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Monday, May 24, 2010

And the battle rages on...

Do you remember my latest victory over the Devil's Warehouse, I mean, Wal-Mart?
Well guess what?!
There's a new leader in command and I just made a new law:
Starting now and from henceforth Wal-Mart shall bow down before me when I should thenceforth enter its realm and shall hand over to me all its possessions that I should demand at the absolute lowest price conceiveable to man. At which point, I will exercise my authority to shave from off that lowest conceiveable price another shilling's worth! Maybe 2 depending on my mood.
Storming the iron gates of the fortress and this time armed with double the ads and triple the coupons I mercilessly attacked each individual aisle and refrigerator bin. I found treasure after treasure that I could call my own "at the lowest price - guaranteed".
I have been trying to save money this past year, as I explained in the preview post of this saga. Not too long ago when I had chillins in diapers that needed formula every hour on the hour I had been spending almost $300 a week. Now that those are nostalgic pasttimes, my grocery bill has decreased to around $200.
I still want it lower.
My most recent goal has been to spend, for our family of 6, only $100-$150 a week.
And if I keep on with my tyrannical raids, I may just acheive that! (Although, I do feel somewhat guilty [not really] considering I overheard the manager say to the employees during the early morning pep rally in the milk aisle [why do they do that anyway?] that sales were down last week. I had to control myself from completely destroying their sovereign of hope by telling them that sales will be even worse this week thanks to my invasion.)

This time I went shopping for 2 weeks worth of groceries...
My total before coupons was: $304.75
My grand total after coupons and comparison ads, *drum roll, please*: $250.27!!
[proceeds to do spazzy dance]

And with everything I got, I may very well make it work for a full 3 weeks.
In the words of the circus train from Dumbo, "I think I can, I think I can..."
So I went and got my hair done...for the first time in 6 months.
You know how much it cost me?
$50
Thanks to my pillaging and plundering it was basically FREE!
And you know what else?
It. Felt. Dang. Good!

3 comments:

Deanna said...

I, too, pricematch at walmart. I will actually drive around to 2 other grocery stores, hop out and grab an ad and jump back in the car on my way to walmart. Meat is my fave thing to pricematch there. And if it is a good sale I will blow the budget and put it on the credit card to stock up (ahhh- the pork tenderloin sale and the top round roasts in my freezer make it all worth it!)

Do you have a favorite checker or one you avoid at all cost? Do you group things on the conveyor belt according to which flyer you are using for them?
Then you might be a walmart pricematching queen!!

Heather said...

I wish I was coupon savvy! I never use them. Only at Costco occasionally. I know it would save us tons of money (I think) but then I wonder if I would end up buying a bucket load of things I don't need, just because I would be getting a deal.... and then there is the time issue. Props to you! Wish I knew how to go about it.

My question to you... Is it really time consuming? Also, do you have a favorite spot you get your coupons, or do you just browse around all of the ads? Thanks for the help!

Carissa Mason said...

Deanna and Heather, thanks for your comment love! As far as a favorite checker, I have found that the younger ones, despite my initial thinking that this would be a nightmare for them, have actually been the most helpful and supportive in my comparative ad shopping. One of them told me that I had the best sysytem she's ever seen. I've only done this comparative ad shopping twice, mind you! It can be time consuming. I look through ALL the ads for things I need that week or things I might need or things I could use instead of other items. however, I don't buy just because it's on sale. I needed chicken nuggets and Tyson was having a sale on them. But the off-brand chicken nuggets were still cheaper than Tyson, so I bought those. So, you have to do some comparison in the store, too. And yes, when I put the items on the belt, they are in sections according to the ads that had the sales. I also have each sale item I am lookng at buying written on a piece of paper. I have found that if I just bring the ads in with me but I can read off the sale items from my list, they won't make me search through and find them. (Which saves SO much time and dirty looks from the people behind me!). Despite the time it takes to prepare my list each time and then actually do the shopping, it is quite rewarding!
Coupon Clippers...ATTACK!!

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