The best place to find coupons!

I'm telling you, the best place to find coupons is by subscribing to your local newspaper. If you live in an area where you have a choice between a few different papers, be sure to choose the largest in your area. For me, that is the Birmingham News. They have a great deal going right now, you might want to check it out. I love having my coupons delivered to my home, and I don't have to worry that someone else has gone through the paper and picked them all out! If you want to see how to get 26 weeks for $26.00 check it out here.

What is a good price?

I have compiled a list of items with the best prices in my area.
This may be different for you, depending on where you live and what stores you have available.

Keep in mind, all prices listed are after coupons.

Apples $0.99 lb
Bananas $0.33 lb
Grapes $0.99 lb*
Peaches $0.69 lb*
Strawberries $0.99 lb*
Bagged salad $0.99
Can tomatoes $0.33
Can vegetables $0.39-0.55*
Can beans $0.45*
Frozen dinners $0.99
Frozen chic. nuggets $1.99 2 lb
Frozen pizza $3.00
Frozen vegetables $free-0.99
Ice cream/novelty $0.99
Ground sirloin $2.50 lb
Roast $2.49 lb
B/S chicken breasts $1.99 lb
Whole chicken $0.69 lb
Bacon $1.50 lb
Pork chops $1.99 lb
Can tuna $0.49
Hot dogs $0.65-0.99
Ketchup $0.20
Mayonnaise $1.00
Mustard $free
Salad dressing $0.75
Cookies $0.79
Crackers $0.50
Nuts $0.49
Popcorn $1.25
Soups $0.40
Can biscuits $0.45-free
Coffee creamer $0.50
Tea bags family sz $0.80
Butter $1.25 lb
Margarine $0.42
Cheese slices $1.00
Cheese block 8 oz $1.16
Lunch meat $0.75
Cookie dough $free
Eggs $0.99 dz
Yogurt $0.25 4 pk
Milk $2.99 gal
Sour cream $free-0.50
Spaghetti sauce $0.50-1.00
Tomato paste $0.07
Elbow macaroni $0.69
Spaghetti noodles $0.69
Instant potatoes $0.07
Rice $0.99
Cereal $free-1.00
Cake mix $free-0.50
Cooking oil $0.65
Frosting $free
Brownie mix $0.50
Hamburger helper $0.66
Poptarts $0.50
Applesauce $0.66
Can fruit $free-0.50
Jello $free-0.35
Pancake mix $0.65
Syrup $0.75
Sugar $1.49 5 lb

* I usually buy at ALDI

I do 90% of my grocery shopping at Publix and once every few weeks I hit ALDI and stock up on the best price items there.

This is what I came up with as staple items after surveying my refrigerator/pantry.
I will post a list of baby/household/toiletry items soon!

The Coupon Shopper's Glossary of Terms

Glossary of Couponing


Advantage Flyers- These are freely available in your Publix rounder.
They list the items that are on a month long sale. Be patient when you
see these, chances are coupons will be coming out for these items.
BOGO or B1G1- Buy one get one free.
Blinkies- Coupons that are available in the “blinking” automated
machines along grocery store aisles. Free for the taking.
Buy theirs, get ours free- Occasionally, Publix will offer a special incentive to buy a product by offering the identical product in the
Publix store brand to you free of charge.
Coupon Fraud- Unlawful use of a coupon.
Competitors- Who your store views as a competitor. Many Publix
locations accept other grocery stores as competitors, few recognize
drugstores as competitors.
Doubling- Publix, Winn Dixie and some other grocery stores will double your coupon up to .50 daily ($1.00) Some small stores allow for even greater savings.
ECB’s- Extra Care Bucks. This is CVS terminology.
Magic coupon machine- A red machine located in most CVS locations.
Great coupon source!
Manufacturer coupons- Coupons printed, distributed & reimbursed by the manufacturer of a product.
Match-ups- Combining a sale price with a coupon for the best possible price.
OOP- Out Of Pocket cost.
Overage- The $ you are allowed to “apply” to your total bill if the Q is greater that the price of the product.
Peelies- Peel off coupons that are usually attached to the front of a
product. Read carefully! Many peelies are void if not removed by the cashier.
Penny item- Special “secret product” that Publix gives away on Wednesday’s with minimum purchase ($10.00 before coupons) and the “penny item coupon” found in Wednesday’s paper.
PG- Proctor & Gamble (newspaper insert.)
Publix magazines- Grape, Green Wise, Baby Club, etc.
Q’s- Coupons.
Q Booklets- Coupon booklets. These can be found in many places, most often on your Publix rounder.
Rainchecks- A paper that can be obtained from customer service to ensure that you can purchase the product that is out of stock at a later date for the sale price.
Rebates- Mail in or online submission to receive all or a portion of the purchase price of a product.
Rite Aid Videos- Short commercials you can watch online to earn coupons.
Rounder- Revolving rack usually located just inside the front door.
Register Rewards- Walgreens “money“ in the form of manuf. Q‘s. These can be very useful,sometimes accepted in other stores.
RP- Red Plum (newspaper insert.)
SS- Smart Source (newspaper insert.)
Stacking- Using a manufacturer/store/competitor coupon together.
Stockpiling- Building a supply of products that your family can consume in 4-6 weeks.
Store coupons- Coupons that are printed and distributed by the store rather than the manufacturer.
Target Q generator- Resource that allows you to print store coupons from the Target website.
Tearpads- Coupons that are available in a “tear top” design.
When Q’s print as PDF‘s- This is a rare but joyous thing. They can be
saved to your computer as a file and printed as needed.

Milk from CVS...is it a great deal?

I'm sure you can picture the scene in our kitchen this evening. While eating dinner, Justin mentions we are almost out of milk, so off I go to the store while they do kitchen duty (someone has to do it!) I'm having a real dilemma, do I go to Publix (the penny item is today) Winn Dixie (and get my $10.00 off $50.00 purchase coupon) or to CVS where I have plenty of ECB's? CVS won. Probably because it's about 20 degrees out and I didn't have to walk very far to get inside! The milk wasn't on sale this week, but I did have the ECB's. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about these are Extra Care Bucks and this is currency inside the doors of any CVS store. You receive them for various reasons, but they can be spent on almost anything. So, it worked out like this:

2 gallons of Barbers 1% milk (that is all they had left) 3.79 each

I payed with 3 ECB's $1.99, $2.00, $3.00

This brought my total down to $1.27. Two gallons of Barbers for $1.27, not too bad. To my surprise, I had a $1.00 ECB print out on my receipt. Usually, these ECB's are incentives to buy certain products, but sometimes you will just be surprised with some for no apparent reason. Sounds great to me!

Just so you know, I do not think that $3.79 is a good price to pay for milk. I wanted to clarify for those of you who are trying to get a list together on "what is a good price on..." I normally pay $3.09 at Publix for milk (house brand), this is their regular price in my area. While there are places around town that sell milk for less, milk is one of the few things I'm picky about. I know I could get it cheaper, but the risks outweigh the savings (for me.) I don't like to buy milk with hormones added, as much as we drink around here, that just frightens me.

With the bad weather moving in, I believe that my shopping for the week is done. I will be getting a list for you on the best deals at Publix this week. I typically do my grocery shopping on Sundays, because I can go alone, and that is the day that my week starts. I ended this week's budget at $36.63. $3.37 under budget! Since I am challenging myself with such a small budget this year, I will "roll" that money over and begin next week with $43.37.