3 day sale (Friday, Saturday, Sunday):

• 12 inch Food Lion self rising or thin crust pizza 5/$10, limit 5
• 5 oz Food Lion chunk light tuna 3/$1, limit 6
• 64 oz Food Lion apple juice $.99, limit 4
• 6-16 ct Food Lion ice cream sandwiches, bars, and cones 2/$3, limit 4

Other sales:

• 26-32 load Wisk laundry deterent (includes H-E) $2.99, limit 2
• 48 oz Edy’s ice cream buy 1 get 1 free, limit 2
• seedless grapes $.99/lb
• half boneless pork loin 50% off
• London broil or top round roast $1.99/lb
• General Mills cereals buy 1 get 1 free, limit 2 free (use $.75 coupon off 3)
• Betty Crocker fruit snakcs buy 1 get 1 free
• Green Giant vegetables buy 1 get 1 free, limit 6 free
• Hamburger Helper buy 1 get 1 free, limit 2 free (use $.75 coupon off 3)
• select Kellogg’s cereals buy 1 get 1 free (use $1/2 blinkie coupon), final price $2.29 for 2 boxes

Prices vary by location. Be sure to check the online ad for sales in your area.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

I bought four cartons today and I plan to use them for smoothies, baking, and just plain for good eating.  Then I’ll wash, cut, and freeze about two pounds.

Harris Teeter also has some other great sales this week.  I hope to have time later today to do some coupon match-ups for you all, so check back later today or tomorrow.

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Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Marie Callendar’s frozen dinners and entrees are buy 1 get 1 free.  Then be sure to look on the freezer door for the blinkie machine.  There is a coupon for $.75 off one Marie Callendar’s Pasta Al Dente entree.  The pasta entrees are normally $3.99 and are on sale for $2.  Using the coupon makes them only $1.25!  If your blinkie machine is out of coupons (like mine) look inside on the freezer shelves.  Sometimes they get dropped inside.  I found 3-4 extra coupons on the shelves. 

White House High School Musical applesauce is on close-out.  Get a 6-pack of applesauce for $1.25.  I didn’t have any coupons for these, but it is still a pretty good deal.  These come in different flavors such as mango, cherry, cinnamon, and regular. 

If you have the space and a need for the items, I’d recommend stockpiling the pasta dishes and the applesauce.

Other sale items:

Food Lion bologna, sale .99
Aquarius Spring Water 24 pk, bogo 2/$5.99
Crisco oil, sale $2.50
Tylenol Cold (select varieties), $3.14 close-out, use $1 coupon
Pillsbury Reduced Sugar brownie mix, $1.09 close-out, use .35 coupon
frozen salmon, bogo
$10 off full or half graduation sheet cakes

What other Food Lion deals have you found this week?

Sales and prices vary by location.  Please view the online weekly circular.  image food lion

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Also, last week I shopped at Harris Teeter while they were having their triple coupon sale.  I ended up with about $160 in groceries for only $60.  My cabinets are pretty full right now and other than fresh items (milk, bread, egg, lunch meat, fruit) there’s not a whole lot I need.

Today I did stop at Food Lion to pick up some milk and eggs and discovered that their Kraft cheese slices (12 oz package) are on sale 4/$5.  You have to buy four packages to get the deal.  Otherwise, it will cost you a bit more.  I bought the four packages.  With three kids home for the summer, I’m sure we’ll have no problem eating the cheese.  Besides, the expiration date isn’t until December 2009.

I regret that I also missed out on Food Lion’s 2-day sale.  I didn’t look at the flyer earlier in the week and missed out on buying Pampers Easy Ups for $7.99 . . . and you know I’d have a coupon to go along with that deal.  Oh well.

Sometimes Food Lion’s prices vary by location, so it’s a good idea to check the online flyer.  Good luck and happy stockpiling!

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Food Lion has their ground chuck on sale this week for only $1.69/lb.  Normally, you would pay $3.50 or more per pound for ground chuck.  You certainly don’t want to pay that price when you can stockpile it now on sale for later use.  By the way, if you plan on heading out to Food Lion, you’ll want to check this Food Lion sale and coupon match-up from A Full Cup.

By the way, I am in desperate need of a freezer.  I sold ours when we moved and I’m hoping to find a good deal on one before the ground chuck sale ends on Tuesday. If I have the freezer space, I plan to buy 15-20 lbs of the meat.  A freezer is essential for stockpiling sales on meats and frozen foods. 

Are you taking advantage of the Memorial Day sales?

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Post from: Thrifty Mommy

There are two types of buying.  The first type of buying is need buying.  This is when you buy the things that you need at that moment.  Of course, need buying causes you to pay full price for items.  How many times have you gone to the store to buy something that you needed for a recipe and were disgusted with the price?  Or upset with yourself because that item was just on sale last week?  I know that I’ve done this many times. 

Stockpiling is the preferred method of buying.  It saves money because it allows you to buy foods at rock bottom prices that you’ll eventually need.  The lowest prices on items can usually be found by combining a sale with a coupon. 

Stay tuned for more posts on stockpiling tips.  Do you stockpile groceries when they are at their lowest prices?

image (c) Karen Weideman

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

There is a limit of 2 free boxes per transaction.  I did two transactions so that I could get 8 boxes of cereal.   With the buy 1 get 1 free sale and the $1 coupon, the cereal ends up being around $.67-$.75 per box.  Isn’t that great?!?  With our family of five, we go through a lot of cereal. 

The cereals that are on sale are Kellogg’s Special K varieties, Apple Jacks, Fruit Loops, and Rice Krispy treats. 

Another stockpile opportunity is applesauce.  The Food Lion applesauce and the Whitehouse High School Musical applesauce is buy 1 get 1 free.  This makes the applesauce $1.10-$1.25 each.

By the way, I had to drive back out again to pick the cat up from the vet and I stopped in Food Lion again for 4 more boxes of cereal.  I got 2 boxes of Special K, 1 box of Fruit Loops, and 1 box of Rice Krispies for $2.89, including tax!  This means I bought 12 boxes of cereal today.  My husband says they’re going to change my name from Thrifty Mommy to Cereal Mommy.  lol

*There is also a $1 Kellogg’s coupon in the April 5th Red Plum coupon insert of the paper.

Enjoy the savings! 

image by Karen Weideman

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

When I got to the Pop Tart section, I noticed that the new ones with 20% more fiber had a $1.00 coupon on the boxes.  Save $1 on 1 box?  Oh yeah!  I didn’t clear the shelves, but I bought 12 boxes of Pop Tarts for $.67 per box.

I’m not sure if all of the fiber Pop Tarts have this coupon, but it might be worth your while to check.  This sale ends tomorrow.

Good luck!

Disclaimer - I’m not advocating feeding your kids Pop Tarts or junk food every day.  This is something that we have on occasion.

image by me

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Right now stores are trying to get rid of their abundance of Christmas decorations, gift wrap, gift items, and more.  If you can spare the money, now is a great time to stock up.  Why pay $3.99 for the Princess wrapping paper when you can get it for $1?

This year, I didn’t need a whole lot of things, but I picked up some kid wrapping paper, scotch tape refills, and some gift items.  Last night at Wal-Mart I saw some shatterproof bulbs, which would be perfect for making these adorable keepsake snowmen ornaments.

Some of the stores where I’ve seen great bargains are: Target, Wal-Mart, Michaels, CVS, and Food Lion.

Where have you seen the deals?  Do you shop after-Christmas clearance sales?

image mine

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

I’ve been talking about The Grocery Game for months.  And it seems obvious that I would because this has been the top avenue that I have found to save the most moolah on your grocery bill. I’ve talked the talk and I’ve walked the walk.  I’ve taught you all how to use it and I’ve showed you the savings. 

Imagine my surprise and delight when I was contacted by a Grocery Game rep and offered the opportunity to interview Teri Gault, CEO and founder of The Grocery Game.  Me?  Really?  

The interview took place last week and I’ll just tell you that from the bat, Teri was warm and friendly and interested in sharing our love of saving money.  Here’s a bit of how the interview went.  There was so much information.  I hope I can share it all and not mess up anything.  Enjoy!

First of all, I’d like to ask how The Grocery Game came into existence.

Well, I have always been a bargain hunter. We’re a kindred spirit.

When I was only 12 years old, I began shopping for my family because my mom was in ICU.  It was such an early age and we were broke with hospital bills.  It was my job to make the money stretch. 

Everything started with a jar of peanut butter.  I had bought a jar of peanut butter for my family and then the next week it went on sale.  We had limited money and I had already bought the peanut butter, but realized I could have saved money by buying it while it was on sale.  It was sort of an epiphany moment for me with stockpiling.

Then later when I got married, I was an actress and my husband was a stunt man.  I continued couponing.  In the late 90s the business took us to Canada.  I had only $35 per week to feed our family of four.  Those were rough years.  I used that time to develop saving strategies.
 
By November of 1999, I was spending four to six hours each week clipping coupons and searching sale ads, but I was saving about $100 per week.  Even then, I was rolling coins to buy groceries.  I wished that someone would let me know what they were buying instead of me spending all that time figuring it out on my own.  Then I had wondered what would happen if I put my grocery list on the internet each week and and if people would pay me for my time.  I had never had been on the internet, but I went to computer store, bought a computer and internet.  I didn’t even know what to do.  I got my sister on phone and she taught me how to do email.

Read more!

My sister did not like coupons.  She used super stores and she did not understand value of coupons.  I thought she would make a good guinea pig, so I sent her the first document via word.  I told her to look at it and try it without asking any questions. She immediately saved $150.
 
Next, I got 5 families to test the list.  I rolled coins to get business license. Within a few months had emails from all over the country.  In 2000, I started putting all of the money back into the business for franchises.  By 2003, I had attorneys in place and was a franchise owner.  I went from 2 states to 26 states in 2003.  We are now in all 50 states, including Puerto Rico, the UK, and France.  By end of year, we’ll be in Canada and Germany,  and possibly China. 
 
The first 2 years I still worked several jobs.  I was a grant writer, I taught private voice lessons, and I in a performance group, all while doing The Grocery Game.  I was working 80 hours a week and 7 days a week.

(Of course, we chatted throughout all of this information.  She is quite the entrepreneur.)
 
Could you tell me about how many members you have?

There are about 100,000 households using The Grocery Game.  Traffic to the site has tripled on the site this year, since we have coupons that can be printed on the site.  We have doubled our membership since the beginning of the year.  Just last month, there were 400,000 coupons printed on the site. 

What are your plans for adding additional stores?

We are constantly adding more stores.  Last month we added 9 more stores.  We can only go at a certain pace due to quality control and we have a full-time attorney.  In the near future we plan to add Giant, Hannoford, and Legmans to our list.  

We pick the number 1 store that is best for The Grocery Game. This is based upon sale cycles, coupons, and how low prices go.  We track the stores for a while.  We do have Wal-Mart on the list, but it doesn’t have the best savings, so it’s the last to be added.

I have found that the biggest savings come from combining store sales with double coupon offers.  Do you have any tips for those living in areas that don’t live near larger grocery store chains and don’t have stores that double coupons? 

The savings are still relevant.  In an area where they don’t double coupons, the coupons values are higher.  The savings are the same.  Usually the prices are lower and The Grocery Game savings still apply.  If you will stockpile sales and use a coupon when you can, you still save 70% even when the stores don’t double coupons.  It’s important to know when to stock up.  
 
I’ve heard that there is a 12 week cycle to TGG.  Could you tell more about that? 

There are categorical sale trends that we track.  The sales come about once every 12 weeks for 15 major categories.  You stockpile what you will need for about 12 weeks.  Then you will need to add your produce and milk.  With you produce, you only buy what’s on sale.  

I see what you mean about stockpiling.  Before I began seriously using coupons, I would stockpile just the sale items. 

You and I don’t like to pay full price for things, do we? 

I could have talked to Teri all day long.  She was very easy to talk to and I could tell that we both shared a passion for saving money. I hope you enjoyed this interview.  I was very impressed at how she started out with so little, but took something that she was good at and worked hard to develop it.  That should give us all hope.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy