Money Saving Mom

The girls and I just did a simple shopping trip to Kroger (Dillon's) and Aldi this week:

Altogether, we spent a total of right at $40 for all the above groceries--right on our budget target. Yay! You can read more about this shopping trip here.

How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week or other ways you saved money on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below. **To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post.**

It's Saturday and that means it's time to share the great deals we've gotten this past week and other ways we've saved.

I saved money by having a Baking Day to stock up the freezer and by shopping mark-downs at Dillons. (If you missed those posts you can see them here, here, here, here, and here.) Also, I was struck very profoundly this week with another ongoing way I save a lot of money each year--by not going shopping very often!

You see, yesterday I went to replace my one and only pair of black boots. I've worn these same boots almost every day during the Fall/Winter months for the last three years. To say I've gotten the use out of them would be an understatement! (Being the minimalist I am, I only have two pairs of shoes for the cooler months--classic, versatile black boots and tennis shoes.)

My husband and I opted to go to the mall to look for new boots since we figured we'd have more of a selection of stores carrying decent-quality boots. I honestly can't remember the last time I went to the mall to shop and as soon as I'd been in there for a little while I knew exactly why I try to avoid going there.

Why? Because it made me discontent. When I stay out of stores bombarding me with the latest and greatest in things I "must have", my small little wardrobe is plenty enough for me. In fact, I find it very simplifying to only have a few tops and a few bottoms that I can mix and match with a few pieces of jewelry and a few pair of shoes.

But not yesterday. As we walked in and out of stores, I began to feel the "need" to expand my wardrobe, update my styles, and--you guessed it--buy more stuff. Stuff I've lived happily without for years and stuff I don't need.

While I did get the perfect pair of boots at a great price, I left the mall feeling like I'd not purchased enough--like I would have been much more satisfied if I'd have also purchased those cute tops I saw or bought an additional pair of shoes.

And then it hit me: this is so silly! None of that stuff is going to make me any happier or more content. In fact, probably the more money I'd spend in there, the more I'd feel the need to spend.

Compared to many, my wardrobe might be small. I might not have all the latest styles or name brands, but I'm content with it and it serves my needs. And having only a few items of clothing--all of which I like-- makes it so easy for me to choose what to wear in the morning. It saves me so much time and effort (and money, too!) to keep it simple.

While I still think I have a long way to go in learning to be truly content, I do think that staying out of the mall as much as is possible is a huge help. And next time I need new boots (which hopefully won't be for another three years!), I think I'll skip the mall and go straight to a shoe store.

Do you find that shopping less or avoiding certain stores or shopping malls helps you be more content with what you already have? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Those are a few ways we saved money this week. How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week or other ways you saved money on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below. **To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post.**

In between moving last weekend, three flea treatments at our new home (Ick! We've almost obliterated them--or so we hope!), and having a garage sale this weekend, I've not done much bargain shopping this week. Next week it appears life should be slowing back down to a more normal pace, so I'm hoping to jump back into the game. And hopefully, I'll finally have some pictures to share of what I've purchased, too!



That said, I did get a really incredible deal on prescription eye glasses that I had to tell you about. Back in September, Education Mom emailed me about Zenni Optical--a prescription eye glass company which sells glasses beginning at $8. While I was a bit skeptical myself, I posted about it since she had tried the company out and been pleased. To my surprise, a number of others left comments sharing about their good experience with this company.

Well, fast forward a few weeks later and my 15-month-old got a hold of my glasses and managed to break them beyond repair. I was really distraught over it as the glasses weren't very old and I knew we didn't have money set aside in the budget to buy new ones, nor did I want to pay for new ones.

I considered just not having glasses at all and only wearing contacts. After all, I wear contacts most of the time so glasses aren't exactly a necessity, just a nice thing to have for back up.

But then I remembered that post about Zenni Optical. I showed the website to my husband and we agreed it was worth a shot. I picked out these, we did the measurements, and paid our $12.95 plus shipping.

Two weeks later, the glasses arrived in the mail in perfect condition. While they aren't the highest-quality glasses I've ever had, for less than $20, I was completely impressed. In fact, I like these new glasses much better than my last pair which I paid five times as much for at a discount eye glass shop with a coupon!

I would definitely recommend Zenni Optical to others needing prescription eye glasses. While you can't try the glasses on ahead of time to see how they look, this is an excellent alternative--especially if you only wear your glasses part of the time or aren't incredibly particular about how they look. Zenni Optical would also be a great place to order glasses for children who are prone to go through pairs rather rapidly.

I'm sold and doubt I'll ever buy glasses anywhere else. A huge thank you to Education Mom and the other commentors here who shared this tip; you saved us a lot of money and made the glasses-buying process an exhilarating experience--something I didn't know was possible!

So that's one way we saved money this week. How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week or other ways you saved money on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below. **To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post.**

First things first, the winners of the Banquet Select free frozen dinners are:

Kate (katerascoe@)
Tamra (tmg_1979@)
Amanda (mandalyn927@)
Dawn (dawniemom@)
Samantha (scarv083@)
Tieshia (sillygoose37@)
Heather (hrleonard@)
Sarah (sarahclubine@)
Rebecca (rebeccakatzer@)
Christina (maneys@)

Each of you should have received an email from me with more details. If you did not for some reason, please get in touch with me so I can get your free dinners to you!

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Moving week is here--ready or not! There are a lot of last minute details to attend to and in between caring for our little girls, traveling for a few days to secure and clean our new rental, and my continued struggle with morning sickness and tiredness, it will be a busy week.

Since I knew that we would be too busy to spend much time on food preparations this week and that it would be easy to fall back on fast food or take out, my husband and I decided to devise an alternative plan.

We looked through our cupboards and refrigerator to what food we still had left in there (we've been doing our best to whittle it down over the last month so that we'd be down to the bare-bones by moving day) and came up with a list of some very quick and simple meals and snacks we could put together with what we already had on hand and a few additional ingredients at the store.

Here's the list we came up with:

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
Quesadillas
Cold cereal
Oatmeal
Beans and rice
Pancakes
Granola bars
Turkey and cheese sandwiches
Fruit/Veggies
Chips and salsa
Scrambled eggs with hashbrowns and cheese

The best news of all, was that we were able to stick within our $40/week grocery budget yet again this week! Now obviously, this is not what we usually subsist on and I don't know that it exactly qualifies as a "balanced diet", but it will be much cheaper and likely healthier than eating a diet of fast food. And hopefully soon I'll be back to baking and cooking from scratch again.

So that's one way we saved money this week. How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week or other ways you saved money on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below. **To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post.** 

No pictures since I'm not that ambitious yet, but I am very excited because I'm almost to the second trimester and starting to feel a wee bit normal again--at least at certain times of the day. These bursts of energy resulted in my being able to snag some great deals:

1) A delicious birthday dinner on the cheap--Someone mentioned on my blog last week that Lone Star Steakhouse gives you a $15 birthday certificate. So, you know me, I went and signed up for it and my wonderful hubby happily took us there for my birthday.

We don't go to sit-down restaurants very often so this was a real treat. The service was excellent, the food was yummy and plentiful, and the entire meal for the four of us only cost $13 plus the tip! Plus, we brought home enough leftovers for lunch the next day, too.

2) A double stroller--With baby #3 on the way, we've been in the market for a double stroller recently and this week we were able to find one off of Craigslist that was in great shape and priced much less than we'd ever pay new. Yay!

3) Groceries--I actually went grocery shopping this week. Yes, fall out of your chair! I could hardly believe I was able to myself, but I did and it wasn't all that bad. Plus, we were able to get enough groceries to last us this week for $30! And that was not scrimping by any means.

Of course, we have spent quite a bit more than that every week for the past five weeks, so we are pretty well-stocked and all. But still, I was excited that morning sickness and pregnancy hadn't completely zapped my brain of the ability to bargain shop! And I'm hopeful I can jump back onto the $40/week budget soon.

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So that's our wrap-up of savings this week. How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week or other ways you saved money on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below. **To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post. Links going to the homepage of your blog or any other part of your blog besides the direct link to your Super Savings Saturday post will be deleted.**

Our grocery savings this week weren't much worth reporting (I'm still staying out of the stores and hubby is doing all the shopping; I just make a grocery list and a simple menu plan based upon what's on sale.) but we did get a great deal on moving boxes from CraigsList and we also scored some free ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. I even had the gumption to try some of it... which was a bad idea, but we won't go there!

My other big savings news: I got my coupon box all whipped back into shape this week! There's nary an expired coupon in there and everything is clipped and filed. Yay!

Now I'm just hoping I can stomach some coupon-shopping again soon. I feel little rays of hope that it won't be too much longer so that is a cause for rejoicing. Plus, just a few more weeks and the first trimester will be over with. And then, if I'm anything like the last two pregnancies, it likely won't be long before I'll be cooking up more stuff than we can eat!

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How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week or other ways you saved money on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below. **To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post. Links going to the homepage of your blog or any other part of your blog besides the direct link to your Super Savings Saturday post will be deleted.**

My apologies on being so late in getting this posted. We just found out yesterday that it's almost 100% sure we're moving in 4-6 weeks. Needless to say, my brain is running 200 miles per hour to get everything lined up for that! This will be the fourth time we've moved in less than six years so you'd think I'd be a pro at this by now. :)

At any rate, things are looking to be a bit busy here for the next little while. But we're thrilled about it since this move is a huge answer to prayer and literally a dream come true for us. God continues to show Himself so faithful! I'll share more details soon, in the mean time, here's our deal for this week...

My husband did all the grocery shopping for me again this week and I was incredibly impressed at how much stuff he was able to get with the $70 budget. We were both especially excited about the Target Kashi deal.

He bought 16 boxes of various Kashi products and paid less than $14 for all of them after coupons. PLUS, he got $20 in gift cards back! He's planning to head to Target again tonight to use those $20 in gift cards and buy some more Kashi products. This is such a great deal--especially since the waffles and granola bars come in very handy right now!

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How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week or other ways you saved money on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below. **To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post. Links going to the homepage of your blog or any other part of your blog besides the direct link to your Super Savings Saturday post will be deleted.**

Did you just fall out of your chair after reading the title of this blog post? :)

I might be a frugal zealot in most cases, but all of that goes out of the window when I'm in the middle of morning sickness. We're in survival mode for a few months and that means fast and easy meals and lots of snacks--nothing which requires more than a few minutes in the kitchen. I also am trying to eat 100 grams of protein every day to keep my blood sugar levels up, so I am planning our meals with mega-protein in mind as well as trying to make every bite count for lots of health and nutritional value.

At any rate, we decided to temporarily raise our grocery budget by $30/week until the morning-noon-and-night sickness subsides and I can get back to cooking from scratch again. I'll be sharing our quick and easy $70 "survival" menus with you in hopes that they might help some of you who find yourselves in similar situations.

You can read more about "seasons to be practical" on my Frugal Friday post here.

And no picture this week--I'm staying away from food as much as I possibly can!

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How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week or other ways you saved money on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below. **To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post. Links going to the homepage of your blog or any other part of your blog besides the direct link to your Super Savings Saturday post will be deleted.**

Back by popular demand and because I actually went shopping this week, here's what $40 total bought at CVS, Aldi, and Hen House:

Our CVS deal is worth mentioning since it would work well for a newbie:

Another deal I was excited about from Hen House: we got Kathrynne's ultimate favorite yogurt Yoplait yogurt drinks for $0.48 per pack of six. (They were on sale for $1.98 and we used the $1.50 coupon here.)

Our combined three-store trip wasn't anything incredible, but we got enough groceries to last us for the week, along with a few extra treats, and we spent right at $39!

Here's the menu for this week:

BREAKFASTS
Cereal, fruit
Yogurt, fruit, homemade bread
Banana bread, fruit, yogurt smoothies
Fresh juice, English muffins, scrambled eggs
Homemade cinnamon rolls, fruit, yogurt
Breakfast burritos, fruit
Cereal, fruit

LUNCHES
PB&J, fruit, carrots
Cheese quesadillas, veggies
Baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese
Leftovers x 2
Split peas, brown rice, cottage cheese
Yogurt, banana bread, veggies

DINNERS
Lasagna casserole, homemade bread, salad, green beans
Beef hot dogs, potato salad, veggies, fruit, icecream bars
Italian meatballs over rice, homemade breadsticks, salad, steamed veggies
Beef sausage and onions, scalloped potatoes, grapefruit, homemade bread
Burritos, salad, fruit, corn
Grilled chicken, salad, homemade bread, fruit
Leftovers or dinner out

SNACKS--Veggies, banana bread, yogurt, fruit, cereal, cheese quesadillas, toast, cheese

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How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week or other ways you saved money on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below. **To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post. Links going to the homepage of your blog or any other part of your blog besides the direct link to your Super Savings Saturday post will be deleted.**

The five winners of the Bertolli Premium Pasta Sauces are: Sue (marklovessue@), Shaunta (taychambers@), Michele (mflaherty@), Ram (ram1118@), Hil'Lesha (LilacButterfly@) Winners have been notified via email. Thanks to everyone who participated!

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And now for Super Savings Saturday... I have nothing to report this week since I stayed home all week. My husband was kind enough to make a quick trip to Aldi for us and that was it. I've not so much as even touched my coupon box and am just trying to get our home back into our and some semblance of a routine back into place.

However, next week, I hope to hit some deals hot and heavy seeing as we're running low on a few things. I also hope to bring the $40 weekly menu feature back to life, too. So stay tuned!

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How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week or other ways you saved money on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below. **To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post. Links going to the homepage of your blog or any other part of your blog besides the direct link to your Super Savings Saturday post will be deleted.**

I was gone most of yesterday at FishMama's house and when we got home, it was a mad-scramble-dash to get out the door and onto our first destination of our 10-day vacation, so I didn't so much as even consider getting on the computer yesterday afternoon and evening.

However, I did steal out bright and early this morning to head to Starbucks for a few hours while everyone slept in so I could wade through my overloaded inbox (finally done! If you emailed about the ebook sale, you should have heard back from me!) and get a little blogging done.

I debated even posting Super Savings Saturday since I don't have any pictures to share, but I decided you could post your links without me. So leave your links below and inspire us all with the great deals you got this week.

Oh and for the record, I don't have a picture, but my husband did our grocery shopping and he got some sweet deals including blueberries for $2/lb, free Blue Bunny icecream bars, free razors from Wal-Mart, and a super CVS run! I love that guy; not only is he a wonderful husband and father but he almost rivals me in bargain-shopping. I got me a good one. :)

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How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below.

I think this shopping trip takes the cake for my best shopping trip of the year...

(Click on picture to enlarge for the full effect--the entire table was stuffed with food and household products! Please especially take note of the BOX of Pampers--100 diapers in all!)

Total spent out of pocket?

$49.60!

$2 under the $51 budget I had (We budget $40 per week, but I usually don't spend all of it and "roll over" the extras to the next week.)

After almost three weeks of little-to-no shopping--thanks to a well-stocked pantry, fairly-dismal sales, and my attentions and energies being focused elsewhere--I guess I made up for it this week.

Since the deals usually linger at Target and Wal-Mart for a month or more and they are a bit more of a drive, I save my coupons and just hit both stores once every 4-6 weeks. This was the week to hit both of them and hit them I did!

At Target, my total before coupons was $83. After coupons, it was $38. And then I paid with gift cards I'd earned free from referring a few folks to eBates. So I spent $0.00 out of pocket!

Best deals at Target: $0.89 Natural Skippy peanut butter (on price cut to $1.89, used $1/1 Target coupon), almost-free Electrasol (combined Target mailer coupon with $2.25 manufacturer's coupons), free Joint Juice and Powerade, Physician's Formula Organic blush for $0.67 (on clearance for $2.67, had $2/1 peelie on it!), very cheap crayons and school supplies, Pantene Beautiful Lengths for $0.79 each (used $2/2 coupon from Target mailer and 2 $2/1 manufacturer's coupons) and a HUGE 100-pack of Pampers on clearance (clearance price: $23, used $4/1 Pampers mailer coupon plus $5/2 Pampers Target coupon).

Between the clearanced box of diapers, another pack of diapers I bought, and the 2 mega packs of refill wipes, we should have enough diapers and wipes to last us for six weeks!

At Wal-Mart, I spent $8.61--I got free Schick razors (used $2/1 coupon from recent insert making them free), bought more Muir Glen tomatoes, used my three last $3/1 Planter's coupons to get free Kettle roasted peanuts by buying Kool-Aid (anyone want some? We don't get near Kool-Aid!), bought Luvs diapers for $2.47 (used $5/1 coupon), got one package of Yo-Plus yogurt for $1.08 after coupon, and 2 packages of Kotex for free (used $1/1 coupons).

I spent $11.02 at Hen House and I got three bottles Old Orchard juice for $0.68/bottle (on sale for $1.68, used $1/1 coupons), three boxes of Curves bars for $0.98 each (on sale $1.98, used $1/1 coupons), Farm Fresh whole milk from a local farm, a dozen eggs, and English muffins.

Next stop was Hy-Vee where I spent around $13.56 and got lots of peaches and pears, frozen veggies, cottage cheese, orange juice, free Huggies CleanTeam wipes (the small packs are priced at $0.97, used $3/2 coupon and got the overage!), and 3 packages of chicken (two packages were manager's special SmartChicken thighs on special for $2 each!).

Our last stop, Aldi, we spent $16.41 and got odds and ends: Sugar, 2 packages cheese, cucumbers, kiwi, carrots, tortillas, butter, toilet paper, and 3 loaves of bread reduced to $0.59 each, 2 packages of hot dog buns reduced to $0.39, and 2 packages of hamburger buns reduced to $0.25! The buns are all going straight into the freezer to save for later--I couldn't resist such a great deal!

We are now well-stocked for the next two weeks and I'll probably only have to make a small trip to the store for more produce and milk and the best deals next week. Yay!

What is so exciting to me about getting all of these great deals is that these were in direct answer to prayer. I prayed specifically before going into each store and I also prayed for God to give the girls grace to be cheerful and obedient. I never expected to make it to all of those stores with the girls by myself in one afternoon (I was planning to split it up over two days and stop when they started getting tired--but they never reached that point so we just kept going!). Nor did I expect to get such great deals.

God is always faithful to do "exceeding abundantly above all that I could ask or think": the girls ended up having a blast with me (there was almost no complaining at all!) and we snagged quite a few more deals than I had planned on. God is good.

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How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below.

If you read this post, you likely clued in to the fact that I didn't do any shopping of any kind this week. In fact, it's been almost 14 days since I've done any shopping of any kind!

Jesse did make a quick stop to buy milk, bread, and a few other essentials, but I didn't step foot in any store all of this week and almost all of last week, too. To tell you the truth, it felt really nice.

However, after only one quick shopping trip in two weeks, we're running quite low on some essentials so I'll certainly be making a fairly large grocery run this next week and I definitely refreshed and ready and ready to do some more deal-scoring! (If only I had all my coupons in order, though! Anybody want to come over for a coupon organization party?! It's amazing how quickly they can get out of hand when I let them be for a week or two!)

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How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below.

Thank you, friends, for your kind comments on my earlier post. It's been a long week and I'm feeling rather worn-down and worn-out, so your encouragement truly lifted my spirits. I am so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful people!

As promised, I'm going to share the winners of The Couponizer and Greatest Secrets of the Coupon Mom. However, instead of announcing two winners, Amy Bergin said that so many people entered that she wanted me to choose an additional five winners. So, folks, without further ado, the seven randomly chosen winners are:

Laura (rolamarfarm@)
Jana Kelley
Amanda (davidgolf@)
Jenny Cooper (jennylcooper@)
Laura Cooper (any chance you're related to Jenny above? I promise I randomly drew winners here!)
Kristin (kashley628@)
Darlene (dstone728@)

I've emailed all of you with further instructions but if for some reason my email didn't come through, please get in touch with me ASAP. Thanks!

And now for Super Savings Saturday...

I had a fairly productive shopping trip this week but I failed to get a picture of everything I bought since we had to leave shortly after I got home. However, I did get a picture of my CVS run:

I just did the Olay deal and bought some Pert shampoo for $0.50 since we are running low on shampoo (yes, can you believe that?):

Pert - $2.50, used $2/1 coupon
Olay - $4.99, $5.99, $5.99, $5.99, used $3/1, $1/1, $3/1, and $3/1
Used $3/$15 Face Care coupon
Used $10.50 in ECBs
Paid $1.32 out of pocket
Got $10 ECBs back

Not the best CVS run ever, but considering that I only bought stuff we need and will use, I was happy with it.
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How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below.

The winners of the Hanes for Kids $25 gift certificates are: Abbi Riner and Brandy (brandyu@) Congratulations!

I did a "little" grocery shopping this week. I was supposed to only spend $15 so that I'd have $65 to spend next week for a bigger stock-up trip, but alas, I didn't quite stick with my self-imposed budget. Oh well! I'm still experimenting with this two-week grocery shopping thing. I suppose it will take me awhile to get the hang of it.

The good news is that we've been having more food in the house and I feel like I'm staying more ahead on groceries. Best of all, I've been enjoying shopping more. Where $40 was starting to feel like a bit of a stretch once we lost our Kroger stores and the great deals and super double coupon policy they had, this big-trip, little-trip thing now has me feeling like I'm able to buy plenty and not feel pinched. Maybe it's just all in my head, but it seems like I have more breathing room now.

Here's what we bought:

First Stop - Hen House:
Lipton instant tea - used FREE coupon
EAS bar - used FREE coupon
4 boxes Blue Bunny ice cream bars - on sale $1.49, used $1/1 coupons - $0.49 each!
2 boxes (4pack) yogurt - on sale $1.98, used $1/1 coupons - $0.98
1/2 gallon ice cream - $2.48
1/2 gallon organic milk from a local farm - $3.19
Total: $11.22 (saved $16.79 with coupons and store sales)

Second Stop - CVS (This was a really bad trip--I needed diapers and couldn't come up with anything to buy or any deal to work so I just decided to blow some ECBs):
1 package Pampers - $10.99
2 Colgate Total toothpastes - $2.99 each
Used $5/1 Pampers coupon and $1.50/1 Colgate coupon
Paid with ECBs and $0.49 out of pocket
Got back $4 ECBs
Total: $0.49

Last Stop - Aldi:
2 Grapefruit - $0.59 each
4 Apples - $1.40
2 bunches bananas - $2.55
Tortillas - $0.99
Carrots - $0.99
Flour - $1.70
2 packages (8 oz) cheese - $1.89 each
Bread - $1.19
Bagels - $1.39
Total: $16.20

GRAND TOTAL: $27.91

So, this coming week I have about $52 to work with to last us for another 10 days. There are some great sales going on and we're quite well stocked up here on many things, so I don't think it will be too hard. We'll see. I'll report back next week and let you know how it goes.

And, since I didn't share this picture last week, here's what we purchased for the Sears/Dockers deal:

We did two different $100 transactions, since Jesse was really in need of clothing. I think I figured out that we'll pay about $70 out of pocket (including taxes) after the gas gift cards for all of this. Since quality men's clothing is quite expensive, I'm thrilled to have re-stocked Jesse's wardrobe so inexpensively! He should be set on dress clothes for at least another year. Yay!

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How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below.

I mentioned our marathon shopping trip last week, but didn't get a chance to show you pictures. Before I show you pictures, though, I need to tell you that our van has been undergoing repairs recently, so I'd been without a vehicle for a number of days and the girls and I were feeling quite a bit of cabin fever.

What's the perfect solution to cabin fever? Go grocery shopping! We don't usually go to more than 3-4 stores per week but Friday night and Saturday, we were on a roll so we just went and went and went. And we had a blast! Well, at least we did until Kaitlynn starting throwing up--which quickly signified the end of our shopping spree!

Here's what we got:

Since I just switched to shopping for two weeks at a time and was actually a week ahead, I went ahead and used up almost all of my allotted $80 to spend. There were such great deals and we were motivated buyers, so I figured I might as well stock up while I had the chance.

FIRST STOP: CVS
1 box Fiber One Cereal - $3.00
2 bags Gold Emblem candy - $0.88 each
2 Listerine SmartRinse - $3.49 each
1 Brut deodorant - $2.89
3 CVS cotton swabs - $3.19 each
Used $3/$15 CVS coupon
Used $3/$10 CVS coupon
Used $1/1 Fiber One coupon
Use $1/2 Gold Emblem coupons
Used $9 and $6.99 ECBs
Spent $0.21 out of pocket
Earned $6, $3, and $6.98 ECBs


SECOND STOP: HEN HOUSE
3 bottles Juicy Juice - on sale $1.97, used $1/1 coupons
3 bags Chex Mix - on sale for $1.50, used $1/1 coupons
2 bags Texas Toast croutons - $1.65, used $1/1 coupons
2 boxes microwave popcorn, on closeout for $0.39 each
2 cans tuna, on sale for $0.58
1 container Farmland All Natural shaved turkey - on sale for $2.79, used $1/1 coupon
2 lbs fresh green beans - on sale for $0.99/lb 
8 ears of fresh corn - on sale 4 for $1
Bags of frozen peaches, raspberries, and blackberries - on sale for $1.77 each
1 bag frozen blueberries - on sale for $2.49
1/2 gallon organic whole milk from a local farm - $3.19
1 package English muffins - $0.85
Yoplait kids drinkable yogurt (6-pk) - on sale for $2.48, used $1/1 coupon
YoPlus yogurt (4-pk) - on sale for $2.17, used $1/1 coupon
Total: $35.48 (saved $29.06 with store sales and coupons)

THIRD STOP: WAL-MART
2 boxes Kashi cereal - $2.78, used $2/1 coupon
1 box Kashi Vive cereal - $3.46, used FREE coupon
1 Kotex small pack - $1, used $1/1 coupon
1 box LiveActive cereal - $2.98, used $3/1 coupon
Edge shaving gel - $1.50, used $1/1 coupon
V8 Fusion - $2.98, used $2/1 coupon
5 cans Muir Glen tomatoes - $1.18 each, used 5 $1/1 coupons
Total after coupons: $5.71

FOURTH STOP: HY-VEE
2 bags Corazonas chips - used 2 FREE coupons
1 Deli Creations - on sale for $2, used $1/1 coupon
1 cottage cheese (16 oz) - on sale for $1.38
3 lbs Braeburn apples - on sale for $0.99/lb
Total after coupons: $6.10



FIFTH STOP: CVS #2
1 box Cheerios - $3
2 Gold Emblem candies at $0.88 each
1 Oral B toothbrush - $6.99
3 Huggies Bath and Body - $3.49
Used $3/15
Used $1/2 Gold Emblem
Used 3 $1/1 Huggies coupons
Used $3, $6, and $6.50 ECB--had them adjust this down
$0.01 out of pocket
Earned $6.99 and $6 ECBs

SIXTH STOP: CVS #3
5 boxes Honey Nut Cheerios - $3 each
1 Oral B Toothbrush - $6.99
2 Gold Emblem candies - $0.88 each
Used $3/15
Used 2 $1/1 Cheerios coupons
Used 3 $0.60/1 Cheerios coupons
Used $1/2 Gold Emblem coupon
Used $3, $6 and $6.99 ECBs
Spent $3.47 out of pocket
Earned $10 and $6.99 ECBs

SEVENTH STOP: PRICE CHOPPER
4 boxes of SmartStart cereal (our very favorite cereal!) on sale 4 for $10
Used 2 $3/2 coupons
Paid $4.75 out of pocket after coupons and sales (Saved $10.56)

EIGHTH STOP: ALDI

Oil - $2.79
2 cans refried beans - $0.59 each
Cantaloupe - $0.99
Baby carrots - $0.99
Noodles - $0.99
Tortillas - $0.99
Corn chips - $0.99
2 bunches bananas - $2.96 total
3 blocks (8 oz.) cheese - $1.89 each
Lettuce - $0.99
Animal crackers - $1.19
Total: $21.21

FINAL STOP: CVS #4

6 Gold Emblem candies - $0.88 each
3 CVS Aftershave - $2.59 each
1 CVS sharing lotion - $2.99
1 Brut Deodorant - $2.89
Used $3/$15 coupon
Used $10.00 ECB
Used $5.93 ECB-- had them adjust it down
Spent $0.00 out of pocket
Earned $4 ECB, $3 ECB, and $5 ECB

GRAND TOTAL: $76.94--under budget and we got LOTS of food and household products for that! Yay!

Stay tuned for Monday's post on the complete menu of what we're eating with these groceries.

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How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below.

We made it to Saturday! Aside from a few trips to CVS, I did not darken the door of any supermarket for two weeks.

Two. whole. weeks.

It felt like an eternity. Well, almost! At any rate, we made it through two weeks of no-shopping and we learned a lot along the way:

1) It is hard to let good deals pass by, especially when I have the time to snag them, the right coupons, and the store is only a few blocks away. 

2) A half gallon of milk does not last two weeks. Um, yeah, I should have known that one; don't ask me what I was thinking.

3) Even if it was painful to miss a few deals, it is rather nice to not have to even think about menu-planning or shopping-list-making for two whole weeks.

4) Finally, yes, it saved me time. Yes, it saved us money (well, in that we were able to buy more with $80 than we can with $40. Do not ask me how that works, though, because I'm still scratching my head over it!). And last of all, we made it through two weeks without running out of food (ahem, except the milk bit!) and we even had quite a bit to spare.

The consensus? I think I'm going to try doing my grocery shopping every two weeks. However, instead of only going once every two weeks and spending all $80, my current plan is to do a bigger stock-up shop (say $65 worth) every two weeks and then use the leftover money ($15 or so) to make a quick run to a store to buy milk and the rock-bottom deals the week I'm technically not shopping.

This plan seems like it would give me the best of both worlds as I would still save time and have more wiggle room for stocking up every other week, but I'd also not have to miss out on exceptional deals the week I take off nor would we have to worry about going without if we run out of something like milk. That said, while it seems like a good plan, I have to try it out for awhile to really know it's effectiveness.

I'm curious to know: Does anyone else shop like this--a big trip one week, a small trip the next? Do you think it could work?

We just got back from a two-hour shopping trip to multiple stores and got some wonderful deals but I need to head for bed so I'll try and share those tomorrow or Monday.

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How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below.

I stayed out of the grocery stores all week this week as part of my Two-Week Grocery Experiment, but I certainly didn't completely avoid CVS.

In fact, I did four transactions split up into two trips--one on our way home from an outing last night and one at the CVS down the street.

Here's what we got:

And our total out of pocket was: $1.48! Yay!

Best of all, I started the week out with about $15 in ECBs and ended the week with around $21. I was thrilled to be able to do so well even if I did somehow miscalculate and buy too many of the Pampers wipes. Oh well, at least it was something we'll use!

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How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below.

We have yet to go grocery shopping this week so I haven't much to report here. We've been well-stocked here so I was able to extend last week's groceries for a few extra days--I love it when that happens!

We're out of milk now, though, so I'm planning to make my weekly trip tomorrow. I'll post about tomorrow's shopping trip early next week and also share our menu for the week since so many of you have requested I continue to post our menus. Stay tuned!

We didn't do our major grocery trip of the week yet, however, we did make two trips to CVS on various errand outings and I also quickly stopped by Price Chopper for some $1.88 Blue Bunny ice cream (!).

You can see one of our CVS shopping trips here and just for fun you can also see some of the freebies we got in our mailbox this week here.

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How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below.

Here were our grocery/household product purchases this week (pictures forthcoming--I have to figure out how to download them off our new camera and upload them to this new blog platform!):

Hen House Purchases (Most all of these deals are explained in this post.)
Diet Pepsi Max
Lipton Raspberry Tea bags
Cattlemen's BBQ sauce
2 bottles Sierra Mist
2 bottles French's yellow mustard
Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce
3 Rice-A-Roni Natural rice mixes
McCormick Grill Mates
Orville Redebacher Popcorn
Bag of Reese Peanut butter cups baking pieces (reduced to $0.50.)
Bag of York Peppermint patties baking chips (reduced to $0.50)
2 Hillshire Farms sliced turkey (reduced to $1 each)
8 ears of fresh corn on the cob
Frozen stir fry veggies
2 packages Dannon All Natural yogurts
3 dozen Eggland's Best eggs
2 blocks cheddar cheese
Total after coupons: $19.45 (Total savings of $32 with sales and coupons)

Aldi Purchases
Bread - $1.19
1 Grapefruit - $0.39
1 bag bananas - $0.90
Carrots - $0.99
Two bags of going-bad bananas - I asked for a discount and they gave them to me for $0.25/bag!
Total: $4.27

Hy-Vee Purchases
Frozen strawberries - $1.77
CleanTeam wipes - $0.97, used $1/1 coupon, free
Split peas - $0.65
Chai Silk Soymilk - $2.59, Used $2.25/1 coupon, $0.34 after coupon
Deli turkey - on sale $1.99, Used $1/1 coupon, $0.99
2 pounds Braeburn apples - $0.99/lb
All natural chicken breasts - $3.59
Total: $10.29 (Total coupon savings: $4.25)

CVS Purchases
3 Crest Toothpastes - $1.99, Get $1 ECB
1 Oral B Toothbrush - $1.99, Get 1 ECB
1 Almay eye product - $6.99, Get $5 ECB
1 Tums Quick Pak - $4.69, Get $4.69 ECB

Used $3/$15 CVS coupon
Used 1 $1/2 Crest coupons and 1 $0.50/1 Crest coupon
Used $1/1 Oral-B coupon
Used $1/1 Almay coupon
Used $1/1 Tums coupon
Used $14.98 in ECBs

Total: $0.47 out of pocket
Got back $4, $4.69, and $5 ECBs!

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How'd you do this week? Post about the deals and bargains you were able to snag this week on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and leave your link below.

Thanks to your input, I'm going to try and do a better job of outlining my shopping trips each week so you can see more what we're buying for $40 and hopefully be inspired in your own grocery savings.

Since we already had most staple items and fruit and veggies both fresh and frozen leftover from the last two weeks' shopping trips, I mostly focused on getting a few items we needed this week (like meat, milk, and eggs) as well as stocking up on some of the sale items.

Here was our Thursday evening shopping trip:
Hy-Vee
4 boxes Kellogg's SmartStart - on sale 4 for $9, used 2 $3/2 coupons = $0.75/box after coupons
12 packages FastFixin' chicken products - on sale for $1 each, used 12 $1/1 coupons = Free!
2 bags Corazona Chips - used 2 free Corazona chip coupons = Free!
1 Yo-Plus Yogurt 4-pk - on sale for $2, used $1/1 coupon = $1 after coupon (We love yogurt here, so I normally buy it anytime I can get it for around $0.25-$0.30/serving.)
Total: $6.14 (savings from sales and coupons: $24.38)

Hen House
Baking Powder - $1.85
KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce - on sale $1, used $1/1 coupon = Free!
1/4 Watermelon - on sale for $0.49/lb = $1.90
Blue Bunny Ice Cream - on sale for $2.76, used $1/1 coupon = $1.76
Farm-fresh organic eggs (from a local farm) = $2.69
Half gallon farm-fresh hormone-free organic whole milk (from a local farm) = $3.19
Total: $12.36 (savings from sales and coupons: $4.46)

Price Chopper (They were having a 60th anniversary sale so that's why some of these prices are so good!)
Peanut butter - on sale for $1.69
4 small yogurts - on sale for $0.29 each
Pace Picante sauce - on sale for $0.99
Ken's salad dressing - on sale for $0.99, used $1/1 coupon = Free!
Sara Lee bread - on sale for $1.19
2 1/2 lbs. of 93% lean ground beef - on sale for $1.99/lb = $4.86
Fritos - on sale for $0.99
2 bags Westpac frozen veggies - on sale for $0.60 each = $1.20
Total: $12.99 (savings from sales and coupons: $14.86)

[And please rest assured that this shopping outing was rather junk-food-heavy, but I promise we won't be eating all that junk food up this next week--especially all those chicken fingers and popcorn chicken! Stay tuned for this next week's Menu Plan Monday post to see what we'll be eating this week.]

On Friday, we took a field trip to a nearby free arboretum with some friends. On our way home, we hit Aldi and CVS to finish out our shopping for the week. Here's what we got:

(Excuse the quality of the picture--my camera died today so we had to use the cell phone to take this! And don't ask me why there is a yogurt in the picture, too. I guess three-year-old Kathrynne snuck that in when I wasn't looking!)

Aldi
1 mozzarella cheese - $1.89
1 cheddar cheese - $1.89
1 pack of strawberries - $0.99
1 bunch of bananas - $0.91
Total: $6.11

CVS Transaction #1
5 Glade sprays - on sale for $0.97 each, used 3 $1/1 coupons and 2 B1G1 coupons
1 Colgate Sponge Bob toothbrush - $2.99, get $2 ECBs, used $0.50/1 coupon
1 Colgate Total Advanced toothpaste - $2.99, get $2 ECBs, used $1/1 coupon
1 Aquafresh Extreme Clean toothpaste - $2.99, get $2.99 ECBs
1 Colgate 360 toothbrush - $3.99, get $3.99 ECBs
1 Schick Intuition razor - on sale for $8.88, Get $6 ECBs, used $4/1 coupon
2 CVS 4-packs of toilet paper - $1.59 each
Used $3/15 CVS coupon
Used $3, $5, and $5.98 ECBs
Paid $2.30 out of pocket
Got back $6, $4, $2.99, and $3.99 in ECBs

CVS Transaction #2
2 Colgate 360 toothbrush - $3.99, get $3.99 ECBs, used 1 $1/1 coupon
1 Colgate Sponge Bob toothbrush - $2.99, get $2 ECBs
1 Colgate MaxFresh toothpaste - $2.99, get $2 ECBs, used $0.75/1 coupon
6 Bliss milk chocolate small candy packages - $0.25 each (added as fillers since my total was negative)
Used my $4, $6, and $3.99 ECBs earned from my transaction above
Paid $0.13 out-of-pocket!
Got back $7.98 and $4 in ECBs!

If I had it to do over again, I should have bought one 4-pack of toilet paper per transaction and then I would had paid less out-of-pocket in the first transaction and not had to add on the Bliss chocolates to get my balance above negative in the second transaction. Hindsight is 20-20, isn't it?

All totaled, we spent $40.03 on groceries and household products this week--$0.03 over our $40 budget. I'll take it, especially since we had $1 leftover in our grocery budget from last week. And we'll not mention the fact that if I had done a better job of calculating at CVS, we wouldn't have gone over in the first place... oh well!

 We did two transactions in one trip at CVS this week to finish up the Essence of Beauty deal, snag some inexpensive laundry soap which we really needed, pick up some contact solution which we also needed, and get some razors and hair color.

All totaled, we spent around $3 out of pocket for the two transactions--a bit higher than I prefer, but since we really needed the laundry detergent and contact solution, I wasn't working so hard to get the amount down. We did, however, roll our ECBs and increase them by $3 in the process. So I suppose you could say the $3 we spent was somewhat of a "wash."

Moral of the story: Pay closer attention to when you are about to run out of something and work it into a deal before you have to buy it or else you can't do laundry or wear your contacts!

The above picture isn't about anything I saved this week, but about money I made--thanks to you all! Yes, my RevolutionMoneyExchange check came and, because of all of you kind people who signed up under me, I was able to get the maximum amount of $522.50. It's already been deposited straight into our house fund. Thank you all!

For those who have yet to sign up for RME, you only have a week and a half to do so and still get your free $25. So hurry while this offer is good! Go here to read more and sign up.

Then be sure to tell your friends and family and blog readers and neighbors and mailman and... well, just tell everyone you know so that they will thank you for the free money and you'll get a nice referral fee of $10 for every one who signs up through your link!

(For those who may be wondering, now that I've maxed out my account I'm promoting a few links from people I personally know who could really use the extra referral $$. So when you sign up, you're not only getting free money, you're also helping someone out who is struggling financially.)

Since our Kroger stores were bought out by Price Chopper, I've been exploring new stores and options to replace the good deals I used to be able to pull off at Kroger. So far, it's been a new challenge and I've not always been thrilled with the results, but I was very excited to buy all of the above for only $0.64 at Hyvee two days ago.

Here's the breakdown:

Hyvee had HBO cereals on sale 5 for $10 and I still had two more $2/1 coupons. So I got both of those for free.

Then, I went to check on the Huggies CleanTeam wipes and was elated to find they had some wipes for $0.99 each! Using the $3/2 coupons, I was able to get 4 free plus I got $0.50 overage for each package I bought.

The overage was applied to the pears which were on sale for $0.99/lb (my target price for most fresh fruits and veggies!).

So, all total, I spent $0.64!

For those of you in the KC area, be sure to check your Hyvee stores for the $0.99 CleanTeam wipes. I left plenty for you. :)

As a side note: When I have a high dollar coupon like the $3/2 and I'm headed out to shop at a few stores, I normally tuck the coupon in with my other coupons to use and make a note on each list to check for that item. Oftentimes, one of the stores will have the item in-stock and on a good sale price which will make it free or almost free. The extra minute it takes to check normally pays off!

So, if your Wal-Mart doesn't have the CleanTeam wipes for $1.64, be sure to check your other area stores if you're going to be shopping at them anyway. You just never know!