Recently, Mon Amour and I went on a date ....to the grocery store. Don't worry, I considered it incredibly romantic. I love grocery shopping. And I love that Mon Amour doesn't mind shopping with me. He is very helpful! Helpful for keeping me on track, helpful for telling me its ok to loosen up from time to time, helpful for asking cashiers about items that seem to be out of stock, and helpful for carrying things to the car. Very helpful.
This trip was particularly thrilling. The short version goes like this:
Total Retail Value of my Groceries: $179.97
Total that I paid: $13.61
That's approximately 7% of the retail value. It like everything was 93% off.
hehe. Pardon the giggling. But saving money on groceries makes me giddy.
So, what does $179.97 worth of groceries look like?
Like this:
This trip was particularly thrilling. The short version goes like this:
Total Retail Value of my Groceries: $179.97
Total that I paid: $13.61
That's approximately 7% of the retail value. It like everything was 93% off.
hehe. Pardon the giggling. But saving money on groceries makes me giddy.
So, what does $179.97 worth of groceries look like?
Like this:
As for the details -first the "don't be TOO impressed" details (i.e. the flaws/errors with my shopping):
$15 of this shopping trip was the result of a cashier error - not through my own planning (though this trip did require quite some planning!). They accidentally printed me twice as many coupons as they should have. My conscience haunts me a little about not correcting their error...but in the moment, I wasn't convicted enough. So, really, if not for this cashier error I would have spend $13.61 on only $164.97 worth of groceries. Still a very good trip.
Then the sad news - we actually could have gotten 2 free bagged salads added to this trip. There were coupons for free salad with the purchase of dressing that we didn't notice. They were right on the dressing bottles, but we didn't see them until we got home. Lame.
Now the fun news. I won't bore you with all the details. Just some highlights.
The core of the savings was based on a Unilever offer - by $30 worth of stuff, get $15 off your next purchase. Well, the $30 is pre-coupons. So $30 sale cost - approximately $13 in coupons = $17 cost, with a $15 coupon for next time. Do that twice, this time using that $15 coupon in lieu of cash - and you only have to put out a few dollars to get ANOTHER $15 off the next purchase coupon. You can roll the deal like this a lot if you have lots of coupons. I only rolled it twice. (the 2nd time was when they printed me $30 in coupons, instead of $15. Oops.)
The really good deals:
We were randomly awarded a coupon for a free box of cookies from the bakery. Score!
I had a coupon for $0.50 off 2 candy bars. They were on sale 2 for $1. And the coupon was doubled. This equals 2 free candy bars.
And the best deal - Kellogs is running a back to school promotion where if you purchase 10 Kellogs products and mail in the receipt / UPCs, you get a $10 rebate. Well, it just so happened that the grocery store had Kellogs Pop Tarts on sale at $1 a box. A great price even without the rebate. I also had coupons for $0.50 of 2 boxes. That coupon gets doubled. So each box cost me 50 cents. Totalling $5 for 10 boxes. Mail in those UPCs and receipt - and I just made $5 on 10 boxes of Pop Tarts.
On my last transaction of the evening - where I was using up my $30 in "next purchase" coupons. I wanted to get as close to $30 as possible. I didn't want to put out any more cash, but I also didn't want the store to techically owe me money at the end. So, we added a few frivolous items (like gum, and an artichoke). My in-store math was just about dead on. After sales, regular coupons, and the $30 coupons, I owed the casheir 51 cents. Perfect.
$15 of this shopping trip was the result of a cashier error - not through my own planning (though this trip did require quite some planning!). They accidentally printed me twice as many coupons as they should have. My conscience haunts me a little about not correcting their error...but in the moment, I wasn't convicted enough. So, really, if not for this cashier error I would have spend $13.61 on only $164.97 worth of groceries. Still a very good trip.
Then the sad news - we actually could have gotten 2 free bagged salads added to this trip. There were coupons for free salad with the purchase of dressing that we didn't notice. They were right on the dressing bottles, but we didn't see them until we got home. Lame.
Now the fun news. I won't bore you with all the details. Just some highlights.
The core of the savings was based on a Unilever offer - by $30 worth of stuff, get $15 off your next purchase. Well, the $30 is pre-coupons. So $30 sale cost - approximately $13 in coupons = $17 cost, with a $15 coupon for next time. Do that twice, this time using that $15 coupon in lieu of cash - and you only have to put out a few dollars to get ANOTHER $15 off the next purchase coupon. You can roll the deal like this a lot if you have lots of coupons. I only rolled it twice. (the 2nd time was when they printed me $30 in coupons, instead of $15. Oops.)
The really good deals:
We were randomly awarded a coupon for a free box of cookies from the bakery. Score!
I had a coupon for $0.50 off 2 candy bars. They were on sale 2 for $1. And the coupon was doubled. This equals 2 free candy bars.
And the best deal - Kellogs is running a back to school promotion where if you purchase 10 Kellogs products and mail in the receipt / UPCs, you get a $10 rebate. Well, it just so happened that the grocery store had Kellogs Pop Tarts on sale at $1 a box. A great price even without the rebate. I also had coupons for $0.50 of 2 boxes. That coupon gets doubled. So each box cost me 50 cents. Totalling $5 for 10 boxes. Mail in those UPCs and receipt - and I just made $5 on 10 boxes of Pop Tarts.
On my last transaction of the evening - where I was using up my $30 in "next purchase" coupons. I wanted to get as close to $30 as possible. I didn't want to put out any more cash, but I also didn't want the store to techically owe me money at the end. So, we added a few frivolous items (like gum, and an artichoke). My in-store math was just about dead on. After sales, regular coupons, and the $30 coupons, I owed the casheir 51 cents. Perfect.
Yes, it was a good trip. Next time I will correct a cashier error if I catch it. I enjoy couponing, and don't feel any shame about "making money" off of certain deals - but I do believe couponing should be done correctly, with in the guidelines carefully established by marketing firms everywhere. I don't want to abuse the system (like the guy who was at the store with us who bought 150 jars of mayonaise cause he figured out how to get them for free or at least nearly free).
To me, couponing is a game (a very practical one) and like most games, its really only fun if you play by the rules and be a good sport.
To me, couponing is a game (a very practical one) and like most games, its really only fun if you play by the rules and be a good sport.
2 comments:
Fantastic! I hit up the Kellogg's deal too two weeks ago!
I did not know about the Kellogg's deal. I may have to stop at the store tonight. I always love hearing about your shopping trips and wish you could shop for me!!!
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