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!