worth the trip- get thee to the grocery store!

i’m still having a hard time getting my shit sorted out well enough to get my worth the trip dispatches out by sunday- which is probably when they would actually be useful. however, i do have high hopes that at some point i’ll finally be able to shift everything back into its proper place. but for now… GET YOUR ASS TO SHAW’S IMMEDIATELY! there isn’t anything worth getting at any other store in town- unless of course  you want a page full of crappy weirdo cold remedies from rite aid, or some marginally discounted pumpkin pop tarts at target (ick).

i’m very serious.

now, take your flier, and flip it over. $10 back (coupon toward a future trip) when you buy $25 worth of jazz on this page. with the vast array of coupons available on bettycrocker.com, smartsource, & coupons.com… basically, it’s a page of mostly free food. here’s what i did:

-3 boxes cheerios- @ $2 each w/3 $.55/1 coupons doubled- $2.70

-3 boxes cinnamon toast crunch- @ $2 each w/3 $.55/1 coupons doubled- $2.70

-2 boxes reeses peanut butter puffs (BEST CEREAL EVER)- @ $2 each w/2 $.65/1 coupons doubled- $1.40

-2 boxes scalloped potaoes (gross, i know, but i love their salty dehydrated goodness)- @ $1 each w 1 $.55/2 coupon doubled- $.90

-2 “healthy colors” valley fresh steamers- @ $1.50 each w/2 $.50/1 coupon doubled- $1.00

-2 boxes cascadian farms sweet & salty granola bars- @ $2.50 each w/2 $.75/1 coupons doubled- $2.00

-2 packages pillsbury simply refrigerated cookies- @ $2.50 each w/2 $.55/1 coupons doubled- $2.80

SPENT: $13.50

GOT BACK IN CATALINAS: $20

basically, shaw’s paid me $6.50 to take home 8 boxes of cereal and a bunch of other jazz. i know that save for the veggies and the cheerios, it’s not exactly the parade of health food- BUT next week i have $20 that i can spend on whatever the fuck i want. zebra cakes? crisco? crystal light? i think i may re-attempt the freezer cooking dance come november (need to free up my time for nanowrimo), so maybe i’ll spend my bonus cash on supplies.

in case you wanna see what other magic can be worked with this deal, the coupon goddess is back from greece and officially tearing shit up at her local shaw’s. also, she totally spotted the free crest toothpaste (on sale 10 for $10 with $1/1 from the last P&G brandsaver), which i completely missed.

worth the trip- an inauspicious beginning.

so i’ve been feeling a little (a lot) guilty for my complete lack of deal mongering lately.  the humble coupon lady roots of this blog have been lost somewhere along the way, and i don’t care for it. my original mission had been to make the coupon clipping, corner cutting lifestyle more accessible for single childless jerks like me, and i want to try to bring that element back a little bit. that said, it’s a fact:  i will never be a slick and sexy deal hunting machine. however, i do think it’s a worthwhile exercise to really take a look at the weekly deals, and make a perfectly edited list of everything that’s worth bringing home. not just what’s free or what’s cheap, but what’s actually good stuff. thus, i bring to you a new weekly feature: worth the trip.

unfortunately, as with most beta testing phases, there are a few bugs. for example, there really isn’t shit worth getting this week. i had hoped deeply that big lots might have a new shipment of $3 movies, or that target would have some sort of crazy gift card deal… but nothing. no, WORSE than nothing- BABY SALE?! or what about walmart’s pet sale (hasn’t that iams food been recalled enough?). lame.

cvs: if i were going to bother to head over to the cvs this week, i would pick up 2 packs of trident layers gum.  at $.99 each with $.99 in extrabucks back (limit 1), you can get 2 packs for free when you use this coupon. gum is good to have around, and this layers shit is pretty tasty. but seriously, that’s it this week for cvs. i’ll probably pass.

rite aid: not much better than cvs. i will be scoring on the free crest ($2.99 with $2 in +up rewards and a $1/1 coupon from last weekend’s p&g brandsaver). and if my sources (deal seeking mom) are correct, the right guard that’s on bogo (online price $3.99) will also be free after two of these printable babies. you can also get some free biotrue contact lens solution… but i don’t wear contacts and it’s not really donatable, so i’m gonna skip it.

shaw’s: again (are we sensing a pattern here?), nothing earth shattering, but a couple of decent deals on foods that i regularly eat. morningstar fake meats are all on sale for 2/$7. this is generally unremarkable (knowing that you can get them at target for $3.24 most of the time), but shaw’s does the double coupon thang, and i scored a bunch of $.50/1 coupons off a tearpad in the south portland store (don’t worry, i took almost all of them at first, but then felt guilty and threw a bunch back when no one was looking). $2.50 each still isn’t dirt cheap, but it’s about as good as it gets when it comes to morningstar. secondly, i think i’ll score a few larabars in the cart as well. you can rarely get these pricey fuckers for less than a dollar, and since they’re on sale for $.99 each, you can get 3 for $.50/ea. with this doubled coupon.

and that’s IT. not very exciting (or timely at this point), but it is my hope that with less of a vacation hangover and a more proactive spirit, i can get this going as a regular sunday feature (and get the weekend pickthrough back to friday where it belongs).  hopefully, the shopping universe will also give me something a little sexier to report than just free gum. now, i’m fully capable of missing things (or generally not paying attention), so if you see something awesome that i missed, please let me know. i want to know what you’re buying!!! (so i can get to the store first and clean them out).

kix ass.

as of late, this bog has diverged away from the hardcore couponing that once was the center of my universe. which is not to say that i’m not still clipping, organizing, and deal hunting to some degree, but i was also starting to get the pre-symptoms of the dreaded coupon burnout. expiring extrabucks… neglected deals… cereal stash dwindling… but whenever i’m too busy or lazy to do my own research, or too filled with malaise to write about any deals i might happen to stumble into,  i can always count on  the coupon moms of the world to be there not being fuck ups and getting shit done. i like moms need to know (regular deals + she likes classic rock and is kind of a wino), of course my beloved coupon goddess (high heeled shoe addict who makes stockpiling sexy), and our very own local powerhouse, the money saving maine-iac.

basically, if there’s a grocery or drug store deal in the 207 area code, she’s got it first and probably better than i do.  case and point, yesterday afternoon i hit the shaw’s to do my grocery shopping for the week. for some reason our mailman stopped delivering the shaw’s fliers on thursdays, so i’m now forced to look online if i want to pre-plan my shopping (which i’m usually too lazy to do, and i most definitely was distracted this week with new puppy goodness), or pick mine up at the grocery store. this week it turned out to be DOLLAR DOUBLER WEEK (basically it will double coupons with $1 value, so there’s lots of opportunities for FREE STUFF!), and as usual, i was monumentally unprepared with coupon inserts from the last 2 weeks unclipped on my  coffee table. damn. but back to the kix. initially, i’d skipped over the cereal aisle completely in my haste to finish my very last minute shopping for the week (shamefully, i didn’t even make a list, and as a result will be eating string cheese and pirate booty for dinner this week). but lucky for me, i gave the flier one last flip through before i headed for the checkout, and there it was- kix @ 3 for $6. a steal anyway, but i fortuitously had a fistful (6 exactly actually) of $.75/1 coupons from coupons.com (not sure if they’re still available) which doubled to be $1.50/1! $.50 kix. awesome! even awesomer– apparently when you buy 3 boxes of select big G cereals, you get a FREE GALLON OF MILK. so not only did i get 6 boxes of cereal for $3, i also got coupons for 2 free gallons of milk. and if that isn’t a good deal, i don’t know what is.

so i run home to go report my important kix related findings to my readers, thinking that i have scored some sort of immaculate secret deal or something… come to find out that money saving maine-iac reported the whole situation on THURSDAY (and was way more thorough and awesome about it). so my point is that if you’re looking for the perfect source of great maine-centric grocery deals, really awesome giveaways (i need to get the hook up- i don’t know how she gets all that awesome stuff to give away), and  the location of every really great coupon in the state… money saving maine-iac is your woman. blog crush? absolutely. i am both totally jealous of her great site, and totally grateful that she has so much amazing info (because lets face it, i am way lazy and inconsistent), and you should be too. (now go shower her with the love that she deserves).

double your pleasure.

i’ve heard many tales of stop & shop and their magical coupon doublers, but i never thought i would have the opportunity experience the greatness in this barren stop & shopless territory.  well, it looks like everything these days is going all crazy-town, because not only is rite aid doing their own take on extrabucks with their +up program (what!?), but my shaw’s circular this weekend (the junkmail version- NOT the one you can pick up in the store) had 4 very special dollar doubler coupons attached. i am SO feeling the magic this weekend. shaw’s doubles most manufacturer’s coupons up to $.99, which is great and all… but these four babies let me double $1.00 value coupons, for awesome and totally unheard of savings. coupled with a couple of sweet weekly sales, i felt a little like i won the coupon olympics today. my best scores:

cheerios & lucky charms @ 2/$4 coupons.com has a bunch of killer $.55/1 coupons right now, doubling to make each box cost exactly $.90. 6 boxes= $5.40

hood frozen tangy frozen yogurt @ $2.99 with yet another dollar doubler was only $.99.

arm & hammer detergent @ $5.29/1 was on bogo. i used one of my dollar doublers to get 2 bottles for $3.29 (or $1.65 each).

i also used my remaining 2 doublers to score a few products that never really go on sale:

paul newman frozen pizza @ $5.99/1 became almost reasonable at $3.99.

morningstar chicken fingers $4.29 became walmart cheap at $2.29.

of course then i splurged a little on 1.5 lbs. of cherries @ $3.99/lb. but they are stunningly fresh, and much like fiddleheads, one of the more transient pleasures of summer. (why save if you can’t eventually spend on the things that make life worth living?)

i wrapped up the whole grocery adventure in a $5/$50 that i got in the mail a few weeks ago, and got the whole lot (roughly $60+ worth of food) for $28. not free, but i was able to get what i wanted, and stock up on some things that i needed for $2 under my weekly grocery budget. in my world (as a girl who used to spend $80 a week on foodstuffs), it feels like definite progress.

however, a lingering question still remains: WHERE IS THE FUCKING WACKY MAC?! please stop advertising it in my local circular (especially if there are coupons available to make it FREE you teasing whore!), if it doesn’t actually exist in the state of maine. i have looked up and down every aisle in at least 3 different stores in southern maine. if anyone out there in the universe knows where i can find it, please give me a holler. and soon. before i start wrecking up the joint.