Grocery Challenge Days 8 - 12

So... I've been fairly good the last couple days. Also, you'll notice that I tend to make lots of small grocery trips instead of one big one once a week. Couple reasons for this. First is that I'm kind of a control freak and I don't like to hand over 20 coupons all at once to a cashier because I'm afraid she'll miss one - not on purpose but sometimes coupons tend to stick together or the coupon doesn't scan immediately but if the cashier is going through a huge stack they tend to miss that and keep going. I always have a pretty good idea of how much my total should be but lots of times I've had the total end up higher and I can't find the mistake on the screen so I have to look at my printed receipt after the transaction is completed and then go back to customer service to get it fixed. It's much easier for me to buy less items at a time, go thru the USCAN to make sure everything rings up like I expected, then either scan my own coupons or hand over less than 10 coupons to the cashier. I have the luxury of shopping this way because I live where I pass all these stores to and from either going to work or running my kids around so most of the time I'm not making any special trips just to go to the grocery store. Other main reason is that I prefer to fly under the radar. I really don't want to be known as "the coupon lady."

Now onto Day 8. I fell to temptation. It was the last day Kroger had Turkey Hill ice cream on sale for $2.50 and I decided I really wanted to stock up on ice cream. June is Dairy Month by the way, so lots of dairy deals this month. Bought 4 containers of ice cream. Used 4 $1 off coupons.

Paid $6.00

Day 9, I hadn't planned on buying anything. I worked all day, then my daughter came home at 9:30 pm and told me she needed 4 2-liter bottles of soda for the cheer camp party the next day. Ugh. I hate it when the kids spring things like this on me. I went back to Kroger where the 2-liters were on sale for $1 and spent $4.28.

Day 10, no spending.

Day 11. More Kroger shopping to take advantage of their Mega Sale. I decided the Cascadian Farms cereal was a great deal so I should stock up. They also have Crunchmaster crackers on sale and they are my favorite cracker. I've found that the gluten free crackers are a great substitute for chips  because they are so crispy. They are usually $3.99 but I could get them for $0.49 this week. I broke this up into two transactions because I had 6 Crunchmaster coupons and the Kroger policy is 4 like coupons at a time.

Got
6 Crunchmaster cracker bags @ 2.49 each
3 boxes Cascadian Farms cereal @ 2.99 each
3 bags Armour frozen meatballs @ 2.99 each
2 containers Laughing Cow cheese wedges @ 2.49 each
1 box Harvest Stone crackers @ 2.99
2 bottles Body Armor sport drink @ 1.00 each

Everything was part of the "Buy 5, Get $5 off" Mega sale except for the Body Armor. The Body Armor is a new sports drink and I wanted to try it.

Used
$15.00 instant savings for Mega Sale items
(6) $1 Crunchmaster coupons
(3) $1 Cascadian Farms coupons
(3) $1.50 Armour meatball coupons
$1/2 Laughing Cow coupon
$1 Harvest Stone coupon
$1/2 Body Armor coupon

Paid $11.49

Next was a trip to Meijer.

First transaction
3 small containers of Marzetti veggie dip. I had heard that there was a Catalina coupon printing for $2.50 off your next order when you bought 3 Marzetti products and that the small individual size dips were working for this. The dips are 0.89 each but there is also a Marzetti coupon out for 0.75 off any Marzetti product. I did this first by itself because if the coupons didn't scan I wasn't going to buy it and, if the coupon printed, I was going to use it to buy my other stuff. Transaction went off without a hitch. Coupons scanned and Catalina printed.

I spent $0.42 off my gift card and got the $2.50 Catalina.
Essentially I got "paid" $2.08 to buy the dip.
This deal ends on 6/12 so I only had a chance to do it once.

Second transaction
5 packages sliced cheese @ 2.99 each
2 jars Ragu pasta sauce @ 1.50 each
1 box Creamettes spaghetti noodles @ 1.45
4 boxes Tai Pei frozen pot stickers @ 2.00 each

Used
5.00 instant savings for 5 packages of cheese
1.00 mPerks coupon for buying over $10 of cheese
1.45 mPerks coupon for free Creamettes pasta when you buy 2 Ragu
(2) 1.00 Ragu coupons
(2) 1.00 off 2 Tai Pei
2.50 grocery coupon from transaction #1

Spent $13.45 off my gift card

I spent a bit more than I really wanted but the kids like the pot stickers as an easy meal and I needed more sliced cheese. I didn't really need the Ragu and pasta but it was just a great deal as it ended up being $1 for the 2 jars of sauce AND pasta after coupons so I went ahead and bought it. "Great" deals like this and convenience items seem to be my downfall in spending so let's hope it doesn't come back to bite me at the end of the month.

Final stop was at the gas station (Speedway) to pick up 4 weekend newspapers for the coupons. Spent $5.00.

Day 12, no spending

Total spent so far for this month: $91.29.
I still have $8.63 left on my Meijer gift card and a little over half the month to go.
I also have a $10 ECB at CVS that expires on 6/15 so I'll have to figure out the best way to spend that this week.