Unilever Deal

Sad to say I messed up :(  The unilever deal at HT (buy $10 worth of specific product and get $3 off) is good 1 per HH.  I had already bought one round the other day and tried again to day.  I hadn't read the fine print (SHAME SHAME).  The tea bags are still a great deal with the coupon coming out tomorrow even without the $3 off.

I hate doing this....

But I am actually going to have to buy some things with out coupons and actually have to pay more than $10!  There are some things we need that I haven't been able to get free recently or have to replace sooner than expected (thanks to my potty training 3 year old who has dropped about 12 rolls of TP into the toilet!!) and we are having guests for dinner..so I plan on combining a trip for what I need, what I can get free/cheap and get a 39 cent/lb turkey! 

Why I stock pile

The other day someone came over and saw my HUGE FULL pantry.  They asked me WHY I buy 10 boxes of popcorn or 20 cans of fruit at the same time.  "You will never eat all that this week" they said.  "This week?" I countered, "These will last us two months.  I need it to."

About 2 months ago, the sale items at Harris Teeter were mostly breakfast items.  Pop tarts and cereals.  I got each box of poptarts for about 10 cents.  I bought about 40.  $4 for 40 boxes?  That is about the regular price of just 1!!!  Boxes of cereal were about the same.  I probably bought another 20 or so (sadly I ran out of coupons!).  I have 3 kids and a big eating husband, so we go through a box of poptarts and/or a box of cereal at most every breakfast! 

Cereal and pop tarts have not been at such a low price since.  Since this month is Thanksgiving, I don't expect them to be that cheap again until maybe the new year.  So, I haven't bought any breakfast items since then.

This week it was canned goods, last week was pasta. Each week offers something new I can stock up on and not buy anymore until the next sale comes where I can get it virtually free and most likely I am really low on the item or completely out. 

Another reason I stock pile is because it is good to share.  Last week I got about 40 bottles of Gingerale for free.  WONDERFUL, it is great for Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year get togethers. I have already shared several bottles with friends and family. 

Once a month or so, I go through my pantry and pull out items that either are close to expiring or my family just didn't like too much.  I offer through www.freecycle.org or www.craigslist.org.  There are ALWAYS families struggling to put food on the table and if 2 or 3 grocery bags of food will help them out, I have plenty and we can share.

My grocery shopping trips might look like a hodge podge of items that could not possibly make a full meal or meals for a family of 5- but combine it with what I have stocked at home- we eat like queens and kings on a pheasant budget.

Here's a great example.  Chicken was on sale a while ago (I brine and freeze the chicken in freezer bags).  I got each package for about $1.  Frozen Rhoades rolls were on sale last week at HT and I had a coupon that made them free.  I bought (sadly- no coupon!!) two packages of Knorr alfredo noodles at $1.35 each.  So my total was about $3.70.  Add in maybe a quarter for some milk, the margarine I got free (Thanks Country Crock!) and for $3.95 I feed my family of 5 plus my sister a hearty meal.  I even had some canned peaches and pears that I had canned (thanks to freecycle the fruit was free!).  Each person ate a full meal for less than 70 cents each! 

Harris Teeter New E-Vic program

Just got an email from Harris Teeter about a new e-vic program they are offering.  It works like a digital coupon that is on your VIC card.

Most of the coupons seem to be red plum coupons- nothing super outstanding (but if you don't get the paper there is a Hellmann's coupon for $1 off that works well with the Unilever sale and $3 off promo).

Here is some more info about it: 
Click here to go to the FAQ page but I have put the important pieces here

-You can have 99 coupons on your account at one time
-redeemed for face value only WILL NOT DOUBLE OR TRIPLE
-You CANNOT combine a paperless with a paper coupon
-digital coupons CAN be combined with VIC specials


You will have to sign up on their website HERE.

A few pointers from me:

- ONLY save the $1 and up coupons on a regular week.  That way, until we know how this will work, you won't be stuck using a 50 cent digital coupon when you have a 50 cent that will double in your hand
- Save them all over $1!  If you are in store and find a great clearance or something, you will already have the coupons on your card.
-BEFORE you head to the store (or when you are planning your trip) check the site for any <$1 coupons you need to add to your card.  OR if you are lucky you might be able to add them on your phone- I haven't tried it but my phone isn't fancy!
-PRINT out the list of saved coupons.  This way if something doesn't come off you have proof it was on your card- do this for a while until we see how this goes!


Be sure to check back fairly regularly to see what new coupons and which ones have expired :)
Please post here with any experiences using this!  I won't be going back until Sunday but I am excited to try it out.

The best plans....

I went into Harris Teeter this morning expecting to spend about $1.03 + tax....well I didn't.  Once in the store, I found an additional coupon that made more sense for me to use.  I found a $1 off ANY purchase tag on bottles of wine- the coupon CLEARLY stated that you did NOT have to purchase the wine in order to use the coupon (requiring the wine purchase is illegal in NC).  Instead of buying the soups, I bought more canned veggies (we eat those more often). 

Here is what I got though:

I HAD to buy the potato chips because I actually had a NEGATIVE balance!  Yep, negative.  So I had to buy something to eat up that overage, plus my kids were wanting a snack. 

What was my total: $0.73.  Including $0.20 in tax!!!  That works out to less than 4 cents an item!  For $2.69 Lipton Tea bags ALONE that is a great deal.  I was very excited!

This worked out so well because of the Unilever deal- buy $10 worth of selected Unilever items an save $3 off instantly;  HERE is the part of Harris Teeter's website that shows the items.  I had no problem using the deal, and the $10 is BEFORE coupons. 

My trip for tomorrow...

I am going back and forth on if I want to hit HT tomorrow or if I want to wait or if I do go; what is my strategy?

Here is what I **might*** do.  I have all the kids home tomorrow (school is out) but I might ride into Winston Salem to visit my sister at work...hmmmm...decisions decisions.

My total out of pocket would be $0.80 + tax.  GREAT deal, considering we use one of the Lipton Tea Boxes every week!

Item  price coupon double savings Wish Bone 2 0.5 1 1 Lipton Tea Bags (2)  2.69 0 0 2.69 Shedds 1.64 0.4 0.8 0.84 Lipton Tea Bags (2)  2.69 0 0 2.69 Coupon Off 0 0 3 -3 Wish Bone 2 0.5 1 1 Coupon Off 0 0 0 0 5 Del Monte Canned 2.5 1 1 1.5 Healthy Choice Soup 2.59 1 1 1.59 Mazole  1.49 0.5 1 0.49 General Mills Coupon 0 0 8 -8 Total 17.6 3.9 16.8 0.8
***Update: Had to reevaluate my list for today, sadly some of the coupons I was depending on were not available- so here is my new list.  Only a 23 cent increase- considering that we go through tea bags like crazy I am still happy with my total of $1.03+tax. Item  price coupon double savings Shedds 1.64 0.4 0.8 0.84 Lipton Tea Bags (2)  2.69 0 0 2.69 Shedds 1.64 0.4 0.8 0.84 Lipton Tea Bags (2)  2.69 0 0 2.69 Coupon Off 0 0 3 -3 Hellmanns 2.89 0.75 1.5 1.39 5 Del Monte Canned 2.5 1 1 1.5 Healthy Choice Soup 2.59 1 1 1.59 Mazole  1.49 0.5 1 0.49 General Mills Coupon 0 0 8 -8 Total 18.13 4.05 17.1 1.03 Unilever Total 11.55

My Thanksgiving Day Challenge

Since I am the couponer in the family + I love cooking - I am issuing a challenge- How frugal can you make your Thanksgiving?  I'm not talking about not having turkey or eating Spam- but how cheap can you make the dinner?

My family will be having 13 people total.  My goal is to have it for under $100, with all of the food bought at Harris Teeter.  That would be about $7.70 per person.  Think I can do it?  I'm going to try to at least get close!  As we buy the things on our menu I will update with the price we paid at Harris Teeter.

Here's our menu:

Country Ham (BOUGHT- $30)
Turkey (BOUGHT- 15 cents)
stuffing (chicken stock 2 cartons 94 cents)
gravy
green beans w/ ham (BOUGHT- 3 CANS FOR 45 CENTS)
corn (BOUGHT- 3 CANS FOR 45 CENTS)
mashed potatoes (1.99 for 10 lbs of potatoes!  WOW, chicken stock .47)
saurcraut (HAVE THANKS TO A CANNING NANA!)
sweet potato cassarole
honey glazed carrots
macaroni and cheese(GOT THE MACARONI NOODLES- FREE)
pumpkin pie
pecan pie
cheesecake
birthday cake (It's my twin's 3rd birthday celebration too) (BOUGHT THE MIX AND ICING- FREE)

TOTAL SO FAR; 34. 45

What did I pay for ALL of this????

Guess how much I spent out of pocket on all of this:

Here is what I got:

12 lb turkey
2 3-pks of Othello Sponges
2 Butterball cooked turkey sausage
1 Stouffers Lasange
2 Ghiradelli Chocolate Bars (normally 1.99 EACH!)
2 Lipton Noodles (I didn't have a coupon for these hence I actually had to PAY for these- YUCK)
10 cans Del Monte Veggies
6 Healthy Choice Soups
2 Wisk Detergents
1 Maola Oil Spray

29 items....what did I pay?
Here are some hints:

The original HT prices would have come out to about $91.......

I saved 95%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

And I paid $4.47
That equals out to about 15 cents an item- including the turkey!!!!!!
OR you could say I paid $4.47 for the turkey and got all the rest for free. Can't beat that- but PLEASE try and leave a comment if you do!  Or not- leave a comment anyway!  I love to see savings!

Harris Teeter

Working on my deals for HT this week.  Even though the week isn't that impressive for free or really cheap things- I have $32 in coupons I HAVE to use this week (4 - $8 off coupons) from that general mills deal.  So far I have worked out getting $40 worth of SALE priced food (mostly B1G1 so my savings are really more) for free and still having $8 more in coupons to use up.

I'll probably hold these until the E-vic items come out on Friday :)  I'll update with a picture when I get back from shopping!

House Party!

I went to a Shutterfly House Party this weekend!  Thanks Megs!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0EYs27dmxbsnMQ