Todays Savings

Dia Duit friends :o)

Today was shop shop day...an exhausting, long, tiresome, shop shop day. I haven't slept well the last three nights and it's catching up to me, still the family insists on eating, so I must.

Kroger once again had a Mega Event sale this week. The Mega Event sale saves you an extra $5 for each 10 participating items that are on sale. For example Bumble Bee Premium Albacore Tuna in the pouch is normally $1.85 each (who pays that?!). It was on sale this week for 99cents, an 86 cent savings immediately (getting better). But then in was also in the Mega Event sale, so for each 10 that I bought I saved another 50cent off each pouch making them only 49cents a pouch (now we're talking! :-D ). I bought 30 pouches...saving a total of $40.80 just on Tuna!!! Tuna is an excellent thing for food storage as well ;)

A new thing I learned today was Krogers pricing policy. If an item is marked on sale and rings up full price you get the first item free and any others at the sale price. Well I made out quite well with that deal today! Razors were on an endcap in the pharmacy section. I had my coupon book with me as always and realized I had two $1 coupons for them and the sale was Buy 1 Get 1 Free (B1G1). There were 10 packs, but if you looked carefully there were also a few with 2 'free' razors in each pack...always look for those things! So the first two bags of razors where $6.99 a bag. I had those two coupons. So for $4.99 I got 24 of my husbands favorite razors :o) Great right? Just wait ;) There were also fancy pink "cool" razors that my oldest will enjoy getting in her Christmas stocking. They were $7.99 normally but also on sale for B1G1. Take note here that Kroger does NOT make you buy two of something to get the sale price, you can buy just one of the item for half off. So after all the shopping we get to the registers, thankfully my young friend who comes with me on shop shop days for a girls day out knew these policies and was able to tell me. So all the razors rang up full price. It seems that someone forgot to take all the signage down. So when we politely brought it to their attention the manager took care of it right away. Ready for this? Those $7.99 "cool" pink razors were FREE! And then the $6.99 razors for my husband I had bought two of...so they gave me the first one FREE and the second one at $3.49. :-D Oh yeah, I was excited!!

There was another lesson learned though...and that is...CHECK THE PRICES WHILE THEY RING UP!!! Those razors were no longer on sale...the sale had ended the 4th...FIVE days ago!! Now you just know someone bought razors in those 5 days and ended up paying the full price when they thought they were getting them B1G1 because they didn't pay attention while they were there. As soon as the manager found out and fixed ours he immediately went and pulled down all the old signage. A tough lesson for them, but a $18.47 savings for me!

Another big savings this week was on Barilla Pasta Sauces. Normally $2.99 a jar. On sale this week for $1.99...but also part of the Mega Event...so another 50cents off of each jar as long as I kept things in multiples of ten. I bought 20 jars. We love the roasted garlic. So a total of $1.49 savings per jar equaled a total savings of $29.80.

There were lots of other savings as well...but these Mega Events are such a great time to stock up on things for your normal pantry as well as your Food Storage Pantry. $60 of the savings I had today was just multiples of that $5 bonus savings. Another important factor..you do NOT need to buy 10 of the same item, although I do many times...it's every 10 participating items, mix and match as you like. While I carry my shopping list around I have my pen and make tally marks on the top to keep track of the savings...I don't want to get up there and have 29 items and miss out on $5 savings because I didn't buy an extra 49cent pouch of tuna.

And MORE savings...can you stand all this??? Still lovin it here!! :-D Kroger has been having a Holiday Rewards program going. If you spent more than $800 in a months time you will earn a bonus of 20% off ANY shopping trip between 12/26 and 1/11/2011. So, as I scope out the sales I will get the best deals I can and then save another 20% off of that! $800 sounds like alot...but most people spend at least $200 a week at the grocery store between food, paper products, cleaning supplies, personal items, animal needs etc.

Oh...and all of this counts in the gas points as well! I recieved $324 fuel points today...combined with my other ones I can now save 40cents a gallon on a fill up in my van which I'll save till New Years when we travel to see my sister. By then I should have at least 70cents off a gallon...right when we need it! 20 gallons at 70cents off will be another $14.00 savings...all these bits add up to hundreds and thousands...over $3,000 this year alone...and I didn't start till April!

I know this is getting long, there's lots of savings to discuss and I know not everyone understands how all this works so I want to make it as clear as I can so that everyone can take advantage of the savings. :o) I want to add one more thing though which is my plan with all these savings. I budget a certain amount for food each week. Now some people would take the savings and the extra cash back and run...but not me ;) My goal is to spend as close to my budget each week and get as much food as I possibly can for that set amount. So while I'm saving hundreds a month, I'm also still spending hundreds. All this extra savings is used to stock our pantry and Food Storage pantry. I just wanted to be clear so someone who spends $200 doesn't look at my savings etc and think they could have enough food for their family and a weeks menus and stock up only spend $70 ;o)

Dia Duit my friends...Happy Savings!