It was an intense shopping morning on Monday. The bus came by to pick up my son at 8:30, then I dropped my daughter off at school and headed into town to shop. My first stop was Rite Aid. I hit the “free after rebate” deals pretty hard.
The total came to $37.72, which I paid with my debit card. However, I’ll be getting $36.23 back in the form of a rebate check. The only thing I actually had to pay for, after all is said and done, is $1.49 for two tins of Carmex! Total saved at Rite Aid: 96%.Next I stopped at Walgreens. This was my first experience shopping at Walgreens, and I did a bit of research ahead of time to make sure I got the best deals. If you’ve never shopped Walgreens before, I highly suggest you read
this post at
Money Saving Mom.My Walgreens experience was an interesting one. Because I had never shopped there before, I had no idea where anything was. I wasted a lot of time just trying to find the things on my list. I also wasn’t sure if they’d take coupons that I had printed from the internet, and the employees at the store didn’t seem to know either. I decided to take a chance and try to use them.
Fortunately, my internet coupons did work, and that saved me a ton of money. I had some pretty good coupons! Unfortunately for me, I didn’t catch that my Register Rewards didn’t print out until I was halfway to Albertson’s. Fortunately the store manager didn’t hassle me about it when I returned to Walgreens to inquire about my Register Rewards. He couldn’t get them printed out, so he just gave me a $15 Walgreens gift card (the amount of my Register Rewards).
Here’s what I got at Walgreens:
My total came to $82.82 before savings. I saved $39.06 between Walgreens coupons, Walgreens advertised savings, and manufacturer coupons. So I paid $43.76 out of pocket. But then I got a $15 gift card (for the register rewards that didn’t print), and I will be getting $19.46 in rebates also. So taking into consideration the gift card and the rebate money, my total for this shopping trip is $9.30 for a savings of 89%.Finally I made my way to Albertson’s to do a little grocery shopping. This is what I bought:
My total before any discounts or coupons was $114.33. Between bonus buys, preferred savings, manufacturer coupons, and store coupons, my savings was $65.95. I paid $48.38 and saved a total of 57%. Once again, I found it hard to save big bucks at Albertson’s, since they don’t double coupons. I forgot to take Paula’s suggestion and ask if I could use my own bags for further savings. Maybe I’ll remember next week.All in all, I’m pretty pleased. I feel like we’re completely stocked up for cold and flu season. And anytime I get a box of cereal for 67 cents, I’m thrilled. And I got 10 boxes for 67 cents each, so that’s even better!
For more inspiration, head over to Money Saving Mom to see what other frugal shoppers bought this week.
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Wow! That is amazing and inspiring. :-) I’d become more coupon proactive, but we don’t spend much to begin with. Still, it can’t hurt to look around.
I shop at Albertsons fairly often because in my area they accept competitors coupons. So I take my Safeway double coupons as well as any other good store coupons (I have 4/$6 cereal coupon from a local grocery store that I’ll combine with manu coupons) and can save a fair bit of money. Also, if you have an entertainment-type coupon book, they often have $10 off $50 purchase for some grocery store which I use at Albertson’s. Or sometimes Safeway has one in the paper. I would find out if your Albertson’s accepts competitors coupons, it makes a big difference. Hope this is helpful.
OK I’m starting to understand how some people can spend seeming tiny amounts on food while others spend what seems outrageous amounts of food.
I’ve never and repeat never heard of a 6 dollar cereal coupon. Perhaps 25 cents off an overpriced cereal I’d never buy. But nothing ever worthwhile. From comments I’ve seen else where it seems that coupons like this are only in certain areas in America. If you don’t live near one of this areas you have to spend a more realistic amount on food.
67 cents for a box of cereal? That’s more than an awesome deal!
OH.
MY.
GOONESS.
Will you please come teach me to shop? *begging on bended knees*
@vika – My Albertson’s does accept competitors coupons, but they only accept 10 at a time, so I have to really plan for which ones to use. And I do use the Safeway double coupon, but I can only use one per trip, and it only doubles 4 coupons up to 50 cents each.
@Rob – I think the coupon vika is referring to is a coupon where you can buy 4 boxes of cereal for $6. Not as great as $6 off, but still a great coupon!
@Kandy – I would love to teach you how to shop! Though I’m still learning myself. I don’t usually do quite this well, but Rite Aid and Walgreens both had stellar deals this week.
I bought 4 of those Pillsbury crescents & 4 Pillsbury pizza dough with Albie’s bogo + mfgr. coupon. I was annoyed though because I didn’t buy one of the participating bagged salads and ended up buying 2 bags of salad for almost 5.00! I was pretty peeved.
Items purchased 24
Great deal svgs 24.59
Promotional svgs 3.95
Mfg Coupons 5.30
Store cpn (bags) .25
Total savings 34.09 making my total paid 33.40.
Ok savings, I guess, but I didn’t buy any meat, nothing in the loss leaders worth buying. I bought the chicken a 1.88 2 weeks ago, so i”m stocked for chicken, othewise I would have used the bogo.
See? What do you need double coupons for? You did awesome!
Great savings Lynnae! We have a Walgreens and I love it! They do have a great online site too, so you can shop before you go. Keep up the good work!
I would be very happi to learn how to shop because i realised not long ago that i sepnd a lot of money on food. Please give me some advices.