CVS and The Grocery Game

I have heard that CVS is a great place to shop for lots of stuff, that if you play it right you can almost shop for free. Sounds great! Why haven't I done it? Frankly I was intimidated. I had no idea how to do it or how to start.

Because I am the kind of person that really needs things explained to me I decided to sign up at the Grocery Game for CVS. I have a feeling once I get the hang of it I can cancel that portion of my membership but for now I will take all the help I can get!

Today was my first "real" shopping day. Sure I'd been there before but for a few things (like the movie I mentioned last week) but I have never shopped there for food I actually need.

I changed that today and you know what? I think I'll keep going back!

Here's why:



This is what I got and I spent: $48.59
And saved: $43.21

BUT I also earned $11 Extra Care Bucks so next week when I go I'll spend even less and so on from here out. Not a bad idea. I think I like it as far as saving money goes :) And as you can see I bought mostly food and NOT just drug store items (though I did buy a few of those too). Jump in with me - you won't be sorry!

On a sidenote - here's a few giveaways for you to check out:

Kiddie Giveaway at The Deal Seaking Mom - giving away a Learning Tower which is a place for the kiddos to stand and help you make dinner - I've always wanted one :)

And $5 Dinners has a giveaway for a $25 Wal-Mart gift card so go enter for that too - I hope someone I know wins (maybe me!)

Grocery Game Organization

It's Sunday again which for me means grocery shopping. The Grocery Game is only updated on Sunday so for my store - Harris Teeter - it's only good for me on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so I try to go on Sunday in the hopes that they won't be completely cleaned out! For other stores, such as Giant the Grocery Game is good for the entire week because their sales only change on Friday's. You'll have to know your own stores schedule to know your best day to shop.

Today I thought I'd talk about getting ready to go shopping and how I do it. Organization is the key. I may not be organized in the rest of my life (the triplets seem to undo everything I do) but in this one area I am organized to a tee.

I actually start thinking about my shopping on Wednesday because Wednesday is the day Harris Teeter puts out their new sales and the Coupon Mom updates her site at noon. So, I put the two together to see what my deals will be on Sunday. Mostly I look for the meat on sale to think about meals.

This week there wasn't much meat on sale so I went to the fridge/freezer to look around. Then I went to my computer and cookbooks to come up with meal ideas. This week's theme was all on the computer - some recipes that have been passed on from other moms :) I am NOT a monthly planner. I go for what sounds good a week at a time. God bless those of you more organized then me in this.

I write my list from my meals and then buy everything on sale around my list. Often by stockpiling there's very little I need to buy to make the meals I want.

This week's meal list:

Monday: Triple Decker Quesadilla (x2 - I have to bring a meal to a friend)
Tuesday: Chicken Skillet Pasta (didn't have it last week)
Wednesday: Velveeta Cheesy Beef Stroganoff
Thursday: Crock Pot Chicken with Black Beans and Cheese
Friday: Tator Tot Casserole
Saturday: Out with friends/date night (woo hoo!)

On Sunday I go to the Grocery Game and I go to my Harris Teeter list. I've snapped a picture of the print out I get:



I can't go in closer for copyright issues but this is what you will get - your columns include: Item Description; Original Price; Sale Price; Manuf. Coupon; Store Coupon; Final Price; Amt. Saved. You will get a list of pages and pages of stuff - highly unlikely that you need all of it - so you click on whatever you DON'T need - this will gray it out meaning it won't print. What is left is what you do want. Then I print it. Once I have it printed out I go to my organizer for my coupons:



It's just a pretty accordion file where I file all of my coupons by date so they are easy to find. The Grocery Game indicates by date where to find each coupon: RP is Redplum; S is Smartsource; PG is Proctor and Gamble.

For example this week:

Item Description: Jimmy Dean Frozen Breakfast Entrees
Original Price: $3.09
Sale Price: 3/$5.00
Manuf. Coupon: $1.00 (R 1/25)
Store Coupon: None
Final Price: $0.67
Amt. Saved: 78%

(This was one of my good deals today - can you tell? And I had the coupon times 4 so I stocked Kirk up on some breakfasts for the week - he's very excited!)

Here's a photo of my groceries from HT and Wegman's - I run there once a week to spend $10 and get some stuff free (they send me coupons, of course I go!) Oh, and I got 10% off at Wegman's - there were coupons in this week's flyer. Not pictures: 4 gallons of milk.



At Harris Teeter I spent: $49.24
And saved: $64.76

At Wegmans I spent: $14.78
And saved: $9.30

Yes, way under budget but I am going to CVS tomorrow for their deals - mostly cereal and snack food but I'll tell you tomorrow how I did.

On my needs list I had 12 items to allow me to make the meals stated above because of my current stockpile - it works! If you shop at a different store (since obviously HT isn't everywhere and apparantly Kroger is great but we don't have one) then let me know how you organize to shop where you are and how you save money even if it isn't with the grocery game :)

Sweetheart of a Deal

I hope you all had a wonderful and cheap Valentine's Day! We did :) Sticking to a strict budget of $15 for each Kirk and I we still had a great day. Kirk made me the paper flowers above - so sweet and made me breakfast in bed - strawberry crepes! So very much within the budget limit. And the paper flowers will last longer then the real ones - sweet!

But I did want to pass on a Valentine's deal for you. Just so you're not feeling left out.

If you haven't yet purchased your 2009 Entertainment book now is the time to do so! They are on sale for $19.50 down from $30 and the book will save you money all year. We went out to dinner on Thursday night and used a coupon to get a free meal - saved us $10 - I know not a ton but I'll take every little bit I can get. But if I do that twice I've paid for the book and saved in the process. There are also coupons for clothes and activities - if you don't already have one I highly recommend it. (And if you're wondering we do budget going out to eat once a month and this is our one time).

Order Entertainment book here.

How Frugal Are You?

Have you thought about it? I have and I think about it a lot. I find couponing fun but being frugal is really not in my nature - why do you think I'm trying to be frugal? To go against my nature!

Have you ever thought about the financial advice you would give someone starting out? The advice you would give yourself when you became an adult and/or got married?

This past summer DH and I were talking to my new sister-in-law. She married my brother last June - maybe 8 months ago and she was thinking about when to have kids. I gave her the one piece of advice I wished someone had given me! I told her to work and bank all her income while living on her husbands (my brother). Not only does that build up a huge savings but they can adjust to living on one income BEFORE the baby arrives.

If I could go back and do one thing over it would be to never use a credit card. EVER, for anything. So, then I get to thinking. I can't go back. I can do over what's already been done but one thing I can do is not continue to make the same mistakes because my even bigger fear is that 10 years from now I'll look back and wish I had taken the hard road then.

And this is what I remind myself every time I think about over spending, every time I wish I could pull out my charge card that if I go for the card I WILL pay for it later plus interest.

I've heard it said that you save one credit card and freeze it in a bucket so you really have to think about your purchase before you make it. This wouldn't help me when I forget my bank card and am in the grocery store with 5 kids just to buy milk (yes, it just happened to me) but I like the principle behind it. For me, rather then freezing my card I remind myself where I want to be. What are my goals? What is my debt keeping me from?

Every time I'm tempted to skip cooking and go out to eat or blow my budget this stops me cold. I don't want to be kicking myself down the road for what I could change now because I certainly wish I could change the person I was in the beginning.

What stops you from spending? Or maybe none of you have the same shopping tendencies I do! I'd love to hear your thoughts about how frugal you are and if you are on your own journey! It's kind of like dieting - once you start you really can't go back because you so easily undo everything you've already done. The plus about "turning frugal" is at least you still can eat the good stuff :) Well, only if you find it on sale...

Saving Money At Target

While I rarely shop at Target for grocery items because I can find them cheaper elsewhere there are some ways to make Target even cheaper then it already is.

I start by heading over to The Coupon Mom to see what she has on her list. Generally she will tell me what's on sale and where to find coupons in the paper to match with the sales.

But the really great thing about Target is that you can use the coupons they have on their website along with coupons from the paper.

For example this week on Target's coupon here they have a coupon for $1.00 off of 2 boxes of Kellogg's Poptarts. There is also a $1.00 off 2 boxes of poptarts in January 18th newspaper (redplum) - you can use both of them together and you will get $2.00 off instead of just $1.00.

Also, there is a coupon for $0.50 off V8 juice and there is a coupon from January 4th paper for $0.50 off saving you a total of $1.00.

I haven't seen a ton of deals at Target (they have about $10 worth of coupons up a week) but they can be found if you look for them and it's certainly a great deal when you can use two coupons on the same item. Yes, I've tried it and yes, it really works :)

Keep checking back - I'll be working on a button for the site that you can add to your own so please feel free to share with others the deals you find here and share with us any deals you know of - I love to hear!

photo by robholland

CVS Deal of the Week

Or at least I think so :) When I find a way to get a brand new kids DVD for just $4.99 I am ALL over it. Especially when that DVD is the brand new Madagascar Escape 2 Africa. Since the beginning of the year we have cut out a lot of family outings (at least the costly ones) and we have also cut out movie buying choosing instead to rent from Redbox for just $1 (man, I love Redbox). So, when I saw this ad I just had to go to CVS.

In order to get $15 off the price of the movie you need to spend $20 on any combination of the following P&G products:


Tide 2x $6.49 (limit 4)
Downy or Bounce $5.49 (limit 4)
Duracell Batteries $5.99 (limit 6)
Prilosec QTC $24.77 (limit 3)
Pampers Diapers $9.99 (limit 3)
Pantene Pro-V shampoo/conditioner 3/$9.99
Crest or Oral-B $3.96 (limit 4)
Charmin $9.99 (limit 3)
Bounty $6.99 (limit 3)
Always pads 2/$6.00 (limit 4)
Dawn dish soap $0.99 (limit 6)


There are coupons in this past Sunday's paper though using coupons means you have to buy more to get to the $20. I needed toilet paper so I bought 2 $9.99 packs - I had a coupon but that would have put me another $1 under the $20 - it's that pesky $0.99 that doesn't put you over the $20! So, I added the Dawn dish soap and spent $20.97 - not bad :) With my $5 care bucks from my previous diapers purchase I got the movie free! And I stocked up on toilet paper - win win :)

So, if you are in need of any of the above items why not run over to CVS and get a brand new DVD for the price of a rental. And with Valentine's Day coming up it's a cheap kid gift - I will be a cool mom this weekend!

Discounts and Freebies for Multiples

Since the whole idea of this blog is to help those of us who have multiples save money (and even for those who don't have multiples) I find it only fitting to share a great new blog by a fellow mom of muliples:

Freebies & Discounts for Moms of Multiples

She has an extensive list there on the companies that give well, discounts and freebies for multiples :) I know I got a few when my trio was born - mostly formula and diapers but Rachael has a list of many more places to go for freebies. Check it out even if you don't have multiples!

Along the same lines Multiples Bliss (the site I'm a contributor on) just posted a large list of freebie and discount places as well by Monica, my editor so check that out as well - it's quite a list here.

I will also list her blog under my money saving links so you can check back any time you'd like.