Supermarket Excursions: How I Save and Even Make Money at the Grocery Store too!!

I don't usually post my supermarket excursions -- but a few of you have asked specifically for them. This may get frustrating --- you all live in very different areas of NE with different supermarkets to work with. I shop both at home and in my work area --- so I shop a wide variety of markets (which you may or may not have). And just to frustrate everyone further -- I don't shop in the same markets every week.
Here's what I do:

1. I sit down with each of the fliers from the markets that are available to me (that would be Price Chopper, Stop and Shop, Shaws, Big Y, Shop Rite, and A&P). I make lists of what's in the fliers that interests me and the prices
2. As if find an item in another flier that is a better deal than where I first wrote it down, I cross it off the previous list and add it to the new list.
3. I am a complete Slickdeals addict. After I've looked through the fliers and formed a tentative idea of what the deals are --- I go to Slickdeals and read through the forums quickly (some of them are very active lists) to see what I might have missed and to get my coupon matches started.
4. Finally I use a database such as CouponMom's to double check for coupons to match my list.

Each week, I'm looking for deals on fresh produce, dairy and other things that are difficult to stockpile. I'm also on the lookout for free food!! If the free food is something that my family enjoys eating, it goes home and in the stockpile in our pantry. If not, then it comes home and goes to the food pantry to help feed people who need food. (I am a huge proponent of being generous with the time and skill of couponing!!)

My pantry is usually very well stocked with staples such as pasta, tuna, beans, dried fruit, flour, oil, rice, etc. Most of these were either FREE or at a very, very low cost. I plan our eating for the week around the staples in my pantry and the deals on fresh produce, dairy, and the occasional meat.

So --- by popular demand --- I'll begin posting my shopping lists for the supermarkets I'm working with that week (remember -- not all markets every week -- can you imagine the time it would take??)

Start with Rite Aid this Week! More for the Newbies

Start with RiteAid this week -- there are some freebies and some moneymakers ----

The difference is: with RiteAid, you put out the money and get your refund at the end of the month ---- file the rebate online at the RiteAid site but don't request your check until the end of the month --- you can only request one rebate per month --- if you ask for your cheque, then you can't claim any additional rebates this month --- they'll accumulate the rebates for you and send you one cheque at the end of the month -- just save your recepits as back up data until you get the cheque

So --- here we goBuy any of the following you can use or give away (they all end up being free) Most are only good until 8/9 so go this week. Pick up a copy of the rebate book at the front of the store where the weekly flyers are.

• Revlon nail polish 2.99 with a 2.99 rebate. (rebate #105) Limit 1. If you have the coupons from 2 weeks ago, you'll find a coupon for $1 off any Revlon. That will make this a moneymaker --- I think I saw one in this week's coupons too, but I'm not sure.
• Charles Worthington Haircare 4.99 with 4.99 rebate (#90)
• Gillette Men's Shampoo 4.49 less a 1.00 coupon in today's Proctor and Gamble insert and then a 3.49 rebate (#98)
• Olay Total Effects Revitalizing Cleanser 7.99 less 1.00 coupon from today's Proctor and Gamble insert and then a 7.99 rebate --- you make 1.00 on this deal (rebate #6)
• Gillette Fusion Razor 9.00 less 4.00 coupons from today's Proctor and Gamble insert and then a 5.00 rebate (#5)
• Bausch and Lomb ReNu Multiplus Solution 8 oz twin pack -- 9.99 with a rebate of 9.99 (#51)
• GE softwhite lightbulbs 2 pack 2.00 with a 2.00 rebate (#137)

If you guys eat cereal much --- the Rite Aid deal for Kelloggs cereal is pretty good this week too 1.99 each Raisin bran or other Kellogg's cereals --- less 1.00 off of 2 packages (kelloggs insert in today's paper) makes them 1.49 apiece --- pretty good. At the end of this you'll have carved up your Proctor and Gamble insert pretty badly --- keep holding on to it -- and hold onto additional ones if you can fish them out of the recycling bins -- the odds are that you'll get great deals at CVS later this month too.