I’m a Shopping (and Saving) Fool!

I’ve had a big day today. Armed with a stack of coupons and information from the newspaper circulars, I went grocery shopping - and then some. I hit three different grocery stores, to get things that were on sale at Weis and Food Lion, and to fill out the rest of the list, as much as possible, at Aldi - which is crazy cheap.

Lowe's
We often get Lowe's gift cards for birthdays and Christmas and the like, so I gathered them all up (7 of them, some new, some partially used) and bought as many compact fluorescent light bulbs as I could.

They are quite an investment at the beginning, but they last forever (literally, like 6 or 7 years) and use way less electricity, so they more than pay for themselves.

Plus, there's that whole "saving the world" thing.

Our goal is to replace all the bulbs in the house with these, and I got enough to do most of them:

42 60-watt bulbs (7 packs of 6)
4 25-watt small bulbs for a fixture in kitchen
3 yellow "bug lights" for outside

Total Price: $120.59
Gift Cards: $104.65
Paid: $15.94 paid

(I actually intended to pay less than $5 but the Visa gift card that I had for about $12 wouldn't work. Not sure what's up with that?)

I still need to get some reflector bulbs for 4 floodlights outside, and some 40-watt (or so) with the regular-bulb shaped cover, for the lamps where the shade clips directly on to the bulb.

Aldi
I’ve only been in Aldi once before and I wasn’t too sure about it, but it’s cheap as hell and I figured that most things are probably going to be about the same quality. I hope.

Here's what I got:
Tomato Juice
Olive Oil
Tomato Sauce - 5
Red/Yellow/Green Peppers
Cream o' Something Soups - 8
Grapes
Cornbread Mix - 2
Hamburger Buns
Salsa
BBQ Sauce
Fake Spaghetti-O Type Stuff - 2
Beef Jerky - 2
Spaghetti
Elbow Macaroni
Wieners 3 lbs (for dogs)
Tortellini - 2
Rice
Canned Chicken

Total Price: $35.05
Just looking at the items for which I’ve got prices from other stores, we saved at least $16.00 by shopping there. That was about ½ the items on the receipt, so I’d say we probably saved at least $25 or $30, over Food Lion or Weis.

Weis
I won't give you the whole list, but I will hit the highlights :-)

Ken's Marinades
Regular Price: $2.79 / 16 oz bottle
Weis Club Price: Buy One, Get One Free
Coupons: $1 off one, $1 off one, $1 off two
Paid: $2.58 / 4 16 oz bottles

Ziplock Gallon Bags
Regular Price: $2.35 / 20 bags
Special Box: 24 for the price of 20
Weis Club Price: $2.00 / box
Coupons: Two, both for $0.55 off one - doubled
Paid: $1.80 / 48 bags

Coffee - Breakfast Hour Decaff
Regular: $8.09 / 39 oz
Weis Club Price: $6.99 / 39 oz

Coffee - Folgers Gourmet Something-or-other
Regular: $3.87 / 11.5 oz
Coupon: $3.00 off any size
Paid: $0.87 / 11.5 oz

They had our kind of cat litter on BOGO, but were out, so I got a rain check for that. It will be 4 bags for $7.78.

Total Bill
Original Total: $115.97
Weis Club Savings: $12.09
Coupon Savings: $12.40
Paid: $91.30

Food Lion
My finaly stop, where I hit mostly the MVP 3-Day Sale items (Friday March 9 – Sunday March 11). This was awesome, because almost all the items in the 3-Day Sale are brands that we buy anyway – and this week’s newspaper had coupons for every one of them!

They are all paper products and cleaning supplies, which won’t go bad, so I stocked up.

Tide Laundry Detergent
Regular Price $13.99 / 200 oz
MVP 3-Day Sale: $9.99 (limit 2)
Coupon: $1 off 2
Paid: $18.98 / 400 oz

Bounty Paper Towels
Regular Price: $7.69 / 8 rolls
MVP 3-Day Sale: $4.99 (limit 2)
Coupon: Two - $1 off
Paid: $7.98 / 16 rolls

Charmin Toilet Paper
Regular Price: 7.49 / 24 rolls
MVP 3-Day Sale: $4.99 (limit 2)
Coupon: Two - $1 off
Paid: $7.98 / 48 rolls

I did a similar thing with the Dawn and Cascade (MVP 3-Day Sale, plus $1 off 2 coupons for each).

I also picked up a couple of other items that were on MVP sale this week, including:

Kraft Shredded Cheese
Regular Price: $8.06 or $7.76 for 3 8 oz bags(I mixed 2 kinds)
MVP Price: $5 for 3 8 oz bags
Coupon: $1 off 2 8 oz bags
Paid: $4 for 3 8 oz bags

Total Bill
Original Total: $111.24
MVP Savings: $25.14
Coupon Savings: $9.00
Paid: $77.10

Total for the Day (not counting light bulbs): $203.45
Total Savings (including Aldi estimate): $74.63 = 26.8%

All in all, not a bad day’s work.