On Friday I took Mr 3, who is a very forgiving shopping buddy, and went on a huge grocery shopping trip. I didn't take any pictures when I got home, because it was late, he was passed out in his car seat, and I had too much stuff. I spent twice as much as I had allotted for my rather arbitrary weekly budget, but I spent way under for the past two weeks, so I don't suppose it matters much.
This one is for all the people out there who say that it's not possible to save money using coupons and sales and still buy healthy food. Ready? Set... Blog!
First we went to the farm market. In the summer it has really amazing deals, and I get out of there with six or eight bags of fresh produce for $25. In the winter the selection is not great and the prices are pretty much equivalent with the supermarkets (which is to say: EXTORTIONATE!). As springtime rolls around, I find it's getting better, but still not great.
We spent just under $28 and bought oranges, both red and white potatoes, seckel and, er, some other type of pears, I wanna say red Anjou but I forget, celery, spinach, strawberries, avocados, scallions, zucchini, and a bag of those little green mint flavored jelly candies. Maybe I got something else and can't remember? The receipt isn't itemized. Obviously no coupons at the farm market, but I did buy a lot of markdown veggies.
Second store, Acme!
Spent: $32.44
Saved: $40.32
Oh, I just discovered that the Acme has a HUGE markdown section in the back. HUGE. And half the stuff there, I had coupons for. I picked up two 1lb jars of Emerald peanuts at $1.30 a package (down from their shelf price of $3.99), and four 12 oz bottles of Gillette body wash at $1 a piece, all after coupon prices. Score! The body wash was marked down to $3, and I had a small stack of those P&G coupons for $2 off one or $4 off two. I also got a 101 oz container of olive oil for $10, a bunch of Diet Coke, some kid's shampoo, and two boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats.
Third store, Pathmark! I swear, Pathmark's receipts are so wacky. It says right on the receipt that I tendered $65.55 worth of coupons, but then says I saved $47.09. How does the math on that work?
Spent: $50.81
Saved: $65.55
It's apparently dairy week. Land O Lakes butter, Dannon yogurt, Polly-O mozzarella. The basement fridge is full up of diet cola, yogurt, cheese, and butter. Herr's tortilla chips are on sale for $1.89. Combine with recent $1 coupon for 89c bags of tortilla chips. I also hit up the markdown produce section, which was completely full of great food. Sometimes it's slim pickings, but it was really good yesterday. I got four bags of oranges at $1 a piece, lots and lots of red and green peppers and tomatoes, 10 lbs of onions (5 lb marked down to 75c, 5 lbs on sale with coupon for 99c), and I don't even know what else. I also grabbed some free cat food.
We also went to Target, where we got some coffee, cat litter, more diet cola, and free candy bars.
I spent around $150 at all the stores, and even with the budget busting Tidy Cats scoopable litter, the no-coupons no-catalinas trip to the produce store, and all the fresh produce I bought, I still saved $120 or around 44%. If I could calculate the cost of regular produce vs markdown, that percentage would be higher, but I can't, so I'm not going to worry about it.
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