Monday, July 14, 2014

Stocking up on Diapers

Everyone knows that babies require a lot of personal care items that can be pretty pricey. There are ways of getting those items at a fraction of the cost, and in this post I'm going to share my tips with you.

Generally the best deals on diapers are at drugstores. Pretty much monthly Walgreens, CVS, or Rite Aid will run a sale on diapers that will also print out a reward at the register. One tip I have is to give up being loyal to a specific brand. I know this will not work for everyone as some babies are cloth diapered or sensitive to certain diapers, but if your baby isn't, keeping this in mind will help build your stockpile quicker. This way you can grab whatever brand is on sale, and not have to wait for your specific brand to run a sale. I currently have Luvs, Huggies, and Pampers brands in my stockpile. All of which I bought while they were on sale for much less than I would have had to pay if I bought them full price.

To give you an idea of this here is a deal I did at CVS today 7/12/14. (This deal is no longer available)
  • Buy 4 Pampers = $9.00 each (on sale for 2/$18. Regular price is $11.99. You also get a $10 gas card when you spend $30.) 
Total = $36 + tax
  • Use a $5 off $35 baby care CVS coupon  (can be found on the CVS website)
  • Use 4 $2/1 manufacture coupons
  • Use $1 extra care buck (I was sent this in an email. Make sure to sign up with your extra                                     care card to get special coupons)
Total after coupons = $24.63 including tax. I also got back a $10 gas card. 

If you factor in the gas card it's like I paid $14.63 for 4 jumbo packs of diapers, or $3.66 per jumbo pack!


Oddly enough I typically get the best deals on baby wipes at Harris Teeter, but there are other stores who run deals on them as well. (Lowes foods often have cheap wipes as well. I don't have a Lowes Foods near me but if you do that's also a great place to find baby deals.) My price goal for wipes is $1 or less a pack. When I see that they are this price I make sure to not just buy 1 pack but as many packs as I can with the coupons I have. That way I never have to worry about running out of wipes and having to go to the store and possibly pay FULL PRICE for them in an emergency.

My little lady will normally go through a jumbo pack of diapers, and a pack of wipes per week. I use this as a guideline to keep track of how long my stockpile of diapers/wipes will last us. I feel so much more at ease knowing I have about 5 months of wipes and 1.5 months of diapers waiting for me in the nursery. (Not just 1.5 months of diapers in the size she's currently in, but 1.5 months worth in 3 different sizes. The current size she's in and the next 2 sizes she'll move into)

What tips do you have on finding baby deals? Do you keep a stockpile of items on hand as well?

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Weekly grocery trips - 6/25-7/2

We are now a 1 income family and I've been working hard to save every penny we can to ensure we still live comfortably despite the loss of my income. One area I can do this is by couponing in order to save on our groceries while keeping a strict budget. Each week I plan to write a post similar this one to hold me accountable for sticking to my budget.

This week I made multiple trips to Harris Teeter for the bulk of my shopping. They were having their Super Doubles sale and I was able to score some killer deals. I like to buy multiples of an item to keep extra on hand so that we never have to run to the store and pay full price for something just because we have run out. My favorite deal this week had to be the Purdue chicken at .19 a bag. We tried some earlier in the week and it's delicious, and you can't beat .19 for a bag of chicken that originally cost $8.39!

Here is a break down of my trips for the week:

Harris Teeter  (Super Doubles trip #1)

  • 1 bag of Purdue chicken 
  • 3 Birds Eye recipe ready
  • 3 Tom's of Maine bar soaps
  • 4 Yakisoba's
  • 3 Vidal Sassoon styling products
  • 1 Tide detergent 
  • 3 boxes of snickers/twix icecream bars

Total value = $66.51
Money spent out of pocket after coupons = $2.84
Savings = 96%

Harris Teeter (Super Doubles trip #2)


  • 3 bags of Purdue chicken
  • 1 Birds Eye recipe ready
  • 1 box of Twix icecream bars
  • 6 Old El Paso seasonings
  • 3 Lunchables  (I accidentally picked up one that wasn't the smoothie variety, so I did not get my $2 Catalina coupon back. I still made out pretty good so I don't feel the need to refund the items.)

Total value = $46.62
Money spent out of pocket after coupons = $5.76
Savings = 88%

Harris Teeter (Super Doubles trip #3)


  • 2 cans of Planters peanuts
  • 4 Horizon Mac-n-cheese
  • 2 Zevia 6 pk cream soda
  • 2 Sara Lee pound cakes

Total value = $35.54
Money spent out of pocket after coupons = $3.32
Savings = 91%

**I also received a .50 Ibotta deposit on the Zevia but I did not include that in my savings**

Harris Teeter (Super Double trip #4)


  • 4 boxes of Mueller pasta
  • 2 packs of Angel Soft toilet paper (12 double rolls)
  • 4 Yakisoba meals
  • 6 Maruchan bowls
  • 1 Hormel Complete meal

Total value = $37.58
Money spent out of pocket after coupons = $5.36
Savings = 86%

Harris Teeter (Super Doubles trip #5)




  • 3 bags of Purdue chicken

Total value = $25.30
Money spent out of pocket after coupons = .72
Savings = 97%

Target




  • 4 Market Pantry frozen appetizers
  • 1 pack of Gerber baby utensils
  • 1 box of Up & Up rice cereal

Total value = $16.34
Money spent out of pocket after coupons = $7.62
Savings = 55% (not as great of a trip as I'd like but I needed the baby items which didn't have coupons.)


Harris Teeter (Super Doubles trip #6)



  • 1 bag of Purdue chicken
  • 4 boxes of Horizon mac-n-cheese

Total value = $16.46
Money spent out of pocket after coupons = $2.00
Savings = 88%


Here is a break down of my grand total for the week:

Total value for the week = $244.35
Total out of pocket money spent for the week = $27.62
Savings for the week = 89%