Coupon Shopping trip - 8/25

I spent days researching the best deals - ones that I needed this week and ones that I would need in the coming weeks (buy now when it's on sale - enough to last until the next sale). As my hobby, it was fun to do and I enjoyed it. I found the best sales, and coupons for just about everything. Here is a picture of everything I bought today.



I spent a total of $90 at four stores, and saved $79. It's that high because I bought a TON of bags of chicken and we also needed two kinds of medicine - prevacid and excedrin. Meat and medicine are always expensive, but I did my best! Not to mention that gallon of milk is organic.

Here's the breakdown of what I did. (You may not care at all, but this is my journal too, so I want to keep track of this.)

Food Lion:
2 chips ahoy reg $3.69 sale: b1g1 I paid: $1.84 each
4 Michael's deodorant reg $2.99 sale: $2 I paid: $2 each
Spent: $12.16
Saved: $7.66
39%

Harris Teeter (double man. coupons up to $1):
5 2.5 bags chicken breasts reg $9.99 sale: b2g3 I paid: $3.99 each
grape tomatoes reg $3.49 sale: $0.97 I paid: $0.97
mushrooms reg $1.99 sale: $0.97 I paid: $0.97
Organic Milk reg $5.99 sale: $4.97 I paid: $4.97
Prevacid 42 ct reg $29.99 sale: $24.99 coupon: $3 I paid: $21.99
Spent: $48.88
Saved: $39.53
45%

Target:
3 capri suns reg: $2.54 Target coupon: $0.50 each Man. coupon: $1/3 I paid: $1.71
chips ahoy reg: $1.99 Target sale (when you buy 3 capri suns, get cookies free) I paid: $0
2 Dannon drinks reg: $2.69 sale: $2 Target coupon: $1 I paid: $1 each
Excedrin 100 ct reg: $8.99 sale: $8.09 Man. coupon: $1.50 I paid: $6.59
Balloons for Kara reg: $1.50 I paid: $1.50
Pocket file (for coupons! lol!) from dollar section I paid: $1
2 cottonelle wipes reg: $2.69 Target coupon: $1.25 each Man. coupons: $1/2 I paid: $0.94
Spent: $18.30
Saved: $13.77
43%

Safeway (double man. coupons up to $1):
Cheese Its reg: $3.49 sale: $2.50 Saf. coup.: $1.01 I paid: $1.49
Mini cookies reg: $2.99 sale: $2 Saf. coup.: $0.51 I paid: $1.49
Mini cookies reg: $2.99 sale: $2 Saf. coup.: $0.51 I paid: $1.49
Aluminum Foil reg: $4.59 sale: $3.49 Saf. coup.: $0.50 Man. coup: $0.55x2 I paid: $1.89
2 Grands rolls reg: $4.78 sale: $3 Saf. coup.: $1.02 Man. coup: $0.30x2 I paid: $0.69 each!
2 boxes Taquitos reg: $10.98 sale: $7.98 Saf. coup.: $2 Man. coup: $3 I paid: $1.49 each!
Spent: $10.87
Saved: $19.15
64%

Total Spent: $90.21
Total Saved: $79.88
47%

Now, most of the "regular" prices are outrageous, so if you usually shop at WalMart and buy the generic stuff, you wouldn't have saved 47%, but I guarantee my prices are better than the generic WalMart prices and the only way to get those low prices are to use these coupons. (There aren't coupons for generic stuff.) Also, it may look like I bought a lot of cookies - Michael has been complaining that we haven't had enough sweets around the house in a while, so I stocked up for him since they were having great sales just about everywhere. Also, cans of tomatoes and box dinners (that need chicken) were what I bought last week, so this week really filled in the gaps of what I needed.

This is only the 2nd or 3rd week I've been doing this, so I'm sure I have more to learn, but I'm finding this is a really great hobby for me. I LOVE math and solving puzzles. I look at this as a fun way to see where the biggest deal is and save money. While the kitchen won't be happening for a while (it's a long story - basically we decided to wait until the house was paid off and we had zero debt first), I can use the extra money to pay off the house earlier.

I'm having fun. :-)