CVS, Kmart, Kroger, & Ingles Shopping Trips 1/9/08

I usually shop once per week on Tuesday's but this week has been a little crazy. My daughter was home with me on Monday and Tuesday and we decided to spend time together before she went back to school on Wednesday!

I ended up making 2 shopping trips last week (which I don't normally do) and here is how it went down! Sorry no pictures this time!

Kmart

12 boxes of Special K Cereal @ $2.50 each
6 Altoids @ $1.99 each
7 Pounce Cat Treats at $1.39 each
10 Reese's Whips Candy Bars @ .89 each
3 bags of Tidy Cat 10 lb Litter @ $2.74 each

Total: $68.79 plus tax

I used the following coupons... ALL were doubled!
12 - $1/1 Special K Coupons
6 - $1/1 Altoid Coupons (doubled portion was only .99)
7 - .75/1 Pounce Cat Treat Coupons (doubled portion was only .64)
5 - $1/2 Reese's Whips Coupons (doubled portion was only .78)
1 - $5/$50 Kmart coupon
3 - $1/1 ANY Tidy Cats Peelies found on Whiskas Cat Treats @ Kmart

Total After Coupons: $10.60 Total Savings: 85%

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CVS

Transactions 1-3 were on my husband's card. I do not like having ECB's on more than one card...it can get very confusing and it's just easier for me to do it this way! I had $5 in ECB's that I wanted to make the most out of in this trip and I new with the last transaction that I would spend all ECB's to create a balance of $0.00 on his card!

Transaction #1

1 Soyjoy 6pk @ $6
1 6pk of CVS Bar Soap @ $3.29
Total: $9.29
Used: $1/5 SoyJoy & $3/any CVS Brand Item
Total: $5.29
Used: $5 ECB from prior transaction (Contour meter last week)
Total OOP: $0.00 (placed .34 on gift card)
Received: $6 ECB for SoyJoy (.66 profit)

Transaction #2

1 SoyJoy 6pk @ $6
1 6pk of CVS Soap @ $3.29
1 Essence of Beauty Massager @ $1
Total: $10.29
Used: $1/5 SoyJoy & $3/any CVS Brand Item
Total: $6.29
Used: $6 ECB from transaction #1
Total OOP" $0.00 (placed .41 on gift card)
Received: $6 ECB for SoyJoy


Transaction #3

2 boxes of CVS Brand Trash Bags @ $6.99 and $3.49 (Buy 1 Get 1 50% Sale)
1 box of CVS Bath Soak @ $3
Total: $13.48
Used 2 - $3/Any CVS Brand Item
Total: $7.48
Used: $6 ECB from Transaction #2
Total OOP: $0.00 (placed $1.56 on gift card)


Transaction #4 on my card

2 Glade Warmer Refil dbl packs @ $5.49 each
2 Almay Facial Soap Bars @ .99 each
1 EOB Massager @ $1
1 CVS Bath Soak @ $3
Total: $16.96
Used: $3/$15, $3/any cvs brand item, BOGO (-$5.49) Galde, 2 - $1/1 Almay Products, $1/any CVS Skincare (from beauty book)
Total: $2.47
Used: $2 ECB from prior purchase
Total OOP: $0.00 (placed .54 on gift card)
Received: $4 ECB from 2 Glade Products (profit of $1.53)


Whew...that was a lot for one trip but it was worth it!

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Ingles

2 boxes of Splenda @ 3.28 each
3 bags of Halls Cough Drops @ .98 each


Total: $9.50
Used: 2 $3/1 Splenda IP Coupons,3 .50/1 Halls Coupons Doubled
Total OOP: .57

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Kroger Kroger (2nd trip from last week)

9 pks of cottonelle @ .99 each
Used 9 .50/1 coupons doubled
Price: FREE
1 Olay Mouse Lotion @ $3.49
Used $/1 AND $2 PG Esaver coupn
Price: .49
5 Softsoap Hand Soap @ $1 each
Used 5 .35/1 coupons doubled
Price: .30 each 5 Franks Red Hot Sauce @ .77 each Used 5 .75/1 coupons Price: .02 each 1 pack of Hamburger Buns @ .69 (managers special) Total: $21.94 Savings: 100% (placed $2.93 on Gift Card)

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Some history on my shopping habits...

I only used $37.53 out of my $100 weekly budget last week which is a great start on the new year! I have tons of things lining every shelf in my home along with 2 freezers full of frozen items! I have enough meat in my freezer to last me at least 4 months. I will purchase meat, only at heavily discounted rates over the next 4 months to replenish the stock that I have and the same goes for everything else!

I am only purchasing items each week to continue stockpiling the items that we use on a daily basis. I could actually STOP buying groceries all together for the next 4 months if I had to. I would only need to purchase the staples such as milk, eggs, bread, etc.

I am an extreme coupon user (I have anywhere from 10-20 coupon inserts each week that I organize). I purchase 2 sets of the Atlanta Journal Constitution on Sundays, the double packs) and the rest I get for free. I do not include the purchase of the Newspapers UNLESS I actually have to pay for them. I put the purchase price of $5 on gift cards at various stores.

I purchase ONLY the Loss Leader Items each week at each of the stores. It took me about 4 months to get to this point and ever since then I have never had to pay full price for ANYTHING! There were times when I went over budget to stock up on great meat deals but it all balanced itself out within a couple of weeks. I would adjust my future grocery budgets to accommodate for the prior overage!

This year I hope not to have to adjust my budget at all. My goal is to actually spend less but we will start out with the $100 per week!

Notes on the baby!

Many of you may ask how we incorporate items for the baby! You will not see much in my shopping trips for him! When I found out that my sister-in-law was pregnant back in December of 07' I started stocking this child up. By the time he was born in August I had accumulated 56 packs of diapers, thousands of wipes, and enough baby food to last him for at least 5 months. I did all of this using my coupon methods and paid absolutely $0.00 for any of the diapers and wipes! HOW? Through CVS. I would build my ECB's up enough to take advantage of deals that they had throughout the year. There were a couple of times where CVS ran ECB deals on the diapers themselves which made the deals even sweeter! One of the things we asked for at her baby shower was baby food. We specified which brand and how many of each stage that we wanted and she got tons! Baby food has a long shelf life!

Hopefully we won't have to buy any more baby food...he should be on regular food by the time we run out!

As far as the diapers go, we have had to exchange diaper sizes. You cannot prevent that when you buy like this! We will have to keep exchanging diapers until he runs out. In the meantime we will be purchasing diapers through CVS to add to his 2nd stage of diapering (6's and pull-ups). He is 5 months now and once he is able to sit up completely on his own we will begin the potty training process! I have a friend who had her twins potty trained at 6 months old. It was amazing as I watched her do it! I told her she needed to write a book on it! These kids couldn't even talk yet...but they were potty trained! With her help we plan to attempt to have him trained by the time he is 8 months old! Give or take a month or so!

Total Annual Budget: $5200.00
Used: $11.17
Remaining: $5165.04
Total YTD Savings: $451.60