Grocery Shopping Lesson #1
So, I was talking to mom yesterday about the HOURS I've spent clipping coupons, searching for online coupons, and studying the circulars. I mentioned that I was planning to hit the stores today. I'm not working today because I'm now working 3-day weeks through the end of January. Mom said she was going shopping as well - so I tagged along. I had my coupon box (I made cute dividers with SU card stock). I had my shopping list which referenced sales and my coupons. I was prepared! I was excited!

So, the alarm went off at 7am...and I hit snooze. When the alarm clock read 7:15am, I leaped out of bed and exclaimed "this is not a snooze button morning"! Mike was in the bedroom ironing and he reminded me that it's not - I had to learn some of mom's secrets!!! And, we were planning to leave at 7:30 and she lives 15 minutes away! No worries, my alarm clock is 12 minutes fast so I was on time.

When I got to their house, I heard my dad exclaim that he had just scored on eBay! A good omen. We then piled into my car - we didn't want to miss out on anything. HOWEVER, my mother is a TERRIBLE influence! She asked if we had time to stop at Walmart. Walmart was NOT on the agenda. She mentioned Christmas stuff was now discounted to 75% off. UGH. I'd ALREADY stocked up on Christmas goodies (at 50% off). She grabbed a cart. I did not. I'm pleased to say that I resisted most things. Mom offered to share her cart with me, but I refused, until I started leaving a trail of bows in my wake. But, in the end, I spent less than $10! I spent less than mom. I paid cash so the purchases don't count! There's no paper trail.

Then it was on to the grocery store. We each got a cart. I scored some great deals! She taught me that there are coupons HIDDEN in the grocery store. I was about to attack the Diet Coke display (it's $1 a bottle this week). I was planning to get 4 or 6 bottles. Until mom whipped out $1 off 4 bottle coupons! SCORE! I got Coke for 75 cents a bottle! It doesn't get much better than that! I then picked my my 1/2 price potatoes, my B1G1F lettuce, but then I got stumped when I looked at the soup. I had 4 coupons. A variety of 50 cents off of 2 or 3. I learned that the Acme DOES double! WOO HOO!! And, I learned that 4 for $5 doesn't mean you have to buy 4. So, I picked up an assortment but lost focus. Thank goodness Bruce, my checkout guy, was paying attention....more on that later.

We walked throughout the store. Another lesson learned - shopping on a Monday following a major holiday isn't necessarily a good idea. The shelves were EMPTY! They were restocking as we were shopping but the selection was low.

I discovered the clearance rack in the grocery store! Who knew?!?

Mom has an awesome grocery list - it's printed out and in order of the store. Much more efficient. We had to keep backtracking for items since I was less organized.

I think I successfully only purchased things that were on my list. I got nervous when I got up to checkout. Luckily because it was 8am on a Monday morning after a major holiday, there was no one behind us in the only checkout line that was open. I started to panic that my calculations were wrong. I kept hearing the folks on Extreme Couponing in my head - if there's one miscalculation, you might end up paying full price for an item! YIKES! Thank goodness Bruce was paying attention. One of my best deals of the morning was the soup. It was on sale 4 for $5 and my coupons brought it down to around $1 per can for the good stuff. My coupons were for cans AND the tubs. But, the sale was only for the cans!!! The tubs were still well over $2! Thank you Bruce! He noticed - I did not. I was fumbling too much with my coupons. Luckily the way my coupons were formatted, I was able to take away the tubs and not lose out on the deal on the rest of the cans. Whew! Trust me, I'll be looking for Bruce's line next time.

Someone should have been videoing me as I checked out. I did a cheer when I saw the total and I even danced a little bit when the computer spit out more soup coupons!

In the end, I didn't do quite as good as I had hoped. I saved 44% on my groceries (I was secretly hoping to save at least 50%). I also learned that Aldi (which is located across the street but not open at the hour we were shopping), has fabulous deals on produce and eggs. Mom mentioned 19 cents for a cucumber!

Stay tuned as I continue to go frugal!