More Saving and Stocking Up

 I got on out to Kroger and shopped the deals I wanted before some yucky weather sets in today/tomorrow. Probably just rain/cold for us....but I've lived through enough "oops" forecasts that I wouldn't be surprised to wake up to a full-fledged blizzard or ice storm. As I always say, "Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst".
But even if it is just rain/cold, those are good days to stay in and be warm and dry and snug as bug in a rug at home, not out in the misery trying to save a buck.

Since I keep pretty well stocked up, I didn't *need* any of this right now. And these sales come around and around, so it wouldn't have been worth going out in bad weather for.
But I will need/use this stuff eventually, and nothing was going on this morning, the weather is overcast but dry, chilly but not frigid, so it was a good use of the time to go on and buy the things while I can get them for a lot less than having to pay full price if I end up needing something when it's not on sale.

Also, Lady-bird-pup-dog enjoyed the ride in the car.

 
So, what I got:

Jif PB is on sale for $1.49 as part of the "Buy 5, get $1.00 off" Mega sale. You don't have to buy 5 of the same item, just groups of 5 items included in the entire Mega sale.
I had loaded a digital coupon to my Kroger card for .75 off, so I only paid 74cents.
Great price for Jif, or PB in general. 

The Tampico juices were .49 Mega sale price, no coupons needed. 

Some Quaker and General Mills cereals were on sale for $1.79 Mega sale price. That's a great price for cereal considering normally they run upwards of $3, $4 a box.  If you have a coupon, even better.
I had a digital coupon for $1.00/2 boxes of Big G (General Mills), and a printable* coupon for .75 off Quaker, so I saved $1.75, or basically got one of the boxes for 4cents.
(*Be aware, not all stores accept printable coupons.) 

The butter was my main objective. Real butter is pretty expensive, $2.50 a box at WM, and up. Aldi sometimes has it for $1.79, but I don't like the taste of Aldi butter at all, so I generally stock up when it's on sale for $1.99 at Kroger.
Today I got it for $1.77 with digital coupon.
The butter wasn't part of the Mega sale, but the digital coupon was able to be used up to 5 times. 

(I know, it's a lot of rules and things to figure out and keep straight, but I consider like a board game, a challenge. If my totals add up in the end, I win the game!) 

Carefree, Stayfree, Kotex and possibly other items I didn't pay attention to were $1.99 Mega sale price. I had a digital coupon, and also a printable coupon for $3.00/2 Kotex by U products, so I paid 49cents per box. !!!
I just nearly bought a box or two of these at WM yesterday to put in my stash closet, but they didn't have any Super size ones and they're the ones we needed. We have plenty of the Regular size ones.
    Even if I didn't have the coupons, $1.99 a box is great price for these as they're usually $3.00-plus a box.

The Carefree Breathe pad/liners also had a $1.50/1 digital coupon (and a printable coupon, although I only used the digital coupon this time) so they were also 49cents. We don't normally use these, but pads are always a good thing to keep in your stock pile for "you never know when you might need these" reasons. 

At .49, these kinds of things are especially good for buying to donate to church pantrys and/or women's shelters. Even at the $1.99 price it would be a good thing to buy to donate if you want to do some useful donating.
    You could just donate money...not trying to be judgy but...I find that when you give anyone money, be it an individual or organization, they don't always make the best use of it, don't try to get more for the money. They'll buy brand name, or not bother to shop a sale, or use a coupon. You could donate like a third* more product buying these at $1.99 then you'd end up giving them if you handed them $20 and let them buy it. (*Don't check my Math, I'm not really good at it, lol). 

Suave Body wash is .99 Mega sale price, I used a .75 digital coupon making it 24cents.
Tresemme Shampoo is $2.99 Mega sale price, and I used a $2.00 digital coupon making it 99cents.
    These are the kind of things I buy a little at a time, here and there, when the price is good, to stick into my stock pile. So when the next unforeseen event happens - weather, illness, unrest, etc - then I'm not having to worry about getting stuff I need. Like toilet paper.

Speaking of which, they had boxes of this cheap toilet paper for .69 a pkg. WM has a cheap 4-roll for .60 so it's a little cheaper, but I was here, and this was cheap enough to get a couple to put in the stock pile. 

Kleenex are on sale 4/$5, or $1.25 each. Includes from 65ct up to 144ct sizes. Depending on what you like/need, we're not extremely choosy so of course I got the most for the money, 144ct.
I only got these because I had a $1.00/4 digital coupon, which made there $1.00 a box, which is what I pay for tissues at Dollar Tree.
    We do use a lot of kleenex, all of us suffers allergies and sinus issues, so I pick up anywhere from 1 to 5 boxes at a time any time I go into DT whether I need them at the time or not, because I know I will need them eventually, and I want to make sure I have enough to tide us over for awhile in event of "supply interruptions". 

The cookies were mark-down priced for $1.00, and hot chocolate is a favorite around here, so they're a treat. 

My total savings was $45.11, or 61% of what it would cost paying regular price/not using coupons. 

Also, I saw on the register I could be saving 5% with a Kroger credit card. It more said something to the effect of ..."you could save 5%..net...or on certain products net..." I can't remember, but it sounded like there might be a catch, so I'm off to check it out and see if it'd be worth getting it.

Get 'em While the Gettin's good

 I used to cook meatloaf every so often because, I don't know, my Mom did, I guess. I wasn't a fan of meatloaf, or the recipe I was using then, which if I remember rightly involved ketchup and...No, I can't remember. 

I remember, I guess me and my sister were discussing how we cook meatloaf, and she used Worchestershire sauce, or maybe it was Soy?  Onions and peppers, which I didn't use because I didn't care for those, either. 

I don't remember what/where/when/how after that, but one day, like a light bulb flicking on over my head, I thought, 'I wonder if Manwich sauce would be good in meatloaf instead?'.
Answer: Yes. 

Well, any sloppy joe sauce.  Back then, a few times one or the other of the grocery stores would have something like a "Buy 5, get 50cents off", or $1.00 off, sale, and Manwich would be 50cents a can and I'd buy up about 10 or 12 cans. 

But then they didn't have the sale, and didn't have the sale. I ran out and have been paying 82cents a can for GV brand at WM.
So last week Publix had it BOGO (buy one get one....free), which made them half price, or 57cents a can.  Wasn't 50cents, but it's been a few years, so I guess, inflation. 57cents was better than 82cents.

My own recipe for gluten-free meatloaf muffins: mix 1lb. ground beef, 3/4cup oatmeal, 1 egg, 3/4 can sloppy joe sauce (save the rest to spoon on the tops of the meatloaf muffins). Spoon into muffin tin and spoon rest of sloppy joe sauce onto the tops. Bake at 425* about 1/2 an hour. 

This week Ingles grocery has some of my favorite breakfast items on sale. 

The Store brand pancake syrup is BOGO for 99cents each.
I pay like $1.38 for WMs brand, so this is a deal for me. We use a good bit of syrup.

They have Quaker Oats 18oz container BOGO for like $1.99 each, but then I saw they have the larger 42oz containers of the store brand oats BOGO for $1.64 each. Much better deal for the money. 

The Quaker instant oatmeal is BOGO for 1.99 each. I feel like they have these on sale 2/$3, or $1.50 each sometimes, but for all I know that sale may be extinct forever and maybe this will be the new best price, so I went ahead and picked up a couple of boxes. If they go on sale 2/$3 I'll buy somemore. 

I could get store brand instant oatmeal as cheap or cheaper, but none of the store brands carry Raisins & Spice, which is the only instant oatmeal I like. They only have like raisins, dates & walnuts or some such. Yuk. 

They also have some Kellogg's cereals BOGO for $1.99 each, but I think I'm currently stocked up pretty good on those particular cereals, and also Kroger generally has the typical Kelloggs cereals cheaper on sale, $1.79.
This week Kroger has General Mills and Quaker Capt Crunch cereals for $1.79 wyb (when you buy) 5, and there's coupons for 75cents off a box of Quaker, and 50cents off 2 boxes of General Mills, so that makes them a little cheaper. I may pick up a couple of boxes there, just because they're a little cheaper. 

Mostly I'm aiming to get to Kroger to buy 5 boxes of store brand butter at $1.77 a box. Usually I stock up when they're on sale for $1.99 a box, so $1.77 is even better.
I might would buy more than 5, but it's a digital coupon loaded to my shopper card deal, not the 'Get $1 off wyb 5 items' sale, so 5 is the limit for the price. 

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For things I stock up on, not on sale, I usually get from Dollar Tree or WM because the prices are cheaper. I had to go to WM to pick up a prescription for my son who's sick with a sinus infection, and I had Colas and canned vegetable beef soup on my shopping list. Also burger buns, but they were out.
While I was there I picked up some 'just to have extras' things.

I can't remember everything, but I stock GV pizza crust mix at 52cents each, canned pasta, ie spaghettio's w/meatballs, ravioli, burger macaroni I forget the name of at 60cents a can. National Cup tea bags $1.00 a box. GV pork n beans 33cents a can. Raman soup hot-n-spicy bowls, I think they were 37cents each.
I forget what else.

I bought one package of toilet paper to put in my closet, and a box each of wet cat and dog food. I'm not out of cat and dog food, but if I have a box open, I like to have a closed box as back up. Or bag. I also keep an extra bag of dry cat and dog food, and chicken feed and scratch grains. 

~ * ~

Last night I was on the WM website (looking at electric blankets) and saw an ad that says you can get 5% cash back on your purchases at WM dot com, including pickup and delivery, with a WM credit card. And also you can get 5% cash back for the first 12 months in store using WM Pay. 

I'm not one to have a lot of credit cards, generally we have one we use at a time that will have 0% interest for 12 or 18 or 21 months.  (That's another story for another time.)
But I do have a Target card that gives me 5% off my purchases the very rare times I shop there, my Amazon card gives me 5% cash back on purchases at Amazon, and we have a Murphy USA card to save 5cents a gallon on gas there.
I shop more at WM than anywhere (I'm ashamed to admit) so of course I should be saving 5% on my purchases. Be dumb not to. 

I'll just have to get in a better habit of using pickup more. I've used it a couple of times, but I'm not really a schedule and appointment kind of person. I like to decide on the spot to go to the store.