Being open to store brands leads to great deals!

RA is changing their packaging, and updating a few products, like their diapers, so all RA brand items are either buy 1 get 1 for a penny, or BOGO 50%. If you have been playing the Game Of Life, you might have some great RA brand coupons laying around!

2 RA Diapers 19.98

2 RA Diapers .02

= 20.00

-4 (1.00 off any RA brand item over 4.00 from the GOL, used 4)

-5/20 RA coupon

= 11.00 + .95 in tax = 11.95 oop

Thats 216 diapers, which makes them 0.05 cents each! Anything less then .10 each is my stock up price!

3 RA Apple Juice 1.99

3 RA Apple Juice .99

2 RA Peanuts 3.99

2 RA Peanuts 1.99

= 20.90

-1.50 (.25 off RA apple juice from the GOL, used 6)

-2.00 (.50 off RA peanuts from the GOL, used 4)

-5/20 RA coupon

= 12.40 oop

This makes all 10 items just 1.24 each!

How to cook from your stockpile

Its great that I have all this food in my house.. but its pointless if I dont use it! This week is a perfect example of how I use my stockpile to plan meals.

Last year in November, I got turkeys for .29 cents a pound! So I bought (3) 20lb turkeys for about 5.50-5.80 each! We ate 1 for thanksgiving.. and have two left. I took one out a few days ago to defrost.

Dinner 1: Turkey, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, dinner rolls

Dinner 2: Turkey Tetrizzine (which I took to Church for a potluck) cut turkey, pasta, milk, cheese, butter, flour

Dinner 3: Turkey Tortilla soup, turkey stock from the bones, corn, black beans, salsa, sour cream, tortillas, cheese

Dinner 4:Open Faced Turkey Sandwich, bread, gravy, mashed potatoes, peas

Dinner 5: Grilled Turkey and Cheese sandwich with tomato soup

Aside from needing milk.. I dont have to do any grocery shopping this week! I have all of these ingredients in my stockpile or hiding in my fridge. Which means this weeks menu cost just $5.67 for the turkey!

Oh (clean) Baby!

Rite Aid baby wash deal!

Johnson and Johnson are on sale this week at RA, buy 1, get 1 for just a penny!

3 bottles at 4.49

3 bottles at .01

2 bottles at 5.69

2 bottles at .01

- 1.00 RA video value coupon, printed from www.riteaid.com

-1.00 Johnson and Johnson coupon (there are 2 from past newspapers, or google it and find LOTS of printables)

I used 10 of each coupon

-5/20 RA coupon, printed from their website also

= -.10 tax was 1.74, oop 1.64, and I used my gift card

I did this twice, and after my gift card was used up, paid 1.02 oop in cash for all 20 bottles!

If you want to do this deal.. and dont have 20 coupons.. its ok!

1 bottle 4.49

1 bottle .01

= 4.50

-1.00 johnson and johnson printable coupon

-1.00 johnson and johnson printable coupon

-1.00 video value coupon

-1.00 video value coupon

= .50 for 2 bottles!

Swagbucks!

I know I have talked about swagbucks before, but for those of you not on board.. you need to be! You earn "bucks" for searching the web, which I know we all do anyway! The bucks can be redeemed for items and gift cards. My favorite swagbuck item? A $5.00 Amazon.com gift card is just 45 swagbucks.. which is about 3 weeks worth! I just cashed in for my 6th gift card... thats $30 free bucks for Amazon.com! All earned since the first of the year!

http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/MrsToponak

You can use my link to sign up!

I know I said no more toilet paper unless it was free... guess what... its FREE!!!

Jubliee

16 Yakisoba free after coupon

20 Birdseye Veggies, free after coupon

21 Marcal 4 packs of TP, free after coupon

= 2.77 in tax!!

Rite Aid

2 Lysol No Touch hand soap dispensers 11.99 each

- same coupons I used yesterday

= .98 + 1.66 tax = 2.64 on a giftcard

CVS

2 Crest Toothpaste 7.00

-1.00/2 coupon

-6 ECB

= .61 in tax on a gift card

got back 7.00 ECB

Grand total oop 2.77 all tax, saved 129.01 !!

Rite Aid and Walgreens

Rite Aid

Lysol Hand Soap Starter Kit 12.99*2= 25.98

-5/20 RA coupon

-5.00 in ad coupon

-5.00 in ad coupon

-3.00 newspaper coupon

-3.00 newspaper coupon

-1.00 video value coupon

-1.00 video value coupon

= 2.98 + 1.22 tax = 4.20 on my gift card.

will get 2.00 Single Check Rebate from Rite Aid

Folgers 6.88

Huggies 8.99

Secret 7.99

= 23.86

-5/20 RA coupon

-7.99 Secret (coupon for a free item, buy 4 get 1 coupon by mail)

-8.99 Huggies (coupon from December, buy 5 get 1 coupon by mail)

= 1.88 + .69 tax = 2.57 on my gift card.

Will get 3.00 and 2.00 Single Check Rebate from Rite Aid, plus .75 cents from Caregivers Marketplace for the Huggies

Total money made = 7.75 !!

Walgreens

Venus 8.99

Olay 8.79

Valentines cup .39

= 18.17

-2.00 Venus coupon

-8.79 free Olay when you buy Venus coupon

-6.00 RR from last week

= 1.38 + 1.59 tax = 2.97

Got a 4.00 RR from the Venus

I did this 4 times, total oop 11.88, total RR's back 16.00

Venus 8.99

Olay 7.99

Valentines Pencil .12

= 17.10

-2.00 Venus coupon

-7.99 free Olay when you buy Venus coupon

-6.00 RR from last week

= 1.11 + 1.50 tax = 2.61

Got a 4.00 RR from the Venus

I did this 3 times, total oop 7.83, total RR's back 12.00

Pampers 8.99

Valentine Cup .39

Valentine Cup .39

= 9.77

-1.50 Pampers coupon

-4.00 RR from Venus deal

-4.00 RR from Venus deal

= .27 cents + .50 tax = .77 oop

Get a 1.00 RR from the Pampers

I did this 3 times, total oop 2.31, total RR's back 3.00

Right now Olay is offering a rebate, buy any 3 products (body wash is included) and get 15.00 back. I will submit this rebate twice, for a total back of 30.00!

Grand total oop 22.02, RR's left to spend 7.00, will receive 30.00 in rebates

Total Money Maker = 14.98

I also got a 15.00 Olay rebate in the mail.

Not much shopping this week.

My youngest, who's just 3 months old, ended up with RSV and in the hospital Monday - Friday, so I was only able to make 1 shopping trip Saturday night. Oh, and shes much better now!

Quality Market

They were having a sale on Betty Crocker items this week, buy 6, get 3.00 off at checkout, but it works if you buy multipals of 6, so if you buy 12, you get 6.00 off and so on. I also had lots of Betty Crocker coupons.. which made for a great sale.

18 Cake Mixes

18 Tubs of Frosting

18 Cookie Mixes

12 Brownie Mixes

= 49.44

or just .75 each which is cheaper then generic or Aldi brand... which means stock up!

I know lots of you question "will you actually use this stuff before it expires?" YES! Think about it, we have a family of 6, so right there I will have to make 6 cakes this year, plus the girls will need a set of cupcakes for school, and church, which is another 4, so 10 of the 18 cake mixes and frostings are already spoken for. Then think potlucks and play dates for brownies and cookies... This will all easily be used before it expires!

I stopped at Rite Aid.. but all 3 of my local stores were wiped clean of the things I wanted. Which is fine.

Walgreens

8.99 Huggies

5.99 Dove Body Wash

.20 Valentines Pencil

-2.00 Huggies coupon

-1.25 Dove coupon

-10.00 RR from the meter deal

= 1.93 + tax .97 = 2.90 oop

Then I got back 3.00 RR and 6.00 RR

I did this 7 times for a total oop of 20.30 getting 63.00 back in RR's

The Huggies quality for the "Caregivers Marketplace" rebate of .75 cents per pack, for another $5.25 back at the end of the year.

I also went to Super Wamlart for a few things, and grabbed a few grocery items for this week, I spent $1.17 because I used the Knox coupons for overage, so I saved $16.08. I also bought 12 cans of Hunts Diced Tomatoes for 12.48, and will get back 6.00 for the "Chili Essentials" rebate.

Grand total oop $83.39 of that 6.79 was tax, saved 225.03

New shelves... more room to grow!

I needed more storage.. no ifs ands or buts about it... I was O - U - T of space!

Here are my 3 new shelves, for food only (husband is insistent on not mixing cleaning supplies with food on my shelves) My old food shelf is now for kitchen overflow, like my crockpot and serving dishes, plus kitchen cleaners and paper products, as seen in the picture. I still need to organize my Health and Beauty items, plus all the cleaning supplies.. but here are the pictures from what we did today. I took like 9 pictures, and tried to put them together... it did not come out as well as I hoped for.. but you get the idea!

This is know as a "stockpile" its where I shop! I buy things on sale with my coupons, enough to last until the next sale, and keep it in my basement.

All my trips from this week...

I love Tops, I hate their "only 4 coupons will double" rule! Since I made soooo many trips this week.. I am just going to break it down in 1 list. All the prices are after coupons. This was all between Rite Aid, Tops and Walgreens

8 Solo paper plates = 27.12

8 Yo Crunch = 4.00

24 Yakisoba = free

Gallon of milk = 1.88

16 packs of Bacon = free

16 packs of Pepperoni = 5.52

4 Solo bowels = 4.00

4 Coke with Lime = 1.00

8 Ronzoni Pasta = 1.52

8 Solo cups = 8.00

6 Loreal face wash = free

36 Chex Mix = free

10 Hershey pieces candy = free

7 Meters = free

4 Biore face products = 4.00

1 Advil = .49

11 boxes of candy = free

3 Clorox toilet cleaner = 1.50

2 2000 Flushes = free

10 Dawn dish soap = free

2 Caress Bodywash = free

2 Kitchen sponges = .30

2 Recess easter eggs = 1.00

= 0.00 cash oop, used gift cards, saved 513.71

I used up my 35.00 Visa that I got from RA by "spending, before coupons" 100.00 on Proctor and Gamble products. I also used part of my 20.00 gift card from winning the RA game of life. So I spent NO cash at all! The cups count for the Pepsi Super Bowl rebate, so I will get 10.00 bucks back.

I sold a few coupons, made 4.50, traded some coupons for a 5.00 Target gift card, got my caregivers marketplace rebate from 2009 for 13.50, and got my RA rebate check from January for 7.00.

I will update my totals on the right!