You say potato...

My son Ivan loves baked potatoes. Loves them. One day he ate 3 in a day! Seriously. The kids loves a baked potato.

Of course they are loaded with  cheese, chopped ham and ranch.

After a busy day at 2nd grade, he asked me if he could, "please, please, please have a baked potato for an after school snack?"

Unfortunatley for him...we didn't have any.

So of course he asked me to go to the store and get him one. He promised that I only had to get him one. Just one for him.

Now, potato's are pretty darn cheap in and of themselves. You can turn them into so many different things. They are cheap, tasty and verstaile. How could you go wrong?! Hmmm, yep there is a way...So while I was at Ralphs I did some investigating.

First we have a single potato. Wrapped and ready to go into the microwave. Cost = .99each

Right next to these, were loose potatoes. They were .99 a lb.

Hmmm, it gets better...

A pre-bagged 5 lb. bag of potatoes was $2.49 each.  A lot more spud for your buck right?

BUT...a 10 lb. bag of potatoes? $3.49 each. That is 5 more lbs for a dollar!!! Five!

What the heck kind of math is that?! I think my 3 year old could figure out that the 10 lbs is the best deal.

When my husband was in school, I read every book I could find on saving money. I still have a lot of them today! One of the lessons I learned, and has stuck with me, is that you pay for convenience. The more the store/manufacturer does for you, the more it is going to cost you.

These potatoes are a good example of this. But there are soooo many others.

We need to be educated consumers if we want to get the most bang for our buck.

Be a smart shopper! I will try to show more of these examples as I find them, so be prepared.

So, of course you know I am going to ask...what is your favorite way to eat a spud?!

Got breakfast?

Milk is a good thing. Its got vitamins, calcium...

We also go through it like it was...well milk.

I normally buy 4 gallons at a time, at about $2.99 (or more) a pop.

Since I can't keep a cow in my backyard, I always try to take advantage of free milk deals.

Right now, my Ralphs is having a Buy 4 items (from a huge list) and get a free gallon of milk.

I always try to find the cheapest item I can, that qualifies, use a coupon to get it lower.

I went in today and got:

6 Quaker Perfect Portions (used 6 coupons for .55/1)
2 Kelloggs Cinnamon Jacks (used 2 .50/1 coupons)
3 cartons of 18 ct eggs (on sale for $2.50 each)
2 gallons of milk (free)
1 pkg of discounted Choc. chip mini muffins

It is times like these, when I realize just how much I miss double coupons. I could have doubled all of those coupons up to a $1. Oh well. In the end I paid a little over $27.

I think I am covered for breakfast for awhile!

Got Milk?

"Mom...we are all out of milk again. "

These words are said at least 2 times a week (if not more) in this house. Besides ketchup, it is the one thing we can't keep in stock around here.

Luckly for me, Ralphs was having a nice deal. Buy any 4 General Mills/Pillsbury (and a couple of other brands) and get a free gallon of milk.

While some of the products had their prices jacked way up, there were others that weren't quite as bad. Especially when combined with coupon.

In the end I got:
4 boxes of cereal
4 boxes of Toaster Strudels
4 bags of Pillsbury breakfast scrambles
4 boxes of yogurt
4 gallons of milk (I checked and I was able to get chocolate as well!)
and my regular 3 LA Times Weekend edition

After coupons and green bag discounts I paid $35.xx

I was super excited. By keeping an eye out for the cheapest items that qualified, I didn't pay too much more out of pocket, than I would have to buy the milk.

Since this deal lasts until Tuesday, I may get some more. I have heard freezing milk works perfectly fine but have never tried it. Have any of you? Any tips?

Being silly while patiently waiting for their chocolate milk

***BTW: if you want to go and get in on this deal, but you/your family don't drink regular cows milk, you can get a half gallon of organic milk instead.***

good deal alert

Once again, for the record, I am not a deal blogger. However I did want to share this awesome deal with everyone. So here we go...

Most grocery stores are really trying to encourage you to use digital coupons. So they offer a lot of great deals.

Right now, at Ralphs (and other Kroger affiliate stores) you can download a coupon for a FREE 8-10 ct. box of Carnation Instant Breakfast. If you do not have an account with them, you simply fill in your rewards card number and other info. Click on coupons and load coupons to your card. Easy shmeezy.

Here is the thing...THIS COUPON CAN ONLY BE DOWNLOADED TODAY JAN. 18TH!!!

The coupon doesn't expire until February, but it has to be downloaded today.

Now if you have the Ibotta app, you can also turn this into a MONEYMAKER!! Who doesn't want free money?!

Right now, one of the offers on Ibotta is to get .75 back on your purchase.

Here is the run down:

Go to Ralphs.com (or Kroger, Fred Meyer, Smiths etc.)
If you haven't registered your card, do that.
Add the coupon for a free box of Carnation Instant Breakfast.
Pay $0.00 at the check out
Take a picture of your reciept, upload it to Ibotta, and make .75!

My kids love to have this breakfast using Instant Breakfast or Ovaltine.

Ralphs good deal

OK, I am not a deal blogger. There are so many people who do such a great job, that I don't want to take the time, energy etc.

However, when I started to explain this deal on Facebook, it started getting really, really long. So I decided to just write it here...


Ralphs is having a deal where if you buy 5 of certain products (this is a Mix & Match deal) you will get $5 off your order. The brands are Procter & Gamble, Pepsi and Kelloggs. ***Ralphs is a Kroger affiliate store as well as Fred Meyer and Frys)

Image taken from abc15.com

Couponers ARE NOT brand loyal. However, I know a lot of people who love Tide but don't love the price. So if you want to add some Tide to your stockpile, try this deal!

On Sunday (12/30) we got a Procter & Gamble insert. In there was a coupon good for $1.50 off any one Tide.   So if you want to do this deal it works this way...

REMEMBER THAT YOU HAVE TO BUY AT LEAST 5 PARTICIPATING PRODUCTS TO GET THE LOWER PRICE. THEY DON'T ALL HAVE TO BE THE SAME!!

Buy 1 bottle of Tide @4.99
Less your $1.50 coupon=
$3.49 for a 50 oz. bottle of Tide

Now, I get quite a few copies of the paper, so I would do this deal as often as I can. $3.49 is a pretty cheap price for Tide. However if you only have one P&G, you can buy these items to get your 5 products...

Buy 2 Old Spice deodorant @ 1.29 each = $2.58
Use one coupon good for $1/2
You will pay $1.58

Buy 1 pkg of Duracell batteries @ 2.99
Use 1 coupon good for .75/1
You will pay =$2.24

Buy 1 box of Special K cereal @ 1.99
Print off a coupon on coupons.com for .70/1
Pay $1.29


Your transaction would be:
1 bottle of Tide = $3.49
2 Old Spice deodorants= $1.58
1 pkg of Duracell batteries = $2.24
1 box of Special K= $1.29

Your out of pocket cost will be...$8.60

score!!!

I have been really bad about my couponing and saving money. Seriously.

 I know I need to get back on the ball and I think this was a good way to do it...

I had a $10 catalina at Vons and I only wanted to spend $5 out of my own pocket to get some deals.

I didn't quite get there, as I forgot one item and swapped out a different one, which made my total $7.xx. However I still had a nice 87% savings. Although I couldn't get it all in the picture I purchased, 1 chicken, 4 pkgs of Pillsbury cookie dough, 2 pkgs of Oreos, 2 Silk Fruit & Protein, 4 Progresso Recipe Starts (one is for a try me free, so I get the money back) 1 Luna protein bar.

Then I went over to Ralphs and stocked up on some of their Mega Event items. I spent less than $45 on all the items in the pictures. It was an awesome trip and I am starting to get my stockpile a little more stocked.

I still have a lot of work to do to get back into the game and really stock up and save BUT it was a good start (: How about you? Any good shopping trips this week?

Ralphs love

I am not the *biggest* Ralphs fan. It has a lot of great deals to be had, but on the whole....not so much.

The one thing that has me showin' them some love is the fact that, they don't limit the amount of like coupons that can be doubled. For example, if I have two coupons for fruit snacks, that are good for .50/2. If I buy 4 boxes and use 2 coupons, they only take $1.50 off, not the whole 2 dollars.

However, Ralphs doesn't place limits (unless the coupon states it).

Thanks to some high value coupons, I got these cakes for .99 each and the appetizers free!

They have a promotion (which is actually still going on) where if you buy 10 of a huge list of items, you get an automatic $5 off your order. This also isn't limited, as long as you have the first 10, you can get as many as you want.

So, before coupons my total was $127.xx and afterwards? $37! Not too shabby!

I finally feel like a real couponer, with a nice stockpile of mustard!

Not everything fit in the picture. But I got:

2 pineapple upside down cakes .99 each

1 chicken tornado appetizers = free

2 Digiorno pizzas = .99each after coupons

6 regular French's mustards = .40 each

6 French's honey mustards = .50 each

2 Spicy French's mustards = .50 each

2 Dijion mustards = .50 each

4 Skintimate shave gels = ?? I can't remember but they were between .50-$1

4 Edge shave gels = same deal as the Skintimate

4 bags of Goldfish = .50 each (had a coupon from a cereal box! (:

a clearanced 6 pack of applesauce = .75

a pkg of clearanced kettle corn= $1 ( I was so happy to find this because I love kettle corn and my husband &  kids love butter. So I normally buy butter.

Did you get any great deals this week? I would love to see/hear about them!

speechless at Ralphs

With Ralphs having strawberries for .88 a pint, I have been going in and getting lots!

They are HUGE, sweet and ADDICTING!

So while I was there I had a few other things I wanted to grab....

One item was free Crest toothpaste. Crest was on sale 10/$10. I had 9 coupons that were .50/1 that were doubled to a dollar. Nice right? Well while I was perusing my choices, an elderly lady walked down the aisle. She stopped in front of the toothpaste. I offered her one of my coupons and she politely declined. And then...she bought a tube of toothpaste that was ON SALE for $4.49!!! But you know what? She grabbed TWO!! Ugh, it made my stomach churn.

I can handle someone not accepting a coupon but paying that much for toothpaste? My Easter ham didn't even cost that much!!! I hope she has a good retirement fund. Whew!

As for me, all those groceries you see above? $29. Nine of those dollars was for the ham!! Which was normally $20 something.

4 bags of Lays potato chips
9 tubes of Crest
2 bottles of Tropicana oj
3 pouches of Idahoan potatoes
2 containers of sour cream
4 pints of strawberries
1 bunch of bananas
1 bag of seedless purple grapes
2 Propel zeros
8 boxes of Pasta Roni
and that big ol' ham!!

SUPER DOUBLES!

Sure tires a little boy out! Mason had had enough of hanging out at stores today!

We made a very quick trip to Rite Aid for a pkg of diapers. I am such a dork and only brought one of my Huggies coupons! Hello? What was I thinking. Don't worry, I am going back for more! Using a $2.50/1 Huggies coupon and previously earned Up rewards I paid $1.24 for a pkg of diapers!

Then we headed to Target. I had heard some great news about the Tag Reading System being only $5 after coupons. I also had a coupon good for $5/1 2. I was very excited about my purchases but because they are for Christmas gifts, I will leave it at that!

On to Ralphs. I had planned to make a trip Friday evening but just was not prepared. I spent the weekend cutting, sorting, organizing. On Sunday as I was busy putting my trips together, I was so DELIGHTED to see that Ralphs was offering SUPER DOUBLES!

Mason is teething and has a cold and was a total PILL. But I still managed to bring a total of $287 down to $64! It was so much fun and I am not done yet. This is just the "so far" picture!

Ralphs

My Ralphs trip for the week! Before coupons and savings card, my total was $92.90. Afterward $40.31. Not great but...I bought a few things that were a good sale but I didn't have coupons for! I don't think we will be getting thirsty anytime soon!