Now, I could have planned my two Price Chopper trips for that the day as buying the exact same items as the prior day to total about $0.30 for everything. But I decided that I should buy more items that we needed. For example, with those sales and great coupons, we figured we should stock up on more boxes of pasta. I knew this would mean that the totals would be more than a dime, but it would also be worth it. It would also mean that I would have to make sure to only stick to 10 items total.
When planning my trip, I had called my Mother to see if she wanted me to show her how well I am doing at this couponing thing and I would print her some of those awesome coupons and have her take a trip with me. She said she was too busy running errands but would come along on one of these trips with me another day.
So I set off for my day at about 11am. I had so much to do. I had to go to the Post Office, a ton of stores to buy various things and return other things, and then my day would end with my two Price Chopper trips. (I didn't get home until after 7pm, but it was all worth it).
While walking around at the Price Chopper that was not my usual location, I learned what I think is a valuable lesson for couponing. I discovered that their normal price of Price Chopper brand pasta at this store was $1.09 (my location has them at $1.19). AND I learned that the types of pasta that were on sale for $1 at this location is NOT the same as the types of pasta that were on sale for $1 at my location.
Also, my only good coupon from my Daily Rewards print-out that day was for $.50 off a Price Chopper brand Orange Juice...I decided I would use this as one of my 10 items, because we usually buy the store brand of Orange Juice at whatever store we happened to be shopping at that week. I didn't luck out again with a coupon off of canned vegetables.
However, as luck would have it, as I was walking around the store trying to figure out what else to buy, and I ran into my Mother! She had her sheet of Daily Rewards print out coupons, and said she wasn't going to use any of them, so she gave them to me. And she had the canned vegetable coupon as well as a frozen vegetable coupon. Which I thought was awesome, because I had already had some frozen vegetables in my cart.
So what I ended up with on that trip was the following:
- 1 Price Chopper Brand Box of Cereal - $2.00
- 1 Box of Price Chopper Brand Pasta - $1.00
- 2 Boxes of Price Chopper Brand Pasta - $1.09 each (Yes, as careful as I was, I STILL managed to get two boxes that weren't on sale! I was very mad at myself for the rest of the night.)
- 3 Cans of Price Chopper Brand Vegetables - $0.59 each
- 1 Package of Price Chopper Brand Frozen Vegetables - $1.19
- 1 Package of Price Chopper Brand Frozen Vegetables - $1.99 (on sale for $1.59)
- 1 Package of Price Chopper Brand Frozen Vegetables - $1.99 (on sale for ($1.69)
SubTotal: $12.21 (The one box of pasta that was $1, rang up as $1.09 so I complained and they gave me a dime...So they gave me a penny too much back.)
So $12.21 - $0.70 On Sale Rewards = $11.51 - $8.25 in coupons = $3.26 - $0.10 (the dime they handed me) = TOTAL SAVINGS: $8.95
My Grand Total: $3.16
My second Price Chopper trip of the day was to include Orange Juice and some shredded cheddar cheese that we needed...And some more pasta. So I knew that this trip would be pricer than the others.
This trip included:
- 7 Boxes of Price Chopper Brand Pasta - $1.00 each (Yes I got every kind that was on sale for $1)
- 1 8oz package of Price Chopper brand cheddar cheese - $2.99 (On sale for $2.00)
- 1 Box of Price Chopper Brand Cereal - $2.00
- 1 Carton of Price Chopper Brand Orange Juice - $2.99
- 1 Yoplait Yogurt - $0.69 (I had a coupon for a free Yoplait Yogurt!)
They kept messing up with the pasta, despite that the manager even knew it was on sale. Finally she had to ring one of the boxes up as a "General Merchandise" item for $1.00 just so that the pasta wouldn't should up as $1.19...However, that caused the register to charge me sales tax of $0.09 since it didn't know that the 'general merchandise' was food....Which made me actually pay $1.09 for the pasta that should have only been $1.00. I didn't end up complaining about that because they had an issue with my Yoplait yogurt coupon and ended up having to just hand me the $0.69...So since they had to get a manager over to override the price of the pasta that was on sale, I didn't know how to complain about the sales tax issue.
Subtotal: $15.67 + $0.09(for the stupid sales tax) = $15.76 - $0.99 On Sale Rewards = $14.77 - $7.50 worth of coupons = $7.27 - $0.69 (they handed me since my coupon didn't work) = $6.58
TOTAL SAVINGS: $9.18
So my grand total should have been $6.49 but because of the stupid tax that should have never been charged, MY GRAND TOTAL: $6.58
This picture is of the two trips combined:
So combined my two trips would have cost $27.88 but I paid only $9.74 for a savings of $18.14.
And if you combine those two trips with my trip from the day before, it would have cost $35.48, but I only paid $9.84...For a savings of: $25.64.
I know I probably made some mistakes that veteran Extreme Couponers would frown upon...But for my first weekend of Extreme Couponing, I'd say I did pretty well. Again, keeping in mind that these were all items we need and will absolutely use.
And it makes me wonder how many other times in my life the stores have ripped me off because of on-sale items not ringing up on sale, or because coupons didn't actually come off, or because they charge you tax when they shouldn't.
I know I probably made some mistakes that veteran Extreme Couponers would frown upon...But for my first weekend of Extreme Couponing, I'd say I did pretty well. Again, keeping in mind that these were all items we need and will absolutely use.
And it makes me wonder how many other times in my life the stores have ripped me off because of on-sale items not ringing up on sale, or because coupons didn't actually come off, or because they charge you tax when they shouldn't.
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