My 2012 Grocery Bag Brag! (Ongoing updates with Pics and Tips!)

[coley3]

Great March shops. I got the Twistos this month too. I loved the Asiago but not the Parmesan and Garlic. My mouth tasted awful afterward. I also used the buy3 Quaker get a Trop50 juice for free ($5.19 value) from a trade. The juice is amazing. We bought Pomegrante/Blueberry. And the Quaker granola bars were on sale for $2 each at Wally. I enjoyed that deal. I had 3 coupons. So bars for the kids lunches and juice for Hubby and me.

[$avvy$hopper]

Thanks coley3! With Twistos, I got the Asiago and Bruschetta...both are great. Will be cautious to try the parmesan based on your comments. LOL! I was wondering about Trop50...I have an FPC from the pepsi promo to use but have never had Trop50 juice. Pretty expensive...glad I can try it for free. 'Thanks for the heads up on the Quaker coupon...I missed seeing it on the coupon zone before but saw it yesterday. Hoping for a sale!

I made a quick stop at RCSS for shrimp (Sold out sadly) but saw the stock clerk putting up a huge display of Welch's grape juice. On sale for $2.47 AND it had a $0.50 coupon/hangtag on it! I scooped up 4 of them for our own use...I paid closer to $4 for these usually so to get them for $1.97 was quite the deal. My church uses this juice for communion as well so I stocked up our supplies for that too. Lucky me, one of my juices had 2 coupons on it. CS was very helpful...giggled when she saw my cart and all the coupons and then helped me tear them off the hangtag. So sweet!

I've just looked at the RCSS flyer and I am all over that skin-on/bone-in chicken breast sale for $1.98/lb! Gladly hubby's home tomorrow so I'll get there super early.

[coley3]

Was at RCSS today. Got the family size Kelloggs cereal for $3.97 - $3.00 wub3. So $2.97 each.All boxes had the pins for free cereal. So another box free and 1/2 way to the next. Was happy with this deal.

[$avvy$hopper]

nice cereal deals coley3! I'll admit I haven't kept up with the new Kellogg's promo at all this month. Scored some other fpcs but not the pins. Will have to look for those. Honestly, there's so many promotions out there, I've forgotten more than half of them. I used to have it down pat with my lists and such but maybe the early spring weather messed with my head! LOL. Well thanks to your post, I'm aware the $3wub3 coupon again..is it new on the coupon zone? missed checking the board when i ran in for the RCSS chicken breasts deal - snagged a few packages...less than $4 per pack! Didn't have much time as we were meeting friends for brekkie. As I type, I'm staring at a very full pantry and I know the stock in the fridge/freezer. I was going to get the Oasis juice for $0.63 after coupon but I have way too much juice on hand to bring in more. I'm sure this sale price will come around again before next year, so I'll pass. My local food bank though is running short on supplies. Will focus my energies on their wish list items instead. I love having a stockpile!!!

[coley3]

Its so nice of you to donate to the food bank. I enjoy that when we coupon we save enough or find deals so that we can also give to others but stay on budget too. If someone asked me 2 years ago if I could donate something. I would have said no. Our money was so tight and we just kept going into debt. But now 2 years later it is amazing what I have been able to accomplish. I love this site and people like you savvy that give tips and support. It really helps.

The coupon zone was new. Tons of manufacture coupons on the board for Tide, Cascade, etc. plus the cereal one. Also I might have seen the Trop50 one too. It was quick trip for me today too. Was glad I stumbled across the cereal. Would have loved the Special K to have had the free breakfast items on it but sadly still the yoga mat pins or none. So I will wait. Hopefully they will get the new stock soon.

[Shwa Girl]

savvyshopper, how did you find the right consignment store to work with?
My friend had a bad experience selling her son's clothes that were too small.

[$avvy$hopper]

Its so nice of you to donate to the food bank. I enjoy that when we coupon we save enough or find deals so that we can also give to others but stay on budget too. If someone asked me 2 years ago if I could donate something. I would have said no. Our money was so tight and we just kept going into debt. But now 2 years later it is amazing what I have been able to accomplish. I love this site and people like you savvy that give tips and support. It really helps.

The coupon zone was new. Tons of manufacture coupons on the board for Tide, Cascade, etc. plus the cereal one. Also I might have seen the Trop50 one too. It was quick trip for me today too. Was glad I stumbled across the cereal. Would have loved the Special K to have had the free breakfast items on it but sadly still the yoga mat pins or none. So I will wait. Hopefully they will get the new stock soon.

Thanks coley3 for your kind comments and encouragement. I love how we support each other so well on SC. I totally agree with what you said earlier...it wouldn't have been an option to donate had we not also incurred such great savings overall. I'll be sure to take a good look at the coupon zone tomorrow, I usually scan quickly but clearly I've missed some good ones.

savvyshopper, how did you find the right consignment store to work with?
My friend had a bad experience selling her son's clothes that were too small.

Hey Shwa Girl, I lucked out when I signed up with Weecycled in Brampton. I tried using Once Upon a Child and it didn't work out, not that I was with them long anyway. Honestly, I saw an ad for them and sought them out and have had great success there. The staff are friendly and they have a great system for selling clothes (prices start at the highest and drop each month towards a final markdown in the 3rd month in stock). Another store I checked out seems to just price it and hope it sells at that price over a long period...so I'm not sure how fast they turnover the items. And yet another seems to overprice them. If you don't mind me asking...what was the issue your friend had? Was the store too picky over items or didn't price them well? Hopefully the response here helps out and if I can help further, let me know.

Best bet for your friend is to call around to shops near her and find out the store's process et al. Hopefully it'll go better at another store.

[$avvy$hopper]

On the grocery report, we're in the final week of March (already!!!) and I'm sitting pretty with an average $OOP of $29 per week...for over $350 in groceries! That includes the chicken breasts I snagged at RCSS last week and at SDM's 20x event I scored more bread for $0.29, $0.49 and $0.79 ea (with manager's special stickers..love those). I used up my $20 in GCs at SDM for grocery items as well. I'll post the full stats next week.

I will grab a few more items but they'll be free with FPCs that expire on Saturday: Oasis Juice (boxes) and Bistro sliders.

Other than that, I am done!

[$avvy$hopper]

March went out with a "lion cub of savings"! Used up my FPCs and welcomed Oasis 8pk juice x 2 and 1x Bistro sliders to the house. Also used my 2x $1 Tenderflake coupons for a pie shell and puff pastry and shake n bake x 2. Looking forward to making beef wellington soon. I was so tired after all my activities on Saturday I picked up some $1 pot pies and paired that with salad and veggies. LOL. Hit the spot and gave me some breathing/max-relaxin time. On another night when I was just low on energy, I whipped up a cheese and veggie quiche and used stove top stuffing as the crust... it tasted sooooo goooood! Hard to go back to a regular crust now. :o Hey while I'm on that topic, what are your favourite quick-fix meals?

My fridge is getting lighter, in the freezer I can see the light bulb now ...though the chest freezer and pantry remain pretty well stocked. So all I bought for this first week of April was meat. I'm planning the big shop now and hope for some killer sales! All the best and if you celebrate Easter, I hope you have a good one!

[coley3]

I hope you have a good Easter or long weekend too Savvy and all SC'ers.
I shopped on 15% off day and got some good deals. Total savings was over 50% (that was coupons/15%) not the sale prices of things. That would have made my percentage much higher for savings. I made sure we ate all the meat in the freezer. So starting off fresh for April. Its nice to have that clean start once in awhile. I only bought enough meat for maybe 2 weeks. There wasn't enough good deals to buy more. I try to plan my meals 1 week in advance. If I plan too far ahead I find I can't keep up. (Took a few months to realize this. LOL)

An easy meal plan.
Chicken Ceasar Salad wraps. I cook the chicken breasts (2 of them) but you could buy the pre-cooked chicken breast for an even faster meal. Then buy the Et Tu ceasar salad kit and a head of lettuce. Slice the cooked chicken into thin strips, toss with the salad. Wrap the salad in soft tortillas. The kids love it too. Also for variety I cut up the chicken in small pieces, shake it in shake in bake, cook for 20 mins and then mix that up with the salad and wrap it. Kind of tastes like Timmies snack wraps. And if you want to see the deal side of this. Use .75 off fresh produce(from ziploc box) coupon for the lettuce and .50 or .75 off (tear pad) for the Shake 'n' Bake box and $1 off(save or websaver?) soft tortillas.

[$avvy$hopper]

You're right coley3, a clean start with our food stash is good. WTG on your deals and savings! Thanks for the chicken wraps idea too. What happens with me is I'll got all out with meals starting Sunday through Wednesday. For example, this week was Steaks with Bernaise sauce, veggies; shrimp over pasta in a fresh tomato and herb sauce, honey garlic ribs (perfected this on stove top) and chicken breasts lightly breaded with asparagus and stuffing as the side dish. Come Thursday, I'm usually starting to wind down on energy. Dd keeps my very active each day and no afternoon naps anymore. So by then I'm usually looking in my fridge/pantry and saying "soooo, what's fast like mac and cheese but isn't mac and cheese?"

Life's been busier this last month and a bit, so the meal planning didn't quite come together as before. I've just kept a mental note of what I have and plan for at least the first few days...then figure out something as we go. Gotta get back on track though, don't like it when I finally come up with a dinner idea but am missing ingredients. Whipping out the meal plan right after this as I'll scour the flyers for my big shop tomorrow.

I've gotta look out for those Ziploc boxes with the coupons!!

[$avvy$hopper]

My second shop for April went well! As I had quite a bit of meal items still in stock, I opted to make a smaller list of what we'd need for this week instead of a huge stock up. The sales were okay but with Easter weekend being so busy, I just wasn't in the mood for a big shop. I spent just over $13 out of pocket for $50 worth of groceries- full details are in post #2. I also found a lot of coupons along the way though the Ziploc ones elude me! Oh well.

Another perk of Easter weekend: visiting family!!! Great spending time with them...even better when they shower you with extra grocery items and coupons! Picked up the full brandsaver, red plum and smartsource from my in-laws, along with 4 red bell peppers, a bag of potatoes and sweet buns! At my mom's I helped her make a veggie lasagna for dinner and snagged a cereal box with BOGO movie pin on it! Mom also watched dd while hubby and I had a date - bowling and then a snack at Denny's! We don't get date nights as often as we'd like so this was a fun treat for us.

Hope you're all doing well! I'm off to bed!

[$avvy$hopper]

Oy! No updates for 7 months!!! so sorry! Will track November and December and those reports will be fun because I've got a $10 promo card to use at SDM, gas cards saved for November groceries (meat for sure!) and enough SDM points for 1x Mega redemption in December a good portion will be used for pantry stock up since we don't need any gift items from there.

I updated post #2 with a small shopping free-spree using airmiles.

So, what have you're grocery trips been like lately? Let's end the year with a big savings bang!

[roxybabe39]

ahhh so glad to see this post back!! I think I'll start tracking my deals in 2013.. really makes you think before buying

[coley3]

I agree. It does make you think before buying.

I PM'd the London Drugs flyer to Wally today and got Purex TP for $4.99 (12 double rolls) - $1.00 coupon. So $3.99 a pack. I bought 10. LOL. I'll be stocked up for a bit now. Just waiting on my gas cards to come in. And I have enough for 2 Mega redemptions. Hurray. It should be a good last 2 months. Plus I stacked at LD today. $23 OOP and saved $239 in coupons alone!! I'll post a brag about it tomorrow hopefully.