October's Grocery Budget Status?

Were you dying to know? Well, I went over the aggressive $30 a week budget for October... but still, I did better than I thought! It was about $35 a week. And that's because I did some stocking up at CVS (as you can see in the picture below). BUT once I get reimbursements/rebates back, then I think it's a little less than that. I'm hoping to do it again- it's a fun challenge.

All this at CVS cost me about $8 out of pocket (subtracting out rebates/reimbursements), with them giving me about $20 in Extra Care Bucks to go back and do some more (almost free!) shopping.

And speaking of CVS, Andy thought he heard that CVS is coming in across Raab from Schnucks where they just cleared... anybody know if there's any truth to that? That would be SUPER great because it's just a few blocks away!

Free "Green" Tote

More and more recently, I have been feeling I need to be a better steward of the resources God has given us... money, home, and the earth. Not that I'm GOOD at it yet, but I'm trying. So anyway, I've been eyeing those "green" grocery totes they have in all the stores... but didn't want to spend extra money on them (especially since, as you may have noticed, I was trying to spend a mere $30 a week on groceries!). Here's my solution!

Target has an offer to get one for free (well, free after postage)! All you have to do is send in five Target plastic bags, and they'll send you a coupon for a free grocery tote. I can do that! You can do it too~ read here.

Deals for the week... K-Mart and make money at Meijer

Maybe I need to make a central IL version of money-saving mom... but I can't help it; I have some great deals to share!

K-Mart is offering double coupons this week through Saturday... doubling up to $2 coupons (yes, so that means a $2 coupon becomes $4 off!). If for some reason your local store is not redeeming them correctly, you can call corporate and have them remind the store that is promotion is going on. I verified this with our Bloomington store, and it's on. You can use a maximum of 75 coupons per visit. I believe I read that they may not accept Internet-printed coupons, so be warned.

Also, Meijer has some great sales that will make you money! Printing off coupons from Mealbox, I am seeing that Jell-O is on sale for $0.50 each, so with the $1.50 coupon off 2 boxes, they will pay you $0.50 to take home the Jell-O! (okay, not actually pay you, but it will pay for something else!) Also I saw:
-Taco Bell is 20% off, and they have a coupon that will work for Taco Bell salsa, taco shells, or dinner kits... the taco shells are (I think) $1.29 before the discount, so you should make money off that. **It appears these Taco Bell coupons are no longer available in Mealbox.**
-also, super deal: Steamfresh bags- on sale for $1.25 each...use Mealbox $1 off 2, combined with $0.35 coupon from a recent paper (doubles to $0.70), and it's $0.40/bag!

Those are just the few I saw at first glance... feel free to share any super deals you see!

Free Tacos... who likes tacos?!

Get a free crunchy seasoned beef taco (one per person!) at Taco Bell on Tuesday, between 2pm-6pm.

See you there. Yummy!

Sneak Peek...

Mindy, here's a peek at your cards... hope you like them! I think they turned out so cute.

Couldn't decide, so I did both styles. I think this one has a sweet vintage-y look.