If you have been reading my blog for a little bit, or know me in real life you know that I have started shopping with coupons. Also if you know me, you know that sometimes I can get a little obsessed with some things. So I have become obsessed with saving $. Not a horrible bad thing to be obsessed with. I have stopped posting all the "great deals" I was getting, because I figured that may be a little boring to read about... :) However, I just have to post this one because well it's just too good to not. Albertsons is doing a catalina promotion where if you spend $30 in participating products you get $15 back in catalinas after the transaction. Catalinas are coupons that print out at the end of your transaction, and they are basically a coupon that is $. This was the first time I have tried a catalina promotion. You can only get one catalina per transaction, but if you do several transactions and break it up you can get $15 back for every transaction where you spend $30 in participating products. Basically if you spend $60 in products in one transaction you will only get $15 back, but if you break that $60 in two transactions, you actually get another $15 back. So I went last night. I did this all in 3 transactions. I took one picture of everything, but I will break it down by transaction so you can see how I did it. I'm not gonna lie, this took lots of organization before hand and a plan. I had coupons for most of the items I purchased as well. I did the self check out and it did take awhile to check out. So here is the picture of everything I got...
I know it's not the best picture, some things are hidden but you get the idea of the quantity of stuff I came home with. Here is the break down of how I did this and what I actually paid.
Transactions #1
Large box of Huggies diapers
3 Knorr pasta side dishes
4 boxes of lipton soup mix
2 bags of chex mix
1 box betty crocker potatoes
before coupons $43.64
after coupons $29.74
paid and received $15 in catalinas to use on my next transaction
Transaction #2
3 boxes of Fiber One bars
1 Light best food mayo
2 wishbone salad dressing
8 cans of green giant vegetables
5 pillsbury crescent rolls (the boys love these)
total before coupons and catalina $52.82
after coupons and catalinas $12.08
paid and received another $15 catalina to use towards my third transaction
Transaction #3
2 pack of papertowels
12 pack of double roll toilet paper
1 Orowheat bread
1 Tabasco sauce
1 bag nestles chocolate chips
1 pack of corn tortillas
1 Tide laundry detergent
2 English muffins
1 dozen eggs
2 6 packs of danimals yogurt
1 Suave Shampoo
1 Suave Conditioner
total before coupons and catalina $ 54.59
total after coupons and catalina $19.57
So in total I got 44 items for a total of $ 61.39
total before coupons and catalinas would of been $151.05
total of $89.66 in savings!!!!
Pretty good considering the diapers, laundry detergent and paper goods alone would have been close to $40 on sale, and that is only 4 of the items I came home with. I would say 45 minutes of planning and organizing and 1 hour at the store was well worth it for the deal I got.
Feel free ask questions if you have them. I can tell you that we have cut our grocery bill in half by my new "obsession". For us, that is $ in our pocket that can go towards all the other things that cost $$. Like gas for our car, rent, utilities, etc... It's kinda like I got a job but never left the house, well except to go to the grocery store...
This is how our cupboard looked as of last night...Eek. It kinda looks like it's going to snap in half!
Leslie B. sent you $20 (open for details)
8 years ago
3 Post a comment:
That's great! that's a ton of processed food though...(and canned vegetables vs. fresh)...do they offer those sorts of deals on healthier items at all?
- sarah b.
that's amazing! especially since Albertson's is usually so expensive compared to Food 4 Less. I feel inspired!
Sarah-Good questions! I was asking the same thing myself when I started thinking about shopping with coupons. when I coupon shop, I don't shop for things we use every day or every week for that matter. All I am doing is creating a stock pile of things that we either use a lot of or just sometimes. We prefer fresh fruits and vegetables over canned any day, but I stock up canned just in case I need it quickly for soup or a dish I am making that calls for it and it doesn't necessarily need to be fresh. But we do shop for fresh fruit, veggies and meat items on a weekly basis. I just shop stuff in season and on sale and you can get fresh fruits and veggies really cheap when you shop around. My husband is a produce manager so trust me, we eat lots of fresh produce. We have gotten to the point where we don't really have to shop every week, only when we see deals for stuff. To answer your question on whether they have coupons for fresh vegetables, not usually, but sometimes. I just bought a pineapple last week with a coupon I had for $.75 off a del monte pineapple. So you have to just watch for them. As far as the processed foods go, this is something that we eat VERY sparingly. Again, 9 times out of 10 I prefer to bake something from scratch over popping pillsbury crescent rolls in the oven, but also on those occasions where I need to make something quickly for my kids to eat or if we just need something to go with our soup, it's nice just to have it. This is something new for me, I am a total ingredient reader and would only buy super healthy groceries before and still prefer to shop that way too. I know it's not the healthiest to eat like that ALL the time, we use this stuff occasionally. I find coupons for every kind of food, healthy ones and unhealthy ones. One thing I have learned over the process of learning to shop with coupons is it's very easy to buy things that you wouldn't usually use, so you do have to be careful of this. I think with this last shopping trip, I will be stocked up on this non perishable stuff for awhile. :) This was just too good of a deal to pass up on at Albertsons...This stuff will last us months to use up. I think I have like 10 boxes of cheerios stocked , all of which I got for under $1. :) It's all about saving $ for us at this point, but your right you shouldn't have to comprimise on something that isn't healthy for your family. Totally agree there. Hope this answered your question.
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