Groceries:Redux: Your Grocer

As I said in the last post, the cost of groceries is a challenge. There's the temptation/draw of bulk purchases but the question of whether it truly is cheaper and then the efforts required to get the purchases home. I was looking through the Valpak coupons that we get periodically in the mail and I came across one for Your Grocer.

I was intrigued by the option of a no-cost warehouse and the fact that they deliver. However when I looked at a smattering of prices, they don't appear competitive despite the "savings" they claim. Just shows you really need to know prices, I suppose. Sure, it's cheaper than buying a 20oz every morning at the convenient store, but it's not as well priced as the grocery store and it doesn't appear possible to use coupons. 

Suppose it's back to the drawing board.

A good coupon day...

$6.75 saved at Rite-Aid - $3 on mouthwash, $.75 on toilet paper and $3 rebate

Total Spent: $12.72

$6.58 saved at Duane Reade - $4.58 on shampoo (Pantene on sale 2/$7 and coupon or $1 off 2 expiring today), $2 on razors. Plus 25 bonus points in addition to the 15 earned on purchases.

Total Spent: 13.22

All stuff I needed and on sale/with coupons. Of course I'm headed out to dinner so today won't be a total win financially, but better than nothing :)

That said, hate Rite Aid's rebates. I don't like the store and the rebate is such that it can only be used in store rather than Walgreens where you have the choice of cash or store credit, which comes with 10% bonus. My local Rite Aid is skeevy, skimpy stock and generally out of the way, but I had to go there to use the $3 rebate.

Good month cash wise, more to come on that in the next post once some pending transactions clear. 

Toilet paper and FSAs...

As soon as I paid full price because I needed it and none were on sale, Walgreens has Charmin 6 double rolls 2/$7. 

Murphy's Law...

Luckily, they were out of stock so I got a rain check. Will get to use it before 30 days are up because I only bought a 4-pack

Also on a non-coupon note, why are cold meds never on sale when you're sick?!?

*Cough*Sniffle*Sneeze*

Coupon feast or famine

I just purged my coupon file for all those expired at the end of October. We also happen to need toilet paper. I have one coupon -- a ridiculous Cotonelle one that is really only useful if you're buying enough tp for a college dorm. I've been to: KMart, Walgreens, CVS and Duane Reade--no one has any name-brand toilet paper on sale and it's one thing I refuse to buy generic.

I hate paying full price! 

Low-cost weekend

woohoo! Minimal expenditures due to free food at a block party, leftovers that will provide lunch for the week (have events Tues, Weds and drinks with friends on Thurs) and lots of coupons. I need to go through my folder and find out which expire on the 30th so I can plan a Wal-mart run, if needed. Even with the $6 bus fare (RT to Secaucus) the prices there are so much better that it doesn't make sense not to go. It's similar to Gimme Five Bucks Costco trips. I'm somewhat glad that my shopping is limited by cloth carry bags -- schlepping bags back from Port Authority (or the budget busting cab) is not my ideal form of weight training, and I don't have room for a ton of stuff.

I got some wonderful coupons though. Also found a new-to-me rebate blog that I hope to put to good use because as I mentioned, I find rebates to be a pain.

Six weeks in...

While I had been commuting from the northern suburbs for some time, I officially moved in on July 12th. The biggest realizations so far:

• grocery prices really do vary from store to store. It's worth it on the weekends to walk/bus to the different stores to get the better price. I get all circulars by e-mail but it's going to take some more time to learn the regular prices of things to know where to go for a given item. There's also the law of "just how far will I carry that" for things like a case of water.
• I still spend far too much on eating out, whether that's lunch at work when I didn't bring lunch, dinner because I don't feel like cooking, Subway because of the Scrabble promotion, Tasti D-Lite for dessert, or what not, it's too much. This is likely to be the easiest place to save noticeable money.
• Electricity in summer is evil!

On a not directly related but still wallet-impacting note, student loan consolidation is taking forever and once that's done, my monthly payments will go down. I'm going to try and screen grab Mint to get my August expenditures.