Same lesson/ different day

This totally blows but I guess I can't be too mad...

Yesterday, my mom was out and about so I asked her if she would stop by Fred Meyer to take advantage of the Kraft Shredded Cheese deal that Karissa told us about on Friday. No problem.

I gave her 4 of the $1.00/2 coupons for 8 bags of cheese, figuring that after the store coupon and MFRs, OOP would be $6.00 and then get the $5.00 catalina back, so it would be like paying $1.00 for 8 bags of cheese right? Right!

It would have been perfect, except for the fact that the cashier only scanned 3 of the coupons :( Oh, she took them all, but it's done now.

Like I said, I guess I can't be too upset, I still got 8 bags of shredded cheese for $2.00 and the $5.00 catalina, but it goes to show how important it is to check your receipt before leaving the store!

I'm just sayin...

My mom knows this, but she is in the middle of a remodel/redecorate thing right now and her mind was on other things. She was doing me a favor while running her own errands, so I can't be mad.

Sure is getting hot

I had planned on working in my yard this morning but its already hot outside! It is suppose to be close to 90 degrees today. I know that my Texas visitor's are probably laughing but you got to remember, we still had frost not even 3 weeks ago so going from freezing to 90 in such a short period is rather hard to assimilate too. Shout out to my 4th step-cousin twice removed (I think) down there in Lubbock, TX! I appreciate you stopping by :)

Im not even going to talk about my weekly shopping this week cuz we blew it bigtime. The hamburger on Monday and then yesterday my husband brought home a case of chickens that he picked up cheap. Luckily I was able to get my neighbor across the street to go in on it so that helped but we still went over the $50.00 "guide line" by about $40.00. Good news is, we wont have to buy ground beef or chicken for a LONG, LONG time....

Earlier this week I went into the Rainbow Grocery Outlet, sometimes you can find really good deals there even though they do not accept coupons. I had a little time to kill and a notepad so I decided to write down some prices of random things in store and then compare it to Safeway since I had to there to get Milk anyway. Yes, I could have purchased Milk at the Grocery Outlet, but we recently switched to Organic Milk and Safeway actually had it on sale. Here is a list of different things around the store.

Folgers coffee, 41.8 oz.

Grocery Outlet Price = $6.99

Safeway Price = $8.99 for 33 oz. (the largest they had)

Jif Peanut Butter, 18 oz.

Grocery Outlet price = $1.99

Safeway Price = $3.45

Lia Maria Shredded Parmasan or Asiago Cheese, 5 oz.

Grocery Outlet Price = $1.99

Buttoni Shredded Ramano, 5 oz.

Grocery Outlet Price = $1.79

Safeway didnt have the same brands, but had:

Deli Creation Shredded Ramano, 6 oz., $4.49

DiGiorno, 6 oz. $5.79

Stella, 5 oz., $4.49

River Ranch Bag salad, 1 lb.

Grocery Outlet Price = .99 cents

Safeway had Fresh Express Bag Salad, 1 lb at $1.99

Pop-Eye Bagged Spinach 10 oz.

Grocery Outlet Price = $1.99

Safeway had Fresh Express Bagged Spinach, 6 oz. at $3.49

Fresh Artichokes

Grocery Outlet Price = 2/$1.00 (they did look a bit rough though)

Safeway Price = 2/$4.00 (they didn't look much better)

Avina Fresh whole Crimini Mushrooms, 8 oz.

Grocery Outlet Price = $1.99

Safeway Price = $2.99

Whole Fresh Pineapple

Grocery Outlet Price = 2/$3.00

Safeway Price = $2.99 each

Fresh Mangos

Grocery Outlet Price = 2/$1.00

Safeway Price = $1.50 each

Fresh Garlic

Grocery Outlet Price = 5/.99 cents

Safeway Price = 2/$1.00

Fresh Ginger Root, 1 lb.

Grocery Outlet Price = .99 cents

Safeway Price = $3.99

Kids Cuisine Chicken Tender Meal

Grocery Outlet Price = $1.29

Safeway Price = $2.49, unless you bought 5, then $1.99

Assorted Sarah Lee Bakery Products

Whole Grain White Bread

Grocery Outlet Price = .99 cents

Safeway Price = $3.39

Bagels, 13 ct. (mini)

Grocery Outlet Price = .99 cents

Safeway Price = $3.89

Hamburger Buns, 8 ct.

Grocery Outlet Price = .99 cents

Safeway Price = $2.99

Near East Long grain and wild rice

Grocery Outlet Price = $1.29

Safeway Price = $2.26

Cucina Tuscana Green Olives stuffed with Garlic, 13.54 oz.

Grocery Outlet Price = $1.99

Closest thing to it at Safeway was Mezzetta, 10 oz. at $7.19

Pepperage Farms Pretzel Thins

Grocery Outlet Price = .99 cents

Safeway Price = $3.49

Nabisco Lorna Doone 100 calerie 6 pk.

Grocery Outlet Price = $1.69

Safeway Price = $2.50

Nature Valley Granola Bars

Grocery Outlet Price = .99 cents

Safeway Price = $3.79

In general, I wasn't that suprised as I have been shopping at the Grocery Outlet for several years, used to go with my Mom when I was a kid, but I also know that you do have to be careful about what you buy there because they can be (in a few cases) actually higher then what you would pay somewhere else with a coupon. That being said, I always buy my Parmasan, Gorganzola and Gouda (my much beloved stinky fromages) there because it is considerably cheaper. Coffee is almost always a better deal there, even when compared to Cosco or weekly sale ads by other stores. As with any store you go too, watch the "best by" dates. Grocery Outlet does not sell expired items, but some of them are pretty close dated. But then again, Ive seen the same thing at Walmart so I guess its not here or there really.

Next week, Ginger and I plan on going on a Free Spree, we are going to hit every Walgreens, Right-Aid, Walmart and Target on the Northside and pick up any and everything we can get for free or near free with coupons. It should be a fun day, even if we dont find anything. There is this gal (not sure if she lives in Spokane or not) who does this and then sells it all at her yard sales, and making some good money. Very Clever!

Leah

A blog about blogs

Alas, I will not be shopping today as the Garden needs tending and I got a truck load of LLamma Poo festering in my drive way that the neighbors probably wont be lovin on this afternoon, but I was looking at some other blogs this morning and I got to say, some of these ladies from Idaho and Utah are certainly setting the bar when it comes to finding awesome deals out there.

Some areas in Idaho got more Albertsons double coupons in yesterdays paper, I dont think that we did :(

Here are some links a few of these awesome blogs and other websites that I like to check out.

http://www.fabulesslyfrugal.com/ - check out her Walmart senerio for next week.

http://krazycouponlady.blogspot.com/ - her T-shirt is hilarious! She has some very good information about store policies.

http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=65 - Post your questions and good deals here for other WA state couponaholics to see. Great community forum.

http://www.hotcouponworld.com/index.php - Didn't I see a coupon for that? They got a database that will let you know for sure, and a forum to chat at as well.

I wish everyone a Happy and Safe Memorial Day Weekend!

Leah

Getting my head around this aka thinking outloud

I have been matching up coupons with sales for about 18 years now, some years better then others, and not as aggressively as I have been in the last 3 weeks, but over time I have developed a shopping habbit that not only includes buying the items that we currently need but also purchasing items I know we will need when the price was right on them. As a result, I started this with a well stocked pantry and nearly full freezer. I still have canned goods and Hamburger helper I paid .50 cents a box for last fall when Yokes and Rosauers had their annual Case sales and we still have frozen chickens that my husband paid .79 cents per lb. for when the store he works at got stuck with several cases of it that they needed to get rid of it.

Which got me to pondering a bit, thinking about how the $50.00 per week budget is really working out .

Many of my purchases this week were for food items that we wont be eating up this week, like the Suddenly Salad, the salad dressings and BBQ sauce, the bag of potatoes and the 4 lbs of cheese and 5 cases of Pop I bought, so how do I factor that into a weekly budget when those items will be used over the next several weeks? What about the Rib Eye my husband is bringing home today? Its going to put me over the $50.oo for this week, but considering that he is a meat cutter and will probably get 2 steaks out of each pound he brings home we will have several steak dinners in the future at $2.00 per steak, how does that factor in? How about the fact that the only thing I purchased this week for tonights meal is the salad, salad dressing and eggs, we already had the hamburger for the meatloaf Im making and the french bread was free anyway.

I need a new way to approach this.

Okay, we NEVER pay full price for meat, my husband makes sure of that. Its also nice to know before hand what is going to be going on sale in the meat department because we can check the freezer and see if it is something we are going to need. If not, we dont buy it (unless it gets marked down even more because the store is getting hung on it).

In the summer when the garden is going we dont buy very much produce either - thats the whole point of having a garden in the first place, why should I spend $1.99 on a bag of salad when I spent less on the seed packet that will give us salad all summer?

Maybe for us, its not a matter of having a weekly budget as so much as keeping track of what we buy, how much we spend and how much we save. I have started a spreadsheet to keep track of this with. Based on the last 3 weeks, I have spent $138.64 for groceries that have not only fed us during this period but will continue to feed us for several more weeks. I have saved $158.35 by purchasing these groceries while they were on sale with coupons.

Here is my new strategy:

• Continue to create a weekly menu. This is a new concept for me but I am finding that it works extremely well. Based on what I already have I can shop the sales for what ever additional items I need to complete that meal. Bonus, Im also remembering to take what I need out of the freezer ahead of time AND Double Bonus, it has effectively put a stop to the daily question of "Whats for Dinner?"
• Continue to aggressively match up coupons with sales for items that I know we will have need of in the future. Keeping in mind that periodically I will go over $50 a week but that the additional spending will be spread out over future weeks.
• Never pay full price for something if it is absolutely un-neccessary!
• Continue to track the spending and savings on a spreadsheet.

As this is my new strategy I will most likely have to tweek it as time goes by but I think it is going to work better for us and the already established shopping habbits we have. Im still going to try to keep the budget at $50 per week or less, but if I go over Im not going to beat myself up about it. Im going to view it as a guide line to curtail any impulse shopping. And on the weeks when we do better, it will be bonus money for the savings account.

Leah