Grocery Day

Today was grocery day.  I did pretty good considering I spent about $10 the other day at Walgreens and today $130 at Publix.  This will last us two weeks.  I'm such a tight wad in the sense that I still think to myself, "I could've done better" but at $70 a week for a family of five is pretty good.  My best deals I think were:  at Walgreens this week they have $5 register rewards when you purchase one Almay cosmetic plus they have several Almay products at a 30% discount.  I matched these deals with a $2 store coupon and a $2 manufacturer's coupon to get a $4.19 eye makeup remover for $.19 plus $5 in register rewards.  Basically, I got paid to get some much needed eye makeup remover. At Publix I got a $10 Publix gift card for purchasing $15 worth of Conagra food products.  However, I really got more than $15 worth because all of the Conagra foods I purchased were buy one get one free (B1G1).  I've been really excited about the gift cards and rebates I've received recently.  I have the $10 gift card coming plus up to $17 in rebates headed my way.  I would have NEVER thought I would be getting paid to purchase high quality products.  Prior to couponing, I thought the only way to save on groceries was to buy store brand.
I recently read of a site called the 30 dollar weekly grocery challenge.  I am intrigued and need to read more because that would be pretty sweet to spend $30 a week however I'm not sure that's possible with a family of five.  Still my biggest challenge is buying meat at a good deal for two weeks at a time.  As a Christmas gift, my in-laws got us half a cow that will be slaughtered in April.  The cost for us to slaughter it will be $150 so I'm curious to see how much this will save us over the year.
I made it home in time to fold clothes and clean some before going to pick the kids up.  Plus, we got to ride bikes and play on the trampoline.  Pretty good day.