Coupons & Other Money Saving Strategies

As many of you have done too I've heard, I have recently taken a class (well 2 actually) at my church about being frugal, especially with a grocery budget. I was thankful that 2 of my neighbors went along as well so that we can encourage each other through this fun, confusing, chaotic, exciting adventure. It's consuming me right now, much like home improvement or sewing has in the past. Much of my free time is spent looking at the frugal bloggers' websites (see list on the side bar) or clipping/organizing coupons or actually out at the stores. I think it's really helping though.
One great benefit is that I've been able to start shopping at Publix again. A few years ago, I all but banned myself from that store because I really loved it and always spent WAY too much money there. So I was a faithful WalMart Neighborhood Market shopper. But with all that I've learned about Buy One Get One's and double coupons and stacking coupons, I'm finding great savings at my favorite store, Publix! Very fun.
Another thing I'm working my way into is the drug store games. That is, trying to get health & beauty items for either free or nearly free at stores like CVS or Walgreens. And it's working, for the most part. There's definitely a learning curve but if you're disciplined to not buy impulses there (the candy aisle is definitely my weakness) then purchasing these usually very expensive items is reduced to next to nothing. And when you need toothpaste, you don't have to run out to the store. You just look in your own cabinet for the tube you got for free or close to it. Even diapers can be cheaper & sometimes free at the drug store. Who knew? Here are the pictures of what I bought Monday at CVS & Walgreens & what I spent.

CVS

First is CVS where I got 3 jumbo packs of Pampers (jumbo is 30 diapers for Size 5) for $25 which is a little less than 27c per diaper, pretty good; 2 softsoap handsoaps for $4 but then $4 extra care bucks prints at check out, and a PAAS easter egg dying kit for $1.99 and got $1.99 extra care bucks at check out, basically those two work out to free. I had $15 extra care bucks from a previous trip (which work like money) so my total bill came to $18.07 on $49.55 worth of items. I saved $31.48 (64%)and got $5.99 worth of extra care bucks for next time.

Walgreens

The other is Walgreens. This was my first Walgreens shopping adventure but I think it came out very well. I got 3 packs of Reynolds Wrap foil for 89c each but also had 3 $1 off coupons so Walgreens basically paid me 33c to take them. I also got the 4 mentos gum packs for free with their sale and coupons. The tweezers were Buy One Get One and I didn't need 2 but I desparately needed 1 since the boys hid mine and my eyebrows have been growing for way too long now (too much info?). But at Walgreens, they don't give 1/2 price on BOGOs (Publix does), so I just took the second one for free to have as a spare. They had coke, buy one, get a candy bar free and although I pretend I don't do either, I do both whenever the kids aren't around so I have a little stash for myself when I need it. The last one is the softsoap body wash which didn't come out as good as I had hoped. When you bought one for $3.99 & I had $1 off coupon so $2.99, it printed a coupon for a free one. Well supposedly when you got your free one, it printed another coupon and so on getting multiple bottles for free. That didn't happen (Walgreens probably figured that one out & stopped it) so basically I got 2 huge bottles for $2.99, not too bad. So all total I spent $12.13 and got $36.35 worth of items, $24.22 (67%) savings. Yea!

Have you ever been to Aldi? Today, Jenn (my accross the street neighbor) & I ventured out to Aldi together for the first time while our kids were in school. I'd heard alot about it's deals but was skeptical. You have to pay a quarter to get a cart, they have no bags for the groceries (I bring my own anyway), most packaged things are knockoffs even though the labels look almost identical to what you're used to buying and they only take cash & no coupons. So needless to say, it's radically different from Publix. But I must say that I was impressed. Some examples: Eggs 99c a dozen, Grapefruits 25c, Butter 4pk $1.49, Whole DelMonte Pineapple $1.99 (Wow!), Chicken Broth 39c, Mandarin Oranges 45c, and on & on. They don't have everything, but lots of staple things to get when they're not on sale other places or just to save the trouble of the coupons matching with the sales, etc. I literally got 22 canned goods, 3 dozen eggs, 2 grapefruits, 2 pineapples, 3 packs butter, apple juice, 3 boxes Club (lookalike) crackers, Chex cereal AND a large ham to serve for big family Easter for $50. I think it was a great value and worked to build my stock pile quite a bit. Try it out sometime, you may like it!!
Just wanted to let you know what I've been doing with my spare time (haha! who has that?) lately. And if you want to know more (who would want to know more after this long post), just let me know and I'll tell you what I've learned. Have a good day and happy shopping!