Finding Deals at Harris Teeter

For the last few months, I had stopped shopping at Harris Teeter. I usually want to find a bargain and stretch our dollars as far as they will go…. and the deals – for me – were elsewhere. I always like to use up my pantry items too… so it was a slow shopping period overall.

Harris Teeter this week has what they call Super Double Coupons… where they will double up to a $2.00 coupon. Yes, that means that a $2.00 coupon will double to $4.00 off! No one else around here even doubles the $1.00 ones, so it’s usually a great “event” for me to participate in! There are limitations, and rules, of course — there always are!

But even I skipped the last two Super Double Events — because usually to make the best deals, the items need to be on sale (already reduced in price) and then the coupon matches and doubles — kind of like a double play. This week they are already out of some of their sale items, and if they are, I always ask for a rain check — hoping somewhere down the line to use them. Their rain checks as far as I know, don’t expire!

This week however I spent yesterday (the day I found out they were offering the Super Doubles) checking and looking through all my coupons. Reading what was on sale and checking with the sites on the web that list what’s on sale each week at the different supermarket chains. From reading all of that, I made my list and organized my coupons. The rules at Harris Teeter include the fact, that you can only use 3 of one type of regular coupon, or 2 of any internet printed coupons per trip, with a limit of 20 coupons per day. You can use more that won’t or can’t double, but the limit for doubling them is 20.

DSC03267Here’s what I was able to get –  3 Bottles of Shampoo or Conditioner (Garnier Fructis), 6 cans of Iams Cat Food, 2 Star Kist Creations, 3 Think Thin Bars, 8 Packages of McCormick Taco Seasoning (this is the only one I have found that uses Potato Starch instead of CORN products… that’s important to me because I am allergic to corn), One InkJoy Pens, 6 Yakisobi Noodles, 3 Containers of Chock Full of Nuts Coffee and one can of Chicken of the Sea Tuna.   Can you guess how much my total was? 

DSC03270YES… that’s right, even with the tax, it was $3.89.  (.82 cents of which was tax!!).  I do have to add a caveat though…  I had a $5.00 credit applied to my Harris Teeter account from a previous error during my last shopping trip.  AND so, maybe because of that….  the cash register wouldn’t accept 2 of my coupons, and I think if it would have, I would have been about the same or less (there was one $2.00 and one $1.00) it just would not take them, and since I was very happy with the overall total, I didn’t press the issue (plus I can use those two tomorrow). 

I want to just say Thank You to Mary over at Sweepingme for encouraging me with all her great CVS shops! I really enjoy reading about her trips and seeing how she stretches her dollars!  I am planning on making a few trips to CVS myself to see if I can do as well!

 

Are you a Cheapskate?

If  just reading the title of this article makes you on edge,  and has you thinking about whether you could be, read on!

I can tell you, although some like to sugar coat being a cheapskate, there are others that defy human understanding when it comes to the term.  I recently watched the “Extreme Cheapstakes” program on TV and had to turn it off because I really couldn’t deal with some of their extreme ways.  I cannot fathom not using toilet paper (one gal didn’t) and I can’t count the times I flush (so I can pay my share of the water bill), or lock up my food so my husband doesn’t get any.  And while in some of those (loosely called) households it was a competition to see who could save the most, or live “happily” without – that’s way beyond my personal comprehension.

All of us could be in one way or another considered a cheapskate at some level – but certainly the majority of us deserve a nicer term to describe the ways we save money on everyday necessities.   And while some of us don’t mind spending whatever it takes on food, cars or movies – but hate spending money on clothes, shoes or dental work, that doesn’t make us a cheapskate at all.

I mention the things in the last paragraph to try and take advantage of hitting a nerve with one or two of you reading this piece.  Thinking about it you might just know that you’d buy the $200 shoes, and forget the 6 month dental cleaning.   Or you’d water down the milk and juice in your house so that you could actually get a 6 pack to take to the Super Bowl party without going over your food budget.  But would you dumpster dive for food at fancy restaurants instead of buying any food,  or would you serve that food to guests?  Some extreme cheapskates would! 

If you ever want to feel better about the crazy things you do, day in and day out to save a few dollars – your hard earned dollars by the way, to use on something else – just watch the show once.  I already feel better about reusing things around here.  And while I thought I did it “to save the environment” or for some other noble reason, I realize I do it because constantly buying new costs more than I want to spend.

And so, even though, I do reuse, repurpose, take things people have given me and use them till there is no life left in them – I now realize I am definitely not a cheapskate.  Are you?