More Meijer deals

Cinnabon and Nutrigrain bars are $1.99 each; there are/were internet printables available which would make the Cinnabon bars $0.99 and the Nutrigrain bars $1.50 (the coupon is $1/2). Select Keebler cookies are $1.99---pair them with the IPs to get them for $0.99 each and use the Kellogg's Fuel for School (pamphlets of coupons which were available on the Keebler displays a few weeks ago) to get $2.00 off a gallon of milk when you buy 2 packages of cookies. Wheat Thins Flatbread crackers are part of the Nabisco 2/$4 deal; use the IPs which were available to make them $1 each. (We've been wanting to try these---now is a good time.) The Fuel for School pamphlets also have a $2 off store brand coffee when you buy 2 boxes of Nutrigrain bars.

I made a trip to Meijer this afternoon and bought 10 Lysols cleaners, 1 gallon of milk, 2 packages of cookies, 2 boxes of Wheat Thins Flat breads, and one bag of Purina One cat food. Used IPs for all of the cleaners, $2 off gallon milk WYB cookies, IPs for the Wheat Thins and the Keebler cookies, $5/1 Meijer.com Purina One coupon, $1/1 cat food coupon attached to the bag, and Meijer mealbox coupons for $1/2 Lysol sprays (I had 2 but I miscounted the sprays I would buy while printing these so I should have used a third). My OOP was $5.11 (incl. $0.64 tax), savings total was $41.07. I love these Lysol 1/2 off sales!!!

Printable Coupons: Hunt’s, Rotel, Peter Pan Peanut Butter and More

Printable Coupons: Hunt’s, Rotel, Peter Pan Peanut Butter and More

Go to this link for some great printable coupons! Thanks, Common Sense with Money! If you shop at Meijer, there is a Mealbox coupon for $1/4 Rotel tomatoes that you could stack with this one. The sale price this week at Meijer for the 10-oz. cans is $1.03---stack the manufacturer's coupon and the mealbox coupon and you get the tomatoes for a little over $0.50/can.

The $1/4 Hunt's pudding coupons are good for the 4-packs that are part of the 10/$10 deal at Meijer this week as well. I stocked up on a lot of those---oldest son just got braces put on and his gums are really sore.

Great news!! The $5/1 Purina One coupon is still available at meijer.com! Originally the coupon expired 9/5/09, but the new one is good until 12/31/09! It's good for cat/dog/kitten/puppy food, 3.3 lb or larger bags. I don't know what the dog food costs, but the small bags of cat food are priced just over $6. Cheap cat food till the end of the year! Some of the bags have $1/1 manufacturer's coupons---these DO combine with the Meijer coupon; I tried it and the cashier confirmed that it did.

Jungle Jim's deals

There are some good deals at Jungle Jim's this week if you live in the Cincinnati area.

Pepsi OR Coke products, 12-packs 5 for $10 with in-ad coupon
Lance's 8-pack peanut butter crackers (reduced fat type only) $0. 99 (if you have the Kellogg's $2 off fresh fruit wyb 2 Lance's crackers, it is an even better deal)
Juicy Juice, 2/$3
selected varieties of dried beans in the India section are marked down to $3.49 for the 4-lb packages!!

International Delights coffee creamer is on sale at Meijer for $1.49 each, and when you buy 2 you get a $2 catalina. THis would make them $0.49 each after the catalina, but if you have the $1/1 printables that were recently available, it becomes a money-maker.

If you're buying the Purina One cat food with the $5/1 Meijer coupon, make a good deal better by looking for the small bags with the pull-off $1/1 manufacturer's coupon. These can be combined with the Meijer coupon to get the cat food for free.

Nabisco/Kraft mail-in offers

A few weeks ago, Nabisco made available a $55 back-to-school savings booklet. I just received mine in the mail, and besides the coupons, there are two $20 mail-in rebate offers. One is good from now until 12/31 andthe second is good 1/1/10-6/30/10. For both, you buy 10 Nabisco cookies and crackers, 5 Kool-Aid Jammers or Capri Sun, and 5 Kraft Easy Mac single cups. I do not believe these need to be in a single transaction because each form says to mail in your receipts with prices circled.

I am mentioning this now because if you sent away for the booklet but haven't yet received it, you can still start looking for coupon matchups to make this deal worthwhile. For instance, Meijer right now has Capri Suns on sale for $1.65, and when you buy four you get a $3 catalina coupon. Meijer mealbox also has $1/2 Kraft Easy Mac coupons.

Vocalpoint coupons

Vocalpoint members: Check your mailboxes! I just received a packet from Vocalpoint with Kashi coupons: one for a free box of Honey Sunshine cereal and five for $1.50/1 box. If you received these coupons, or if you receive them this week---Meijer has several varieties of Kashi cereal, including Honey Sunshine, on sale for 2/$5. With the $1.50/1 coupon, that would be $1 per box!!

If you are not yet a member of Vocalpoint, go to their website and sign up. It's a great program where you get to try new things. Every so often they send their members samples or a packet of coupons, usually including one for a free product. (I should have mentioned that this last packet came with a sample-sized box of the cereal---great afternoon snack for one of the kids. We just won't tell them it's healthy.)

Here's a tip for you---don't forget to check the clearance racks at your local supermarket for some great deals! It's hit or miss, of course, but sometimes you can find a really great deal---especially if your supermarket lets you use coupons on clearance items. Yesterday I found an entire shelf of Dawn Direct Foam and Dawn Plus dish soap marked down to $1.70. With the $1.50/1 coupons from the coupon booklets which were recently available, the Direct Foam dish soaps were only $0.20!! This was at the Meijer on Springboro Pike, for those of you in the Dayton, OH area. Many stores also have freezer clearance items available from time to time---you just have to search for them.

Restaurant.com 80% off sale

Restaurant.com is offering 80% off their normal prices when you enter the code TASTE at checkout. A $25 certificate, which would normally cost $10, will now cost $2 with this promotion. There is a minimum amount you must spend, usually $35, to be able to use the $25 certificate. Even so, this could make for an inexpensive dinner. For a $35 bill, you would only spend $12 (the $10 above the certificate value and the $2 you paid for the certificate) plus tip.

Meijer cat food sale

Meijer has the 3-lb bags of Purina One cat food marked down to $5.99 again. I checked meijer.com; the $5/0ff coupon is still available. Go on meijer.com and look under the heading "pets." This is really good cat food and for $0.99 plus tax, it is a great deal!! The coupon is valid until 9/05.

Kroger mega sale

Thanks to Cindy at The Happy Homemaker for this idea! Betty Crocker Fruit snacks and Nature Valley Granola bars are part of the promo. There are IPs and newpaper coupons available and when you buy 5 of either one, you get a $3.50 catalina. So, if you bought 5 of each, you would get the $5 off for the promo and get 2 $3.50 catalinas. Use coupons and it is a pretty good deal! These items make good lunchbox items for those heading back to school, and of course clip the Box Tops from the packages!

When I went to Kroger I had originally planned to get Honey Nut Cheerios, using coupons along with the promo for really cheap cereal. Unfortunately, Honey Nut Cheerios is not included in the promo but if you have any coupons for the original flavor, they are a part of the promo.

Restaurant.com 60% off sale!!

The 80% off gift certificate sale is ended, but from Friday 8/14 to Monday, 8/17 you can get restaurant.com gift certificates for 60% off!! That's $4 for a $25 certificate (they normally sell for $10). Enter the promo code CHOW at checkout to get the discount. This would be a good way to eat out pretty inexpensively or to give as gifts. Just be sure you read the fine print under each certificate's description; there is a minimum purchase (usually $35 for the $25-value certificates). Of course, if you have more than, say, three people in your family, reaching $35 (before the discount) is no trouble at all!!

Back to School

Well, school is set to start in just a few short weeks!! Did this summer go fast or what? If you have a student going into a grade where they start band or orchestra lessons (for us it is sixth grade), you will have to make the decision as to whether you want to rent an instrument or purchase it. Your child's music teacher will show you the options, but keep in mind that they likely will not show you ALL the options.

I have a daughter in orchestra and a son in band, and we purchased both the violin (actually 2, since she started with a 3/4 and now uses a full size) and the clarinet. We spent less on the three instruments than some music stores charge for one full-sized violin or one clarinet. We got them new, not used, and they are of excellent quality.

You of course will want to explore all the options, but I will tell you that I was not impressed with the idea of renting or rent-to-own unless you are confident your child will drop out of the music program after, say, the first year. I was leery of garage sales and e-bay, and the music stores in our area charge outrageous prices for USED band and orchestra instruments, let alone new! The option we used was to go on musiciansfriend.com. They have a wide range of instruments from beginner's level to advanced, and if you are not happy with your purchase I believe they have a money-back guarantee. We never had to use the guarantee because we were more than pleased with what we bought. Both my daughter's orchestra teacher (who discourages buying an instrument on-line) and my son's band instructor had very good things to say about the quality of the instrument. I would strongly encourage you to check out this option if you need to purchase an instrument for your child.

Paw Points club

Have a cat (or more than one)? If you like Fresh Step litter, then go to their website and join the Paw Points club. Every time you buy their litter, you get a code off the package and enter it to earn rewards. Up until the end of September, the 20-lb boxes---which normally are worth 50 points---get double the point value.

I have tried several different litters, most infamously a huge bag of litter from a pet store for under $4.00. It was so big I could hardly lift it, and it lasted forever. That was unfortunate, because it was the absolute worst litter I have ever used. It not only didn't clump, it didn't help with odor control. I am not kidding, you about needed a gas mask to approach that litter box---and I clean it on a regular basis.

Fresh Step so far has worked the best for us (one of my cats has tummy issues so ODOR can be a real problem). If you use it, sign up for the club and earn points. I'm collecting points to earn a free bag of litter.

restaurant.com certificates

According to The Krazy Coupon Lady, restaurant.com is offering an awesome deal on gift certificates through August 13th. You type in your zip code on their website and it pulls up a list of participating restaurants. You can order discounted gift cards through them---but when you type in the promo code PORTION, you get an 80% discount---which means if the certificate normally costs $10 (for a $25 card), you end up paying $2. You print these right from your computer, but you want to be sure and read the fine print which is listed in the description of each gift certificate, because there is a minimum order (usually around $35). I did order one, it printed out fine and only charged me the $2, but I haven't tried to use it yet.

Target Toy Clearance

I was reading on Hip2Save last night that Target is having a toy clearance sale. I needed to finish my teenaged daughter's birthday shopping anyway so while at Target I decided to check out the toy section and see if it is true.

I am very happy to report that, yes!! Target is having an awesome toy clearance sale. A great many of the toys are marked 75% off. I picked up quite a few items for my younger children and plan to set them aside for Christmas. Toys that were normally $14.99 were marked down to $3.74. I will check my receipts against the original prices and tally up the totals later, but I paid about $75 for probably close to $400 worth of toys. They are not all summer toy items either---there are Star Wars/Terminator action figures, dolls, Schleich figures (they make knights, Indians, and Elves and normally are quite pricey), games, etc. If you have children you are buying for, you might want to check out the sale and set some stuff aside for Christmas and birthdays. (I know we larger families do this out of necessity! But it's a good idea anyway because you really do save money.)

Honey Bunches of Oats coupons

If you go on www.postcereals.com and click on the Honey Bunches of Oats link, you can print a $2.00 off coupon for the pecan bunches cereal! This would be great to print and hold for a sale.

Free or Cheap Cat Food

Thanks to The Cheapsk8mom for this find!!!

Meijer has the small bags of Purina One cat food on sale for $5.99. If you go on meijer.com (not meijermealbox), and click under the section for "pets" it pulls up a $5.00/1 Meijer coupon for Purina One. That would make the cat food $0.99. However, since this is a Meijer coupon you should also be able to combine it with the $3/1 manufacturer's coupon that was in the Sunday paper back in June. I used only the Meijer coupon and got 4 bags of the cat food for a little over $4 (incl. tax).

This coupon is good for dog food as well. I don't know if the dog food is on sale but it would be a nice discount.

Even if your pet does not eat this kind of food, with this price it would be very nice to get a bag or two and donate it to an animal shelter. They're having a tough time too!!!

Kroger sale

Kroger has salmon on sale for $2.99/lb. This is a very good price for salmon. I bought 3lbs worth, enough to have some now and freeze a little extra. Salmon is healthy and usually costs quite a bit more than $2.99/lb.