Topeka HyVee Deals Through Nov. 22

It seems every week, one grocery store in Topeka will have far better deals than the other grocery stores. This week, in my opinion HyVee by far had the better savings.

 

 

If you have not taken advantage of purchasing a Cure 81 Ham and receiving a FREE turkey, I suggest you hurry.  The trick is, of course, is to find the smallest ham possible and the largest turkey (Up to 12 pounds. You will pay the difference for anything over 12 pounds).  I found a ham for $21.46 and a turkey for $16.66. I also had a $2 off coupon for the ham. After $2 off manufacturer coupon (www.hormel.com/updates/coupons/) and store coupon for free turkey, I paid about $1.05 a pound for around 18 pounds of meat (ham and turkey combined). Anytime, you can find meat for around a $1 a pound, it is a great savings. I should get 15-18 (or more) meals from this much meat.

 

My projected menu for this week includes:

 

Turkey and mashed potatoes

Turkey and noodles

Ham and pineapple pizza

Ham and potato casserole

Honeyed Ham, baked sweet potato and grilled asparagus

Loaded Nachos (will need a break from ham and turkey!)

Ham and Potato Chowder with Ritz crackers

 

 

 

 

Another deal I took advantage of was this "Buy 10, save $6 instantly at checkout" coupon. I ended up purchasing Velveeta ($4.39 after doubled manufacturer coupon combined with store coupon), two boxes of Ritz (89 cents each after doubled manufacturer coupon combined with store coupon) and seven packages of cream cheese (69 cents each after store coupon).  Hy-Vee allows you to stack manufacturer coupons with store coupons resulting in great savings.  Even without manufacturer coupons, 69 cents a package is a great price for cream cheese, especially name brand cream cheese. I don't think I have found cream cheese much less than $1 a package for a long time. This cream cheese does not expire until March 2013 so I should be stocked up for quite a while.

 

 

You always find certain things on sale around Thanksgiving--a holiday devoted to gluttony and football. One of those is Cool Whip so I went ahead and got a couple of packages for 69 cents each.  I bought a couple of packages of butter for $1.88 (Aldi's everyday price is about a dime cheaper but I didn't feel like making another stop to just save 20 cents--I'm frugal, not crazy.) There were lots of good deals at HyVee this week but it's really only a deal if it's something you want and will use.

 

The only other special I took advantage of this week was Apple Market had ten pounds of potatoes for $1.68 and asparagus for $2.98 a pound. I love asparagus! I don't like shopping at multiple stores so I try to keep it to two a week. I just know certain things are cheaper at certain stores and wait until they are having a great sale, then stock up on the other less expensive items they sell at the same time I purchase the sale items. For example, the cheapest cat litter I have found in Topeka is at Hy-Vee so I bought some while taking advantage of these sales. It really doesn't take as much effort as you would think to save a ton of money on groceries.

 

I will likely be holding another "Couponing" class in January in Topeka (date yet to be determined). If you or anyone you know would like to attend, please make a pre-reservation by emailing me at ksfarmgirl@live.com.  The cost to attend is $10 a person. Your ten dollar investment will save you hundreds of dollars.

Dillon's Mega Event through November 6, 2012

$11.58 for all pre-tax

Dillon's is having another one of their Mega Events this week. Their are some fairly good deals but this is one of those promotions you have to be careful to make sure you purchase items in the right quantity.

I will probably go back later in the week and pick up a few more items after I have a chance to match up more coupons with sale/event items.  For example, the creamer is $2.49 (if you purchase 10 participating items) and after 55 cent coupon which doubled, it was only $1.49. The Windex is $2.51 and after 50 cent doubled coupon was $1.51 each. If you want to be really frugal, it's easy to make your own cleansers.

 

I actually went to Dillon's in an emergency to buy butter...I paid $2.49 (on sale) for this butter and it almost killed me because the regular price of butter at Wal-Mart and Aldi's is about $1.78.

 

The baggies were $1.21 after coupon. I have a baggie obsession. This was cheaper than the store brands anywhere else but obviously if I had to drastically cut my grocery budget, baggies would be be an easy cut.

 

I had coupons for all of the items pictured above. This, combined with the sales event made many of these items very inexpressive.

 

The toothpaste was free after coupon. I frequently see items such as this at garage sales. Extreme couponers turning around and selling items they have obtained free or almost free. They would take this toothpaste and resell it for around 75 cents. I've been to a couple of garage sales where the seller literally had hundreds of items. Of course, I recognized the items since I had recently purchased them, just not in near the same quantities.

 

Many of Dillon's mega event items do have current coupons. I suggest making an exact list including the number of each item you plan to purchase. If you miscount by 1 item, you could end up paying full price for 9 items. Such a mistake would cost you $4.50.

Dillon's Deals through October 30

$14.20 pre-tax

I found lots of great deals at Dillon's this week. First, Dole pineapple is $1 a can. After my 50 cent coupons which doubled, each can was just 50 cents.

 

Stove Top was not on sale ($1.29 each) but I had a coupon for $1 off two. Heinz gravy is on sale for $1 a jar and if you purchase both Stove Top and Heinz gravy, you will receive a $1 off a future order coupon at checkout.

 

Duncan Hines cake mix is on sale for $1 a box. No coupons but still a pretty good price. Cream cheese is also on sale for $1 a package which is about as cheap as you ever see it. Uncle Ben's is on sale on $1 a package minus coupon made the rice just 50 cents a package.

 

The yogurt is not on sale (90 cents each) but after doubled coupon was only 30 cents each.

 

The three packages of Crest, Hot sauce, carrots and noodles were all free after coupon. All together, I saved $19.09 with my coupons. Of course, I had to purchase a few essentials not on sale and for which I didn't have any coupons. My "total" bill was $36.13 (with tax) and according to Dillon's calculations (coupons and sale items), I saved 55% off my total bill. The percentage off would have been much higher had I only purchased sale items and coupon items.

 

I find free stuff almost every week (usually the item is on sale and after double coupon is free). If you don't have an enormous stockpile of toothpaste, you simply aren't trying very hard. At this point, I try to send toothpaste home with every guest as a party favor.

Which is cheaper, Wal-Mart or Dillon's?

Test Shopping Trip

I had several things I needed to buy this week and decided to use these items as a random sample to compare prices between Wal-Mart and Dillons.  Price comparisons are between store brands unless otherwise stated. Prices were compared in Topeka, Kansas on September 4, 2012.

                                                          Wal-Mart                      Coupon                         Dillons

Nine lives cat food, pack of 24 cans        $9.48                                                              $9.75
Greek Yogurt, 3 large containers            $9.76 (Oikos)                                                  $6.58 (store)
1/2 gallon milk                                        $1.96                                                               $2.19
1/2 gallon cream                                     $3.98                                                               $3.79
Vegetable Oil Spray                               $1.50                                                               $1.67
48 large Tea Bags                                  $2.88                                                               $2.09
Coffee                                                   $6.28 (33.9 oz)                                                $5.28 (34.5 oz)
Raisins                                                  $1.98                                                                $1.79
Suave Deodorant                                   $1.67                                                               $1.79
Axe Cologne, 2                                      $7.47                                                               $8.52
Onion (3 pounds)                                   $2.34   (.78 pound)                                          $2.67 (.88 pound)
Palmolive Dish Detergent, 10 oz             $1.46                                                               $ .89
Quilted Northern Bath Tissue                  $3.04   (.76 roll)                                              $1.89 (.47 roll)
Butter                                                     $2.48                            $.40 (Dillons in store)  $2.29
Ramon Noodles                                      $ .78                             $.50                           $ .85

                                                               $57.06                                                            $52.04
Minus coupons including store issued
 coupons good only at Dillons and
doubled at Dillons
                                                               $   .75                                                              $ 1.90
Total after coupons (before tax)              $ 56.31                                                             $ 50.14

The answer is each store has items that cost less than the other store.  The trick is to try and buy as many items as possible at the store with the lowest price.  If you purchased all of the above items where they were cheapest after coupon,  you would pay $48.12 before tax.  This is about an $8 difference. If you saved $8 every week, you would save $416 in a year.

The prices above include Dillon's sale prices for the week purchased.  I have found many grocery store sale prices are less expensive than the regular price at Wal-Mart, especially when you factor in double coupons. You can price match at Wal-Mart but they do not double coupons. This is why it is good to keep a price book to compare prices (see previous post).