Couponing: FRESH ITEMS!

I've really been slacking on my couponing skills lately.  Partly, because I don't need much.  We are still pretty stocked up on things from last year!  And partly, because I haven't had time. 

However, it's time to really buckle down and reduce the spending as much as possible to gear up for the holidays.  In doing some research for the upcoming sales I found some great new mobile coupons for Target on fresh veggies, fruit and meat.  These don't come around very often so I thought I would share. 

Text LUNCHBOX or FRESH to 827438 to get:

$1.00 / $1.00 or more fresh fruit purchase
$1.00 / $1.00 or more fresh vegetable purchase
$1.00 / $1.00 or more fresh meat purchase 

I noticed the ad starting Sunday included a bag of apples for $2.99.  I plan to use the $1.00 off mobile coupon and combine it with a Cartwheel offer for 5% off bagged apples for a great deal!   

Happy Couponing!

Saving money for the holidays: Part 1

I know what you're thinking.  Why is she thinking about the holidays already?!  Like it or not, Christmas is about 20 weeks away.  Only 133 days of saving left.  The holiday season is a busy one at our house.  Someone special has a birthday on November 8, we host Thanksgiving and Christmas each year, and I celebrate my birthday on New Year's Eve.  It can be an expensive time of year, especially for a family on a really tight budget like ours. 

Last year, money was at a minimum.  Like non-existent, really.  But I LOVE the holidays and couldn't help but to get a few things for under the tree.  I had to really work hard to save a few extra bucks here and there to be able to come up with enough for a very modest Christmas.  I spent about $50 total.  I got lists early, shopped sales, and of course I used coupons!  I was able to get a few toys for K, a couple shirts for Sam, and we did stocking stuffers.  That's it.  I was finished shopping the week after Thanksgiving.  It was awesome.  In my opinion, it turned out to be the best holiday season ever!  It forced us to really just focus on spending time with family and friends and less on running around town, fighting crowds of people, and buying unnecessary things with money we didn't have.  For me, it really put to focus back on what the Christmas season should be. It was stress-free and perfect. 

So, it's time to start planning for this year's holiday-palooza.  In this series of posts, I'll explain how we are saving money for holiday costs and getting ready early. 

First up, I started lists!  I'll need lists of potential gifts for each person I'll be buying for early so I can scour the sale ads and collect coupons as I see them.  I'm super Type-A so lists and plans are just second nature to me.  There might even be Excel spreadsheets involved (shhh). 

Most people can't think of what they want right off the top of their heads.  I know I can't at least!  So, I put a list on the refrigerator for each of us, and one for family gifts, so we can jot things down as we think of them.

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Next up, I'll talk about how I plan to come up with the CASH to pay for these gifts. 

Couponing: Fresh items for FREE!

I've said it before:  Couponing is a neccesity for our family to stay on budget right now.  But as a mostly vegetarian and clean house, it's sometimes hard to find coupons for groceries.  Coupons for fresh items like fruits, vegetables and bread are hard to come by.  Until this month!

This month, Target's mobile coupons included: 

• $1 off $1 or more purchase of fresh fruit
• $1 off $1 or more purchase of fresh vegetables
• $1 off any purchase of bread   

The past three weeks I've taken advantage of these rare deals to score almost free essentials!  The downside is that the mobile coupons are only good once, so I had to get creative.  There were two promo codes - JULY4 and FRESH.  I used one each and then had my husband use one this week.  Text the codes to 827438 to get yours!

Week 1:

• Corn $0.25 per ear x 4 = $1.00 - $1/$1 coupon (FREE)
• Strawberries $1.79 - $1/$1 coupon ($0.79)
• TOTAL: $0.79

Week 2:

• Corn $0.25 per ear x 4 = $1.00 - $1/$1 coupon (FREE)
• Bananas $0.59/pound x 2 pounds = $1.18 - $1/$1 coupon ($0.18)
• Market Pantry bread $1.25 - $1 coupon ($0.25)
• TOTAL: $0.43

Week 3:

• Grapes $2/pound - $1/$1 coupon ($1.00)
• Broccoli $1.69/pound - $1/$1 coupon ($0.69)
• Bread on sale for $1.22 - $1 coupon ($0.22)
• TOTAL: $1.91

Happy (and healthy) couponing!

Couponing: Stocking up with summer sales!

I like to keep a mental inventory of the items in my mini stockpile.  This way, if i know we are getting low on certain things I can start looking out for sales.  It does me no good to have 950 deodorants and run out of soap! 

Speaking of soap, we were getting low on bodywashes.  We had one left each causing me to panic.  If I didn't see a sale soon, I was going to be forced to buy retail! NOOO! (To think, I used to pay $10+ at specialty stores for this stuff!) 

As luck would have it, Publix had a BOGO sale on Dial this week.  I used to shudder at the idea of using Dial until I was forced to try it out before a surgery.  Turns out, I actually really like the stuff. 

So back to the sale - My Publix had them for $3.85 and they were BOGO.  I had one Buy 2 Get 1 Free Manufacturer Coupon and three $2 off 2 Target coupons.  I needed 6 to get this great deal.  I stopped in to Publix last night to get milk and found a few bottles left.  YAY!  I ended up with 6 bottles and paid a total of $1.70 or $0.28 a piece! 

Couponing: Shopping for June

One of the ways I'm able to stay on such a tight budget is by shopping "once" a month.   I use the term "once" loosely.   Do I go to a store more than once a month? Of course.  But what I found that works best for my schedule and budget is to do one big shop at the beginning of each month.  This forces me to plan our meals ahead of time and really try to just use what we have in the house the rest of the month.  I run out for fresh fruits and veggies and milk each week.  But other than that, I don't do much else.  I'm able to free up so much precious time and I find that I save so much this way.  After I do the big monthly shop I can also focus on snatching up some great deals that may come along.

So I start my shopping with a monthly order from Soap.com.  Love love love this site.  You do have to shop carefully, but I've found several items that I can get cheaper than in the store.  Best part, it ships for free and keeps me out of the stores where I'm tempted to buy things we don't need.  This month we stocked up on facewash, makeup, cleaning produxt and snack packs for Kyran.  All for less than I would spend at Target!

After some careful planning, pinning, and coupon organizing, I set out to shop for groceries.  This week was a great trip. I got groceries for the month, some household products, and summer storm supplies PLUS a $50 gas card for $143.00!  I used BOGO deals and over $40 in coupons. Success!

We finished off the monthly shopping with a trip to Sam's club for dog food, coffee and some miscellaneous snacks and a trip to our local farmers market.  The end result: a well stocked house and only a portion of our budget spent. 

YES it's time consuming up front but for me, the reward of not spending every Saturday running around town is worth it. I get such little time with my family I want to make sure that time is well spent.  

Plus, with a stockpile like this I can't help but be happy :)

Memorial Day Weekend Sales + Coupons!

Memorial Day sales are always great.  I've been saving up my coupons for this weekend.  This time of year, sunscreen is always on sale. My husband and son go through sunscreen like crazy but that stuff is expensive! Lucky for me, I was able to score some great deals on sunscreen today - $1.44 a bottle.  In fact, I got all this stuff for only $12!

Couponing - May 5, 2013

This time of year I see a ton of good deals on staples are the house.  I try to always stock on on items when I can get them cheap - or free.  Last week, I scored 8 tubes of toothpaste and only paid $1.96 TOTAL!  That should get us through the summer.

This past weekend, we didn't need much.  So I took advantage of some great laundry deals at Walgreens.  Purex laundry soap and scent boosters were BOGO.  After sales and coupons, I saved over 60%.  Here's how:

Purex laundry soap - $5.79 x 2 = $11.58

• One was free -$5.79
• Used two $1/1 coupons

Purex scent boosters- $7.99 x 2 = $15.98

• One was free -$7.99
• Used one $1.50/2 coupons  

Total was just over $10 with tax. 

Our weekly grocery budget is $70.00 for our family of 3.  When we first started our budget about 9 months ago, it was a struggle to get below $70 each week.  Now, I find it hard to even spend $50! Publix is our go-to for groceries because they have BOGO sales and take competitor coupons.  We got all the below items for just $40! 

Here's the breakdown:

6 pack of Ramen (I’ll never outgrow this stuff!)	$1.34
Bread	$1.09
Soft Taco Meal Kit	$2.99
Enchilada Meal Kit	$0.00
Organic Smoothies	$3.99 - 0.50
4 DiGiorno Pizzas	$20.00 -2.00 -2.00 -1.50 -1.50 -5.00 Target
Silk Almond Milk	$2.50 -1.00
Plain Yogurt	$1.99
Goldfish (splurge)	$2.49
Salsa	$2.59 -.60
Salsa	$0.00
Crystal Light Mix	$3.45
Crystal Light Mix	$0.00 -1.00 -1.00
Q-Tips	$2.75
Q-Tips	$0.00
Fresh Fish	$4.89
Canned Tuna	$0.99
Canned Tuna	$0.99
Cilantro	$0.79
Egg Salad	$2.49 -2.00
Watermelon	$2.77
Bananas	$1.13

We picked up some fresh items for dinners and juice at our local farmer's market for just $7.00.  Which puts us at only about $50 spent from our budget this week.  I'm happy!