Friday, January 14, 2011

And the results are in...

So yesterday was my big shopping day to see if I could successfully save money using the coupon system my friend and mentor, J, has shown me. What I didn't plan on, however, was:
1) That I would have a side kick with me all day - which makes trying to really focus and be a savvy shopper next to impossible. Carson woke up yesterday morning with pink eye (which we confirmed with his doctor on the way to taking Kendall to school), so he got to hang with Mom all day long...
2) That going to a different grocery store for the very first time when doing this kind of shopping isn't a very good idea. Why can't they make every single Publix a clone of the next one? I ended up walking around like a nincompoop tyring to figure out where everything was...I do want to go back next time - so I haven't ruled it out at all.

Anyway - between those two things above...and two important phone calls while I was shopping that I HAD to take (one from my Broker about a listing and one for the Junior League)...my focus was less than stellar to say the least. Also - my grand idea of getting x number of this and x number of that didn't work out either...because either I couldn't find the item in question or they didn't have as many as I needed...

All of that being said - here are my purchases (from two different stores on the same day):

Dog food
Milk
2 Bags Potato Chips
4 Aunt Jemima Waffles
2 Yoplait Gogurt
Clorox 2
Philly Cream Cheese
Kraft American Singles
Hillshire Farms Turkey Breast lunch meat
2 Honey Nut Cheerios
2 Fruity Cheerios
4 Uncle Bens Whole Grain White Rice
3 Mott's Apple Juice
Parm Reggiano block of cheese
Horseradish Sauce
Strawberries
Blueberries
2 Bags of Baby Carrots
3 Johnson & Johnson Baby Lotion
Red Grapes
7 Maalox
4 First Aid Travel Kit
Pull-ups
2 Ben Gay
8 Lysol Air Sanitizing Spray

Total OOP (out of pocket) = $115.80
Total Savings = $117.35
Success I think!!!

Now - I will admit that there was about $42 in items in the "total savings" column that I "bought" (for free...no cash out of pocket for them) that I will NEVER use and plan on giving away/donating. However - that still means a savings of over $75 on items we DO use and DO buy on a regular basis!!! That is better than I've ever done before!

I still am looking forward to seeing what happens in the next few weeks, especially when stuff is on sale and I have coupons for things like laundry detergent, dog food, body wash, etc... stuff that we use every single day. Jeff is thrilled...and I'm still cautiously optimistic. Will I ever get to the total of $60-70 average a week...hmm...lets hope!!!

2 comments:

Mini said...

Good job, Amy! I will be following you closely as this is something that has always intrigued me. One question though....you mentioned you spent $42 dollars on stuff that you don't use and that you are donating it or giving it away. Why did you even get these things and just not buy them and reduce your bill by $42? Am I missing something?

Mini said...

Amy, please disregard the question in my earlier post. I must of missed your previous post and that pretty much answered my question. Good luck and and I am looking forward to hearing all about when you get your grocery bill down to $60-$70/week!