I Really Do Want You to Save Money

Okay, one last time with the grocery list and I promise I'll try not to bug you anymore with couponing. If you want to try the Grocery Game, it only costs $1 for a month's trial, and you do NOT have to be a processed food, junk food only eater. We do eat some of that stuff, but you don't have to. You'll still save money. Promise. And if you're in Southern California, the game has a Whole Foods list, meaning for $1.25/week, they will tell you how to save $50-100 on Whole Foods type products.


6 pound watermelon
8 pounds pork chops & beef steaks (not sure how much of each)
1/2 gallon lemonade
1/2 gallon organic milk
2 pounds bananas
3 CPK frozen pizzas
1 Digiornio frozen pizza
1.5 quarts Dreyer's mint chip ice cream
1.5 quarts Dreyer's vanilla ice cream
2 pints Dove chocolate raspberry ice cream
2 pints Ben & Jerry's (Magic Brownie & Visualize Whirled Peace)
3 atkins energy bars
5 2-L Sierra Mists
1 toothbrush
1 pack of floss
2 32-load All "free & clear" detergent
1 jar Barilla marinara sauce
1 pound whole wheat & flax seed Barilla pasta
3 dozen eggs
1.5 pounds mozzarella cheese
3/4 pound Lay's potato crackers

Total cost: $50

Here's the rationale for the ridiculous amounts of soda and ice cream. I had a BOGO coupon for Sierra Mist. I like to mix Sierra Mist or sparkling water with fruit juice for a sparkly juice. So I've been keeping my eye out for a good deal on Sierra Mist to get the price down to 50 cents a 2L. My diligence was duly rewarded. Ralph's has a buy two get three free sale going on. So I bought one for $1.89, gave them my BOGO coupon and got a second one for zero. Those two then triggered the store sale, which allowed me to get three more 2L for free. Even if I only wanted one 2L of soda, are you going to sit there and tell me you'd pass up FREE??

The CPK and Digiorno pizzas are also currently on sale for a buck or so off. I had coupons for another couple of bucks each, making pizza night a reality for $3-4 each. Since we try to do "Lost and pizza" or "Arrested Development and pizza" every week or so, that saves us quite a bit of Round Table money. Worth it right there. But then for every two frozen pizzas I bought, they tossed in a container of Dreyer's ice cream. Again, you gonna pass up free? I'm going to vacuum seal the containers, and they'll last a year. Given the amount of ice cream we've gotten at rock bottom deals lately, they're going to have to.

Then with coupons the Dove and B&J ice cream were about $1/pint. Not quite free, but come summer, who isn't going to want ice cream? So we have the option of hitting Cold Stone when the mood hits us and paying $4-5 for a scoop and some add-ins or reaching into the freezer and dishing it up ourselves for 50 cents or less. What are you going to pick?

And now I'm going to go prep my steaks and pork chops, so that when the mood strikes for meat, all I'll have to do is pull them out of the freezer and toss 'em in the oven. Then I think we'll have pasta, fruit salad, and sourdough for dinner.

ETA: Oh, and if you made it this far, here's a hot tip for you. Buy 2 $25 Am Ex gift cards and get a $25 gift card to Borders, Best Buy, or Fandango. If you have something you want at any of these retailers, you could save $17 (there's an Am Ex activation fee).