2014 Grocery Challenge

[FreeSalsa]

Went to th 99c only store for Halloween supplies to use the b3halloween items get any one item free item free. They didn't,t have a lot that we wanted so we save a whopping one dollar with the q. 

Bought Halloween candy at Ralph's 2/$4 plus th 3musketeers Friday freebie. Neither rang up right so I had to go back to the register twice. I,m sur I could have done better on price somewhere but have no q,s, no printers. I am not getting any of the drug store ads either so it,s hard to plan. I,m excited for trick or treaters. I haven,t been in a neighborhood since the late '90s.

Got feta cheese marked down to $1, dated for January so plenty of time. I would have gotten more but they only had two of th plain regular ones. 

sorry about all the typos. Writing on an iPad is terrible.

[hopetoberich]

I I went toAmelia's grocery outlet and got some cheap crackers and snacks.10 items came to less than $10. Wm wants $2.99 for snack items and up
so this is a great saving. The receipt said I saved $23 but not sure compared to where.
Went to wegmans and had one mq for $1.50/1 suave. First time ever bought there shampoo and its not bad for my hair at all. Doesn't make me itch like aussi  anyway i was behind someone in wegmans yesterday and saw them do the shampoo deal...sad that is the only way i found out about a freebie.
Acme looks great but its 50 miles from me.  i would be in there if it were closer.

[marvholly]

Now I am really sorry I did not buy more granny smith apples while they were 0.69/lb. They taste GREAT! I also have a new recipe using the grannies I want to try. They are GREAT. Last year & this, the Macintosh have not been good-mealy. I might have bought honeycrisp over the past couple oif weeks but the have been VERY damaged looking - alot of soft/brown spots everywhere I looked: big fruit veg market, independent markets & full retail grocery.

[FreeSalsa]

Used an expired ecb "just this once"again, and a rain check to buy tissues. Rain check was for 189 count family size, but they don,t make it anymore. Now it,s 160 count. Figures.

Anyway, he not only wrote me a new rain check with the revised number of items, he also revised the first one and gave it back to me too. So now instead of one r c for ten I have two r cs for seven each, at 88c, btw. Can,t beat that. And he was going on about how he had to do it all properly so no oneat corporate could complain. Ha.

did I say that I went back to my free fruit guy for the first time since July? I dried bananas, made bananas on toast with pb, apple sauce, apple juice, apple fruit leather. We also got 6 passion fruits, which I have never seen before. Ugly little things but so good! Dh mixed it with rum and vanilla frozen yogurt and made a yummy dessert

[marvholly]

Oct 29, 2014 23:43:26 GMT -5 FreeSalsa said:

did I say that I went back to my free fruit guy for the first time since July? I dried bananas, made bananas on toast with pb, apple sauce, apple juice, apple fruit leather. We also got 6 passion fruits, which I have never seen before. Ugly little things but so good! Dh mixed it with rum and vanilla frozen yogurt and made a yummy dessert

Personally, I think ANYTHIG would be good w/rum & frozen yogurt. All it is missing, IMHO, is some chocolate.

[rubyslippers]

I've earned another $18.00 in mperks this week. Many of the items I get are nearly free after coupons and the pre-coupon total counts towards the reward. And I'm very close to earning another $5.00 reward.

I got a 2 lb. bag of carrots for $.69, eggs for $1.29 and a pineapple for $1.00. I also saved over $7.00 at Walmart by price matching a few items. I made caramel dip from a can of sweetened condensed milk by cooking the can on low for 8 hrs. in the crock pot. We have lots of apples for dipping. I paid $1.70 for bacon and $1.90 lb. for pork loin at Kroger after senior discount.

I'm back shopping at Rite Aid after getting $50.00 in UPs from prescription transfers. They screwed the first deal up so gave me a gift card instead of the UPs.

Tonight we saved $24.00 in gas using the last of this month's fuel rewards.

Next month I have to use up a lot of casseroles and soups I have frozen so I can make room for a turkey. I can't believe it's that time of year already.

[marvholly]

This is the first time in a month I will probably buy a Sun paper. There are eough coupons I will probably use to justify the purchase. In fact, one is for an item I will be buying on the next round of grocery store sales.

[saveinla]

Got a survey from CVS and got the 10$ ECB. Bought 3 aveeno 2.5oz lotion using that and got a 8$ ECB.

Used the 8$ ECB to buy Coffee with the 1.50 Q from today's paper and cereal.

[marvholly]

It was SOOOO frigid & cold here early Sun am I did not go out & get the paper. No inserts for me.

[dancinmama]

Oct 25, 2014 6:12:32 GMT -5 marvholly said:

Big market did NOT have anything much I wanted. Shoud have figgured that from the empty (for them) parking lot.

Dancin
I SOOOO envy you your grocery outlet. Nothing around here like that.

marvholly:  I wish EVERYONE had one.  Seriously, our grocery bill would be soooo much higher without it.  There are pros and cons though.  I guess I like the fact that I don't have to "make a list" because what I buy, if I buy anything at all, is what is on clearance at a ridiculously low price.  The downside is that I never know what I might get before I walk in the door and I always have to be prepared with freezer space to accommodate.

[dancinmama]

Well, I hit it big at WAGs today, but it wasn't the WAGs in my town.

All the bagged Halloween candy was only marked down 50%, BUT, BUT, BUT they had a small section of shelving where everything was 10 CENTS!! - Halloween themed theater box candy, small bags of soft caramels (not even Halloween themed), regular sized Kit Kat with bats on them, Reeses peanut butter pumpkins, packages of donettes, 19 oz. tubs of Brach's candy, Halloween peeps, etc.  I bought a little of everything but the peeps and A LOT of the small bags of caramels.  They normally sell for $1.99 and the sell by date is in 2015.  I guess they just wanted to make room on the shelf for something else and was shocked to see them for $.10/each.  The Brach's candy tubs have a sell by date of 2016.

We stopped by the WAGs in our town on our way home and the same theater box candy was 'marked down' to $.90, the Brach's tubs were $1.49, and the individual Hershey candy was $.49 each.  There were no bags of caramels or donettes at my WAGs.

I may have to actually skip the after Xmas candy clearance this year. 

Now to find a place to hide this stuff.    

[marvholly]

If anyone lives near a Meijer (midwest regonal chain) they have 6 oz raspberries for 0.50 each I believe thru Sat. Had planned to buy 2 at another store for 0.99 each but bought 4 instead & have frozen all but 2 servings.

[murphath]

If any of you have a FoodMaxx, and are in need of paper towels and/or toilet paper, their insert has the following coupons:

Angel Soft 12-24 roll: $3.99

Sparkle 8pk paper towels: $3.99

You can combine these with $1 off the Sparkle paper towels and a .55 off Angel Soft man q. You can print the man q's at hotcouponworld.com.  The 11/2 Red Plum also had q's but those must have been regional as I didn't get them.

The ad also has 48oz Crisco Oil for $1.99 for those of you that use Crisco.

[skubikky]

Bought the $8.99 Zantac at CVS for $8.99 - $4 MC.  Cleared the balance with a GC.
Submitted for the full rebate amount of $8.99.
Might be a MM if they don't deduct for the coupon! 

[FreeSalsa]

Let me know when the bf drug ads come out. I,m hoping to stock up on some things. We have too much of some stuff and are completely out of others.

[dancinmama]

Nov 4, 2014 12:12:57 GMT -5 murphath said:

If any of you have a FoodMaxx, and are in need of paper towels and/or toilet paper, their insert has the following coupons:

Angel Soft 12-24 roll: $3.99

Sparkle 8pk paper towels: $3.99

You can combine these with $1 off the Sparkle paper towels and a .55 off Angel Soft man q. You can print the man q's at hotcouponworld.com.  The 11/2 Red Plum also had q's but those must have been regional as I didn't get them.

The ad also has 48oz Crisco Oil for $1.99 for those of you that use Crisco.

murphath:  When you do this deal would you mind posting the total sq. footage for the packages of Angel Soft?  Even though I am not anywhere near needing TP yet, I am trying to keep tabs on good deals and price per sq. ft.  I don't have a FoodMaxx, otherwise I'd go check it myself.

Thanks - I'd really appreciate it. 

[rubyslippers]

Today I did most of my shopping. I did 6 transactions at Meijer rolling their catalinas on the next order. I spent $23.23 OOP and saved over $84.00. I used $23.00 in mperks rewards and a bunch of coupons. My best deals there were raspberries (6 oz.) for $.50, 6 tubes of Crest TP., 3 blocks of Kraft cheese, Halloween spatulas for $.29 each on 90% clearance and my expensive coffee beans. I got a lot of other stuff, part of their buy 10 get 1 free sale and also a couple of things for Christmas gifts. I got a similar spatula years ago at Walmart after Christmas and it is a very nice one. It was a good day there and I earned another $5.00 mperk.

At CVS I got a free box of Cheerios with a coupon I had in my CVS account.

Kroger had a buy 10 save 5 deal this week. I got 2 lbs. Land O Lake butter for $2.37 each after senior discount and a roll of Reynolds Foil for $.09. I had a $2.00 store coupon and an IPQ for $.75 on the foil. I also got a couple of cake mixes for $.41 each and canned tomatoes for $.47 each.

[marvholly]

Nov 5, 2014 9:32:12 GMT -5 FreeSalsa said:

Let me know when the bf drug ads come out. I,m hoping to stock up on some things. We have too much of some stuff and are completely out of others.

CVS is out. I have seen it in a couple places. Have not checked on WAG. Don't have Rite Aide.

[FreeSalsa]

Thanks marv holly. Did you see it in the store or online? Anything good in it?

[murphath]

Dancinmama:

The tp pkg. is 352 sq ft (12 double rolls). Price was $3.99 w/in store q and I used a .55 ip q thus making the cost .00977 per sq ft.; or 28.6 cents per double roll.

[marvholly]

Free Salsa

WAG ad just came out too. 20 pages worth. It is posted in Fat Wallet (http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/). They have some deals that are Thur only and the rest the entire weekend. Not too much on my list for them. They did have the Wahl hair trimmer that I bought Thanksgiving 2010 for $9.99 (I think same as I paid then).

NOTE: Fat Wallet has an entire forum of Black Friday deals.

On the CVS ad it was a local blogger I think. Everything on my list is FREE after ECBs: Hershey singles, Wrigley gum, orbit, dawn & CVS batteries.

[dancinmama]

Nov 6, 2014 20:36:28 GMT -5 murphath said:

Dancinmama:

The tp pkg. is 352 sq ft (12 double rolls). Price was $3.99 w/in store q and I used a .55 ip q thus making the cost .00977 per sq ft.; or 28.6 cents per double roll.

Thanks for the info, murphath.  It's good to know that there are still decent deals out there these days. 

[FreeSalsa]

I used some Q's at CVS on Friday.  It felt like the old days.  I'll try to post it later.

This week it looks like there are more free paper towels at CVS.  Paper towel is at the top of my Do Not Buy list but how can I pass up free non-perishables?  Especially now that I have more storage space?

Thanks, Marvholly, I will check out Fat Wallet.  I'm excited about the gum, Dawn, and batteries.

[rubyslippers]

I heart rite aid has the Black Friday deals for Rite Aid. It won't be a high priority this year but there are several free after UPs items.

Today at Kroger I spent $.20 OOP and got 6 Pillsbury cake mixes, 4 boxes of Ronzoni pasta and a half-gallon of milk. I used $5.00 in coupons and a $2.00 catalina. Their special was buy 10 save $5.00.

At Meijer I got a turkey for $.54 lb., $6.98 total, after spending $20.00 in groceries. I got 3 boxes of frozen treats, ICBINB, 3 hair products and 5 cans of soup. After instant coupons, mperks, MQ's and a $3.00 catalina, I paid $14.32 for everything and earned another $14.00 in rewards. I have $19.00 in rewards that I plan on using Thanksgiving weekend where they will be having a really good grocery sale.

This week's best deal at Aldi are mushrooms, grape tomatoes and baby carrots for $.69 each. If I wait till Wed., I can probably get 2 out of the 3 items for $.59 each.

Kroger had a one day quadruple fuel points on gift cards yesterday and will start having their annual holiday fuel points rewards starting November 19. That usually lasts a few weeks.

[FreeSalsa]

I had an adventure at Ralphs today that really tested my honesty.  I went to return three items and it was a mess.  Three items to return and the amounts I paid:
Snickers $2
M&Ms $2
Lightdays $2.99

First, when I bought the Halloween candy a few weeks ago, I got the wrong size (the bag was in the wrong spot) and it rang up $3 instead of $2.  I then I got the right one.  They tried to return the wrong one and ring up the right, but those all came up different prices than 3 and 2.  The guy got so flustered and the line behind me was growing.  I told him to give me the $1 difference and he could figure it out later, which he agreed to.

Today when I went to return the items, I told the checker that the receipt still says $3 but I only paid $2.  She refunded me
Snickers $2
M&Ms $5.19 (regular price)
Lightdays $4.49 (regular price)  

I checked it afterward and saw her mistake.  If it had only been a dollar or so I might have left it but it was a lot so I told her and she tried to fix it.  Then she called someone over and tried to fix it.  Then they called a third person over who said you could not fix it, and to give me the wrong refund, giving me too much back.  Well, I tried.

Then I did my shopping.  I bought some deli chicken and made a big deal about putting it in the right bag (you have to bring your own bags here)  and she must have been so busy with that that she forgot to ring it up.  After paying I checked the receipt and saw that she did not charge me for the chicken.  Sigh.     So I went back again to tell them and paid the $9.

I am starting to think they don't have any idea what they are doing over there.     I've given them three chances.  Next time I just might walk away with the freebie.  I'd like to think that I've earned some good karma and that by spending so much time at the register, I somehow avoided a car accident on the way home or something like that.  And I did come out $5 ahead.

[rubyslippers]

Freesalsa, a few months ago I wrongly price matched a couple items at Walmart and after insisting my price was right, they gave it to me for the price I quoted. It bothered me on the way home so I took out my ad and found out they were right. I called the manager and told her that her price was right and that I'd bring in the difference the next time I was there. The funny thing was that they didn't know how to enter it into their cash registers. There must not be too many people that do that anymore. Since I price match everything I can, I didn't want them to think I was pulling a fast one. It's no bargain for me by getting things that way. I'm glad to hear that you tried to make it right with the store.

[FreeSalsa]

Saveinla, in the Albertsons (CA) Big Book of Savings in the store there is an MQ for 30c off CA dairy, exp. 1/31/15.  I grabbed a stack.

[FreeSalsa]

Nov 11, 2014 7:51:51 GMT -5 rubyslippers said:

Freesalsa, a few months ago I wrongly price matched a couple items at Walmart and after insisting my price was right, they gave it to me for the price I quoted. It bothered me on the way home so I took out my ad and found out they were right. I called the manager and told her that her price was right and that I'd bring in the difference the next time I was there. The funny thing was that they didn't know how to enter it into their cash registers. There must not be too many people that do that anymore. Since I price match everything I can, I didn't want them to think I was pulling a fast one. It's no bargain for me by getting things that way. I'm glad to hear that you tried to make it right with the store.

I guess most people don't even pay attention.  Good for you for doing the right thing.  The frugal me has a hard time with getting something free and not taking it, even though it's right.  Seriously though, they've gotten everything wrong the two times I've been to that store!

[saveinla]

Nov 11, 2014 22:14:12 GMT -5 FreeSalsa said:

Saveinla, in the Albertsons (CA) Big Book of Savings in the store there is an MQ for 30c off CA dairy, exp. 1/31/15.  I grabbed a stack.

Thanks Freesalsa. I will try to see if I can get them.

[marvholly]

I have see about 1/2 the grocery ads for the stores I usually hit-ads were delayed by no mail on Tue. Not seeing much MUST haves. May not bother to brave our VERY cold weather this week except for a quick produce run early next week.