Grocery goodies

Thursday night, I made a Kroger run after my dinner with Denise. Kroger was running a special: buy 15 of specified products, get $3 back instantly. 15 items is a lot to buy for a special, but I noticed that chicken noodle and tomato soup cans counted. And I had coupons for those, so getting my 15 items was easier than I thought!

Here's the breakdown:

• 4 cans Campbell's tomato soup, $0.77 each, minus 1 $0.40/4 coupon
• 4 cans Campbell's chicken noodle soup, $0.77 each, minus 1 $0.40/4 coupon
• 5 Totino's pizzas, $1.25 each
• 1 box Fiber One chewy bars, $2.19, minus $0.50 coupon
• 1 4-pack Yo-Plus yogurts, $2.49, minus $1.00 Mfr. coupon, minus $1.00 coupon linked to my Kroger plus card (Shortcuts)
• 2 bags of frozen pepper/onion mix, on sale for $1.45 each
• Organic fresh spinach, on sale for $3.50
• a bunch of red grapes, on sale for $1.28/lb.
• 3 cans of Campbell's cream of chicken, $0.99 each, minus 1 $0.40/3 coupon
• 1 half gallon of milk, on sale for $1.69
• 1 pack of Land O Lakes butter halves, $3.85

Kroger doubles coupons up to $0.50, which is so wonderful. After coupons and tax, my total came to $24.66, and I will receive a full refund for the butter, bringing my out-of-pocket to $20.81!

We're stocked up on Totino's, which is Lance's favorite "cheap pizza," for another few months. We're definitely stocked up on tomato and chicken soups for a LONG time, probably through winter. The spinach will be used for side salads for dinners this week, and possibly topped with grilled chicken for a big dinner salad one night. I love fresh spinach salads!

You may notice a box of Just for Men haircolor in the picture, and a bottle of Excedrin. Those I got at CVS right before heading to Kroger. The Just for Men was on sale for $7.99, and giving 2 ECBs. I had a $2 Mfr. coupon to use on it, and a mail-in rebate form for the full purchase price. The Excedrin was $3.99, get 3.99 ECBs, and I had a $1 off CVS Excedrin coupon (printed at the scanner one day), and a $2 Mfr. coupon. Since the haircolor and Excedrin totalled just over $10, I was able to use a CVS $2/$10 coupon. I paid with 5 ECBs and about 1.21 cents, got 5.99 ECBs back. I sent off for the $8 rebate yesterday, making that a profit of $7.78!

I was tired by the time I got home Thursday, but it was worth it. Our grocery bills used to be high, because I didn't pay much attention to sale flyers or coupons. I certainly didn't tailor our menus to what I could get cheaply that week. Half the time I didn't even cook! But now I'm seeing what a difference it makes to take a little time to research, plan, and clip. It's fun to try to make our bill less and less each week!