Coupons, Savings, And ...Fun?

Dear Shell,

I've posted before in the past that I hate grocery shopping, it's so expensive. I still hate grocery shopping. But I'm getting better at it.

Last week, my friend Ceri and I were talking about grocery shopping, the high prices, and figuring out ways to bring our costs down. She linked me to a really good website/forum. (i'll see if i can get it to link). http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/index.php

Then we sat and talked about coupons and store ads for awhile. I had a rather large stack of coupon ads, so I went through and cut coupons out for items we use. Then I found an ad for Kroger's, which happens to be only a few miles away from our house.

They had a pretty good sale going on, buy any 10 items (from a list of items) and get $5 back. Plus most of those items were also already on sale. I also had coupons for most of the items on the 'buy 10' list. So I had several items from that list that I ended up paying only .25 or less for. And several items I got free. And then I got $5 back on top of it all!

Plus I found deals such as:
Quaker Oatmeal - Normal Price: $3.19 each. Sale: buy 2 for $4. Coupon: $1 off 2. Paid: $3 total for 2 boxes. Savings: 1 box free, .19 off the other.
Crest pro-health toothpaste, 4.2oz size - Normal price: $3.54 each. Sale: buy 2 for $4. Coupon: $1 off 1 (and i had 2 coupons). Paid: $2 total for 2 tubes. Savings: 1 tube of toothpaste free, $1.54 off the other.

I think I got two rolls of paper towels for .24 each.

Overall, i saved 40%. Grocery bill before sales and coupons: $183.81. Grocery bill after sales and coupons: $107.26. A savings of $76.55.

This week, Meijers has 'buy 10 items for $10, get 11th item free'. I've glanced through the ad, and there are several items on the list that I have coupons for. I need to get Krogers ad out of the mailbox still to see what their deals are. Kroger and Meijer are across the street from each other, so it won't cost more than a few cents extra in gas money to hit both grocery stores. And we have a good cooler that I can use to keep cold stuff cold while I run into the other store. Walmart is also on the way home from Kroger/Meijer, so if there's something I know is way cheaper at Walmart (that I can also combine with a coupon)... nothing stopping me from running through there as well!

We don't need a lot this week, just fill in a few items that I didnt pick up last week because they were more expensive at Kroger than Walmart so I planned to hit Walmart for those items, and then never made it there last week haha.

Well, I need to head up to the mailbox to get the store ads and toss the envelope with extra coupons in the mail to make its way to Ceri's house.


Shell