Total spent: $9.45. But before you fall off your chair – I walked out of the store with $36 in catalinas!
Total before coupons: $128.88
View receipt #1
View receipt #2 (I cut the bottom of this receipt off, because it had my debit card info on it)
View receipt #3
View receipt #4
For some reason, my name didn’t show up on any of my receipts – I am now “Valued Customer”! It also didn’t register my Power Pump accumulation, my GroceryMiles, and so forth, so I’ll have to call customer service tomorrow and find out what’s up.
I got:
1 gallon of milk
2 1-pound bags of Healthful Life catfood – on sale for $1.50, used a $1 coupon from the 8/3 newspaper inserts. Free after doubles!
A 4-pack of TP – Came to $4.99 after $1 SuperCoupon from this weekend’s Safeway sales circular
2 South Beach pizzas – on sale for $2.50, used two $2/1 printables (link seems to be down at the moment), free after doubles. The tag in store said this price was only through 10/7 – I lucked out, since I didn’t know what the sale price was until I got to the store.
2 bottles of Coke – used two “Free Coke” coupons that I got in a promo from My Coke Rewards a while ago.
4 bags of Wacky Mac – on sale for .99 cents, used four .50/1 coupons from the 6/22 inserts. Free after doubles!
16 Glade plug-ins – used eight “Buy One, Get One Free” coupons from the 9/28 inserts.
1 3 pound package of Bar-S sausages – used $5/1 coupon that I received in the mail from the company.
1 pound of butter
Over a pound of bananas
A pound of Zucchini
So regular readers may remember that I set my grocery budget for October at $20 or less. So why, then, did I spend almost half of it at the beginning of the month? I chose to invest part of my budget in a new catalina deal, and I was able to leave the store with $36 in catalinas in my purse. My plan is to keep rolling this catalina deal throughout the month, and use the proceeds towards groceries during the rest of the month. This is the latest catalina deal at Safeway:
The Glade gel warmer deal is over, but has been replaced by a different Glade deal – this time, it’s the scented oil warmers! They are $5.79, and produce a $4 catalina. Used in conjunction with a “BOGO” (Buy One, Get One Free) coupon, this quickly becomes a moneymaker. The previous Glade deals seemed to be running throughout different grocery chains nationwide, so watch for this one.
I started off my shopping trip by using the last two $2 catalinas that I had left from the prior Glade deal, and bought 2 warmers utilizing the “BOGO” coupon. I also got 4 free bags of Wacky Mac, spending a total of $1.72 and receiving $8 in coupons back.
For the second transaction, I used a “$10 off a $50 purchase at Safeway” coupon that was in the Oregonian last week. The nice thing about this coupon is that it can be used in conjunction with manufacturer coupons. So essentially, you can buy $40 worth of products that you have $40 worth of coupons for, and then buy an additional $10 worth of merchandise for which you have no coupons, and use the $10/50 to pay for it. If this is confusing, just think of your $40 worth of coupons as cash – the store is reimbursed by the manufacturer for them, so it doesn’t really matter whether you’re paying for your $40 subtotal in cash or coupons.
So to get my pre-coupon total up to $40, I bought four more Glade warmers, using two “BOGO” coupons and the $8 in catalinas that I had just received to pay for all but $3.58 of it; I also used a lot of the “Free” product coupons that I had on hand. Altogether, my total ended up being $4.88 – and I got $16 in catalinas back.
The third time, I just got 2 Glade warmers, using yet another “BOGO” and one of the $4 catalinas, paying $1.79 altogether. I thought I might need this extra catalina for my next transaction, but I actually didn’t have to use it.
Finally, I made use of one more $10/50 coupon. This time, I got 8 warmers, which brought my pre-coupon total to $46.32. I then bought the butter and bananas to get me up to $50. I used the $10 off coupon, four “BOGO” coupons, and $16 in catalinas, bringing me to $1.06. I then got $32 in catalinas back!
