First Food Purchases

Let me begin by stating that this first round of buying is not typical (if only it were) due to some good coupons I had that are not readily available to the general public. That being said, the way that I went about it is what I (and what the couponers that are going to be helping) shall be doing to try and maximize the amount of food purchased with the money that is earned from this Penny Experiment.

I went to Safeway on 12/21 (one of the things you learn is that you have to purchase the food when it goes on sale and not leave the shopping for a certain week). This is what I was able to buy:

1 bag Safeway Brand chocolate chips
1 package of Jello Mousse
4 bags of Bertolli Frozen meals
8 boxes of Kellogg’s Cornflakes

The total value of all this food was $62.67 and I was able to buy it for $0.42 with a total savings of $62.25.

This is how I did it:

I had a Safeway coupon for a free bag of Safeway brand chocolate chips with the purchase of $20 or more on 12/21. Since the total value of all the food was more than $20 before use of the coupons, this item ended up being free. Anyone could have done this.

I had a free coupon for a package of Jello Mousse. This was a coupon that was received as part of an event package for a conference I attended, so it wouldn’t be one that the average person would be able to get hold of. This item ended up being free.

I had four coupons for 1 free bag of Bertolli Frozen meals. These were coupons that was received as part of an event package for a conference I attended, so they wouldn’t be available to the average shopper. These four items ended up being free.

I had four coupons for Kellogg’s Cornflakes which were on sale at Safeway for $0.99 a box. 2 coupons were for $1.50 off two boxes and the other 2 coupons were for $1.00 off of two boxes. With the $0.99 price, this meant that the coupons allowed me to buy 8 boxes for $2.92 (the total regular price was $7.92 – $5.00 in coupon savings). This deal was available to anyone with the coupons available online and from the Sunday paper.

This amount ended up getting subtracted out because the Bertolli meals that were $5.99 each were on special for $4.99 each when you purchased 4. This extra discount (which I wasn’t expecting) covered most of the Kellogg’s Cornflakes making the entire purchase only $0.42.

This was my first try at using some of the coupon skills I have been learning. To tell the truth, I was more than a little nervous when I walked up to the checkout counter not knowing how it would all work out, but it was amazing to see the price I needed to pay keep falling as each coupon was scanned into the computer.