Seasons Savings

Been awhile since I've posted. It's now Thanksgiving evening and I'm still trying to use coupons. I haven't had as much money to use for buying groceries over the past few months since my car insurance started up again and some other things needing my extra cash. I've basically been just getting things to get me through a work week with breakfast and lunch and a few snack items. I did do some coupon trips since August. I've done a few small ones at my Kroger right after my shift. I did a trip to a bigger Kroger 2 weeks ago during the mega event and got about 30+ items. Meijer had Honey Nut Cheerios and Lucky Charms 99 cents today but they were out by the time I went. But I did get 2 Birds Eye / Freshlike frozen veggies and 6 Betty Crocker potatoes for about $4 total.

One big problem is I've got about 3-6 months worth of coupons that are expiring in the next 2 weeks and I haven't organized them yet. I started last night and I'm only kinda getting there now. The problem is I've got this urge to take them and use them all and I can't. And because of this I haven't been buying my extra papers since about mid September.

But it beats having to lift 2000 lbs of turkeys in a week.

Just saying that I'm still around.

The Expire Strikes Back

So I struck first. I did a mini shop at Kroger / Work today.


Quaker Life Cereal
$1.99 - 75c off 1
1 box for $1.24

Kettle Brand Potato Chips
$2.49 - $1 off 1 used 3 coupons
3 bags for $1.49 ea

Ball Park Franks
$2 - 75c off 2 used 3 coupons
6 packs $1.63 ea


$3.49 Hillshire Farm Deli Select Lunchmeat 8-9 oz
75c off printable
1 for $2.79

Barilla Piccolini Pasta (regular price)
$1.24 - 55c off 1 digital coupon
1 for $0.69 after coupon

LLoyds pulled pork tub
$3.99 - $1 off printable - used 2 coupons
2 for $2.99 ea

Old El Paso flour tortillas
$1.54 ea - 60c off 3 digital

Some of these digital coupons may not be on the Kroger site. They come and go fast.

I also noticed that Kroger has Red Gold tomatoes $1 each. I've got some $1 off 4 printables I need to use so I might use them on thursday. I think I got them from the Red Gold website but they no longer show for me.

Sorting Solution to Save Sanity?

As mentioned in the last post I'm looking to organize the coupons I haven't sorted for taking to the store. Thus the intermediate step between insert or print page and binder bag page. I have noticed that many people use some sort of shoe box or recipe box for this. I'd thought about trying a floppy disk box for mine but I don't have one. But I've turned to something that I used back when I had to organize about 50 rolls of pictures from my lighthouse trips. Back then I was buying Pop Tarts at Meijer in cases of 36. They contained 3 - 12 count packs. I used the boxes inside to help me sort. This time since I don't have a bunch of Pop Tart boxes I'm starting out with a shoe box and something that I recently acquired, Nutri Grain bar boxes. Not only do I have 6 of them but they come with perforated lines on them to save me the trouble of cutting them. And here is what I have so far.


The boxes are wide enough for printed coupons to fit after cutting. And I can get my fingers in them.

2 Month$ of Summer Saving$ So Far

Its been at least 2 months. So I thought I'd examine my To Do List from June


1. Get Coupon Inserts - As of today I've been getting at least 3 Detroit News / Free Press per Sunday. Still haven't bothered with Macomb Daily or Oakland Press. I'll wait until I see a blogger or forum mention a different insert in those.

2. Organizing - Still in progress. My baggy binder works fine but I need to work on my at home sorting.

3. What Do I Want To Buy - I've been looking up product websites and facebook pages etc to see who even has coupons. Got some bookmarked, others I printed.

4. Printer - Purchased an HP LaserJet P1102w black & white laser printer. Been using it.

5. Exchange - There were a few exchanges I missed because I had to work. Coworkers have lots of vacation time so its hit or miss as to when I can request off.

6. Donate - Got some expireds saved. No donations yet. No stockpile to grab from. And I haven't been stocking up on health and beauty stuff like the TV show. Not yet anyway.

7. Post To Blog - It's 2 months later and I'm still here so lets see if it goes another 2 or at least through the holidays.

8. Add more to this list - Hmm not sure what to put here. I'm thinking of doing something with the brand sites with printable coupons. Something like a list of brands that have had something at one time or another on their website or Facebook so I and others can watch for more. Not quite a big database of all the coupons but whatever I get to. Other sites cover the sites like Coupons.com and Red Plum already.
I'd like to maybe have a give props section to acknowledge when a store or product actually responds to people on their FB page. I see many that ignore when people ask about coupons. But some take the time to answer people.

Anyway, I'm not done Saving yet. Or Blogging. At least in my mind.
Thanks for reading.

I Mega Hauled the Mega Event at Kroger and why

It's been awhile since I did a store trip. VG's changing their policy back to 50 cents and only 1 like coupon has me looking at my other options. And basically I'm reliving the past. When I moved out here in March of 09 I was used to stores being less than a mile away. The nearest Kroger was 4 or 5 miles away and other stores were all closer. I had dollar doublers and Save A Lot all closer. So I didn't go to Kroger unless I was getting something for my Dad. Kroger did help me out a bunch one time. I drove all over trying to find some puffed wheat or rice cereal. I couldn't find it anywhere and finally found it at Kroger in the Kroger Value brand bags. So I moved out here and the closest stores were Kroger 2 miles one way 2.5 another, Hollywood Markets about 4 miles each for 2 different, a few Meijer stores 5+ miles and then VG's 4 miles and 2 miles the other side of the 2 mile Kroger. And then there's Aldi that I'd never been to but I knew it would be a decent place having been to Save A Lot so often.

So when SIL was out of town a few times we needed a few items like milk, coffee, and bread. At the time the coffee prices were like they are now so I was looking for anything decent. I went to VG's and they had cans of coffee for like $12 so I didn't get it. I went to Aldi and got some stuff but the next time I went there they were out of bread so I figured I'd try Kroger. At the time I did not have a Kroger card. I go in and they had bread for $1 or less, milk was $2, and they had coffee for $5. So to the counter I went to get the card. Six months later I'm still trying to find a job and in order to do the app for Kroger you have to take their online quiz for each location. I start filling out the quiz for one and I get sidetracked and it times out. When I come back I start the quiz for a different one, finish it, and then start to redo the first one. I don't remember if I finished it or not but only 10 minutes after I finished the first one the phone rings and its Kroger. I go in to the interview the next day thinking I'm there for a night stocking position. Turns out the guy who does the floor cleaning has to quit for health issues and they needed someone fast. I was a janitor before but it was a dirty tool and die factory type shop with oil and coolants all over and grinding dust. I wasn't supposed to make the floors shine just keep em swept and dry. But I needed the job and I wasn't going to spit in fate's eye so when she said "We've got a few more interviews to do but we're probably going to call you" I was happy. So I got the call and luckily Jim, the floor tech was nice enough to show me the ropes for his last few days. For 13 months I did my best to make the world shine one aisle at a time. Before Jim left he told me that to his knowledge our store was the last one to not contract out the floor cleaning. But alas 13 months in it was and luckily one of the guys in the meat department was leaving for the Air Force so I am now 10 months into being on the day shift and actually helping people. And it turns out that the store I got my card at is the same one I work at. And now I also have an employee discount attached to it.

So if you are reading this to read about store trips I did not forget about you. I have all these 3 papers per week worth of coupons to use up so I need places that take multiple like. To my knowledge that rules out VG's and Hollywood. Meijer takes 2 likes. But once again Kroger to the rescue. Thanks to Coupons Equal Cash for confirming for me that Kroger accepts 3 likes. So I spent the past few days looking at the Kroger matchups on Coupons Equal Cash and Bargains To Bounty and also checking a small card that I grabbed from work that has a list of all the items and going through all my coupons. And today I put them and my binder to use.

For those that may not know Kroger and some other stores have what are known as Mega events. They put sale prices on a wide range of items, and then if you buy a combination of 10 of any of those items you get a certain amount off such as $3 or $5 thus taking 30 or 50 cents off each item. So Kroger has some of the items mentioned in the ad but many are not so you need to look in the store for the special 3 way tags. The upper corner is a white section with the regular price and then in a yellow section below it is the sale price. Then on the right side is the special price you pay if you buy 10 items and get the 30-50 cents off. So regular price is $3, sale price is $2, and then Mega price $1.50.

The current Mega is a 10 item take $5 off. The hard part about doing this with coupons for me is getting things in groups of 10. Because some coupons say off 1 item others say 2 or 3 and some I used said off 5. So I have to make groups of 10 with multiple like coupons that all have different quantities and stay organized. Plus try to find any other items that might be Mega tagged. And try to keep the mega items separate in the cart from the non mega. Forgot my watch too. It was about 12:30 when I was on my way and 3:30 on my way home. I mega'd 3 times.

I went to a different Kroger than the one I work at. So I started off with the SpaghettiOs. I had 2 printed coupons that said $1 off of 5. I only grabbed 5 to start with since I didn't know what other Mega items I was getting. By the way rather than me typing out all the prices and such you can save some time by going to the 2 blog links I mentioned. Then just check the matchup's they worked hard on. They'll tell you what's got a match and where the coupons are. Also it appears that Kroger is going to continue the Mega event next week.

Next it was over to the mexican items to get my non mega Chi Chi's Tortillas. The coupon was about to expire. The sale price was $1.50 and double a $1 coupon to make them 50 cents.

Next I went to get some Advil but its not on sale so I grabbed the store brand for now.

I started looking at the frozen items but remembered from the last trip that its not good to do the cold stuff till the end. And so over to the soap aisle. I got some of the Suave for my Mom since it was mega for 89 cents. No coupons though. But that's for the 22 oz so its a good price.

They had Dial hand soap non Mega for 88 cents and a doubled 35 cent coupon would make it 18 cents each. But They also had the large 52 oz refill bottle for $2.80 Mega price or $2.10 after coupon. Now sitting here at home I have time and concentration to do the math and if the small bottles were 9 oz at 18 cents then it would take 6 to fill the 52 oz. So 6 x 18 cents = $1.08 making the smaller bottles the better deal. But I don't have 6 coupons. I used 1 of my 3 so I still have 2. I can get some small ones at work later this week with my other 2 coupons. My thinking was that I saw a bottle of a store brand around here a few weeks ago that said $1 on it so when I saw the big bottle for $2.10 it made sense. And it would if not for the small ones being on sale. So now I'm Dialed in.

Faygo 2 liters (a Detroit based soda) were $1 each. All the other non store brands were 3 or 4 for $5 so I got some Faygo. They were out of Big K diet cola. And I'm sorry but this is getting rediculous. They now want $4 for a 12 pack of Pepsi or Coke. Not from my wallet. I saw in the coupons last week that Coke will be having either 1.25 or 1.5 liter bottles soon. Great so they'll be charging $1 for those instead of their 2 liters.

I need to get to bed soon so I'll have to try to speed this up.

Mega items I got

10 SpaghettiOs - got 5 more at the end and used both my printed $1 off 5.
2 Suave - 1 S & 1 C

1 Dial 52 oz - Mega but not in ad
2 Keebler cookies

5 cans Del Monte Tomatoes - No coupon but .49 ea
2 Kelloggs Rice Krispies using the $1 off Any coupon

3 Kelloggs Cereals, 1 Corn Pops, 2 Frosted Flakes using the $1 off 3 that included them.
3 Jimmy Dean - Jimmy D's using 3 coupons for 75 cents off ea.

9 Kelloggs Pop Tarts - 3 coupons for $1 off 3. I almost got the store brand instead because the aisle was bare except for the low fat that weren't mega. But I found an end cap (end of aisle display) that had them.

6 Kellogg's Nutri Grain bars - 3 coupons for $1 off 2

3 Sunny Delight 64 oz - 3 coupons for 50 cents doubled to make them 49 or 50 cents each

1 Betty Crocker Cake Mix - 99 cent mega price
1 Betty Crocker Frosting - Not in ad but had mega tag for $2.09
Used 75 cents off Both coupon to get the pair for $2.33
According to the last time I bought the pair I paid $1.75 for them at Meijer.

2 Lysol sprays - 2 coupons for $1 off - Mega but not in ad

So if that's right I should see 30 items.....

LOL - Ok so I did the Mega 5 times
Guess I Mega Hauled more than I even thought. But I did get the groups of 10 right. Guess that helps make up the 3 hours a bit better.

I also got 3 boxes of Barilla Piccolini and used my coupons to get them for 69 cents ea.
And I got a Sure deodorant for 67 cents.

The Renuzits were $1 each and I used a buy 2 get 1 free. Or 3 for $2

The Kroger Receipts don't show a before coupon total so luckily I caught the screen before she started scanning coupons. I believe the total was $174. I also had 2 Kroger coffees, 1 bag of Old Yeller dog food, and a pack of Energizer Lithium batteries using a $1 off coupon. So that shot the total up a bit. Plus my 2 sunday papers for $3 and 2 boxes of Kroger brand granola bars. I didn't want to use my Nature Valley coupons until a better price and store brand & my discount beat it.

$174
$125.84 after scanning.
Receipt says I got 72 items

It says
Manufacturer coupon savings = $22.25
Bonus coupon savings = $2.60 which I believe is for my employee discount on the store brand items
Store Coupon and Card Savings = $58.69

That's where it gets tricky because I think all the doubled halves of the coupons went into that store coupon total and that's mixed in with all the sale prices and mega prices. Anyway I know that register was up to 174 at least so whatever way it works out it was $50 less than I would have paid without the coupons.

Since the Mega deal is continuing maybe I can go pick off what's left of my matching coupons now that I'll be able to have less to deal with.

Thanks for reading.

It was double fun while it lasted but VG's is not as Very Good as it was

If you are not aware many of the VG's stores will have a change on their coupon policy this coming weekend Aug 14th. Many stores are dropping the $1 doubling and going down to 50 cent doubling and may have some other changes. I have not been to the store myself to read any posted signs but have been reading other blogs as well as VG's Facebook page. Nothing official is being posted on the FB page but there are many customers leaving feedback. I've also asked a few questions only to be ignored. Has VG's lost me as a customer? Not yet. But they have basically taken me back to where I was a few weeks ago when I started this. I thought that VG's was a 50 cent doubler and was going to simply compare them to the other stores in my area. They kinda had me on the bandwagon a bit with the $1 doubles and took my attention away from another local store, Hollywood Market which is a 50 center. On some of the posts it says that the stores are saying that its a corporate decision but I wonder if that means VG's corporate or Spartan stores?

So here's the bottom line. I spent money on a printer. The store that gets my business will be the one that still takes printable coupons. VG's was spoiling people by not only taking them but doubling some. I'll consider myself lucky that I had a handful doubled when I didn't know they would be.

I've been on a break as far as shopping trips. I've still been collecting my 3 papers worth each week. I'm going to have to weed through my coupons though. I'm sure half of what I printed is expired by now. Which is keeping me from scratching the itch to print more until I'm actually going to use them. Those limited time prints on FB pages are tempting but no sense winning if I'm not getting the prize cashed in.

I also want to say that Hollywood Market seems to respond well to people on their FB page.

Worth The Paper It's Printed On

I've been printing away. On most couponing 101 articles people say that when they first started out they printed all sorts of stuff and then started printing only what they needed. But most of what I've printed are things I looked for. As long as VG's is going to double them I'll get what I need.
So I needed paper. I printed out the HP Paper coupon and was set to use it. But as I was walking out of Kroger I checked the school supply aisle and saw they had a pack of multi-purpose paper for $3.49 card price which was less than just about every price I'd seen online and less than the coupon would have made the HP.

So this will be my first deal post.

Kroger - a Detroit area, Michigan store

OfficeWorks brand multi-purpose paper
Reg price $4.49
Card price $3.49
Don't know when the price ends but even the reg price is lower than most other paper. And so far it prints fine.
OfficeWorks is the Kroger store brand.

If you know of something cheaper feel free to say so.

Warning to those New to Coupon Printing

Something I'm learning is that when you print a coupon it does not always print at the top of the page and it does not always leave the rest of the page blank. I've been lucky so far not to print over a coupon or print one on the back of another. But I'll mess up eventually.

Some coupons not only give you the coupon but will print other things to fill a page such as a recipe. I've had one that put the coupon at the top and the rest under it and another printed the stuff first and then the coupon at the bottom. I've been trying to reuse the back sides of what I've already printed but I'm gambling.

So far these coupons have printed full pages

HP paper coupon $1 off - Coupons.com

Bob Evans Side Dish Buy 1 Get 1 from BobEvans.com

Kikkoman 55 cents off - Smartsource

Coffee Mate - Both coupons from Coffee-Mate.com

PB @ VG's ~ Part 3

The shopping trips are getting a bit easier and faster.
First of all being able to print out a list of what I'm planning to get is a time saver. I don't have to flip through coupons in the store as much.

I was only planning a short trip to get the matchups I liked before the deadline tonight. So after 7 when I got off work I shot over and took just a small 3 page binder in. Based on this test I think my idea will work ok. Just need to tape my bags on better. Or maybe glue.

Anyway I had a nice combo of newspaper and printable coupons to use.
Thanks to the VG's matchups & comments on Coupons Equal Cash and Bargains To Bounty I had a list.

I didn't get everything on the list. As a grocery employee the term I've heard for empty shelves is a hole. As in I need to fill it. There were a few holes for some of the cheap and free items. I'm not getting rain checks yet. Eventually if its something I really want I'll go that route but not until. Its a karma thing.

So to start with I had a catalina from the last trip for $1 off my order. I got it by buying Combos snacks with a Q last trip.

At the Shelby Twp store the GM Cereals that were sale priced 2 for $4 were regular Total, reg Cheerios, Trix, and Fruity Cheerios.
I had 3 coupons for buy 2 get $1 off.
I only used 2 of them since the sale selection wasn't great. The coupon has a good variety on it so I'll save at least one Q for another sale. But $1 per box is good for 4 boxes.

Heinz Vinegar would've been 15 cents a bottle if they had them.
Mueller's Whole grain pasta would've been free.

Keebler Town House Flip Sides - 2 boxes sale and email club price $1.88 ea.
I used a printable for $1 off 2 to get them 88 cents ea.

Snyders Pretzel Sandwiches - On B to Bounty they mentioned these were in store special 2 for $6.
I got 1 bag and use my $1 off 1 Q to get it for $1

Pop Tarts 12 ct boxes 2 for $5. The newspaper Q is expired and I had already used mine but there's a printable I used to get $2 off 3 boxes or 3 for $5.50 / $1.83 ea

I got 1 Danimals and 1 Danoninos both free after using $1 off Q on ea.

I took my KC Masterpiece $1 Q because it expires tomorrow. I got the Southern Style BBQ sauce that's Cider Vinegar style. It was $2.29 - $1 Q doubled = 29 cents

1 Johnsonville Chicken Sausage, apple flavor - $3 sale price - $1 dbl = $1

1 Land O Frost 16 oz premium lunchmeat - $3.99 sale - 55 cents dbl = $2.89 for a pound of lunchmeat. If you get a pound of LM for under $3 its decent. I got the ham because of the packs left it had the longest date.

3 bottles of Coffee Mate 16 oz Liquid
2 for $4 sale
I had 2 printables. One for 55 cents off 1 and another 75 cents off 2. I used both for 3 bottles. So $6 - $1.10 - $1.50 = $3.40 or $1.13 ea
They have the big bottles on sale tomorrow $3.29 ea. The printables are on
Coffee Mate's site

Coles Garlic Bread - 2 for $4
My printable from the Coles site said breadsticks so I got the box of 6 garlic sticks. $2 - 50 cents dbl = $1

I forgot to bring my bags in but I wanted to buy a few more anyway and only had a small order so I grabbed 2 more of the $2.49 cold stuff zip top bags.
Plus I got a gallon of Milk so these items were my non coupon items.
When I put my bags back in the car at home I put one on the passengers floor as a reminder for next time.
So $2.49 + 2.49 + .30 tax + 2.79 + $1 charity = $9.07 non Q

$52.60 before Q scan
$28.90 after
$23.70 in coupons.

If my math is right
$52.60 - 9.07 non Q = $43.53 coupon items - 23.70 = $19.83
So I got more than 50% knocked off the Q items.

Anyway, its a new week now. Will it be V~ery G~ood S~avings?

Note: VG's doubles printable manufacturer Qs if they don't say not to.
Considering how many stores don't even take printables much less double them I'm considering myself lucky to have had some doubled. One reason not to tempt karma and fuss over some small bottles of vinegar. Because just my luck by the time the vinegar comes in they'll change the policy to not even double up to $1 anything.

Note: Shopping time less than an hour. Left work at 7. Receipt says 7:56

Thanks for reading. :)

Edit:
Trip 1
Before = $50.03
After coupons = $25.05

Trip 2
Before = $106.32
After coupons = $69.77

Trip 3
B = $52.60
A = $28.90

Total
B = $208.95
A = $123.72
59% savings

Time to Inkorporate a Printer

So after browsing the sales, asking on forums, getting help from others and all that good stuff I went today and got a coupon maker. So my first printer in over 10 years is the HP LaserJet p1102w B&W
Took me 4 hours to get the thing to install because it kept telling me the USB wasn't connected halfway through even though it was connected enough to detect it to start the installation. Finally after restarting the computer the hardware detector detected it and it finished. Its not as quiet as I'd hoped for. Maybe the Samsung would've been quieter. But at least now I've got something to use, to use up, and then decide whether to buy ink or trade in on one of those $50 toward offers.

Now I get to go get oogly eyed on the coupon sites and get the coupons I'm tired of waiting for in the paper. When you go away from couponing for a few years and come back it sucks when half the good coupons aren't in the paper anymore. Hopefully the ones I want aren't all the while supplies last on Facebook kind. Maybe I'll have to write some letters or something.

But I'm glad I can type up a list of the coupons I have and print it out to take with me.
Thanks again to anyone who helped me with the printer recs. :)