Merry Christmas from Southern Savers. I pray you each will have a joyous day.
“See him in a manger laid
Whom the angels praise above;
Mary, Joseph, lend your aid,
While we raise our hearts in love.”
from “Angels We Have Heard on High”
Take this printable coupon along with you to Victoria’s Secret and get a Free Lip gloss with any purchase. They just started their semi annual sale so you should find some great deals to go along with this freebie. (exp 1/20/10)
There are lots of freebies and coupons for eating out over the holidays!
- Friendly’s – $5 off $25 printable coupon and FREE Kids Meal with the purchase of any adult entrée. (exp 1/31) (thanks For the Mommas!)
- Peet’s Coffee & Tea – Free Brewed Coffee or Tea on Thursday (12/24), go here for more information or to find a store near you.
- IKEA – Free Breakfast until 11 am, and Free kid’s Meals after 11 pm to close from December 26th – January 3rd. get more information. (thanks Thrifty Mama!)
- Waffle House – Free Sausage Biscuit (exp 1/8)
- Taco Bell – Free Taco Bell Fresco Taco
SuperCenter vs. Grocery Store Prices
If you have been around Southern Savers for a while or attended a workshop, you know how I feel about supercenters: they can never compete with local grocery stores. However, I have noticed that many people still seem to think that shopping at supercenters is the way to go. In an attempt to prove to you that you will save more money at grocery stores, I did a little test this past week. I took all of the on-sale items at Publix and Kroger and went into my local supercenter to look at how their prices matched up. To put it simply, they didn’t.
It may seem to be slightly biased to select only the on-sale items and compare but my particular local supercenter (and I suspect yours does as well) advertises “Always Low Prices”. In other words, their prices are always as low as they will get and they will not run a lower sale. Also, as you know, I only buy on-sale items.
After taking all the listed prices, I calculated the effect of coupons on both the grocery stores and the supercenter, remembering to double where it applied. I did the math based on buying one of every item on the weekly Southern Savers list. If it was a store brand, then a comparable brand was chosen at the supercenter. The results were:
Publix On-Sale Items Plus Coupons: $139.89
Same Items with Coupons At SuperCenter: $196.80
Kroger On-Sale Items Plus Coupons: $203.99
Same Items with Coupons At SuperCenter: $243.65
This again was pretending to only buy 1 of each item, and using Southern Savers we want to stock up for 6 weeks, which would only make the amount saved greater. To put these numbers in perspective, let’s say that you went to Publix and purchased only one of the on-sale items for a month (4 weeks) instead of the supercenter. You would save over $240 a month!
I hope this is convincing and shows you how much money you could be saving. I know that the supercenters are convenient and it can be easy to shop there. But if you really want to save money, the grocery stores are really the way to go.
Let’s dispel one other myth with these numbers too: Read More→
Learn Out Loud is offering an audio version of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens for FREE! Go here to download.
For everyone that had great plans to give Chocolate for Christmas gifts, Christy at Southern Plate has come to our rescue. She has a great Frugal Recipe to make “Holly Jollies“. Total for all these gifts is probably under $10-$15 for most of us couponers! What makes it even better, she made all of this in about half an hour!!
If you want just the quick recipe scroll all the way to the bottom of her post.
Now Christy… what’s with the house brands??
If you ordered from Fannie May yesterday you need to check your bank statements. Normally when companies get overrun with orders like this just cancel them, not a big deal for any of us and we move on.
Fannie May has taken the illegal approach however and has removed the coupon code from many orders and is charging a larger, unauthorized amount. There are a few things that you can do:
- File a report with your credit card for false billing (you should have your email confirmation showing the $7-$10 charge amount.)
- Call Fannie May and cancel your order and they will refund the money.
For questions concerning an on-line shopping order: Call 1(800)333-3629 or email
customerservice@fanniemay.com
You can take it one step further if you like.
- File a report with your local Better Business Bureau.
- File a report with your State Consumer Affairs office.
But… The Divine Caroline “Love This Site” voting ends this Friday 12/4 at 7pm ET.
You can vote for as many sites as you like, it will require that you register on their site to be able to vote.
Thanks secret person that nominated Southern Savers a few months ago!
I am excited to announce a new feature for Southern Savers!
We now have a Tutorials page with short video clips to help you learn the basics of Grocery Savings. This page will be growing through the upcoming weeks with more basic and advanced information.
I get so many emails from folks that are overwhelmed about where to start. My hope is that these videos can help to hold your hand as you figure out a new way of grocery shopping.
As you see family and friends over the holiday’s, these can also help you to teach them that you aren’t crazy!
