Super Savings Shopping Trip

How to shop a big sale like Acme’s Catalina sale this week.
Step #1: Plan, plan, plan.

Step #2: Get all your coupons and lists together.
This is what I brought today. My coupon binder, calculator, the coupons I pulled for Acme in an envelope, list of deal ideas, print out from Living Rich With Coupons on all the prices and a print out of the UPC codes.

I packed it all up in my bag and off I went.
And here is what I got….so far.

This is from only 2 transactions at Acme. As I was gathering up items for my next transaction, I realized that they were all refrigerator or freezer items. Acme is not close to my house so I was planning on stopping at Aldi on my way home. With the temps being in the 70’s today, I didn’t think that the ice cream would make it so I opted out of that deal. I will definitely be making a visit during the week for much more.

For everything pictured I spent $7.45 and I still have $15 left in catalinas. Plus I got a $2.00 coupon on the end of my receipt for just calling in and doing a short survey.
So I got $66.07 worth of groceries for a PROFIT of $9.55.

I had gone into ShopRite on Friday night so the items you see are from last weeks sale.
A couple of things I want to point out. If you have a subscription to the Star Ledger, there are coupons that are stuck on the front of the paper, usually on Thursday, Friday or Saturday. These coupons are always for products that are already on sale and then reduced even more. They are store coupons so if you have a manufacturer coupon you can use it together, sometimes being able to get the product for free.

Also, there are ShopRite Holiday Savings books available with up to $30 in coupons so you might want to look out for that as well.

Everything here was $12.78 for 22.77 worth of groceries. Not that great a savings but most of it was meat so honestly it really wasn’t that bad.

I finally got to Aldi. I haven’t been in quite a while and I have to tell you that it was packed. I haven’t seen it like that before. The word is spreading.
All this, which mostly consists of fruits & veggies, was $17.67.
A bag of sweet potatoes (about 6) only $1.29, a large bag of tangerines only $1.49, 6 large grapefruits only $2.49. I just love that place.

And lastly, onto Pathmark. I wasn’t going to go but I was so under budget and I am really running low on canned tomatoes…so I went.
Here I spent $11.22 for $34.44 worth of groceries.

My grand total for the week was: $49.12 out of pocket which, yet again, is well below my $75 budget.
And, I still have $17 to spend in catalinas! I’m a happy girl!