Another Stop & Shop Giveaway

It's been a while since I've had the opportunity to offer a giveaway, but in celebration of Earth Day, Stop & Shop is offering a chance for customers to win one of two eco-friendly hybrid cars.

To participate, you can either:

1. Buy 5 participating General Mills items with your Stop & Shop card and use a re-useable shopping bag and you’ll be automatically entered to win. You get one entry per visit.
2. You can also enter without making a purchase by completing an official entry form at your local Stop & Shop store.

The qualifying items for this week include:

• Cascadian Farms Cereal  
• Green Giant Vegetables  
• Nature Valley Crunchy or Sweet & Salty Granola Bars 
• Green Giant Boxed Vegetables or Prepared Vegetables, Simple Steam Seasoned Vegetables or Rices  
• Green Giant Wanchai Ferry Entrees  
• Yoplait Frozen Smoothies  
• Totino's Pizza Rolls  
• Pillsbury Savorings  
• Fiber One Muffins
• Pillsbury Crescent Rolls  
• Pillsbury Sweet Rolls  
• Yoplait Greek Style Yogurt 
• Yoplait Kid Multi Pack  
• Cheerios 14 Oz  
• Cocoa Puffs 16.5 Oz  
• Honey Nut Cheerios 17 Oz 
• Lucky Charms 16 oz  
• Multigrain Cheerios 12.8 Oz  
• Reeses Peanut Butter Puffs 18 Oz

So you're probably wondering where the giveaway portion comes in - courtesy of Stop & Shop and General Mills (via MyBlogSpark), Andrew and I were given a $20 gift card to Stop & Shop which we used on our shopping trip today to qualify for the hybrid car drawing. I was also given the opportunity to give another $20 gift card away to a lucky reader!

A random winner will be selected from the comments section below - to enter, in honor of Earth Day, let me know what your favorite "green" food is. At the moment, edamame is coming to mind for me. And mint chocolate chip ice cream. This list could go on forever!

 Deadline to comment is by midnight on Wednesday, April 28 - good luck to everyone!

Winner of the Stop & Shop Giveaway

I'm pleased to announce the winner of the Stop & Shop $10 giftcard giveaway:

Underoo Elf!

Coutesy of random.org, I assigned each comment a number in order of when they were posted:



Underoo Elf, please contact me at BCAllegra@hotmail.com to provide me with your mailing address.

Stop & Shop Giveaway

First, I am pleased to announce the winner of my first giveaway, courtesy of MyBlogSpark and Pillsbury simply... cookies - CR! CR, you will be receiving your prize pack in the post directly from MyBlogSpark, congratulations and enjoy your cookies!

Now, I'm excited to announce the latest giveaway from MyBlogSpark, General Mills and Stop & Shop.

The Back-to-School Saving Event is currently underway at all Stop & Shop stores, from September 4 through September 10. At the event, General Mills and Stop & Shop are teaming up to give families a great way to stock up and save, as they gear up for back to school.

So shoppers will see sale pricing on the participating General Mills brands:
Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Reeses Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cookie Crisp Sprinkles, Cookie Crisp, Fruit Snacks, Old El Paso Dinner Kits, Pillsbury Strudel, Pillsbury Scrambles, Green Giant Boxed Vegetables, Yoplait Yo-Plus Multi-Pack, Fiber One Yogurt Multi-Pack, Pillsbury Refrigerated Cookies, Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, Pillsbury Sweet Rolls and Yoplait Delights.

I'm drooling at the thought of Cinnamon Toast Crunch already!

In addition, you can score a gas discount for buying participating General Mills items at Stop & Shop stores that sell gas.

How does this work? Buy four (4) participating General Mills items and you’ll automatically earn 100 points on your Stop & Shop card
For every 100 points earned, you'll save 10¢ per gallon of gas. Just swipe your Stop & Shop Card at the pump to redeem your Gas Rewards.

So that's my spiel, I know you're all waiting for the what the prize is - a $10 gift card from Stop & Shop! I don't know about you, but I think any shopping experience is enhanced when you can save money by buying great groceries on sale AND by using a gift card to lower the total.

To enter the drawing for the free $10 Stop & Shop card, simply tell me what General Mills item you will buy by commenting below. I will choose a winner at random on Thursday, September 10. Good luck!

Grocery Shopping Observations

Just came back from dropping an obscene amount of money grocery shopping. Anytime I grab a cart instead of the basket I usually limit myself to, it's way too easy to throw stuff in. This time, I had a mission to stock up on soup and frozen meals (lean cuisines and lean hot pockets) that are perfect for lunch at work, fruit as a healthy snack, and yogurt and oatmeal to eat at work. Plus, I bought a roast to take a stab at making pot roast tomorrow. So it added up but there should be enough food to last me the rest of the month.

I hit Stop & Shop tonight as I haven't been there in a while. It's a slightly longer drive than the two Shaws and the two Whole Foods that are near me, but it definitely offers the best variety and prices. I knew shopping tonight would be a pain because people are always out in full force to stock up before a snow storm (like we'll be snowed in for days). Plus, I hate shopping with a cart because it makes it exponentially harder to navigate around the store. Some of the annoying stuff I observed tonight:

• People who eat while they're shopping. This goes beyond tasting a grape for freshness. I even understand mothers who are feeding little kids who can't wait (although I think it would be a good lesson in patience for kids to have to wait until they get home to eat stuff from the grocery store). I'm talking about the lady sauntering down the aisle while dipping her hand in a box of crackers. It just really annoys me for some reason.
• People who hold conversations in the store and stand at the entry way for an aisle. And despite the large numbers of people who stop, glare, say "excuse me" and squeeze by, they continue to stand there. There were two groups of people blocking the pasta aisle tonight and one of the guys talking just stayed right in the middle of the aisle. I kept glaring at him every time I encountered him in another aisle.
• People who leave their cart unattended right in the middle of an aisle. Everyone understands that it's easier to leave a cart and grab something quickly but why leave it in the middle when you obviously know it will be in the way?
• People who crowd you at the registers. Checkout was surprisingly unbusy (around two customers per line) and the Asian couple who lined up behind me were visibly impatient with how long it took me to load the checkout counter's conveyor belt. Even when it was clear that I had no room to load things until the customer ahead of me finished checking out. And they proceeded to stand right next to me while I handled the financial aspect of checking out, uncomfortably close as if it was going to get them to register even sooner. A good rule of thumb wherever you are in public, give people some personal space. Seriously.

So to sum up my shopping trip, people are annoying. Big surprise!