Going crazy at Publix

Remember the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?  Well, this little story should be called, If You Give A Couponer a Q for Free Milk...

Yup, I had a coupon for milk, absolutely free!  All I had to do?  Spend 100 buckaroos.  AND, I had a dollar off of chocolate milk when you buy a gallon of white milk.  So I had to get both things of milk.  Plus, I had two man Qs and a store Q for Yoplait yogurt cups, which were on sale 20 for 10 bucks...along with man Qs for Yoplait Yo Plus, which basically made those items free.  And then there was the store Q plus the man Q for Johnson and Johnson first aid kits.  I mean, come on, I had to get those.  Gotta support the family.  And, well, you get my point.  I'm the mouse...with the cookie. 

Publix

The meats:

Ground sirloin

Top Round Roast

Whole Chicken

Boston Butt

Total (before tax): 35.48

Publix savings: 2.18

New system:

* means on sale

^ means man q

' means store q

+ means competitor's q

The other stuff I got: 

4 Campbell's Cooking soups (cream of mushroom and cream of chicken)^

1 French's regular mustard^

1 Beekist honey bear

1 Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ

12 Yoplait cups*^+

2 4-packs of Yoplait Yo Plus*^

1 package Kraft Shredded Cheddar Cheese^

1 package Publix mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 Johnson and Johnson Travel size First-Aid Kits^'

1 Clean It Oven Cleaner^

1 Peter Pan Peanut Butter^

1 Halls cough drops^

1 Barber's Buttermilk

1 gallon Barber's white milk^

1 Half gallon Barber's chocolate milk^

1 Sara Lee Honey Wheat Bread

4 Jell-O Instant Puddings^+

1 24-count Advil^

Grapes*'

1 Kraft American Singles^

2 boxes Special-K cereals*^+

Total for all before sales, coupons, and tax: 126.26

Total after sales and coupons (before tax): 79.97

Total savings: 46.29 or 37%

This percentage isn't as high as some I've had in the past, but 37% is still great!  Humor me on this next little bit.

Excluding meats:

Total before all sales, coupons, and tax: 90.78

Total after sales and coupons (before tax): 44.49

Total savings: 46.29 or 51%

Tax: 10.12

I know I'm bragging a lot here, but 51% on groceries!  This makes me so excited!  Especially since only a few of the items were actually on sale.  I got a big hunk of that 51% just from finding all kinds of coupons.  And hopefully, I won't have to buy too much more between now and the time that we buy a house, because I feel like that might be coming soon.  All we'll really need will be meat, bread, and milk.  

Looking forward to tomorrow.  Hubby is bringing out the smoker to cook all that meat that I got today.  Yummy!  And this mouse might even make some cookies, too.  :)

A Couponer's Nightmare

How's that for a catchy title?  :)  I feel that captures what happened to me today...but maybe it's only a nightmare of mine.  As I was putting my coupons together, I realized that 5 dollars worth of +Up Rewards that I had earned had expired!!!  All that planning and other couponing, and I simply let 5 bucks go to waste.  Rite Aid rewards normally expire quickly, but I had 4 +Up Rewards that didn't expire until February.  I thought they all printed with the same expiration date.  Oh well, lesson learned.  On to the goods!

Publix

(sorry for the sideways picture)

What I got:

Bottom Round Roast

1 bag Breaded Chicken Breast filets

1 pack Johnsonville sausage

2 Country Crock sideitems

Venus Embrace Razor

Gold Delicious Apples

Price before coupons and sales: 48.71

Price after coupons and sales (sort of): 37.10

Percent saved: 24%

After looking at my receipt, I'm gonna have to call my store about this one.  The Tyson chicken breasts were supposed to ring up at half price but didn't (normally 9 buckaroos).  Plus, I had a save 5 bucks on your purchase coupon and that didn't ring up.  When I brought this home and told Josh he said "what happened?"  Now that I've looked at things more closely, I know.  I'm going to call over there and see what I can do.  I'll let you know how that turns out. 

Rite Aid 

What I got:

2 boxes Frosted Flakes

2 boxes Rice Krispies cereal

2 32-ounce Tide

1 8 count Bounty

1 12 count Charmin

2 Crest toothpastes

Total before coupons and sales: 76.45

Total after coupons and sales: 16.66

Total saved: 78%

Woo hoo!  A great trip to Rite Aid for me.  I love saving this much.  It even surprised Josh.  At first, I set out everything except the 2 Tides and the toothpastes and asked him how much he thought I spent.  He guessed over 20 bucks, even before adding on the detergent and toothpaste!  The nightmare of course is that I could have saved 5 bucks more.  That would have made my percentage 85 saved.  It's okay though.  You can't dwell on things like that.  It's a lot of stuff that we needed and we got a great deal on it.  Plus I have 10 +Up Rewards to use next time!  :)

Return from Hiatus - Shopping

I've been away from the blogging world for a while.  With Christmas, New Year's, traveling, and my poor husband's back going out, other things have taken priority.  But I'm glad to say that I am back, especially now that Josh is doing better.

I did a couple of stops today.  First, I tried out Office Depot.  They have a Worklife Rewards program where you get 10% back on ink and paper, and I needed some of both.  This purchase is definitely a little crazy, but there were some deals I felt I couldn't pass up.

Office Depot

What I got:

10 reams of Hammermill paper

2 black ink cartridges

1 50-pack security envelopes

1 ream HP paper

Total before coupons and sales (roughly): 104.00

Total after sales and coupons (roughly): 62.00

Saved: 41%

On this, my out of pocket was really a little over 68 bucks.  But I can submit my receipt for a 6.79 rebate on the ream of HP paper.  Thus, the reason I'm not 100% sure on my totals because I have already put everything together to send out.  I should get 10% back on all of these items, except for the envelopes...I don't think those count.  And the rebates come in the form of a gift card, so I can use that next time.  Also, with Worklife Rewards, you can make money by recycling your old ink cartridges.  So, if anyone has ink cartridges that they simply throw away, let me know.  I will gladly take them off your hands.  :)  (Or you can just get your own account and take those in yourself.)  I will definitely not have to buy any paper for a while and will be able to print all kinds of coupons!  :)  

Next stop...

CVS

What I got:

3 packages of Extra gum

2 24-count Excedrin Migrane

2 24-count Excedrin Extra Strength

1 Tums

2 Revlon emery boards

Total before coupons and sales: 39.55

Total after coupons and sales:  7.40

Saved: 81%

ECBs before: $5

ECBs after: $11

I really made this stop because of the Excedrin.  If you spent 20 bucks worth (before coupons) you could earn 10 ECBs.  I had two coupons for free Excedrin products and another 1 buck off any Excedrin product.  So I figured, why not turn those free Excedrins into some extra money off at CVS.  The Tums were a little surprise.  After I did my first purchase (the gum and emery boards), the register printed a 3 dollar off any Tums product coupon.  I also had a $1 off man q.  Tums were 3.99 plus get $1 ECB with purchase.  I ended up getting it for free with the extra to use on my next trip!

Final Stop...

 Publix

What I got:

2 Special-K Cereals

2 Special-K Cereal bars

3 cans tuna

1 can Planter's Honey Roasted peanuts

1 6-pack Sunmaid raisins

1 box Uncle Ben's white rice

2 cans black bens

5 tangerines (10 cents a piece!!!)

1 travel NyQuil

1 travel DayQuil

Total before coupons and sales: 31.34

Total after coupons and sales: 13.09

Saved: 58%

I hear from some reliable sources that there is a winter storm moving into the area tomorrow.  So I braved Publix to pick up a few things.  I hope it will be enough, in case the electricity does go out.  My only upsetting moment with this trip is that there was no Special-K Cinnamon Pecan cereal left on the shelves at Public.  Not that it is a huge deal, but I had a coupon for 75 cents off that particular Special-K cereal.  (One of my mantras lately has become that no amount is too little.  I hope I'm not getting particularly crazy with this, but honestly if I can save 50 cents, or 75 cents, or even 25 cents I feel like it is worth it.  If I save 25 cents on ever trip that I make, that ads up over time.  Okay, finished with my little rant.)  :)

Still, this was a great stop!  I love saving over 50% at the grocery store.  It's easier to bump up savings at drugstores than it is at the grocery.  I need to start keeping track of all of the coupons that I actually use when going to the store.  But, if you really want to learn how to do all of this yourself, just visit www.southernsavers.com.  I learned basically everything I know from that site and it's a great place to make shopping lists!