There is a coupon available for $1 off any Aquafresh Extreme Clean toothpaste. Wal Mart and Target both carry the travel size of this for around $.97, making it free! I printed two this morning and plan to grab them on my next trip. I have quite the collection of free travel size toothpastes now, and no plans to travel, so they might be stocking stuffers or Operation Christmas Child box fillers!
If you’re not already a member of Cellfire today would be a great day to sign up! Head on over here to log in or register. Until 9pm tonight when you log in to your Cellfire account a popup will appear welcoming you to ‘Happy Hour’. When you close that out you should see a special coupon in your list of deals. They can be worth either $.55 or $2! I won a $.55, but I like free money no matter the denomination.
Note: Cellfire is a service that allows you to register your store loyalty cards and then add digital coupons to them. This promo seems to only be for Kroger customers… you must save the coupon to your card, and it will automatically come off your total on your next shopping trip.
(Thanks Hip2Save and Southern Savers!)
Here’s a couple of freebies I took advantage of yesterday, some of them are still available, but I hope even the ones that are not will inspire you to keep your eyes peeled for future offers and take advantage of them!
This weekend’s coupon inserts (2/13) in the Southeastern region at least, included a Subway ad with some great coupons. There were two coupons for a free 6″ Breakfast Sub or FlatBread Breakfast sandwich when you bought any drink before 11am. So yesterday when I went shopping I stopped at the Subway inside Wal Mart and bought a 20oz Sprite and a Black Forest Ham, Egg, and Cheese breakfast sub on wheat. After my coupon it was only $1.79! I call that a cheap breakfast… and really good btw. As I was leaving the cashier remembered they were giving away free cookies for Valentine’s Day, so I also left with a free Double Chocolate cookie.
In Wal Mart, I used the $3.00/1 Gain coupon from the 2/13 RP to get an 80ct box of Gain fabric softener for only $.12, and the $1.00/2 Taco Bell items coupon from the February All You to get two Taco Bell seasoning packets for $.06 each. I also found Glade Lasting Impressions holders marked down to $4.88 and used the $3/1 coupon I had in my binder (not sure of the insert).
After my stop at Krogers and a few errands it was time for lunch, so I used the Free Crunchy Taco coupon I had printed a week ago (no more prints available) from Taco Bell’s Facebook page. Free tacos are delicious… especially followed by the free cookie I got from Subway that morning.
Other free things I picked up at Krogers included: 4 packs of Butterfinger Snackerz using the coupon here, Colgate toothpaste ($.50/1 coupon in 2/13 SS), Pillsbury Sweet Moments ($3/1 when you buy 3 select Pillsbury items e-coupon), Orville Redenbacher 3pk Popcorn (free e-coupon I won in the Kroger Daytona 500 Instant Win Game), 2 Liter Sprite (Free Soda up to $1.50 coupon wyb 2 popcorn, on select Orville Redenbacher packages). And to top it off, the register printed a coupon for a free bottle of Advil or Advil Liquigels up to $6!
So, in addition to all the free grocery items I picked up, I was able to eat breakfast and lunch almost completely free (I had to buy the Sprite). And this isn’t hard to do… it’s truly amazing to me how much you can get, legitimately and legally, completely free on a regular basis. And with a minimal amount of effort, especially after you get started and learn what’s going on. I don’t spend every waking minute reading blogs and printing coupons… I have two blogs that I visit on a regular basis, and I usually check them two or three times a day. It doesn’t take but a second to figure out if anything new has been posted, or if I’m insterested in it… and it usually doesn’t take another minute to print a hot coupon or sign up at a website to have a free sample or coupon sent. Then I’m on with my day, without missing a great deal!
This was a pretty good week, lots of good deals at Kroger and a few almost-freebies at Wal Mart. I didn’t go to CVS because I didn’t see anything I really needed, and I only picked up a few small things at Walgreens while I was waiting on a prescription.
Here’s the results –
Kroger –
Total cost = $69.16 – $21.13 in coupons and $20.19 in Plus Card savings. Total OOP = $27.84 (60% savings)
Wal Mart –
I picked up things in two seperate trips to Wal Mart, I was there Sunday night but didn’t have all my coupons available. So I’ll just combine the two.
Total cost – $17.41 – $11 in coupons. Total OOP = $6.41 (63% savings)
Walgreens –
Picked up one can of Skintimate Moisturizing Shave Cream and a pack of cucumber face cleaning towellettes that were on clearance.
Total cost – $10.76 – $2 in coupons and $6.3 in clearance savings. Total OOP = $2.46
Total shelf cost of whole trip = $97.33
Coupons used = $34.13
Discounts = $26.49
Total OOP = $36.71
Once again I’m slightly over, which is a little dissapointing. But there’s a couple of things I have to keep in mind… before I started couponing I spent around $120/week on average and had no stockpile. I dropped that to $60/week average with a great stockpile. Now I’m consistently under $40, still with a great stockpile. Also, this weeks trip included: Purina cat chow, Hefty trash bags, Gorton’s fish sticks, two jars of Ragu, Tide Stain Remover, a Glade Lasting Impressions holder, and a load of Pillsbury Ready to Bake cookies, among other things. All of those were bought at unbelievable prices ($1.88 for the Glade! Normally around $10!). So all in all, I’m pleased. 🙂
I love movies! Scary ones, funny ones, actions, westerns, lots of different movies. And at least once a weekend I like to sit down with something good to eat and watch one or maybe two. We used to use one of the services that mails movies to your house, and enjoyed it for a while, until it seemed like the movies I wanted were always on some long waiting list, and we were paying $17 a month to wait for them. Then Redbox came along, and changed everything. Movies were only $1, and you can’t beat that… but oh, wait, you can. Free trumps $1 anytime. With an extensive list of Redbox codes, and Redbox partnering with so many companies to offer more free codes with everyday purchases, you really don’t have to pay anything to enjoy a couple of movies anytime! Here’s a few codes to get you started, and you can go here for an even longer list.
Note: The codes take $1 off your rental, so if you rent a $1 DVD it’s free… but if you rent a $1.50 Blu Ray movie, you’ll still pay the $.50 + tax. Still a heck of a deal for a movie! To use the promo codes, add a movie to your cart, then click ‘Add Promo’ at the bottom of the screen. This will let you type in your code. Some codes can only be used once, while others can be used per debit/credit card, so keep that in mind. I keep a list in my purse and mark off when I have used a multi-use code on one of our cards.
Codes:
Enjoy!
It’s supposed to snow this afternoon, and I’ve been craving this pasta for a while, so this seems like a great time to have something warm and filling… plus I happen to have everything I need on hand.
Chicken Parmesan Pasta
You’ll need:
Boneless skinless chicken breasts or tenders – Diced into around 1″ cubes
Rotini Pasta
Ragu Roasted Garlic Parmesan sauce (or the sauce you prefer)
Vegetables of your choice (I usually use corn, peas, and carrots… if you can find a frozen mix of veggies that’s perfect!)
Olive oil and Garlic
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Put the chicken in the skillet and cook till the outside turns white. I like to add some minced garlic with the chicken for flavor, or at least sprinkle with garlic seasoning. Add your vegetables when the chicken turns white (if using frozen, add them a little earlier). Stir frequently until the chicken is cooked through.
In the meantime, start boiling the pasta in a large pot, boil till tender. Drain and return to pot or serving bowl.
When the chicken is cooked through pour the sauce into the skillet with it, stirring to mix everything together, reduce heat to medium-low and cook till warm.
Combine the chicken, vegetables, and sauce with the pasta, mix well, and enjoy! This is a delicious meal, it doesn’t take very long to fix other than dicing the chicken, and it can serve 4 of us two days usually.
Now, the budget part! Here’s how to make this a frugal dinner:
Chicken – The most expensive part, but you can usually catch the boneless skinless breasts on sale for $1.99/lb once a month or so. I stock up when they get that low.
Pasta – I’ve gotten more free pasta at Kroger than I would need in 3 months. They put their name brand pasta on sale frequently for 10/$10. Remember, you don’t have to buy 10 items for them to be $1 each. That’s a good deal in itself, but when combined with a coupon it’s even better.
Keep your eyes open for internet printable coupons for pasta that’s available where you live. Barilla and Ronzoni are the ones I’m able to get for free in my area. Even if you find a $1/2 coupon it still makes for two boxes for just $1. If you don’t find any coupons look for peelie coupons on the boxes themselves. I’ve gotten at least 3 boxes of Ronzoni Garden Delight free because it was on sale for $1 and had a $.50 coupon on the box. At my Kroger that $.50 coupon doubles to $1… therefore, free pasta!
Parmesan sauce – I buy the Ragu spaghetti sauce when I make spaghetti… I personally just think it’s better than the other brands, although that’s just personal preference. So when I look for a deal on sauce, I try to find it on Ragu. And luckily enough, they make a wonderful variety of cheese sauces now too… I believe there is an Alfredo sauce, and at least one more type, but for this pasta I buy the Roasted Garlic Parmesan. Deals on these don’t come as often as on the pasta, so I really stock up if I can when they’re on sale. Occasionally you will actually catch Ragu in my area in the 10 for $10 sale, and I try to save my coupons for when that happens. I’ve found the best source for Ragu coupons is actually through Kroger itself. Go here to sign your Kroger card up on their website, and you should start receiving coupons in the mail, and be able to load electronic coupons onto your card. Stacking an e-coupon with a paper coupon (using them both on one transaction) will usually make for some nearly or totally free pasta sauce.
The vegetables are basically the same process as the pasta, catch it on a 10 for $10 and use a $.25-$.50 coupon, you should have free to $.25 veggies!
Note: Some Kroger stores still allow you to combine an e-coupon with a paper coupon, but some don’t. Mine does, so some deals I get may be due to combining those two. You might ask your store manager about the policy at your local store to be sure before you try!
As an addition to tonight’s pasta we’re having a lovely looking loaf of Italian garlic bread I picked up from the clearance rack at Wal-Mart the other day. It was marked down to $1.80 (for two good size loaves!) from $3 because it had reached it’s sell by date. Now it’s in my freezer ready to be thawed and cooked!
Kroger and it’s affiliates have another new instant win game going on, yay! Head over here and select your store to play. Prizes include FREE food items! I just won a 2, 3, or 4 pack of Orville Redenbacher popcorn, which I will use to get one of the packs with 2 free Redbox movie codes for even more free-ness. 🙂
(Thanks to Hip2Save!)
Tonight’s frugal dinner is salmon patties, tiny red potatoes roasted in olive oil, Kraft Homestyle Macaroni and Cheese, and yeast dinner rolls.
We figured out we probably had $3 in the whole dinner. Since it was just me and the husband that comes to $1.50 a serving, but we could have just as easily fed 4.
Salmon – $1.99
Red potatoes – $.50 after sale and coupon at Kroger. We only used half a bag of these.
Kraft Homestyle Mac n Cheese – $.16 after sale and coupon at Walgreens.
Sister Schubert’s Yeast Dinner rolls – Honestly, these are frozen and we only cook two at a time usually. We’ve been eating out of this bag for months now. So I’m figuring about $1.50 for the bag, so a few cents for the rolls.
Love a good frugal dinner!
I didn’t get a chance to post my grocery challenge results last week, in fact I didn’t get to do much of anything I had planned. We had a particularly bad week at work, and when you’re self employed that makes for a bad week in general. We lost a good bit of money on a construction job. These things happen, but between trying to get the small amount of money we did manage to get, and rearranging finances to make up for what we lost, it took all week to straighten things back out.
So now we are on an even tighter budget than we were before… which actually may result in some favorable things. We had gotten too loose with our eating out, and I might have been spending too much on good deals here and there. So for now even if the savings is 90% it’s not worth it if it’s not in the budget, and that’s where I need to be.
Anyway, that’s where I’ve been, but now I’m back. I’ll try to keep up on a daily basis with at least some fun freebies if I can.
On to the fun part! Our weekend freebies… we had even less money this weekend than we do now, but we had a great time anyway. Here’s a couple of things we took advantage of, most of which are still available.
We stopped at Kroger to use a coupon for free eggs that we fortuitously found in the mail on the way out… We only needed eggs, and this was the first coupon in my little personalized coupons Kroger sends me on a regular basis. If you’re not already signed up to receive coupons from them, you’ll need a Kroger Plus Card, and then go here to sign it up online. You should start receiving coupons based on what you purchase, and the occasional free coupon as well!
On our way out the door to go to Kroger I checked one of my favorite deal sites – Hip2Save and found a Redbox code for a free movie. I wrote it on my list of codes that I keep in my purse and headed out.
So at Kroger we got a carton of large eggs, totally free and 2 Redbox movies, totally free.
Then we decided some coffee would be good. So we stopped at McDonalds and took advantage of the Free Small Coffee promotion they have going until February 14th. Two small coffees, totally free.
We went home, fixed a big pot of potato soup from things we already had on hand, enjoyed our free coffees, watched our free movies, and didn’t spend a dime. Love a weekend like that. 🙂
Now, the grocery challenge. It’s even more important that I stay on budget now, and I did better this week than last week. Last week I was $35.06 OOP, with a savings of $52.67. Not too shabby!
This week I did better staying in budget, but I didn’t need as much and there weren’t any spectacular deals, so I didn’t save as much. I think I still did pretty good though, I was proud.
Kroger – $15.97 OOP/$27.22 Saved
Wal Mart – $3.00 OOP/$4.37 Saved
Total OOP – $18.97
Total Savings – $31.59
This included two packs of Hillshire Farms Smoked Sausage (usually around $4), two Dove deodorants, 6 Vitamin Waters, and two packs of Sargento shredded cheese, among everything else.
I love these! I received an email from Vista Print advertising their Winter Clearance sale going on right now. You can get lots of free items: t-shirts, postcards, coffee mugs, notepads, business cards, notepads, return address labels, calendars… I could go on. Plus you also get 90% off sitewide. You do have to pay shipping on orders under $50, but I just ordered a t-shirt, notepad, self-inking rubber stamp, 100 postcards, and spiral bound notebook and paid $8.08 shipped. Not a bad deal if I do say so myself!
Go here to check it out.
One note, you need to add one item at a time to your cart for them to all be free. Select an item, personalize it, and add it to your cart, then click the link above again, select a new item and create it. By the time you get done all your items will be in the same cart with only shipping due.
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