Last night I planned and prepped for my shopping trips today. I was geared up and excited—yes, when you are a couponer like me, you get excited about grocery shopping. So many deals! So much money to save! Freebies! Oh My!
My plan was to run into CVS and pick up the Hellman’s mayo that I had received a rain check for last week. Y’all, it will take a lot to get me into CVS again! I find myself so frustrated that the CVS in our area rarely have the items that I shop for in stock. (Before people e-mail, yes, even when I go on Sunday mornings). The people are very nice and try to be helpful so there is no problem there. I try to limit the time I spend doing certain tasks, and running in to get a rain check shouldn’t be a source of frustration. Insert sound of a balloon being deflated, because that is how I felt after leaving the store. I was only able to purchase one of the mayos and had to pick up another item so that I could use my ECB before it wasted. I plan to contact the regional office to make some suggestions and give input. (On this note, I will point out that when I’ve visited the CVS store in Bearden that I have not noticed the same inventory problems).
Then, I went to Walgreens. One of my favorite places, but I entered it in a foul mood after the CVS trip. I was crabby and impatient with daughter dearest who was enjoying looking around the store. After I caught myself fussing at her for pretty much nothing at all (haven’t we all been there?) I took some deep breaths. While still frazzled for the rest of the trip, I was determined to get what we needed and not let my mood rub off on those around me.
The staff at the Walgreens in Fountain City are just amazing! Even though they must think that I’m the biggest flake because I’m always so one track minded when I’m there, they are always delightful and so helpful. They visit with our daughter. They remind me about coupons that I have in my pile and have forgotten to give them to ring up. They ask me if I have my cloth bags because they know I prefer to use them. Really, they are gems! They helped to make the rest of my shopping today go smoothly. Isn’t it so nice when someone reaches out to help you and your whole day changes because of it?
Then we were off to Kroger, uplifted and ready for our shopping ventures there. Because we have a monthly budget instead of a weekly budget, I’ve used these last couple of weeks at Kroger to stock up for the entire month. With the Mega Event the last two weeks and the buy 10 items get $3 this week, I was very pleased with my purchases. Again, the staff at the Kroger in Fountain City are peaches. From Miss Mary who gives our daughter a cookie and takes time to visit with her to Bobby who jokes and teases as he helps me to the car with my bags—they are all phenomenal. I picked up items for the children’s program at church and for our home.
Tip—if you have multiple purchases, you might want to try the self check out lane. I didn’t know that they can help you with tax exempt orders in those lanes until today. Normally I get another cart that I set to the side of the aisle while I go back through a few times with the multiple orders (for our family and for the church programs). This was so much easier and so much more stream lined. I didn’t feel like I had to rush or apologize to the people behind me for their wait like I normally to.
What did I purchase today?
(Keep in mind that some of the items bought by Hubby and me are donated to the church food pantry and outreach programs)
Kroger—
For the children’s program—
1 Kroger brand ranch dressing, used 35ct mailer coupon
9 Gatorade low sugar fruit punches (to go with the red theme for tomorrow night’s dinner), used 9 50ct coupons (these were a money maker)
6+ lbs of red seedless grapes (with the 4 day sale these are 99cts)
1 Softsoap, used 50ct ALL You coupon that someone from the church donated, making this free
Tax exempt total--$4.26, saved $20.58, saved 82.85%
For our home--
9 Purex detergents, used eight 35ct/1 coupons and one $1/1 mailer coupon (we use the eco-friendly type) I divided my Mega Sale items into 2 orders so that I could earn more catalinas.
2 Gatorade, used two 50ct/1 coupons (free and a money maker)
1 oreo, used free coupon from the Facebook deal. I double checked with the store manager, and he had no problem with me using this free coupon
1 Hefty freezer bag, used $1/1 mailer coupon
1 Bounty eight pack, used $1.25 mailer coupon
2 Ritz crackers, used $1/2 coupons (I had already printed the $2/2 coupons and didn’t have any of those)
2 large boxes of Pop Tarts, used $1/2 mailer coupon
2 Kroger brand sliced cheese
2 large packs of Springer Mountain organic chicken breasts, used 2 $1/1 coupons
Marked down bananas
3 lbs organic apples
1 Arnold Whole Wheat Bread
2 Daisy Sour Creams, used 50ct/1 coupons
1.5 lbs of Gulf Shrimp, on sale for $4.99!!
5 lb bag organic potatoes $4.99 (that one hurt! The regular potatoes were $2.99 for 10 lbs!)
1 lb organic spinach
2 lbs organic carrots
Total Spent $75.84, total saved $58.05, percentage saved a lousy 43.37% Buying as many organics as I did today drastically lowered this percentage, but I’m still glad that I made the purchases that I did. Also, I have a $5 OYNO that I will use for our next shopping trip. (I used the $5 OYNO from the first order towards the second order without any problems).
Walgreens--
3 separate orders
3 Dove Men’s Body Wash, used three $1.25 coupons
4 12 packs of coke products, used $2 manufacturer coupon from Kroger mailer
4 Lindsay Olives, used two $1/2 printables
1 pack of Huggies diapers, used $3/1 mailer coupon (I like to keep diapers on hand for baby shower gifts)
Valentine’s cards and goodies that I can’t detail because Hubby will then know what I picked up for him
Earned 3 $6 RR from Dove Men’s deal
Earned $2 RR from Coke product deal
Earned $3 RR from Huggies deal
Total spent not including the Valentine’s items $9.14, saved $51.89, percentage saved 85%—Did I mention that I love Walgreens??
I have updated the 
