This week's shopping trip....and an update you don't want to miss.

Maybe I should have called this my plan for this week's shopping trip.  Ronnie has been taking my van to work because his heater is a little on the fritz, so we've been home bound all week.  No complaining here.  I've been a little wimpy about going out in the cold for no apparent reason. 

I've decided to try harder to pair sales with coupons this year to save more money.  So, while I'm still doing my Eat from the Pantry Challenge, I'm also going to stock up when I see good prices.  I'm going to price match at Walmart, saving gas and avoiding a trip out of town this week.

So here's the plan:

Price match from Target:

Pepsi 6 packs 4/$12
(Ronnie always has pop with lunch at work.  If I don't buy it, he will get one or two out of the machine at work for $1.25 each.  It's cheaper for me to just plan for it.)

Price match from Kroger:

The following sale requires 4 items for discount. 
2 Tide powder (31-40oz) @ $4.99 each
     pair with two $2 off one coupon = $2.99 each
2 Downey liquid (52-60oz) @ $3.99 each
     pair with $1.50 off 2 coupon = $3.24 each

Also, pears at $0.99 per pound, if I have money left over.

Lastly, price match at Walgreens:

1 Dawn 9oz dish detergent, blue @ $0.99
    pair with $0.25 coupon = $0.74
Nice & Easy foam hair color @ 7.99
    pair with $3 off coupon = $4.99

Other deals at WM according to Passion for Savings:

Oral B floss @ $0.97
     pair with $1 off coupon = free plus overage
Colgate toothpaste @ $0.94
     pair with $0.75 off coupon = $0.19

As always, I will make sure the WM price isn't less than the sale price at other places and adjust as needed.  All my coupons came out of Sunday's Clarksburg Exponent.  Unfortunately, our Times WV doesn't seem to get all the inserts.  Next Sunday's paper is supposed to have 6 inserts.  I'm going to check Pittsburgh's paper and compare the coupons before I buy.

As far as my actual groceries, all I need are my usual four gallons of milk, two brown sugars, two white sugars, and tea bags.  Everything else for next week will come out of the pantry, freezer or cellar.  I'd like to keep my total under $50.  If I have any money left over after my sales and stock ups, I'll pick up some salad fixins.  If not, no worries....I still have all my canned goodies from this summer and a freezer full of broccoli, zucchini, cauliflower and who knows what else. 

*Update:   I wrote this post on Thursday afternoon, planning on publishing it Friday morning and going to the store that afternoon on my way home from co-op.  But Ronnie had some prescriptions called in and I needed to go to the bank, so I decided to run by Walmart without the kiddos and pick up what I needed.  And that's when it happened. 

While I was waiting in line (and waiting...and waiting), this 20ish year old guy got in line behind me.  He noticed me going over my coupons and ads and asks me "Are you one of those extreme couponers?  I've seen that show!"  He gets so excited he starts telling people getting in line behind him to "pick another line - this lady is an extreme couponer".  I just laugh and tell him that no, I just have about 8 coupons and some price matches.

 I finally get to the front of the line and a young boy is ringing my groceries.  My new Walmart friend tells him "I think she's an extreme couponer...you know, like the show."  The cashier gets excited too and the two of them are adding up the retail price of my groceries before price matching.  Then they proceed to loudly call out the the value of each coupon.  I ended up picking up some Nyquil, three butters, lettuce, Always products and Crest toothpaste for the boys as well as what I listed above.  The total price before price matching and coupons was $93.  After coupons and price matching, i spent $63 and change. 

While I was very excited about my savings, my new friends were crushed.  My cashier was worried that my blog would be ruined because of my additional $13.  He and my new friend behind me then got into a debate about whether my hair color and laundry detergent should count.  As I thanked them both and walked away, the last thing I heard was one of them saying "You can't eat laundry detergent....so it doesn't count!"

Oh Walmart....how you entertain me!