Non holiday related deals

Safeway has some deals that I keep forgetting to post...

A pack of butter, 16 oz, for $1.99!
Bananas are .39/lb
Dial anti-bacterial hand wash is $1.

Also, Harris Teeter has my son's beloved blueberries (he would eat his weight in them if we would let him!) on sale for 2/1. They are out of season and expensive
($5) so any and all savings is a good thing!

Triple coupons and more!!

Wow! Shoppers and Harris Teeter are doing Triple Coupons this week! And it appears Giant and Safeway are doing some pretty decent sales as well.

So, instead of going line by line am going to try to attach the respective fliers here.

These are likely to bring about serious savings....happy shopping! I plan on going out Monday and Tuesday nights! (yeah, I know the sad, exciting life of a suburban mom)

Shoppers (must enter zip code or pick store to see specifics)

Harris Teeter (only 20 coupons a day per household)

Safeway (made me enter a specific store, but you can change location. Highlight is coupon for free eggs!)

Giant (again had to enter a location, but you can change)

Boneless/Skinless chix breast on super sale!

Safeway has them for $1.68/lb!!!! Sale runs through the 13th. I just stocked up and used for dinner tonight (will post that later). This is a great price!

The Master List

This is a list of where I buy my staples and how much I pay for them. I will update this list regularly, and list the update 'date' below, as well as mark new items with an asterick.

UPDATE >>> Sept. 25, 2009

Bananas .19/each -- Trader Joe's
Chix Breast 5 lbs $10 -- Harris Teeter (when they have their BOGO sale, about once every six weeks or so)
Coffee 39 oz Ground $5.69 -- Target
Eggs (12 Large) 1.19 -- Trader Joe's
Ground Beef 90/10 -- Wegman's (must buy in bulk, minimum 6 lbs)
Half & Half (Lucerne) $3.99 1/2 gallon -- Safeway
Pizza Dough (TJ brand) .99 -- Trader Joe's
Whole Wheat Spaghetti $1.29 -- Trader Joe's
Yogurt (Lucerne) .50/each -- Safeway

No brainer

Here's a question I think my 6 year old niece would know the answer to.

If you have two products, exactly the same, the first costs $2 and has contents of 250 and the second costs $2.50 and has contents of 200, which do you buy?

In another section of the store, you have two packages, again same product, one has 15 oz and costs $1.50 and the other has 7.5 oz and costs $1.99 (at least), which do you buy?

In the first example I compared brand name vs. Guaranteed Value coffee filters. For reasons that escape me, it costs 50 cents more to buy a "brand name" coffee filter. Huh? I mean I do understand brand loyalty, but for a coffee filter?? So needless to say, we bought the GV coffee filters.

I have found much success with GV products, and have seen them in Safeway and Giant. Since December, we have purchases GV ketchup, aluminum foil, paper towels and now coffee filters. As a rule I will likely purchase GV over a more expensive brand, unless proven regretful, from here on out. Its cheap, but it also works. I had never really paid attention to it (think I had seen it) before we became so money conscious. Now its what I look for.

In the second example I compared Care One brand anti-bacterial soap to the brand names. I discovered Care One when we started doing Peapod last year and it appeared as the cheapest brand. It works just as well, and why spend the extra money for fancy packaging. The example above was a bulk container, so if you really must have the brand name soap in your bathroom on display, buy that, but refill with Care One. CO also sells its 7.5 oz for about $1 if you don't want to buy the big jug.

Hope you all had a good weekend. We may or may not have purchased a car....more on that later, once we know.

Reflections...

Today I received this email from a friend.

That's really terrific news about (your husband’s) new job!! I CANNOT imagine how stressful it has been for you all. Dear, dear me.

About a month ago, a colleague wrote and asked me if we were on the verge of “domestic homicide” since we were home together 24/7 in our 800 sf of love.

This year, and the last four months in particular have been stressful, no doubt. My internal clock has been all over the map. And up until last week, I was waking up every morning with an atrocious headache. I can’t say how my husband’s stress manifested itself; he keeps a lot to himself, despite my best efforts to coax from him. What I do know is we (meaning my husband and me, our son, the state of our family) were never the subject of my stress.

We are lucky. We have a strong solid foundation. We were always frugal to begin with, not ones to go out all the time. I dated the no-talent-ass-clown-loser right before my husband and all he ever wanted to do was go to movies, so as a result WE never go. Over the last four months in particular we have had a lot of fun times with our son, and have watched a lot of Netflix or played board games. We also have amazing family and friends, without whose support we never would have survived. I have one girlfriend who always, and I mean ALWAYS, fed my son and me when we went over for playdates and sent us home with leftovers. So he got good food, and I got a lot of good cooking tips!

I also believe God doesn’t put anything on our plates we can’t handle. I have friends who have had miscarriages, are having trouble in their marriages, are searching for their soulmates, who have health issues…the list goes on and on. We have friends that a few years ago adopted a child and it had to have been the most hellish experience I have ever witnessed. To me, our struggles in 2009 pale in comparison to what some people face everyday.

My saving ways will continue. Today I was annoyed when I realized that nearly the identical trash can I bought last week at Bed, Bath & Beyond was now 50% less!!! Of course it is, that’s my luck! But I was equally happy to realize that Safeway sells its generic yogurt for .50, as opposed to .80 for brand names at most every other store. That’s good!

I hope and pray my friends and family never experience what have gone through. But I also know many of them are equally strong and that you never know what you can handle until you are forced to. We have become a stronger family, have stronger faith, and ironically have more money NOW (even 9 months after the first layoff) than we did the day before my husband was laid off. (More on that later).

This isn’t a usual post. But since we are at the month-anniversary of the blog, I thought it was appropriate.

Exceptions to every rule

So random. I was in Safeway tonight picking up a package for a neighbor and I decided to check out their yogurt-covered raisins. My son was on a playdate last week and loved them, so thought I would get some.

Going against everything that makes sense, and an earlier posting, the snack size portion, which was 6 boxes each 1 oz, cost $3. The 6 oz. bag cost $4. So, always check, even when logic tells you not to.