This week at HT

The Harris Teeter in Morehead City, NC is doing Super Doubles again this week. The ad isn't as good as last week but there are still some deals that can't be passed up!! I had a friend ask me about a new rule they have about only accepting 2 coupons per item per day.....so if you have 10 pasta coupons and want to use them all you would have to go 5 days in a row. That just isn't going to work for me! Soooo, I'm wondering if anyone has run into this new rule???!!! I just went yesterday to get the Green Giant frozen veggies that were on VIC for $1 each. I had 5 coupons for .60 off of 3 so I used all 5 of my coupons and walked away with a great deal on some frozen veggies.

My latest HT trip

Stopped by HT on my way home from work Friday night and was super excited about the deals on things that I love!! The Pillsbury stuff for one thing was awesome. If you buy 10 of any of the Pillsbury refrigerated products you automatically get $4 off at check out!! SAAAA-WEET!! I also loved the Smart Balance Milk deal. It's normally $3.89 for 1/2 gallon. With the $1.50 off coupon doubled that makes it .89 for a half gallon of milk! Yogurt was also a great deal on several brands so my kids will be snacking on yogurt for days to come. Good thing we all like yogurt. Among other great deals, one of the E-VIC specials was $5.99 for Pampers (limit 2). I had a couple $2.00 off coupons so I got 2 packs of diapers for $3.99 each. Not too shabby to me. Yes, my kids are potty trained but people are having babies left and right so why not have some to give as gifts?! My check out was a little crazy. I had already used my alotted 20 coupons for the day and it was around 11:40 pm so I asked the manager on duty if I could use them, shop again and check out after midnight so that it would technically be "a new day". He said he thought it would work and didn't mind so that was the plan and it played out beautifully! I did 2 orders, 40 coupons and my final numbers were....
total retail $347.90
total savings with coupons and VIC $259.77
total out of pocket $88.13

That's what I'm talkin' about!!!!

Let's Talk Couponing Feb 28

We're going to talk about getting started and share tips with each other about couponing.

When: Monday, Feb 28 at 6:30
Where: East Coast Church, 615 Tom Mann Road, Newport

Some Good Printables

Go to www.coupons.com and there are some really good printables especially since HT is doubling up to $1.98 starting tomorrow.
My favorites are...
$1 off Oreos
$1 off Velveeta cheese
$1.50 off Philedelphia Cooking Creme
$1 off Kraft Mac & Cheese (5 pack)
.75 off Miracle Whip

Print them soon. They won't last long!

Saving $ on gifts

If your family is anything like mine we go to ALOT of birthday parties. I was thinking about it and realized that just between my kids and my closest friend's kids there are roughly 20 kids. By closest friends I mean those friends that replace me in my absence and I replace them in their absence. (If you don't have girlfriends like this I highly recommend them!) Then there are also kids in our neighborhood or that are in my oldest son's class. Having alot of parties also mean we have alot of gifts to buy. It's hard on a tight budget to run to the store before a birthday party to try to find the perfect thing because the perfect thing always ends up being the not-so-perfect price. The other thing that stinks about that is running around at the last minute with a bunch of kids fussing to get to the party. My backup plan is to run in the dollar store, grab a card and shove five or ten bucks in it. I always feel like such an unprepared crazy woman when I do that. And it's so impersonal! So here's my plan....when I come across a really good deal on something for someone I get it and store it away! Sounds easy but I'm the world's best at talking myself out of something right when I'm about to hand the cashier the money! I'm like 'Nevermind, I'm not gonna get that'. My new mission is to actually be prepared this year before we go to parties and save money on gifts at the same time.

Sunday Paper Insert Preview

Here's a link for the Redplum insert that will be in the paper 2-13. There's one for $3 off Gain Fabric Sheets or Softener and $1 Gain Detergent. With that coupon the fabric sheets should be free or close to it. There's also $1 off Kellogg's cereal. With Harris Teeter doing super doubles next week that one might be good if they put Kellogg's on sale.

www.sundaycouponpreview.com

Super Doubles Week Starts Feb 16

I needed a few staples last night so instead of going to Food Lion that's just a minute from my house I went to Harris Teeter instead. I wanted to check out the unadvertised deals since they are still tripling to .99 this week. I wasn't impressed with much. Seemed like the same stuff from last week was still on sale this week. Their boneless skinless chicken breast was a good deal for $2.49/lb. I think you can find it cheaper but since I need it now I went for it. There were several things I wanted/needed that I didn't have a coupon for but was on sale. Man, I have to admit that it was REALLY hard to buy that stuff without a coupon. Now, milk and bread are one thing without a coupon but ice cream and cheese are completely different! When you've gotten used to paying a fraction of the actual retail cost it's hard to pay full price. I have been spoiled rotten the past several weeks by saving so much money! So the good news is that next week starting Wednesday, Feb 16 starts Super Doubles Week again! They'll be doubling up to $1.98 and that makes me so happy.

Printable coupons

Click the following link and you can print several good coupons. Lots of Campbell's soup coupons and other companies that do "Labels for Educations".

www.labelsforeducation.com scroll down to the bottom right where it says Savings Center.

I'm hoping that the stores will accept the ones I just printed b/c I grabbed paper that is white on one side and is yellow with crabs/beach scene of the other side. Of course, the coupon would have to print on the beach scene side. We'll see :)

Let's talk couponing

I've had so many people email, text and call me about couponing lately. I don't consider myself a pro by any means but I think a bunch of us together to talk about and share ideas would be pretty cool. Please leave a comment if you'd be interested in coming to something like that in the Eastern NC area.

New ads for Harris Teeter, Lowes Food and Food Lion are out now. Lowes Food has a great deal on sour cream, butter spread and colgate toothpaste...all a quarter or less!!
www.lowesfood.com
www.foodlion.com
www.harristeeter.com I hear the HT in Morehead City, NC is tripling again this week. Not confirmed yet though.

You can see coupon matchups for each store at www.southernsavers.com Just click on the store tab.

Free Coffee Mate Creamer

Coffee Mate is offering a $1 off coupon from their facebook page. "Like" them and get the coupon. Then go to Harris Teeter where the e-Vic deal is .99 Coffee-Mate creamer. That makes it FREE!!!

If you aren't signed up for Harris Teeter's e-Vic. Go to their website and register your VIC card number under their e-Vic tab. You'll get an email every Wednesday saying what the e-VIC specials are, you can click on the coupon you want (I just click them all) then when you scan your card at check out the savings are automatically deducted. Easy!

My competitive streak is coming out...

Brought to you by: Online MBA

Little coupon secret

On every coupon there is a bar code that the cashier will scan. Well, those numbers actually mean something. The one that means the most to me is the very first number. If the number starts with a "5" then that coupon will double or triple if the store is offering that promotion. If the number starts with a "9" then it will not double or triple. Many of the coupons I have found on www.coupons.com would print out and say at the top "DO NOT DOUBLE OR TRIPLE". Well, this really stinks for those great promotions that Harris Teeter offers but guess what?! If it starts with a "5" IT WILL!!! I was a little hesitant at first but I tried it last night thinking that I would take whatever it would take off and it actually did triple the value! Now, I'm not trying to get away with something naughty or be fraudulent at all. I gave the cashier the coupon, he scanned it, it tripled, I left happy. It's a win-win!

Late Night Grocery Shopping (Mis)Adventure

I love to grocery shop late at night. I got off work last night and headed to Harris Teeter. It was pouring rain so I ran from my car to the door with my beloved binder under my rain coat. I'll make the sacrifice of my hair getting wet and looking like a drowned rat but not willing to get my precious collection all soggy! I grabbed a few things in produce and down the aisles I went. I met a young mom on the condiments aisle that had a large stack of coupons in her hand and we talked for about 15 minutes about couponing strategies, places to get more coupons and how addicting this whole thing is. She had just ordered a bunch on coupon inserts off the internet and I can't for the life of me remember the name of the site. I'm going to search for it and post about it again if I find it. After my grocery shopping bonding time with my new coupon friend I went about my shopping. I reached for the worsteshire sauce that were lined up all neatly on the very top shelf and my rain coat sleeve got hooked on a bottle of something underneath it. Like a stack of dominoes those bottles fell with a crash! There I was all alone standing in a puddle of steak marinade! If I moved I tracked sauce to the clean spots on the floor so I just stood there until a VERY nice lady came to my rescue with a broom and some paper towels. I offered to mop it up and she insisted it was fine and cleaned up my great big mess. I walked away red in the face and tracking steak sauce. Someone walked by and said "man, that smell makes me want to grill out!" Geez!!! I removed my rain coat and took my time the rest of the time I was there.

My next misadventure was when I got to the check out line. There was only one guy working at this point because it was almost midnight. He called for help when he saw me coming! (Geez times a thousand). I asked him to do two check out orders because I went a little crazy and had more than 20 coupons, which is all Harris Teeter will allow. Well, i gave him my first batch of coupons before I was finished giving him the stuff and his system locked up. He had to void that order, take everything out of the bags and rescan everything! See, I had just told a friend earlier in the day that I had never had any issues at Harris Teeter so go figure!

All of that was completely worth it when I was time to pay. Here are the final figures....

Total before coupons and VIC = $234.83
Coupon and VIC savings = $178.88
Final total due = $55.95

I didn't take a picture of everything this time (my 7 year olf thinks I'm crazy for doing that anyway) but it was about 12:30am when I finally got home and I was ready to crash. Here's a little idea of what I got...
5 - 12 pack cans of coke products
6 - 2 liter Diet Rite (tyron's favorite)
3 - boxes Jello
2 - bags of Tortilla chips (for super bowl)
2 - boxes Triscuits
2 - boxes Wheat thins
4 - can evaporated milk
bananas
avocado
1 - gallon milk
Alot of yogurt
1 - 64oz. Juicy Juice
2 - frozen pizza
3 - jars Prego
1 - Ranch seasoning mix
2 - Jars Hot wing sauce
2 - Honey mustard dipping sauce
2 - Sweet Chili sauce
2 - worsteshire sauce
3 - tubes of toothpaste
1 - box pancake mix
1 - cookie dough mix
1 - Dish Liquid
2 - Snuggle Fabric Softener
2 - bags of rice (one white and one brown)
2 - 4 packs of quick rice
1 - Cocoa Puffs

Ok, I think that sums it up. I hear that they are going to be tripling again next week then they are going back to super doubles! Yay Harris Teeter!!

Carteret County Restaurant Special Nights

There are several restaurants in Carteret County that do special deal nights. I'd love to hear from anyone that knows of some. Mine and Tyron's personal favorite is Kabuto in Morehead City has 1/2 price appetisers and sushi rolls on Wednesday and Thursday nights! They also offer a deal on Saturdays and Sundays from 4pm-6pm, Kids eat free with the purchase of an adult entree. So let me know of others and I'll try to remember to post them weekly!

My beloved binder

When I first started couponing I had this accordian file thing that I would just keep my coupons intact as they came in the newspaper, sorted by date. I would just write the date on the front of the insert and file them, go on http://www.southernsavers.com/ and figure out what I would want that was an advertised deal and off to the store I would go. Well, I realized after doing that a few times that there were several unadvertised deals at Harris Teeter (and Lowes Food) that I wouldn't have a coupon for in my little stack but thought I had run across when browsing the insert. SOOOO, I decided to create a binder for my precious collection. I had a 3" binder already that was full of some old stuff. I went on http://www.thekrazycouponlady.com/ and printed off her category dividers and got some baseball card holders. Now I can make my plan before I go and also have them organized beautifully in my binder as I stroll the aisles. When I see and unadvertised sale item all I have to do is flip to that section and CHA-CHING!! It's now my American Express...I never leave home without it.

Harris Teeter

Another exciting grocery week (February 2-8) at Harris Teeter in Morehead City, NC! They are tripling again on coupons up to .99! You can go on www.harristeeter.com and find their weekly deals to see if you have any match up coupons. I have decided it's easier for me to just take my great big binder full of coupons and walk the aisles. There are so many things on sale that aren't listed in the flyer or on the website. I'm looking forward to going this weekend to check out the unadvertised deals. Hope they are as good as the ones that are advertised!

My almost favorite

One of the things that I've had a hard time trying is using coupons and getting great deals in drug stores. We have the three main ones in Morehead...CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid. So I did get a pretty good deal on diapers last week at Walgreens. I also got 4 bags of Chex Mix for crazy cheap that day. The cashier gave me a little bit of lip about doing multiple transactions (I only wanted to do 2 for goodness sake!) but she did anyway. So I thought it's just not worth my trouble to go in there if they are going to be turds. Well, then I got the paper Sunday and there are some really good deals in the drug store ads so I stopped by CVS today to pick up some vitamins. Well, the vitamins were buy one, get one so that was cool but I didn't have a coupon for that brand. I walked around the store with my big coupon binder in my cart. They have this cool little machine where you can scan your store card and it'll pop out a store coupon. You get to scan your card once a day. In the past I have gotten B1G1 candy bar coupons and other little things like that but today the coupon I got was -$3 Physician's Formula which is what I use so I was super excited! I'm back to being on board with drug store deals...especially at CVS! Good deals and very nice customer service!