My first "organized" coupon trip...

...was neither a complete failure nor a complete success.  I fell somewhere in the middle.  I regularly read the Money Saving Mom blog (so what if I'm not a mom yet!), which has TONS of resources for coupons, sales, freebies, etc.  Love that site.  From that site, I found the Cheapest Mom, who takes the time (or hires elves who do) to match grocery store sales to coupons, and highlight which items are at such a good deal that you should stock up.  She even tells you where you can find the coupon--since the ones that come in the Sunday paper sometimes don't expire for months, you may have forgotten that you even HAD that coupon.  She'll also link you to any coupons that you can print, or "save" to your store loyalty card (I had NO CLUE that part existed until about 2 weeks ago!).  Needless to say, it's a wonderful resource!

At any rate, I decided to plan two small-ish trips for today, to see what I could do.  After comparing prices at Harris Teeter and Bi-Lo, which are the two stores closest to us, I planned a very small trip to HT and a medium-sized trip to BL.

The purpose of HT was to get just a couple of things.  I'll break them down along with sale prices/coupons:

• 5lb bag of Domino sugar for $1.49--originally priced at $4.19, on sale for $2.79.  I had a coupon for $0.65 off, which was doubled, for an additional savings of $1.30.
• 8-count Hamburger Buns for $0.99--originally priced at $1.39, on sale for $0.99
• 1lb bag of baby carrots for $1.79--originally priced at $1.99, on sale for $1.79
• 2.59 lb of grapes for $2.56--regularly priced at $1.99/lb, on sale for $0.99/lb
• 2 18-count boxes of Playtex tampons for $2.29 (that's the price for BOTH, my best deal of the day)--regularly priced at $5.29 per box, on BOGO sale.  I used 2 coupons (because HT's coupon policy says that you can use one coupon per item on BOGO sales)--one for $2/1 box and one for $1/1 box.  All of that added together, and I got each box for approximately $1.15! 

So, what should have cost $23.83 cost $9.65, for a savings of almost 60%!  This trip got me exactly what I wanted, and exactly what I expected.


Now, I'm not going to bore you with all the details of my trip to Bi-Lo, as that one was much bigger than 5 items, but I will hit on a few points:

• One lesson I learned the hard way is to make sure that the store I shop at is running the same sales as the one mentioned in the blog.  There were one or two differences, and I hadn't checked to make sure.  Definitely an oversight on my part, as it's something I knew about ahead of time, but just let it slip my mind.
• I also reinforced my theory that I should be buying the Sunday paper every week so that I can get the coupons.  Even if I don't need that item now, I will need it later.  And even if it's something I won't use, if it ends up being almost-free with the coupon and a sale, I can donate it.  (Interestingly enough, I looked into getting a subscription of the Charlotte Observer and for just Sundays, it's still more expensive than buying a paper at a news stand, lol)
• 12 oz boxes of Kellogg's Cornflakes were on sale for $1.88 and certain types and sizes of Cheerios were on sale for $2.00.  Good deals on those cereals!  (Especially considering, for me, Bi-Lo's brand of "cheerios" doesn't taste good...)
• I found some chicken that was on sale and then marked down even more because the sell-by date is tomorrow.  Got 1.81 lbs for $3.16/lb, which was an $0.83/lb savings.  Not drastic, but pretty good and since we were out of chicken, I definitely had to get some!
• I used 3 coupons, and they were all doubled, so that was some savings as well.  (I need more coupons!  lol)
• I found an extra deal or two that I just couldn't pass up, which helped tack on some extra $$ to my total.

All in all, the retail value of what I got was $141.32, and I only paid $91.04, which is a 37% savings, which isn't shabby at all!


I'm trying to learn the sales cycles, and how much of each item we eat/use between those sales.  For example, if chicken breasts go on sale for a really low price every 4 weeks, how much chicken would I need to get to last us a month?  (Granted, I probably can't always do this with meat, dairy and produce since we only have one fridge and a tiny freezer, but you get the point)


For my first try, I'm not disappointed!  And I've learned things to take with me the next time.  :)