1st Safeway Trip

I had some time this afternoon so I took the oppourtunity to run to Safeway while the girls were napping. I scoured other blogs for the deals they used and the coupons they used to come up with a handful that I could work with on my first trip - I'm determined to do even better the next time around but I didn't think I did too bad today :)



This is actually a photo of my combined 2 trips - let me explain -

First trip:

I spent $23.56
I saved $27.79 (after coupons/sales)
And I earned $10 back

Then I did a second trip to buy the grapes, Pepsis and Doritos which were $10 for 3 12 packs and 2 bags of chips and I spent $1.94 after using my $10 off coupon.

So, my whole total spent was $25.50

A few things I learned -

Coupons do NOT count against your total. Doesn't seem right I know but it's true. If the item is on sale for $2.00 then that goes towards your total but if you also have a $1.00 off coupon then it does not mean you have to buy another $1.00 item to reach the $30.00 - this I had to see for myself to believe. But it means you could spend $10 and get $10 back - very cool! Yes, I'm going to figure out a way :)

Not all qualifying items are marked really well - a lot of them had the tag that said it was a participating item but I purchased Pasta Roni which was not clearly marked and I could not have achieved $30 without them so clearly they are a part of the promotion.

The $10 is off anything not just items indicated in the sale. I wasn't 100% sure and couldn't find the answer anywhere so in case you were wondering you can buy anything in the store and save $10 off.

Best deals -

Pasta Roni/Rice Roni are on sale at $0.89 a piece - I used a $1.00 off three coupon from here making them just $0.56 a piece

Finish Powerball Electrosol Tabs - normally $5.99 - on sale for $3.99/each - there's a $2.50 off coupon in today's Smartsource coupon flyer making them $1.49 each and getting me $3.99 closer to my $30 total! I had 2 coupons.

Caprisun Sunrise juice box drinks - normally $2.50 - on sale for $1.99/each - there's a $1.00 off coupon in today's Smartsource coupon flyer making them $0.99 each. Also, when you walk into the store there's a flyer with more coupons and it contains a $0.50 off Caprisun coupon (you can only use one per transaction).

As I said yesterday lots of other blogs list the sales out in real detail so follow my link from then to find more - these are just examples of how I did.

While I am very excited about this promotion and happy about how I did - this is an example of why I use the Grocery Game instead of doing it myself. There was a LOT more leg work involved to track everything down and find all the coupons as opposed to a list that tells me "buy this, save this". This is an example of how triplets really effects my bottom line - I don't have all the time in the world to look everthing up or to store hope but I NEED to save money. I have way too many mouths to feed to pay full price!!