THE SEPTEMBER 2012 GROCERY CHALLENGE

[dancinmama]

On behalf of suzi and all of the gals here, WELCOME, WELCOME, WELCOME to the Grocery Challenge from me - dancinmama!!

If you have never clipped a coupon, or even if you have been using coupons for years, we'd love to have you join us. We are a crazy, fun-loving, and very friendly group of gals just chatting with one another about how to save big money using coupons. We are willing to help anyone, at any level, in any way that we can.

Don't think that you have to read through the pages and pages of posts to join in - most of it will be old, out-of-date information anyway. Just go to the last page of the thread and introduce yourself. Tell us what area of the country you're from and where you shop (grocery stores, national chain stores, Target, WalMart, etc.).

We'd love to have you join us on a regular basis, so don't be shy - just jump right in, have some fun, and save a ton of money in the process!!

Since we are trying to foster a sense of true community on this thread, please try your best to keep your fellow couponers in mind when you post. Here are some suggestions:

NEWBIES/OLDIES: If you post a HOUND ALERT requesting coupons from others, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE also post which insert/where the coupon can be found (Example: 1/2 SS) so that we can find it easily without having to research it ourselves. ALSO, if you need the coupon for a specific deal, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE try to remember to post the deal with your HOUND ALERT so that someone who may have the coupon(s) can decide whether they want/need to do the deal before sending out any of their coupons. THANKS!!

POSTING ABOUT A DEAL / HOT COUPON: Some people get overwhelmed by the number of posts and only have time to skim the posts for the information that they need the most. If you are posting a deal, please post something that makes it stand out like "CVS DEAL ALERT" or if you are posting to tell us that there is a new, hot coupon available, please post something like "$3/1 WHOLLY GUACAMOLE IP ALERT".

We want to make this thread as fun, friendly, and helpful as possible. These suggestions will save EVERYONE a lot of time when they are trying to "catch up" and read through past posts.

Okay, now let's have some FUN!! ;D

[dancinmama]

Sept 1, 2012 7:32:32 GMT -5 marvholly said:

Had my first encounter w/the new registers at WAG on Fri. Hang on to your hats boys and girls. Check out lines are going to be IMPOSSIBLE. I had a cashier I recognized as experienced = knowledgeable but the dingbatted machine REFUSED to recognize my WAG gift card. Took WAY >5 min to buy 1 item. I will walk out if this happens again. My time is WAAAY more valuable to me than just about any item that is also likely to be a ‘special’ at CVS the week before, same week or week after a WAG sale.

I am NOT impressed w/either the CVS or WAG ad starting 9/2.

marvholly: I am reposting what you posted this morning on the August thread. I hope you don't mind

[dancinmama]

frugalsuz has nothing listed on her blog for CVS for the week of 9/2.

[dancinmama]

Although it seems discouraging, I am still really thankful for those weeks when we can get a few freebies. I still remember the days when complete freebies (especially for non-perishables) were few and far between and when there was no such thing as a MM.

I will continue to do what I have always done....wait. Wait patiently for the very best deals and stockpile when I see them. Yes, I am and will be paying more in OOP (like I did this week for the Capri Sun), but by using multiple coupons (thanks to you gals) I still paid $1 instead of the sales price of $2 or the regular price of $3.99. Now, I have a nice little stockpile of drink bags for $.10/each that we will take on road trips and drink instead of paying over $1 to pull into a drive thru to get a soda. So I not only saved today, but buying the product will help me save more tomorrow.

Just remember, as the drug chain deals diminish, more and more people will drop out of the couponing scene because it isn't as "easy" as it used to be. Some will completely revert back to their old ways of shopping because they will feel that shopping the ads is no longer worth the time and effort if they aren't going to bring home a boatload of freebies. The winners will be those who forge ahead and continue to stockpile at rock bottom prices using coupons when they can. Paying attention to your usage, sales cycles, and rock bottom prices and playing the rain check game will be more critical than ever to maximizing savings - especially if you are no longer getting multiple inserts every week.

I have always "preached" gettin' while the gettin' is good and for several years have not taken a real "break" from couponing. Having lost doubled coupons in 2003, I did not take the drug chain gravy train for granted. Truthfully, I am shocked that it has lasted this long. As bad as the economy has been and knowing that DH would be retiring in a few years, I decided that I would continue to stockpile free non-perishables for as long as I could as a defense against the current bad economy and as a defense against whatever might come to pass in the future. I am hoping for the best (where the deals pick back up and/or the economy improves), but I am and have been preparing for the worst (where the freebies come to an end and the economy continues to suck or even gets worse).

[misspt]

Sept 1, 2012 8:32:10 GMT -5 dancinmama said:

frugalsuz has nothing listed on her blog for CVS for the week of 9/2.

I am sure something will pop up, it always does. Even if it doesn't I rolled everything this week with Olay, Pantene, Covergirl, JF, and dawn. My stores did a great job ordering and they didn't have any gas cards, so I have a bunch of EBs switched over to GC now! YAY!

[dancinmama]

Sept 1, 2012 11:07:56 GMT -5 misspt said:

Sept 1, 2012 8:32:10 GMT -5 dancinmama said:

frugalsuz has nothing listed on her blog for CVS for the week of 9/2.

I am sure something will pop up, it always does. Even if it doesn't I rolled everything this week with Olay, Pantene, Covergirl, JF, and dawn. My stores did a great job ordering and they didn't have any gas cards, so I have a bunch of EBs switched over to GC now! YAY!

Awesome!! I am not really hip on the gas card deals, but I loved the CVS GC deals from late last year and still have well over $100 in CVS GCs to show for it.

Maybe we'll get a great generic CRT to help things along. ;D

[rubyslippers]

Sept 1, 2012 10:25:40 GMT -5 dancinmama said:

I have always "preached" gettin' while the gettin' is good and for several years have not taken a real "break" from couponing. Having lost doubled coupons in 2003, I did not take the drug chain gravy train for granted. Truthfully, I am shocked that it has lasted this long. As bad as the economy has been and knowing that DH would be retiring in a few years, I decided that I would continue to stockpile free non-perishables for as long as I could as a defense against the current bad economy and as a defense against whatever might come to pass in the future. I am hoping for the best (where the deals pick back up and/or the economy improves), but I am and have been preparing for the worst (where the freebies come to an end and the economy continues to suck or even gets worse).

I agree with you that you need to get it while the getting is good and that is why I got so many bags of cheese this week at Meijer. That $10.00 catalina that has rolled and rolled allowed me to get bags of cheese for $.38 a piece. I will now be able to get free Oscar Mayer bologna for DH and DS's this week by rolling it once again. At Kroger, I got 2 free Good and Natural Bars, 2 more free Seafood Snackers and some cheap Diet Pepsi.
When I'm done rolling my Kraft catalina, I might take it to Walmart and price check some butter if anyone has a really good sale.

[murphath]

My best deals this last week came at Safeway and Target:
Target
3 18 ct. Stayfree: $8.67
- 3/$2 man. q's from 8/26
-2/$1 Target q's from 8/26
Paid .67 + .71 tax for 1.38 OOP Got a $5 target card in return

Rinse and repeat but used the gift card to pay the $1.38. Now I have $8.62 in Target gift cards to spend.

Got a raincheck at CVS for the $2 stayfree and .97 Dawn hand renewal. If I get a $4/$20 or something similar, the 4 stayfree and Dawn will be very helpful in reaching the $20. The $2 q's make the stayfree free and the .75 Dawn q's make that almost free.

I had ordered 4 free Coke q's from Mycokerewards and they arrived just in time for the mix/match sale at Safeway: buy 2 get 2 free. Plus my J4U account gave me a $3.67 price on coke products. Since the q's are good for a max of $4.99, this was perfect. I was able to get 9 12 packs for just the tax and recycling. (The extra 12 pk. was also a J4U perk on the first transaction). In fact, the second time I did this, along with 2 Planters Peanut Butters for .99 ($1.99 J4U - $1 q) my oop was $2.46. When I looked at the receipt, he (the manager) had given me the full $4.99 off. Sweet! That more than took care of the peanut butter! I'll get $2.40 back when recycled so my real oop was .06! Yea!

So, as Dancinmama says, the deals may be few and far between, but they do exist. We go through a lot of peanut butter, and I donate to my church as well, so the .99 jar is the best I've been able to do this year.

Almost forgot, I went to RA and did the Crest pro-health: $4.99 each, used the BOGOF q from P%G, $1 oral care q, $2 UPs, .50 P.G q. Paid $1.71 and got $8 UPs back.

[murphath]

Dancin: re the Capri Sun. I had 2 q's and got the 10 pack of the juice/veggie combo. Seemed to be a great deal as I never see those go on sale very frequently.

[twinmama85]

reverse hound alert

3 $1.50/1 viactive cvs coupons that were mailed to me. Don't use those vitamins!

[dancinmama]

Sept 1, 2012 15:13:03 GMT -5 murphath said:

Dancin: re the Capri Sun. I had 2 q's and got the 10 pack of the juice/veggie combo. Seemed to be a great deal as I never see those go on sale very frequently.

Yes, and the 100% juice was the same price as the non-juice varieties.

[marvholly]

Dancin
Thanks for the repost. I wondered if you were out of town or something. Almost started Sept myself.

I am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that it is almost not worth the time, effort, ink and/or paper to clip, print and file coupons the values have gotten SOOO poor – 0.065 on a yogurt???

Sun is usually one of my no drive, no spend days. However, I NEED to hit the library today, I have too many errands to run on Tue and Petsmart has a deal on cat food ending today. Petsmart is only ¾ mi off from my to the library route and 2 of my routine Tue errands are on my way to the library and if I want I can hit CVS & WAG in the same run w/o adding any mileage, just time.

Filing ANOTHER online complaint w/CVS because northern CA got a MUCH better ad price on an item than Chicago did.

[dancinmama]

Sept 2, 2012 6:54:39 GMT -5 marvholly said:

Dancin
Thanks for the repost. I wondered if you were out of town or something. Almost started Sept myself.

I am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that it is almost not worth the time, effort, ink and/or paper to clip, print and file coupons the values have gotten SOOO poor – 0.065 on a yogurt???

Sun is usually one of my no drive, no spend days. However, I NEED to hit the library today, I have too many errands to run on Tue and Petsmart has a deal on cat food ending today. Petsmart is only ¾ mi off from my to the library route and 2 of my routine Tue errands are on my way to the library and if I want I can hit CVS & WAG in the same run w/o adding any mileage, just time.

Filing ANOTHER online complaint w/CVS because northern CA got a MUCH better ad price on an item than Chicago did.

marvholly: My internet was down for almost two days and when it came back up on Friday, I guess I had lost track of time. BTW, anyone is more than welcome to start the thread for the new month.

Regarding printables: I have always been pretty selective about printing them. Sometimes I have regretted not printing one before it went out of print, but that has been rare. For the most part I only print those that I'm pretty certain that I will use. They are usually coupons that are rarely offered in the inserts (i.e. the Capri Sun) or they are of higher than normal value compared to insert coupons.

Do you ever go on WUC (We Use Coupons)? Yesterday, I got a PM telling me that coupons.com has a "special" program where you can get higher valued coupons that what is offered to the general public for free. Some are a little higher and some are a lot higher. The service usually costs $30/year, but during the month of September, they are offering a 1 year subscription for free. When the year is up, they will notify you by email that it is about to expire and unless you cancel, they will charge your credit card (you give them a card number when you sign up).

I haven't decided whether or not I'm going to do it. If you decide that you're interested (or if anyone here thinks they might be interested), let me know and I'll try to post a link.

[dogmom]

Dancin',

I liked your post. (#3) Thanks. I'm not as seasoned as most of you on this thread, but, I do pay attention. Through the old MSN thread, and PB, it keeps me very much on financial track. There are only two of us, and of course the lovely Sierra. I'm not discouraged for lack of MM and Freebies. Because of the attention I pay, our stockpiles are in very good shape. I buy different items than most of you. I'm not into makeup and fingernails, so when there is a free w/coupon or EB/coupon, rebate, sure I'll do it. The women's shelter now calls me and asks if I have anything to donate. Usually there is something I have. (that I didn't lay out anything more than tax on OOP and rolled a EB or RR) Life isn't free, and I don't expect it to be. Rebates, I have a checking account (just because) that I put those in. I started with $50.00 cash, I'm up to $279.00 without much more than paying attention. I started the account in March of this year. Discouraged, no. Looking forward to what new challenges are out there to feed us, keep us clean and not pay an arm and a leg for, isn't that the challenge? Coupons, in my shopping, and paying attention to ads and rock bottom pricing are definitely a keeper in our lifestyle.

ETA: re: coupons dot com service, I've never ordered coupons for a "price" and honestly, don't think I would. That cost, although small, is still OOP prior to finding a sale or a rock bottom price (that may not exist), that you may not be able to recover. Even "free" for the first year. It's sort of like playing the cable game to lower your cost, and they "throw in" six months worth of "free premium channel"... if you don't pay attention, you end up paying extra.

[973beachbum]

Sept 1, 2012 11:07:56 GMT -5 misspt said:

Sept 1, 2012 8:32:10 GMT -5 dancinmama said:

frugalsuz has nothing listed on her blog for CVS for the week of 9/2.

I am sure something will pop up, it always does. Even if it doesn't I rolled everything this week with Olay, Pantene, Covergirl, JF, and dawn. My stores did a great job ordering and they didn't have any gas cards, so I have a bunch of EBs switched over to GC now! YAY!

One little thing that bugs me is that in NJ they don't do GC's they give us ECB's with all the pita that brings from exp dates to needing to use them at one time. To CVS for this,

One other little thing I saw that I don't know would work but in the CVS ad they have a $2 ECB for buying any gillette shave gel. There was a $1 off coupon for it in the last P&G insert. My hope is that the little cans will work again like they did the last couple of time. With a limit of 1 it won't be a big stock up opportunity but slightly better than free is still good for me. ;D

Who knows if it will work though.

[murphath]

Msg. deleted

[dancinmama]

Sept 2, 2012 8:59:38 GMT -5 dogmom said:

Dancin',

I liked your post. (#3) Thanks. I'm not as seasoned as most of you on this thread, but, I do pay attention. Through the old MSN thread, and PB, it keeps me very much on financial track. There are only two of us, and of course the lovely Sierra. I'm not discouraged for lack of MM and Freebies. Because of the attention I pay, our stockpiles are in very good shape. I buy different items than most of you. I'm not into makeup and fingernails, so when there is a free w/coupon or EB/coupon, rebate, sure I'll do it. The women's shelter now calls me and asks if I have anything to donate. Usually there is something I have. (that I didn't lay out anything more than tax on OOP and rolled a EB or RR) Life isn't free, and I don't expect it to be. Rebates, I have a checking account (just because) that I put those in. I started with $50.00 cash, I'm up to $279.00 without much more than paying attention. I started the account in March of this year. Discouraged, no. Looking forward to what new challenges are out there to feed us, keep us clean and not pay an arm and a leg for, isn't that the challenge? Coupons, in my shopping, and paying attention to ads and rock bottom pricing are definitely a keeper in our lifestyle.

ETA: re: coupons dot com service, I've never ordered coupons for a "price" and honestly, don't think I would. That cost, although small, is still OOP prior to finding a sale or a rock bottom price (that may not exist), that you may not be able to recover. Even "free" for the first year. It's sort of like playing the cable game to lower your cost, and they "throw in" six months worth of "free premium channel"... if you don't pay attention, you end up paying extra.

Uhm, I'd say that you're every bit as seasoned as the rest of us here.

Even though coupons.com is offering the higher valued coupon service for free, I tend to agree with you. Obviously they are doing it in hopes that people will sign up and then later pay the price to continue.

As for ordering/paying for coupons, I think it used to be (I'm not so sure it is the case today) that you were almost guaranteed to make your money back when buying extra Sunday newspapers or ordering extra inserts from a clipping service. And if you did, at least you knew exactly what you would get. With the coupons.com service, you have no knowledge of what you're going to get except that it will be a higher value. I certainly would not pay $30 for the service and probably will not sign up for the freebie, but I think I probably print fewer coupons than the average bear.

[hinil]

I have a question re: CVS rain checks: Do they have to be used at the same CVS where you got them, or are they good at any CVS?
Also, if anyone was going to do the Wags bugles/chex mix deal today: I bought 3 bags 3/$3 and used 3 .50/1 coupons from coupon.com and thought I'd get a $1 RR (per the ad) but it didn't print. Instead a catalina printed that was a ad that said starting on 9/3 there is a catalina deal for them...just a heads up.

[973beachbum]

Sept 2, 2012 15:00:37 GMT -5 hinil said:

I have a question re: CVS rain checks: Do they have to be used at the same CVS where you got them, or are they good at any CVS?
Also, if anyone was going to do the Wags bugles/chex mix deal today: I bought 3 bags 3/$3 and used 3 .50/1 coupons from coupon.com and thought I'd get a $1 RR (per the ad) but it didn't print. Instead a catalina printed that was a ad that said starting on 9/3 there is a catalina deal for them...just a heads up.

First off HI and welcome!

CVS rainchecks are the best IMO. You can use them at any CVS and they have no exp date. They also give the same ECB that the original deal did. So if it was an ECB deal you could conceiveably wait till there is a coupon out and use it to even lower your OOP. I have also gotten RC's for say 3/$5 skippy PB and waited till there was a sale on skippy PB that included an ECB. So I got the better price plus the ECB from the new sale running. ;D

[dancinmama]

Sept 2, 2012 15:10:06 GMT -5 973beachbum said:

Sept 2, 2012 15:00:37 GMT -5 hinil said:

I have a question re: CVS rain checks: Do they have to be used at the same CVS where you got them, or are they good at any CVS?
Also, if anyone was going to do the Wags bugles/chex mix deal today: I bought 3 bags 3/$3 and used 3 .50/1 coupons from coupon.com and thought I'd get a $1 RR (per the ad) but it didn't print. Instead a catalina printed that was a ad that said starting on 9/3 there is a catalina deal for them...just a heads up.

First off HI and welcome!

CVS rainchecks are the best IMO. You can use them at any CVS and they have no exp date. They also give the same ECB that the original deal did. So if it was an ECB deal you could conceiveably wait till there is a coupon out and use it to even lower your OOP. I have also gotten RC's for say 3/$5 skippy PB and waited till there was a sale on skippy PB that included an ECB. So I got the better price plus the ECB from the new sale running. ;D

I love CVS rain checks too. Anytime I see a food/pantry item at a rock bottom price, I "try" to get a rain check to use to restock. I have rain checks for ketchup, mayo, GE chips, clams, Stove Top Stuffing, broths and soups, and....Skippy peanut butter. ;D

[hinil]

Thanks so much for the raincheck answers! Glad I got one yesterday and am going to get more in the future (my closest store is always out of everything).

[leanna]

I didn't end up using the Lay's IPs. Even though Lay's never contacted me back, I felt uncomfortable using them, knowing they might not be legit. I wouldn't want a store to be out the money if the coupon isn't reimbursed.

I think (as was said on the Aug thread) some people did get legit ones. But the ones I got all had the same # and they kept on printing endlessly.

[marvholly]

I hit Petsmart Sun for the Hills cat food deal. Could NOT resist paying less for 2 bags than I usually do for one. I suspect I will need to mix this w/the ones I usually use/have on hand since cat will NOT eat Iams and this is similar. Knew deal on strawberries at the local market was too good to be true. BIG signs claiming printer error. Did NOT buy.

Passed my closest Salvation Army Sun & there is a Monday sale sign in the window so I will be checking out both stores today.

[constanz22]

I did use the Lays coupons the day after I printed them. I haven't read/heard any more about them being fake. That really bums me out. Coupon network is a legitimate printing site and often does have higher value coupons. I only printed one copy, so I don't know about the numbers being the same.

[constanz22]

HOUND ALERT
I need at least 2 (or as many as you have) of the $2 Mighty Dog coupon from the 8/26 SS. Anyone have some that could get them in the mail to me tomorrow?

[973beachbum]

Sept 3, 2012 6:14:13 GMT -5 constanz22 said:

HOUND ALERT
I need at least 2 (or as many as you have) of the $2 Mighty Dog coupon from the 8/26 SS. Anyone have some that could get them in the mail to me tomorrow?

I didn't get it sorry.

[Deleted]

Constanz: I got them. I can send you 5. Please PM me your address. Also, let me know if there are any other coupons you would like.

[dancinmama]

Sept 3, 2012 8:32:17 GMT -5 @bunnysmom said:

Constanz: I got them. I can send you 5. Please PM me your address. Also, let me know if there are any other coupons you would like.

constanz: Do you want more? I have (7).

[constanz22]

Dancinmama, if you don't mind, I'll take all of them. Thanks! Do you need my addy?

Bunnysmom, sure, I'll take them, will pm you my address. That's all I need right now, thanks. Will pm you my address.

[dancinmama]

Has anyone bought the Ritz crackers at Safeway this week and tried to stack a $.75/2 with the B2G1 IP? I had (6) $1/1 and (3) B2G1 IPs, so (9) boxes were scanned. I gave the IPs first and when the cashier tried to scan the $1/1, they would not go through and she would not take them. I had her delete the Ritz from my order.

NAG
I am excited to try a new recipe today. I am making a copycat recipe of Olive Garden's seafood portifino except I'm using shrimp only (on sale at Safeway) for the seafood. It does not appear that it will be that hard to make. I am going to do the sauce part of it and DH is going to do the mushrooms and shrimp part of it.

The day before yesterday, I tried my hand at making home-made New England clam chowder. It was wonderful because I had saved all the leftover clam juice from making clam dip in a container in the freezer. The recipe called for 2 C. of water and some salt, but I deleted the salt and used 2 C. of clam juice instead of the water. ;D Oh my gosh, it was good.