I'm Back!

Hello!  I FINALLY have my computer back and am ready to get back to blogging!  Obviously I have been out of commission for many, many months.  I apologize that it has taken so long but unfortunately, having a major over-haul on my computer really wasn't in the budget.  I am so surprised to see how many people keep checking in or otherwise I might have quit it all together.  I wish this "debut" post were more exciting but I'm still working on getting all of my pictures downloaded and organized.  Therefore, here is a quick little blurb about an ongoing project I've been working on.  It's no secret that I love a good bargain.  The past two years of shopping with coupons has allowed me to stock my home with everything I use at unbelievable prices.  So much so in fact, that I am kind-of morphing into more of a wholesale type shopper.  I've been tracking all of the items I use in my home for about a year.  I've also tracked at what price I've purchased the item.  This ensures that in the future I really will only buy something at rock bottom prices.  One thing I have grown to love is the bulk food section at WinCo.  When I am planning my weekly shopping trips I like to compare the prices to WinCo and a couple other grocery stores.  Unfortunately, WinCo will not give prices over the phone.  IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!!!  Because of this, they have lost some of my business because I'm not going to make the 25 minute drive if I am not 100% sure it's worth my time.  I created this little spreadsheet to help me out.  I went to the WinCo closest to me and wrote down all of the items I use (not everything, sorry).  I don't know if their prices are the same everywhere, but I figured I would share my findings in case anyone would find this helpful.   Email me at mapleandvine@hotmail.com and I can email you the .pdf.  I'm really glad I did this because Walgreen's has Clabber Girl baking powder on sale this week.  Without a manufacturer's coupon, it would be better to purchase at WinCo.  However, with the mq, I now know I definitely needt to get it at Walgreen's.  Make sense?  Anyway, like I said, not exciting but I love saving as many pennies as I can by shopping smart. 

Walgreen's Report

This week's trip to Walgreen's was rather disappointing.  There were so many other items I wanted to buy that were out of stock.  In fact, the last couple of trips I've made have been a little annoying.  I don't understand why a store that is well aware of the amount of customers who use coupons doesn't order more of their products to sustain a sale.  And, if you're not actually going to enforce a limit on the quantities, then why even waste the time to hang up the tags?  That said, I acknowledge that this is all part of the game and also because I don't shop on Sunday's I don't get first dibs on all of the products.  Alright, I'm off my soapbox.  In the end, I am still saving massive amounts of money and I did purchase some higher priced items.  I got all this for $8.80.

K-Mart Shopping

I'm not a huge fan of Walmart.  Actually, that's putting it lightly.  I detest Walmart.  I literally feel myself get angry for no reason when I walk in the door.  Especially now that coupon shopping is my way of life.  Sometimes I look at the prices and think to myself, "Do people really think these are good prices?"  Unfortunately, there are times when I really do need to go in and grab some things.  I know I am not in the "norm" when it comes to this but I much prefer K-Mart to Walmart and fortunately for me, K-Mart is closer to me anyway.  When I am in the need of some discount items for my home that is usually where I end up.  The store I shop at is very clean and organized but I admit their prices are slightly higher than Walmart.  I get around this by waiting for the items to go on sale and then they are usually cheaper.  Anyway, the point of this post is that they now offer a great rewards program which has sealed the deal in choosing K-Mart over the other.  It is a program where you sign up with your personal information and get a card...just like at some grocery stores.  Every time you shop, you need to swipe your card so you earn points for everything you purchase.  These points add up and can be redeemed like cash.  Also, they periodically have double coupon sales in certain departments.  I didn't realize until yesterday that they were having one of those sales this week.  They will double coupons up to $2.00!!!!  That is a HUGE deal in couponing!  You can only use 5 coupons per day so I was sad that I only discovered this was going on today or I would have made a few trips this week.  After I combined their store sales with my double coupons I got all of this for only $12.36.  I also redeemed my points that were on my rewards card and what do you know?  I had $5.00 worth of points so my total only came to $7.36.  I was listening to an employee tell another customer that she saved all of her points until Christmas last year and had $200.00 in points that she was able to use for gifts.  And I'm sorry, the same toys are sold at K-Mart as anywhere else so why not get them for absolutely free?  I think that is a great idea and I'm going to save mine for the end of the year as well.  And, even better, you also get points for shopping at Sears.  If you want to check out their program click HERE!

Walgreen's Report

I haven't been to Walgreen's for what seems like forever.  I was excited to get back there this week.  I didn't have any register rewards to start with and I also ended up buying a gallon of milk I needed so I ended up spending about $15.00 out of pocket and I have $1.00 in rewards to use next week.   I purchased:  1 bottle olive oil, 4 boxes of Nature Valley granola bars, 2 bottles of gummy vitamins, 2 boxes of mini candy canes, 1 package of Bic razors, 2 boxes of Tylenol Precise pain reliever and a gallon of milk.  I'm excited to be back in the game of adding to my food and home storage for a fraction of the cost and I can't wait to use the little candy canes for some Valentine's cookies I've seen around blog land.

Sensational Smiths Trip

I was so excited for my grocery shopping trip this week.  I haven't been for quite some time, almost a couple of months actually.  I haven't even been to Walgreens the past couple of weeks.  I've been really busy with a lot of family activities, getting the house decorated for Christmas and so on and so on.  I was down to my last loaf of bread and gallon of milk and knew I needed to get over there while they were still having their wonderful "round-up to a dollar" coupon event. I ended up spending about double what I like to at the grocery store but considering I've only spent around $100.00 or so over the past couple of months on my shopping trips it's I figured it's okay to splurge every once in a while.  While I was at the store I ended up buying quite a few items that weren't on my list and I didn't have coupons for because I knew they were still a great price and I might as well stock up while I can.  My original total was $150.42.  After coupons and sales my total was 69.34.  Happy couponing!

The Coupon That Keeps On Giving

Alright, so maybe that's a bit of a stretch but I promised I would share great deals as I came across them and this is a phenomenal coupon for Bath and Body Works.  Spend $10.00 and you can get one item free up to a $13.00 value.  I can't share exactly what I got because I am giving everything away as gifts but I ended up purchasing seven items and my total was only $10.58.  Not too shabby!  Plus one item I purchased had another $10.00 off coupon and then I also got another one at the register.  I certainly think I'll end up purchasing a few more gifts at these amazing prices.  The good news is that you can also use the coupon online so if you don't live near a store you can still score a great deal.  Click HERE to print yours! 

Walgreen's Report

Tons and tons of really great stuff is on sale at Walgreen's this week.  I only focused on a few things got this for $2.96 and have $3.00 rr's for next week.

Walgreen's Report

Sorry this post is so late in the week but it almost didn't happen at all.  I've been super sick the past few days and had some car problems so shopping hasn't been high on the priority list.  In fact, it wouldn't have happened at all if I didn't have some register rewards expiring today (and I couldn't just throw "free money" away)!  There were a lot of great deals in this week's ad but I only bought a few things.  All of their Halloween candy is on clearance so I am stocking up on some bags of caramels which will be used for making caramel brownies.  I'm going to experiment with my food saver to see if they will stay soft when they are vacuum sealed.  I sure hope so.  I only spent $1.93 OOP and have $5.00 in RR's.  Yay for two weeks of coming in well under my $10.00 limit!

Walgreen's Report

At first when I was planning this weeks Walgreen's trip I was a little disappointed by the ad.  However, I quickly realized there were a few phenomenal deals.  Really, I'm not exaggerating.  This week I only spent $1.74!!!!  Yes, this is why I LOVE shopping with coupons.  The reason my total was so low was because there were some great money makers this week.  For example, the Colgate Sensitive Toothpaste was $3.49.  A typical price for that type of toothpaste.  I used a manufacturer coupon for $1.00 off bringing the cost to $2.49.  But then, a $3.50 register reward printed (making me $1.00 profit) which I then used on my next transaction (this is called rolling).  Also, the Contac cold & flu medicine was on sale for $6.00.  I used a $2.00 manufacturer coupon bringing the total to $4.00.  It then printed a $6.00 register reward, making me $2.00.  If you take some time to plan your transactions it is well worth the money you save!  Even better, I still have $6.00 in register rewards to use next week so it's like I made $4.26 just to shop at Walgreen's!

Walgreen's Report (and Walmart-Gasp!)

Howdy!  This week was a great week at Walgreen's.  I realized I was starting to venture a little too far from my goal of only spending $10.00 so I changed up my plan for this week and really focused on some items I was close to running out of.  I only spent $9.91.  Not bad for some Mucinex included since medicine usually ups the total.  I also bought 3 Halloween cups for the girls that weren't really necessary.  It was a good week.  Yay!

I also went to Walmart on Saturday.  Surprised?  Yes, I know, I absolutely detest Walmart but I had to go pick up the invitations I had printed for the Halloween party and figured that while I was there I would grab some some items for super cheap!

These bad boys actually made me some money.  Only $.04, but I'm not complaining.  I've never tried them before but figured that I'd give them a try since they were free.

The tuna pouch was only $.09

and all 3 of these came to just $.75!

This is when it would be nice to get multiple papers (as most coupon shopper do, I just prefer not to do it that way) but I'll take what I can get!

Walgreen's Report

The good news is that I made it to Walgreens today so what I was looking for was in stock.  The bad news is that I am a little disappointed with myself.  I ended up spending $17.91.  Almost double what I'm trying to spend.  However, my consolation is that I did buy quite a few higher end items.  Am I fooling myself here, thinking I'm doing a good job?  I guess as discouraged as I get at times in this quest of mine, I can't deny that I have closets and a pantry that are full and overflowing on less than I had been spending 2 years ago so I am proud of that.  Anyway, here is my picture of this week's Walgreen's purchase.

Walgreen's Report

Hey Everyone! I just wanted to give you an update as to how my $10.00 Walgreen's challenge is going. Last week was kind of a bust. I had my whole shopping list planned but then I didn't make it to the store and half the stuff I wanted was gone. This is definitely one of the drawbacks to coupon shopping but honestly it was my own fault for not going earlier. When I go on Monday or Tuesday I rarely have a problem. This week I got my fanny in there yesterday. This week wasn't one of the huge amazing weeks but I am still very happy with my purchase, especially because there were some higher cost items this week.

My total for the week was $10.08!!!!!  My best score was getting all 4 packs of gum for 12 cents...a whopping 3 cents per pack! We go through gum like crazy at my house so any time I can get for next to nothing I am happy.