1/6/09 - Another Jewel trip

Had dinner guests, so went to Jewel to get bread & wine. Decided to do a run of the $15 off $30 deal as well. Got 3 bags of dog food (8 lbs), 10 cake mixes, 1 single serve bottle of Fuze, 2 bottles of wine, 2 loaves of French bread. I spent $30 in catalinas and $8.14 out of pocket - including the wine! And I earned $30 in catalinas!

1/5/09 - Clearance Baked Goods

I went to Kroger to go "peelie hunting" and picked up a couple baked goods clearance items. Spent $1.52 total.

Free croutons at Schnucks

Schnucks has New York style croutons on sale 10 for $10. There are $0.50 coupons from newspaper inserts. Schnucks doubles coupons up to $0.50, so I only paid tax! $0.06 for 11 packages of croutons! These should make great salads for a few months!

Jewel $15 off $30 purchase

Jewel has a great catalina promotion going on right now. Buy $30 worth of participating products, get (3) $5 catalinas to use on your next purchase. I did 2 orders of Iams dog food, paying only the $2.25 in tax. I also picked up a fried chicken meal for dinner and a bag of chips.

A lot of times I will do deals like this multiple times during each store visit. Usually the out of pocket expense is small amounts. To avoid the multiple small charges coming across my bank account, I also purchased a $10 gift card. I have not used any of the gift card left, so there is $10 still waiting for my next shopping trip.

I also have $15 in catalinas left to use next time.

Total spent from my budget today: $16.95

Free batteries at Target!

Target has Rayovac batteries in the "Dollar Spot" area. These are marked down to $0.25 a pack at my store (75% off). In the 11/23 Smartsource coupon insert there are $1 off 2 pks of Rayovac coupons. I used 1 coupon for every 4 packs and got them for tax only!

I bought 44 packs of batteries for $0.75!!

I also bought some stocking stuffers for next year that were marked down 75%. Those totaled $1.42.

So I spent a total of $2.17 out of my grocery budget today.

A Couple Interesting Blogs

Just passing along a couple other blogs from fellow couponers.

$1800 annual budget
http://retirewithcoupons.blogspot.com/

$800 annual budget
http://jane4girls800dollarannualbudget.blogspot.com/

2009 Challenge

So I notice I haven't posted in MONTHS! Having a newborn will do that to a person!

I've made a New Year's resolution to keep up my blog this year.

In addition, I have set myself an ANNUAL grocery budget of $2000 for 2009. This will include groceries, diapers, dog food, restaurant eating out/ordering in, toiletries, toilet paper - basically everything.

I will start the year with numerous gift cards, catalinas, and Register Rewards. Here is a summary:

• Walgreens Register Rewards $38 (can also be used at Jewel)
• $25 gift certificate to Wings Etc
• $92.99 Walgreens gift cards
• $4.78 Subway gift card
• $20 Chuck E Cheese gift card
• $35 Darden gift card (Red Lobster, Olive Garden)
• $4 Kmart gift card
• $7.07 Starbucks gift card
• $5 TGI Fridays gift card
  

I'll work on keeping my blog updated to record my progress!

Hope everyone has a happy new year!