2014 Grocery Challenge

[hitenney]

Hi everybody!  Just wanted to say Aloha to everybody - I still lurk, but don't usually have any bargains to report.  Yesterday I went to Sam's Club and picked up some good items - never seems like I can get out of there for less than $100! Yesterday was $98 - I picked up:
2 cases (different sizes) of bottled water
a 6-8 portion dish of scalloped potatoes**
a pack of three graduated sizes of frying pans**
chicken noodle soup
Yuban coffee
the 3.5 lb "good" hot dogs (all beef, kosher)
long hot dog buns
4-pack of shortbread cookies in decorative tins
2-pk mayo**

The items with ** had built in coupons, so that helped.  I usually love scalloped potatoes, but I hate buying giant items when I don't know if they taste good, so hope these are .  If the cookies taste OK, I'll probably stash them for Christmas.  I can't beat their price for the soup, which DH & DS can't live w/o. 71 cents a can, and it's well over $2 at my regular stores.  I just had to renew my membership, so I always wonder if my savings make up for that expense ($47.12), but since I bought several tires this year, it probably did.  I buy the Sam's Club, and my aunt buys the Costco membership, so in a way it's two for one. Holly - stay warm and safe in that Arctic weather!

I try to stifle myself - but so often I want to say, this _____ used to only cost ________. I'm sure it dates me, and bores people too!  But WOW, prices sure are high!  We better go back to living on ramen! 

[FreeSalsa]

CVS card 1
FREE paper towel w/CRT
2 Honey Maid graham crackers $2.50 ea.
-0.50 MC
-0.50 MC
-$1.50/2 cookies CRT
=$1.25 ea

CVS card 2
FREE paper towel w/CRT
2 Honey Maid graham crackers $2.50 ea.
-0.50 MC
-0.50 MC
-$1.00/2 cookies CRT
=$1.50 ea

CVS card 3
FREE paper towel w/CRT
2 Honey Maid graham crackers $2.50 ea.
-0.50 MC
-0.50 MC
=$2 ea.

Sprouts had peelies on Food Should Taste Good chips
2 x 11 oz. bag Pumpkin flavor, clearance $2.50
-$1/2 FSTG chips = $2 for the big bags, equivalent to $1 for the small bags, my purchase price

Sprouts had peelies on Arrowhead Mills flours
30% off AM products:  organic cornmeal = $2.61/bag
-$1 Arrowhead Mills flours
-$1 Arrowhead Mills flours
=$1.61 per bag

[hitenney]

OK, here I am dating myself, and being boring - maybe you'll all get a laugh (or cry) from this:

In high school, Dad said "Go to WorK! No more money to do fun things with your friends!" So I got a job at the Navy Exchange Convenience Store on the Base where we lived - that did make things a little cheaper.  Anyway, to this day (eons later) I still remember that plain loaves of bread were .25, and cigarettes were the same!  27 cents for 100-mm cigarettes.  This was a little over 40 years ago.  Minimum wage was $1.65, I think.

Back to your regularly scheduled grocery challenge....

[FreeSalsa]

Hi Hitenny!!!  I also think to myself every time, ____ used to cost ____ much.  It's always too much now.  Glad you found some decent deals.  It's hard to do there.

Saveinla, more good deals at Albertsons this week.  There must be some mistake but it looks like FREE dozen eggs w/purchase of two items at $2.88, including Breyers ice cream, Klondike bars, Magnum bars, and Best Foods mayo (big jar.)  This is a good price for Breyer's anyway so I will be stocking up on free eggs, no limit and no store card so they can't track you.  I'm sure there was something else but that's to start.

I bought some Eckridge Farm polska kielbasa the other day with a Q, just for what we call "back-up meat" in case DH is starving.  We had it last night.  It was tasty but you could sure tell the difference between that and the house made sausage we bought at the German deli I just discovered last month.  Sometimes you get what you pay for.  That's hard for the frugal me to swallow (pun intended.)

Gotta run, DH is making dinner!

[hitenney]

Hi Free Salsa!  I'm going home now! I want some free paper towels , too.

[dancinmama]

99 CENT STORE HALLOWEEN CLEARANCE ALERT!!

At my 99 Cent Store ALL Halloween candy items were clearanced to $.09/ea.  The sale included theater box Mike and Ikes that had a mummy on the box and regular sized Kit Kat bars that had a bat on the wrapper.  The exp. date on the Kit Kat bars is 8/2015.

[hitenney]

AAARRRRGGG! My Best foods mayo was a 2-pk of 36 oz jars for $9.56, minus automatic coupon of $2 = $3.78 a jar.

[hitenney]

Hi Dancin' - did you get my letter?  I hope so!

[dancinmama]

Nov 13, 2014 22:46:49 GMT -5 hitenney said:

Hi Dancin' - did you get my letter?  I hope so!

Yes, I did just yesterday and THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU soooo much for thinking of me.  You are a real sweetheart!!     Buddy the Beagle and Rocket the Border Terror say thank you too. 

[saveinla]

Nov 13, 2014 22:39:26 GMT -5 FreeSalsa said:

Hi Hitenny!!!  I also think to myself every time, ____ used to cost ____ much.  It's always too much now.  Glad you found some decent deals.  It's hard to do there.

Saveinla, more good deals at Albertsons this week.  There must be some mistake but it looks like FREE dozen eggs w/purchase of two items at $2.88, including Breyers ice cream, Klondike bars, Magnum bars, and Best Foods mayo (big jar.)  This is a good price for Breyer's anyway so I will be stocking up on free eggs, no limit and no store card so they can't track you.  I'm sure there was something else but that's to start.

I bought some Eckridge Farm polska kielbasa the other day with a Q, just for what we call "back-up meat" in case DH is starving.  We had it last night.  It was tasty but you could sure tell the difference between that and the house made sausage we bought at the German deli I just discovered last month.  Sometimes you get what you pay for.  That's hard for the frugal me to swallow (pun intended.)

Gotta run, DH is making dinner!

Freesalsa, It's not a mistake. It's in the ad -  Lipton Tea bags 100ct, ICBINB, Ben and Jerrys are all included in the deal.

[saveinla]

I did a small transaction at CVS today since they had sent me a 5$/15 and I had the 3$ and 2$ MQ and 3 2$ CVS qs for the tide.

3*5.94 = 17.82 -5$/15 - 3$/2 MQ -2$/1 MQ - 3*2$ CVS Q = 1.82 +tax and I also got the free paper towels.

[rubyslippers]

Saveinla, that's a great deal on the Tide!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Meijer has a huge sale on baking staples. Last year I price matched at Walmart but this year I have mperk rewards that I want to use to get the butter for free.

My UPs were ready to expire at Rite Aid so I went in and got a big bag of garbage bags, 2 dozen eggs, l lb. almonds and 2 bags of Werthers. I paid $.64 OOP and $20.00 in UPs.

[FreeSalsa]

Nov 13, 2014 22:45:46 GMT -5 dancinmama said:

99 CENT STORE HALLOWEEN CLEARANCE ALERT!!

At my 99 Cent Store ALL Halloween candy items were clearanced to $.09/ea.  The sale included theater box Mike and Ikes that had a mummy on the box and regular sized Kit Kat bars that had a bat on the wrapper.  The exp. date on the Kit Kat bars is 8/2015.

Thanks, I'll swing by on the way home before I hit Albertsons for the free eggs.  I was just thinking I could use some cheap paper cupcake cups and was thinking I had missed the post-Halloween sales.

Great job on the Tide, saveinla.

[FreeSalsa]

Nov 13, 2014 22:45:52 GMT -5 hitenney said:

AAARRRRGGG! My Best foods mayo was a 2-pk of 36 oz jars for $9.56, minus automatic coupon of $2 = $3.78 a jar.

I know, it's frustrating seeing the good deals others get.  In AZ they have the Land o Lakes butter for $1.99 as part of the mega deal.  Here it's $3.49 and I don't need anything else and don't want to buy 10 of them.  Has anyone seen a LOL IP?

[FreeSalsa]

Is it very sad that I am so excited about shopping the Black Friday deals?    Deals are so few and far between, I can't wait to get some free stuff.

[marvholly]

Actually, the only 3 places that I need to go start their sales at 7 am on Thur and I am NOT cooking - cousin has since 1969.

I will probably do some online shopping thur and/or Fri to get bday gifts for the 3 grands w/early spring bdays.

[saveinla]

It looks like the TG ad for RA has the Buy 50 get 10$ Up Home Improvement GC.

[rubyslippers]

TODAY only at Bath & Body Works they are selling full size body lotions for $3.00 each. There are codes to get $10/30 order and a free one too. I ordered 11 lotions and paid $27.81 which included tax and s/h.

Saveinla, our Rite Aid is selling Home Depot gift cards with a $10.00 UP reward over Thanksgiving weekend. We don't have any Home Depots around my area any more. I wish we did.

[saveinla]

Nov 15, 2014 13:25:46 GMT -5 rubyslippers said:

TODAY only at Bath & Body Works they are selling full size body lotions for $3.00 each. There are codes to get $10/30 order and a free one too. I ordered 11 lotions and paid $27.81 which included tax and s/h.

Saveinla, our Rite Aid is selling Home Depot gift cards with a $10.00 UP reward over Thanksgiving weekend. We don't have any Home Depots around my area any more. I wish we did.

Thanks rubyslippers. I thought it was the Home Improvement card - if it's the HD card, I may skip it. I use the HI card to buy gas cards, but I don't think they will allow me to use the store card to get gas cards - at least at Lowes, they dont.

[Artemis Windsong]

The best I did today was 2/$1 black beans, cream of mushroom soup and cream of chicken soup.  Shredded cheese for $1.69 and free apple juice.

I ignored the reduced price candy after Halloween.

[FreeSalsa]

Albertsons (CA) highlights from yesterday:

Mega event
8 x Don Francisco bags coffee 10 oz. $3.88 - $1.50 peelies (there are $1 IPs too) = $2.38 ea.
3 x Land of Lakes butter 1 lb. $3.49 - 0.30c CA dairy Q = $3.19 ea.
2 x Farmland bacon 12 oz. $2.99 - $1.50 ($1 IP) = $1.50 ea. (should be $1.99, checker mistake)
2 x Tombstone pizza

2-fer deal
2 Breyers ice cream $2.88
2 Ben and Jerry's ice cream $2.88
FREE dozen eggs wyb2 = 2 dozen FREE

Turkey deal
$1.79/lb. BOGO whole Butterball turkeys 12 lb.+
2 x 12 lb turkey $22.23 + $21.68 - $21.68 BOGO = 89c/lb.
3 x cans Green Giant veg $1 ea.  
IP $3 off Butterball turkey wyb3 GG veg = 3 FREE cans veg.

Paid $78.34
Saved $139.65
65% saved

This is the highest grocery bill I have had in at least five years, maybe ten, but I got 32 items, many of which were meat and dairy.  I might have been able to get a better price per/lb. on the turkey but it always requires a $25 purchase and I've never been able to come up with $25 worth of stuff before.  Now I have a turkey for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas.

The Farmland Qs didn't scan so he took them off manually.  He must have been thinking of the coffee Qs because he took off $1.50 ea instead of $1, even though he kept saying $1.  After all the mess at Ralphs the other day, I let it go and kept the $1.  I had already been in the store an hour and stuff was starting to defrost.  It was nice because I recognized the checker from the store I used to go to two apartments and five years ago.  He remembered me too.  We talked about the old neighborhood.

I started looking at the BF ads.  I think there is a lot for me at CVS and RA too.  Yay!

[FreeSalsa]

Nov 13, 2014 22:45:46 GMT -5 dancinmama said:

99 CENT STORE HALLOWEEN CLEARANCE ALERT!!

At my 99 Cent Store ALL Halloween candy items were clearanced to $.09/ea.  The sale included theater box Mike and Ikes that had a mummy on the box and regular sized Kit Kat bars that had a bat on the wrapper.  The exp. date on the Kit Kat bars is 8/2015.

Mine only had candy (no cupcake papers) and only gummy candy dated March 2015, so I passed.  Thanks for the head up though.

[FreeSalsa]

Nov 15, 2014 13:47:13 GMT -5 saveinla said:

Nov 15, 2014 13:25:46 GMT -5 rubyslippers said:

TODAY only at Bath & Body Works they are selling full size body lotions for $3.00 each. There are codes to get $10/30 order and a free one too. I ordered 11 lotions and paid $27.81 which included tax and s/h.

Saveinla, our Rite Aid is selling Home Depot gift cards with a $10.00 UP reward over Thanksgiving weekend. We don't have any Home Depots around my area any more. I wish we did.

Thanks rubyslippers. I thought it was the Home Improvement card - if it's the HD card, I may skip it. I use the HI card to buy gas cards, but I don't think they will allow me to use the store card to get gas cards - at least at Lowes, they dont.

I'm so curious.  How do you buy gas cards with the HI card?  And where do you buy them if not at HI stores like Lowes and HD?  The ad I saw was just for HD.  I'll probably get at least one because we'll buy a Christmas tree there and can probably use the rest for stuff around the house.

[marvholly]

Got a surprise at my fav, big fruit/veg market on Sun. They had TONS of pkg of assorted pork chops for $1.29/lb. Bought a pkg of 5 which I will cook this week. Since I only eat meat 1x/week those + my swiss steak from last week has me covered thru Jan. i will, however, probably buy a nice steak for New Years.

[dancinmama]

I haven't had any UPs in my hands since last Christmas, so once again, I have to ask:

If you opted for your UPs to print out at the register (which I did), have they changed things so that those UPs are tied to the card that they came from?

TIA

[murphath]

CVS is starting to email me again. I got a $2 EB last week so decided to use it:

2 CVS "Viactive-like" calcium chews: $9.99 (they were B!G1F)

-$2.00 EB

-$3 something on a CVS gift card

I paid $2.93 plus tax for 200 chews--definitely a good deal and very timely. I just ran out!

Saturday they sent me the $5/$15 via email so I went yesterday (the expiration date) and bought:

1 Vaseline lotion  $6.00

1 Vaseline spray lotion $6.00

1 Wet N Wild nail polish  $2.19

1 32 oz Yuban coffee:  $7.99

 Total:  $22.18

Minus

B1G1 spray lotion free:  $7.99  (yes, it automatically took off $7.99-the max value of the q, even tho price was $6

$1 Wet n Wild q  11/16 SS

$5/$15 emailed CRT

Total w/tax $9.03

Received $1 EB for the Yuban coffee

For those of you thinking of doing the Lipton Tea/Skippy Peanut butter deal, coupons.com has a $3/2 Lipton Tea q and .55/1 Skippy q.  I used all mine when Safeway had a sale on those items last week.

[murphath]

Most of you know I do a lot of walking/hiking. Sometimes I find money on the ground which I always pick up. I've noticed scratch off lottery tickets being thrown on the ground so decided to pick those up, too, and enter the 2nd chance lottery. I haven't won there but I did find one ticket that was a winner: a whopping $5! Better than a kick in the pants and I got paid to exercise that day!

[saveinla]

Nov 17, 2014 10:00:10 GMT -5 dancinmama said:

I haven't had any UPs in my hands since last Christmas, so once again, I have to ask:

If you opted for your UPs to print out at the register (which I did), have they changed things so that those UPs are tied to the card that they came from?

TIA

Not yet, although there seem to be rumors that they will be done next year.

[saveinla]

Nov 15, 2014 17:46:41 GMT -5 FreeSalsa said:

Nov 15, 2014 13:47:13 GMT -5 saveinla said:

Thanks rubyslippers. I thought it was the Home Improvement card - if it's the HD card, I may skip it. I use the HI card to buy gas cards, but I don't think they will allow me to use the store card to get gas cards - at least at Lowes, they dont.

I'm so curious.  How do you buy gas cards with the HI card?  And where do you buy them if not at HI stores like Lowes and HD?  The ad I saw was just for HD.  I'll probably get at least one because we'll buy a Christmas tree there and can probably use the rest for stuff around the house.

Freesalsa, When they used to sell the Home Improvement GCs with Ups at RA, I bought them and I would go buy other gift cards or gas cards at Lowes or Home Depot, since they were just like regular Discover cards.

Unfortunately at Lowes, they will not allow you to buy a Gas card with the Lowes GC, so I still have a few of those lying around. I think Home Depot will probably be the same, so that's why I may not buy the Home Depot GC.

[973beachbum]

I haven't set foot in a CVS in almost a year but I am thinking of doing their pre black friday sale and their black friday one now.  Although I woill say their pre one looks better to me.  The actual black friday one looks a little skimpy to me but I guess I would take the free things if I had the ECB's to pay for them with.

I am really looking forward to the Penny's FB sale though.  It starts on T-day this year.  On the one hand it is a little early for me as we are normally only getting done eating at 3 or 4 but on the other hand if I get there for their 5pm open I won't have to be up at o'dark hundred.