Happy Friday everyone! Today we’re sending out congratulations to Super Coupon Girl reader Jules on winning our Contessa World Cuisine coupon giveaway. Enjoy your slew of free dinners, Jules!
My free Contessa coupon stash came in really handy over the holidays – we were invited to a New Year’s Eve party at a friend’s house, so as my contribution I picked up 6 bags of these meals so that we could cook them up at his house as a nice dinner/late night snack/carbs to absorb beer. 😉 We cooked the Orange Chicken and Mongolian Beef on our friend’s wood-burning stove over the course of the evening, and it was a big hit. I hope everyone else had a nice New Year; here’s to a great 2013!
The holiday season is a time for giving, so it seems only appropriate to host an end-of-the-year giveaway to say thank you to my wonderful readers! One reader of Super Coupon Girl will win an envelope containing 15 coupons good for a free bag of Contessa World Cuisine frozen meals, plus 25 additional coupons for $2 off! Now how’s that for an awesome coupon haul?! You can enter via the Rafflecopter form at the bottom of this post! Read on for more information.
Since Jai and I started our diet program, I’ve been doing a lot less shopping because all of our food is being provided to us free of charge for participating in the program. I figured I would still do a fair amount of shopping for other items, but I realized that there just isn’t much that we actually need at the moment! I’m stocked up on most cleaning and personal care items, so all that really leaves is the purchase of supplementary items like milk or fruit. And I did a big stock-up at Walmart in September because I had won a $100 gift card, so all told, I just haven’t needed to buy much of anything! Even my Christmas shopping is covered, because my gift list receive either items I’ve won in contests or things I’ve reviewed for Contest Corner.
When I do go shopping, I always receive a warm welcome from the cashiers at our Safeway. One of them asked me where I’ve been, and when I explained that we were getting free food at the moment, she immediately got it. This was the same cashier who rang up my epic Windex haul, so she knows I definitely won’t be running out of cleaning products any time soon. 😉 But that doesn’t mean I have completely stopped shopping:
I stopped by Safeway last night to pick up a few things before Christmas. Contessa had offered to send me an envelope full of coupons for free products and $ off, as well as provide a giveaway for the same, so naturally I had to take them up on this offer. What could be a better prize for my readers than a ton of coupons to save money in the New Year? I used one of the coupons they sent me to pick up a bag of Orange Chicken for free. I also picked up a quart of half and half, a bag of ripe bananas marked down to .54 cents per pound, and two dozen eggs, on which I used this printable coupon to save .55 cents. All told, I spent $6.51.
Contessa frozen convenience meals feed two people, and this variety came with vegetables, a bag of chicken, sauce, and rice. We reviewed two other varieties of these meals earlier in the month on Contest Corner, and they were really tasty. This time, I thought I’d try out the Orange Chicken, and the first thing I noticed was that this variety was a tad easier to cook than the Mongolian Beef as all the ingredients were already separated in their own bags. That being said, none of the ones I’ve tried were hard to prepare!
To cook, all you do is heat up a pan with vegetable oil, add the chicken, and cook for 5 minutes. Then you add the vegetables and sauce, and you’re done about 5 minutes later. The rice is packaged in a bag that you stick straight in the microwave to heat up and cook, which takes 2-3 minutes. Open the bag, serve up the rice, then add the meat and veg. That’s it!
Jai and I treated ourselves to the dinner and oh man, it was good! The tender battered chicken is so yummy and does a good job at recreating the restaurant experience. The vegetables are pretty typical for frozen, with a nice sauce and rice. We thoroughly enjoyed it and love the ease and speed of preparation – not bad for an all-in-one meal! Of the flavors, I would have to say Mongolian Beef is still my favorite simply because it was loaded with garlic, but this came in a close second! All three varieties of Contessa frozen meals which we’ve sampled over the last month have been great.
Giveaway!
Now, time for the giveaway! One reader will win an envelope containing 15 free product coupons for Contessa frozen skillet meals, plus 25 additional coupons good for $2 off. The free coupons are good up to an $8.99 value, making the total possible savings with these coupons $184.85! Coupons are valid through 5/31/13, do not double or combine.
We’re using Rafflecopter on Super Coupon Girl for the first time! If you’re unfamiliar with Rafflecopter, it makes it easy to enter giveaways. Just log in to the widget below with your email or Facebook account, then click the “Easy entry” button to enter the giveaway with one click! That’s it! After your initial entry, you’ll see a host of other option appear if you’d like the chance to increase your odds of winning. See below the widget for full rules. Have fun and good luck!
Rules, regulations, and other important stuff: Giveaway is open to residents of the United States, 18+, and ends on January 4th, 2012 at 12:00 AM PST. We are sorry, but APO/FPO addresses are not eligible to win. Winner will be chosen through Rafflecopter the same day and notified via email. Winner has 48 hours to respond to our notification email, or a new winner will be chosen in their place. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. We hereby release Facebook of any liability. By entering this giveaway, you are releasing Facebook and understand that you are providing information to Contest Corner and the giveaway sponsor, not Facebook. Super Coupon Girl is not responsible for late entries or entries lost due to technical malfunctions. Please see our disclosure for further details on our site’s policies. A sample was received to facilitate this review.
Click here to sign up for a $5 off $25 coupon at Amazon. This coupon is good on almost any purchase over $25 shipped/sold by Amazon and will be automatically deducted at checkout. You’ll need to link your Facebook account to claim the coupons; be sure to check out the full terms and conditions. The coupon is only good through 11:59 PM PST tonight, December 9th, so if you have any shopping you were planning to do at Amazon anyway, this is the time to do it! I’ve been collecting some gift cards in my account from various jobs/surveys/contest wins, so I used this to pick up a crate of bath tissue at a reduced price.
Thank you Money Saving Mom for this tip! FYI, I am a member of the Amazon Associates Program.
Click here to “Like” Lindt Chocolate on Facebook, and you’ll be able to print a coupon for a free bag of Lindor Chocolate Truffles. There are 1 million coupons available. FYI, this prints out your name and Facebook profile photo on the coupon itself. Thanks, The Suburban Mom!
Phew! This has been one busy summer for us, as I’m sure it has for you, too. We’ve been working on a lot of major projects this week, including a transfer of all our websites from one web host to another, which you may have read about on Facebook. Everything went smoothly and I’m happy to be on a new host, as we’d been having a lot of problems with slow loading times and site outages; but it was definitely a big job!
Another exciting project that we’ve embarked on is joining the Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Panel over on Contest Corner! As members of this panel, Jai and I are receiving the Nutrisystem program free of charge in order to share our honest opinions and results through blog posts and videos. If you’re not familiar with Nutrisystem, it is a diet plan where you receive pre-portioned, pre-packaged food for all your meals. Not only is this a very frugal opportunity, but it’s been life-changing for our health. So far I have lost over 8 pounds while Jai has lost over 20, so it’s a really exciting time for us.
Now, you may be thinking that since we’re participating in this Nutrisystem program, that I won’t be doing any coupon shopping at all. While it’s true that I don’t have to buy much food, we still do supplement our meals with fresh fruit and vegetables to round out the program; and of course I’m still buying household supplies. I’ll still be on the lookout for great deals – I’ll just be focusing on different areas while I’m on the Nutrisystem program. With that said, here’s my most recent shopping trip from Monday:
Safeway Shopping trip, July 30th
Total spent: $12.22
Total before coupons: $23.39 View receipt
Got:
1 packet of Duncan Hines Frosting Creations – regularly .89 cents, had a personalized Just4U offer for a free packet. Final price: Free!
1 dozen eggs – regularly $2.19, had a personalized Just4U offer for a free dozen. Final price: Free!
3 half-gallons of fat free milk – regularly $1.99 each, had a personalized Just4U coupon that made each carton .99 cents each. This was the lowest price on milk anywhere so I snapped up the maximum of 3 cartons.
1 half-gallon of half & half – price: $3.49
1 package of Oscar Mayer Selects Ham – regularly $4.49, used one free product coupon. Final price: Free! I got this coupon in the mail recently and I’m honestly not sure why. It came with a note that read: “To say ‘Thanks’ for choosing Oscar Mayer over the years, we wanted to surprise you with a coupon good for a FREE PACK of Selects!” Well, you certainly won’t see me arguing with free luncheon meat. 😉
6.04 lbs of bananas – regularly .64 cents per pound, I had a personalized Just4U offer which brought the price down to .54 cents per pound. Final price: $3.27.
5 lb bag of carrots – price: $2.49
Everything we bought fits into our Nutrisystem diet plan – well, obviously not the frosting packet or half and half, but the frosting stuff was free and will keep for a long time, and I need coffee with creamer to survive. 😉 The fat-free milk, eggs, and lean ham are all recommended by our diet plan as supplementary, protein-rich snacks to have between meals; and of course, fresh fruit and veggies are an important part of any diet plan. I wrote a post here with tips on how I follow the Nutrisystem plan frugally, if you’d like to check it out.
I have noticed that the offers in my Safeway Just4U account have definitely been tailored to what I’m buying, which is pretty cool. For example, I’ve been getting offers on bananas, eggs, and fat free milk, all of which I’m purchasing regularly as part of our diet plan. My only critique is that I’ve been encountering a few bugs with my account and promotions not coming off at checkout. I’m in the middle of talking with customer service about this, so I’ll have more updates for you once they investigate it and let me know what the issue was.
I wanted to let you guys know that I am hosting an exclusive Twitter giveaway at this very moment for a $25 Safeway gift card! If you’d like to get in on the fun, click here to visit my Twitter page for all the details, but hurry – it’s over at 7:30 PM PST tonight!
Produce coupons are infrequent, so I wanted to share this one that came through my inbox today: Click here to “Like” Vidalia Onions on Facebook, and you’ll be able to print a coupon for .50 cents off 5 lbs of onions – just click on the “Coupons” tab. Depending on what stores and sales are available in your area, this might make for a nice savings.
As you will recall from the recent post about my adventures shopping with a camera crew, I was recently interviewed by KOIN6 News about the Safeway Just4U savings program. The clip is now online, so check out the video above to watch me shopping and hear what I had to say about Just4U!
Tonight I got $24.31 worth of groceries for $3.40 out of pocket and $3.43 on a gift card:
As you may have noticed from this week’s posts, I’m a lot more mobile than I have been for a long time. Going to Portland and running all over the place would have been a near impossibility even a month ago. My knees have been improving in leaps and bounds – well, not LITERAL leaps, but you know what I mean! I feel a lot more “Normal” than I have ever since this happened. I’m overjoyed to be able to function more normally! So what better way to celebrate than to do multiple transactions at my local grocery stores? 😉
I needed to pick up a few things at the store today, and when I stopped by bloggy buddy and Just4U attendee Frugal Living NW‘s site, I noticed a couple of great catalina deals happening at Safeway and Rite Aid, so I added those scenarios to my list as well. First stop, Rite Aid –
Transaction #1:
Total spent: $1.18, and received $3 back in UP+ rewards View receipt
Got:
2 travel-size bottles of Jergens hand lotion – these were on sale for “Buy one, get one half off”, so one bottle was .79 cents and the other was .39 cents. Rite Aid was running a promotion where you would receive a $3 UP+ reward (Rite Aid’s version of a catalina coupon) when you bought ANY two Jergens lotions. So, I paid $1.18 and received $3 back to spend on anything in the store; hence, I was “Paid” to buy them!
Transaction #2:
Total spent: .52 cents
Total before coupons: $3.52 View receipt
Got:
4 boxes of tissue – regularly .88 cents each, used my $3 UP+ reward from the previous transaction to make the final cost for all 4 boxes .52 cents. I wanted to use my UP+ reward to stock up on something that would not only cost me little out of pocket, but be the best overall value. Prices on certain household items are higher at Rite Aid than other local stores, so I picked up this tissue because it had a good shelf price, was a great deal after the UP+ reward, and will save me money in the future as it is something we need/will use.
Transaction #3:
Total spent: $1.18, and received $3 back in UP+ rewards View receipt
Got:
2 travel-size bottles of Jergens hand lotion – you’re allowed a limit of 2 identical UP+ transactions, so I bought two more lotions for $1.18 and received a $3 UP+ reward back.
Transaction #4:
Total spent: .52 cents
Total before coupons: $3.52 View receipt
Got:
4 boxes of tissue – regularly .88 cents each, used my $3 UP+ reward from the previous transaction to make the final cost for all 4 boxes .52 cents.
Next, I headed over to Safeway.
Transaction #1:
Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $2.95 on the gift card I received for attending the Safeway Just4U event. I then received a $4 catalina back.
Total before coupons: $4.95 View receipt
Got:
5 packages of Oscar Mayer lunch meat – price: .99 cents each, and I had a $2.00 credit that was automatically deducted at the register because of the Just4U milk promo not coming off. (Just FYI, the credit didn’t show up in my account, it just came off automatically when I entered my club card info at checkout.) My final total was then $2.95, and I received a $4.00 catalina back.
Transaction #2:
Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put .48 cents on the gift card I received for attending the Safeway Just4U event.
Total before coupons: $9.96 View receipt
1 can of Pam spray – regularly $3.99, used one free coupon that I received through a blog panel that I am signed up with through Contest Corner.
4 lb bag of sugar – regularly $2.89
1 bag of black beans – regularly $1.59
I then used the $4.00 catalina from my previous transaction to bring the final total down to .48 cents. As an aside, when I talk about these multiple transactions, I am literally walking out of the store, putting my bags in the car, then heading back into the store for round #2 (Or #3, or #4…). I think sometimes people have a mental image of me clogging up the line for hours with a bazillion transactions, but I assure you that’s not the case. 😉
Super Coupon Girl & other Safeway Just4U bloggers with the media at the press conference in Oregon City. Photo courtesy Crystal Abel of Eccentric Eclectic Woman.
During the Safeway Just4U blogger event on Wednesday, we made a shopping expedition to a Safeway store in Oregon City in order to test out the new program and see how much we could save. The shopping trip was a blast, and a very fun challenge to my coupon skills!
You see, while I had known that we would be visiting a store during the event, the shopping trip itself was a total fun surprise. After watching the presentation on Just4U, the other attendees and I were asked to log into our Just4U accounts, check out the offers, and make a shopping list. We were provided with a gift card for the field trip so that we could pick up groceries using Just4U offers and see the program in action. I had a relatively short period of time to get to grips with the new system, figure out what deals I could get, and assemble a list, and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to figure out a good deal scenario on the spot. In addition, due to it being a hot day with a long drive ahead of us, this trip would be strictly for non-perishables only, so I quickly thought about some of the things we can always use around the house. After looking through all the e-Coupons and personalized offers, I decided to load up my card with any offers that might result in a good deal so that I’d have them at the ready, and planned to make my final decision once I was at the store and could see what the shelf prices were.
Once we got to the store, I met with a cameraman named Justin from KOIN 6 news who was assigned to “Shadow” me during the shopping event and interview me about my experience with Just4U. So picture this scenario: I am in a Safeway store that I have never visited before, about to implement a savings program that I had never used until half an hour prior to the trip, I had no idea what I was going to buy or what the prices would be, and I had a cameraman filming my groceries and interviewing me about coupons as I added up prices on my calculator. It was funny, surreal, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I considered this to be a fine challenge to my coupon skills, as I was doing everything completely on the fly. It’s not so easy to quickly identify the best deal on the shelf and do the math while being interviewed for the news at the same time, and I had a blast putting my skills to the test!
I identified a few items on my list of offers that looked like the best deal and headed to those aisles first. Many of the personalized offers available to me were for household and personal care items that we can always use, so as I went through the store to pick these deals up, I quipped: “I always wanted to be on TV buying tampons.” 😉 I had a mic hooked to my jacket and was answering questions while I shopped; it was so funny to be standing there with my coupon binder going through my routine as Justin stuck the camera into my cart in order to get the best shot of what I was buying. As I walked through the store with him trailing me, all the other customers looked pretty bemused!
So here is the final tally of what I bought. I only bought items that I had a Just4U offer for, because I wanted to put the program to the test and see how much it could save me by itself.
Total spent: $38.44, put on a gift card provided by Safeway
Total before Just4U offers: $48.13 View receipt
Got:
1 box of Safeway tissue – Regular price: $1.59. My personalized Just4U price: .99 cents.
Safeway bath tissue, 24 double rolls – Regular price: $10.99. I had a Just4U store e-Coupon for $2.00 off loaded to my card, which brought the final price to $8.99.
1 box of Safeway trash bags, 45 ct. – Regular price: $6.49. My personalized Just4U price: $3.97.
2 bags of Pedigree dog treats – Regular price: $8.00. I had a Just4U store e-Coupon for $2.00 off loaded on to my card, which brought the final price to $6.00. (I bought these for grandma’s dog Bob!)
1 box of Ziploc bags, 50 ct. – Regular price: $4.79. My personalized Just4U price: $3.79.
1 package of Charmin bath tissue, 16 double rolls – Regular price: $8.99. I had a manufacturer’s $1/1 e-Coupon loaded to my club card via Just4U, which brought the final total to $7.99.
1 bottle of Axe shower gel – Regular price: $3.49. My personalized Just4U price: $3.42.
1 box of Tampax, 20 ct. – Regular price, $3.79. I had a manufacturer’s .50/1 e-Coupon loaded to my club card via Just4U, which brought the final total to $3.29.
So what do you think – how’d I do? I think that I did pretty well, given how on the spot everything was. All the things I bought are things that we need and will use, and I was somewhat limited in that I wasn’t buying perishable items, as there were additional deals on my card for milk, eggs, and produce. And I did all this with a news camera stuck in my shopping cart, so all in all, I think it was a success! 😀
As for the process of using Just4U, I was unsure of how everything would ring up, but I had added up all my groceries prior to going through the checkstand and knew what the total should be if everything worked perfectly. And, it did – the total was exactly as it should have been, and all of my Just4U offers came off without a hitch. If you look at my scan of the receipt, you will see that the new receipt layout is easy to read and explains each discount, so it’s much easier to decipher than some previous versions of the Safeway receipts! But also important to note, we got a gallon of milk at the store last night which I had a personalized offer for, and the Just4U offer did NOT come off, so my milk was .40 cents higher in price than it should have been. I called Safeway customer service this morning, and they said that the system might have been offline temporarily at that time; they said they would be adding a $2.00 credit to my Just4U account to make up for it. As this system is just being rolled out, I’m not surprised to encounter a glitch; as always, I would recommend reading your receipts closely at any grocery store you visit, new savings program or not!
As for the KOIN 6 news spot – apparently there were segments at both 4pm and 6pm on Wednesday, but I missed the second spot because we were still on the road. I’m going to (Hopefully) get a copy of the 6pm broadcast, and when I do I’ll be posting both of those here. (And if you’re a local reader who happened to tape the news on Wednesday…could you please email me?)
This coupon is good on almost any purchase over $25 shipped/sold by Amazon and will be automatically deducted at checkout. You’ll need to link your Facebook account to claim the coupons; be sure to check out the full terms and conditions. The coupon is only good through 11:59 PM PST tonight, December 9th, so if you have any shopping you were planning to do at Amazon anyway, this is the time to do it! I’ve been collecting some gift cards in my account from various jobs/surveys/contest wins, so I used this to pick up a crate of bath tissue at a reduced price.
