Monday Shopping in Prairieville / Baton Rouge

I thought that I would share my weekly shopping trip with you.  I needed to keep it under $55 this week.  I normally look through the available deals and decided what best fills our needs and stays within my budget: 

Walgreens:

Lays on sale for 1.99 x2

TGI Friday Mozzerella cheese its - 0.55 (clearance)

2 Pepsi 2-liters @1.25 each


used $2/2 Lays from the 5/1/11 paper

Spent 5.35, saved 8.72, and received catalina coupon for a free movie


Target:

Lays chips 2.00 x2
Sierra Mist natural 1.00 x2
Ballpark Bun sized hotdogs 1.99 x2
Mixed Berry Naked juice 2.99
Polaner spreadable fruit 1.52 x4
French's honey mustard diupping sauce 1.47
French's dijon honey mustard 2.49
kikkoman soy sauce 1.42
Eggplant 1.00 x3
Tuna Helper .75 (clearance) x3

coupons used:
free Sierra mist w/purchase of Lays from 5/1 paper x2
1/1 Ballpark hotdog printable from facebook x2
2/1 Naked juice from recyclebank
1/1 Polaner spreadable fruit printable x4
.75/1 French's honey mustard dipping sauce from April red plum mailer
1/1 French's dijon mustard from April red plum mailer
1/1 kikoman printable x2
.75/3 Tuna Helper April red plum mailer

Spent 18.56, saved 25.21

Albertsons:

Crayola Glow Color Explosion 2.50 x2
2 lbs Beef Steaks 6.53
Chicken tenders 1.75
Mother's day cake .99

Coupons used:
2/1 layerd cake from monopoly ticket
3 off reduced beef peelie
2/1 color explosion x2

Spent 5.96, saved 16.67

Winn Dixie:

Better Oats 0.75 (clearance) x3
Sour cream 3.19
3 lbs Friskies cat food 3.99
Downy fabric sheets 2.99 BOGO x2
Pledge multisurface 2.99
Regular Rozoni pasta 1.67 BOGO x4
Rozoni specialty pasta 2.00 BOGO x 10
Nissan soups 1.00 BOGO x4
Gallon orange juice 0.75 (clearance) x2

Coupons used:
1/2 Rozoni pasta printable x7
1/1 Friskies cat food Winn Dixie pet saver book
1/1 Downy P&G mailer
.25/1 Downy 5/1 paper
1/1 Better Oats x2
1/1 Pledge Winn Dixie pet saver book
1/1 Pledge April paper

Spent 21.28, savd 47.60

Grand total:

Spent 51.15, saved 97.20 (63% savings!)

I stopped at 2 Walgreens, and both were out of Clean and Clear.  But I have a little money left in my budget to try and pick up 6 free bottles of clean and clear body wash tomorrow using the BOGO coupon from last months P&G saver combined with the BOGO sale after the Walgreens truck comes in, which will add $36 of savings.


We don't eat pasta often, but when we do I like it to be whole grain so I stocked up with six months worth since it was 75% off. The chips, sodas, and hot dogs will be set aside for an upcoming bbq.  My Dad loves fancy jams and jellies, so he will be getting some for Father's Day.  I always intend to freeze the cheap orange juice, but usually we end up drinking it all before that happens.

Not one of my best weeks (especially with the impulsive snack buying) but certainly not too bad!

Regular Freebies: Ebooks

For the last several months christianbook.com has been adding new, free ebooks weekly.  Just go to their site, and look for the [eBooks] tab.  Click [Sample Free eBooks] and see what they have to offer.  You won’t need to enter any credit card information to download the free books, and don’t forget to check back each week since they have been adding new books regularly, and rotating other books off of the sample list.  Often they offer the first book in a series as a sample, so you will want to read the sequels.

Sony Reader, Amazon, and  Project Guttenburg also have tons of free ebook downloads that change/update on a regular basis.  In fact, you can probably download more free ebooks than you could ever possibly read.

Getting more for less: Where to get coupons?

One way to get more for less is to combine coupons with sales.   Depending on your schedule you can spend a little or a lot of time finding and organizing your coupons.  I personally save hundreds of dollars each month, so it is well worth the six hours of time spread out over a month.

Thrifty in Louisiana

Welcome to Thrifty in Louisiana!  I am a stay at home-school mom living in Ascension Parish, Louisiana.  My husband is in the HVAC business (heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration,) so our income drops considerably in the cooler winter months.  I have learned to prepare ahead for this, stockpiling on good, shelf stable deals in the summertime and starting the winter with a full freezer.
I have always been quite cheap frugal.  But I haven’t really used coupons, because name brands are often more expensive than the generic brand by more than the value of the coupon.  (A 0.50 coupon on an item that is  0.75 more than the generic is pointless unless the name brand is far superior to the generic.)  This winter I discovered coupons combined with sales, and drug store deals, and have saved a large amount of money.  (During the fall/winter 2010 season I spent $15 at CVS, and saved $195+)
Blogs like moneysavingmom and krazycouponlady have helped me save a lot this winter.  But a lot of the deals (like double or triple coupons at Aldis and Kroger?!?) aren’t applicable to this area.  And there have been some great deals at Winn Dixie, LeBlanc’s, and Alberstons.  So, I decided to attempt to share some of the deals that I find.  Hope it helps somebody.