Target 7/29/11

What a day for shampoo! And 75% off toys!

Total toy worth: $35 Total spent on toys: $10.06

Personal care:

4 John Frieda full repair products, $5.99 each-had 4 $5 off coupons and 2 $3/2 store coupons (they paid me to buy these)

4 Suave shampoo, $0.84 each, had 2 $0.75 coupons and 2 $1 off coupons (they paid me to buy these too)

6 Herbal Essence hair care-3 shampoo, 1 mousse, 1 gel, 1 spray. This one is confusing. I had 3 coupons that were $3 off a styler WYB a shampoo, also 3 coupons for $1 off shampoo, PLUS a $1 off 2 target coupon. I ended up paying around $0.40 per product.

2 Sally nail polish, $2.54 each. used 2 $1 off coupons and 2 $1 off store coupons, made them $0.54 each.


Total spent: $12.03
Total saved: $86.47

Meijer 7/29/11

Meijer has a bunch of toys on clearance, we found these for 50%-75% off.

Chuck and friends ramp playset with motorized car-originally $24.99 (paid $7.49)
Extra motorized car-originally $9.99 (paid $4.99)
Handy Manny playset-orig. $24.99 (paid $7.49)
Crayola color wonder travel desk set-orig. $14.00 (paid $6.00)
Tinkerbell nail polish/hair set-orig. $5.00 (paid $2.50)

Also, they had earthbound farms organic baby carrots on sale. $1 each, and buy 10 get 1 free. Recyclebank has coupons for $2 off any 2 earthbound farms items. We bought 11 bags and used 5 coupons, so 11 bags of organic baby carrots for free.

Total spent: $28.47
Total saved: $68.00

Walgreens 7/29/11

The soap is normally $1.49, but it was on sale and I had a coupon that brought it down to $0.39. Its a huge bar of soap and spells very good.

The diapers were a shock, they had 2 packs of the size 1, and they were on clearance for $3.19 per pack! I had a walgreens store coupon that took $2 off each pack. $1.19 per pack of pampers! I know I have 8 months left before the baby is born but I just couldn't pass this up.

Total spent: $2.77
Total saved: $19.70

Pier One Imports 7/27/10

Pier one had a daily deal on their facebook page, if you liked them you got a coupon for $10 off a $10 purchase. It stated one per customer, so my DH also liked them and got a coupon.

1st transaction: 4 Ramekins (not the little ones, these are bigger) $2.50 each=FREE after coupon. I didn't even have to pay tax!

2nd transaction: Cake stand. Regular price $14.95, on sale for 25% off ($11.21)=$1.21 after coupon.

So all total we spent $1.21 on $24.95 worth of stuff!

Babies R Us 7/23/11

BRU had a 2-day only diaper sale. All Jumbo packs were $5 each. That's a pretty great price for name brand diapers even without coupons! By the time I got there most of the good stuff was gone. But here is what I got:

2 Jumbo packs Seventh Generation size 2 diapers. Had 2 $2 off coupons, made them $3 each pack

2 Jumbo packs Huggies Jeans size 5 diapers. These were on an "extra" sale, B1G1 50% off. I had 2 $1.50 off coupons, made them $2.25 a pack.

All together spent $10.50 on 4 jumbo packs. Saved $31.50

The size 5 are for my 2 year old, the size 2 is for our new baby coming in March.I also have Aveeno lotion for the new baby. It's crazy that I'm already stocking up for a baby the size of an apple seed, but when you are a couponer you just can't help it :)

Target 7/14/11

Highlights:

3 Neutrogena naturals lip balms, on sale for $2.99 each, had 3 $1 off store coupons and 3 $1 off manuf. coupons, so I paid $2.97 and got a $5 gift card for buying three. They paid me $2.03 to take these out of the store.

2 Bagel bits, $2.69 each, had 2 $1 off store coupons and 2 $1 off manuf. coupons, made them $0.69 each.

2 Colgate max toothpaste, $1.99, had 2 $1 off store coupons and 2 $1 off manuf. coupons, made them free.

2 bed pillows, $2.50, had 2 $2 off store coupons, made them $0.50 each.

4 packs travel size wet ones wipes, $0.97 each, had 4 $0.50 off store coupons, made them $0.47 each

Target brand peroxide, $0.62, had a $0.75 off store coupon, made it free.

2 Zhu Zhu pets, clearance for $2.50 each

8 Lipton naturals, sale for $1 each, had 4 B1G1 free coupons, made them $0.50 each

3 12-packs sierra mist, sale for $2.75 each, had 3 $1 off coupons, made them $1.75 each.

2 Aveeno baby lotion, sale for $4 each, had 2 $2 off recyclebank coupons, and 2 $1 off store coupons, made them $1 each.

Total spent:  $35.26

Total saved: $63.16

Cost before coupons/sales: $99.42

Cheap meal plans

When you are just getting started on couponing, and don't have much of a stockpile but still need to save money, here is a sample meal plan. This will be cheap and easy even if you do not use one single coupon, sale item, or item from a stockpile. I've had a lot of people ask me about this, so I wanted to make a post.

How many people have been in this situation? Your cupboards are empty, you have an unexpected bill or emergency, and you have $x.xx amount of money to last x amount of time. Everyone I know has been in this spot before, including me!

You have to cater this around what your family will eat, but here is an idea for a weeks worth of food (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack) for 4 people, for 14 days.

Shopping list-at a discount store like Aldi:

1 Tub of instant oatmeal
2 dozen eggs
3 loaves of bread
2 jars of peanut butter
1 tub of butter
1 package sandwich cheese
6 cans condensed tomato soup
1 box baking mix
1 family pack of chicken breasts
2 packs lean ground turkey
4 jars tomato sauce
4 boxes spaghetti
1 package of hot dogs
1 package of hot dog buns
1 box rice
1 gallon of milk
1 bottle pancake syrup
4 bags frozen mixed veggies
2 cans diced potatoes
2 bags of apples
2 boxes macaroni and cheese
 2 bunches of bananas
1 package turkey bacon
4 cans cream of chicken soup
bag of pretzels
bag of carrots
bag of celery

Breakfasts:
7 oatmeal (try brown sugar, cinnamon, and milk in it) with bananas
7 pancakes (baking mix) and syrup, and turkey bacon

Lunches:
9 peanut butter sandwiches with apples
3 grilled cheese sandwiches with soup (each can of soup makes 2 servings)
2 leftovers from dinners

Dinners:
4 chicken pot pie (diced potatoes, chicken, mixed veggies, cream of chicken soup, milk,and baking mix on top, divide into 4 pies worth)
4 spaghetti(1 box of pasta, 1 jar of sauce, and 1/2 package of ground turkey for each meal)
4 chicken and rice casserole (cream of chicken soup, milk, chicken, rice, and frozen veggies, divide into 4 meals)
2 meals of hot dogs and macaroni with cheese (each person gets 1 hot dog)

Snacks:
7 pretzels
7 carrot and celery sticks

This will cost about $75 to feed your family for 14 days. $37.50 per week for a family of 4, or $0.33 per family member, per meal.


Need more ideas?

If your family likes mexican food, you can get several different meals for cheap with beans, tortillas, ground turkey, chicken, rice, canned tomatoes, refried beans, canned corn, and cheese. I like to look-up recipes on www.allrecipes.com

Homestyle meals? You can slow-cook a whole chicken, and shred it for chicken and dumplings, chicken rice soup, chicken noodle soup. Slow cook a roast and shred it for pulled pork sandwiches, stroganoff, shephards pie, beef stew. you would be amazed how far a bag of onions, bag of carrots, bag of red potatoes, and a bag of celery will go here.

And how about potatoes? You can get a 10lb bag of basic potatoes for $5 or less. Use it for hash browns, cubed breakfast potatoes, mashes, fried, boiled, roasted, baked, oven fries, and add them to many meals!