My $40 weekly grocery budget shopping trip

If you’re just starting to read my blog, you may want to click here to read about my challenge for 2009, so you’ll get a better understanding of how this all works. My Kroger stores triple three like coupons up to .35 face value and double three like coupons up to .50 face value. My Randalls stores triple one like coupon up to .35 face value and double one like coupon up to .50 face value.

Here’s a summary of my trips for the week:

Kroger – Total OOP = $22.69 – Some of the items we purchased are not pictured here (the “cold” stuff mainly) Here’s what we got: 2 cans 98% FF cream of chicken soup, 2 cans 98%FF cream of mushroom soup, 6 boxes BC Fruit Stickerz, 20 flour tortillas, Blue Bell ice cream (1/2 gallon), 2 pounds grapes, saltines, Pace Picante sauce, Olive Oil, 2 cans enchilada sauce, 6 cans Chef Boyardee ravioli and ABCs&123s, and 1 gallon milk. The biggest budget killer in this group is the EVOO which was $4.79 for the store brand! I have a catalina for $1.50 OYNP from the Fruit Stickerz. I sent my husband on this shopping run and I think it’ll be awhile before he goes again. One of the “Daytona” items didn’t show up on the receipt. I go through this regularly when I shop because my store doesn’t mark things very well, so you have to guess which items “count” and I end up at customer service trying to work it all out.

CVS: Total OOP = $0, earned $21.97 ECB – My store starts the Sunday sale early, so I was able to get some items from both weeks all at once! You can check out my scenarios for this week here.

Target: Total OOP = $18.65 ($14.97 without the dog treats) – Here’s what I got: 2 boxes Quaker granola bars, 2 boxes Kashi breakfast bars, 2 packages Market Pantry juice (8 packs), 2 cans Progresso soup, 1 gallon whole milk, 1 package Kraft cheese sticks, 10 packages Juicy Juice (8 ct) (we will be well stocked on juice for awhile now! I paid $3.80 for all 10 boxes…the regular price without coupons would have been $22.50!), 8 containers Yoplait yogurt, 4 boxes Kelloggs Pop Tarts. The coupon match-ups are here.

Here are my updated savings totals: (if you’re new to my blog and not familiar with my savings goals, click here

Baby Emergency fund – $793.10(Goal = $1000) – added $4.49 payment from Theraflu rebate, $9 rebate from Caregivers Marketplace, $3 payment from Pinecone Research, and $11.69 payment from Associated Content
Gift savings – $132.42 (Goal = $1500)
Rolling entertainment fund – $0 (Goal = $500)

*$10 in Target gift cards thanks to Lila Guide
*$10 in Amazon gift cards thanks to Swagbucks

I haven’t had a chance yet this week to update my savings totals.

New coupons on Target.com


There are new coupons on Target.com! For the first week or so, they are typically only available on Target.com, but by the weekend, they should be available on the coupon generators at A Full Cup and HCW.

I don’t have prices for many of these items yet, but I will try to go tomorrow and price check and then add them. The following coupons expire on 3/14/09:

.75 off Archer Farms® Naan bread Bakery Dept.

$1 off Archer Farms® cereal

.50 off 8-oz. or larger Chex Mix snack mix
.50/1 Chex mix – 1/25/09 SS.
60/1 Chex mix printable here
$1/1 Chex mix printable here

$1 off Fresh vegetable Broccoli or Cauliflower or 16-oz. Green Giant Hearts of Romaine
These make for very cheap (or free if there is a sale) vegetables!

$3 off Gillette Venus razor Divine or Embrace or Breeze
$2/1 Venus Razor, Any – 02-08-09 PG

$1 off Hillshire Farms Deli Select lunch meat – this is priced at $3.79 regular price at my store and goes on sale frequently
Look for $1/1 peelies on the product
Look for TMF peelies on the product (you would be reimbursed for the full price before your coupons!)

$1 off Kashi Cookies or Crackers or Granola bars
I’m not sure if this would work with the $2 printable here or the $2 coupons from Vocal Point, but if it will, this would be a great deal. These had been on price cut to $2.75, but I think that ended yesterday. The regular price (I think) is $3.25. Right now, all of the Kashi cookies, and many of their granola bars are on recall as a part of the peanut butter recall

$1 off With purchase of two 8-oz. Market Pantry® cheeses Shreds or Blocks

$1 off 6-oz. or larger Pepperidge Farm crackers
$1/1 Pepperidge Farm Baked Naturals Snacks, Any – 01-18-09 SS

$1 off Renuzit air care product Excludes Renuzit 1-pk. adjustable

$1 off 64-oz. Tropicana orange juice
$1/2 Tropicana Orange Juice, Any – 01-04-09 RP

$1 off Vlasic pickles

Here are some other Target deals:
*$1/1 Flat Earth chips
The $1/1 printables are back up on Smartsource.com, so this makes them .50/bag

*$1/2 Milk Bone treats
If you have the BOGO free coupon from this week’s inserts, they will be $1.69 for two bags

*$1/2 Kelloggs Pop Tarts
If you have the $1/1 Kelloggs peelies and they are still on price cut, they will be .34 for two boxes

Other Target coupon deals (these are from recent inserts):
*$1/1 Carnation instant breakfast
There are $1/1 blinkie coupons by the Carnation instant breakfast in the grocery store. The canisters and boxes are on price cut at my store for $4.49, which makes them $2.49 with both coupons! The boxes are on price cut to $3.94, so it will be $1.94/box after both coupons! We love this stuff!

*$1/2 Juicy Juice
There are $1/1 Juicy Juice coupons from a recent insert. The juice boxes go on sale 3/$7 fairly often, which will make them .83 for a package of juice boxes when they are on sale!

Check out the President’s Day Sales!

I posted this yesterday, but I’m bumping it up because I’ve added even more offers.

Many stores are starting their President’s Day sales early. Here are a few of the highlights from my inbox so far (I will update as I get information about other sales and deals…please feel free to share your deals as well!):

Banana Republic – There are many new markdowns. Save up to 40% off online and in store. Get free shipping when you spend $150 or more and use code BRFREESHIP at check-out. Don’t forget to shop through Ebates and get 3% cash back.

Crazy 8 – There are lots of newly marked down items starting at $3.99 and up during the President’s Day Sale. Also save on baby items during the Baby Sale.

Eddie Bauer – save up to 70% off during the winter clearance sale. Prices start at $5.99. Check out the details here. Don’t forget to shop through Ebates and get 4% cash back.

Gymboree – Save an additional 20% off already reduced prices (in store and online). Don’t forget to check out the Baby sale (everything is priced at $10 or $20). All $10 items are regularly priced $12.75 – $19.75 and all $20 items are regularly priced $22.75 – $39.00. Some shorts and shirts from “Kid Girl” and “Kid Boy” are also included in the sale. Shirts are priced at $10 and shorts are priced at $15. There are 20% mailers out there and you get an additional 5% off if you have the Gymboree Visa card.

Gymboree Outlet – save up to 60% off during the President’s Day sale. Baby sale items start at $6.99. The outlet stores do not take coupons, but you can get an additional 5% off if you have a Gymboree Visa card.

Kohls – Save an additional 15%, 20% or 30% off everything using your Kohls charge card. Sign up here for their e-mail alerts and get $5 to use in store or 10% to use online. Check out their online “Deal of the Day” – their entire stock of Mens NCAA screen tees is on sale for $7.99. Save 30-40% off Simply Vera Vera Wang apparel and accessories, 30-40% off selected Chaps apparel, accessories, jewelry, and shoes; 15-25% off selected kitchen electrics, and 60-80% off in their “Gold Star Clearance.” Get free shipping when you spend $75 or more. Don’t forget to shop through Ebates and get 4% cash back.

Macy’s – Get free shipping during their President’s Day sale using the code SHIPSAVE at check-out. Save 40-80% off clearance items here. Get an additional 4% cash back when you shop through Ebates.

Scholastic – (Thanks to Janie/Hayseed in the City) – Take an additional 20% off select sale items using code AFFPD at check-out. Check out the sale items here.

Target – Save up to 75% on clearance items here. Get free shipping when you spend $50 or more. Get 3% cash back when you shop through Ebates.

The Children’s Place – Check out their new spring dresses. Also, save an additional 50% off already reduced merchandise during their “Monster Sale.” Save 15% off any online purchase using the code CLUBE6DQH629 at check-out. Click here for a printable coupon to use in store. Get 3% cash back when you shop through Ebates.

The Company Store – Save 50-75% off during the clearance closeout. Click here to see all of the sale items. Get an additional 3% cash back when you shop through Ebates.

Don’t miss out!

I just thought I would recap a few deals that you don’t want to miss out on:

*Diapers.com – great deals on diapers including $10 off your purchase of $49 or more and free shipping along with a $14.97 mail in rebate. Details are here.

*Fazolis – Get free spaghetti through 2/16. The details are here.

*JC Penney’s – Extra 20% off your purchase (can be used online or in store) – ends today! Click here for the details.

*Jack in the Box – free curly fries tomorrow (2/10) – click here for the details.

*Kroger – the “Daytona sale” continues through this week. Check out this post for coupon match-ups.

*McDonalds – BOGO free drinks from 2-5 pm Monday-Friday. Click here for the details.

*Oriental Trading Company – the $10 off a purchase of $10 or more promotion ends today. Get the details here.

*Target – free Ocean Spray juice, cheap yogurt, cheap Pop Tarts, and plenty of other deals (the Ocean Spray and yogurt coupons expire on Saturday). Click here for the details.

My $40 weekly grocery budget shopping trip

I typically post this on Saturdays, but the stomach bug that got my kids all last week finally got to me, so I’m a little behind on everything.

If you’re just starting to read my blog, you may want to click here to read about my challenge for 2009, so you’ll get a better understanding of how this all works. My Kroger stores triple three like coupons up to .35 face value and double three like coupons up to .50 face value. My Randalls stores triple one like coupon up to .35 face value and double one like coupon up to .50 face value.

Here’s a summary of my shopping trips: (my total spent for groceries for the week was $34.09)

Target: Total OOP = $3.17. I used a $10 gift card I got from Lila Guide, so my total before the gift card was $13.17. The chicken breasts were on sale for $5.99, the Pop Tarts were .19/box using coupons, the Carnation Instant breakfast was $2.29 per canister using coupons, and the dog treats were $.92/each using coupons. Check out this post to see my coupon match-ups and find other Target coupon deals.

Kroger: Total OOP = $51.60. There are some items in this picture that don’t “count” toward my weekly $40 budget (like the diapers, the dog treats, and the toilet paper). I just included them so you could see the “big picture.” My total OOP without the diapers, dog treats, and toilet paper was $30.92. I will also get $2.25 back from Caregivers for the Huggies.

The match ups for the Daytona items are listed here, so I won’t be listing them in this post. I had originally purchased Pull-Ups because they were on sale also and other areas had them listed as being part of the deal, but they are not part of the deal in my area, so I had to return them and exchange them for some diapers.

Here’s what I got: 3 packages Cottonelle (used 2 $1 printables and 1 .50 printable which doubled plus a .25 Cellfire coupon), 6 cans Kroger broth, 2 gallons milk, 3 bell peppers (they are on sale 3/$1), bananas, sirloin steak, 2 cans Vienna sausage, 4 cans tomato sauce, 1 can chickpeas, yogurt (free coupon from Kroger mailer), eggs (I bought Egglands best so I could use the .35/1 coupon which tripled), and dog treats. Then, from the Daytona deals, I got: 3 packages Huggies, hot dog buns, Totinos pizza rolls, 3 boxes Ritz crackers, 8 jars Ragu sauce, 6 cans Chef Boyardee, 4 cans Pillsbury biscuits, 3 boxes Betty Crocker Fruit Stickerz, and one bottle of Kroger dressing.

Here are my updated savings totals: (if you’re new to my blog and not familiar with my savings goals, click here)

Baby Emergency fund – $764.92 (Goal = $1000)
Gift savings – $132.42 (Goal = $1500)
Rolling entertainment fund – $0 (Goal = $500)

Sadly, I didn’t add anything to any of my savings funds this week. I had a great mail week, though. Here are some of the highlights: (off the top of my head!)

*$20 in Target gift cards thanks to Swagbucks. (When you cash out for gift cards, they are actually “E-cards” but I used that to pay for regular gift cards!)

*My “freebies” from the Kraft instant win game –
*1 coupon for a free package of any Kraft regular, 2% milk natural cheese, cracker barrel, or Polly-O (any variety of shredded, chunks, cubes, cracker cuts or string, up to $3.99)
*1 coupon for a free planters snack product (up to $5.00)
*1 coupon for free Nabisco cracker product (up to 16 oz. up to $4.49)
shows Ritz, Triscuit and Wheat thins on the coupon

*My free Kid’s “Boost” coupon – click here to get yours

*A free coupon for tomatoes from DelMonte

*Free samples of Emergen-C Kidz from SheSpeaks

*Kroger coupons

*A 20% off Gymboree coupon

Here’s how much I have saved at individual stores:
Total Target savings – $165.40 to date (47% savings)

Total CVS savings – $272.75 (84% savings…this would probably be higher, but I do buy my stamps there to go toward my quarterly ECB earnings and you can’t use ECBs to pay for those!) – this # has not been updated because I have not entered my receipts for the week into my spreadsheet yet

Total Kroger savings – $228.25(55% savings)

Total Randalls savings – $76.33 (88% savings)

**If you’re looking for spreadsheets to help you track your savings, there are some good ones here on the Mommy Snacks blog