On Sunday, I headed over to Safeway to pick up the supplies for my Sabra Hummus taste-testing party:

Total spent: $10.73 out of pocket, put $25 on a MasterCard gift card that Sabra Hummus sent me to buy party supplies with.
Total before coupons: $52.91
View receipt #1
View receipt #2

Got:

3 12-packs of soda – on sale for $1.99 each, total for all 3 after bottle deposit: $7.77
1 bag of pretzels – price: $1.89
1 box of thin wheat crackers – price: $1.99
1 box of sesame wheat crackers – price: $1.99
1 box of store brand Ritz crackers – price: $2.49
1 box of store brand Triscuits – price: $1.99
1 bag of toasted Wheat Thins – $2.50
An 8-pack of Gatorade – price: $5.00
1 quart of half & half – price: $2.29
2.05 lbs of broccoli – price: $3.05
1 package of cherub tomatoes – price: $3.99
2 bags of ice (not pictured) – $1.49 each, total price: $2.98
4 tubs of Sabra Hummus – on sale for $4.49 each, used four free product coupons that were sent to me by the company for my party. Total cost: Free – and actually, each coupon automatically took off $4.99, so I ended up receiving overage. I’ve noticed that a lot of free product coupons are coded to take the full value of the product off irregardless of sale prices.

I also used two bottle return slips to take off .30 cents. I could have kept my total lower, but I’ve been feeling under the weather and really wanted to get some Gatorade.

The party was a lot of fun – here’s a picture of the buffet:

The zucchini and carrots came fresh from my aunt’s garden! We had a great time – I’ll have a party recap to share with you soon, along with a special giveaway.

I haven’t gone shopping since my Johnson & Johnson cause party almost 3 weeks ago, save for one $3.49 dairy purchase earlier this week. I had so much food left over!! But we’ve eaten our way through a lot of it now, and we also have company coming today who will be staying through the weekend, so I stopped by the store yesterday afternoon.

Total spent: $43.15, but I will receive $5.89 back in rebates, making my final total $37.26 – plus a stamp to mail the rebate in!
Total before coupons: $49.62
View receipt – Yay! My desktop PC is back up and running, so I can scan things again! When I have time, I will scan in the receipts from the shopping trips that happened while my system was down.

Got:

1 box of Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal – regularly price at $3.99, used a free product coupon that I received in the mail from Vocalpoint. Final price: Free! If you haven’t signed up for Vocalpoint yet, I highly recommend it. I frequently receive free product coupons in the mail just for being a member.
1 box of store brand Ritz crackers – price: $2.49
1 bag of flour – price: $1.99
2 candy bars – regularly priced at .89 cents each, used two free product coupons that I won in a giveaway from Psychic Mama Indigo Child’s blog. Final price: Free! Thanks again!
1 bag of Starbucks coffee – price: $7.99. This was the best price on coffee this week, and as a bonus, there is a coupon on the packaging that says I can bring the empty bag into any Starbucks and receive a free drink.
1 dozen eggs – on sale for $1.59, used a coupon from the Safeway sales flier to bring the price down to $1.49. However, the coupon took off .70 cents, which really confuses me – I also used another store coupon for cheese (see below), which didn’t appear anywhere on the receipt, but the cheese came up at the right price. I’m wondering if the .70 cents was for both? Was the original price of the eggs higher than I thought? Or did it just take the wrong amount off?
1 gallon of milk – price: $2.49
1 quart of half & half – price: $2.29
1 package of pepperoni – price: $2.49
2.22 lbs. of bananas – on sale for .69 per pound, final price: $1.53
1.74 lbs of oranges – on sale for $1.49 per pound, final price: $2.59
1 head of lettuce – price: $1.29
1.60 lbs of gala apples – on sale for .78 per pound, final price: $1.25
2 lbs of grapes – price: $2.99
1 package of deli pastrami – price: $4.99
1 package of Alpine Swiss cheese – I used a coupon from the Safeway sales flier to bring the price of this to $1.99, but the coupon appears nowhere on the receipt, as I mentioned above – however, the price of the cheese is listed as $1.99. The receipt lists the original price for this as $5.99.
1 package of Alouette brie cheese – price: $5.89, but I will submit this rebate to receive my full purchase price back, meaning I will have only spent a stamp for it.

I had other free coupons that I had planned to redeem, but the store is being remodeled and everything is torn apart – whole aisles are missing and products are scattered throughout the building. I wasn’t able to find the other items that I had coupons for, so I’ll just check back later or try Fred Meyer! And since this is a tourist town and Safeway is pretty much the only grocery store here, it gets completely packed during the summer – so it was a little chaotic! I would have gone to customer service to ask about the egg coupon, but it was so hectic in there that I just went home.

Total spent: $22.88
Total before coupons: $47.96
View receipt – unfortunately the ink on part of my receipt got smeared on the way home, so I’m going to go back into Safeway and get a reprint for the grocery challenge.

I had a lot of produce and leftovers to be used up, so I made a meal plan based on that and picked up some missing ingredients. I also had a bunch of good coupons that were expiring at the end of the month, so I redeemed those as well.

Got:

1 jar of mayonnaise – need this to make coleslaw with the rest of my cabbage! I had a coupon that would have made another brand much cheaper, but the store was out of stock, so this was the next cheapest brand. Price: $2.49
1 box of Rice Krispies – regularly $3.99, used a free coupon that I received from Vocalpoint. Final price: Zero! And as an added bonus, the box of cereal also contained $5 worth of coupons! If you haven’t signed up for Vocalpoint yet, I highly recommend it. This is one of several free coupons that they have mailed to me.
8 Mars candy bars – on sale for “Buy 2, get 2 free”, use four free product coupons that I received from the “Free Chocolate Friday” promotion, making all 8 candy bars free!
1 gallon of milk – price: $2.49
1 quart of half and half – price: $2.29
1 tub of yogurt – on sale for .70 cents, used one free coupon that I received via My Blog Spark. Looking at the receipt, it appears that the coupon took of the maximum value of .89 cents, so I received .19 cents of overage. Does anybody know why some free coupons are coded to take the maximum value off, no matter what the sale price is?
1 box of Skinny Cow Ice Cream – regularly priced at $5.49, used one free coupon that I won in a Twitter contest from Joyce of Saving Our Cents. Thanks again Joyce, these are so yummy!
10-pack of beef hamburger patties – price: $5.99
1 package of Oscar Mayer hot dogs – regularly priced at $3.79, used this free hot dog coupon that I signed up for in May. Final cost: Zero!
.71 lbs of pork chops – price: $2.12
2.09 .lbs of pork chops – price: $4.24. These pork chops will be our main course for dinner tonight!
1 package of ground pork – price: $2.99. I love pork because it is inexpensive and delicious. I bought this ground pork to use in a spaghetti casserole, since I had a lot of unused pasta left over from dinner on Wednesday.
1 carrot – also for the coleslaw that I’ll be making. Price: .16 cents
10 lb bag of potatoes – I love potatoes because they are cheap, versatile, and you get a lot of food out of one bag. Price: $1.79
3 fruit squiggle snacks – .79 cents each, used three free coupons, making the final cost zero! I found these coupons in the gym, of all places. They had a big stack of the coupons for members to take next to gym schedules and leaflets. I think I was the only one who had even noticed them. It pays to keep your eyes peeled for coupons, because you find them in the oddest places!
1 package of Gardein BBQ Skewers – on sale for $3.50, used the free coupon that I mentioned last month. Once again, this coupon automatically took off the maximum value of $4.99 instead of the sale price, so I received $1.49 in overage.

This trip brought my final total for the week to $48.10.

Well, I did pull myself out of my Sudafed haze once last week, to use up a few coupons that were on  the verge of expiration. These were coupons that I was sent by the company for a review I wrote on Contest Corner. 

Total spent: $2.79
Total before coupons: $4.79
View receipt

Got:

1 quart of half & half – price: $2.29
1 bag of mini-eggs – as you can probably guess by the ripped-open bag, I was in the mood for some chocolate! These are my favorite, I wait for them to come out every year. Price: $2.50

I used my last $2 catalina from the Bertolli deal to bring the final price down to $2.79.

I made a quick stop at Safeway while I was out running errands yesterday:

Total spent: Zero!
Total before coupons: $5.79
View receipt

Got:

1 package of Trix yogurt – on sale for $3.00, used one free product coupon. I was invited to write a review of this yogurt for my other blog, and I received this coupon with my review materials. (Psst…I’ll be giving these away, too, so if you want to win yogurt, check Contest Corner tomorrow.)
1 bottle of Suave hairspray – on sale for $2.79, used one free product coupon that I received by signing up for a special promotion on Suave’s website in January. The coupon was about to expire, so I wanted to make sure that I used it!

When the cashier rang me up, both of these coupons took off their maximum value instead of the actual price, so the register ended up being negative $1.23; the cashier then added $1.23 to the total in order to balance it out to zero. So in case you’re trying to figure my receipt out, that’s what the $1.23 “Grocery” item is!