A shout out for Costco

Tomorrow we're having a bbq dinner here at the house with local and visiting relatives, so I went shopping for a few food items we'll need.  I've heard Costco has very nice meat and decided to try their ground beef for the hamburgers.

I was looking at the 5-6 pound packages, trying to decide if I wanted the "patties" which are about 3/4 pound each, or the bulk package, both of which were $3.29/lb, when I noticed something.  See if you see it too.

Yep, that package is weighed at 0.21 pounds and priced at 69 cents.  I thought about leaving it there because I didn't want the hassle factor of dealing with a mispriced item, but I remembered reading on a blog somewhere that stores will usually honor obviously incorrect prices when it's clearly their error (not someone switching price tags or something dishonest like that).

I knew I'd have to point out the error to the cashier or I'd never feel good about the price, then be prepared to pay the right price.  And guess what?  Costco told me it was their mistake, so I got to buy all of this ground beef for the tiny sum of 69 cents!

We will think kindly of Costco tomorrow as we enjoy our hamburgers!

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The Modest Mom Blog

A few new clothes

Yesterday David, Alicia, and I took the girls to the mall, mostly out of boredom and partly to stay cool.

I didn't plan to buy anything, but I did stop in at GapKids because I found good things on their sale rack earlier this year.  This time I found a tunic top that Caroline is wearing above, a cream top with rosettes on it, and a sun dress which will be worn with a shirt under it.  Everything, including tax, was less than $13.

Years ago when my big kids were this age and younger, I shopped GapKids frequently.  I have never actually paid retail for anything there, but had a mental formula for how much I was willing to pay for something based on its quality, appropriateness for the season, and size.  Now that I have rediscovered GapKids, I think I'll have to dust off my formula and shop there a little more often.

Shopping the bargains

I made a mini trip to Fry's tonight and picked up a few things.

1 frozen pizza
3 boxes of cereal
2 packages of cream cheese
1 honey mustard
1 bottle of juice
2 Crystal Light
1 package of pepperoni
7 boxes of macaroni and cheese

Total cost: $12.09

Goodwill shopping

Thursdays the cleaning ladies come and I don't want the girls in the mix.  So Thursdays are our day to be out of the house doing . . . stuff.  We had breakfast out, then swimming lessons.  Next was the library.  We were still a little early so we walked across the parking lot to Goodwill.

My favorite section is the housewares section.  I have one kind of cup I look for, two kinds of mugs, one Corelle dish design, and a silverware pattern.   I seldom find anything, but it's the thrill of the hunt I enjoy.

In the end we got something from the children's clothing section.  Caroline found a pristine GAP sweater that will look really cute as a cardigan this fall.

The best part?  This week blue labels are half off!

Half of the shopping trip

I bought food items as well as cleaning items, but I'm keeping the food items for the Saturday roundup. Thanks to good sale prices and aggressive couponing, everything in the picture cost only about $12.50 + sales tax of 9.1%

Three toothbrushes and two tubes of toothpaste have already been given away. It's just so easy to get these items for free (+ 9.1% sales tax . . . ) that I get too many of them in the storage cupboard and NEED to give them away.

Read near the bottom of this post to get a great perspective on shopping during the Pantry Challenge.

Tomorrow's shopping trip

I know, I know.  Pantry Challenge.  Don't shop gratuitously.  But I'm going to anyway.  This is the first time in more than a month I'll have shopped to add to the pantry vs. just use it within a week.

On the outside of the envelope I have my shopping list . . .

. . . and inside are all the coupons I intend to use.

Neat, huh?

Stressful shopping

I know, I know, why go shopping if it is stressful?  FOR THE DEALS!!  Here is part of what I picked up today.  There were other items as well, including several packages of meat, cheese, and yogurt.

I had coupons and "deals" for everything I bought except the fresh meat.  I made two mistakes, only one of which cost me money.

Did I mention it was stressful?

Extreme couponing?

In the United States there is (was?) a reality show on TV called Extreme Couponing. Each show follows two shoppers as they use sales and coupons to buy their groceries for very low prices. The show has come under a lot of criticism because many of the people on the show keep HUGE stockpiles of food in their basements, garages, or stored in various places around the house. Of course anyone has the right to store any amount of food she wants, but a lot of people have wondered if someone really needs 67 bottles of yellow mustard or 1,000 packages of Yakisoba Noodles. Then there is the problem of some of the couponers' using the wrong coupon for the wrong product, i.e. using a high-value coupon meant for a particular higher cost item on a lower-cost product from the same company. For a good explanation of this, see Jill Cataldo's blog post.

Anyway, I'm an "avid" couponer, but I don't commit fraud and I shop in quantities my family can use or can easily share with others.

All that said, here is what I bought last night for $9.69:

*4 boxes of cereal and 2 gallons of milk (a special deal at Fry's)= $10 minus 4 coupons that doubled to a total of $4 = $6

*2 dozen eggs (Target-"come see our new grocery store" special) = FREE

*3 one-pound boxes of strawberries = $.77/each

*1.79 lb of grapes = $1.38

TOTAL $9.69

Glory Shot #3

I made my weekly assault on Walgreen's today--was in and out of the store in less than fifteen minutes and only one transaction. Both of those might be records.Here is what I bought:

2 Olay Quench Body Lotion 20.2 oz/600 ml $7.99 ea
2 Olay In-Shower Body Lotion 8.4 oz/250 ml $4.99 ea
2 Pert 3-in-1 shampoo for men 16 oz/473 ml $2.50 ea
3 Sure deodorant for men 2.6 oz/73 ml $1.50 ea
3 Hershey's Special Dark with Almonds 1.45 oz/41 g $0.79 ea
3 Hershey's with Almonds 1.45 oz/41 g $0.79 ea
2 Knee-hi nylons $0.33 ea

Minus:
2-$2 Olay Quench Body Lotion mq -$4
2-$1 Olay In-Shower Body Lotion mq -$2
2-$4.99 Olay In-Shower Body Lotion Walgreen's gift -$9.98
2-$1.50 Pert 3-in-1 shampoo for men -$3.00
3-BOGO (Buy One Get One Free) Hershey mq -$0.79x3=-$2.37
3-$0.30 Walgreen's Hershey's coupon -$0.90
1-$10 Register Reward from previous visit
1-$1 Register Reward from previous visit

OOP=$4.34

I also received a $2 RR for a future visit and I will submit the 2 Olay Quench lotions for a mail-in refund from Olay for the full purchase price of $7.99x2. I pay sales tax and the postage stamp of 44c. In other words, after the rebate I will have paid nothing out of pocket and will have a bit extra for everything I bought.

Now my camera tells me it is really out of battery power and I still haven't figured out why the rechargeables don't work, so there is no Glory Shot #4. If there were, it would picture from Safeway:

1 Honey Nut Cheerios $2.50
3 Betty Crocker Spiderman Fruit Snacks $2.00 ea
1 SoftSoap hand soap pump $0.88
4 Blueberries $0.99 ea

Minus:
1 Honey Nut Cheerio -$1.00 mq
1 Betty Crocker Spiderman Fruit Snacks -$1/2 mq
1 Betty Crocker Spiderman Fruit Snacks $0.40 mq that Safeway doubled to -$0.80
1 Betty Crocker Spiderman Fruit Snacks electronic coupon -$0.40
1 SoftSoap $0.40 mq that tripled to -$1.00
1 -$4/4 instant coupon for the 4 General Mills products (cereal/fruit snacks)

OOP=$5.21

Good shopping day.

What to pay for things

I came across this interesting blog entry:

http://melziemomsbargains.blogspot.com/2010/01/thrifty-thursday-what-im-willing-to-pay.html

I like it (other than trying to get through all her Google money ads) because I agree with her pricing. I'm not able to get quite the food bargains she can because double/triple coupons happen here in cycles and aren't available all the time. For personal items, I have the same limits she does--free on most of it because I shop the same stores and sales she does.

I have a couple more limits:

Laundry detergent--10 cents a load
Dry cereal--10 cents an ounce

What happens when you don't take a sneak peek or you get tired

I wasted money today and I hate waste.

Walgreen's: I ordered Christmas cards from www.walgreens.com and they were $19.48. I got a nice discount on them and the double set included two free pens I wasn't expecting--gold and silver photo writing pens. The problem came when I decided to finish using some Register Rewards TODAY instead of waiting until tomorrow. I spent a hair over an additional $25 which, had I spent that tomorrow would have generated a $5 coupon to use like cash on a future purchase. I knew I should have waited, but after a somewhat negative experience at Walgreen's last week, I just didn't feel like coming back again. Dumb. Never let feelings get in the way of saving money your family can use for something else.

Fry's: I wanted the Sara Lee frozen pies in the ad. $3.49 each and buy three, get $3 off. $2.49 each is a fine price for a very good pie. Except I just saw the ad for *tomorrow* and Sara Lee frozen pies are $1.99, no tricks or shenanagins. I should have known better.

By going on the Internet it is usually possible to view the following week's ad. This site has the Walgreen's ads for a week or two in advance and that is how I know I could have gotten the extra $5 coupon by shopping Wednesday or Thursday. I think I could have viewed the Fry's ad as well.

I'm weary. It's hard work figuring out all these ways to get what I want without spending too much. I'm going to take it easy the rest of the week, then start next week refreshed.

For a little inspiration check out The Grocery Cart Challenge. The author's goal is to feed her family on $60 a week. I don't have any particular monetary goal, but I like to see what she gets compared to what I have purchased. I recognize the Hunt's spaghetti sauce this time but she got a better price than I did. Hers was 69 cents per can and mine was 88 cents. Of course we use it for spaghetti and lasagna, but most of ours goes on our Friday night pizzas.

So . . . I'm resolving to improve my research and get those bargains!

My busy, money-saving ways

Today I had about 2 1/2 hours to run errands and I was busy!

*Dropped Mom off at her meeting
*Mailed a package at the post office
*Returned some sweat pants to Target that I bought for my mom that didn't fit and bought two reams of paper. Printing coupons sure uses up paper. Well, that and three daughters who can easily draw on five pieces of paper a day (each).
*Went to Albertson's--three packages of frozen veggies and three boxes of Betty Crocker instant mashed potatoes for FREE with coupons and a couple other things for a very low price.
*Walked a quarter mile or more from the crowded parking lot into Costco to pick up a prescription
*Ran by the Church because there was supposed to be gospel study there but there were only a couple of cars there so it must have been cancelled.
*Went to Walgreen's where I bought close to $50 worth of things and came out with as much in my wallet as I had when I went in if you count the Register Rewards that are good on my next visit--trust me, there will ALWAYS be a next visit and I always have $5-20 worth of Register Rewards in my wallet.
*Picked Mom up from her meeting
*Returned to Walgreen's because--DUH--I forgot to pick up a prescription there.

Whew! After that I headed home and unpacked everything and put it away. I had some spaghetti Carbonara and Mexican corn for lunch and settled in for a couple hours of work. Work was relaxing because it is Friday in Korea and everyone is in a good mood on Friday.

Dinner is cooking itself in the slow cooker. Beans and ham. I'd make cornbread to go with it but we are out of cornmeal and I forgot to get more. My next obvious choices are muffins or biscuits. Biscuits are more of an anomaly in our house so I think I'll go with them.

Couponing

As you might have noticed from some recent posts, I've taken up the hobby of couponing. Simply put, it's matching coupons with sales to get the absolute best price on food and household items. We are swimming in snacks, cereal, and personal care items at the moment. Who knows what will be next?

I was pretty happy to get my hands on two or three extra copies of the Sunday coupon inserts today and I didn't even have to buy them. I was out visiting and someone had access to several Sunday papers and saved them for me. Good deal for me as there are a number of coupons there this week that will be helpful.

I think when dh met me he was kind of bewildered by my shopping habits (look for great deals, have plenty of food on hand), but I recall he said his goal was to keep me in the manner to which I was accustomed so he just let me do my thing. Smart guy that dh, huh?

Less than $20

I did a little shopping today. I see nice Christmas gift baskets for the girls' teachers this year. :-)

I got:
4 bags of Halls Refresh cough drops
3 Chapstick Effects lip balms
2 halloween party cups
2 Vaseline Infusion lotions
8 Skippy peanut butters
8 Quaker chewy granola bars
4 halloween pencils with character erasers
3 boxes of Barbie/Dora the Explorer BandAids
4 cans of Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup
2 boxes of Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal

. . . and as the title says, I spent less than $20. More like $16-17, I think, but I'm too lazy to crunch the numbers.