Shaw's at 9:00 PM

I am not one to venture to the stores late in the evening, even with the stores remaining open well into the night as people prepare to celebrate holidays. It is not that I do not appreciate the savvy business sense of proprietors to take full advantage of people's desire to "shop 'til they drop." I simply prefer to be at home snuggled up with my family after a long day of doing just about anything else.

Tonight, I had a tough choice to make. You see, I had spent some time the past few days reassembling a coupon binder. I sorted through the coupons, organized smartly into their respective categories, to pull the ones I would need. I scanned the weekly sales flyers, and printed my shopping lists. I thought I was all ready for my husband to chauffeur me to the stores I would visit for this week's shopping trip. As silly as it seems, I will admit to being just a little giddy at the thought of actually getting out of this house for a while and was happily anticipating the sales I was going to utilize to start refilling my newly depleted stores. And, then, I realized that my shopping plan for Shaw's was going to be for naught. I had forgotten that unlike the other stores, Shaw's changes their sales on FRIDAY. As in, tomorrow. As in, if I did not venture out immediately into the cold night air, I would miss out on some sales, I was looking forward to using. After discussing the situation with my partner in crime, aka my husband, Sean, we decided to drive the 30 minutes to Bangor and shop.

Was it worth it? We thought so.

One of the sales, we wanted to use was the GM Cereal/Free Milk Deal:

It worked like this: You earn a catalina for free milk (up to a $4.50 value) when you buy 4 participating GM cereals or Nature Valley granola bars at 2/$6.

We had an internet coupon from: www.coupons.com for $1/2 Cookie Crisp to use and another one for $1/3 Cookie Crisp cereals. We used them in two separate transactions.

The math looks like this: 4 boxes of cereal for $11.00+ $3.94 for milk= $14.94, less $1 coupon, less $4.50 coupon= $10.44 out of pocket for 4 boxes of cereal and the milk. I did this one twice, so I still have one $4.50 voucher for milk.

The other sales (taking into account our coupons) I used were; (2) Sargento shredded cheese $1.50/bag, (4) Philadelphia cream cheese $1.00/box, (8) Campbell's "cooking" condensed soups* $ .61¢/ea., (4) Nestle Carnation condensed milk .89¢/can, (6) Pillsbury cinnamon rolls $1.52/ea., (1) Cain's pickles $1.25, (8) GM Cookie Crisp cereal $1.63/box, and (1) FREE gallon milk. Out of pocket, we spent a total of $47.88 and we earned a catalina coupon for $4.50 for milk on our next visit. This certainly was not the best shopping trip I have ever had, but spending less than $50.00 for over $96.00 in groceries makes me very satisfied with our savings of 49.5%.

(I didn't post which coupons I used because this sale was over tonight, so it didn't really matter.)

Tomorrow, it is Walmart, Walgreen's, Rite Aid and Target. Sean will be back on chauffeur duty and cart pusher extraordinaire. I will take photos and post my results. I am attempting to post regularly once again and as I do, I will post the sales and matching coupons.

The last thing I wanted to write about this evening, was about ecoupons from SavingStar. I registered my store loyalty cards earlier this week. You can register for yours HERE. I was able to register my Shaw's, Rite Aid, and Hannaford cards. Once, I registered for free, I looked through the ecoupons listed and "clipped" the ones I wanted to load to my store loyalty cards. (These coupons can only be used once and must be used before their expiration dates.) I shopped as I normally would. I scanned my Shaw's card and paid for my groceries at the register. The ecoupon does not come off the total bill at the register, but rather, once the ecoupon is redeemed by buying the qualifying item, the ecoupon amount accumulates. When the total amount reaches at least $5, I can request it to be paid to my paypal account or I can choose to have it sent to me in the form one of several gift cards. Today, the purchase for Campbell's "cooking" condensed soups qualified for an additional savings of .40¢/3 cans. It is an intriguing program. I am interested to see how this actually works. I'll be sure to let you know!

Goodnight, Friends.

Sonja ♥

Free Milk @ Hannaford!!!

Here is the Deal:
From now until April 10th, when you purchase Any (3) thress boxes (12 oz or larger) of Kellogg's Cereals, a Catalina Coupon will print that looks like this:

Hannaford has Kellogg's Cereals on sale for 2/$5.
I tried out this deal today. I purchased 4 boxes of cereal, used (2) $1/2 coupons (Sunday insert)= $8.00 out of pocket. I scanned my Hannaford tag and received: (1) $5 off $50 order or more and (1) Catalina for Free milk up to 3.59.

Final Cost $8.00 for 4 boxes of Cereal & 1 Gallon of Milk. Not bad, but there may be a better deal.

Looking ahead at coming sales, my mind has been working on lots of possible scenerios. Walgreen's has Kellogg's cereals on sale beginning tomorrow, (4/3/11) for $1.88 each.

If the Catalina prints there, this will be my plan:
Buy four (4) boxes= $7.52
Use (2) $1/2 coupons= $5.52 (1.38 ea)
Receive 1 Free Milk Catalina
Net Transaction=
$5.52- $3.58=$1.93 (.48 cents ea)

After sorting through all the postings nationally about this deal, this is what I think it will be for our area:

Purchase 3 boxes= 1 Free Milk (works!)
Purchase 5 boxes= 2 Free Milk
Purchase 7 boxes= 3 Free Milk
Remember, Your Mileage May Vary. These are posted nationally and don't always include us.

I need to discuss with my husband first, but I may also try this:
Buy five (5) boxes= $9.40
Use: (1) $1/2 (Sunday insert) and
(1) $1/3 (Sunday insert)= $7.40 ($1.48 ea)
It looks like .10 cents more, BUT...
Receive 2 Free Milk Catalinas ($3.59ea)
Net Transaction:
$7.40- $3.59 (2)= .22 cents (.04 cents ea)

I will update this post if I try the "2 Milk" Catalina offer to let you know if it works or not.

What deals are you excited about this week?
Sonja ♥