Good Deals for the Week and My Purchases!

Sorry for the late post. Life has been crazy here and I've had to dedicate most of my time to some upcoming deadlines for work. I don't know how many posts I'll be able to do in the next week, so forgive me if it's a little more sparse than normal.

Here are some of the good deals to be aware of this week:

Week 6/24/09 - 6/30/09

Albertson's:
PYP Link
- Coke products 12 pack Promo: Buy 4, get 1 FREE, end up being $2.60 when you buy 5
- Pepsi/Mtn Dew products 12 pack Promo: Buy 4, get 1 FREE, end up being $2.60 when you buy 5
- Powerade 32 oz. Promo: Buy 10, get 5 FREE, end up being $0.50 each when you buy 15
- General Mills Cereal Promo: Buy 3, get FREE milk, up to $4.50. (Voucher will print at checkout.) Selected GM cereals: Cinnamon Toast Crunch 17 oz., Honey Nut Cheerios 17 oz., Lucky Charms 16 oz., Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs 18 oz., Cocoa Puffs 16.5 oz., Trix 14.8 oz., or Nature Valley Nut Clusters 14.8 oz.
- Epic Savings Mix or Match promo: Save $5 instantly for every 10 items you buy. Great deals on selected products, check the list for details.
- There are 2 doubler coupons in the ad and 3 more scheduled to come in the paper on Sunday (so I hear), so make sure to plan those into your shopping.

Smith's:
PYP/GS Link
- Good deals on milk, OJ, grapes, other random items
- Pepsi 2-liter Promo: Buy 4 get 2 free - makes them $0.84 when you buy 6
- Special Promo: Daytona 500 Buy 10 items get $3 off at checkout. NO LIMIT ON REWARDS. Great deals on a bunch of items, check the list for details.

Associated Food Stores:
PYP/GS Link
- Good deals on cherries, cantaloupe, broccoli, milk, cheese, yogurt, hot dogs
- Pepsi or Pop Favorites, 12 pk. cans or 6 pk. bottles - Use in-ad store coupon: 5 for $13 when you buy 5, limit 1 coupon per customer.
- Good deals on Shasta, Country Time drink mix, Koolaid Mix

Walgreen's:
GS Link
- Lysol Promo: Buy 2 participating items and get a check out voucher for $1 off your next shopping order. Limit 1 card per transaction.
- Kotex Promo: Buy 3 participating items and get a check out voucher for $3 off your next shopping order. Limit 1 card per transaction.

Here's what I picked up this week:

Albertson's:



Items Purchased (1 transaction):
- 1 Culinary Circle Pizza
- 1 2-liter 7UP
- 10 Easy Mac Cups (part of Epic Promo)
- 5 boxes Jolly Time Popcorn 6 pks (part of Epic Promo)
- 3 bottles Taco Bell Taco Sauce (part of Epic Promo)
- 2 Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt 6 pks (part of Epic Promo)

Coupons/Promos Used:
- Free 2 liter when you buy 1 Culinary Circle Pizza
- 1 $1 off of 1 Culinary Circle Pizza
- 2 $1 off of 1 Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt 6 pk
- 5 $1 off of 1 Jolly Time Popcorn
- 2 Epic Promo Discounts (had 20 items, takes off $5 per 10, so total of $10 off)
- 2 doubler coupons (redeemed at $1 each)
- $10 catalina from last weeks sale

Total Spent = $3.82
Total Saved = $53.60


Smith's:

Sorry, didn't get a photo of it this time! I did 3 separate transactions in order to use all of my catalinas.

1st Transaction:

Items Purchased:
- 5 Betty Crocker Fruit Roll-ups
- 3 bags Fritos
- 2 bags Cheetos

Coupons/Promos Used:
- 1 Daytona 500 Promo (had 10 items, got $3 off instantly)
- 2 $0.50 off of 2 Betty Crocker Fruit Snack Items

Total Spent = $13.37
Total Saved = $14.35 (plus I got a $3.50 catalina for buying 5 fruit snacks)

2nd Transaction:

Items Purchased:
- 5 Betty Crocker Fruit Roll-ups
- 5 bottles Gatorade

Coupons/Promos Used:
- 1 Daytona 500 Promo (had 10 items, got $3 off instantly)
- 2 $0.50 off of 2 Betty Crocker Fruit Snack Items
- $3.50 catalina from 1st transaction

Total Spent = $6.25
Total Saved = $10.00 (plus I got another $3.50 catalina for buying 5 more fruit snacks)

3rd Transaction:

Items Purchased:
- 1 gallon OJ
- 6 Pepsi 2-liters
- Green grapes
- Roma Tomatoes
- 2 Lays Potato Chips
- 1 Santitas Tortilla Chips

Coupons/Promos Used:
- $3.50 catalina from 2nd transaction

Total Spent = $11.73
Total Saved = $8.32

There are some really great deals this week, especially using the doublers from Albertson's. Good luck and Happy Shopping!

Couponing Information

I saw a couple of really great posts recently about couponing and wanted to share them with you.

The first is a great post from the PYP blog (click here!) about some couponing myths. For those of you just starting out with couponing, it's hard to understand how it really works and how it's worth it. I loved this post and thought a lot of you would like to read it. And even though I've been couponing (hard core) for almost a year now, I still have people tell me that it's not worth it and there's more effort involved than you'll ever save. I just politely tell them that I find it's a tremendous amount of savings for the time I put in and that for me it's worth it. To be honest, I probably thought that a lot of these myths were tried until I actually tried it and realize that they weren't. Great info and reminders in this post, check it out!

The second is a great warning about coupon fraud from the Obsessive Shopper (click here!). She reminds us about how online/internet coupons are used and can be abused. Personally, I feel that we should follow the letter of the law when it comes to using internet coupons. I know a lot of stores don't accept them and the reason is because there are so many people committing coupon fraud out there and they are losing too much money. I would hate for all of us to lose our priviledge of using internet coupons, so please, everyone try to be honest and not misuse internet coupons. Unfortunately, as with other things, it only takes a handful of people misusing them to ruin it for the rest of us.

If you know of any other sites or posts that you think would helpful to share with all the readers of this blog, please leave me a comment or send me an email at jjzhawks@hotmail.com and I'll post them for us all to read and gain insight from!

Good Deals for the Week and My Purchase

Week 6/17/09 - 6/23/09

Albertson's:
PYP Link
GS Link
- In-ad coupon: Save $1 when you spend $10 or more on fresh produce. Limit 1 coupon per customer, per transaction. Cannot be doubled.
- Coke 2-liter promo: Buy 3, get FREE Sara Lee buns, up to $2.50
- Pepsi/Mountain Dew 12 packs promo: Buy 3, get 2 FREE bags of Doritos Flavor Shots
- Kellogg's cereal promo: Buy 3, save $3 instantly, participating varieties are Raisin Bran Extra 14 oz., Frosted Flakes Gold 16.9 oz., Froot Loops 17 oz., Apple Jacks 17 oz., Frosted Flakes 17 oz., Rice Krispies 18 oz., Bite Size Mini Wheats 24 oz., Raisin Bran 25.5 oz. - great deal with sale/promo/coupons, ranges from $.49 - $.99 a box (and these are the larger boxes too)!
- Sara Lee promo: Buy 5, save $5 instantly. Mix or Match Participating Items.
- Ice cream promo: Buy 4, get $4 off your NEXT shopping order. Mix or Match Participating Items.
- ConAgra promo: Save $10 on your NEXT shopping order when you spend $25 or more (one per transaction!) on participating items. Same as last week, do multiples as separate transactions in order to a $10 coupon for every $25.
- I also heard that this sunday's paper will contain an ad with 3 more doublers, so keep that in mind as you are planning your shopping.

Smith's:
GS/PYP Link
- Coke 12 pk Promo: buy 4 get $2 off
- Pepsi 2-liter Promo: buy 4 get 2 free
- A&W or Sunkist Promo: Buy 4 2 liters, get a Private Selection 1.75 qt Ice Cream FREE
- Keebler Promo: Buy 3 participating Keebler Cookies or Crackers and receive $3 off at checkout. Limit $6 off per transaction
- Also good deals on milk, eggs, bread, OJ, Doritos, sunblock, Suave shampoo/conditioner/deodorant

Associated Food Stores:
GS/PYP Link
- Good deals on selected produce, milk, pop (12 pks and 2-liters), and more.

Walgreen's:
GS/PYP Link
- 7 Up, A&W, Canada Dry, Sunkist or Hawaiian Punch, 12 pack Promo: Buy 4 get an $2 checkout voucher toward your next shopping order.
- Promo: Buy 8 participating items and get a check out voucher for $8 off your next shopping order. Limit 1 card per transaction. Participating items are Ragu pasta sauce, Skippy Peanut Butter, and Hellman's Mayo.
- Also pretty good deals on baggies, toilet paper, tissues, random health and beauty products

My Purchase:
As far as my purchase goes, I've only made it to Albertson's thus far, but most of the stuff I'll pick up at Smith's are perishables (milk, OJ, eggs, buns, etc) so I figured you wouldn't be too interested in that. But I will show you what I got at Albertson's this morning:



Items Purchased:
- 3 boxes Froot Loops (on sale for $2.99 each)
- 2 boxes Frosted Flakes (on sale for $2.99 each)
- 1 box Raisin Bran (on sale for $2.99 each)
- 2 Health Choice All Natural Frozen Meals (on sale for $2.00 each)
- 5 Marie Calendar's Pasta Al Dente Frozen Meals (on sale for $2.50 each)
- 9 cans Chef Boyardee Beef Ravioli (on sale for $1.00 each)

Promos Used/Available:
- $3 off instantly when you purchase 3 boxes of cereal (had 6 boxes total, so $6 came off of my total instantly)
- $10 off your next shopping order when you purchase $25 in participating products (all other items were participating products and added up to $25, so got a coupon after my purchase for $10 off)

Coupons Used:
- 5 $1.50 off of 1 box selected Kellogg's cereal (used on Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes)
- 1 $1.00 off of 1 box selected Kellogg's cereal (used on Raisin Bran)
- 2 $1.00 off of 1 Healthy Choice All Natural Frozen Meals
- 5 $1.00 off of 1 Marie Calendar's Pasta Al Dente Frozen Meals
- 3 $.35 off of 3 cans Chef Boyardee Pasta
- $10 catalina from last week's sale

Total Spent = $12.01
Total Saved = $68.29

Since I had the same value catalina left over from last week's sale, I actually got to spend the actual amount all at once instead of waiting until my next purchase or manually calculating it! Not too bad - $12 for all of that food!

Good Deals for the Week and My Shopping Purchase!

Week 6/10/09 - 6/16/09

Albertson's:
PYP LINK
- In-ad coupon: Save $1 when you spend $10 or more on fresh produce. Limit 1 coupon per customer, per transaction. Great deals on cherries, roma tomatoes, potatoes, and yellow onions.
- Coke 2-liter promo: Buy 3, get $1 off instantly. Buy 6, get $2 off. Buy 9, get $3 off.
- General Mills promo: Save $10 on your NEXT shopping trip when you spend $25 or more on participating items. A lot of great deals on participating items (a lot of 4 and 5 stars). Keep in mind that the wording says "when you spend $25 or more," which means that if you want to do multiples of $25, you should split it into different transaction in order to get the $10 catalina each time. Otherwise, if you have 1 transaction above $25 (no matter the final total) you will only receive 1 $10 catalina. There are no restrictions on rolling the catalinas (i.e. using the first $10 catalina you receive on the next purchase and so on). Most stores are enforcing the 3 transaction at a time rule, so please be considerate and only do 3 at a time, most stores will just make you get back in line, but some are making you go out to the car, it just depends.
- Olay promo: Buy $15 in any combination of Pantene, Secret, Olay, Cover Girl, or Natural instincts, and receive a FREE Olay Complete Ageless Skin Renewing Lotion by mail. A few ok deals on the participating products, but unless you are a devoted user of only Olay Complete Ageless Skin Renewing Lotion, I don't think it's that great of a deal, just my opinion.

Smith's:
PYP/GS LINK
- Dannon Activia and DanActive Yogurt
- Mountain Dairy Gallon Milk
- Pepsi 2-liter Promo: Buy 4 get 2 free
- Lysol Household Cleaners 50% off plus there are coupons in the SS packets from 4/26 and 6/7 - makes for some great deals!

Associated Food Stores:
PYP/GS LINK
- Good deals on milk, eggs, Shasta Soda Pop, Yoplait Yogurt, and Cantaloupe

Walgreen's:
GS LINK
- Good deals on Mars Candy Bars, Reynolds Wrap Foil, and Banana Boat Skin Protection
- Laundry Promo: Buy 3 participating items and get a check out voucher for $5 off your next shopping order. Limit 1 card per transaction.
- Dove Promo: Buy 8 participating items and get a check out voucher for $10 off your next shopping order. Limit 1 card per transaction.

My Shopping Purchases:

Albertson's:

None


Smith's:

None

You're saying to yourself what???? Well, there are some really great deals this week, but I'm stocked enough on my 3 months supply that I actually don't need any of them. And let me tell you that it feels GREAT! To actually be able to pass up great deals because I have plenty is a place I've wanted to be for a long time and I'm just now getting to that point and I love it. It's taken me almost a year, but it was worth all of the work. Now, I will admit that there is a rumor that Albertson's doublers are coming out in the paper on Sunday and that just might be enough to tempt me to go to Albertson's and pick up a few things. But as of right now, I'm not planning on it.

Now, just because I didn't go to Albertson's or Smith's doesn't mean I didn't go anywhere this week - you knew it didn't you? Well, I've had a lot of people ask me if I even bother to shop at Walmart anymore now that I do most of my shopping at the other stores. The answer is yes, but not as often. There are still things that my family likes from Walmart that I still buy there (syrup and freezer fries are just two examples) and of course you can't buy clothes or other things like that at the other stores, so yes, I do still go to Walmart.

And to be honest, there are some things that are priced better at Walmart than the sale+promo price at some of the other stores, so you can actually get a slightly better deal there. My thought on that is that those things are few and far between, so I don't worry too much about them. But when I am at Walmart (during one of my every other month stops to stock up on syrup and freezer fries - imagine the looks I get for buying only 5 bottles of syrup and 6 bags of fries), I will peruse the aisles here and there taking in the prices on certain things I typically buy. Of course this all depends on the amount of time I have and whether I'm there with my children or not. But it helps me stay grounded on their prices in general so that I know when things when things are cheaper and when they are not. In general, most things are better priced at the other stores if you wait for a sale+promo and use your coupons.

For those of you who are busy and don't have a ton of time to comparison shop, there's a PYP thread dedicated just to deals people get at Walmart using their coupons (here's the LINK). I will usually check this thread often so that if I do see a good deal, I can take advantage of it. The good news is that since Walmart doesn't run weekly ads, there's usually not a hurry to get there within the week and I can just pick it up the next time I'm there.

Since I didn't do any Albertson's or Smith's shopping this week, I decided it was about time for a trip to Walmart to pick up a few things I've been wanting to get plus a few things I needed. So here's what I got:



Items Purchased:
- 5 pkgs Chinet Plates ($2.66 - $2 coupon = $.66 each)
- 2 bottles A1 sauce ($2.98 - $2 coupon = $.98 each)
- 2 bottles Nalley Pickles ($1.62 - $1 coupon = $.62 each)
- 2 pkgs Dental floss picks ($1 - $1 coupon = free)
- 10 pk hangers ($1.17)
- 1 refill bottle of Tilex ($4.52 - cried when I couldn't find a coupon - I hate paying full price!)
- Great Value Seasoned Salt ($1.78)
- Great Value Paprika ($1.48)
- 4 pk Flood lights (not pictured - $12.97)

Total Paid = $31.08
Total Saved = $18.00

Considering it cost me ~$22 for the stuff without coupons (flood lights, spices, tilex, and hangers), that means I spent less than $10 on the plates, A1, pickles, and dental floss.

So if you're asking how I knew about the prices on these items so I knew to use my coupons there instead of elsewhere, the answer is most of them I saw on the PYP thread (LINK) and the rest I heard on blogs or from my Mom, who is better at keeping up with the Walmart prices than I am. I just keep a little list of the items and coupons (with expiration date) and when I'm getting ready to head to Walmart, I look over my list and take all the appropriate stuff with me to pick it up. Hope that makes sense!

Free Minute Maid Frozen Novelty Coupon!

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Thanks Good or Free Deals!

Free Chocolate!

Who doesn't love chocolate? And nothing could be better than FREE chocolate right? Well, you can get free chocolate by registering for a coupon for a free Mars candy bar by clicking Here! (A coupon will be mailed to you in 6-8 weeks).

You can get one coupon per e-mail address every Friday, with a total of 4 coupons for every household during the Offer Period (Offer valid from 9:00:00 AM ET to 11:59:59 PM ET on the Friday only of each week beginning 5/8/09 and ending 9/25/09)!

Good Deals for the Week

Week of 6/3/09 - 6/9/09

Albertson's:
- Quaker Sale - selected granola bars, cereal, breakfast items for $1.49
- Dreyer's/Nestle promo: Get FREE Dreyer's ice cream 1.5 qt. (up to 2.99) and a FREE Red Box DVD rental when you spend $15 on participating products listed.
- P&G promo: Save $7 on your next shopping order when you spend $25 or more on participating P&G products.
- Kraft promo: Save $3 instantly when you spend $10 on participating products listed. Great deals on items with promo + coupons.

Smith's:
- Good deal on apples, potatoes, milk
- Pepsi Promo: Buy 4 2-liters of Pepsi Products, get 2 free - ends up being $.84 each
- Knorr Pasta Side and Kraft Salad Dressing - good deal with sale + coupon
- Suave Shampoo/Conditioner

Associated Food Stores:
- Cantaloupe, Strawberries
- Milk
- Bar S Bologna, Oscar Meyer Deli Creations
- They don't have it marked as a good deal, but they have Tropical Preserves (Jam) on sale for $2.50 a bottle - regular price at Smith's was $3.99 and I know the Smuckers is around $7.99, so I think the $2.50 is a great deal! Also, keep in mind that some of the stores may have it for $2.99 instead of $2.50 (although, I think either price is a good deal).
- They also have a mini-caselot sale going on at most of the stores. It does seem, however, that some stores have certain items in cases/on sale that others don't, make sure to check your local stores ad or in store to be sure the items are on sale.

Walgreen's:
- A few good deals with register rewards, nothing too earth shattering