Shoppers Double Coupons Up To 1.99 Trip

Ad for four days for Shoppers

I don’t go to Shoppers as much as I used to since I have been going to Aldi and Target, but I could not pass up the special four day double coupons up to 1.99 sale that started today. Here are some of the deals I found there.

Nesquik Powder pouches —- $1.00 each I had a coupon for $1.00 off two that doubled to make them free. I only bought four because that was all that was on the shelves.

Wet and Wild Nail Polish —– $1.89 each I had a coupon for $1.00 off one Wet and Wild. This took $1.89 off, making it free. I bought one for each girl since I had two coupons.

Maruchan Yakisoba —- 3 for $2.00 I had a coupon for $1 off 2, so I was not sure how this would work out. I think for some reason I ended up paying for one of these since it appears that it took 3.34 off when I used two coupons and bought six noodles. Not sure what other combination I should have done to make them all free.

Motts Apple Sauce —- I had the $1.10 off 2 coupons from Coupons.com. I bought 4 sets since I had 2 coupons. This ended up with them being 1.29 each since they are normally 2.39 at my store.

Weber Barbecue Sauce —- I had a $1 off one coupon, so I got one of these for .69.

Old El Paso Enchilada Sauce —- I had a Coupons.com coupon for .75 off one. This ended up costing .39 for the can.

Hawaiian Mini Snacker Rolls —- I had a $1 off one coupon, so these ended up costing .49 for a pack of four rolls. They are about the size of small sub rolls.

Jello —- I had a $1.10 off one coupon from Coupons.com so I let the girls choose. They picked gelatin, for which I paid .79.

Lipton Pure Leaf Tea —- I had a $1 off one coupon, so I paid .59 for the carafe.

These are the highlights of my trip. I also picked up a salad dressing, some Zatarains, paper towels, and Eggos. I saved 62% according to my receipt. There were a few items I would not have normally bought, like the gelatin, but I figured that was an inexpensive reward for my kids helping me find everything at the store without asking me a million times to buy other stuff not on my list.

The sale goes on through Sunday. I think it is only at Virginia stores.

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Grocery Deals of the Week — Free Nesquik, Inexpensive Meat and More

Thanks to my husband, I was able to get out to do my shopping alone this week. That means I feel like I can stop at more than one store and I feel like I make fewer mistakes with my planned deals.

Aldi’s

I started off with Aldi’s and picked up cantaloupe, strawberries, bananas, and mini marshmallows. The cantaloupe and strawberries were specials of the week and the bananas and marshmallows are less expensive at Aldi’s than the other places I was shopping today.

Shoppers

I then headed to Shoppers, which has double coupons up to 99 cents. I had made a list beforehand of the coupons that were in my binder that were under a dollar that I might use. I ended up getting the following:

2 Nesquik powder pouches
normally $1 each, used 2 .50 coupons to make them free

2 Chi Chi 8 ct flour tortillas
1.69 each, used 2 .50 coupons to make them .69 each

Pillsbury cake mix
1.49, used .55 coupon to make it .39

Goya low sodium kidney beans
on sale for .88 (forgot to print a coupon so I only got one)

Johnsonville Italian sausage
4.49 with a $2 off coupon attached

2 packages ground beef
4.01 each, each had a $2 off coupon attached

2 packages mushrooms
on sale for .99 each, normally closer to $2 each

yellow squash
.52

carrots
2 lb for 1.50

With coupons, all of this was 13.58. I saved 46 percent even though I purchased meat.

Target

At Target I will just highlight the deals I found.

Oscar Meyer hot dogs were on sale for $1.69 each. I had both a Target coupon for .75 off one and a manufacturer’s coupon for $1 off two, so I purchased two.

I bought a 2 lb bag of pink lady apples and used a $1 off apples Target coupon. This made the 2 lb bag 2.84.

I also had stacking coupons for Kraft cheese. I purchased a pack of the Big Slice since the $1 manufacturer’s coupon was for that. The Target coupon was for purchasing slices and shredded, so I also picked up shredded cheese. This made the total cost for both $3.08.

I discovered some Cabot block cheese on clearance, so I bought two 8 oz packages for 1.48 each and one 8 oz package for 1.90.

Nexcare Strawberry Shortcake bandages were 1.87. I bought two with two $1 off Target coupons and a $1 off two manufacturer’s coupon. This made the total cost .74 for two packages.

I also purchased 3 packages of Ore Ida Sweet potato fries, which had a deal to buy two get one free. I used two $1 off coupons, for a total cost of $4.48 for three bags.

The final deal at Target was the special promotion for Edy’s brand items. I only had one coupon for $1 off two ice creams, but Target had a deal to get a $5 gift card if you bought 5 items. I bought 2 ice creams, one sherbet, and two fruit bar packages. If I include the gift card as paying for part of the purchase, these cost 7.95 for all five.

Since I live in a higher priced area, your prices may be different than mine.  I notice that my Aldi’s store has slightly higher sale prices, for example, than some of the savings sites report.  I get my coupons online at Target’s site, at Coupons.com, and in my local papers.  I also occasionally get coupons mailed to me by Target or request coupons through company websites or facebook pages.

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Used Book Store Finds

On Saturday I did a quick run to the used book store because one of the books I wanted to use for preschool this week was not available at the library and I did not currently have a copy of it. Unfortunately, I still did not get a copy of that book, but I did find some other great deals. Our local used book store is McKays. In general I utilize the library and used book store for most of my reading.

In the kid’s section I found a Magic Tree House Research Guide Mummies and Pyramids.
I thought the girls would enjoy this since we just finished reading aloud The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. My youngest snatched it right up when I returned home yesterday.

For my preschool class I discovered DK Eyewitness Explorers Seashore and Commotion in the Ocean. The Eyewitness book has lots of nice clear photos to share with the class while the Commotion book is filled with cute poems about different types of sea life. The Commotion book is more about fun than relaying too much information. Along with the books I already have, I think I have an abundance of books to share this week with my class.

For myself, I was very fortunate to find a book in the free book bin out front. It is a devotional, called Streams in the Desert by L.B. Cowman and editied by James Reimann. I read a devotional from our church each evening, so I am hoping to add this one in at the beginning of each day.

Have you had luck lately at your local used book store?

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A Few Examples Why Coupons Do Not Always Make The Best Deal

I recently needed to purchase a couple items at Target for my weekly menu. I had gathered coupons for a couple brands of each of these items and planned to figure out which was the best deal when I got to Target. I ended up not using coupons for either of these items (although I did use plenty of other coupons for other items on my shopping list.)

I needed diced tomatoes and had a coupon for both Rotel and Hunts. Both of these brands were also on sale at the time. However, the Market Pantry brand was also on sale, making it cheaper to purchase the Market Pantry brand than to use the coupon and sale price for Rotel and Hunts. In addition, I checked out the amount of salt in the Market Pantry brand and it was significantly lower than either of the other brands. I try to watch our salt intake, so this gave me yet another reason to use the Market Pantry brand.

Another item I wanted to purchase was some dried fruit. I had been gathering a couple different brands of dried fruit coupons, so I compared prices on these as well. Again, I ended up purchasing the Market Pantry brand because it was even less expensive to purchase it without a coupon than another brand with a coupon.

Have you ever found that using a coupon was not the better deal?

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Coupon Savings of the Week

I had a few things I needed that did not make it onto the grocery list this week since I went a day early to avoid the predicted snow (that turned into not much.) So today I managed to run to three places and get five free items using coupons.

First I needed to stop by Walmart for a humidifier filter, so while I was there I picked up two packs of Reach cinnamon floss for .97. I used two coupons from Coupons.com from $1 off Reach floss and received those for free (with six cents off the rest of my items.)

I then headed over to Family Dollar (after I remembered that it had recently moved from one shopping center to another.) There I picked up two Reach toothbrushes, which were $1 each. I had a coupon from Coupons.com for $2 off 2 Reach toothbrushes. Now, I had another of the same coupon and am not sure why I did not pick up four toothbrushes today and use both coupons. However, I still have time to use the coupon the next time I am out and about.

Once I completed my errands I stopped by Cold Stone Creamery. I had received an early birthday club coupon for a free Like it with one mix in. I realized today that this was the last day to use it. Our family has participated in the birthday club for a while and I am disappointed that it is changing to no longer have a free Like it with one mix in as your birthday coupon. From what I read it will be a coupon towards an ice cream cake and possibly some other offers throughout the year. I hope to find that the offers throughout the year are worthwhile.

What good deals have you received this week while using coupons?

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