Best Grocery Shopping Trip EVER!
So, today was my best trip EVER! My goal - spend as little as possible. I had tons of coupons:
- $5 off Order of Coke/Nabisco Products (earned during last week's Munch Mania deal)
- $24 off of my Total Order (earned during Shoprite Dollar Days earlier this month)
- $1 off my Total Order (because I bought 2 Jello Puddings last week)
- $2 off my Total Order (Shoprite Family $$ discount)

So, here's what I purchased:
- 2 lemons (80 cents)
- 1/2 Gallon of Milk
- 2 Bottles Purex Laundry Detergent (On sale for $1.99 and you get a $2 off your next order coupon if you buy 2)
- 2 Boxes Graham Crackers (On sale for 2 for $5. I had $1 off 1 coupons for each making them $3 for both)
- 4 Bottles Cherry Coke Zero (On sale for 4 for $4)
- 2 Packages Chex Mix (On sale for 2 for $5 and I had a $1 off coupon making them $4)
- 12 Smart Ones Entrees (On sale for $1.66 and I had a $5 off of 12 coupon making them CHEAP)
- 2 packages of Idahoan Mashed Potatoes ('cause we love them, they were $1, and I was afraid I hadn't spent enough $$ to use all of my coupons)
- 4 reusable shopping bags for a savings of 20 cents

I really didn't need any groceries this week. We're well stocked. BUT, I couldn't let my $32 in coupons go to waste! They had to be used this week. And why on earth was I going to throw away $32!?!?!?! I only really needed milk and lemons for the chicken I'm roasting on Wednesday. We certainly didn't need Smart Ones - but who can turn down 12 for $14.92 - that's getting them for $1.24 each!?!?

I figured I'd be spending around $3 when I got to the register. I was pretty scared when the total was well over $50 before she scanned my Price Plus Card or my coupons. Seriously...I only wanted to spend $3!!!

She started scanning and my total came down to $6.38. The cashier recognized us from previous trips and asked why I wasn't doing my happy dance. WHY??? Because my total was TWICE what I was expecting it to be. Okay, it was still only $6.38 and I shouldn't complain but I couldn't figure out where I went wrong. So, I checked out my receipt. Turns out two of my $3 off coupons got stuck together. Because we shop at 8am on a Monday morning, there is no line (trust me, you do not want to get behind me at a grocery store checkout these days). I had time to quickly scan everything before I walked away. She was wonderful (that's why I choose her line). She realized the mistake, gave me my coupon, and sent me over to customer service where they handed me $3 in cash!!! Bringing my total back to $3.38 - right about where I was expecting it to be!!! (I knew there would be tax but didn't figure it into my calculations since I knew it would be minimal - my tax was 52 cents).

SO, my total bill ended up being:
Total Savings Today is: $73.19
Total Spent: $3.38

AND, remember how I bought those two Purex Laundry detergents? It spit out a $2 off coupon towards my order for next week! I get $31 off of my total shopping bill next week - and we still probably won't need much! Go me!!! And, I'm teaching mom along the way, too! She actually had $15 in coupons off of Coke/Nabisco products and she's the one that pointed out the Purex deal to me - I'd completely overlooked it since we have 8 bottles of laundry detergent in the basement. BUT, I had to do some last-minute replanning. See, I was going to use most of my coupons on 1 item and pick up a 20lb bag of rice which was $1 off. But, do you know how big a 20lb bag of rice really is?!?!? What do you do with the thing after it's open? How do you keep it fresh? How do you keep bugs out? How do you store it? Mom and I stared at the thing in my cart before realizing that I didn't need 20lbs of rice. So, I had to quickly figure out how else to spend $8. That's when I picked up the Purex, Chex Mix, and 2 packs of potatoes.