thursday shopping 9-23-10

(I apologize in advance for this drawn out account of my shopping experience today. For just the bottom line, scroll WAY down!)

I can be such a spaz sometimes.  I am constantly running around trying to cram one more thing into my day, and I rarely, if ever, just sit and relax.  Breakfast and lunch, when I even bother to eat anything at all, is usually just something I can eat quickly on the run--a granola bar or yogurt--and from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed, I am trying to catch up on my list and all the things I want to accomplish in a day.  And the funny thing is, I wouldn't have it any other way.  I love being busy, love having a million things to do.  My husband's goal in life is to be able to just sit and hang out; mine is to always keep moving.

But every once in a while, (okay, perhaps more often than I'd like to admit), my extreme multi-tasking gets me into trouble.  I rush things I should take more time for.  I skip things I shouldn't.  I forget.  And then I get flustered.  And I turn into a spaz.

Like yesterday, for instance.  I had to be somewhere at 3pm, and to save myself the hassle of loading the girls in the car twice, I wanted to stop at Publix afterwards for my weekly grocery trip.  (In my mind Thursday = grocery day.  Nevermind that I could just go later, or even that I don't really need anything this week.)  So I was rushing around trying to pull my coupons together for my trip, going too fast and not really paying attention, simultaneously opening the mail, checking my email, and cleaning up the kitchen.  I didn't quite have all the coupons together by the time we had to leave, so I just grabbed my whole file box and scissors and headed out the door.  When we got to Publix, I spent a couple more minutes clipping the remaining coupons, and we headed inside, all ready to go.  Or so I thought.

We grabbed the first few items on my list, and then got to the endcap of row 3 where I saw that Ritz Pretzel crackers were on BOGO sale.  Not 10 minutes earlier, when I was clipping coupons in the car, I had stumbled across a coupon for Ritz Pretzels in one of the inserts.  I remembered it because the picture had caught my eye, and I had thought to myself, "those look good and I should get some when they go on BOGO sale."

And here they were, on sale.

Hence the dilemma.  Should I trek back to the car and try to locate the Ritz coupons or should I finish shopping, take the girls home, and come back for the crackers later?  I really wanted the crackers (remember, I had skipped breakfast and lunch and they looked very tasty), so I, against my better judgment, unloaded the few groceries I had collected and wheeled the girls back out to the parking lot so I could search for my precious Ritz coupons.  The only problem was that I had no idea which insert or which date I had seen it in.  And I have a lot of inserts.  So the girls humored me for a few minutes, but soon their cookies were gone and they were restless, and I realized I was the crazy coupon lady searching for coupons while my girls sat in a grocery cart in the middle of the Publix parking lot.

Chagrined, I went back inside, grabbed the rest of my groceries and went home without any Ritz pretzel crackers.

Here is what I did get:

I  paid $23.41 for $71.28 worth of groceries, a savings of 67%.

Coupons Used:

$1 off Smart Balance Milk (Red Plum insert, 9/12)

(2) $1.50 off 2 Emerald Products (Red Plum insert, 8/15)

(1) Buy 1 Get 1 Free Athenos Feta Cheese (printable here)

$1 off 2 Grands Biscuits (printable here)

(2) $1 off Nestle Refrigerated Cookie Dough (printable here)

(1) Free Hass Avocado (no more prints available)

(3) $1 off Lindsay Re-closeable Olives (Red Plum insert, 8/29)

(4) $1.50 off A-1 Steak Sauce (no more prints available)

But my story doesn't end there, because I couldn't get those darn pretzel crackers out of my head.  So later, after the girls were in bed, I went back to the Publix list at SouthernSavers.com and realized that had I just been paying a little more attention while making my list, I could've avoided this whole situation and grabbed the coupons I needed from the get-go.  

So I went back to Publix for my crackers (and another free avocado--I am LOVING that coupon!):

This time, I spent $5.07 for $23.63 worth of groceries, a savings of 79%.

Coupons Used:

(6) $1 off Ritz Munchables Pretzel Thins (Smart Source insert, 9/29)

(1) Free Hass Avocado (no more prints available)

My cautionary tale does have a silver lining, because while I was clipping my Ritz coupons, I stumbled across an AirWick coupon in the same insert for $4 off the i-motion compact starter kit, which I happen to know is on sale for $3.99 this week at Walgreens, making it FREE!  Yay!

So of course I had to run right on over to Walgreens while I was out and about.

(Because I'm a multi-tasker, you see.)

At Walgreens I spent $2.31 (mostly sales tax) on $51.73 worth of merchandise, a savings of 96%.

Coupons Used:

(6) $4 off AirWick i-motion compact (Smart Source insert, 8/29)

2 store coupons for Trident gum that the cashier had up at the register, making them $0.21 each.

Overall,  I spent $30.79 on $146.64 worth of groceries and merchandise,  an average savings of 79% for the day.

Combined with my Sunday totals, this week I spent $60.57 for $394.99 worth of groceries and merchandise, an average savings of 85% for the week.

I can live with that.  Even if I am a spaz.

P.S.  If you are new to my blog, please be sure to enter this week's  share-the-wealth giveaway, a box full of goodies worth $70!  Click here for details.