CHEAP Saturday!

Did anyone else get their free tickets to a museum for today?   We did and even though it was pouring down rain when we left, we continued on!
Our destination-Living History Farms~Ty had never been there and 2 of us got in free, so we thought, what the heck-let's go!
So, $7.00 for Ty to get in, Jason and I were FREE!(Zach chose not to spend time with his loving family!)  The plus side to a rainy day is...........VERY FEW PEOPLE!!!  We pulled up at 10:10 and there were maybe 10 cars in the parking lot.  It was great to walk around all the town buildings without lots of people!  Ty even got to become an "apprentice" at the cabinet makers shop!  The walk through the different farms wasn't quite so nice-it was pouring by then, but we still had fun.  We ended up staying there for almost 3 hours-$7.00 well spent, I'd say!
Next was to Jordan Creek Mall(I know, not the place you think of for a cheap day)  We had gotten a coupon in the mail for a FREE Build-A-Bear, good this week-end.  So, Ty was very excited that he got to get a bear with no begging on his part!
By now, we wer starving, so we went to CiCi's Pizza and took advantage of their $3.99 buffet, with a coupon for a FREE kid's buffet.  With water to drink, that's only $7.98+tax for all 3 of us to eat!
My only sad part of the day, is when I went to Cub Foods to get my sale items, it looked like the store had been robbed-I don't think they are going to make it until November-no bread, magazines, bakery looks almost empty, as does the meat/deli department.  Living so close to Cubs for the last 10 years has been very handy-kinda hard to see it closing!   On the bright side~may be able to stock up on non-perishibles when they start to mark them down!!

Labor Day Deals

Wow, did I find some great bargains on Friday/Saturday this week.  I had some good in-ad coupons and then could pair them with manufacturer's coupons~AWESOME!
I started at Cub Foods and got:
a little over a lb of grapes@ 1.99/lb
5 Kraft shredded cheese@ 5/10.00
4 Nabisco crackers@ 4/11.96
2 Oscar Meyer hotdogs @ 3.98
TOTAL $28.26
MINUS store coupon for lb of grapes~free
              $5.00 Kraft cheese coupon
               store coupon for Nabisco crackers 4/$9.00
               (2) $1.00 coupons off of Nabisco crackers
               store coupon for Oscar Meyer hotdogs 2/$3.00
              coupon for $1.oo off of 2 hotdogs
Bringing my total down to $9.33  BUT a register coupon was supposed to print out for $5.oo off a future purchase...however, as luck would have it, the printer wasn't working at that register(#9 if you shop at Ames Cub)..so, over to the customer service counter I went.  After scrutinizing my purchases, they ended up giving me $5.00 cash, bring my shopping trip total to $4.33!!!  And everything  I bought is considered staples at my house!!!!
Saturday was my other bargain hunting day~First stop Cubs, just picked up 5 more cheese(since I had one more $5.00 off coupon) and some more grapes, got one lb free and a 5.00 off future purchase!
On to HyVee to shop their sales~here is how it went:
4 fudge Shoppe Keebler cookies on sale for $1.79(half normal price this week)
2 HyVee buns@1.19 each
3 cans HyVee green beans @.39
Pillsbury brownie mix@2.15
Big tub of storebrand ice cream@4.99
MINUS:
$3.00 in Keebler coupons
.66 in hyvee buns coupons
1.46 off Brownie mix
2.00 off tub of ice cream
.05 off for bringing my own bag in( this was new to me-I knew Target did it, but not HyVee)
AND $6.00 coupon from last week's cereal purchases
TOTAL PAID--$5.00

I feel like I got some GREAT Bargains and am proving to my family that we can eat just as well( if not better) when I take the time to hunt down the deals!
Please feel free to post questions~ I would love to help you save money for your family!!!!!!!

Awesome Hy-Vee shopping!

Did I mention I LOVE to find bargains?  Tonight was a good one at Hy-Vee-beat of all, the sale goes on through Tuesday, so you can go stock up, too!
Let me tell you what I got and then you can guess at what I spent(hint...my husband was pretty far off!)
My list:
2 Apple-Cinnamon cheerios
2 Cookie Crunch cereals
2 Honey Nut cheerios
3 cans Hy-vee creamed corn
36-pack hard taco shells
3  Midwest Fare spaghetti sauce
1 six-pack Musselman's applesauce
2 pkg. Ball Park franks
3 sixteen oz shredded mozzerrella cheese
And the total was.......


$18.60  :)  AND....I got a $6.00 coupon for my next shopping trip!!!

This was a great week for cereal--just grab their weekly ad and there is a coupon for $10 off the purchase of 6 General Mills cereals.  Hopefully you have some manufacturer's coupons for these cereals, because you can use them , too!  Then, at the end of your check-out, they should hand you a $6.00 coupon with your receipt--if they don't, ask them, I have noticed some cashire's just throw them away~~tsk, tsk!!!
I had some good deals from last week, but I want to keep this current, so you guys can take advantage of the good deals out there.
Just an example, last week I spent $46.80 at Cub foods and saved $18.16~total savings=28%
Also, another Cub food trip--a savings of $22.80, which was a 44% savings!!!
Another great trip to Walgreen's: spent $7.79 and saved $19.30(that was a good one, even the cashier was impressed!)
So, hopefully, you can see how easy it is to save ALOT of money-one of these times i will put up come of my favorite coupons/sample sites, so you can start saving, too!!!!!

Grocery shopping

So many of you know that I have a 13 year old garbage disposal(really, my son Zach!) that can eat anyone out of house and home.  I never knew that saying was really true until he turned 13!
Our grocery bills could really get out of control if I let them, so that is why I scour the grocery ads and stock up on all the sale items I can!  I think I am getting pretty good at it and would like to share my recent trip to Hy-Vee.  Keep in mind that I rarely buy anything that isn't on sale, except milk-gotta have our AE products no matter what!
12 pk Hy Vee pop reg $2.50
can deposit .60
2 twin packs Hamberger Helper $3.76
2 Right Guard Sport deodorant $3.76
2 Hy-vee mac and cheese $1.18
2 pkg HyVee buns $1.98
TOTAL- $13.78

Now let me subtract my coupons:
coupons found in monthly ad for Hy-Vee:
12 pack HyVee pop $1.39
2 twin packs Hamberger Helper $3.00
weekly ad:
2 hyvee mac & cheese @ .19
Newspaper coupon:
Buy one get one free Right Guard deodarant $1.88

And the best one-$5.00 off ANY purchase from a previous Hyvee promo

So my total was $4.27  YAY

So, I know you are thinking that it was a waste of time and gas to go pick up these few things, but in my defense, I never just go out to go to one store.  I was on my way to Staples(which has GREAT ad items right now) and stopped in at HyVee.  Also, I have a pretty good stockpile of sale groceries, so I usually can get by with just getting ad items and I do get as many as I can!!

Just trying to show people how they can save money and still eat the same way they are used to!!
I will save my Staples trip for another time-let's just say it did not go as well as planned!!!!

Walgreens Bargains

So..off to Walgreen's I went in search of the items I had seen in the ad.  My one gripe with Walgreen's is that they are frequently out of what I am looking for, but tonight was OK.
I always look through the ad on Sundays and find the sale items I can use, along with manufacturer's coupons to pair up with Walgreen's coupons.  then, (when I am in the area, I have my list already to go!)
So here is what I found this week:
Scrubbing Bubbles Gel cleaner(2)-$3.65
school box .84
Gilette Fusion Power Razor-$8.41
10 pk #2 pencils(2) .09
loose leaf paper(2) .38(claerance item--down from 1.49)
The prices above were the special prices with 15% off everything today coupon as a special "Friends & Family" promotion that was on their website.
After the cashier used that coupon, I gave him the rest: 
BOGO for the bathroom cleaner
.34 off school box
$4.00 off Fusion razor
PLUS, I got a $5.00 coupon back (for buying the razor) for my next Walgreen's purchase!
So, this is what my savings looked like today:
Friends & Family discount-$3.07
Walgreen's coupons-.34
Manufacturer's coupons-$7.65
Advertised savings-$7.65
TOTAL SAVINGS=$15.61
TOTAL BILL=$10.68

This wasn't even one of my better trips, but I got things I needed and saved money, too!
Hopefully, you enjoyed this first attempt at blogging-stick woth it, it will get better!!!!
Jane