Loves me some Harris Teeter/menu plan

Fun times shopping at Harris Teeter this week. Reasons I love Harris Teeter:
#1: 20 double coupons per day. No multiple transactions, no waiting until double coupons come out.
#2: BOGO sales are often super cheap. Each item is actually 50% off.
#3: Balloons and free cookies for the munchkins. Love it.
#4: Awesome customer service. I have had almost no bad experiences with cashiers/customer service there.
#5: Winetags. These are $$ off coupons hanging on wine bottles (no you don't have to buy the wine!). I got $2 off any deli meat and got some really good pepperoni for $1.
Love H.T.! This week was a bigger trip (last week was only about $25) so I spent about $45.

Some of my favorite bargains this week: free Blue Diamond Crackers, cheap almonds, $0.14 hormone, antibiotic free eggs, cheap frozen fish, canned and frozen veggies, $0.15 whole grain Meuller's pasta. Our fridge and freezer are full!

Here's what we'll be eating this week:

Breakfast: toast, eggs, fruit, chocolate chip banana bread

Lunches: Leftovers, sandwiches

Dinner: Monday: Tacos and taco salad

Tuesday: Chicken in the crockpot, mashed potatoes, Peas

Wednesday: Fried Rice

Thursday: Fish, Mashed potatoes, corn

Friday: Homemade Pizza, frozen veggies

Saturday: Homemade Hamburger Helper (a new favorite!)

Sunday: Clean out fridge, leftovers, TBD

Harris Teeter Triples and produce

I was excited to finally go to do some Harris Teeter for some triple coupon shopping today. Apparently the richer parts of town have less coupon shoppers because the store I went to was in a nicer area and was very well stocked in pretty much everything I was looking for minus some butter and Worcestershire sauce. I spent $43.67 at HT and that included several lbs of hamburger, cheese, 36 eggs, some produce, 2 packages of Seattle's best coffee, milk and snacks for the girls (raisins, applesauce) while they are in the MK station 4 mornings next week (so we can finish up our visa/apt. paperwork). I got a ton of snacks for free/almost free too, plus some fun freebies like Gold Peak Tea and Whole Grain Hamburger Helper.

Bananas from WalMart when we got ink, and red pepper and huge onion and lion crackers (not pictured) from Trader Joes.

We have a freezer full of peaches, several packages of meat and a lot of staples like beans, rice and lentils as well as canned goods to work with this next week!

Shopping for the week and Weight Watchers progress

Though I am still clipping coupons and bargain shopping, grocery shopping while on a diet is a whole different animal. My diet is heavy on produce and lean protein, and while bargains are out there, they are much harder to come by than those on snack foods, pasta, juice, cereal and the like. Cooking for the 6 of us (my family minus Louis plus my parents) is a challenge these days!

The list of things that will please all of us at the same time is short. Even breakfast which should be easy is a challenge when all of a sudden the toddlers are not satisfied with their favorite oatmeal or cereal and want what mommy is having (whole wheat toast with two eggs)! If I wasn't nursing I could just add some extra produce and eat smaller portions of what everyone else is eating, but nursing makes my appetite like a lumberjack's:). I have to be careful to eat things that are the biggest bang for my buck nutritionally and filling-wise while still being lower calorie (hence the produce, lean proteins and a small amount of whole grain). I try to budget points for some dark chocolate and a low sugar iced latte every day so I don't feel deprived. Its working pretty well overall. Its the cooking for everyone else that is tough! But I love to grocery shop and cook so it is worth the effort. At last weigh-in I was down 5 lbs total (22 more to go until my personal goal) which is fairly encouraging. I finally had to admit it was just going to be harder to lose weight with baby #3 than with #1. I saw a quote on the WW boards this week that I loved: "losing weight is hard. Being fat is hard. Pick your hard". So true! Having less energy, clothes that don't fit right, etc. are all hard. And losing weight is hard too, but worth it if for the right reason.

Anyway...here's what I bought last week: Walgreens-highlights: Fusion Proglide razor for $0.89, Colgate toothbrush $0.25, Garnier Herbashine haircolor $1.99, Crunch bars about $0.15 each after coupons!

Albertson's: $10.11 after coupons (used $20 from buying $100 in giftcards we'd use anyway!) plus $5 off coupon from signing up for Albies' mailing list. I bought two $11 packages of meat (skinless boneless chicken and hamburger) that were on sale since I am using more of it with WW. Canned veggies for $0.50, pineapple $1.23 after coupons, Gulden mustard $0.65, Claussen pickles (love!) for $0.99 each after promo and $2 facebook coupon, turkey bacon $0.74, Coke Zero $0.50 each, candy bars free, La Victoria chilis (for White chicken chili) $0.69 after $2 coupon. Sadly, the double coupons were GONE when I got there. I found the last Seattle Times though so I had 3 whole double coupons so I bought a lot less than I planned. But it worked out okay, I was pretty tired and so was my shopping buddy, Louis by that time!

Bargains this week

$0.38/lb bananas and Free Chocolate Silk Soymilk from Martin's Marketplace.

Albertson's: free lunchables, free garden ronzoni and cheap whole wheat pasta ($0.50 after coupon). I was glad I didn't wait to get a few until doubles came because the store was wiped out on Monday. I got a rain check so I'll get 10 more eventually (we use 1-2 boxes of pasta a week). The French's honey mustard was on markdown for $1.00 and I had $0.75 off coupons. The balloons and streamers were $0.50 on clearance and used for Liv's 2nd birthday yesterday!

Weekly Shopping Trip (loves me some bargains!)

Fred Meyer $21.64

Founders Day is awesome! I printed up and clipped a few coupons and went yesterday and was glad I did. Lots of stuff that was out of stock when my mom went earlier in the week was back in (Skippy PB, Tillamook, etc.). My favorite deal was the Mom's best cereal for $0.25/box after coupon (I used two computers and printed 5 total). Other great deals: free Neutrogena facial soap using instore hanging coupon, Kettle Tias for $1.17 each (bought 4) after coupon, Knudsen Just Cherry Juice for $1.54 after coupon, cheap Tillamook cheese and yogurt and Luna Bars. Also got whole wheat pastry flour for baking since we're out: full price :(.

Rite Aid: $3.70

Notice the try me free on the Smart Start!

Top Foods Deals

If you have a Top Foods nearby this is a great week to shop there! I was able to purchase:

1 whole chicken
12 cans old orchard 100% juice (frozen)
3 packs tofu (on markdown)
8 1 lb packs frozen veggies
1 Nestle cookie dough (marked down)
2 boxes honey nut cheerios
3 cresent rolls
2 packs large eggs

for just over $16!

I would post a picture but our camera (and my mom's!) are both broken so we are in the market for a new one. If you see a hot deal on one please let us know (under $100:).

Loves me some grocery bargains Feb 9th, 2011

All the stores in town have their good points and bad points, but recently it has been a real love/hate kind of relationship. Take Safeway for instance. The deals were amazing last week especially with coupons and the Joy of Football coupon book, but half the Joy of Football coupons failed to come off my order everytime I used them!

Exhibit A: Safeway about $20 (too lazy to grab receipts as usual). Around $15 of that was the steak, so $5 for 4 tostitos, 2 Safeway Salsas, 2 packages all Beef Hebrew National hotdogs (reg. $4.99 each!), and gold n soft light butter. BUT, I had to get the receipt adjusted to that by customer service, which was okay, but he looked skeptical as I explained what had happened!

Walgreens: Spent about $2 oop and used $2 more in RR than I left with so all this "cost" about $4. Love this haircolor, so amazing deal overall.

Albertson's: Too complicated to explain, but I used my raincheck for oats from last week's sale to get my last 20 Quaker oats for less than $5 total. The rest of what is pictured here was less than $1 after doubles and coupons.

Side note, the only reason I was able to do so many transactions with doubles was because my mom was awesome and got a ton of ads from the highschool she works at. They kept bringing her more and more ads...so if you are in the area and the doubles end up in the ads themselves talk to me and I can probably hook you up:)

Side note #2, this of course isn't all the shopping I did, just the best deals. We also bought milk products and produce at another time, including a huge bag of spinach and two huge jars of pickles my dad bought at Costco. Good pregnant lady foods:)

Some shopping before my camera busted.

My camera is probably done for this time. The battery holder was loose before, but now it doesn't register that batteries are in there at all...no matter how much you mess with it. Bummmer! So...a few pictures of this past week's shopping before my camera bit the big one.

Walgreens: $3.76 (guess on the cents here) used $1.50 RR and got $10 back! Used free Breathe Right Coupon from last WAGS visit, bought baby forks and spoons on clearance $1.09 and snickers (last minute as filler to use RR) $0.69. More Maalox for the raging heartburn within me:)

Fred Meyer: $13 (approx) after $3 catalina from coffee mate. Cheap Broccoli, eggs, butter and $0.75 Ronzoni Smart Taste, which I primarily bought for the $1 of Classico peelie attached! (those make for $0.69 Classico at Safeway this weekend!)

Grocery Trip 1/15/11 (loves me some grocery bargains)

I finally was under budget! My last couple of weeks have been over (when counting toiletries etc.) so I was happy to even things out a bit this week. Albies' doubles helped ALOT.

Total Spent this week: about $37
Below: Albertson's (3 doubles transactions), Food Pavillion mostly for produce, and Safeway.

Albertson's again (3 transactions of doublers). The Kikkoman cat did not print for me. But, somehow they were still free with coupons and doublers, so a good deal for something we use a lot of.

This week is a good illustration of why couponers can pay very little for groceries and not just eat junk. We have a few treats (juice, whole grain crackers w/cheese filling, a few butterfingers) but mostly real food like produce, yogurt, veggies, nuts, hummus, meat and several reasonably healthy cereal choices.

Food Pavillion shopping trip

There are some *hot* deals at Food Pavillion this week, but unfortunately they panic if you use a single coupon. That is what happened to me and I did just that...use ONE coupon:). So the store was dead and they called for backup to look at my one Special K printable...so I ended up with a line of 8 behind me! Talk about encouraging shoppers to come back! Anyway, I got some great produce deals.

Total for all above: about $15. There is enough fruit there to last our family of 6 for a week and a half plus 4 huge heads of Romaine lettuce ($0.58/each!). Milk was $1.67 with in-ad coupon limit one.

Weekly Shopping Trip (loves me some grocery bargains)

Rite Aid and Walgreens: $15, but I have $10 in RR for WAGS next week. The special K was less than $0.30 a box after bogos and UP rewards. We are SO stocked for breakfast!

Freddies: $25. This was my last stop late at night but I scored a few freebies and good deals. I FINALLY found Toby's products and got some tofu dip with two free coupons I've had for almost a year. Also found a breathe right free coupon in the coupon Xchange. The Adam's PB was $2 each (not an amazing deal) but I found rebate sheets in front for buy 2 Adam's PB get a $10 gift card! I thought that would come in handy sometime for the hubby:), $0.49 FE salad kit, $1.50 for string cheese, $1.49 for Jimmy Dean Delight breakfast sammies (a treat), and cheap oranges, bananas, pickles round out the big trip.

Albies: $7. Most of this was from the Newspaper $2, eggs $1.99 and the Sprite $2 for $3. We have sickies here who requested sprite so it was an okay deal for me. The Fiber Plus, Wholly Guac, and Xtra detergent were free, bestlife spread was $0.50 even w/o a double.

I finally ran into some other serious couponers last night @ Albies. A bunch of cute young ladies (mommies?) were comparing notes and transactions and the bagger gave them a new sheet of doublers after each transaction! I knew I was in the right place:)

Spent $2 @ Wal-mart today on white beans and brown sugar so that brings my total for this week (and also the new month's total) to $49.

Last week's double runs and Rite Aid

Albertson's, last week...the turkey price was calculated on sale based on regular prices so I only spent $15 or so for all this. I had no coupons for the syrup, graham cracker crust but they were items the family requested.

Rite Aid: less than $5 for all this after Up rewards, coupons, and sale. Love it!

Target: $2.05 for all this...pretty much ready for Thanksgiving items!

Albies, again. Doublers run. Not sure of exact but around $5 for all, including a few things we just needed like bouillon and the bags (Hefty one zip were gone and would have been free, but these were a dollar each). Bisquick was $0.50 for the big box (like to do scratch but these are nice for quick biscuits or rare occasions), Michelina dinners were $0.10 each (got 10) for dad's lunches, Tree Top and Swiss Miss were both free! The soup was $0.19 after doubles.

Loves me some grocery bargains: Albies & Wal-Mart

While I do not love Wal-Mart, it came in handy today when I needed a lot of staples (sugar, rice, eggs, beans etc.) that didn't have coupons or sales at most other stores this week. Plus running around to bargain hunt isn't my idea of a good time when pregnant and toting toddlers! So Albies had to fulfill all the bargain hunting I wanted to do and Wal-Mart filled in the rest:)

And here's what we'll be eating this week:

At Wal-Mart I spent about $22:

A freebie: 4 bottles of Gain dish liquid
Cheap: cream of mushroom soup $0.30 after coupon and sale
Ritz Munchables $0.98 after coupon (we've been out of crackers for awhile and hubby was going through withdrawls!)

At Albertson's I spent about $26 in two transactions.

Free: bananas (nilla wafers peelie), corn tortillas, Capn' Crunch cereal
Nestle Halloween theme cookie dough.
Cheap: Wheat Thins (like I said, we were out and this deal was good enough!)
Jenni-O Turkey Sausages (marked down $3 to just over $1 each!) ground pork for $1.50, olive oil for $2 (after other doubles overage?), Juicy Juicy for $1!

Snag any great bargains this week?

Loves me some grocery bargains (but blowing that budget!)

I knew this was not going to be a good week for the ole food budget. My all-day sickness has required a sort of creative cooking that I haven't done much before. I cannot cook the same thing for dinner twice or it makes me feel sick. And I have to prepare 99% of the dinner meal before 8 or 9am because that is when I don't feel nauseous (so I guess I have the opposite of morning sickness??). Does this mean I have a boy this time...or TWINS?!?!? Anybody? ;)

Anyway. I went to Fred Meyer and Rite Aid. Its too tiring to go to more stores like I used to so I bought everyone I needed in one stop at Freddies and picked up some clearance food and FREE diapers at Rite Aid.


Total for Fred Meyer: $69. A little more explanation...we are now feeding 2 more adults and they are more ummm...specific on what foods they'll eat than we are so it costs more. Dunkin donuts decaf for example. This trip also picked up some "once in awhile" items like molasses, butttermilk powder, whole wheat flour and spices along with good coffee which was $30 of the total alone. Some good deals: 1 lb organic spinach for $2.50, cage free eggs for $1.50 ea, Campbell's select harvest soup for $0.25/each after coupon, $0.50 barilla pasta and $0.99 Quaker Oatmeal Square cereal which is now our new family favorite:)

Rite Aid: (my new favorite drug store!): not sure of total because I used Up rewards for most of it from last week's Johnson and Johnson deal.
Found all sorts of clearance food, including albacore tun (worked out to be 4 cans for under $1.00!), Starbucks coffee for $2.47 each (and each one has a coupon for a free tall coffee at Starbucks on it!), oats for $0.50 (clearance and Quaker), granola bars for a few cents after clearance, coupon and up reward, and better than free Peppermint celestial tea after up reward and clearance prices! It would have been even better had I printed the coupon available (not sure where now).

Huggies: 3 free (actually a money maker) after coupons, up rewards, rebate.

Loves me some grocery bargains

Harris Teeter $14.xx

Not much excitement here this week folks. Just a few neccessities as we finish up our time at JAARS. I also picked up milk at Walgreens for $3.29 (ouch!). The good deals here: 2lbs of ground beef for $2 and spinach marked down to $0.75/tub (because I saw the crushed box and asked how much they would be marked down to!;). We are set for our green smoothies this week (spinach, a little pineapple and frozen bananas, water!).

Menu Plan for the week of Aug 23rd, 2010

Here's what I bought for this week. We have a busy week at ICC...the homework is definitely intense some days! Trying to keep the meals easy or crockpot friendly most nights.

Here's what we'll be eating this week

Breakfasts: scrambled eggs, toast, brown sugar oatmeal pancakes (to use up milk that is going sour), fruit

Lunches/snacks: leftovers, cereal, green smoothies
Dinners:

Sunday: Fried noodle Rice (a really yummy creation!)
with salad
Monday: Turkey Tetrazinni, homemade soup, salad, pineapple

Tuesday: Chicken Caccitore (sp!?)

Wednesday: Baked Spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, pineapple

Thursday: Stir Fry over Brown Rice

Friday: Homemade Easy Pizza w/veggie sticks or bringing some dishes over to friends' house for dinner (if their kiddos get better)

Saturday: Tuna Noodle Casserole
What's on your menu this week?

Loves me some grocery bargains...

The 2 weeks left in Waxhaw, NC edition:)

Less than 2 weeks of ICC to go! And the girls are finally both healthy. So...today I picked up a few basics and used up my $5 catalina at Food Lion. I even got some free Food Lion reusable bags as a souvenir:) All in all I spent just under $14 this week, mostly because I am starting to clean out our pantry and freezer and this time we probably won't be back.

Here's what we bought:
Harris Teeter: $8.76
3 Smart Balance Milks $1 each after coupon
6 dozen eggs (to last 2 weeks!) $0.67 each after BOGO sale
M&M's free
Yo-Plus yogurt X3 $0.33 each after coupon
beef $0.36 after winetag

Food Lion $5.xx
Spinach $2.39
Onions 3lb $2.99
yeast (for pizza crust!) $1.49
bananas
2 cans green beans $0.67/each (one of the few veggies I can get my picky 1 year old to eat IF I serve them before other food is in sight and when she's hungry!)
2 Food Lion reusable bags (2/$1 and used one $1 off winetag)

Loves me some grocery bargains!

Looking over my purchases I think I overbought this week! In light of the fact that we were gifted with 3 bags of food and I have a good amount in our cupboards I think I will have to put a halt on most shopping until we leave here. Hopefully eggs, milk and a few misc. veggies and fruits will be all I need from here on out!

Harris Teeter: $5.77

This trip was essentially free after all is said and done because the chocolate icecream I got for Daniel's birthday has a try me free rebate! The sale price was $5.35 (what!?) so I will get that back at some point.
Also bought:
Free: Terra Chips, whole wheat tortillas (2), yogurt and yogurt smoothies, Minute Brown Rice. Cheap: chicken legs ($0.25/lb after winetag!), BestLife Buttery Spread, Ragu Sauce, Turkey Hill Green Tea ($0.19/ea), and finally the necessity, milk. I used a $10 Kellogg Catalina and one of my $1 coupons did not double.

Aldis: $41

I bought frosting forgetting that I had some at home already (doh!), and probably should have only gotten one grape pack (great deal though...2lbs for $1.38!). The sugar was also probably not necessary...I found a little jar of it and we could've made due for the next three weeks. Ah well. The rest of the stuff is necessities or for Daniel's bday cake:
eggs (5 dozen...we eat lots of eggs these days with P90X!), tuna, cukes, carrots, jalapenos (for the hubby!), ground turkey, cottage cheese, bananas, grapes, pineapple ($0.99!), peanut butter, sugar, pie crust, pudding (both for bday), mixades, tea (no more soda for us so we drink these), choco chips, zucchini, paper towels, lettuce, 2 bags spinach, frosting, frozen apple juice concentrate for the sick girlie, baby shampoo, frosting. So...lots of necessities but I could've saved a few bucks by more careful planning.

What did you buy this week?

Menu Plan for our first full week back at JAARS!

Here we are in NC again...whooo boy its muggy here!

Our grocery shopping was spendy this week--we were starting out with a couple boxes of nonperishable foodstuffs but that was it. So in addition to what's below I also bought about $8 in more milk, dishsoap, laundry soap and tortillas. I spent $64 at Harris teeter (received $10 cat back for next time)

Its difficult to see but there are two packages of Pampers, 7 packages of Morningstar veggie patties/crumbles, 6 lbs of ground beef, lots of produce 3 1/2 dozen eggs, 6 packages of cheese, 2 lbs coffee, 8 poptarts (better than free...otherwise these are not on my list!), 4 nutrigrains( better than free plus I got the coffee free by buying these!), and one fruit loops(also better than free with the Kelloggs catalina!). So...we are fairly well set up for the amount of money.
I also spent $7.50 at the flea market we had to go to for a cultural assignment. The produce prices were pretty good! I wish I'd have bought more, actually:).

Daniel's new obsession is jalapenos...he eats them raw for breakfast on eggs. Yes, he's crazy:) Must be all the exercise he's been doing (P90X!).

Here's what we'll be eating this week

Breakfasts: scrambled eggs, oatmeal, toast

Lunches/snacks: leftovers, cereal, crackers & cheese, fruit
Dinners:

Sunday: Spicy Tacos w/lots of guacamole, peppers

Monday: Beef & Cabbage stir fry over egg noodles, cheesy biscuits

Tuesday: Meatless meat crumbles in a creamy sauce over brown rice, zucchini

Wednesday: Spagetti with marinara, leftover cheesy biscuits

Thursday: Hamburgers, egg noodles, coleslaw

Friday: Homemade Easy Pizza w/veggie sticks

Saturday: Grilled Cheese and leftovers ...shopping today!

What's on your menu this week?

Albies Doubler Fun & a few other deals

We finally firmed up plans and got the okay to go on a week long camping trip next week on the Oregon Coast! We have to okay stuff like that with our "boss" at Wycliffe because our full time jobs are kind of non-traditional--partnership development (raising our team of supporters). So...yay! Plus, that means I get to use our camping trip as an excuse to keep grocery bargain hunting;).

Albies doubler run: $2.77 after $5 catalina factored in!

Favorite deals:Kellogg's deal: Buy 8 participating products, each one is $1.50. All 5 Cinnabon Cereals were free after doublers and the Kashi Crackers were only $0.50 and nutrigrain bars were $0.75. Mission whole wheat tortillas $0.49 after peelie, Sun detergent $0.99, Activia free, Herbal Essence trial size shampoos and conditioners were about a $1 money maker after catalina, and the Tyson strips of chicken were $.90 a package.

QFC and Safeway:

Not exceptional deals but favorites were: Free dentyne gum, $2 for 2 lbs of organic Spinach (that's a lot of spinach...that stuff is very light!), $2.50 each for lb of string cheese (great high protein low cal snack), skim milk $1.50 for gallon, good tomatoes for $0.99/lb, mom to mom diaper ointment for $1.99 after coupon found in pharmacy (which we needed badly for Liv!),albacore tuna for $.88, shrimp 1/2 lb for $1.50 (lots of protein for the dieting mama!). Also free bananas with Nilla Wafers purchase (on super coupon for $1.99 at Safeway). We also got some really yummy lipton sparkling teas for $1.67 for a 6 pack...which is a great price for these. A treat for me since I can't have sugar! :)