Tracey's Adventures in Grocery Shopping

As I wrote earlier, I started following blogs in an attempt to learn how to save more money on our grocery bill. Last Monday was my first attempt to see what deals I could score. Keep in mind that I very rarely if ever do our grocery shopping. This has been Dave's job for years and I "let" him do it.

I started out at CVS because Dave told me I could find 12-packs of Diet Coke 4/$10. I was also armed with 4 $1 off coupons.

What a bargain! Or so I thought.

I first went to the soft drink aisle and was disappointed to see only 1 box of Diet Cokes. So I toured the store and found another display at the front of the store. I loaded up my cart with 3 Diet Cokes and 1 Cherry Coke Zero. I was distracted by the fact that I didn't have my CVS Extra Care card and would have to ask the cashier to look it up for me. People started piling up behind me and the guy running the register wasn't very experienced.

He looked up my card with no problem. Then I handed him my coupons. The cash register kept beeping at him. I guess it would take only ONE of my coupons. Fine. So I paid my $12-something for the Diet Coke/Coke Zero.

I got in the car and called Dave to let him know that I had secured the bargain Diet Cokes. I told him that they would take only one coupon, but I still *only* paid $12 for 4 12-packs. "$12 dollars?!" he asked. "They were supposed to be $10." Oops. I guess he forgot that I am not so diligent when it comes to making sure I get charged the correct price. So I looked at the receipt again. I paid $13 for 4 12-packs, BUT I got $3 in Extra Care Bucks (or ECBs).

Then I got annoyed and frustrated because that seems a little deceptive. The sign outside the store said 4/$10. It didn't say that I would get $3 of that in coupons to come back there later.

So I moved on to Super Target. We've been enjoying the Market Pantry (Target brand) deli turkey meat. It's usually $3.99/lb. I didn't see the Market Pantry brand in the deli case, but they had Archer Farms displayed along with a 15% off coupon. I thought I would get a great deal! So that is what I ordered. I was stunned when I saw the $7.20 price tag on the deli bag. Oops. Dave's second mistake. He forgot that I sometimes don't pay attention to the brands. I took the turkey and walked away...the whole time wondering how I would explain it to Dave! I could hear him in my head saying I might as well have gone to Kroger or Publix and gotten Boar's Head turkey for that price!

Then I ran into my friend, Alonzo. He's the meat manager at Target. He helps me pick out ground beef when I'm in there. So I asked him if I could take my turkey meat back because I got the wrong brand. He said of course I could. <insert huge sigh of relief here> He got my ground beef and I headed back to the deli counter and explained to the woman why I needed the Market Pantry brand, not Archer Farms. $4 for a little over a pound of turkey. Much better. Crisis averted.

The one thing that I did right was to look at the expiration date on the yogurt I was trying to buy for Mitchell. I had $1 off coupons for some kind of new yogurt by Dannon. I put it in my cart and then heard Dave's voice in my head saying, "Don't forget to check the expiration dates on everything." I pulled it back out, checked the date (3/4/2009...and today's date was 3/9/2009!) and put them back on the shelf. Phew. At least I did one thing right!

I had to go home after all of that. It was incredibly stressful!

After unloading everything and eating lunch, I headed out to Kroger. (In case you're wondering why I didn't go to all 3 stores in one trip...it was warm outside and I didn't want to leave the turkey and Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches in the trunk.) Here, my mission was to purchase 10 items from the participating items list so I could get $5 off my grocery bill. I also needed to spend $45 because I had a $5 off Kroger coupon if I spent $45.

Bananas. Not hard to buy bananas, right? Yes, it is when every.single.banana is a shade of bright green that I have never seen before. But there were no other options. I had to get GREEN bananas. Surely they would turn in a few days. Today is Sunday. I bought them on Monday. They are still bright GREEN. And I don't mean the pale green that comes right before they ripen. Who knows how much longer it's going to take before they ripen. I told Dave to get an apple at the grocery store today because I read on the Internet that you can put bananas in a paper bag with an apple and the bananas will magically ripen. He decided instead to buy some yellow bananas. I bet we'll be done with that bunch of bananas before my GREEN bananas are edible.

You will be happy to hear that I successfully purchased the 10 items (and got $5 off) and also used my $5 Kroger coupon. I think I saved around $40 between those 2 coupons and other coupons I had (some of which were doubled).

The Kroger trip wasn't quite as stressful as CVS and Super Target. Although I mistakenly got into the 15 items or less (with way more than 15 items). Oops. I promise I didn't do it on purpose. Thankfully no one was behind me. And the cashier was really nice as he said, "Ma'am, did you know that you're in an express line?" I was so embarrassed.

THANK GOODNESS Dave went grocery shopping today and I think I might be off the hook this week. Although I do have $3 in ECBs that I need to spend at CVS!