Archive for April, 2010

Happy Easter

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

Easter eggs

I want to wish all of my readers a happy Easter/Passover/Spring break weekend! Whatever your plans are, I hope your day is great. I’m going to attempt making hot cross buns in the breadmaker for the first time, and will be spending the afternoon with family. Should be fun!

The Week in Savings: $109.04 Worth of Groceries for $25.30

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010
Milk, half & half, Yakisoba and moreYakisoba, Snuggle & garlicTurkey, Bacon & lots moreYakisoba & OlaySunday paper & Yakisoba

This week was all about coupon trading. I wrote an article about what it is and how to do it, and I showed you how it saved me money. Here is the grand total that I’ve spent on groceries in the last week:

Total for all groceries before coupons: $109.04
Total spent on groceries out of pocket: $2.69
Total spent trading for coupons that I used this week: $6.61
Total deducted from my Safeway gift card: $25.00 – I got this gift card free through MyBlogSpark, and we’re also giving one away – click here if you’d like to enter!
Total that I will receive back in rebates: $9.88
ETA: I initially forgot to add in the cost of the two stamps to mail the rebates – .88 cents! Of course, if they refund the amount pre-10% store discount, it will cover the postage plus a small profit -but I don’t know for sure that they will, so the updated total is below.

Grand total: Spent $25.30 total ($10.18 of it in cash and $15.12 of it on my free gift card) after rebates for $109.04 worth of groceries.

Here’s the links to each individual post where you can see the scenario breakdown, receipts, etc:

Shopping Trip, March 30th
Shopping Trip, March 29th
Shopping Trips, March 27th & March 28th

Stockpile

I think we should be set on Yakisoba bowls for a while!

Free Chavrie Goat Cheese

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010
Chavrie Goat Cheese

Click here to sign up for a coupon good for one free package of Chavrie Goat Cheese. Thanks to coupon*clipper on Hot Coupon World for the tip!

Shopping Trip, March 30th: $12.60 for $62.37 Worth of Groceries

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

This week’s theme has been saving money by trading coupons. Today, I’m going to show you what I got with the last of my Yakisoba coupons! Click here to read my previous post about this deal scenario if you missed it.

I did another trade last week for an assortment of good coupons – known in trading circles as a coupon “Potluck” – most of which I have not used yet, save for the Lunchables coupon mentioned below. This trade cost me two stamps, plus one to mail it out – making the total cost for these coupons $1.32.

Yakisoba, Turkey, Bacon & more
Yakisoba & Olay

Spent $2.69 out of pocket, put $19.79 on my free gift card from MyBlogSpark, and will get $9.88 back in rebates – making my final cost $12.60 for $62.37 worth of groceries.


Transaction #1:

Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $5.93 on my gift card
Total before coupons: $15.64
View receipt

Got:

4 Maruchan Yakisoba bowls – on sale for $1.00 each, used four .50/1 coupons, which doubled, and received an additional .10 cent deduction each because of the 10% club card discount; Final price: Free plus .40 cents overage. (More about the 10% here and here.)
1 can of Mighty Dog food – on sale for .65 cents, used one free product coupon from the 03/38 Smart Source newspaper inserts; an additional .06 cents was deducted because of the 10% discount, making the final price free plus .06 cents overage.
1 Odwalla fruit smoothie – on sale for $2.50, used one free coupon that I got in the mail after emailing the company (I’ll be writing more on this topic soon!). I also received an additional .25 cent discount because of the 10% promotion, making the final price free plus .25 cents overage.
1 Odwalla bar – on sale for $1.00, used one free coupon that I got in the mail after writing to the company. I also received an additional .10 cent discount because of the 10% promotion, making the final price free plus .10 cents overage.
One 100 count bottle of ibuprofen – I was all out of ibuprofen, and even though I have a generous stockpile of Ecotrin and Bayer, I find that only ibuprofen will cut it for me. So I bought this, which was originally priced at $7.49; the 10% took off a .75 cent discount, and the overage from the other coupons brought the final price down to $5.93.

Transaction #2:

Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $1.21 on my gift card
Total before coupons: $5.79
View receipt

Got:

4 Maruchan Yakisoba bowls – on sale for $1.00 each, used four .50/1 coupons, which doubled, and received an additional .10 cent discount each because of the 10% club card promotion; Final price: Free plus .40 cents overage.
1 package of rubber gloves – I needed a new pair! The 10% deducted .18 cents, and the .40 cents overage from the Yakisoba brought the final price down to $1.21.

Transaction #3:

Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put .22 cents on my gift card
Total before coupons: $4.69
View receipt

Got:

4 Maruchan Yakisoba bowls – on sale for $1.00 each, used four .50/1 coupons, which doubled, and received an additional .10 cent discount each because of the 10% club card promotion; Final price: Free plus .40 cents overage.
1 can of cream of mushroom soup – I bought this as a “Filler” item to absorb the overage from the Yakisoba – this soup is so handy to have on hand for casseroles. Originally .69 cents, the 10% discount deducted .07 cents, and the .40 cents overage from the Yakisoba brought the final price down to .22 cents.

Transaction #4:

Total spent: Zero
Total before coupons: $5.00
View receipt

Got:

5 Maruchan Yakisoba bowls – on sale for $1.00 each, used three .50/1 coupons and one $1/2 coupon, which doubled, and received an additional .10 cent discount each because of the 10% club card promotion. The first three were free plus .30 cents overage after the .50/1 coupons; the other two cost .30 cents total after the $1/2 coupon, so the overage paid for them exactly. Final price for all five: Free

Transaction #5:

Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $4.04 on my gift card
Total before coupons: $12.27
View receipt

Got:

4-pack of Dannon CrushCups yogurt – on sale for $2.00, used a $1.00/1 coupon from the 3/28 Smart Source newspaper inserts, which doubled; the 10% discount took off an additional .20 cents, making the final price .30 cents.
1 package of Stayfree maxi pads – regularly $3.49, used a $2.00/1 coupon from the 3/28 Red Plum newspaper inserts, which doubled; the 10% discount took off an additional .35 cents, making the final price .64 cents.
1 Lunchables – regularly $1.99, used a $1/1 coupon that I got through trading, which doubled; the 10% took off an additional .20 cents, making the final price .29 cents.
2 packages of Farmland bacon – priced at $4.79 and on sale for “Buy one, get one free”, I used a $1/1 coupon that I got through their coupon mailing list, which doubled; the 10% took off an additional .48 cents, making the final price $2.81 for two packages of bacon.

Transaction #6:

Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $4.49 on my gift card; and I will get $4.49 back in rebates.
View receipt

Got:

2 lbs Jennie-O turkey & gravy in roasting pan – regularly $4.99, the 10% discount took off an additional .50 cents; and I will submit this for the Jennie-O rebate that I signed up for, which will make my final price free less the cost of a stamp to mail it in. And who knows, they might even refund the full amount, pre-10% store discount, which would turn this into a small money-maker. I will keep you posted!

Transaction #7:

Total spent: $2.69 out of pocket, put $3.90 on my gift card, and will get back $5.39 in rebates
Total before coupons: $13.99
View receipt

Got:

8 Maruchan Yakisoba bowls – on sale for $1.00, used four $1.00/2 coupons, which doubled; and received an additional .10 cent discount each because of the 10% club card promotion. Final price: $1.20 for all eight.
1 bottle of Olay Quench body lotion – on sale for $5.99, and I will send in for the Olay Quench “Try-Me-Free” rebate, making this free less the cost of the stamp to mail it in. Also, I may be reimbursed for the full price, pre-10% discount, in which case it will turn into a small money-maker. As always, I will keep you posted!

Custom Photo Stamps For .33 Cents Each, Including Shipping – Today Only

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

Custom photo stamps

Custom photo stamps that I ordered last year through a similar offer


With all this talk about coupon trading, I thought this was a good deal to share – you can end up using a lot of stamps doing trades, so what better way to maximize your saving than by getting a discount on postage! Click here to read a post on Money Saving Mom explaining how you can get inexpensive custom photo stamps today only through Snapfish. To make this deal even better, use Ebates or ShopAtHome (If you’re not familiar with them, check out my article about online rebates to learn more), as they both offer 7.5% cashback on Snapfish orders. What I did was add the $10 credit and save the photo stamps to my shopping cart, and then closed the window and loaded up ShopAtHome. I paid 19.96 total for 3 sheets of 20 first-class stamps – this includes shipping – and I will get $1.49 back through ShopAtHome, which will make the final cost per stamp around .30 cents. That’s a .14 cents savings per stamp! ETA: Money Saving Mom says that she is not sure if this coupon code can be combined with cashback from ShopAtHome. But even if that is the case, the stamps are still only .33 cents each!
This is a great way to save on a necessary practical item, plus you get to have the fun of putting your own photo on it.

Free Kids ‘N Pets Product After Rebate

Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Kids 'N Pets

Click here to become a fan of Kids ‘N Pets on Facebook, and you will qualify for a free rebate on any Kids ‘N Pets odor/stain removal product. These products can be found at Wal-Mart and Target. Thanks, Common Sense With Money and Coupon Mamacita!

Shopping Trip, March 29th: Yakisoba, Garlic, & Snuggle For .15 Cents (And That’s No April Fools’ Joke!)

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

We’ve been talking a lot about trading coupons this week. I wrote an article explaining what it is and how to do it, and showed you an example of my savings after coupon trading. In my last post, I explained how I was getting Yakisoba bowls for free plus .10 cents overage – click here if you missed it – and as you’ll see in today’s recap, it was the first of many Yakisoba-filled shopping trips. I conducted two additional trades last week for the .50/1 Yakisoba coupons that were getting me this good deal; this time, I traded 8 stamps for 24 .50/1 Yakisoba and 5 $1.00/2 Yakisoba coupons. After the two stamps that it took to mail my trades out to the two people that I was trading with, my total cost for the coupons was $4.40 (the cost of 10 first-class postage stamps). So here’s the groceries that I got on Monday:

Yakisoba, Snuggle, & garlic

Spent nothing out of pocket, put .15 cents on my free gift card from MyBlogSpark, and came home with $11.83 worth of groceries.

Transaction #1:

Ramen & Snuggle

Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put .10 cents on my gift card from MyBlogSpark
Total before coupons: $7.33
View receipt

Got:

One 70 count box of Snuggle dryer sheets – on sale for $3.99, used a $3/1 coupon from the 3/28 Red Plum newspaper inserts, which doubled; I also received a .40 cent deduction because of the 10% club card discount. (More about that here and here.) Final price: .09 cents.
3 Maruchan Yakisoba bowls – on sale for $1.00 each, used three .50/1 coupons, which doubled, and received an additional .10 cent discount each because of the 10% club card promotion; Final price: Free plus .30 cents overage.
1 package of Ramen noodles – regularly .34 cents, the 10% club card deducted .03 cents, and the .30 cents overage from the Yakisoba brought the final price down to .01 cent. This is what is known as a “Filler” item – something useful that absorbs a small amount of overage.

Transaction #2:

Yakisoba & garlic

Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put .05 cents on my gift card from MyBlogSpark
Total before coupons: $4.50
View receipt

Got:

4 Maruchan Yakisoba bowls – on sale for $1.00 each, used four .50/1 coupons, which doubled, and received an additional .10 cent discount each because of the 10% club card promotion; Final price: Free plus .40 cents overage.
1 head of garlic – regularly .50 cents, I saved an additional .05 cents thanks to the 10% club card discount; and the .40 cents overage from the Yakisoba brought the final price down to .05 cents.

Free Butterfinger Bar – First 100,000

Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Butterfinger

The first 100,000 people who click here and sign up will receive a coupon for a free Butterfinger candy bar. While you’re there, you can also opt in for their sweepstakes and have a chance to win electronics and more. Thanks, Money Saving Mom!