2013 Grocery Challenge

[marvholly]

Having my fridge freezer die Sat meant moving ALL the contents to the big standalone freezer in the basement. Took 5 trips. I will NOT be buying any meat for quite a while. Found I have a TON of:
Chicken breasts
Chicken leg quarters
Ground beef
Ground turkey
Turkey bacon

See a LOT of meatloaf, salisbury steak & meatballs in my future. Maybe some nachos too, on a Bears game day.

I do need to check my ‘stock’ of chuck pot roast. There are several dishes I make in the fall/winter that use it (beef/veg/mushroom/barley soup & swiss steak). There are a couple fish items I will replace as I use them – shrimp, calamari, tilapia, as I only have my in use pkg of each.

All I bought, beside a new fridge, on Sun was 2 cans of Progresso soup at CVS. Between thier coupon and the IP (also in this week's inserts) was 0.75/can & I got flavors (lentil & minnestroni) I did not have on hand.

[dancinmama]

Hit the jackpot at Safeway yesterday (9/10).  We happpened to be in the next town over and popped in.  In the manager's meat special section there were (6) packages of Rancher's Reserve beef tenderloin steaks for $7/lb (sale minus 50% off sticker).  I swooped on all (6) packages and paid $35 for (12) steaks.  The REALLY ODD thing was that the sell by date on the packages was (9/12).

[973beachbum]

Hi everyone! Waves wildly.

sorry not to post much lately.  I haven't had much time for shopping of any kind lately.  I hope everyone is doing well though.

[missourimommy]

Hey!  I'm still here.  Like the rest of you, haven't been shopping, or if I have, it's been to Aldi's.  My best purchase was last Sunday afternoon  I had been in my local store a week or so ago and saw a Banzai Aqua Blast inflatable water slide.  It was originally $269.99, marked down to $169.99.  I almost jumped then, but am glad I didn't! 

Since there was no sign, my DD found an employee and asked the price.  He came over and said it was still $169.99, but since it was the last one on the shelf, he asked what I would pay for it.  I asked what he would sell it for and he gave it to me for $99.99.      My DD was beaming and said she'd help pay for it if I got it.  Of course, I'm not going to be the mom that disappoints her kids ( ) so I got it.  I looked online at Target and they have it available.................for $369.00!!  I was pretty happy with my $100.00 purchase!  Yes, it seems like a lot, but in the long run, it was a good investment.

Hope you all are doing well! I started a new job in January and love it! I'm still with the same company but in a different position with an increase in salary!  Two kids playing soccer, practice twice a week, games at LEAST twice a week, plus homework, plus church means not much time for anything.....but it's all good!  St. Louis has been really hot the last few days, but we'rel looking forward to cooler temps this coming weekend

[emhalf]

I got an interesting letter this week from Crest Whitestrips. They had originally denied my $10 rebate because of coupon use, and I never followed up on it. I thought what I was getting was a check, since it was sealed like a check, but it was actually just a letter explaining that they'd decided to honor the rebate after all, and would be sending me a $10 visa giftcard in the next 2-3 weeks. I was surprised by it since I never actually followed up on anything, but it was the kind of customer service that I used to expect from P&G rebates. I know lots of people had issues with that rebate, I'm glad to see they were listening

[skubikky]

emhalf
I got the same thing in the mail yesterday.  Wonder what's up with that?
Scam?  I'm skeptical.  

[emhalf]

Sept 12, 2013 12:13:50 GMT -5 skubikky said:

emhalf
I got the same thing in the mail yesterday.  Wonder what's up with that?
Scam?  I'm skeptical.  

Hmm...could be, but at least they didn't ask for anything. I guess we'll either get them or not get them. It'll be a nice bonus if we do, but I don't intend to put any more effort into it.

[marvholly]

remember - Visa gc have a pretty significant 'activation' fee as do MC & AmEx. Be carful. You have MUCH less to spend.

[973beachbum]

Sept 13, 2013 5:36:19 GMT -5 marvholly said:

remember - Visa gc have a pretty significant 'activation' fee as do MC & AmEx. Be carful. You have MUCH less to spend.

Are you sure you don't mean the ones they sell at places like CVS that you have to buy for $5.95?  I have gotten the P&G Visa gift cards before and they never had an activation fee whatsoever.  They did have an experation date though and it was only like six months.  I didn't think they were even allowed to put an exp on them so I forgot about one and let it expire.

[murphath]

Just to keep this thread active, I'll list my Target action from yesterday

Scotch super glue:  $1.00
4 Simple Organic Blue Corn Chips (B3G1F): $6.72
2 Steamfresh REcipe ready veggies:  $3.94
2 Sargento sliced swiss cheese:  $5.08
1 4 pk Activia yogurt:  $2.19
2 11oz pkgs. peanut butter M&Ms:  $5.32

Minus
3/$1.25 Simple organic chips Target q's= $3.75
2/$1 Steamfresh recipe ready IP's=$2.00
2/.55 Target Sargento q's=$1.10
.75/2 Sargento slices man. q= .75
$1.00 Activia blinkie (from Safeway)=$1.00
$1.00/2 Target M&M's q = $1.00
2/$1 M&M Harvest IPs=$2.00
.10 own bag discount
.63 5% red card discount

Total OOP was @ $12.00  so a little more than half off.  That's about as good as it gets these days.  All stuff I will use--the peanut butter m&m's are for DD2.  She's addicted although they don't seem to put any weight on her!!  It's a bonus treat for her upcoming birthday.

[murphath]

If any of you like Post Shredded Wheat, there's a man. q in last week's inserts.  You can also print 2 $1 Target q's.  Price at my Target is $2.99 for the big box.  I'm giving the q's to a friend who eats this cereal every day.  If she uses a Red Card to pay and brings her own bag, they'll be @ .95 each.  Good price.

[973beachbum]

I got a great score at Shoprite tonight.  I got a 4 ounce bottle of generic childrens liquid allergy, AKA liquid benaydryl, 4oz, for 0.99 cents each.

i bought 4 of them and would have bought more but that was all they had.

[rubyslippers]

My best deals of the week were from the Gillette coupons getting overage, allowing me to get some produce items.  Meijer had Smuckers ice cream topping for $1.67- $.17 (10% Q)-$1.50 mperks = free.  I went shopping in another town and decided to check out a fairly new grocery store.  Eggs were on sale for $.39 a dozen and I picked up 4 dozen. 

We are having very cool weather here this weekend and I started putting out some autumn decorations.  My impulse buy of the week was a bag of candy corn for my candy dish.  Last year I got about 8 bags free from the drugstore deals; this year I had to pay.

Aldi has a few good things this week.  I got celery and mushrooms for $.59 each and a pot of mums for $2.99.

I need to find a good sale on cheese as I want to make Cheddar beer soup in the near future.

I spent my last $4.00 in UPs at Rite Aid this week on pop so I'm done there for awhile.

Kroger is giving away 50 fuel points a week for filling out a survey on the bottom of their receipts.  Since I get my gas cards there every week, this will be a nice additional 200 points a month which is an additional $.20 off a gallon added to the fuel points I earn from buying the gas gift cards.

[FreeSalsa]

Sept 13, 2013 10:24:51 GMT -5 murphath said:

Just to keep this thread active, I'll list my Target action from yesterday

Scotch super glue:  $1.00
4 Simple Organic Blue Corn Chips (B3G1F): $6.72
2 Steamfresh REcipe ready veggies:  $3.94
2 Sargento sliced swiss cheese:  $5.08
1 4 pk Activia yogurt:  $2.19
2 11oz pkgs. peanut butter M&Ms:  $5.32

Minus
3/$1.25 Simple organic chips Target q's= $3.75
2/$1 Steamfresh recipe ready IP's=$2.00
2/.55 Target Sargento q's=$1.10
.75/2 Sargento slices man. q= .75
$1.00 Activia blinkie (from Safeway)=$1.00
$1.00/2 Target M&M's q = $1.00
2/$1 M&M Harvest IPs=$2.00
.10 own bag discount
.63 5% red card discount

Total OOP was @ $12.00  so a little more than half off.  That's about as good as it gets these days.  All stuff I will use--the peanut butter m&m's are for DD2.  She's addicted although they don't seem to put any weight on her!!  It's a bonus treat for her upcoming birthday.

Thanks, Murphath!  Nice work on the organic chips.

[dancinmama]

I got a personal J4U $4/$20, so today at Safeway I got (4) 32 oz. Coffeemate liquid, (3) Fresh Express Salad Kits, and (2) lbs of Imperial Margering for $7.38 OOP.  Not free, but not bad considering my buy price for Coffeemate is $1 for a 16 oz. bottle. 

[marvholly]

Sept 13, 2013 7:48:22 GMT -5 973beachbum said:

Sept 13, 2013 5:36:19 GMT -5 marvholly said:

remember - Visa gc have a pretty significant 'activation' fee as do MC & AmEx. Be carful. You have MUCH less to spend.

Are you sure you don't mean the ones they sell at places like CVS that you have to buy for $5.95?  I have gotten the P&G Visa gift cards before and they never had an activation fee whatsoever.  They did have an experation date though and it was only like six months.  I didn't think they were even allowed to put an exp on them so I forgot about one and let it expire.

yep, the CVS/WAG/grocery store purchased ones are all I am familiar with.  Did NOT know there was any difference.

Re: expire dates
There is a fairly new federal law (Jan 2012 or 2013) that does NOT allow gc to expire.  Try google.

[constanz22]

Sept 14, 2013 6:24:08 GMT -5 marvholly said:

Sept 13, 2013 7:48:22 GMT -5 973beachbum said:

Are you sure you don't mean the ones they sell at places like CVS that you have to buy for $5.95?  I have gotten the P&G Visa gift cards before and they never had an activation fee whatsoever.  They did have an experation date though and it was only like six months.  I didn't think they were even allowed to put an exp on them so I forgot about one and let it expire.

yep, the CVS/WAG/grocery store purchased ones are all I am familiar with.  Did NOT know there was any difference.

Re: expire dates
There is a fairly new federal law (Jan 2012 or 2013) that does NOT allow gc to expire.  Try google.

They are probably able to get around this and have an expiration date because it's a rebate in the form of a cash card, not truly a "gift card".

[FreeSalsa]

Took in some recycling at the little station in the Ralphs parking lot, got about $7 for it.  Went inside to cash in my ticket and picked up a package of Charmin, it cost about $7.  I had to pay a few cents extra in tax.  It was double the stock-up price per square foot but we were out again so I got it.  I felt better about it since I just made that much.  Some of the recycling bottles were ours, but 3/4 of it was from co-workers.

I know that the Charmin was part of the mega deal but I didn't have any coupons ready and I'm not even sure I would have wanted to buy 5 of the participating items to get the better price.

While I was there I picked up my Friday Freebies (1-me, 1-DH.)  Emerald breakfast-to-go packs of trail mix or whatever.  Somewhat healthful, even though they're covered in sugar and corn syrup.  It'll do in a pinch.  And I had a pinch already this morning and can tell you that nuts and berries covered in sugar are delicious!

[hopetoberich]

Only s couple of things here to say.
First like you free salsa I will be making some $ from recycling. I work with agirl who is saving her cans for me. I have 2 bags in the trunk now and I hope to make $. She thinks they pay 50c per lb for cans.
Family to family has a website and I recently read a story about a man whose only income is from selling cans he found. Makes me feel very lucky. I really enjoy reading their site, they do a lot of good.

My other news is husband found the deal of the day on meat.  i got in from work and he told me he grabbed 3 packges of chicken split chicken on sale for 99clb. so i looked over then he explained "now if it had been you, you'd have taken all of them!" Next question, how many were there, what time did you go and finally get dressed we're going now
So we came home with enough to fill the freezer. The beef was on sale @$2.99 lb so i got 5 lb of that too.
I hope to have enough til christmas now if we are careful. I had let the freezer run down and refused to pay the high prices they wanted...i'm glad i refused now this came at the right time.

[skubikky]

Micro-Deals this weekend

Tops:
Jennie-O turkey bacon   2/$5
- 2 x $0.75(doubled)       -$3

WalMart:
Cafe Bustelo               $2.98
                               - $1/1

Wegmans:
Skippy Natural PB       $8.99 (2 x 40oz)
- 2 x $0.55(doubled)  -$2.20

[hopetoberich]

 Where is everyone?

I still have the cans in my trunk As i am up and about early i may go there this mornng. I have a donation for a local school too i want to clear out the trunk.
I am feeling very nervous again today. 
My DH was in the hospital last week for very high BP. I am really not sure how i would cope without him, it does make me worry. So i am in saving mode. I have been for a while. but as i wasn't blessed with super brains for a degree, i have a couple of fairly low paying part time gigs right now. But its $$$ every week and if something happens i will need it. oh the BP was 215/125! He had a brain scan to make sure nothing had happened. I was a bit of a mess.....life you just never know.

[marvholly]

hope
Best wishes for your DH. I am sure he is now on meds for his BP & is 'supposed' to be regularly checked at the Dr's office so it can be changed/adjusted if needed. Do NOT let him skip these checks.

Hit WAG on Tue to get the Homestyle soup advertised for 0.99 – had a $1 coupon. As per usual NO ONE at WAG had any clue what was a homestyle soup and NONE of their available soups looked like the pix on the coupon. Figured out why at CVS where they were $1.50. WAG did NOT have the advertised item, AGAIN!!!

[constanz22]

Sept 18, 2013 5:58:20 GMT -5 hopetoberich said:

 Where is everyone?

I still have the cans in my trunk As i am up and about early i may go there this mornng. I have a donation for a local school too i want to clear out the trunk.
I am feeling very nervous again today. 
My DH was in the hospital last week for very high BP. I am really not sure how i would cope without him, it does make me worry. So i am in saving mode. I have been for a while. but as i wasn't blessed with super brains for a degree, i have a couple of fairly low paying part time gigs right now. But its $$$ every week and if something happens i will need it. oh the BP was 215/125! He had a brain scan to make sure nothing had happened. I was a bit of a mess.....life you just never know.

Hugs and hope everything is ok with your DH!

[dancinmama]

Sept 18, 2013 5:58:20 GMT -5 hopetoberich said:

 Where is everyone?

I still have the cans in my trunk As i am up and about early i may go there this mornng. I have a donation for a local school too i want to clear out the trunk.
I am feeling very nervous again today. 
My DH was in the hospital last week for very high BP. I am really not sure how i would cope without him, it does make me worry. So i am in saving mode. I have been for a while. but as i wasn't blessed with super brains for a degree, i have a couple of fairly low paying part time gigs right now. But its $$$ every week and if something happens i will need it. oh the BP was 215/125! He had a brain scan to make sure nothing had happened. I was a bit of a mess.....life you just never know.

OMG, prayers for you and your DH.  Please let us know how he's doing.

I'm around, but since I am no longer playing the drug chain rewards game anywhere regularly, I don't have that much to post.  I share most of my finds, but unfortunately most of the deals that I get would be impossible for most here to replicate:  produce at my local ethnic markets, a killer close out deal at the Grocery Outlet, etc. 

[murphath]

I'm here, too, but not much to say.  I did buy two more Fresh Express salad kits at Safeway for .49 each--those $2 Tony Tantillo coupons are back and I have a JFU price of $2.49.
 
Spent $6 at the .99 Store:
3 grapefruit
1 cantalope
9 small bananas
Kelloggs Popped Crackers
Cadbury chocolate bar (large size)
French dark chocolate bar (large size)

Grapefruit are .99 each at Safeway and 1 cantalope is $2.99 on sale so you can see how little I could get for my $6 there.
I also bought 3 lbs. of Fuji apples at the Grocery Outlet for $1.99.  One lb. at S/W is $1.99 and the apples are huge--each one is almost a lb.  The bags of apples at G.O. are the nice small size which is perfect.

[murphath]

On a non-grocery note, I'm almost done scraping the popcorn ceilings in the house.  Just have to do the stairway ceiling which will be tricky because of its height and tighter space.  We have the Little Giant ladder so we'll see how it goes.

Once that's done, I'll have to hire someone to retexture and then I'll be in priming/painting mode.  First the ceilings, then the walls, trim, & wrought iron railings.  After that, it's remove carpet time and lay new flooring.  Will also need to replace some doors (or sand, repaint)--you know how kids hang stuff all over them??  Impossible to really get clean.  At any rate, it's gonna take a long time for DH & I to get this done.  He's helped with the ceilings (spraying them for me), putting down the tarps etc.  But painting is not his thing at all.  I actually enjoy painting as long as I don't have to rush.  So, as with the de-popcorning, I will get up, enjoy breakfast, talk to you guys if so inclined, go for my walk/hike, have lunch and then prime/paint a ceiling or two, depending on how I feel that day.  The house will be a bit of a mess for awhile but I don't really care.  It's a work in progress!

[skubikky]

Got a few things at Tops:

Butterball turkey bacon   2/$3
 2 x ($0.75 doubled)      -$3  = free(there's a rarity)

Hefty freezer bags   $1.67 x 2 = $3.34 - $1/2 = $2.34($1.17 each..ok, not stellar)

Presidents crumbled feta BOGO = $6.49 - $3/2 =$3.49(1.75 each)

Our apple trees(red delicious, 20 oz, empire) are yielding a lot of fruit this year.
Hoping to store many lbs of apples for winter.

[skubikky]

Sept 12, 2013 12:13:50 GMT -5 skubikky said:

emhalf
I got the same thing in the mail yesterday.  Wonder what's up with that?
Scam?  I'm skeptical.  

Got the P&G $10 Visa gift card in the mail yesterday.
It expires 3/14.   What a nice surprise.

[marvholly]

After discovering just how much ‘stuff’ I had stockpiled in my freezers I resolved to ALWAYS recheck what I have on hand. This has saved me MAJOR moola this week:

WAG has tape on sale BUT I have at least 8 rolls in the gift wrap drawer.
Somebody had sugar on sale BUT I have an unopened 4 lb bag in the cabinet.

Saved myself $3-4.

[emhalf]

Sept 20, 2013 5:59:03 GMT -5 skubikky said:

Sept 12, 2013 12:13:50 GMT -5 skubikky said:

emhalf
I got the same thing in the mail yesterday.  Wonder what's up with that?
Scam?  I'm skeptical.  

Got the P&G $10 Visa gift card in the mail yesterday.
It expires 3/14.   What a nice surprise.

I got mine this week as well. I am going to be very careful about P&G rebates going forward, because now most of them have wording that won't allow them to be combined with coupons. I definitely felt like they should honor the whitestrips one because coupon use wasn't excluded. And really, even after everything they weren't anywhere close to free. Those things are expensive!