Grocery/Out to Eat Challenge: Week 3

I have officially gone coupon crazy!

Last night I actually used coupons for our dinner at Hardee’s that we got in the mail yesterday in a flyer. The coupon was for a big cheeseburger for $1.99 and a big chicken sandwich for $2.99, and so we only spent $5 on dinner last night! I think these coupons last until April. I usually throw these flyers away because they have advertisements for satellite tv services on the outside, and I for some reason assume that the entire booklet was going to be about satellite dishes. Also, the reason I did not plan to cook any meals this week is because we tried this new lasagna last Monday night and that is what we all mainly threw up. We got so sick that I am still not completely ready to try new dishes. Additionally, we are keeping Jackson out of all childcare situations this week so he is nice and healthy for his stay with Gigi and Grand this weekend. I normally go to my Body Step and Body Combat classes Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at 9:15 am, but this week because I did not want him to go to daycare so I went to both of my classes on Monday and Tuesday night.

Now, back to the coupons….Sunday’s paper has a ton of both store and manufacturer’s coupons. They always have a smart source booklet that has tons of manufacturer’s coupons (do not let the coupon on the outside for satellite dishes fool you!) Last Sunday, in the smart source booklet, they even had coupons for eggs, yogurt that we eat every week, and a coupon for Millie’s dog food. I put all coupons that are on items I know I will be buying in the next couple of weeks in a zip lock bag (this zip lock bag goes in the diaper bag whenever I leave the house) Then, I put the coupons on items I might not have money to buy in another zip lock bag that stays in my car.

Also, I am just really learning about Walgreen’s. They have a rebate program for selected items every week, (I think you can get these rebate flyers in the front of the store) and after you mail in your rebate with your receipt, you can get many items free. If you put your rebate money on a Walgreen’s gift card then you get 10% off your purchase there so you actually end up making money on your purchase. If you know more about it, let us know here! I will let you know what deals I try, but money saving mom always has a list of the best deals everywhere weekly on her blog: http://www.moneysavingmom.com/

Yesterday, I got all of our loose change in our bucket and took it to the Coinstar machine at Bi-low. I tried to role all of our change at the bank, but it was really hard and the tellers could not even really do it so I gave up. I actually got $11.70 back from Coinstar (I usually go to coinstar at least 1 time a year) but there was a $1.10 fee (so I would have had $12.80. While we were at Bi-low I did get a few things for Jackson. He was getting a little restless so I asked Jackson if he would like a cracker….the only probem was that I did not have any crackers! He was about to have a complete breakdown, so I decided to get these crackers made for toddlers…they are actually arrowroot cookies. I opened them right then and there and gave him one (I went to the self check out line so they would not see that I had already opened it). I have never in my life seen Jackson like something so much as these stupid cookies that I was mad I had to buy in the first place (these cookies were close to $2—I really was not paying much attention to this item when I bought it). Now, he looks high and low for them, and even cried for them yesterday saying his version of "cookie."I think he had like 7 of them yesterday and at 20 calories a cookie, that is a lot of calories for him. He is still eating his food well though. I know he lost weight last week, his pants are falling off of him, and so I am giving in some here. Do any of you have this problem with these Gerber made cookies? They are like crack for toddlers.

My plan for CVS this week is to buy (from money saving mom’s blog (she write so much that you now have to go to older post to see this post ): “$10 Worth of Assorted Nestle products, Get $5 ECBs (Limit 1)
*Assorted candy bars 2/$1
*SweetTarts Chicks, Ducks, and Bunnies $0.99
*Wonka Golden or Nestle Nest Eggs 2/$5
*Nestle theater pack or Nips $0.99
*Nestle 8 pack or giant bar, $0.99

*Deal Idea #1*
Buy 4 bags of Nestle Best Eggs at $2.50 each
Use 2 $1/2 coupons here
Spend $8
Get $5 ECBs back

http://www.verybestkids.com/CelebrationCorner/default.aspx Is where you can get this coupon, and yes I did print these out.

The secret with CVS is that when they say you have to spend $10 you really do not have to spend $10 out of pocket to receive the deal. I cannot believe that let you do this, but they let you use coupons with these extra buck deals. So I will spend $8 not $10 when I use my candy coupons, and get $5 back to buy Jackson’s milk. I will turn right back around and get his milk and one other item off my grocery list. This makes me so excited!!!!!!! And we will have something sweet to eat for the next week. It seems that one week CVS has good deals on items that you need to stock up on like household products, and then the next week it is on candy.

I spent $126 on both out to eat food and grocery for this week and my goal was $120. But I am happy that I even got close to my goal! The reason I was able to do so well is that we did not eat hardly any of the food or drink the drinks we were planning to last week because we all got so sick. Therefore, I was able to only spend $30 at Kroger (the best and cheapest grocery store in the world). Next week my goal will be $110 which should be interesting (my week starts Thursdays and ends Wednesday). Once I get down to $105 for both groceries and dining out food, which is $5 a day per people in our family, I will try to stay there for a couple weeks. I think $75 will be the lowest we can go, but who knows? Nothing is impossible with God!

Some tips:

1. Money Saving Mom says to try to keep 3-6 months worth of household products in stock. Stock up on them at CVS using these great deals. She buys all her household products (toilet paper, paper towels) at CVS and she uses CVS to spend $35 a week on grocery.
2. I would not recommend going to Sam’s or any other wholesale club for a couple months when you first start this challenge. Try everything you can just to spend “x” amount for 7 days. If you are anything like me, you do not really know what a good deal is until you start really studying your grocery bill and looking for sales. I am saving $100 up to go to Sam’s and buy toilet paper, paper towels, wipes etc, in a couple month, but I want to first see if I can stock up on them at CVS.
3. Shop at Kroger if at all possible. Everything they sale is at least 10 cents cheaper than a regular grocery store, and you get coupons for items you normally buy when you go to check out. Both Charlie and Jackson like to have one Yoplait yogurt at day and they are .69 each there and everywhere else they are like .79. Plus, I can usually find a .50 off coupons when you buy 6 Yoplait yogurts either in the Sunday paper or online (Betty Crocker.com believe it or not has this coupon there free to print). Lastly, their generic drinks are great! Thanks so much Lisa for telling me about them. Their 12 pack (of all sort of sodas) are $2.00 each and Kroger’s generic Diet Dr. Pepper tastes really good.
4. If at all possible, shop with a calculator and your list. Also, calculate exactly how much you are going to spend before you go to the store (that is why I keep all my grocery/out to eat receipts in a zip lock bag).
5. Last tip has to do with out to eat food. Just because you are trying to save does not mean you have to cook every meal at home and from scratch. Charlie still loves Subway and when he gets a foot-long sub (no drinks or chips) it is like $7. He can eat half for dinner that night, and then pack the rest of it for lunch the next day. Yeah! Also, if you live in Columbia, Egg Role Station in West Columbia is the best Chinese food you will ever get. We get house fried rice which tons of meat on it. We split this meal and I get an egg roll for $7 total price. They give you so much that one of us can eat the leftovers for lunch the next day. Also, if you love Zaxby’s, I believe Zaxby’s has a free snack meal if you go online and fill something out for this week. Chick Fila is also a great place for us to go, Jackson always gets to see so many kids, and if you do not get fries you can save a lot of money. Last out to eat tip is that if you go to McDonalds and get 3 cheeseburgers and a small fry, you will just spend $4 for dinner. For lunch, you might want to try making egg salad sandwiches for your husbands to take to lunch…they are delicious, filling, and cheap!. Finally, we love to make grill cheese sandwiches for dinner along with some good chicken noodle soup (total cost is really just a couple of dollars).

Me working so hard to save us money has really made me think twice about purchases other items out of miscellaneous budget. Bottom line, this challenge it has helped us clamp down on overspending on everything!

Anything else that has worked for you, I would love to hear!