A Fun Trip to HyVee

Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo taken of what I purchased, because most of it was put away downstairs (and the camera is upstairs). Here is a list of what I bought for $15.48:

5 M&M/Mars candy bars - (used free item coupons)
1 lb. HyVee real butter - .94
Roberts OJ 1/2 gallon - .94
4 12-packs of A&W Root Beer - $2.50 each
1 12-pack Diet Mountain Dew -(used free item coupon)
HyVee 15 oz. tomato sauce - .19
HyVee ice cream 1/2 gallon - free w/ A&W purchase
24 oz. Hunt's Ketchup - (used free item coupon)
1 gallon distilled vinegar - $1.78
Oscar Mayer Beef Franks - (used free item coupon)
24 oz. cottage cheese - .94
Glade Lasting Impressions - (used free item coupon)
Mighty Dog canned dog food - (used free item coupon)

Not a bad haul for $15, especially considering that the soda was $10 of that!! The soda wasn't a necessity, of course, but we let the kids have some with dinner on occasion. That amount will last us quite a long time.

I'm looking good this week. I have a list of things I want that are on sale for good prices starting tomorrow. I should be able to stick with only $50 on food this week, which is a good thing!

And Here's Price Chopper

Here is the last of the grocery purchases for the week. There were a few deals at Price Chopper and I had to go to the library (which is in the same general parking lot) anyway, so I made a quick trip. I HATE this Price Chopper, but it is the only one convenient to me, so I occasionally have to go there. I have one I like MUCH better, but I'm not in that part of town very frequently. I do go to that one whenever I can. McKeever's Price Chopper is constantly posting mis-leading prices (as you will see below) and the employees are the rudest I've ever encountered at a grocery store, management included! Anyway....my trip was not without issue, but here we go:

Froot Loops - sale $1.75, used $1.50 coupon
Dole celery - sale $.99
Tenderized round steak - $1.22
2 Eckrich smoked sausage - sale $1.79 each, used 2 $1.00/1 coupons
2 Westpac frozen corn - sale $.75 each
2 Westpac frozen broccoli - sale $.75 each
2 Lean Pockets - sale $1.45, used 2 .50/1 coupons
1 corn muffin mix (for a specific recipe) - $.45
Digiorno Flatbread Melt - used free item coupon
Twix bar - used free item coupon
Meow Mix cat entree - used free item coupon
1 eggplant - $2.47 (GRRR!!!! I read the sign super carefully and it stated the eggplant was $1.49. Period. At the register, it was per POUND, and the sign did NOT say per pound - typical of this Price Chopper! This was purchased for a specific recipe you will see on next week's menu plan.)
Water chestnuts - $.99
Bamboo shoots - $.99
2 lbs. blueberries - sale $3.75
4 lb. sugar - sale $1.19

Total spent $20.51

Total for the week $72.93. My budget is $70 a week, so I'm a little over. I'll just have to be more careful next week! :-)

Good Deals at HyVee

Today I popped into HyVee to get some of their Hot Deals of the week. I am STOCKED on cereal now, but I just couldn't resist 10 free boxes (with mail-in rebate)!!

Here's what I got:

3 boxes Kellogg's Mini Bites Honey Nut - sale $1.99 each, used 3 $1/1 coupons
3 boxes Kellogg's Mini Bites Chocolate - sale $1.99 each, used 3 $1/1 coupons
2 boxes Kellogg's Blueberry Muffin Mini Wheats - sale $1.99 each, used b1g1f coupon
2 boxes Kellogg's Special K - sale $1.99 each, used 2 $1/2 coupons
(Cereal total was $9.90 and I will get a $10 rebate - the UPCs are removed and the form is ready to go in today's mail)
Wonder hot dog buns - sale $.66
Wonder hamburger buns - sale $.66
1 box Sure-Jell pectin (for that cherry jam I'm making) - $2.25
4 packages Corn King Bacon - sale $1.48 each
1/2 gallon HyVee chocolate milk - $1.38 (a bit of a splurge for the kids, I know....)
Roberts cottage cheese - sale $1.38, used .50 coupon
1 bar Fels Naptha (for laundry soap) - .88
Havarti cheese - $2.38 - this was a TOTAL splurge for DH because he LOVES this cheese and that wasn't a bad price for it.

My total was $25.89 and I saved almost 30%. On top of that, I get back $10 in the rebate, so I can say that I only spent $15.89, which is a really good deal!!!

Total spent so far this week $52.42 when you take the rebate into account (I won't count it again when it comes in like I've seen some people do on savings posts! :))

Trip to Aldi

I made a much-needed trip to Aldi today for some basics and some produce. This won't be my only shopping trip this week, but it's a start! I had planned to buy some of their .29 peaches, but apparently that's in the past. They wanted .59 EACH for very small peaches. That's crazy! So I'll either buy them at another store for .99 a pound or live without them this week!

Here's what I bought at Aldi:

10 lb. russet potatoes - $2.99
Broccoli crowns - .99
2.2 lbs. bananas - .84
6 lbs. cherries (Did you read about my jam fiasco? I'm hoping to get a good batch out of most of these) - $8.94
1 lb. baby carrots - .99
1 bag corn chips - .99
1 bag pretzel sticks - $1.29
1 bag tortilla chips - .99
1 bag nacho rings - $1.19
2 bottles pancake syrup - $2.78
4 cans green beans - $1.96
32 oz. container yogurt - $1.59
2 bottles lemon juice - $3.70
2 cans evaporated milk - $1.50
(not pictured) 1 gallon milk - $2.20
(not pictured) 3 dozen large eggs - $2.07

My grand total was $36.53. I was shooting for $35, so I didn't think that was too bad! That still leaves me with plenty in the budget for the good deals at Price Chopper and HyVee. :-)

I will post the rest of my shopping as I get it done. Update: I've been to HyVee - go HERE to see that shopping trip! And go HERE to see my Price Chopper deals! Want to see more grocery shopping reports? Check out the Grocery Cart Challenge. This is my first time linking up to the weekly shopping reports.

A Trip to Save-A-Lot

I ended up making another brief grocery run today. We had been invited over to spend tomorrow with friends, and I wanted to make a fun and festive dessert for the occasion. My older daughter and I brainstormed and came up with making a trifle out of cake, Cool Whip, strawberries, and blueberries. I have a pretty trifle dish that rarely appears outside of the cabinet, so I love to use it whenever inspiration strikes.

I discovered that Save-a-Lot is currently offering a coupon on its website for $5 off a $20 purchase (http://www.save-a-lot.com). I love discounts, and there was a Save-a-Lot near where I was going anyway today, so I decided to use the coupon. I have to say that I didn't care for the store. I haven't been there in over a year, and obviously for good reason. Much of the fresh items were of questionable quality (had to look long and hard for the produce I bought) and the store wasn't very clean at all. It makes me want to sign up for their mystery shops just to let corporate know that this isn't a great store. On top of the store's issues, many of the people shopping there were in dire need of a bar of soap, at a minimum. Yuck! My son gagged a couple of times, and I had to alter my route around the store to avoid a few folks. But that's getting off track, isn't it? I'm going to stick with shopping at Aldi!!

Here's what I ended up purchasing on my visit to Save-a-Lot:

Angelfood cake mix - $1.89
Biscuit mix - $1.89
Dry pint blueberries - $1.99
3.59 lbs. peaches - $3.20
10 lbs. potatoes - $2.50
1 lb. strawberries - $2.00
5 limes - .50
4 boxes of Popsicle treats for the kids - sale $1.00 each
1 gallon milk - $2.29
Bottle chocolate syrup - $1.39

With the discount, I spent $17.25. Not the best trip, but not terrible, either, and I needed the milk and potatoes. I like having the biscuit mix on hand, too. I've tried making it myself, but it never seems to turn out as well. I'll keep trying, but for now, I'll just be bad. For reference, I never make actual biscuits from a mix - I always make them from scratch. But in recipes, my homemade biscuit mix just never seems to work! If you have any tips or tried and true recipes, please let me know!!

A Good Trip to Hen House

For the first time in weeks, Hen House had a decent ad! For those of you not in the Kansas City area, Hen House is a local chain of stores that doubles coupons up to .50 every day. They market themselves as a high-quality store, and their prices reflect this quite well, particularly in the meat department. The only meat I buy there is the half-price deals I find first thing in the morning if I can get there early enough. Today wasn't one of those days! :-) However, I did manage to walk away with some great deals, including some fun snacks for the 4th.

I didn't get any photos (sorry), but the problem is that I have an upstairs fridge and freezer and a downstairs fridge and freezer. I also store some food items on the top of the deep freeze downstairs, so by the time I get upstairs (where my camera is), a lot of my groceries are already put away. So I can't show you, but I can tell you what I got today. Here we go:

20 packets of unsweetened Kool-Aid (.07 each sale)
2 4-lb bags of sugar (sale $1.89, used 2 x $2/1 wyb 10 Kool-Aid)
3 cans Van Kamps Pork & Beans (sale .39, used .30/3)
French's Honey Mustard (sale $1.47, used .50/1)
French's Yellow Mustard (sale $1.47, used .50/1)
4 bags of Chex Mix (sale $1.50, used 2 x $1/2)
Cheerios Snack Mix (sale $1.50, used .50/1)
2 dozen eggs (sale .78)
Belfonte sour cream (sale .99)
2 bags Kraft cheese cubes (sale $1.49, used $1/2)
Gallon of skim milk (had $1 off sticker)
2 Cool Whip (sale .88, used $1/2)
2 Breyer's Ice Cream (sale $1.99, used 2 x $1/1)

I paid $16.22 for all this! I didn't think that was too bad. My receipt says I saved $34.50, which reflects coupons and card-member sale prices (they are a must-have-a-card-to-get-sales store). Now I have cheese cubes and snack mix for our weekend outing. I will also be making a lasagna for the event and hopefully tossing a salad with the variety of greens out there in my mess of a garden. I will be feeding 9 people for not a lot of money - yay!

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend!