Finally, coupon shopping from me...

Monday's shopping trip:

Tuesday's shopping trip below:


and Wednesday's shopping trip:

Total Cost (before sales/coupons): $283.10

Total Out-of-Pocket: $109.55

Savings of $173.55


Here's the breakdown by store:

KROGER (monday)
Total: $152.52
Out-of-Pocket: 64.06
Savings of: 88.46

9 boxes of Cheerios:
- $1.17 each (usually $3.00)
- Each box had a $1.50 Pampers coupon on it - yippee!

3 boxes of Kix Cereal
- $1.17 each (usually 2.30)

4 Glade Candles
- $1.25 each (usually $2.99)

3 Dial Liquid Hand Soap
- $0.10 each (usually 1.99 each)

4 packages of Duracell batteries
- $1.75 each (usually $4.29 each)

2 Shout Laundry Stain Removal Spray bottles
- $1.25 each (usually $2.99 each)

2 Duncan Hines Frosting
- $0.62 (usually $1.89)
- Normally we don't buy this kind of stuff, but TS is having his b-day and I have too much going on to make a cake from scratch! I'm still planning on decorating it fun, though. Hopefully it'll work out!

1 Breyer's Ice Cream 1.75 qts
- $1.50 each (usually $5.19 - for TS' birthday)

3 Scotch Brite Ultra NailSaver Scrub Sponges
- $0.49 (usually $1.99)

2 Hefty Freezer Bags
- $0.45 each (usually 2.49)


All the things above were part of a Mix & Match deal. If you buy any ten of these items, you get $5 off at the register. I bought a touch over 30 items, and got $15 immediately taken off. Most of the items were also on sale in addition AND I had coupons for almost all of them. So, a sale, a coupon, and then money off - pretty good!

I also bought the things below. They weren't part of the deal:

1 Duncan Hines Cake Mix
- $0.63 (usually 1.99)

4 Glade Air Fresheners
- $0.50 each (usually $1.29)

9 Campbell's Cream Soups
- $0.45 each (usually 1.19 each)

Private Selection Angus Ground Chuck, 8.29 lbs
- 1.99 per pound (usually 3.99 lb)

Black Seedless Grapes
- .97 lb

2 Oxy Spot Treatment
- $1.85 each (usually $5.19 each)

2 gallons of milk
- $2.50 (not sure what this specific brand usually is - it's common for milk to be $3.50 or more around here)


ALBERTSONS (monday)
Total Cost: $30.74
Out-of-Pocket: $12.90
Savings of: $17.84

Oranges
- $0.79 per lb (usually $2.29 lb)

Cameo Apples
- $0.79 per lb (usually $1.99 lb)

6 Tiger's Milk Nutrition Bar
- $0.40 (usually $0.79 each)

9 Kleenex Facial Tissue w/Lotion
- $0.67 (usually $1.29 each)


TOM THUMB (monday)
Total Cost: $61.19
Out-of-Pocket: $20.06
Savings of: $41.13

4 Glade Air Fresheners (better selection than Kroger had!)
- $0.50 each (usually 1.79 each)

4 Swanson Broth
- $0.34 each (usually $1.29 each)

4 Progresso Broth
- $1 each (usually $2.89 each)

2 Carnation Evaporated Milk
- $0.50 each (usually $1.35)

4 Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers
- $1.50 (usually $3.99)

Red Seedless Grapes
- $0.98 lb (usually $2.99 lb)

Hot House Tomates
- $0.98 lb (usually $3.99 lb)

3 Campbell's Cream Soups
- $0.45 each (usually $1.50)


TOM THUMB (tuesday)
Total Cost: $25.88
Out-of-Pocket: $7.08
Savings of: $18.80

When I went on Monday, they were out of some stuff. They said to come back Tuesday, so I did:

8 Fresh & Simple Ragu Pouches
- $0.67 each (usually $2.49 each)

4 Safeway Pastas
-$0.43 (usually $1.49 each)


ALBERTSONS (wednesday)
Total Cost: $12.74
Out-of-Pocket: $5.45
Savings of: $7.29

5 packages of Taco Bell taco shells
- $1 each (usually $2.19)

1 package of Veg All Steamed Veggies
- $0.45 (usually $1.79)


Truth is I do not have the time to sit and figure out all of this! My coupon shopping almost came to a halt when Violet was a couple months old - when she stopped sleeping all the time. I no longer had time to try to figure stuff out, so I signed up with this place:
www.thegrocerygame.com.

It's really quite nice. I just print off a list per store, search for what I want, pull out the matching coupons, and off I go. I make it sound like it takes five minutes, but it actually does take a bit of time still, especially for deals like the Mix & Match thing.

They do it regionally so that you can have a list accurate for your own specific area. You can do a trial run for $1 for four weeks (I think it was). If you don't want to continue, you cancel.

Here's the breakdown:
- It's $10 for the first store and $5 for each additional store for every TWO months (or about nine weeks).
- For me that equals $20 per two months.
- That's $2.22 per week total
- or $0.74 per store per week

That $20 is earned back pretty quickly by saving so much. It also gives me some deals that I might have missed otherwise. Right now, it's either I do this or else I don't do much coupon shopping at all... For me, it's totally worth it! Anyway, check it out if you find yourself not having time to figure out shopping yourself. I personally wouldn't use it for CVS or Walgreens. There are so many blogs out there that have that info.

But since I'm using The Grocery Game, I won't be posting any of my deals until after they are over since I'm sure they wouldn't be happy if I did that.

Teresa