Disappearance noted

I had a fairly disappointing couponing week last week and just didn’t feel like writing about it. Now I’m back with a vengeance. First up, Target:

The sales didn’t thrill me too much, except for a good Arm and Hammer Cat Litter deal. I got two 40-pound boxes for $22.53 after using a $3 coupon from All You Magazine and a $1.50 off coupon from  SmartSource.  That deal got me a $5 gift card, which I used after dropping the litter off in my trunk (where it resides at this moment, 40 pounds is heavy!). I was able to use a 75 cent coupon for the face wash and a $1 off coupon on the pizza, which was on sale. My boyfriend is coming to visit this week, so I needed extra beverages, hence the tea. The exercise mat was on clearance — marked down to $9.44 from $18.89. That was an impulse but necessary purchase. I got rid of my rug a few months ago and recently realized that I had stopped doing a lot of floor work because my floor is too hard to sit on for long.

Then I visited Kroger:

As I previously mentioned, my boyfriend is coming this weekend, causing me to buy some things I wouldn’t normally buy for myself, such as orange juice. The Pringles were free from the Kroger CartBusters game and the Sobe came from a free coupon I won from the Heads or Tails game. I walked away with three Campbell’s soups for 50 cents each using a Kroger eCoupon and a printable coupon.

I’ve started buying more expensive produce because I am getting repaid for up to $30 of produce a month from Taste Radar. After consuming the produce you eat, you fill out a rating form online and write the code on your receipt. At the end of the month, you mail the receipts to a US address. I chose to be repaid through PayPal. They not only pay for your produce, but they also pay for your postage. However, you must buy produce from a supermarket to take advantage of this deal.

Ultimately, I spent $30.92 at Kroger and saved $20.05 on the spot. However, I will be repaid $8.23 from this order at the end of the month.

Finally, I dropped by CVS:

I had two $1.50 off coupons for the Right Guard and one $1 off for the Dry Idea from the Red Plum 8/15 booklet. After $3 ExtraCare Bucks, I only paid 21 cents. Before tax, my total was -13 cents! I got $6 ECBs back, which will come in handy next week.

And finally, I dropped by Old Navy with a 30 percent off coupon that will expire on Thursday. Technically it says Baby Sale, but it will ring up even if you don’t buy a baby item. I got a great green long-sleeved shirt for fall that was on clearance for $3.99 for only $2.79.

Another successful couponing week. Now it’s time to eat all of that food. 🙂

Holiday weekend

I actually expected many more shoppers out this morning, but apparently everyone already did their BBQ shopping yesterday. I started my day at Target:

What you can’t see is the new pink Merona dress that I plucked from the clearance section. I got it for $7 by using a $3 off coupon that Target posted this morning. The dress messed with my total a little, but I’m still happy with what I bought. The Zone bar was on clearance for 46 cents, the blackberries were only $1.47 and the Uncle Ben’s rice cost me 59 cents each. Today was the last day I could use my UB coupons, and lo and behold the rice was 75 cents cheaper at Target than at Kroger! I spent $14.85 and saved at least $7.

I took two CVS trips, but I’m going to talk about them at once:

Sobe in my purchases means that it’s BOGO time at CVS! The gum is part of an Extracare Bucks deal, so it was free. The Pops were part of a three-day deal that almost didn’t work. It pays to read the size restrictions on your coupons before using them for pre-shopping deal match-ups. I also picked up a CVS Green Bag Tag that I’ve lashed to a reusable shopping bag. Now every time I go, I’ll have them scan the tag. I get $1 ECB for every four scans! I spent $3.27 at CVS and saved $15.39.

Onwards to Kroger:

Kroger has been kind of dead with deals for the last few weeks. I was able to get two Sobes for 25 cents using the printable coupon and an ecoupon. The Mission Tortillas were on sale for $2.39, and I combined a paper $1 coupon with a 55-cent ecoupon. I figured it wouldn’t get any cheaper than that. I did use the famed buy 5, get $5 off Kraft promo even though there weren’t any sales going on. It turns out the little cream cheese tubs aren’t part of the promotion. I’m going to print out one more coupon if I can and save it in case there is a good sale on Kraft shredded cheese. I’ve started freezing it for later use, which has worked out well. My Kroger trip was $20.76 and I saved $20.37. Not bad.

Well, hello there

Decent, even without printed coupons

My new printer should be shipping shortly, but it won’t arrive until early next week. Faced with the prospect of shopping without some really excellent coupon matchups this week, I dove in and did my best.

Target turned out pretty well:

The wings and ranch are part of a deal going on right now. When you buy any bagged Tyson frozen chicken item, you get any 16-oz. Hidden Valley Ranch for free. However, several people have noted that at least one Tyson boxed item was part of the deal. I spent $3.19 on chicken and got the ranch for my donation stockpile.

Everything else I bought was on clearance. The veggie rolls would make a tasty lunch or appetizer, and the cream cheese balls and punch are perfect for a party. In total, I spent $7.41. I don’t have the original prices for the clearance items, so I can’t tell you how much my order would have been had they been at regular price.

Kroger’s sales this week are a little lacking, but I made it work:

I noticed after checking my e-coupons that I still had a free Raisin Bran despite the resolution of the e-coupon debacle. I successfully picked up a box that triggered the coupon, so that’s one more item for the donation pile. The Ball Park franks were free with a $2 off coupon because they were on clearance, too.  I got both pastas for free since they’re on sale for $1 each and I had $1 off coupons from a family magazine to which I have a free subscription. The only things I didn’t have a coupon for were the salad, the clearance seasoning and the bananas. This trip only cost me $11.32 compared to the $34.73 it would have cost me without coupons.

I was considering doing a CVS run for free Wheat Thins, but I think I’ll save that for later this week when I have time to be bored.

On another note, I took the top photograph with my new camera and the bottom one with my old camera. I don’t know if you can see a difference. Sometime soon I’m going to have to post about how I got my new camera, because I paid for the entire thing with Amazon gift certificates that I earned in under three months.

Internet coupon diet

After faithfully printing 6 coupons for me to use as I prepared for my Sunday shopping, my HP Deskjet D1600 series printer started making machine gun noises. I think it’s a problem that a servicing can fix, but the printer is so cheap that I’m not willing to spend money fixing it.

I ordered myself a new Canon printer on Amazon. Unfortunately, I wasn’t prepared for the expense and only had $7 in gift certificates. Thankfully, the printer will cost me only $23 or so, which I can easily make up in couponing.

After tonight’s printer drama, I’m going to do my shopping tomorrow. There are some really great deals that I can match up with coupons from the newspaper and the coupons I was able to print before the sound effects started.

Cheap night at the movies!

There are two great deals happening right now that, in combination, create a cheap movie night for you.

Over at Groupon, Fandango is offering a $4 movie ticket for the next three days or so. You’ll have to wait a day to use the ticket once you order it, but if you get it this weekend, you can combine it with this free small popcorn at Regal (“like” them to get it). Don’t worry about not living in the OC — you don’t need to if you want to get the cheap ticket.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Lazy couponing

Much to my surprise, I didn’t feel like shopping today (or taking decent pictures). I didn’t feel impressed by any CVS deals or any new coupons, so I jumpstarted the process by looking at some Merona jeans at Target to see if I could use my $3 off coupon before it expired. The jeans fit, but they didn’t fit well, so I moved on to the grocery section.

The TGI Friday’s snacks were on markdown for $2.66 each, and one of them came with a rebate sticker that will make it free. The chocolate-vanilla marshmallows were on clearance for 95 cents, the Breyers was on sale for $2.59 and the Eggo waffles were on sale for $1.75. I picked up the 44-cent cough drops and headed to the register, where I got a BOGO Archer’s pizza coupon that I decided to combine with the store’s sale on pizza. I walked out with those for $2.25 each.

I feel like I have a lot of food in the house right now, so I decided to make my Kroger trip quick and light.

I won the ThinkThin bar with the Kroger Summer of Savings game this afternoon, and this time it actually came off my receipt! Some Warm Delights flavors were on clearance, so I got this one for 19 cents after Kroger doubled my 50-cent coupon. I also used the $4 off that Kroger customer service gave me after I didn’t get the free Raisin Bran. My real total would have been $12.73, but I paid $6.48.

My mom came to visit this weekend, and we picked a lot of peaches. I had planned to pick up pie-making supplies, but I completely forgot to pick anything up. I guess that means I’ll be going back to the store tomorrow or Wednesday before those peaches get too ripe!

Mid-week CVS jaunts

After weeks of drinking Sobe, I’m officially addicted. Thankfully Sobes are BOGO this week and free with the BOGO coupon on Sobe’s site, so I made a couple of trips to two area CVSs today to keep my stockpile high.

The first trip:

The store restocked the Crest Pro Health toothpaste, so I took advantage of the deal for a second and final time. After ExtraCare bucks and coupons, this order cost 20 cents.

My second trip:

The Emerald nuts are BOGO this week, but if you take advantage of that and use two $1 coupons from Sunday’s coupon books, it will be much cheaper. This transaction was $1.40.

My mom is coming to visit this weekend, so I don’t anticipate looking at another coupon until Monday. That is, unless I think I need more Sobe. We all need more Sobe, don’t you think?

Mega haul

I made up for going out of town and not using coupons by spending my socks off today.

I began the day at Target:

I ran to Target during lunch, so I didn’t peruse the frozen food section. The pillow was on sale for $3, but I got it for $2 with a Target coupon. I got the soup for free by combining two coupons. Everything normally would have cost $7.40; I paid $3.12. I can’t link to individual Target coupons, so follow your nose.

There are some great CVS deals this week, but my attempts to take advantage of the nearly free toothpaste didn’t work out at two stores. I ended up making two CVS runs and picking up some great stuff, though. My first run:

Sobe Lifewater is a BOGO again this week, which means they are free if you have a BOGO coupon from the Sobe game. I had a BOGO coupon for the BOGO Right Guard deodorants from the 7/25 Red Plum insert, so they were free, too. If you need Right Guard coupon, the Krazy Coupon Lady’s CVS post linked above has lots of suggestions in case you don’t have the BOGO. The sparkling water, normally 99 cents each, were BOGO, too. I ended up paying $1.30 on a $15.45 order.

My second CVS run:

I planned this one out so I could use one of my $3 off $15 CVS coupons. I used another BOGO coupon for the deodorants. Although this CVS didn’t have the Crest toothpaste that is on sale, I got the floss. Using a $1 coupon and factoring in the $2.50 in Extra Bucks that I got back, the floss was free. I had a $1 coupon for the Bounty and another BOGO coupon for the Sobes. The olive oil was a good deal when I used a $1 off coupon, plus there is a hangtag for $1 off on a box of pasta.  I paid $9.18 for this $35.66 order.

My final stop of the night was Kroger, where I had planned to take advantage of the Mega Event. Although I only planned to buy 8 items for $4, I ended up finding some good coupon deals and bought 16 items for $8 off instead!

I got all of those Chex Mixes for free, thanks to some great coupons. I got the Country Crock for 20 cents. The Raisin Bran, which I won last week, didn’t come off my receipt. I’m on hold right now to ask Kroger what’s up.  But really, I saved a lot during this run. I spent $17.83 on this $54.29 order.

ETA: I just got a $4 credit put on my card for my next purchase! The Kroger representative said that they know they are having trouble with their ecoupons and are working to get them working consistently again. If you have a high-value ecoupon that doesn’t come off, give Kroger a call. They’ll sort it out for you.

As I was looking at my shopping cart today, I realized that it must look like I only eat junk! Don’t worry, this week’s dinners are a mushroom-bean-rice dish and a tomato chickpea curry. Some of the snacks are likely bound for a reunion I’m having next month, but the rest will live on the top of my fridge to be opened occasionally.

The downside of free

Today I got a free cherry limeade from Taco Bell using a coupon from the Sunday paper. It was…not good. After sucking up the cherry syrup, the lime seltzer wasn’t enough for me. It was not worth 160 calories.

I got some free candy in the mail, too — a banana-flavored Turkish Taffy. Not only do I hate artificial banana flavor, but I can’t eat taffy due to dental work. I guess someone in the office will benefit from that treat tomorrow.