The grocery store gods looked kindly upon me and made this month a whole lot easier. Safeway started a huge breakfast cereal sale that includes Kellogg's cereals where a catalina coupon (the coupons you get from the cash register that are good for your next purchase) is still active until this Friday 5/14. What does that mean? Free (and nearly free) food!

The deal that made me smile is for Kellogg's Corn Flakes. The 12 oz box is priced at $1.00 each when you buy 4 for a total of $4.00. There are a variety of places where you can get a $1 off 2 coupon that includes Kellogg's Corn Flakes

$1 off of 2 coupon (Coupons.com)
$1 off of 2 coupon (RedPlum)
$1 off of 2 coupon (SnackPicks)
$1 off of 2 coupon (Kelloggs)
$1.00 off of 2 Kelloggs All Bran, Crispix, Rice Krispies, Smart Start, Raisin Bran or Cornflakes from the 4/11 RedPlum Sunday newspaper insert.

***************************************

This is part of a month long challenge to eat well while spending an average of only $1 a day on food. You can find the beginning and the rules of this challenge here

***************************************

Using 2 coupons, this brings the price down to $2 for four boxes of Corn Flakes. The current Kellogg's catalina is for $3.00 off your next purchase when you buy four boxes of Kellogg's cereal meaning that I was able to make $1.00 every time I purchased 4 boxes of Corn Flakes. As per the rules of this challenge for me, I am only allowed to use 2 computers and the inserts from 2 Sunday papers. Using all the above sources, I was able to get 14 coupons for the Corn Flakes. Each time I would buy 4 boxes of Corn Flakes, I would also add something that was about $1.00 to get it for free / nearly free. This is what I purchased on my 7 trips through the checkout line:

1. 3 bananas – cost: $0.03 (on sale for $0.79 per lb)
2. 1/3 lb ground beef – cost: -0.01 (2.69 per lb)
3. 4 tomatoes on vine – cost: $0.05 (on sale for $0.97 per lb)
4. 2 broccoli crowns – cost: $0.09 (on sale for $0.99 per lb)
5. Oroweat 100% whole wheat Triple Health bread – cost: $0.99 (Although I could have purchased bread for less, this was much healthier – The bread was on sale for $2.99 and I used a $1 of 1 Oroweat coupon I had)
6. 2 jars of Classico pasta sauce and 2 Safeway brand pasta (spaghetti and rotini) – cost: $0.00 (Safeway has Classico Pasta Sauce on sale for $4 for 2 and when you buy 2 Classico Pasta Sauce, you get 2 Safeway brand pasta for free. I had two Classico coupons. One was a buy one, get one free – it was an Internet coupon a few weeks ago, but no longer is available – and the other was $1 off of 1)
7. Mystery Purchase – cost: $0.05

day 12 purchase

28 corn flake boxes

So, purchasing all of the above (including the 28 boxes of Corn Flakes) cost me $1.20. I don't think I will need any of these Corn Flakes as I have 1.5 boxes still on hand, but I am going to keep one more box just in case and will donate the 27 others to a food bank tomorrow.

Breakfast

Breakfast was the usual beginning with a cup of oatmeal in the early morning (this time topped with half a banana so it tasted much better than yesterday's) and then a bowl of Corn Flakes (also topped with half a banana and with a small glass of spicy V8 juice) a couple of hours later:

day 12 breakfast

Lunch

I ended up having lunch on the fly — I came home to drop off all the things that I had purchased for myself and went straight out to buy food for the food banks in my area. I grabbed a peanut butter and banana tortilla with some chips on the side and was out the door for another few hours of shopping.

Dinner

Now that I had a little time and a lot of new food to work with, it was time to put together dinner. I put 1/2 cup of the rainbow rotini pasta I purchased on the stove, cooked up the 1/3 lb of ground beef and boiled one of the broccoli heads. When the hamburger was cooked, I took half of it and stored it in the refrigerator. The other half I added to the rotini with a few large spoonfuls of the 4 cheese pasta sauce. I ate that with the broccoli:

day 12 dinner

I also had another small bowl of tortilla chips as a snack while writing this.

This is the current list of what I have purchased:

Money Spent $13.60
Money left to spend: 17.40
Retail Value of everything bought: $455.59

1 mystery purchase
1/3 lb ground beef
4 tomatoes on vine
2 broccoli crowns
1 loaf of bread
2 jars of Classico pasta sauce
2 Safeway brand pasta (spaghetti and rotini)
1 celery stalk
2 bags tortilla chips
3 cans tuna
1 bottle Welch's grape & peach 100% juice
1 bottle V8 Fusion fruit / vegetable drink
1 bottle V8 spicy vegetable drink
2 boxes of Caprisun fruit drinks (10 packs)
1 jar of salsa
1 bag of black beans
1 half gallon of milk
36 boxes of cereal
1 dozen eggs
2 avocados
11 bananas
2 boxes of Quaker Instant oatmeal
14 packs of Philadelphia Cream Cheese Minis
1 package of Knudsen Light sour cream
10 apples
2 lbs of carrots
4 boxes (small) of Wheat Thins
1 jar of Skippy All Natural peanut butter
2 cans of pork and beans
1 bag of long grain brown rice
2 packages of Mission 100% whole wheat tortillas (10 count each)

Donated Food to Food Bank that was purchased with my $1 a day

2 sticks of deoderant
4 bottles Windex multi-surface cleaner
1 can of Pork & Beans
32 boxes of cereal
50 packs of Philadelphia Cream Cheese Minis
4 boxes (small) of Wheat Thins
2 Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-A-Clean bathroom cleaner
2 Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-A-Clean bathroom cleaner refill

************************

The Beginning ::: Day 13: I Hate Shopping

************************

Rebate Fanatic. Saving you money every time you shop online! Sign Up and Start Saving Today