My Albertson's Shopping Trip 1/15/12

I thought I would give my readers (the few of you there are!) an idea of what I buy on a typical shopping trip. I usually shop at Albertson's for most of my coupon shopping because it is just around the corner from my house, and Vons is about 10 minutes away (although Vons doubles coupons, so if there is a great deal, I'll go there too). I also shop at Trader Joe's every week to buy anything I can't buy with coupons at another store. Sometimes things are still cheaper at TJ's than another store even with a coupon, so I always comparison shop. TJ's DOES take coupons, although it's rare to find a coupon that you can use there because most of the products are their own TJ brand.

Here's what I bought at Albertson's this week:

• 2 boxes Multigrain Peanut Butter Cheerios (on sale $2.50 each, used a $1 off 2 coupon). Cost = $2 per box
• 1 box Dulce de Leche Cheerios (on sale $2.50, used a .75 off coupon) Cost = $1.75 per box
• 3 boxes Barilla Pasta (on sale B2G1 free, used a $1 off 2 coupon) Cost = .66 per box
• 2 Classico pasta sauces (on sale 2/$4 - no coupon but still cheaper than the ones I had coupons for) Cost = $2 each
• 2 Ken's Italian salad dressing (on sale $2 each, used 2 $1 off coupons) Cost = $1 per bottle
• 2 Sun Bird Asian seasoning packets (on sale $1 each, used BOGO Free coupon) Cost = .50 per packet
• 2 boxes Skinny Cow Candy (on sale 2/$7. No coupons for this, so it was a splurge, but at least it was on sale!) Cost = $7 for 2
• 2 Yoplait Greek Yogurts (used $1 off 2 coupon) Cost = $1.20 each
• 2 boxes Boca Frozen Chik'n Patties (on sale 2/$7, used $1 off 2 coupon) Cost = $3 per box
• 1 Large pack of blueberries (on sale $2.99) Cost = $2.99
• 1 Aveeno Baby Wash (on sale $5.99, used $1 off coupon) Cost = $4.99

I also used one Albertson's Doubler Coupon which deducted $1 from my total (you can only use one per transaction).

Total Paid: $37.22
Total Coupon Savings: $8.50
Total Store Sale Savings: $26.84
Total Savings: $35.34 or 49%

I paid a little more than half the full price value of these items! On "Extreme Couponing," they often have over a 90% savings. Keep in mind though that most of the stores they visit have more lax coupon policies, including doubling every coupon no matter the value. Stores in California rarely do this. And the "extreme couponers" are buying the cheapest things in the store, no matter what they are. I'll write another post about the myths and facts of Extreme Couponing later! But hopefully this gives you an idea of how I do my "moderately extreme" coupon shopping!