Frugal Friday

Over on Getting Ahead, Jennifer is starting a weekly wrap up where she posts about all the frugal things her family did that week. I was thinking about it, and sometimes a fresh set of ideas can really set you on a new path. I thought I'd participate today and post my Frugal Friday summary. What did we do this week that helped save some money?

It was a busy shopping week for me. One of those weeks where there were so many good deals to be had, it nearly made me giddy. My trip to CVS should have been $41, but after I used my coupons, rain checks and extra bucks, my total was $.01. Yes, you read that right, one penny. I also got all my extra bucks back with some profit for next time too. One of my better CVS runs. The cashier simply seemed dumbfounded. Next to Walgreens where I made two trips this week. One day my total was $29 and after coupons, rebates and everything else, I paid $1.61. To quote the cashier, "unbelievable!" (tee hee hee!) On to the grocery store that was running a spectacular deal where you spend $30 on certain items and receive $15 to use next time. If you do that deal, but use coupons and doubled coupons for all the items, you can imagine how you can do these transactions back to back and "roll" the $15 over and over again. I did 6 runs in all this week, but luckily there are two different stores in town, so I was bound to be driving by one every day or so. We are now well stocked on frozen veggies, granola bars, cereal and lots of other things that fill the pantry.

Just to give you an idea, I got home one day and took this picture, and emailed it to Jason with the subject "$2.54 out of pocket". That was misleading though, because I forgot the vitamins were in the picture. I did pay for those, but about $2 a bottle instead of $6 a bottle.

The key to the success here was combining more than one shopping strategy. If you clip a coupon and then go buy the product, you are just skimming the surface. On all these deals I used coupons for items on sale that also had other store promotions attached to maximize the savings. I also took advantage of rain checks. Did you know when CVS has an item that is "free after extra bucks" but they are out of stock they will give you a rain check? It means they just give you the item for free. I had a raincheck for Listerine, limit 3. They simply put three bottles in my bag and away I went. We like fresh breath around here ; )

Beyond my shopping it was the regular stuff that has become automatic in our house lately. I packed lunches and made muffins for snacks. I meal planned based on what I need to use up. This week it was Christmas ham - quiche one night and Hawaiian pizza another. Instead of turning the heat up during the day when I'm here alone I put on another sweatshirt. I only ran full loads in the washer and dishwasher. And of course, I freecycled.

I guess we did do pretty well this week. The weather kept us in a bit, but nothing is more affordable than hanging out at home!