I'm back to spending and saving!

I've gone for a while without doing any big coupon shopping.  And let me tell you...the withdrawal from that is crazy.  Now that we have the house though, we have some storage to keep things.  This makes me a happy camper and has resulted in me going a little crazy at Publix and Rite Aid these past two days.  Time for the pictures.

Publix

What I got:

2 lbs+ of ground chuck (not pictured)*

3 boxes of Kleenex*^

1 package hamburger buns

2 packages Bob Evans sausage*^

2 tubs of cream cheese^

1 package of Blueberry bagels*

1 package of strawberries*

1 head of green leaf lettuce

Half dozen eggs

1 box Kashi cereal^

1 gallon milk

1 box Nature's Valley Trail Mix bars*^

1 8 pack Gatorade*

2 Softsoaps*

Playtex gloves

1 Comtrex^

3 trial size Day-Quils and Ny-Quils^ (money maker)

1 Sinex^

1 Pledge Fabric Sweeper^'

1 Ziploc vacuum sealer kit^'

Also used 5 dollars off your purchase of 30 or more from the Italian Days Sale

Total before coupons, sales, and tax: 94.22

Price after coupons and sales (before tax): 48.53

Total spent: 55.93

Percent saved: 49%

I think this was a pretty good haul of stuff.  We needed some food in the house...been eating out a lot.  Plus Josh was feeling under the weather, so we needed the medicine.  The Fabric Sweeper is for the carpet at our new house.  The old owners had two bulldogs and there's still dog hair all over, even after them cleaning the carpets.  

Rite Aid

What I got:

1 Swiffer Wet Jet starter kit*^

2 12-package Diet Mountain Dew (only one pictured)

1 12-pack Diet Sunkist

1 package TGI Friday's Potato Skins*

1 Secret deodorant^

2 Febreeze Noticeables warmers*^

2 packages Febreeze Noticeables oil (2-packs)*

1 Tide (for high efficiency machines)*^

1 Olay hand lotion^

2 Gillette deodorants

Price before sales, coupons, and tax: 94.05

Price after sales and coupons, before tax: 35.22

Percent saved: 63%

Mainly this was a stock up trip.  But I also really wanted the Swiffer wet jet to make cleaning up once we leave the apartment a little bit easier.  The Febreeze will also be great at the new house.  Remember those dogs that left dog hair all over the place.  Well, they also left a little bit of a smell.  So we're gonna see if this will help at all.  I could have saved a little more, but again, I let some of my +Up Rewards expire.  Six dollars worth.  Oh well, there really wasn't anything that we needed then.  I did also earn 10 Up Rewards with this purchase.  It feels good to be back.  :)

Total cost: 188.27

Total Out of Pocket: 83.75

Total saved: 56%

Coupon Slow-down

There's been some exciting news for the Johnson household!  We're buying a house!  At the end of February we will close and we'll be completely out of the apartment by the middle of March.  And that means it's time to start going through our stockpile of food, so that we have less to move.

There's 5 boxes of unopened cereal along with tons of soup cans, Rotel, baking goods, and my big jar of peanut butter.

Somehow, I ended up buying three big boxes of popcorn.  Each time I got one I genuinely believed that we needed some.  And now all three are sitting up in our cupboard, along with chips, crackers, oatmeal, more baking stuff, and cooking liquids.  Then there's all of Josh's spices/sauces and my cookie/cake decorating stuff.

And our fridge.  It's a small fridge, but it's packed full.  Notice that 2-liters of Coke.  We've had those for a long time, but they're free with deals at Winn Dixie.  Also, there's 2 boxes of opened cereal on the top of the fridge and a lot of bourbon and beer.  I think we've both slowed down a lot on our drinking since marriage.  :)

We've got all this stuff...but I still did a little shopping before the Super Bowl last weekend.  I had some +Up Rewards that I needed to use.  Sorry for the lack of picture, but here's what I got:

Rite Aid

What I got:

2 cans of Pringles

2 small packages Chex Mix

1 Ocean Spray Cranberry juice

1 V-8 juice

2 large Gatorades

1 package small Dixie plates

Price before coupons and sales: 27.21

Total after coupons and sales: 3.99

Savings: 23.22 or 85%

Used:

10 +Up Rewards from previous purchase

1.00 off Video Value/Winter Reward coupon

1.00 off V-8 juice coupon

.50 off 2 cans of Pringles 

.50 off 2 packages Check Mix (store coupon - Video Values)

Coupon savings: 13.00

Store sale savings: 14.21

Earned:

8 bucks in +Up Rewards

I'm going to try to use those earned rewards only on things that we really need, but it's so tempting to find things that we will use and will give us even more Rewards.  We'll see how things go, and I'll keep things updated on here if I do end up buying more.  :)