Weezie, I looked into that grocery game and at the time didn't have my grocery store...I've since changed...I'll look again. Someone (several others??) also mentioned that, thanks!

There was another free site similar the Grocery Game that I signed up for and have since forgotten (and didn't bookmark). I'll have to wade back through this thread.

It's possibly pocketyourdollars. It has something similar, but not as comprehensive; a good resource, though.

Go to the sites that do the work for you

Organicdeals.blogspot.com

Shesaved.com

There are a ton my wife uses. If you arnt picky about processed food than you can get a lot for free.

When you can not figure out what to make for dinner....This website is great for using solely the ingredients you have on hand....
http://www.SuperCook.com ....

http://www.MyGroceryDeals.com is nice for knowing what is on sale at your local stores....Also, the website includes stores that aren't typically thought of for food such as CVS, Walgreens, Target, etc....

I just want to make a point about what someone said earlier about going to the post office and picking up the "mover's kit" with the 10% off at Lowe's coupons in them...in case no one knows, you can use these coupons at Home Depot as well, they accept the Lowe's coupons without question. I've used many in the past few months, as I bought a house that needs a lot of repair :)

I present the Lowe's coupon to the HD cashier, not once have they ever said anything, they just take it and give the 10% discount. If you use it at the self service checkout, the cashier monitoring the checkout will come over and take the 10% off and 9 times out of 10 you can keep the coupon to use again (if not, just ask, and they'll usually give it back to you). There's no place for them to insert the coupon at the SS checkouts, so that's the reason why you can keep it.

Since there's no Lowe's close by to my local HD, I usually use them at HD. The local PO has tons of the mover's kits piled up by each of the windows, so it's easy for me to get all I want anytime. YMMV.

These coupons are good for months, if you happen to pick them up when they're first printed. Once a set expires, the PO gets new packets right away, so we're never without coupons. I've never paid full price at LOW or HD yet.

For general deal sites, I use Slickdeals.net and Fatwallet.com, both have more or less the same things posted within minutes of each other. I've found tons of deals on these sites that sometimes are only good for literally minutes - if you get in on time on price mistakes, etc. time if of the essence.

On another note, Sam's Club has clearance stuff that Costco never has. For example, they clearance some meat every day at Sam's, usually for 30-50% off. I have yet to see this at COST. At Sam's today, I found a refurb Vizio 47" LED LCD (new model w/ Local Dimming) for $850. The same set sells there new for $1,297. I opened the box, it still had the plastic film on the set, looks like it was unused. A $450 discount will pay for 10 years of membership fees there! They have a lot of other clearance stuff but it varies from day to day, but it is one of the main reasons why I shop more at Sam's than Costco.

You can get TV deals on Tigerdirect.com and newegg.com for cheaper than either Sam's/Costco on a regular basis--same for laptops and desktops and most electronics.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/02/techno....

Quote:

All those loyalty cards you have dangling off your keychain or plumping your wallet? Gone. In their place, smartphone users will have free apps like Key Ring or Cardstar on their cellphones.

And if you’re the type who likes to search for bargains and clip coupons in the Sunday circular, these apps throw you a high-tech bone. Starting this week, Cardstar and Key Ring will include such things inside the app itself, so you can tap a button and have a coupon delivered to your cellphone.

No snipping, no ink-stained hands. No worries about leaving the coupons behind on the kitchen counter.

Couponning enters the 21st century and becomes easier.. Plus, the iPad app will incorporate weekly circulars, where you can "drag and clip" coupons out of it and bring them to the store, disintermediating the dead tree MSM Sunday paper entirely..

'Cept the cardstar thing won't scan at Albertson's. If I gotta carry one of them on my keychain i might as well have them all.

Now THIS is a coupon:
http://i41.tinypic.com/55fg3a.jpg

That's stealing, not couponing.

Yeah, I don't think that is a legit coupon. I've gotten some higher value coupons from the manu before...usually glossy gold or embossed...but this pic is a coupon from smartsource (lower left hand corner). Smartsource does grocery coupons.

Additionally, seems to me that if a manu was going to give away a free Playstation, they would just send the actual item instead of risking counterfeiting of coupons.

I'm astonished that the cashier or manager accepted the coupon. The only time I've seen that type of thing happen is when the cashier was in on the scam.

Wakeupcall wrote..

Yeah, I don't think that is a legit coupon.

The fact that the thief thanked /b/ is a dead giveaway.

What happened was that someone figured out the protocol for the bar codes on the coupons and then used Photoshop to make a counterfeit that appeared to be valid because it had the correct bar codes for what it claimed to be.

The cashier probably just scanned the coupon and when the computer accepted it they didn't question further.

It wouldn't have scanned normally. The second set of 5 digits in the UPC ends with 01; that is for free merchandise & the amount should be written in by the cashier. So the register should beep because the amount is unknown & the cashier would then have to manually enter the amount of the merchandise.

What does /b/ mean?

Regular price of the groceries we purchased last week: $400.08
We paid $53.38

This **** *works*.

Buddy had a circular from Cabelas he slipped me,
Case of 10 boxes Winchester 12 ga. Super X heavy loads 4 shot.
$54 no limit.
Turns out Scheel's here does price matching.
Took 2 and the managers weren't too happy about it since they charged $10 a box.
(hunting season had just opened)
Win!

www.retailmenot.com

Good coupon codes for online retailers.

I tracked all my spending & savings for the month of October for all items purchased at the grocery store, Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreens. We spend about $15/week dining out and the usual rent, electric, gas, and internet bills. No debt, car paid off, and our only other real expense is gas for the car (which we get at a discount thanks to grocery store fuel perks).

This is for all our food, beverages, OTC meds, and everyday household, health & beauty. It also purchased over 2 years' worth of toothpaste (I'm up to 21 tubes of Crest & Colgate), over a year's worth of deodorant and soap and lotion and cough drops and dish detergent, six months' or more worth of razors, all the sinus medicine I'll need this season and some of next (I have bad sinus problems so I need a ton of this), all our cold & flu meds for the year, and a hefty stockpile of nonperishable food such as coffee, pasta, canned & frozen veg, and so on. Ketchup? I have 20lbs of it that they paid me $1 to take out of the store.

Merchandise total value: $1,529.72
Out of pocket cost: $250.48

About $50 of that cost was paid in store reward dollars, the rest cash. About $75 of the cash was fresh meat.

This was all done with coupons and careful use of store reward dollars (like CVS' Extra Care Bucks). I just started the drugstore shopping thing midmonth so my cash totals should come down in coming months as I build more of those up.

Its been a good couple of weeks for me. I was running low on toothpaste & ended up getting 10 Colgates for free. Found a deal on facial tissue & got 40 boxes for free plus .20 cents overage on each box. Snagged 40 Marie Callendar's Turkey tv dinners for $1 each (should last about 6 months); and 12 boxes of Cheerios for $.90 each. Got 20-32oz College Inn chicken/beef broths. Farm Fresh has angus chuck roasts on sale for 1.99/lb (I've not seen a better price in over a year), so I'll be getting 50-70lbs and grinding them up & freezing. I think thats pretty much all I've stocked up on the last few weeks. I haven't really been checking my receipts, but I probaby spend about $25 a week on produce/fruit & another $15 on dairy; and probably average about $50/month on meat. So I guess I'm spending about the same as you...between $210-$250 a month, all said & done. When I was heavy into rebating, I had it down to $175/month. But I just don't really have time for that anymore.

Good tip for meat...when everyone else is out buying chinese junk on Black Friday...hit your upscale grocery stores. They usually have great deals on meat that Friday morning.

Also, baking season is coming up, so keep an eye out for deals on flour, sugar, yeast, foil, parchment paper, chicken broth and spices.

Right now I'm running low on tuna fish...Too bad I can't find coupons for Chicken of the Sea tuna...Harris Teeter is having a pretty decent deal; but would be better with coupons. I guess I'll still pick up a dozen or so cans.

Midmonth report

Merchandise value $711.17
Out of pocket cost $69.43

This includes 30 bottles shampoo/conditioner, 6 boxes hair color, 8 razors, a dozen toothbrushes, a dozen things of dental floss, 6 tubes toothpaste, 11 boxes Vicks Sinex capsules, 4 bottles Nyquil liquid, 4 bottles ibuprofen, 2 boxes BC powders, random other household goods, 10lbs butter, 5lbs cream cheese, just under 9lbs coffee, 9 jars peanut butter, 6 boxes cereal, paper towels, hot sauce, frozen veggies, milk, eggs & produce.

That's fantastic Chellie - especially the 10 lbs butter and other proteins... can't wait until we get to that level!

wakeupcall wrote..

Farm Fresh has angus chuck roasts on sale for 1.99/lb (I've not seen a better price in over a year), so I'll be getting 50-70lbs and grinding them up & freezing

I hadn't thought of that!!! when roasts go on sale here they are way too large for my family. Do you have any tips on grinding them? I recently purchased a hand grinder from a thrift shop and can recall my grandmother using this type of grinder to make hash but that's about all I know...

roundabout...

RE: lowe's moving coupon....

you can also get those directly from the website, you just fill out the form with your 'former' address and your new address...they will email a 10% coupon..

we used the mover discount, on top of a 20% sale on samsung appliances...(we're remodeling a kitchen, and i needed a counterdepth french door fridge)....we also had a mailer from lowes for opening a business account and get 10% which we also did, so net/net we got FORTY PERCENT off

we had to argue with the manager (the salesman told us the 10% lowes account would apply as well) and he was actually visibly ANGRY....he said 'NO ONE gets 40% off new appliances (unless floor models) and i told him, if you want to sell this to me, you will honor your discounts or no sale...he finally agreed, but you could tell he was*****ed...over $1K discount...woohoo!

Binney, I doubt a hand crank would be the best way to go, especially when grinding alot of meat. I first used an attachment on my kitchen aid mixer. But it put too much stress on the motor. I ended up buying 2 meat grinders (couldn't decide which one). Both are good. Still requires a bit of time because of the narrow neck...but I couldn't justify spending several hundred dollars on the grinder. I have something called LEM #8 grinder & villaware v5267 grinder. I think I paid about $75-$80 each. I prefer the villaware, but both do the job.

For vacuum sealing, imho, the italian made magic vac champion is the best sealer on the market. But I do use the foodsaver bags by tilia (best bags, hands down).

I just checked and don't know if you can get the magic vac champion any longer. Its distributed in this country by Deni...but again, I'm fairly certain it is an italian product. We've had ours for, I guess about 5 years. Still as strong as the day we got it. I don't know what I'll do if/when it goes kaput...foodsavers are crap.

For those of you who buy Harry & David gifts, use the coupon code "pear". It's good for 25% off. I did it today.