Today's Adventure: Walgreens

 

 Today I went to Walgreens and got some great deals. In total, I spent $9.32 for $46.85 worth of goods. That's an 80% savings! Here's the breakdown:

I had to split this into two transactions, first I bought the Quaker Oat Squares and the Life Cereal, it was $5.00 (no tax) and I got a $2 Register Reward back. 

Then I got everything else...

2 Dawn Dishsoap - $0.49 each, on sale for $0.99, less $.50 off coupon for each from P&G Saver

2 Big Boxes of Turtles - $2.50 each, on sale 2/$6, less $1 off coupon from newspaper 11/6 (I thought I had 2 of these, which would have brought them down to $2 each, I didn't but it was still a good deal on a stocking stuffer.

2 bags of Haribo Gummi Bears - $0.49 each, on sale for $0.79, less (2) $0.30 off coupons

3 boxes of Hamburger Helper - $0.75 each, on sale for $0.99, less $0.75 off on 3 coupon from HH website.

1 bag of Coconut - $1.49 each on clearance (I wasn't planning on this when I went, but it's a good deal and I use it for Christmas goodies, so I bought it anyways.)

2 24 packs of Dasani water - $3.99 each on sale

So the real trick to this deal was that I had $12.50 in Register Rewards from Black Friday shopping and applied all of them to this transaction, along with the $2 in RR I got in transaction #1. RR can be a great deal, and can score you some awesome "free" stuff but if you don't watch the Walgreens ads regularily, your RR expire 2 weeks after they are printed, so your "free" stuff, suddenly cost you full price. Plus, if you wouldn't have spent the money on whatever you use the RR for later, it's not really free because you had to pony up cash to get the RR. Make sense?

The other thing about RR, is that they count as a Manufacturer's Coupon (MF), and you can only have 1 MF per item. So if all I bought was the gummies and the dawn, I couldn't have used ANY RR, because I had MF coupons tied to those items already. So you have to buy something that's just on sale (or full price) in order to use your RR. Some people will buy what is known in the coupon world as fillers, small items that are inexpensive, just to be able to use their RR. Like this week, Walgreens has some candles on sale 4/$1. So if you had 2 RR you wanted to use, you could buy 2 candles for a total of $0.50 and use your RR. But if the RR are only $1 each, is it worth it? You've now used part of your RR to cover your candles, thus only reducing your total by $1.50 instead of $2. Obviously if you have a bigger one, worth $4 or $5, it's not as big of a deal, but you have to think this through when planning your trip to the store if you're going to use RR.

Ok, this is longer than expected so I'll end it here and save the rest for another day.

Payday...

...is tomorrow. That means grocery shopping. Which also means that I need to come up with my meal plan today, so I know what to buy tomorrow. I've had a few people ask me how I go about my meal planning and grocery shopping to not just have a bunch of random stuff in the house that never gets eaten. So here's my game plan...

Step 1 - See if there are things from the last plan, that didn't get eaten. And what leftover ingredients I have that I can incorporate into my new plan.

Step 2 - I have a list of the meals I make and with very few exceptions, they all leave enough leftovers for Arron and I to eat lunch the next day. Depending on what my schedule looks like for the next two weeks determines how many time consuming meals I put on the list versus how many quickie meals I choose.

Step 3 - Just start jotting down the meals I want to make. I have found that trying to plan specific meals for specific days just doesn't work. Inevitably, whatever is planned for that night won't sound appetizing in the least bit.

This pay period, I need 16 dinners and 16 lunches. So here we go. Oh and I cheat at least one night a week with a planned pizza night. But we just stick to frozen pizzas instead of going out. In a pinch though, Little Ceazars is only $5 for a medium cheese or sausage or pepperoni pizza. So if you're on your way home from work and just can't get excited about cooking ANYTHING, it's okay to cheat. Just grab a bag of salad too and then you feel less guilty about the pizza. ;)

1. Unstuffed Peppers
2. Enchiladas
3. Chicken Fried Rice with Eggrolls
4. Chicken and Rice Soup
5. Steak and Twice Baked Potatoes
6. Homemade Mac n Cheese w/ham (I'll also buy a ham steak and brown it, cut it into strips and add it to the mac n cheese.
7. Pizza night!
8. Spaghetti
9. Sloppy Joes
10. Pork Chops w/ garlic mashed potatoes
11. Chili
12. Pizza night!
13. Easy Beef Stroganoff
14. Cheeseburger Pie
15. Tater Tot Hotdish
16. Chicken and Rice Hotdish

viola! I now have my menu. Next step is for me to create a grocery list of every ingredient I'll need for these recipes (except spices, since I likely have all of them on hand) Then I take it to the kitchen and cross out anything I already have on hand. This step is crucial it makes sure that I don't buy more of something that I don't need. It helps reduce wasteful spending and helps keep my cupboards from being cluttered with things I don't use.

Now, I'd be kidding myself if I said that I stick only to meals on the meal plan. I certainly deviate from time to time. But there are a few things I do, to make sure those skipped meals can just roll over to the next plan, even more than that though, it helps me save money.

I buy my meat in bulk. Not always at costco though. Fred Meyer often sells their "family packs" for cheaper by the pound, than the normal size packs. I have a food saver, and if you don't, I recommend you invest in one. Even a used one from Amazon, a basic one goes for about $60. Which I know, when you don't have an extra $60, is a lot of money. But maybe get with a friend or family member and buy one together. This helps you to be able to store your ground meats flatter in your freezer, and keep everything fresh longer. It really does pay for itself pretty quickly.

My average grocery bill for all 4 of us for about 2 weeks is $150. I do keep fishsticks and tater tots on hand. Along with Kraft Mac N Cheese. But this is one way that I have really reigned in our spending on groceries. Not to mention the amount of food ending up in the garbage can.

Anywho, hope this helps somebody save a few pennies or a little bit of stress over their kitchen and their groceries. :D