$22.00 in the mail today

Two $10 gift cards from Walmart and one $2.00 rebate check
Not too shabby for a Friday

Quick Shoppers Food Warehouse trip

SFW is next to my son's school so I ran in real quick to use my (6) .50/1 any Pillsbury Grands IP that are expiring.  Pillsbury Grands JR are 10/$10.   I did not have my coupon stack/folder with me but I did happen to have (1) $1/2 Thomas's coupon stuck my wallet.  Total $1.05.  I used a gift card from the Scope rebate.  So I did not pay anything OOP for this transaction
 

Without coupons Thomas's English Muffins are 99 cents OR basically the same price for (2) English Muffins and (6) Pillsbury Grands Bisquits.  I don't know why more people don't use coupons?

This catalina informaiton might come in handy should there be a SD next month at HT

Shopper Food Warehouse - Thomas English Muffins - FREE to 49cents

I am pretty much stocked up thanks to Super Doubles.  However, this deal at Shoppers is of interest.  My family loves English Muffins.  They are 99cents at Shopper Food Warehouse
Use .55/1 MQ or the $1/2 MQ from 01-19-14 SS ** Local newspaper got the $1/2 however I was in California that weekend and picked up 4 California newspapers that have the .55/1 coupon**
Final cost FREE (if you use the .55/1 coupon because my local store doubles the coupon)
 or
 49cents each WYB2 (if you use the $1/2 coupon)

In 20 minutes I found (3) Week 1 Catalinas

Here's hoping the remaining 8 weeks are this successful

Harris Teeters Super Doubles - Last Day

I had the day off.  The weather forecasters called for no accumulation; however, that is not the case as you can see from our front yard.  Accidents are everywhere along the I95 corridor so I decided to just go to the HT closest to my house.  The store closest to my house has the most coupon competition so the standard stuff was out of stock.  I paid $2.50 for
2 boxes of State Fair Corndogs - my kid loves them and there is $1/1 on coupons dot com
4 bags of Birds Eye
2 Oscar Mayer Protein Packs - for the record there is no way in the future I will ever pay these unless it is close to FREE.  My family loves them but it is extremely small.  Even my 5 year old wanted more.
3 So So Delicious yogurt cups
2 Quaker Warm and Crunchy Oatmeal.

Another successful Super Doubles.  Here are some pics of items was I was able to get.  Here's hoping everyone got some great deals for their stockpiles

Quilted Northern and Tidy Cats.  I was very low on both items and excited to re-stock again

 

Tuna was another great deal.  I got over 30 pouches and over 30 cans of tuna.  We were completely out so we lucked out to be able to stock up

Breakfast Bars were another stock up item this time because of the Go For the Gold Promo and South Beach BOGO sales.  To free up boxes & space I put bars in a ziploc bag with expiration date and then placed them along with several other kinds of bars in a see-through container. This helps free up space plus my hubby has vision issues.  Somehow a cardboard box blinds him and he does not know what is inside the box.  This way he can now see several different types of bars at once.

Other items of interest were the many boxes of FREE Quaker Warm and Crunchy thanks to FB and friends; Hershey spreads; and FREE Little Debbie snacks

Lastly thanks to the Sorrento Ricotta Cheese deal this time, I am making and then freezing four trays of lasagna.  Barilla pasta was FREE this past fall.  Pomi and Al Fresco was FREE two Super Doubles ago, and Ragu was FREE/pennies this past fall. 

HTSD - Day 6

Paid $6.05 total
several transactions
3 Hillshire Farms tubs of lunchmeat
1 pack on Boneless Ribs
6 Little Debbie
12 Starkist tuna pouches
4 Starkist select gourmet tuna
6 Equal tablets
6 Mueller yogurts - that was the last on my Mueller coupons
2 boxes of Cheez it Grooves
Bananas

One Day Left. We are coming in to the Home Stretch and last lap of the SD Race

Starting Wednesday new Food Lion Catalina Deal

I was going to take a break after Harris Teeters Super Doubles but the new Food Lion catalina deal has peaked my interest.  It has at least peaked my interest with the parking lot trash.

HTSD-Day 5

SD is going exactly as I like.  I like to be almost out of coupons by Sunday.  I ran out of coupons for Quilted Northern yesterday (boy did we hit the motherload of TP yesterday).  I ran out of Tidy Cats coupons today.  I completed my Savings Star items (Starkist, Dole, All Detergent, and others) by yesterday.  By yesterday I pretty much got all the items I wanted including hard to get items.   Barilla is probably the only item I would like to still find at this point.  SD requires a lot of planning and preparation but it is totally worth it for me and my family (and now my son's godfather and his elderly parents).  Time to go watch Season 2 of "House of Cards" and relax :-)

My son's godfather was our house guest for the weekend.  We woke up super early to go to two different HT stores.  Two  adults and 2 cards (his and mine).  Good News / Bad News
Bad News: Stores are still out of stock on the Barilla.  The Barilla I purchased earlier in the week is almost gone.  This is a very popular item in our house and something I really do not buy unless it is FREE.  It becomes almost like a race to get to them first around here.
Good News was everything I purchased today was totally FREE.
First store:   The first store over charged me by $20+ dollars!!!  The Tidy Cats were ringing up grossly incorrectly.    The store corrected my order by refunding me the price of the cat litter and giving me the cat litter for free.  However, somehow in the exchange I got $2.00 more than I paid.  When I pointed it that it was too much they told me it was okay and how sorry they were for the gross overcharge.  I did not feel bad because I discovered yesterday when I got home that I was overcharged for my Quaker eVic special Granola Bars yesterday - at the same store - so it was a technically a wash.  HT Customer Service almost always tries their best to fix the problem on the spot.  They really do have excellent customer service
Second Store:   My cashier recognized me right away as she normally manages the HT store near my work.  She said this store was short staffed so she was over at this store a couple days a week to fill in.  It was so nice to see her as she is a very friendly and super nice manager.  However as she rang up the South Beach bars, they were not ringing up the correct price or BOGO.  Deja Vous!  My cashier/Manager had to manually enter prices and coupons because of the glitch.  The manual entries with the coupons gave me some overage and my final cost $1.76.  I used the $2.00 from the first store to pay for this trip
End Result for 2 stores:  Everything was basically FREE
6 Tidy Cats
6 Little Debbie
3 South Beach
3 Old Spice
1 Small Fruit Tray snack

Harris Teeters Super Doubles - Day 4

Today's adventure in shopping involved 2 adults, 3 cards, and 2 different HT stores.  My son's godfather was over again so he went shopping with me.  We used my card, his (his card), and his elderly parents (their card).  Total before coupons was $315.10, used 60+ coupons (I do take advantage of manually entered coupons), and spent $13.87 (most was state and local tax) for a metric ton of stuff.  A 96% savings.  PLUS I will get back $5 from Savings Star for purchasing (4) All Detergents today.  Feels really good to be able to help my son's godfather's Mom. 

Harris Teeters - Day 3 & Rite Aid

PAID $20.00 even plus got back (3) $3.00 catalina from Starkist and will get back $3.50 from Savings Star

I went to 2 stores - one before work and one after work.  Remember if a cashier manually enters coupons then those coupons do not count towards your 20 coupons daily limit. Look at your receipt for scanned vs. manually entered coupons to be sure.

Everything seen here plus 5 packets of McCormicks Taco seasoning was $20.00 even.  Guessed how I paid for this?  Yep, with the $20.00 HT gift cards from last night :-)

Notes:  McCormicks does not ring up correctly.  Tags in store say B2G3FREE.  The cost of one packet is 99cents.  Check out is only taking off $2.48, so that is 49cents you are loosing out. It was very difficult for the CS manager to ring it up correctly.  My advice is forget the 49cents and let the ZVR cover your costs with a little overage leftover as it was not worth the hassle. 

I still had those high dollar IP on hand and were soon expiring so I decided to use them on items for Savings Star
$1.25/1 Nature Valley
$1/1 Cheerios
$1/3 Yoplait Greek
$1/1 Pillsbury Cookie - fyi my store had up an old sale sign so when I brought it to their attention that I was overcharged they credited back both cookies and gave them to me for free

Rite Aid:  I had $3 that was expiring today and (2) $1/1 WetnWild coupons that expire tomorrow.  Purchased
1 gallon of milk
2 nailpolishs that are on sale for 75% off at .49 cents each
Picked up discounted Valentine's Candy to absorb the overage
PAID 63 cents total for everything  

Sticky Note: Need RR at Wags

Note to Self:  Need RR from Wags.  Since I lost my $5/$25 SFW coupons I am off to Wags to get some RR by using some of my 178,000+ points.  Need them for HTSD

Harris Teeters I absolutely LOVE U !!

I called Corporate today to complain and compliment my happenings at the Woodbridge store last night.  The very nice lady on the phone said she could see where I should have received my $20 Go For the Gold catalina.  However, since Jennifer had put in so many stop gaps and button pushings on my transaction the system blocked the catalina from printing.  She said she would mail me the catalina.  I explained Andrew took care of everything last night with the gift cards.  She insisted on sending it anyway to make up for Jennifer's button pushing compulsion as she could clearly see in the system the button pushing blocks Jennifer created in the system.  She and I went back and forth till finally she got her manager on the phone and both insisted on sending Go For the Gold Catalina. I gave in.  I hope HT gets a kick back on this promo

HTSD- Day 2/Part B

Cliff Notes: Paid $14.84 and got back (4) $5.00=$20 HT Gift Cards

Long Story: I have been leary about doing the Go For the Gold Promo.  I had not really seen a breakdown of items and coupons that were useful to me and my family. Plus there was never an actual list of exact items that were part of the promo.  It seemed to be haphazard at times as some products worked and other of the same brand did not.   I also read were many people did not get the catalina and had to work with customer service to get it worked out.  I pushed it off as long as possible; however, today was the last day I had to use some Kellogg's coupons that were expiring today.  And as we know Kelloggs is a big part of the promo.
* I thought the Go For the Gold prices from last week carried over to this week-WRONG
* I could not go to HT during the day today because I left some of my coupons at home so I had to come home after work to retrieve them
*  This meant my 5 year old had the pleasure of coming with me.  I love him to death but he makes it impossible to watch the register, watch the scanned coupons, and watch him all at the same time.  Mommies don't have that many eyeballs to see and watch everything *sigh*
* Because it was so late I had to go to the HT closest to my house.  This store that is the most competitive with couponers in my area.  This meant lots of out of stock items
* Because of out of stock of items I was literally purchasing on the fly.  This is never ever a good thing.
* I was going by last weeks ad for items.  I could tell things were not quite right by the Go For The Gold Signs but kept plodding forward with a 5 year in tow
* My 5 year old was literally throwing all sorts of things in my cart which drove me bonkers
* There was only 1 cashier at check out.  I do not particurly care for this cashier as she nit picks the heck out of coupons and I was in no mood for her shenanigans.  However it is now 9:15pm and I really need to get my son home and in bed so I go to the only cashier that is open - Jennifer
* At check out is when I realized that last weeks Go For The Gold sales ad is not valid.  I am literally freaking out at the register.  My 5 year old is shoving the kids shopping cart in to anything that he can find.  I find it hard to keep an eye on him and watch the register.  I am almost in tears
* The only positive is that everything in my cart had a Go For the Gold Tag, except the Mueller yogurt & Quaker Warm and Crunch Oatmeal, so when my bill was over $70, I made them take the Coke 6ers off to get the bill down
* I also can't locate my SFW $5/$25 coupons. I have been with Recycle since it started and have been collecting the $5/$25 coupons from the beginning.  I had about 8 left as I had been using them frequently lately but now they were all gone.  Now I really want to cry as my son is pushing the kids shopping cart around like he is in the Indy 500.  
* I proceed without ever finding my $5/$25 coupons :-(
* The cashier is reading every line of every coupon.  I am now livid.  They had to open up another register because of my transaction.  Damn, the nice cashier is opening up.....wish I was in his line
* The cashier and I are debating every coupon and every item in my cart and if they match.  Of course they match!!  This is why my shopping has taken over an hour because of out of stock items and matching up other coupons!! In the end she refuses 5 coupons.  I make her take those items off my bill and substitute for 5 other qualifying items with coupons she will accept. 
* Finally she rings me up and my total is $14.84.  
* However no catalina for the Go For the Gold
* At this point a female manager comes over, Brenda.  Brenda is not one of my favorites managers as she has been useless in helping me in the past.  She tells me my bill HAS to be over $50 WITH coupons.  I tell her that is wrong information.  She has always been UNhelpful and today is like no other.  Finally she calls over another manager, emerging from the door like a angel is my all time favorite CS Manager, Andrew.  I am so excited to see him.  He has helped me out countless times before and I always call HT Headquarters and let them know how much I appreciate his professional demeanor and excellent customer service.  He agrees with everything I have said.  With my angel CS Manager backing my words that the $50 does NOT have to be AFTER coupons, the female manager immediately backs down and tells him that he can handle this.  However she is never far and can hear everything.  She realizes quickly that I am not new to HT and have no problem calling corporate whether the incident is good or bad.  She overhears how I call corporate often praising Andrew.   Now she is a complete suck up.  My angel of a manager can not help me with a Go For the Gold catalina for a $20 Visa Card since Corporate is not answering the phone so he asked if (4) $5 Gift cards would work as an exchange. A sigh of relief - a solution on the spot.  YEP, sounds good to me!! 
* I left my receipt at the store because I was so frazzled.  But I spent $14.84 and got back  $20 in Harris Teeters Gift Cards
* A bad day at HT is better than a good day - not that I ever had them ;-) -  at Food Lion any time

Harris Teeters Super Doubles - Day 2/Part A

Sharing is Caring

Cliff notes: Paid 98cents PLUS 73cents tax = $1.71 BUT got back a $3.00 catalina on my next purchase

Long Story: My co-worker has seen me coupon over the past few years.  At lunch she wanted to go shopping at HT and see what the coupon magic was all about.  I love coupon shopping with others so game on :-) She really did not have any coupons so I used mine and we got the items in her cart below.  She paid for everything and once again,  HT I mean Starkist paid us to take groceries out of the store. At checkout she gave me all the groceries.  I was gobsmacked.  She said she was thankful to see how the coupon savings work in real life and not the Extreme Couponing method with 34 transactions.  She saw couponing does not require a math degree, an accounting background, or one has to be built like a linebacker to shove others out of the way for a deal. She is a single mom who saw the light of savings through couponing.  We are going back to HT on Monday but this time shopping for she and her family.

Tonight is "MY"  HT trip as I am GOing FOR THE GOLD!  Hopefully the $20.00 Visa Catalina will spit out with a code when I done.  Will post details

In other news:  leaving the store there was a clearance shopping cart full of pet food.  Kibbles and Bits had a $1/1 peelie and was marked down $2.38.  The would mean 38 cents for Kibble.  Be on the look out as that is a pretty good deal if you have dog.

Harris Teeters Super Doubles - Day 1

OMG- HT paid me to shop today as this trip was a $5.99MM!!!  I paid $2.01 ($1.09 + .92cents TAX)
BUT got back $3.00 Catalina for Starkist (what is the catalina deal? That was a pleasant shocker)
PLUS $5.00 in Savings Star!
Doing the Super Doubles Happy Dance!!

What did I purchase and with what coupons?

(1) Quilted Northern TP - used (1) $1/1

(9) Starkist Tuna Pouches - used (3) $1.50/3- from either Shape or WW Magazine

(6) Starkist Gourmet Select Tuna - used (3) $1/2

(3) cans of Mazola cooking spray - used (3) $1/1

(1) Febreeze car vent clip air freshner- used  (1) $1/1 PLUS $1.00 ZVR

(3) Boxes of  South Beach bars - used (3) $1.50/1

(4) Barilla meals- used (3) $1/1 plus one FREE coupon from manufacturer

(1) Gillette Fusion shaving cream (1) - used (1) $2/1 PLUS $2.00 ZVR

Used (1) $5/25 Shoppers Food Warehouse Competitors Coupon

This time Super Doubles is very exciting!!!  I just don't know what to do next.  I just found out another one of my favs is a deal tooo.  My family LOVES this stuff :
Quaker Warm & Crunchy Granola, $2.50 - $1 coupon from 1/26 RP = .50 

Thank you HT!

Dear Valued Customer,

Don't forget to stop by your Harris Teeter to pick up your FREE HT Traders Liquid Coffee Flavoring! This offer is now live on your VIC card until March 4, 2014. This item is most commonly found in the coffee aisle, but placement may vary in stores. The HT Traders Liquid Coffee Flavoring will ring up FREE on your receipt upon check out.

Super Doubles Begins at 7am!

On Your Mark
Get Ready
Get Set
GO!!!
High on my list is Starkist Tuna Select (Savings Star), Dole (Savings Star), Mazola Spray (we are totally out! YIKES!), Barilla Entrees (if FREE), Hefty BOGO storage Bags (I know like I did not already buy enough at Shoppers with the Everyday Essential coupon), South Beach Protein Fit Cereal Bars, Scharffen Berger Chocolate Bars (I have a few of the regional coupons), Tidy Cats Cat Litter, and BelVita Biscuits.

I am sure there will be more but that is decent list to start off with - YEAH!

Happy Presidents Day

I had off from work today and had to be in Sterling early in the am for an appointment.  I decided to stop by the recycling center.  It was snow covered, hard to walk in, bins full to the brim, and freezing cold.  However, I did find this very cute brand new Valentine's clear vinyl zipper pouch.  It still had tags and tissue inside. I decided to clip all my BTFE, CLFE, LCuisine Codes, and CokeCodes on the spot at the recycle center and place them inside the new vinyl pouch to brighten my day.  It worked. 

I have been soooooo busy

Sorry to myself for not posting but I have been B-U-S-Y!!

Work has been keeping me hopping and the weather has been horrible.  But in between work and weather I have been very busy in the CouponWorld.

Coupon Forums::
*After several frustrating months I finally figured out how/why/what nots about posting on a large coupon forum.
*In another large coupon forum I traded some coupons for giftedpp.  Disclaimer:  coupons are free the cost is my time, gas, blah blah blah.  I never had more than $3 in my account at once but what I do is turn around and purchase VA NBPR rebates.  I really stepped up my rebate game in the last few weeks. I have gotten back over $100 in rebate checks and gift card this year so far. 
* I have had zero luck in finding MCR codes.  So I have been actively trading BTFE and CLFE for MCR.  I got a nice cushion for the next couple of weeks in hopes I can find some on my own.

Rite Aid-
Tons and Ton of WetnWild FREE nailpolish.  Traded for a ton of coupons then viola we ended up with the coupon in the Washington Post.  Need these for a girls birthday party as party favors and several more for girl's Easter baskets.

Harris Teeters-
Loaded up on Yoplait and DelMonte veggies.  Yoplait was cheap and DelMonte is FREE.  I am waiting on Super Doubles to stock on Starkisk tuna and Dole for Savings Star rebate.

Safeway:
FREE Little Debbie Donuts, FREE Neuro

Shoppers Food Warehouse:\
I have been spending a lot of time here getting FREE Everyday Essentials.  I have gotten plastic lunch bags-various sizes, paper towels, cans of fruit, kleenex,etc.  I probably got to close to 100 free items by trading for the .75/1 Everyday Essential coupon

Giant:
tons of cheap Campbells Honestyle soup which was part of last weeks gas deal.  I found out too late about the 5x gift card to take advantage due to the weather.  C'est la vie

Target:  Shopping for cheap Valentine's Day items for Easter baskets.

I am sure there is more but that is all this little pea brain can think of at the moment :-)

**Picture of pantry in kitchen rest of stockpile downstairs**

FREE Bottle of Neuro Sleep at Safeway when loaded to card

.75/1 Essential Everyday Coupon

I have been going goo goo ga ga with all my .75/1 Essential Everyday coupons found in 01-26-14 RP / Expire 2/22
Shopper Food Warehouse sells this brand.  And the coupon doubles at Shoppers.  I have been buying FREE paper towels and FREE lunch bags out the waaa-zoooo.  However, there are countless products that one can get for FREE or cheap with this coupon doubling at Shoppers.

I have used 45 coupons so far and I have another 25 on the way in trade.  Thank you trading buddies in Georgia who are not using this coupon!

Kids Healthy Valentine's on the cheap

Last month I got Dole Squish'ems Apple for FREE during Harris Teeters Super Doubles.
Printed FREE gift tags that I found on line:  Click for Valentine's Day Gift Tag Link
Then got out my scrap book supplies:  green ribbon and card stock to enhance the gift tags 

I think they turned out super cute for my son's school Valentine's Day party this week

$31 in rebate checks yesterday

Cha-Ching!

McCormicks Taco and Chili Mixes = 30cents each

I was totally out of chili and taco mix.  But the coupon angels heard my chili woes and talks of canceling Monday Taco Night due to lack of mixes and answered my prayers. Hallelujah! Thanks to my trading buddies in Georgia and Florida, I have been able to do this deal 3x.
McCormick is on sale $10/10
When you spend $10 - $2.00 is autodeducted
Use (5) .50/2 which this coupon will double taking off another $5
Final $10-$2-$5=$3 0r 30cents each. 
PS - Did you know McCormicks makes a killer Chicken Chili mix!

10 FREE MCR Bonus Points Code

10052147865684

Best Haul ever in Loudoun County at the Recycle Center

Spent all day Saturday at the  Loudoun County recycling  centers.  I love it out there.  It is so peaceful and beautiful.  To my surprise my son's Godfather wanted to go recycling too and tagged along.  It was an excellent tag team effort as we hit the motherload at every recycle center. It was such a large haul that we had to get an extra table and set up a workstation in my son's playroom so we could sort through everything.

To show my appreciation to my son's Godfather I traded for a $50 VS gift card for my $50 Target gift card on a trading forum so he could give the VS GC to his girlfriend.  The Target GC only cost me postage to mail out because I stock up on Target gift cards through out the year with my overage at Target. 

Saturday's Recycling Stats:
We got 200+ inserts!!!
127 BTFE
Code Codes - 100+ bottle caps/ (34) 12 packs / 1 code from a case of Coke
72 Kelloggs codes
49 CLFE points
a few lean cuisine codes
a large package of unused envelopes
Food Lion catalinas
**Here is picture after everything was sorted**