Deals for all!

So I thought that I would post the deals that I got today. And these are some that even those of you in Oregon can get!
So the first deal is the Ocean Spray juice. It is on sale this week at Target for $1.98 for a 64oz. bottle. If you go to Target.com there is a Target coupon for $1.00 off of one bottle. So that makes it .98 for each bottle! Targets coupon policy will allow you to use 5 coupons at a time. And if you happen to have a manufactures coupon for the same thing you can stack them with the store coupon. (I was not able to find any manufactures coupons for this.)SO for all 4 bottles I paid $3.92. Great deal for Juice. I also got some of these last week so we have been enjoying the juice here at home.
The other deal is for the Campbell's soup. This week at CVS they are on sale for 2/$1.00. There is a coupon that you can print here (http://promotion.familytime.com/cscc/default.asp) and it is for $1.00 off 2. SO when you use the coupon with the sale at CVS I got them for free! I was able to print out 2 coupons from my printer at home. So I walked in to CVS and got 4 cans of chicken noodle soup for FREE! Not a penny spent! I think that before the week is up I will have Al print me 2 more coupons from his work so that I can get 4 more!
So all in all I got 4 bottles of juice and 4 cans of soup for 3.92. Not bad!
Let me know if you decide to do any of these deals I would love to know!
Have fun!
Chris
Also here is a great tip for you! You can print the Target store coupons right at your Target store! That is what I did today. You can do it right from the computers at the front of the store, the same ones where you can look up the wedding and gift registries. There is a link to Target.com on the first starting page. click that and then go down to the bottom of the page and there is a link that says grocery coupons. Click that and a screen will pop up with all the Target store coupons that are on the site. Just click the ones that you want and the printer will print them out for you! You can do this even if you Target store is not a super Target. They all have a small amount of groceries in every store. And so far all the store coupons are for things that are at the Target closes to me. None of them are Super Targets with full grocery stores in them.

Crazy, Crazy Women ... I'm surrounded by them

I just pulled a bunch of pictures off of Kait's camera, and there were a few photos that caught my eye.

These shots were taken in the car on our drive down to the Florida Keys.

The strangest part about these ... is that I finally realized where my girls get their freakish personalities from.

You'll see what I mean as you get toward the bottom. In fact, the last shot is pretty interesting, and I'm not sure how long I'll be able to leave it up, without incurring some sort of wrath from the subject of the picture. So - take a look now while you can.












Al

I have done it again, HUGE savings!

So This time I had even better success then last time. I am so super excited!! This is what I am hoping for every time I go the the grocery store!! This time I went to Publix and I the total that I spent was $16.29 and the total savings was $40.09!!!! Here is a photo of everything that I got.
Also I have been asked how I have done it and so I will tell you after I show you a breakdown of the purchases!

Here is what I got and how I got it...

8-Healthy Harvest whole wheat pasta- publix sale of buy one get one free, making them .89 each. Then I had a coupon that I got from online that was $1.00 off of 2 boxes bring the cost down to .39 each.

2- 8 O clock coffees- Publix sale buy one get one making them 4.99 each. I had a coupon, from their web site for 2.00 off one package making the cost 1.49 each.

3- Coffee Mate Creamers- Publix sale 4 for 6.00 making them 1.50 each. I had 2 coupons, one from nestle site and one from coffeemate site, 1.50 off of 2 and .55 off of 1. SO by only buying 3 and using both coupons the cost was .81 each.

4- Old Elpaso Taco seasoning mixes, Publix sale buy one get one making them 1.19each. I had a coupon for .60 off of 2 making the cost .29 each.

2- Pillsbury toaster strudels, Publix sale 3 for 5.00, I had 2 coupons for 1.00 off each box making the cost .67 each. ( I have never bought these before but the will be good as a treat and that is a good price I'd say!)

2- Arm and Hammer toothpaste, Publix sale Buy one get one making them $2.99 each, I had a coupon from the arm and hammer site for 1.00 a box of tooth past making the cost 1.00 each.

4- Peter pan peanut butters, Publix sale of buy one get one making them 2.59 each. Then there was an in store coupon, right on the shelf for 1.00 2 making the cost $.79 each.

So 25 items for $16.29!! With a savings of $40.09!! Can you believe it?? I am so very, very excited!

A couple months back I got this book from the library called Shop Smart Save More by Teri Gault. She has a web site called the grocery game and I liked the idea that she has but I was not sure that I really wanted to pay somebody to match up the sales ans coupons for me. SO I went looking for other blogs and sites that would give me the same information for free. (because I an cheap that way!) And Thankfully I found them! Now I have to look at a couple to get all store that are local to me. (publix, Winn-dixie, Sweet bay) but I am o.k. with that because I don't have to pay anybody for that information and it really does not take me long. I also know that there are sites and blogs like this for the grocery stores in the Northwest like Safeway, Albertsons and Winco. So look around and see what you can find!
Today most of the coupons I used where from online places, Couponsource.com, Red Plumb or directly from the manufactures sites. The great thing about the sites that match the sales and coupons up they will also tell you how find and print or clip the coupons that go with them. Many with clickable links right there with the listing of the sale items.
I am still new to this so for now I have only done the grocery stores weekly sales and I have not ventured over to places like CVS or Walgreens. But I will be looking them up and seeing how they can help me out as well. I have used some Target store coupons and manufacture coupons for some big savings but only a couple of times because out Targets around here do not have much in the way of grocery items.
Really the key is combining grocery sales and coupons with manufactures coupons to get the lowest prices. I know that there is a lot I have left out SO if you want more info just ask and I will do my best to fill you in! Plus I will be updating on all the deals and shopping that I do because really it is just too fun for me and I would love to help you all out and save big too!
Thanks for sharing in my excitement!!
Christy

Winn Dixie Winners!

I've finally done it.


What, you ask?

In an attempt to increase (or maybe a better way to say it is 'expand') our shrinking grocery budget, I've been tracking coupons and sales for the last couple months. My ideal goal is to walk out of the grocery store with $100 worth of groceries that I've only spent $10 on.

However, today I made a pretty sweet step in the right direction of achieving this goal ...

When all was said and done, I saved more money than I spent. How cool is that?

Savings - $21.71
Spending - $17.97

Step in the right direction - Priceless


Anyhow, I was pretty excited when the lady at the store read me the total savings, and I had to tell Al when I got home.

It was a great success!

Ridiculous New FTC rules for websites

Well, I was surprised to see this new interpretation by the FTC for website owners.

Honestly, I thought people just assumed that website owners had some kind of financial stake in the material they published. But obviously people can't even figure out that publishers are trying to make money with their websites.

Some people are just stupid!

Anyhow - here is some of the FTC guidelines on their new rule.

The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.

Basically, it looks like, if I promote someone else's product with the words I say on a website then I have to tell people reading it that I will make money if they buy the product.

Uh ...

Duh ...

Why else in the world would I be paying money to run a website and put content out into the world? Because I want to use all my time to give back to my community? Right! Because my community gives so much back to me.


Whatever!


Anyhow, I just thought I'd let you know, since some of you who know me might also have similar situations.

Read more about the idiocy of the FTC here.

To be honest, some of the ideas they propose in their law are pretty helpful for consumers. But, I'm not sure exactly how this one, in particular, is going to be that helpful - because I pretty much assume anyone saying something good about someone else is going to be getting paid for saying such a thing online.


Oh - and by the way - I don't get paid one single cent to tell you all of that. My, aren't you lucky.



Al