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• Oct. 20, 2009
Costco Vs. Aldi Price Guide
I had this price guide made up for my other blog but I thought some of you might like it as well so I am sharing it here.
A huge thank you to my friend Tracy! She took care of making a link to my Aldi/Costco price guide so that you can all have a copy of it if you would like. All you have to do is click on the link below and print it out!
Let me explain the layout so you know how to use the list. It is set up like a spreadsheet and organized in the following way. There are 6 columns that include: Item Type (frozen, canned, pantry, etc.), Item, Aldi Price, Aldi Price Per (price per pound, ounce, can, etc.), Costco Price, Costco Price Per.
Many of the items are listed by name brand. These name brands apply only to Costco of course since Aldi carries only their own store brand. In the price per columns I have highlighted in red the store that has the best price. If both stores have the same price then neither is highlighted and if one store does not carry a particular item you will see n/a in the price columns.
There are certain things obviously missing from this list. One of those things is milk. I always buy milk at either Costco or Aldi because they are always the cheapest. However milk prices fluctuate like crazy so it would be futile to try to keep it on a list like this. Produce prices fluctuate as well so they are not included. I usually shop produce based on weekly sale prices. Finally, you will not find fresh meat prices on this list because, while both Aldi and Costco have meat prices that are better than regular grocery store prices, grocery store meat sales are always better than Aldi and Costco meat prices.
Armed with that information please feel free to print out and use this price guide. I have found it to be helpful if I am wondering if a grocery store deal is really good or not. I can check the price against my guide to know for sure. You can get the guide at the following link: COSTCO/ALDI PRICE GUIDE.
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• Feb. 18, 2009
Swagbucks
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• Jan. 16, 2009
My New Blog
I have created a new blog called My Money-Saving Mission. You can view it by clicking on the name. From now on I will post all of my money-saving, coupon clipping, deal-finding related posts there, allowing this blog to remain more family/faith oriented. I will occasionally post links to it here to let you know it has been updated. I hope you will enjoy reading it as well.
Shannon
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• Jan. 6, 2009
I hit the motherload at Walgreens!
I haven't done any major shopping at Walgreens lately thanks to a fantastic storehouse of items I have gotten during previous Walgreens shopping trips. But this week proved to be too good to pass up. So, I made my list, gathered my coupons and headed out! I don't have any pictures and I won't go into intense detail here but here is what I got:
- 2 boxes Frosted Mini Wheats
- 2 boxes Special K Red Berries
- 1 Soft Soap handsoap
- 2 Revlon Matte Lipsticks
- 4 Glade Scented Oil Candle refills
- 2 Glade Jar Candles
- 2 Glade Scented Oil Refills
- 1 box of Electrasol Gel Packs dishwasher detergent
- 2 boxes Orajel Cold-Sore Patches
- 9 Garnier Fructis Style Products
- 2 Garnier Fructis Shampoo
- 2 Garnier Fructis Conditioner
Okay, are you ready for this? I hope you are sitting down...according to my receipts, if I had not used any coupons or sales these products would have totaled over $140!!!! (Heaven help me!) So, how much did I pay you ask? Well, after all my coupons and sales the total I had to pay came to just over $42. That is obviously a huge savings, but in our current economic situation I really couldn't have justified that. However, I had $30 on a gift card, so I only had to pay $12 out of pocket. Ah, that's better! But wait, that's not all! Of the 12 things I have listed above, 6 of them are earning me rebates. Once my rebates come in, Walgreens will have paid me $2.52 to purchase all of those items! Now that is what I call a fun day of shopping at Walgreens!! I hope your shopping adventures this week are just as profitable!
Shannon
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• Dec. 6, 2008
Free song
Today's free download at Amazon is a great one. Love Came Down at Christmas, by Jars of Clay. To bad I bought it a few days ago! Oh, well, hopefully you will be able to take advantage of this offer.
Shannon
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• Dec. 6, 2008
Free Redbox Rentals (Walmart Redboxes Only)
Head over to Common Sense With Money to get a code for a free RedBox DVD rental every Sunday for the next 5 weeks! What a great deal! Unfortunately the code only works at Walmart Redboxes and there are none anywhere near me. 
Plenty at McDonald's, Walgreens and Shop N Save, but not Walmart.
Shannon
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• Dec. 3, 2008
Free Music
Amazon is hosting 25 days of free Christmas Downloads! Today's song is Angels we Have Heard on High by Sixpence None the Richer. You can get it HERE. Be sure to check back daily to get their new free song. This link will take you directly to their daily giveaway page. In addition you can get Christ is Come by Big Daddy Weave for free HERE. (Never judge a song by the name of it's artist, some of my favorite Christmas tunes have artists that I never would consider listening to based on their names! Shannon
) In addition I found Midnight Clear with Carly Simon, O Come All Ye Faithful by Lisbeth Scott, and Love Came Down at Christmas by Jars of Clay. You can also find free offerings everyday by going to this link and sorting the songs by price. You never know what you might find for free!
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• Nov. 26, 2008
Black Friday Deals
Thanks to my friend Dani for alerting me to this list. The people at slickdeals.net have put together a spreadsheet of the best deals for Black Friday HERE. It has tons of stores listed. Be sure to check it out before you go shopping on Friday.
Shannon
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• Nov. 11, 2008
Free Tomatoes!
Sign up here to get a free gift box of Muir Glen Tomatoes.
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• Nov. 10, 2008
Check this site out
Thanks to my friend Janice for directing me to this link! Check out the cool gift ideas and info on different stores for "Black Friday" shopping at Wallet Pop - Holiday Gifts You Won't Know Are From The Dollar Store. It has great ideas for all kinds of people on your list.
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• Nov. 10, 2008
Giveaway
Common Sense with Money is giving away a $50 Walmart gift card. You can click on this link to read all about it.
Shannon
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• Nov. 10, 2008
Free Tic Tacs!
Click on this link to get your free sample of Tic Tac Chill mints! Enjoy,
Shannon
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• Nov. 6, 2008
Free Samples
Click on this link to get your free tea samples. Just type in TRYME as your coupon code and your order is free. I am trying Wild Blueberry and French Vanilla!
Click on this link to get your free sample of a Breath-A-Licious dog bone.
Enjoy your samples and check out Money Saving Mom for more free samples.
Shannon
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• Oct. 24, 2008
Double Dipping Weekend At Walgreens
It is that great time at Walgreens again. The October/November Easy Saver Catalogs overlap and you can get some pretty good deals. There are not as many as there have been in the past but you can still pick up some good stuff. The best double dip item is the Lysol Neutra Air which is on sale this week for $5.99. With the $5 off coupon from the paper a few weeks ago these are $.99 each plus there is a $3 rebate on them in the November Easy Saver Catalog so you end up making $2.01! You can also print out a $5 off of $20 coupon from the Walgreens website. You can view other deal possibilities here or here. I stuck to the basics but was pleased with my loot! I picked up the November Free After Rebate items (Loreal and Almay) as well as 2 Lysol Neutra Airs. My total before coupons was $38.96. I used 2 $5 off on the Lysol, 1 $2 off Loreal, 1 $1 off Almay and my $5 off $20 for a total of $18 off. My grand total after coupons and tax was $22.61 which I spent off of last month’s gift card. I will be getting $33 back on my gift card so I made money! Yeah! Shannon
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• Oct. 13, 2008
My Coupon System
Over at From Wags to Riches there is a give-a-way going on that requires leaving a comment about your coupon organization system. After leaving it there I thought it would be a good idea to share it here. I hope that this will encourage some of you in your frugal pursuits!
Shannon
I started with two 4x6 photo albums but quickly out grew that method. Now I have two check size accordian files. I use one for grocery items and one for non-grocery items. At first I had restaraunt coupons in my grocery file and medicines in my non-grocery file. However, I quickly found that there are so many medicine coupons that those sections were very full. I decided then that I would use the 4x6 albums I started with. One for restauraunt coupons and one for medicine coupons. I am now very happy with my system. The hardest part was finding an accordian file where the dividers were actually attaced at the bottom. So many of them have 'floating' dividers and all I could envision was all of my coupons sliding under and getting mixed up after all my hard work. I found my favorite accordian file at Walmart. In addition to having attached dividers it expands at both the top and the bottom so it stretches out to about 12 inches in length. It also has a wider section in front. I keep scissors and a pen in one and my Wags ES catalogs in the other. Then each file has 13 other sections. I used card stock (cut down to size) to subdivide those sections so I have 26 sections in each. Here is how I have my dividers organized:
Non Grocery:
Batteries&Miscellaneous/Bathroom Cleaners
Cleaning Wipes&dusters/All Purpose Cleaners
Air Freshners/Carpet Cleaners
Dishwasher/Hand Dish
Laundry/Cat Items
Dog food/Dog Treats
Fragrances/Deodorant
Hair Color/Style Products
Shampoo/Lotion
Makeup/Facial Cleansers
Feminine Products/Razors
Soap/Teeth Products
Baby/Paper/Plastic (I divided this one 3 times)
Grocery:
Refrigerated Baking/Baking
Spices&Sugar/Bread, Jelly, Peanut Butter
Canned Goods/Canned fruits&veggies
Candy/Hot and Cold Cereal
Cereal Bars/Fruit Snacks&Snack Cakes
Dairy/Drinks
Frozen Bread/Frozen IceCream&Snacks
Frozen Breakfast/Frozen Meals
Frozen Meats/Frozen Fruits & Veggies
Meal Kits/Meat
Sausage&Hot Dogs/Produce
Rice, Pasta, Potatoes/Sauces, Spreads
Chips/Nuts & other snacks
Each 4x6 album has a seperate page for each restaraunt or each medicine type (asprin, tylenol, allergy, bandaids, etc.) respectively. After almost a year I finally feel like I have the system that is perfect for me. All 4 of my organizers fit in a small tote and it stays in my car so that I always have all of my organizers within reach if I find a great deal!
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• Oct. 9, 2008
Cleaning Supplies
Click on this link to print coupons for some of your favorite cleaning supplies. View Money Saving Mom here to see how to use these coupons to get the items free at Walgreens. Enjoy!
Shannon
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• Oct. 7, 2008
A Site for Walgreens Lovers
I have told you now for a while about a great money saving site called Money Saving Mom. MSM is by far my favorite money saving site, however, I just found a site dedicated specifically to Walgreens deals. Money Saving Mom does post the Walgreens deals weekly but if you want to get just Walgreens information let me encourage you to check out From Wags to Riches. You can also access this site from the button in my sidebar.
Shannon
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• Oct. 1, 2008
Rollin', Rollin', Rollin', keep those Rewards Rollin'
Here is commitment to the deals. I did 8 transactions at Walgreens while on vacation! My mother in law says I am addicted. But I knew that by time I got home all the deals would be bought up and we were only a few blocks from Walgreens so I went for it! I went over the course of two days. The first night I didn’t spend a whole lot of time working out my deals, I just got things I knew we could use while on vacation like Dr. Pepper and Pringles. (I bought Swiffer refills too because I was out at home and I didn’t know if I would get to go back to Walgreens.) Here is what I did. 1st deal: 3 cases Dr. Pepper for $11 & 2 Oral B toothbrushes @ $4.49 each – got $4 back in Register Rewards (RR) for the Dr. Pepper and 2 $4.50 RR for the toothbrushes 2nd deal: 4 Swiffer Refills @ $3.49 each = $13.96 – used 3 $.55 man. Coupons and $4 RR for a total of $8.31 – got $5 RR 3rd deal: 10 cans Pringles for $10 – used $5 RR for a total of $5 – got $3 RR Now, I spent a considerable amount of time figuring out my next set of transactions. I had 5 transactions planned that should have cost me $17.93 out of pocket and gotten me $20 in RR and $12 in rebates. Well, they had everything in stock except the Nivea Men’s Body Wash which sounds really good, the only bad thing is that it was right in the middle of the long list of deals I had worked out and I was in no place to change things at that point so I decided to get some candy to take the place of the Body Wash. The downside there was I grabbed a kind that didn’t match my coupons! Arrgh! Anyway, here is what actually transpired. Deal 1: 3 Children’s Tylenol @ $4.99 each Deal 2: 2 Fun size Reese’s Peanut Butter cups @ $3.99 each Total oop = $6.67 + got $2 RR (this transaction if I had been able to buy the body wash instead of candy would have cost only $.97+tax!) Deal 3: 2 Puffs tissues @ $.99 each after in ad coupon Deal 4: 2 Febreeze Air Effects @ $2.49 each Deal 5: 2 Gillette fusion razors @ $8.99 each So, how did I do total for these 42 items? Drum roll please! Total oop = $24.31 (1st day) + $27.82 (2nd day) = $52.13 (Oh yeah, I actually only spent $5.93 oop because the rest of it was on my gift card from last month’s rebates.) That’s less than $1.25 per item! (Without coupons it would have cost $123.48.) I received $37 RR and am getting over $8 in rebates. I am well stocked on medicine, shampoo, cleaning supplies and air fresheners. All in all it was a pretty good deal, and I still have $4 RR to spend!
1 Lypsyl Lip treatment @ $2.99
-$3 Tylenol man. Coupon
-$9 in RR from the t.brush trans. Yesterday
-$4.50 Easy Saver Tylenol coupon
Total Out of Pocket (oop) $3.00 + got $5 RR
2 Revlon Colorsilk hair colors @ $1.99 each
- $1 off 2 Revlon coupon
- $5 RR from Tylenol transaction
2 Gillette Shampoo @2/$5
2 Soft Soap @ $.99 each after in ad coupon
3 caramels @3/$.99
-2 $2 Gillette coupons
-2 $.25 Puffs coupons
-2 $.35 Soft Soap coupons
-$3 RR from Pringles transaction yesterday
-2 $1 RR from Revlon transaction earlier
Total oop = $5.78 + get a $5 Rebate from Gillette
2 Febreeze Noticeable Kits @ $6.99 each
- 2 $5 Febreeze Noticeable coupons
- 2 $1 Febreeze Air Effects coupons
- $2 RR (I’m not sure what this one was from)
Total oop = $6.94 + got $5 RR
- 2 $4 Gillette coupons
- $5 RR
Total oop = $5.43 + got back $4 RR Now, here is the deal on this particular transaction. This was the last transaction and the Walgreens people were starting to look at me funny so my wonderful husband offered to do it for me. Since it was just the 2 razors I figured it shouldn’t have any glitches so I gave him the coupons and instructions and left the store. The only thing I told him to make sure of was to check out at the cosmetics counter because I had trouble at the regular checkout with the RR machine not printing before. (They fixed it for me at cosmetics.) Well, it turns out the cosmetics checker went on break right after I left the store so he had to check out up front. As I suspected, he came back out without the $8 in RR he should have had. I showed him the ad and what to tell the cashier when he went back in. When he came out again he had only been able to get 1 $4 RR instead of the 2 he was due but he appeared in no mood to fight for the $4 so we called it a day. (Keep in mind that my 3 year old had been having a meltdown for about ½ an hour at this point.)
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• Sep. 26, 2008
Double Dipping at Walgreens
It is that time again, the last weekend of the September Easy Saver catalog and the first weekend of the October Easy Saver catalog, all rolled together with the new $5 off $20 coupon that is good for today and Saturday. What does that mean? Double deals and lots of free stuff!
I just got back from my deal shopping and here's what I got. You can view the October Easy Saver Catalog here.
1 Extreme Energy Shot twin pack = $3.99
1 Loreal Skin Genesis Cleanser = $7.99
1 Rimmel Long Last Mineral Foundation = $7.49
3 Glade Scented Oil Candles = $5.99 each = $17.97
1 Glade Fabric Refresher = $3.99
Total = $41.43
Then I used these coupons
$1.50 off Glade Fabric Refresher manufacturer coupon
$1 off Glade Fabric Refresher September Easy Saver coupon
3 - $2 off Glade Scented oil manufacturer coupon
3 - $2 off Glade Scented Oil September Easy Saver coupon
$1 off Rimmel manufacturer coupon
$1 off Loreal manufacturer coupon
$5 off $20 Walgreens coupon
Total after coupons and tax = $21.20
All of the above items are included in the October Easy Saver Catalog Rebate section. The Energy Shots, Rimmel, and Loreal were all free after rebate. The Glade candles each have a $2 rebate and the Glade spray has a $1 rebate. So I will be getting a rebate of $26.47 + the 10% rebate for a total of $29.12 in rebates. (I actually did not pay any money out of pocket today because of the great rebate I got last month!)
So, be sure to head to Walgreens this weekend.
Shannon
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• Sep. 22, 2008
Magazine Subscription Giveaway
Over at The Thrifty Mama she is giving away a 2-year subscription to All You magazine. This magazine is full of coupons for you fellow frugal zealots. Be sure to go and enter her giveaway before October 5th. Oh, and All You magazine also has recipes, craft ideas, and fashion articles for those of you who don't do coupons. You could win the magazine and pass the coupons on to your coupon fanatic friends! 
Shannon
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