Grocery Shopping Escapades

I finally got the Winco picture posted!

Today I spent a lot on food. I did get a lot though. Our panty is a bit embarrassing right now. Ummm, I have 72 cans of Progresso soup, 20 cans of tuna fish & 30 cans of beans. It's kind of like I'm getting ready for a month-long blizzard or, as S says, I'm 9.5 years late to Y2K.

This morning S had to go to his tae kwon do competition. QFC was having a Saturday only sale, and Safeway was having a Saturday & Sunday sale. I thought that they might run out of some things, so I should probably go early. I tried to feed Julia breakfast with limited success (she's not a morning eater plus she doesn't eat much anyway), got her dressed, and we hit the stores.

I did have a plan. I had my list of things to get at each store. I took my coupons in the organizer, and I had a $5 off coupon for Safeway in my organizer + I separately had 4 coupons for free items at Safeway if I spent $50.

* Get to QFC. They had a promotion that if you spent $10, you could buy a gallon of milk for $1, get a free 2-liter of 7-up, and get a turkey for 29 cents a pound. They were also running a promotion that if you bought 10 mix & match items from a certain list of foods, you would get $5 off (or 50 cents off per item). I spent some time going through the store getting my mix 'n match items. Like I wanted some egg rolls but could NOT find them. So I had to substitute another item for the egg rolls. I had a coupon for $1 off Activia. After the mix 'n match discount, Activia was $1.50 for a 4-pack. After the coupon, it was only 50 cents! My original bill was $71, but I got out of QFC for only $22.50, including a 20 lb turkey, milk, 7-up & 10 mix 'n match items. Woot woot! I like our QFC because they are very good at customer service. Julia wanted out of the cart as I approached the check-out line. I was holding her and trying to pay (thank goodness you don't have to unload the cart there...they do it). The cashier insisted taking my cart to my car to help me out. I've never had that happen before. So nice! My only complaint with QFC is they kinda arrange their food in a funky way. Like I'm used to pancake mix being in the baking aisle next to flour or cake mixes. In QFC, pancakes have their own section in a different aisle than baking. Their pumpkin puree is with canned veggies, and again I'm used to pumpkin puree being in baking near pie filling. And I never did find those egg rolls...

* Then off to Safeway. I was planning on buying $50 worth of food because if you bought $50 worth of food you got $10 in free Kohls' dollars, 4 free items (eggs, bacon, bread & OJ), and I had a $5 off coupon if I spent $50. Stupid stupid me didn't have the coupons for the 4 free times with my other coupons, so I forgot. Safeway's doing a remodel right now, and they are switching all of their aisle contents around. Ugh! Julia was getting restless and NOT wanting to sit in the cart. And Julia's previous infant teacher Alyssa was working at the Starbucks in the store, and we stopped to chat with her. I just got unfocused and lost track of those free coupons. They had a great deal on Progresso soups, and I eat those at work a lot. Low points, filling. Safeway had a lot of deals going on this week that were Buy 2, Get 3 Free. Yet the ad didn't tell you what the price was for them, so you had to do the math at the store. Not difficult, but with a restless toddler and trying to find the right aisles...it just made things more difficult. I got a buttload of soup, tuna and other food staples, got to $50, got my $10 in Kohls' cash, used my $5 off coupon, and totally forgot to pick up the free coupon items. I didn't even realize this til I got home. Original total was $114, and I paid $59.

* I looked at the free item coupons. I thought perhaps I could go back to the store and bring my receipt and see if I could get it to go through. Then I read on the coupon that it had to be shown at the time of purchase. DARN! I thought that the soup deal was really good and so was the Betty Crocker frosting deal (80 cents for a tub of frosting), so once S got home, I went out by myself to Safeway Part Deux. Total came to $119 before discounts, but I only paid $54. I got another $10 in Kohls' cash, got the 4 free items, and I used some coupons that I had in my organizer for Progresso soup AND frosting!!

* Now I have $20 in Kohls' cash to spend, and I have never been to Kohls. They just opened a store about 15 miles away last year. I thought I'd maybe get a Christmas present for Julia there. I have to use the $20 by November 21.

I spent $135 today on food. I did get a ton of stuff, including at least a 4 month supply of soup! And I got $20 to spend at Kohls.