Last night, I checked the coupon blogs to see what awesome Safeway deals were going to be available today, and I was not disappointed! Well, okay, it’s not the greatest week, but we really needed the basics like milk, cheese, bread, etc. Oh, did I mention CHEESE?

If you’ve been faithfully buying your 4 Sunday papers lately (and I must confess that I have only purchased a single one each of the last 2 Sundays because they only had 1 ad due to the Thanksgiving holiday), THEN you probably have GOBS of Kraft coupons. Gaboons. I certainly did. So, when I read that Safeway had an awesome Kraft Cheese promo thing going, I was psyched!

Now, let me just say that this isn’t the most perfect of cheese scores. We prefer mild or medium cheddar, and my Safeway only had sharp. I like sharp on crackers, but it doesn’t shred or slice very well. It sorta crumbles. However, I’m NOT going to complain when these little 8oz bricks are costing me less than 74¢ a piece after coupons and doublers. I did buy the pre-shredded cheese (Mexican blend), which should help with the shredded cheese issue, and again, they cost me 74¢ each. The cream cheese was anywhere from free (I had a $1/1 coupon) to 49¢ after savings. I had to ask Mitch what Kraft Singles were when I was reading the blog last night! HA! We don’t usually eat cheese wrapped in plastic, but he was excited because he likes to make Egg McMuffin sandwiches and he thinks this cheese tastes the best on those. (Notice that I also bought him the English Muffins for $1 each! Good wife.) The Singles ended up costing $2.24 each. I can’t say I’m excited about that. I think that purchasing Singles might have been a mistake, but it will make Mitch happy, so oh well! The Velveeta ended up being $1.49 each after savings. We like eating queso made with 1/2 a brick of Velveeta and 1 can of Rotel tomatoes (undrained) which I bought for pennies a couple of weeks ago, hoping for a Velveeta sale! Notice I bought the chips. This will come in handy for gatherings and parties coming up!

Other items to note:
Eggs are on sale with the in-ad coupon for $1.49.
There is a 75¢/1 Ronzoni coupon hanging in the pasta isle near the Bertolli. This can be doubled, making my pasta 24¢ each.
The sugar cookies were free after coupon, doubler, and ecoupons.
I did this in FOUR different transactions, to be able to use 4 doublers (and you can grab more ads by the front door). People kept getting in line behind me so I just kept circling around. AND, I did this in the morning when there are fewer people in the store. No kids, of course. It’s Wednesday!

ALSO, apparently there will be a great cereal coupon in the Sunday paper which will coincide with the Safeway Saturday/Sunday only deal. Buy your papers or ask you neighbors for their inserts!
Post Fruity Pebbles & Honey Bunches of Oats on sale $1.47
Buy 2
Use $1/2 coupon coming in the 12/6 inserts
Use Safeway double (-$.50)
Pay $1.44, Get $1 Catalina
$.22 each after coupon, double & catalina when you buy 2
*This catalina will roll. Use it to pay for your second transaction & get another $1 cat.

Remember when I told you that we are cutting our grocery budget in half? This is the first month of going from $100 a week ($400 a month) to $50 a week ($200 a month). I actually had a friend tell me, with a very serious look on her face, that I CAN’T do that. “Not with the holidays!” As if! Lady! Don’t tell me that I can’t do something or I WILL DO IT! Thank you very much.

I’m happy to report that we are doing great. We are now in the middle of week 3, and I have a little bit of money left to spend in my Week 3 envelope. And, you know me. I WILL spend it. Probably on Honey Bunches of Oats. Hee, hee! We had some money left in week 2, so we went to McDonalds for lunch on Saturday. Remember that the “grocery” budget is used for all groceries, eating out, personal care (except haircuts – which I desperately need!), whims, etc. And, like I said, we are doing great! Eating well. Feeling blessed.

Thanks for enjoying my coupon journey!! I have a lot of fun with it!

Oh, and for those of you looking for the meat in my shopping trip, my freezer is packed! I cooked up 3 HUGE turkeys, sliced the breasts for lunch meat, shredded the rest, and I’m using it in all of my “chicken” dishes. Yummo! Plus, I scored a great deal on ground beef a couple of weeks ago at Albertsons. We ARE eating meat! Tonight, we’re having BBQ turkey sandwiches!