Thursday, December 4, 2008

My shopping this week...

I am committed to sticking within my $50 weekly budget, and I had a great week this week! I came in at $50.60 - so I was $.60 over budget, darn that sales tax! I hit 4 stores yesterday (not all at once, whew! My kids (and my sanity) can only handle 2 stores max!) and I was pleased with the results.

First stop - Fred Meyer

They had several great meat markdowns and a great sale on grapefruit. I got:

6 grapefruit - $1.50
3 gallons milk - $7.17 (on sale for $2.39 each)
1 Preferred Selection Mint Chip Ice Cream - $3.50
2 FM lite whipped topping - $1.18 ($.59 each)
2 bags doritos - $4.00 ($2.00 each)
3 Nesquick 16 oz chocolate milk - $3.00 ($1.00 each)
1 1.5# pork tenderloin - $2.99
1 six pack round steak - $2.58

Total before coupons: $27.48

Coupons I used:

3 $.50 off Nesquick

Net OOP: $25.98


Next stop - the Hostess Bakery Thrift Store. I was so excited because our favorite bread, normally $2.42/loaf was on sale for $1.50 per loaf! I bought 6 for the freezer. I got:


6 loaves Grandma Emilie's Bread - $9.00
1 loaf honey whole grain bread - $1.35
2 packages Hostess donettes - $3.79 (this is my husband's favorite!)


Total: $14.99 (including tax)


That's all I did with the kiddos, then when my hubby got home and we ate dinner I decided to brave K-mart. I must say that I hate K-mart. It makes me feel clauster-phobic. It always seems disorganized. I went because of the super double coupon thing (which NEVER happens in Boise!) and I was a bit disappointed. I probably spent over an hour there and only ended up with a few items. I ran into another couponer and we were talking about the prices, they seemed ultra high and even with the double coupons some things were right around a regular price. So annoying! That being said, I did end up with this:


2 Pert Plus - $8.00 ($4.00 each)
3 bottles Welch's sparkling grape juice - $7.50 ($2.50 each)
2 boxes Kellogg's cereal - $5.00 ($2.50 each)
1 Colgate toothbrush - $2.19

Total before coupons: $24.05


Coupons I used:

2 $2.00 off Pert Plus (these DID double to $4.00 off, so the Pert Pluses were FREE!)
3 $1.00 off Welch's
2 $1.00 off Kellogg's
1 $1.00 off Colgate Toothbrush

After my coupons rang up my net OOP was: $3.45 (which is basically 1 bottle of Pert Plus)!!!!!


Final destination - Albertson's


When I went to Albertson's, I was not paying attention to what the cashier was doing and my total seemed high. I paid it, then went out to my car and looked over my receipt and realized they screwed up. The mac and cheese was on sale for $.80 per box, but with an in store coupon your first 8 boxes were supposed to be $.25 each. When the cashier scanned the coupon it was supposed to take of $.55 8x, but instead only took it off once. I went back in and the cashier calculated that they owed me $1.70, but that was still wrong because I got 8 boxes. Anyway, they recalculated and credited me back $3.61 to my card. That still didn't make sense to me it should have been $3.85, but they said it was right and I didn't want to argue over a few pennies, so here is what I ended up with.


2 cans Hunt's spaghetti sauce - $1.39 (on sale for $.69 each)
4 bags of Albertson's pasta - $2.00 (on sale for $.50 each)
8 boxes of Albertson's mac and cheese - $6.40 ($.80 each)

I ended up paying $9.79 then they took off $3.61, so my net OOP was $6.18.

Anyway, I did pick up a few non-essentials, but I am really happy with my trip. I was able to pick up a few stockpile items and milk. Woo hoo! My plan is to post all of my trips (not just the good ones) so I keep myself accountable for my spending.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Michelle,
Enjoyed your post (as always). I've debated as to whether or not to go to K-Mart (mostly for the "sport" cause they've never doubled coupons before for us.) However, after reading your post (high prices) ... I will restrain myself. I keep telling myself I don't really need anything AND this month I seem to really need more time. Thus, this will be a deal I'll let pass! :-)
Gabrielle

SavingSomeGreen said...

I was going to let it pass too...but I am only about 5 minutes away so I wanted to drop in. I don't know if what I got was worth a whole hour of my time, but now I know I will probably pass it up if it comes around again!

-Michelle

Michelle @ My Gluten-free Kitchen said...

Glad to hear about your K-mart experience. I really dislike that place and avoid it at all costs, but admit I was tempted to go try to do this double coupon thing there. Now I know its not worth my time!
Good job this week! And thanks for the tip about going to the FM on Chinden - I tried it one day and found lots of dairy products marked down. I haven't ever seen any at our Meridian one, but then I don't know if I was really looking for them because I didn't know they were there! Now I will!

SavingSomeGreen said...

Yay! I'm glad you found some good mark downs there. I love it when they have mark downs, which is pretty much everytime I go!

-Michelle

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