saving pennies at the table

it's been a while since I was here but I will be doing my best to update regularly with deals I find and the like. I will be adding a few fun things over time, the first is my menu. Each Saturday morning I will be posting what we will have to eat that following week. These will be under $50 for a family of 4. I will have leftovers for use in other meals, this is an amazing savings in and of itself. I shop for my groceries at aldi for the most part. I get my ground beef and chickenn leg quarters from save a lot, and anything else I may need comes from WalMart.

so, for this week, starting with Friday, we are having:

Friday is taco salad
Saturday is thanksgiving leftover pie
Sunday I am making a pot of beans and cornbread
Monday we will have beef stroganoff with peas and mashed potatoes.
Tuesday its potato soup
Wednesday we have a pot of chili
and Thursday its salsa chicken with refried beans left over from our Sunday dinner.

in total we might use $20 of what we bought Friday, and it sets us up for some great meals for next week!

if you would like the recipes I use, comment below! With enough comments I will start posting the recipes on a daily basis! Until next time,lots of frugal lovin and merry Christmas!

Not really sure I understand

With the economy the way it is, everyone is hard up for money, so when I am told, "I wasn't brought up to coupon... I don't see the sense in it.  You don't save money using them."  I about freaked out on the girl!  She's a single mom with 3 kids and just lost her job!  She just didn't get the savings!  She thought I was crazy for going to Publix to shop because, "Publix is the most expensive store."  While that part could be considered true, I disagree!  I can shop at Publix and get such great deals!  Yes, I still have to really shop around for meat, but once I get that, then I can figure out what I'm making based solely on my pantry due to my BOGO and Coupon sales!  I love that I have access to these wonderful bits of paper that my family calls, "Money".  It really does save me money, so I am taking a challenge.  I am challenging myself to start finding and posting deals to help all of you save a few more dollars a week.  A penny saved is a penny earned in my book! 

Publix Trip

This morning I headed out for a little small shopping trip.  I only had a total of $30 set aside to shop with and we only needed a few things.  So, I had worked it all out, but when I got to the store I realized that for some of my coupons, I couldn’t use them because they were for 10 oz or more in the cereal, but it was the 9 oz box that was for sale, so I didn’t do as well as I wanted to, but I did well either way.  Here’s the breakdown!

Brawny Pick a Size Single Roll Papertowels.  I bought 2 of them because they were on sale Buy One Get One Free!  They were just $1.99 for the TWO rolls. 

Lysol Cleaners—another that was on the BOGO sale.  I had 2 coupons for 25 cents off of each one, so I only paid 2.19 for BOTH!  They are regular priced at $2.69 EACH!

Aunt Jemima Pancakes—they were BOGO, so I took them up on that!  My kids LOVE these and although I didn’t have a coupon, I only spent 2.79 for BOTH packages. 

Hormel Chili with no beans was another BOGO but because I used a coupon for 55 cents off of two of them, I spent $2.74 for BOTH cans. 

International Baker Cookie Dough was on sale BOGO!  These are normally $3.29 per package, but I scored them at $2.29 for BOTH packages!  Woohoo!  Santa will love his cookies this year!

Bob Evans Side Dishes were on sale for 2 for $6.  I got one of them and had a coupon for $1 off of one.  So I paid $2 for the one.  Not bad.

Juicy Juice Fruitfuls was on sale for 1.99 and I had a coupon for $1 off!  I got this new juice for just 99 cents! 

Del Monte Tomatoes—I love these things!  We use tomatoes and tomato sauces all the time, so this is a great buy for me!  They were bogo and I used a 50 cents off of two, so got them for 69 cents for BOTH CANS!!!  So I paid 34 cents per can!!! 

International Delight Creamer (the big bottle) was on sale for 2/$5.  I bought one and used a coupon for $1 off one.  I got my creamer for $1.50.  

And lastly, the best!  Truvia Sweetner is normally $3.99 per box.  I got them BOGO, but had 2 coupons for 85 cents off of each one.  I paid a total of $2.29!  That’s just $1.15 each box!!! 

So, In all, my savings at Publix was $28.08.  I only paid out of pocket $19!!!  WooWoo!!!  That’s a total savings of 68%!!!

Walgreens Trip 12/3/12

This morning, I decided to go on a walgreens run at the last moment.  I stopped here after my Publix run, but will post the savings at walgreens first :) 

I had only $11 I could spend at this store including tax, and think I did fairly well considering I had NO coupons to use for the things I needed from here.  Here's the breakdown...

Xtra Detergent-- Regular price $2.99.  I paid $1.49
Dawn Dish Detergent-- Reg. Price-- $1.69  I paid $0.99
Puzzle Erasers-- Regular Price-- $2.69  I paid $0.99
Colorsilk Hair Color-- $3.99  I paid $3.00
Christmas Tree Icecicles-- $0.99 I paid $0.99
Cotton Swabs-- $2.49  I paid $2.49

In all, I spent $9.95.  I saved $4.49 without coupons!  Total percentage saved 31%

It's been a while since I have posted here

But, not to worry, I have good reason. I haven't needed to go shopping! Our stockpile has sustained us very nicely! In fact, I was able to have hubby go to our stockpile and help restock my mother in law's refrigerator of some condiments she was out of. She's out of town, and I have been doing a few things around the house for her, when I noticed what she was out of that I had at home, he replenished it for her and it didn't hurt us either! I am excited to really see the small stockpile we have going is really helping!

I'll have a new post for you next week, but I just needed to let you know that when you are trying to save, it is a great feeling to give to others! Be ethical and bless others! I truly believe in this, "in order to be blessed, you have to bless others" so with that said, please remember to bless others!

God Bless Each and Every One Of You!!!

My Points

One of my new found favorite ways to save money and earn money at the same time is really easy. As many of us know, it is very convenient to shop online. I do a lot of my clothing shopping for my daughters in this manner as it is MUCH cheaper for me to shop online and pay a little for shipping than it is to travel 30 minutes or more to find the stores that I want to shop at. As I posted the other day, I was able to achieve 13 shirts and 12 pairs of shorts for my girls for 101. That is an amazing deal considering that the clothes all come from Old Navy. Now, how do I get that it is cheaper for me to do that? I'll break it down for you:

The closest Old navy to me is 23.3 miles which converts to 38 minutes. In gas mileage that converts to roughly 1.5 gallons each way. So that's about 9 dollars in gas to go for one trip. And that store may not even have what I need when I get there right...

So, I simply went onto my click through website : MyPoints and searched for Old Navy. I clicked to shop at that store. Then I went about shopping just as normal as I would if I had of gone to the Old Navy website in the first place. With My Points, they award 4 points for every dollar I spend at Old Navy, so that one purchase was worth 404 points!!! This is great because I am saving up for a couple of things. Here's what the points will end up doing for me:

7500 points awards me a $50.00 amazon.com gift card
3700 points awards me a $25.00 rainforest cafe gift card... and the list goes on and on...

So as of the present time I have 694 points, and I haven't even begun christmas shopping... When I do I am expecting to rack up tons of points just for doing what I would do all the time anyway... Keeping in mind that I still have fall wardrobe, winter wardrobe, christmas shopping, as well as anniversary and birthdays to buy for, it will not take me long to get that amazon as well as the rainforest cafe cards too. the rainforest cafe card will be a gift for christmas for my sister in law and her family since they live in orlando and the amazon gift card will be one of the gifts I am giving to my oldest daughter since she has done so well here lately, we are getting her a huge christmas present and that money will come in handy to go with it!!!

School supplies shopping

ok, so here's my list of what i needed broken down by each child since they go to 2 different schools:

Maddie's Kindergarten Supplies list:

6 glue sticks
2 packages #2 Pencils
2 boxes of crayons (24 count)
1 pack colored pencils
1 pair FISKARS
2 primary composition notebooks
4 double pocket 3 prong folders
1 standard size backpack
2 boxes tissues
1 box baby wipes
1 water bottle
1 box ziploc bags
1 hand sanitizer
1 ream computer paper

Kenzie's 3rd Grade Supplies List

1 backpack
6 three prong two pocket folders
5 one subject notebooks
1 one inch 3 ring binder
1 package of dividers
4 packages loose leaf wide rule paper
3 packages #2 pencils
1 pair scissors
6 glue sticks
1 package colored pencils
1 pencil box
3 boxes of pencil cap erasers
1 package EXPO dry erase markers
2 boxes tissues
1 tub baby wipes
1 box crayons (24 count)

with that said, I went to walmart and walgreens. here's the break down:

WALGREENS:
Maddie's backpack: $5.00
1 pack erasers: .59
4 Roseart Gluestick 3 pack: .49 ea
5 packs Penway pencils: .19 ea

total out of pocket: 9.10 (keep in mind there was a backpack in there!)

WALMART:
4 filler paper @ .75 ea
2 color pencils @1.97 ea
2 Fiskars @ 1.47
1 binder .92
10 folders @ .15 ea
2 composition books @ .40 ea
5 notebooks @ .20
expo markers 3.47
2 erasers (40 ct) @ .97 ea
2 pencil boxes @ .97 ea

total out of pocket: 22.96

now, here's what i have left to buy:

kenzie backpack
4 boxes tissues
package of dividers
2 babywipes
2 boxes crayons (walmart was sold out but when they are back stocked up i will be paying .25 ea)
water bottle
ziploc bags
hand sanitizer
copier paper.

I think I did well!!!