Weekly Shopping Trip

This week was a pretty dang good week! I had a budget of $62.72 (because I had $12.72 leftover from last weeks budget). Unfortunately, I was $2.28 over budget :(, but there were some annoying things that happened that could have remedied that. Ugh...I'll explain later. I also purchased 20 of the $1.00 off 1 Valley Fresh Steamer coupons on E-bay. I spent $3.99 which I subtracted from my grocery budget and I was excited because I got them yesterday, in time to get some overages from Albertson's (see below).

I went out Monday evening and Tuesday evening, and I am glad to be finished so early in the week. Here is what I ended up with. My first trip was to Walgreen's. I read about a sweet deal on Olay Regenerist products here and decided to take advantage. Here is what I ended up with:

2 Olay Regenerist Face Cleansers - $14.98

2 Listerine Kids Mouthwash - $9.00

2 Oral B Zooth Toothbrushes - $4.00 (stocking stuffers!)

Total before coupons: $29.66

Coupons I used:

$1.00 off 2 Oral B toothbrushes

$1.00 off 1 Listerine Smart Rinse

$.50 off 1 Listerine

$5.00 off 2 Olay Regenerist

Net OOP: $2.53 (I had $19.63 remaining on my Walgreen's gift card) I will get a $15.00 gift card for the Olay deal + I got a $2.00 Register Reward for the toothbrushes + I got a $4.50 Register Reward for the Listerine. It was a great trip. I wanted to use the RR's for some more items, but this Walgreen's didn't have everything I wanted so I went to another and had some issues. But first...my trip to Fred Meyer. I made a few stupid mistakes here too - I was so annoyed with myself! Here is what I ended up with there:

6 Navel Oranges - $2.15

2 gallons Skim Milk - $5.00

1 gallon FM whole milk - $3.25 (this was my first mistake, I grabbed the wrong one, the Mountain Dairy was on sale for $2.50!)

1 gallon Mountain Dairy whole milk - $2.50

3 FM butter - $5.00 (with in ad coupon)

3 FM sour cream - $2.97

1 PS mint chip ice cream - $2.50

1 can Santiam corn - $.67 (this was my second mistake, FM vegetables and broth were on sale for $.33, so I got one of these by mistake!)

3 cans FM broth - $1.00 (with in ad coupon)

5 cans FM veggies - $1.67 (with in ad coupon)

Total: $28.32 ( I didn't use any manufacturer's coupons)

Then it was to a second Walgreen's where things didn't go according to plan. This was my own stupidity, but the cashier was frustrating too. Here is what happened. I planned on using my $6.50 in RR's from my last Walgreen's purchase to get some of the fruit and olives that were on sale. I planned on getting 3 cans of olives, but they only had 2. Well, my $6.50 in RR's would have paid for most of what I wanted with a few cents left over. I wasn't thinking and I went to pay with only the 2 cans of olives. The cashier scanned my $2.00 RR and then tried to scan my $4.50 it kept beeping. My total was $4.73, but the cashier said that it wouldn't let me use it because you can only use one per purchase - I told her I had done it before many times and she kept saying that it wasn't going to work. I just decided to pay the $4.73 and when I got my receipt I realized that my total before tax was $4.35. We all know that you can't use a RR for more than the purchase price - so that is why it didn't work. UGH and double UGH! The stuff I got was still a great deal - and I still have my $4.50 RR, but I really should have thought that one through a little bit better. Anyway, here is what I ended up with there.

2 cans Madame mandarin oranges - $1.00 (with in ad coupon)

2 cans Geisha mushrooms - $1.00 (with in ad coupon)

2 cans Lindsay olives - $1.98 (with in ad coupon)

3 cans of Geisha Fruit - $2.37

Total before coupons - $6.73

Used $2.00 RR

Net OOP: $4.73

Next I headed to Walmart. I hate Walmart, but I needed diapers (which I can get the cheapest there if I don't get them on a good sale). I don't include diapers in my grocery budget, so you won't seem them here. Here is what I ended up with:

3 GV sugar free drink mixes - $5.28

2 GV green chilies - $1.56

1 3# bag frozen BS chicken breast - $5.00

1 bag green onions - $1.12

2 tomatoes - $1.08

1 bag frozen hash browns - $1.88

Net OOP: $16.87

I thought I was done for the week, I had $6.28 left in my budget, but I got my Valley Fresh coupons in the mail, so I decided to hit Albertson's because the sale ended yesterday. I first hit one Albertson's and cleared them out of Valley Fresh Steamers, then I went to another one down the road. Here is what I ended up with:

12 bags Valley Fresh Steamers - $15.00 (on sale 4 for $5)

3 BC frosting - $5.00

4 BC cookie mixes - $6.66

2 BC boxed potatoes - $3.34

Total before coupons - $30.00

Albertson's deal this week was buy $10.00 in certain items, get $4.00 off instantly, so they took off $12.00 bringing my total down to $18.00.

Coupons I used:

12 VF steamer $1.00 off 1 coupons

1 $1.00 off 2 BC potatoes

3 $.50 off BC frosting

3 $.40 off BC cookie mix (I had 4 but one was expired!)

Net OOP: $3.39!!!!!!!!

On my next trip I got:

4 Valley Fresh Steamers - $5.00

3 Bisquick - $7.50

1 BC Muffin Mix - $2.50

3 BC boxed potatoes - $5.00

Total before coupons - $20.00

Albertson's took of $8.00 for the promotion leaving a balance of $12.00.

Coupons I used:

4 $1.00 off 1 VF Steamers coupons

3 $.60 off 1 Bisquick coupons

1 $1.00 off 2 BC potatoes

1 $.35 off 1 BC potatoes

1 .40 off 1 BC muffin mix

Net OOP: $5.17

All of this put me just slightly over budget by $2.28 for the week (which I will subtract from next week), but can you believe all the stuff I got!? I would have been under, except for the Walgreen's incident. But still, 6 months ago I never would have believed I could stretch my dollars so far! How'd you do this week?

Would you like to see some other great shopping trips? Check out the Centsible Sawyer's Drugstore Divas and Money Saving Mom's Super Savings Saturday!