Learning Walgreens

Where have I been, huh? Well, we are doing the South Beach diet right now, which is a little on the pricey side. For now I'm not trying to pinch pennies in the grocery budget. However, I'm trying to get into the drug store game and get our personal products and home products for very little.

So, here is the deal I got today with some mistakes.

(1) Vaseline Sheer Infusion Lotion $6.99-$1.50 coupon=$5.49 received $7 RR

(1) Oral-B Advantage Toothbrush $3.00 received $3 RR

(1) Chapstick Fresh Effects $2.99 received $3 RR

(1) Gillete Fusion Razor $8.99-$4.00 coupon=$4.99

(1) Gillette Venus Razor $7.99-$2.00 coupon=$5.99 received $4.00 RR

(1) Herbal Essence Shampoo $2.99-$1.00 coupon=$1.99 received $2.00RR

(1) 80ct Bounce $3.99-$1.00 coupon=$2.99

The original total was $39.14. Would you pay almost $40 for this?!? I hope not. I realize Walgreens is expensive if you don't know the deals. So, this how I ended:

$39.14-$5/$25 Walgreens Coupon-$9.50 in manufactured coupons-$5.54 in gift cards=$19.10

That still sounds like a lot, but I received $19 in Registered Rewards (RR) to use on my next trip, so I actually paid $0.10. Not bad but could have been better.

Did make some mistakes. I thought I had a $1.00 coupon for the tooth brush. I had $4 in registered rewards from a previous time, that I couldn't find, which would have meant less out of pocket. And on the Gillette Fusion Razor if I was paying better attention I would have gotten $6RR on it if I would have gotten the MVP. I would have had $14.10 out of pocket and $25 in RR.

This probably sounds as clear as mud. I'll try to think of a better way to present it next time.

Slipping Into Old Habits

This month is not looking so great. I have gone back to going to the store too often. I'm doing my main grocery shopping every two weeks, but too many little trips are happening. I must regain focus and get back on track. We have what we have and do with it what we can. I need to dedicate more effort in the planning stage, because if the foundation isn't sturdy the plan will crumble. I can do this and I know it worth it. We work too hard for our money. Ok, now that I have given myself a pep talk time to get back on track.

Albuquerque Grocery Deals

I figured a way to get around the fact that Albertons won't take internet coupons. Walmart will price match and take internet coupons, so I can still get the deals that I come up with. (I have had a problem occasionally with Walmart saying they don't take internet coupons, since the last time, I printed their policy on the matter and take it with me.) These are all items you can price match at Walmart and I have found coupons at coupons.com and smartsource.com for the majority of them.

Suddenly Salad Sale Price $0.79-Coupon 0.40=$0.39 (This is originally $1.88)

Hamburger Helper Sale Price $0.79-Coupon 0.25=$0.54 (The coupon is $0.75 off 3)

Totino's Pizza Rolls Sale Price $0.79-Coupon 0.27=$0.52 (The coupon is $0.55 off 2)

Fiber One Bars Sale Price $1.99-Coupon 0.40=$1.59 (This is about half off the original price)

Fiber One Yogurt Sale Price $1.49-Coupon 1.00=$0.49 (Coupon at Betty Crocker website)

These are some of the deals that caught my eye this week. Usually I'm not too big into couponing but if you watch closely you can get some great deals.

Learning

I'm finding that some of the deals mentioned on other blogs don't necessarily apply to my area. Last week I saw this awesome deal for $25 of free Kraft products. I got excited and raced to the store and bought the items that were included in the deal. Well, no catalina printed nor did the rebate form when I checked out. I came home and reread the deal to make sure I wasn't missing anything. There were some exclusions for Arizona stores and a few others but NM was not mentioned. Come to find out NM Albertsons are Albertsons LLC and their warehouse is in Arizona, so the deal really wasn't suppose to apply to NM stores. Fortunately, the store honored the deal and ended up giving me a $25 store gift card, but I had to go through some frustration and the possible chance of returning everything I had bought since it wasn't stuff I would normally buy.

I also found out that this store does not take internet coupons. Another store doesn't do stacking.

The point is before you think you have the greatest deal ask the store their policies it will save you time and frustration. Time is money, right?

July Results Are In and a Tip

Well, we did ok, but didn't improve any from last month. We spent $287 on groceries and $131 on dining out for a total of $418. The time that we were out of town for a family reunion I catorgized the dining out under vacation. I got in the vacation mode I guess, so even when we were home we ate out more than we normally do.

I mentioned about a baking day in my last post. One day the kids took a long nap thank goodness, so I could finish everything I had going. I made granola, 4 loaves of zuchinni bread, a dozen freezer burritos, dozen and half of biscuits, and processed some grated cheese, and zuchinni for future use. Doing this saved us a couple of times from Scott buying lunch and also provided some breakfast items that I didn't have to get out of bed to make sure there was something to eat. It took me about three hours to do it all, but I think it was well worth the effort. Have a baking day occassionally can save you time, money, and effort.

If you need to do similiar task to make different items you can save yourself some time by doing the task all at once for several dishes. For instances, browning hamburger, you could brown up a few pounds of hamburger and freeze it in small packages. This would save you the step of browning hamburger everytime you make something with browned hamburger. Anyway we can make cooking easier, right?

July Grocery Shopping and Meal Planning

You are probably going to think I'm going to break the bank when I tell you that I have spent $215 on groceries already this month. This is actually for meals until we head out of town plus includes some food storage, so hold on. We have also spent $19 on eating out. I know this is going to go up, but hopefully not too too much. Going out of town tends to do that.

The menu has some pretty good variety to it I think.

Hot Dogs w/Chips in honor of going to a baseball game

Ham Salad for get together

Chicken Pot Pie w/Salad

Pasta Carbonara (thanks Michelle for the recipe, it was really good) w/Salad

Spanish Noodles n' Ground Beef

Tuna Noodle Casserole w/Veggie

Chicken Lo Mein

Baked Ziti

Ham & Beans w/Cornbread

Chicken Couscous

Fried Rice (Scott LOVES this!)

Meatloaf, Potatoes, w/Veggie (LOVES this too!)

Shredded Beef Burritos w/Homemade Spanish Rice

Roasted Chicken, Potatoes, Zucchini

Spaghetti Pasta Salad

Teriyaki Beef Over Rice

BBQ Chicken, Baked Beans, Potatoes

Pizza X 3

Usually I am able to get a few more meals out of what I purchase, so I'm hoping I can make it all the way through the end of the month.

Next up will be about my baking day.

Making Progress

Well, June is officially over and is now time to report my progress. We spent $327 for groceries and dining out this past month. We spent $259 on groceries and $68 eating out. Eating out would have been lower than that if we hadn't gone out of town so much, but then the groceries would be higher. We switched our money tracking program so this might be a little off, but I think it is pretty close to representing what we spent. I am definitely happy with this progress and hope to strive to do even better this month.