Weekly Grocery Trip

Here's the lowdown on my grocery shopping this week!

Earth Fare- $17.40
With using coupons and sales, the only items that were regular priced were the millet and wheat berries. I was pleased since a trip to the health food store can is often a death trap to my budget!
Contents of bags(in case you're wondering):  wheat berries , millet, rolled oats.

Harris Teeter-$8.26
Total before coupons was $39.90!


Harris Teeter still had triples going on through Tuesday this week so I took advantage of that while doing regular grocery shopping!

Harris Teeter highlights:

• 2-Mahatma rice-FREE
• 4-Reese's peanut butter cups-FREE
• 3-Kotex -FREE
• 3-Tabasco Sauce-FREE
• 3-Yakisoba noodles-FREE(Probably will donate these!)
• 1-Edge shaving gel-FREE
• 1-Dannon plain yogurt-$.24(Big container!)
  
• 2-Pringles-$.50 each(Yum! A treat.:-)
  
• 2 Scrubbing Bubbles-$.74 each

Dairy: 1 gallon raw milk-$6.00

Total for the week: $31.66
Over my current weekly $25 budget by $6.66, but I've been under-budget for several weeks, so I had the money to spend!

We also got a 30 pound order of grass-fed beef this week which I don't count in my weekly grocery budget since I budget a specific amount each month for our beef orders. This order should last us for about 4 months.

Next week Harris Teeter is running Super Doubles where they double coupons from $1-$1.98. I can't wait!

**Thanks to Money Saving Mom for hosting Super Savings Saturday and to Southern Savers for hosting Friday Finals!

Weekly Grocery Trip

This week's shopping was done at Bi-Lo, Harris Teeter, Target and a small produce stand.

I didn't get a picture of my Bi-Lo trip. Here's what I got:
--2 Chi-Chi's tortillas B1G1 at $1.69
--1 bag of Great Northern beans-$1.35
--2 boxes Surf detergent B1G1 at $5.48. Used 2 $.75/1 Q's that doubled and made the final price- $1.24 each.
--1 package pork chops on sale for $1.69 pound: $4.68
--2 Carolina Pride smoked sausage B1 G1 at $3.49. Used $1.50/1 Q to make them $.99 each.
--Bag of bananas- $1.49

Bi-Lo total: $14.05

Harris Teeter's Triple Coupon sale started Wednesday. I got everything pictured for $2.96! You can read more details here.



I know I said in last week's grocery post that I was going to take a break from Target. But they had a great deal on Kashi cereal that used only manufacturer's coupons and no store coupons, so I decided to make a quick trip. I used a FREE coupon and 3 $1.50/1 Honey Sunshine coupons from the Vocalpoint mailer and another $2/1 Kashi coupon that I received with a sample.

Total was $5.11.
Paid with $5 gift card.
Total OOP cost: $.11, plus I earned another $5 gift card to use next time!

Between this week and last week's deals and some other great cereal deals in the past couple of months, we are very well-stocked on cereal! Cereal is also a good thing to donate to food pantries since it can be eaten dry or with milk and does not need to be heated.

Breakdown:
Bi-Lo: $14.05
Harris Teeter: $2.96
Target: $.11
Produce Stand for a butternut squash and 5 sweet potatoes: $2.50

Total spent this week: $19.62



I came in $5.38 under budget which I will either use next week or put aside for future bulk purchases.

**This post is part of Money Saving Mom's Super Savings Saturday and Southern Saver's Friday Finals!

Harris Teeter Triples

It's triple coupon time at Harris Teeter this week! There are many good deals to be found this time around, so if you have a Harris Teeter store nearby, I'd recommend that you make a trip!

And take your coupon box with you-they're tripling manufacturer's coupons up to $.99 face value!

My trip this morning was quite profitable-I got all that's pictured for $2.96! Before coupons, my total was just over $40!

So as not to reinvent the wheel, I won't be making a complete list of what coupons I used and exactly how much everything cost. Southern Savers and Coupon Teacher have already done that for us!

Unless there is a screaming good deal otherwise, for a triples trip, I focus solely on using coupons that are less than $1 face value. I then look for items that will be free or nearly free or things that I really need and would be less expensive bought with a triple coupon than the everyday price with only a doubled coupon(since Harris Teeter doubles up to $.99 every day).

For this trip, I was really looking for pasta and brown rice since I was almost out of both. I also had a number of Barilla pasta and various rice coupons to use.

All of the pasta was FREE or $.10 each and the various rice packets/boxes were all FREE. I paid $.94 a bag for the Mahatma rice since that was a really good deal for something I would buy anyways! I paid $.74 cents for 3 organic apples that were on the marked down rack and I believe the other items were FREE!

I still have gobs of coupons I could use,since I didn't really get very far out of the pasta and rice aisle today, so I may make another trip or two during this sale. There is a limit of 20 coupons per customer per day and since we want Harris Teeter to continue offering these great coupon events, I feel we should do our best to play by the rules! (Also, I think that the number of coupons you use is linked to your VIC card so the computer will not triple anymore than that.)

Happy Shopping!

And if you've already been to the triple coupon sale, let us know how you did in the comments section!

Weekly Grocery Trip

Alternate title: Lots of FREE Dog Food!

Welcome to another weekly breakdown of my grocery shopping trips!

My hope in sharing this each week is that you will be able to snag some of these same deals! I know that because of the sales cycles of most grocery stores, some of these deals may already be over by the time Saturday rolls around. But others are still going. I find out about most of these deals from Southern Savers and Money Saving Mom. What's not to love? They do most of the brain work for me. And for that, I am thankful!

I got all of this at Bi-Lo and Harris Teeter for $12.36! The only items that were not sale-priced were the flour and kidney beans.

Highlights of this trip:
--5- (1.5 lb.) bags of Chef Michael's dog food on sale for $3 each. Used 5-$3/1 coupons to get these for FREE!

--3 cans Mighty Dog. Used 3- FREE coupons.

--Pillsbury "canned' biscuits- Used recent $1/1 printables to get these for $.25 each.

--Cantaloupe- $.99 each

--Apples- $.79 a pound.

--2 boxes Reynold's foil- $.22 each

--Corn- $.20 ear

--Bag of bananas- $1.00

--Eggs- $.99 a dozen

--Mushrooms-marked down to $1.25

Later in the week I made a trip to Target to use my $5 gift card from last week and roll over another deal. Last week's trip went so smoothly that I was excited about this trip. However...

The cashier rang up all my purchases. When she saw my coupons, she wouldn't even start scanning them. She got all flustered and called for help. I think she was put off by the B1G1 dog food coupons on the top of the stack. So another cashier came over and started scanning them. All of the coupons went through fine except 5 of the store coupons. She explained that if they do not scan they cannot take them. Ok, that's fine. Then she said that I can only use one of the store coupons per item per transaction but that she would let it go this time. Again, I'm good with that. The store coupons do state, "one per transaction" and I will try to honor that from now on. (This is the first time I've had trouble with that.)

Then she went away(back to her own register) and cashier #1 took over again. I said I wanted to take 4 string cheese and 6 of the dog foods off my order because the coupons did not go through. She said she couldn't do that because of the coupons. So I was polite. I paid($5 more than I had planned) and left and then went to Customer Service to try to return those items. If I had it to do over again, I would've kept the cheese and just returned the dog food as she put stickers on the cheese, which I'm pretty sure means that they couldn't go back onto the shelf. I felt really badly about that! So she gave me the money back-more than I had spent for those items- because it doesn't take into account the manufacturers coupons that I used which the store will get reimbursed for.

I came home so confused and not sure what I really spent. I felt like I had somehow robbed the store and I hate feeling that way. I went over it all and I did not do anything wrong, but still... I think I'll take a break from Target for a couple of weeks.

After all that trouble, here's what I got:

--5 boxes Fiber One cereal at $2.50 each ( Buy 5 Fiber one products, get a $5 gift card.)Used 3 $.75/1, 1 $1/2 manu. coupons and stacked with 5 $1/1 store coupons:$4.25.

--8 string cheese at $.40 cents each- Used 4 $1/2 store coupons. (Register automatically only took $.80 cents off for each coupon):FREE.

--2 Chef Michael's canned foods- $.84 each. Used B1G1 manu. coupon stacked with B1G1 store coupons: FREE.

When it was all said and done, I guess I did not really pay anything out of pocket as I used my gift card from last week, plus I got another $5 gift card to use next time. So I did very well considering!


I also made my monthly pilgrimage to Sam's Club this week and stocked up on cheeses, sour cream, cottage cheese, some spices, tortilla chips and a big bag of white fish. I spent $60.12. With care, the cheese and sour cream should last us about a month and a half.

Breakdown of all purchases this week:
--Aldi(for sour cream)- $.90

--Dairy (for raw milk)- $6

--Walmart(for Blue Bunny frozen yogurt treat)-$3. 54 (Will send in for full rebate as part of a Labor Day weekend promotion.)

--Bi-Lo-$4.00

--Harris Teeter-$8.36

Weekly grocery total: $22.80

--Sam's Club-$60.12

Total spent this week: $82.92

Did you find any great deals this week? Please tell us about it!

**Thanks to Money Saving Mom for hosting Super Savings Saturdays and Southern Savers for hosting Friday Finals!

Super Savings Saturday: Weekly Grocery Trip

I've been out of the groove with my grocery shopping these last two weeks. Last week was way too busy and I just didn't have the time. This week was hectic trying to catch up from last week so I only did a couple of quick trips rather than actual grocery shopping.

That's the great thing about eating from our pantry. Other than fresh produce and dairy, we usually have a nice supply of basic foods on hand. So if I don't get out to shop, it isn't that much of a crisis.

In the past two weeks, I've made quick trips to Walgreens, CVS, Target, Bi-Lo and Earth Fare. The picture below shows what I got at Target this week!


Highlights:

Target: See deals and coupons used here.
--4 bags of Chef Michael's dog food: FREE
--5 containers of Edy's ice cream: $.50 each after coupons and gift card
--2 Johnson's Buddies soaps: FREE
--2 Gerber baby bottles: FREE
--4 trial size Tide and All detergent: FREE

Bi-Lo:
--4 bags of Chef Michael's dog food, on sale for 2/$6. Used $3/1 coupon to make these FREE!

Breakdown:
Target: $7.54(Received $5 gift card so actual cost of items pictured was $2.54!!)
Bi-Lo: $.84
Earth Fare(eggs and sweeteners): $7.38
CVS(used expiring ECB's to buy hair gel and Scrubbing Bubbles): $1.51
Walgreens( last week's trip to buy sale priced canned salmon and deodorant):$5.24

Total: $22.51

Some friends of ours went out of town for the weekend and gave us 2 big bags of produce! This included organic lettuce and salad greens, spinach, tomatoes, lots of peppers, baby carrots and apples. What a blessing!

What kind of deals have you found lately?

**Head over to Money Saving Mom for more Super Savings Saturday posts!

Super Savings Saturday: Weekly Grocery Trip

The deals didn't seem to be that plentiful this week and I was low on time and energy. Besides that,I was running low on some of the basics!

I shopped at Bi-Lo and Aldi this week. I used 7 coupons total. After last week's triple coupons, that seemed like not very many coupons! But I got what I needed at great prices and that's what matters.



Highlights:

--Breyer's yogurt on sale for $.50 each. Used a printable $1/2 any Breyer's product coupon to make them FREE!

--Fresh Express salad marked down to $.99.

--Bag o' Bananas marked at $1.49. I regularly purchase bags of marked down bananas for $1.49(usually about 6 lbs.) instead of paying $.65 or more a pound. My Bi-Lo often has these in the mornings, and some of the bananas are still green.

--FREE Suave body wash. Bi-Lo is running a deal where you buy 3 Suave products and get a coupon for a FREE Suave product. I bought 3 body wash at $1.99 each, used 3 $.50/1 coupons. Since the coupons doubled, each bottle cost $.99. I got my FREE coupon at the register and the manager asked if I would like her to go get me another one so I could use the coupon right away, since no one else was in line in the whole store. :-)So I got 4 bottles of body wash for $2.97 or $.74 each. A great deal! My husband will be smelling of Ocean Breeze scent for a while!:-)

What I spent:

--Bi-Lo: $11.27
--Aldi: $10.99
--Bread Outlet earlier in week: $2.00

Grand total for week: $24.26

Note: This is not all I spend on groceries. My grocery budget is broken into different categories: a Sam's Club/Costco trip, local grass-fed beef, bulk items such as wheat berries, money for drugstore shopping, buying the Sunday paper for coupons, etc. Right now that leaves me with about $25 a week for general grocery shopping which doesn't sound like a lot but really works out pretty well considering that most of our meat and many bulk items such as spices, olive oil and large amounts of cheese are being purchased out of the other categories. I also work on keeping a well-stocked pantry and freezer which I plan my meals from each week. This works for me right now!

**This post is part of Super Savings Saturday hosted by Money Saving Mom!