Aldi’s

It’s been a long time since I shopped at Aldi’s. We use to have one within walking distance but now it’s a drive a way. Fortunately, I found one just 2 miles from my work. So this week I ventured over to see what I could get. I spent $89 and did some major shopping. My major shopping at Kroger/Publix’s/Wal-mart usually cost me around $150 plus. I bought tons of canned veggies, meals (chicken, pork chops, pork tenderloin, Salmon, spaghetti etc). I bought frozen lunches and pizza. I bought essentials like butter and bread. Milk was only $2.99 but I had an unopened gallon at home and knew I would waste it more than saving so I skipped that deal. I bought quick breakfasts like cereal, bagels, cream cheese, and English muffins. I bought side dishes like instant potatoes (we usually don’t eat instant but they say 100% Idaho and I’m needing to help cut back on time), applesauce, scalloped potatoes, etc. I bet there is more! The point is I bought 2 weeks (I hope) worth of groceries for $89. You have to bag your own groceries but I have handy cloth bags that I love!

Example - we had Salmon last night. The package was $2 something and it had 4 pieces in it. We have two meals from it. Added some rice and we had a meal for probably less than $1 each!

Aldi’s does carry some name brand items, but they do not take coupons. If you find one near you, just keep in mind to bring your own sacks/boxes and that they don’t take credit cards. Since they are Swedish owned, you can get some great chocolates. I was a good girl and passed right by them!

When I looked at my receipt I noticed that tax on food was only 7.25% not the 9.25% I usually pay. It’s really in the next town over even if it’s only 2 miles away from work.

CMA Music Festival Discount

CMA Music Festivalin Nashville, TN June 5th - 8th. Use code MCDS08 at ticketmaster.com and receive $7 off of a $30 general admission nightly ticket. Offer good until May 30th.

 

Extra Dough

Take a short survey to qualify to win ten of $20 Schlotzsky’s gift cards. Click here. Thanks Beth for passing this on!

Here is a great freebie that we got our hands around this weekend. A friend got some free passes to our local Renaissance Fair. it was a fun free day, with drinks and snacks in the car for afterwards. No spending $5 for a treat each inside. Totally Free.

Budget

For those that use a $ amount budget for weekly or monthly groceries, what do you see your biggest obstacles? Do you include toiletries in your grocery budget or is that something separate? How about clothes, gifts and other yearly items you might need? I’m looking for ideas to help manage our budget. We are two working parents, with one parent wanting to go back to school in the fall. Money will be tight but in the long run we are hoping hubby going back to school and getting a higher degree in accounting will help me to stay home. We have one infant, 8 mth, and had thought about  trying again in the fall for #2. I think right now, that plan might have to be on hold. With two infants, I would have to stay home (and we actually are doing IVF - so the possibiity of twins is high). I want to start budgeting and saving now so we can make our dream our reality.

Organization

I’m looking for a way to organize all my coupons. I remember growing up my mom had a large packet purse/check book like thing that organized all her coupons. Do they still make those? How do you organize them so they are readily accessible? Do you go by date expired or product?

This week’s savings

Here are my two shopping trips from Friday.

Wal - greens

6 2-pack Gerber Baby foods on sale for $1.29 each

1 8-pack of Irish spring soap for $5.49

1 Bounty roll (this was my filler)

1 pack of 34 ct Huggies diapers on sale for $9.49

Used.

1/$1 coupon for Irish Spring

1/.25 coupon for Bounty

1/$1 for Gerber food

1/$1.50 for Huggies

$20 RR

OOP $3.35

*I need to get use to buying some items when spending RR that is going to give me back RR.

Target

2 boxes of Gerber cereal reduced to .88 each

3 bags of new Lays Crisps on sale for $2.50 (these chips are Awesome)

4 Gerber jars of baby food .59 each

2 12 pack of coke products on sale for $2.75

2 30 ct pack of Pampers 2/$17

1 tub of Pampers wipes

Used

1/$1 coupon for 2 boxes of cereal making them .38 each

3/$1 coupons for the Lays crisp making them $1.50 each

1/$1 for baby food makign them .34 each

1/.50 for wipes

And the diapers I had 1/$3 Target coupon (had to buy wipes) and 1/$2 off manufactory coupon making them 2 packs for $12. But I bought the wrong special on Pampers so when I went back and traded them for the right sale package, they took off my coupons again. I got 2 packs of 30 ct diapers for $7 making them .11 a diaper!

OOP $21.16 it would of cost me over $60.

Our Target didn’t have the Lipton tea on clearance like Why Ask Why’s target did - that was a bummer - I was aimed with coupons and ready! I’m getting better. Can’t wait to pick up my discounted Sunday paper for $1 tomorrow morning at Kroger to see what coupons they have for this coming week. I’m am going to try to get things we only need and buy constantly, unless something is free that I know a friend/family member uses.

Photos, Photos and more Photos

Money Saving Mom has a post about 50 free prints at CVS PLUS 1 5×7 and 1 8×10. Check it out!

Team it up with the Snapfish deal I mentioned before and you will get 100 free photos!

I took advantage of the free 8×10’s from Walgreens, so I’m really excited about 100 more prints for free. Great for Mother’s Day pictures tomorrow!

Getting Better - Wal-greens & Target

It’s late and I just got back from shopping, and boy did I do great. It’s so late though and my head is spinning. We are busy tomorrow but let’s just say I bought $60 worth of stuff I needed for …wait for it..wait for it…$24.51

 

Did I get it right?

Brace yourself for a long post!

I don’t think I did too well at the Wal-greens RR my first time around.

First try: I pleasantly shopped my cart around Wal-greens with my P&G product listing and coupons in hand. I grabbed 9 P&G low cost items and 2 packs of cookies and headed for the cashier. Everything was going well until….I only got $7 RR back. Three of that was for the cookies. I explained that something was wrong and opened up the paper to show I should of gotten $20 back in RR. Manager #1 came over and thought he might could just print me out the missing amount. Manager #2 came over and said “you can’t combine with the coupons.” I stood my ground and explained that, yes in fact you could use the coupons and still get the RRs back. Manager #2 didn’t have patience. I voided my transaction and left the store scratching my head, “what did I do wrong?”

On my way home I stopped at another Wal-greens. With my list in hand, I picked up, again, my 9 P&G items and checked out. This time it only printed $10 in RRs. I pulled out the flier and the manager reviewed. It’s not on all P&G products (my mistake) it is only for specific P&G products. He gave me the already printed $10 RR just for my trouble. Okay - I went through the store and got more toothpaste - 6 total 2/$5 with a 3/$3 off coupon which was good for $9.00 off. Then I picked up some Cascade that was on sale with a 1/$1 coupon. I needed two more items. I looked through the flyer and there wasn’t anything else I needed. I didn’t need febreze or swifter items and the toothpaste was all gone. I looked at the free after rebates - nothing I needed. In a panic I grabbed deodorant that was not on sale nor did I have a coupon. I just couldn’t concentrate. So my deodorant cost way too much - about $10 though the Secret did have an extra bonus little sample size for my purse. I spent $18 to get 20 RR - that didn’t seem like a good transaction.

However, I actually got $30 RR for my $18 of products.

Now I have a total of $36 RR.

Huggies are on sale for $9.47. Which, honestly, is not a sale for me when I normally use Parent Choice Diapers from Wal-mart for $13.93 getting 103 diapers. I have a $5 rebate I could use if I bought three packages. So I bought three thinking I could use the $30 RR. I could only use $20 RR. I ended up paying $11.10 for the three packages. I will get $5 back spending $6.10 which comes out to .06 a diaper! And wouldn’t you know it, I got home and had 2 $1.50 coupons in my mail box. I could repeat and get 9 toothpaste, get $20 RR - buy three more packs and pay $5.41. I couldn’t use the rebate twice (but yes I could - I could use my husbands name and home address on one form and my name and work address on the second one) and get them for .41 cents. Do you think I should try it? I just read the fine print on the rebate and it doesn’t say “one per a household”, it does say “while supplies last”. Gamble? I spent a total of $24.10 after rebate, earning $30 - buying 3 packages of diapers, 6 tubes of toothpaste, Cascade and 2 deodorant.

I’m not really happy with that. I have $16 in RR left. Here is my plan.

Go back and get 8 (total of 16 cause it’s two to a package) Gerber baby jar foods which are 8/$10 using two $2 coupons bringing it down to $6. Then buy the two packs of cookies for $5. Use a $10 RR and only pay $1.50 plus tax and get get $3 in RR back. So would you consider I made a profit of $1.50?

Save my, now, $9 RR for other weeks in May.

If they had more Crest toothpaste I would have been so much lower - panic struck.

Here is what I learned.

The deal is not for any P&G items, only specific ones.

You can not use more than one RR per transaction. However, when you buy the 9 P&G products and you get 2 $10 RR - you can use those in one transaction. They have to print from the same deal. **Updated - you can use more than one RR - the transaction has to equal the purchase price.

Don’t panic!

Be smart - save some RR for the next few weeks before the expire and try to get other good deals for free! In the long run, my $24.10 will pay off - right???