Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Amazon Subscribe & Save Order 3/2016

Amazon Subscribe & Save
Tax: $3.02
Total Spent: $67.60
*Paid for with gift cards earned using AdLove, ReceiptPal, and mPoints apps.
**We only paid for 3 items this time, but we still save 15% because we also order for someone else who usually only needs one or two items.

Current Amount Over(+)/Under(-) Budget: +$9.77

Monday, March 7, 2016

Safeway Shopping Trip 3/6/16

Safeway (Alexandria, VA)
  • Dr. Pepper 16.9oz 6-pack - $2.84
    • Sale Price $3.34
    • $0.50 off 1 Safeway Coupon printed from Monopoly
  • Lucerne Chocolate Milk 12oz - $1.19
    • Ibotta Rebate Eligible ($0.25 any brand Flavored Milk)
  • New York Texas Toast - $2
    • Sale Price $3
    • $1 off 1 from 3/6 Smartsource
    • Ibotta Rebate Eligible ($0.75)
Tax: $0.18
Total Spent This Trip: $6.21
*Paid with gift card purchased from Dlyte.

Coupon Savings: $1.50
Rebate Total: $1

Current Amount Over(+)/Under(-) Budget: +$38.57
*Only because I already bought Safeway cards for next 2 weeks.

CVS Shopping Trip 3/6/16

CVS (Alexandria, VA)
  • Colgate Total Toothpaste - $0.99
    • Sale Price $2.99
    • $2 off 1 Coupon printed from Coupons.com through Swagbucks
    • $1 Extrabucks
  • Colgate Optic White Mouthwash x2 - $4.99 each
    • Sale Price $5.99
    • $1 off 1 from 3/6 Smartsource x2
      • I don't usually have multiple newspaper coupons, but this week I lucked out finding an extra set of coupon inserts a neighbor had put in the recycle pile. However, I think I still would've been able to do this deal twice because there was a coupon to print, too.
    • $6 Extrabucks ($3 when you buy 1, limit of 2 per household)
  • Pepperidge Farm Milano Cookies - $2.50
    • Sale Price $2.50
    • $1 off 1 Coupon printed from Coupons.com through Swagbucks
      • Got my coupons mixed up and I forgot to use, so it should've been $1.50.
  • Easter M&Ms x2 - $1.25 each
    • Sale Price $2.50
    • $1 off 2 Coupon printed from Coupons.com through Swagbucks
    • $1 off 2 CVS Coupon on my card
    • $0.50 off 1 Easter candy CVS Coupon on my card
    • $1 Extrabuck 
  • Cadbury Egg - $0.25
    • Sale Price $0.99
    • $0.74 CVS coupon from in-store kiosk
Tax: $1.11
ExtraBucks Used: $0
Total Spent This Trip: $17.33
*Paid w/ gift card bought through MyGiftCardsPlus to earn Swagbucks
*Also, forgot to use my $1 Extrabuck from last week in my coupon mix up.

Coupon Savings: $7.24
ExtraBucks Earned: $8
Rebate Total: $0

Current Amount Over(+)/Under(-) Budget: +$38.57
*Only because I already bought Safeway cards for next 2 weeks.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Using ReceiptHog to Boost Our Grocery Budget

ReceiptHog is an app that you can submit your receipts to earn points that can be redeemed for Amazon gift cards or cash via PayPal. It takes awhile to earn enough points to cash out, but it doesn't take much effort and certainly gives a good boost to the grocery budget when you are able to redeem for $30 (about every four to six months for us).

You used to only be able to submit grocery receipts, but you can now submit pretty much any kind of receipt. However, not all receipts earn you coins. Mainly places where you buy groceries such as supermarkets, convenience stores, pet stores, dollar stores, etc. are ones that earn you coins. The amount of coins you earn varies based on how much you spend (max 20 receipts or 275 points a week). Other stores like for clothing can be submitted to earn you spins. All receipts also give you an entry in the monthly sweepstakes.

Spins are earned from certain receipts that don't qualify for coins. They are also earned when you submit at least one receipt a week for a certain amount of weeks each month. If you're lucky you can win a lot of coins from the spins, but I find I rarely win and when I do I get like 2 coins, so really the spins contribute very little to being reaching 4500 to redeem for $30.

Overall I find ReceiptHog a useful app for not only having records of purchases, but earning some extra money for groceries. It does have options lower than $30 to cash out, but you get way more for your coins if you wait until you can redeem for $30. For example, $5 costs 1,000 coins, but instead of costing 6,000 for $30,  it only costs 4,500. Also, it's the same value whether you choose to get Amazon or Paypal. I always go with Paypal because then I can use it wherever we want to get groceries including buying an Amazon card on Dlyte if needed for our every other month Amazon Subscribe & Save order.

Friday, March 4, 2016

Using SavingStar to Boost Our Grocery Budget

SavingStar is mainly an app to earn cashback when you buy the items featured in their grocery offers. I did recently realize that they also have a way to earn cashback for online shopping, but there are only a few places and the only one I imagine myself using anytime would be American Airlines. While I haven't used the online shopping part of SavingStar before, if you do use those places it seems to offer one of the best percentages cashback for those places.

Depending on the store, to get cashback you either link your loyalty card or upload the receipt. The only linked card I've used is for CVS and the cashback is usually in my account within 48 hours. They do sometimes take awhile to process receipts, but I've never had an issue with getting credit even when it's processed after the offer expires as long as I submit before the offer expires.

The grocery offers in SavingStar typically include one healthy offer a week, various product offers that mostly update at the beginning of the month, and some one or many brand offers. They used to have a freebie offer almost every weekend, but it now seems to be only once a month if at all. I think the healthy offers have also been missing some weeks, but most recently they seem to be back to every week (they change on Tuesdays).

The healthy offers vary to sometimes be vegetables and sometimes fruit. We rarely take advantage of these because they tend not to be things we use or something else is on sale that makes it more worthwhile to get that instead.

The regular offers are the ones we use the most. Almost every month they have some Yoplait, General Mills, and Pillsbury offers. Our favorite are the Pillsbury ones as almost every month we manage to get some crescent rolls for pretty much free when we match a sale with a newspaper or printed coupon and then redeem the offer on SavingStar.

Sometimes the One or Many offers are useful, although a lot of times they just aren't worth it for us. This is partly because they are things we don't buy, but also it seems to be that the brands they are for end up not being the ones on sale during that offer period. A lot of times we only end up halfway to them and I rarely buy stuff to finish it off unless it's a good deal on those items anyways. They really can make the products an okay deal on their own though as it does tend to be a good amount back such as $3 when you spend $12 or $4 to $5 when you spend $20.

My main problem with the One or Many offers, though, is that they rarely seem to process the receipt to give you the exact credit of what you spent. Sometimes it ends up being more than what you paid, but sometimes it ends up giving you credit for less than what you paid and I just don't care to even try to contact them so I have no idea if they have good customer service to fix if you try or not.

Overall SavingStar is probably my favorite of the cashback apps. The amount of offers does tend to be limited, but there are consistently ones on things we buy anyways. Also, it's nice that the cashout minimum is $5, which is why it's my favorite ever since Ibotta went to a $20 minimum.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Safeway Shopping Trip 3/3/16

Safeway (Alexandria, VA)
  • Mott's Fruit Snacks - $1.50
    • J4U Coupon Price $2.50
    • $0.50 off 1 Coupon printed from Coupons.com through Swagbucks (doubled to $1)
    • Ibotta Rebate Eligible ($0.50)
    • SavingStar Rebate Eligible ($0.50)
  • Sparkling Ice 12-pack - $13.99
  • Arm & Hammer Fridge-n-Freezer x2 - $1.29 each
  • Chef Boyardee - $1
    • Sale Price 
  • Nestle Pure Life Exotics 8-pack - $3.49
    • Ibotta Rebate Eligible ($1.25)
  • Mission Tortillas 10ct - $2.18
    • J4U Personalized Price
  • Snyder's Pretzels - $2.80
    • J4U Personalized Price
    • Ibotta Rebate Eligible ($0.75)
  • Pillsbury Crescent Rolls 4ct x2 - $0.50 each
    • Sale Price $1
    • $1 off 2 Coupon printed from Coupons.com through Swagbucks
    • SavingStar Rebate Eligible ($1 when you buy 2)
  • Lucerne Creamer 32oz - $2.50
    • Sale Price
    • Ibotta Rebate Eligible ($0.25 any brand Cream or Creamer)
  • Lucerne Chocolate Milk 12oz - $1.19
    • Ibotta Rebate Eligible ($0.25 any brand Flavored Milk)
  • Eggo Waffles - $1.88
    • J4U Coupon Price
  • Totino's Pizza Rolls 40ct x2 - $1.74 each
    • J4U Coupon Price $2.49
    • $0.75 off 2 from 1/24 Smartsource (doubled to $1.50)
  • New York Texas Toast - $2
    • Sale Price $3
    • $0.50 off 1 Coupon printed from Coupons.com through Swagbucks (I had this printed from awhile back and was expiring soon. I don't think it's currently available)
    • Ibotta Rebate Eligible ($0.75)
  • Yoplait Plenti Yogurt - $0.30
    • Sale Price $1
    • $0.35 off 1 Coupon printed from Coupons.com through Swagbucks (doubled to $0.70)
    • SavingStar Rebate Eligible ($0.35)
  • Foster Farms Corn Dogs 16ct - $4.99
    • J4U Coupon Price
Tax: $1.21
Total Spent This Trip: $46.59
*Paid with gift card purchased from Dlyte.

Coupon Savings: $5.20
Rebate Total: $7.60

Monopoly Tickets Earned & Coupons: 7
  • $0.25 off Stouffer's Homestyle Dinner (8-12oz)
  • $0.25 off Jolly Time Microwave Popcorn (3 or 4 pack)
  • $0.25 off Cottonelle Fresh Care Flushable Cleansing Cloths (42ct)
  • $1 off Tidy Cats Scoopable Cat Litter (20lb)
Current Amount Over(+)/Under(-) Budget: +$84.87
*Only because I already bought Safeway cards for next 2 weeks.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Amazon Prime Pantry Order 3/1/16

Amazon Prime Pantry
No Rush Shipping Credit: -$5.99
Tax: $0.15
Total Spent This Trip: $6.88
*Paid for with gift cards earned using AdLove, ReceiptPal, and mPoints apps.

Current Amount Over(+)/Under(-) Budget: +$90.87
*Only because I just bought $100 in Safeway cards for upcoming weeks.

I really prefer when I get $1 credits to use on music or Kindle books from selecting no rush shipping on things I buy on Amazon, but every once in awhile it's nice to get these Prime Pantry credits if you can combine it with a free shipping Prime Pantry promo. I mostly just went with the cheapest stuff this time around because nothing including were truly things we needed right now, but I did notice besides the snack food that Band-Aids were another good item to add if you need a fill-in to get to 5 cheap.