Savings at Safeway

This was another delightful trip to Safeway!  Thanks to the 6 x 11 card o'coupons we received in the mail advertising ways to create inexpensive meals.  The coupons were for free Safeway branded items.  For the most part, I ain't too picky when it comes to brand names (...I did say for the most part)!  There were some pretty good items on there (ie. marinade, salad dressing, salsa, $3.50 4lb bag of chicken chichis, etc.). The only catch was that I had to spend a minimum of $10.  Since I already had my coups out for various other items and on the hunt for the $2.49 Best Foods, that was not an issue.

I must pause to mention that I happened to notice that Safeway had their own brand of cooking sprays.  Once upon a time, Trader Joe's had this baking spray that had flour in it.  It was terrific but like a handful of items from the past like my beloved flake salt and lysine, it has disappeared never to return!  Needless to say, when I spied a similar canned substance of a Safeway Select nature, I was all over it, especially at $2 a can.  Definitely worth a shot (or a spray)!

Back to my delightful coupon experience, it's not the most fabulous coupon raid I've had but I think that getting all of these items for $18.39 made for a very nice visit!  Here's to free tortillas and salsa (and a bunch of other free shiz!)!!!

$18.39 for all this shiz!!!

P.S.  Remember when Lucky ("the low price leader") used to be in this neck of the hood and "3 was a crowd"?  Those were the days because 3 is DEFINITELY not a crowd at THIS Safeway!  Apparently it takes about six on four different registers...

A little here, a little there, a lot of savings everywhere!

The couponing adventures have continued.  I think I'm finally getting the hang of this.  After missing out on my KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce for $.50 after coupon at Target a few weeks back, I thought I'd skeet skirt on out early last week.  

Last Monday's rendezvous started at Walgreens:

Four 12 oz bags of M&Ms for $.75 ea!  The stinky thing is that I now have $5 in Register Rewards (like cash) that I must spend before a certain date.  In my opinion these are a PIA to use but we’ll be needing drugs here pretty soon for my Lindsay so that will definitely come in handy. 

Here’s how:

Courtesy of MyFrugalAdventures:

M&Ms Candy 4/$10

Get $5 Register Reward
Use  $1/2 Mars Bags Of M&M’s or Dove Chocolate, 7 Varieties, exp. 10/31/11 (RP 08/28/11)

Final Price: as low as $.50 per bag after coupons and RR 

My next stop was Safeway for CheezIts!

These were on sale for $1.49 with a Safeway coupon and Club card.  Because I earned a $3 catalina (Safeway cash) from my Gain purchase, this little purchase cost me $1.47 for three boxes! 

But wait, it gets better…

My third and final stop was Target.  This time I went straight back to see if they had perhaps restocked the BBQ sauce..  The heavens must have opened because ONE bottle had dropped from the sky, calling MY name!  I had two coupons but I guess one bottle is better than nothing, right?  Whatever.

Upon check out, I had

One bottle of KC Masterpiece

One 32 oz jar of Mt. Olive pickle relish

Three boxes of Zatarian rice

TOTAL: $3.53
  

BUT because of a balance from the Target gift card I had received from a prior purchase of razors, my total out of pocket for this trip was $1.43!

What a rush!

Extreme Couponing: Turner Edition

I've been on a coupon kick since the beginning of the year. Between Extreme Couponing on TLC and a local coupon group, I've been intrigued by the bargains to be had.  Nothing like the extreme couponers spotlighted on the show because our stores won't double coupons.  While being in California puts us at a serious disadvantage, there are still deals to be had!  It's really the thrill of it all.  Plus, who wants to pay real money for poopoo things like razors and Ziplocs?!

My latest achievement was at Target today. I LOVE Target!!!  This is probably one of my biggest triumphs with couponing to date! Take a look:

Four boxes of ZipLocs

Four pkgs of four Shick Quattro razors

Two Oral B floss

One container of TicTacs

One pkg Zantac 150

The purchase of the razors yielded two $5 gift cards, bringing down my net total to 

$12.95

Of course, because Target is going through some mad clearance thing right now, I found a few extra items that I considered to be bargains:  

One pkg of mayo/mustard/ketchup

One MadGab card game

I'd still consider myself a novice at this stuff.  Being at that register with my book of coups, fingers crossed hoping that the plan works as described on various other coupon blogs, can be a tad stressful.  However, the worst thing that could happen is that they won't honor the deal and I walk away!  No money lost.  

While I'm still a novice, I met someone in the ZipLoc aisle in Target today.  I had been there trying to decide whether my ZipLoc bag purchase was a real deal or not.  FYI - it was a GREAT deal on ZipLoc brand sandwich and snack size bags, perhaps even the gallon size.  Target brand bags were the same price.    With the coupons, ZipLocs were actually cheaper, so why not.  However, the freezer bags weren't such a deal.  I had to check myself as I placed those freezer bags in the cart and then removed them.  It's definitely a better deal to buy Target brand freezer bags than Ziploc bags unless there's a really terrific sale, FYI.  Anywho, so I see this woman with her binder of coups and she's flipping through them.  I thought she would be able to assist me with her coupon knowledge.  WRONG!  She can't print coupons from the internet!!!  HELLO!!  That's where half the deals are!  I didn't feel like such a novice after all.  Girl looked like she walked the walk but in the end, she wasn't worth much to my coupon experience.  Good luck to her!  I proceeded with my project.

What are your favorite coupon blogs?  What's your most exciting coupon adventure?  

Dontcha just love Target?