I'm interrupting this blogging break to bring you a glimmer of good news in the midst of these "hard financial times." Now I understand our current economy is no joking matter and while I've chosen the route of not watching TV, there by not hearing the gloom and doom all day, I know many of you are really worried about this. This post is not making light of any of it ... just sharing my "money savings" from the last few weeks.
So if you read any of the last say six posts of mine, you'll remember that two of them were about my big savings at the grocery store. Well let the games continue ... as the savings have only gotten better. Thanks to my trial subscription to "The Grocery Game" along with my new favorite money saving blog, "Money Saving Mom" I've doubled or tripled my meager savings of yesterday.
I finally got the courage up to go to Walgreen's. I have nothing against Walgreen's (in fact we love their drive thru pharmacy) it's just that I never go in Walgreen's. It seems over priced and inconvenient. Which is silly since they are everywhere (and very soon one will be less than a mile from our house). However, the possibility of great savings that I read about over and over and over again in blog land lured me in.
First trip to Walgreen's:
Out of Pocket $25.58
Initial Savings $11.57 (reflected in the above amount)
Rebate Savings $14.97
Total Savings $26.54
What did I get?
4 Full size bags of M-n-M's
Airborne
2 Skippy PB
Nivea Body Wash
Revlon Nail Polish
Not bad right? Well if I'd really had my game on, I could have had an extra $5 off and a Crest toothbrush all for $5.61!!
I shall do better next time ...
Like I did at Albertsons this week:
Out of Pocket $61.41
Savings $81.72 (Preferred Savings $70.93 / Additional Coupon Savings $10.79)
I won't list everything I got, but I did get 52 items. One of the best deals (and it's going on thru Saturday I believe) is Hershey's chocolate chips/Reese's peanut butter chips for .70/each if you buy 10.
The week before at Albertsons, they didn't have as much on "the list" that I needed (and I try not to buy things I don't need/won't use ... unless it's such a good deal I could donate it) but I still managed this:
Out of pocket $35.99
Savings of $42.54 (Preferred Savings $33.73 / Additional Coupon Savings $8.81)
I only got 21 items that trip, but 2 of them were All Free & Clear 64 washes for $4/each. And we stocked up on Goldfish at $1/bag.
Now if you haven't heard of the grocery game you should look it up. The idea is to buy in bulk when items are priced lowest and then you create your own little pantry at home to shop from. We have already built up excess of quite a few of our weekly items.
I'm no expert on this and I'm trying to balance the time/effort put into the shoppng with the end savings results, but if you have any questions or want me to chat your ear off about this, just ask! :)
For some of you this may be the most boring post ever, you might be thinking, please, if this is what you're going to post, don't bother :). But it is my blog and I do love saving money ... and just want to pass on that little bit of good news to the rest of you too!
Happy Wednesday!
** I might even post some pictures tomorrow and update the Knitty Bitties blog tomorrow as a thank you for reading through this dribble :). **
8 comments:
I too am trying the trial subscription there, as are about 3 of my friends...small world :) happy saving!
Well, I've already heard all this and I still think it's exciting. :)
ok, I didn't mean for that to sound like ...however it's sounding :). I meant like, "woohoo! I love this idea too! I'm glad there's so many of us saving money!!!" :) Just felt the need to clarify :)
I think my grocery habits may be a bit to snobby for the coupons... I can't ever find anything I actually buy, maybe I just need a good lesson from you :)
That's awesome, I wish I could save money like that :) Maybe I'll have to check out the links...
I did the grocerygame too (once under my name and once under Byron's-bad, I know). I would make my list on Sundays, collect all the coupons (Red Plum, Smart Source) and would then take those lists with me to WinCo and compare and then would head to Walgreens and Albertsons. For me, the effort took a lot of energy, but if you are up for it, it can be worth! I did still find that WinCo still was a better price more often than not. Which made me feel good about shopping there if I didn't have the energy for the coupon thing. I also forgot to cancel my subscription and had to pay for the first two months or whatever it was. So, I made sure it was worth my while. My brother said that pinchingyourpennies.com is similiar, but I haven't checked into it.
Would you mind doing another post after your trial subscription is up, I would like to know what you thought after trying it for a few weeks.
BTW, did you get this idea from Mary Hunt? ...I did...
It sounds interesting, but I too am wondering about all the time spent going to other stores and I also never seem to find coupons for the things I buy or have on my list for upcoming meals.
If it helps save that way I'll have to check it out.
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