Publix and the Wonders Found Therein

For several months now I have been meaning to post on the great deals we've been getting at Publix. If you don't already shop there, you should, because our grocery bill has been cut drastically. Now, before I begin telling you of our shopping sprees, I must tell you that because of the current market and our need to pinch every penny we can, we have altered our way of eating. We still try to eat as healthfully as possible, but we cannot afford all of the organic stuff right now.

Every week, when we get the new Publix ad (which runs Thursday to Wednesday), we go to this website: www.southernsavers.com She spells out all of the deals and links to coupons (or tells you of a newspaper coupon) available for each deal. Publix has many items that are buy one get one free (BOGO). They will accept store coupons, manufacturer coupons, and competitor coupons. That means you can BOGO and stack 3 coupons making certain items almost free (and sometimes earning money towards the rest of your bill). Now, here's the deal...once you have been doing this for a while, you will have a nice stockpile of groceries with which to plan meals. In the beginning, you may have to plan your meals based upon what you can get that current week.

Just so you know, we have used coupons for Target and Food Lion as competitor coupons. I have linked to a Target coupon below for the Pepperidge Farm bread. This link will take you to the "Hot Coupon World" website. The page that comes up lists all the coupons available at Target. All you have to do is find the ones that you want, enter the number of coupons (unlimited) in the box, and then click on "Get coupons." Once your page of coupons comes up, you can print them. It's that easy!

Here are some deals that we scored this week. If you want to take advantage of them, you will need to get to a Publix before Thursday.

Arm and Hammer toothpaste is BOGO (normally $2.99 each)
Print (2) coupons here for $1 off each tube (makes them about $0.50 each)

Lipton tea bags (24 ct.) are BOGO (normally $3.99 each)
Get (2) "Family is its own Reward" booklets found in store. Use (2) coupons for $1 off each box (makes them about $1 each).

Post Trail Mix Crunch cereal is BOGO (normally $3.99 each)
Print (2) coupons here for $2 off each box (which EARNS you $0.01 total--FREE plus some!!)

Kraft BBQ sauce is BOGO (normally $1.49 each)
Print (2) coupons here for $1 off each bottle (which EARNS you $0.51 total--FREE plus some!!)

Lawry's 30-minute marinades are BOGO (normally $2.29 each)
Use (2) coupons from the Red Plum 5/17 insert for $0.50 off each bottle (makes them about $0.65 each)

Ragu Pasta sauce is BOGO (normally $2.27 each)
Print (1) coupon (or as many as you want) here (for IE) or here (for FF) for $1 off 2 jars (makes them about $0.64 each)
OR
Use (2) coupons from "Family is its own Reward" booklet found in store for $0.75 off 1 jar (makes them about $0.39 each)

Breyer's ice cream is BOGO (normally $4.25 each)
Use (2) coupons from Red Plum 5/17 insert for $0.75 off each carton (makes them about $1.38 each)
OR
Use (2) coupons from "Family is its own Reward" booklet found in store for $1.50 off each carton (makes them about $0.63 each)

Lysol Bathroom or Kitchen cleaner is BOGO (normally $2.69 each)
Use (2) coupons from Smart Source 6/07 insert for $0.55 off each bottle (makes them about $0.80 each)
OR
Print (2) coupons here for $0.50 off each bottle (makes them about $0.85 each)

Kotex Pantiliners are BOGO (normally $2.95 each)
Print (1) coupon here for $1.50 off two boxes (makes them about $0.73 each)
OR
Use (2) coupons from Smart Source 6/14 insert for $1 off one box (makes them about $0.48 each) ---We did not have this coupon in our insert, but I thought I would mention it for those of you who may have gotten it.

Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse Bread is on sale for $1.99 (normally $3.29)
Print (1) coupon (or more if you like) here for $1 off one loaf (makes them $0.99 each)

If you bought all of this at full price, it would cost you $57.11!!! By taking advantage of the BOGO deals and by using coupons all of this would only cost you $9.80!!! That is a savings of 82.8%!!!! WOW!!!

Our total grocery bill this week (had we paid full price for everything) would have been $225.47. After taking advantage of some BOGO deals and other sale items, using coupons as much as possible ($49.50 is what we used), and even paying full price for some items (like fruits and vegetables) our total bill was only $99.73!! That's a savings of 55.8%!!! Sweet!!!

Now, there are other good deals, but I've just hit some of the highlights of some really great deals. So, check out the current ad and the "Southern Savers" website to see what deals you might like to take advantage of this week.

Happy Shopping!!!

Coupons and Other Deals of Note

Here's a printable coupon for 50% off at Michaels.

Smithsonian Magazine is offering (for this Saturday, the 27th) free admission to hundreds of participating museums. Click here to get your admission card.

Check out the deal you can get through Shutterfly right now! 50 free prints and free shipping! Read about it on Money Saving Mom's site.

Here's a Johnson's Buddies coupon. My kids love the bar soap! You can also try this link. I have trouble printing with Firefox, so I'll have to try it in Internet Explorer later.

Here's a coupon for $1.00 off of any Windex product.

Here's a $5 off $20 Walgreens coupon that is good Friday and Saturday only (26th and 27th).

Samples and other good deals

I haven't been keeping up with posting about deals, coupons and such recently. I'm going to try harder...honest. =) Here's a quick list of some favorites I've seen going around. Enjoy!

Sears is having an online sale on women's clothing. More than 10 t-shirts are less than $2 and almost 200 items are less than $5.

I love tote bags!!! If someone is going to give me one just for signing up for an email newsletter, I'll take it! Nature's Bounty is giving away a tote bag and $1 off coupon for doing just that.

Yogi Tea is offering their tea samples again. I got this sample earlier this year and really enjoyed it. The Mexican Sweet Chili is really good...it has a little kick to it. You ought to try it!

We buy a 5 lb. package of Perdue boneless chicken breasts at Wal-mart that costs about $15 (that's $3/lb.). Publix has that same chicken on sale this week for $2.49/lb.

Wal-Mart always has the best samples. Check out their current list. Make sure you look at the "More Samples" list on the right-hand side of the page. Also, the Gain "sample" is just a scent card, so unless you want that, don't request that sample.

Organizing Your Coupons

I love organization!!! That feeling goes hand-in-hand with my OCD. =)

This is a picture of an organizer that I bought a couple of months ago. It's one of those accordion-style, folder organizers. It worked for a while, but when I started getting more and more coupons, it became very difficult to see what I actually had. While I was CVS shopping with my friend, Sandra, I noticed she had a 3-ring binder with plastic sheets for her coupons. She explained to me that it was just plastic baseball card protector sheets. Cool! The thought had never crossed my mind, but it looked so neat and organized. Later that week, I asked Jason if he had any empty baseball card protector sheets that I could have, and he brought me a big stack of them. I also had an extra 3-ring binder at home that I was able to use. Yay! Organization AND it's FREE!! =)

We all set to work clipping and organizing all my coupons so that I could fill my new binder. Alyx really loves to help me...she's getting really good at it, too. She even helps me by doing transactions at CVS...she's really cute! (FYI: In the pictures below, you'll notice Alyx is wearing a cute, red hat. She got that at Target for $1.00! That same day, she found a pair of flip-flops, a 3 pack of fingernail polish and a bottle of lotion that were each marked down to $0.25 (yes, 25 cents)!! She's going to be a bargain shopper yet.) Jason is a big help, too! He refuses to use scissors for coupon clipping, though. Instead, he uses my cutting board...hey, whatever works and gets him to help me. =)

I made each sheet to have a "category." Sometimes, I had to break a category into two pages (ie. One page for "men's" deodorant and one page for "women's" deodorant.) After the pages were filled, I grouped them together according to "families." (ie. Toiletries, Cosmetics, Paper products, Cleaners...etc.)

Check it out! It makes me so happy to see all of my coupons so organized!

Printable Manufacturer's Coupons

One of my favorite blogs to check for good deals is The "Cent"sible Sawyer. Check out this entry for some coupons and free stuff. (Carol, she has a $5 off of $15 coupon listed for Linens N Things!)

This post has a new CVS coupon and some suggestions for free or money-making deals.

Another blog that I really enjoy is Money Saving Mom. Check out this post for a sweet deal at Sears. When you buy $100 worth of Dockers, you will receive a $75 Shell gift card! (It's even more sweet when you get an employee discount! =) Sorry, not trying to rub it in or anything.)

Here is a free or money-making deal at CVS on Garnier Nutritioniste Products. Check it out!

Here is a huge list of printable manufacturer's coupons. This was created in a forum, so once you click on the link, scroll down to see the list. It is an alphabetical list of mainly "drugstore" coupons.

Here is a list that will include grocery coupons.

Enjoy!!

Free Samples!

Check out all the free stuff I got in the mail during the last week. ***Side Note: The Huggies products are not to be misconstrued as an announcement. =) I just got them because they were free, and I figured I could either donate them to the church nursery or give them to someone who could use them.***



Dove Go Fresh Deodorant
Sensodyne Toothpaste
Aquafresh Extreme Clean Toothpaste
Aquafresh Advanced Whitening Toothpaste
Tide with Dawn Stain Scrubbers Laundry Detergent
Huggies Supreme Diaper
Huggies Wash and Lotion
Kashi Mountain Medley Granola
Loreal Skin Genesis Serum and Lotion
John Frieda Frizz-Ease "Curl Around" Shampoo/Conditioner and Hair Serum
Vaseline Lotion (came with a $2.00 coupon)
Gold Bond Ultimate Restoring Lotion (came with a $1.00 coupon)
2 packets of Sun Crystals Natural Sweetener (came with a $1.50 coupon)
3 bags of Yogi Tea-Berry Anti-oxidant, Meditative Time and Mexican Sweet Chili (came with a $0.50 coupon)

I'm addicted...

...To coupons, that is! I try to buy "organic" as much as possible, and that can get pretty expensive but is well worth it, in my opinion. Recently, I've been able to find some coupons (for organic products) that are saving us quite a bit of money. Yeah!!

We use a lot of Muir Glen fire-roasted tomatoes, and I found a coupon for $1.00 off any of their products! There are other great coupons on that same page, like $1.00 off any Cascadian Farm product.

Here's a picture of the girls clipping some coupons for me. They love cutting, and I figure it's never too early to teach them money management. =)

Here are some blogs that I visit to get more coupons:

http://www.mambosprouts.com/blog/category/printable-grocery-food-coupons/

http://www.afullcup.com/upload/cmps_index.php

http://freebies4mom.com/

http://www.moneysavingmom.com/

http://thriftysoaper.blogspot.com/

http://multitaskingmama.wordpress.com/

http://becentsable.blogspot.com/

Here are some coupon sites. I use these mainly for non-grocery items, but if you're not concerned about purchasing only organics, you can find some other really good grocery coupons.

http://www.organicvalley.coop/coupons/ This one is organic, obviously. =)

http://print.coupons.com/couponweb/Offers.aspx?pid=13306&zid=iq37&nid=10

http://www.redplum.com

http://coupons.smartsource.com

Like to grill? We do! If you register with this site, you can get a coupon for $2.00 off Kingsford Charcoal. (I was able to print that one twice.)

You know all the "What To Expect" books? Well they have one entitled, "What To Expect Guide To a Healthy Home," and they are offering a free copy of it here.

Barnes and Noble is having a summer reading program for kids. If they fulfill the following requirements, they will receive a coupon for a free book.

1. Kids read any 8 books.

2. Kids use the Summer Reading Journal to tell their favorite part of each book. A parent/guardian signs it when it's complete.

3. Students bring their completed journal to a Barnes & Noble store between May 29th & September 2nd, 2008.

4. They will get a coupon for a FREE book! They choose from a list of exceptional paperback titles.

Visit the blogs I mentioned above to find even more coupons and free stuff. We can all be addicted together. =)