Thanks for you patience with lack of posts! I have many, many posts and series I’ve been wanting to post on and some I’ve even already written, but for now I need to say no. I’ll be taking a break from Saving in Greenville through the end of August. At that point, I’ll come back and re-evaluate keeping up this site.

In case you’ve been curious…

• We did turn on our air conditioner in June. Electric bill doubled, but still not too bad, as it was quite low before. Once we turned it on, I was amazed at how much energy I still had in the afternoons, when I had been quite hot and miserable before.

• We bought our first pack of diapers! For $3.99, but we made it 17 months without having to pay for any. Right now we’re using BumGenius cloth diapers during the day and disposable at night and for traveling. (She’s also working hard to potty train herself, but we’ll wait one more month to work a little harder since we’ll be going through some major transitions in the next month.) We’ve used BumGenius occasionally since our daughter was a few months old (started out with only 2), but since I doubt I’ll be able to get lots of free diapers for our next daughter, I plan to actually invest in purchasing several more. I may also attempt to go do this. If you are wondering about “modern” cloth diapers, I highily recommend this brand!
• We are still loosely operating on our $750 annual grocery budget; however, my records were on a computer that “died,” and I need to take time to go through the receipts again and calculate everything. For now, I’ve just been keeping our weekly average to around $15/week or less and saving receipts.

There are a lot of great deals going on right now, and I’ll just link to a few:

• Free picture package (a rare thing for PP) from The Picture People (through July 25); also read about how to get portraits from The Picture People for less here, courtesy of my friend Kim.
• 80% off at Restaurant.com with the code NAPKIN (through July 28)
• Triple Coupons at Ingles (not the greatest coupon policy, but might still be some good deals)
• I use these cloth Swiffer wipes and use and rewash them. (We also use cloth napkins (from Old Time Pottery) in place of paper, and rags in place of paper towels, most of the time.)
• Swagbucks now offers Paypal as a prize option: 70 swagbucks gets $5 via Paypal. If you haven’t signed up yet, you can sign up here and earn 5 points just for joining by entering the code NEWBIE (through July 24). (Some other new prizes are cerificates to Bumkins (baby product/cloth diapers (!!)), restaurant.com certificates, iPods, and more…)

Deals in Greenville:

• Take a Wal*Mart receipts to Checkers at the Wade Hampton Taylors location, and get a free checkerburger (not sure how long this deal lasts).
• My friends Ashley and Natalie are hosting a “Here We Grow Again” children’s consignment sale July 29-August 1. I will unfortunately be helping and bidding farewell to my husband that weekend, but check out the details here.
• Yard sales are still going on! I have really found some great deals this year: $20 for a only $250 double jogging stroller, 50 cents for a $100 baby backpack carrier, $3 for a wooden kids desk/tool workbench, $3 for a $70 painting, and the list goes on, just in case you need inspiration. For the best info on Greenville area yard sales, I recommend checking Craigslist, especially Friday evening for an updated list of yard sale advertising. I also recommend visiting community/subdivision yard sales when possible, as they tend to have better prices and selection and many sales going on within walking distance. (Community sales have slowed down, but there should be a few more near the start of schools before the “season” totally ends.)
• Free haircuts in Spartanburg.
• Free ultrasounds for expectant mommies. (ongoing)

I may hop back on a few times to share a really good deal, so you may want to subscribe to this blog in order get updates rather than spending time checking back on the site. Feel free to use the forum to share deals, particularly those in Greenville. And, if you don’t already subscribe to/check Money Saving Mom and Southern Savers, I highly recommend doing so, the first for deals everywhere, and the latter for deals down “South,” particularly for Publix deals. Oh how I love shopping getting groceries for free at Publix (P.S. All the current ads/deals on right the sidebar are still going, and deals I’ve personally done and benefited from.)

If you have a site/blog about deals in Greenville, feel free to comment on this post or leave a note in the forum so local readers can keep up on deals.

The current Publix circular (ending TODAY Tuesday, July 14) has a Publix store coupon for $10 off a $50 Shell or BP gas card. This is basically like getting 20% off whatever the pump price is. We already use BP gas almost exclusively, so this is a great deal for us since 20% off is better than our BP Credit card gas rewards.  Most stores still have the weekly Publix ad, and many even have taken time to cut out the coupons and put them with the gas card.

Additionally, there is a Kraft/Publix rebate for a $10 Publix gift card with any purchase of $50 or more (after coupons) in one order that includes 4 of the listed items from Kraft. The fine print does not exclude gift cards from being part of the $50, so here’s a great way to do it…

• Buy $50 gas card (minus $10 off coupon)
• Buy $10 or more worth of other groceries, including 4 of the participating items from the Kraft/Publix rebate. (See items listed and rebate form here.

I was also able to use a $5 off $20 coupon from Save-A-Lot (yes, there is one in Greenville) here to get even more “bang for my buck,” and there are a couple of deals that also give overage:

• (ending July 14) Kashi frozen items are 50% off. Kashi frozen waffles are normally $2.79, so at half off they are $1.40. There is a coupon here for $1.50 off, making them FREE with $.10 overage.
• I’ve been getting $.60 to $.40 overage for each pack of Apple & Eve organic juice boxes I purchase. More details here. (I saw plenty of the Smart Summer Savings booklet at the S. Pleasantburg location yesterday, and you can view what the booklet looks like here.)

Last night I picked up a $50 gas card and $40 worth of groceries for…$40! Not what I’d normally spend on groceries, but with the gas card deal I was getting free groceries AND discounted quality gas! Great deal; hope someone can still do this!

Update: Apparently, Greenville area Bi-Lo stores no longer accepts competitor’s coupons.

Bloom currently has a $10 off $40 coupon here, but you can also use it at Bi-Lo and Publix. Good through Tuesday, May 26. You need to have $40 worth of goods pre-coupon, so if you have a lot of coupons you can get $40 worth of groceries for very little! Yay!

All this week’s shopping at Publix

Total Spent for Week 8: $18.97

Total Saved for Week 8: $408.44

Total Left to Spend for 2009: $689.35

If you shop with children, did you know that Publix has a Cookie Club?  Just ask for a cookie at the bakery, and your children will have a FREE cookie to munch on as you make your way through the store.  This is great for my little girl, who would otherwise rather be out of the cart and running through the aisles!  (Of course, a cookie isn’t always the solution! :))

Another thing that is great for little kids are the fun carts.  Cookie and cart combine for one happy little girl on shopping days!  (But lots of trips to lots of stores…means…maybe not a cookie every time! ;P)

Thanks to my friend Andrea for posting about the cookies!