I've been wondering what I could do with $100 these days, and I got to find out because we didn't spend our $50.00 grocery money from last week on our trip.

I made trips to three different stores when we got home. I had two crabby children and 100 weather and 1 seriously crabby checker against me, but we still did pretty good. Here's what we got --

Price Chopper -

1 Canada Dry 2 liter
8 Yoplait yogurts
3 Digiornos pizzas
5 boxes of GM cereal (Unfortunately, one rang up full price and messed up my total!)
5 boxes of Keebler cookies
1 box of Hefty gallon ziplocks
3 cans of Libby's corn

I would not normally have bought 5 boxes of cookies, but it came with a $10.00 mail in rebate. So, I basically got paid to buy them. I will have to hide them so we don't eat them all at once!

Pre-tax total was $30.20. Total savings was $32.86 not counting the mail in rebate.

Hen House

1 big bottle of Lysol multi-purpose cleaner refill
1 6 pack of ramen noodles
2 Betty Crocker Warm Delights
2 chocolate Chex Mix
2 Orville Redenbacher Natural popcorn boxes
5 boxes of Kellogg's cereal
1/2 gallon of chocolate milk
1 gallon of 2% milk
2 Tony's pizzas
1 box of Eggo's
1 Lean Pocket quesadilla
1 Marie Callendar Tortellini
18 oz of blueberries

Pre-tax total$24.35. Total savings $43.09. Total savings of 64%. A good trip, I thought! I also got a $10.00 mail in rebate for buying 5 boxes of Kellogg's. I've GOT to remember to send these in! I'm BAD about mail in rebates!

Hy-Vee

1 box of Reese's pieces
1 16 oz of 4% cottage cheese
4 bags of 6 store brand bagels
1 Laughing Cow cheese wheel
2 boxes of Edward's dessert singles
2 Kemp's yogurt parfaits (These look so yummy!)
1 12 oz honey bear
1 huge bottle of Bertolli olive oil (This cost $10.98 and was FREE!)
1 bag of Doritos
2 tubes of Gerber puffs
1 bottle of Hunt's ketchup
1 bottle of Pam for baking
2 Smuckers all natural blueberry jam
1 Hormel meatloaf dinner
1 bag of Tyson Anytizers
4 bags of store brand shredded cheese
5.30 lbs of bananas
1 pineapple
4 lbs of strawberries
1 cantaloupe
2 mangoes
1 small pack of raspberries
4.20 lbs of white peaches

LOVED the produce sale. I'm sliced and froze about 3 lbs of bananas. Once the peaches ripen, I will make peach sauce, and I may try slicing and freezing some of those as well. We'll also be eating tons of smoothies and fresh fruit salad.

This is the store that taxes crazy and that I never know exactly how much I saved. My pre-tax total was $60.00 even.

We are STUFFED to the gills on food. Fridge, freezer and pantry are all overflowing. We are very blessed. I probably could have banked our $50.00 from last week, but with my class coming up, I figured it best to try to get ahead a little. I may miss a week or two, and with me being gone from 6:30 AM - 8:30 PM two nights a week for the next 5 weeks, I've got to make sure the family is going to be able to fend for themselves. Groceries will be the last thing that I need on my mind.

A little summer tip --

As you all know, it is the small efforts that add up. During the summer at home and on vacation, I try really hard to not by drinks on the road. Instead, I divide up a bottle of juice in to sippy cups and freeze. When we're on our way out the door, I grab one for each girl, and we're good to go. This saved us considerably on our trip. I went through two bottles of organic juice that I paid $1.00 and change for each instead of buying 10 or so $2.00 single servings of juice on the road.

Forgive me. We've had the busiest week EVER. I'm exhausted, and I just don't have the energy for details. The picture on top came to right around $20.00. The picture below came to right around $30.00. I don't have specifics because the above picture excluded some items I had to buy for yet another family get together. Above picture is also missing 5 bagels. The picture below was actually made in TWO purchases, so I could get more than the max limits. (Special thanks to the guy that let me do that!) I didn't have a good coupon week. I was just TOO TOO TOO busy to do the coupon/sale matching ahead of time, and too TIRED once I got to the store. I even bought the Gerber puffs not on sale without a coupon. Bad mommy.

While we're on the subject of busy --

We will be in town part of this week and then gone for several days. I have a GOOD stockpile of food for our trip, which will be helpful! After that, we're home for the 4th of July, and then I'm going back to grad school for a summer class! So, all of that stuff AND working full time will make me a very busy lady. If my updates here are spotty, forgive me. We'll be back in full swing come mid-August. I am planning on taking a class in the Fall too, but it is an undergrad credit I have to make up for my grad degree. It shouldn't be so overwhelming.

So, wish me luck over the next 9 weeks or so! I will be a busy lady!

Blue Light Special #2

GOSH I love these K-Mart coupon promotions!

I told myself LAST time that I would go FIRST THING on Sunday next time they ran this promotion. I went mid-afternoon today with a BIG stack of possible coupons to use. I stuck to my guns and only got the stuff that was REALLY cheap and/or stuff that I REALLY needed (razors.) I was also really happy because I don't think they were out of anything that I decided was worth the $$$. Score! Note, this trip did not come out of our food budget, but out of our extra spending budget even though it included some food items. It would just be foolish to pass up on these food items when they were next to free.

I spent $10.00 and change and saved $22.00 and change.

I was just telling my husband that I love this promotion SO much because it allows me to buy the "fancy" variety of things instead of the cheapest. Like I would normally NEVER buy those fancy razors, Juice Juice, Wisp, Bayer Quick Dissolve, Gerber fruit, Hershey Bliss or Listerine. Not that we won't use them because we will LOVE using them. It's just that they don't fit in to the normal budget! It's fun to spoil ourselves a little!

Ok, and my third trip incidentally was to the store where I had the longest list. I decided ahead of time, I would just get what we REALLY needed and deduct out spending from next week's spending. Next week we'll be headed out of town anyway, so I will have to steer clear of perishables.

I got --

1 big tub of 4% cottage cheese
1/2 gallon of OJ
1 lb of frozen peas
1 box of Kraft Bagelfuls (These are the best deal in town for a $1.00 after coupon, I think! Such an easy breakfast or snack!)
1 tube of Gerber puffs
2 loaves of 100% Whole Wheat Nature's Pride bread
2 bottles of Old Orchard 100% apple juice
1/2 gallon of whole milk
2 bags of Kraft shredded cheddar
1 2 litre of Vault
1 2 litre of Coke Zero
1 lb of strawberries
2.5 lbs of organic Golden Delicious apples

Pre-tax total was right around $22.00.

It's Friday evening, and my shopping is DONE. I had a list of deals 10 miles long this week, and we had to hit all three of our regular stores. It was a job, but it was worth it!

No pictures, only lists --

Hen House -

1 gallon of Lipton diet Green Tea
1 giant box of Corn Pops
1 giant box of Fruit Loops
1 dozen free range eggs
1.28 lbs of nectarines
1 package of Always Infinity

My pretax total was right at $10.00. I saved a total of $14.95. Not sure what that percent was, because once again, there was drama, and I had to get a credit as I was charged double for the Always Infinity. This always screws up the automatic #s at the end of my receipt. I can say that at this store, I have saved $195.60 year-to-date. A good # considering I only do about 1/3 of my shopping there and have had a $50.00 budget a week so far this year. Obviously, it's easier to save more if you have a bigger budget. I can only work with so much people!

Price Chopper

1 fountain drink
1 box of Blue Bunny fudgesicles
1 box of Blue Bunny ice cream bars
1 box of Blue Bunny root beer float bars
3 Bertolli dinners
1 El Monterrey frozen enchilada entree (family sized)
2 Kraft Deluxe Mac and Cheese
2 giant boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch
1 giant box of Golden Grahams
2 boxes of Smartfood popcorn snacks
3 Ragu spaghetti sauces (1 organic)

$34.13 before tax. I saved a whopping $41.98.

PS. Asked me how mad I was about the store being out of the $.97 cantaloupes. I did get a rain check!

I have a third receipt, but it is downstairs, and I have a sleeping baby on my lap. Stay tuned.