Wednesday Shopping Day

My son is back in preschool and I am back to grocery shopping Wednesday!  I don't know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing but we were almost out of groceries so I guess it is good.

The first stop was CVS.  I wasn't really sure what I was going to get but I was going to see about the Skintmate Shave Gel deal.  The price on the shelf was $3.99 and it said that I would get $4 ECBs back.  I had plenty of coupons to get a few so I tried to figure out a plan.  Then I went over to check the pricing of the Ricola cough drops and they were $2.78 which I was not paying.  Then I checked out the Children's Advil deal.  They were on sale for $4.49 each and when you got 2, it printed $4 ECBs.  I used ECBs that I had from Sunday and only paid $0.98.  Then, I did the same transaction three times.  One Skintimate Shave Gel and one Hallmark Card and the total was $0.68 for ech transaction.  The ECBs didn't print for the shave gel but I got someone to manually print them for me each time.  The total for all of those transactions was $3.02 oop.  The even better thing was that I started with $6 ECBs and ended up with $7 ECBs so even though I spent some money oop, I have even more for next week.  Crossing my fingers for good sales!!

The second stop was at Giant to get Ricola cough drops for my husband because they always have them on sale since I wasn't paying CVS prices.  They did have them on sale for $1.50 and I picked up two Sunbird seasoning packets.  The total after coupons was $2.00 (exactly)!  I also got the sale flyer so I could figure out what else I needed to get when I went back.

The last stop was Harris Teeter.  The greatest part was that Harris Teeter sent me a $10 off of $40 transaction coupon for every week this month!!!!  I was super excited because we really need groceries and that saves a bundle on things that might not be on the greatest sale but are things that we need.  I had a list in hand of what we needed and another list of the things that were suposed to be on sale for the week.  I grabbed the ad first thing to see what was listed and there was barely anything in the ad. 

In going through the store, I have such a hard time figuring out what I had already spent because I didn't want my total to be too high.  I got a head of romane lettuce for $1.89.  Then I checked out the meat department and I found a whole chicken on sale for $0.90 per pound so it was $3.74.  I then entered the too much thought portion of the shopping trip.  There were small containers of tomatoes on sale for $1.35 or the big containers for B1G1 which made them $1.09 (or $0.59 each after coupon) which was cheaper.  Then I thought I would get something that they didn't have in the smaller cans like the whole tomatoes.  I found Italian Minute Rice (hidding behind the Ricola) for $1.24 each (or $0.24 each after coupon).  I had a rain check of chicken noodle soup for $0.60 instead of $1.00.  ($.36 each after coupon).  Then, there was a deal on B2G3 free progresso soup so I picked out a few different kinds for me ($0.76 each after coupon).  The rest is a little bit of a blur but I got 6 boxes of Sweet N Low for $0.25 each, Premium Crackers, Premium Minis, Premium Oyster Crackers, Reduced Fat Ritz, Eggs, Baking Soda, Cranberry Juice, 2 Ricola Cough Drops, Vicks Sinex Medicine, and Vicks Nature Fusion (coupon and evic made it free).  The best was the Stouffer's Lasagna which was on Evic special for $4.97 and there was a $2 coupon in the paper so that is lasagna for under $3.  My total oop was $27.34.

The total oop for the day was $32.36 and the total saving was $116.93.  This was a 78.3% savings off the $149.29 that items pictures above should have cost retail.  I didn't get everything on the list but I think that I made a big dent for the amount of money spent.  I am also trying to see if I can work on doing $40 per week to make sure that I stay under the $160 monthly budget.  The only thing that puts a mess in that plan is super doubles or triples at Harris Teeter later in the month.  I used most of my monthly budget during super doubles last month so I know that is my weekness.  I just can't pass up the deals!!!  Here is hoping that this is a great start for the month :)  I wish you the same great start and hope you get some great deals this month too.