Big Savings at Publix

I've been shopping today. (Big surprise there... LOL!) I went grocery shopping at Publix and bargain shopping at CVS. Altogether I paid $10.97(+tax) out-of-pocket for $129.93 worth of groceries and toiletries. That is a savings of more than $118.96! (I say "more than" because I would have also paid taxes on the $118.96 had I paid full price.) If you calculate the $40.98 that I got back in CVS "Extra Bucks" that is used the same as cash at CVS, I actually ended up "making" $30.

How did I do it? Simply by combining store sales with store coupons and/or incentives, and manufacturers coupons.

This is what I did at CVS:

I bought 2 3-packs of Dial at the sale price of $1.99 each. There was a $1 Extra Buck on each one and I had a.30¢ off coupon for each one. Rightguard professional strength is on sale for $7.99 each with $7 Extra Bucks each. I bought three. Maybelline Mineral Power foundation and Complete contact solution (with a free lens case) are sale priced at $8.99 each with the full amounts back in Extra Bucks. I also had a $1 off coupon for the contact solution. I then used $43.98 in Extra Bucks that I had received at last weeks shopping trip, and Voila! I walked out of CVS .49¢ lighter but with a whole bag full of goodies.

The Publix trip was done pretty much the same way, but without the Extra Bucks.

Publix is having a lot of BOGO's this week since it's the shopping week prior to Thanksgiving. Manufacturer's are issuing a lot of coupons for the same reason. I carefully went through the Publix sale flier, matched it to the Publix coupons available through other fliers, and added in the manufacturer's coupons. I think I only bought one item that I didn't have a coupon for, but it was a BOGO.

There were three key Publix coupons to use on this shopping trip: the mystery coupon which was for Emerald Deluxe Mixed Nuts, a $5 off coupon on any order of $35 or more, and $5 off the purchase of 10 J.M. Smucker's products. I combined these store coupon's with matching manufacturer's coupons to maximize my savings. Another key element is that Publix doubles all coupons that are up .50¢ in face value.

For the J.M. Smucker's savings I bought: (2) Hungry Jack Instant Potatoes, (4) Martha White muffin mixes, (2) Pet Evaporated Milk, and (2) Pilsbury Frosting. After all of my coupons were deducted, I paid $1.48 total for all ten items, and I had a subtotal of $11.58 which was enough to qualify me for the mixed nuts mystery coupon. Adding the price of the nuts to the J.M. Smucker's purchases gave me $17.37 (or almost half) of what I needed to get the $5 off the total order.

At that point I had no doubt that I could buy another $17.63 (before coupons) to get the additional $5 off, so I pretty much quit keeping track of prices. Prior to going to the store I had used "Coupon Mom" to go through my coupons and pull the ones that were going to give me the most savings, and I was only buying what I had coupons for. The remaining items that I purchased included:
(2) Domino's Brown Sugar - .38¢
(2) Uncle Ben's Long Grain & Wild Rice - .90¢
(2) Jimmy Dean packages of turkey sausage patties - $2.00
(1) Betty Crocker Blueberry Muffin Mix - .30¢
(2) Duncan Hines cake mixes - .75¢
(1) Mt. Olive Sweet Gherkins - .39¢
(2) Wish Bone salad dressings - .35¢
(1) Pillsbury Grands Biscuits - $1.00
(1) Chex Snack Mix - .23¢
(1) Birds Eye Frozen Veggie - .54¢
(1) Birds Eye Voila - $1.35
(1) 1/2 gal. Publix Premium ice cream - $2.00
(2) I Can't Believe It's Not Butter - $1.89

*I may not have all of the prices exactly right, but they're pretty close and you can the idea of how I was able to buy so much for so little.

Now, I will admit that my shopping trip does not include any meat (well, except the sausage), produce, or dairy. Purchasing those types of items would have definitely driven up my grocery total. However, I am going to be out of town most of the week and did not want to purchase any perishables. My primary goal was to take advantage of the sale and coupons to stock up on nonperishables that could be used later when they are not available so cheap.

Shopping this way does take more time than just going to the grocery store and grabbing things off the shelves, but as you can see the savings are definitely worth it. If I calculate my savings per hour, I estimate I save approximately $37 an hour. Not bad for a part time job!