The Power of the Coupon

It's time for me to check in again and be accountable for my resolutions. I believe one of them had something to do with saving money at the grocery store:) Last week I had a huge trip to Kroger where I was able to take advantage of several deals they were running. First, here are some reminders:

• Register your loyalty card. Kroger will send you coupon booklets periodically. I had 3 booklets and probably half of the coupons in the booklets coincided with the in-store deals that were running.
• Check out e-coupons on shortcuts.com. Remember, you can't stack these with paper coupons but they sure do help.
• Bring your own shopping bags. Those nickels will add up. My mom literally adds nickels to a jar when she comes home from the store and then sends the $$ to the grandkids. We like!

Okay, so here's how I did. I did a lot of stockpiling. Especially for baby-type products since the Kroger-brand baby products were on special. My total savings was $64.02 with $14 of that in coupons and $49.02 in in-store Kroger deals. My guess is that the majority of the latter came from the fact that I stocked up on Pepperidge Farm Goldfish. Our stash was down to the last bag and in a house with 2 toddlers that is just dangerous. Goldfish were $1 and I bought 10 bags on that trip. Goldfish crackers are a bonus for Comfort's school, too, because they collect the Campbell's Labels for Education. And, when you register your Kroger card you also collect e-Labels. See, it just gets better and better.

So, even though my grocery bill was $91 I had 4 packages of diapers [2 of which were Huggies so I'll turn this receipt in to Caregiver's Marketplace for a few cents back, too], 4 packages of baby wipes, and a quart of Pedialyte. I also stockpiled 10 bags of Goldfish Crackers, 5 bottles of Suave Shampoo and Conditioner [which had been listed in The Grocery Game], 5 bottles of BBQ sauce I needed for Once A Month Cooking I'm doing, and 4 cans of baking spray to keep up with the extra work. 

The nice thing about this grocery trip was that even though I did a lot of stockpiling I also had food to eat, too. Comfort requested yogurt. Or 'oglurt' as she calls it and I had a coupon for YoBaby and grabbed some less expensive cups of Kroger Brand to tide us over until I get up the nerve to try my hand at making another batch. I also had coupons for things like flour and sugar, which were in the Kroger booklets and I desperately needed those since I've been doing so much baking lately. 

And there you go. It was a big day. The Power of the Coupon. Definitely a Cool Idea!