April Grocery Challenge - Re-Stock the Freezer and Pantry on $400

The placemat my daughter made for the 1st Grade Nutritious Breakfast at school

(picture cropped to remove her name)

My challenge for April is to re-stock my freezer and pantry, as well as provide healthy, interesting meals to my family. The budget for accomplishing these two tasks is set at $400. Hubby gets 3 paychecks this month and we got our income tax return, so it seems like a good time to give it a try. I started my challenge today - ok I know today is the last day of March but I really REALLY needed to shop or nobody was going to eat tomorrow! My spending today is going to be applied to the April budget.

The little man and I spent about an hour and a half in Stop and Shop this morning and I spent more in one shopping trip than I have in quite some time. I had a coupon worth $8.00 off my total order, 4 Stop & Shop Dollar Doubler Coupons, a slew of $1.00 coupons and quite a few under a dollar that doubled.

Included in my purchases are:

Easter Ham
2 Rings of Keilbasa
2 Packs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Family Pack of Cube Steaks
Family Pack of Boneless Pork Ribs
2 Packs Oscar Mayer Bacon
1lb Deli American Cheese
1/2 Lb Deli Turkey Breast
2 Jars of Hellmans Mayo
4 Boxes of General Mills Cereal
FREE Hood Sour Cream
Coffee (Maxwell House and Starbucks)
1.5 Gallons of Milk
2 Dozen Eggs
6 Boxes Green Giant Frozen  Veggies
2 Packs of Fruitables Juice Boxes
5 Cans DelMonte Diced Tomatoes
7 Cans Campbells Cream Soup
Lettuce
Red Peppers
Broccoli Crowns
Grape Tomatoes
Strawberries
5lbs Potatoes


And….here is the picture of the $273.61 worth of groceries that I purchased for…….$145.77!!!!

Ok here’s another picture of my little cutie with all the groceries informing me with gestures that he wants a snack….I couldn’t resist!

As I said, I did spend more than I have in quite a while, but with shopping sales, using coupons and getting some marked down meat I managed to save 47% on my groceries today. If you consider the hour and a half of shopping along with about an hour and a half of prepping (scanning circular, making list, matching coupons, etc) I earned $42 an hour (3 hours to save $127.93). Not too shabby eh?

Do you have any grocery spending goals for April? Have any questions on finding coupons, shopping sales, creating a stockpile or other grocery related stuff? Drop me a comment with any questions you have for me or tips you might have for me and my readers.

My next shopping trip is CVS….stay tuned for those results later this week.

March Grocery Challenge - The Final Week

With less than a week left in March I've spent my grocery budget of $240.   I will admit to a little bit of cheating though....the $240 is what I spent from the checking account.   I returned bottles and cans to grab milk one day and today just sold our Backpack carrier for $50 - used $7 of that to buy apples for this afternoon's Daisy meeting snack.

My next grocery trip is planned for Thursday April 1st.   I'll let you know next week if I make it until then and what my anticipated budget is for April.

Now I better get menu planning from the pantry!!!

March Grocery Challenge - Week 2 Aldi Update

Aldi Trip - $38.26

I made a trip to Aldi on Thursday and was able to complete most of my needs list for under $40!!   Yes I admit to shopping with my calculator and choosing not to pick up some items I normally would have grabbed.   We should be mostly set through next week with the exception of milk and doing some loss leader/sales/coupon shopping for the pantry.

Here's how the budget is looking to date:

Budget - $240
Spent - $149.05
Remaining - $90.95

It's going to be a challenge to come in under budget this month but I think I can make it work.   Meal planning and cooking from scratch are musts to make it happen.

March Grocery Challenge - Week 2

Stop and Shop - $17.34

I'm targetting $240 for my March Grocery Spending.  My shopping trip at Stop and Shop last week was a bit frustrating and more costly than I had hoped - but this week made up for it.   By using the 4 Dollar Doubler coupons in the S&S Flyer and 5 $1.00 manufacturer coupons on loss leader items I did a little stock up on items that my family likes.  I also returned $5.00 dollars in bottles and cans.    My S&S total before coupons and savings was $38.34 after a savings of $21.00 I only spent $17.34 for the items pictured above.

I also shopped CVS this week for sandwich bags (BOGO 50% off), Easter Candy ($3 ECB off $10 purchase), Fusion Razor ($4 ECB and $4 MC), Oral B Tootbrush ($4 ECB), Gillette Body Wash (on sale and $2 MC).   My spending at CVS after executing three transactions (not including my prescription) came to $16.18 - quite a bit of which was actually the Easter candy.

So here's where my budget stands as of this morning:

BUDGET - $240
SPENT - $110.79
REMAINING - $129.21

I'm planning an Aldi trip today with a goal of spending less than $40.   That will leave me with about $90 to get through the rest of the month.   I think I can pull it off.    Now as far as the rest of our budget....well I'm working on that one.    Eating out is going to come in a bit over but I'm letting it since two of those outings are related to my birthday.   I figure if anyone deserves not to cook a few nights it's the mom right???!!


 

March Grocery Challenge

I've set my grocery budget at an aggressive $240 for this month.  My husband has minimal overtime right now and we've been tapping the severance account far too often for far too much.   So we're determined this month to cover all our basic expenses with just his income.

I spent a little over an hour yesterday preparing a grocery list and scouting for coupons.   Unfortunately the coupon pickings are a bit slim and my list was a bit longer than I hoped.   I was trying to get my shopping done today for under $70 and instead came in at $77.   I shopped at Stop and Shop - I usually shop at Shaw's.   I realized today why I usually avoid Stop and Shop.....the overall pricing is higher and I had an aggravating checkout experience where all my online printed coupons were questioned.   I know some stores have a policy about not accepting them but the part that aggravated me is that they didn't know what to do.   I asked the cashier to please stop scanning my groceries until a decision was made as my whole list was based on sales and coupon matching....quite of few of my purchases would have to be put back if the coupons were not honored.  The coupons were finally accepted but the whole experience left me frustrated....especially my total bill.   Granted I did have $48 in savings between rewards card and coupons but it just wasn't as much as I had tried for.   I left wishing I had just gone to Aldi.

So my grocery budget for the rest of the month is down to $163.   Hopefully Sunday's paper will have a greater quanity of coupons (this week was only one flier) and Shaws will have some better sales and loss leaders.   Although I did learn my lesson - an Aldi trip is a must this month!

Grocery Planning and Still Cooking

I'm still not done with my freezer cooking.   Yesterday I made a turkey for dinner and today I'm making stock.    I'll post later with the results of what I managed to accomplish and link it up to the host blogs Money Saving Mom and Life as Mom.

Yesterday brought a wonderful taste of spring to our home.  I got two loads of laundry to dry on the line, did a little bit of yard cleanup, took a huge load of items to Goodwill and another load to the dump.   Of course today wouldn't you know it's snowing....sigh....oh well such is March in New England.

My goals for today are to get my grocery lists planned with coupons, balance my finances and finalize our March budget.  In addition to making stock and posting my cooking accomplishments, I'd like to tackle cleaning the layer of dust off my living room (a pellet stove is lovely for warmth but wow it puts out more dust than we realized).

Hope to see you back here a little later....

March Freezer Cooking

My March Freezer Cooking is really a necessity to get through the next two weeks with nothing left in my grocery budget until the next payday. My goal is to prepare things that will make easy, inexpensive meals and keep me out of the store and away from restaurants and take out. I need to accommodate breakfast, boxed lunches, snacks and dinners from my pantry. I think that by doing some freezer and advanced cooking I can achieve tasty healthy meals for my family without entering the grocery store.

Here’s my plan for cooking over the next 3-4 days:

Spaghetti Sauce with Meatballs and Sausage (I have some canned tomatoes and ground beef, ground turkey, sausage as well as some tomatoes in the freezer)

Banana Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

Blueberry Bread

Cake Mix Cookies (with blue and red sprinkles – Go USA!!)

Roasted Turkey (leftovers to be used for sandwiches, pot pie, stock and soup)

Turkey Stock

Turkey Pot Pie

Macaroni Salad

Homemade Bread


My Menu Plan for this week springboards off my freezer cooking efforts. See my Pantry Challenge Menu Plan Monday post for details.   For more Freezer Cooking ideas check out the March Freezer Cooking posts at Money Saving Mom and Life as Mom.

I'll be posting on Wednesday with the results of my freezer cooking.

Grocery Savings this Week

I shopped twice this week. On Sunday I hit Stop and Shop for loss leader and sales items. I stuck to my list and used coupons. Some of the deals I got at Stop and Shop include:


- Hellman’s Mayo – $2.99 each plus .75 and .60 coupons doubled (purchased 2)
- Barilla Whole Wheat Pasta - $1/box
- Starkist Tuna - $1.00/5oz
- Chicken Leg Quarters - .79/lb
- Pork Spareribs – $1.99/lb
- Italian Sasuage – $1.99/lb

My total before savings came to $77.98. My savings including Rewards Card Savings and Manufacturers Coupons was $30.02. Total Spending at Stop & Shop was $47.96

My trip to Shaw’s was quite a big lengthier and more expensive. In addition to sales and loss leaders items I had a large list of needed items to replenish the pantry with. I find that Shaw’s tends to be slightly less expensive than the Stop and Shop. Some of the deals I got at Shaw’s include:

- Cantaloupe - $1.49
- Mushroom - $1.00/8oz
- Yellow Onions - $1.00/2lbs
- Brocoli Slaw - $1.00/10oz
- Radishes - $1.00/10oz
- Ground Turkey - $2.29 for 1.25lbs (Marked down – grabbed 2 packages)
- Boneless Chicken Breast – $1.88/lb
- Pork Cutlets - $1.88/lb
- Land O Lakes Deli Cheese - $4.99/lb
- Sara Lee Deli Ham – $6.99/lb
- Java Delight Coffee - $4.99/12oz (Coupon $1.00 off two bags)
- Bertoli Olive Oil - $5.99 ($1.00 off coupon)

I had quite a few coupons at Shaw’s including a $15.00 off any purchase of $150 or greater. Also they had a Quaker promotion – all items were $1.99 and if you purchased 5 items you got an additional $3.00 off. We returned $3.90 in bottles and cans so that amount also came off my total. My total purchase before savings and bottle returns was $267.87.  Shaw's also has a gas reward program and based on my spending the next time I pump up at Gulf or Irving I save .30 cents a gallon.   After the $3.90 in bottle returns I saved $116.93 in Rewards Card and Coupon Savings. Total Spending at Shaw’s was $147.04

I originally set my grocery budget for $200 this month. I’ve already spent $195.00. I won’t be shopping again except for milk and fresh produce so I’m going to have to bump my budget up to $225. I can probably maximize that by making my last trip of the month to Aldi.

Hope you were able to do some frugal shopping this week.   If you grabbed any great deals or coupons share them in the comments.

Links I Liked

In keeping with my budget grocery shopping theme here are a few links that I found interesting:


At This Side of Eternity’s Savings Dollars and Sense Blog you can read some tips on Successful Grocery Shopping.

In her post Simplify Your Pantry and Your Life - Susanne at Hillbilly Housewife shares some of the benefits of doing a pantry challenge. She ended up with de-cluttering her kitchen food storage and clearing room for the items that make for a well stocked pantry.

Money Saving Mom has a guest post by Jennifer of Saving and Giving in which she shares the NON-COOKING LESSONS LEARNED by participating in the January Pantry Challenge held by Money Saving Mom and Life As Mom. One of the lessons I took away is that dinner doesn’t need to be extravagant – a soup and sandwich night can satisfy everyone’s appetite as well as our grocery budget.

Hope you find these links informative and helpful in your quest to simplify and reduce the cost of feeding your families.

Menu Plan Monday - Planning Around Sales and Loss Leaders

Last week’s Pantry Challenge Menu went relatively well but was pretty boring. I had hoped to get to the store on Thursday but never did. On Sunday morning I did a loss leader/sales shop at Stop and Shop and on Monday morning I’ll be completing my grocery shopping at Shaws. Check my blog on Tuesday for the results of those two shopping trips.

My menu plans for the next two weeks will take advantage of the sales items I was able to get at both stores. This week I’m focusing on using the more perishable items in my menu and next week I’ll work with what I have left. My grocery goal this month is to feed my family on $200. The majority of that is going to be spent this week so I’m going to have to make things stretch.

Here is the plan for this week:

Sunday – Flying Pantry Gourmet (in other words I’m winging it!)

Monday – Broccoli, Mushrooms and Sausage over Penne

Tuesday – Rosemary Chicken Dinner (I'm substituing sweet pototaes for the white potatoes in this recipe), Broccoli

Wednesday – Quesadilla Surprise (utilize leftover chicken and leftover veggies)

Thursday – Crockpot BBQ Spareribs, Coleslaw, Mashed Potatoes, Corn

Friday – Soft Taco’s, Rice, Salad

Saturday – Pork Fried Rice (use leftover rib meat and leftover rice)


Lunches this week will consist of sandwiches, chef salads and leftovers.   The kids and I are going to bake Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies later today for a treat throughout the week.

For more menu planning ideas and great recipes check out Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Grocery List and Meal Planning Process

A Previous shopping trip to Shaws

My frugal grocery budget this month has me planning to spend under $200 for the entire month. We will be gone for one week of the month so it should work out. Just to note I include paper, cleaning products and toiletries in my grocery budget.

Today I am working on planning my grocery trip(s) on Monday (and maybe Tuesday) to purchase the bulk of our food for the month. I have the store circulars, my needs list from the refrigerator, my coupon box, and my notebook. Everything is cleared off the dining table and I’ve got a nice cup of orange spice tea to help me get through the task.

First I work my way through the circulars listing loss leaders and sales items for each store that I am considering purchasing.

Next I work through my coupon box looking for matches to items on both my sales list and my needs list. If I don’t have a coupon I might still purchase the product depending on the price and our need/usage history for that product. If the product is on my needs list and I really need it then I try to get the best price in the store that I can without a coupon. Right now my coupon box is rather empty due to lots of expirations being purged and the fact that I haven’t been couponing in about two months. I will be buying the Sunday newspaper this weekend and scrounging around online for printable coupons. I know that Coupons.com will reset their printable coupons on the 1st of the month so I plan to check there once more before I head out Monday morning.

I now have lists for two stores of loss leaders and sales items. Based on what I plan to purchase for meat and produce, I start meal planning for at least the next week. Today I’m going to try to rough out approximately two weeks worth of menu ideas. I try to utilize the highly perishable items as soon as possible and push out recipe and menus that will use the hardier ingredients towards the end of my plan. I just came up with 11 dinner menu ideas - a few of which utilize leftovers. At this point I’m not looking to plan for specific days. I’m looking for ideas based on the sale items and making sure I either have on hand or on my shopping list the right ingredients for the main dishes as well as sides and vegetables.

Finally I look at my lists and select the store with the greatest number of sales items and/or the store that I know generally has lower prices. I fill in all my needed products on this list from both the fridge list and the list of what I need to round out my menu plans. This store is a must visit for me and I will schedule my shop as early in the morning as possible. The store is generally less busy, I am more energetic, the bottle return area is empty (I have holiday bottles and cans to return) and I can usually snag a few meat markdown sales.

For those of you interested or living in the Northeast here is the list of loss leaders and sales items I plan to purchase along with coupon information:

Stop and Shop
Doubles manufacturer coupons under $1.00
Spareribs (Family Pack) 1.99/lb
Italian Sausage (Family Pack) 1.99/lb
Chicken Leg Quarters (Family Pack) .79/lb
Fresh Brocoli 1.79/lb
Starkist Tuna (5oz) 10/$10
Barilla Pasta (1lb) 10/$10
Betty Crocker Cake Mix 10/$10
Pillsbury Toaster Strudel 2/$4 ($1.00 of two coupon)
Hellman’s Mayonnaise $2.99 (.75 coupon and .60 coupon – both will double)

Shaws
Doubles manufacturer coupons under $1.00
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast (Family Pack) 1.88/lb
Pork Sirloin Cutlets (Family Pack) 1.88/lb
Shoulder Steak 1.99/lb
Ground Beef 2.49/lb
Mushrooms – 1lb 1.00
Onions – 2lb 1.00
Potatoes – 3lb 1.00
Coleslaw – 10oz 1.00
Land O Lakes American Cheese (Deli) 4.99/lb
Sara Lee Ham (Deli) 6.99/lb
Yoplait Light Yogurts .59 ($1.00 off 8)
Trix Yogurts 2.69 ($.80 off 2 – cannot double)
Quaker Products Buy 5 get $3.00 back (I have other coupons that I am going to see if I can stack with this offer)
Shaws English Muffins – 12 count  1.99
Java Delight Coffee – 1lb  4.99 ($1.00 off two Shaws coupon)

The lists above are just the loss leader and sales items I am planning to purchase. I am adding to the Shaws list the additional items I need for the pantry as well as the items to round out my menus.  I have more sales items for Shaws, I prefer their bottle return area and I think their prices are generally lower than the Stop and Shop I go to.  I thought you would be most interested in previewing the sales items especially if you are local and want to take advantage of the same deals.

Next week I’ll share my menu plan as well as the results of my grocery shopping trips to both Stop and Shop and Shaws.

Monthly Grocery Challenge - November - How Low Can You Go????

Aldi Shopping Trip - $62.48

Yesterday I shopped at Aldi and managed to keep my total to $62.48. With the exception of milk, lunchmeat and a few incidentals I should be able to keep my spending under my $250 dollar target for the month. In addition to grabbing milk, eggs, English muffins, coffee, flour tortillas, frozen juice concentrate, and a few other weekly necessities I stocked up on butter, 5lbs of ground beef, yeast and cheese.

The next week and a half are going to take some careful planning to keep from shopping.   I plan to Christmas shop tomorrow and we are headed to Florida for vacation the following week.   I generally do a Stop and Shop Peapod order to be delivered when I return from vacation but am going to forgo that treat to myself this time.

Monthly Grocery Challenge - November - How Low Can You Go????

How Low Can You Go???

$65.57 Shaw's Trip

I finally got to the grocery store this morning. I had hoped to give BJ’s a try but it’s too far and I didn’t have time to get a November coupon booklet from the store to plan my shopping. So instead I went to Shaw’s with a mid-sized list and a handful of coupons. I spent $65.57 today – my savings were VIP Card $31.85, Manufacturer Coupons $3.85, and Store Coupons $2.35. Not too bad and I did get a few good deals including:

Jennie-O Turkey Breast Sliced - $4.99/lb
Russet Potatoes - .99 for 5lbs
Bumble Bee Tuna - .88 each
Keebler Snack Cracker Packs–1.88 minus .55 coupon doubled–Paid .78 each
Malt-O-Meal Cereal – BOGO–2.79 minus .75 coupon doubled–Paid .65 each
Scotties Tissues – BOGO–1.79 minus .50 coupon doubled–Paid .40 each

My total for the month including today’s purchases along with a few items from the market over the weekend comes to $85.23. I have $164.77 remaining in my budget for the month. I’m thinking that an Aldi trip next week will probably get us through until we leave for vacation the week of Thanksgiving. Looking good to meet my goal so far!

Monthly Grocery Challenge - November - How Low Can You Go????

How Low Can You Go?????

With the holidays approaching and the need to find extra funds to purchase gifts I’m going to ratchet down my grocery budget for November. I’m aiming to keep my spending at $250 for the entire month and divert the extra funds towards holiday gift shopping. The key to making this work is to not increase other areas of spending – especially the eating out/takeout categories. We won’t be hosting Thanksgiving either so that will be a cost savings as well. We will be away on vacation for a week over Thanksgiving so I do anticipate extra miscellaneous spending. I’m hoping to accommodate some of the extra vacation spending by selling off some items on eBay and Craigslist.   I already have a few items posted and will be gathering more to list this weekend.

We just got a BJ’s Club Membership and my first shopping trip of the month is going to be at BJ’s. My plan is to go on Monday of next week. What I didn’t realize before is that BJ’s offers club coupons every month that can be stacked with manufacturers coupons. I have a price list of my regular purchases that I will bring and I did take some notes when we were there on some prices I felt were better than the supermarkets I frequent.

Prior to my shopping trip I want to inventory my pantry and freezer. Then I’m going to make a list of meals that I can prepare for the month using what I have and noting what I need to purchase. I did a good job stocking up this month, and while I want to minimize my spending I also don’t want to deplete my whole stockpile and have to re-stock in December at the height of holiday spending.

What does your November grocery budget look like?   The next couple months are tough between holiday entertaining and gift purchasing.   Do you have any plans or ideas on how to accomplish both goals without busting the bank?   I'd love you to share them here!

Monthly Grocery Challenge

October - Stock the Pantry and Freezer for Under $400

Today was my Shaw’s shopping trip. I spent more than I had intended but I grabbed some great deals including Marked-Down Meats, Sylvania CFL Bulbs, Healthy Choice dinners, Flour, Green Giant Steamer Veggies, Wheat Bread BOGO, Prego Sauce and even Beer for DH. I also got $11.00 in coupons to use on my next grocery trip.

My total today came to $125.19. I had $60.79 in Preferred Customer Savings, $25.18 in Manufacturer Coupons, $19.20 in Shaws Store Coupons and $4.30 in bottle returns. I achieved a total savings of $105.17 today – not too bad if I do say so myself.

Total spending for the month comes to $383.06. I’m done except for milk and produce next week which I will use the $11.00 in coupons towards. So it looks like I will be coming in under my $400 dollar target for groceries this month. I was able to stock my pantry with soups, pasta, flour, tomato sauce and lunchbox snacks. My freezer has a ton of meat as well as bread, frozen meals, and frozen veggies.

I'm pleased with my efforts this month. I know that menu planning helped a lot as I used what I had and what was on sale. We also reduced our eating out/take out spending quite a bit this month by having meals planned. Next month we will be gone for a week over Thanksgiving so my spending should be reduced. I need to look at my calendar and come up with my challenge for next month. I'm thinking of budgeting $250 for the month so that I can start my holiday shopping using some of what I would have spent on groceries.

How have you done so far this month on your grocery budget? Any goals for next month?

For more inspiration on grocery savings, steals and deals check out Money Saving Mom's Super Savings Saturday.

Monthly Grocery Challenge

October – Stock the Pantry and Freezer for Under $400

I shopped at Aldi on Sunday and spent $67.82 – definitely a little bit more than I wanted but I also had my husband and the two kids with me. Shopping with DH always adds up to more – even more so than just shopping with the kids. Regardless, I’m pleased with my purchases and with the abundance in my freezer and pantry.

My Aldi list had a few staples that I had run out of like Baking Mix, Butter, Flour, Frozen Juice Concentrate, Minced Garlic, Shredded Cheeses and Canned Tomatoes. I also grabbed a few items for this week’s menu plan – Sweet Potatoes, Brocoli, Fresh Mushrooms and Biscuits. My usual buys at Aldi included Milk, Eggs, Bread, Bananas, Flour Tortillas and English Muffins. The kids got a treat of Corn Dogs and DH grabbed a bag of Pistachios.

My total grocery spending for the month comes in at $250.99 as of yesterday. That includes my stop at the convenience store for milk (and the piece of chocolate that DS begged for me when we were there). My game plan for the rest of the month is to buy only essentials and use the rest of my budget towards stockpiling with loss leaders and coupons. Look here to see my previous Monthly Grocery Challenge post

What’s your grocery budget look like this month? Are you able to work the sales and coupons to maximize your dollars? Have you gotten any great deals? Share your knowledge and accomplishments here!

Monthly Grocery Challenge

October – Stock the Pantry and Freezer for Under $400

My grocery goal this month is to utilize loss leaders, coupons and shopping at Aldi to stock my pantry and freezer while providing my family with well balanced meals. Both DD and DH bring lunch each day and I need to provide snacks for home and on the go. Since October is a 3 paycheck month (and we used a lot of the pantry at the end of September) I am setting my budget at $350 but if I find some good deals I am willing to push it to $400.

My first week of shopping utilized CVS for ECB deals and Shaws for loss leaders – both with coupon stacking. The balance of my shopping this week was at Stop & Shop where I had an additional 5% off my entire purchase coupon. I estimate I spent approximately 1.5 hours planning my trips – this included coupon cutting, sorting, reviewing adds, matching coupons to both sale items and my needs list as well as searching for additional coupons on line.

My total spending so far for the month of October is $171.32 – approximately half of my budget for the month. However my freezer is now pretty well stocked with meat and the pantry is in good shape as well.

Here are the details of my shopping this week.

CVS - Total spent $32.94. I think this was one of my best CVS trips lately. The clerk knows me and she asked if I could take her shopping list for her. I think she gets as big of a kick out seeing how much I can save as I do.

Transaction #1
Dawn Dish Liquid – $1.00 Each – Quantity 5
Charm in Ultra 16 Roll – $10.00 Each – Quantity 2
Gillette Fusion Razor – $9.99
Thermacare Back Wrap – $6.99

For this transaction I used $7.20 in Manufacturer coupons, $4.00 in ECBs and a $5.00 off $25 Purchase CVS Coupon for taking the Flu Test (see Money Saving Mom). Total for this transaction was $27.33 and from it I earned $16.00 in ECB’s

Transaction #2
Hellman’s Mayo – 2 for $6.00
CVS Honey Wheat Pretzel Braids - $1.00 Each – Quantity 2
1 Gallon 2% Garelick Farms Milk – - $2.69
1 Dozen Eggs – $1.05
Speed Stick Deodorant – $1.99 Each – Quantity 3
CVS Floss Picks – $2.49
Gillette Body Wash and Shampoo – $4.99

For this transaction I used $4.00 in manufacturer coupons and the $16.00 in ECB’s earned from the previous transaction. Total for this transaction was $5.61


SHAWS - Total Spent - $30.97

10lb Bag of Frozen Chicken Leg Quarters – $2.99
Split Chicken Breast - $.99/lb – 4.23
Hamburger Helper – 10/$10 – 3 Boxes
Nestle Chocolate Chips – 2/$5
New England Coffee – $2.77/each – Quantity 2
Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Pasta – 10/$10 – Quantity 2
Campbell’s Healthy Harvest Soups – 2/$3 – Quantity 2
Kelloggs Yogo’s – $2.22 each
Huggies Pull-ups – $9.99
Animal Cookies (the grocery life saver with a 3 year old) – $1.00

For this transaction I had $8.00 in coupons.

STOP & SHOP - Total Spent - $107.41

12 Pack Heineken Light – $13.99
6 Pack Italian Rolls - $2.49
3 Loaves Wheat Bread - $4.99
10 Dannon Yogurts - $.40 Each
3 Pack Yeast - $1.99
2 6 packs of Yoplait Trix Yogurt – 2/$5.00
Honey Ham Lunchmeat – $5.99/lb
Turkey Breast Lunchmeat - $6.99/lb
Sliced American Cheese - $4.99/lb
3 Boxes Fruit Snacks – 2/$5.00
5 Cans Delmonte Vegetables – 10/$10.00
5 Cans Creamed Soup – 3/$4.00
5 Cans Chicken Broth – 5/$5.00
Pillsbury Toaster Strudel - $2.00
3 Cans Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate - $1.19 each
2 Packs Hotdogs - $.99 each
Ground Beef - $1.99/lb
Cube Steak – Marked Down
Italian Sausage – Marked Down
Beef Round Sandwich Steaks – Marked Down
2 lbs Baby Carrots - FREE
3lbs Granny Smith Apple - $3.49
Mini Raisins – 14 Pack - FREE
3lb Yellow Onions - $1.79
Grape Tomatoes - $2.50
Romaine Hearts - $2.99
Vanilla Extract - $3.99
Nature Valley Nut Clusters - $2.99
Keebler Crackers – 8 Pack - $2.00
Juicy Juice 8 Pack Juice Boxes - $3.00
Salsa - $1.50

My total before any savings was $162.56. Stop & Shop Card Savings including my additional %5 off were $46.44. Coupon savings were $9.55 – for a total savings of $55.99.

Overall I’m pleased with my shopping this week. Although now I have a lengthy date with my Seal A Meal this afternoon to get all that meat wrapped and into the freezer.