Surprised by Supermarket Savings!

[msmogreen]

I bought my first Sunday paper on 4/17 and started shopping the drugstores that week. I got some of the popular deals. Had fun getting ECB's and RR's, although I had to buy a few things I wouldn't normally buy to get the money back to roll the reward. The deals haven't been that great for me so I haven't had too much lucky.

Best deals this week:

CVS -- Bumblebee Solid White tuna for .77 -- I now have 20 cans. Used $7.99 ECB against the first 10. Since "stockpiling" to me means non-perishable foods to prepare for hard times, this was the kind of deal I'm looking for.

But the most surprising savings were at my Von's and Ralph's supermarkets. Haven't shopped these markets seriously for years. Ads I caught this week:

Colgate toothpaste (basic--just what I was looking for) 6.4 oz. tubes for 99 cents ea. at Von's. I had six .75/1 coupons. The bad part--Von's only allows 2 like coupons per item per day. Fortunately, Von's parking lot is where I spend my lunch hour anyway, so I went three days in a row. This worked out since they double the first q only up to $1.00, so each set of two tubes was 23 cents!

Perchance, and not in their ad, they had Reach toothbrushes on sale for $1.79. I had two $1/1 coupons, so got two and the Catalina spit out $1.00 to spend on my next trip. Wasn't expecting that.

Viva 6-pack 66 sheet paper towels and Angel Soft 12 Pack Double Rolls both had $6.99 card price, less $2.00 in ad coupon. First day, I bought one of each, with my $1/1 Viva coupon and $.50/Angel Soft (doubled). So, $3.99 each. Then the Catalina spit out a notice that if I bought two Viva 6-packs starting today I'd get $4.00 to spend on my next purchase. Did that on my break, so basically on of the 6-packs is free.

Ralph's had the same deal on the Angel Soft and I had one more coupon, so I picked up my TP there. They also had Risk 50 oz. bottles on sale for $3.99, no limit on number of coupons, and I have 5 $2/1 coupons. They were out, so I got a rain check for five bottles that will cost me $1.99. I figure the rain check buys me time in case a better deal comes along before the 60 days is up.

I'm very happy to learn that Ralph's doesn't limit the number of coupons per item per transaction. I'm going to be looking a lot more closely at my supermarket ads from now on.

I've been tracking my savings in a spreadsheet and I'm averaging a little over 60%. I'm happy with that. And especially happy that I haven't added a lot of new stuff that I never really used before, but stuff I use and need anyway.

[pasharain]

I'm averaging a little over 60%.

Sounds like you got some really good deals. And saving 60% is awesome.

Congrats!

Ashley Reps to you!

[Wolfsnaps]

Yay! See, now that we 'know' about couponing, we don't have to pay for toothpaste or toothbrushes anymore. Or, at the very least, do not have to pay much :)