THE FEBRUARY 2011 GROCERY CHALLENGE THREAD

[mercee]

Thank you all for your comments / suggestions!!

Unfortunately, I do not have the grocery stores that y'all have - all I have is Copps/Pick n Save, Cubb, Piggly Wiggly & Woodmans. Copps only doubles 5 coupons every Sat & Wed and you have to spend $25. So I'm definitely in the land of no cheap grocery stores.

We've used generic in cooking before & we have some generic in the cupboard now. We don't desperately need the Campbells, but it's on sale & I have the coupon

We've tried Ragu numerous times w/ numerous varieties & it's still a no-go. I don't mind it but rest of family does. They don't like the sweetness of it. I might try again sometime & doctor it up with crushed tomatoes & such.

No Bertolli coups for me this past week. I'm not in a great coupon land either. No good grocery stores...no CVS...no Rite-Aid....only WAGs & Target & my not-too-horrible grocery store.

[saveinla]

Feb 25, 2011 17:00:07 GMT -5 misspt said:

I also agree with saveinla on the Ragu. We use the Garden Combo or Sauteed mushrooms/onions flavor and even then, I will add some Hunts flavored diced tomatoes to it (fire roasted flavor,etc).

misspt, That is exactly what I use. The ragu is too sweet for me otherwise. I am thinking of using a can of rotel the next time to see how it would taste. All the almost free cans of Rotel are waiting

[mercee]

Oooh, the rotel in the ragu might help!!

[dancinmama]

Feb 25, 2011 13:18:16 GMT -5 saveinla said:

Deal Alert - dancinmama, murphath, CA hounds and all others who have a SW chain, keep your eye out for this Sunday's papers and check out "the centsable shoppin".
SW will have a special ad with 5$ off 15$ frozen food purchase. She also shows deals for Skippy PB (.49) and Kens dressing (.19).

saveinla: Thanks for the post. I've got Skippy @ $.11/ea. from CVS and FREE at WAGs coming out my ears, but I absolutely need the Ken's. I THINK I have (2) Ken's coupons (they were only in the major metro paper) and I NEED salad dressing so that will be awesome!!

[saveinla]

Feb 25, 2011 17:25:48 GMT -5 dancinmama said:

Feb 25, 2011 13:18:16 GMT -5 saveinla said:

Deal Alert - dancinmama, murphath, CA hounds and all others who have a SW chain, keep your eye out for this Sunday's papers and check out "the centsable shoppin".
SW will have a special ad with 5$ off 15$ frozen food purchase. She also shows deals for Skippy PB (.49) and Kens dressing (.19).

saveinla: Thanks for the post. I've got Skippy @ $.11/ea. from CVS and FREE at WAGs coming out my ears, but I absolutely need the Ken's. I THINK I have (2) Ken's coupons (they were only in the major metro paper) and I NEED salad dressing so that will be awesome!!

dancinmama,
I have never tried the Ken's salad dressing. Are they good? If you have a flavor that you would recommend, let me know.
I always go with Trader Joes dressings since I like those and I buy the HV spicy ranch for my son. I guess I can try a couple of Ken's since it is just .19 cents each. Thanks.

[car-chick]

Mercee No Bertolli coups for me this past week. I'm not in a great coupon land either. No good grocery stores...no CVS...no Rite-Aid....only WAGs & Target & my not-too-horrible grocery store.

Last week I bought a lot of the Bertolli's at my publix store but I still have some extra $1.50 off 2 coupons (I got them from a clipping service). If you want them, PM me and I will send them to you. I like the Bertolli's (especially the Italian sausage one) but still add a bunch of my "secret ingredients".

[dancinmama]

Feb 25, 2011 15:36:40 GMT -5 pubbler said:

P&G to increase prices!! Just read an article regarding this. So for those with babies or who are Tide/Gain lovers. Stock up when there's good deals. We all know that the Q values keep shrinking, but prices keep increasing. So stock up on the lovely diaper deals at WAGS next week. Babies especially are very expensive, so stock up on diapers & toiletries (RA). I've been doing this with groceries too. Because I know Meijer prices, I've been noticing changes in prices on many of my favourite items. So I'm stocking up on whatever has a long shelf life. With the turmoil in the middle east (rising fuel prices), things are gonna get even more expensive.
RE: Infant Care Huggies Q. I don't think that Qs gonna work on the Jumbo packs. But even without it, the deals are still a MM. My stores have tons of Neuragen (I'm pleasantly surprised). So I've been doing that deal. Now I can use those RRs to roll into Vicks/Motrin next week.

pubbler: Thank goodness for stockpiling!! There were times when I wondered if I should have added various non-perishable items to my existing stockpiles; but after giving it some thought I decided that if the items were free and I had the storage space, there was no harm. I am sooo glad. I would guestimate that a good majority of those items are from P&G.

[mercee]

accountant4christ - PM sent! Thanks!

[dancinmama]

Feb 25, 2011 17:29:48 GMT -5 saveinla said:

Feb 25, 2011 17:25:48 GMT -5 dancinmama said:

saveinla: Thanks for the post. I've got Skippy @ $.11/ea. from CVS and FREE at WAGs coming out my ears, but I absolutely need the Ken's. I THINK I have (2) Ken's coupons (they were only in the major metro paper) and I NEED salad dressing so that will be awesome!!

dancinmama,
I have never tried the Ken's salad dressing. Are they good? If you have a flavor that you would recommend, let me know.
I always go with Trader Joes dressings since I like those and I buy the HV spicy ranch for my son. I guess I can try a couple of Ken's since it is just .19 cents each. Thanks.

With any dressing that I buy, I pretty much just stick to the basics like ranch and bleu cheese. When there is a killer deal and I have a lot of Qs (the Kraft dressing deal at WalMart months ago), then I'll branch out and try other flavors. But we are not brand picky, so what seems really good to me might not be to you. Sorry I can't be of more help.

[shelly527in]

4hatsandfrugal----sent email!

mamaw-----sent you my email

blue----the Smart One Target Q isn't available anymore...I needed someone who saved it or printed it to send it and mamaw's taking care of me! Thanks though!

[pudgybunny]

Feb 25, 2011 1:27:51 GMT -5 dancinmama said:

Feb 24, 2011 20:30:23 GMT -5 constanz22 said:

Glad you guys were able to find decent stock. Neither of my stores restocked the Neuragen after the first week

dancin I think you'll be fine on the Motrin. The ad says "Motrin IB 20ct." even though the picture is the PM. I'd bet they will both be on sale with RR. I'd rather have the regular Motrin but the $6/2 MC's look like they are only good on the PM.

constanz: Bummer about the Neuragen. I don't think anyone at my store knew about the Neuragen or the Arnicare. I had a lot of OOP in sales tax this month at WAGs, but I was able to pick up several items that we needed which seems to be getting harder and harder to do.

I think the IB will be included as well, but I'll have them scan the item for the sale price before I buy as the tags are never up first thing on Sunday morning. Since the $6/2 Q says ANY (I know it's a stretch), I think I'm going to try it.

My stores were out of the Neuragen pretty quickly, I got like 1 from 2 different stores. I then asked at one store if they could order some for me on the next truck.. they did and held them for me ;D I got 8! Thankfully I had grabbed a stack of the magazines so I had the coupons! It is impossible to find the magazines now but happy dance! I just found 4 in my car that I hadn't used yet and I have a local store holding 4 Neuragen for me!

I have been able to successfully use one $10 RR at Pick n Save and one at Walmart. Both were scanned by a cashier. Walmart was amazingly the one that went through without as much as a second glance. Because I was using so many coupons a manager had to approve it but she confirmed they are all MFG coupons and said ok. Pick n save was the one that was saying it says walgreens on it you have to use it there. DH was using it and got the guy to scan it and it worked 'slick as snot!'

[pudgybunny]

MERCEE - I feel your pain with Wisconsin stores... oh how I wish we had RA's around us and a close CVS!!!!!
FYI on the stores that have the minimum $25 purchase for the 5 doubled coupons, i save my 'free after coupon' coupons for those days and while my total is $25 before coupons and store card... after is another story!! Hope this helps you!

[pudgybunny]

WAGS ALERT!
I was just at one of my local wags and they had Hanes ladies underwear 2 and 3 packs on clearance. The 3 packs were the best price. Some were $3.19 and some were $2.49. I didn't notice any rhyme or reason to their choice of clearance, but while I was trying to figure out if it was a good price or not I realized lots of underwear packs had $1 peelies!!! now 3 pairs for $1.49! works for me! I also had a $10 RR i needed to burn today. grabbed 7 bags of the $2.49 underwear and saw socks for $2.89 (6pk) for DH also with the $1 peelie. I used gum on clearance $.32 as a filler and I paid about $3.50 after my $10 RR. I was happy with my haul!

[ooty1234]

Just saw on Facebook that Mad Coupons is raising her price to 14.00/week, up from 10.50/week

If I still had the plethera of stores to shop, I would still get them. I loved the convenience and the higher dollar amounts she had.

[ooty1234]

Feb 25, 2011 22:45:13 GMT -5 pudgybunny said:

WAGS ALERT!
I was just at one of my local wags and they had Hanes ladies underwear 2 and 3 packs on clearance. The 3 packs were the best price. Some were $3.19 and some were $2.49. I didn't notice any rhyme or reason to their choice of clearance, but while I was trying to figure out if it was a good price or not I realized lots of underwear packs had $1 peelies!!! now 3 pairs for $1.49! works for me! I also had a $10 RR i needed to burn today. grabbed 7 bags of the $2.49 underwear and saw socks for $2.89 (6pk) for DH also with the $1 peelie. I used gum on clearance $.32 as a filler and I paid about $3.50 after my $10 RR. I was happy with my haul!

NICE!! I exalted you!

[dancinmama]

Feb 25, 2011 23:56:06 GMT -5 ooty1234 said:

Just saw on Facebook that Mad Coupons is raising her price to 14.00/week, up from 10.50/week

If I still had the plethera of stores to shop, I would still get them. I loved the convenience and the higher dollar amounts she had.

Wow, that's quite a jump in price (33% increase).

[4hatsandfrugal]

Feb 25, 2011 22:45:13 GMT -5 pudgybunny said:

WAGS ALERT!
I was just at one of my local wags and they had Hanes ladies underwear 2 and 3 packs on clearance. The 3 packs were the best price. Some were $3.19 and some were $2.49. I didn't notice any rhyme or reason to their choice of clearance, but while I was trying to figure out if it was a good price or not I realized lots of underwear packs had $1 peelies!!! now 3 pairs for $1.49! works for me! I also had a $10 RR i needed to burn today. grabbed 7 bags of the $2.49 underwear and saw socks for $2.89 (6pk) for DH also with the $1 peelie. I used gum on clearance $.32 as a filler and I paid about $3.50 after my $10 RR. I was happy with my haul!

awesome find! increased your karma for that one!

[dogmom]

I read an interesting scenario yesterday on Mash up Mom's blog. I don't know if it can be done, but it looks like fun. It states there should be a free Puffs tissue coupon in this week's inserts when you buy any Vicks product. The last couple of P&G inserts (1/16 and 1/30) both had the $1.00 off ANY Vicks product. They expire on Monday. So, if you buy Vick's VapoDrops (usually a dollar or under), you could get free Puffs. Of course, limit four (Per P&G new wording on Coupon.). This would get both items free. Maybe you guys knew about this already, but it amused me....Unfortunately the Wags near my house didn't have the VapoDrops...But, maybe a CVS or Rite Aid does? Also, I received a new P&G insert from a coworker yesterday. He had multiples, but he doesn't share that often.. It was from the Spanish paper in his neighborhood. He got BONUS IAMS coupons..$1.00 off ProActive Health dry dog food, $1.00 off Healthy Naturals (no size restrictions noted on either) and $.50 off any three canned or one multi pack. I didn't see them on the list that was posted earlier in the week.

[car-chick]

Could some one please repost the other company that sells whole inserts? I thought I read it a few pages back...... (Not Mad Coupons).

TIA

[constanz22]

Feb 26, 2011 7:36:48 GMT -5 car-chick said:

Could some one please repost the other company that sells whole inserts? I thought I read it a few pages back...... (Not Mad Coupons).

TIA

I think CouponDede sells full inserts.

[ooty1234]

Feb 25, 2011 0:06:25 GMT -5 ooty1234 said:

I found another source to purchase whole inserts. I stumbled across them on Facebook tonight. I haven't heard of them before, but in a pinch I would give them a try.

coupon-wizards.com/2011/02/24/last-call-for-insert-service/

looks like to late to order this weeks inserts, but who knows??

Is this the one you were referring to? Looks like you can buy the inserts seperately, (if I am remmembering correctly .60/PG and .50/SS) plus shipping of $4.95, comes out to 16.00 for 10 of each.

[mawmawandlovingit]

Feb 26, 2011 8:23:40 GMT -5 ooty1234 said:

Feb 25, 2011 0:06:25 GMT -5 ooty1234 said:

I found another source to purchase whole inserts. I stumbled across them on Facebook tonight. I haven't heard of them before, but in a pinch I would give them a try.

coupon-wizards.com/2011/02/24/last-call-for-insert-service/

looks like to late to order this weeks inserts, but who knows??

Is this the one you were referring to? Looks like you can buy the inserts seperately, (if I am remmembering correctly .60/PG and .50/SS) plus shipping of $4.95, comes out to 16.00 for 10 of each.

Ooty: Thank you for this link. I e-mailed them yesterday morning and was able to purchase 10 sets of each. If you order 10 or more the price per insert drops down .05 each. I paid $14.95 for 10 sets and that includes shipping. There are some pretty good Q's in there that I wanted and it will be well worth the money.

[mawmawandlovingit]

I have been very dissappointed with Mad Coupons lately. I never got in on the monthly service but when I was ordering it was taking a long time for the Q's to come. Don't know how organized they are but I think maybe they got overwhelmed with the response of purchases they were getting.

[ooty1234]

Feb 26, 2011 8:35:24 GMT -5 @mawmawandlovingit said:

I have been very dissappointed with Mad Coupons lately. I never got in on the monthly service but when I was ordering it was taking a long time for the Q's to come. Don't know how organized they are but I think maybe they got overwhelmed with the response of purchases they were getting.

MawMaw: That is what I was thinking too. When I first found her on FB, she had maybe 400 fans and within a couple of weeks she had 5,000 fans. I knew she had a great service and once word got out she wouldn't be able to keep up. Hopefully she can get back on track. The increase is cover the additional people to help out.

[mercee]

Feb 25, 2011 22:41:10 GMT -5 pudgybunny said:

MERCEE - I feel your pain with Wisconsin stores... oh how I wish we had RA's around us and a close CVS!!!!!
FYI on the stores that have the minimum $25 purchase for the 5 doubled coupons, i save my 'free after coupon' coupons for those days and while my total is $25 before coupons and store card... after is another story!! Hope this helps you!

Thanks pudgybunny! I'll keep that in mind! And to your comment about using RRs at PnS - DH's coworker said she's been able to do it to cuz it say "mfg coupon" on it, so I'll keep that as a back-up plan on slow WAGs weeks. Friend of mine might start hitting CVS in J'ville, but that's too far for me to drive.

I typed up my shopping list for Copps yesterday - it's split into 2 lists so I can use the max amt of coupons. I already warned DH that he'll have to check out one of the carts. LOL

I found a Diet Coke coupon booklet in the soda aisle - had $1/2 12pks of Diet Coke, I think $1/2 Prego heart smart, etc type coups - I can give more details later if anyone is interested.

[suziq38]

Feb 22, 2011 18:36:50 GMT -5 bluecluessubtlety said:

NAGMy co-workers hear me on the phone arguing with my 13 yr old DS that I am not bringing home fast food.

Me: There's plenty to eat in the houe.
Boy: I can't find anything.
(after a minute of this)
Me: There's plenty of Beneful and baby formula. I have to go.
(hang up)

They think it's hysterical. I have like 30 cans of baby formula bought for profit that I haven't gotten around to donating. And the dog usually eats dry but I have lots of free Beneful wet food kept for treats. I figure if there's ever a natural diaster, we can live for a while on dog food and baby formula. Should cover all the nutrients, right?

Blues,
When I read your post this morning, I laughed so hard I almost split my hysterectomy stitches, LOL.
Too bad my kids are all grown up and gone. I would have loved to copy your line.
They would have told all of their friends and the neighbors would have talked a bit, LOL.

All I can say is, "Good one."

[rubyslippers]

Dogmom: I used the free Puffs tissue Q's at Wags before Christmas when I bought the Vicks Sinex. It was a pretty sweet deal. Thanks for the heads up because I want to do another Sinex deal this coming week.

[ooty1234]

Has anybody seen my cleaning fairy? Someone let the gremlins loose in my house this week and cleaning fairy is nowhere to found? Dang, her! You should see the mess the gremlins made when they went through my coupons! Oh MY!

[suziq38]

Hi Everyone!
I have missed all of you and my hounding.
I came home and was just recuperating from my surgery.
It wasn't bad, but it "set me back" a bit, LOL.

I have been getting up on time, laying around, and watching TV and movies for the most part. Nothing too stimulating and mathematical like "hounding."
I have had a different friend come over each day and eat lunch with me for fun.
My Bunco group brings meals at night, a different member every night.
I have been going to bed early 9:00 or earlier every night because I am just tired.
DH and DD has been a big help.
The best gift I got for having the operation so far was a Honey Baked Ham, LOL.
Who would have thought that it would have been better than a bouquet of flowers??

My surgery went well, and I am feeling better day by day. When they removed my uterus, they found TWO pre-cancerous areas rather than the one the first doctor discovered. Since I was not planning to have more children at my age (54), losing my uterus was the choice for me. I was just perplexed because my pap smears came up negative! The actual two biopsies of the area around the first polyp were pre-cancerous. So I thought I had only one area fermenting, when indeed I had two areas. I guess I was rolling the dice a bit, LOL, since they found the first polyp (rather large) Thanksgiving week 2010.
I decided to go to the best cancer hospital in our state, which was the City of Hope in Duarte, California.
I think that there are many good doctors and hospitals that could have done my hysterectomy, but I had good insurance and felt at ease with the best professionals for cancer in my area. My doctor is a gynecologist oncologist.

I miss going out and getting the deals. DH says that he is going to take me to CVS tomorrow, LOL. They have a mechanical cart for handicapped people, LOL.
I hope no one is using it when I get there.
I have printed out the deals from Frugal Suz's blog, and I am going to try to find some coupons for CVS. DH says he will only take me there because there is the mechanical cart. I hope that I don't run it into a wall or another person, LOL.

It is time to switch over to the MARCH 2011 Grocery Challenge Thread.
If you are new here, Welcome!!! We want to read your posts and help you if you need our help. Or, maybe YOU can help us!

Every month we make a new thread so that we don't have to have so many pages.

Please post on the new MARCH 2011 GROCERY CHALLENGE THREAD.

Thank You!

[mizbear]

I am sniffing out good deals on TP, wipe and paper towels this month. Don't need too much due to stockpile.