The shopping report, what I saved today!

I do my grocery shopping once per week.  I do a circuit of three different stores.  It starts at Walgreen's, then next door to CVS, culminating at Winn-Dixie.  There are only two chain grocery stores in my area.  Winn-Dixie is 7 miles away, Publix is 20 miles away.  To save time and gas I have opted to stick to one store and make the best of what they have to offer.   It does hinder my savings potential but it's the price we pay for living on a rock in the middle of the ocean.

Here's what I need to prepare for my weekly shopping trip:

 

 

Each Saturday I buy 4 Early Edition Sunday papers giving me 4 sets of coupons.  By buying the early edition I spend $4.00 each week as opposed to the $8.00 I would spend buying the Sunday edition.  Some people use more coupons but I find 4 is my magic number, anything more for me and my often hectic schedule would be overwhelming.

From those papers I pull out the coupon inserts and the ads for the stores I'll be visiting.  To clip the coupons I seperate them into single pages, stacking each like page together.  I then cut four like coupons simultaneously.  After cutting I take each stack of 4 coupons and file them into my coupon binder.  My binder is divided alphabetically.  I don't over categorize things, I like to keep it as simple as possible.  For example, the "F" section has fruit and frozen foods, the "M" section would have meat as well as medicine.  It's just easier for me to remember things that way.  If I try to micromanage my coupons I'll forget where I filed them and invariably waste them. 

After organizing the coupons it's time to make my list.  In addition to the items we need I like to check the ads for deals on items we might be running low on in the near future.  By buying extra and stockpiling when an item is at a great price I avoid having to pay full price on an item because we ran out of it.

For the CVS and Walgreens list I like to visit a site called HIP2SAVE.  There are many sites that can help you to find the best sales and coupon combinations but I like this one because for me it's extremely user friendly.  The site name is pretty cool too. 

As I make my lists, yep there's 3 of them, I look for buy one get one deals for products I use.  If I have a manufacturer coupon for the item I'm sweetening the deal.  The preparation process, start to finish, usually takes me about 2 hours.  Once my lists is done it's off to the store. 

After about 2 hours of shopping, I came home with this:

It's hard to see what's in the picture so here's a list:
4        Mrs. Smith's deep dish pies
2        Cool Whip
1        8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese
1        1/2 gallon whole milk
1        cucumber
3lbs.  sweet potatoes
2        32oz Kraft mayonaisse (with bonus Shake n Bake!)
2        boxes Stove Top Stuffing
4        Ritz Fresh Stack crackers
20      large cans Alpo Chop Filet dog food
4        cans Campbell's turkey gravy
2        packets McCormick brown gravy
1        McCormick Gourmet Chicken Rub
4        cans DelMonte vegetables
4        2 liter Diet Coke
2        15 pound frozen turkeys
6        6 oz cans Bumble Bee white chicken
2        Lady Mitchum antiperspirant
4        2 liter Mountain Dew
4        2 liter Diet Pepsi
2        12 packs Mountain Dew
5        12 packs Diet Pepsi              (yes, we drink too much soda at the casual shack)
2         2.8oz French's french fried onions
1        box Kraft Mac n Cheese
1        32 oz bottle Powerade
1        Phillips universal remote control
1        Easyfeet
1        Starbucks doubleshot
1        Starbucks refresher
1        Thermacare back wrap
1        Finesse shampoo
1        Advil 10count
1        Kotex U panty liner 18 count
1        1.25 liter Diet Coke
1        box Nature Valley Protein granola bars
1        Carmex lip balm
1        roll Charmin Basic

That's a lot of stuff. 

AT CVS I spent $45.02, saved $34.16 for a savings of 43%
At Walgreen's I spent $30.75, saved $33.00 for a savings of 52%
At Winn Dixie I spent $75.69, saved $90.06 for a savings of 54%.

My out of pocket for all three stores and the 4 newspapers was $155.46.  I saved a total of $157.22 using $11.05 worth of manufacturers coupons and taking advantage of sales.  That's a total savings percentage this week of 50%.

50% sounds good, right?  It gets better! 

Cash back!!  That's right, both CVS and Walgreens gave me coupons good toward future purchase.  At CVS I received 16 Extra Buck rewards totalling $32.92!  At Walgreens I got one for $4.00.  I will use these as cash toward my shopping trip next week and report back here as to how I'm going to maximize this $36.

But wait there's more!  Remember the Universal Remote and the Easyfeet in the list?  I don't need either of those items but by buying them I got an equal amount of Extra Bucks so in the cart they went.  I'll put both these items into the annual Trash to Cash yard sale for a potential additional $10 in my pocket.

So there you have it, $312.68 worth of products, $155.46 out of pocket, a 50% savings with a bonus of $36.92 in register rewards and 2 items for the yard sale.

Life really is good, keep it casual!

Making the most of Holiday shopping on the internet

Black Friday is not what it used to be.  More and more shoppers are opting to sit in their jammies shopping online as opposed to waiting in line for hours and fighting for one of a limited supply of the hottest toy or electronics item.  Online stores have responded with huge discounts referring to the Monday after Thanksgiving as Cyber Monday.  Last year I picked up some awesome bargains on Thanksgiving Day.

You can optimize your online holiday savings by shopping through a portal such as ShopatHome.com and Ebates.com.  Simply register with them, search the list for the store you want and click on the “coupon”.  You will then be redirected to the store you have chosen.   After completing your purchase you will be credited for the percentage offered in the deal you chose.   I’ve gotten rebates ranging from 3% to 8%.  We purchased a riding lawn mower last year through ShopatHome.com, we received a check for $120.00 and we got free freight delivery directly to our door.  In addition, we used our cash rewards credit card and received an additional 1.25% cash back on top of that. 

Check with your bank and major credit card, they may also offer a shopping portal with a cash rebate. 

Whichever way you choose to do your holiday shopping remember to gift from the heart and keep to your budget!

When your credit card puts money in your pocket

Several years ago I realized that carrying a balance on my credit cards was detrimental to my financial health.   Over the course of two years I paid off over $20,000 in credit card and auto loan debt.  Since then I have not carried a balance on a credit card.  I cut up most of those credit cards believing that cash was the only way to go.   I worked out a budget and a spending/savings plan and attempted to make the transition to a cash only lifestyle.  This didn’t work out so well for me.  You see, if I have money in my wallet, I’ll spend it.  It’s a mind game for me, if I don’t see it, I don’t have it to spend, simple as that.  So in order for me to stick to a budget I needed a credit card because I knew that I had to pay it off each month and I could be disciplined enough to not go over my set spending limit.  If you are the opposite of me, and are more disciplined using cash, then please do not attempt this.

My favorite credit card is Blue from American Express.  There are many cash rewards out there, go to a site such as bankrate.com to find one that has reward levels suited to your spending.  Look for a card that has no annual fee and gives a percentage of cash back for all purchases.  Some cards require that you register for that quarters’ deals.  I tried one of those and invariably would forget to re-register each quarter.

We use this card for all of our budgeted monthly purchases and pay the balance in full each month.  Our electric, water, cell phone and television services are all automatically billed to this card.  We use it at the grocery store, gas station, pharmacy and even put Doctor and Veterinarian visits on it. The important thing to remember is if it’s not in the budget, it doesn’t go on the card.

By using the credit card in this way we have been able to redeem cash rewards which we can apply to our current savings goals.

 

If you want to be rewarded remember these three points:

1.        Get a card with NO ANNUAL FEE

2.       Use the card ONLY FOR BUDGETED PURCHASES

3.       Pay in full each month, NEVER CARRY A BALANCE