2010... the year of saving money?

Friday, January 01, 2010

I have had so much fun the past few months as I have gotten into "couponing". It has been great to save money and pay more attention to store sales and how much I am spending at the store.

A few great deals I had to share from this past week:

Albertsons LLC (here in Colorado) has a huge meat sale going on right now.
For $55 we were able to purchase:
- 14.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (fresh) *on sale for 1.57lb
-3 four pound boneless pork tenderloin * on sale buy one get two free
- 2 family packs of sirloin steak (4 lg steaks each package, total of 8 steaks) *on sale BOGO

For the pork tenderloin the ad stated it required an in store coupon. It took Jon some investigative work to find out that the coupon could only be acquired from the butcher. Totally worth it. $60 worth of tenderloin for $20. Works out to $1.66lb... wow!

We usually buy our chicken at Costco as it is usually the best all around deal. Here in CO our Costco has a Tyson 10 lb bag of chicken for $19.99 which will last us at least a month. So my target price for boneless/skinless chicken breast is less than $1.99lb. The Albertsons deal far surpassed that price. We purchased an extra 4.5lbs for the same $20 price.

We also only buy lean ground beef and usually also buy this at Costco. In the freezer section they have a bag of five 1lb rolls of 91% lean beef for $11.99. This works out to $2.39lb, which is also my target price for lean ground beef. Two weeks ago our Kroger brand store (King Soopers) had 93% lean ground beef on sale for $1.97lb. I stocked up and bought 5lbs for under $10.

Also, most Kroger brand stores have a "reduced for quick sale" section in their meat departments. I check these areas everytime I shop because it is a great way to score deeply discounted meat. You can use it the same or next day, or freeze it until you are ready to use like we do. I have found 5 lb pot roasts for $3 before, as well as 2lbs of boneless pork chops for $4, and our Christmas dinner was a Foster Farms fresh whole chicken (6lb) marked down to $4.12! They mark down meat everyday so if you live back in WA and have to run into Fred Meyer anyway, head back to the meat dept to see if they are having any great steals on meat.

The amount of meat we have stockpiled right now will definitly last us at least through February. We cant afford to stockpile meat every payday, but when great sales like the Albertsons meat sale come along it is worth using a good chunk of the grocery budget to load up on great deals that we can use for the weeks to come.

Also with couponing I have found that by combining manufacturer coupons with store sales I have been able to stock up on staples for meals. I have about 8-10 packages of Betty Crocker potatoes right now that I paid a max of .20 each for.

Even last night I bought two more pouches for a total of 10 cents.
How?
BC pouch potatoes on sale 4/5.00
Shortcuts coupon on my King Soopers card: 40 cents off (each)
Manufacturer coupon: 40 cents off
King Soopers doubles manufacturer coupons: additional 40 cents off
Original price $1.25
Shortcuts - .40
MC (2) - .40
Doubled - .40
= Out of Pocket 5 cents each

Another great deal I scored last night, non food item, was GE Christmas lights. They were 75% off and I bought 4 boxes of 300 icicle lights for $9. Now our home will be all lit up next year, for cheap!

Saving money is so much fun! Couponing combined with making and sticking to a budget is a great way to get the most for your money and keep your finances in line.