The results are in! The challenge I took on several weeks ago was to see how far could I make a $100 gift card go at Vons, using sales, store coupons, paper coupons and Ecoupons. I am very proud of how much in free groceries I got by just being a smart shopper.

I won the contest — sponsored by Ecoupon company Cellfire.com — through my pal Traci’s great blog Southern Couponbelle. When she laid down the challenge to see how much in free groceries I could net, I knew I was up for the task!

Now, of course, I had some help, and that is the great Vons deals list compiled weekly by my pal Jess at her great blog, This Frugal Life. She details every item that is the best price this week at the store, and tells you which coupons to match up, until you are absolutely sure you are getting the best advertised — and sometimes unadvertised — deals.

Want to see how much I saved? Watch this short 1.50 minute video, and you will get the final — and I what I consider — darn good final amount of groceries I bought for only $100. Thanks again to Southern Couponbelle and This Frugal Life for all your help — be sure and “like” them on Facebook!

It’s not often one walks out of the grocery store smiling, but I did this week, when I left Vons with the 28 items pictured — $102 in merchandise — for $6.91! That’s 96 percent off! But what’s great to know, is it is so simple nowadays — with Ecoupons, Internet printable coupons and blogs that tell you each week the best deals! You can score big, too!

This post also chonicles how well I am doing with the $100 Vons gift card I won from Southern Couponbelle, and I am happy to report that in three weeks, I’ve purchased $312 in groceries, but paid only $47 — that’s 85 percent off! And I still have $53 left on the gift card I won!

It’s really quite simple to net big savings at the grocery stores:

Finally, those nice bloggers out who chart the deals at your grocery store — and save you so much time — are paid a small amount every time you redeem Ecoupons, so be sure and load yours through the web site that explains the best deals to you each week. It’s a nice way to say, “thank you” for all their efforts.

So I am up to $312 in products on my gift card, I can’t wait to see how much further I can make it go!

Thanks to the Southern CouponBelle blog, I won a $100 gift card to Vons, sponsored by the Ecoupon company, Cellfire.com. But I was given a challenge: How far can I make that gift card go, using store specials, paper coupons and Ecoupons?  Let me tell, I am off to a great start! I just walked out this evening with $50 in groceries for only $10! That’s 80 percent off!

I have become a great believer in Ecoupons. The reason is not only because of their simplicity (you just load then to your club card), but you may also combine with paper coupons. The best part is you can stockpile Ecoupons, where multiple ones are deducted! This doesn’t net you savings — this is when you are paid to buy items!

For instance:

You see how great Ecoupons combine to make incredible deals?!

By the way, I also got the Gold n Soft margarine and Land o Lakes spreadable butter for free, too! Just used store and/or manufacturer coupons for those.

Of course, I didn’t figure these deals out all by myself. I used the great Vons list provided each week at This Frugal Life. She is the best for Vons coupon matchups and makes it so easy each week. My savings in coupons, alone, was $24! That means if I had not used coupons, I would have paid $34 for what I ended up paying $10.

Thanks to Southern Couponbelle for teaching me the joys of Ecoupons, and now thanks to the gift card I won, I’ve begun to see how far I can stretch a C note. I think I am off to a good start — $50 in groceries and only used $10 of my gift card.

Let the tally begin!

Another great Catalina deal at Vons this week! Buy four Ziploc containers for $1.99 when you buy four, then get back $4 off in a Catalina off your next order. But it gets better!

Add in the $1.50 off 2 from the May 16 Smart Source coupon flyer and and the 55 cents off 1, and you end up paying only 49 cents each for all sets of containers!

Here’s a scenario (and what I did tonight): Purchase the containers in one transaction. Then, using the $4 off Catalinas on the remainder of your order. I walked out with the remaining 13 items for $1.41 — 96 percent off!

I am really becoming enamored with these Catalina deals. Thanks to This Frugal Life for the tipoff on this great deal! Fan her on Facebook.

I know it’s going to be a good week at the grocery store when I get excited as I cut out my coupons, and tonight was one of those — I am going to get paid to buy cereal at Vons!

Beginning Wednesday, May 12, Vons has a special when if you buy four boxes of certain kinds of cereal, you get an automatic $4 off. This brings the price down for Corn Flakes (12 oz.) and Froot Loops (12.2 oz.) to $1 a box. But it gets better!

Print out two of these coupons for $1 off two Kelloggs cereals, and you will pay 50 cents a box to buy four boxes of cereal! You can find the links here or here or here. (And remember you can usually print the coupon twice.)

But it gets even better!

Purchase those same boxes of cereal through Friday, May 16, and you will get a Catalina back with your receipt for $3 off your next order at the grocery store! Now you will get paid $1 to buy the cereal!

Here is your one caveat: If you plan on buying eight+ boxes, be sure and ring them up under different transactions. You can just separate the order and tell the cashier you wish to do two transactions. Otherwise, you will only get $4 back in Catalinas no matter how many you buy.

Now if you think that’s a lot of cereal, please know it normally has a shelf life of up to a year, and the next time we will see cereal deals will be in September for “back to school.” It’s time to stock up again — this is working the 12 week cycle, like I did last week with the juice.

Gotta love getting paid to buy cereal! I will report back later on how I do this week — not a lot of great deals, but London Broil is at its lowest again at $1.77 (just after I ran out this week) and fresh chickens at 77 cents a pound. Working that 12-week cycle works!

I surpassed my personal best at the grocery store tonight — 86 percent off and 33 items. $101 turned into $15! But I was kind of surprised by an email comment I received, “We would never drink all that juice.” Then I realized that people don’t know we’re not going to consume this in one week — I am buying low and eating low.

With a store special and Internet coupons, I got 10 juices for 99 cents apiece. Figuring one per week, we should run out just about the time another incredible sale rolls along — this is called using the 12-week cycle rule. Every product will hits its lowest price every 3 months. This week was the time to stock up.

You buy when items are at their lowest and then you don’t buy them for weeks — or even months. If they are free — or you are paid to buy them — you put it in your cart. Use it or donate it! Spread your good fortune around.

Betty Crocker had a great special — Buy 2, Get 3 Free — match with Ecoupons and manufacturer coupons, and I got paid $2.52 to buy everything! The Honey Nut Cherrios were $1.49, but minus two Ecoupons and one manufacturer coupon, and I got paid 61 cents to buy it. The Warm Delights are my Mother’s favorite — one kind was $1.99. I added an Ecoupon and manufacturer coupon, and got paid 1 cent to put it in the cart.

Don’t think I figured this all out on my own … I used one of the blogs from the Grocery Gathering blog group. In this case, This Frugal Life. I added in the body wash deal when I read it on another blog — got two for 49 cents, or 24 cents each. Oh and I scored on the Oscar Mayer lunchmeat — used a Vons in-ad coupon for $2.49, and then had two $2 off coupons from Facebook when I “liked” them — 49 cents each!

Let me tell you, when you score deals like this, you like going to the grocery store! So think ahead now to save a lot of money now and in the future.

I was a block from Vons this afternoon, visiting my Mother, and I thought, “What the heck?” so I walked into the store and 10 minutes later walked out with $21 in merchandise and got paid $1 to buy it all, using the great Catalina deal on Windex and Scrubbing Bubbles that I mentioned in this post.

I threw in the coffee deal today - $5.99, had two, $2 Ecoupons from Shortcuts.com and a $1 newspaper one, and got the Maxwell House for 99 cents!

Used a $5 newspaper coupon on the Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-a-Clean (priced at $6.99), and then had an Internet coupon that when you bought an Extend-a-Clean, you got the refill for free ($3.99).

Used the in-ad Vons coupon for Windex for $1.99, and added in two Internet coupons for $1 off each. 99 cents each.

Then — got three Catalinas off my next order: One for $3 off (due to buying the Scrubbing Bubbles), $1 off for buying the refill, and $2 off for buying the Windex.

Grand total? They paid me $1 to buy it all! $21 in merchandise in 10 minutes time!

Oh man, the specials are so good this week at Vons/Safeway! I scored so great that I should have had a cigarette after! I got $109 in groceries for what will end up being $17.70 — 84 percent off!

Of course, what worked best was combining specials — combining grocery in-ad coupons, with manufacturer ones, combining manufacturer coupons with Ecoupons, combining specials with a rebate offer, and sometimes combining grocery store specials, Catalinas and coupons — to the point in several instances I got the product free or was paid to buy it!  

My main strategy in planning this shop was to use the Grocery Gathering blog, and the nice folks who volunteer to match up specials with coupons each week. By cross-referencing the three people who did Vons, I netted every deal that was possible.

These included:

But it gets better! I got paid to buy the following items:

I also bought one Jennie-O ground turkey breast and got the second one free on special. Going to mail in for a $5 rebate that I mentioned in this post, so I will end up paying $1 for each (The BOGO was only on the turkey breast, which was $6.99)! Oh and I worked the “buy 5, get $5″ Kraft deal and got sour cream (65 cents), two cheese snacks (49 cents each) and two cheese slices ($1.99 each), and paid a whopping $5.63 for $13.58 in merchandise.

The other great deal was 32 ounces of cheese that I got for $4.99 — and used a coupon of course.

Yes, folks, this is what $17.70 in groceries looks like!

Boy oh boy, there are two hot, high-value coupons on Facebook! Thanks to For the Mommas for tipping me off.

Hit this link to “like” Red Baron Pizza, and you can print a $2 off coupon for its new Pizza by the Slice product — great snack or lunch.

But it gets better, “like” Oscar Mayer on Facebook, and you will get a $2 off coupon for any lunchmeat. (You just need to enter its contest to win a ride on the Wienermobile.) Man, this can net you a good deal! Best part is this is a “Bricks” coupon, as I discussed in this post, so once it prints, hit your back button on your browser three times, and it will print again.

While you’re on Facebook, check and see if the Stouffers coupons I discussed in this post are still available (they were under its “News” tab and high value — $2.50 and $1.50 off one.

These coupons were too good not to share! 

I admit it, I am a coupon snob. 25 cents off — big whoop. But when I get excited is when I see what is known in coupon parlance as a “high-value coupon.”

These are the ones you come across that are worth $1+ and where you just need to purchase one item. For example, every once in awhile, Snuggle fabric softener will release a $3 off coupon. You bet I grab those! The reason? Because often it goes on sale for $3.99. Sure, you have to wait a couple weeks (because the manufacturer thinks by now you’ve thrown out the flyer), but then you can swoop in when it goes on sale and snag a great deal.

I did as much this week. About three weeks ago, I saw a tip off on For the Mommas that if you “fanned” Stouffers on Facebook, there were two coupons you could get — one for $1.50 off its toasted sub and $2.50 off one of its Famiy Size entrees.

Now normally I do not purchase those items, but with these high-value coupons, it was a waiting game. And it paid this week — the subs went on sale for $1.99 at Stater Bros. and the entrees on sale at $3.99 at Ralphs. Bottom line? I got the entrees for $1.49 apiece, when their normal price is $8.99. The subs we picked up today — 49 cents apiece! Score!

“Buy one, get one free” coupons are also great, because that means 50 percent off. But what you do is wait till they go on special and swoop in. By combining a sale with a great coupon, you are going to net a great deal.

Where do you find these coupons? Usually I am tipped off by following savings blogs, such as For the Mommas and Savings Cents with Sense (I follow them on Facebook). I usually find the highest value coupons on the Internet, specific product sites (watch for notations on TV commercials), and through Facebook.

Keep on the lookout for these type of coupons. They are money — and products — in your pocket!