Every year, I throw a huge Halloween bash, and spend a lot of time cooking loads of food for it. Here’s the grocery run that I made the day before the party:
Total spent: $7.65 cash out of pocket, put 64.66 on 2 different gift cards
Total before coupons: $96.45
View receipt #1
View receipt #2
View receipt #3
View receipt #4 – one of my items rang up twice, so they had to return $1 to my gift card
View receipt #5
View receipt #6
View receipt #7
View receipt #8
I didn’t use as many coupons as I might have normally, because I was in such a rush to get everything done for the party in time. But that’s okay, because I had a backup plan – my gift cards. I had one gift card that I earned for free for filling a prescription at Rite Aid, and a gift card for Walgreens that had my rebates loaded onto it. I’ve been able to slowly grow the amount on my Walgreens gift card and turn a profit by using coupons on rebate items, and by receiving a 10% bonus each time for opting to receive the rebates in gift card form.
There was one minor hitch in my plans at Fred Meyer, when I purchased 2 of the Glade plug-ins and only got one $4 catalina back. According to Common Sense With Money, the offer changed and was only printing one no matter how many you purchased. I had planned to whittle down my expenses by doing this deal a few times, but oh well!
So here’s what I picked up in anticipation of the shindig:
2 lipsticks
2 eyeliner pencils (the makeup was for my costume)
2 packages of fun sized Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
1 bag of fun sized Nestle Crunch – On sale for $1.88, used a $1/1 printable, which I believe is no longer available.
1 bag of fun sized Baby Ruth – Used same coupon as above – .38 cents a bag after coupons and doubles
A 5 pound bag of flour
4 cans of Swanson vegetable broth – used a coupon for .40 cents off four cans from the 9/28 Smart Source newspaper inserts
A 32 ounce bottle of Coffee Mate – used a .75/1 catalina that I received recently
2 Zone bars – on sale for $1, used two $1/1 coupons – free plus .50 cents of overage each after doubles
2 packages of Hot Dogs
1 Avocado
A 12 ounce bag of Starbucks coffee
1 big bag of gummy body parts
An 8 pack of Junior Mints
2 Glade Plug-Ins – used a “Buy One, Get One Free” coupon from the 9/28 Smart Source newspaper inserts
1 pound of Broccoli
1 pound of apples
1.63 pounds of organic bananas
1 jumbo head of garlic
1 can of refried beans
6 bags of plastic utensils – 144 pieces altogether
A huge bag of paper plates (I think there were 240 plates, but I threw away the bag)
A whole bunch of paper cups (There were 60 cups, I believe – I threw away the bag for this also)
3 pounds of butter
6 pounds of sugar
2 Halloween figurines
1 gallon of milk
1 skull goblet
1 box of baking soda
An 8 ounce bag of cheese
2 bags of tortilla chips
36 skull rings
Check back tomorrow for Part II, and I’ll show you the spooky buffet I served, how many guests it fed, and how much we have left over!
