This week's shopping trips, and a word about promotions.

Meijer was a bit of a bust this week. I had to buy some convenience items since we're out of town this weekend and I wanted to make feeding the kids as easy as possible for my saint of a mother-in-law who is staying with them for 4 days.
Total spent: 64.90
Total saved: 46.85

I saved a lot of money this week by using gift cards that I got for taking advantage of one promotion or another. The last time Kmart had Super Doubles I found a rebate form on the Kotex display. If you bought 5 Kotex products you would get a $5 Kmart gift card in the mail. So I used (4) .75/1 Kotex Lightdays coupons which doubled to make them all free, and I also had a BOGO free coupon from a Kmart mailer. So I spent nothing out of pocket and was able to get a $5 gift card for the cost of a stamp. I’ve been holding onto that card for a few months and decided to use it yesterday for dollar doubles. I bought:

(1) Special K Berries cereal @ 2.50 (used 1.00/1 doubled)
(4) Glade candles @ 2.50 each (used 1.00/1 doubled)
(2) Revlon nail clippers @ 2.49 each (used 1.00/1 doubled)
(1) Cottonelle flushable wipes @ 2.99 (used 1.00/1 doubled)

Total before coupons: 21.13
Total out of pocket: .13

Whole Foods had a gift card promo in December. With a coupon (found in the Observer) you would receive a free $10 gift card for any gift card purchase $50 and up. I bought a $50 gift card and got my free $10. Last night I had to run to Whole Foods for milk and “potty candy” (chocolate covered raisins for my potty training toddler) and was able to use 9.70 of that $10 to get my milk and very necessary toilet motivators for nothing out of pocket. And by the way, I learned that Whole Foods (and probably other stores) will take the gift cards that are all used up to use for store credit situations, so make sure you’re recycling those zero-balance cards.

I wasn't going to go to Kroger but then I remembered I had that .50/1 Cottonelle coupon that was expiring this weekend, and I also found another one on Coupons.com (see my link to the left) so I wanted to go get my free TP. I also took my Free French's Worcestershire Sauce coupons and a 1.00/2 Bounty coupon. I got:
(2) Bounty Basic single rolls @ 1.03 each
(2) French's (I left my third coupon for someone else to find)
(2) Cottonelle
After my bag refund, paper coupons and e-coupons I spent 44 cents.

And of course the obvious promotions to take advantage of are the weekly ECB deals. (At least for me, because I just have way too much time and ECBs on my hands.) This week was huge at CVS. I made several more trips than what I posted earlier but I’ll combine them all here for simplicity’s sake. In addition to my earlier trips I bought:

(1) Huggies Jumbo @ 9.49
(7) boxes of SoyJoy bars @ 6.00 each (earned back 6 ECBs each), used $3/10 coupons
(3) CVS sensitive wipes @ 2.99 each (but also BOGO half off)
(1) Febreeze candle, clearanced @ 1.99, used $2.00/1 coupon

In addition to mannys I also used a variety of CVS coupons. My total out of pocket was 2.46 and I made a few dollars’ profit in ECBs.

The biggest thing I’m learning is to never turn my nose up at a dollar or two, because it adds up when spent wisely. That $5 gift card at Kmart is a perfect example. When you learn to stretch your grocery dollar 5 bucks goes a long way.

Running total: 72.95
Total saved: a crapload. (I just put all of my receipts away and don't want to go digging them back out, so you'll have to take my word for it.)