I was wondering how many newspaper people are buying for Sunday. I buy four and sometimes have friends give me there coupons that they are not using. Was just wondering.

This is my 5th week couponing. I spent a total of $120.91 oop for groceries worth $289.33. A 52% savings that I won't sneeze at!

This week I went to Publix, Winn-Dixie,Albertson's, CVS, and Walgreens. My budget was $48.26 (got a $8.26 mir check this week), this includes buying multiple items for a Super Bowl gathering and grocery items needed. All together I spent $47.89 OOP for $137.47, saving $89.49.

New @ this. This week was my first big trip to the grocery store. Spent $139...DRUM ROLL PLEASE..... saved $99...and my printer is not working!! Why did I ever pay full price for anything! Thank you for all of your tools, tips, and suggetions! This is going to make a big difference in our budget! Cannot wait until I am saving 60-70% like the "Big DAWG's" Thanks again for everything!!

Spent $74 / Saved $52
I've done much better but this week we bought 2 bags of diapers and with snowstorms and sick kids PLUS a 1 year old who is VERY picky I just got what I could when I could get it. LOL. The baby has to eat those gerber grad meat sticks because he has not molars for chewing real meat yet so hopefully once we get past the teething, colds, coughs and bad weather I will be back in business. STILL my weekly spending (after the milk/juice and other stuff I get with 2 kids on wic) for 6 people and 2 in diapers is $81/week this year. NOT too shabby!! :)

I had the best week shopping this week. I saved more than I have ever saved at Kroger. I made money off of dog treats and paid .16 cents for two packs of Chinet plates and two packs of napkins. This is how I did this week:

Food City:
Box of corndogs, two packs of hotdogs and 16 jars of baby food
Total Value: 17.72
Total Spent: 7.62
Total Saved: 10.10

Ingles:
V8fusion, 2 boxes of popcorn, hamburger meat, shrimp, brocolli, cornstarch, carrots, two packs of plates and two packs of napkins
Total Value: 43.24
Total Spent: 16.01
Total Saved: 27.23

CVS:
2 packs of diapers, 2 dove soaps, toothpaste, lotion, 2 arm and hammer dryer sheets
Total Value: 59.77
Total Spent: 7.32
Total Saved: 52.45

Kroger
Two boxes of wipes, 8 packs of baby food, two bags of salad, 1 bag of craisins, 2 bags of doritos, two boxes of taco shells, 2 packs of seasoning mix, two taco sides, 5 cans of dog food, 4 bags of dog treats, 4 packs of cheese, 2 frozen veggies, goldfish, poppycock, chex mix, granola bites, baby bath and a bag of onions

Total Value: 112.00
Total Spent: 26.18
Total Saved: 85.82

Saved 75% this week!!!!

Value: $211
Spent: $107

Went to Bilo.
Also helped a friend buy $189 worth of groceries for $98
and another friend $152 for $91
Thanks for all you do Jenny!

The swagbucks tips definitely helped me. I signed up and already have 21 bucks. Thanks!

I've been shopping the Pig this week. Spent $50.03 on $131.74 worth of groceries and got 18 new books of Greenbax. Counting the Greenbax that is 83% off.

I've never been able to get my link to appear on the Friday finals. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

Like most of you, I only use Swagbucks to do random searches because the search engine itself is terrible. But I never find any Swagcodes. When I first signed up a few weeks ago it seemed there was a new code every couple of days now there's nothing. Am I missing something somewhere?

There's a code pretty much every day. It normally comes out in the early evening, but it can be anytime. The best way to find out about codes in a timely manner is to check in at the Facebook fan page. If you see people thanking TSG (The Swag Guy), that most likely means there's an active code. Also, get the swidget and check that for either the code itself or a hint about where to find the code. Read TSG's blog posts, too. He often talks about upcoming events/times when they'll be giving out codes. For example, the SB birthday is Feb. 25th, and he's been talking about it. They'll be doing special things then, so you want to be paying attention. Again, the best thing anyone can do to really learn the ins and outs of Swag Bucks is to join the Facebook fan page. Also read all the info at their website in How It Works, FAQ's, and the blog posts, which they link to right there on their homepage. Happy Swagging!

I am a fan on FB but I never see anything posted. I tried the swidget and I couldn't get the thing to load right, I don't know if I did something wrong, lol. I keep trying...

I Love Couponing!!!!
Publix - Value: $138.28, OOP: $13.44, Saved: 124.84 (90%)
CVS - Value: $36.80, OOP: $3.57, Saved: $33.23 (91%)
Kroger - Value $88.79, OOP: 33.57, Saved: $55.22 (63%, $15 was meat, I'm good with this :)! )
Wags - Value: $57.61, OOP: $7.21, Saved $50.04 (87%)
Total - Value $321.48, OOP: 57.79, Saved $263.69

i had a blast at cvs this week. i got 125.- and change worth of stuff for nothing out of pocket. i had transferred 2 perscri. (so had 50 credit). after my coupons and some ebcs, i used one gift card (with one left over for later). i also had 18 in ecbs after doing all of my transactions......i think that is pretty good. 125.....used 20 ecbs (10 saved &10.98 from the dove deal), 25 in a giftcard, and coupons.....spent nothing out of pocket, and another giftcard left, and 18 ecbs.....

I spent 77.?? Saved 45?? It is more than I usually spend, didn't have a whole lot of coupons, but we have not been real grogery shopping in 3 weeks or more. So I was pretty pleased!

I found that you need to watch the rewards system. I thought that saving my bucks to cash in for a large Amazon certificate was a great idea. It is better to get several small $5 amazon certificates. It uses much less points than to wait for a larger one :)

But, there is a limit of 5 identical rewards a month, so once I get my five, I go for the $25 one.

That is good to know :) thanks!

Two of my friends went with me so they could see how much the coupons pay off...

Ingles, Kroger & Publix:
Total Value: $145
Total Spent: $44.47
Total Saved: $100.53
69.33%!!!

They're believers now! :-)

I had a wonderful shopping savings this week as well. I shopped Walgreens, Winn Dixie, and Publix. I bought a total of $320.08 and after coupons and discounts of $205.71 I spent $114.37. I saved 64%. This includes my regular grocery items that are not always on sale and that I don't have coupons for. :-)

I got some pretty good deals at Harris Teeter and Bi-Lo this week. Had a good Swag Bucks week, too. I'm not exactly sure of the amount of swag bucks, but I'm sure I got more than 65 this week. (I think I'm going to start making a note of how many I have at the beginning of the week so I can track it.) One thing I've learned this week is to take advantage of the special offers. I earned 25 swag bucks just since Monday from special offers. I only do the free ones and I don't do any that require a download. I don't trust those because of the possibility of viruses and spyware. I also use one of my "junk" email address when signing up for those offers so that I don't get a lot of spam in my primary email address.

I am still not quite "getting" the Swagbucks thing. As far as a search engine, I don't care for it at all. I have gotten some random bucks here and there but not much because I get frustrated with the search engine. My searches always seem to lead to less-related topics and the actual topic I am looking for lies halfway down the list of findings.

I feel the same way. I can't even get one buck a day from using the lame search engine. What am I doing wrong????

I use swagbucks purely to win the bucks. I search news headlines first thing in the morning and late at night until I win. I have anywhere from 1 to 3 swagbucks each time. Other than that I use google.

You'll find that you generally only win swag bucks from searching two or three times a day at most, so you might not want to use SB for all your searches. If I want to do some serious searching, I just use Google or some other search engine. But I do try at SB first in case I might get lucky. A lot of people just do random searches at SB a few times a day just to earn swag bucks. Sometimes you might get one on the second or third page, or in Images or Comparison Shopping. Yesterday I got one in News. I know they say to search naturally (search AND win, not search TO win), but most of us ignore that! It sure is nice, though, when I'm really searching for something, not thinking about Swag Bucks at all, and do win some swag bucks.

Another idea is to use the Swag Bucks search instead of using your bookmarks occasionally. Like just a few minutes ago, I wanted to come here to Southern Savers, so I put it in the search box and got one swag buck for it, then clicked on the link to get here.

CVS:
Value: $113.75
Spent: $1.62
Saved: $112.13 or 98%
I spent $4 more in extra bucks then I got back.

Rite Aid:
Value: $36.26
Spent: $3.88*
Saved: $32.38 or 89%
*getting back $9.99 scr

Walmart:
Value: $13.78
Spent: $8
Saved: $5.78 or 42%

Kroger:
Value: $125.76
Spent: $6.43
Saved: $119.33 or 94%

Weekly total:
Total Value: $289.55
Total Spent: $19.93
Total Saved: $269.62 or 93%

Kelli - I would love to know what all you bought and coupons you used. This is truly amazing. I thought I was doing good saving 57-60%.

Let me see if I can break in down a bit really fast.... I've gotta try to remember what we bought this week. I've just got the numbers handy.

I know that this is insanely long. sorry.


CVS: transactions for both me and my fiance
Transaction 1:
6 jars of Ragu = $10
1 Accu Chek monitor (rain check) = $14.99
1 Colgate toothpaste = $2.99
1 Dove mens body wash = $5.49
1 3m travel lint roller = $.99
1 bag of gold emblem candy = $.99
- (3) $3 off Ragu
- $10 off Accu Chek
- $1.25 off Dove
- $1 off Colgate
- $.99 off 3m roller ($1 coupon adjusted down)
- $19 ebs
$.94 oop
got back $15.49 ebs

Transaction 2:
6 jars of Ragu = $10
1 Accu Chek monitor (rain check) = $14.99
1 Dove mens body wash = $5.49
1 bag of gold emblem candy = $.99
- (3) $3 off Ragu
- $10 off Accu Chek
- $1.25 off Dove
-$18
$1.48 oop, I realized that I was charged for a 7th jar of Ragu and got a cash refund of $1.70
got back $13.49 ebs

Transaction 3:
2 Oust = $3.99 each
1 Dove mens body wash = $5.49
- $3.99 bogo oust
- $1.25 off Dove
- 8 ebs
$.90 oop
got back $11.49 ebs

Transaction 4: (this one was just today, so not figured into the totals above)
1 Dove mens body wash = $5.49
- $1.50 off Dove
- $4 ebs
$.22 oop
got back $5.49 ebs

Rite Aid:
1 Blink Tears Gel = $7.99
1 Colgate toothpaste = $2.99
2 Nature's Bounty Tea Tree Oil = $9.99 bogo
- $5/$20 from video values
- $1.50 off Blink Tears
- (2) $5 off Nature's Bounty
$3.88 oop
get back $9.99 SCR

Walmart:
2 boxes of Club crackers = $1.98 each
3 boxes of Hot Pockets = $2 each
2 dozen eggs = $1.78 each
- (2) $1 off Club crackers
- $1 off Hot Pockets
- $1.78 bogo eggs
- $1? I don't know why, but it was there.
$8 oop

Kroger: 3 different trips, but I'll put it all in 1 list
9 Raisin Bran = $2.49 each
20 bottles of Sobe Life Water = $.99 each
6 packages of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter = $1.49 each
7 cans of Rotel tomatoes = $.92 each
2 jars of Miracle Whip = $2.49 each
2 bags of Nature Valley Nut Clusters = $2.49 each
2 bags of Chex Mix = $1.99 each
1 bottle of French's Honey Mustard Dip = $1.69
1 box of Finish Gelpacs = $3.49
2 lbs of veal = $2.99 (managers special)
- $25 ($5 off 10 items 5 times)
- (9) $2 off Post cereal
- (10) $.99 sobe bogo
- (6) $1 off icbinb
- (7) $.30 off Rotel (doubled)
- (2) $.50 off Nut Clusters (doubled)
- $1 off NV Nut Cluters from cellfire
- $.40 off NV Granola Bars from cellfire
- (2) $.50 off Chex Mix (doubled)
- $.50 off Chex Mix from cellfire
- $.50 off Chex Mix from shortcuts
- $.50 off French's Honey Mustard Dip
- $2.50 off Finish Gelpacs
- $1 oyno
$6.49 oop