grocery & coupons

Saving money on groceries has become a tiny hobby of mine.  I very much look forward to seeing what coupons we get in the paper each week and seeing what's on sale at our store.  I would call myself a regular couponer.  I always go to the store with coupons now.  I don't use them on everything, of course, but if I can get something that we need or use anyway for cheaper - why wouldn't I?

I've heard there was some show on recently about extreme couponing.  I didn't see it, but I'm not one of those.  My typical goal is to save 50% of my total bill.  Sometimes I save more, sometimes less - but 50% is typical...and I'm always pleased with that.

Here's Abs this morning -helping me get our coupons ready and organized for our trip.

Of course coupons are only part of the strategy - it's the pairing of coupons with store deals that really help you save.  Some weeks are better than others.  And, on top of all that, you have to look at what it is you need.  There's no point in buying something you wouldn't normally eat just because you're saving a dollar, know what I mean?  There are a lot of coupons for junky food out there - that used to be a big turn off for me about coupons.  But, I've since learned that you can find good stuff too.

Which is why I'm blogging about groceries today.

This week was a good week at my store.  Between in-store sales, coupons, and catalina deals (a catalina is where you get a coupon printed at the register after you pay) we had a pretty successful trip today.  But, the best part to me was not the savings necessarily - it's that 90% of what we bought was good healthy food that I'll be happy to feed my family.

So, here's what we got today.  I did 3 different transactions in order to maximize the deals.

Transaction 1: 
15 boxes (yes, 15) of whole grain pasta.  All varieties
4 boxes of MultiGrain Cheerios
paid: $19
saved: $19
received: a coupon for $10 off my next order, and a coupon for a free gallon of milk. 

I'm not afraid to stockpile some pasta. :)

Transaction 2: 

2 boxes of Raisin bran*

2 dips

tomato sauce

2 fat free italian dressings

4 Ragu pasta sauces

2 brown mustards 

milk

paid: $5.76

saved: $37.76

received: another $10 off coupon. 

See, it's not all healthy, we do like brownies around here. 

I used my $10 off and free milk coupons from transaction 1.  I had coupons for nearly every other item as well.  The mustards and the milk were free. 

* The raisin bran was an especially good find because, as previously blogged, I'm all about some raisin bran right now.  I went through 2 boxes (with some help from Kyle) in the past week and a half or so.  Baby wants what baby wants, and right now, I think raisin bran is a pretty acceptable craving. ;)

Transaction 3: This is where I get the stuff I don't have coupons for.
2 tissues
milk
green beans
chicken breasts
eggs
apples
popcorn
diet root beer
paid: $16.72
saved: $21.22
received: a free gallon of milk coupon for my next visit (I'll use that one next week)

I used the previous $10 off coupon I got.  One popcorn and root beer were free, thus the splurge.  Besides, they'll be good superbowl snacks.

And so, there ya have it ladies and gents.  Our Saturday morning savings.
Total bill was: $119.46
Total spent: $41.48
Total saved: $77.98 + free gallon of milk on next visit

That's a lot of groceries for $40 bucks, if I do say so myself. 

Now, I just have to go rearrange the pantry again. :)