Inexpensive snacking

We like to take road trips and one thing I've always done is to pack our own snacks for road trips. DH has no problem hitting those gas station stores, but I shudder at the prices and they don't always have things I like. 

A few weeks ago, I discovered this Goldfish veggie crackers at Dollar Tree so I bought a bag. Now we don't eat much Goldfish, but we love carrots. I fell in love after eating this Goldfish and vowed to get more. Then the last 2 weeks Meijer had Goldfish crackers on sale for 79c and guess what was included? I bought a total of 15 bags. Let me tell ya, when I stockpile, I really STOCKPILE!...lol. Why, because this price is lower than DT and who knows when this sale will come around again.

15 x 79c = $11.85

Regular Retail $2.49 x 15 = $37.35

Total Savings : $25.50

They also had Juicy Juice on sale for $1.35. Now this is not our preferred brand (high sugars), but at that price I wasn't gonna be picky. I had 2 x 75c Qs and you also earn $2 Mperks (Meijer rewards) WYB $10 Juicy Juice

9 x 8pks Juice $12.15

Less 2  Qs (1.50)

OOP $10.65

Earned $2 Mperks, so $0.96 per pack or 12c per juice box

I also got a $1.75 CAT, but it didn't say what the CAT was for. I'm not sure if my transaction triggered it, or if the person ahead of me left it behind. 

Last month Kroger had Sunbelt granola bars for $1.29 during their ME sale. There was also an Ibotta rebate for $1 per box (limit 5). So I got 5 boxes for 29c each. Each box has 10 bars. I've never had this brand before, but decided to try it. They had me at Chocolate (yep, I'm a chocoholic)...lol

So let's just call it 3c per bar. 

I also stocked up on those Snyders pretzels at DT. 

We always keep fresh and dried fruit and also bottled water.

So what does this all come down to.

The Goldfish has 4 servings per bag. Lets round it up and say it's 20c per serving

A juice box is 12c

Granola bar 3c

Pretzels (I don't know how many servings but I'm figuring 8-10. In SA we eat much smaller servings), so 10c per serving

Fresh fruit - I get these at our super cheap produce market, so we always have a nice variety. I also buy our dried apricots there, because it cost $2-3 less than the grocery store. I think it's about $6 and we only eat about 3-4 pieces at a time. 

Raisins and bottled water are bought in bulk from Sams. 

So if you grab all of the above, it will probably cost around (or maybe less) $2 - $3 per person. This is way less than buying snacks at convenience stores. 

I've long since stopped buying individually packaged items (for the most part of least). DT had the 6ct individual packs of Snyders pretzels too, but I skipped that. I could see (without comparing the weight) that it was far less than the bigger bag. 

I like to pack snacks in my purse for when I have lots of errands to run too. It's way better than those impulse splurges.

Now I'm not trying to be a cheapskate. We can well afford to buy a quick lunch, but it all adds up. Besides, I'm sick of junk food and any reseller will tell you that when we're in the zone (especially when yard saling), we have no time to stop for fast food. Besides, I prefer my own cooking. 

Lots of shopping last week

I apologise for the lack of posts. I have been so busy and from now until the end of January, I'm more focused on work. So I'll be posting less and focusing more on earning. 

Oh boy, has CVS let me down last week. I had a crazy busy day on Thursday, but needed to do my CVS shopping before the previous week's DQs expire. So I headed to CVS after being out in the heat for most of the day.

Trans 1 

1 x Gillette razors $7.99

2 x Wet n wild eyeshadow 9.98

1 x PF lipstick 9.99

2 x Covergirl mascara 13.58

Less Gillette DQ (4.00)

Less WnW 3/10 DQ (3.00)

Less PF CRT (printed last week) (4.00)

Less 2 Covergirl Qs (4.00)

Less 2/10 Covergirl DQ (2.00)

Less EBs (20.00)

Tax 2.01

OOP $6.55

Earned $24 EB ($7 PF, $7 WnW, $6 Covergirl, $3 Gillette, $1??)

I couldn't believe my high OOP. I had held back the $3 Beauty EB that printed that day, to see if I needed it at all. My store was out of Covergirl brow pencils so the mascara added an extra $1.60 to my transaction. I was so flustered with the total (after adding the $3 EB), that I only gave the cashier $6...lol. Good heavens! I also didn't get a chance to see what the mystery $1 was for. I'm guessing quarterly EB. Who knows. 

When I got home and checked my receipt, I saw that the cashier didn't scan one of my $5 EBs. That explains why my OOP was so darn high. So I checked my account online and there was the $5 EB still available. So the store has an extra $5 of mine and I now need to reprint this EB to use next time. Ugh!! 

I was also upset that they didn't have beauty bags. The cashier (male) didn't even know what I was talking about. I especially did this deal, because it comes with a free beauty bag. CVS always emails me a survey after every trip, so I let them know what a disaster today was. Got not response from them, but I did get a $5/15 DQ this week. Wonder if that's to make up for last week's disaster. I'll take free money any day.

Trans 2

2 x Garnier shampoo/conditioner $7.00

2 x Garnier whole blends 7.00

2 x Loreal Elvive 8.00

1 x Tide pods 4.94

1 x Tide liquid 5.94

3 x Crest t/p B2G1F 9.18

2 x Old Spice b/w B1G50% off 11.98

Less Garnier Q (3.00)

Less Garnier whole blends q (3.00)

Less Garnier CRT (2.00)

Less Garnier DQ (1.00)

Less Garnier WB DQ (1.00)

Less Loreal Q (4.00)

Less 4/18 hair care (4.00)

Less $2 off hair care (2.00)

Less Tide pods DQ (2.00)

Less Tide DQ (2.00)

Less Crest DQ (5.00)

Less OS DQ (5.49)

Less $2/8 Body wash DQ (2.00)

Less EBs (18.00)

Tax 2.85

OOP $4.80

Earned $10 EB (WYS $40)

I mainly did this deal to use my Old Spice DQ. The Garnier wasn't part of the sale, but I added it so I could use 4/18 DQ. I didn't even know that an extra $2 would deduct, because my paper Qs were $3/2 each. I'll take the extra discounts though.

I've also noticed that the $3 Whitening DQs no longer works on the Crest 3D white. It's always deducted before and I have 2 of those Qs. Bummer. 

I now have a total of $21 EBs and only earned $3 Beauty EB (bought over $60 worth of beauty products today). So $24 EB

At first I couldn't believe that I spent over $11 OOP at CVS. Then I realised that $4.86 of that was tax. Then I discovered my missing $5 EB.... grrrr. So I figure I would've done pretty well (if things went smoothly). 

Total OOP $11.35

EB starting balance : $25.00

EB ending balance : $24.00

Total coupons used : $51.49

Retail value : $119.61

My receipt shows I spent over $900 on beauty for the YTD. Divide that by 30 and I've earned $90 in free Beauty EBs. You earn $3 for every $30 spent. 

CVS has a great Beauty event for the next few weeks, so I'll be headed there later today. Buy $25 get $10 EBs. If the CRT/DQ stars align, this could be a good MM. This week is not that great, but the next 2 weeks look promising.

Kroger 

As mentioned before, I'm not a big Kroger shopper, but boy are their Mega Event Sales fun. Well, I mainly went to Kroger for the All detergent deal but they didn't have any in stock. I figured I'll pick up some ME items too, while I was there

Price is after ME discount (Buy 5 Save $5)

4 x Mega Stack Pringles $3.88

3 x Oscar Mayer smokies 3.00

3 x Cracker Barrel cracker cuts 8.97

Other items

2 x Fage Yogurt 2.00

2 x Fage split yogurt 2.00

1 x Perfect bar 2.00

OOP $21.85

Earned $6.50 Ibotta ($2.25 Cracker Barrel, $2.25 Perfect bar, $1.10 Fage split, $0.90 Fage)

Total Cost after cash back : $15.35

Dollar General

I wasn't planning on shopping at DG last week, because the deals didn't look that good to me. I've been needing a mop for a while now, so when I saw it advertised as Buy mop get free refill (Fri/Sat), I just had to go shopping. I figured I might as well do the $25 deal, since the mop already cost $9.

1 x Mr Clean Mop $9.00

1 x Mr Clean mop refill 4.00

1 x Bic razors 6.00

1 x Schick razors 4.50

1 x Tide 4.95

1 x A&H 3.95

Less 5/25 (5.00)

Less Free mop refill (4.00)

Less Bic DQ (4.00)

Less Schick DQ (3.00)

Less Tide Q (2.00)

Less A&H DQ (2.00)

Tax1.40

OOP $13.80

Now the OOP seems high, but the mop & refill alone would've cost me $9.54 (incl tax). So for $4.26 extra, I got 2 detergent and 2 razors.  I just noticed that the A&H is a big 32 ct bag. I really should start using my pods. I have a huge pile of it.

I probably could've done better, but I didn't know how the free item would ring up (I'm still new to couponing at DG). I didn't know if it would count towards my $25 or not. I figured the safest thing to do, was to not include the refill price in that total. 

I didn't do any Walmart shopping last week. I did stop at Meijer for some stockpiling items. 

Then on Tuesday morning I was reading posts on my WAGS couponing group when someone mentioned that they found Disinfecting wipes at WAGS online. Of course others already reported that it's OOS, but I had to go check myself...lol. Then my gut told me to check Sams online and it showed in stock at all of my local stores (Gasp!). So I hit the shower & hightailed it to Sams while my guys still slept. There was only half a pallet left when I got there, but I got my pack. The aisle was packed, because when people saw wipes in someone's cart, they asked where it was located. I actually saw one woman escort another to the wipes aisle when I entered the store, so I just followed them....lol I knew that it would be in the cleaning aisle, but I didn't want to waste time looking for it and end up missing out. Boy that wipes made my day. I paid $9 for the 4pk, compared to $8 for 2 tubs at Meijer, but I'm not complaining. I'm just thankful that we have more wipes. It's now sold out at all Sams stores within 150 miles from me. God sure knows how to show me where the good deals are.

Please excuse the poor photo quality. I don't know why my Ipad takes bad pics at times.

Back to the grindstone for me. Have a great day everyone!