My good friend Kelly was kind enough to come to my couponing class recently. Since then, she has needed just a little help getting her feet wet in the coupon world. I was so excited when she contacted me about getting together to make a Smith's shopping list and hit the sale this week. You can see my haul below (Kelly's was VERY similar):
What's pictured?
10 boxes of cereal
4 boxes of Hefty baggies
2 bottles of laundry soap
1 canister of Kool-Aid
4 boxes of Pasta (FREE!)
4 boxes of Capri Sun
4 cans of biscuits
2 bottles of body wash
1 pkg bar soap
1 box dishwasher tabs (FREE!)
1 bottle rinse agent
3 bottles of asprin (FREE!)
1 gallon of milk
Kelly and I had so much fun shopping together! We went after the kids had gone to bed and practically had the store all to ourselves. This was a pretty casual trip for me. I went with my hair not done, no make-up, in my slipper socks with some slip-on sandals. But, after check-out we were both so pleased with our deals that I still had to get a selfie! (Sorry it's a little blurry.) It was raining, the wind was blowing my hair across my face, and I had just stepped in a big puddle, completely soaking my slipper socks... but does it look like I care?! Not when you are saving this big!!!
The bottom line? Initially my receipt says I spent $53.19 and saved 58% using $21.07 in coupons. My Fresh Value (or promotional) savings is listed at $48.59. That alone is pretty awesome. But it gets even better! With the Ibotta rebate on Dial, I got another $3 back. And Ibotta was SUPER fast. I submitted my receipt after I got home late last night, and within MINUTES I had my refund.
Also, the cashier missed a peelie-coupon for $0.50 off on my Finish dishwasher tabs, and she went to all the trouble (without my asking) to ring up the coupon and give me my coupon +tax back. She handed me $0.52.
Then, I am submitting my Finish tabs and rinse agent by mail for the "Try Finish for Free" promotion. I should get the full price of my tabs back ($3.99) and my rinse agent will cost me $0.49 in the end because it was $4.99 and I will get $4.50 back. So, take another $8.50 off the bill.
Finally, with a promotion like "Buy 6 Save $3" that is going on this week, I try REALLY hard to make sure I am buying my items in quantities of six. I check, double check, and recheck. So, I am always curious when I look at my receipt to see if I managed to make it all work out in the end. It turned out, after scanning my receipt, I got charged for an extra box of cereal that I didn't buy. *see note below I got 4 boxes of Reese's Puffs and I got charged for 5. Since I don't live in Brigham City and can't get it fixed very easily, I am not going to do anything about this. I will just chalk it up to an "oh well" moment. But, in the end, that means that if you take the cost of that one box of cereal that I never got off my receipt, I saved another $1.99 (plus tax).
So, let's do the math:
Original Receipt
Total Cost- $53.19
Fresh Value Savings- $48.59
Coupon Savings- $21.07
Total Savings- $69.66
Percent Savings- 58%
Then, let's adjust for the rebates I am getting, the missing Finish coupon that the cashier caught, and the cereal error:
Total Cost- $53.19
Finish Rebate- -$8.50
Ibotta Rebate- -$3.00
Finish Coupon- -$0.52
Cereal Error- -$1.99 plus tax
Adjusted Total Bill- $39.18 (approximate because of tax)
Adjusted Fresh Value Savings- $46.99
Adjusted Coupon Savings- $33.07
Adjusted Total Savings- $80.06
Adjusted Percent Savings-67%
New bottom line, everything you see in the picture costs $39.18 after coupons and rebates; a total savings of 67%. I used $33.07 in coupons, which is why I say, "It's like printing my own money!" I also got 38 items which averages out to just over $1 per item. I think I just turned Smith's into the dollar store!
WOOT!!!!
I would love to hear about your deal brags. You can post them on Facebook on my coupon page: www.facebook.com/queenofthescreamingdeal
Happy shopping!
*I never used to check my receipts that closely, but I have recently been amazed by how many times cashiers make little mistakes and charge me for things I don't buy. Sometimes it is as simple as the register scanning the same bar code twice so quickly that no one notices. One time, the cashier needed to enter a coupon code to give me a promotional discount (the code was something like 8506) and instead of putting in a coupon code, she entered the code in as an amount. So, I got charged $85.06 listed as some random dairy purchase that I never made! Thank goodness we caught that mistake and got it fixed, but that really would have messed up my budget!! So, it can pay to check your receipts carefully.
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