My Big Savings Day

This week the sales at King Soopers are amazing! Some times their Mega Events (Buy 10 participating items and get $5 off your total) aren't overly exciting...this week I'm blown away!

I walked into the store with my King Soopers loyalty card, a little money left on a gift card and cash in my pocket totally around $100...that's it. I picked out the few items that we needed for the week(milk, eggs, vegetable oil, toliet paper...a new night light), snagged all of my Mega Event items I was planning on PLUS found a few other deals than I didn't know about and my cart filled up. As I unloaded my groceries onto the belt I didn't dare look at the screen. I was too nervous to see the total. You see, I don't scan my Soopers card until the end. I love swiping my card through and watching the total drop...then handing over my coupons and watching it drop even further. I'm a little twisted like that.

When the cashier was finished scanning my items I looked at the screen...$280!!

O

M

Gravy!

I had $100 in my pocket and that's it!

I was starting to sweat...my heart was racing...I thought I'd have to run out to my card and grab my bank card...how embarressing!

The cashier scanned my loyalty card and the total dropped to $150...just like that! $130 off just because I bought the sale items!

Then came the coupons....

I redeemed $52 in coupons that day.

My grand total for the day.....(drum roll please)

$97.97!!

WHAT!?!?!

AAAAHHHH!

From $280 to $98!????

That is definatly my best trip EVER!

I really wanted to take the time to take a picture of my haul but I came home just in time to get lunch for my kiddos and needed to get these goodies put away. I did take a picture of my receipt though...

That's a grand total of 94 item for $98....

Besides my "needed" items for the week my purchase included...

4 bottles of laundry detergent
4 bottles of fabric softener
8 boxes of kleenex
8 boxes of Hefty slider storage bags
1 package of Pull Ups
1 box Hefty trash bags
3 packages of Energizer batteries
3 tubes toothpaste
4 bags of pasta
4 cups of Easy Mac (sort of a filler to get the next multiple of 10...but my kids do like them)
4 boxes of Capri Sun (which I need to get my $1 iBotta refund taken care of yet...so there's even more savings!)
4 cans Progresso soup
8 cans of Rotel
4 cans Bush's beans
3 jars of Mt Olive pickles
3 bottles French's Spicy Mustard
2 frozen pizzas
2 packages of sliced ham
4 packages of Kraft singles
and a couple odds and ends....

These are all things we use, including some things that I needed to stock back up on! And it wasn't just junk...laundry soap, fabric softener, Pull Ups, plastic bags....fabulous!! Could some of it be considered excessive? Possibly. But when you can get storage bags for .25 a box, why wouldn't you stock up??

I had a smile on my face for a couple hours afterwards. I even asked the cashier if it was ok if I did a little dance at the register. When she checked my receipt for my savings she even gave me a fist bump.

I have to give a HUGE thanks to Jennie and her team at Bargain Blessings. They got the King Soopers match-ups out on Monday so I was able to plan my trip and get to the store on Weds, the first day of the sale. Luckily, Mega Events usually run 2 weeks so you'll have plenty of time to hop over to the store and get in on some of these deals yourself. Besides her original match ups post, Jennie has posted about many more deals she found at King Soopers. I guess I may have some more treasures to pick up next week. :)
You'll just have to watch out for the stores running out of products. With deals like this, I wouldn't be surprised to find some empty shelves. If they are empty, try and find out when a new shipment might arrive. Since the items are a part of a Mega Event you cannot get a rain check for that sale price.

I'd love to hear about your successful trips over the next couple weeks!

Love and happy dances at the register,

Stephanie

An extra trip = extra savings

With having company the last few days I ran out of milk sooner than normal so I had to make a quick run into King Soopers.

As usual I can't just run in and grab one thing. I always have to check all of the markdown areas and I also wanted to go ahead and grab a couple freebies I heard about.

I can't get my picture to load up but here's what I picked up today...

Colgate toothpaste - FREE with 10/$10 sale and the coupon from last Sunday's paper
Colgate toothbrushes - FREE with 10/$10 sale and the coupon from Sunday's paper (Note: the coupon excludes 2 varieties of the toothbrush so make sure you grab the one that is not excluded)

I found a couple things in the markdown bin including .79 Marshmallow fluff (can you say fudge?!) and .99 cans of Apple Pie filling.

They also have Rubbermaid Hydration water bottles on sale (BPA free). There was a $1 off coupon in Sunday's paper for those so I picked one up for $3.99. I'm trying to drink more water and the bottle that I have been using is getting a little worn down. It was my little splurge...

So between those deals, sliced cheese, some BOGO free strawberries, and my milk I spent $25.22 and saved $33.41.

There are some great deals going on and watch for close-out markdown specials through out the store. It seems like there are a lot of those that can make for some pretty sweet deals, especially when paired with coupons.

Love and unexpected trips,

Stephanie

Happy New Year!

It's been a while, I know. I intended to post on New Years Eve but since we celebrated one of our family Christmas' that day I was just too wiped out to do it.

December seemed to fly by so fast! Where did the time go? I think a lot of us feel that way sometimes but, honestly, how is time going so quickly? It seems like just yesterday that we were celebrating Christmas and telling our families that we were going to have another baby. Now here it is, a year later, and we have a 5 month old!

We had a really wonderful holiday season. It was filled with activites and gatherings that lasted until just a couple days ago. I'm just now getting Christmas decorations taken down and trying to get back on track with things that have taken a backseat.

Goals for the new year? Of course I have them. They are probably just like most resolutions that people make....get more organized, be a better mother and wife, get in shape...yada yada. Specifically....I need to get rid of some of the "stuff" around this house and what I am keeping needs to be better organized.
I do want to work on being a better mother and wife. I've decided that being "just fine" is not ok with me. I want to be better than fine, better than average....I have high expectations for myself. The problem with that is that if I fall, I fall that much farther but I'm willing to raise the bar anyway.
I want to spend more time educating my children and playing with them. I want to get them involved in things around the house...things they already yearn to do such as cooking and help with chores. I plan to challenge myself with my cooking and learn to make more things from scratch and be better with freezer cooking and meal planning. I owe it to not just my children and husband but to myself.

As for my body, these last few months I did the Body By Vi 90 Day Challenge. My challenge goal was to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight by Christmas. With all of the holidays, and some slacking off, I didn't quite make my goal by Christmas, however I did make it by New Years. Yep, according to the scale, I am back to my weight when I became pregnant with Leona! Woohoo!
Unfortunatly, as many of us know, muscle weighs more than fat so the scale isn't the best representation of how I look and I am what I like to call "skinny fat". I'm slim, and back in my size 4 jeans, but I am really soft and...well, still fat. So my next 90 day challenge goal is to get into better shape....lose that fat and gain some muscle.

All in all, life is good. I'm very blessed and I have so much to be thankful for. This last year was a real eye opener for me in many ways. I feel like I learned a lot about myself...what I want, what I need, who I really am. Now that we are done having children I am ready to take my completed family and do the best I can for them, and for myself. Even though I haven't been consistant with my blog, I hope you continue the journey with me. I plan to be better with updating this as well. :)

Love and being slimmer and better,

Stephanie