Meow

For those of you new to the wonderful world of couponing, a Catalina deal is something to get a little excited about. You know when you buy, say, a frozen pizza and when you checkout, you get a little slip with a coupon for a competing brand's frozen pizza? Those are Catalinas, named so because the machine they print out on is called a Catalina machine.

But there's another kind of catalina, where companies like General Mills will give customers a certain numbers of dollars back in future purchases when you spend a certain amount. So this week, there was a General Mills catalina at Shaws. The best thing about these catalinas, or cats, as we couponers call them, is they're based on pre-sale price. And they don't take coupons into account. So for this particular cat, you needed to spend $20 to get $5 back. But these cats usually are in concert with a sale on the items, so I ended up spending 10.55 out of pocket, after coupons and sales, and getting $8.50 off my next purchase. Not as good as some of the coupon geniuses do, but not bad for a newbie. I actually messed up and two of the items I purchased weren't on sale-- a reminder to double check next time.

My total before sale: $25.58
Total coupons used: $7.00
Total out of pocket: $10.55, with $8.50 in cats. Not bad. And the hubby has snacks now. Purrrrr.

Seventh Generation Q

Hey there,

There's a $1 off coupon for any Seventh Generation product in today's Red Plum coupon insert in the Sunday paper. This could make for some cheapish (and environmentally friendly!) baby wipes for you mamas out there. If you like this coupon, you can get more here:

http://www.redplum.com/

I was so intending to do cloth diapers with my kiddo-- I used to avert my eyes when I'd see other mamas putting those cartoon-laden diapers on their babes. But alas, it turns out I like the environment, and I guess saving money, less than I like not having to deal with a batch of poopy laundry every few days. Now I see Big Bird, Elmo and the gang several times a day. More power to you cloth diapering mamas-- you are stronger than I.

Money Saving Maine-iac's Giveaway!

Money Saving Maine-iac, who is quite awesome, is hosting a giveaway on her blog for a $10 Hannaford gift card and reuseable shopping bag. Check it out here:

http://www.moneysavingmaineac.com/2010/01/1000-hannaford-gift-card-shopping-bag.html#comment-form

I like Shaw's

So I used to be such a Hannaford girl. Their stores just seemed somehow nicer to me, their produce section fresher... but alas, I have become a Shawsophile. Some of their prices are higher, but they have great sales, and catalina deals, and they double coupons up to $.99. Which means if you have a $.75 off coupon for an item, it's actually more valuable than a $1 off-- because Shaw's will turn that into $1.50 off. Cool, eh?

For more on Shaw's, check out http://www.shaws.com/ You can browse their weekly flyer for sales and they also have additional coupons here. Oh Hannaford, I still love you but I think I just want to be friends.

So today was maybe the second time that my savings on a grocery trip was higher than what I spent. For some of the coupon blackbelts out there, this isn't so impressive. But for a newbie who eats a lot of produce and less processed foods that are harder to find deals on, it's not so bad.

If I'd bought all this stuff for regular retail at Shaw's, it would've cost $61.99. I saved $22.27 by buying things that were on sale, and another $10.71 (I'm not entirely sure where the 71 cents comes in, but that's what my receipt says) in coupons.

Oh, and I forgot to include the 12-pack of Cottonelle in the picture-- that was $4.99 on sale and I had a $.50 coupon that doubled, so it was $3.99. My husband started to put away the groceries when I came home and I said "no, I want to take a picture first for my blog." He wasn't sure whether to laugh at me or be grateful that he didn't have to put away groceries. So he did both.

B.J.s Baby.

Not that kind of BJ. Get your mind out of that gutter!

We got a membership to BJ's wholesale club this year for Christmas. (Thanks Mom and Dad!) We were members several years ago but found we were spending more than we were saving, what with all the nifty little impulse buys. Oh, we didn't know we needed five pounds of cinnamon, a bushel of pens (that all mysteriously vanish within two weeks), and some video games, but we must because they're so reasonably priced, and come in such delightfully big packages!

So yesterday I went to BJ's get my membership going. They took a fabulously askew picture with my eyes closed (those pics are so grainy and yet you can still tell my eyes are closed). Plus, Max was in the Ergo so he's in the picture too, which makes it look like I have another head (albeit a cute one) coming out of my chest. Good times. Anyways. One of the things I'm learning from my steamy love affair with coupons is that bigger packages (teehee) do not always mean more savings. Often if you have multiple coupons you can use those on smaller packages (teehee) that are on sale, and save more. There are definitely some good values at BJ's though. I eat a lot of fruit, both frozen and otherwise, and they have these yummy 6 pound bags of Dole frozen fruit for $8.99 a bag. I happened to procure some $2 off any 2 bags of Dole frozen fruit (more on that soon) so that lowered the price even more. BJ's takes all manufacturer's coupons, as well as having some of their own coupons, both in the the store and on-line. Apparently they can be combined (or stacked, as we say in the couponing community) for extra savings.

In fact, I was all psyched because I saw some BJ's on-line coupons for goat cheese. I don't do cow's milk cheese but I looovvve goat cheese. In fact when Max was a newborn he would let out these intermittent snorts when he cried and I thought I might've eaten so much goat cheese during my pregnancy that he had a little bit o' goat in him. Fortunately for him (and us) that's subsided, but my love of goat cheese has not. And goat cheese is expensive. Anyways I'd found a BJ's coupon on-line good for $1.75 off any of their President's cheeses. Sadly, by the time I got around to trying to print it out last night they'd switched their coupons.

So now I'm just rambling about goat cheese. And the little one is army crawling towards the outlet. More soon.

Hannaford $5 off purchase of $50

Become a fannaford of Hannaford (I'm sorry, I can't help myself) on Facebook, then when you're on their Facebook page, click on the Football Frenzy link at the top of the page. Sign up and they'll give you a fancy $5 off your purchase of $50 or more. Of course, since I've started this whole couponing thing, I'm not sure when the last time was that I spent $50 at Hannaford!

More soon.

My coupons think I'm fat...

Okay, so there are four coupon inserts in today's Sunday paper. I was pretty psyched about that, and made some inappropriate comments about the level of my excitement in front of my husband and child. However, I'm pretty sure the coupons think I'm chubby. Coupons for Curves, lowfat cottage cheese, and sugar-free sweeteners, and some sort of Atkins crap. Thanks a lot coupons.

There's a lot of coupons that we don't use because of my diet (not weight-loss type diet, Mr. Coupon fancy pants, but diet as in things that I eat because they agree with me and my nursling) but wanted to mention a few that stuck out to me that you might want to set aside--in the Smart Source New Year, New You (aka you're a fatass) insert, there's another $1.00 off or free Marcal small steps coupons-- this is for environmentally friendly paper products, and they're available at Hannaford.

There's also a $1.00 off Oikos organic greek yogurt-- these have been on sale a couple of times at Whole Foods in the last months, and this could make the small sized yogurt free. Plus it's a pretty tasty, creamy...alright, I'd better go before I get inappropriate again.