Tuesday, July 20, 2010 King Soopers, July Challenge

I spent over two hours in King Soopers tonight between my shopping and the mystery shop. Here's what I did:

Snapple 6 pack $6.99 less freebie from winning kroger game and 50 cent ecoupon 50 cent profit
10 Sobe drinks 88 cents each, less $2 ecoupon from Kroger site and 5 BOGO coupons
A and W Root Beer (not in picture) $1 less 60 cent Kroger ecoupon
Mirra foot files x 2 at 2.49 each -used $5 off 2 IP coupon FREE Kroger coupon
Slim Fast bars (CHOCOLATE!!!) $1 each -used 2 $1 off IP coupons FREE
Spaghettio's 4 x 49 cents  - 4 IP $1/2 Campbell's coupons FREE
Potato wedges x2 $1 ea used Safeway 55 cent coupon-doubled FREE
Philadelphia Cream Cheese x2. $1 each used 2x$1 coupons FREE and MM with Kraft $5 back promotion
Kraft Cheese cubes $1.67 x 3- no coupons available but helped me get $5 (above) so bascially free

Total $8.43 and received $5 off next order from Kraft plus will make $14 for mystery shop.

July 20, 2010 Safeway and Walmart

Another three mystery shops tonight.  Here's what I got:

Walmart
Sister Shubert rolls $2.64 - $1 coupon from All You magazine
Pepperidge Farm Tuscan bread $1.98 -$1 coupon from emailing manufacturer plus has Try Me Free Rebate of $1.98 so this will be a 54 cent profit after postage
Country Crock cinnamon apples-$2.98 less $1 off found in store
Nexcare bandages 3 x $1.50 each less 3 $1 off IP coupons
Reddi Whip $1.93
Total $8.39 and made $14 for shop and rebate means profit of $6.18

Safeway:
Hormel Beef Roast $4.99 less $2 in store peelie coupon
Bananas 90 cents
Strawberries 2x 99 cents
Pineapple $2.99 less 50 cent off IP coupon doubled
Kit Kats 99 cents BOGO

Not too impressive, only saved 63 percent.  After the two other mystery shops and spending two hours at King Soopers I was pretty wiped out.

Total $8.85 plus $14 shop payment =$5.15 profit

Walgreens $10 off coupon, July Challenge

Did you get to use the $10 off Walgreens coupon?  Here's how I used mine.  These supplements were BOGO for $10 each.  Shipping was $5.49 and that was my total for 90 days of this that I could have spent $40 on at the store.  Saved $34.51.

July Challenge, Friday July 17th Kohl's

Fun trip to Kohl's today. We had some $5 Kohl's cash certificates to use and we were excited to find that they were giving out $10 coupons to use next week on kid's clothes. Maybe we will do all our back to school shopping at Kohl's. I have heard that this promotion is only in CO and a few other states. Lucky us. It almost makes up for how we get a raw deal on our drugstore ads here. Here's what we got.
2 Pairs Toddler boy shorts $2.40 ea and added a gift bag for 39 cents to get the total over $5 to use Kohl's cash. Paid 21 cents. Value $10
Bronze ice holder $5.99 less Kohl's cash total $1.07 out of pocket, $20 value
Girl's jeans $7.50 and 4 pk socks $4.80-total $7.89 after Kohl's cash and got $10 coupon, value $20 plus $10 coupon $30 less $7.89=$22.11
Girl's Candie's shorts $6 and socks $4.80 less Kohl's cash $6.27 and got a $10 off coupon
Place mats $2.39 each x 4= $4.93 after Kohl's cash and got a $10 off coupon, value $26
Girl's top $5.20 less $5 Kohl's cash 22 cents out of pocket, $10 value

I calculated the value to us to be about $121 including the $30 to use next time. I would have spent $22.50 out of pocket but had a few returns and a $10 gift card from MyPoints.com.
I was so excited about the place mats and ice bucket for my patio table as I rarely buy anything for our house lately. That is until I put them out there and they blew away.

July Challenge 07/18/10 King Soopers

Another mystery shop and used the pharmacy store credit I made earlier in the month to pay so it was a $13.24 profit plus $93 grocery value and a rebate for $2.99 ($2.55) for $109.23 value less the 76 cents I spent comes to $108.47 for the trip.
Here's what I got:
3 Honest Teas $1 each- 50 cent IP coupon from site-doubled to FREE
1 Odwalla juice $2.50- $1 coupon found on product (this was for the road-cheaper and healthier than fast food!)
Kraft Easy mac x 4- 38 cents each (needed these to get to 10 items on promotion)
Red Baron pizza $2.50 less $2 Facebook coupon = 50 cents then $2.99 rebate $2.45 MM
1 Powerade- free- won on Kroger Summer Instant Win game and ecoupon for $1=$1 MM
4 x Joint Juice 88 cents each less 2 BOGO coupons
1 x mini bagels from mark down rack 1.39
1x Suave antiperspirant $1.00 less 75 cent coupon, doubled to FREE
1 x coffee filter $1
Clif Bars- $6.49 (normally $12) found on marked down rack
2 x Stouffers entrees $1.88 ea less 2 x $1 off Facebook IP coupon (and will get points for Stouffer's Dinner Club)
2X Tombstone pizza's $2.49 each less $2 IP coupons
1 x Muir Glen tomato paste 88 cents, $1 off coupon adjusted to 88 cents

My total would have been $15 but I used the remainder of my pharmacy credit.

July 18, 2010 Safeway and Walmart

I had a few mystery shopping jobs today so I hit Safeway, King Soopers (Kroger) and Walmart. The mystery shops reimburse $7 for the required purchase plus pay $7 for doing the shop. Here's what I got:
Safeway
Chocolate Cheerios $1.99 -used $1/2 found in store
Honey Nut Cheerios $1.99
Nature Valley Nut Clusters $1.99 X 2- used $1 off each plus ecoupons of $1 that came off 3 times
Nature Valley Granola bars $1.99 free when you buy the above 4 products
Oscar Meyer hot dogs $4.49- used freebie coupon from website
Dannon Danactive- marked down to $1.25-used Catalina from previous purchase for $1.50
also got milk, stew veggies and discount pork chops
I did buy cereal during this promotion earlier in the week so most of my ecoupons had been used up or it would have been better.
Saved $29.34, spent $9.25 and will get $14 for completing the mystery shop.

Walmart
Tuscan garlic bread $1.99 with try me free sticker- great deal if you had used a coupon but I forgot I had one! Bought a newspaper and some toilet paper $3.98-$1 coupon. Made $14 for the shop, spent $8.74 and will send in rebate for bread $1.99- 44 cent stamp.

So the math looks like $28 for shops + $1.55 refund on bread less $17.99 spent leaves me with a profit of $11.56 for the trip plus a grocery value of $39.08 for a total of $50.64

July Challenge 7/19/10

I tried the Amazon diaper deal and am happy to report it is working just as expected. I used a $5 Swagbucks gift card and charged $2.59 to my bank card so just $2.59 out of pocket for a 56 pack of Huggies Overnights which will last approximately 2 months since we just use these at night. You will want to get the 20% off coupon code from this month's Parenting magazine and you do have to sign up for their subscription service which you can cancel or keep getting a good deal on diapers indefinitely. You can also get a pretty good deal on wipes or other diapers.

Since these are usually about $20 a box I am going to call it $17.41 towards the July Challenge.

Item(s) Subtotal:
$15.19
Shipping/Handling:
$16.13
Promotion Applied:
-$4.56
Free Shipping:
-$16.13
Promotion Applied:
-$3.04

-----
Total Before Tax:
$7.59
Estimated Tax:
$0.00
Gift Certificate/Card Amount:
$5.00

-----
Grand Total:
$2.59Payment

Friday, July 9th Part 2

I had a great Rite Aid trip. I did two separate transactions. I bought 2 bottles of Pantene which were free with coupons and Up rewards, Renu contact lens solution which had a full rebate plus I used a $2 coupon to make it a $2 money maker, and a Gillete Fusion razor which was $9.99 less my $4 coupon and the Rite Aid $5/$25 the cost was 99 cents but produced a $5 off next purchase coupon so $4.01 money maker. My second transaction I bought a big bottle of Aleve (used free product coupon from emailing company) and a Shick razor for $9.99 less a $4 coupon and another $5/$25, bringing my total to $1. I will get back $7.29 for the Renu and $9.99 for the Schick razor and have $7 to use at Rite Aid next time. Spent $2, made $24.

July Challenge, Friday July 9th

My wonderful husband granted me from free time in the afternoon so I made a trip to Rite Aid and few Kohl's stores. I had found a super cute outfit for my daughter and was hoping to find it in the other colors. Since turning nine so has become so difficult to shop for. Nothing from Gymboree or Children's Place, nothing pink, with flowers or butterflies and don't even consider buying anything from Target or Ross. I have expanded my horizons a bit and have found that I can get a good deal at Gap and Limited Too if I look hard enough. I think it makes more sense to spend a little more on something she will actually wear and get use of then to have a bunch of deals sitting in the closet never used. And the higher end clothes fetch a lot more at the consignment store when she outgrows them. So here is what I was able to get at Kohl's:

Girl's:

2 pairs Shorts, reg$30, marked down to $6 less 15% off coupon and $5 Kohl's cash= 92 cents

2 T shirts $2 each,bought with shorts for boy at $2.40= $1.45
3 Candies tops marked down to $6 each, 92 cents each after discounts
1 pair of Candies shorts " "
1 pair Candies capri jeans " "

Boys:
3 sets of Carter's pajama's,3 piece sets

1 pair Carter's shorts, purchased with above t shirts for $1.45 total

shorts/t shirt set $7.20 less 15% and $5 Kohl's cash

So I am calling this about $125 in value. I had "virtually" no out of pocket. I used Kohl's cash (look on Ebay or sign up on the Kohl's website) and a gift card for about $15 from returns.

Sunday, July 11th, July Challenge

I have a few days to catch up on here. Today I cashed in some points I had with Testspin for taking surveys. $8.20 to my Paypal account. I went to Famous Footwear to use the $10 off Facebook coupons I had. I bought a 6 pk of socks for my daughter and an extra set of shoelaces for 52 cents and a 7 pack of boys socks and another 3 pack for $1.07. I am adding this in as a $20 value so I'm calling it $27.03 for the day.

July Challenge and Mystery Shopping

I noticed late today that I was assigned a mystery shop for tonight. My shop was at a grocery store and the requirement was to buy $9 of merchandise ( to be reimbursed) and get paid $5. At King Soopers I bought a 6 pack of pop-corn, a gallon of milk, a deli chicken breast (required by shop), a pack of day old hot dog buns for 39 cents, straws because my son grabbed the box and started chewing on it and some grapes he ate a few of in the store. Since I had to be there anyways I transferred another prescription to get another $25 gift certificate. I paid $12.42 (with my other $25 prescription credit) and will deduct it from my $40 weekly grocery budget. Excluding that, I will have earned $14 for the mystery shop and $25 for the prescription transfer. I think I can transfer these prescriptions one more time and plan to send them to Rite Aid because they also offer $25 for transferring. I have a new RX I haven't filled yet because I have been waiting for Target to have another $10 offer then do the same thing with transferring them. I didn't use a single coupon at check out which was so weird but these are going to be reimbursed anyways by the mystery shopping so please don't hold it against me!

July Challenge 3rd day

Ending the third day I am at a total of $373.42. I redeemed $10 worth of Swagbuck points which I am planning to use on an Amazon deal, $30 from Mypoints gift cards to be used for back to school shopping, $57.26 in grocery savings and $1 for music downloads won on Huggies. I also added $12 for the McNeil/Tylenol rebate. I had another great trip to Target to pick up a few things. Typically on Wednesdays I get my grocery budget of $40 so I am deducting $8.78 from that to leave me at $31.22 remaining for the week. The Target trip gives us meat for at least 5 dinners, breakfasts (cereal and waffles) for several weeks, a birthday gift and a few other things. Here goes:
Airwick starter kits x2 $4.49 each, used 2x $4.49
Cajun sausage reg $2.99, .54 cents each on sale, bought 5 for $2.70
Sirloin steaks reg $15 (?) marked down to $5.95
Special K Granola x3 $2.50 ea, used $1 manufacturer x3 plus Target $1.50 off 3 Special K
Fiber Plus x3, $2.66 ea, used 3 buy Kellogg's cereal get Fiber Plus free Target coupons 3xFREE
Eggo waffles x2 $1.75 ea, used $1/2 manufacturer & $1/2 Target 75 cents each
Target sample hazelnut coffee (not pictured)$1 each, used 2x$1 off coffee when you buy Kellogg's
SOBE Life water 4x$1 each, used 2 BOGO and 4 Target .50 cents off-FREE
gallon milk $2.29
4th of July chip bowl 50 cents on dollar spot clearance
Toy Story toy $6.04, used Target coupon for $5 off when you buy 5 kelloggs cereals
Paid $8.78
I didn't account for any extra value on the meat, that would have made my savings higher. There is a game on the SOBE website right now that you can play to win freebies and BOGO coupons so we will use the lids from these for extra chances to play. I will plan to use that Cajun sausage for our version of Zataran's dirty rice and maybe a sausage and rice crock pot soup. Also, the Fiber Plus cereal free coupon deducted $4.29 per box rather than the $2.66 sale price. I felt a little weird when I realized that, like maybe I should say something but I had just spent 20 minutes searching the isles for my son's lost left shoe. He has an interest in throwing his shoes lately. Last time was 4th of July when he tossed one out the car window. Thankfully Dad drove the path again and found it. Lucky for me a nice patron turned the shoe into lost and found today. Otherwise, all my couponing would have been a waste if I had had to buy another pair of shoes. The little guy was also playing that great game of throwing things out of the cart and watching me retrieve them. Boy, that game is a blast but I had had just about enough "fun" for one day and decided to head home.

July Challenge update 7/7/10

I took the day off from shopping yesterday to catch up on rebates. I have the following ready to mail out:

Covergirl/Olay $12

SC Johnson x2, $5 each

Kotex x2 $4 each

Red Baron $3.99

Seventh Generation $5

Total is $38.99 less $3.08 for postage=$35.91 profit

I also listed a box of things from my overflowing hall closet on Craigslist for $50. We won't count that unless it sells. I reviewed the Tuesday grocery ads and didn't find anything to get excited about. This might be a week that we just buy milk and produce unless anything good comes up.

Swagbucks

I discovered a site called Swagbucks. You are rewarded for polls, shopping and searches. By not doing anything but searching I have earned enough for 4 gift cards. Most of the redemption's are e gift cards which come to your email rather than waiting for snail-mail.

Look for Swagbucks logo at bottom of home page to join.

Update- Just this month I have cashed in 3 $5 Amazon gift cards which will help pay for the upcoming diaper deals.

July Challenge Part #3 and Daily Recap

After Super Target I went to Rite Aid. I was crushed when I realized I only had one $5/$25 coupon which only allowed me to complete one out of three deals I had planned. I chose to do the Aveeno deal since it was the most profitable and will need to make another trip back this week to finish it. I had something to return which gave me a store credit of $17, I spent $11.02 and have $7.67 remaining for the other deals. I bought:
2 Aveeno Positively Ageless sunscreens at $11.99 each, used 2x$5 off http://www.aveeno.com/
1 Aveeno baby lotion $5.69, used $5 off coupon from emailing company
also used my Rite Aid Wellness card to collect points and $5/$25 coupon (hand first). By buying these items I will get a $15 rebate (cash?) from Rite Aid and a $10 rebate from Aveeno. If I go back I will do the same deal (or similar) to collect a second $10 rebate from Aveeno and the Rite Aid rebate will go to $30. So basically, $50 for spending about $20 which isn't really out of pocket if you transfer a prescription and get the $25 gift card.

Today's recap: $167.25 in merchandise, $25 gift card for King Soopers, $35 rebates, rewards points for Pampers, Tropicana and Rite Aid, lots of deli meat, juice, shampoo, sunscreen and some snacks. All for 5 cents out of pocket.

Monday, July 5th 2010 Part #2

Later that day I was able to get out sans kiddos. I planned to go to the bank buy got sidelined by spending way too much time at Super Target. I think the time spent was worth it but you be the judge. Target total $98.66, saved $92.84 for a savings of 94%. I returned an item on the way in and had $8 to spend. I found a gift card in my wallet with $6.02 on it so I didn't spend any new money, have 20 cents remaining plus the $8 I received for the return. I bought:
Pampers wipes $1.97, used $2 coupon
Gerber formula $22.59, used $22 formula check -sign up here http://www.gerber.com/AllStages/Special_Offers.aspx
Airwick Motion starter sets x 4, $4.49 each, used $4 off each http://www.airwick.us/access/index.html
Drano Max $6.99, had freebie coupon from emailing company for $6.75 off
Tide, 2 sample packs, 97 cents ea, used $1 off coupons
Oscar Meyer deli meat, family size x2 99 cents each, used $1 off coupons
Hillshire farms deli meat x 8, 75 cents each, used 75 cent off coupons on package
Bar S 16 count corndogs $5.29, used $5 off coupon from emailing company
Tropicana juice x2, 50 cents each, used one $1 off coupon http://juicyrewards.tropicana.com/login/home.aspx
Market Pantry juice 50 cents

There were a ton of items marked down today because they were getting close to expiration which doesn't bother me at all since we go through it so quickly. I have found that lunch meats freeze well so I try to buy them at a low price and freeze. I purposely did not clear everything out as I was tempted to do so there would be good deals for the next person. It really bothers me when someone uses coupons to clear shelves to buy excessive quantities, especially when it is too much for them to ever use. Tropicana Juice has a reward program I entered the juice codes for which I can exchange for discounts like BOGO museum tickets or BOGO eating out. Airwick has a new reward program that you can enter your codes in exchange for contest entries and more coupons. I used the ones I had to print 2 more $4 off coupons to get more 49 cent starter kits.

Monday, July 5th 2010

Started off the day with a frugal breakfast. My daughter and I treated ourselves to Chicken Mini's from Chick Fil A. We used two free coupons we received in the mail. I had two because we were in the process of moving when these were sent out so we got one at each house. Then we went to King Soopers where we had free fruit samples and got the free kids cookie from the bakery. Yum! I transferred a prescription to get the $25 gift card. At checkout we spent $.05 with a 101% savings on or order, our total would have been $38.92 prior to coupons. This wasn't a major trip for us but more of an opportunity to get out of the house and start the challenge off on the right foot by using some freebie coupons we had. Here is what we got for that shiny nickel:

Hubbla Bubba Tape Gum-$1- payment for the "shopping helper"

Sister Shubert Rolls $3.29, had freebie coupon from sending email to company, also I think there is a Upromise bonus on this I will add to total when I find

Clorox Ultra bleach $1.99-had freebie catalina coupon

Kroger Deluxe ice cream $1.88 had ecoupon for 50 cents

Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls $1.65, had 95 cents off bricks coupon, doubled to $1

Kids Clif bars x 2 79 cents each, had freebie coupons from emailing company

Pantene shampoo and conditioners, trial size, $1 each x 5, used 4 $1 off & 1 $1.50 off manufacturer coupons

Gold Bond lotion, trial size, 79 cents, used 75 cents off coupon, doubled to free

Saved today:

$38.92 on groceries, $5 on breakfast and got $50 in gift cards to fund grocery shopping for the month. 

July Challenge

So my goal for this month is to create $1000 in additional income/value by coupon shopping, rebates and reward programs. To make this even more inspiring I am planning to use only the money I make as profit to fund the project. I started Monday this week and will report my progress as I go along. Feel free to join me in this and report how your challenge is going. What goals will you set for yourself and what are some frugal ideas you use that help to keep your family, fed, clothed and entertained? With summer break we are finding some inexpensive activities to fight boredom and there are a lot more snacks to buy. There is also back to school shopping looming large and that can derail any one's budget.