This Week's Shopping Trip

This week's shopping trip would normally be lumped into Frugal Friday, but since this week's menu is actually pretty entwined with some of the things I got while shopping this week, I figured it was time for a "shopping trip" post.

I spent 55.00 at the store this week, which honestly had me in heart palpitations as I'm trying hard to save every cent until I know EXACTLY what my husband's regular paychecks are going to be like and I have bills to make on top of the mortgage at the beginning of the month.  But, I have to say for 55.00...I can't really complain about what I got because I made every single cent of that 55.00 stretch.

So, what did I get?  Well, let's break it down.

First up is my trip to Fred Meyer.  My friend gave me a couple of her Fred Meyer freebies (a Lindt stick and a Yoplait dipper yogurt) so I picked those up at the store as well as my Lindt stick.  I also picked up the one thing that I saw that was on sale at Fred Meyer this week that I REALLY wanted to buy, which was Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce (on sale for .99 a container this week).  I had 1.00/2 coupons that I had gotten from my mom, so I grabbed ten of them for 4.90.  That will hopefully be enough BBQ sauce to last us a year, so yay for that (not in the picture because they were NOT going to fit on that table no matter how hard I tried *laugh*) and I also got some tuna salad kits for the son for lunch for the next little bit (on sale for 1.19 each).

My mother-in-law, when I was dropping off some eggs to her, gave me a stack of Monopoly coupons she wasn't going to use, so I opened them and found some more freebies.  I then waited until the ad came out for Carrs on Wednesday and honestly I think dust flew from my heels when I saw the sales ad for the week.  I got there early, as soon as I could get there after school drop off and grabbed some awesome sales and stuff!

First off they had grapes on sale for .97 lb this week!  I knew those were going to sell out QUICK, so I immediately headed to the produce section as soon as I got to the store.  And I'm glad I did as I was right.  I got two of the last bags of grapes there.

Another sale they had that I desperately wanted to get in on before their stock was depleted was that they had petite sirloin steaks and London Broil on sale for 2.77 lb this week.  I grabbed a couple of packages of steaks and another of the London Broil to put into the freezer.

I was able to stack a couple of coupons with a Rice a Roni deal the store was having where if you bought 10 Rice a Roni or Pasta Roni you got a free Rotisserie chicken.  I had a personalized price of .99 per box of Rice a Roni this week and had coupons my mom sent me to use on the Rice a Roni, so I figured I'd use them to get the deal decently cheap.  I also had a coupon for 2.00/1 Rotisserie chicken that I wanted to use before it expired, so I grabbed two chickens while I was there.  Got up to the register and didn't realize that I had two coupons stuck together for the Rotisserie chickens, so the cashier took both of them off.  So, I got ten boxes of Rice a Roni and 2 rotisserie chickens for about 8.00 after coupons were taken off.  None too shabby!

Also on that trip, I had a 3.00/1 O Organics fresh chicken coupon that I'd been holding onto forever (like since the beginning of the Monopoly game) even though I hadn't seen the store carry anything other than some Open Nature brand chicken for their organic brand.  But I was thrilled to find this time that they ACTUALLY had some this time and not only did they have it, but it was on reduced 30% off!  I grabbed a package of thighs that ended up being less than 3.00 after the 30% discount was taken (the 30% sticker came off completely from the package when the cashier pulled on it, which made me grateful that I went with one of my favorite cashiers that always has a calculator handy :).  So, I got a free package of chicken thighs after coupon and discount.

Also while at Carrs I got two packages of Chips Ahoy cookies (one of the only cookies my son likes) for 1.77 each after coupon (these will go into the pantry for hopefully special occasions).  And I got a thing of apple juice for .99 after a digital only coupon was applied.  I also grabbed my free thing of sour cream and my free thing of tissues that were out of stock last week, as well as a free bagel, a free box of pasta  and a free bag of salad that I got in with the coupons my mother-in-law gave me.

Another boon to shopping this week was I was gifted some coupons for free Tyson chicken.  I was able to find frozen Tyson chicken at Target (I stopped after I got my mother-in-law her eggs), but they only allowed me to use one coupon, so I stopped by Wal-Mart on the way home too and was able to find another bag of chicken there (Target would only let me use one and I didn't feel like taking a ton of trips to town).  I am thrilled with the free meat as this will definitely help having those in the freezer :).

So, yeah, that was my shopping for this week.  Now I just need to find time to post up my menu plan for this week yet tonight and I'll be set.  How's grocery shopping going for all of you?