THE FEBRUARY 2011 GROCERY CHALLENGE THREAD

[suziq38]

Aaaahhhhhh...... You sneaky, sneaky gits! ;D

I've been paying close attention to the grocery challenge and I kept thinking, "...but I don't NEED 5 bottles of vitamins!"

It all comes together now.
[/i]
Jax,
It took me awhile to get the idea of this "stockpiling" method.

The idea is that you buy it for FREE or close to it when you don't need it. This way, it is there for you and your family for FREE at all times.

I personally don't buy any toiletries unless it is FREE anymore, because the tax "kills" me, LOL.

[suziq38]

Have a great day, Hounds!
I have to meet a friend for breakfast.
She and her husband are from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
She is here for 3 days, staying at the local Hampton's.
We love to see each other, and she is always gracious (that Southern hospitality is something else!).
She invites me for free breakfast (they have a free buffet) every morning she stays.

See you later!

[missourimommy]

Good morning!

NAG:
Well, no shopping for me today or the next few days. We're under a Blizzard Warning here in the St. Louis area until noon tomorrow. Right now, we have sleet and freezing rain and should be changing to all snow pretty soon. I don't mind winter and I don't mind snow, but, like those in the NE, this has been a CRAZY WINTER!!!

And I'm really embarrassed to say, that I actually ran out of flour last night! I found a recipe on jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com for really GOOD dinner rolls that take 1-1/2 hours from start to finish, and that includes letting the yeast rise! (She also has a recipe for Chewy Chocolate chip cookie bars that are to DIE for!)

I had made a pot of homemade chicken noodle soup and was going to make the rolls, but when I went to the freezer, I felt like Old Mother Hubbard when I realized I didn't have any flour. Oh well. I don't forsee getting any, unless my company is open tomorrow and I get it on my way home. I almost sent my hubby out at 7am this morning to get it, but then decided we didn't need them THAT bad...besides, we could always skate down to the neighbor and see if she has some we can borrow.

Stay safe if you do get to go out today!

[dancinmama]

Feb 1, 2011 9:49:17 GMT -5 suziq38 said:

Speaking of meats:
When does the Safeway(Von's) coupon expire for the meat???

suzi: They don't expire until 2/28/11. We have a whole month to use them!!

[dancinmama]

Feb 1, 2011 9:57:18 GMT -5 suziq38 said:

Have a great day, Hounds!
I have to meet a friend for breakfast.
She and her husband are from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
She is here for 3 days, staying at the local Hampton's.
We love to see each other, and she is always gracious (that Southern hospitality is something else!).
She invites me for free breakfast (they have a free buffet) every morning she stays.

See you later!

Would you mind asking her if you could bring a friend? Have a great time!!

[ohmomto2boys]

Good morning! We have a winter advisory as well - freezing rain, then snow. The roads were pretty covered this morning, but since no one was on the road, it was easy to get to work.

Went back to RA yesterday to return a couple things. I got 2 of the Darice craft things, no UP printed so I returned them, and I had purchased the wrong Colgate - b1g1. I wanted the 2.99 one with $2 up, so I returned 1 colgate (I consider the other 2 "the cost of doing business"). So I'm all good now. Drowning in a bunch of UP's - loving it!
Frugalsuz - thank you for your blog. I am getting so much stuff at RA this week (once I got my head on straight) for practically nothing!
Going to Giant Eagle at lunch to finish up a couple deals there before the ad expires tomorrow. Hopefully the place is not busy since the weather is so crappy.
Happy hounding everyone!

[saveinla]

Feb 1, 2011 10:31:53 GMT -5 missourimommy said:

Good morning!

NAG:
Well, no shopping for me today or the next few days. We're under a Blizzard Warning here in the St. Louis area until noon tomorrow. Right now, we have sleet and freezing rain and should be changing to all snow pretty soon. I don't mind winter and I don't mind snow, but, like those in the NE, this has been a CRAZY WINTER!!!

And I'm really embarrassed to say, that I actually ran out of flour last night! I found a recipe on jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com for really GOOD dinner rolls that take 1-1/2 hours from start to finish, and that includes letting the yeast rise! (She also has a recipe for Chewy Chocolate chip cookie bars that are to DIE for!)

I had made a pot of homemade chicken noodle soup and was going to make the rolls, but when I went to the freezer, I felt like Old Mother Hubbard when I realized I didn't have any flour. Oh well. I don't forsee getting any, unless my company is open tomorrow and I get it on my way home. I almost sent my hubby out at 7am this morning to get it, but then decided we didn't need them THAT bad...besides, we could always skate down to the neighbor and see if she has some we can borrow.

Stay safe if you do get to go out today!

missourimommy and all others in the path of the storm, please stay safe and keep posting if you can, so we know you guys are ok.

[mercee]

There was a 2hr delay here & I'm betting schools will be closed tomorrow. I'm hoping they don't do early release today. Luckily, I can work from home so that's what I'm doing today & tomorrow. Though, this morning, I was a doofus. Every morning, the girls sit in the car & wait for bus & then I either go to work or back up & park the car & head inside. This morning, when I was backing up, I wasn't paying enough attention & backed into a snow bank & now the car is stuck. DH is going to have a blast laughing at me & then helping me get the car unstuck. I couldn't even open the door. Yea, I done got myself stucked good. HAHA

[constanz22]

No hounding for me today. We've gotten about 6 inches of snow. Looks like it's stopped for now, but round 2 is coming tonight for another foot mixed with ice. I'm going to attempt to go to work for the afternoon, although my road isn't even plowed yet. Not sure if I can get out or not. I will most likely stay home tomorrow as that looks like the worst of the 2 days. Glad I got all my RA trips in early this week!!

[jkscott]

Went to Publix yesterday.

Spent: $85 Total Savings $38.75 Only used $10 worth of coupons.

Nothing compared to some of your savings! I noticed I wasn't taking full advantage of BOGO's. For example, last night I bought mustard BOGO and only used one coupon. I could of used two Q's because I bought 2 mustards all be it the 2nd one was free. Lesson Learned!

My Gillette Razor refills were $14 including the $2Q. Darn Razors!

I have to buy Diapers soon. Looks like that is going to be $18. Im spending about .25 per diaper. Really would like to spend more like .10 per.

Anyway, I have budgeted $600 for food in February. I would be VERY HAPPY if I could meet that goal.

[missourimommy]

saveinla,
Right now we're still safe, but it's a MESS!!! Right now, we have accumulating sleet! It's been sleeting since early this morning...and now to add snow? YIKES!!! I got a call from the school yesterday that my kids were dismissed 2 hours early. Thankfully I have a boss who understands that kids come first and told me to leave an hour before they were to be dismissed. Not to long after that, though, the company sent everyone home, and they suspended operations for first shift today. I'm hoping they do it tomorrow, too, but I may be pushing my luck. I guess it depends on how much snow we get on top of the ice.

Everyone, stay safe and warm!! I'm anticipating the power to go out at some point today. Not because there is so much ice built up on the lines, but because that's what happens in my area. We went for 4 days without in December 2006. That's when we converted our wood burning fireplace to a gas one. At least the house will be warm even if the power should go out.

[dancinmama]

Feb 1, 2011 8:02:05 GMT -5 @jax said:

However, it seems that a lot of you will hound just to get buyer's rewards (or whatever you call them!) to eventually use for things you do need. Is the idea here to hound well enough that you are paying for little to nothing in order to collect rewards?

Hope that makes sense!

jax: That is EXACTLY what we do!! Sometimes the items giving rewards are things that we need and/or can use (adding them to our stockpile) and sometimes they are things that most of us will never use like diabetic meters, BUT my food pantry runs diabetes clinics and LOVES it when I donate the meters!!

From week to week, we try to roll the rewards by using them to buy another product that is giving rewards. Hopefully by doing that, we can increase the value of the reward that we are holding.

Here's one of the deals that I've done this week and I did the exact same thing (4) times:

$7.99 Blink Tears
3.00 Natrol Melatonin
.13 Valentines Gift Bag (in-ad Q)
1.03 Sales Tax
12.15 Subtotal
- 3.50 $3.50RR (Chex)
- 4.00 $4/1 Blink (peelie)
- 3.00 $3/1 Natrol
1.65 OOP --> $8RR (Blink) / $3RR (Natrol)

So basically, I PAID $6.60 in OOP to get $44 in RRs and I will give the Blink to my mom and my sister who both use it. If they already have enough of the product (from previous times that I've given it to them), then I will donate it to my local food pantry (they take EVERYTHING).

I started out mid-day a week ago Sunday with NO RRs. Twelve transactions and $9.64 in OOP later, I am holding $52 in RRs. Usually I try to roll my RRs into the rebates items that WAGs advertises off an on, but I will actually SPEND these RRs.

Polo is DH's fav (he says all the gals at work tell him how good he smells when he wears it ) and he's out of it. So here's what I plan to do:

$54.99 Polo (regular price)
- 10.00 Valentine's Sale starting 2/6
44.99 Polo (sales price)
1.00 (5) Valentines Pencils (fillers)
45.99 + tax OOP

My sales tax will be $4.25 (which I will have to pay in OOP), but the balance will be covered by RRs with some overage that I can use on anything else that I want (another RR item, food, something on sale that we need, etc.)

All in all, however, I am going to be able to buy the Polo which would have cost me $60.08 OOP for $13.89 OOP ($9.64 in OOP to get the RRs used and $4.25 in OOP for the actual purchase).

That's $46.19 that doesn't have to be "earned" in a paycheck to pay for it!!

[dancinmama]

Feb 1, 2011 11:45:27 GMT -5 jkscott said:

Went to Publix yesterday.

Spent: $85 Total Savings $38.75 Only used $10 worth of coupons.

Nothing compared to some of your savings! I noticed I wasn't taking full advantage of BOGO's. For example, last night I bought mustard BOGO and only used one coupon. I could of used two Q's because I bought 2 mustards all be it the 2nd one was free. Lesson Learned!

My Gillette Razor refills were $14 including the $2Q. Darn Razors!

I have to buy Diapers soon. Looks like that is going to be $18. Im spending about .25 per diaper. Really would like to spend more like .10 per.

Anyway, I have budgeted $600 for food in February. I would be VERY HAPPY if I could meet that goal.

jkscott: It's sooooo good to see you post again. Do you use the Gillette Fusion razors? If you do, you can get your cartridges for a lot cheaper. Those razors go on sale at the major drug chains all the time (WITH A REWARD). Many of us combine the sale, a coupon, and the rewards to get the handle and two refill cartridges for free or around $.99 before tax. Now, yes, it is wasteful in terms of packaging; but I make sure to put the packaging and extra handles in our recycling bin. All in all, it is a lot cheaper than buying the refill cartridges. HTH

[dancinmama]

OMG, I just heard about the whopper of a storm that is coming in. I have never lived in the snow and it sound really SCARY to me. I know that most of you don't have to worry about not having food, but don't you worry about the power going out and having no heat? I'm allergic to the cold!!

I look forward to it being over and hearing that everyone is alright.

[dancinmama]

Feb 1, 2011 12:04:53 GMT -5 missourimommy said:

Everyone, stay safe and warm!! I'm anticipating the power to go out at some point today. Not because there is so much ice built up on the lines, but because that's what happens in my area. We went for 4 days without in December 2006. That's when we converted our wood burning fireplace to a gas one. At least the house will be warm even if the power should go out.

OMG, that's EXACTLY what I was thinking about!! BRRRRRRR!!

[dancinmama]

Feb 1, 2011 8:55:36 GMT -5 WholeLottaNothin said:

Hi I am new to this thread, though I have been lurking for a couple of months. I live in Upstate NY and it seems I don't have a lot of the same stores that some of you have. I work about a block or so from a CVS so I think I will start there and see how I do.

To those needing huggies coupons, I am pregnant and people keep giving me some so I will gladly mail them to whoever might want them. They are the ones that come in the paper, not ones you get at a store, if that makes sense. A lady at work keeps giving them to me so just let me know

nuttinhoney: WELCOME, WELCOME, WELCOME to the Grocery Challenge from me - dancinmama!! Lurk? Why the lurk? We're so glad that you decided to "come out" and post!!

Do you get the coupon inserts from the Sunday edition of the newspaper?

CVS will be a great place to "get your toes wet". Most of the stores seem to be pretty "coupon friendly". We're here to help, so if you have questions do not hesitate for a nanosecond to ask, okay?

[missourimommy]

My hubby and kids are getting ready to go sled down our street.. I'm thinking I need to grab the camera...Too bad I don't have a video camera..I'm seeing America's Funniest Home Videos! :-)

Oh, yeah. The low tomorrow night? -6, with windchills of -20 to -30. It's just "lovely"....if you area POLAR BEAR!!!!

[missourimommy]

You know it's bad when the MALL IS CLOSED!!!!!!

[rubyslippers]

Missourimommy: We're getting the bad weather here in Ohio too. No school for me today. I'm afraid our power will go out too. I called my neighbor friend and will stay with her if our power goes out. She has a fireplace so at least I'll be warm. I just got done baking some cookies and will have to find some deals on baking supplies. Does anyone know if the drugstores sell vanilla and/ or Crisco shortening?

[missourimommy]

ruby,
Stay safe!! It's only just begun!!

One of my WAGS sells Crisco and vanilla, but a very limited supply.

[FreeSalsa]

Jan 31, 2011 21:20:43 GMT -5 misspt said:

freesalsa: I can print those coupons, but I can't scan and send til I get to work tomorrow. Would that work for you?

MissPT, that would be fine, I can print them at work. Thank you so much!! I also got a rain check so I will be able to get a few more after the sale ends today.

[FreeSalsa]

Feb 1, 2011 9:49:17 GMT -5 suziq38 said:

Speaking of meats:
When does the Safeway(Von's) coupon expire for the meat???
I plan on buying up as much meat as possible and freezing the sections of meat.

First, I pull out the meat and save the description sticker.
Then, I wrap it with Saran wrap or something similar and put the sticker on top of the wrap.
I then put the meat with the Saran wrap in a Ziplock sandwich bag.
After that, I put that bag into another one, and pray for no freezer burn.

I am going to stockpile meats that are going to cost between 29 cents and $1.00 each.
Rancher's Reserve (a decent cut of beef) no less, LOL.

Suzi, I think it expires February 28. Since yesterday was January I was thinking that I had two months to use it, but now I see that it's February and a short month so that's just a few weeks to use it.

[gardenergirl]

jk - I was going to post about what dancin talked about with the razors. This week WAGS is having a sale on razors. I was going to get the Gillette Fusion Proglide for DH. It's $9.99. You get $4.00 in RR and there is a Q in sunday's paper for $4 making it $1.99 OOP. I'm glad you had a good shopping trip at Publix! You are my Publix shopping friend

[FreeSalsa]

Feb 1, 2011 11:45:27 GMT -5 jkscott said:

Went to Publix yesterday.

Spent: $85 Total Savings $38.75 Only used $10 worth of coupons.

Nothing compared to some of your savings! I noticed I wasn't taking full advantage of BOGO's. For example, last night I bought mustard BOGO and only used one coupon. I could of used two Q's because I bought 2 mustards all be it the 2nd one was free. Lesson Learned!

My Gillette Razor refills were $14 including the $2Q. Darn Razors!

I have to buy Diapers soon. Looks like that is going to be $18. Im spending about .25 per diaper. Really would like to spend more like .10 per.

Anyway, I have budgeted $600 for food in February. I would be VERY HAPPY if I could meet that goal.

jkscott, you're already on your way. Just with sales and coupons you saved 31% on this trip! Even $10 in coupons is still $10 you didn't spend. But you can do much better and you'll get there.

The Gilette Fusion razors are on sale at Rite Aid this week if you have that store and all the razors (if you don't mind trying other brands) are $1 or free all the time. The idea is to stock up when your favorite things are the cheapest and then you won't run out and have to buy them for $14.

You'll have to ask the other ladies about diapers but $18 sounds kind of high to me.

As I recall it's just the three of you, right? Stick with us and you can take that $600 budget way, way down.

Stay safe and warm everybody!!

[FreeSalsa]

Feb 1, 2011 13:39:49 GMT -5 FreeSalsa said:

Feb 1, 2011 11:45:27 GMT -5 jkscott said:

Went to Publix yesterday.

Spent: $85 Total Savings $38.75 Only used $10 worth of coupons.

Nothing compared to some of your savings! I noticed I wasn't taking full advantage of BOGO's. For example, last night I bought mustard BOGO and only used one coupon. I could of used two Q's because I bought 2 mustards all be it the 2nd one was free. Lesson Learned!

My Gillette Razor refills were $14 including the $2Q. Darn Razors!

I have to buy Diapers soon. Looks like that is going to be $18. Im spending about .25 per diaper. Really would like to spend more like .10 per.

Anyway, I have budgeted $600 for food in February. I would be VERY HAPPY if I could meet that goal.

jkscott, you' re already on your way. Just with sales and coupons you saved 31% on this trip! Even $10 in coupons is still $10 you didn't spend. But you can do much better and you'll get there.

The Gilette Fusion razors are on sale at Rite Aid this week if you have that store and all the razors (if you don't mind trying other brands) are $1 or free all the time. The idea is to stock up when your favorite things are the cheapest and then you won't run out and have to buy them for $14.

You'll have to ask the other ladies about diapers but $18 sounds kind of high to me.

As I recall it's just the three of you, right? Stick with us and you can take that $600 budget way, way down.

Stay safe and warm everybody!!

[frugalsuz]

Feb 1, 2011 12:07:08 GMT -5 dancinmama said:

Feb 1, 2011 8:02:05 GMT -5 @jax said:

However, it seems that a lot of you will hound just to get buyer's rewards (or whatever you call them!) to eventually use for things you do need. Is the idea here to hound well enough that you are paying for little to nothing in order to collect rewards?

Hope that makes sense!

jax: That is EXACTLY what we do!! Sometimes the items giving rewards are things that we need and/or can use (adding them to our stockpile) and sometimes they are things that most of us will never use like diabetic meters, BUT my food pantry runs diabetes clinics and LOVES it when I donate the meters!!

From week to week, we try to roll the rewards by using them to buy another product that is giving rewards. Hopefully by doing that, we can increase the value of the reward that we are holding.

Here's one of the deals that I've done this week and I did the exact same thing (4) times:

$7.99 Blink Tears
3.00 Natrol Melatonin
.13 Valentines Gift Bag (in-ad Q)
1.03 Sales Tax
12.15 Subtotal
- 3.50 $3.50RR (Chex)
- 4.00 $4/1 Blink (peelie)
- 3.00 $3/1 Natrol
1.65 OOP --> $8RR (Blink) / $3RR (Natrol)

So basically, I PAID $6.60 in OOP to get $44 in RRs and I will give the Blink to my mom and my sister who both use it. If they already have enough of the product (from previous times that I've given it to them), then I will donate it to my local food pantry (they take EVERYTHING).

I started out mid-day a week ago Sunday with NO RRs. Twelve transactions and $9.64 in OOP later, I am holding $52 in RRs. Usually I try to roll my RRs into the rebates items that WAGs advertises off an on, but I will actually SPEND these RRs.

Polo is DH's fav (he says all the gals at work tell him how good he smells when he wears it ) and he's out of it. So here's what I plan to do:

$54.99 Polo (regular price)
- 10.00 Valentine's Sale starting 2/6
44.99 Polo (sales price)
1.00 (5) Valentines Pencils (fillers)
45.99 + tax OOP

My sales tax will be $4.25 (which I will have to pay in OOP), but the balance will be covered by RRs with some overage that I can use on anything else that I want (another RR item, food, something on sale that we need, etc.)

All in all, however, I am going to be able to buy the Polo which would have cost me $60.08 OOP for $13.89 OOP ($9.64 in OOP to get the RRs used and $4.25 in OOP for the actual purchase).

That's $46.19 that doesn't have to be "earned" in a paycheck to pay for it!!

dancinmama - where'd ya get that lovely $3 Natrol coupon?

[misspt]

freesalsa: Can you PM me your email addy? Thanks.

[misspt]

frugalsuz: I have been finding the natrol coupons in the natrol acai berry boxes that were free after coupon and RR a few weeks ago. ;D

[gardenergirl]

www.arnicare.com/site/coupon-promotions/index.php

$2 Q for the Arnicare that is $5.99 at WAGS this week and you get $5.99 in RR!!!

[ohiositter]

Hope everybody's staying home safe if possible.......... is nasty out there....... It started last night here and DH works about 45 minutes away . He made sure our propane heater was ready, just in case we lose power and I'm sure we will since the light were flickering this morning but at least we will have some heat and my stove is gas, so I can a cook .
Everybody please be safe........