I Saved A Whole Year

I started this blog last June and a year later I'm still using 3 papers and printing here and there and using what I can. Most recently Kroger had Ball Park hot dogs $1 each and then $1.50 each for a few weeks. The register was printing out catalinas every time I bought some so I kept buying. Got about 30+ packs. And now I'm working on the current Daytone Mega Kroger is having. So to those who have wondered if I'm still around, yep.

Triple Mega Mania Managed

This week many stores are starting or continuing mega sales of buy 10 participating items get $5 off. Kroger, Hollywood, and VG's are 3 of them. After doing all my planning and coupon gathering for a day and a half at least I finally got out the door today at about 4 pm. My plan was to at least go to one Kroger and then to Hollywood Market and then if there was time go to another Kroger. Reason being that as a Kroger employee I don't want to do multiple transactions in one store at one time and I had more than 3 coupons or similar coupons for some of my items and didn't want them being taken for some items and not for others. Especially since some of them were on my card. I like to be able to check the receipt to see if it took the digital off.

What I have below is the actual printed list I used to help me this time. I sorted my coupons into little 10 item groups rather than by aisle or category. What is shown is the item and the quantity. Every item I bought today had some sort of coupon used. And all except for the carrots were part of a mega 10 item combo sale. I did go to Kroger at 25 Mile & Dequinder, Hollywood at Rochester & Tienken (25 Mile continued in the next county), and then Kroger at Walton & Livernois. It turns out that this printout saved me a ton of time. I was only in the first store about 1:20 and I had plenty of time to drop in to the other two stores. I have a planned VG's trip added on that I plan to do before the end of the week since I found some more coupons to give me 10 items there.

At the first store before she started scanning my coupons my total was $112.97.
My total below for the 3 stores after coupons is $112.05

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ KROGER 1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maxwell House Coffee - 1
Pebbles Cereal - 1
Ragu - 6
Philadelphia Cream Cheese - 1
Northern 12 pk - 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mom's Cereal - 2
Birds Eye Frozen Vegetables - 6
New York Knots - 1
New York Garlic Toast - 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hormel Chili - 6
Armour Meatballs - 4
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hunts Tomatoes - 9
Hidden Valley Ranch - 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Franks Red Hot Buffalo - 1
Franks Red Hot Thick - 2
French's Yellow Mustard - 3
French’s Honey Mustard - 3
Kraft Deluxe Macaroni & Cheese - 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kroger Mini Carrots - 2

52 items - $67.74


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HOLLYWOOD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A1 - 2
Kraft Homestyle - 6
Kraft Parm Cheese - 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kraft Dressing - 6
Planters PB - 4
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
20 Items - $24.44

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ KROGER 2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ragu - 2
French's Dijon - 2
French's Horseradish Mustard - 2
French's Spicy Brown - 2
French’s Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce - 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Franks Red Hot - Buffalo - 1
Franks Red Hot - Hot Buffalo - 2
Franks Red Hot - BBQ - 1
Franks Red Hot - Sweet Chili - 2
Heluva Good Dip - 3
Planters Peanuts - 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
20 Items - $19.87

3 Store Total = 92 Items for $112.05

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VG's - Planned trip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kraft Shredded Cheese - 4
-$2
$5.96 for 4

A.1. Steak Sauce - 1
-$1
$1.49 for 1

Hellmann’s Mayo - 3
-$1.50
$5.97 for 3

Velveeta Cheesy Skillets - 2
-$2
$0.98 for 2

Should be
10 Items - $14.40 total

Thanks for reading.
I appreciate it.

Brown Bag Inc. or make that Ink.

My HP LaserJet P1102w black ink printer came with a toner cartridge to get me started. According to the box its supposed to last 700 pages. I posted about getting the printer back in mid July and my printer has just recently told me I have less than 50 pages to go. So it was time to get a toner cartridge. This week Office Max is having a 20% off anything you can fit in the brown bag that came in your delivered sunday newspaper. I also bought 2 papers but the bag was not in them. The HP 85a (CE285A) toner cartridge is supposed to print 1600 pages and its $70. So I figured $14 off was a decent enough coupon to take advantage of especially since I might need to print some tax documents soon and don't want to get caught without ink. So I went today and since I'm not quite up to speed on when these things are on sale I decided to buy two of them for $56 each. So if 700 lasted me 6 months I should be set for ink for close to two years. Now I just need the coupon sites to not disappear or decide to start charging for everything. If you don't have the bag you can also buy online at OfficeMax.com if you use the code BIGDEAL20 but make sure you type it in all caps.

This Kroger Mega Event post is rated PG

Or make that P & G (Procter & Gamble).
For the first time since I started this current couponing journey last year I went to a store to purposely purchase laundry products. Timing was everything. First we were almost out of laundry detergent and fabric softener. Second it was the week that the newest P & G Brandsaver insert was in the paper. Third many stores are having sales on P & G products.

So after a month or so of not buying extra papers due to them not having any or enough inserts to bother I did get my 3 total this past week. Each paper had 4 inserts: 1 Red Plum, 2 Smart Source, 1 P & G. Also one of my papers had an extra of 1 Smart Source.

Kroger has one of their mega events going this week and possibly next week in which you buy a combination of participating items and you get an additional dollar amount off the sale price. This event is buy 4 P & G items with the special blue tags and get $4 off or $1 off each item.
Then repeat with 4 more items if you want. Then you try to match these items with coupons to get even more off. So I researched my two favorite local matchup blogs, Coupons Equal Cash and Bargains To Bounty to see what the best prices were on the items I wanted for the past year and what I found is for the most part the best prices were for the same P&G event last New Years at Kroger. Although a few items went up a few cents. Bargains To Bounty's Kroger matchups for this week has the prices for the items in the ad but the store has more items with blue tags.

So I needed Detergent and Softener and Tide & Downy are both in the event. I did 2 shopping trips yesterday and today, both at the Kroger I work at. Yesterday I had 3 coupons for $2 off 1 Tide and 3 coupons for $1.50 off 2 Downy or Bounce. I also had 3 coupons for 20¢ off 1 Dawn which double to 40¢. So that's 3 Tide (50 oz 30-32 loads) for $2.99 each + 6 Downy (51 oz 60 loads)at $3.54 ea + 3 Dawn (24 oz) for $1.34 ea = 12 items or 3 Mega combos. I also bought 2 Liquid Plumr using $1 coupons I found on their Facebook page

Today was payday so I was saving my bigger trip for today using other coupons. Last night I loaded another $2 off 1 Tide coupon and a $1 off 1 Downy coupon onto my Kroger Plus card which you can do at Kroger's website. You need a Kroger card in order to get their sale prices.

So here's the rundown for both trips.

4 Tide total for $2.99 ea or 200 oz / 120 loads for $11.96.

6 Downy (51 oz / 60 loads) at $3.54
1 Downy (51 oz 60 loads) at $3.29 (420 loads total for $24.53)

3 Dawn (24 oz) at $1.34 (72 oz for 4.02)

6 Old Spice deodorants 99¢ ea after Mega and then $1 off 2 coupons made them 49¢ ea

This completed my P & G Megas with 16 items. I also had a spend $50 get $5 off coupon that Kroger mailed to me that I used yesterday. I had some non coupon items also that put me over $50 after coupons but then back to $48 after. I had 17 items so that's like having a 29¢ coupon for everything.

Here's some of my other coupon items

~~~~~ Yesterday ~~~~~

2 Liquid Plumr $4.19 ea - $1 off ea = $3.19 ea

1 Kroger Hot Sauce 12 oz - $1.07 after 10% employee discount
1 Kroger Honey - $2.25 after 10%

1 Kroger brand / Everyday color bleach $6 after 10% (didn't have a Clorox 2 or similar coupon.)

~~~~~ Today ~~~~~

Frozen items ~~~~~

I had a buy $15 worth of frozen get $3 off

2 Kroger fries - $2.59 ea - 10% emp - 60¢ coupon on card
It took the coupon off the first bag making it $1.99 then - 20¢. Second bag was -26¢ = $2.28 or 2 for $4.27

1 Kroger Fully cooked chicken - got nuggets. $5.49 - 10% and $1 off card coupon - $3.99

2 bags Banquet chicken patties at $3.99 ea to help get me over the $15 mark plus I needed some.

So that's $3 off of those items or another 60¢ off ea

Mailed Coupons ~~~~~

2 Kroger buns $1 ea - 10% - 40¢ off 2 = 70¢ ea

1 brick of Kroger cheese - $2.29 - 10% - 40¢ coupon = $1.66

1 Kroger fresh selections salad - $1.51 - 10% - 50¢ coupon = 86¢
1 Kroger fresh selections salad - $1.51 - 10% - no coupon = $1.36

1 24oz Kroger Cottage Cheese - $1.99 - 10% - 40¢ coupon = $1.39

1 Kroger ground Turkey - $3.79 - 10% - 50¢ = $2.91

2 Kroger Tortilla chips - $1 ea - 10% - 40¢ coupon for ea = 70¢ ea

The Rest of the items ~~~~~~

12 cans Progresso soup - 3 for $4 - 3 coupons for $1 off of 4 = $1.08 ea

3 Starkist Tuna pouches - $1.25 ea - 50¢ coupon doubled = 25¢ each

1 Kroger Daytime cold pills - $3 - 10% = $2.70 (Dayquil is part of the P&G but this is cheaper for me)

3 Red Gold tomatoes - $1.09 ea - $1 off 3 printable that expires 1/7 = 75.6¢ ea

3 Big K pop 2 Liters - 88¢ ea - 10% - 50¢ card coupon + 10¢ ea deposit = .81¢ ea

2 gallons Kroger Milk - $2.49 ea - 10% - $2.24 ea (would have been free if I wanted Special K Cereal)

4 Chex Cereal - $1.99 ea - $1.50 off 2 coupon & $1 off 2 card coupon = $5.46 for 4 boxes or $1.36 each

1 Mike Sells 8 oz chips - $3.19 - 30¢ coupon doubled = $2.59

And that's it except for 2 packs of assorted pork chops for $2.29 lb at just over $8 ea.

Yesterdays total was $48.11
Today was $89.50

Its hard to read the receipts as far as what were my coupons and what were the store discounts but it says I saved 48% $42 and 43% $69