Today's Stats - 1.5 hours, 2 stores, saved... over $70!
Kroger:
Total before savings: $116.87
Coupon Savings: $ 2.25
Kroger Savings: $ 62.62
Total after Savings: $ 52.50
Yes - that's right - I saved more than I actually spent at Kroger - I'm starting to feel like this is a success! Oh - and I got 8 new york strip steaks which normally by themselves would cost over $60! The steaks were marked down from $9.99 /lb to $3.77 / lb. Wow - I would normally NEVER buy those. I also got buy one get one free on both lunch meat and sandwich bread. Another awesome Kroger deal this week (especially if you have company coming next weekend!) - If you buy blue ribbon bacon, you get a dozen eggs, a del monte fruit cup (8oz), fully cooked sausage patties, and 6 pack English muffins for FREE. I really wish I had that deal before we had Kyle's parents here this weekend - we wouldn't have had to go out for breakfast this morning!
HEB:
Total before coupons: $53.60
Coupon Savings: $ 7.35
Total after coupons: $46.25
So - for basic items and produce, I am still going to HEB - they have some good deals if you need the things on special. For example - I got the following items all FREE because I bought another item on the special: Buy oatmeal, get waffle mix free; buy bleach, get bleach pen free; buy cookie mix, get flour free. They also had coupons on our coffee creamer and cream cheese. Also - I am drinking SlimFast protein shakes for breakfast lately (no - I'm not trying to lose weight, but its the only thing that keeps me full! and they're fast!) - and the powder is just flat cheaper at HEB. At Kroger it is $8.59 while at HEB it is $7.97. Every little bit helps!
Overall - Kroger is still winning over HEB on the overall prices, deals and steals - and nobody is more shocked by that than me! With that said, my general observation that HEB produce is better and cheaper stands. Also - if i don't have a coupon on certain staple items that we can't wait for the next sale/coupon combo for - HEB tends to be a little cheaper on the whole. For overall deals - Kroger wins though! One caveat to my thoughts on HEB not being as strong for savings - is our HEB is NOT an HEB Pantry. It is an HEB Food & Drug/ Super HEB - so not all of the Grocery Game deals / mark downs make it to our HEB. Perhaps if your HEB gets the full mark downs... HEB would be better... I can't really say.
Kristy
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
The Grocery Game - Grocery Shopping v. Kristy, Round2
Okay folks - round 2 of the grocery game.... here it is!
Totals:
Kroger
Total before savings: $135.81
Manufacturer's Coupon Savings: $5.50
Kroger Card Savings: $39.69
Total after savings and coupons: $90.72 (!!)
That feels like success!
Best deals at Kroger this week:
1. Pork Chops - regularly $2.99 / lb on sale for ($ 0.99 / lb) - I got 10 chops for $5.88.
2. Yoplais - Yo-Plus 4 pack yogurt - regular $2.59, on sale for $1.99, $0.99 after $1 coupon - $0.49 after Kroger (10 for 10 savings!) (81% of the regular price!)
3. Next week i get $25 in FREE (yes - FREE!) groceries from Kroger because I transferred a prescription while I was at the store today! You have to have a coupon that came out on 11/4, but I didn't have it and just asked for it at the customer service desk. Then walk over the pharmacy and they will transfer your prescription for you. When you pick it up - you get $25 in free groceries! It took about 2 minutes and that is totally worth it!
I still like HEB for produce - so I went there for that and some of their really good deals.
Best deals at HEB this week:
1. T-bone steak: regularly $8.18 / lb. on sale for $3.77 / lb. (54% off!)
2. Buy HEB 16 oz. sandwich meat and get HEB bread FREE!
So - this week - with just the free $25 at Kroger from transferring the presciption - the Grocery Game paid for iteslf for aboout TEN weeks of the membership, and that doesn't take into account the $17 I saved on the pork chops or the free bread. Here's the thing - I'm still not sure I couldn't do it without her - I just think it would take a lot longer. I knew the pork chops were on sale before I went to the store - sure when you get there - its clearly labeled, but I probably would've stuck to our regular chicken or just missed it altogether. And - like I said last week - it allows you to plan the meals around the pork chops (for example) before you go. This week it also took me significantly less time to choose my items, print my lists, and get out the door.
I may be a new Grocery Game convert.
Kristy
Totals:
Kroger
Total before savings: $135.81
Manufacturer's Coupon Savings: $5.50
Kroger Card Savings: $39.69
Total after savings and coupons: $90.72 (!!)
That feels like success!
Best deals at Kroger this week:
1. Pork Chops - regularly $2.99 / lb on sale for ($ 0.99 / lb) - I got 10 chops for $5.88.
2. Yoplais - Yo-Plus 4 pack yogurt - regular $2.59, on sale for $1.99, $0.99 after $1 coupon - $0.49 after Kroger (10 for 10 savings!) (81% of the regular price!)
3. Next week i get $25 in FREE (yes - FREE!) groceries from Kroger because I transferred a prescription while I was at the store today! You have to have a coupon that came out on 11/4, but I didn't have it and just asked for it at the customer service desk. Then walk over the pharmacy and they will transfer your prescription for you. When you pick it up - you get $25 in free groceries! It took about 2 minutes and that is totally worth it!
I still like HEB for produce - so I went there for that and some of their really good deals.
Best deals at HEB this week:
1. T-bone steak: regularly $8.18 / lb. on sale for $3.77 / lb. (54% off!)
2. Buy HEB 16 oz. sandwich meat and get HEB bread FREE!
So - this week - with just the free $25 at Kroger from transferring the presciption - the Grocery Game paid for iteslf for aboout TEN weeks of the membership, and that doesn't take into account the $17 I saved on the pork chops or the free bread. Here's the thing - I'm still not sure I couldn't do it without her - I just think it would take a lot longer. I knew the pork chops were on sale before I went to the store - sure when you get there - its clearly labeled, but I probably would've stuck to our regular chicken or just missed it altogether. And - like I said last week - it allows you to plan the meals around the pork chops (for example) before you go. This week it also took me significantly less time to choose my items, print my lists, and get out the door.
I may be a new Grocery Game convert.
Kristy
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Prayer Request - Lt. Joe Houston
I have told a few people, but if I haven't told you yet, please pray for Lt. Joe Houston, one of two Navy pilots that went down in a T-34 trainer jet last week over the Gulf of Mexico. He is a relative of one of the people nearest and dearest to me in this world. He has been missing since last wednesday. His co-pilot's body was found last week; however, the family remains hopeful in prayer that Joe will be found alive. Civilian ground and air searches are being organized as I write this. If you have any resources - food, funding, access to helicopters, jet skis, etc., please leave a comment if you are willing to help.
Instead of my prayers requests, I want to pass along the prayers of Joe's mother which I received by email this morning:
Prayer needs:
- that Joe is still alive; pray for his endurance, mental acuity and strength
- that the plane will be found
- Miller family to be comforted and strengthened
- for the gospel to be delivered and for the hearts of the people who still need to see the Lord's
hand in this circumstance
- Satan is a defeated foe
- safety, protection, and success of all involved in the search
- strength for all not to become weary; against discouragement
- pray scripture: Psalms 91; Ps. 105; Ps. 27; Hebrews 6:18; Hebrews 10:37-39
- that death will be swallowed up in victory as we come in the name of the risen Christ, the Messiah.
- gratitude to God for all He is doing in the hearts of the people and the unity in prayer.
- that God will be glorified. Let the glory of the Lord rise upon us!
Kristy
Instead of my prayers requests, I want to pass along the prayers of Joe's mother which I received by email this morning:
Prayer needs:
- that Joe is still alive; pray for his endurance, mental acuity and strength
- that the plane will be found
- Miller family to be comforted and strengthened
- for the gospel to be delivered and for the hearts of the people who still need to see the Lord's
hand in this circumstance
- Satan is a defeated foe
- safety, protection, and success of all involved in the search
- strength for all not to become weary; against discouragement
- pray scripture: Psalms 91; Ps. 105; Ps. 27; Hebrews 6:18; Hebrews 10:37-39
- that death will be swallowed up in victory as we come in the name of the risen Christ, the Messiah.
- gratitude to God for all He is doing in the hearts of the people and the unity in prayer.
- that God will be glorified. Let the glory of the Lord rise upon us!
Kristy
Monday, November 2, 2009
Not Me Mondays
I would NEVER buy a bag of candy corn because I really wanted to have a cute little bowl of Fall candy for the kitchen and then eat THE WHOLE BAG while I unloaded groceries...I have more self control than that, and I don't really even love candy corn that much, so I would certainly NEVER do that. Definitely NOT me!
I would NEVER let it come around to my week to choose the book for book club and then not find time to read a SINGLE PAGE of the book I chose in the entire MONTH since the last meeting. That's RIDICULOUS...and arguably pathetic and I certainly wouldn't then proceed to attend book club as though I had something meaningful to contribute to the conversation. NO WAY!
I would certainly NOT cry (real tears!) to Kyle over not being able to keep the floor in our new house clean. Clean floor isn't really that important in the grand scheme of things, and we have two sixty pound dogs, a water-logged backyard from the recent onslaught of monsoon season in Houston, and improper cleaning supplies for laminate flooring which now covers all 2200 square feet of our house. SO - it would be ABSURD to cry over such a silly, silly thing. I would ABSOLUTELY NEVER do that.
I would also NEVER totally STEAL a blog post column from a girl I grew up going to church with but haven't seen in years just because I thought her posts were so honest and fun to read. I certainly wouldn't feel like I NEEDED a post idea like this to inject some of the author's REAL VOICE to this blog. I certainly wouldn't steal it without really knowing whether or not I fit into the CORRECT blogger category for stealing said column (I WOULD NEVER adapt "Not Me Mondays" to my little corner of the blogosphere even though I strongly suspect it might be a "Moms" thing). :)
Kristy
I would NEVER let it come around to my week to choose the book for book club and then not find time to read a SINGLE PAGE of the book I chose in the entire MONTH since the last meeting. That's RIDICULOUS...and arguably pathetic and I certainly wouldn't then proceed to attend book club as though I had something meaningful to contribute to the conversation. NO WAY!
I would certainly NOT cry (real tears!) to Kyle over not being able to keep the floor in our new house clean. Clean floor isn't really that important in the grand scheme of things, and we have two sixty pound dogs, a water-logged backyard from the recent onslaught of monsoon season in Houston, and improper cleaning supplies for laminate flooring which now covers all 2200 square feet of our house. SO - it would be ABSURD to cry over such a silly, silly thing. I would ABSOLUTELY NEVER do that.
I would also NEVER totally STEAL a blog post column from a girl I grew up going to church with but haven't seen in years just because I thought her posts were so honest and fun to read. I certainly wouldn't feel like I NEEDED a post idea like this to inject some of the author's REAL VOICE to this blog. I certainly wouldn't steal it without really knowing whether or not I fit into the CORRECT blogger category for stealing said column (I WOULD NEVER adapt "Not Me Mondays" to my little corner of the blogosphere even though I strongly suspect it might be a "Moms" thing). :)
Kristy
Sunday, November 1, 2009
The Grocery Game - Grocery Shopping v. Kristy, Round 1
Today I tried the grocery game for the first time. For those of you haven't heard, the grocery game is a service members pay $10 every eight weeks ($1.25 / week) to get "Teri's List" - a list which is supposed to provide you with the absolute best combination of in-store sales, coupons, and weekly specials to get "Rock Bottom Sales". It also operates on the concept of stockpiling v. need shopping which is totally new for me. You can do a 28 day free membership if you're interested in trying it out... but here are my Week 1 observations:
1. It takes time to clip coupons. (DUH!) But this is not unique to "The Grocery Game" - whether you're just a "regular" coupon user or playing the game, you have to cut manufacturer coupons from the sunday paper. Not the most exciting way to spend your sunday afternoon. I spent about an hour and a half clipping! Of course some of that time I was also downloading coupons from Kroger's website onto my Kroger card - a handy feature, but the selection of coupons is pretty limited, so you definitely have to cut from the paper too.
2. Sad but true - it pays to go to multiple stores. I went to TWO grocery stores today just because different things were on sale at different stores. Never in my life have I done that to try to save $8-10! Luckily - where we live, both HEB and Kroger are within about 2 miles of our house, so its not that big of a deal. At Kroger - the in-stores savings were much better than the coupon usage (I had trouble finding the brands of the coupons I had, etc.) but a Kroger card will save you a lot at Kroger. The only problem - I'm not sure Kroger prices minus Kroger cards savings are less than HEB prices regularly. I will report on that as I figure it out. At HEB I found some great deals on things we use regularly. I got a free head of lettus, free salad dressing, free tortillas, free cream cheese, and $2 off blue cheese. I was overall impressed more with the prices at HEB, but think its worth going to Kroger for their 10 for $10 in store specials or items you have good coupons for because Kroger will often triple or double them.
THE RESULTS:
Kroger:
Total before coupons: $110.81
Kroger card savings: $ 29.01
Coupon Savings: $ 4.15
Total after all savings: $ 77.65
HEB
Total before coupons: $62.03
Coupon savings: $ 8.67
Total after coupons: $53.36
So - in all, I spent $ 131.01 on groceries and household supplies (toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies and toiletries - we count all this together as "Groceries"). While I happy with the total for what I got, thus far - I'm not sure I couldn't do this on my own just clipping coupons and without Teri's list - but I'm going to let the full 12-week cycle run - or at least the full 4week free trial - before I decide on that. The main benefit to having the list BEFORE you go as far as I can see right now is the ability to plan your meals before you go. I'm a big list maker and meal planner, so I like to know the deals before I go instead of having to wing it in the aisle at the store. I do think I will try to plan our meals around the coupons I have... because it is satisfying to see the checker scan your coupons and take your total down by $10-20 or more! One problem is it is TIME CONSUMING, but I am going to try to stay disciplined and keep at it.
Kristy
1. It takes time to clip coupons. (DUH!) But this is not unique to "The Grocery Game" - whether you're just a "regular" coupon user or playing the game, you have to cut manufacturer coupons from the sunday paper. Not the most exciting way to spend your sunday afternoon. I spent about an hour and a half clipping! Of course some of that time I was also downloading coupons from Kroger's website onto my Kroger card - a handy feature, but the selection of coupons is pretty limited, so you definitely have to cut from the paper too.
2. Sad but true - it pays to go to multiple stores. I went to TWO grocery stores today just because different things were on sale at different stores. Never in my life have I done that to try to save $8-10! Luckily - where we live, both HEB and Kroger are within about 2 miles of our house, so its not that big of a deal. At Kroger - the in-stores savings were much better than the coupon usage (I had trouble finding the brands of the coupons I had, etc.) but a Kroger card will save you a lot at Kroger. The only problem - I'm not sure Kroger prices minus Kroger cards savings are less than HEB prices regularly. I will report on that as I figure it out. At HEB I found some great deals on things we use regularly. I got a free head of lettus, free salad dressing, free tortillas, free cream cheese, and $2 off blue cheese. I was overall impressed more with the prices at HEB, but think its worth going to Kroger for their 10 for $10 in store specials or items you have good coupons for because Kroger will often triple or double them.
THE RESULTS:
Kroger:
Total before coupons: $110.81
Kroger card savings: $ 29.01
Coupon Savings: $ 4.15
Total after all savings: $ 77.65
HEB
Total before coupons: $62.03
Coupon savings: $ 8.67
Total after coupons: $53.36
So - in all, I spent $ 131.01 on groceries and household supplies (toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies and toiletries - we count all this together as "Groceries"). While I happy with the total for what I got, thus far - I'm not sure I couldn't do this on my own just clipping coupons and without Teri's list - but I'm going to let the full 12-week cycle run - or at least the full 4week free trial - before I decide on that. The main benefit to having the list BEFORE you go as far as I can see right now is the ability to plan your meals before you go. I'm a big list maker and meal planner, so I like to know the deals before I go instead of having to wing it in the aisle at the store. I do think I will try to plan our meals around the coupons I have... because it is satisfying to see the checker scan your coupons and take your total down by $10-20 or more! One problem is it is TIME CONSUMING, but I am going to try to stay disciplined and keep at it.
Kristy
Saturday, October 31, 2009
A "NORMAL" Saturday... !
We are having our first relatively "normal" saturday in our house this morning, and its really comforting to just sit around in sweats while the dogs roam around the house (or rambunctiously play in the living room - knocking my candlesticks off the coffee table) and Kyle searches for the remote to our new TV (how do those things always get lost? - we are really wondering if the home security system guy took it with him by accident yesterday).
We made two big purchases yesterday and I am equally excited about both. One was my treadmill - we have been saving and waiting for a place to put a treadmill - I have wanted one for a very long time. Here's to accountability for working out!! A treadmill staring you in hte face every day. We debated a long time about it because you can pay for lots of months of a gym membership for what a treadmill costs, but we live pretty busy lives, and we figure its worth it to have the convenience of running for even 20 minutes at 10:00 at night if that's all we can fit in. I'm prety happy about it - we put it together last night, and I'm about to use it for the first time. I feel a product review coming on in the near future....
Our other purchase... a SERIOUS home security system. For those of you who really know me, you know how excited I am about this. We have every type of monitor, detector, alarm, and strobe light (literally - strobe lights - to identify the house to emergency vehicles!). I am excited. If you want the name of an awesome home security guy.... ask me for a referral - he will save you lots of money.
Coming soon.... pictures of Kyley and Molly in their Halloween costumes - we're going over to see our little nieces tonight all decked out in their Halloween duds.
Kristy
We made two big purchases yesterday and I am equally excited about both. One was my treadmill - we have been saving and waiting for a place to put a treadmill - I have wanted one for a very long time. Here's to accountability for working out!! A treadmill staring you in hte face every day. We debated a long time about it because you can pay for lots of months of a gym membership for what a treadmill costs, but we live pretty busy lives, and we figure its worth it to have the convenience of running for even 20 minutes at 10:00 at night if that's all we can fit in. I'm prety happy about it - we put it together last night, and I'm about to use it for the first time. I feel a product review coming on in the near future....
Our other purchase... a SERIOUS home security system. For those of you who really know me, you know how excited I am about this. We have every type of monitor, detector, alarm, and strobe light (literally - strobe lights - to identify the house to emergency vehicles!). I am excited. If you want the name of an awesome home security guy.... ask me for a referral - he will save you lots of money.
Coming soon.... pictures of Kyley and Molly in their Halloween costumes - we're going over to see our little nieces tonight all decked out in their Halloween duds.
Kristy
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The Grocery Game?
Anyone tried it? Is it worth the cost of the membership? Let me know..... I'm really considering it (always up for a challenge!)
Kristy
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