My Albertsons trip today: 76% saved!

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It's been awhile since I've taken the time to share a pic of one of my trips, but I felt inspired today. This was a particularly good trip for me, and I honestly haven't done a good stock-up trip in awhile.

The items pictured retail for $99.67. But after sales and coupons, guess how much I paid? $23.65! Yup, I just saved 76%! Here's the part that makes me extra excited: yesterday I received two rebate checks totaling $24.50. So my total today was LESS than the rebates I just received! How cool is that? Love it.

Now for those of you that are new, I know what you're thinking. "Angela, great job on the savings. But…exactly what are you going to eat all week long? Oatmeal, pancakes, and popcorn? I don't get it. Where's the meat? Produce?"

That is a GREAT question, and I'm glad you asked it. We will most certainly be talking about this in the next week, but for right now I want you to understand something pretty fundamental about couponing. When you shop, you are either getting items you NEED (as in for that week) and items you WILL NEED (as in things you DO use, although you might not need them at the moment). While today's trip had a few items I needed (mainly the breakfast and paper towels), the majority of this trip was to take advantage of good sales to stock up my pantry. After today, I'll have plenty of breakfast items and snacks for those late nights watching Top Chef and Project Runway (yeah, I'll admit it. I adore these two shows!). So for $23, I'll spare myself random little trips to the store and won't have to worry about breakfast for awhile. And hello – HOLY SUGAR! That's 10 lbs of sugar you see there – it's on an EXCELLENT deal and with the coupons? Heck, I'm ready for holiday baking season. Bring it on!

So yes, to get back to your question, I will actually be doing a separate trip to another store in the next couple days to purchase the meat and produce I need. Because I already have great cooking basics on hand and freezer meals I've recently cooked, I don't anticipate this bill coming to more than $30. So far this month, I'm on track to spend $300 or less on EVERYTHING – groceries, household items, diapers, and the like.

Wanna copy my deal? I did the Quaker promotion once and the Mix&Match twice in ONE transaction. (I personally like to minimize my transactions and trips as much as possible.) The only thing I purchased apart from those promotions were the Goldfish crackers. Incidentally, coupons saved me $12.45, and $63.57 was just store sales! So even if you didn't have all the coupons I did, you'd still see a DEEP discount in your final bill! If you're ready to try coupons, you might be interested to know that the majority I used today were ones you print off the computer – no Sunday papers required! Think about it…

4 boxes Quaker oatmeal (two $1.25/2 coupons)
2 Aunt Jemima syrups (one $1/2 printable coupon)
2 Aunt Jemima pancake mix (one $1/2 printable coupon)
2 Quaker Chewy bars (one $1/2 printable coupon)
2 Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta (one $1/2 printable coupon
1 Emerald Nuts peanuts (one $1/1 printable coupon)
5 Sparkle Paper Towels (note: I finally found these on the 10 for $10 aisle!!)
2 6-pack IBC Root Beer
2 Pop-Secret pop-corn (one $1/2 printable coupon – same link as the Emerald nuts coupon)
2 5-lb C&H Sugar (two $0.35/1 coupons)
6 boxes Zatarain's Rice (three $0.75/2 coupons)
2 Goldfish crackers

For more promotion ideas and coupon links, please see my Albertsons deals. You have until Tuesday to get in on these AWESOME stock-up deals! Oh, and readers: feel free to share pictures and totals with me to share here! I'd love to feature your great finds. Email me at thecouponproject at hotmail dot com.