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Friday, April 8, 2011

Exciting News for Food Lion Shoppers!

I have good news for all you Food Lion shoppers out there!  You can now download Ecoupons to your MVP card!  Here's what you need to do...

1.  Head on over to the Food Lion website and Sign up to "Save more as a Food Lion MVP" or log in to your account.

2.  Once you are signed in, scroll over the "Savings & Promotions" tab at the top of the page and click on "coupons."

3.  Next, you will need to create another account to be able to use the digital coupon feature.  You will need to have your MVP card handy so that you can enter the number on the back of your card.

4.  Once you have logged in to the Food Lion dgital coupon center, you will then be able to view all of the coupons available download.  Once you find a coupon you want, simply click the box next to the word "card." 

5.  Once you have selected all the coupons you want to download, click on the button at the bottom of the screen that says "get selected coupons" and they will be loaded onto your card!

To view all of the coupons that you have downloaded, click on "My Offers" at the top of the page.  You can then choose to print a list of your coupons!

I am not sure whether or not Food Lion allows a digital coupon AND a paper coupon to be used on the same item, but will hopefully find that out this week and report back to you! 

New Information on Kroger Digital Coupons!

Thanks to Julie who sent me an email telling me that you are now able to remove coupons that you have previously downloaded onto your Kroger card from kroger.com!

This is good news since Kroger has recently made it a policy NOT to allow both a downloaded coupon and a paper coupon to be used on the same item.  Because Ecoupons don't double when you check out, it is usually better to use a paper coupon if you have one.

To remove any coupons that you don't want, just head on over to kroger.com and login to your account.  Then, click on the "Digital Coupons" in the middle of the screen.  Once you are in the Digital Coupon Center, click on "View My Coupons."  Under each coupon you have downloaded is the word "Remove."  Simply click on that word to have the coupon removed from your card!

Thanks for the heads up, Julie!

March Totals

Since I always shop on Thursdays, it throws my monthly budget ($300 for all food, personal care, cleaning, paper, & baby products) for a loop when there is a fifth Thursday in the month!  That said, I definitely went over budget this month.  But, because there are so many months when I am under my $300 budget, it usually all washes out by the end of the year.

Total value of all purchases in March = $902.74
Total amount spent out of pocket after sales & coupons = $383.74
Total amount saved = $519.00 (or 57%)

Year to date savings...

Total value of all purchases in 2011 = $2,488.16
Total amount spent out of pocket = $994.74
Total amount saved = $1,493.42 (or 60%)!

How are you doing so far this year?  I'd love for you to post a comment below!

Thrifty Thursdays!

This week, I made it to Walgreens, CVS, and Kroger!  I got several free things this week, which is always exciting!

I went to Walgreens mostly because they had Purex laundry detergent on sale for $.99 after coupons.  We recently got a new washer & dryer and while I have probably 15 bottles of laundry detergent in my stockpile, none of it was the kind I needed for the new washer!!!  So...I've been looking for laundry detergent deals lately!  While I was there, I picked up some better than free toothpaste, some Easter M&M's and a few other small Easter basket items for my girls.  (Sorry, no picture this week.  I put everything away before I realized I hadn't taken a picture of it yet!)

Total value of 10 items = $39.07
Total spent out of pocket after sales, coupons, and Register Rewards = $6.62
I did not leave the store with any Register Rewards left over today.  I bought the toothpaste first, which generated the Register Rewards, and then used them to buy the laundry detergent and the candy.

Next was CVS.  I went in to pick up all the free items from the ad this week.  They were out the GUM flossers and Crest Rinse, so I got rainchecks for those.  Here are the things I did buy...


Total value of 9 items = $31.39
Total spent out of pockets after sales, coupons, and Extra Care Bucks (I used $12.58 in ECBs) = $1.64
Total Extra Care Bucks received = $13.97
I'm always happy when I get back more ECBs than I used!  Yay!

Last, I made my weekly trip to Kroger.  I really didn't have many coupon deals planned except for a few of Mega Sale items & some free toothbrushes (pictured below).  The rest was mostly produce and dairy items.

 
I only spent $3.96 on everything pictured above!  Not too bad since they are all definitely things I will use.  (Well, except for the toothbrushes - I'll be giving lots of those away!)

Total value of 37 items = $103.09
Total spent out of pocket after sales and coupons = $45.58
Total saved = $57.51 (or 57%!)

Friday, April 1, 2011

Change to Kroger Coupon Policy

There has been a sad new change to Kroger's coupon policy regarding downloaded Ecoupons.  You can NO LONGER stack Ecoupons with paper coupons!  I am so upset about this change because being able to stack these coupons has helped me save so much money in the past!!!

Here's what you need to know...

1.  The coupons you currently have loaded onto your card WILL NOT come off unless you use them or they expire. 

2.  If you have an Ecoupon loaded onto your card, and you buy that item, the Ecoupon will AUTOMATICALLY come off before you are able to use any paper coupons.  You will NOT be able to choose one or the other.

3.  You can log into your account to see which coupons you currently have loaded onto your card.  I would suggest printing this list so you know ahead of time what coupons might come off before you go to the store to avoid handing over any paper coupons that are just going to beep at you.

If I were you, I would not load an Ecoupon to your Kroger card if you know you have a paper coupon that is a higher value. 
 

New Coupons Added!

New coupons have been added to both the Retail and Restaurant pages!

Thrifty Thursdays!

Yesterday I made shopping trips to CVS, Walgreens, Food Lion, AND Kroger!  This was a long day for me as I haven't shopped that many stores in one day in a while!! 

I started with CVS where I just wanted to pick up some free toothbrushes and cheap shave gel, but because I got $1 ECB back from using my green bag tag that I wasn't expecting, I actually made money on this!


Total Value = $11.27
Total amount spent out of pocket = $0.02
I used $7 ECB toward this purchase but got back $7.50! 

Next, I went in to Walgreens for some free items and cheap apple juice.  (We were down to 1 jug and my kids would not be happy if we ran out!)  :)


Total value of 14 items: $34.70
Total spent out of pocket after sales, coupons, and Register Rewards = $5.29
I made 4 transactions in this visit.

Next, I went in to Food Lion just to get cheap potatoes, ground beef, FREE butter, and cheap barbeque sauce.  I also ended up picking up some deli turkey b/c I didn't realize it was on sale!

Total value of 14 items = $36.96
Total spent after sales & coupons = $16.84
Total savings = $20.12 or 54%

Last, but not least, I made my weekly trip to Kroger.  There was nothing terribly exciting to talk about this week.  My favorite coffee was on sale, which was nice, and I picked up some cheap cinnamon rolls as a treat for the kids to have this weekend.  Oh, and the Nabisco Snak Saks were on sale for $1 again!  I bought 5 bags to add to the ones I still have left over from the last sale so we will be stocked for the spring months.  They are only on sale through Saturday, so if you want to get any, hurry over there!

Total value of 35 items = $112.04
Total spent after sales & coupons = $66.34
Total savings = $45.70 or 41%


Whew!  just typing all of that makes me remember how tired I was when I got home!!  How did you all do this week?  I'd love to hear!

Mailbox Freebies!



Here is a picture of some great freebies I got in the mail this week!  All of these items came from taking a few minutes to fill out free sample forms online! 

Great Deals at DisneyStore.com!

Today only, you can use the code NOJOKE to get an additional 25% off all clearance items at the Disney Store!  Plus, if you add at least one Tangled item to your order, you can score FREE shipping by using the code TOWER!  They have fleece blankets on sale for just $5.99 that you can have personalized!

I'm thinking you might be able to score some good deals on Easter Basket items today if you take your time and look around the site!