Q&A - part 3 - this one's for Cate

Just one question this time, from Cate: That is a really cool idea. There don't seem to be any stores in my area participating. I notice that about your posts, too, that you have different stores where you live. I've never heard of Tom Thumb. Do you know of any other blogs/sources that focus on deals in other areas (like, say, New England)?

This is making the latent (and formerly employed) researcher in me happy. I'm just going to pick Boston as my town and see what I can find. Cate - you're lucky both of my kids are sleeping, both of your kids are adorable, and I'm bored. If these don't match your stores - lmk and I'll try again.

So, it looks like Boston has these chain stores (in addition to local stores):

Shaw's - go here for info on store promos, online printable coupons, etc. Looks like they send home mailers, so probably worth making sure they have your info registered on your shopping card.
Stop & Shop - here for info on the store card - again, looks like they send home mailers so register your card
Trader Joe's - I am SO jealous.
Whole Foods - here's the Boston store's home page - dang your flier is better than mine.

Tom Thumb is part of the Safeway family of stores, which include Safeway, Carrs, Dominick's, Genuardi's, Pavilions, Tom Thumb, and Vons - I'm not seeing any of these in Boston.

I googled "Shaw's coupon match-ups" and "Stop & Shop coupon match-ups" and found these two blogs. They seem like they're along the lines of what I'm trying to do. The others I found are more like Money Saving Mom - and I'm partial to her. Let me know if these are good.

The Wandering Peanut (Connecticut)
The $200 Mission looks like she does match-ups for both Shaw's and Stop & Shop

And, of course, my favorite Hot Coupon World. Here are the Shaw's forum and the Stop & Shop forum.

Hope some of that helps!

Sonic - Free Root Beer Floats tonight starting at 8:00

We hit Sonic for half price burgers last night. I HAD to get the kids out of the house, but since we're still contagious we couldn't get out of the car.

Tonight, Sonic is offering Free Root Beer Floats from 8pm to midnight. Go here to find a location near you.

The kids and I are getting out for this. I'm sure that the wait will be crazy, but we'll act like it's an adventure. I have a kids' cd of silly songs I checked out from the library. They haven't heard it yet, so I'm going to surprise them with it while we wait. Should be fun and at least we'll get out of the house for a little while.

If you go, please tip your carhop - they're going to be skating their lil' butts off.

updated totals to include the $9.25 we spent at Sonic last night:

$500 Challenge Totals:

food & eating out (includes HBA): $153.11 ($131.37 savings)
- (eating out $28.72)
gas: $70.53
clothing
coffee & beer making supplies: $52.05
household necessities (like air filters, etc)
entertainment:
- Derek allowance: $15.46
- Wendy allowance: $18.85
- Kids' allowance: $5
crafting supplies: $45.38
gifts: $12.88

Total spent: $373.26
Remaining: $126.74

Half Price Books summer reading club

Kam sent me this email:

Every week from June 1-July 31, 2009 kids 12 and under can earn a $3 shopping card at Half Price Books for reading for at least 15 minutes a day for at least five out of seven days a week. Visit the Half Price Books website for more details, to find a location near you and to download the weekly reading log.

I checked the site and reading TO your kids counts, too. We're definitely participating in this one! $3 can buy a couple of kids' books at Half Price - this is a fabulous offer! We're a stop, drop, and read family - 15 minutes a day? No problem!

Thanks Kam!

E-coupons

Do you use E-coupons? E-coupons are coupons that you load onto your shopper's card. They automatically come off when you check-out.

Some things to remember about E-coupons:

• They don't double or triple
• You can only use them once. If you buy two of the same item, they'll come off of the first one, but not the second. Once you use it, it's off of your card.
• Currently, you can use them along with a manufacturer's coupon on the same item.

You can find E-coupons at Shortcuts.com and Cellfire. Cellfire asks for a cell phone number, but I just used my home number, since I don't pay for text messages.

There is a new source for E-coupons for Kroger customers: Bringing Hope to the Table

You can upload up to 25 coupons at a time onto your Kroger card. Thanks Common Sense With Money!

I was going to be funny

and title this post beer and babies - then I changed my mind. ;)

Tara emailed me to let me know that she found Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for $19.99 for the 24 pack at Costco. That's a really great price for a yummy summer time brew.

I really like Costco. Time is money and I think of the time I spend couponing as sweat equity. If you don't have time to coupon and you are cognizant of prices and using what you buy, then I think you can find some great deals at Costco. When I've had a card in the past, I've found great deals on organic produce and dairy there. They also take really great care of their employees, which means something, too.

Now for the babies part: Freebies 4 Mom has a guest post about saving at Babies R Us. They have some new programs that they didn't have when I shopped there regularly, so I'm sending you over there to check it out.

Redbox code - free rental 6/1 only

I just got this email from Redbox:

Get a FREE one night rental from redbox when you buy a 3 oz Endangered Species Chocolate bar. This all natural chocolate bar using ethically-traded cacao, is a great-tasting hunk of chocolate yum you can feel good about. When you check out, your receipt will include your code.The offer's valid at Walgreen's from 6/1/09 to 7/31/09, so hurry. But does anyone really have to tell you to rush for a chocolate fix?

As I was coming to post it, I saw this post from Common sense with money: Get a free movie rental at Redbox locations today 6/1 only, when you use the code FM63H7 at checkout. To use the code you will need to visit your local Redbox location, select “Rent with Promo Code,” enter code, select movie and continue to check out. This code expires 6/1 at midnight CST. Thanks Cha-Ching on a Shoestring!

Enjoy!

$500 challenge - update

Crazy, crazy week for this family - cellulitis, wasp sting, stitches, possibly hand foot and mouth disease - woo!

So, I caved last night and ordered pizza. We always order from a local chicago style place. They have a pick-up special - 2 1-topping 16 inch pizzas and a 1 liter coke for $19.47. You get a card for each pizza you buy - 25 cards = any pizza free. We always order the pick-up special, so our pizzas are always $10 each. When we reach 25 cards, we call the giant everything on it pizza we order our $250 pizza.

Derek filled up is car: $35.52

Walgreens: fluids for my poor sick boy
bought:
Pedialyte $5.29 - used $2/1 insert coupon
2 ltr 7up $1 on sale
popcorn $1.99

paid with $5 RR and $1 RR from last weekend
spent: .28
saved: $8.89

Tom Thumb
The past couple of times I've gone to Tom Thumb they've given me catalinas of store coupons. (Catalina is the name of the company that makes those machines that print the coupons they give you with your receipt. So, those coupons are called catalinas. If you ever want to freak out a checker, ask them if their catalina machine is working. They'll think you're a secret shopper or from corporate or something.)

Anyway, the coupons have actually been pretty good. One was for $3 off of the 24 double roll pack of Cottonelle. It's a store coupon, so that means that I can "stack" it with a manufacturer coupon. (Most stores let you use one manu coupon and one store coupon per item. If you're not sure what you have, check the barcode. Manufacturer coupons always start with a 5 or a 9. Store coupons usually start with a 0.) So I had $4 off ($3 store and .50/1 doubled insert) - now I just needed a sale. The Sunday circular had purchase 2 large size items and get them for $9.99 each. Derek asked me for large trash bags for the yard, awhile back and I had a $1/1 Hefty insert q - so there was my second item.

I also had a $10/$50 coupon that my SIL gave me that I thought I might use. I rarely spend that much at Tom Thumb, but since I was already spending $15 (the Cottonelle and Hefty) and I knew I was going to check the dairy markdowns, I thought I'd see how close I was once I had the things I wanted.

Derek usually has a running list of things he wants me to keep an eye out for - I try to work them into deals whenever possible. He asked for wasp spray before I left and since one of those little &%^#'s stung me Sat morning, I was inclined to look for it.

One of the catalina coupons that I mentioned earlier was for $2 off a grande specialty Starbucks beverage in the store. I really, really wanted an iced coffee. It was a $1.95, and I figured it didn't count as "specialty." So, I was standing there trying to decide if I wanted a Mocha Frap. The barista asked me if I was looking for something in particular, and I told him that I really wanted the iced coffee but didn't think I could use the q. He said, "Well let's try it!" and it worked! I paid .11 for my grande iced coffee (the tax)! I tried to give him a tip, but he said they weren't allowed to accept them.

Armed with my .11 yummy bev, I hit the aisles and here's how I did:
2 - 27 oz Wallaby organic yogurt - marked down to $1.95 ea (and they don't expire until June 11!)
32 oz bag of shredded cheddar - marked down to $4.50 (again, June 11! The shredded cheese freezes really well - this went straight into the freezer.)
24 double roll pack of Cottonelle - $9.99 used $3 store and .50/1 doubled insert - so $5.99
55 bag Hefty large trash bags - $9.99 used $1 insert - so $8.99 (ok price - but worth it to get the toilet paper so cheaply and to check an item off my honey-get list)
1 gal organic whole milk - $5.49 (on sale but not marked down - Derek wants to make homemade ice cream)
1 carton organic heavy whipping cream - $3.79 (homemade ice cream)
1 10-pack Nestle lil' drums - $5.19 used $1/1 manu coupon I found in Family Fun magazine (outrageously expensive, but a treat for my lil sickie-sicks)

Are y'all still with me? So, at this point I've "spent" $36.85. The $10/$50 is AFTER all coupons have been subtracted - using it means I'll spend at least $40. I'm already planning on spending $36.85 - $3.15 away from $40. Spending that additional $3.15 and using the $10/$50 means I'll get an additional $10 in groceries. I thought it was worth it - so I added:

3-pk Huggies wipes refill (216 wipes) - $5.99 used .75/1 insert q
Food coloring - $4.49 - used .75/1 insert q (I ended up going over my $40 total, so I should have put this back. We're using it for homemade washable paint and play-doh, so I'm glad I didn't put it back.)
Wasp & Hornet killer - they actually had an organic kind made with essential oils! - $6.29

Grand total: $44.22
saved: $35.45

$500 Challenge Totals:
food & eating out (includes HBA): $143.86 ($131.37 savings)
- (eating out $19.47)
gas: $70.53
clothing
coffee & beer making supplies: $52.05
household necessities (like air filters, etc)
entertainment:
- Derek allowance: $15.46
- Wendy allowance: $18.85
- Kids' allowance: $5
crafting supplies: $45.38
gifts: $12.88

Total spent: $364.01
Remaining: $135.99

Stocked up on toilet paper (2 months ish), trash bags (6 months or so), diapers (1 month), wipes (at least a month), ground beef (2 months), cheese for the rest of this budget month, coffee (2 months), coffee filters (3 months), brown rice (2 months)

Still needing a deal on canned organic tomatoes - I hate buying them one at a time and I'm three cans away from that point. If anyone notices a great sale at Whole Foods, please let me know. I'm also keeping an eye out for good chicken prices at WF - I'm starting to run low in the freezer.

We're still eating the produce from last week. I'll need to buy fresh produce next week. I have a coupon for 1 lb of chicken free when you spend $40 at Central Market (Texas store). Depending on their sales next week - I may just stock up on produce, canned tomatoes, and get chicken there.

I need to fill my car up in the next couple of days - that will be about $35.

I'm planning on 3 more gym trips ($6) and a couple of summer movies ($10ish) before my budget month ends on the 18th.

I have $6 in RR at Walgreens, $4 in ECB at CVS, and $1.38 on the Target gift card.

Other than illnesses and accidents, I think this month is going pretty well! And if you read this whole post - bless your punkin' heart and thank you.