Monday, August 27, 2012

Savings - What Sales and Coupons will save vs. Regular


Ok, so I don’t know if I ever realized the magnitude of savings with coupons and sales because I’ve never really calculated the savings over a stretch of a couple stores/weeks, but now after doing that, it really is amazing! I know a lot of people who tell me, “it’s crazy how much I spend on groceries… stuff I need. I don’t understand how I could spend almost $100 every week.” I do! Let me show you…
I went grocery shopping to a few stores over the last two weeks when they had really good sales to stock up on stuff we will need during my school year when I won’t have as much time to shop.  I did a cost analysis of the items and I’m sure you’ll be amazed, just as I was!
This is the extensive list of items I bought:
2 bags Kroger frozen veggies
6 Kroger carb-master yogurts
2 4-packs Chobani Champions greek yogurt
6 Yoplait Greek Yogurt
2 Chobani Greek Yogurt
Gallon of skim milk
20 pack Frigo string cheese
1 bag Kraft Fresh-Take
Small piece of maple bbq salmon
2 Packs Johnsonville Chicken Sausage
1 pack Oscar Mayer Deli Turkey
1 box Fiber One almond nutty clusters cereal
*2 Boxes Shredded Wheat n’ Bran (sounds gross, but I like to mix it with sugary cereal for some fiber)
1 box Fiber-One Chewy bars
1 box Fiber-One Brownies
1 Bag teddy grahams
1 Bag mini oreos
2 bags trail mix
*2 bags Chex Mix
1 box Lance Cracker Creations
5 PowerBars
*1 ZonePerfect protein bar
3 Balance Bars
2 Met-Rx protein bars
4 Pack Knorr chicken stock
1 Box Ocean Spray individual packed fruit snacks
4 cans Ocean Spray Diet Pomegranate Blueberry sparkling juice
Mott’s Applesauce to-go
4 individual Silk Dark Chocolate Almond Milk
1 Silk Fruit & Protein
1 Sambazoan Chocolate Acai protein drink
*2 Wholly Guacamole Roasted tomato salsa
*2 Wholly Guacamole Guacamole
*2 Ken’s Salad Dressings
5 1-subject notebooks
2 boxes Hefty gallon freezer bags
2 boxes Ziploc bags
3 pack Eclipse gum
1 Small container Biz laundry detergent
1 Simple Face wash
1 Clean and Clear cream cleanser
1 Ban deodorant
1 Almay mascara

So I got some groceries as well as household items and the total without any sales or coupons would have been… drum roll…

$210!!!

Now it’s time for some math magic. I’m going to show you how sales and coupons work EXTREMELY WELL to your advantage! It’s really crazy how a little awareness of sales and clipping of coupons will help you out!

If I had not used any coupons, but had simply gotten most of these items on sale, I would have saved $70.08! That brings the total to $139.92. This is a much better price by simply paying attention to what’s on sale and buying mainly those items.

Since I did have coupons, though, I will add on those savings and show you how couponing can save you even more of a fortune! I shop at Farm Fresh on Wednesdays because they double coupons up to and including $1, and up to $0.99 every other day.  When I shopped at Harris Teeter, they were having a SUPER DOUBLE event and doubled all coupons up to and including $2!! Krogers around here always double up to and including $0.50, but never anything more, they’re just taken at face value (a $1 off coupon will get you $1 off).  Because of coupons on these trips, I saved $85.02! Here’s the math all written out (I love math by the way!)…

Total before any sales or coupons: $210
Total ONLY with sale prices: $210-$70.08= $139.92
Total with sale and COUPONS: $139.92-$85.02= $54.90

That’s a total savings of $155.10 or $155.10/$210= 73.9% for you math people like me!

I’ll let you be the judge of whether or not it’s worth it!! In my last post, I had bought some produce, so these are items other than produce because produce doesn’t usually have coupons. Refer to my previous posts, however, about sale prices of produce – you can save a bundle on these too!  Please feel free to leave a comment or email me if you have any questions on how to coupon or other sale related things like “if it says 10 for $10 do I have to buy 10?” NOOOO you do NOT have to buy 10, this simply means they cost $1 each. Did I blow your mind? Maybe not, but have fun shopping!

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