Total spent: $3.53 – the most I’ve spent in a while!
Total before coupons: $44.20

View Receipt #1 View Receipt #2

I got:

A 10 pound bag of sugar
1 Sunday paper
3 packages of sponges
6 plug-ins
Half a pound of mushrooms
1 pizza pan
1 pizza cutter (3 guesses what we’re having for dinner tonight!)
About half a pound of fair trade & organic coffee – I noticed we were running dangerously low, even though I just bought a bag on Wednesday! This has definitely been a quad-shot week.
Another coffee canister, free with coffee

As you can see, this was an “expensive trip” for me. I did two transactions, and the first one came to $1.54, after I handed all my $2 catalinas to the cashier. He said, “Do you have a dollar [ONYO]?” He was surprised when I said no, because it’s rare for them to see me spend more than a dollar at a time! But then I pointed to all the ONYOs that had printed out, and said, “But I’m still getting all those back, so I don’t feel too gypped.” We both started laughing. My Safeway is seriously awesome.

For the second transaction, I used the ONYOs that I had gotten back to pay for the coffee and pizza cutter. It’s hard to estimate your total right to the penny when you’re buying things that are sold by weight, so I just have to take my best guess. The total this time was $1.99. I suppose I could have used an extra ONYO during each transaction and gotten change back, but I don’t like doing that, so I just got it as close as I could. I figure $3.53 for $44 worth of groceries is still a good deal, not to mention that I still have $6 worth of ONYOs to use later.

I’m going to have fun with the pizza stuff. When I’ve made pizza in the past, I would just put it in a square baking pan, so this will be nice. I made a pizza earlier in the week using my new bread maker, and it was so good and simple that I couldn’t wait to make another one!

Tonight, I used a lot of my Glade ONYOs to pay for those items that so rarely have coupons.

Total spent: $1.99
Total before coupons: $72.80
And I earned back $12 in ONYO coupons for buying more of the Glade plug-ins, plus I earned another gas discount – bringing my total to 17!

View Receipt #1 View Receipt #2

Here’s what I got:

1 bag of organic, fair trade coffee
1 tupperware coffee canister – they were offering these as a free gift to anyone buying Millstone coffee!
1 can of pineapple
1 box of powdered milk
2 packages of cookies
1 dozen cage-free eggs
2 bags of cheese – 4 lbs. altogether
1 jar of Parmesan cheese
1 lb. of butter
1 foil baking pan
6 Glade plug-ins
4 Halloween cards
1 roast pan
2 packages of pepperoni
Half a pound of mushrooms
1 onion
A pound and a half of tomatoes
1 package of Kotex (not pictured)

I was lucky enough to get a breadmaker today as an early birthday present, and I was very excited to try it out! I decided to use it to make a pizza crust for dinner – that’s what half of this stuff is, toppings for pizza. YUM!

I continued to take advantage of the Safeway Hallmark deal today, and got some more goodies!

First transaction:

Total spent: .69 cents
Total before coupons: $22.43
And I received a coupon for $3.50 off my next purchase!

I got:

4 Halloween cards
5 boxes of Nature Valley bars
3 boxes of Hamburger Helper microwave singles

Safeway is running some great promos on General Mills items right now. If you buy 5 boxes of Nature Valley bars, you receive $5 off your purchase. I combined this with the coupons that appeared in the 8/10 inserts, and got a great deal – especially because you get a $3.50 catalina for every five that you buy! Fantastic, especially because we love these bars anyway. I believe this deal runs through tomorrow, so hurry in if you want a good deal on this! ETA: I read on Hot Coupon World that this promo is actually running through 9/23! Yay!
Also, the Hamburger Helper is on sale for $1.99, and there were coupons in the same 8/10 insert for $1 off. As you can see, there were peelies on the box that I didn’t use, because my coupon was better!

Second transaction:

Total spent: -.72 cents!!
Total before coupons: $8.65

So after the Hallmark card discount, my total was about $2.78. I have all those Glade ONYOs for $2 off, so I proceeded to hand one to the cashier. “Ok, so, you get 72 cents back!” she said cheerfully. “How’s that?!” I said, bemused. “Well, this coupon is for $3.50 off…” OOPS! I grabbed the wrong coupon out of my wallet! “Oh, I’m so sorry, I thought I handed you a $2 coupon! Here, let me get the right one,” I replied apologetically. “Oh, that’s OK,” she said. “You can use it. It’s a store coupon. You’ll just get change back.” Uh, OK then, works for me! As far as I was aware, Safeway ONYOs usually state “No change will be given”. I didn’t have a chance to look at the fine print on the $3.50 off coupon, so I don’t know if it was different, or what. Anyway, this effectively paid for my previous purchase, with a 3 cent profit to boot!

This time, I got:

4 Halloween cards
1 pair of washing up gloves
half a pound of sugar snap peas

Third transaction:

Total spent: .06 cents
Total before coupons: $5.62

And I still had that 3 cents left over in profit from the last transaction…so essentially, all of today’s groceries were only 3 cents. Nice!!

I got:

4 Halloween cards
1 Ramen Yakisoba bowl – one of the most delicious ways to spend overage!
2 Betty Crocker corn muffin mix – these are reduced to .33 cents each, which is a great price even without coupons, and makes them a good filler item.

I spent under a dollar for my groceries tonight – and guess what? I didn’t use a single coupon.

Total spent: .63 cents
Total before coupons: $22.99

I also earned a .10 fuel reward, bringing my total to 16!

Remember the awesome Hallmark deal I mentioned a few days ago? That’s how I was able to get all of this so cheap without using any coupons.

And I got:

16 Halloween cards
1 newspaper
1 head of organic lettuce
1 bag of sun dried tomatoes
1 bag of crispy onion salad toppers. These taste like onion rings – YUM!
3 bananas

Good thing I was in the mood for salad, since I have salad dressing coming out my ears!

If you have a Safeway in your area, you’ve got to check out some of the great deals running this week!

Total spent: .55 cents
Total before coupons: $75.88

I also earned $28 in ONYO coupons towards my next purchase!! Wow.

And I got:

8 Plug-In Scented Oil Warmers
6 Gel plug-ins
16 Halloween cards
3 pork chops
1 roll of foil
2 cheese sticks
1 can of tuna
2 Ramen Yakisoba bowls
2 boxes of band aids
1 apple
1 carrot

So I took advantage of two great sales. First, the Glade scented oil warmers are on sale for $3.99. There was a coupon in the 8/3 inserts for $4 off, so the warmer is free, plus overage if your store will double them, which mine does. Then it prints out a $2 off coupon on your next visit for each one that you buy! Even if you don’t have any Glade coupons, you can still get a good deal with this. The gel plug ins are $1.99, and also print a $2 coupon. Cool!

The best part is, on two of these transactions I didn’t use a single coupon, and still paid pennies. How? Well, Safeway has a deal where if you buy 4 Hallmark cards, you will automatically receive $5 off your order – and the .99 cent cards qualify! Automatic overage, you just can’t beat that! If you’re curious to see the full break down, you can view my receipts here:

Transaction #1 Transaction #2 Transaction #3 Transaction #4

I split these up into four orders because I believe the Hallmark deal is limit one per transaction, and also so I could double all my coupons.

So what does a typical coupon-funded dinner look like?

To top it off, I marinated these in Weber grill mix that I got overage on a few months back!

Total Spent: $2.06
Total before coupons: $55.58

And I got:

1 bottle of salad dressing
1 bottle of ketchup
1 can of Pineapple chunks
1 can of water chesnuts
1 Crystal Light
15 packets of Kool-Aid
1 bag of Wheat Thins
4 bottles of Powerade
3 packages of lunch meat
1 package of cheese slices
1 bottle of Coffee-Mate
1 box of Kotex
1 Plug-Ins scented oil warmer
4 greeting cards
1 Sunday newspaper – more coupons!
1 package of hot dogs
1 Odwalla bar
1 bunch of bananas
About 2 lbs of grapes
1 head of Broccoli
1 large carrot

Last week, I was lucky enough to win a giveaway at Frugal Rhode Island Mama’s blog. The prize was a set of coupons from a recent copy of “All You” magazine, good for free Kraft products. They arrived today, and it was perfect timing, because I had a coupon that expired tomorrow for $10 off a $50 purchase at Safeway. The neat thing about this coupon is that it could be used in conjunction with other coupons – so if you have $40 or so in free coupons to redeem, then you can use the $10 off $50 coupon and get another ten bucks worth of stuff for free!

I also earned my tenth .10 cent fuel discount tonight – which will save me $1 off gas! Every time you accumulate $100 worth of purchases on your Safeway card, you earn .10 off gas. The great thing is, it counts your total before coupons. I have until the end of month to accrue more discounts for this reward period; how much of a gas discount do you think I’ll earn before September is out?

Total spent: .38 cents

Total before coupons: $51.16

I got:

2 24-packs of TP
1 gallon of milk
8 boxes of Kotex
8 bottles of shampoo and conditioner
3 loaves of bread
1 zucchini

Total spent: .14 cents
Savings after club card and coupons: $9.48

I got:

1 4-pack of TP
4 boxes of Kotex
1 head of garlic

I had a bunch of great coupons that were expiring tomorrow, so it was time for my end-of-the-month coupon extravaganza. And I made a great haul!

My first trip:

And my 2nd trip:

Spent: $1.45 out of pocket, and put $5.33 on gift cards that I earned from various promotions. But I got paid $4.43 overage out of the register (which I will elaborate on in a moment), and I earned $4 in ONYOs! I used one of the ONYOs during this shopping blitz, but I still have a $2 ONYO left for next time, and I made a $2.98 cash profit on top of that!! And my savings? I redeemed $252.21 worth of coupons alone, for a grand total savings of $451.52!

ETA: I also earned 2 .10 cent fuel discounts during this trip. Safeway’s fuel rewards program allows you to stack the discounts you earn, and I have 8 accumulated so far – so I could get .80 cents off a gallon the next time I fill up. But the quarterly period to accrue points runs until next month, so I’m going to see how much more of a discount I can get on gas before then!

And I got:

42 bottles of Sprite
16 boxes of Kleenex (which is good, since I’m getting a cold!)
1 bottle of Wishbone salad dressing
1 cucumber
1 bunch of green onions
1 package of baby tomatoes
1 package of hummus
7 Crystal Lights
66 packets of Kool Aid
4 loaves of Sara Lee bread
2.61 lbs of organic bananas
8 Spam Singles
34 bottles of L’Oreal shampoo & conditioner
7 boxes of Wheat Thins
1 bottle of Cascade dishwasher soap
7 bottles of Kraft dressing
3 boxes of Kotex
1 Glade candle refill
2 packages of ground turkey – 2.50 lbs total
7 packets of Friskies treats

So during my first trip, the register completely freaked out ringing up the free Kraft WYB coupons. The Crystal Light was on sale for $3.49, and the first coupon took off the correct amount – and the subsequent Qs took off $6! The cashier and I realized this when the total was negative $12. It made no sense, because the coupon is only supposed to go up to $4.50, anyway. He ended up having to key them in manually so it would deduct the correct amount. At the end, it still showed -$4.43. I couldn’t fathom how that could be, because I never try to get cash back with overage – I always plan filler items to eat the overage, and pick items that I typically never have coupons for, such as produce or milk. I also bring a calculator and notepad with me every time, and work out the overage to the penny. This is how I get my totals so low each time I go shopping. So, I couldn’t wrap my head around it, but the cashier said that it was correct, and a manager gave him an override so that he could hand me $4.43 cash!