"Local Ladies:" Meet Saving in Detroit

I have decided to take the next several weeks to introduce MICHIGAN's long list of savvy shopping blogs to you! Each day I will be adding a new blog to my "Local Ladies" sidebar! Enjoy!

Jenny, the blog author of Saving in Detroit (.blogspot.com), is a local lady who loves to share her coupon spending insight through her own personal shopping!

Jenny has a very unique style of sharing her spending and savings each week in her Friday Frugal Report... she uses charts and graphs! I LOVE it! Jenny also shares an in depth chart of her weekly Meijer purchases (it is super easy to read!), weekly HOT deals and sweet online deals!

Jenny, thank you for sharing your coupon journey with us, I love reading/learning through the use of your charts and graphs!

Spending/Saving Saturday March 13-20

Meijer

Grocery Total: $44.10
Spent: $2.00
Saved: $42.10
Store Rewards Spent: $13 ($10 from Walgreens for purchasing Benedryl & $3 from Kroger for purchasing Oscar Mayer bacon)


Items purchased with coupons:
KEY: MFC= Manufacturer's coupon, MBC= Meijer Mealbox coupon, IP= Internet printable coupon.

Campbells (MFC & MBC)

Kroger (Dave put the groceries away for me before I could snap a picture, he's such a thoughtful guy)

Grocery Total: $47.73
Spent: $15.57
Saved: $32.16
Store Rewards Spent: $0

Items purchased with coupons:
KEY: MFC= Manufacturer's coupon, MBC= Meijer Mealbox coupon, IP= Internet printable coupon.

Oscar Mayer bacon (IP), Snickers (MFC), and I purchased a few other items to make food for a shower!

CVS
Spent: $0 (gift card from transferring a prescription)
Saved: $8.93

Rite Aid
Spent: $0 (gift card from transferring a prescription)
Saved: $26.49
***I purchased 4 deodorants, a gallon of milk and a 12 pack of Pepsi throwback using the overage on the deodorant and the $3/$15! Dave was thrilled!


Walgreens
Spent: $2.43
Saved: $32.16
***I made two transactions spending $4.40 on a rebate gift card, and made a partial payment on a Walgreens gift card.

And these additional purchases this week,
Spent: $35.93
Saved: $92.67

Weekly Total: $292.51 worth of groceries/household items purchased
Spent: $55.93*
Saved: $236.51

*My sister and I will be sharing the grocery expense for the shower, so I'll be removing $20 from my total.

Macomb Money Savers

Jolyn, a personal friend, and the blog author of Macomb Money Savers, has temporarily stopped posting due to a blog name/domain issue, but rest assured, she is itching to get back to posting!

Please keep Jolyn and her family in your prayers during this stressful time, thank you!

"Local Ladies:" Meet Saving Addiction

I have decided to take the next several weeks to introduce MICHIGAN's long list of savvy shopping blogs to you! Each day I will be adding a new blog to my "Local Ladies" sidebar! Enjoy!

Giselle & Lauren, the blog authors of Saving Addiction (.com), are West side Michigan ladies who are passionate about blogging online and in store deals!

Giselle and Lauren use a tag team approach to bring us each week's HOTTEST deals for Rite Aid, Walgreens, Target, Family Fare and Meijer. Giselle and Lauren also enjoy posting new online printable coupons, mailbox freebies, rebate forms and (my personal favorite) their quest to Change the World with Change!!!

Giselle and Lauren, thank you for your wonderful posting style and your desire to encourage coupons spenders to 'gather and give!'

SUPER Saturday at Meijer... Tomorrow

Jolyn has all of the scoop for this weekend's Super Saturday Sale at Meijer! I can't wait to get $1 strawberries!

Thanks Jolyn!

"Clean Me Up Spotty:" Napkin Edition

OK, yes, I understand that this is hardly a clean me up spot, but I personally hate when napkins fall all over the place!

Formerly, (yesterday) we placed our napkins in a stand up holder, and when we would run low our napkins would slouch and eventually fall out of the holder!

Today, I've re- purposed a decorative bucket into our new napkin holder! It looks SO cute in my kitchen... and no more napkin clutter!!! Yay!

Do YOU have any creative kitchen organization ideas?

"Local Ladies:" Meet Savvy Spending

I have decided to take the next several weeks to introduce MICHIGAN's long list of savvy shopping blogs to you! Each day I will be adding a new blog to my "Local Ladies" sidebar! Enjoy!

Meghan, the blog author of Savvy Spending (-meghan.blogspot.com), is a Metro Detroit lady with a passion for tapping her keyboard in order to bring us the sweet deals!

Meghan prowls the web and brings us HOT coupon links, deal scenarios, FREE samples, rebate ideas, the early scoop about Kmart's SUPER DOUBLES and even her own personal shopping pictures! Meghan's quick posts save the rest of us time and money!

Meghan, thank you for spending some of your free time online, helping all of us spend less than full retail!

Thought Provoking Thursday

About a week ago, as we were planing to have a friend over for dinner, I made the sad discovery that we were out of my homemade Alfredo sauce! Since my Alfredo sauce is to die for (in my most humble opinion... wink), I decided to pick up some of the key ingredients at Costco that very same week!

Because Costco is what I consider to be a high volume sales kind of store, I just assume that all of the products (especially the expirable items) will have a decent/standard/typical length of time before the product is no longer fresh enough to be consumed...



I was SHOCKED to find three vary differing expiration dates for the heavy cream that I was planning to purchase. Look again at the three carton pictures, March 13, April 17 and May 1... WOW that is a BIG gap in dates!

If I had just mindlessly grabbed the first carton that I could reach, I would have brought home an old carton of cream! Truth be told, I still have yet to make another quadruple batch of my yummy Alfredo sauce, so having a little bit of 'carton picky-ness' has paid off since I have until May 1 to make it!

Are YOU a date checker? Do YOU even check dates at stores with high volume product turn over?

"Local Ladies:" Meet Coupon Crazy Chrys

I have decided to take the next several weeks to introduce MICHIGAN's long list of savvy shopping blogs to you! Each day I will be adding a new blog to my "Local Ladies" sidebar! Enjoy!

Chrys, the blog author of Coupon Crazy Chrys (.com), is a Metro Detroit blogger who is passionate about helping US to make sense of the Drugstore Game!

Chrys graciously dedicates large chunks of her time to matching coupon to all of the weekly deals at CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Walmart, Save-A-Lot and Family Dollar. Chrys does an amazing job of linking $/$$$ coupons to the drug stores, so we can save just a little bit more, as well as setting up deal scenarios so that we can get the "best bang for our buck!"

Chrys, thank you for spending your time, and posting early so that we can fill our homes with quality products and still have plenty more to share!

Want-A-Peek Wednesday

Meijer

Grocery Total: $74.40
Spent: $12.32
Saved: $62.08
Store Rewards Spent: $0
***I made 2 transactions.

Items purchased with coupons:
KEY: MFC= Manufacturer's coupon, MBC= Meijer Mealbox coupon, IP= Internet printable coupon.

Betty Crocker potatoes (IP), Old Orchard juice (IP & MBC), Bagel bites (IP), Goldfish crackers (IP), Land O Lakes butter (IP), Crackerfills (MFC & Meijer coupon), Valley Fresh Steamers (IP), Chex Mix (IP).

Costco

Grocery Total: $22.10
***My sister and I are throwing a shower for my soon to be sister in law! I was tickled to find flour tortillas (36 for $3.79) at Costco! I'll be sharing a new party recipe soon!


Target (no picture, sorry)
*I needed a gallon of milk, and Target, who normally sells a gallon for $3.49, had them on sale for $1.99... so I price matched Kelloggs cereal (rolling a $5 GC and receiving a new one!), and I picked up several trial sized items.

I'm not sure how I ended up paying so little, but I checked out at the Customer Service desk and it took 10+ minutes and my cashier leaving to ask questions 5 TIMES... so, I think she *may* have paid me for my time.

Grocery Total: $31.10
Spent: $1.51
Saved: $30.59
Store Rewards Spent: $5 (Gift Card)

Weekly Purchasing: $128.60
Spent: $35.93
Saved: $92.67