Monday, June 30, 2008

Frugal resources

I'm back at it again- working hard at spending less while trying to get my freezer and pantry up to speed. I pretty much emptied everything out when we left for vacation and am now feeling the effects of not having the stock of grocery store loss leaders on hand to plan with. It's becoming more of a challenge now that the price of about everything has gone up. But, my hats off to those who live in Florida and other areas of the country where prices are higher. Milk at $4.oo a gallon was an eye opener for me!

Today I spent about three hours of planning and shopping for my trip to four different stores: Kroger, Meijer, WalMart and Target. Where I live these stores are all within four miles of my home, thankfully. How could I possible compare and shop these stores for the best deals? Well, let me introduce you to a blog that it making my life much easier- BeCentsAble. At this site there is a great feature called Grocery Gathering. Each week they list just about every store and deals/coupons/links to make shopping very easy.

Along these lines, I've discovered Meijer Mealbox. Here if you click on the "specials" tab you will be led to Meijer coupons that can be printed to your heart's content. These can result in great savings.

For example: This week Talapia is BOGO at $5.99. There is a Meijer coupon for $2 off one bag. So 2 bags of Talapia with two coupons costs a mere $2.00. I think we are set for fish for a while:)

I've learned that my Meijer will only take two identical coupons per transaction. I go through the self scan and just break it down into several smaller transactions. No problem.

In the end all of the planning paid off. I spent about $135 of my $400 budget and saved with coupons and sale items $112. I also earned a $5 Target gift card in the process. Well worth the effort, I'd say.

What blogs or sites do you use to help you make the budget stretch at the grocery? I'd love to check them out.

6 comments:

Heather L. said...

Thanks so much for the link and tips! I'm really noticing food prices too! Even Panera has raised their bagel prices. :(

mindi said...

ooooh, thanks for the links. I need all the help I can get!!

Saralyn said...

I just found mealbox through moneysavingmom.com and have found some really great deals, too. Had a heck of a time with the fish, though. I posted about it!

BeCentsAble looks great but I can't get the link to work. Can you list the whole address or email it to me?

Thanks!

Jon Pape said...

Thanks for the links.

Missy @ finding bright spots said...

On the drugstore forum at Slick Deals, there's now a Walmart thread. Here's the link:

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=857127

With grocery costs skyrocketing, I appreciate the tips!

Unknown said...

LOL, I love your comment about the milk! I am in FL and I buy all my milk at CVS or Walgreen's because they consistently carry it for 3.99 or 3.96 when all the grocery stores have it for well over $4.00 a gallon. My daughter in Hawaii pays $6.00/gal for milk! Can you imagine?
I love BeCentsAble!! Another one is Centsible Sawyer...I have her on my blogroll on my blog. Sorry, don't have time at the moment to go to her blog and get the link. She posts great finds at Walmart and other stores. Check her blog out too!