A Trip to CVS (isn't as much fun anymore) - June 15, 2011

I look back fondly at 2008 and 2009, when I would go to CVS weekly and spend pennies (or nothing, when the ECBs took care of the sales tax too!) and come home with bags and bags of toiletries and things we needed. Sigh. At some point I spent all my Bucks on some things we needed (better to do that than to spend cash, but it sucked) and the appealing deals started to dry up and my time/ability to sneak out before the kid woke on Sunday mornings dried up too.

So yesterday I went to CVS for the first time in forever to take advantage of a deal - my husband's preferred razor on sale for "free" after ECBs and coupon. And it was back to the old "I actually spent money to get something for free" thing, rather than "I spent my ECBs and it really was free!" It still was a decent deal though.

First, I bought the razor. It was on sale for $7.99, and you got back $4 in ECBs. I had a coupon for $4 off. So I spent $4 plus tax out of pocket and got $4 back. Then I used that $4 immediately - rather than saving it and rolling it and getting in the game again - to buy a hair product my husband asked for as well as a bottle of dishwashing liquid. I spent about 50 cents that time and got back nothing. Oh and I got another scan on my Green Bag Tag, so at some point I'll get another $1 from that (that's a great deal - 25 cents per visit for using your own bags!).

We're headed on a trip to visit family shortly. I'm both excited - seeing family and friends, possibly getting to see the ocean and/or the lake - and dreading it - a two-day drive each way, a kid who whines about every other song that comes up on the iPod (all songs that she likes anyway)...

Maybe I'll update while we're away...

Well Hey There, Kroger, Thanks for the Freebies - March 10, 2011

Hello Kroger, hello gorgeous. I know, I know, we've had our differences in the past. I'm still crabby that you didn't give me my free soda. Your little brother is really rude about my coupon usage. Your parents don't care about me or you. You're expensive and you're inconsistent and I just don't understand you sometimes.

But when you give me $19 worth of paper towels for free, throw in a free shampoo, and then give me a giant pack of TP for $2.99 (alongside the free TP and Tide detergent you gave me earlier), well, I kind of forgive you. For now, anyway.

Thank you very much to IHeartKroger.com for tipping me off that the free Bounty coupon I loaded onto my card a few days ago had no size limit. My paper goods closet is now fully stocked for a while. I probably won't be home for today's freebie, but I'm thrilled at what I have scored from this promotion so far.

However, the truth is, I'm still a Publix girl. Shhhhh.

PS PLEASE help me win $500 by clicking here and learning about Purex Complete Crystals. All you have to do is click, you don't have to do anything else. THANK YOU!

Shopping and Saving and Sunshine - February 27, 2011

PLEASE help me win $500 by clicking here and learning about Purex Complete Crystals. All you have to do is click, you don't have to do anything else. THANK YOU!

It is an absolutely gorgeous 71-degree day here in Georgia. We just got back from running a few errands, including picking up eggs from my friend and her backyard chickens (I'm spoiled - eggs from the grocery store, no matter how organic-free-range-happy-chickeny they claim to be, just don't taste as good now). The kid is napping so I figured I'd jot down some notes on the shopping trips of the day.

• I'm still not a fan of Kroger. Publix absolutely has lower everyday prices on the things I buy regularly - everything from Laughing Cow cheese and Vitatops to bread and milk. But as I'd noted earlier, I won a $20 Kroger gift card on Facebook and then my dad won another $20 Kroger gift card at a convention and gave it to me. I had spent part of the first card already to buy the Sunday paper, some white vinegar (I use it as fabric softener), and some other small things, leaving me with about $30 total between the two cards. So back we went today since our pantry and fridge were both kind of bare.
• I spent around $30 out of pocket in the end, after gift cards and coupons. Notable purchases included five packs of cat treats for completely free and two boxes of "garden" pasta for 29 cents each. Nothing amazing, though the cats do eat far more treats than they should so I'm always looking for cheap/free ones. Note: My cats turn their nose up at anything remotely healthy when it comes to treats. Their food is on the higher end, and I sometimes buy them Wellness or Nutro wet food. But treats have to be of the Doritos and Cheetos variety. Silly cats.
• We also went to Big Lots. I was there about a week ago and had seen but not purchased some boxes of Brew-Over-Ice K-cups. At the time, there were a few different varieties, and most were 16 cup boxes for $7, which is good but not amazing for soon-to-expire coffee. However, that day there also were a few that were very close to their expiration date marked down to $3.50. I didn't buy any and then was mad at myself for not grabbing some. So today I was disappointed to find only one variety was on the shelf - Nantucket Brew Over Ice (which is really double-strength coffee, and I like the Nantucket blend) - but it was marked down to $2 a box. I grabbed three boxes. They expire in about a week, but K-cups are individually sealed packets of coffee, and I adulterate my coffee with lots of (almond) milk and sugar, plus they'll be made over ice, so I really don't care. I've enjoyed K-cups that were expired before, and I couldn't turn down such a steal. I'll be keeping my eye out for more K-cups in the future. And I LOVE iced coffee.
• That was all I was supposed to buy at Big Lots, but I swung by the book pile as I was walking out. All books were marked down to $2 - that's cheaper than at Goodwill - so I bought a book about Neil Gaiman for a friend and A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire for me. And then we randomly walked down an aisle (chosen by the kid - smart cookie, she is) and found a Backyardigans potty seat for really cheap as well. She's obsessed with the Backyardigans and she's, as I mentioned before, potty training herself. Perfection. She even used it a bit later at egg-friend's house. YES.

So now I'm enjoying an iced coffee (with a splash of Torani caramel syrup in it), relaxing, and wondering what we'll do when she wakes up....

Return to Kroger to save 60% - February 5, 2011

Today's shopping trip was...interesting. I decided that a dollar for Goldfish crackers was definitely a good stockup price, and 50 cents for cat treats wasn't bad either (wish I'd planned ahead and just bought some coupons to get more for...well, free plus the cost of buying coupons, which would be less than 50 cents for sure). I added a few other things from the 10/$5 sale to my list and off we went.

The trip went well enough. My daughter has decided that checking out of any store is a terrifying thing that must be avoided at all costs. The second the shopping cart pauses near a register or line, she starts thrashing around, crying, and making lots of word approximations that I don't understand. It's a situation where I really wish she could just...talk. Or at least use some of the few words she does have. I haven't the slightest clue what part of this upsets her, and usually the result - including this time - is to have my husband take her out of the cart and walk around with her while I check out. It's an extra added bonus of stress and I hate it. Shopping on a weekend also sucks and neither my husband nor I deal well with that.

Please note that I am not asking for suggestions as to what might be upsetting her or how to handle this. I am just venting for a minute. Thanks!

And finally, I find something about this whole excursion very amusing. When you see the list of purchases below, you'll see that I didn't really get...food. I got snacks, treats, and condiments (and laundry detergent) on sale. Things we use and enjoy, but not necessities this time around. Sometimes I get great deals on those too, but I wanted to acknowledge that I didn't get great and important deals.

All prices are after coupons and 10/$5 savings:
7 bags of Goldfish crackers for 99 cents each.
2 bottles of Ken's salad dressing for $1.19 each.
2 bottles of All Free & Clear laundry detergent (our preferred brand) - 32 loads - $1.99 each.
2 bottles of French's spicy brown mustard - 19 cents each (basically filler - how many bags of Goldfish do we really need?)
2 bottles of Frank's hot sauce (buffalo wing and sweet chili) - 49 cents each.
2 Reach toothbrushes - free (more filler!)
3 packs of Whisker Lickins cat treats - 49 cents each. I'd rather have gotten more of these than the toothbrushes, but someone else had already been by and cleaned the store out. My husband found these three bags in the wayyyyyy back of the top shelf.
So I could have just gotten the crackers and cat treats and stopped at that, but we did really want the salad dressing and I wanted the Frank's sauces (they're great on tofu). Thus the filler items. We'll use and enjoy the mustard, but I didn't absolutely need it.
I also got a bottle of Kroger salad dressing for free and a pack of baby carrots for free thanks to coupons I got in the mail directly from Kroger. And then we also bought tofu, salad, bananas, and a few vegetables (and a scouring pad for a pan with burnt rice on the bottom). Some of that was on sale too.

I spent $28.77 and saved $41.30 - a savings of 59%.  Not bad.

Money is going to be tight for the next few weeks, so I'm hoping there will be sales/coupons on actual food items, heh.

I saved 79% at Kroger! - February 3, 2011

I haven't done a good savings post in a while, and I've gotten far too serious around these parts. Let us lighten the mood with tales of coupons and groceries, shall we? Bonus - as I write up this post, these deals are still available (until February 5, 2011) so maybe I'll help someone...?

I'm a Publix girl. I prefer to not have to hand over a shoppers card (though I still do because I have a UPromise card...oops) and I like that things are simply on sale and I don't have to jump through hoops to figure it all out. Kroger is different. Overall I find their everyday prices to be higher than Publix and their sales usually do have a gimmick attached. BUT when their sales are good, their sales are REALLY good. (Also I love their store-brand slow-churned ice creams, but I'm supposed to be on a diet so I don't buy ice cream much. DIGRESSION! YAY!)

This week Kroger is doing one of their Buy-10-get-$5 sales. So you have to buy ten things that are on sale and then you get $5 off your total at the end, or 50 cents off each thing. You can mix and match though. I'm always worried when I do this that somehow the computer isn't going to count properly or something will be left off. Today everything went beautifully though.

So here's what I got:
4 packages of Goldfish crackers (my kid loooooves these and I got the whole grain kind so they're....healthyishsorta?) - they're normally $2.19. They are on sale this week for $1.49. After the special sale, they're 99 cents a pack. That's my stock-up price, and I think I need to go back and just buy 10 more. I was on foot or I'd probably have done that.
2 cans of Rotel (yum) - usually 10/$10, on "sale" for 99 cents (silly). After the special sale, 49 cents a can. I had coupons for 25 cents off each can, and each coupon doubled. So each can was free and I did get that whole giant penny in overage from each one too.
4 packages of Whisker Lickins cat treats (for my spoiled cats - we had some health scares earlier in the week so now they are even MORE spoiled) - usually $1.49, on sale for $99 cents, 49 cents after the sale. I had two coupons for $1 off two, so these were also all free and I wish I had more coupons because my cats LOVE treats. Luckily there's a deal at Publix that can net me some more free treats for the next month.

I also forgot that I had a Cellfire coupon loaded onto my card for 50 cents off my entire purchase. If you go to Kroger, sign up at Cellfire.com. They offer e-coupons but they also occasionally do these special bonus deals where you just "win" a bit off your total.

Grand total after sale, coupons, e-coupon, and 10-$5? $3.40 plus 22 cents tax. RAH. Love it! And then on my way out I noticed the clearance bins had packages of 100 bendy straws marked down to 50 cents, so I ran back in for them (my kid can't drink out of an open cup yet, so straws are our BFFs and I always carry a bunch of them in a toothbrush holder in my purse or diaper bag).

As I mentioned, though, I think I want to go back for more Goldfish. Also I could get free Dove deodorant (which I'd probably donate) and cheap mustard, All laundry detergent, and salad dressing. I don't know if I can buy, say, 20 things and get $10 off - if you do know, leave me a comment!

Tadah!

Let's Talk about Freebies - January 16, 2011

Don't forget that my contest to win a Solofill reusable filter for your Keurig brewer is still going - it ends Friday!

I've been able to score a bunch of freebies at stores, I've won a contest, and I cashed in some MyPoints, so I wanted to make a note of it. My goal with this blog is not to give you the heads up on deals - there are plenty that cover that (including many in my blogroll!) - but to talk about the deals I got, both to keep track for myself (selfish! ha!) and to inspire you. I don't have a ton of extra time (right now I'm writing this blog post while my daughter works with her speech therapist) nor a lot of patience - I'll never be on Extreme Couponing nor will I ever have an entire floor of my house devoted to a stockpile - but I do love to get a deal!

• Best deals first - I won a Melitta One: Single Cup Coffee Pod Brewer and a box of pods from American Coffee Services!  So fun! They have great prices on single-serve coffee pods/K-cups/T-discs, etc., so check them out!
• I saved up enough points from MyPoints.com to earn a $50 Amazon gift card. (If you'd like a referral to the site, which would give me some bonus points, leave your email address in a comment on this post. However, you can also join without a referral, so go for it!)
• I won another few $5 Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks. I really like the new Food videos on the site, actually, and watching them has boosted my bucks a ton.
• I scored two bags of Hartz Crunch N'Clean cat treats at Target for free. They were on sale (or...is this the everyday price?) for $1.49 and I had two coupons for $1.50 off. I learned about this deal from CouponMom.com by the way - that's one of my favorite sites for the quick-and-dirty best deals. I also got two giant canisters of oatmeal for 4 cents each (plus I got 5 cents back for using my own bag so...6 cents for 96 ounces of oatmeal - and I love oatmeal!)
• I scored an adorable tree-shaped tent for my daughter's bedroom for $20 - $10 off of the regular price - because I found it hidden on a clearance rack on the perimeter of the Target store.
• I got a free bottle of Sierra Mist Naturals soda from Target because the last time I was there a coupon printed out for a free bottle with no extra purchase required. A nice treat, and I like that this soda uses sugar and not HFCS or artificial junk.
• I got four bags of Friskies cat treats for free from Kroger with a coupon that came out in November and that expires today. The treats are on sale for $1 per bag (a great deal already) and the coupon was $2/2.

However, I also bought the double paper today (the early and late editions bundled together for $3 instead of $4) and one was missing some coupons. (I emailed the paper; last time this happened, they mailed me the coupons. It's annoying though.) And the bedding we bought my daughter at Target last night is on sale today (of course) (but I may go back and get my refund if I have time). And I dropped off empty ink cartridges at Staples last week and then I found out that Office Depot is giving $5 per cartridge instead of the $3 I'll get from Staples. Ah well. I can't win them all! (I did get a box of 18 K-cups at Office Depot for $6 by using a 40% off coupon - yay!)

Adventures in Hello Kitty-land - the Sanrio pop-up shop hits Atlanta (plus Publix deals) - November 28, 2010

My friend Missy (she of the famous zines and crafts galore) tipped me off that the Sanrio pop-up shop was going to be in Atlanta this weekend. It's the kind of thing I either usually hear of after the fact or find out about but don't get to go to. But hey, we happened to have a Sunday with nothing planned while it was here, so we headed out.

Oh. My. Gah. the cuteness. It was like a little Sanrio village had been set up in Atlantic Station. There were cars and trucks covered with Sanrio goodness (including the sweetest little Sanrio Smart Car), there were ladies dressed up in pink sparkles and frilly dresses, and there was the shop itself, which may have made me squeal a little bit.

I hate pictures of myself. This is no exception. Focus on the car!

First we hit the spin-the-wheel table. I won a small prize - a bookmark and a coloring book (plus a packet of almonds that have a coupon on them that has expired and that have partially hydrogenated oil on them...). Then my daughter "spun" with help from daddy, and she won the GRAND PRIZE, a $10 Target gift card. Mama like! Plus, my husband recognized one of the women working (I think?) as San Smith, who is a local artist who makes ADORABLE things. Of course I had no idea who she was until we got home and I got to see her website - but now...LOVE. LOVE! Check her out.

Then we went over to the shop. I was kind of...surprised at how laid back the staff was. Whatever, I wasn't there to impress anyone. Not surprisingly, on the other hand, everything was pricey if freaking adorable. I couldn't justify the Lomo camera nor even a $35 T-shirt, so I settled for a box of bandaids (the tin itself is cute too) and a little Tuxedo Sam (my fave) memo cube. It came out to less than $9, so I came out ahead - woohoo! Plus I scored a little goodie bag full of extra Sanrio stuff including a bizarre gelatin-laden (aka on-the-way-to-the-trash) Kitty pop and some stuff from the Target dollar bin. Still, extras are always appreciated! Plus they gave me two coupons for free HK bandaids at Target. And everything was packed in another cute Sanrio bag. Seriously, could I say cute a few more times? CUTE. I'm really glad I managed to get to it. Thanks, Missy!

All I actually bought were the bandaids and cube at the bottom. Everything else was a freebie.

The stuff from the goodie bag, including the nasty "pop" and the trans-fatty almonds. And lipgloss!

And finally, since we were out of a few basics, we went over to the Atlantic Station Publix. There I scored two free bags of rice (added to my ever-growing bag for donating to the food pantry) and 10 packages of Gardein for $1 each (I bought 20 $1 coupons on eBay for $1.50 once I saw the sale was happening, something I rarely get my act together enough to do - even if I don't get any more, the overall deal was totally worth it). Oh and more Laughing Cow for $1. The cashier even commented that I saved almost as much as I spent (we also got non-sale items like milk and eggs - although soon we should be getting in on regular backyard-chicken egg deliveries from a friend...) and of course that made me happy.

And tomorrow? PRESCHOOL STARTS BACK UP. Mama like.

CVS - Two boxes of Quaker Oatmeal for 8 cents - October 11, 2010

Eight cents!

I haven't been shopping CVS as religiously as I did in the past. I don't have time and the deals haven't been as good - I don't really need more toothpaste at this point (even for donation purposes). This week's got me back in though. I'd spent all $11 of my ECBs a few weeks ago on batteries and was down to zero; last week I bought a friend a Coke and used my Green Bag Tag (GBT), so I got a dollar back...

This week, Quaker Oatmeal is on sale two-for-$5. You get back $2 in Extrabucks when you buy it, which is a decent enough deal with no coupons. Then there is a $2 printable available, so two of those plus my dollar from my GBT made the oatmeal free. I paid 8 cents out of pocket (tax) and I got back the $2. Yay!

Today we're trying out sending the kid to preschool for two extra hours - a full, regular day. I'm really nervous about this for a lot of reasons, but we'll see how it works out. If it goes well, we'll have to have an IEP meeting to make it official. Ah, meetings.

Publix (and I hate driving) - October 1, 2010

About 43% savings at Publix - not bad.

I hate driving. I hate it so much. I hate bicyclists who don't yield. I hate trying to maneuver around bicyclists on a two-lane road. I hate people who don't signal when they turn. I hate iiiiiitttttttt. But, look, I'm doing it. I'm doing it, and I'm going places, and I'll just have to suck it up. I'm going to vent about it here though.

I also hate rude cashiers. And I had one today, and I actually wrote an email to the store about my experience. In this economy, with jobs being so hard to come by, I feel funny about complaining. However, if someone grunts at me, waves their hands at me, puts my car keys (which I handed over so my UPromise card could be scanned) at the other end of the aisle without telling me, scrutinizes every. single. word. on. every. coupon. and doesn't even make eye contact, she's not doing her job. A job I want her to keep, for the record. But when I go to other grocery stores and am smiled at, talked to, and acknowledged as a human being, I start to realize that being grunted at isn't really acceptable.

Whew! That said, I did pretty well, I think. I saved 43%, which is an unusually high percentage for me. What did I get? Fresh and frozen vegetables, milk, bread, cereal, cough drops (18 cents a package!), salad dressing, lentil soup, pimentos (for my cashew mock-cheese sauce that I make sometimes), low-fat ice cream, yogurt, city-mandated trash bags, whole wheat pasta and pasta sauce, tofu pups, coffee, straws (my daughter uses them because she can't yet drink from an open cup), Cascade Action Pacs (dye/scent free), and some taco dinner packs that were 25 cents each (one to keep and one to donate, probably). Oh and they had the NEW FLAVORS OF LAUGHING COW CHEESE as promised (well the OTHER Publix near me promised they'd have them October 1, but this store did too) and there were $1 off coupons right on the display so I got another queso fresco and chipotle (my faaaaaavorite - I heat up two and eat them melted with chips - and I also got a herb and garlic one) and am hoping that Laughing Cow will go on sale for $2 before the coupons expire because I took, um, a few extra. And I got some Babybel cheese too because it was on sale plus I had a coupon.

Essentially, that's everything I got. And look, it's things we'll eat or use, it's things that are moderately healthy and not entirely processed, and it's a bunch of non-food items. And a lot of it is brand names, but some of it is store brand because Publix store brand is good.

Thank you thank you Coupon Mom and I Heart Publix - those two sites are the reason I saved so much. And I definitely save more by forcing myself to drive to the store so I can go alone. Which almost makes up for hating driving. Almost. And I do still need to go to YDFM for more fresh things, but shopping for the week is more or less done.

[Quick note: If you arrived here because I posted a link on a savings blog, please have a look around! I don't always write about savings, but I love having new readers. Check out the right-hand bar for information about subscribing, following, and reading my intro post so you know what you're dealing with.]

Publix - 60% Savings! - September 23, 2010

You know what's more impressive than that receipt up there? That I drove to Publix all by myself for the first time. Seriously, I'd never been in a Publix completely alone before. I'd driven to this particular store twice before - once with a driving instructor (we didn't go in the parking lot, we drove past) and once with my husband (he drove home). This is a huge deal - particularly because across the street from this store is a bubble tea shop (I LOVE BUBBLE TEA) and an independent natural grocery store. And it's around the corner from my friend's house. It's finally clicking! I feel great.

Ah, so, the savings. I saved 60% today, mostly because I stuck rigidly to my list and nearly everything was on sale. I got many, many boxes of Vitatops because they were on BOGO for $2.25 each and I love them; I'm not even sure if I got enough and am debating going back next week (the sales go Thursday-Wednesday) to get more, as we still have room in the freezer. Maybe. That sale was the final straw that got me to get in the car and just go. I also got 3 boxes of pancake mix for 14 cents each (and am planning on donating at least one, maybe more, of those boxes to the local food pantry), Quaker instant oatmeal for 95 cents, an extra-large jar of Prego spaghetti sauce for $1.73, Progresso soup for 65 cents, cottage cheese for $2 (not the best price ever but I like it and my husband loves it), Laughing Cow cheese (it wasn't on sale but I did use a coupon so it was $2), and free laundry detergent thanks to Jen at Saving Cents in the City (she got me three coupons for free Arm & Hammer Gel laundry detergent at BlogHer).

So everything I bought wasn't absolutely necessary for survival, but it was all things we use and things we will enjoy. I did not buy the Smart Balance milk - after coupon, it was a mere 50 cents, but it also has fish oil in it and...I just couldn't do it. (Full disclosure: My daughter, who I'm raising vegetarian for the time being, takes fish oil supplements, and I do too.) Milk with fish oil just  didn't do it for me, so I played coupon fairy and left the $2 coupon on the shelf in hopes that someone who can use it will find it. I also skipped the cheap Eggland's Best eggs because we didn't need them, but they're only $1.30 after sale + coupon, which I think is a great deal for free-range eggs. (Better deal? Getting them free from my friend's backyard chickens!)

And now I can drive to Kroger, Publix, and YDFM, which means I can finally do the family's grocery shopping by myself if I want to. Wow. (My other destinations are CVS, the pool, and a friend's house. I hope to add Target, Big Lots, and Goodwill in the near future, followed by...just driving where I need to go without making an issue out of it.)

Thank you to I Heart Publix and CouponMom for help formulating these deals!

Free newspaper and greeting card - a savings post (CVS)

I headed to CVS this morning because I had a $2.99 ECB expiring this week. There was nothing particularly exciting in the CVS sales flyer (and nothing we needed). The AJC's double paper* is $3, and while I've lately been buying the paper from the-guy-who-stands-near-Kroger for $1 (so two papers for $2, best deal I've found), I figured I'd spend the $2.99 on the double paper to make my life easier.

When I walked in, an AJC rep was standing right there, and he gave me a free paper. He thought it was amusing that I was almost disappointed by this - it threw off my entire plan! He also offered me some sort of subscription deal (he talked very fast and I'm tired, but it had something to do with a three-month trial and some free CVS gift cards if I signed up RIGHT THERE RIGHT NOW). I laughingly explained that buying the paper with ECBs is a better deal than any subscription, and that I was simply taking advantage of a different offer. (But for the record, the offer did seem pretty good, and if I wasn't such a crazy couponer I might have gone for it.)

I hate figuring out deals like this on the fly, but I did my best. I could've just continued with my plan to buy the double paper, but yesterday I got the SmartSource coupon flyer in the mail for the first time (a smaller set of coupons than is in the paper, but still, free and pretty comprehensive - I hope this continues to happen!) and I hate all the excess paper that I wind up having in my house that I wind up recycling (for the record, I do read the print edition of the newspaper before I recycle it).

So in the end I bought another single paper ($2) and a greeting card (99 cents). I paid 21 cents out of pocket. The manager rang me up - he knows me, I've been going regularly to that CVS for almost two years, but this time he said he wasn't sure if I could use ECBs on the newspaper, something I've also been doing regularly for years. I read the "you cannot use this on that" list aloud to him and he said it was fine. Not sure why today of all days he was concerned about this, but it worked out just fine.

*You can click the link to learn more about the double paper, but basically it's a bundle of the early and late editions of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) for a lower price than buying two papers. It definitely is targeted toward those of us who buy the paper for the coupons inside.

Pasta for 15 cents, coffee for $2 - a savings post (Publix)

So if I'm fully throwing myself into this blog, I need to phase out my old savings blog. Which means I need to start making my savings posts here!

We went to Publix tonight. I scored four boxes of Barilla whole grain pasta for 15 cents each (on BOGO sale for 65 cents each, and I had two printable $1/2 coupons), four packages of Laughing Cow cheese for $1 each (on sale for $2 each, and I had two printable BOGO coupons that are no longer available) (I LOVE LAUGHING COW CHEESE - I got French Onion, Garlic & Herb, and Original Swiss, but I'm still annoyed that my local Publix briefly carried the new flavors - I fell in total love with the Chipotle Queso - and then hasn't restocked them. I got two packages in Massachusetts that I'm sort of hoarding. But I digress, as I tend to do...), and two packages of New England Coffee for $1.90 each (on BOGO sale for $2.90 each, and I had two printable coupons for 50 cents off each, and those doubled to $1 off each) (and if we use them in time, I'll submit the UPCs for a really cute free tumbler). I also used two coupons that Kroger sent me (for Cascade and Morningstar Farms); I keep meaning to ask my Publix which other stores it considers a competitor so I can use even more non-Publix coupons there.

Then I bought, well, a bunch of other stuff that wasn't on sale. Vitatops (I'm a big fan of the chocolate flavor and the banana nut flavor, and Publix has them at the best price of all the stores near me) and Publix-brand low-fat vanilla ice cream (to use in milkshakes in the Vitamix) and some other odds and ends. A successful trip for sure, even if it wasn't my most frugal. (I wound up saving 25% off my total.)

The sale prices and deals in this post are good in the Atlanta area until Wednesday, August 25, 2010. (Well, actually, the Laughing Cow may be on sale a bit longer, as it was an unadvertised deal in the store.) Tip of the hat to I Heart Publix and Coupon Mom for giving me info about sales and deals.