Savvy Shopper Report

My friend called me this morning and said "I'm going to town to shop. Do you want to come?"

Savings #1 - Free ride/no gas. Town is 30 minutes up the road.

Harris Teeter:

Kellogg's cereal - sale B1G1F - 3.49/each before sale - $48.86

Minus - Sale price - 17.95 MiniWheats; 6.98 Special K

Viva paper towels - $2.39

canvas grocery bag - $2.99

$10.00 Competitor's coupon

Total - $19.31 - $10.00 off next shopping trip coupon I got from buying this.

Total out of Pocket - $9.31

I normally do not buy processed, sugar- bomb cereal. The only reason that I bought this is because I received a Catalina notice (those things that print out along with your receipt that sometimes have coupons on them) that said if I purchased Kellogg's cereal during the month of March and if I purchased seven I would get $10.00 off my next shopping order. When I happened to see that these were B1G1 I went ahead and bought the required 7, ended up with 14 because of the B1G1 sale and have a $10.00 off coupon for my next shopping trip. most of these cereals will go to the Food Pantry in our community since I volunteer there. Technically we could say that this really only cost me $9.31 since I got $10.00 back to apply to my next shopping trip.

Target:

Dole Pineapple juice (2) large cans - $1.02 clearance -$2.04

Juicy Juice (6) - $1.81 clearance - $10.86

Arm & Hammer Detergent (2) - 2.48/1 clearance - $4.96

Juicy Juice coupons - $1.00/2 - I had three of these

Minus $5.00 Target gift card

Total out of pocket: $11.86

Not bad but this could be better. The juice would not have been a good deal if I did not have the $5.00 Target card.

Here's why - even though it is clearanced and you have a coupon pay close attention to the amount of juice. One of those big 1 gallon grape juice jugs is $4.26. Three of the Juicy Juice bottles equals 1 of those but 3 x 1.81 = 5.43. So it is better, even with them being on clearance, to buy the Walmart brand juice. If I did not have the additional amount off I would not have bought them, even though they were clearanced and even though I had coupons. Be careful that you look at all the information. I also could have made this a better deal if I had Arm & Hammer coupons but I didn't have any and needed detergent so I still think I did not do too bad since they were on clearance.

But remember clearance doesn't always mean cheaper.

Debt and/or Savings Strategy #8 - Make sure that you consider all the options before you even think about letting your money leave your hands. Clearance does not always mean cheaper.