The Grocery Chronicles

As I stated in my first entry, I am going to make a valiant effort to record my grocery spending, saving, and coupon using in an attempt to see how much I can save, what spending I can cut, and how many coupons I can use in one trip.

I also want to share what resources I use for coupons and sales.  Right now, my favorite site to use (which only applies to you if you live in the south, I apologize) is SouthernSavers.com.  I nearly always shop at Winn Dixie because it's on my way home, and so what I do is go to the Winn Dixie page on Southern Savers, and look at the listing for what's advertised on sale for that week, and right underneath each item, they list where you can find coupons for that item.  So you combine these deals and coupons together, and you can get stuff for very low prices, or even occasionally for free!

I go shopping every other Monday, so that's probably how often these posts will happen.  In the end, I'm trying to raise the PERCENTAGE of my grocery bill that I save (since the total amount saved will inevitably vary from week to week).  An ideal percentage, according to many coupon gurus, is 50% or more.  You want to save more than you spend.  I'm not there yet, but I'm learning.

So here's how I did this week...




Purchased Items:
1 gallon 1% milk - $3.59 (reg. price)
2 Tropicana OJ 59 oz. - 2/$6 (sale)
1 Multigrain Cheerios - $2.99 (sale)
2 Special K Oats & Honey - $4.59 (BOGO)
10 Barilla Pasta - 10/$10 (sale)
1 2 pk Duracell 9V Batteries - $8.49 (reg. price)
1 Chi Chi's Whole Wheat Fajita Tortillas - $2.49 (reg. price)
2 Bryan's Smoked Sausage - 2/$6 (sale)
1 Winn Dixie Dozen Large Eggs - $1.99 (reg. price)
2 Tombstone Supreme Pizzas - 2/$8 (sale)
1 240 ct Puffs Ultra Tissues - $1.99 (sale)
2 Pepsi 2 L - 2/$3 (sale)
1 3 pk Romaine Lettuce Hearts - $2.50 (sale)
2.28 lb Red Seedless Grapes - $1.29/lb (sale)
1 12 pk Bud Select Beer - $9.99 (sale)
1 Brownie Parfait from Bakery - $0.95 (sale)
2 Milky Way Bars - 2/$2 (sale)

Meal Deal Items:
1 12 pk Charmin Toilet Paper - $9.99
1 Scotchbrite Wipes - FREE
1 TopCare Liquid Soap - FREE

Coupons:
2 @ $0.75 for Milky Ways = -$1.50

Total Before Savings = $126.05
Total After Savings  = $88.30
Total Saved = $36.77

Fuelperks:

Earned Today - $0.05

Total Balance - $0.75/gallon

Money Saved on 13 gallon Fill-Up - $0.65

TOTAL SAVED PLUS FUELPERKS = $37.42

PERCENTAGE SAVED = 30%

Key:
*Meal Deal Items - Winn Dixie's deal of the week, which if you buy one item, you get several others for free
*Fuelperks - Another Winn Dixie deal.  You automatically get $0.05/gallon off at participating Shell stations for every $50 you spend.  You can also get bonus Fuelperks if you buy special items marked with 5¢ off, 10¢ off, or more per gallon when you buy a certain quantity of the item.  You can let these perks accumulate and get a really low price come fill-up time!
*BOGO - Buy One Get One Free

So, not quite to the halfway mark percentage-wise, but I'm getting there!  That's certainly better than I used to do, and this is the first grocery trip I've made since learning about Southern Savers and how to plan to combine sale prices with coupon discounts.  So we'll see how I can do next time around...!