I'm a little late in getting this posted today but for a good reason–I slept in until 9:30 a.m. this morning! And I went to bed before 10 p.m. last night so that's what you call one good night's sleep. Of course, since I have a nursing 7-week-old, I was up at least 4 times to nurse him during that stretch of sleep, but I still haven't gotten anywhere near that kind of sleep for at least a few months. Needless to say, I feel great! 🙂
I hit Aldi and Dillons last night for the weekly shopping trip. I had discovered when planning our shopping trip that I had quite a bit of wiggle room in our $40/week budget since I'd been under budget or we'd skipped shopping a few weeks in the last two months. So I decided to use a bit of that extra money to stock up on some of the good deals.
All in all, here's what I bought at the two stores:
I initially had gone to Aldi to pick up strawberries since they were on sale for $0.99, but they were all out. So I just got the blueberries (on sale for $1.49/pint!) and cantaloupe (on sale for $0.99 each!), plus cheese, apples, bananas, cucumbers, chocolate chips, tortillas, carrots, baking soda, tortilla chips, refried beans, and frozen veggies. All totaled, I spent $24.84 there. I'll likely freeze some of the blueberries and the apples and cantaloupe will last us two weeks, likely, since we still have quite a bit of fruit in our refrigerator from last week.
At Dillons, I mostly just hit the good deals. We bought more Santa Cruiz Strawberry Lemonade at $0.66/jar since it was still on sale and we found we really liked that kind. We also bought milk (on sale for $2.50/gallon), Kraft BBQ sauce ($0.08 after coupons), Kraft salad dressing ($0.19/bottle after coupons), Texas Toast croutons ($0.69/bag after coupons), Daisy sour cream ($0.65 after coupon), round steak (reduced to less than $2), Capri Sunrise Drinks ($1.11 after coupons–a splurge but my girls love these on a hot Summer day!), Barbara's cereal ($1.39/box after the clearance price and a coupon), Sara Lee bread ($0.99 after coupon), yogurt ($0.06 each after coupon), and Wheat Thins and Ritz crackers ($0.87/box after coupons).
In addition, I stocked up on quite a bit of shampoo and conditioner. I usually don't like to buy Suave, but our stock is running low and I've not found any exceptional deals on higher quality shampoo and conditioner, so I think Suave will just have to do for now. It was $0.50/bottle after the sale and coupons. Plus, I had a store catalina for $4/$20 any health and beauty items so I bought some free Suave deodorant, Skintimate and Edge shaving gel ($1 each after coupons–my target price for these), and hair gel which my husband needed. All of these items helped push my total spending (before coupons) to over $20 on health and beauty items, so I got an additional $4 off these already low prices!
One of my uncharacteristic expenditures of the shopping trip was buying the Shout. It was not on sale and I didn't even have a coupon for it. However, if you follow me on Facebook, you know that we had a few major catastrophes this week–including 4 bottles of finger paint spilled on our carpet (we found out that the "washable" label is a misnomer!) and neon orange silly putty running through with a load of laundry (it bedecked an entire load of laundry with permanent bright orange polka-dots!). Due to these mishaps, we managed to go through close to an entire bottle of Shout in a week. So, since we cannot seem to live without Shout–otherwise we have all sorts of ruined laundry–I decided it was worth paying full price for!
My total at Dillons was $27.42. Altogether I spent $52.26–and I still have quite a bit of extra grocery cash left. But seeing as our cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer are so well-stocked right now, I think I'm going to get to funnel some of that into savings. I'll wait until the end of the month to see how things pan out.
Stay tuned on Monday for our menu plan for this coming week!
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Did you snag any great deals or bargains this week or save money in other ways? If so, be sure to post about them on your blog and leave your link below. Please remember that this weekly round-up is to share deals you personally got and/or money you were able to save this week. In order to keep this weekly round-up focused on helping and inspiring others in their efforts to save money, links which have little-to-no content other than promoting affiliate links, etc. will be deleted. Also, to make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post.
Five kids, ages 9, 9, 7, 6, and 6. Four of them are boys. I buy Shout by the half-gallon at Costco. Worth every penny. Lots of love and God’s blessings to you, Crystal!
I was also able to get Barbara’s cereal cheap – $1.49 a box I think with the coupon! I have never tried it but hope it is good and will go back for more if so.
I have never tried the regular suave hair products but their ‘professional’ line seems to work great for a lot less money than salon brands (which is what I used to buy).
I was hoping our store here had the juice on sale so I could try it, but it was over $4/bottle!
Love reading your blog – thanks for all you do!
I’m not going to link to my blog because it’s not one everyone can get to (for reason). 🙂 But I was so excited on my visit to Kroger last night. We got 50 envelopes of Koolaid for free PLUS 20-cents overage. I had 3/.50 off 10 envies coupons that I printed plus 2/.55 off 10 envelopes that Kroger sent me and my mom (they also doubled). I had .50 off 2 coupons for Suave shampoo and deodorant (one of each) so I was able to get two bottles of shampoo and two containers of deordorant for .50 each! My Kroger also had Kraft BBQ sauce on sale for $1/each – I had one coupon left, so I got it free, too! Wooo-hooo! Oh, and A-1 was on sale for $2.99 – with my $2/1 I was able to snag it for .99!! Whoo-hoooo!
Hi Crystal,
Thank you so much for your post! Your round of stain inducing experiences this week made we wonder if you would consider doing a post on laundry? Saving clothes from stains is certainly saving money!!!
I use shout, sometimes oxyclean, sometimes color safe bleach in addition to detergent. I sometimes wonder if I’m just not using them the right way. I sometimes have to run the same piece through many times before it’s truly clean. And, I’ve ruined many a piece of my daughter’s clothes because of some small stain that was hard to see while it was wet (and thus it went into the dryer to be set forever!). Ack!
Again, thanks for your posts – I look to your blog frequently for money saving ideas and inspiration.
-Jen
Don’t you just love Aldi’s? It’s the best! I had a laundry mishap too. Gum stuck in my dryer! Ugh!
Thanks for hosting!
~Liz
I got silly putty out of a table cloth by alternating scrubbing it with goof off and lye soap. I don’t know if that would help. Good luck with the laundry
you always get such great deals…thank you for your inspirational posts!!!
Just thought I’d share my stain fighting secret. I bought a bar of Fels Naptha soap a year ago, for under $2.00…I’m still using it and it works great on just about every kind of stain! I have a 3 year old who loves to get dirty, so I think I’ve removed just about every kind of stain with it. I don’t buy the more expensive stain products anymore!
Blueberries are easy to freeze- after you wash them- spread out single layer on a baking sheet pan and flash freeze in the freezer until semi-hard- then just transfer to a freezer bag!
At our Northern Kentucky Kroger, we got the Santa Cruz lemonade on sale for 2/$3.00 and the coupon which was 75 cents off and a 25 cent bonus. Organic lemonade for 50 each? Yes, please! I just printed out another five coupons and I’m headed back there later today. Thank you so much!
You did great! I am impressed! I wish I could keep our food budget that low. With a family of six it is a little tough. We do keep our budget down to about $300-400 a month!
I am new to couponing but am having fun! Walgreens is my big saver this week.
I found with little ones (especially boys:) I am always in need of stain removers:)
I really like Zout. It’s harder to find than Shout but I think it works better. Just FYI
Oh and by the way, we purchase Oxiclean by the 15 lb box at Costco. It is $$ (I try to only purchase when Costco puts out a coupon for it) but it so worth it! We would lose a lot of clothes (espicially my 3 yr. old daughter!!) if it weren’t for Oxiclean!
Hey Crystal!
I was just about to leave a comment here about your absence on Biblical Womanhood, but decided to check again before I did so. I loved your final post. I am glad you are following the Lord’s will in your life. You were one of the first blogs I followed and I learned a lot, was challenged a lot and laughed a lot. Thank you for sharing your life, and my the Lord bless you as you close one chapter and focus on another!! Enjoy your babies. I am seeking to do the same w/ my three little ones. It is a season we can never get back.
Sincerely,
Tai aka Mrs. S
I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to post your deals and explain how you use the food you buy. It’s really helped our budget a lot to read your blog, and I’ve recommended it to others as well. I know that you’re going to stop blogging on your other two personal sites, but I hope that we will still get to hear personal applications of your life-style strategies on MSM, as I’ve always found those to be the most helpful and inspirational. Well, those and the Borders’ free drink coupons :).
My grocery store is also having a great deal on blueberries this week. My question is, are there are tricks to freezing blueberries? Plus what are your favorite recipes/uses for blueberries when you have a plethora of them?
I used to swear by Pantene. I have incredibly thick hair and it kept it smooth and so soft. But then money got really tight and I couldn’t justify buying it for 2x as much as Suave. I think it works almost as good. But when money isn’t so tight, I’ll go back to Pantene! 🙂
How do you find all these awesome deals?! We have a Dillons (Kroger) in town, although it’s always overpriced (it was the very first Dillons store and that’s about the only reason it’s still open). But I drive 30 miles to do my grocery shopping and there’s another Dillons along with Aldis and all the -Marts.
I know it is out of character for you to buy shaving gel for yourself!Good deal on the Suave.
At the $1.00 store there is a product called Awesome.It works real well in getting stains out.
Good trip!
I couldn’t help but be a little amused about the Suave…. There are a bunch of people with longer hair who find that certain cheap shampoos and especially conditioners, like Suave and VO5, are *better* for their hair than the more expensive ones! (I’ve picked up some of the fancier brands myself when there was a good deal, but I do seem to keep going back to VO5. Even if they did discontinue my favorite shampoo scent ever. *sniff* ;))
I got some good deals while I was out shopping on Friday. My best was marked down beef at Kroger. My husband and I just bought a small freezer, so this deal came at the right time. They had the 3lb. rolled hamburger meat marked down for $2.99 (80% lean, 20% fat), normally $6.73. I was excited with the over 50% savings. I bought all five of the ones they had to stock my freezer. I normally buy the beef in the trays on markdown, but the prices are not even that good and it is usually for around 1.50 lbs. I was excited to find these and try them out. Now, I have to divide them up into 1 lb. pieces and patties and freeze them. I find recipes always call for a lb. of beef anyway, so this is perfect. I also picked up four boxes of Kashi cereal bars for $0.84 a box. My $2/2 Qs just expired, so I was bummed about that, but bought them anyway since the regular price was over $3.00 a box. After I went home I found more Qs online. It would have been a small money maker, but since this store is by my work it wouldn’t have been worth the gas money. Hopefully, next time I will find these marked down when I have Qs.
We also had a silly putty accident when we were kids and now my mom hates it. My aunt gave my sister and I silly putty and we slept with it. It was all over everything!
I also love SHOUT. It is the best for tough stains!
I recommend the Advanced Shout in the blue bottle. It gets out lots of stains the other kind left behind for me 🙂
Nice trip!
Sorry about the laundry incident. That can be frustrating! I gues we do need Shout even if it isn’t cheap!