Shopping Trip

I went to Price Chopper and Rite Aid today.  For me it's a down week as there weren't too many deals out there this week.  I did some stocking up for holiday cooking.

PC
I bought $20.00 worth of items in the 'buy 20.00 get 5.00 off your next shopping trip' deal (if I didn't buy an extra cake mix, I would not have qualified for the 5.00 Catalina)

2 Pillsbury cake mix 2.00
6 bread mix 9.94
2 Eagle sweet milk 5.00
2 Smucker jams 4.00
I had 3 1.00 coupons
Total 17.96 (saved 14.52, items were on sale)
I got the 5.00 off next shopping trip Catalina

I went back and got:
large bag dog food 9.99 (sale 1.00 off)
produce .93
I had:
1.50 coupon
5.00 Catalina
Tax was .80
Total was 5.22 (saved 7.50)

Total for both trips was 19.74 which is a few cents less than the 20.00 special sales items. You could say I got the dog food and produce for free.


RA

3 cards 9.79 (birthdays)
2 Russell Stover candy 17.98 (gifts)
2 Cherries 2.00
Total: 29.77 ( plus tax, 1.57)

Russell Stover BOGO -8.99
4.00 RA coupon
1.00 watch video coupon
1.00 RA coupon
.10 discount on cards (wellness card)

14.68 Total out of pocket (plus tax)

Today I got over 60.00 (before sales and coupons) worth in items for 34.42.  That's 57% of shelf prices.  Imagine if I did this every week for a year.  If my grocery and health and beauty budget were  just 2500.00 a year my savings would add up to 1175.00 a year.  This would show up as 22.60 a week or 90.40 a month, which doesn't look like much.  But looking over the year that's big savings. 

I'm stocked up so the items I got do not reflect the every day purchases a shopper makes.  I am using these numbers as an example.  Any shopper can do this with items we use every day.  There has to be a starting point.  This can just be 1 coupon this week and 3 next week.  The ball just keeps rolling until your savings become more than your expenditures.

I do not use coupons on items I don't use.  If an item ends up being free, I do buy it and donate it.