8 lb Fresh Fruit for about $1.50 @ Target

Mrs. Deals pointed out this deal to me at Target (also seen on Money Saving Mom ). For anyone who thinks that couponing only works for cereal and toilet paper, take a look at this (sorry for the poor quality camera phone pic - it's my only option right now!)

You can print off Target Web Coupons for $0.50 off Bananas (1 lb or more) and $1 off Apples (1 lb or more). If you are really lucky, you're local Super Target will have Apples on sale for 0.99 / lb, which would make it possible to get them free.

At my Target, the small Granny Smith apples were priced at $1.29 / lb, so with the coupon, they were only $0.29 for a pound of apples. Lucky for me, 3 of these little guys came out to exactly a pound. Literally, 2 of my receipts say "1.00 LBS" one was 1.02 and one was .99, but my cashier still happily took the coupon.

Bananas worked out pretty good, although it was a lot harder to hit the 1 lb mark dead on. I split up 2 bunches of six into my four transactions, and found that 3 bananas would weigh anywhere from 1.1 to 1.15 lbs, and 2 bananas rang up as only .68 lb. To my surprise, the cashier let that one fly too, so even though the 2 bananas only cost 38 cents, she still took off the whole $0.50 coupon (the overage came off of the 32 cents I should have paid for the apples) and I ended up having a total of only 20 cents for that transaction!

The total of all 4 transactions was:

.43 + .20 + .50 + .40 = $1.53

Total Haul:

• 4.01 lbs of Small Granny Smith Apples (12 apples)
• 4.20 lbs of Bananas (2 bunches = 12 bananas)

I hesitate to say "OOP" though, because I used a target gift card (one of many we received as wedding gifts), so as far as our weekly budget goes this was a completely free shopping trip.

I can't wait to try whatever Mrs. Deals makes with those apples... yum!

- Mister Deals

Shopping for basics at TJ Maxx

Almost out of vanilla & wanting some sesame oil, Mrs. Deals stopped at TJ Maxx today to scope some prices.

Since a 2oz bottle of McCourmick Vanilla costs around $5 at regular price, we decided to look for alternatives, especially with Thanksgiving time far away (Vanilla goes on sale around 50% off at this time of year). For us it is important to buy real vanilla versus imitation, and as a result we know it would take a good chunk out of our regular weekly budget.

This week we are starting with $30 for shopping & only plan on spending a little at Walgreens and Target, to make up for the cost of staples.

Anyway, onto the TJ Maxx shopping trip:

(2) 4oz bottles of Madagascar Vanilla 5.99 each

(1) 16.7oz bottle of Organic Sesame Oil $4.99

Total out of pocket: $16.97

Rainy Day Blog

It's been quite rainy here lately and by the looks of this weather map, we're not out of the woods yet:

I did get a little wet when I went out coupon hunting this morning, and I blame the weather for why I could only find a few extra inserts this week - apparently people don't go to Starbucks to read the Sunday paper when it's pouring outside!

Other than that, this was a pretty good week, and I did some nice rolling at Walgreens:

Transaction 1:

(8) Jiffy Peanut Butter on sale 2/$4 = $16 (+get $10 RR)
Used:

• (4) $0.75/2 coupons = $3 off total

OOP = $13

and received $10 RR for buying 8 Jiffy's

Transaction 2:

(1) 10 pack of #2 Pencils = 19 cents

(1) Gum Toothbrush = $3.49 (+3.50 RR)

(1) Walgreen's Children's Activity Book = 99 cents

(1) Vitamin Shampoo = $3.99 (+4 RR)

(4) Crest Expressions Toothpaste 4/$10 = $10 (+$5 RR)

Tax = 1.03

Used:

• (4) $0.75/1 coupons = $3 off total
• $10 RR from Transaction 1

OOP = 6.69

and received a total of $12.50 RR

Transaction 3 (a repeat of transaction 1 plus some fillers)

(8) Jiffy Peanut Butter on sale 2/$4 = $16 (+get $10 RR)
(4) 10 pack of #2 Pencils 19 cents each = $0.76

Used:

• (4) $0.75/2 coupons = $3 off total
• $12.50 RR

OOP = $1.30

and received $10 RR (again!) for buying 8 Jiffy's

Walgreen's Total OOP for the week = $20.99

Plus, we have a $10 RR to use this week!

The only other shopping I did this week was a very small trip to Copps:

(1) bunch of bananas $0.49/lb = 1.24

(2) Quaker Quick Oats on sale $1.28 ea = 2.56

OOP = $3.80

Total OOP for the Week = 24.79

(plus we have 1 remaining $10 RR)

We were hoping to stay more under budget, like $20 instead of $25, because we know we need to stock up on some kitchen basics, but it didn't happen this week. Last week, we did stay under $20, so that extra $5 savings will be used this coming week to give us a $30 budget. Mrs. Deals is already working on some deals to see just how far she can make that go... until then, stay dry! :)

- Mister Deals

July 25 to August 1st

So for this week Mrs. Deals & I finished up our remaining "Giving Honeymoon" with the purchases of some toiletry items at Target (Johnson & Johnson, Destin) and at Copps some Tuna Helper (27), 5 Mighty Dog Dog Foods, Snack Packs (4 for free), 6 Wet Ones, 10 Poptarts (They were cheap, so we went with it--usually we opt for cereals), and a few other small items (I don't have the full list in front of me, I've been visiting the in-laws this weekend and left my receipts behind).

For our personal shopping trip we remained under our $25 budget, but did spend right around $20.

We got:

2 Milks Free after two store coupons at Copps

15 Cans of Tuna .50 each after coupons at Target

2 Tide Stain Remover Bottles .99 each after coupons at Copps

6 Tide Single-Loads Free after coupons at Target

4 All 2-Load Detergents Free after coupons at Target

Grapes 1.29 at Copps

6 Back to Nature Mac & Cheeses Free after coupons at Whole Foods

2 Flintstone Vitamins $7 after coupons at Copps

2 Smart Waters Free after Coupons at Copps

in addition our earlier purchases of envelopes and candy at Walgreens came out to .72

All in all, our total came out to just under $20.00 (somewhere between $18.50-20.00)

We are hoping to save some extra money from this week and this coming week to stock up on some staples we are running low on (Vanilla, Flour, Sugar, Powdered Sugar). Since we don't want to dip into future grocery funds (and then end up spending $25 later on anyhow), we want to make sure we are staying a little bit below budget (~$5 for a few weeks) so we can have that money to spend already available.

So, despite my find of 16 copies of ads this week (Found an awesome truck stop at the in-laws) and the great deals at Walgreens, we are limiting ourselves to three transactions with around $18 out of pocket expense with a $10 RR to use next week and we are picking up around $3 of items at Copps--2 Oats and 1 bundle of bananas).

This post is rushed I'll admit, hopefully once Mrs. Deals school year begins we will have more of a structure established so fitting in posts won't be as difficult!

Mister Deals