How Many Canned Veggies fit into a Minivan? Part 1

That's the riddle hubby said I was trying to solve today.
On Saturday, I took off for the afternoon(which stretched into the evening too)and made a pilgrimage to Acme. 
There is a Buy $30(shelf price), Get $15 Back Catalina Deal this sales week there.  Not as good as the last B30/G15 Deal in August, but with the crappy Deals at Weis around here....I'll take it!!

I had ordered coupons but they didn't come in Sat. morning's mail so I took what I had(some insert Qs and some IP Qs-not much really)and I flew like the wind to the store.  The area I went to had 3 Acmes within close proximity and I planned to hit A, then B, then C and backtrack, hitting B again and A again, before heading home.
I was ready this time.  I had the Qs organized in the envie, I had the shelf/sale prices written out in a chart, I had my calculator and I had done up some scenarios on Friday so I could quickly get a very low OOP after sale prices and Qs.

The B30/G15 deal reportedly was doubling and tripling but I kept to single transactions to keep under the radar.  After the "being held captive episode" in Aug. at the evil Acme, I wasn't about to try stacking multiple $30 transactions.

So what happened?

First off, some of the items were on "knockdown".  While this is good for regular shoppers(because the price is lower), this is BAD for working a Cat Deal.  If an item is on knockdown, it means the shelf price does NOT apply.  IE-BC Cake Mix, the reg. shelf price is $1.59 so buying 19 boxes will put you over the $30 mark($30.21 to be exact).  However, the cake mix is on sale for $.99 box, meaning you will pay $18.81 for 19 boxes instead of the shelf price of $30.21.  Use the $15 in Cat Qs from your previous transaction and you pay $3.81 for 19 boxes of cake mix(or less if you have Qs for the cake mix) AND you get another $15 in Cat Qs to roll into another transaction.
Being on "knockdown" means you now have to buy 31 boxes of cake mix to get to the $30 threshold.
Using your $15 in Cats from a previous transaction means you have to pay $15.69 for those 31 boxes....$.49 a box for cake mix is ok but not such a great deal compared to $3.81, right?
So the items that had "knockdown" prices blew some of my scenarios right out of the water.
Ugh!

That was about the only problem....that and they were cleaned out of the Chicken Broth.  Having to do scenarios on the fly took me longer, making for a very long day.  But being out of the house and away from dogs, kids and yes, even hubby was a nice change.  That and there were hardly ANY people in this Acme!  I was there for many, MANY Hours and there was barely a line at anytime throughout the day/evening.

I never even got to the other 2 stores.  The store was deserted, was stocked and no managers bitching at me for doing small transactions. 
 Every B30/G15 Transaction worked perfectly and I got all my Cats each time.  Oh, it was a thing of beauty I tells ya! 
Some of my OOPs were a bit high(because of having to rework most scenarios to use what few coupons I had and to allow for the "knockdown" prices),but I managed to keep most of them under $1 for each transaction.

It was Acme Heaven!lol

 
The cashiers were young, males....my FAVORITE kind of Cashier.  No hassles from them or management.  By about the 10th trip through the register, it got to be a joke with the cashiers.....one of them asked if I had my sleeping bag so I could take a nap(it's a 24 hr. store) and another was going to get me a job there as a goodwill ambassador, for my work helping other shoppers find items in the store.
Why is it people always think I work in whatever store I am in, and start asking me questions, like I'm an employee??  This happens to me alot!lolol

Anyway, I took it slow and just kept doing transactions...
One.
After.
Another.
I took a break after 5 or 6 and went down the street for a late lunch/early dinner at a Chinese place.
Then back in for another 5 or so.
Then back to the car to call home and have some water and a banana I bought.(Had some overage to kill so I bought 1 banana...lol)
Then back in and more shopping.

I noticed a sign in the front window about a FREE TURKEY Deal....spend $300 and you get a free bird.  None of the stores around me locally do the Free Turkey for Thanksgiving anymore.  Only Shop-Rite and I haven't been in there in awhile so I'd probably never spend that much in time to get the bird.  All the grocery stores use to do the Free Turkey, then they stopped a few years ago.  Now it's either a piddly little Gift Certificate($5 or $10 depending on how much you spend)at the local grocery or a percentage off your next shopping trip at Weis(10% after you spend $300).  I hate those percentage deals because they make you spend $300 and up to get them.  Now once most people have spent $300 or more, they really don't need to spend a big amount the next shopping trip, so they spend like $50 and get $5 off.  Big Whoop, I say.....  To make a percentage deal good, you need to spend ALOT.
I don't know, I just always thought those were lame offers.  I'd much rather spend $300 and get a turkey. ;-)

So back to the Sign at Acme....they are running a spend $300, get a free bird. 
So after the first 6 transactions, I look at my receipt to see how they are calculating for the free bird-what I was actually spending or what the total was before discounts.

I had spent about $6 OOP at that point.
The receipt said I had $92+ toward the bird.
So that became my GOAL for the day.
To do enough transactions that my "spending" was over $300 and I could get a Free Turkey.
I told the cashier I couldn't go home until I spent enough for the turkey and it became a running concern each time I hit the register.....
Will she spend enough this time???!!!  
How many more trips will she have to do???!!!
Can her legs hold out to $300??!!


I finally shot past the magic number of 300 at around 7pm.
She shoots, she scores!


And there was much rejoicing in Acmeland.....

Then 1 final shop to get the bird and roll that $15 in Cats one more time....

So, after we get a shovel and "dig out the backseat area of the car" tomorrow in the daylight, I can take some pictures/make a list/get my receipts and do a final tally of my numbers.


For now, I am going to bed....my feet are killing me!
Part Two to follow--

Sluggy

Publish Post

And the Winner is.....

Random.org generated entry #3.....

Tanya said...

I also follow your blog (I'm sure you know that by now!) hahaha

October 27, 2009 11:28 PM 

Congratulations Tanya!
I have emailed her about the win.

Thank you to everyone who entered and I hope to have another Giveaway soon, so keep your eyes peeled...

Sluggy

WEIS Catalina Deal ALERT this week....Wait until Sunday to Do It!

Ok, so Weis in their infinite generosity has gifted us Coupon Hounds with a not ONE but FOUR Catalina Deals this sales week.
One of the Deals involves among other things--Eagle Condensed Milk, Crisco Oil, Folgers and Pillsbury Brownie Mix, Cookie Mix and Frosting.  Buy $12, Get a $3 OYNO Coupon or Buy $20, Get a $7 OYNO Coupon is the pay-off on this Cat Deal.

Weis is well-known for being savvy at 'playing the game' with couponers.  You know what I mean....the 'game' being, they put items on Catalina Deals that have NO current valid coupons available to use on their purchase.  Meaning that we can't take a good deal(the getting $ off coupon back for purchasing stuff ON SALE but our spending is calculated using the REGULAR SHELF PRICE-so we don't have to actually spend $20 to buy $20 worth of product)and make it amazing(by purchasing the items with the deal using coupons, so that we pay very little out of pocket to get that $ off coupon).
Other Grocery Chains.....the best being the SuperValu family of stores.....offer Catalina Deals on a larger scale than Weis and also offer them on items that have coupons available to bring your costs even lower.  And these 4 Catalina Deals at Weis this week fall into their usual **insert sarcastic voice here**-->"Oh Biiiiig Deal, a Weis Catalina" category. 

But guess what?  Looking over the To-Be-Released Sunday Coupon Inserts for this coming Weekend the 6 products referenced above have COUPONS!
GASP.....can you believe it?
This means if I buy 1 each of....
Eagle Milk
Crisco
Folgers
Pillsbury Brownie
Pillsbury Cookie Mix
Pillsbury Frosting(tub not can)
and throw in a Pillsbury Cake Mix.....
my total shelf price comes to $21.35
My total with 'sale prices' comes to $15.99
Add 1 of each coupon for all but the Cake Mix, comes to $5.10(when doubled up to $1 at my store)off my total, for a Grand Total of $10.89 and I get a $7 OYNO Catalina Coupon.

I can then go buy the same order of 7 items(using another set of 6 coupons)for a total of $10.89, use my $7 Cat and pay $3.89 out of pocket and get another $7 Cat.

Keep doing this(rinse and repeat)until you run out of coupon sets or $3.89s.

I  bet Weis is betting that everyone who wants these products runs right out at the beginning of the sale ad and buys what they want/need before they realize that there will be coupons available if they wait until Sunday to purchase.
Gotcha WEIS!LOLOL

And all you folks who have a SuperValu owned grocery store.....we are sooo jealous.  This $3.89 OOP on a Cat Deal is about as good as we get here in WEISland, while ya'll get much MUCH better Deals with  potentially much MUCH lower OOP.

Ok...I just wanted to alert the masses out in Weis Territory who were planning on buying buckets of Pillsbury junk, coffee and oil this sales week to hold off until Sunday's coupons come out.

That is all.

Sluggy
PS  Enter my giveaway....Progresso Giveaway....ends tonight at midnight

Reminder to Enter my Giveaway....Ends Friday at Midnight! 11/6/09

Just a quick reminder to go enter my Progresso Soup Giveaway HERE.  It ends at midnight Friday, Nov. 6th so you have just over a day & a half to sign up.  You could win a Can of the new Progresso High Fiber Soup and these cool cobalt blue Soup Bowls and matching Spoons.  There are additional chances to enter more than once.  Just check out the post and follow the instructions.

Thanks for reading and Good Luck to all!!!

Sluggy

$60K Savings Challenge OCTOBER Totals.....Amazing Progress!

I have posted my OCTOBER End of Month 60K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right(near the bottom) for the specific numbers.


Reversely, as badly as September's numbers were, October's totals are amazingly incredible!


Unlike September, I have to report that we finished up October in the Black.

The amount we ended the month of September with was......sit down for this......$4,099.02!
Woot!


The electric bill went up $7+ from Sept.'s bill.  Not bad considering that the heat went on(now & again) halfway into the month.

The water bill saw a decrease of $10+.   Don't know what's up with that but I'll take it!lol
All other regular bills...Cable, Internet, Phone, etc. are the same each month.

The Food Budget costs for October are in another post, which is located HERE.  Food/Toiletries spending in October was my lowest monthly total for the year, once you figure in the flea market money I earmarked for Food/Toiletries Budget and the rebates that arrived.
With Thanksgiving fast approaching and Christmas shortly after it, plus a pretty good Catalina Deal at Acme and Weis this week, I hold no grand illusions of staying out of the grocery stores this month.lolol
Face it, I am a Catalina Deal 'ho. ;-)
If things go as planned(and they never do in my world), I will come out of this week with mega Food Bank donation material....and a detailed blog post to follow.   This shopping trip(s) will take a piece of my food budget however since the coupon coverage on the deals is spotty, so I'll be using some $$ to get it rolling and there will be costs on each transaction, albeit small.  But the end result will be so worth the cash spent. 8-))

So, what did I do right in October to come out of it with over $4K extra?

Firstly, I spent more in September because I paid some bills quarterly, so garbage and sewage are done for the year.  No October payments on those...$200 saved for the month.

Secondly, we stayed out of restaurants and I didn't do as much running around in the car, saving gas and shopping expenditures.  That was reflected in the low credit card bill in October.  We also didn't have any large charges on the cc bill.  The cc bill(which is paid off every month-NO BALANCE)went from $2333+ in September to $845.49 in October.  That's a BIG difference!  About a third of that $845 was for a bed for my son who outgrew his old bed.  Savings difference from last month of $1488.

Thirdly, we had no local/state/school taxes due in October, like the $1800+ we paid in September.
We did have some non-regular monthly bills, like a $160.80 car repair and a $72 vet bill but nothing big enough to put much of a dent into the savings for the month.

Fourthly, Hubby tried very hard and was able to keep his Cash withdrawals lower in October.  I guess he read my September rundown.lol  He's been taking his lunch to work more and not spending so much on incidentals and impulse purchases.  I am so proud of him! 8-))

Even though saving a dollar here, a dollar there may not seem like it helps you save any substantial amount of cash, in the long run, when you add those pennies and dimes up, they turn into dollars...and when the dollars start piling up, it can turn into a HEAP of $$!

We are Ten Months into this $AVING$ Challenge, and we have a Savings Total of $18,571.08 for the year.

What's ahead for November....

I keep handy my previous year's check register.
Why?
Because by referring to what checks were written last year in November, it gives me an idea of what expenses we will be seeing this November.  I see that there are no large recurring quarterly/yearly charges coming due this month, so if we can keep the current spending/bills low & no unexpected bills pop up, I see the potential for another good savings month.

The variable expenses need to be monitored carefully though....the cash withdrawals,  the food spending,  and the credit card usage.  We are under $500 on the cc bill with only 6 days until the statement closes for 'our' month(which runs from the 10thish to the 10thish), so that expense should be low.  The food spending(with my dealaholic tendencies)is my Achilles heel here.

Besides hubby's paychecks, I'm jumping back into eBay this month, and I am waiting on over $300 in rebate checks and expect at least $250 worth of them to arrive this month, so we have a good potential on the income side.

Income up, expenses down....it's looking promising.  Cross your fingers we can all get through November financially advantageously!  December will be a whole other hedonistic holiday ballgame....

Be sure and check out how others are doing with their finances this month at Money Saving Mom.

So how was your October financially?  Leave a comment and share with us what you did with your money, both the good and not-so good.   Do you have any tricks or tips that help you to end your month before the money runs out?  Let us know!

And what are your plans for your money in November? 


Sluggy