Safeway--big time money maker!

It's been a month since my little one was born--but I'm ready to get back in the action now. It's been a long month of a week in the NICU, boys with stomach viruses, a wicked ear infection and a seizure and subsequent ambulance ride for my 21 month old. Hopefully things will settle down now!

I'm back because I HAD to post about a serious money maker at Safeway. Fannie tipped me off to it.

Here's how it works.

Buy 1 Joint Juice for $1.39 (there were $1/1 printables on their site but I can't get them to print.) You will receive a catalina coupon for $5 off 7 bottles of Joint Juice.



Buy 7 bottles of Joint Juice. Total: $9.73 - $5 coupon = 4.73 plus tax, earn a $10 catalina. So you total oop is $6.12 (before tax) and you earn a $10 catalina.

So now you've made $3.88--but wait--there's more. You can now continue to "roll" this $5 coupon and $10 catalina. Each time you use do the deal from this point on you can get $5 in free stuff--and still end up with another $5 coupon and $10 catlalina to use.

In each subsequent deal you'll buy 7 bottles of Joint Juice and $5 worth of fillers. I did it today and bought 2 boxes of Quaker Instant Oatmeal and my oop expense was only 10 cents each time I did it.

NOTE: The $5 Joint Juice coupons DO BEEP and require a manager's key or the self service person's key to override, but there's no stated limits anywhere on how many times you can do the deal.

The SD's page says you need $5.27 in fillers--but I did it with $5 in filler just fine today.

Whittle Down Wednesday

Life has been soooo busy. I think our school routines are shaping up. Football has been so exciting! It is amazing to watch my little men on the field! I hated football my whole life until my boys began playing. I'm even figuring out the game!


I'm just getting caught up in housework and I've been to Walgreens once (I needed shampoo! We were sharing one bottle between two showers).

My family is asking me when I'm going to start shopping and couponing again. I think I'm almost ready. I sent one of my daughters to HT to try and "do triples" for me one day last week. The shelves were cleared. All she got was 5 pouches of tuna for 9 cents.

My freezer has been spilling snow on the floor for the past 5 days. I had to get it defrosted TODAY. When I realized it was Wednesday, I figured I'd take pictures for the blog. So here's my Whittle Down Wednesday project.


The FREEZER!!!

Before: After:

Much better. No more snowball fights! :o)

Edited to add: Now our ice-maker works again!! :o)

Meal Plan Monday

Sunday - leftovers
Monday - Hamburgers on the grill, chips, salad
Tuesday - Ham & Pepperoni Strombolli, Ceasar salad, pineapple slices
Wednesday - Grilled BBQ Chicked leg quarters, baked potatoes, peas
Thursday - Chicken Enchilada's, refried beans, Mexican rice
Firday - Cheese and Broccoli stuffed Jumbo shells, garlic bread, beans
Saturday - baked chicken strips, egg noodles, corn

Triples is coming to Harris Teeter!

HT will kick off another Triple Coupon event next week! (9/16 - 9/22)

See HCW's HT forum for the "Good Deal List" thread.

$5/$20 Rite Aid coupon

Go to RiteAid.com click on "New Rite Aid Video Values" box. Watching any combination of videos totalling 20 points earns you a $5/$20 purchase. If you have a little one in diapers or know someone who does, you may want to save this Q for an upcoming Huggies deal at Rite Aid.
From 9/20 - 9/26 Rite Aid is offering a single check rebate of $10 wyb 3 packages of Huggies Diapers or Huggies Goodnites jumbo packs priced at $11 each.

Jenny over at Southernsavers.com has worked out a deal where you will only end up paying $1 per bag! Check it out here!

MIR update

I mailed out 9 MIR forms yesterday totalling $48. I dropped $12 in rebate checks at the bank today and have deposited about $90 since Sept. 1.

I just made a trade on HCW for a $20 MIR and Tuesday I found a $10 MIR form at my local grocery store.

If you havent started rebating yet, I recommend it! :o)

Here's a quick tutorial.

You must be 21 years old or older to submit a MIR offer. Most MIRs (Mail in Rebates) are offered by beer and wine companies. Most of these offers (not all) require no beer or wine purchases. They do however have purchase requirements. Sometimes the offers are seasonal for example recently there was a $30 rebate when you purchased a grill over $100. I have seen rebates for lawn furniture, christmas trees, sunglasses, etc. Most rebates are on grocery items while some are on a receipt total of $X or more with exclusions. The majority of rebates I have submitted are on combinations of meats, ice, condiments, chips, salty snacks, soda, pizza, water, paper plates.

If you begin to trade for MIRs on a coupon trade forum remember these things:
1. Make sure the rebate is valid in your state.

2. Make sure it isn't expired. There are three dates you want to look for: 1. Offer begins date, 2. Offer expires date, and 3. Must be received by date.

3. You may want to know if you can combine purchases from more than one receipt, or is only a single receipt required.

4. Is it NBPR (no beer purchase required) or NWPR (no wine purchase required)?

Six of the rebates I mailed out yesterday were MIRs for $3 back wyb $3+ in fruit. (Note most rebate offers are limit of one per household - this one had no minimum). I always save my receipts for up to three months. I keep them to record my expenses in a budget, track my purchases, and I save them in case I find MIR offers I can use them for. My old receipts reap cash for me!

The trade I made today was for a MIR valid only in my state. It required a cash register receipt with a purchase of $40 or more not including alcohol, tobacco, pharmacy, gasoline, lottery tickets or gift cards. I went through the receipts I have saved on past purchases made during the MIR promotional period and found one for over $40. I will mail it to the beer company and they will send me a check for $20 in 6-8 weeks.

August budget in review - 8isGreat

The last three weeks have been extremely busy here!
We had 4 birthday celebrations.
DD #1 started college.
I began homeschooling DD #2 & 3.
For the first time ever DS #1, 2 &3 went to public school.
An unforseen ($COSTLY$) home repair caused many changes to our original plans for education for the 2009/10 school year. So, I have been spending the past 3 weeks buying textbooks for homeschooling kids and registering and placing public school kids and teaching myself Algebra II late at night. :o)
I missed the Kroger 2 week long Mega Event and I missed Harris Teeters Super Doubles AND Triples. There just wasn't any way to do what needed to be done for my children's school plans and shop for deals...or even plan meals! DH stepped in and made many meals during these weeks and we've ordered pizza in twice - extremely rare for us.

Regrets? NONE. I'm just glad I didn't know ahead of time all the changes I would be making. It would have stressed me out too much. :o)

August spending breakdown.
Week #1 -$174.30
Week # 2 -$123.94
Week #3 -$131.76
Week #4 - $48.89
Last 3 days of month -$103.28
Total spent on groceries, H&B, baby items, and cleaning products for August 2009 -$582.17

I went overbudget AGAIN. I'm not upset this month. I have been in the past.
Life is "REAL" and God is in control, not me. He knows what is best for us and we need to stick close to Him to discern His plans. I really think I didn't do too bad all things considered.
A goal is a great tool and I won't stop keeping a budget goal.
I wonder what my total would look like if I didn't add in cleaning, baby and H&B items. Probably under $500. Maybe I will make separate accounts of these categories in the future.

Here is what we got for $582.17.

August Purchases
H&B
Blink Tears 2
Body soap 4
Schick intuition refill cartridges 12 individual
Feminine products 4
Purse sized Hand lotion1
Tooth brushes 12
Shampoo 2
Conditioner 3
CVS Makeup remover toweletes 1

BABY ITEMS
Tubs Huggies wipes 32

CLEANING/HOUSEHOLD SUPPLIES
Electrasol power tabs 3
Tide liquid 4 large bottles
8 AA Energizer Lithium batteries

BREADS
Hot Dog Buns 5
Hamburger buns 6
Tortillas 70
Croutons 3 bags
Honey wheat loaves 9
Italian loaf 1
French Loaf 2
English Muffins 30 individual

BEVERAGES
Cranberry juice 1
Apple juice 8
12 pack soda 5
2 liter soda 1
Tea bags 4 boxes
Powdered lemonade drink mix 1

CANNED/JAR
Tuna fish 2 cans
Ravioli 4 cans
Plum sauce 2
Ragu pasta sauce 2
Peanut butter 1
Diced tomatoes and green chilis 2
Enchilada sauce 1
Soups 8 cans
Roasted peppers 1
Tuna 6 cans
Salsa 1

DRY GOODS
Frosting 3
Devil’s Food Cake mix 1
Mac n Cheese boxes 3
Cereal 12
Chocolate chips
Nutri Grain bars 1 box
Ramen Noodles 2 pkgs
Flour 15 lb
Sugar 5 lb
Jumbo Pasta Shells 2 boxes
Martha White Muffin Mixes 14
Cereal 4 boxes
Granola bars 1 box
Poptart boxes 22
Dole fruit bowls 1
Grape jelly 1
Chocolate chips 4 bags
Potato chips 4
Tortilla chips 1
Individual snack size chip bags 150
Mac N Cheese 5 boxes

PAPER PRODUCTS
Paper towels 21 rolls
Napkins 7

DAIRY
Eggs 208
Milk gallons 60
Sour cream 7
Cheese block 4
Shredded cheese 14
String Cheese 48 individual
Sliced cheese 6
Butter 12 sticks
Cream cheese 1 block

DELI
Potato salad
Sliced Turkey breast 3 ¾ lbs
Honey Ham 9 ¾ lbs.
Provalone 2 lb

MEATS
Ball Park Hot Dogs 2 packages
Boneless skinless chicken breasts 40 individual
Split Chicken breasts 12
20 lb chicken leg quarters

PRODUCE
Cucumbers 4
Red Onion 1
Yellow Onion 1
Celery
Green leaf lettuce 1
Baby carrots 2 lbs
Apples .89+ 1.36 lb
Bananas 3.27+1.88 +3.35+2.78
Watermelon
Clementines 5 lb
Iceberg lettuce 3
Cherries 1.26 lbs
Organic Bananas 8.08 lbs
Corn 28 ears
Peaches 27 lbs.
Grapes 2.25+2.14 + 1.96 lbs

FROZEN
DiGiorno Pizzas 6
Breyer’s Chocolate ice cream 1
Dove stick ice cream
Dreamsicle bars

It looks like we buy alot of deli meat. I freeze it when it is on sale. I wonder if it would be cheaper to buy a ham butt instead of sliced in the deli dept. I use 30% off Qs in the deli so my OOP is pretty low on deli purchases. Just thinking out loud...

$10/$50 Lowes Coupon

UPDATE!!

Sixteen packs of Energizer batteries at Lowe's have been reduced to $8.89/package! (Formerly $9.99/package)

Inside each package (visible from the front) is a Lowe's coupon for $10/$50 purchase. There are $2 Energizer Qs from a tearpad. I don't know where these were found. There were also $1/1 Qs in a recent Sunday insert.

Buy 1 package with a $2 Q and pay $6.89 OOP. Get 16 batteries and a $10/$50 store Q for Lowes.
Note: you cannot stack the $10/$50 Q with the battery Qs unless your total AFTER the battery Qs is $50 or more.

NO COUPON INSERTS THIS SUNDAY

Don't stock up on Sunday newspapers this weeked. There will be no inserts in the Labor Day weekend holiday paper.

Touching Base

Life with eight children is wonderful. The gift of my husband and children surpass anything I have ever had or will ever have.

I have been unable to seek deals, post them or shop them lately. School and football are in full swing.

I have my August receipts and plan on posting everything on Friday. Look for other posts to resume soon! :o) Thank you!