$2/1 Huggies

There is a new $2/1 coupon available now on coupons.com -- last time this one hit its print limit really quick, so I recommend printing it now if you want it.

Walgreens has Huggies for $7.99 with a $1 RR -- I do not think this is a great deal, but better than full price if you need diapers right now.

0.50/1 ground beef -- IGA!!

Now this is certainly a rare coupon!
Follow these instructions to play an instant win game and you will either win a cart of groceries or will be able to print your 0.50 coupon.

*Visit Souped-Up Suppers webpage
*Click on “Free Code Play“ at the bottom of the page
*Use the free code to Play the Game
*Type the name of a grocery store bear you in the “Grocer name” box - I checked the list of participating grocery stores and in our area the IGA is on there!! No kroger, jewel, schnucks or Walmart. In Chicago you probably have a few more options.
*Click “Check Your Code” (you either win a cart full of groceries or a $0.50 coupon).

Oh, this keeps getting better (i'm playing the game as i'm typing this) - the coupon is in PDF form!! That usually means you can LEGALLY print to your heart's content! I printed 9 b/c 3 coupons nicely fit on each page.
It is a bummer that Kroger wasn't on there b/c they would have doubled the q to $1, but it's nice to finally have a perk living near an IGA!! My next step will be to check out their beef prices - i have never purchased ground beef at the IGA before (truth's out) so I hope it's not terribly expensive. We don't have hogs on our farm right now and I am down to TWO POUNDS of ground pork so this couldn't come at a better time for us. :0) I do love it when I feel like the Lord is blessing us with our grocery shopping - trying to make those hard-earned $$ go a bit further. Let me know if you find a good deal with these.

Slow Days . . . .

Sorry for yet another week of no posts, but it's been a S-L-O-W week at the grocery stores. I know the IGA has had their coupon books the last 3 weeks, and have had some decent prices, but I think I have only used one coupon so far & didn't make any special trips.

Next week I will probably use the smoked sausage coupon b/c there is a manu. coupon that I can stack with it making the deal even better (from the paper a few weeks ago).


Not even CVS has been able to lure me in (except to buy milk one evening). This coming week at CVS has nothing special again -- one lady whose blog I follow for CVS even says it is a "dry and dull ad" this week. I agree.


Kroger is having another Mega Event right now. It is for frozen food and I am sure there are some good deals, but I have stocked up so much at Jewel the past month that we really don't need anything at all right now (except the basic parishables).


Jewel is even having a down week. ConAgra is doing an instant $2 savings WYB 10 items at $10/10 -- making them 10/$8, but that still means you are paying 0.80 per item (stuff like pudding packs, micro popcorn, manwich & soup).

Well I am officially exhausted so will sign off. Just wanted you to know I was still out there and will SURELY let you know when another great sale strikes, but until then it will probably be slow-going over here. Enjoy your Sunday :0)

Jewel-Osco 10/14-20

I know Bloomington is a long way away (about $8 in gas for us) but some sales are just worth it. Last week I went to Jewel twice to get in on the ConAgra CAT deal (i did get a ride one time). And last night Nathan & I packed up ALL 4 KIDS to head over there again -- this time for a General Mills CAT deal. We spent $11.20 saving 96% of our grocery bill.

This deal is very similar to the ConAgra one -- spend $25 (shelf price) get $10 CAT
Here are the scenarios I did last night:

7 Pillsbury Sweet Moments $17.50/$26.25
Use $1.50/1 coupons HERE to make this a moneymaker
Pay $7.50, get $10 CAT
OR
Use $1 from Coupons.com, or 9/12 GM insert
Pay $10.50, Get $10 CAT

I went to the library and printed as many $1.50 as I could from their computers, and printed from home so I was able to add in a large can of pumpkin so that the store would not owe me money. At Jewel you have to at least pay tax.

4 yoplait splitz $8/$11.80
7 Green Giant Boxed veggies $7/$14
use .50 splitz q from 09/12 or 10/03 GM insert OR
use .75/2 coupons from coupons.com
use 0.50 Green Giant veggie coupon (link below)

3 GM cereal (price spread varies - sale price is $2)
9 G.G. boxed veggies $9/$18
I had some $3/3 q's that i gathered over the summer, but there are 0.75/1 cheerio q's on coupons.com and a lot of $1/3 q's there too.
Use 0.50 G.G. veggie q from greengiant.com - i told you about this q a while ago, but it is still available. scroll down the page to the bottom right side and click on the coupon link. This q makes this scenario a money-maker too so I added in bags of chocolate chips or spaghetti sauce so I could still pay with my CAT from the previous transaction.

7 yoplait splitz
2 fruit snacks
used q's from coupons.com and from the GM inserts

Those are all the scenarios I did, but here are a few more I came up with:
If you are just after cereal, the Multigrain Cheerios had the highest shelf price so,
7 Multigrain Cheerios 14/27.65
7 - 0.75 q from coupons.com AND smartsource.com
Pay $8.75 get $10 CAT
This would be a good one to use as your first transaction if you do not have a CAT left from the ConAGra deal -- lower your OOP. Or add an item to make $10 if using a CAT to pay for it.

Buy 13 participating Progresso Soup $13/$26
Use 3 $1/4 from 9/12 GM or 10/10 GM inserts
Pay $10, Get $10 CAT
Final Price: 13 Free! (or the price of tax)

Sorry for the length of this post, but I wanted you to have as many details as possible to help you get organized. Our trip only took us 1 hour and that was WITH all four kids!

If you are specifically after the yoplait splitz or the sweet moments, i would call Jewel to see when they re-stock b/c they were low when we were there and out of the splitz when we left. I went to the one on Veterans, there is another Jewel on 51 near ISU campus. Hope you find something good!! I love, love, love deals that are for HEALTHY stuff like veggies, yogurt, cereal and soup.
There were deals for totinos pizza and cake mixes on this CAT deal too, but I didn't buy any. CHeck out couponingfor4.net for even more scenarios if you want the other stuff. She is absolutely amazing with these things.

$1/1 Jimmy Dean

Facebook has a coupon right now for $1/1 Jimmy Dean product if you "like" them on FB. We do not usually buy meat in the store so I am not sure how much it runs, but surely $1 off will help!

As always, look for sales to pair this with and you should have a decent deal on sausage (or their sandwiches).

CVS 10/10-16

There are a couple nice freebies at CVS this week:
(put together by commonsensewithmoney)

Azo Itch Relief $6.99 Earn 5 ECBs Limit 5 (month-long deal)
Use $2/1 AZO Itch Relief Maximum Strength
FREE after coupon and ECBs

Colgate Total Advanced or Enamel Toothpaste $2.99 Earn 2.99 ECBs Limit 2
Use $0.75/1 Colgate Toothpaste 10/3/2010 SS Insert (exp 10/23/2010)
Free plus $0.75 overage after coupon and ECBs

Dial or Tone Bar Soap 2-3 pk $1.99 Earn 1 ECB Limit 1
Use $1 Dial Bar Multi-Pack or Liquid Hand Soap 10/10/2010 RP Insert (exp 11/28/2010)
FREE after coupon and ECBs

Quaker Oats Products 2/$5 Earn 2 ECBs Limit 2
Use $2/1 Quaker Instant Oatmeal (this is a FB coupon, click on the "coupon" tab)
Use $1/2 Quaker Chewy Granola Bars 9/19/2010 RP Insert (exp 11/13/2010)
Free plus $1 overage for boxed oatmeal after two $2 coupons and ECBs

Brach's candy corn - 0.99
the "red machine" by the door is printing a 0.99/1 coupon making these free too.

If you are new to CVS, buy oatmeal first to lower your OOP (out of pocket):
1) buy 2 boxed oatmeal. use 2 $2/1 coupons. pay $1, get $2 ECB back.
2) buy 2 more oatmeal. use 2 coupons. pay with ECB from #1. owe tax. get $2 ECB back.
3)buy toothpaste. use 0.75 coupon. pay with ECB from #2. owe 0.25. get $2.99 ECB back.
4)buy Azo itch relief. use $2 coupon. pay with ECB from #3. owe $1. get $5 ECB.

Now you have $5 to either keep for next week or to buy something your family needs. I personally like to keep them and roll them following weeks. I currenetly have $19 in ECB. The Azo deal will be great for you if you need to "renew" some ECBs that are about to expire!!

CVS is also running the P&G spend $25 get $10 ECB. I have done this in the past for the Charmin TP and it comes out to be a good price. So you could take your $5 ECB from #4 and put it toward the P&G deal to lower your OOP there and go home with TP too! I am pretty stocked up on TP right now (previous CVS deals and yesterday's trip to Jewel)

Make sure to scan your card at the "red machine" shortly inside the door to see if there are money-saving coupons you want to use.

My Jewel Trip

Today MaryBeth & I headed to Bloomington to hit Jewel, Kroger, Office Max & Target.

At Jewel I bought:
21 boxes of O.R. popcorn
5 boxes Swiss Miss hot cocoa
13 Hunts pudding/jello packs
4 Angel Soft 12 dbl roll T.P.
27 cans Healthy Choice soup
30 Healthy Choice complete freezer meals (for nathan when the kids & I head to FL - they have Asian flavor ones so he should be happy)
1 lg can Folgers Coffee

My total OOP spent was $32.74
Total $ saved was $318.00 (91% savings)

Some transactions I did but did not have on the list below are:
* 13 Hunts pudding/jello packs for around $2 OOP
* 6 Healthy Choice freezer meals and 1 hot cocoa (or any other product around a $2 shelf price) was between 0.64 - 1.72 OOP (there are coupons for $1/2 on healthy choice's website or there are $1/3 coupons at the store right on the freezer door - MaryBeth spotted those).
* 1 Angel Soft TP, 1 Folgers coffee & 3 cans of H.C. soup was around $3 OOP (considering the coffee itself is usually $8-10 that's a great deal)

The greatest part about this ConAgra deal is that most of them DO NOT REQUIRE coupons! I only had coupons for the T.P. and the healthy choice meals.
Hope you can get in on a good deal or two ~~

Jewel deals 10/07-10/13

Starting yesterday Jewel is running my favorite Con-Agra CAT deal where if you spend $25 you get a $10 CAT.
But with Jewel the $25 is calculated off the SHELF price, not the SALE price so it is a HUGE money-saving event. I will certainly be making a trip to Jewel in the next 6 days.
I was actually thinking of this CAT yesterday because I am down to 2 boxes of Orville Redenbacher popcorn & would love to re-stock. yay! :0)
Here are a couple scenarios for you compliments of couponingfor4 (my go-to spot for the Jewel deals):
hint: the prices below are sale price/shelf price so you can see how the total adds up for you versus the CAT machine.

Start with this deal to reduce your OOP spent:
9 Healthy Choice Soups 0.88/2.89 (each) - $7.92
Pay $7.92 w/no coupons, Get $10 CAT
Final Price: $2.08 Moneymaker!
If you have coupons this will be a larger moneymaker!

Use this $10 CAT to roll into any of the following deals:

6 Healthy Choice Soup $5.28/$17.34
1 Angel Soft $5.99/$8.29
Use $1 Angel Soft from Coupons.com (zip 12345)
Pay $11.27, Get $10 CAT
Final Price: $1.27

Buy 7 Orville Redenbacher $11.83/$25.13
Get $10 CAT
Final Price: 7/$1.83 ($.26 each!) -- woohoo! my kids eat popcorn A LOT as a bedtime snack. So I absolutely love this one.

Buy 5 Wesson Oil $12.50/$25
Get $10 CAT
Final Price: 5/$2.50 ($.50 each!)

There are a LOT of other scenarios out there for this deal. I recommend heading over to couponingfor4 to get them all. I just posted the ones I will likely do. ConAgra is a HUGE company and has a lot of products that qualify for this CAT, they just happen to be things I don't need right now.

My one caution to the couponing for 4's website is that she mentions coupons we do not have access to, so don't forget to add in the extra money for the q's you don't have.

Laundry Detergent

I have mentioned in the past that Jan & I make our own laundry detergent. We have been using it for over a year now and I cannot tell you what a great detergent it is and how much money it has saved us to make it. Nathan keeps telling me I need to post the recipe, so today I decided to do it.

This detergent is dye-free, scent-free and hypoallergenic for all you out there requiring these things. AND it is LOW SUDSING so perfect for HE machines.

Home-made Laundry Soap Recipe :

1 bar Fels-naptha
1 cup Arm&Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 cup Borax
5 gallons and 4 cups HOT tap water (total)
1 5 gallon bucket with lid

*Grate bar of Fels-Naptha with Food processor or by hand with cheese grater.
*In medium sized saucepan, add grated soap and 4 cups water. Cook over medium heat till melted, stirring often.
*When soap is melted, fill 5 gallon bucket about 1/2 full of HOT tap water. Add melted soap, Washing Soda and Borax to water and stir well till dissolved.
*Add enough HOT water to fill the 5 gallon bucket. It will be quite heavy at this point.
*Cover tightly and let it sit overnight or until it thickens into a gel-like substance.
*Stir well. When you're ready to use the detergent, fill any empty container (milk jugs, apple juice containers or old laundry det. containers) with 1/2 laundry concentrate and fill the rest of the bottle with water.( 1 part soap/ 1 part water)
*Shake well before each use. Top load machine: 3/4 c. per load; Front load machine: 1/4 c. per load.

Yields 5 gallons of "concentrate" and 10 gallons of detergent.
Cost: less than $2 per recipe. This will be more for your initial recipe if you don't have the ingredients on hand already. Fels-naptha costs a little over $1, Arm&Hammer Super Washing Soda and Borax are $2-3 each

I do like some scent in my laundry, so using a front-loading machine I use 1/2 cup of the home-made detergent and one squirt (literally, a small squirt) of Gain or All to each load. It is amazing how little store-bought stuff you need to add the fragrance.

Let me know if you decide to try this -- I think you would be pleasantly surprised with the results. :0)

CHEAP grapes @ Walmart

Grapes are only $0.85/lb at WalMart this week!! I cannot remember the last time they were so low. If they have been this summer, this proves how poor my memory is sometimes :)

Anna's kindergarten teacher requires that the kids bring a fruit or veggie EVERY DAY for their snack - which i find to be quite inconvenient - so I bought about 10 lbs to freeze for snacks later this year. Grapes don't get as mushy as blueberries when they thaw.

Remember that WalMart prices vary by store even in the same region, but I bought mine at the Bloomington WalMart on Veterans. You could always call your WalMart to double-check the price before going.

Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs 0.69

A month ago I told you about a high value $1/1 OM hot dog coupon. If you did not get the free hot dogs at Jewel there is another good deal right now.

IGA has hot dogs on sale for $1.69 making them only $0.69 after this coupon.

I do still have a couple of my Q's left and they expire on 10/06 so not much time left!! I ran to WalMart last night and since they match any price I got a few there for the ACTIVE weiner roast this week.

I do have a few extra coupons so let me konw if you want some and can get them from me in the next 2 days.

Free Nabisco Cookies (BOGO)

Today is the first monday of the month so on Nabisco's Facebook page they have a Free pkg of cookies WYB another pkg of cookies and a gallon of milk.

I do not guarantee this is a good deal, but last month I printed it and ended up with milk & 2 pks of oreos for about $3 (thank you, Jewel-Osco). I N-E-V-E-R buy oreos so we have been conserving them and still have 1 pk left.

$2.50/1 Huggies Coupon

There is a new $2.50 off 1 Huggies printable coupon on coupons.com right now! These coupons usually expire 30 days after you print, so it gives us some time to find a sale to combine it with.
I would print mine now just in case it reaches its print limit.

I think there are a few of you near Chicago or Wisconsin that read this, so if you live near a Rite Aid, there is a great deal on these starting tomorrow 10/03/10! -- check out commonsensewithmoney.com for the details (or moneysavingmom.com).

Nivea lip product coupon

Starting on 10/3 Walgreens will have Nivea Lip care on sale for $1 each. Use the following printable coupon to get not one but TWO free Nivea lip products:

Buy two Nivea Lip Care, $1
Use $2/2 Nivea Lip Care printable coupon
Get 2 FREE after coupon!

The sale includes the lip glosses as well. I have never tried these so am excited to try it for free!

This coupon is from the "bricks" website which I have had problems in the past with properly copying the link. If my link does not work, just go to Commonsensewithmoney.com and click through her link. She's a great site to follow anyway so go there even if my link does work! :)

0.50/1 Pillsbury Simply Biscuits

October 1 marks a new month which = new coupons on coupons.com
Among those are two coupons for 0.50 off 1 Pillsbury canned dough. One is for Simply Biscuits and the other for Simply French bread. I am not familiar with the "simply" line, but if you use the coupon at Meijer or Kroger where they double coupons, & of course combine with a sale, these should make for fairly inexpensive canned biscuits.


I also want to grab this opportunity to share my excitement for the day -- it is so nice that people know I am a bargain shopper because my super-duper awesome friend just called me about a John Deere Gator she saw at a garage sale for $200 less than you pay in the store! I have been wanting one for about 3-4 years, but didn't want to pay the high price. YAY! Waiting so often pays off. Thanks, Jamie :0)