$25 Fry's Gift Card Give-Away!

Have you been to Fry's yet this week? I'm going tomorrow to see how close I can come to "busting my cart"! Shop the "Cart Buster Savings Event" at Fry's now through Tuesday, 3/16 to find serious savings on your favorite name brand products including Pillsbury, Charmin, Betty Crocker, & Tide! Make sure to load your e-coupons on your Fry's card before you go for additional savings.

My shopping list (after coupons, of course!) includes free Betty Crocker frosting & Warm Delights, .50 Betty Crocker muffin mix, .08 Betty Crocker pouch potatoes, and .30 Betty Crocker cookie mix! What's on your list?

Ready to win your $25 gift card to Fry's?

Here's how to enter:
Leave me a comment telling me which Cart Buster deal you are most excited about. Make sure to include your name and email address so I can contact you.

Additional Entries (Leave one comment for each entry):
1. Become a follower on the right side of my blog.
2. Blog about this give-away with a link back to this post.

The fine print:
1. This giveaway is open to US residents only. No P.O. boxes.
2. This giveaway will close on Friday March 12, 2010 at 12pm MST.
3. The winner will be selected via random.org and the winner will be contacted by email. The winner will have 24 hours to claim their prize.
4. The $25 giftcard is for the Kroger family of stores and can be used at any of the following: Kroger, Ralph´s, King Soopers, City Market, Dillons, Smith´s, Fry´s, QFC, Baker´s, Owen´s, Jay C Food Stores, Hilander, Gerbes, Food4Less, Pay Less Super Markets and Scott´s Food & Pharmacy.

Disclosure: In exchange for featuring this promotion, I received a $25 Fry's gift card, information about the Cart Buster Savings Event, and the opportunity to host a giveaway sponsored by the Kroger Family of Stores and General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

Safeway "Buy 5, Save $5" event = 2.50 cost!

I apologize for falling off the face of the earth for a few days! I was out of town visiting family. I am back full force with the AMAZING coupon deals this week. My favorite store (of late) has been Safeway and the deals are rockin' this week!

Here are some of the highlights at Safeway:

• $1.28 16 oz. strawberries
• "Buy 5, Save $5 deal" - moneymaker after MQs & EQs!
• Wednesday, 3/10 only Kellogg's cereal - moneymaker after MQs!

Click here for your local Safeway ad to view all participating items & other sales.

Here's a recap of the "Buy 5, Save $5" deal:

 

Buy any 5 participating items (in one transaction), save $5 instantly. Limit 20 items per transaction. Must buy in quantities of 5 to get the price listed. Mix & match within price point only.

I'll post a picture of my Safeway trip as soon as I get home. I just wanted to get this post up for you so you have time to do the Kellogg's deal before the end of the day. Here's what I did (*'d prices reflect sales price when you buy 5):

#1
*1.50 Apple Jacks, Corn Pops, Froot Loops (5) .30 profit each
*1.00 BC fruit snacks (5) .40 profit each
*1.50 Nature Valley bars & clusters (5) .34 profit each
*.99 Marie's salad dressing (5) .01 profit each
1.28 16 oz. strawberries (2)
.79 Rosarita refried beans (3) .45 each
.89 candy bar- filler
30.77 subtotal
-.70/1 Kellogg's blinkie MQ found today at Fry's (5)
-.50/2 BC fruit snacks MQ 3/7 SS (2)
-1.00 in Betty Crocker EQs
-.40/1 Nature Valley MQ 3/7 SS (5)
-4.20 in Nature Valley EQs!
-1/1 Marie's salad dressing (5) 1/3 or 1/31 SS
-.50/3 Rosarita beans 1/24 SS
8.57 total
Paid with (2) $4.00 HBO cats, paid .57 OOP
Earned $7.50 in cats (3.50 Betty Crocker, 4.00 Kelloggs)
SUMMARY: $1.07 cost!

#2
*1.50 Apple Jacks, Corn Pops, Froot Loops (5) .30 profit each
*1.00 BC fruit snacks (5) .10 profit each
.79 Rosarita refried beans (3) .45 each
1.06 bananas (.59/lb.)
14.87 subtotal
-.70/1 Kellogg's blinkie MQ found today at Fry's (5)
-.50/2 BC fruit snacks MQ 3/7 SS (2)
-.50/3 Rosarita beans 1/24 SS
8.93 total paid with $7.50 in cats, 1.43 on giftcard
Earned $7.50 in cats (3.50 BC fruit snacks, 4.00 Kelloggs)
SUMMARY: 1.43 cost
 
TOTAL SUMMARY: 2.50 cost
 
If you are planning on doing the Kellogg's cereal deal, make sure to get there today - Wednesday, March 10th! The cat stops printing today!

Burning EBs at CVS

I had about $30 in EB expiring this week with not-so-great deals at CVS. I definitely would have skipped CVS this week if I had a choice. Oh well, I was able to grab 2 printer cartidges for no OOP so that is definitely a valuable purchase, considering all the printable coupons I use! The printer cartridge deal is a $10 EB wyb 2 cartridges. Some are as low as 19.99, mine were 26.99 each. I used the Nature's Bounty BOGO sale & its overage to help cover the cost.

#1
26.99 HP ink cartridge
7.99 Nature's Bounty fish oil (2) BOGO sale
34.98 subtotal
-5.00/1 Nature's Bounty IPQ (2)
24.98 + 2.82 tax = 27.80 paid with 23.98 EB, 3.82 on giftcard
Received $1 EB from green bag tag
SUMMARY: 26.80 cost

#2
26.99 HP ink cartridge
7.99 Nature's Bounty fish oil (4) BOGO sale
42.97 subtotal
-5.00/1 Nature's Bounty IPQ (4)
22.97 + 3.38 tax = 26.35 paid with 14.00 EB, 12.35 cash
Received $10 EB
SUMMARY: 16.35 cost

FINAL SUMMARY: 43.15 cost or 22.00 each

WalMart sells these for $24, so I feel good about this purchase. Plus, the 12.35 cash I used came out of my rebate money, so I didn't actually add any OOP cost to my budget. Buying 2 printer cartridges with "CVS money" is much better than spending actual money. Plus, I have a $10 EB that doesn't expire until April!

Great Links & Upcoming Deals

If you have a minute, check out these links for some great coupons & money saving ideas...

KC over at Desert Deals Diva has a great post here about the Fry's "March to Savings" online instant win game. I won a king sized Reese's and she won a $5 store credit! You can play once a day and prized are loaded right onto your card. How fun!

Queen over at My Brain is Inside Out has a link here for a new $20 coupon booklet from Kraft and P&G. I'm excited for this one to arrive becaus it has coupons for Capri Sun and Kraft Velveeta cups - both of which I need to finish up my $20 Kraft rebate.

This week, I received my $10 Kellogg's Special K rebate check. This brings my rebate total for the year to $48.50! I love turning free products into cash!

The new grocery sale week starts tomorrow. Here are some things that look promising to me:

SAFEWAY -
$10 cat wyb $25 in participating frozen foods
1.88 milk
Mix n Match Cheese Sale - 1.49 Kraft & Sargento, 1.99 Precious
.50 Yoplait yogurt cups

FRY'S-
.88 Pillsbury items with possible cat deal?
Prevacid deal (details here at My Southwest Savings)

Also, be on the lookout for a new Safeway coupon booklet filled with $18 in Safeway store coupons. It's called "Love Your Heart" and it's all about promoting healthy products. Krazy Coupon Lady has a picture of the booklet and a full listing of all included coupons. Grab these and use them quick- the expiration date is 3/23/10! Only 3 weeks to use these! And remember, you can combine store Qs with MQs!

Free Special K & more P&G deals at Safeway

I made a quick run to Safeway because the rest of my BOGO Special K coupons were expiring. I printed these about a month ago, so if you also printed them out, you can do this deal too!

I did 5 seperate transactions of 2 cereals with a filler of bananas or the 1.68 cheap strawberries (.68 after .50/1 Driscoll's produce IPQ!- no longer available). Each transaction looked roughly like this...

3.00 Special K cereal (2)
.63 bananas (1 lb @ .59/lb.)
.10 tax
6.73 subtotal
-1/1 Kellogg's cereal MQ pink peelie found at Bashas
-BOGO Special K IPQ (auto deducted 3.99!)
-2.00 in-ad Q (deducted $2, $1 for each cereal)
-.26 total, cashier entered .26 grocery item to balance total

While I was at Safeway, I also found a $10 Frozen Foods cat in the parking lot! What a great find - that's just like a $10 bill lying in the street!

Good news for those of you still waiting to jump in on the Safeway P&G deal before it ends Tuesday - you waited for the right time! There is a 3 day sale (special insert was in Sunday's paper) which includes P&G products. The Bounty 12 pack of paper towel rolls and 24 pack of Charmin TP rolls (along other products) are ringing up for 9.99 wyb 2 items pictured in the ad. Here comes the good news... the shelf price (12.99 & 13.99) are counting towards the $25 cat requirements! This means you can buy 1 Bounty & 1 Charmin for $20 AND get the $10 cat! If you have coupons, this deal gets even better!

IMPORTANT- MAKE SURE THE REGULAR PRICES TOTAL UP TO AT LEAST $25. SOME PEOPLE ARE REPORTING THEIR BOUNTY & CHARMIN PRICES ARE 11.99 EACH WHICH WOULD ONLY TOTAL TO $23.98. IF YOU HAVE THE LOWER PRICES, ADD A SMALL FILLER (FEBREZE AIR EFFECTS OR DAWN SOAP) OR GO TO ANOTHER SAFEWAY.

Here is a sample transaction that will get you a $10 cat-
9.99 Bounty 12 pack paper towels
9.99 Charmin 24 pack TP rolls
19.98 + .78 tax = 20.76 subtotal
-1/1 Charmin eQ from PG e-saver
-1/1 Bounty eQ from PG e-saver
-.25/1 Bounty MQ 2/7 PG (quadrupled to $1)
-.25/1 Charmin MQ 2/7 PG (quadrupled to $1)
16.76 OOP, earn $10 cat
6.76 cost for 12 paper towels & 24 TP rolls!

I did this same transaction, but I also included 2 boxes of Special K (which was giving me .99 overage) so I had a subtotal of 15.77. I paid with the $10 Frozen Foods cat I found and the $4 cat from Honey Bunches of Oats. My total was 1.77 paid OOP & I earned the $10 PG cat.

More exciting news.... since it is March 1st, there are new, HIGHER VALUE PG e-saver eQs available to load onto your card - link on the right side of my blog. I loaded mine this morning, and I saw $3.00 off one Bounty 12 pk or larger & $3.00 off one Charmin 24 roll pk or larger. This means after your MQs and eQs come off, you will have a final cost of 2.76 after tax for both HUGE packs of Bounty & Charmin! Wowza! I haven't ever seen a deal like this on paper products - get to Safeway by the end of the sale on Tuesday! Here is my usual disclaimer- this deal worked for me, but may not work for you. Couponers beware! :)

SIDE NOTE- I received a comment (which I accidentally deleted, sorry!) letting me know that the fine print on the P&G cat says it is not to be used on more P&G products. I didn't see that restriction, because 99% of the time, cats only restrict the normal things like postage, lottery tickets, etc. Thanks for the heads up! END OF SIDE NOTE

Safeway - 7 boxes of cereal, 5 gallons of milk, & eggs for 35 cents!

I have been looking forward to this day all week, not only because it's Friday. Today, the Honey Bunches of Oats cat started printing (details here) making a very profitable deal at Safeway! The HBO price varies from 1.50 to 2.00 depending on your Safeway. The first Safeway I went to had the 1.50 sale price, but they shut me down on the Real CA milk Qs. So, I abandoned cart and headed to the Safeway a couple of miles away. Their HBO was priced at $2 each, but I had the other SW's ad, so they honored the 1.50 price. Be aware of the price differences and make sure you shop at the SW that has 1.50 HBO.

1.50 Honey Bunches of Oats (5)
2.19 milk (5)
3.00 Special K (2)
2.09 eggs
.31 tax
26.85 subtotal
-2.00 for in-ad Special K SWQ
-BOGO Special K IPQ no longer available (deducted $3)
-1/1 Kellogg's cereal pink peelie found at Bashas
-2/1 HBO blinkies found on dairy case doors (5)
-.55/1 Real CA milk IPQ (5)
My total should have been 5.85, but when the manager fixed the price of the HBOs, she took off too much. She should have only deducted 2.50, but instead she took off 4.00.
4.35 total paid OOP, earned $4 OYNO
SUMMARY = .35 cost!

I was expecting a higher OOP, but I couldn't figure out what happened until I studied my receipt at home. YMMV on using the milk Qs along with the HBO qs. There are no beeps, but I had a cranky cashier who was determined to shut me down on something. I pointed out that neither Q said that it couldn't be combined with other Qs. She asked one manager and she said it was fine. But, then she felt the need to double check with a different manager who said the milk didn't have the CA seal. I was done explaining every coupon to these people, so I just voided the entire order and headed to the next Safeway. I had no problems at the second store.

One thing to note, if you are going to do the Special K deal with both Qs, one will beep because the BOGO attaches to 2 items. However, I read an interesting post on Krazy Coupon Lady explaining why you should be able to do this - read it here. The second Q beeped, but the cashier pushed it right through. I figured I would try it out and if they denied it, I would just have them take the Special K off my order.

If you need cereal or milk, Safeway is the place to be!

Safeway P&G Deal ($95 in P&G products & no cash out of my pocket!)

There is a great deal on P&G products at Safeway through Tuesday, 3/2. When you buy $25 worth of participating products, you'll receive a cat for $10 OYNO. I did 3 transactions today, spent zero OOP, and got some great deals.

NOTES:
#1: All of my eQs came from P&G E-Saver which can be found on the right side of my blog.
#2: The Mr. Clean is priced at 3.49 wyb 1, 1.99 wyb 3 or more. The 3.49 price is counting towards the $25 requirement, making this an awesome deal if you have the HMS (Home Made Simple) Qs. If you don't know what Home Made Simple is, click here!

#1
4.99 Bounce dryer bar -$1.50/1 2/21 PG, -$1/1 eQ = 2.49
1.99 Mr. Clean cleaner (6) -.75/1 HMS MQ (6) = .99 each
BEFORE Qs = 16.93
AFTER Qs = 8.43 + 1.26 tax = 9.69 total paid on giftcard
Received $10 OYNO
SUMMARY = .31 profit

#2
2.49 Dawn Direct Foam -1.50/1 HMS MQ, -.50/1 eQ = .49
5.99 Tide detergent -.35/1 Tide 2/7 PG, -.35 eQ = 4.64
6.99 Tide stain booster -Free wyb Tide 2/7 PG, -$1 eQ = $1 profit
3.00 Febreze -.50/1 HMS MQ = 2.00
1.99 Mr. Clean cleaner (4) -.75/1 HMS MQ (4) = .99 each
BEFORE Qs = 26.43
AFTER Qs = 10.09 + 1.15 tax = 11.24
Paid with $10 cat & 1.24 on giftcard
Received $10 OYNO
SUMMARY = 1.24 cost
NOTES:

#1: The Febreze scent "Linen & Sky" did not trigger the eQ to deduct. If you want your eQ to come off, don't buy that scent.

#2: The Tide stain booster doesn't count towards the $25 cat deal, but it was a moneymaker and it will help my totals for the P&G $50 Q book & $10 Visa card wyb $25 products. More on that later...

#3

3.00 Febreze Air Effects (2) -.50/1 HMS MQ (2), -$1 eQ = 1.50 each
10.99 Swiffer starter kit -3/1 Swiffer MQ from inside Pampers box = 7.99
8.49 Swiffer wet refills -Free wyb starter kit HMS MQ = FREE
1.00 Nivea lip care (2) -BOGO MQ 2/7 RP (cashier entered 1.99?) = .01 for both
BEFORE Qs = 27.48

AFTER Qs = 11.00 + 2.18 tax = 13. 18
Paid with $10 cat & 3.18 on giftcard

Received $10 OYNO

SUMMARY = 3.18 cost
NOTES: I had read reports that the Nivea BOGO MQ was auto deducting 2.99 for 2 lip products making a .99 moneymaker for every 2 purchased. There was no auto deducting for me. The Q beeped and the cashier put in 1,99. Maybe that was the price before the sale was factored in? I don't know, but either way, I got both lip products for a penny.

These deals are pretty awesome on their own, but the deals get even sweeter!

$100 P&G Coupon Book wyb $50 in P&G products

I have easily qualified for this coupon booklet with my 3 transactions today. I will send off for this tomorrow!

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Go For The Gold Rebate - $10 prepaid Visa giftcard wyb $25 P&G products

To get in on this rebate, you have to find the tearpad rebate form. I grabbed mine at Safeway, but I've also seen them at Albie's & Bashas. Here is a link to the details, as posted at Hot Coupon World.

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FINAL SUMMARY: $4.11 cost before Visa rebate card, $6.89 profit after :)