Sunday 2/13 Coupons

For a preview of what's to come each week in your Sunday paper, be sure to check out the Sunday Coupon Preview.

Here's what showed up in my paper this week.  There were 3 inserts; General Mills, Redplum & SmartSource.

General Mills

• $1/3 General Mills cereals listed
• .75/1 Cinnamon Burst Cheerios
• .50/1 Multipack Yoplait Delights
• $1/5 Totino's Crisp Crust Party Pizza
• .50/2 Yoplait Original or Light 4pks
• .75/2 Yoplait Gogurt or Trix yogurt
• .50/1 Yoplait Splitz yogurt
• .40/6 Yoplait cups
• .40/6 Yoplait cups
• .50/1 Yoplait FiberOne multipack
• .40/1 pouch (17.5 oz or larger) Betty Crocker cookie mix
• .60/2 Yoplait Greed yogurt cups
• .50/1 Betty Crocker Supreme Brownie or Dessert Bar mixes
• .50/1 any variety Green Giant Just For One vegetables
• .75/3 Hamburger/Tuna/Chicken helper meals
• .50/1 Yoplait Kids Cup yogurt
• .50/2 Betty Crocker boxed potatoes
• $1/1 Wanchai Ferry frozen entree
• $1/2 Romano's Macaroni Grill/ Wanchai Ferry or Good Earth dinner kit
• $1/4 cans Progresso soups
• .55/1 Pillsbury "Simply" refrigerated cookie dough
• .35/1 can refrigerated Simply buttermilk biscuits
• .35/1 can refrigerated Pillsbury Simply Rustic French bread
• $1/1 Pillsbury Refrigerated cookie dough
• .50/2 Pillsbury Toaster Strudel pastries
• $1/2 Frozen Pillsbury Grands biscuits
• .40/3 refrigerated Pillsbury Grands biscuits
• .40/2 Pillsbury Sweet Rolls or Grands! Sweet Rolls
• .75/1 Pillsbury Sweet Moments Refrigerated desserts
• .75/2 boxes Nature Valley Granola bars
• .50/1 Nature Valley Chewy Trail Mix bars
• .50/2 Betty Crocker fruit snacks

Redplum

• Subway BO 6" sub with drink G1 sub of equal or lesser value
• (2) B1 drink before 11am, G1 6" breakfast sub or flatbread
• $2/1 Millstone Coffee (.5lb or larger) prepack or K-cup portion pack
• $1/1 Uncle Ben's Plain White or Brown Rice product
• $1/1 Colavita EVOO
• $1/1 Pedigree Goodbites
• $2/1 any shade L'Oreal Preference
• $1/4 Zataran's Rice mixes
• $1/2 Zataran's frozen entrees
• .35/1 Hillshire Farm deli select lunchmeat
• $1/1 40ct, 80ct or 9.8oz spoonable Truvia
• $1/1 bag 9Lives Dry cat food (3.15lb or larger)
• .75/1 12can variety pack 9Lives wet cat food (or 12 individual cans or (3) 4packs
• .50/1 Neosporin product or 1 Band-Aid brand adhesive bandage product
• $1.50/1 Neosporin product AND Band-Aid Brand Adhesive bandage product
• $3/1 120ct i-Flex
• $2/1 i-cool For Menopause
• $10/1 Crest 3D White 2-Hr Express or Professional Effects Whitestrips
• $1/1 Covergirl Eyelights product
• $3/1 Gain fabric softener sheets
• $1/1 Gain detergent

SmartSource

• $3/1 Olay Pro-X Facial Moisturizer or Facial Cleanser
• $1/1 Olay Facial Moisturizer or Facial Cleanser
• .50/3 (or 1 bundle pack) Kleenex
• $1/1 Revlon Grow Luscious Mascara or any Revlon Color Cosmetic product
• .55/1 Hormel Compleats microwave meal
• $1/3 participating Hormel Foods
• $1/1 Hormel Refrigerated entree
• $1/2 Hormel Country Crock side dishes
• $1/1 Hormel Always Tender flavored meat (any variety)
• .50/1 Gorton's item
• $2/1 Nice 'n Easy hair color product
• $4/1 Luster 1 Hour White
• $1.50/1 Luster White 7
• $1/1 Almay cosmetic item
• .40/4 Campbell's condensed soups
• $5/1 Osteo Bi-Flex
• $2.50/2 U by Kotex Pads
• $2.50/2 U by Kotex tampons
• .60/1 Pepperidge Farm cookies
• .50/1 Colgate toothpaste
• $3/1 Glade Plugins Scented Oil Lasting Impressions holder
• $1/1 Glade Plugins Scented Oil twin refill or (2) single refills
• $1/1 Pledge 12.5oz Aerosol product
• Theraflu Warming Relief Try Me FREE mail in rebate
• $3/2 Theraflu products
• $2/1 Triaminic Fever Reducer product
• $3/2 Triaminic products
• $1.50/1 Comtrex product
• $1.50/1 4-Way Nasal Spray product
• $4/1 Prevacid 24HR product
• .35/1 any variety 4Grain eggs
• .75/1 Tornados
• .75/2 PictSweet deluxe sides frozen vegetables
• $1/1 4pk or larger Better Than Ears Treats or 8oz Guilt-Free treats
• $3/1 Lysol No-Touch Hand Soap System
• $1.25/2 Ziploc brand bags
• $1.25/2 Ziploc brand slider bags
• .55/1 Ziploc Zip'n Steam bags
• $1/1 Ziploc Vacuum Bag Starter Kit or refill
• $2.50/1 6lb or larger Rachel Ray Nutrish
• BOGO 10oz package of Rachel Ray Just 6" Dog Treats
• $1/1 Welch's Grape Juice (64oz or 10oz-6pk)
• $1/6 Purina Friskies Selects
• $1/15 5.5oz cans Purina Friskies canned cat food
• $1/1 3.15lb or larger Purina Friskies dry cat food

Spending Goals: February Week 2 Report

Evidently, somewhere around the first of the year we screwed up on our budgeting schedule.  This might explain why I've been so tight on the grocery budget (I'm not really sure), whatever the case we realized that groceries got shorted $100 somewhere along the way.  That money has now been restored, which is a good thing with this Kroger Mega sale and the major stockpiling we are doing on Chunky soup for my hubby's lunches.

So how did I do this week?  I think I did ok actually.  I did very little shopping, since I'd done so much the week before there was no need. Plus, there were fewer sales that I felt the need to deal with.

Walgreens - $4.47 for $41 worth of drugstore items.  I used $11 worth of RR and got back $3 in RR

Next week's report will have a lot more too it.  I did hit Rite Aid twice yesterday (both times for money makers on Halls cough drops) and that will be on next week's report.

At the end of last week I was still right at $150 spent for the month.  With the budget "fix" we added another $150 to the grocery envelope yesterday.  I'll be spending about half that on Chunky soup, by the time the month is over.

My Rite Aid Trip $76.49 for $4.50 OOP

Still $10 away from the Winter Rewards! UGH!  For those who aren't familiar, Rite Aid has a special promo going right now and if you purchase $100 worth of participating items, you'll get a $20+UP (aka Rite Aid bucks to be used on your next purchase).  For the full list and details, click here.

I was quite excited about today's trip because I knew there were quite a few freebies and money makers going on.  Unfortunately, they didn't have one item in stock that I wanted about 6 of and there was at least one other item I had on my list that turned out to not be in the local ad.  This tidbit brings me to a small rant. While in the store I overheard the clerk telling her manager about a lady who was in there throwing a fit because an item wasn't on sale in the store but was in the "national" ad.  Rite Aid doesn't really have a national ad, their ads vary from location to location.  However, you will see preview ads posted online and various deal sites and bloggers (myself included) posting deals.  These deals may or may not work in your store.  While some deals are national, not all are.  So, if you go to a store and a deal isn't available, please don't get pissy. Don't yell at the cashier and jump up and down and tell them you are going to call their DM or corporate.  If you want to call corporate and complain and tell them you wish they'd make all their ads the same, by all means do so.  But, don't try to blame the store.

Ok, so back to my trip.  Here's what I got!

1 Aveeno lotion $9.89 (after 10% Wellness+ disc)
2 Vaseline @ $2.99
2 Colgate @$3.50
2 Maalox @$4.99
1 Blink Tears @ $7.99
2 Dove deo @ 2/$4
1 (100ct) Ferro-Sequels @ $18.89 (after Wellness+)

I probably should have held off on the Aveeno even though I had a coupon to get it for free.  It counts towards the Winter Rewards, but I probably could have gotten a better deal if I'd waited.  The Ferro-Sequels I actually need (man, those things are expensive.  Good thing I had a good stock of +UP rewards that needed to be used this week anyway).

These are the coupons I used:
(2) $2/1 Dove
(1) $1/1 Colgate
(1) .75/1 Colgate
(2) $5/1 Maalox
(2) $1/1 Vaseline
(1) FREE Aveeno (from B3G1 Free MIR) = $10.99

= $38.50 after coupons
used $34 in +UPs, paid $4.50 OOP (after tax)
(got back $15+UPs)

- had I not bought the Ferro-Sequals, this would have been a money maker trip.   I considered buying them separately just so it would have been.  Had they had the Hormel chili in stock that I wanted to buy, it would have been a better money-maker.

Start Your Engines: The Daytona Mega Begins

We headed to Kroger this morning for what I was scared would be the first of MANY trips during this Mega sale. I only had two items on my list, the problem was I needed a LOT of those items.

Gatorade G2 - .69 after MEGA discount
Campbell's Chunky soup bowls - $1.29 after MEGA discount

I have coupons that discount the soup another .50/bowl = .79

I had two major questions/ worries going in.  Was it true that Catalinas would print for an additional $3 off your next order (on top of taking $3 off your current order) when you buy 10 participating items.  AND, if I bought multiples of 10 would I get more than one Catalina coupon.

The answer to both question is YES!

On our first transaction we purchased 14 bowls of soup (because that was all the coupons I had today, more should arrive in the mail tomorrow) and 6 Gatorade.  Luck was on my side. Just as we we were heading to walk down to the Gatorade aisle I saw a guy stocking an endcap and asked if he just happened to be the grocery manager.  HE WAS!  I'd asked on WeUseCoupons.com how to go about doing a special order at Kroger and didn't get a lot of response but one person did tell me that at their store they'd been instructed to find the manager of the dept you wanted to do a special order in and put the order in with him.  So, that's what I did.  I let him know I wanted 100 bowls of soup.  I know that seems like a LOT, but my logic is that the last time we found this stuff on a Mega sale (getting it for around .75/bowl) was in Oct or Nov of last year.  That was 4 to 5 months ago.  I decided it was in our best interest to try to put together about a 6 month stock of soup, just in case.  This is what Paul eats for lunch every day and by doing so he's realized that it's saving us both a ton of money (rather than eating out of his envelope every day).

So here's what we have so far:

Transaction 1:
14 Soups @ $1.59 each
6 Gatorades @ .99 each
1 100ct box of Kroger Green Tea @ $3.59
1 Huntsville Times newspaper @ $1.50
-(7) .50/2 Campbell's Chunky Soup Qs (doubled)
= $28.23
- $6 Mega Savings
= $22.23 (after tax)
(received 2 coupons for $3 off on next order)

Transaction 2:
20 Gatorades @ .99
= $19.80 + tax
- $6 Mega Savings
=$14.90 (after tax)
(received 2 coupons for $3 off on next order)

I'm saving the catalinas to use when I go back for the big special order of 100 soups.  Right now I'm thinking we will do two transactions of 50 soups each, and save all the catalinas from today's purchases and from that first transaction to bring the second order down as low as possible.  However, I may do more transactions if the cashier doesn't mind so that the OOP on these orders is lower and I'm left with fewer catalinas to use later.  If I do two transactions, the first will come to about $40+tax and the second will be about $13 (and leave with another $15 in coupons to use later.