You Can Do It Too. Really.

In my bargain-hunting this week I found some great deals. I shopped at Publix and Kroger, and spent $15.62 plus tax for all the grocery items below. Here is my breakdown:

Publix

Ocean Spray cranberry juice (2): 95 cents each
Bounty towel roll: 1 cent (mystery coupon item)
Cabot yogurt (9): store owed me 20 cents on each
Quaker granola bars (2): 90 cents each

Kroger

Kashi cereal: .50
Del Monte tomatoes (6): 10 cents each
Softsoap (2): 30 cents each
Fresh Express coleslaw: 49 cents
Kraft "Game Day Essentials" promo (buy 9 get $6):
8 oz cheese (6): $1.62 each
salad dressing (6): $1.30 each

At Publix, some of these were BOGO, plus coupons. The yogurts all had .50 peelies on them, doubled, but they were regularly 80 cents a piece. So I made 20 cents on each. The Kraft "Game Day Essentials" is a promo at Kroger this week. I walked around the store looking for the special tags to see what was included, then I matched items with coupons I had. I ended up buying a little more than I needed to earn the $6, but my coupons were nearing expiration, and both the cheese and salad dressing are items we use often. The salad dressing was actually a little less expensive at Publix in their BOGO promo, but buying them at Kroger allowed me to get $6 off my entire order, so in the long run I saved money. The cereal, tomatoes, and soap were all on sale, matched with my coupons. The coleslaw was on clearance in the produce dept.

I tell this here, not to brag about my great deals, but to encourage others to do likewise. It really isn't very difficult to find great grocery deals. It takes some planning and organization, some on-the-spot math, but it's nothing too difficult. Instead of rushing into a store and tossing stuff into the cart, read the ads ahead of time and plan how your family can use the sale items week by week. Stock up when the price comes way down, especially if you have a stash of coupons for that item. Look around for clearance items, as I did for the coleslaw. I wasn't planning to buy any, but when I saw the great price, I decided to make coleslaw for our greens tonight. The Cabot yogurts were the same thing. I didn't intend to buy any yogurt, but when I saw the bright red stickers on them, I did some quick calculations and realized I would make money on them. The more I bought, the more I would save. But I also don't want to be a glutton, so I limited myself to eight. (I bought one carton yesterday just to try it out. It was quite good, so I went back for the other eight today.)