Free Chocolate Fridays

It's Friday, and that means Free Chocolate from Mars.

Head over HERE and the first 500,000 people to register will receive a coupon for a free candy bar. They are running this promotion thru the end of September. You will receive your coupon in the mail in 4 to 6 weeks. Limit one coupon per email address per Friday and four coupons per household during the course of the offer.

YEAH! Free chocolate is always a good thing.

Groceries for 8/31

Publix
Total Before Savings & Coupons: $126.64
OOP: $74.58
Savings: 41%

Bi-Lo
Total Before Savings & Coupons: $66.44
OOP: $36.52
Savings: 45%

Piggly Wiggly
Total Before Savings & Coupons: $38.73
OOP: $24.09
Savings: 38%
**Screwed up at Piggly Wiggly because I forgot how many Greenbacks I had and bought something I shouldn't have.

Total for the week: $135.19. More than I wanted to spend, but I am still building my stockpile.

This week's groceries

I went a different route this week. Decided to pick Publix & Bi-Lo as my 2 grocery stores to shop. Wrote a list of what was on sale at both stores and gathered the appropriate coupons. I also wrote down what we were out of and needed at the store. I planned my menu and based some meals off what was on sale. So didn't even come close to exceding my budget of $100 for groceries this week. The total was $56.67!!! I can't believe that I bought groceries for this amount for a whole week and my car trunk was full!!!

Publix
Total Before Coupons & Sales: $83.56
Total OOP: $44.94
Savings: 46%

Bi-Lo
Total Before Coupons % Sales: $16.76
Total OOP: $11.73
Savings: 30%

Shopping for Today

Went to the gym this morning, so in the way home I drove by Publix, Piggly Wiggly, and Food Lion. Decided to go ahead and shop these 3 stores that were on the way home for the sales I was interested in.

Publix
Total Before Coupons & Sales: $50.76
Total Out of Pocket: $28.92
Savings: 43%

Piggly Wiggly
Total Before Coupons & Sales: $30.15
Total Out of Pocket: $17.48
Savings: 42%

Food Lion
Total Before Coupons & Sales: $84.89
Total Out of Pocket: $48.74
Savings: 43%

Kroger
Total Before Coupons & Sales: $88.55
Total Out of Pocket: $45.82
Savings: 48%

TOTALS
Total Before Coupons & Sales: $254.35
Total Out of Pocket: $141.25
Savings: 45%

I was $41.25 over my goal. :(

CVS $5 off $25 coupon

There is a new $5 off $25 purchase coupon available for CVS. Head over HERE and watch a video about their Ready Fill program.

Extreme Couponing

Due to the need to pay off some bills, I have decided to start extreme couponing. I was told this needs to become a necessity or a hobby for it to become successful. If you google couponing or extreme couponing, you get TONS of websites with useful information or not so useful. Here are some that I have been using.

www.southernsavers.com
www.cellfire.com
www.pgesaver.com
www.shortcuts.com
www.hotcouponworld.com
www.vocalpoint.com
www.coupons.com

Here is a blog that I read that is a good place to go when starting out.

I have decided to start a goal of spending only $100 a week for groceries eventually decreasing to maybe $75 a week. I am planning to start my shopping on Friday. So I will post my results then.