For today's trip I finished up the Kraft deal so I got everything done in two transactions. Not too much overall craziness, though I have officially reached the "full" point in our freezer and have taken over a shelf in my mom's stand-up freezer for the overflow.
We were a little more relaxed in the store today. We browsed a couple aisles and caught a few extra deals doing so including some unexpected free stuff!
First transaction: 6 squeeze bottles Kraft mayo (2 regular, 2 light, 2 olive oil), four packages Oscar Meyer hot dogs. Total $25.56. I handed the cashier three $1/2 mayo coupons, two $1/2 hot dog coupons, and three $5 OYNOs (from Thursday's trip). Total $5.56. I received three more $5 OYNOs back.
Second transaction: 14 bags (!!!) Kraft shredded cheese, 2 packages Kraft singles, 6 Healthy Choice frozen meals, 2 bags Gorton battered fish, 2 cartons store brand ready-to-eat soup, 1 cake mix, 4 pouches Betty Crocker cookie mix, 1 Tabasco sauce, 1 Wilton cookie sheet, 2 bottles wine. Total $87.85. I handed the cashier a $5/5 Kraft cheese coupon, three $1/2 shredded cheese coupons, two $1/3 Healthy Choice coupons, two $1/1 Gorton's coupon, one $.75/1 Tabasco coupon (doubled), four $.50/1 cookie mix coupons (doubled), 2 coupons for FREE store brand soup, three $5 OYNOs, and since I bought four cookie mixes I got the cookie sheet (worth $5.49) for FREE. Total $41.95. I received three more $5 OYNOs back.
Shelf price (no sales or coupons) for all the above items is $168.21
Cash paid today: $47.51
Remaining same-as-cash OYNOs: $21
True out of pocket cost: $26.51, for a savings of 84%
Some notes about this trip:
We got two (cheap) bottles of wine which made up a significant portion of our true out of pocket cost; almost $15 of it, actually. Yuck. But Andy wanted to have a nice evening watching a movie and sharing some wine, so I'll manage.
There's a promotion running at our grocery store where if you buy four selected Betty Crocker products, you receive a free Wilton cake pan or cookie sheet. The cheapest products were the cookie mix pouches at $2/ea, and while we were in the baking aisle I found some $.50/1 coupons for the cookie mixes! With the coupons doubling to $1ea, that brought our cost down to $4 total for four mixes AND a cookie sheet!
The Healthy Choice meals were even cheaper this week compared to last - on sale for $2/ea. I'd picked up some $1/3 coupons along the way which brought them down to $1.67 - an excellent price for a quick lunch. So we splurged.
The Gorton's fish is normally $5 per bag. The store was running a special where if you bought two, you got $3 off instantly - bringing them down to $3.50 per bag. Pretty good, but Andy doesn't eat fish so I wasn't hopping all over the deal. I jumped on it when I came into possession of a couple $1 off coupons; $2.50 per bag made it cheap enough. With 10 fish pieces per bag, that made them $.25 per portion. I love the Gorton's fisherman. It's a guilty pleasure.
The Tabasco sauce was a lucky find. I'd had a $.75/1 coupon in my file for a month now, and we happened to pass by the hot sauces when we were getting the mayo. The smaller bottles were on sale for $1.49ea and my coupon doubled to $1.25 off. That's a $.24 bottle of hot sauce right there!
The soup. Ahhh, the soup. We were strolling down an aisle when I saw someone at a display stand messing around with what appeared to be coupons. I've developed this odd sixth sense; if someone leaves a coupon on a shelf or on the floor or something, I spot it immediately. This lady was leaving coupons behind. I stalled us for a second until she walked off and went to see what sort of gift I would receive. For Bob's sake, there were three coupons sitting there each for a free carton of store brand ready to eat soup!! I picked them up and looked over the selection. As I was looking, a lady and her young son came up next to me to look at the soups as well and I handed her one of my free coupons with a smile. Hey, I'm not always angry....
-I almost always use the self checkout lanes when shopping, but this time I went the cashier route as I knew a couple of my coupons would require manual override and I wasn't sure if the free soups would need override as well. I sorted everything on the belt into the two transactions, kept my coupons separate, and tried to be as organized and un-obnoxious as possible.
Tomorrow is Sunday - coupon day!! There are some good ones so I'll be getting 4 papers - an $8 investment for the week that, at first glance, will save me over $100. Maybe I'll get 5.
Early next week we're making one more trip to the grocery store to catch the tail end of this week's sales for some assorted freebies, some chicken, and some produce. That's where I plan to use my remaining $21 in OYNOs so I doubt we'll spend much of our own money at all.
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