Monday, January 19, 2009

35 cents!

Yes, that is essentially what I paid per jar of peanut butter and pasta sauce. After getting a little fired up about couponing again after an enrichment meeting I set off on a money saving adventure. 2 years ago, in my pre-mommy days I was really into couponing but since having two kids I have lost my desire until now. So I decided to focus on a world of couponing I had never entered before...the drug store. I've always considered drug stores to be very over priced, but apparently these places like to give away products for free, and sometimes even PAY YOU to take them.

My adventure began with purchasing 5 copies of the Sunday paper (bought one, liked the coupons it had available so bought 4 more). Since I was buying them on Monday they were 50 cents cheaper than if I had bought them on Sunday, so score #1.

I brought home my stack of newspapers and score #2...one had an extra coupon packet, woohoo for errors that favor me. Next I came to my handy-dandy computer and googled "walgreens deals" since I have been told they have the best "program." I start looking through all the frugal mom type blogs and honestly get disappointed because there is really only one really good deal this week but I can see all the great bargins had in the previous weeks. Then A-HA, there is the deal I need to take advantage of...$1.99 for Skippy Peanut Butter (my favorite and since we all know I'm the world's pickiest eater that is saying a lot, right?) and Ragu Sauce. Then if I buy 8 of these products (mix and match) I get a $10 off my next order coupon (can we say all set for next week). In addition the paper had coupons for these products (40 cents off the peanut butter and 75 cents off two jars of sauce) and I had six copies of each of the coupons (remember 5 papers plus my bonus pack of coupons).

So...here's the break down:
$26.72 full price for 2 jars of sauce (that was all they had, I'll hit them up for more later in the week and get another $10 off my next order) and 6 jars of PB
$12.77 price paid out of pocket after sale and coupons
$10 off my next order
So I essentially spent $2.77 which means 35 cents per item!

6 comments:

MotherToMany said...

Just be careful with the peanut butter since the source of the salmonella has not been 100% identified.

Check your peanut butter
http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/salmonellatyph.html

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/food-poisoning/news/20090117/fda-cdc-dont-eat-peanut-butter-products?src=RSS_PUBLIC

ThurberGang said...

Look at you!! I've thought a lot about the coupon extravaganza that was taught at our enrichment last week, (ours was thursday - was it taught by the same two girls?) but it caused some heart palpitations, and I haven't gone through with it yet. . . I'm super impressed!!

ThurberGang said...

oh my gosh - so funny. . . of course it was the same one - while i was reading, i thought you said, tuesday, and i was so confused, thinking that i'd seen you there, but there were a lot of people, so maybe i was thinking i'd just seen you recently. . . see?? i told you - heart palpitations. .. can we blame this on that??? ha. . .

Michelle said...

Stephanie, Thanks for the links, it seems my peanut butter is safe.

Hilary- Heart palpitations blamed. It's really super easy. Just start small. I was planning to do all 3 drug stores but was beginning to feel those same heart palpitations so I decided to just start with Walgreens since it is the closest to home (and when it's not a million degrees below zero I can even walk there).

Jen B. said...

Awesome -- I need to start coupon shopping again!

Robyn said...

That IS awesome! I always found Shopper's Market (aka-Scary Mart) the best place to get "free" stuff. Good luck with your endeavors!