Al's Big Buys 4/18-4/24

I didn't take pics for you and I've certainly been slacking on the blog lately. I guess I haven't been inspired to write. It's a rainy Sunday and I should be getting the family ready for church. Instead I sit here on the laptop, waisting time. This week at ShopRite I got $248.92 worth of groceries for $112.12, a savings of $136.80. Here's the deals worth mentioning.

Chock Full O Nuts coffee on sale for $1.99 minus my doubled .75 coupon for a total of .49 per can.

Nexcare Bandages on sale for $1.49 minus my doubled .55 coupon for a total of .39 per box.

V8 V-Fusion on sale for $2.50 minus my doubled .75 coupon for a total of $1.00 per bottle.

Betty Crocker Cake Mix & Frosting on sale for $1.00 each minus my doubled .75 coupon (off the purchase of one mix and one frosting) for a total of .25 each (don't worry cake customers, I don't use box mixes or jarred frosting on my orders, they're all from scratch.)

Skippy Peanut Butter on sale for $1.99 minus my doubled coupons for .60 for a total of .79 each.

Reynolds Recycled Foil on sale for $1.99 minus my doubled coupon for .75 for a total of .49 each.

Keebler Cheesecake Middles Cookies on sale for $1.99 minus my doubled coupon for .55 off for a total of .89 each.

Perdue Chicken Nuggets on sale for $1.99 minus my doubled coupons for .75 for a total of .49 each.

Marcal Napkins on sale for $1.49 minus my $1.00 coupon for a total of .49 each.

Lays BBQ Chips on sale for $1.69 minus my $1.00 coupon for a total of .69.

Yoplait Greek Yogurt on sale for $1.25 each minus my b1g1 coupon for a total of .62 each.

That's about it. I'm actually hoping for a week of no-good-deals so I can have a break! Or a week of lots of free stuff.

Al's Big Buys 3/13-20

This was a good week for coupons. I got $244.20 worth of groceries for $75.73. I'm starting to run out of places to store all my stuff! There's always underneath beds..HA! I've also earned my free ham and my sisters. Here's what I got.

18 cans Chock Full O Nuts Coffee $1.99-.75 (doubled) coupon= .49 each (This isn't included in the above total because it was from last week. I didn't get a chance to post my savings for last week but just wanted to mention it.

16 International Delight Creamer .99-.55 (doubled) coupon= FREE

32 Barilla Whole Grain & Piccolini Pasta .99-.75 (doubled)= FREE

35 (yes, 35) Quaker True Delight Granola Bars $1.99-.75 (doubled)= .49 each

40 Nesquik Chocolate Milk $1.00-.40 (doubled)=.20 each

1 Huggies Overnights Jumbo Pack $8.99-$1.50=$7.49

2 Huggies Wipes $2.49-.50 (doubled)=$1.49 each

1 Frito Lays BBQ Chips $1.99-.55 (doubled)=.89

4 Mens Suave Shampoo $2.00-.50 (doubled) $1.00 each

10 Keebler Wheatables $2.50-$1.50=$1.00 each (plus I have a mail in rebate for $10.00 back on 10 so they'll be free)

2 Tropicana OJ $2.50-$3.00 off 2= $1.00 each

1 Breyers True Inspirations Yogurt $2.49-$2.49 coupon=FREE

1 Baby Spinach and 1 Baby Romaine..no coupons but worth mentioning..on clearance for .50 each and there was enough to split with my MIL.

I'm not done yet, I'll be getting 8 more pasta, 20 more Nesquik and 10 more Wheatables on Saturday. Sometimes I have too much and need to make multiple trips. The list above isn't all I got. I also got lots of fruit, dog food, soda for the hubby, graham crackers and some other stuff.

Taking Inventory

Recently I've read several blogs that list their inventory and I always find it interesting to see what other families are buying and are able to stock up on. So here's what's in my stockpile (and this is not my entire stock of food, just the items I have stockpiled)....

In the pantry:

53 boxes assorted cereal (Post, Kelloggs, GM)

7 Kraft BBQ Sauce

10 Krustaez Pancake Mix plus a giant bag from Sams Club

6 Solo Plates

2 Solo Cups

1 Solo Bowl

21 Progresso Soup

29 Lipton Soup Mix (Beefy Onion, Onion, Savory Herb & Garlic, Vegetable, Noodle Soup)

10 Ritz (Wheat, Vegetable, Snowflake)

27 Ragu Pasta Sauce

6 Wheat Thins

6 Triscuits (Cracked Pepper & Olive Oil, Rosemary & Olive Oil)

20 Hefty Trash Bags (Kitchen size and Lawn & Garden size)

11 Hefty One Zip

4 Mt. Olive Pickles

4 Mt. Olive Relish

19 Quaker Mini Quakes assorted flavors

29 Hamburger Helper assorted flavors (after these are gone I plan on coming up with

homemade versions of these not-so-healthy dinners)

7 Planters Big Nut Bars

5 Fiber Plus bars

31 Boxes Ronzoni/Barilla pasta

7 Orville Redenbacher's Popcorn (I found a recipe for homemade microwave popcorn!)

6 Cheez-Its

9 Marcal Small Steps Tissues

14 Kraft Mac & Cheese

31 Peanut Butter (Skippy)

22 Coffee (Melitta, Foldgers & Chock Full O Nuts)

6 Pepperidge Farms Goldfish

10 Wheatables Nut Crackers

15 Quaker True Delights Granola Bars

In the kitchen:

13 Finish dishwasher gelpacs (I've been working on my stockpile of this for over a year!)

33 College Inn Broth (beef, chicken, turkey, vegetable)

12 Lysol Pourable

7 Lysol AP/Bathroom Cleaners

2 AP Greenworks Cleaner

3 Greenworks Dish soap

In the laundry room:

5 Bounce Dryer Bars

10 Clorox Bleach

13 Spray N Wash

3 6 packs Fruit2O

In the bathroom:

19 Olay Body Wash

31 L'Oreal for kids Shampoo

11 Softsoap Handsoap

2 Softsoap Body Wash

9 Colgate Toothpaste

18 Colgate Toothbrush

10 Garnier Fructis (Hairspray, Shampoo, Conditioner)

17 Lysol Bowl Cleaner

26 Shampoo/Conditioner (Citre Shine, Finesse & White Rain)

4 Edge Shave Gel

12 Schick Quatro Titanium Reusable Razors

4 Speed Stick

6 Lady Speed Stick

106 rolls Marcal Small Steps Toilet Paper

13 Wetones Canisters

20 Nesquik Chocolate Milk

In the freezer:

40 Oscar Mayer Bacon

36 Birds Eye Steamfresh Veggies

3 NY Texas Toast Lite

6 NY Garlic Bread Sticks

4 Butterball Turkey Bacon

8 Butterball Chicken/Turkey Strips

13 Tony's Crispy Crust Pizza

19 Birds Eye Boxed Veggies

Keep in mind when you read the numbers that I do have a family of 5. I also donate to the food pantry at my church and often give items to family and friends. I can't pass up a great deal! My stockpiled items are all either free or very close to free!

Share your stockpiles and comment back so I can read it!

Al's Big Buys 3/2/10

So I had planned on taking a picture for you of my groceries this week and completely forgot. I don't know why, but I find it interesting to look at people's grocery pics. Here were the deals I got this week. SR is doing "dollar days" this week so they offer money towards your next shopping trip when you buy specific items plus free reusable shopping bags.

I want to first start by telling you of the opening conversation with myself and the young cashier. He said "Hi, how are you?" Me "Good, how are you" Him "Good and you?" I just thought it was slightly amusing. Then as he was scanning my coupons he called me a coupon warrior. That's a first..ha!

Oikos greek yogurt was on sale last week from $2.49 to 1.00. My store only had 3 kinds, plain (bleck), vanilla and strawberry. I was only able to get 8 because they didn't have enough in stock, so I got a rain check. Yesterday I used the rain check and got 32 more for free with my $1.00 off coupons. So in all, I got 40 of them for free.

Motts was the first dollar days deal I got. Their juice was 2/4, buy 5 and get $5.00 off your next shopping trip. I got 6 for $12.00 minus the $5 off my next trip = 6 juices for $7.00 plus a free bag.

Lysol toilet bowl cleaner on sale 2/4. I had coupons for .75 off each making them .50 each. I checked them out in 2 batches of 5 so I could get 2 dollar days deals with them. In all I got 10 for $5.00 and got $10.00 to use on my next order and 2 free bags. They paid me 5 bucks to take the cleaner and bags!

Green Works cleaners on sale 2/5. I got 3 dish soap and 2 all purpose cleaner minus my .50 off coupons, making them $1.50 each. Then I got $5.00 off my next shopping trip plus a free bag making them .50 each.

Perdue Turkey Meatballs (my favorite) on sale for $2.21 minus my .75 off coupon making them .71 per box. BTW, I used Perdue ShortCuts Chicken coupons on these.

Clorox bleach on sale for $1.69 minus my .50/2 coupon made them $1.19 each, plus a $5.00 off your next order coupon making them .36 each and I got another free bag.

Bounce Dryer Bars on sale for $4.00 each minus my $1.50 off coupons made them $2.50 each. Then I got a $5.00 off my next order for a total of $1.50 each.

In all I got $160.27 worth of groceries for $60.58, a savings of 62%!

Al's Big Buys 2009 End Report

This is a little late but better late than never. I'm lovingly known as the coupon queen by several of my friends and my family. I stumbled upon it by accident one day while browsing EBay. I had always wanted to coupon but there were so many each week in the paper that were worthless to me so I never really did it. Until that one day.

What I do, basically, is on Friday's my local grocery store posts sales for the following week. I pull their circular up in one tab and EBay in another and compare sales to coupons available. YES, I buy coupons. In future posts I'll give you little tips that you can try that have worked for me.

So last year I decided to start saving my receipts from this store to keep track of how much I've actually saved. I don't have 100% of my receipts but probably 90%. Keep in mind when you see the numbers that I'm feeding a family of 5, 4 of them being male who are hungry all the time, and 2 dogs. I consider this part of my "job" as a stay at home mom.

I probably spent around $300-400 on coupons but they saved me a WHOPPING $4254.71! I got $8871.18 worth of groceries for $4616.47. I think that's awesome! I could probably not shop for 6 months and not run out of any toiletries, frozen veggies, cereal, paper products, spaghetti sauce, canned stock, and many more items.

I get very excited on Friday afternoon's when the circular posts and look forward to all the money I'll save this year!

Al's Big Buys 9/3

Beware all you health food nuts...this post might make you cringe.......

I know it's been forever since I posted on a grocery trip. I honestly haven't gotten enough fabulous deals to make it worth it. This week was a pretty good week.

Let me start by saying I couldn't go shopping until hubby got home with the two eldest after soccer practice. I left my house at 8pm...ugh. I'm already tired, been dealing with a whiny baby all day, boys arguing and on top of late shopping, afterwards I had to bake a cake.

As I'm shopping I go by the ladies room and decide I'd better go then before I got to the other end of the store. So I'm in the stall and there's this little girl with her face up against the crack in the door trying to look in at me!!! O-M-G! So I slapped my hand up in front of her face so she couldn't see me and she stayed right there 'til her mom was done in the other stall. Seriously? NOSEY-RUDE! Ok, I get over it and continue on. Here's the deals I got the past 2 days.

23 Nesquik Chocolate Milk on sale for $1.00 each minus .80¢ coupon = .20¢ each

20 Reese's Peanut Butter cups free with coupons!

20 NY Pretzel Pretzel-fills on sale for $1.84 minus $1.00 off coupons = .84¢ each.

12 Luigi's Italian Ice on sale for $1.66 minus $1.50 off coupon = .16¢ each

20 Tony's Crispy Crust Pizza on sale for $1.00 each minus .50¢ off coupon = .50¢ each

8 Turkey Hill Ice Cream on sale for $1.77 each minus $1.00 off coupon = .77¢ each

9 Jif Peanut Butter on sale for $1.99 minus $1.10 off coupon = .89¢ each

3 Quaker Granola Bars and 2 Quaker Instant Oatmeal total for all 5 with coupons/sales $4.48

No coupons but worth mentioning was ShopRite butter for $1.49 per pound. I got 20 pounds...I'm a baker...I LOVE butter sales!

So in the end I got $294.35 worth of groceries for $186.70 for a total savings of $107.65! WooHoo! Love it!

Just the numbers people.

So, I can't tell you how often I'm bragging about how much money I save at the grocery store and then have to explain to amazed people just how it's done. Don't get me wrong, I love sharing and helping others save as well, I guess I just get sick of hearing myself tell the same story..."I buy my coupons on Ebay..." so on and so forth. I think I'll draw up a flyer complete with examples of how much I actually do save. Each time someone asks me, I can just hand them a flyer. I should be the mother who actually set up a website and is making money telling people how to do it...too little, too late.

I often get blank stares and the occasional giggle as I'm walking through ShopRite with my shopping buggy overflowing with 60 PowerAde's, 20 boxes of cereal and so on. And forget about how long it usually takes me to check out. If I'm super lucky, I'll be getting lots of items for free and that takes a manager to override the computer! That's always fun.

This has become a serious addiction. I so look forward to Friday's so I can shop for my coupons for the following week and if I'm not home at noon when the flyer posts, I start itching. LOL, not really.

So, for those of you who may be interested in getting groceries for very little money, here goes.

Ebay is your friend! Yes, it's illegal to sell coupons, but coupons aren't being sold on Ebay, envelopes are. As an added bonus, you are sent the coupons just for buying an envelope...clever huh? Always a way around things.

So you need to have Ebay opened up in one tab and ShopRite in another. You'll be clicking on the "view next weeks circular" button after you've selected your ShopRite. You really want to get all of the coupons you plan on using the following week by Sunday, that way you'll receive them before the sale ends. You'll be checking sales at SR and then going to Ebay and searching for individual items you may be interested in stocking up on. For example, one week Birds Eye boxed veggies were on sale 5 for $5.00. I went to Ebay, searched for Birds Eye coupons and purchased $1.00 off each, making them free (aside from the small cost of the coupons, of course). Now heres the thing...SR doubles coupons up to .99 cents and only up to 4 of the same one per order. This is where the whole timing issue comes into play. You'll need to split your checkout into several orders to make the most of it. This past week Colgate toothbrushes were on sale for .99 cents. I purchased .75 cent off coupons, doubled made them free AND I checked these out 3 at a time because for every 3 the computer spit out a copon for $3 off your next order! My 60+ toothbrushes were free and I got $60+ off my next shopping order. It's just a game folks...easy to play with a big payout!

So I thought it funny, the amount of some items in my house at the moment. Here are the numbers people.

Keep in mind that there are 5 of us and one doesn't use toothbrushes yet. If we (the 4 of us) changed toothbrushes twice a year..because who really changes every 3 months?, we have enough toothbrushes to last us 5 years, yes I said 5 years! And I gave some away, so I could have gotten another few years out of my free toothbrushes.

I have 60+ PowerAde's, 44 rolls of Marcal toilet paper and coupons for about 40 more for free, 25 pounds of butter, 7 1/2 gallons of Turkey Hill ice cream, 10 pounds of mozzarella cheese, 51 boxes of Birds Eye veggies, 6 pounds of bacon, 12 bottles of bodywash, 28 tubes of toothpaste, 60 toothbrushes, 2 dozen bottles of VitaminWater, 3 dozen bottles of SoBe lifewater and 46 boxes of assorted Kelloggs cereals...few take a breath. Crazy? Probably, but it didn't cost much.