I LOVE coupons!!

Since April or May of last year, I've been trying to save us some money while grocery shopping by using coupons or strategic shopping. Some weeks I do great, other weeks not so great. What I've realized that I don't do is buy in bulk when the deal is good. So this week and last, I've really been trying to not just buy what I need for that week at the store, but buy the good deals (products that we'll definitely use, but we're not necessarily in need of it at that time). Today, during Michel's and my exciting lunch date, I had to go to CVS to get a prescription that I was out of, and decided to do my deal shopping while I was there.

I did my shopping in 2 transactions. In the first transaction, I bought 6 jars of Skippy peanut butter, and 3 jars of Ragu pasta sauce.  In the second transaction, I bought 1 Cover Girl mascara and 1 Cover Girl eyeliner (these weren't on that great of a sale, but I was almost out of both). Here's what I did to get the most bang for my buck:

Transaction #1:

Spend $15 in select Unilever products and get back $5 ECB

- 6 jars Skippy peanut butter on sale 3/$5 = $10

**Used 2 $0.55/1 Skippy p.b. (wish I'd had 6 of them to get even more savings!)

- 3 jars Ragu pasta sauce on sale 3/$5 = $5

- Used 2 $0.30/1 Ragu pasta sauce

Total: $15.01

- Used coupon that CVS e-mailed to me that was $3 off when you spend $15 or more

Total Out of Pocket after coupons figured in: $10.41!!

Earned: $5.00 ECB

SAVED: $13.38!!!

Transaction #2:

*Buy 1 Cover Girl item, get 2nd 50% off*

1 Cover Girl mascara = $10.49 

(seriously?? I don't remember it costing this much!!)

-Used $1/1 CoverGirl product

1 Cover Girl eyeliner =  $4.19 

-Used 1/1 CoverGirl product

Total: $14.68

-Used $5.00 ECB from previous transaction

Total Out Of Pocket after ECBs and coupons: 

$8.31!!

Saved: $11.20

Transactions 1 and 2 together cost me (out of pocket): 

$18.72!!

Without coupons or the strategic deal shopping all items together would have cost:

$43.30!! That's a savings of 57% :) 

I love saving money!!