Groceries

I can't believe the amount of people that have recently asked or suggested to me about starting a couponing blog. So let me just announce to everyone that reads this - unless someone offers me any type of salary for doing that, I won't. There are hundreds of thousands of blogs out there about coupons, thriftiness, and saving money. Mine would totally get lost in the crowd. But, it does seem like enough people are interested that I will continue to blog about triple coupons and the like.

Tuesday I was fortunate enough to do a "coupon seminar" at Jenn's house. I think "seminar" is a bit too formal of a word to use, but oh well. It was actually a lot of fun, and nice to get out of the house for the night, although I do get out once a month for Ladies Group at church as well. It was nice to be around some different girls and just hang out for a few hours. The big question (besides, "How do you save money??") was about meal planning and such. Now, I don't meal plan like I should. When we have others in the household eating solids with us I will want to start doing that, but for now I meal plan only for the meals I'm going to make for mom and dad on Wednesdays, and then I have about 12-15 other meals I make throughout the month. Then every so often I will try a new recipe for dinner, maybe once a week or so. Anyway, this is getting way off topic. My point is that at the beginning of the month I have a grocery list for the whole month's meals with mom and dad. I asterisk the ones that I need right away, but unless the other items are on sale I don't buy them. For example, this is my list for October:


Last week the two things I needed for last week I bought - but nothing else, because nothing else was on sale. Okay, so now for this week.

Lowe's Food
I only go to Lowe's Food on weeks that something is great on sale and I'm at mom and dad's house because otherwise it's not worth the drive.

Pillsbury crescent rolls:
Regular price $2.09. This week's sale - 3 for $4.98. I had a coupon for two, so I purchased two instead of three. That means I paid $3.32 for two, then my $0.40 coupon was doubled, which meant I paid $2.52 for two. I paid $1.26 per crescent roll pack, essentially.

Starkist tuna pouches:
Regular price $1.79. This week's sale - 4 for $5.00. That makes each individual pouch $1.25 and I had a $0.75 coupon which doubled to $1.50. I had two coupons so I bought two pouches and paid nothing for either one.

Total spent:
Paid $1.93 for groceries which should have cost me $7.87.

Note:
My crescent rolls coupon doubled (they're supposed to automatically) but my Starkist one did not. When I asked the girl why it didn't double, she just shrugged. She acted like it didn't really matter, so I told her that the Lowe's coupon policy is to double all manufacturer's coupons up to $0.99 - so mine should have as well. She called a manager over (not because she wanted to, I'm sure) and he overrode the system to double both coupons. Needless to say this saved me almost $2. The lesson here is - don't be afraid to speak up!! Your cashier may not care if your coupons go through correctly but every dollar counts! If you're wrong, oh well, they won't remember you the next time anyway.

Okay, so I bought stuff that was not on my list, but we eat crescent rolls ALL THE TIME and the tuna was free. I love tuna, plus it's a great stock item for food drives. If it's free, why not get it?
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Food Lion
When I looked at the Food Lion circular online I saw only one thing I needed: cream cheese. If you look at my list, cream cheese is something I need for one of my recipes this month. Philadelphia was having their cream cheese on sale 4/$5. That makes one box $1.25. Good price!

Since there was just one thing I needed, when I walked in I didn't even get a basket. I walked straight to the cream cheese, but when I got there - yes! Food Lion was having a sale on their brand of cream cheese - 5/$5! This was not advertised online, maybe it was in the actual circular. After getting one box, I walked straight to the cashier. No looking around!

Food Lion cream cheese:
Regular price $1.59. Sale price - $1.00.

Total spent:
$1.02 for groceries which should have cost me $1.61.
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Harris Teeter
Great deals at Harris Teeter this week! I don't normally like HT but since they have started doubling coupons every day they're growing on me.

Mountain Dew (or other Pepsi 12-pack products):
Regular price $5.99. Sale price - $2.75. I bought 4 packs to feed Stephen's addiction.

Yakisoba prepared dinner:
Regular price $1.29. Sale price - $0.64. I had a $0.50 coupon which doubled, so I got this for free. I like to have these on hand for quick microwaveable dinners when Brianna is fussy!

Campbell's soups:
Regular price - $0.85 per soup. Sale price - $0.75 per soup. I used a coupon for $0.40 off two soups, which doubled. The price for two soups was $1.50, minus the $0.80 from the coupon, which came out to $0.35 per soup.

Jif peanut butter:
I had a raincheck for this, so the normal price is $2.65 but my raincheck made it $0.99.

McCormick almond extract:
Regular price $5.39. Sale price - $2.69. I had a $1.00 coupon which brought it down to $1.69.

Strawberries:
HT was running a sale, buy 1 get 2 free. I bought 3 lbs of strawberries for $3.99 ($1.33 each pound) and I plan on freezing two pounds. Can't wait to have fresh strawberries in December!

New York texas toast:
Regular price $4.19. Sale price $2.09. Minus a $0.50 coupon which doubled making the toast $1.09.

Tony's pizza:
Regular price $1.17. On sale 5/$5. I had a coupon for $1.00 off two, so I bought two at $1.00 per pizza, then minus the $1.00 coupon I got two pizzas for $1.00.

Harris Teeter eggs (1 dozen):
This is when it comes in handy to have a list. Eggs were on my list (above) last week but I didn't really need them. I waited, and luckily! Harris Teeter had eggs on sale this week for $0.39 if you are an e-VIC member. So, regular price $1.39, sale price $0.39.

Harris Teeter milk:
I buy 1/2 gallon of milk at a time because it takes us a while to go through it. So while it may be cheaper to buy a whole gallon of milk (based on unit price and such) it's silly to do that if you're going to throw out half the milk in clumps. (i.e. it's gone bad.) So, regular price $1.99. Sale price - $1.59.

Total spent:
I paid $23.56 for groceries which should have cost me $56.36.

The best part is, I've already crossed everything but two things off my list for the whole month!

Total for the whole week:
I won't go back to any stores this week, so for all my grocery shopping this week I spent $26.51.

You can do it too!!