Cheap, cheap yogurt!

Did anyone grab hold of the Activia coupons the website was mailing out a while back?  I used mine for the first time this weekend.  No Frills had some great deals on their yogurt.  It wasn't advertised in the flyer though (just another reason to make sure you've always got those coupons handy) :)

Each of the yogurts were marked down $2. The prices below were from the receipt, but I'm sure the in store price was marked $4.49 for the 12 pack - I'll need to watch the register a little better next time. (Often times if the cash rings in a item that is higher than the advertised price you'll get that item for free, or $ discounted from your total - it depends on store policy, but that's usually how it goes).

With the Activia online coupons we paid:

2 x 12 pack $5.99 -$2 = $3.99

2 x dessert pack (4's) $2.99 = free when you buy a 12 pack

Total paid = $7.98 for 4 individual packs of yogurt

(or the same as $1.99 each)

SAVED $17.98!

This promotion ended a while back, but you can get a $1 Activia coupon here 

BOGO the deals

I always love when Sobeys has their BOGO sale.  It's a great time to use coupons on those items you are getting 2 for the price of 1.  This week we managed to use A LOT of coupons on sale items to save really big.  Probably one of our biggest savings in a grocery trip since I started couponing, saving 46% on our bill.  


Here's a list of what we picked up:
2 x Sunlight Laundry = $6.99 +BOGO
Lipton Tea Bags 100 count = $6.49 - $4 (free product) coupon
4 x SoyDream (regular $2.99 each) = 2x  $2.99 BOGO + 2x $1 on product coupons I found in store= out of pocket costs $0.99 each.  Fortified soy milk is an excellent alternate to regular cow milk, plus it often goes on sale and you can usually find coupons for it. 
Pam = $4.89 - $1 coupon
12 Lrg Eggs = $3.69 - $2 coupon when you buy Pam
Kraft Mooza Cheesestrings = $5.59 - free product coupon 
2 x Royale bath tissue = $6.99 + BOGO
Compliments Naan bread = $3.19 + BOGO
Crackerbarrel Old Cheddar Singles = $4.29 - free product coupon
4 x Alymer Accents Tomatoes =2 x $2.19 + BOGO -$1 coupon -2 x $.50 coupons = out of pocket costs $0.60 each. 
Kraft Dill Cream Cheese = $3.89 - free product coupon
Triscuit crackers = $2.79 - free product coupon
2 x Catelli Pasta Sauce = $2.99 + BOGO
Compliments 398ml Canned pineapple = $1.11
VH Stir-fry sauce = 2/$5
Baby Tomatoes = $3.97
Baby Bok Choy = $3.08
Oranges = $6.49 + BOGO Apples (value $5.47)
2 x English Cucumber = $2.99 + BOGO
Romaine Lettuce = $4.49


Total paid = $66.83 (we used a $25 gift card from the holidays, so we ended up paying $41.83 out of pocket) 
Total cost of items bought = $123.50
Savings = $56.67 (with gift card $81.67)









Essentially with our savings, it was like getting everything in this picture for free! :) 




If you're taking part in the BOGO sales this week some things to keep an eye out for:
BOGO Alymer tomotoes - some of the cans have $0.50 coupons on the labels
BOGO Soy Dream - some of the 946ml cartons have 41 peelie coupons attached


I noticed as well there were a lot of coupons on tear pads in Sobeys this week as well : Trop50 juice, Biobest drinkable yogurt, Asana yogurt, & Dempsters bagels we some of the few I picked up for future trips.

It's been a while since I made a post.  I've been away a bit for work, but also, we've been using up some of the food that we've had in our cupboards and pantry as there haven't been that many great healthy food coupon deals lately (in my opinion at least)!

Here's some of the stuff we picked up this week with deals and coupons:

No Frills 
Total spent $17.77 
Coupon savings $9.14  (about 34% of total)
Savings from sales ? (maybe I should start figuring this out as they really have great deals here and I'm sure you can save a lot)!

Coupons used were for free Oasis (off a juice bottle some time back), free flavored tuna, $2 off Vector from Websaver, and $0.75 off Wonder + bread from flyer inserts.

All the veggies were $1, or $2 and beans 69 cents.  And who says you can't eat healthy on a budget??? :)


Shoppers amount spent for product seen $11.41

Free product coupons for kashi cereal (off box), kashi granola bars (when you buy the cereal) from websaver in the past, and Halls for $0.10 from facebook.

Tuna were all 99cents each, but if you wait until this weekend the unflavored Shopper brand goes on sale for 69cents- good deal!  

We ending up buying a few other things as well, and total coupon savings with sales and coupons at this store was $35.10.  Among that was Physicians Formula make-up, which right now there are high value mail in rebates for. Combine that with the current 40% off they have on now at Shoppers, you can not only eat great on a budget but look great too!

No Frills & Shoppers Deals this Week

Picked up GREAT deals this weekend which I'm excited to share!

Shoppers is a great place to get eggs for good prices.  Right now they're on sale for $2.59 (for 12).  If you combine that with the Websaver.ca coupon that's out there now you can save $1 when you buy 2 dozen.

Some great cereal deals at No Frills now too.  If you were able to take advantage of the buy2get1free  Save.ca coupons for cereal just before the holidays this would be an excellent time to use them.  Here's how I made the most of mine:

Raisin Bran, on sale for $2

Raisin Bran, on sale for $2

Muselix, regular price $4.99 = FREE with Buy2 Raisin Bran box coupon save.ca

Rice Krispies, on sale $2 + $2.50 coupon in recent Kellogg's Holiday giftpack = $0.50 PROFIT

Rice Krispies Treats, regular price = FREE with Rice Krispies box purchase coupon save.ca

Buy3Save$3 coupon on shelf tear pad                               

 =$0.50 for all 5 boxes!!!

You might get questioned by the cashier, but the thing to remember and remind them is that you can use one original (and duplicate) coupon per item.  I.e. 4 coupons for the five different boxes above. 

Overall from No Frills & Shoppers on Saturday:

Total value of groceries seen= +$59.79

(I don't have all the regular prices accounted for in produce here, so savings may be actually higher)

Total paid, by using sales & coupons=$30.83

Over 51% savings!

A New Appreciation for Big Box Stores

As a dietitian I'm used to the popular notion that larger food packaging = increased likeliness to overeat, given it's a little harder to estimate proper portion size.  For this reason and the fact that you can usually get better coupon deals on smaller packaging, I've been avoiding the big box stores.  However, I was left with no choice this weekend when my fiancée decided to get new glasses at Costco.

Despite not being able to use the regular coupons (and only the ones in store), I can across some good produce and perishable deals, and am happy to say I look forward to shopping there again!

My favorite purchase?

Regular Yogurt (which is always cheaper than the flavoured btw)  2kg for only $5.49

The container is a little larger than the regular size we would see in the grocery store.  Based on some very rough calculations, it would be similar to paying $2.06 /tub 

There's a $55 membership fee, but if you have several mouths to feed and think you'll save more than that amount by shopping there/year it's certainly worth the initial investment 

- just remember to be conscious of portion size, and not eat more just because it's available!

  

New Year = New Resolution to Save Even More Grocery $$$

It's been a while since I last posted.  As I'm sure like everyone else, things have been pretty busy with the holidays and New Year.  Now that things are starting to get back to normal, and given it is a new year I've made it my mission even more to focus on buying healthy food for cheap.  Here's what I picked up this week and over the holidays:

All 3 of these were from free product coupons online or off product packaging.  The best thing?  They were all FREE.  I think this goes to show that using a coupon here or there can really pay off

Original cost of those items= $5.49 +$4.99+ $2.99  = $13.47 savings

Oh, and as you can probably see from the picture the cereal came with $5 worth of Kellogg's coupons too!  Profit $5

The other thing I've been buying a lot of lately is 50% off foods.  I've been surprised to find that many times they are actually fairly good quality.  I'm also shopping later in the night, which by observation seems to be when most products are marked 50% off.  Perhaps it's to sell off day old bread and other foods nearing their Before Before date.  So be sure to check the 50% racks!  I bought bananas a over the holidays that were in a 50% off bag that were yellow, not brown, because the store was making room for the overly ripe green ones.  I'll take some yellow bananas over green any day!

The best thing about 50% off food is when you can combine a coupon, or purchase something 50% that is on sale you save even more $$$.  

It's my fav way to get grocery deals for cheap :)

Some of my fav deals over the holidays?

Hummus on the left was regular $3.99. 50% off this + $0.75 coupon made it only $1.25, 69% savings.   
Lettuce on the right was on sale for $0.98.  50% off that came to $0.49, 75% savings from the regular price.  

Cheers to health and saving money in 2012!!!

Amanda