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How to Save Over 70% at Target When Purchasing Fresh Produce, Meat, Clothing & More! (No Coupons from the Newspaper Required!)

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I get asked by a lot of family and friends if “couponing” is really worth it, if you can save money on your groceries and still eat healthy, if you can save money without buying tons of newspapers, etc. My answer is definitely…YES! To help explain why I feel this way, I decided to document a normal grocery run for my family…

Here is an example of a super quick grocery store run I made two days ago (3/10/14) to Target. Please note, I did NOT use any newspaper coupons. (We cancelled our subscription a few weeks ago to prepare for our move.)

This entire trip used only coupons I printed off from online, mobile coupons I had sent to my phone from Target, and Target Cartwheel Offers (more Target discounts that are available through a FREE Target app on your phone or online.)

I purchased a container of lunch meat, a bag of carrots, two cucumbers, two lemons, four bananas, three greek yogurts, a shampoo, a conditioner, and two Mossimo Women’s Long & Lean Tank Tops for only $9.09* and that includes my tax!! Had I paid full price for everything my total would have been $34.42. So I saved $25.33. That’s almost a 75% savings on my groceries! And, as you can see, that’s quite a bit of pretty healthy food that came home with me + two new workout tank tops for my ever growing baby bump! (Love the Mossimo Long & Tanks for the gym, especially when I am pregnant!)

To put the savings even further into perspective, one a normal day at Target ONE tank top alone costs $9.00 + tax. So I walked out with an additional tank top plus all of the fruits and vegetables, the lunch meat, the greek yogurts and the shampoo and conditioner for about same price! And, it only took my an extra 10-15 minutes to plan my trip and maybe an extra 5 minutes in the store. I’d say that 15-20 minutes was definitely worth the extra $25.33 I now have in my bank account.

Here are the deals I picked up:

Market Pantry Lunch Meat (Oven Roasted Turkey) $2.50
Use the $1.00 off of one Market Pantry Lunch Meat Target Coupon (Text OFFERS to 827438)
Total cost $1.42

Bag of Green Giant Carrots $1.69
Use the $1.00 off any Fresh Vegetable Purchase Target Coupon (Text SPRING to 82743)
Total cost $0.69

Cucumbers (2) $1.38
Use the $1.00 off any Fresh Vegetable Purchase Target Coupon (Text THANKS to 827438)
Total cost $0.38

Bananas (4) $0.72
Use the $1.00 off any Fresh Fruit Purchase Target Coupon (Text SPRING to 82743)
Total cost FREE + $0.28 in overage

Lemons (2) $1.18
Use the $1.00 off any Fresh Fruit Purchase Target Coupon (Text THANKS to 827438)
Total cost $0.18

Purchase 3 Simply Balanced Greek Yogurt at $0.80 each
Use the $1.00 off any three Simply Balanced Yogurt Target Coupon (Text SPRING to 82743)
Total cost $1.40 for all three

Purchase a Suave Natural Infusions Shampoo and a Conditioner at $2.74 each
Total cost FREE + $0.52 in overage

Buy 2 Mossimo Long & Lean Women’s Tanks at $5.00 each
Total cost $6.30 or only $3.15 per tank top

(Side note: I LOVE the Simply Balanced Greek Yogurts at Target. They have a great texture, have really yummy fruit in them and are very reasonably priced, even when you can’t find an awesome deal on them. They have definitely been a “go to” of mine during this pregnancy.)

And, no. I didn’t not come up with all of these deals on my own. I follow sites like Freebies2Deals, Springs Bargains and Money Saving Mom. All sites that do the work for you. 🙂 I’m telling you, it’s all about working smarter, not harder! It’s one those sites that I learn about things like the new text coupons from Target or the free Suave deal with a new printable coupon that was just released.

Here is how I plan my shopping trips. I look through my pantry and decide what else I need for meals that week. Then, I visit the Freebies2Deals site and click on the Target logo on the sidebar. Once I do that, all of the current deals for Target pop up. Including all of the coupons I will need for each deal. So, then all I have to do is write down which deals I want to grab, make sure I have the appropriate coupons printed off and in hand (or on my phone) and then run to Target. Easy as that! (Of course, repeat for each store you plan on going too!)

Occasionally I will notice a mobile coupon or a coupon online for something I need that week, so I’ll add that to my list as well. For example, when I saw the coupon for $1.00 off of three Simply Balanced Greek Yogurts, and those were already on my shopping list, I made sure to make a note to use that coupon as well. Even though it wasn’t a deal listed on the site.

The best part? All of these deals are still working at Target through Saturday, March 15th! So if you want to brush up on your money saving skills and give the whole “couponing” thing a try. You can! All you will need is a printer and your cell phone! 🙂 Of course, don’t forget to switch your printer to grey scale when printing your coupon(s). No need to print them in color and waste your ink!

PS: If you don’t want to bother with text coupons, I received a mailer yesterday (3/11/14) from Target that contained a lot of the same coupons I got via text. So, if you got that same mailer, you could use those in addition to the text coupons or in place of. YAY! I love being able to save more on my produce! 🙂

*****

*Note: The Target Suave Natural Infusions Coupon I mention in one of the deal scenarios above did for some reason have an issue at checkout. I took the coupon to Customer Service though right after my purchase and they immediately accepted the coupons and refunded me my $3.00 for the two coupons I had. Just an FYI in case you have that happen as well. That’s also why my receipt states $12.09 as my total and not $9.09! 🙂

The Money Saving Mom’s Budget & A Giveaway!

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a new book was released last week called the money saving mom’s budget. it’s a book all about slashing your spending, paying down your debt, streamlining your life & saving thousands a year…and it’s a book that i’m quoted talking about our $50 a week grocery budget in.

i know…me quoted in a book about saving money??? that’s something you’ve got to see with your own eyes. (of course, it’s not like i actually wrote the book, it’s only a small paragraph with my name on it, but hey, i’ll take what i can get.)

i’m telling you “old me” would never recognize “new me” in a million years!!! if you had told me a couple years ago that i’d be working for a deal finding and money saving site & be quoted in a book on saving money & have a goal of a $50 a week grocery budget…i would have laughed my head off and said you must not know me very well….i guess you could say that i’m living proof that you can teach a shopaholic new tricks! 😉

with that said, i still have a ways to go until i can say i’ve got this whole money thing under control and all figured out. i have made HUGE improvements though and i am very happy about that. i am now a firm believer that coupons are awesome and so is being in control of where your money is going.

i’ve also learned that when it comes to saving money – knowledge really is money! the more you know, the more you can save and the easier it is. the first step to saving money really is educating yourself about all the different ways there are to save money! (and luckily there are books like the money saving mom’s budget & sites like freebies2deals to help you out)

now, with all that said, i’ve decided to do a giveaway so that one of you can get a jump on your money saving goals this year…

i am giving away a copy of the book the money saving mom’s budget! 
  • to enter just leave a comment on this post telling me how you plan to save money this year! 
  • if you would like extra entries, you can get additional entries for tweeting about the giveaway, following live to be inspired on the sidebar through google connect or posting about the giveaway on your facebook page. just make sure to leave an additional comment for each thing you do! 

i’ll announce the winner of the giveaway on january 23rd! good luck!

ps: if you are new to the whole money saving/couponing/deal finding thing & have no clue where to start…i’d recommend reading the starting fresh in 2012 couponing series that is available on the freebies2deals site! it will give you all the info you need to get started!

“budget” learning curve

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it’s friday, which means time for an update on my budget & weekly goal. to be honest, i’m a tad over. well, i’ll just say it… i’m over more than a tad. i never have been the best budgetier (not a word, but i’m still using it) so i’m chalking these first few weeks up to the learning curve of it all. right? right!  i mean it couldn’t a total and complete lack of self control when it comes to all things shopping? no? well, maybe!

 i figure at least now i’m just over by fifty or so dollars and not three or four hundred. baby steps…baby steps. i have to admit my whole goal with this has been, i want to save money but i don’t want to sacrifice taste, brand, quality or preference so it’s taken some learning to figure out how to maintain the “same” standard of living but for 75% (or more!) less!

here are my most recent totals:

full price cost (what i would have paid just walking in and grabbing what i wanted like i did up until the past few months): $717.64

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total savings: $563.19

total oop: $154.45
savings percentage: 78.48%

um, over 78% savings! not too shabby! i’d prefer it to be up in the 80% range, but i’ll take 78% that’s for sure. hopefully by summer it’ll be where i want it! so now, how am i getting that kind of savings? well, here are a couple of my grocery runs from this week…

first up, king soopers. if you live in utah (which a lot of my readers do) think smith’s. they are both kroger stores. here is what i picked up at king soopers earlier this week:

(2) 2 liters of soda, (3) boxes of ritz, (6) boxes of hefty storage bags, (8) gatorade, (6) cans of pillsbury grands rolls, (5) bottles of bbq sauce (various flavors), (2) totino’s pizzas, (3) cans of chef boyardee pasta, (4) 5 packs of kraft macaroni & cheese (a favorite at our house!), (1) jar of ragu sauce & 2 lbs. of lean hamburger meat. 

the total for all of the above items in the end was $38.79, but then i received $12.00 in cash catalina’s to use toward future purchases so it was like paying $26.79! full price cost (with a few of the items on sale even) would have been 84.73! that is a savings of almost $58.00 & i don’t know about you but i can definitely think of ways to put that $58 to good use in other area’s of our budget (like a trip this summer or our mini getaway to vail in may). 
so here is how the deal worked at king soopers. the deal was buy 10 participating items and get $3.00 off your total automatically and then also receive a $3.00 cash catalina to use on your next purchase and this happened for every ten items you bought. 
now me in the past would have walked past the gatorade sign and picked up two or three since they were “on sale” for .99 cents and not even paid attention to the promo. this time around though i bought the ten items (you could mix and match product to get up to your ten) and purchased the gatorade for .39 cents each!!! now i’m set on gatorade for a while (until the next good sale) and will hopefully never have to pay full price for gatorade again. same with all the other items in the picture. i’d much rather pay .39 cents for gatorade than a dollar. plus, shopping this way also allows me to build up our food storage at the same time. the great thing about all this is i am actually buying more than i would have previously of some products in an attempt to build our food storage, but i am spending so so much less!!! 
i can’t tell you how nice it was a couple weeks ago when we were ALL down with the flu and i already had gatorade, sprite, applesauce & saltine’s somewhat stocked and on hand. there was no running to the store late at night or early in the morning and paying full price because we needed it right then! it felt good having it on hand and it felt good knowing we got the best price for it! 
***update: i did also use coupons on my king sooper’s purchase. so those are factored into the price total as well, on top of the promo that was going on. i had coupons for the hefty bags, the macaroni and cheese, the grands, the pizzas, the chef boyardee & the ritz crackers.***
now for the second store, walgreen’s. this store run i was looking for two particular item, the febreeze luminary flamless starter kit and the airheads. 

my total out of pocket for this purchase was: .72 cents! 
total savings $28.16! 

the febreeze luminary starter kit is normally close to $11.00 but it was on clearance for $4.19 and i had a $5.00 off coupon which meant that i made .80 cents purchasing that item. i actually had three coupons for this product so i purchased 2 others on another run. basically i made $2.40 by buying something i’ve wanted to try and stocking up on it. what could be better than making money buying something that you’ve wanted to try out anyway?

the 6 pack box of airheads were on sale for .69 cents and i had (6) .50 cent off coupons so each box of airheads was only .19 cents. that’s less than .04 cents an airhead. i bought these so i’d have them on hand for when the little man starts to get stir crazy at the store. i’d much rather pull a cheap treat out of my purse than grab one from the checkout stand and pay .50 cents to a dollar. (side note: of course my mom would say, “or you could just skip the treat all together” 🙂 which is true, but my grocery runs do take a little longer these days especially at check out and i’d so much rather be able to hand him a .04 cent treat and be able to think clearly and get my savings than have to leave or miss watching to see if my coupons are being scanned correctly because he’s tired and or cranky and done with the shopping excursion.)

next up the pringles, these weren’t the BEST deal but i’ve been craving them and it was a pretty good deal so i snagged them. they were on sale for 2/$3 and i had a $1 off the purchase of 2 coupon (expiring on monday) so each can was $1.

…and the gummi bears, well we are just simply addicted to them in my family and love them for movie nights so i grabbed them at 2/$2 and justified it since i’d be paying with register rewards, plus i needed a filler item in order to be able to use said register rewards. call this a frugal snack run if you will.

basically here is my purchase went down:

2 cans of pringles: $2.00
2 bags of gummi bears (or yogi bears as ti calls them): $2.00
6 boxes of of 6 ct. airheads: $1.14
febreeze: .80 cent money maker

total: $4.34

then i used (2) $2 register rewards i had from previous purchased which brought it down to: .34 cents
then add on tax and you are at .72 cents for the entire purchase! love it! of course most of it is “junk” food but i’m sure we all find ourselves buying these same types of things probably on a somewhat regular basis. even if it’s just for kid’s birthday parties/holidays/summer road trips/etc. why not only pay pennies for them???