This is the post that I admit that I went grocery shopping nearly every day last week during my Pantry Challenge. Remember the challenge where I was NOT going to shop for stockpiled items, and only spend $100? Well, I stockpiled again, but I had to…and it was SO worth it!
Since I added Super Doubles or triples into “my exclusion clause” for my Pantry Challenge post (whew), I don’t feel that guilty, but guilty enough that our Pantry Challenge has now been extended, much to my teen boys’ dismay. When a savings opportunity comes along like extreme couponing, I realize it wouldn’t have been fiscally responsible of me NOT to shop.
Does that make sense? An intense couponing week like this is not something I LOVE…actually, it’s hard work, and takes planning to only spend $25/week on groceries. But when your grocery bill goes from $135 down to $12 (which doesn’t include the retail price of the marked down meats or milk), it’s all worth it because this was one of my best grocery trips ever. Being the “Grocery Guru,” that is pretty exciting. 🙂
Even with an “extreme couponing” week, I still did not spend more than $65 with five trips to the store, and that was literally for hundreds of items. And now, I don’t care if I don’t see another coupon for a month – seriously. I always take a long couponing break after triples or doubles.
My camera battery died here, so I couldn’t get a better picture, but about 20 items were already put away.
- 4 boxes of Special K – total $1 (many national chains are doing this automatic $5 back through the rest of the month, so take advantage of this offer)
- 2 Lysol double sided wipes – free
- 1 Coffee mate flavored creamer – free (but I now have six)
- 3 boxes of guacamole – free (my kids are in heaven)
- 2 v-8 juices – $0.50/each
- Organic, marked down milk – $1/gallon
- 4 Palmero pizzas – $1.50/each (whoot whoot)
- 2 Blue Bonny ice creams…you don’t even want to know…$0.30 (I’m ducking since my freezer is so full of ice cream)
- 6 bags of Kraft Cheese – nearly free (another catalina special through out the country)
- 6 Healthy Choice soups – $0.25
- This was the deal of the day. There were FOUR boxes (only one is shown) of Perdue precooked chicken. Originally, $4.89, but $4 sticky tag was on it due to it being marked down meat…then I had a 2 $1 coupon, that doubled….you do the math. Money maker, it was.) Anyone could have done that. You didn’t need to have double coupons. It’s about having that eagle eye at the store.
- 2 Earthgrain 100% multigrain buns – $0.50
- Dannon yogurt – $0.20/piece
I realize that many of you do not have a store that doubles your coupons,and so you feel like this great of saving can’t apply to you.
The reason I choose this trip, was because most of you could have achieved this same thing by adding on an additional $20. I know that most of you would gladly have payed $32 for this load, right? The Kraft and Special K deals are nation wide. The marked down milk and meat just means a talk with your dairy and meat managers, and the rest was looking at the store flyers and only buying exactly what matched up with my coupons. No, it’s not for the faint of heart, but I was not about to miss 20 boxes of Special K cereal with strawberries for $5.
Do you see why I couldn’t pass this week up – not with five children? Our dinners are still from the Pantry, as you can see, these are speciality items, except for the pizza, which are now gone. 🙂
You are so a woman after my own heart. Though I’m not officially doing the pantry challenge this month, I was trying to use up what I had in the freezer and refrigerator until I saw your post about double coupons and saw the tremendous deals on meat that some of the local stores were having. So I was at the grocery store just about everyday last week stocking up as well and now my freezer and pantry are overflowing. I didn’t do as well as you in the savings, but for the newbe that I am, I got some great bargains and I’m feeling pretty good about it 😉 Now we have some serious eating to do!
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Great Job! I’m so excited for you. We don’t have any Super Doubles/Triples stores in my area, but I learn alot from reading your posts anyway.
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Just wondering, does that mean 5 different Harris Teeters to scope out or did one let you keep comin’ back for 20 more? We had sickness, so I only got out once!
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Jens Reply:
January 16th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
@Heather, The coupon policy is only 20 coupons/household/per day, and I stick to that. Some people abuse that policy by signing up for diff. cards/diff addresses, but I am so grateful that they offer this and don’t want that to stop because of people taking advantage of it. SO, because of that, I have to go back every day since you can also only use three of the same newspaper coupons/2 same internet coupons.
I had $1 off two boxes of cereal, so I bought four boxes every visit. Theoretically, I could have gotten more but I also got some Special K crackers and a few cereal bars with that deal. It’s still offered for a few more weeks, the coupons just won’t double, but it’s still comes to $0.75/box without doubles. 🙂
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Yay!! That sounds like such an exciting trip!! 🙂
Our stores don’t double and the meat manager at my local store doesn’t mark down any more than 50% 🙁 I have asked him and he told me he’s not allowed to. ?? Not sure who makes the rules, since he is the manager!! But 50% off isn’t good enough of a deal. The produce area has amazing deals though, so we’re usually set for salads 🙂
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I did several trips as well, and got great deals. We are well stocked! I love “groceries from God”!!! Then I had an OfficeMax coupon for $10 off of $20 that I used to finally get baseball card holders so that I could upgrade my coupon organizing system. So rather than wanting to take a break, I am on fire to get even more organized!!! Blessings!
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Jen would you mind sharing where you found out about the Special K deal? I just looked online and I can’t seem to find any info by Googling it. Unfortunately I live nowhere near a Harris Teeter (I’m in PA). Amazing job couponing by the way! I live in awe. 😉
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This is how I do it girl!! Good for you!
My best ever was $112 in groceries that I paid $12 for… Those days of refunds are long gone.. but you have the gyst of how to do it! Now you have to do some ‘power cooking’… check out my blog for some tips.
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Wow!! I wish I lived in the states so I could double and triple my coupons!! There are hardly any place here that we can. 🙁
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I am not nearly the bargain hunting queen you are but I also couldn’t pass up deals I found last week. We also started running out of stuff, like peanut butter, honey, juice, flour, so I had to do a stock up trip to a local discount grocery store I visit only every few months.
I figure the point of the challenge is to use what I have and buy only what we really *need* so I’m still following my own rules!
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Jens Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 10:52 am
@Beth, Exactly, they are our own rules. I kind of laughed at myself after wards about feeling “guilty” for shopping.
It’s just about rethinking how we spend and use what we have. 🙂
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Wow! I wish. Good for you! Here in my little corner of Canada the coupon deals are just not the same. There is no newspaper supplement and we never, I mean never, have double or triple coupon days. We take advantage of 15% off the first Tuesday of the month, buy in season, shop the specials and look for mark-down stickers and freebies with purchases. For a family of 6/7 we do pretty good. I am also doing the pantry challenge, my freezer is plum full.
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WOW that is impressive!
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WOW! WOW! WOW! I want to shop like that.
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I just spent a while reading through a bunch of your meal planning posts and I wanted to thank you! Earlier today I took a pen to my bank statement and added up how much I spent on groceries and eating out last month. It’s no wonder I’m so strapped for cash…I keep eating it all! I could literally save hundreds of desperately needed money if I could get my act together. So thank you, thank you, thank you.
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