New Home of Cilla’s Deals: Important Update!
Hi! If you’re reading this, you’re reading the OLD Cilla’s Deals.
Oh no! What happened to all of your favorite grocery coupon match-ups and deals?
It’s ok, no need to panic. Just go to www.cillasdeals.com. I’ve explained everything right here, so that’s a great place to start! Make sure to update your bookmarks/favorites with the new link, since www.cillasdeals.wordpress.com (what you are reading now) is officially the OLD Cilla’s Deals!
IMPORTANT NOTE TO EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS: If you are an email subscriber to Cilla’s Deals, you will no longer be receiving emails of my Cilla’s Deals posts through this subscription. Please check out this post on the *new* site that explains the much better email subscription that will soon be available to you! It’s going to be awesome! Don’t forget to follow along on Facebook and Twitter in the meantime!
Thanks! -Cilla
Um, what are you still doing here? Go to www.cillasdeals.com. Scoot! Skidaddle! Scram! ;)
Cilla’s Deals Update: Under Construction
This post isn’t fancy (no pictures) just letting you all know that I’m working on some things to make this blog better and to be honest – I have very little knowledge of what I’m about to attempt. I’m hoping for the best, but there’s definitely the chance I could do something wrong and you might not see Cilla’s Deals online for a little while (oh the horror!). I’d very much appreciate your prayers and positive thoughts as I attempt to take Cilla’s Deals to the next level. It’s going to be a slow process since I’m doing this myself vs. paying someone else, so I truly appreciate your patience and understanding. In time you can expect a blog with much a better layout and much better functionality for your couponing and deal-finding needs. In the meantime, please excuse any messes I might make and thank you for being a part of this journey! :) -Cilla
Sunday Coupon Preview for 10/16/11: Up To Four Inserts This Week!
If you want to know what coupons will be in the paper on Sunday, you can check out Sunday Coupon Preview. There are regional differences so you might not have the same exact coupons that are listed there, but this at least gives you an idea of what coupon inserts should be in the paper.
This week there will be one Smartsource insert, one RedPlum insert, one P&G insert and one Unilever Target insert. The Target insert will probably be found only in select regions and has store coupons for Unilever brand products. I’m really hoping we’ll get them here in Jax. It’s been a long time since we had a Target insert in the paper here and they make for great deals at Target and at Publix stores that accept Target competitor coupons.
If this is your first time buying newspapers for coupons, here are a couple of tips:
- Buy at least two newspapers. Most stores will accept a coupon on both items in a BOGO deal (yes, even the free item), so you will want to have even numbers of your coupons.
- Double-check that the coupon insert(s) listed above are actually inside the paper before you buy them. There’s no point in paying for newspapers that don’t have the coupons inside them. Sometimes a paper will be missing one or all of the inserts. Check another paper in the stack, and go to a different place altogether if none of the papers appear to have coupons.
-Cilla
This has been such a great week and thankfully not as crazy as last week. I came dangerously close to running out of diapers (yikes!) and didn’t see any diaper deals this week that I thought were great, so I decided to go with some of the Target brand diapers. I’ve only bought them once before when Little Bug was probably just a few months old, because since then I’ve always found better deals on Huggies or Pampers with my coupons. I remembered liking them though, and I know many moms who love them too, so I used a $1 off coupon to save at least a little bit. When I need to buy something at Target I try to take advantage of whatever free deals are going on, so I grabbed some freebie/cheapie travel size items and free makeup. Then I headed to Publix for our groceries. We had some produce leftover from last week’s bag with The Neighborhood Garden and some other frozen organic veggies to utilize, so I skipped getting a bag of produce this week and just bought some extra produce we needed, to add to what we already had on hand. It felt like I didn’t have many coupons, compared to most weeks, but I still managed to save over 50% while buying meat and several organic produce and dairy items. I love it when that happens. :)
Here’s what I bought:
The run-down:
Target
- Up & Up (Target brand) diapers (we were so low on diapers that I had to open the box right when I got home, ha!)
- 2 travel size St. Ives Facial Scrubs
- 4 travel size Aquafresh toothpaste
- 3 Covergirl blush
- 1 Covergirl bronzer
Total before sales and coupons: $44.52
Total after sales and coupons: $22.02
Percentage saved: 51%
Publix
- 4 Athenos Feta cheese (hiding behind the deoderant)
- 1 Food for Life sprouted grain tortillas
- 2 Yobaby organic yogurt 4-packs
- 3 Voskos Greek yogurt
- 1 Publix sliced cheddar
- 1.24 lbs top sirloin steak
- 1 Publix brand Hummus
- 5 oz. bag Greenwise organic baby spinach
- 1 lb bag Greenwise organic baby carrots
- 3 lb bag organic Gala apples
- 6 Dove deoderant (moneymaker)
- 3 Airwick candles (moneymaker)
Items not pictured:
- 1 gallon Greenwise organic whole milk
- 1 large organic tomato
- big bunch of organic bananas
WEEKLY TOTALS
Total before sales and coupons: $139.37
Total after sales and coupons: $62.23
Percentage saved: 55%
Tip of the week: Stay open-minded about brands and products you wouldn’t normally try, including generic store brands and “cheaper” brands. I’ve never had a problem with buying store-brand items to save a little – even before I began couponing – but so many people dismiss the store brands with the idea that they are poor quality. Once in a while you might find a dud (I’ve never found a diet soda that tastes like Diet Coke, although I’m trying to give it up so I’m not looking either), but usually you will get the same quality item for much cheaper. The Target diapers really are great. I will say that I don’t like the cheap Wal-Mart diapers and Publix store-brand diapers (gasp!). I tried them both in the beginning of buying diapers and both were way too stiff and scratchy. Here is a bonus diaper tip that I’ve passed on to quite a few mommy friends: Luvs and Pampers are both made by Procter & Gamble and Luvs diapers are identical to the Pampers “Baby Dry” variety. Seriously, they are exactly the same. The Luvs are just purple and the Pampers are a teal-ish color, and they have different cartoon images but if you put them side-by-side they are the.exact.same.diaper. Who cares if Luvs don’t have Elmo and Big Bird on them? The Luvs are not the same as Pampers’ Cruisers but when I buy Pampers I prefer Baby Dry over Cruisers anyways, so it’s no biggie to me. So there you have it.
- Cilla
I don’t have much time for gardening these days with a toddler keeping me pretty busy, but I really LOVE gardening. There’s just something so therapeutic about peaceful about being outside underneath the singing birds, getting your hands dirty and nurturing plants to eventually produce beautiful flowers, fruit or veggies. If you’ve never signed up for The Home Depot’s Garden Club before, you definitely should! It’s free to join and they send periodic gardening tips and sometimes they even send coupons! I think it was last fall that they sent a great coupon for BOGO Mums (a popular fall flower, if you’re a newbie gardener) so I’m hoping they’ll send another great BOGO coupon like that sometime soon. Head over here to sign up, and enjoy some great gardening tips and savings! :)
-Cilla
Here are my top weekly deals for Publix! These are items that I consider to be the best deals, including as many organic, all-natural and healthy products as possible. Keep in mind that some deals listed below may not fit that criteria, but I try to feature mostly healthy deals.
Publix coupon policy basics:
- In Florida BOGO items will ring up as one item at full price and the second item free (a true “BOGO”). Outside of Florida, BOGO items ring up at half price.
- They DO accept competitor coupons. The accepted competitors accepted vary by store, so check with your customer service desk for a list.
- Publix allows “stacking” one store coupon AND one manufacturer’s coupon per item. The store coupon can be either a Publix coupon OR a competitor coupon. They even allow stacking on bothitems in a BOGO deal!
- Outside of Florida, most Publix stores double manufacturer’s coupons that are for .50 or less.
- Publix stores DO allow overage.
- You can find your full weekly sales ad here.
- If any of the terms used above or below don’t make sense to you, check out my post about understanding coupon lingo.
$1/1 printable coupon
Buy 2, use 2 coupons, and pay only $4.88 each!
Buy 2, use 2 coupons, and pay only $.95 each!
$1/1 tearpad
If you can find the peelie or tearpad: Buy 2, use 2 coupons, and pay only $1 each! Great price even without the coupons!
Buy 2, use 2 coupons, and pay only $1.60 each!
$1/2 Whole Foods coupon from Whole Deal (Sep/Oct) or printable
Buy 2, stack (2) $.55/1 coupons with the Whole Foods coupon, and pay only $1.45 each!
$.55/1 printable coupon
$.55/1 printable coupon (no longer available)
Pay only $1.95 after coupon!
$1.50/2 Glade Fall items Target printable coupon
$1/2 candles printable coupon
$1.50/2 Scented Oil Refills from 9-25-11 SS
Pay as low as $.50 each for the scented oil refills and $.75 each for the candles.
$1/1 Target printable coupon (for Skittles)
Buy 2 Skittles, use (1) $1/2 coupon and (2) $1/1 coupons, and pay only $1.50 each!
$1.50/1 from Oct. All You Magazine
FREE Reusable Publix Bag when you buy $9.99 of any Mars Chocolate from Yellow Advantage Buy Flyer
If your store is true BOGO: Buy 4, stack (1) $1/3 Target coupon with (4) $1.50/1 coupons, and pay only $1.55 each!
If your store rings up half price: Buy 3, stack (1) $1/3 Target coupon with (3) $1.50/1 coupons, and pay only $1.47 each!
Use Advantage Buy Flyer coupon to receive a FREE Publix bag WYB $9.99 or more (remember this is $9.99 before coupons)!
$1.40/1 printable coupon
$1/2 printable coupon
$1/2 from Oct. All You Magazine
Buy 2, use (2) $1.40/1 coupons, and pay only $1.10 each!
Whole Foods Weekly Ad Match-ups 10/12-10/18
Important notes about Whole Foods:
- These prices are based on the Jacksonville, FL store. Sale items, prices and even the weekly sale dates vary regionally. You might find these sales in other regions, and other Florida stores are more likely to have the same sales, but I can’t be certain.
- You can find your weekly sales ad here, but there are also MANY unadvertised deals in the store.
- Many of their sale prices last for two weeks. So, if you miss something one week, you might still be in luck the next week.
- Most, but not all Whole Foods stores, will allow “stacking” one manufacturer’s coupon AND one store coupon per item. The Jacksonville store does allow this! Check with you store’s customer service desk if you live in another area.
- Whole Foods’ store coupons can be found online here or in “Whole Deal” booklets in stores. TIP: The coupons expire one month after they are no longer available online, so print a few extra copies to use throughout next month too! These are also handy if your local Publix store accepts Whole Foods competitor coupons.
- Bring your own reusable bags for .10 off your total (per bag used), or donate that amount to their Whole Planet Foundation.
- If any of the terms used below don’t make sense to you, check out my post about understanding coupon lingo.
- If any math doesn’t make sense or any links don’t work, please let me know so I can fix it.
WEEKLY AD – 10/12-10/18
***Don’t forget about the September/October coupon match-ups here that are good through 11/30 and include some great deals!***
PRODUCE
- Red Grapefruit (Conventional, Non-organic) – $1 each (Reg $1.25 each)
- Macoun Apples (Conventional, Non-organic) – $.99/lb (Reg $1.69/lb)
MEAT & SEAFOOD
- Center Cut Pork Loin Chops – $4.99/lb (Reg $6.99)
- Beef Top Round Steak London Broil (USDA Graded – Choice) – $5.99/lb (Reg $7.99/lb)
- 40-50 Key West Pink Shrimp (Wild Caught, Previously Frozen) - $6.99/lb (Reg $9.99/lb)
GROCERY
- Zevia All Natural Diet Soda (Asst Varieties, 6 pk) – BOGO $6.49
- Earth University Frozen Banana Chunks (10 oz) – BOGO $2.29
WHOLE BODY
- Ricola Original Natural Herb Cough Drops (50 ct) – $2.99 (Reg $4.99)
CHEESE & SPECIALTY
- Bonhomme Double Creme Brie (France, 350 G) – $4.99 (Reg $7.99)
- Roth Kase Moody Blue (USA) – $11.99/lb (Reg $14.99)
BAKERY
- Multigrain Baguette – $.99 (Reg $1.99)
PREPARED FOODS
- Southwestern Black Bean Pasta Salad – $4.99/lb (Reg $7.99/lb)
- Asian Shrimp Salad with Asparagus – $10.99/lb (Reg $13.99/lb)
***Don’t forget about the September/October coupon match-ups here that are good through 11/30!***
-Cilla
Sunday Coupon Preview for 10/09/11: Two Inserts, Bonus Coupons & Apologies for a Late Reminder!
My apologies for missing this post altogether last week and getting to it so late today. It has been a crazy week, as I mentioned in my grocery recap yesterday, and I have been going non-stop today too so I am totally POOPED. If you forgot to get your papers today and are a Jax local, check your nearby Gate gas station. They carry the Sunday paper all week, until they sell out, so as long as your local gas station isn’t sold yet it’s not too late. Sometimes they even get in another stack later after selling out, so you never know. Good luck and hopefully this week will be much more normal! :)
If you want to know what coupons will be in the paper today, you can check out Sunday Coupon Preview. There are regional differences so you might not have the same exact coupons that are listed there, but this at least gives you an idea of what coupon inserts should be in the paper.
This week there is one Smartsource insert and one RedPlum insert. Some regions might also find some bonus manufacturer’s coupons on the back of a Wal-Mart beauty flyer. (My paper in Jax did have this).
If this is your first time buying newspapers for coupons, here are a couple of tips:
- Buy at least two newspapers. Most stores will accept a coupon on both items in a BOGO deal (yes, even the free item), so you will want to have even numbers of your coupons.
- Double-check that the coupon insert(s) listed above are actually inside the paper before you buy them. There’s no point in paying for newspapers that don’t have the coupons inside them. Sometimes a paper will be missing one or all of the inserts. Check another paper in the stack, and go to a different place altogether if none of the papers appear to have coupons.
-Cilla
Like this:
Weekly Totals: 64% Savings on a Forgetful Week
What a crazy week! This was one of those weeks that started with not many plans and then suddenly I had errands and long to-do lists every day. That’s why you haven’t seen many posts this week and this post is a day late from the typical schedule. It’s been a fun week though, so it’s all good in the end. :) I helped throw a baby shower for a friend and my sister made a trip home for a long weekend, so I’ve been running around all week getting things done for the shower and maximizing time with my sis. I was a little scattered in my planning for the baby shower so I ended up inside Publix this week more times than I care to admit, ha!
Here’s what I bought…on the first trip:
The run-down:
- 1 Newman’s Own pizza
- 4 Garden Lites Souffles
- 1 Cascadian Farms frozen organic spinach
- 2 Publix sliced cheese
- 1 Food for Life Ezekiel sprouted grain tortillas
- 1 Greenwise half-gallon of organic milk
- 1 Stonyfield YoBaby organic yogurt 4-pack
- 2 Stonyfield organic yogurt 32 oz
- 4 Sundown Naturals vitamins (moneymaker)
- 2 Pillsbury brownie mixes
- 1 lb Domino confectioners sugar
- 1/2 lb organic Pecan halves from the bulk bins
- .10 lb organic raisins from the bulk bins
- 1 Single-serve Publix whole milk
- 1 Publix half sub – brownie-baking/decorating fuel for myself! ;)
- 4 Sundown Naturals vitamins (moneymaker)
Total before sales and coupons: $95.82
Total after sales and coupons: $34.83
Percentage saved: 64%
Tip of the week:
This isn’t a couponing tip, but it is a good rule of thumb for grocery shopping. Even when you think you know what you have in your pantry, double-check before you head to the store in order to save yourself some time later. I’m usually very consistent with this but trusted my memory a little too much this week. I planned to make cherry pecan brownies with some decorative frosting (for the baby shower) and thought I had enough brownie mix, confectioners sugar (for the frosting) and nuts. I was wrong on all three items and it cost me not one, but TWO extra trips to the grocery store this week. I would have saved myself some time if I’d just double-checked my supplies before I made my first shopping trip. Hopefully you’ll learn from my mistake. ;)
- Cilla
The Neighborhood Garden: Monday’s Organic Produce List
If this is your first time reading about The Neighborhood Garden’s wonderful bags of organic produce, check out my post explaining how it works. You can also check out their website here for details of the pick-up times and locations, and all of the other details you need.
The coupon on The Neighborhood Garden’s Facebook page for $3 off your first produce bag (first-time customers) is still available, so it’s a great time to order your first bag if you haven’t tried one yet!
Here is the list of organic produce available for Monday pick-ups:
- 4-5 Gala apples
- 1 Cantaloupe
- 8 oz Strawberries
- 2-3 Valencia oranges
- Green Butter Leaf lettuce
- Snow peas
- 2-3 Avocados
- Broccoli & carrot combo (steamer bag)
- Baby spinach
- Roma tomatoes
- Jalapeno (fresh)
Don’t forget to place orders now for Monday pick-up, and place orders for Thursday pick-ups asap! If you want to learn more about The Neighborhood Garden check out the website for more info and feel free to contact Melissa if you have questions.
