Couponing

This will be a boring post.

I've always been a frugal person. When grocery shopping I usually rely on MVP/VIC savings to save money on our food/household stuff, but lately I've been trying more to pair these sales with coupons. I've always clipped coupons but I don't always use them effectively (ex: they expire before I think to use them, I forget to take them to the store, etc).

Today I went to both Food Lion and Harris Teeter, to make the most of the sales and coupon combos I had. Since they're only about 3 miles apart, it's not really that inconvenient for me to go to both stores. Here are some of my more impressive deals this week:

- 6 jars of Ragu pasta sauce: regular price 3/$5.98, on sale 3/$4 with two coupons for $1.25 off on 3 (final cost $0.91/jar compared to $2/jar usually)
- 2.5 pounds of green seedless grapes: regular price $1.88/lb, on sale for $0.99/lb
- 5.7 pounds of boneless chicken breast: regular price $3.99/lb, on sale for $1.97/lb

I bought several other things at Food Lion, but those were the highlights. I spent $50.47 and saved $31.22 for a savings of 38.2%.

Now this week Harris Teeter is having a crazy sale on Kellog's brand items. They're all 50%+ off and if you buy 10 Kellog's items you receive a $10 coupon off your next order. On Thursday we bought a bunch of cereal so we were able to get one of these coupons. A few of my exciting deals:

- 2 boxes of Special K cereal: regular price $3.49/box, on sale for $1.75/box with a coupon for $1 off on two boxes (final cost $1.25/box)
- 6 boxes of Fiber Plus cereal: regular price $3.99/box, on sale for $2/box with two coupons for $1 off on three boxes (final cost $1.66/box)
- 4 Dannon Greek yogurts: regular price $1.39/container, with 2 coupons for $0.75 off on two yogurts, but HT multiplies all coupons with a value of less than $1 (final cost $1.01/container)
- 2 boxes of NutriGrain bars: regular price $3.55/box, on sale for $1.77/box with two coupons for $0.75 off on one box, then multiplied by HT (final cost $0.27/box!!)
- $10 coupon from previous visit to HT

I spent $15.10 and saved $40.19 for a savings of 72.7%

My total grocery tally this weekend: I spent $65.57 and saved $71.41 for 52.1% savings. My goal for the year was to save a month's rent by smart shopping. After this week I'm almost there!