Great week! and a contest

It's been a while since I've posted, and we've been doing well. Jamie got a new job at his current workplace - it's a promotion to a supervisory position, and it means we're staying here for a while! Hannah is doing so well, rolling this way and that, turning herself in circles, and so desperately interested in crawling. Nora is doing so well with her schooling, and she is becoming such a lovely little girl (from being a lovely preschooler). She is a joy to teach. I am growing and learning in the weekly Women's Bible Study I've been co-facilitating. You really do get a lot more out of studying when you have to be prepared to move the discussion along, and I'm really enjoying it.

I've been trucking along with the money saving. This week was excellent. I spent $34.61 at CVS, Kroger, and Publix. I saved $116.36. That's a savings of 77%! I got a bunch of produce, milk, 6 large boxes of Cheerios, 4 boxes of fruit snacks, pancake mix, sugar, granola bars, 5 boxes of Always Infinity pads (!!), and more.

I have just signed up for a contest All*You magazine is promoting (starting 7/13/09): Can you spend less than $25 on edible groceries per person, per week, for a month? They are interested to see if it can be done, and I think I can safely say YES! Even if I don't count Hannah (baby food just isn't a huge part of the budget), I am certain I can keep it below $75/week for edibles. I'm not sure how one wins (spend the least? drawing of one eligible participant?), but the prize is a $1000 grocery gift card, a years' worth of Knorr sides, and a feature in the magazine. It would be way cool to win!

Friday Finals (a few days late)

Wow - it's been busy around here lately!  We started a bathroom remodel (yay!) and the girls have gotten colds (boo).  I have been learning much from a great couponing site, and I've tallied last week's spending and saving.

Walmart

Spent: $7.25

Total value: $7.97

Saved: $0.72

% saved: 9%

Kroger (2 trips)

Spent: $52.20

Total value: $11.25

Saved: $59.05

% saved: 53%

(I have a $4.99 MIR coming from All-Bran)

Publix

Spent: $28.04 

Total value: $80.30

Saved: $52.26

% saved: 65%

(I have a $10 gift card coming thanks to General Mills and Publix)

CVS

Spent: $7.54

Total value: $32.54

Saved: $25

% saved: 77%

(I have a $6.99 MIR coming from Organix Shampoo, and I got $6 ECBs)

Totals:

Spent: $95.03 ($67.05 after $ back)

Total value: $232.06

Saved: $137.03 ($165.01 after $ back)

% saved: 59% (71% after $ back)

I also got some chicken at Reid's big sale.  It worked out to about $0.35/lb for leg quarters, so I got 10 pounds.  A friend of mine got 80 pounds!  That seemed like a bit more than I could handle!

All in all, it was a good week.  I went a little over budget, but I stocked up big time on shampoo, toilet paper, chicken, and snack foods.  I think my list for next week will be a bit smaller.

CVS-ing (and grocery shop)

I did good!

I got:

  -2 pkgs of teensy-tiny diapers

  -2 pkgs of wipes

  -1 bottle of detangler

for 5.73.  I saved 29.28 with a combination of sale pricing, mfr coupons, a CVS $4/$20 coupon, and a carefully hoarded stash of ECBs.  And I got $5 ECBs and another $4/$20 for a future purchase.  Whoo-hoo!!

I also went to BiLo and procured this week's groceries.  I was able to find everything except mirin, and I only forgot to get one item - tomatoes.  I also got some household items that I had coupons for, and with 25 items in my cart, I got out of there for 50.45, saving 11.49 between sale pricing, coupons, and coupon doubling (up to $0.55!!)

So I have 8.82 left for mirin, tomatoes, and whatever else.  Yippee!

CVS-ing

Not quite as complicated this week.  Nora was with me, so I'm pretty glad the ad wasn't as lucrative on multiple transactions (at least as far as I was interested.)  This week, I got a bunch of stuff to donate for Operation Christmas Child - at church they mentioned that collections were starting.  Kind of boring stuff - but necessary items.

• 3 Oral-B Advantage Toothbrushes     10.47 reg/7.47 on sale/4.50 ECBs
  
• 3 CVS Toothbrushes   2.97
  
• 1 CVS Toothbrush  1.99
  
• 1 Colgate MaxFresh toothpaste  2.99/2 ECBs
  
• 1 Colgate Total Advanced toothpaste 3.49 reg/2.99 on sale/2 ECBs
  
• 2 Ivory Soap 3-pks  2.78/1 ECB
  

Total  24.69 reg/21.19 on sale/9.50 ECB

Coupons

• $4/$20  
  
• .99/1 toothbrush
  
• 1.00/3 toothbrushes
  
• 5.79 ECBs (got these from the infant Advil deal for August) 
  

Total coupons  11.78

GRAND TOTAL  9.41 OOP, 9.50 ECBs earned

Next week, I have big plans for those ECBs - time to start stocking up on baby necessities!!

Centsible Savings is giving away a $5 CVS Gift Certificate - check it out!!

CVS-ing

I've been doing a bit of research on how to play the CVS "game".  Last week, I picked up a prescription and got a $4 off of a $20 purchase coupon.  I checked out the ad, and was able to find a good sale on training pants (still!), and a few other things to total $21 and change, and got $7 in Extra Care Bucks (ECBs) to use on a future purchase.  This week, I really planned it out - I went in by myself (thank you Toddler Time!!), selected a basket full of items, and then sorted it out into 4 transactions at the checkout counter.  The cashier was incredibly patient, as I had picked a couple items that didn't follow my plan, and talked about how she liked to play the "game", too.  So, here's todays purchases:

Transaction #1

• Carefree Pantiliners / 13.78 / 9.00 /accumulating
  
• Neosporin / 5.49 /5.49 / accumulating
  
• Neo To Go / 6.49 / 5.50 / accumulating
  
• $4/$20 coupon      -4.00
  
• $2.00 ECB           -2.00
  
• $5.00 ECB          -5.00
  

TOTAL / 25.76 / 9.62

Transaction #2

Item / Regular Price / Sale Price / ECBs

• J&J Bedtime Cream / 4.29 / 3.99 / 10 (combined with T#1 purchases)
  

TOTAL / 4.29 / 3.99 / 10

Transaction #3

Item / Regular Price / Sale Price / ECBs

• Starburst / 0.79 / 0.50 / accumulating
  
• Hershey's Nuggets / 3.49 / 2.50 / accumulating
  
• Kitkat 4 pack / 1.29 / 1.00 / accumulating
  
• Trident 3 pack / 2.79 / 2.00 / accumulating
  
• M&M Premium / 4.99 / 4.00 / 5
  
• Old Spice Deodorant / 3.99 / 2.99 / 0
  
• $10 ECB -10.00
  

TOTAL / 17.34 / 2.99 /5

Transaction #4

Item / Regular Price / Sale Price / ECBs

• Scott Towels 8 pack / 9.99 / 4.99 / 0
  
• Bandaids / 3.29 / 2.99 / 2
  
• $5 ECB -5.00
  

TOTAL / 13.28 / 2.98 / 2

GRAND TOTALS  Regular Price Sale Price ECBs

TOTAL / 60.67 / 19.58 / 2

That seems like a pretty good deal to me.  I stuck to buying only items that we'll actually use.  I also got another $4/$20 coupon, which I will use next week.  I definitely wasn't very smooth, but as I said, the cashier was very patient and nice.  Even adding this to the rest of my grocery spending (for this two-week period) leaves me with $35 for items that come up, saving for future meat purchases, and next week's CVS-ing!