How I paid 50¢ for 6 bottles of juice and 5 boxes of granola bars

26 August 2010 3,212 views 12 Comments

That may be one of the longest titles I’ve ever written, and it certainly isn’t following SEO guidelines, but I don’t care. I seriously paid 50¢ for 6 bottles of Motts apple juice and 5 boxes of Quaker granola bars.

Angela from Frugal Living NW is out of town this week, so she asked her readers to scope out the Safeway ad to find the great match-ups. I didn’t have my ad, so I couldn’t contribute much, but the other readers found some great deals! I love the Frugal Living NW readers. Seriously. No matter which coupon blog you read, be sure that you check out the comments on the posts. Often, the blog readers will find great deals, too, or warn you away from bad ones.

I also depended on The Krazy Coupon Lady, although I’ve noticed that the prices are varying from region to region, which is a total pain. However, most of the time the readers will mention their local price in the comments, and often the deals are similar. If you want to learn how to coupon, read their 10 Days to Become a KCL series! I can’t say enough about it.

ANYWAY, this is what I purchased at Safeway today:

I paid $22.93, and $14.06 of that was for the chicken.

That means that I paid $8.87 for all the rest!!

We needed meat. At 99¢ a pound for chicken thighs, drumsticks and quarters, it’s not a great sale, but it’s meat and we needed it.

The eggs are on sale for $1.49 with the in-ad coupon, and the spinach is 99¢. Bananas, milk, blah, blah, blah.

The deals:

2 boxes of GoGurt (2/$4) cost me 25¢. I had 3 ecoupons that came off, and a $1/2 MC that doubled (I got the MC from the inside of the lunch box.)

I did the VandeCamps/Birdseye deal, and I ended up paying -42¢. Oh my word? WHAT? Let me look at that again . . .
Steamfresh Veggies: $2.29
Fish Sticks: $6.79
=$9.08
-$2 ecoupon
-$2 ecoupon (it was loaded twice)
-$2 MDA Manufacturer’s coupon
-$3 Buy Fish Sticks, get Veggies Free coupon (she just scanned it instead of putting the price in . . . just noticed that)
-.50 doubler
= -.42 Wow! I just impressed myself. I wasn’t expecting that! This is a total YMMV situation because the cashier probably should have read my coupon and just adjusted it down to $2.29. And, I figured that I didn’t need the in-ad coupon since I was going to get the veggies for free anyway, so I didn’t even look at it. Might have made it a sweeter deal . . . but, I’ll take it! (The $3 coupon was mentioned in the comments under the KCL Safeway match-ups and can be found at smartsource!)

I bought the snack sized Oreos! After my little rant about 100 Calorie Packs, I thought it appropriate. By the way, 9 little cookies is 130 calories. And they are CRUNCHY, and they have gooey good stuff in them. Oh, yeah!! Plus, they cost me 36¢ a bag. I used the in-ad coupon to get them for 99¢ each, then I used a 75¢/2 MC that could be doubled.

I did the Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Milk + cereal deal! I’ve never had this before, but it sounds yummy, plus it could be wonderful in smoothies. Plus, I had a coupon for a free box of Cheerios. I won the giveaway that they mention on the front of the box! So, the Almond Breeze was $2.99 (even though the vanilla was marked higher on the shelf), plus I used a 55¢/1 MC (which doubled), and the Cheerios were free. Then, because I bought the milk and the cereal in the same transaction (for a whopping $1.94), a $3 Catalina printed! SCORE! (I also earned a $3/$10 produce coupon!!)

I used the $3 Catalina to pay for my transaction #2 - The Motts + Quaker deal:

6 Motts @$2
5 Quaker ($2.49 each, but you get 2 free when you buy 3 drinks)
Used (3) $2/2 Motts MCs
Used the $3/5 Quaker coupon from the Albertson’s ad (YMMV here!)
Used the doubler to -$2.
The subtotal came to $3.49, then I used my $3 Cat.
I had them round it up to 50¢ for MDA, so I spent 50¢ out of pocket! I’m generous like that. LOL! (Okay, I really do round up quite often, so no mean comments!)

And, of course, I had the butcher “deal” with the meat for me (read the comments on this post for more info). They took the family packs and divided them in half and added marinades to each bag. I added some spice to the leg quarters. I popped them in the freezer for quick crock pot meals or to thaw in the refrigerator for an even deeper marinade before grilling. We’ve been loving this lately!

Did I miss anything? I might go back for cheap ice cream later this week, but what else am I missing?

Just so ya know, my friend has been generous with the veggies, so we’re all balanced like that. I know that my trips look a little funny, but I had to change my mindset when I started couponing, and now I can have it all (fruit/veggies/milk/eggs/meat/junk) and stick to a $200/month budget, too!

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12 Comments »

Kristen said:

Nice job!

I always wonder what the people ringing us up must think. “Do you really need 6 bottles of juice & 48 rolls of toilet paper?” This week? No. Ever? YES! And I’m gettin’ while the gettin’s good!

[Reply]

Kelleigh Reply:
August 26th, 2010 at 3:50 pm

Amen, sister!

[Reply]

# 26 August 2010 at 3:35 pm

Michele said:

Hi! I have a question about the Van de Kamps deal and the Mott’s deal. On the Van de Kamps and Steamfresh you used the 2.00/2 manufacturer’s coupon from the MDA book AND the buy Van de Kamps get Steam fresh free (which is also a man. coupon) How’d you do that?
Also, same with free snacks. You are getting them free - how’d you use a coupon on them? I thought in the Safeway policy book it says you can’t use a coupon on free items? I had all these coupons you mentioned but didn’t try using them because I thought it was illegal to combine 2 man. coupons on one item. I’m just confused (not trying to call you out or anything) Please clear up the rules for me. When I go in and try to copy these transactions I always get shot down and get dirty looks from the cashier - leaving me purchasing stuff for much more than I thought and quite embarrassed.

[Reply]

Kelleigh Reply:
August 27th, 2010 at 1:13 pm

On the Van de Kamps, I did use the $2/2, but I guess I didn’t consider it off of both items. That just occurred to me! I guess I was thinking that the $2 coupon applied to the fish sticks and the free coupon applied to the veggies. I guess it is a YMMV situation! I was taught that one coupon sticks to each item. I think this is a gray area. I just wasn’t paying attention and was lucky!

The snack thing was a gamble. I “bought” 5, even though I was already getting 4 of them for free. I figured that if it beeped or didn’t work that I would just have them take the extra granola bar off the order. Before the revised policy, it would have been a no-brainer deal.

AND, actually, Safeway made money because I used the coupon. See, by giving me 4 free snacks, they were just eating it. However, by accepting my coupon they will make $3 and a few cents! This is another YMMV situation.

I am not afraid to take stuff back or have them take things off my order while I’m checking out. It is embarrassing, so I rarely takes risks like I did with the Quaker deal, but I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal to ask them to take one box off!

[Reply]

Krista S. Reply:
August 27th, 2010 at 2:17 pm

I had never even thought of using the Albertsons’ coupon this week at Safeway! I assumed since I was getting the granola bars for free, then I couldn’t use a coupon! But your reply does make since because Safeway would be reimbursed. I may have to try this one . . . And thanks for the idea for the meat. I might drag my kiddos out to Safeway tonight or tomorrow morning when things are slower!

[Reply]

Kari Reply:
August 28th, 2010 at 10:23 am

Hi Kelleigh
I just got my cell fire statement and they took off the $2/2 fish stix / veggies and I only bought 4 vegies… forgot about the fish stix deal AND the coupon (i was just buying them on the safeway super coupon price and felt fine about that! so bonus for me! )
LOVE your blog and sharing!
Kari

[Reply]

# 27 August 2010 at 12:13 pm

Erica Hettwer said:

I did the juice deal (again) today and found an awesome coupon in the back of the store. Buy 4 boxes of Quaker Chewy Granola Bars and get one free gallon of Lucerne milk. Score!!!

[Reply]

# 27 August 2010 at 4:38 pm

Erica Hettwer said:

Hey Kelleigh, I did the juice deal (again) today at the Molalla Safeway and they had a buy 4 Quaker Chewy Granola bars and get a gallon of milk free coupon. Score!!! My local Safeway (Canby) is fairly strict on coupons so they wouldn’t let me double my MDA Mott’s coupons. But still, a great deal!!!

[Reply]

Erica Hettwer Reply:
August 27th, 2010 at 4:51 pm

Hmmm,it didn’t show up the first time. Sorry about that! :::blushing:::

[Reply]

Kelleigh Reply:
August 27th, 2010 at 6:41 pm

You are so lucky!! Good grief. What did the coupon look like? Oh, you HAVE to tell the gals over at Frugal Living NW!!

[Reply]

# 27 August 2010 at 4:50 pm

Yvonne said:

I did a Safeway deal for the first time today. I had 9 mc’s and gave the cashier 3 pieces of Safeway double coupons. She said I can only use one Safeway double coupon for 4 mc’s per transaction (and that has been their rule since the beginning of time.)
In your blog (and other peoples’) you always have multiple deals all using Safeway doubles. Do you actually walk in and out Safeway several times? How do you do that with kids? My kids (and husband who waited in the car) were quite impatient and told me if it took that much effort just to save a few dollars, then it’s not worth my time.

[Reply]

Kelleigh Reply:
August 29th, 2010 at 8:57 pm

Yeah, you can only use one doubler, and it will only double up to 4 MCs. So, on this deal, I did the big transaction first and gave the cashier my coupons and doubler, then I did the second transaction. If there are people behind me, I usually go back around and get back in line. MOST of the time, though, I just shop when the store isn’t as busy and I tell the cashier that I am doing 2 transactions. No problem! Sometimes I do it with kids (had to all summer), but I try to keep my transactions fairly simple and I follow a strict list so I don’t get distracted from the mission. I DON’T wander the isles, because then my kids start to misbehave and it takes too long. I usually promise a quick trip and try to get in and out as fast as I can. My husband almost never comes with me. AND, for me, the 10 minutes more it might take me to do another transaction is definitely worth the $$ I save by doing it. I save a lot more than a few dollars, though!!

[Reply]

# 29 August 2010 at 5:46 pm