Kroger Paid Me to Shop! :)

Here is what the grocery store (Kroger) paid me .13 cents to take out of their store last night! Total savings of $23.00! :)





If you are wondering "How?!", here is how I did it:

I'll type the regular prices first:

Dole Mandarine Oranges $1.89 ea
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter $2.08 ea
Danimals Yogurt Cups $2.29
Danimals Yogurt Smoothies $2.29
Platex Gloves $2.79
Idahoan Potatoes $1.39

With the store reward card, you get these sale prices on sale items:

Dole Mandarine Oranges $1.00 ea
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter $1.79 ea
Danimals Yogurt Cups $2.29
Danimals Yogurt Smoothies $2.29
Platex Gloves $1.00
Idahoan Potatoes $1.00

The store reward card is important: You get the sale prices, promotions and gas reward points.

The store is also having what they call a "Mega Event" Sale, which means that if you buy 10 (mix and match) of certain items that are included in this promotion, you'll also automatically get an additional $5.00 off for every 10 items. There is no limit of how many sets of 10 items you can buy, so if you were to buy 10 of the promotion items, you get $5 off, if you bought 100 items, you'd get $50 off, etc. ;)

With the above promotion, the actual prices now are as follows (the items with a '*' in front are part of the promotion):

*Dole Mandarine Oranges $0.50 ea
*I Can't Believe It's Not Butter $1.29 ea
*Danimals Yogurt Cups $1.79
*Danimals Yogurt Smoothies $1.79
*Platex Gloves $0.50
Idahoan Potatoes $1.00

Now the fun begins!!! LOL!
COUPONS!!!

With the store reward card, you automatically get Super Double $1.00 Coupons, meaning that if you have a $1 coupon, it doubles up to the price of the item, and this doubling occurs BEFORE the Mega Event prices, since the Mega Event savings comes off the total bill, not as individual items. ;)

The coupons I used are as follows:

$1.00 off 5 Dole canned fruit
$1.00 off 2 ICBINB
$1.00 off any Danimals (I used 2 coupons, as I bought 2)
$1.00 off any Platex Gloves
and one coupon for FREE Idahoan flavored mashed potatoes up to $1.69 (found this coupon THAT NIGHT on the parking lot as I stepped out of the car!!! YEAH!!!)
The cashier had to put in the price and she put in $1.29.

After sale prices, mega pricing, and doubled coupons, here are the prices:

5 Dole = $0.50 total
2 ICBINB = $0.58 total
2 Danimals = -$0.42
1 Platex = -$0.50
1 Idahoan = -$0.29

So you can see that the Platex gloves covered the Dole fruit, and then the negetive amounts on the Danimals and Idahoan potatoes over covered the ICBINB by -$0.13, which is what my total was and they gave me the .13 cents!

Kroger Shopping Mega Event!

I did a little Kroger shopping today.

Total $130.60
Spent $16.05
Saved $114.55



2 Oscar Mayer Fully Cooked Bacon
1 Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Turkey
1 Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Ham
10 Philadelphia Cream Cheese Bricks
4 Philadelphia Cream Cheese Tubs
4 Kraft Shredded Cheese
5 Kraft Brick Cheese
9 Kraft Cheese Individual Slices
2 Oscar Mayer Bologna
2 Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs
9 Mission Tortilla Shells

49 items

Kroger has a Mega Event sale going, meaning when you purchase 10 qualifying items, you receive $5 off instantly at the check-out (with your Kroger card).

My stores (lower eastern Michigan) double the $1 coupons.

Coupons used:
$1.00 off 2 Kraft Cheese
$1.00 off 2 Philadelphia Cream Cheese
$1.50 off 2 Oscar Mayer Bacon
$1.00 off Mission
(and these ones were sent in the mail by Kroger to me)
$1.00 off 2 Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs
$1.00 off 2 Oscar Mayer Bologna
$1.00 off Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh

Walmart & VG's Shopping Trips

I made a quick trip to Walmart and VG's (Spartan store) this afternoon.

At Walmart, I bought 6 packs of Kotex pantyliner pads for a total of $0.36!
I used 6 $1.00 off any Kotex pads coupons, so I just had to pay the tax.



Then I went to VG's, as they have TRIPLE coupons up to .99 this week. I got all of the above for a total of $2.68!

French's Mustard $1.45 -- .50 coupon tripled up to cost = FREE
Hunt's Catsup $1.29 -- .20 coupon tripled = $.69 each
Reach Floss $1.49 -- .50 coupon tripled up to cost = FREE
Aunt Millies Buns on sale for 3/$4 -- .35 coupon tripled = .28 each

Kroger Mega Sale!

Above is a picture of what costs $8.46.....a package of cheese at $5.29 plus a box of foil for $2.99 + 0.18 tax. Not much, huh!

Now look below..........ALL of this PLUS 6 rolls of Bounty Basic paper towels (not in the picture) cost me only $8.61 today at Kroger!!



Total $103.33
Savings $94.72
MY OOP COST $8.61 ($1.52 of this was tax alone!)

Kroger has its Mega sale going, where you buy 10 participating products and get $5 off. I had 20 items that qualified, so an automatic $10 off my bill.

Our Kroger stores here also double the $1 coupons (with the Kroger Plus card), so DOUBLE BONUS!
The hardest part is keeping track of the store's limit of only 3 like coupons per transaction and making it work with the Mega Sale items as well.

OH!!!! And here's another BONUS with this trip.....the Ziploc containers (reg. $4.29 (GASP!!)) where on sale for $2.50, PLUS part of the Mega Sale (so only $2.00 after the $5.00 off 10 qualifying items) AND even with my bad eyes (they were on the top shelf) I spotted $1.00 off this purchase PEELIE!!!! Doubled at the register, these were FREE!!!!

3 Bumble-Bee Tuna Pouches
3 J&J First Aid Guaze
6 Bounty Basic Paper Towels (not in photo)
3 Reynold's Foil
3 Haagen Dazs Single Serve ice creams
2 Tropicana Orange Juice (we needed these, as we were totally OUT, and my main reason for heading to the store in the first place!)
---Mega Sale Items below---
3 Platex Handsaver Gloves
3 Platex Disposable Gloves
6 Sargento Sliced Cheese
2 Philadelphia Cream Cheese
3 Sunny Delight Smoothies
3 Ziploc Food Storage Conatiners

My New Freezer!

It's been a crazy few weeks here, but here is the picture of my new freezer!! YEAH! :)
It came on time as scheduled, and I'm loving it!!

I've Ordered a New FREEZER!! :)

We have outgrown our freezer (see picture!), not to mention that it is older than the hills, has to be defrosted at least twice a year (what a pain!), and is probably eating us alive in electricity use!

I went yesterday and ordered a new one! YEAH! It is bigger, frost free, Energy Star, AND has alarms for temperature variations and door ajar (we lost all our freezer foods a few years ago due to the door being "ajar"!).

By waiting for a great sale, and taking advantage of additional savings with coupon codes (DH even laughed at my having coupon codes to save on a freezer!!), I was able to save $304 off my new freezer.

Now the hard part.....waiting the 2 weeks (June 3rd) for it to arrive! LOL! :)

How I Organize My Coupons

Each person will come up with the best way to organize their coupons that works best for them. Many use the binder method. I personally use a check/coupon expandable file. I've tried so many different ways, but what works best for ME is this.

Quick Kroger Trip

I did not plan on going to Kroger yesterday, but since DH was heading over there to fill the truck and gas cans up, I tagged along and ran into the store.

The Kellogg's cereals were on sale for $1.99 each and I had the $1 off one coupons printed from www.coupons.com site. Our store doubles $1 coupons, so I got the cereals for FREE! :)

The 3 J&J Buddies soaps were $0.99 each and I had a catalina coupon for $2.50 off any 3 J&J baby.

Total spent $0.65!

Gathering Coupons

In a small series of posts over the next few weeks (hopefully!), I will discuss how to start coupon shopping.

First thing to do is gather some coupons.



There are several ways to do this.

Sunday papers (except holiday weekends) have coupon inserts.
(example)



Ebay also provides a wide variety of coupons, many for specific items. Just type in coupons in the ebay search bar.

There are coupons in the stores, which I usually gather a few of each as I'm shopping.....can use these to trade with family and friends if you are not going to use them yourself.
Coupons are usually on tear-pads or in blinky boxes (red blinking light) that when you pull out one coupon, it spits out another one.

(tear pad examples)


(blinkies examples)


There are catalina coupons, which are the coupons you receive with your store receipt after you have paid.

(catalina example)


There are also sights online to purchase coupons as well, along with many blogs that are great for listing where the internet printable ones are.
www.kuntryklippers.com has coupons to purchase (***NOTE!! Have your volumn turned DOWN or off :) )

www.coupons.com always has coupons there to print online. I print mine in only black ink, as I do not have color.
The internet printables are not accepted in all stores, so before printing out a bunch of them (wasting your ink, paper and time), make sure you first find out your store's coupon policy on them.

(internet printable coupon example)


While you are gathering up your coupons, I will get ready in the next few days or so to share with you some ways to keep them organized and ready to go at all times.

Kroger Shopping Today!

18 rolls Bounty Basic paper towels

18 packs of Birdseye Steamfresh veggies

2 boxes Bagel-fuls

9 Del Monte Superfruit cups

9 Johnson & Johnson Buddies soaps

5 Johnson & Johnson first aid steril guaze pads

9 McCormick Grill-Mates

3 Mentos Gum

3 packs Capri-Sun juiceboxes

12 cans Pringles

1 Quaker Rice Snacks

2 Lawrey's Marinade bottles

3 Pillsbury Cin. Rolls tubes

6 Johnsonville breakfast sausage links

1 Philadelphia cream cheese (I had no coupon for this item)

Total before coupons: $188.92

Total OOP (out of pocket) $18.13

Savings of $170.79!! :)

Our Kroger doubles $1 and under coupons and I had coupons for everything but the cream cheese.

Kmart Super Double Coupons!

I went to Kmart today (super double coupons up to $4) and here is what I brought home!

Regular Price total $55.70

1 Dawn Dishsoap $1.99 ... $0.49 after coupon (tripled .50 coupon)
4 Ziploc Freezer Bags $2.79 each ($11.16) $1.25 each after coupons
4 Ziploc Sandwich Bags $3.19 each ($12.76) $1.50 each after coupons
2 Hershey Bliss chocolates $3.99 each ($7.98) $1.00 each after coupons
4 Johnson & Johnson Sterile Pads $1.79 each ($7.16) FREE after coupons
2 Johnson & Johnson Cotton Swabs $1.49 each ($2.98) FREE after coupons
1 Reach Toothbrush $2.49 clearanced to $1.24 FREE after coupon
1 Axe Shower Gel trial size $1.19 FREE after coupon
1 Rimmel Vinyl Lip Gloss $5.29 clearanced to $2.50 ...$0.50 after coupon

After coupons, I paid $15.55!
I saved $40.15

Second shopping Trip!!

I was so excited over yesterdays shopping, that I had to go again today!! :)

I spent a total of $11.42 for all of the above.

The total before coupons and my Kroger card was $116.00!!

I did this in 3 seperate stops, as our Kroger limits 3 like coupons per visit, but I'm lucky enough to have 3 different Kroger stores within about 2 miles of each other. Our Kroger stores double the $1 coupons.

Here is what I got:

3 packs of Halls
6 Mentos Gum
9 Johnson & Johnson's Buddies soap bars
6 cans Dole pineapple
9 Knorr Butter Noodles
5 Wish Bone Bountiful Dressings
2 boxes G2 Powder Packs
4 French's Mustards
9 Johnsonville Sausage Links

The Johnson & Johnson's has been a rolling deal for me. When I purchase 3 in one transaction, I get a catalina coupon for $2.50 off any 3!
The grandkids are going to LOVE these!!

The French's mustard was also a rolling deal for me as well, as when I purchased the 2 from yesterday (the 2 only cost me .50 out of pocket after coupon and sale), the coupon dispenser shot out a coupon for $1 off my next shipping order, which Kroger also doubles these here!
It is like getting the mustard for free and then taking yet another $1.50 off my grocery bill!! YEAH!!

On the Halls, the coupon I used for each pack was $1.00 off. The coupon states Do Not Double right at the top, which Kroger does not usually double these (which is fair!). I purchased 1 pack at each store....2 of the stores doubled the coupon (making the Halls FREE) and 1 store did not double it, so I paid .50 for the pack. Still a wonderful deal!

My little shopping trip yesterday

Here is my little shopping trip yesterday......DH had to get gas in his truck and gas cans, so I rode along with him (we get .50 off a gallon at kroger) and while he was getting gas, I was in the store buying all this with coupons and the using the store reward card:

2 rolls Bounty Basic FREE
3 Johnson & Johnson's Buddies (.47 for all 3, had a catalina coupon)
3 Mentos Gum FREE
6 packs Johnsonville Sausage Link (.50 each, total $3)
3 4-pks Danimals Crush-Cups (.29 each, total .87)
2 French's Mustard (.25 each, total .50)
6 Wish Bone Bountiful Dressings FREE
4 half-dozen eggs (special at .25 each, total $1)
2 packs Halls FREE

Total out of pocket for all $5.12
Total savings of $66.43

But I then received a check-out coupon for $1 off my next shopping (which my store doubles, so is worth $2!, along with another check-out coupon for $2.50 off any 3 Johnson & Johnson's products)

Now remember, I have to drive 25 miles one way to get to the store, so we do try to make the most of each trip!

Our store doubles the $1 coupons, but even if your store does not, check your sale prices this week on some things. Most all our stores around here (even the stores that do not double coupons) have the Johnsonville sausage on sale for either $2 or $2.50, so with a $1 off coupon that was in yesterdays paper (coupons inserts), still a really good deal, as these are normally $3.99 each.

Saving Cents

Hello!

I'm learning my way around the world of blogging, so please have patience with me.

My main goal for this blog will be to help others save money, including at the grocery store with coupons.