My new obsession: Coupons

Yes...those things we call cut and save and never use. Well, I've decided to start using. Did my first shopping trip yesterday armed with my list from The Grocery Game and my carefully clipped coupons from various sources (mostly the newspaper, but a few online ones as well).

So, how did I do? Not so bad for my first trip, I'd say. I made 2 stops. Kroger and Publix.

At Kroger:

My list was:
DanActive Yogurt- 2.00 after kroger card discount of .69, plus a coupon
Activia Drinks- 3.39 after .60, plus a coupon
Mayfield Over the Moon milk (chocolate): 2.99 after .70 plus coupon
Regular milk: Reg: 2.59 after .40
Venus Embrace Razor: 7.99 after 2.00 plus coupons
Gillette Shampoo: 3.99 after .38 plus coupons
Boneless/Skinless Tyson chicken breast: 1.99/lb

It turned out the chicken was from last week's ad. So I passed on that...it was 4.69/lb instead of 1.99, and we aren't really ready to be cooking at the new place anyway. I can wait for the next sale. They DID have Duralog Fire starter logs though, and we have been looking EVERYWHERE for them. Kroger is the first place to have them. So I bought a case of those...no coupon, and probably a premium price since they ARE the only place to have them...but we needed them. So 23.99 to those.

All together, I had 11.00 in coupons, and 4.77 in Kroger card discounts. The Venus Razor, normally 9.99, was 3.99. The Gillette shampoo, normally 4.37 was FREE. Yes, you read that correctly...FREE. No charge. It was on sale for 3.99. I had a 2.00 e-coupon on my Kroger card and a 2.00 coupon from the paper.

My totals were:
Original--54.56 (before all discounts)
Spent--38.79 (23.99 on the logs, so the planned items would have been 13.80)
Saved--15.77 (28.9% of the total, 51.6% excluding the logs)

Then, it was off to Publix.
Little longer list there. And I ended up getting 1 thing that I had a Publix coupon for, but hadn't planned to get so I left a manufacturer's coupon at home...where I could have saved a little more. Not much, but still. And I picked up 1 coupon in the store for buy2 bags of salad, get a free pack of Craisins. I wouldn't have otherwise gotten the salad, but it worked out. I eat the craisins at work instead of going to the vending machine for Skittles (I need something sweet in the afternoon), and it's not like we can't stand to eat more salad...

So, in all, I got:
Pillsbury frozen cheddar biscuits (this is the one I forgot the other coupon for)
Friskies cat treats
Craisins 100 calorie packs
Veggie lovers salad
American salad
Poptarts (x2)
Barber stuffed chicken breasts
Progresso crushed tomatoes (x4)
Thomas' bagels (x2)
2 liter bottles of Soda (1 each, 5 total): 7up, A&W cream, A&W root beer, A&W diet root beer, and Diet cherry 7up
Shredded mozzarella
Classico pasta sauce (x4)
Mueller pasta (x4)
Secret flawless deodorant
Ground beef (about 4 pounds)

Original--83.09
Spent--47.20
Saved--35.89--4.39 in store coupons, 5.00 in vendor coupons, 24.71 in advertised specials, 1.79 in Advantage Buy savings (43.2% of the total)


For a grand total of....

137.65 worth of stuff for 85.99 (37.5% discount) and a savings of 51.66. Not TOO bad. I was hoping for better. Stupid logs... Without them, it would have been 113.66 for 62.00 with the same savings, making it 45.5%. But we have a pretty good head start on groceries for awhile.

Next week, I'm buying diapers for my nephew. They are on sale for $10 each for the Huggies Jumbo packs at Walgreens, and for every $25 you spend on Huggies products, you get $10 in Register Rewards (basically In-store Credit), AND there are $5 and $3 coupons out there. So I can get 3 packs of diapers for $30, use 2 $5 and 1 $3 coupons (I have 2 of each), making my cost $17, then get back $10 that I can use on something else...and then the diapers are $7 for 3 packs, or 2.33 each! I *think* I have heard they have Register Rewards for Diet Coke, too...you can never have too much of that! Haven't heard about my other star deals of the week yet, but I'll be sure to post when I do!