A Tiny Frugal Tip# 5 - Play The Games

There are so many stores out there and ALL of them want your money!  There are all kinds of gimmicks that they use to achieve their goal to get you into their store and to spend your money there.  But you have to be smarter than they are!

One of my best frugal tips is to decide on a select few stores, learn their "deal games" and then play the games well.  Just focus on a few.  For me, I have chosen CVS, Dollar General, and Food Lion, as far as brick and mortar stores.  These three stores are convenient for me.  I also love Amazon Subscribe and Save.

I know their prices.  I know how to play their games.  I have their MVP card, Extra Care card, and and have signed up for their digital coupons.  When I go to CVS, if it isn't on sale, or I don't have a coupon, I don't buy it!  At Dollar General, I know what is a good price and I leave the other stuff there.  

A price book is a great tool to help you play the games well.  I like to bring the price of an item down so low, using a combination of sale prices and coupons, that there's no doubt that the price is the best I can find.

My "old lady" brain can't keep up with too many stores at one time.  Sure, there are some great deals at Rite Aid, Walgreens, and Walmart.  I'll visit these stores from time to time, but they just aren't my "deal stores".

There's only such much time to spend on getting the best deal.

So that's my tiny frugal tip for today.  Play the Games ...... and play them well!

A couple of Fourth of July Deals....

Happy Fourth of July to everyone!

Here are a couple of deals I thought I'd share.

1.  Avon online has free shipping on any size order. BE SURE to put the code JULYFS in the space for coupon codes.  I almost didn't change the code to the free ship code before finishing the order, which would have been very sad.

  Lip balms are on sale for 69 cents, so I ordered a few for Christmas stocking stuffers.  I hate to pay shipping when I can get a similar item at a store, so I enjoyed looking over the site for sale items.  I ended up spending less than 10 dollars and paid for that with my Pine Cone Research survey money that was in my Paypal Account.

I bought 9 of the flavored lip glosses and 3 of the Kids' bath body paint.  These will go into my gift box to be saved until Christmas.  Although, if my grandson spends the night with us between then and now, I may cave and give him the bath paint to use while he is here.... 

2.  Food Lion Coupons.  If you are on Food Lion's email list they will send you coupons every week.  The great thing about it is that they are often good for things like meat and produce.  I love those kinds of coupons.   But, you don't have to subscribe to the email to get the coupons. 

 HERE is a link to this week's coupons. 

My favorites this week are:

50 cents off any condiment.  I looked up the definition of condiment, and this could include many items that would end up being free after using a 50 cent coupon.  Isn't salt a condiment?  Anyway, even if you used it on mustard or ketchup, it would be a good deal.  I may use it toward mayonnaise.

$2.00 off $5.00 purchase of meat.  This is an awesome coupon!  Use it toward meat that is on sale or marked down and it really makes a good deal.

Just think, after today, all the back to school sales and summer clearance sales will start!  Fall is on the horizon....

Current Food Lion Deals

Food Lion brand sale:



As you may know I live in a rural area, surrounded by lots of small towns. The only options I have for groceries are Food Lion, Walmart and Piggly Wiggly. I can travel to a couple of larger cities, but its just not worth the gas money to go so far out of my way. So, I have found that normally I can get the best deals at Food Lion, especially if I buy only what is on sale using my MVP card and use as many coupons as I can.

I am jealous of all of you have access to double coupons and other promotions like that!

But, I will concentrate on getting the best deals at my Food Lion.

1. Food Lion has a good deal going on right now until February 7th. For each Food Lion Brand you purchase, which includes My Essentials, Home 360 and the Food Lion store brand, you earn 25 cents which will print out on a coupon to be used on your next order. The minimum is 4 items, so make sure you buy at least 4. The maximum in one shopping trip is 40 items.

On my trip yesterday I earned a coupon for $7.75 on my next order. This can be rolled, which means I can use the coupon to buy more Food Lion products and earn more coupons.

The best way to "do" this deal is to buy items you actually use and would buy any way. But the biggest deals are those items that don't cost much anyway. These items include yogurt, vinegar, mustard, macaroni and cheese, canned vegetables, tomato paste, etc.

Store brand yogurt is only 22 cents, so if you buy 4 containers you spend 88 cents, but earn a coupon for $1.00. Then on your next trip, buy 4 more with the coupon and get another coupon for $1.00.

Another good item to stock up on is tomato paste which is 39 cents. After you receive your 25 cents per can, the price is only 14 cents. I like to put a tablespoon of tomato paste in things like soup, chili and spaghetti sauce. So, once I open a can and use what I need at the time, I freeze the rest in "heaping" tablespoon size portions. I wrap each one in plastic wrap and place them in a zipper freezer bag. Then I just take out what I need later when cooking.

I also bought some small bottles of vinegar. Did you know drinking a tablespoon of vinegar is helpful for leg cramps? I don't normally have cramps, but my hubby and his sister do and this home remedy helps them. Of course, there are lots of uses for vinegar, so its a good thing to have in the kitchen.

2. Its also a good week for some basic meats. I don't know about you, but I refuse to pay as much for hamburger or chicken as I would for steak!!!

So I'm stocking up in the freezer this week split chicken breasts that are 99 cents a pound and ground chuck which is $1.99 per pound. This sale is only good through Tuesday.

3. For some reason the Food Lion brand "Lite" coffee is still marked $2.97 a bag, while right next to it the regular Food Lion coffee is $5.99. We like the half caffeine coffee and so every time I go to the store I pick up 3 or 4 of these to stock up on. Coffee is another item whose price has gone sky high! And these will qualify for the brand sale saving you another 25 cents on each one.

Can't Miss Food Lion Deals

If you need groceries, this is a good week to go to Food Lion. Food Lion NEVER doubles coupons, but occasionally they have some really good deals going on. So, I have to take what I can get since none of the grocery stores near me offer double coupons like some you lucky ducks have access to.

HERE is a link to Southern Savers that explains the deals better than I can, but I will tell you what I think are a few unbeatable deals.

Food Lion has two deals going on right now. One is called The Big Deal, that rewards you with instant savings depending on how many "Big Deal" items you buy. The other is the Private Brand Sale which rewards you with a coupon for your next order based on how many Food Lion or Home 360 brands items you buy.

My grocery shopping trip today earned me a coupon for $1.75 on my next order and I also earned $5.00 instant savings.

Scan your MVP card at the front of the store and a list of the Big Deal items will print out, or at least it did for me.

The "Big Deal" items I bought were: 2 cans of Bush's Grillin Beans, 1 jar of Mt. Olive Kosher Dill Spears, 4 jars of Ragu Pasta Sauce, 2 containers of Maxwell house Lite Coffee (used $1.00 off coupon) and 1 bag of Tostitos Tortilla Chips. Ten items equals $5.00 in instant savings. You can buy up to 30 products and receive $15.00 off instantly, as long as its all in one transaction.

The Private Brand Items I purchased were 6 cans of Food Lion Pinto Beans and 1 jar of Food Lion Salsa. 7 items earned me the $1.75 coupon on my next order.



A sale item that has nothing to do with the other two deals going on and one of the best deals I see this week are Hefty One Zip freezer Bags for $1.00 each. I had a $1.00 off two coupon and at my store all of the boxes had a 15 cent peelie. I used my coupon on 2 boxes and the peelies on two boxes. A box of freezer bags for 50 or 85 cents in my book is pretty good. I am planning ahead for summer time when I plan to freeze some vegetables and I always need these to freeze meats purchased on sale and/or marked down.

Since I don't want to cancel out any savings by using unneccesary gas and I will be passing right by Food Lion tomorrow after church, I plan to stop and pick up a couple more of these. If I apply the $1.75 coupon I earned today towards 2 boxes I will get them for free!

Another good deal is Food Lion Peanut Butter at 3 for $5.00. If I buy 6 of these for my church's food pantry, I will receive a $1.50 coupon on my next order. I would imagine that peanut butter is a great food pantry item since it doesn't need refrigeration and can be eaten with crackers, another good food pantry staple.

This Week's Menu Plan and Deal of the Week!

Saturday morning is turning out to be my best time for menu planning. I gather up my menu planning Recipe Binder and lay it on the kitchen counter. I look in the refrigerator and cabinets to see what I have on hand I usually buy groceries on Friday afternoon, so I already have a few meals in mind using what I bought.

Look! Two whole weeks have been filled in on my menu planning sheet for January!



Here's the menu for this week:

Saturday: Veal Stew with potatoes, carrots and onions made in the crockpot.

Sunday: Lunch eaten out; banana and peanut butter sandwiches and chips for supper

Monday: BBQ Chicken Legs; macaroni and cheese; garden peas

Tuesday: Grilled bologna and cheese sandwiches and chips

Wednesday: Baked pasta with pasta sauce and cheese; green beans cooked with ham

Thursday: Roast Chicken Breasts, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob

Friday: Pan Fried Steak, potatoes, leftover veggies

I have really enjoyed this small crock pot I received as a Christmas gift. Its just the right size to cook for two people, which is what I need to learn to do.



My deal of the week:



4 Boxes of Special K Cereal and a gallon of orange juice for $3.42.

Food Lion has Special K Cereal on sale for $2.50 a box. If you buy 4 boxes you get a gallon of orange juice free. I printed out 2 buy one get one free Special K Coupons by going TO THIS SPECIAL K WEBSITE. You have to register, but at the end you can print out the coupons. After you print out the first one, hit the "back" button a couple of times to print the second coupon.

At Food Lion, when you use a buy one get one free coupon, the cash register deducts the regular price of the item and not the sales price. I didn't realize this until I got home and saw it on the receipt. So the 4 boxes of cereal were a total of $3.42, after the coupons were deducted, and I also got the free gallon of orange juice.

This deal is good through tomorrow.

My Store Deals of the Week

Good Friday Morning! I am super excited that I will have a four (yes I said 4!) day weekend. As Elizabeth said in a comment this week, there will be lots of sewing going on! In fact I started last night. Pictures will be coming soon to a blog near you!

This week's deals:

CVS:

I was very interested in the Picture Movie DVD Extra Bucks offer that CVS has going on this week through Saturday. The DVD is on sale for $9.99 and you get $9.99 extra bucks. On Tuesday, since I am not an extremely technical person, I went into the store to inquire as to how it works. I was hoping it could be done online, but it turned out that you come into the store and insert the little disc from your camera, or a memory stick, etc. into the Kodak machine and make your own picture movie.

I decided to come back later in the week when I was more prepared and had time to make the movie. While there I scanned my CVS card and got a $2.00 off Pantene Shampoo coupon. Right beside the machine on the end of the aisle were Pantene Shampoos on clearance for 50% off. These Pantene Shampoos were on sale because the bottle design has been changed recently and these were the old design. That's the only reason they were on sale. So after the coupon the price of the shampoo was only 49 cents.

I remembered to bring in my reusable shopping bag with the CVS green tag on it and what do you know? It was the 4th time in a row that I had used it so I got a $1.00 extra buck. After extra bucks, I made 51 cents on this trip.

Then I went back yesterday to make my movie. I was limited to what was on the camera disc that hadn't been deleted, since I don't have a memory stick. I plan to get one, but didn't have one at the time. Luckily, I leave old pictures on the camera disc, especially if they are pictures I like. So I proceeded to make my picture movie DVD with no real plan, just using what was there.

I LOVE IT!!!!! You get to choose your background music and I chose Pacobel Canon D. I named it 2010 Magical Memories. The 60 pictures I was able to use on the DVD are from the last few weeks spent at my old home and pictures taken at the farmhouse. I could look at this for hours. It is wonderful and I would highly recommend that you take advantage of this deal.

I scanned my card before paying and got a bonus $1.00 extra buck! I already had enough extra bucks to roll so I only paid the sales tax and still got the $9.99 extra bucks coupon for my next deal.

In addition, if you look at the bottom of your receipt it will tell you if you have reached the limit of each deal. I saw that the Energy Bars are still on sale for 99 cents and are generating 99 cents extra bucks. So I spent $10.98, plus tax, paid with extra bucks, except for the tax and got back $10.98 in extra bucks.

As a side note my laptop has the movie maker feature on it and for the cost of a DVD I can make my own movie dvds with music and everything. Just gotta figure out how to do it!

Walgreens:

There were some free after Register Rewards deals at Walgreens this week, but I was late in going over there and my store was sold out of some of them.

I was able to get the pair of Aloe Infused socks for $3.00, which generated $3.00 in Register Rewards. These will go in my gift closet for a stocking stuffer!!! Of course, I paid for them with the Register Rewards from last week.

Food Lion:

Don't forget to scan your MVP card before shopping. You never know what deal you might get. I love to get a coupon for something that's already on sale. It happens!

I haven't made my trip to Food Lion yet this week, but these are some things I'm thinking about buying:

Boneless Chicken Breasts on sale for $1.77 per pound

Capri Sun 10 pack (for grandson) on sale for $2.07. Use the Food Lion $2.00 off coupon found Here. Final cost 7 cents.

Breyer's Ice Cream on sale for $2.50 with 75 cents off coupon

Scottie's Tissues on sale for 94 cents each with a 50 cents off 3 coupon. Remember that Buy One Get One free items at Food Lion ring up half price, so you can buy just one if you want to. With this deal I can buy 3 and use the coupon and each one will ring up half price.

Sweet Deals Promo - Buy 5 items and get $5.00 instantly. 5 Cool Whip = $5.00, so would be free. BUT, do I really need 5 cool whips? Probably not! But there are other items you might be able to use.

Kraft Promo: Buy 5 bags of shredded cheese at $2.50 each, earn $5.00 off instantly. Cheese has a long fridge shelf life or it can be frozen, so this would be something I could use. I need to crunch numbers to see if its really that good of a deal and also to see if there are any coupons.

But there are many other Kraft items included in this deal that you might find useful in this promotion and would be worth checking into.

For a GREAT list of the Food Lion deals with coupon matches go HERE.

I will carefully make my grocery list so that the items I buy will complement what I've got in the pantry. Many of the items in the pantry are only good for using in recipes, so I need to figure out what else might be needed to make a special dish!

My Food Lion Deals For This Week

****Don't forget to scan your MVP card at the front of the store before starting your shopping! Some of the coupons that have printed out for me were for products that were on sale at the same time. Many of the coupons have to be used the same day, but there are some on the sheet that expire at later dates. Unless these items are on sale at a good price the day I get them, I file them in my coupon organizer for possible use at a later date.

****I have found that the Food Lion Coupons that come in my Food Lion Email Newsletter may not be for items on sale that particular week, but the item is often put on sale before the coupon expires. So hold on to them until the expiration dates.

*** This weeks store coupons from my Food Lion newsletter can be found HERE.

These were the best deals at Food Lion that I saw for my family this week and these are good until midnight on Tuesday, the 29th.

Red Baron Pizzas, Buy One Get One Free. A $1.00 coupon printed out at the machine at the front!

French's Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce - 2 for $3.00. I used 2 $1.00 coupons so the final cost was 50 cents each.

Food Lion brand Cheese on Wheat crackers (these are actually made by Lance and taste the same as the ones Lance used to sell) $1.99. I used the $2.00 off 2 packages coupon from my Email newsletter, (see link for the coupons above), so these ended up being 99 cents a box. That's only 13 cents for each individual package of crackers. These are great to put in with a lunch at work for my hubby and for snacks.

Kraft BBQ sauce - Buy one get one free, The bonus size in the traditional flavor is included so you get two large bottles for $1.75, or 88 cents each.

Buy 2 boxes of select varieties of cereal, and get a 64 oz carton of Food Lion orange juice free. We don't eat a lot of cereal at my house, but cereal is great to donate to the Church food pantry. Also a $1.00 off any two Kelloggs cereals printed from the machine at the front! Corn Pops were 2 for $5.00, less the $1.00 Coupon. So I got 2 boxes of cereal for the Church food pantry and a carton of orange juice for us for a total of $4.00.

I also bought some 93% lean hamburger that is on sale and will buy a whole chicken that is on sale for 99 cents a pound this weekend to roast in the crock pot.

Happy Shopping!