I was on Card Pool and saw a Darden's gift card for 10% off. Darden's owns Red Lobster, Macaroni Grill and some other restaraunts. I got 2 $25 gift cards and paid $45. The funny thing is, if you buy the Red Lobster or Macaroni Grill gift cards you only get 8% off - so I saved an extra 2%.

I also got $200 in J.C. Penny gift cards at 14% off for my parents and a $100 Walmart gift card for me at 3% off. Used to be able to get Walmart gift cards at 4%, but haven't seen that in a while. I also use my credit card that gives me 1% back so it's like get 4% off the Walmart. Since I go there all the time I figure that 3 - 4% might as well be mine.

I went to King Soopers both yesterday and today because I had too many coupons to use in one trip. They limit you to 3 regular coupons and 2 internet coupons per like item each trip.

Yesterday I got $58.41 in groceries and paid .22 and got back a coupon for $1.50 on my next order. My parents also gave me $2.60 for things I picked up for them. I did 3 mega deals which accounted for $15, coupons were another $30.96 and I used the last of my pharmacy rewards of $12.45, leaving .22 cents.

Today I got $27.47 in groceries and paid $4.92. I did 2 mega deals at $10 and used $17.47 in coupons. I might do one more mega deal before the sale ends, I have more cheese and tea coupons.

Here are the highlights:

Free stuff

12 bottles Propel - 2 for niece
6 Yakisoba noodle bowls - food pantry
4 bottles Honest Tea - .25 moneymaker on each one
1 Mentos mints - niece
3 I can't believe it's not butter - 1 niece
4 Starkist tuna - food pantry

Cheap

8 cans RoTel @.17/each - food pantry
6 boxes 200 ct Kleenex .66/each - got $1.50 OYNO q
2 Hormel Chili Master .29/each - food pantry
3 Hunts diced tomatoes - .09/each - food pantry
5 Kraft cheese slices - .49/each - 2 mom, 1 niece
1 80 ct Excedrin - .50
2 loaves Sara Lee bread - .99/each
3 Hebrew National hotdogs - 1.82/each - 2 for mom, 1 for niece

Other

milk
bananas
potatoes

Went to Walgreens this morning. I had 5 RRs totaling $42, so I got a gift card for $40 and 4 cans of mushrooms for .50/each. Owed $0. The cashier kept rechecking to make sure it was really 0.

Made one more trip to Safeway since the peanut butter deal worked Wednesday. I wanted more for the food pantry. This time they told me it wouldn't work because you had to buy $10 worth of stuff that didn't include the sale item - what a crock, that's never been the rule before but she swears it's always been that way. So I just ended up with one free can of Chunky soup and a bag of Lays potato chips for $1.88. The soup was on sale for .99 and I had 1 .50 coupon that doubled to .99. Maybe Walgreens will have a peanut butter sale before the end of the month and I can get more then. I love getting peanut butter and tuna for the food pantry, those are my favorite things to donate.

Yesterday it started snowing like crazy and mom wanted me to go to the Outlet mall the next town up with her so I said ok. Dad drove. We went to a kitchen store and she got what she wanted, (a meat tenderizer) and we also went to Harry and Davids. They had their pepperoni out as a sample and it was really good so I got one at $6.95. We went to Black-Eyed Pea for lunch. I hadn't been there in forever so I didn't have any gift cards for them, but it was really good. The last time we went it was awful, which is why I hadn't been there in a long time. I had the chicken tenderloins, mashed potatoes and mac and cheese. All of it was excellent. I brought the corn bread home and had it for supper with my beans and ham. I had started beans in the crockpot before I knew I was going to the outlet place. I spent $8.50.

I finished reading my book Knock Out by Catherine Coulter. Mystery - pretty good.