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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Shaws Steals

I can't go to bed tonight without sharing the amazing grocery shopping experience I had earlier this evening. (Note: the only reason I'm up so late in the first place is because Nathan has decided we should take an entirely unplanned trip to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving - despite the fact that I had a rehearsal tonight and have another rehearsal Friday night, meaning it will be a whirlwind of a trip!)

I was able to convince FavoriteBoy that we should pack sandwiches and make the drive without stopping to buy food by promising to buy him some snacky things at the store. So off I went to Shaws this evening, coupons in hand. I planned to get the best deals I could, but I was very pressed for time and resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't be able to do my best couponing work. I bought:

1 can of cashews
1 can of dry roasted almonds
2 packages of Craisins
2 cans of Pringles
1 box each: Wheat Chex, Corn Chex, and Cheez-Its (to make Chex mix)
2 bags of Lundberg Rice Chips (my Dad introduced me to these and they are yummy!)
3 boxes of Wheat Thins
1 box of Triscuits
2 12-pack boxes of Coke (I was able to get these for nothing, and figured I might as well stock up for future parties, etc.)
2 gallons of milk (I don't drink milk and certainly don't need this much, but buying it actually gave me overage towards my other purchases)
4 blocks of extra sharp cheddar cheese
4 turkey kielbasa sausages (to freeze for another time)
2 bags of Ocean Spray cranberries
2 packages of Thomas's English muffins

If all these items were regularly-priced, and I didn't use coupons, this shopping trip would have cost $107.26.

I paid $39.31 and got back a $10 catalina coupon and a $25 Shaws gift card. If I'd had time, I could have applied the gift card to my total right there, making it $14.31 out of pocket, but I was already late to a rehearsal because the checkout computer had crashed before I could pay, and seemed to take a long time to fix - which is why the manager gave me the gift card! Also, while I stood by the register waiting for the employees to get things sorted out, I saw lots of customers ring up their purchases and then walk out without the catalinas that had printed, so naturally I snagged those that were left behind - score!

Please be assured that I do not usually buy so much junk. The crackers, Chex mix, and Pringles were merely my way of spending a lot less and preventing road-trip purchases of chicken fingers, fries, pizza, burgers, etc.

I'd call that shopping trip a great success!

4 comments:

  1. Wow. You are a coupon wizard. Where do you shop, generally?

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  2. You are making me wish I had a Shaws here. :)

    I've been thinking about trying Walgreens or CVS, and I've read up on them, but honestly I'm not sure it would do much good. We just don't buy much stuff that they have on sale. Now if they had diapers and wipes with good ECB deals, that would be different! :)

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  3. My eldest son has several Webkinz on his Christmas list this year. At Hallmark, at least here anyway, they have a little card that if you've bought 10 webkinz you get one free. We've had this card for at least a year and buy one every now and then for a birthday present or my son saves his money that he's earned and gets one. I had accumulated 9 stamps on my card so I set off to Hallmark to get 2 of the webkinz on his list (2 is enough for Christmas) When I got there I realized that they were having a buy 2 and get one free sale as well. So I asked the clerk if I could use both offers. She said she didn't see why not and I ended up getting 4 of them for the price of two. Plus I had a Hallmark rewards coupon that said if you spend X ammount you get 10 dollars off. Not only does my eldest son get the two webkinz on his list, a hedgehog and a sheep, but my middle son will get a polar bear and my daughter will get a reindeer for Christmas as well. I was so excited I called my Mother to share my news.

    Kudos to you for being a coupon queen. There really should be a club for us.

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