sunday shopping 9-5-10

I had no intentions of shopping today.  I am pretty well on for groceries for the week, my stockpile is overflowing, and none of the deals at CVS or Walgreens seemed particularly exciting.  But we have our dear friends Shannon & Eric visiting this weekend from Fort Lauderdale, and Eric has his heart set on me making Coconut Rice & Black Beans.  (I wasn't planning on making it because after making it the past 2 times they've visited, I figured they would be sick to death of it.  Apparently not!)  Anyway, I needed just a few items for the recipe, so I figured I'd take Shannon along for a little hands-on couponing 101 tutorial.  I think she thought I was crazy at first for dragging her with me, but when her total for 10 boxes of pasta and 2 boxes of fruit snacks was only $5, she was a lot more enthusiastic and thought it would be fun to try a little "CVSing."  So we did.

Here is what we got:

At Publix I spent $21.98 on $47.30 worth of groceries, a savings of 54%.  It definitely wasn't within my normal 65-80% savings range, but I wasn't really expecting it to be, either, since I was buying some Mango-Peach salsa for the rice & beans dish that sells for $3.99 & wasn't on sale (the horror!)  I also decided to treat myself and stock up on Sabra hummus because I love that stuff & could eat it all day, every day.  It is on BOGO sale this week, but I didn't have any coupons for it.  It is a holiday weekend, after all!   And now that I am looking more closely at my receipt, I realize that the cashier didn't scan one of my $2.00 off pasta coupons, which means that I should've spent $2.00 less!  

Coupons used:

(2)-$1 off any produce (Target coupons printable here)

(2)-$0.50 off Hellman's Mayo (Target coupons printable here)

(2)-$0.75 off Hellman's Mayo (printable here)

(2)-$2 off 5 Mueller Pasta (printable here) (cashier only counted 1!)

(My friend Shannon, on the other hand, made out like a pro!  She spent $5.48 on $19.68 worth of groceries, a very impressive first-time savings of 72%)

At CVS we had a lot more fun.  In 2 transactions I spent $12.73 on $91.54 worth of merchandise, for a total savings of 86%.  I got a lot more free SoBe Lifewaters (yay!), lots of cheap olives, which my girls eat like candy, and diapers & baby wash, both of which I was starting to run low on.  It was a surprising score for what I thought was a slow week.  I also ended up with $2.98 Extra Care Bucks to use next week.

Here is what I did:

Transaction 1:

Bought:

8 SoBe Lifewaters

Huggies Snug & Dry Diapers

Huggies Travel Wipe Pack

Johnson's Head to Toe Baby Wash

Johnson's Bubble Bath & Wash

Stride Gum

Coupons used:

(4) SoBe Buy 1, Get 1 Free Coupons (play game here)

(1) $3 off Huggies Snug & Dry manufacturers coupon (printable here)

(1) $4 off any Huggies Diapers AND Wipes (CVS coupon printed from in-store machine last week)

(2) $1 off Johnson's Baby Wash (printable here)

$8.98 ECBs

Total Due: $11.88

Received $10.99 ECBs back

Transaction #2:

Bought:

7 Lindsay Olives (on sale for $1)

Bread

8 SoBe Lifewaters

2 High Octane Energy Chews

1 NyQuil Cold & Flu (on clearance for 75% off)

Coupons used:

(1) $3 off $10 grocery purchase (CVS coupon printed from in-store machine today)

(4) SoBe Buy 1, Get 1 Free Coupons (play game here)

(1) Buy 1 Get 1 Free High Octane Chews (printable here)

$10 ECBs

Total Due: $0.85

Received $1.99 ECBs back

Altogether I spent $34.71 for $138.34 worth of groceries and merchandise, an average savings of 75% for the day (and week so far.)

Happy Labor Day Weekend!