Huge Shopping Trip(s)

Wow, what a week for grocery shopping. Since this past weekend was Memorial Day weekend, The Grocery Game list maker for the local Kroger area didn't put out a list, so I had to make one myself, just like old times. I only went by the salepaper, so I don't know what other great deals there were to be had, but I spent plenty of money just fine without knowing. Check it out.

These items are brought to you by:
Food Lion (2 trips), Kroger (2 trips), WalMart and CVS.

Gal. Kroger Milk - $1.99 (Manager's Special)
Gal. Kroger OJ - $1.99 (I hope this sale goes on and on!)
3 Daisy Sour Cream - FREE
1lb. block Kroger Butter - $1.99
"Processed Cheese Product" - $1.28
(Better known as "breakfast cheese" at this house)
8oz. bottle Shamrock Choc. Milk - FREE
18ct. Kroger Eggs - $1.19
Vitamin10 Water - FREE
Doritos - $1.98
2 Apples - $.87
4 boxes Dr. Pepper/Pepsi - $10.00
(Had to buy 4 to get the sale price)
4 Weber Creations Seasonings - FREE
5lb. Bread Flour - $2.14
5lb. GV All Purpose flour - $1.74
2 GV Strawberry Jello - $.38 ea.
Pint GV Whipping Cream - $1.62
7 (36ct) Chinet Lunch Plates - FREE
4 (24ct) Chinet Lunch Napkins - FREE
1.05lb. Roast Beef - $3.14 ($3/lb)
7 lb. Sara Lee Honey Smoked Chicken Breast - $21.12 ($3/lb)
*2 Colgate Toothpaste - ($1.99 ea.) $.37 ea.
*Men's Speedstick Pro Deoderant - ($3.99) $.37
*Altoids - ($.50) $.37
*Butterfinger Crunch - ($.22) $.37

Shelf Price - $157.90
OOP - $54.71
Saved - $103.19 / 65%
Earned $5.99 in Extra Care Bucks

* These are the things from CVS. I used my ECB's so I just divided the OOP by number of items to get the "each" price. The price in the ( ) is the after coupon price. After my CVS savings and regular coupons, my total was $7.07. I had $7 in ECBs, but after he scanned the $4 and $2 ones, it was only $1.86 and wouldn't take the $2 one. I got befuddled and was thinking backwards, so I grabbed another toothpaste and used another coupon on the toothpaste. It did bring my total up enough to use the $2 ECB but I ended up paying more OOP. I should've just grabbed another $.22 candybar and gotten it all for free. Oh well. I came home with more ECB's :)

I had some exciting shopping trips this week! The first trip to Food Lion was to the one in town. I had to run some errends pay a bill that was due that day so we were in town anyway. On that trip we got 3 pkgs of the Chinet plates and 1 lb. of roast beef that was on sale. While we were waiting in line at the deli counter for the roast beef , I nonchalontly looked at the date stickers on the pieces of meat in the display case. I noticed the Sara Lee chicken breast (originally $6.99/lb) dated for Monday (it was now Tuesday). When it was our turn, I asked the lady about the date and if I bought the whole thing, how much would she discount it. She was able to discount it to $3.99/lb, but not any lower. I told her I couldn't buy it for that much, but I would take it for $3.00/lb. Then she thought I wanted the whole thing for just $3!!! She started to get a little huffy, and then calmed down and said that the computer wouldn't let her mark it down any lower, but she was sure the manager would let me have it for $3/lb. So we walked over to CVS and picked up a salepaper (it was next door) and then came back. While we were gone the manager had gotten back from her lunch break and had to take the piece of meat to the main office or something and actually lower the price in the computer. We (Glen and I) had to wait several minutues, but we got it!! I was a little nervous bargaining/bartering like that, but I wanted it and knew that they wouldn't sell it later anyway whenever they would find it. I actually got my nerve to do it from seeing a short TV blurb on Terri Gault, the founder of The Grocery Game, doing it on TV a couple weeks ago. I figured it she can do it and get results, I can, too! When we checked out there the first time (with the Chinet and beef), the price rang up to close to the price of the beef. The cashier asked me if all those coupons were for the Chinet, which they were. Then she said "Wow! You made out like a bandit today!" :)

After we got home from that trip, we went to pick strawberries. On our way back from that, we stopped at the Food Lion that is right down the road from us because I had more Chinet coupons and wanted to see if they had any left on the shelf. They did! That's where we got the other 4 pkgs of plates and the clearance napkins. The napkins were $.77 ea. and the coupons I had for them were for $1. I told the cashier that she might have to lower the amount of the coupon since it was for more than the shelf price. She just scanned them in at $1. She hit "the button" and the screen showed -.47. She got a weird, confused look on her face and hit the button again, and it still showed -.47. Her eyes got big and she said "it's showing me that I owe you money!" then she turned to the lady that was bagging and asked what she should do. The lady that was bagging said "oh yeah, we just credit the amount". So they gave me $.47!! I didn't know that any stores did that, so I was about ready to jump outa my skin, I was so excited!! We were walking out of the store and Glen said "I've never seen anyone get paid to buy groceries!!" He talked about it all the way home, asking about the List, coupons, etc. I showed him the list and explained how it works and all. He was pretty excited over it! I had to laugh, because at the first Food Lion stop he bought some oreos. I offered to put them in with my order and he could pay me back and he was very adamant that "he had plenty of money". I asked if he had an MVP card, "no, I don't need one, I have enough money!". When his order rang up the cashier asked if he had an MVP card and I gave her mine and it took off $.58. After we were out of the store he was telling me how it was "only $.58!!" and I shouldn't have used my MVP card on him because he has enough money! And then a couple hours later he's so excited over the things you can do with coupons! Ha ha.

Yesterday afternoon I sliced up the Sara Lee chicken and bagged it up. I know it put me WAY over my weekly budget this week, but I won't have to buy sandwich meat for at least a month, maybe a month and a half now. Plus, with my brother, Glen, being here for 10 days, he's about eating me out of house and home! Instead of having leftovers from supper to eat for lunch, the whole meal is consumed at supper. Then we eat sandwiches for lunch, which means more bread to make. I just bought bread flour last week and had to buy more this week! It did make a difference that the last batch I made (3 loaves) I made all white instead of multi-grain (which uses alot less white flour). Oh well. Minus the Sara Lee meat I only spent $33.06, so for 3 people, I don't think that's too bad :) He is definitely putting a hurtin' on our meat supply, though! I think I'll need to start restocking beef next week and chicken before too long.