I love saving $

I guess most of us do but I know a lot of people who don't feel it is worth the effort to coupon.  Which is fine with me b/c that leaves more on the shelves for me when there are great sales.
Tuesday is typically my run errands/couponing day.  Sometimes, I am organized.  I know exactly what I want, my coupons are in order and I am all set.  Other days are more like today, where I had a general idea of what I was going to get but my coupons were all over the place and it felt a little more like work.  Plus, there was the Safeway $10/50 coupon which I sort of hate but feel compelled to use anyway.  I know there are people out there that can get their stores to take the $10 off before manufacturers coupons but I have been to 2 stores and they won't do it.  They say the computer does it for them and won't take it off unless I have $50 total and that exludes liquid diary:-(  Knowing this, and knowing I needed dog food which adds up quickly, I went ahead and used the dumb coupon.  But even though I was being careful, adding in my head the after sale/coupon price of things, I didn't count on 2 ecoupons that I had.  They were really good coupons (can I just say 24 rolls of Charmin for $6.95!) but it put me under.  So I quickly grabbed gum (buy 2 get 1 free Trident which my kids love) and yay, that put me at $50.43 so I could use the coupon and drop it to $40.43.  Phew. I still wish I could get my total under $40 but oh well.  I either gotta deal with it or don't use the coupon.

But, Albertson's.  Oh Albertson's.  I love them.  Never used to shop there b/c their ad is over the top with too much information.  And I still don't really look at the ad, I look at couponing blogs.  And this is what happens: (don't you just loovvee my new Fiestaware canisters?  They are so pretty!)

 

That's 5 boxes of pasta, 2 soy candles, 2 bottles of kids shampoo, 2 salsas, 2 Swiss Miss, 1 Finish dishwashing tabs, 1 package Halls: $4. 77.  It could have been $1 less had I not splurged in the Swiss Miss Capuccino but oh well, it was too tempting to pass up.  Quite honestly, I am not even sure how I did it.  I did have coupons for everything and 6 doublers and did this in 2 transactions (the cashier was awesome!).  The thing I love about this is that except for the hot chocolate, it is all either healthy stuff or household stuff that is needed.  One thing I don't like about couponing is seeing people get 20 boxes of fruit snacks for like $2.  Okay, really, do you need that many fruit snacks?  (Honestly, I did something like that a few months ago and haven't even touched the boxes, I think I am using them in Valentines for school).  But this shows you can get stuff you need and save lots of money.  And if I had been organized to begin with, it would have taken hardly any time at all.  

And just in case you were wondering, at Safeway, I did buy my normal groceries...eggs, milk, produce, yogurt, stuff like that.  So now I am set for the week because my pantry is full and I don't even have to go to Winco this week.  Which is super exciting!  I might have to go to Rite Aid on my way home from work instead.  I really like Rite Aid! :-)