Now is for another time where we talk about going to the grocery store. Before I forget, one of my recent blogs that I love is Money Saving Mom. I used her in combination with The Grocery Game and Coupon Mom. The Money Saving Momis helpful and insightful in her posts. One of the things that I didn't know and learned is that P&G will load your Kroger card with coupons. You pick the ones you will use and transfer it to your card. That is it! It is important to remember that sales run in cycles (4-6 wks) and it is best to stock up during that time. That is just what I did. Also remember that there are TWO times of year to get really good deals on turkeys and hams. One is Thanksgiving and the other is Easter. We plan on getting three turkeys and freezing them, cooking them one at a time. I thought I would throw a reminder out there. Both Kroger AND Publix doubles coupons up to .50! Some non-perishables, we go to Aldi's or check and see if you have a Save a Lot near you. If it is within 20-30 miles or so, it is SO worth it!

Here is my run down:

Kroger

TOTAL $165.41
Coupons/savings: 65.06
Final total $100.35

Walgreens

Total $26.95
coupons and savings $24.46
Final total $2.49

**A little note here. I WOULD have had THEM pay ME money, but I am making Thanksgiving blessing mix (check blog) and they had Hershey's kisses 75% off from Halloween in fall colors. The $2.49 is for 4 bags of Kisses! The things to remember at Walgreens, is not only do they have a monthly rebate program, but they will alot of times run specials with store coupons and allow manf. coupons on top of that. So this week they had their PRO line from Vive on sale (shampoo and conditioner) for buy one get one free. Now I have noticed a trend. ALOT (majority) of stores will split the cost in 1/2 for buy 1 products. Walgreens does one at full price (4.99) and the other one free. I had manf. coupons for buy one get one free, so I got 2 bottles of shampoo and 2 bottles of conditioner, FREE. They also had the Purell santizer foam for $3.49-store coupon (in book at store) for $2.50 off, then I added in my manf. coupon for $1.50 off, which means product was FREE!

Publix

Total: $58.92
minus coupons/savings $36.24
Final total $24.02

On Publix, they had Kelloggs cereals for B1G1, which made them $1.84 each (they split it in 1/2). I had $1 coupons off of EACH box (I use 2), which made my total for each box, .84!!!!!! With 3 boys and in our house, I stocked up. I don't just buy a couple. With a sale like that, I got as much as I had coupons for (because if you run out, you will be back in the store, probably spending $ you don't have or you will go over budget).

Now, MILK prices are driving me NUTS! $3.50 is NOT a sale! NOT! $5.69 for MAYFIELD's? You kidding me? Milk has been a budget buster-So I went on a search for not only REAL powdered milk but one hopefully without any hormones, antibiotics, etc. We found Grandma's Country. We bought the 25lb pail. It has NO additives, anything and the cows are all natural too. I will get approx 46 gallons of milk from my pail at a cost of $1.73/per/gallon! Now friends, IF I were to pay the 3.50 SALE price or even reg. price at 3.99 (the prices I am talking about, 3.50-3.99 is from Kroger): (Walmart is 4.29/gallon?), my savings is a bracket of 81.05-103.59 NOT including tax! That is JUST on milk! It took about 10 days for us to get our milk but it is SO worth it in the long run! When I did our budget for last month, some of our overages are from Walmart (which we have cut dramatically, to almost nothing) and late night runs for milk (which end up usually being more than JUST milk, lol)!

Hope this helps you. God Bless
Southern Belle (Beth)