My Shopping Week

I really wanted to post a video this week about my shopping trip but I can't get it to load! Sorry! You're stuck with a picture again :) I shopped exculsively at King Soopers and did the Mega Event 6 times! I got 36 boxes or bags of pasta but don't worry there was plenty left for you if you decide to stop by!

Stockpiles and Shopping Trips

My mom called me obsessive tonight :) She said she might sign me up for couponers anonymous because I came home with 6 tubes of Colgate toothpaste and refused to part with them. They were free! How can you pass up free stuff? But seriously, who really needs 10 tubes of toothpaste? (6 new ones + 4 that were already in my stockpile). No one, that's who. So, at 11:00pm tonight I had a desperate urge to clean house. And oh boy, did I clean! I have 8 full bags of stuff that will be donated to our local food pantry tomorrow at church.

But I also added to my stockpile as well this week. Not a whole lot, though. I shopped at Safeway, Walgreens, and Sam's Club this week. I don't usually shop at Sam's because for the most part, nothing is a better price there than anywhere else. They just want you to think it is! Especially laundry detergent and paper products. These are a total ripoff. Don't cave to the idea that you're saving money just because you're buying in bulk! But, the general public gets in free till January 25th so I went and picked up a couple of things that are a good deal. Like popcorn. Yes, I did get 50 lbs of popcorn! At 33 cents a pound, it's a great deal! And we definitely will go through it. We're popcorn fanatics. Here's a pic of my Walgreens trip today. I had a couple of catalinas that needed to be used by tomorrow so I got a few things that I wouldn't have if they didn't happen to be free with my coupons. Like the stockings. Don't really need them but I needed fillers. I got 2 bottles of laundry detergent, 2 pairs of stockings, 2 toothbrushes, and 2 packages of feminine pads and paid $3.27. What a deal! In the past, I would have spent twice that on just 1 bottle of laundry detergent!

My Shopping Week

I haven't posted a picture in a while on my grocery shopping so I thought I'd show you how I did this week! First off, I need to vent. We spent $474.68 last month of groceries!! AHAHAHAH!!!!! Oh my gosh, that is ridiculous! I feel physical pain over that number. So obviously, we won't be spending much this month to compensate. But I think sharing this month's total can be eye opening for you, my readers. I don't always get great deals and I definitely don't get deals on everything. Almost $100 of that total was on alcohol. Sad, I know.

On to my next venting topic. Extreme Couponing. There's a new show on TLC called "Extreme Couponing" and it's all about how 4 people use coupons to get free stuff (or close to it!). They showed people's stockpiles and a man who got 1,000 boxes of cereal for free. I'm all about the free stuff but let's face it, who needs 1,000 boxes of cereal? Or 30 years worth of toilet paper? (yes, that was in one person's stockpile). I understand that this is reality TV and all about the "extreme" but I think it portrays couponers in a bad light. I try very hard not to take advantage of the system or be annoying when I'm couponing. It took the guy who got all that cereal two hours to checkout because of all the coupons! Now that's just rude. I also try to think of all the other people who might want the free products as well and I never wipe out a store's stock when I go. Even when I buy a lot of one item, like tonight, I don't come close to taking everything off a shelf! I hope when people see this show, they realize that that's not what ethical couponing is all about. And people, please, think of others and be responsible with your coupons.

Ok, back to my shopping trip. I got 22 boxes of fruit snacks and fruit roll-ups, 10 boxes of granola bars, 6 Hershey's candy bars, 4 packages of Johnsonville breakfast sausage (not pictured), and 12 Yoplait yogurt cups. Total amount spent: $4.70. I should have received a $3.50 catalina but I think the machine was broken so I have to call the company about that but still, $4.70 is not bad at all for all of that! It seems like it's been awhile since I've gotten that good a deal on anything. Probably because of the holidays. But this brightened my day! Now, to give it all away! Who wants some? :)

P.S. This picture was taken on my brand new camera! Thanks, Dad!

Sprouts Grand Opening Sale!

Got time tomorrow or Sunday? Then you should check out the grand opening sale at the new Sprouts Farmers Market store! It's a bit of a drive for us Colorado Springians (yes, I made this word up!) but totally worth it! Produce, especially fruit, can be had for rock bottom prices! Here's what I got. My total came to $37.02 for all of the above + 3 bags of frozen veggies and 4 stuffed blue crabs (which I had already put in the freezer and forgot to include in this photo, sorry).

1

Sourdough loaf: $1

1.04 lbs Blueberry Granola: $1.04

4 stuffed blue crabs: $4

3 bags of frozen veggies: $3

6- 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes: $6

3 boxes of Organic cereal: $.25 ea/ $.75 total

2 jars of Applesauce: $2

2 Langer's Apple Juices: $2

1 Mineral Bath packet: $1

1 Hansen's Natural Soda: $1

10 lbs of Apples: $3

2.34 lbs Black Seedless Grapes: $2.06

6 Green Peppers: $2

1.10 lbs Jewel Yams: $.98

2.81 lbs Nectarines: $.94

5 lbs Brown Onions: $1

10 lbs Russett Potatoes: $1

5 lbs Seedless Watermelon: $1

2.27lbs Spaghetti Squash: $2

4 lbs Yellow Peaches: $1.33

PLUS, everyone gets free reusable grocery bags when they bag your groceries so I got 11 of those for free! And there's lots of free samples and just plain fun going around. Check out a complete listing of Sprouts deals with ratings at http://www.bargainblessings.com/! If you've got a couple hours, I highly recommend going. It's right off I-25 on Lincoln Ave. That's the first exit in Denver, about 45 minutes from the Springs. To get directions or look at their ad, their website is http://www.sprouts.com/

My shopping week

I'm not done yet but I thought I'd show you my shopping trip to Target! I've never been very successful at Target. They seem to come up with rules or stipulations all the time on me. But this trip went very well. I still ended up at customer service to resolve a gift card issue but it went smoothly and I did receive the $5 gift card that was due me :) All these Target deals can be found in greater detail at BargainBlessings.com



Transaction #1

2 Scrubbing Bubbles Vanish Drop Ins: $2.14 ea
1 Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Gel: $3.94
1 Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Wand Refills: $3.94
2- 3 pack Schick Disposable Razors: $5.49 ea

- Buy (1), Get (1) Free Vanish Drop Ins Target Coupon
- Buy (1) Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Gel, Get (1) Toilet Wand Refill Free Target Coupon
- (4) $1 Scrubbing Bubbles Coupons
- (2) $4 Schick Razor Coupons (from playing the game)
= $5.06 at checkout
+ $10 in Target gift cards
= Moneymaker of $4.94!

Transaction #2

1 Flame Disk: Clearanced at $2.48
- Free coupon previously available

1 Crystal Light Fitness Water: $1.94
- $2 Vocalpoint coupon

10 Sobe Lifewaters: $1 ea
- (8) $.50/1 Target coupon
- (5) Buy 1, Get 1 Free coupons

2 Clean and Clear Astringents: $3.64 ea
- (2) $2 off coupons
- (2) $1 off Target coupons

1 Glade Fabric and Air Refreshener: $3.49
- $1 SS coupon
- $2 Target coupon

= $2.71 at checkout and used the gift cards to pay so FREE

So total for all of this = I made $2.23! Yay!

Here's what I got :)

I wasn't going to shop this week. We don't really need anything and I had all my meals planned out already. But I couldn't resist stopping in to Albertsons for their free and really cheap items :) So here's what I got. They were out of Popiscles today and I was only allowed to get 2 Purex Laundry Detergent so I may venture back next week. You've got till Tuesday to get these too!

3 Simply Potatoes

2 Purex Laundry Detergents

1 Chips Ahoy Cookies

2 boxes of Wheatable crackers

2 Yoplait Greek Yogurts

1 Libby's Oraganic Canned Corn (Needed to be their Facebook fan to get a coupon)

1 jar Mezzetta Banana Peppers

= $3.22

Total Spent for All You's Grocery Challenge= $36.03

My Shopping Week

Week one of All You's Grocery Challenge has begun! Here's the shopping for this week that I did. Meals this week will consist of:

1. Thai Beef Salad

2. Smothered Chicken and Broccoli (don't worry, this isn't smothered in cheese! Wouldn't that be great though... No, resist the temptation!)

3. Arroz Con Pollo

I got some very expensive things this week for a great price. For everything in the pic, I paid $37. That includes over 7 pounds of New York Strip steaks that we ate today for Father's Day. Here's a list of everything I got. You can still get in on most of these deals as well through Tuesday. If I were you, I'd go get some of those steaks at Safeway. At $4/lb, they are a fantastic deal!

Safeway:

7 pounds of New York Strip steaks

5 pounds of boneless chicken breasts

1 pound Jennie-O ground turkey

1 Key Lime Pie

2 bags of frozen vegetables

4 boxes of Duncan Hines cake mixes

2 boxes of Barilla pasta

1 Digornio deep dish pizza

1 package Sargento sliced cheese

4 cans of Chicken of the Sea Tuna

1 Ken's salad dressing

2 Safeway select salad dressings

1 pound Safeway rice

King Soopers: All I got at Kings this week was 6 packages of Angel Soft toilet paper, 2 Softsoap liquid soaps, and a few of the Kraft freebies that I got coupons in the mail for (100 calorie cheese packs, Kool-aid Lemonade, and Oscar Mayer Turkey Bacon). It came to $.15 in tax.

My shopping week!

I hope this helps you guys to see what it possible when it comes to shopping. Everything I got, you can get too at the same prices. Here's this week's. You have till next Tuesday to get these things if you want them!

Safeway: I spent $5.96 on this. I did this in two transactions. I needed to buy the Kraft dressings first, along with 4 other items (to get the buy 8, save $4 promotion) in order to get the $3 catalina. It cost me $4.32. I then rolled that catalina into the second purchase which ended up costing me only $1.64 for everthing else.

Albertsons: All this cost me $3.14. Again, I needed to do two transactions so I could use 2 of their frozen foods coupons.

King Soopers: Last but not least, I spent $4.08 here. And part of that was a mistake on my part. The brownie mixes ended up costing me $1 apiece when they should have been $.50 but I had an expired (by a day! Bummer!) coupon and didn't print a new one. Oh well, you live, you learn. I may return them. We'll see.

My Shopping Week

I had an extremely frustrating week of shopping. We needed a lot to restock from vacation so I went to 6 stores this week because I was not about to pay full price for anything if I could help it! At 4 of the 6 stores, I ended up at customer service for one reason or another. It seemed like none of the deals were going right for me! Target especially frustrated me because they refused to honor their own coupon policy and I ended up paying double what I thought for 100-calorie pack cookies. The rest of the stores, sometimes after extensive arguing, honored all my coupons and refunded me the money. So here's my question of the week. When do you say it's just not worth it? Every one of the mistakes on my bill were over $2 (one was as high as $8) but would that be worth it to you? Would you spend the time to recover $2? I haven't learned how to let it go yet. If I know I'm right, I'll fight it out to the death :) It's my $2 and I want it!
That really wasn't what this post was supposed to be about :) I was going to show you what I got! Here it is! Like I said, we needed alot this week so I spent more than I usually do. A whopping $41.57!

Safeway
2-2liters of 7-up
4 Honest Teas

King Soopers
2 Half gallons of Almond Milk
1 Half gallon 2% milk
1 Surf Laundry detergent
1 All Laundry detergent
1 6-pack Dannon yogurt
2 Oikos Greek Yogurt (not pictured)

Target (head HERE for a list of Target deals!)
4 boxes Nabisco 100-calorie cookies
2 packs BIC pens
1 7th Generation dishsoap
1 package nail files
2 Jergens healthy glow lotions
1 bag sugar snap peas (not pictured)

2 lbs of sugar (not pictured)

Rancho Liborio (a mexican market here in town that I haven't started reviewing yet but they do have some incredible produce prices! Go HERE to check out their sales)
1 cucumber
1 bunch cilantro
1 package cheese
1 lb roma tomatoes
1 lb zucchini
1 bag homemade mexican chips (not pictured)
1 head iceberg lettuce (not pictured)

Albertsons
1 canteloupe
4 boxes of cereal
2 dozen eggs

Walmart

1 package turkey burgers

3 corn-on-the-cob

2 hard rolls

5 lbs of flour (not pictured)

1 lb of butter

1/2 lb of American cheese

1 onion (not pictured)

I think that's most of it. I have a feeling I'm forgetting some of the Walmart stuff but I can't find the receipt at the moment. But you get the gist. I got alot! And I'm DONE shopping for a while. It was exhausting!

My shopping week

Here's pictures of my shopping this week. I broke the pics up by store this week so you could see what's what. I did all of this yesterday because of being on vacation. Normally I would spread it out throughout the week. I spent 3 hours cutting coupons, putting coupons back in order, and organizing this week's shopping list because I was away! Phew, that was a long time!

King Soopers




All of this was free of me. King Soopers will sporatically send me coupons in the mail and this time I had some for free Lays chips and the Broccoli. The Bulls Eye barbeque sauce came as a free coupon in my Kraft freebie kit they advertised last week (I'm saving the free hot dog coupon!). The nail polish, eyeshadow, and make-up sponges were part of the current P&G promotion. All in all, I spent $.28 in tax. That's it!

Albertsons




I didn't get that much stuff at Albertsons or Kings this week. I paid $.88 for the Bumblebee Tuna but everything else was free this week.

Safeway



Safeway is having a gigantic cereal sale this week! I missed the Post and Kellogg's promotion that would have made all of this free but I still only spent $4 for 4 boxes of Cap'n Crunch, 2 boxes of Cheerios, 2 boxes of Fruit Loops, 2 Nut Clusters, and 1 Wacky Mac Pasta. Not bad at all!

So, my totals this week were $5.16!