Great Couponing, Not Extreme Couponing

Last week Kroger had a Mega Event sale. If you buy 10 qualifying items you get $5 off instantly. On Sunday I went grocery shopping without preparing my coupons. I thought I would fly by the seat of my pants and go through coupons as I shopped. My husband was with me so I felt like I had to hurry.  I always feel like this when the kids or hubby are with me. I like to shop alone so I don't feel like I'm hampering anyone else's time.  With the sale and the little bit of coupons we saved about 40% on total bill.

The next day I sorted coupons to send to our military troops and found about $10 worth of coupons I could have used the day before. That would have made our savings 50%.  Ugh! It made me mad at myself. Never again will I go shopping w/o preparation.

So 2 days later I went back to Kroger armed with coupons and I got all this for $7.81.

On the show "Extreme Couponing" Kroger actually doubles coupons up to $1.00.  They do not give us that fantastic deal in Texas so we have to be satisfied with double up to .50 cents. Therefore, it's not extreme couponing - only great couponing.

However, if Kroger did double up to $1.00 I would have only paid .56 cents on this shopping trip.

One day I will post a picture of my closet which I refer to as the Hoarder's Closet.  I have to put stuff in the closet because my pantry is already fully stocked.  If we didn't need things like veggies and milk my family could probably live off our food supply for 3-4 months. The drawback about couponing is that it is mostly for processed food. I've only seen coupons for grape tomatoes as far as fresh food goes but I get a better deal on tomatoes at Sam's Club.  But I am able to donate more food every year for food drives at school, church, Boy Scouts, and post office thanks to coupons.