthday gifts for my sister)
1 - 12 pack caffeine free Dr. Pepper - 4.00
1 Pillsbury funfetti frosting - 1.69

Coupon savings = 32.50
Total spent = 23.58

To me that total just doesn't sound as impressive as I would like, but when I look at the receipts individually, it looks pretty good. For example, the receipt for the second picture comes to $4.24. The milk in that picture alone, with no coupons, would cost me $7.38 at regular price. So, I didn't do too bad!

The third picture is from Flowers Bakery discount bread store. This past week the Nature's Own was $2.85 and BOGO at Publix--or $1.43/loaf. I got it $.99/loaf, the English muffins for $.50, and the crackers for $2. So all for $4.48--another receipt under $5!

Considering we had very little money left last week, and I still spent some, I REALLY need to avoid looking at sales ads this week!

Peach Cobbler Muffins with Streusel Topping

I shared this recipe on Facebook a few days ago, but decided to share it on here as well. Mainly so that I can find it when I want to use it again, since I'm bound to lose the copy I printed out! These were delicious! I actually made them using the blueberries that we picked last weekend instead of peaches. I also substituted whole wheat flour for half of the flour, and I didn't have pecans, so they got skipped. These were SO yummy! My husband love the crunchiness of the streusel on top. We will definitely be making these frequently. I just can't wait to get my hands on some decent tasting peaches. After growing up in peach country, it's hard to satisfy me with anything less than a fresh-picked peach!

Peach Cobbler Muffins

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 cups peeled, pitted, and chopped peaches (you can used drained canned peaches)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease 16-18 muffin cups.

In the mixer, mix the oil, eggs, and sugar. In a large bowl, mix the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour to the oil mix until well incorporated. The batter will be thick! Fold in the peaches. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Pecan Streusel Topping Recipe

• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup flour
• 2/3 cup pecans, finely chopped, optional
• 4 Tbsp butter (or margarine), softened
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Mix together all of the above ingredients. Fingers work best. Sprinkle a TBSP on top of each muffin before you bake!

Toddler Tuesday

So, I haven't done one of these in a while. I always think of things to share throughout the week, but when Tuesday rolls around, I can't remember many of the cute things my toddler did that week. These are just a few things from the last few days. I love these toddler moment, and watching her learn more about the world around her!

At a birthday party the other day, I saw signs that my daughter can be a bossy child! None of the other children were obeying, and she took it upon herself to walk around to each child and tell them, "No, no, Sweetie." And if they didn't stop it became a more forceful, "No, no." Or if someone fell, she'd help them up, "Ok, sweetie? You're fine." (As a side note here, I was SO proud of how well behaved she was that day. Especially in light of the fact that she was the only one obeying!)

Yesterday, Daddy was reading her a bed time story, and they were counting the puppies. She always gets stuck at three. Usually she counts "One, two, four, one, five six, seven..." Daddy was helping her count, and when she got to two, he asked what came next. She counted, "One, two,....yellow!" ....the doggies in the picture were yellow. :)

This morning we had a classic moment! My toddler loves to give the baby kisses, and keeps trying to kiss Baby on the mouth. Well, the baby had just finished nursing and was being burped when big sister came over for a mouth-to-mouth kiss. The baby got all excited and burped--spitting up right in her sister's mouth! I began to laugh, and my toddler just burst into tears (little Miss Drama Queen!). Poor thing. I was laughing and laughing, and she's crying and crying while I'm trying to wipe the puke out of her mouth. It took a while to get her to calm down. :)

A friend who recently moved away commented that she misses my big girl, and I replied that some days I'd almost be willing to ship her to Michigan, but then she does something cute and it makes up for all of the un-cute moments we had that day! We definitely have our share of those un-cute moments as she's struggling with selfishness and sometimes jealousy toward her sister. But I love my big girl!

Market Monday

Okay, from now on I'm planning to do my main shopping on Mondays. So here is what is intended to be the first of many Market Mondays. I'm still not convinced we're saving money, but as I total things up, compare prices to what I would have paid at Wal-Mart, and see at the end of the month how our spending match up to previous months, I'm hoping I will be more convinced! Along with my normal grocery shopping, I'm also stocking up for a week-long vacation in August when we will be staying at an extended-stay hotel with my husband's family and we will be feeding ten people each meal. So along with saving money for our household, I've enjoyed the challenge of getting food for vacation for as cheap as possible. My husband's family loves there snack food, soda, and desserts. How nice that those are typically the items you can get the best deals on! (As a side note--this is a matter of great frustration to me. Why is it that junk food, sugar-loaded cereal, and soda frequently have great sales and coupons, while healthy stuff sees fewer sales and even fewer coupons?!) We never buy soda for our home, and we rarely buy junk-food snacks, so any of those that you may see here are most likely for vacation.

So, my first store today was CVS. They had General Mills cereal 3/$10 with $4 ECB. So it made it like 2/$6 --comparable to Publix sale price.
General Mills Cereal - 3/$10
Coupons - $2.05
Spent - $7.95
Got - $4.00 ECB

Then I went to Winn-Dixie to get the meal deal, but changed my mind. I did want to get a $10/$50 print out so I bought two packets of taco season for $1 total--but sadly I didn't get a print out. So that trip was a waste of time and money. :(

Next I went to Publix. Here I struck gold! And may I just say I LOVE Publix customer service! One item I was getting didn't have a BOGO sign on it, so the guy went to check the sale for me and told me to continue my shopping and he'd find me to let me know if it was indeed on sale. When he found me he brought with him 4 bottles of the juice and asked if I wanted any more. I did, but I told him I was fine--I should have let him get me more, because when I went back to get it I had to climb up the shelves to do so! :) Later, as I was ready to check out, my toddler bumped her mouth on the cart and her lip started bleeding. So an employee grabbed a paper towel for her mouth and a sanitary wipe for the finger that my daughter would keep out of her mouth since it now had blood all over it. The employee then asked if I was ready to check out, pulled my cart up to the line, and unloaded all of my groceries for me! And of course when I was done, someone took my things out to the car and put them in the car for me while I got the girls settled in. Where else do you get such great service and still save money?! I still didn't walk away with free groceries, or getting paid to shop, but I still did pretty well I think. Especially since I'm still learning.
This may take me a while to type out as I have a six-month-old assistant in my lap!

6 Mott's Medley Juice - $3.07 BOGO - used $1/1 coupons from Publix Summer Savings
4 Mott's Tott's - $3.07 BOGO
1 Tombstone Pizza (not pictured) - $5.95 - had Q - purchase pizza and dorito's get free Mt. Dew
2 Dorito's - $3.99 BOGO
3 Mt. Dew - $1.57 B2G1 - one free with coupon, paid for one more, got the third free!
2 Almond Breeze - $2.99 - $1/1 Q from Publix flyer, $1/1 MQ
6 Yoplait - $0.50 - $.0.50/6 coupon
4 Nabisco crackers - $4.49 BOGO
6 General Mills Cereal - $4.09 BOGO - coupons
4 Ronzoni pastas - $1.39 BOGO
2 Craisins - $2.25 BOGO
1 Rubbing Alcohol - $1.49 - FREE - Baby Club coupon
.75 lb cherries - $2.36
.60 lb tomatoes - $0.59
1 cantaloupe - $1.99

Merchandise Total = $119.00
MQs = $7.55
Sale Savings = $48.88
Store Qs = $9.49
ECB's = $4.00
RR= $10.00
Total Spent = 39.08
SAVED = 79.92

Not too shabby, I think!

I Did It!

I had a successful Walgreens trip!! It took FOREVER to get through the store, but I made it out alive, and saved money! I sat in the store and made sure I had everything matched up. Then when I got to the register, they told me the one item couldn't be sold because it wasn't in their computer system. So, I had to re-work my purchases and get back in the now very long line. The trip took me about an hour. :( I still forgot my Ziplocks, but I got everything else I went for. So here we go with tonight's endeavor:


Transaction #1:
Sara Lee Bread = 0.99
Pampers = 2.50 - 2.00 coupon = 0.50
John Feida hair products 3/$15 - 7.00 coupons = 8.00

Paid: 10.81 (with tax)
Got: $5.00 RR

Transaction #2:
6 Old Spice body wash @ $4.49/ea
2 Old Spice deodorant @ 4.99/ea
- 4 BOGO coupons

Total: 18.96
Used: 5.00 RR
Paid: 16.73 (with tax)
Got: $10.00

So, to sum up: I got 13 items, spent 27.54 out of pocket, got $15 back in RR, so technically I only spent $12.54. That comes out to $0.96 and item! I'm so excited I finally had a successful trip. Now, I'm hoping to get a $10/$50 coupon from Winn-Dixie Monday so I can go to Publix and get FREE groceries! I can't wait til I can say I got free groceries!

A Bit Better

Last night we did a Publix run since the sale was ending. After a week of trying to figure out what to get here's what I ended up with. I know I still didn't do as well as I probably could have, but I'm trying to remind myself that it may take a few weeks to start seeing a cut in our spendings. Although I wish the results could be immediate!

2 Peter Pan Peanut Butter 40oz - BOGO = 4.49 (after coupon)
3 lb oranges @ .99/lb = 2.96
Almond Breeze = 2.29 (after coupon)
3 Kraft shredded cheese @ 2.0/ez = 6.00
Ritz 12 oz = FREE (with cheese coupon)
4 A&W 12 pack sodas (for vacation) = 10.00

Tax = .75
SPENT = 25.83
SAVED = 18.97

I plan to do with this as I did with my last receipts and compare it to Wal-Mart prices to help me see how much we really saved. I'll keep you posted.

Failed Attempt at Coupon Savings

I have spent over a year trying to get into this couponing madness, and come out frustrated every month that everyone around me is saving $100 or more each month, and each time I try I come out spending more than I normally do! I don't think I have had anything drive me to such great frustration in my life! I'm sick of feeling stupid because I can't do this. So each month I determine to do it, and each month I fail. This month was no different. I spent FOUR days trying to put together a shopping list with coupon matchups--and I used all of the helpful sites. I have been a neglectful mother the last few days as I set my kids aside to try to put together a list. Today I got sick of ham and rice (what we've been eating every day for the last month), and we've had not breakfast or lunch foods for a few days. Pay day came, and I decided coupons or not, I have to get groceries. Well, the girls threw a kink in our plans, so I only made it to Wal-Greens and Publix for the bare necessities, and still failed! In the end I forgot milk and bread which were two of the main necessities we needed. I was so much more mentally stable in my shopping when I wasn't trying to bend over backwards to have a coupon for everything and only buy with sales.
So, one thing I can join the club on: I did take pictures of my venture. This will be my first time posting pictures on my blog, so we'll see if I get it right.



So, Publix: Kellogg's cereal BOGO. Cereal was $4.09/box, had $3.50 in coupons, got 8 boxes. Spent $12.86, saved $19.86 at Publix. I stress that I saved that much at that store, and on store brand, because this still came out to an average of $.012 an ounce. That's approximately the same as what I spend on the gigantic bags of Malt-o-Meal at Wal-Mart. So I really didn't save any money, and got a head ache doing it.


Wal-Greens: This was my first attempt at using RR and doing multiple transactions. Didn't pan out as well as I would have liked because I wasn't able to get all of my q's printed. Then due to a mess up with the first transaction, my q didn't get processed for the Pantene, but I didn't notice that until I got home.
Transaction #1: Pantene 2/$8 w/ $2 RR (should have had a $1/2 q attached) = $8.60
Transaction#2: Nivea Men's Bodaywash BOGO ($4.99) and Dial Men's Bodywash BOGO ($5.99) Had a $3/1 q for Nivea and $1.50/2 for Dial. Minus $2 RR from first transaction = $5.31

Not as good as I was hoping, but I guess not the end of the world. Comes to $3.16 per item.

DH is at Wal-Mart now picking up all of the true necessities that had to be neglected because of tired and hungry babies. He's going to check WM prices and see how much I really saved. Considering the time I put into this, not enough.

I hate the quitter attitude I've developed toward this, but I also had the frustration that radiates my entire being when I attempt to make this work.