FRIDAY THE 13TH - THE PRICE SLAYER

So, my trip this morning was a HUGE success in my opinion. Lets see if you agree! 

I head into WalMart armed with my coupon book, my envelope filled with coupons I intended to use today and my lists. After organizing it all in my cart - I'm off!  

I get slightly sidetracked down the 50% off Easter aisle but resist temptation and only grab two candy items totaling a whopping $1.00. I may have gone a little wild if it had not been for this blog and knowing you all would be wanting to see my savings totals so - my waist (and cholesterol) thanks you all for the motivation to resist. Haha. 

Now to the back of the store where the softsoap 3 pack bar soap is $2.99. I have a $1.00 off coupon so I decide it's worth it! 

I continue to the cleaning aisle to check for the scrubbing bubbles products I've been looking for and STILL no brush. Grrrrrrr. This coupon is burning a hole in my coupon book - I love freebies! Especially when the cost of the freebie is more than the item I actually have to pay for (AND I have a coupon for the item I have to pay for - SCORE). Oh well, maybe next week.  Now into the food part of the store. The tubs of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter are totally worth getting when my $1.25 off is factored in. In the cart they go. I make my way through the store, loading up on pop, vitamin water, eggo waffles/french toast/pancakes (which, btw, turns out to be the deal of the day - Their retail price is between $2.38 and $2.62 and I score them for .98 each. My retail total of $15.84 turns into $5.88. But wait, take off the coupons and my grand total for these 6 boxes is ....  $3.73! That's an 87% savings! SCORE). There were a few items on my price match list I couldn't find (The big cans of Hills Brothers Coffee, Kemps chocolate milk and Pillsbury angel food cake mix) but the rest .... in the cart they go.  

***TIP: DIVIDE THE ITEMS IN YOUR CART BY PRICEMATCH/NON PRICEMATCH. I PUT THE PRICEMATCH ITEMS TO THE BACK OF THE CART AND THE ITEMS JUST TO BE RUNG AS IN AT THE FRONT. TODAY I USED THREE 12 PACKS OF COKE TO DIVIDE THEM. MAKE SURE YOU GROUP ALL OF EACH ITEM TOGETHER FOR PRICEMATCHING - IT'LL GO MUCH FASTER***

I had a WONDERFUL checker today. She was fast, efficient and very excited for me! I ended up giving her my name so she can find me on facebook and find her way here. I really need to memorize this blog name so I can give it out to people who inquire. I did pull it up on my phone at my chiropractor's office and write it down there so hopefully the two lovely ladies there will be checking this out too. 

Now, on to the good stuff. Are you ready for the totals? Ok, here goes 

Retail Cost - $171.00

Cost after Pricematching - $108.00

My cost out of pocket after coupons.......... $82.00! That's a savings of  $63.00 from pricematching, $26.00 in coupons savings  a grand total of  $89.00 or a 52%!  I'm pretty happy with that. Ecstatic matter of fact. I've had smaller trips where I've saved 70% or 80% but, honestly, anytime I can save more than 40% (especially on a bigger trip like this - 78 items!) I'm pretty stoked. 

So, hope this helped you get started. 

Are you ready for week 2? Well get ready because it starts - TOMORROW! LOL Yep, tomorrow I'll be pulling the coupons from the Eagle-Herald, checking the ads for the local  Marinette-Menominee stores and getting some ideas of what I may be looking for this week. Sunday I'll grab a Green Bay paper and a Milwaukee paper, snip and sort the coupons and then check the ads in those papers. After writing stuff down, checking the ads a 2nd and 3rd time and paring down the list, I'll be ready to pull the coupons and put them in the envelope and then sit down and make up my spreadsheet. The good news is, I am off Monday and Tuesday next week so Tuesday will be my coupon shopping day so you all will get the list MUCH earlier next week.  

So get ready! Get those papers, get to snipping and HAPPY COUPONING! 

Again, feedback is always nice and if you could take the time to subscribe I'd be ever so grateful. I'm getting the hits and page views - now all I need is some subscribers and hopefully a few clicks on my sidebar ads to help me out even more. 

<3 Penny <3