My last doubles run this week

...and it was a good one! I got all this (and 5 boxes of Capri Sun) for...

$18.60, a savings of $89.03!

True, some of it was a mistake...the assistant manager kind of insanely demanded that she refund me $4 for the coke even though I tried to explain I had already used coupons and doublers. Most of my total was the chips ahoy/capri sun. My store stopped doubling anything over $1, so I payed more than I expected for that but with the extra coke savings it all worked out. I also got a survey with a $2 coupon for my next purchase, woohoo!!

There were no doubles in the ad for next week, but the lady working told me that there would be (so, maybe Sunday?). She also said something about another smores deal and gave me a ton of coupons to use for that, but I honestly don't see a thing in the ad about it. Anyone have any ideas?

Cheap Cereal, and a splurgy trip!

$1.92 for all this:

I had some $1 coupons for the cereal and with 8 of those plus two doublers, I was able to snag a ton of cereal for cheap. I was hoping for taco shells to make this deal cheaper, but I'm happy to pay one buck for 2 cans of refried beans.

$12.18 spent, $36.90 saved

I was able to snag a few $1 off beef coupons, so with those and doublers we payed about $0.40 for each steak. The chocolate milk was $0.99 after q and double and the buttoni were $1.99 each after qs and doubles. I payed $3 for 2 pints of Ben&Jerry's (the husband will be thrilled) and only $1 for the "flipped out" dessert. I'm thinking fancy buttoni and the ben&jerry dessert will make for cute romantic-like date night for cheap!

A rumor about tuna...

The tuna sale is good through next week!

Look for a set of 3 doublers in the paper today. If you don't have coupons on hand, there are tons of peelies and hangtags in store that make items free or cheap. Be on the lookout for:

• $0.55 off any one propel water (priced at $1) = FREE!
• $0.50 off taco bell taco shells = FREE when you buy 10, or $0.50 if you buy one (buy more and donate!!)
• $1 off any culinary circle pizza (on the take and bake kind, works on the frozen kind)= $1.99 for a frozen pizza and a 2-liter of 7-up or Orange soda
• $1 off fruit when you buy Cornflakes touch of Honey (on sale 4 for $5)= Buy 8 boxes of cereal with doublers and get $10-$13 worth of fruit (depending on how many doublers you can use in one transaction) all for $10 (while you're at it, toss in that $1 off produce when you buy $10 worth to get an extra dollars worth of fruit or veggies)

*I was able to pick up another 30 pouches yesterday when we went on a little bit of a drive...there was tons of tuna at that store and 3 tearpads intact. I only took enough for myself to do the deal a couple more times, so there's more there. If you're in the area and know how to get ahold of me (or you can email me at maybefrugal(at)hotmail(dot)com, I'd be happy to tell you which store to go to.

a "big" shopping trip

It really seems like the more I coupon and stockpile, the less I need to buy when I do my regular shopping...and the less I spend. We did our big shopping trip (the one in which we buy most of our groceries for 2 weeks) and this is what we bought:

3 gallons milk (not pictured)
2 Rib Eye Steaks...$16 something
2 corn cobs
1 pound broccoli
bag of carrots
2 bags flour tortillas (used $0.75 coupons and doublers to pay $0.19 a bag)
3 bags mini oreos (used $1.50 off oreos when you buy milk to help pay for the milk)
can refied beans
10 boxes taco shells (used $0.50 peelies to make them free)
...and then I used $18 in catalinas I had earned from shopping at Albie's in the last week...

$10.07 spent, $55.46 saved!

That's not all we're eating. We will have to go back for more milk, bread, and fruit. We have tons of fruit and veggies left over from the birthday party right now- and we've been getting lettuce from the husband's grandparent's house while they're on vacation. Albertsons- you're really winning me over with these double coupons!

$0.19 is a great price for tortillas by the way! Look for the 75cents off coupons in the condiment section and then grab the bags of mission tortillas (corn or flour) priced at $1.69. Look for specially marked flour bags, some have 8 tortillas but the newer ones have 10.

Safeway ad 6/28-6/30

Just in case you're not having Safeway issues, here's a peeks at what's coming up Sunday-Tuesday with a few decent deals.

Ball Park Franks, on sale $0.99
use a $1 off 2 coupon to get 2 packs of hotdogs for $0.98

Rosarita Refied Beans, on sale $0.99
use a $0.50 off 2 coupon to get 2 cans for $1.48
(not the best deal, but I'm out and need more)

Mission Corn Tortillas, on sale $0.99
use a $1 coupon from 5/17 or a $0.75 blinkie (find them in the condiments aisle)
*currently cheaper at Albies, but not by much so if you're at Safeway anyways...

Primo Taglio Pan Roasted Turkey Breast, $5.99/lb in the deli
use a $2 off 1 pound printable coupon from Safeway.com (it will beep or not scan right, good luck!)

I found tuna!!

$10.39 spent, $84.67 saved

...and I got another $8 in catalinas to use on my next transaction! Not pictured: another 10 more boxes of taco shells (going to St. Vincent's) and 1 frappucino. Just in case you're wondering, there are 36 pouches of tuna. yumm! I used 12 $1.50 off 3 tuna coupons (tearpad found at Safeway), $0.50 peelies on taco shells (that makes them free without doublers!), a $1 off 3 mini hagan-dazs coupons, $1 frappucino coupon, and 2 doublers.

I've got more tuna coupons coming (this time for donation purposes). hooray for fun shopping!!

Safeway coupon frustration!

I didn't think to pick up bananas and bread at Albertsons earlier, so after dinner we made a quick run to Safeway. I wanted to take advantage of the sale on ground beef and frozen chicken as well, so I printed and clipped a couple of Safeway coupons from the site before we left. I spent $23.49 on 5.5lbs beef, 4lbs frozen chicken breast, bread, Starbucks ice cream, 2lbs bananas, and a pound of their fancy sliced turkey. (saved $20.02 or 46%). I only used 3 coupons: a $2 Starbucks ice cream, $2 off Safeway deli turkey, and $1 off Safeway frozen chicken. All was good, except of course that the Safeway coupons wouldn't scan!

Has this happened to anyone else? It seems as though nearly every Safeway coupon I print is either unscannable or else takes off nothing more than a penny. The lady tonight even made a big deal about, asking every other cashier if she could accept these (waving my coupons in the air) if they didn't scan. Then she called for a manager to come check them out, he looked and said they were okay, so she manually pushed them through. My problem is that the coupons never work, and it gets embarrassing to stand there while they wave your coupons around and shout to each other about coupon policy. I can't figure out why they don't scan, and it's not like I can use the coupons for Safeway products anywhere else. I'm also super careful about matching coupons and products because I'm fairly shy and hate when deals don't work. The manager at my store is always awesome, but the employees are getting to be a bit much. I think I'm going to skip shopping at my Safeway for a bit- I want the cheap hot dogs this weekend, so I'll hit the store across town where all the employees know the Safeway coupons are legitimate and watch to make sure they work the way they should...LOVE those guys! In the meantime, I'm thinking Albertsons has been a pretty nice place to shop even if it is a bit of a drive.