Welcome to our blog Fabulessly Frugal! You too can be FABULOUSLY FRUGAL with out breaking the bank!

WE'VE MOVED! Come on over to FABULESSLYFRUGAL.COM and see our "NEW LOOK! and resubscribe to our new feed!

Newbie? Check out our couponing basics. Come back often to see the latest printable coupons, freebies, coupon tips and frugal living tips! Got something to say? Leave us a comment! Lastly, subscribe via RSS or Email to get the latest updates! We are located in Boise, Idaho, and blog about stores found in the Northwest and Nationally!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Couponing Rocks

4 Stores

6 Shopping Trips

Less than $14.00 OOP

Saved way more than $300

Met many Fab FruGALS (I ♥ our readers!)

Sore Feet

Tired Eyes

Bulging Pantry

Happy Mama

How was your day?

Bookmark and Share

26 comments:

Michelle Barnes said...

Must share how you did that!!!!

GaoyouMom said...

Well, since you asked, I had a fun day.

In the morning on my way to work I stopped at Albies #1 to get some Honey Bunches of Oats, coupons in hand. I didn't have any doublers, but stopped at CS for a flyer. On the way to the cereal, spotted some Crystal Light on a cardboard display with a tear pad of coupons right there! Reminded me that they have a catalina going on. So I headed back to the regular Crystal Light shelf to get more different kinds, where I found some on clearance! If I'm remembering right ... I bought 6 @ $.99 ea, $1/2 coupon doubled, got a $4 catalina back. The CL is on sale for 2/$2, so still a bargain if you can find the coupon. Went back to CS to kindly ask for another flyer and repeated it for more free CL.

No time to shop for cereal since I had to get to work. On my lunch hour, went to Albies #2 for cereal, stopped at CS for another flyer. On the way saw something that reminded me to check for BC Fruit Snacks since I have a rain check from the $1 sale. Sure enough, they have some. So I used those 3 doublers to get super cheap fruit snacks since I wasn't sure when that catalina was ending. That store had Post cereal stocked to the rafters, so I loaded up on fruit snacks instead. I'm happy.

After work, went to Albies #3, again, for cereal. Again, no doublers in hand, so I stopped at CS for an ad. Put 5 boxes of cereal in my cart and then headed over to the freezer section to peruse the "Just Chill" promo. On the way spotted some Egglands Best eggs on clearance for $1.29! Remembered I had coupons, so dug them out and used my doublers to get $.70/ea off 3 cartons of eggs. That store had cereal aplenty but not too many cheap eggs and I had to get to daycare, so I put the cereal back and just got the eggs. No idea why they were on clearance since they weren't short-dated and none were broken or anything. I'm happy.

After daycare pickup, went to Albies #4. (2nd trip to store #1). Picked up yet another ad for 3 doublers. On the way to the cereal spotted some Starbucks bagged coffee marked down to $4.99! Used my doublers with $1 Starbucks coupons from the March All You for $2.99 bags of coffee, which is the cheapest I have ever and probably will ever find it! I'm happy.

Ran the kiddo to piano lessons, then went to Albies #4 for more cheap coffee. No time for cereal! I've got a freezer well stocked with Starbucks coffee, so I'm happy.

Planned on sneaking in one more trip to the store on the way home for cereal (just cereal -- honest!) but the kiddo and I both were tired and hungry, so no more shopping. I did stop in for an ad tho, so I'll have a few more doublers. All of the stores I was in had plenty of Post cereal in stock, so no worries about that. I'll try again for cereal today. ~wink.

Never did I think I'd go to a grocery store 4 times in one day and actually enjoy it, but I did.

Susan

Unknown said...

I've been wondering about the big sale :) I'm excited about it and I'm not even doing it, LOL!! I better get in and find some of that Starbucks coffee! That would make me happy! Nice to hear of your good experience Susan - makes me want to go shopping today!

Sophie said...

It was nice seeing you in the store!:)

JMVolkers said...

Couponing is becoming an addiction..I might need therapy :) two stores, 10 transactions, 37 boxes of post, 9 Ice Creams, 20 Smart Choices and a juice to wash it down with. After Cats OOP $26.79 (6.30 of it is tax) PLus 10C off gas. Not bad. Pantry and Freezer Full! Thanks for helping make our house FAB!

amanda said...

I had a day like yours! 6am shopping trip turned into 3 albies for doublers and then finally one store gave me 5 sets to finish off my coupons! They had lots of cashiers and were really nice compared to the 1 cashier at another store! Went back later for ice cream! Kids were happy! Spent the rest of the day cleaning cleaning cleaning and making room for all the loot! So tired went to bed early! I think I managed to spend $8.16 on 60 boxes of cereal, 11 bananas, and 4 apples (fillers) and then got a $4.00 cat in the end and the ice cream spend $8.?? our of pocket and got $10.00 cat back! So I am at just under $17 for the day! That was a fantastic trip!

Mama Yo said...

I love hearing about your days! Great finds Susan!

Michelle, I just did the post cereal all day. Nothing else. I'd buy 6 boxes, double three coupons and either got a small filler item, or just had them adjust the 3rd double down to $.54 so my oop for 6 boxes was $.42.

Unknown said...

Cathy,

Any word on where we can get extra doublers? For some reason it seems that no matter how much I work at it and read the different blogs, my OOP is still higher than yours at the end of the day. : )

Audrey said...

I'm a coupon newbie! What is a filler and why do you need to use a filler? My Albertsons will not let me use the doublers for anything over $1, I wish they would just let me take $1 off. Anyone know of anywhere to get a great deal on baby food or diapers? If there is a better place to ask questions, let me know :) lovin' my new addiction!

Unknown said...

I made 4 trips yesterday to Albertsons, Before work, on my break, after work, and late at night. My store was already out of Honeycomb and Golden Crisp by 12:00 ... I am going to try to get out and get the other 50 boxes tonight!! LOVIN this Post sale.... 8 different cereals are WONDERFUL!!

Thank you ladies!!

jessica + clay said...

So I've already gotten half my amount of cereal, but I've had to take many different trips and only get 5 at a time with the doublers. Can I stay in line, do more than 1 transaction, yet use more than 3 doublers total? My store has the ads stacked at CS so I just grab what I need each time. I'm new at this as well (ok, 6 months new) but still learning as I go along and your site is heaven to me!

Ali Smith said...

I just moved into a new house so my new closest Albies is the one on Cherry and 5 mile. I thought I'd give it a try last night to see how I liked it. I found that they were out of Fruity Pebbles, but had everything else. I decided to just do two transactions as I needed to get my kids home to bed. So I did 6 boxes and a can of Albertsons veggies in each transaction, used three coupons and three doublers, so I paid $.56 including tax for each transaction. I also used my previous Chill promo cat and BC fruit snacks cat ($13.50 total) to get some produce and milk and OJ for the week. So all in all I only spent $3.40 (including tax) for 12 boxes of cereal and all of the other goodies! Gotta love it.

Then, this morning, since I was on the other side of town I went to my regular Albies (12th & Greenhurst) and found that they were well stocked in Fruity Pebbles, so was able to get those, plus realized that the Post Selects banana Nut crunch was part of the sale, so that made me a happy shopper. I was also glad that the Cherry and Ten Mile store had had Honey Comb and Golden Crisp for me to get last night because the Greenhurst store was out(or at least they didn't have any out, they may have had some in the back) so it just all worked out really well. Only two trips and that's enough for me. I'm out of coupons! I did have one extra that I left near the cereal for someone to find. Hopefully it helps put a smile on someone's face. :) Happy Thursday!

A said...

Jess and Clay, most stores will let you do 3 transactions in a row. I have only ever been to 1 that wouldn't. The 2 stores where I shop will let me use 3 doublers per transaction. When I bought cereal yesterday, I did 3 transactions in a row and used 2 doubles in each. Then put the stuff in my car and went back in and did it again.

Sophie said...

I ended up buying 104 boxes between about 4 trips yesterday ( for two families). After the cost of the coupons, the cost of the newspapers i bought to get extra doublers, and the cost of the cereal, I paid about $16 oop, but still have a $4 cat to use. I also got 5 apples, 5 bananas and 4 candy bars for that amount. But I realized i lost my scissors!!! So now I have to go buy another pair. That will cost me about $6 to get the same ones. Not too bad. And I think I left my scissors in a cart at 5&O Albertsons so if you find them, yellow and gray handles, it would be nice to have them back! :)

Tueller Family said...

Gaoyoumom-
Do you think the Crystal Light was only on sale at your store? I checked Hillcrest Albertsons, and it was still $2/1. Would you mind sharing what store you went to and found the CL?
Thanks!

Unknown said...

Susan (Gaoyoumom) - what Albies had the starbucks on clearance? I went to Cole and Fairview this morning and they didnt - they seemed to have a good amount of post selects and HBO's (I didnt look for any others) - I dont think its a very busy store, I like to shop there.

Lindsay Marchant said...

Awesome! 42 boxes of cereal for FREE! I had a previous catalina from the "chill" promo! I am addicted!

vinyl said...

I had a GREAT day as well!!! Went to 2 albies on my lunch break and stocked up as much as I could - - and yes, I obeyed all the rules and went out to my car after each transaction. Then, after a very long, long day I went back to the old Albies on 12th in Nampa and finished with 20 transactions. Luckily I had my son with me so he would take our cart out to the car and unload it while I loaded up another cart. They were not very busy which made it nice and the cashier was absolutely incredible. He doubled down my coupons so I basically just paid tax on each transaction. (.07 per box) I didn't do that well in the morning so I paid a little more on each one and a couple cashiers wouldn't double down. At the end of the day I had 148 boxes of cereal. with five kids (3 being teenage boys) I doubt it will last as long as it should. Even though I was DEAD TIRED, I stopped off at Walmart and picked up 2 Princess and the Frog movies for $3.95 each. It was a GREAT day! :)

Mama Yo said...

Email me if you need extra doubles! fabulesslyfrugal@gmail.com and put DOUBLER REQUEST in the subject line!

Chris and Kat said...

I too, had a fabuLESS day and was very tired when I returned home.
I wonder if Susan bought her cereal today? lol!

Cathyb said...

If you need a different cereal to spend your doublers on....I also noticed on a trip today that the Quaker Oatmeal squares cereal was $2.50 a box. The Statesman got $1/1 coupons last month that if doubled would make this cereal .50 a box. I only got two boxes of this cereal when it was free with the Quaker sale because it was so hard to find in stock and I had not had it before. But I totally LOVE it! So I think I will also be buying me some Quaker cereal to go along with all my Post cereal. Cereal anyone?

Unknown said...

Thanks Cathy - I've got one doubler left to use and I think that's what I'm going to get - the quaker oatmeal squares - those are good and I never buy them! oh, wait, unless I find some of that clearance Starbucks, haha! Mommy needs coffee more than the kids need cereal ;-)

Gammie said...

Hey FabuGALS!
I took your little couponing class in Rigby on Saturday and it was the most financially rewarding $$$ I've spent in some time. Still waiting for my cereal coupons to come however--chomping at the bit to go shopping. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Learned a ton!
Deonne

GaoyouMom said...

Hi all,

Answering several questions here ...

I found the clearance Crystal Light at the State & Glenwood store. I found the Starbucks the State & Eagle store. And I found the eggs at Eagle & McMillan or Ustick -- I can't recall which intersection it is, but Meridian area locals will know it. :-)

And yes, I did get my cereal yesterday, finally. :-) Two transactions of 1 box of Raisin Bran using the $2 printable coupon and 4 boxes of Honey Bunches using 2 $1/2 coupons doubled. These 10 boxes of cereal plus the 8 or so boxes still on hand from previous sales will last my little family for a long long time.

I thought I was done shopping this week -- and shopping for cereal for a long time -- but I do like those Oatmeal Squares and now since Cathyb pointed out how to get them for $.47/box I may have to pick up a few boxes. :-)

Sophie, sorry about your scissors. I keep a little pair in my purse for coupon clipping, and I've had several cashiers tell me how cute that is. :-) The best time to buy scissors is in the summer when school supplies are on sale, but that's a ways off I couldn't survive that long without scissors. Maybe a dollar-store variety will get you by ....

Let me also share ... I accidently left my coupon file in a shopping cart the other day after returning the cart to the cart corral in the parking lot. A very nice woman witnesed me walking away without it, retrieved it and came running after me to return it, two young children and a full shopping cart in tow. It was SO nice of her and I am very appreciative.

Susan

GaoyouMom said...

Terry,

I noticed that there will be $1.50 Starbucks coupons in the SS this weekend. Unless Albertsons or Fred Meyer has a good sale soon, I'll be taking those to Winco where I can often find Starbucks for $6.99/bag.

I'm afraid the chances of finding more clearance coffee is slim at this point. Normally I'm very happy to get it for under $7/bag.

Good luck!

Susan

Fabulessly Frugal said...

Deonne-

Thanks for your comment it really means alot!