Hafa Adai My Friends,
I headed out for groceries again this week to prepare and make regular weekly food staples – like Pico De Gallo with avocado, green salads, toddler-friendly food, sandwich making stuff, and fresh fruit.
I first went to HEB, I got everything on my list and then took advantage of discounted strawberries and ground beef.
It was by chance, finding these discounted items when I did. Finding yellow discount stickers around the store on food items we normally consume is the happy equivalent of finding a golden Easter egg on Easter Sunday; or screaming out a pretend “BINGO” at a BINGO Hall on a Friday night; or waking up on Christmas Morning to the sweet smell of BACON!
Before I concluded my shopping trip, I strolled by the baby aisle, grabbed one more HEB toddler milk and $2.00 off coupon!
On Saturday night, I made fresh strawberry marmalade filling up 2 mason jars full. It was roughly about .99 cents a jar to make and will probably last us for about 1-1/2 to 2 months. And as for the ground beef, I can make two dinners + leftovers. I thought about making slow cooker chili and tacos sometime this week.
After HEB, I graced my way to Walmart to try out manufacture coupons I found from this Sunday’s news paper – Vaseline Lotion and Magnum Ice Cream.
Maximizing coupons, Spending less
Prior to leaving the house, the first thing I did was to do a price check for the lowe$t price on these two items – To do this, I turned to Google Chrome, I typed the following into the search bar:
Vaseline Lotion, 6.8 oz + City + State; ENTER button.
My search came back with 5 different local stores (in-store) selling prices for this item:
- Target: $3.49
- Big Lots: $3.50
- Walmart: $3.12 (in-store available bottle size: 10oz)
- HEB: $3.21
- Walgreens $3.49 (in-store available bottle size: 10 oz.)
Walmart’s regular price $3.12 is the lowest price for Vaseline lotion. By applying my $2.00 off coupon for Vaseline Lotion (6.8 oz. or larger) to Walmart’s price $3.12, at checkout I paid $1.12 (before tax) for (1) 10 .oz Vaseline lotion. I bought a total of 2, or $1.12×2.
Magnum ice cream is an expensive brand of ice cream and luckily it was on rollback this week at Walmart for $3.97. Since I have a manufacture coupon for $1.00 off on (1) Magnum ice cream tub, at check out, I paid $2.97 (before tax) for 1 tub of ice cream. Like the lotion, I bought a total of 2 tubs of ice cream, or $2.97×2
The only other store that sells the same exact item is Target at $4.69 (even with a $1.00 off coupon the price for this item is $3.69) This amount is greater than what I am willing to pay for a tub of ice cream and not to mention, it is simply B-A-N-A-N-A-S).
Paying $2.97 with a coupon at Walmart is obviously the better choice!
I was only able to use (1) coupon per purchase on product/quantity of two identical coupons allowed in same shopping trip. So, this means at checkout, I applied:
- (2) Vaseline Lotion coupons for 2 bottles of lotion
- (2) Magnum Ice Cream coupons for 2 tubs of ice cream
I am still cutting, and sorting coupons, scouring the internet for really good deals, sales and discounts for my next coupon shopping trip. Cross your fingers I catch good buys and finds!
Coffee with Isla 
Excellent finds! The idea to search those terms to find local prices is genius. I used to have a price book but don’t keep it up anymore. This is ideal for those times you aren’t sure of prices.
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it is definitely a lot of fun doing price checks on items that i have coupons for. this helps to determine if something is rrrreeeeaaaallllyyyyy worth buying. since january of this year, i have been teaching myself how to coupon – it has improved the way I shop now and stay within budget.
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